This thesis presents a measurement of the effective B0s decay width, ΓFS, from a single exponential fit to the flavour-specific decay channel B0s → D-s π +. This measurement is based on an integrated luminosity of 340 pb-1 recorded by LHCb in 2011 at a center of mass energy of 7TeV. The dataset is divided into two exclusive selections. B0s → D-s (( ϕ →K-K+) π-)π + only has a significant background contribution arising from combinatorial background, and the modelling of this is determined entirely by the data. B0s → D-s ((K-K* (892)0 → K+ π-))π + has a larger contribution from combinatoric and mis-identified background and provides an alternative measurement. A simultaneous fit for the effective B0s decay width is performed to both the datasets leading to the result: ΓFS = 0:668 ± 0:017 ± 0:031 ps-1 The result is then combined with information from the LHCb B0s → J/ψØ analysis leading to an improved measurement of the average B0 s decay width: Γs = 0:666 ± 0:010 ± 0:031 ps-1

In this thesis, we present a number of results in set theory, particularly in the areas of forcing, large cardinals, and combinatorial set theory. Chapter 2 concerns covering matrices, combinatorial structures introduced by Viale in his proof that the Singular Cardinals Hypothesis follows from the Proper Forcing Axiom. In the course of this proof and subsequent work with Sharon, Viale isolated two reflection principles, CP and S, which can hold of covering matrices. We investigate covering matrices for which CP and S fail and prove some results about the connections between such covering matrices and various square principles. In Chapter 3, motivated by the results of Chapter 2, we introduce a number of square principles intermediate between the classical and (+). We provide a detailed picture of the implications and independence results which exist between these principles when is regular. In Chapter 4, we address three questions raised by Cummings and Foreman regarding a model of Gitik and Sharon. We first analyze the PCF-theoretic structure of the Gitik-Sharon model, determining the extent of good and bad scales. We then classify the bad points of the bad scales existing in both the Gitik-Sharon model and various other models containing bad scales. Finally, we investigate the ideal of subsets of singular cardinals of countable cofinality carrying good scales. In Chapter 5, we prove that, assuming large cardinals, it is consistent that there are many singular cardinals such that every stationary subset of + reflects but there are stationary subsets of + that do not reflect at ordinals of arbitrarily high cofinality. This answers a question raised by Todd Eisworth and is joint work with James Cummings. In Chapter 6, we extend a result of Gitik, Kanovei, and Koepke regarding intermediate models of Prikry-generic forcing extensions to Radin generic forcing extensions. Specifically, we characterize intermediate models of forcing extensions by Radin forcing at a large cardinal using measure sequences of length less than. In the final brief chapter, we prove some results about iterations of w1-Cohen forcing with w1-support, answering a question of Justin Moore.

There is an expansive network of roads in Algonquin Provincial Park (APP) to facilitate forestry resource extraction. This leaves a research need for examining how the logging road network in APP affects the large mammals, and what local-level and landscape-level variables influence that use. Local-level data was collected directly at observation points, and landscape-level data was produced from ArcGIS for 40km2, 80km2, and 130km2 buffer areas. The objective of my study was to look at the use of primary and branch logging roads by five large mammal species in APP, and determine if landscape-level variables had an influence on the level of movement and utilization. The five species included moose, white-tailed deer, American black bear, eastern wolf and coyote. My null hypothesis (H0) states that there will be no difference in large mammal use between the primary and branch logging roads within APP and that local- and landscape-level variables will have no influence on them; my alternative hypothesis (H1) states that there will be less large mammal activity on the primary logging roads, more large mammal movement on the branch logging roads and local- and landscape-level variables will influence this use. Tracking was done by vehicle on six transects across the park for three repeated surveys where species identification and local-level variables were recorded. Landscape-level variables were acquired through GIS analysis in the lab. Based on the results from the local-level data, branch and primary logging road use differed in composition, though no significance was found between the use by large mammals for these two types of road. Through generalized linear models, specific combinations of landscape-level variables did influence large mammal movement on the primary and branch logging roads within three habitat range scales (130km2, 80km2, and 40km2). The most significance was seen at the buffer of 40km2 on the branch logging roads, with the variables road density (p < 0.01), percent forest cover (p = 0.04) and topographic ruggedness (p < 0.01) all having a strong impact on large mammal movement. The only significant findings for primary logging roads were also at the 40km2 scale with percent forest cover (p = 0.03) and percent water cover (p = 0.02) having an impact on large mammal movement. Overall, the landscape variables had greater influence on branch logging roads that may be explained by the quality of the surrounding habitat, as well as greater influence at smaller buffer scales. Further research and monitoring of the large mammals in APP is recommended to expand on this preliminary study. Greater understanding of the local- and landscape-level variables at differing habitat ranges will assist in understanding these large mammal movements and provide data to base logging road management on. As large mammals are wide-ranging species, my study informs APP that their logging road network does not seem to hinder the movements of this group of animals. Overall, the large mammals in APP did not have any significant difference in their use of primary and branch logging roads of APP. Further research has the potential to give greater understanding of the impacts of the logging road network on the five large mammal species studied in APP. There is also the potential for useful management strategies to emerge for large mammals in this park, and how to incorporate human activities within their habitat while maintaining sustainable populations.

Much of the research in software engineering focuses on understanding the dynamic nature of software systems. Such research typically uses automated instrumentation or profiling techniques on the code. In this thesis, we examine logs as another source of dynamic information. Such information is generated from statements inserted into the code during development to draw the attention of system operators and developers to important run-time events. Such statements reflect the rich experience of system experts. The rich content of logs has led to a new market for log management applications that assist in storing, querying and analyzing logs. Moreover, recent research has demonstrated the importance of logs in understanding and improving software systems. However, developers often treat logs as textual data. We believe that logs have much more potential in assisting developers. Therefore, in this thesis, we propose Log Engineering to systematically leverage logs in order to support the development of ultra-large scale systems. To motivate this thesis, we first conduct a literature review on the state-of-the-art of software log mining. We find that logging statements and logs from the development environment are rarely leveraged by prior research. Further, current practices of software log mining tend to be ad hoc and do not scale well. To better understand the current practice of leveraging logs, we study the challenge of understanding logs and study the evolution of logs. We find that knowledge derived from development repositories, such as issue reports, can assist in understanding logs. We also find that logs co-evolve with the code, and that changes to logs are often made without considering the needs of Log Processing Apps that surround the software system. These findings highlight the need for better documentation and tracking approaches for logs. We then propose log mining approaches to assist the development of systems. We first find that logging characteristics provide strong indicators of defect-prone source code files. Hence, code quality improvement efforts should focus on the code with large amounts of logging statements or their churn. Finally, we present a log mining approach to assist in verifying the deployment of Big Data Analytics applications. / Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2014-05-08 12:56:23.319

Networking multiple "smart" displays together is an affordable way of creating large high-resolution display systems. In this work I propose a new structure and data distribution paradigm for displays of this nature. I model my work on the peer-to-peer style of content distribution, as opposed to the traditional client-server model for this kind of system. In taking a peer-to-peer approach, I present a low-cost and scalable system without the inherent constraints imposed by the client-server model. I present a new class of applications specifically designed for this peer-to-peer style of display system, and provide an easy-to-use framework for developers to use in creating this type of system. / Graduate / 0984

The South African newspaper industry has not changed much over the past fifteen years since democracy. Although the government has with very good intentions declared that the media, and especially the print media, should be accessible to all the people of the country, it has not materialised and most of the media is still focused on one or the other group of the population only. The government also involved the big media companies, when they implemented the Media, Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), in an attempt to try to communicate with all the people of the country, especially people in the rural areas, via print media and community radio. This meant that the big role players, together with government, contributed financially to a fund, from which the grassroots newspapers and community radio stations would be funded and developed. It was a good idea that has since lost most of the initial mission and vision through bad management, but mostly because the MDDA became a politicised agency. The future of the independent media is still in the balance because of other factors in the market. These factors include the total control that the bigger media companies have over the associations, forums, printing and other bodies that control or has an input in the running of the media in South Africa. The study that was undertaken had the primary objective of establishing an understanding of the newspaper industry in South Africa, by analysing and identifying the type of industry market structure it has taken on. The study also has the secondary objectives to identify the role players in the South African newspaper industry and the influence and control they have,in the market. The survey also aims to identify some problems and challenges facing the independent newspaper industry in South Africa and to provide recommendations on how to improve the problems that the independently owned newspapers face in the market. A study of this kind has never been done in South Africa and it therefore made it imperative, that most of the information that was used was obtained via self initiated questionnaires, interviews and investigations. A literature study was done to give the necessary background on market structures and their different characteristics in analysing the South African media industry. An analysis study was done using the internet, journals, articles and other material that were available, to obtain the necessary information regarding the current structures and role players in the South African newspaper industry. This study will show that nothing much has changed in the media structures in South Africa over the past fifteen years. This study can also be used by people to do further investigation into certain areas of the media. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

In this thesis, large-eddy simulation (LES) is used to simulate both Newtonian and non-Newtonian physiological pulsatile flows in constricted channels to gain insights into the physical phenomenon of laminar-turbulent flow transition due to the presence of an artificial arterial stenosis. The advanced dynamic nonlinear subgrid-scale stress (SGS) model of Wang and Bergstrom (DNM) was utilized to conduct numerical simulations and its predictive performance was examined in comparison with that of the conventional dynamic model (DM) of Lilly. An in-house LES code has been modified to conduct the unsteady numerical simulations, and the results obtained have been validated against available experimental and direct numerical simulation (DNS) results. The physical characteristics of the flow field have been thoroughly studied in terms of the resolved mean velocity, turbulence kinetic energy, viscous wall shear stress, and turbulence energy spectra along the central streamline of the domain.

The South African newspaper industry has not changed much over the past fifteen years since democracy. Although the government has with very good intentions declared that the media, and especially the print media, should be accessible to all the people of the country, it has not materialised and most of the media is still focused on one or the other group of the population only. The government also involved the big media companies, when they implemented the Media, Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), in an attempt to try to communicate with all the people of the country, especially people in the rural areas, via print media and community radio. This meant that the big role players, together with government, contributed financially to a fund, from which the grassroots newspapers and community radio stations would be funded and developed. It was a good idea that has since lost most of the initial mission and vision through bad management, but mostly because the MDDA became a politicised agency. The future of the independent media is still in the balance because of other factors in the market. These factors include the total control that the bigger media companies have over the associations, forums, printing and other bodies that control or has an input in the running of the media in South Africa. The study that was undertaken had the primary objective of establishing an understanding of the newspaper industry in South Africa, by analysing and identifying the type of industry market structure it has taken on. The study also has the secondary objectives to identify the role players in the South African newspaper industry and the influence and control they have,in the market. The survey also aims to identify some problems and challenges facing the independent newspaper industry in South Africa and to provide recommendations on how to improve the problems that the independently owned newspapers face in the market. A study of this kind has never been done in South Africa and it therefore made it imperative, that most of the information that was used was obtained via self initiated questionnaires, interviews and investigations. A literature study was done to give the necessary background on market structures and their different characteristics in analysing the South African media industry. An analysis study was done using the internet, journals, articles and other material that were available, to obtain the necessary information regarding the current structures and role players in the South African newspaper industry. This study will show that nothing much has changed in the media structures in South Africa over the past fifteen years. This study can also be used by people to do further investigation into certain areas of the media. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

The search for the Higgs boson has been a cornerstone of the physics program at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva Switzerland. The ATLAS experiment successfully discovered the Higgs using the so-called ‘Golden Channels’ of H0 -> gamma gamma and H0 -> ZZ(∗) using data samples collected during the 2011 and 2012 run periods. In order to check if the discovered Higgs is consistent with purely Standard Model behaviour, it is necessary to further confirm the existence of the Higgs in each production mode and decay channel predicted by the Standard Model. For this dissertation, a search for the Higgs was conducted using the H0 -> b bbar decay channel, where the Higgs is produced by the inverse pair decay of two weak bosons exchanged by a scattered quark pair, also known as Vector Boson Fusion (VBF). This analysis uses data samples collected during the 2011 run period by the ATLAS detector totalling 4.2 /fb of proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. No excess of events above background expectation is observed and 95% confidence level upper limits on the Standard Model Higgs cross section times branching ratio, sigma(VBF) x BR(H0 -> b bbar), are derived for Higgs masses in the range 115 < mH < 130 GeV. An observed 95% confidence level upper limit of 18.7 times the Standard Model cross section is obtained for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV. / Graduate / 0798

Networking multiple "smart" displays together is an affordable way of creating large high-resolution display systems. In this work I propose a new structure and data distribution paradigm for displays of this nature. I model my work on the peer-to-peer style of content distribution, as opposed to the traditional client-server model for this kind of system. In taking a peer-to-peer approach, I present a low-cost and scalable system without the inherent constraints imposed by the client-server model. I present a new class of applications specifically designed for this peer-to-peer style of display system, and provide an easy-to-use framework for developers to use in creating this type of system. / Graduate / 0984