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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
191

The Encyclopaedia of Istanbul : a novel ; &, Ottoman crossroads : coffeehouses, politics, theatres and storytelling : critical essays

Cizakca, Defne January 2015 (has links)
This Creative Writing PhD consists of a novel, The Encyclopaedia of Istanbul, and accompanying critical essays, Ottoman Crossroads: Coffeehouses, Politics, Theatres and Storytelling. The Encyclopaedia of Istanbul is historical in nature, and magically real in temperament. It is an account of fin de siècle Constantinopolis, and contains forgotten fairy tales, remnants of an ancient manuscript culture, Armenian playwrights, Turkish feminists, Greek fortune-tellers and Sephardim cantors. It tells the tale of six intersecting lives in 1876, a time known as “the year of the three Sultans” in Ottoman history. This period was filled with tensions between traditionalism and Westernization, but also new political possibilities forwarded by the Young Ottomans. While the characters in The Encyclopaedia of Istanbul are fictitious, they are inspired by historical events and figures. The second element of my PhD, Ottoman Crossroads, is made up of four individual essays that focus on selected themes from the novel. They scrutinize, in order of presentation, the history of coffeehouse culture, the secretive society of the Young Ottomans and their political thought, the formation of Armenian-Turkish theatre, and the rediscovery of Ottoman fairy tales. Whilst the novel and essays are coherent independently, they also link to each other in ways that are sometimes direct, and at other times subtle.
192

On Classical and Quantum Mechanical Energy Spectra of Finite Heisenberg Spin Systems

Exler, Matthias 16 May 2006 (has links)
Since the synthesis of Mn12, which can be regarded as the birth of the class of magnetic molecules, many different molecules of various sizes and structures have been produced. The magnetic nature of these molecules originates from a number of paramagnetic ions, whose unpaired electrons form collective angular momenta, referred to as spins. The interaction between these spins can often be described in the Heisenberg model. In this work, we use the rotational band model to predict the energy spectrum of the giant Keplerate {Mo72Fe30}. Based on the approximate energy spectrum, we simulate the cross-section for inelastic neutron scattering, and the results are compared to experimental data. The successful application of our approach substantiates the validity of the rotational band model. Furthermore, magnetic molecules can serve as an example for studying general questions of quantum mechanics. Since chemistry now allows the preparation of magnetic molecules with various spin quantum numbers, this class of materials can be utilized for studying the relations between classical and quantum regime. Due to the correspondence principle, a quantum spin system can be described exactly by classical physics for an infinitely large spin quantum number s. However, the question remains for which quantum numbers s a classical calculation yields a reasonable approximation. Our approach in this work is to develop a converging scheme that adds systematic quantum corrections to the classical density of states for Heisenberg spin systems. To this end, we establish a correspondence of the classical density of states and the quantum spectrum by means of spin-coherent states. The algorithm presented here allows the analysis of how the classical limit is approached, which gives general criteria for the similarity of the classical density of states to the quantum spectrum.
193

Human Pose and Action Recognition using Negative Space Analysis

Janse Van Vuuren, Michaella 12 1900 (has links)
This thesis proposes a novel approach to extracting pose information from image sequences. Current state of the art techniques focus exclusively on the image space occupied by the body for pose and action recognition. The method proposed here, however, focuses on the negative spaces: the areas surrounding the individual. This has resulted in the colour-coded negative space approach, an image preprocessing step that circumvents the need for complicated model fitting or template matching methods. The approach can be described as follows: negative spaces surrounding the human silhouette are extracted using horizontal and vertical scanning processes. These negative space areas are more numerous, and undergo more radical changes in shape than the single area occupied by the figure of the person performing an action. The colour-coded negative space representation is formed using the four binary images produced by the scanning processes. Features are then extracted from the colour-coded images. These are based on the percentage of area occupied by distinct coloured regions as well as the bounding box proportions. Pose clusters are identified using feedback from an independent action set. Subsequent images are classified using a simple Euclidean distance measure. An image sequence is thus temporally segmented into its corresponding pose representations. Action recognition simply becomes the detection of a temporally ordered sequence of poses that characterises the action. The method is purely vision-based, utilising monocular images with no need for body markers or special clothing. Two datasets were constructed using several actors performing different poses and actions. Some of these actions included actors waving their arms, sitting down or kicking a leg. These actions were recorded against a monochrome background to simplify the segmentation of the actors from the background. The actions were then recorded on DV cam and digitised into a data base. The silhouette images from these actions were isolated and placed in a frame or bounding box. The next step was to highlight the negative spaces using a directional scanning method. This scanning method colour-codes the negative spaces of each action. What became immediately apparent is that very distinctive colour patterns formed for different actions. To emphasise the action, different colours were allocated to negative spaces surrounding the image. For example, the space between the legs of an actor standing in a T - pose with legs apart would be allocated yellow, while the space below the arms were allocated different shades of green. The space surrounding the head would be different shades of purple. During an action when the actor moves one leg up in a kicking fashion, the yellow colour would increase. Inversely, when the actor closes his legs and puts them together, the yellow colour filling the negative space would decrease substantially. What also became apparent is that these coloured negative spaces are interdependent and that they influence each other during the course of an action. For example, when an actor lifts one of his legs, increasing the yellow-coded negative space, the green space between that leg and the arm decreases. This interrelationship between colours hold true for all poses and actions as presented in this thesis. In terms of pose recognition, it is significant that these colour coded negative spaces and the way the change during an action or a movement are substantial and instantly recognisable. Compare for example, looking at someone lifting an arm as opposed to seeing a vast negative space changing shape. In a controlled research environment, several actors were instructed to perform a number of different actions. After colour coding the negative spaces, it became apparent that every action can be recognised by a unique colour coded pattern. The challenge is to ascribe a numerical presentation, a mathematical quotation, to extract the essence of what is so visually apparent. The essence of pose recognition and it's measurability lies in the relationship between the colours in these negative spaces and how they impact on each other during a pose or an action. The simplest way of measuring this relationship is by calculating the percentage of each colour present during an action. These calculated percentages become the basis of pose and action recognition. By plotting these percentages on a graph confirms that the essence of these different actions and poses can in fact been captured and recognised. Despite variations in these traces caused by time differences, personal appearance and mannerisms, what emerged is a clear recognisable pattern that can be married to an action or different parts of an action. 7 Actors might lift their left leg, some slightly higher than others, some slower than others and these variations in terms of colour percentages would be recorded as a trace, but there would be very specific stages during the action where the traces would correspond, making the action recognisable.In conclusion, using negative space as a tool in human pose and tracking recognition presents an exiting research avenue because it is influenced less by variations such as difference in personal appearance and changes in the angle of observation. This approach is also simplistic and does not rely on complicated models and templates
194

A plm implementation for aerospace systems engineering-conceptual rotorcraft design

Hart, Peter Bartholomew 08 April 2009 (has links)
The thesis will discuss the Systems Engineering phase of an original Conceptual Design Engineering Methodology for Aerospace Engineering-Vehicle Synthesis. This iterative phase is shown to benefit from digitization of Integrated Product&Process Design (IPPD) activities, through the application of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technologies. Requirements analysis through the use of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and 7 MaP tools is explored as an illustration. A "Requirements Data Manager" (RDM) is used to show the ability to reduce the time and cost to design for both new and legacy/derivative designs. Here the COTS tool Teamcenter Systems Engineering (TCSE) is used as the RDM. The utility of the new methodology is explored through consideration of a legacy RFP based vehicle design proposal and associated aerospace engineering. The 2001 American Helicopter Society (AHS) 18th Student Design Competition RFP is considered as a starting point for the Systems Engineering phase. A Conceptual Design Engineering activity was conducted in 2000/2001 by Graduate students (including the author) in Rotorcraft Engineering at the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA. This resulted in the "Kingfisher" vehicle design, an advanced search and rescue rotorcraft capable of performing the "Perfect Storm" mission, from the movie of the same name. The associated requirements, architectures, and work breakdown structure data sets for the Kingfisher are used to relate the capabilities of the proposed Integrated Digital Environment (IDE). The IDE is discussed as a repository for legacy knowledge capture, management, and design template creation. A primary thesis theme is to promote the automation of the up-front conceptual definition of complex systems, specifically aerospace vehicles, while anticipating downstream preliminary and full spectrum lifecycle design activities. The thesis forms a basis for additional discussions of PLM tool integration across the engineering, manufacturing, MRO and EOL lifecycle phases to support business management processes.

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