An investigation has been made into symmetry features of patterns as a means by which the patterns are described, or with which they are transformed prior to classification in order to assist a pattern recognition system. There are two main points of departure from existing symmetry use in the pattern recognition domain. The first is the adoption of the theory that patterns can be categorised solely using a map of the symmetry features that exist within the static pattern. The second is the application of symmetry transforms to aid non-trivial recognition in patterns which are not intended to be perfectly symmetrical. An experiment is conducted to classify the reflectional symmetry features of digits, using the Generalised Symmetry Transform to produce the features and Probabilistic Neural Networks to perform the classification. Symmetry feature information is also used to define parameters of affine transformations to achieve improved performance in tolerance to variances in position and orientation. The results lead to an investigation of the role of asymmetry. The Generalised Symmetry Transform is modified to produce two related transforms: the Generalised Asymmetry Transform and the Generalised Asymmetry and Symmetry Transform. Finally, a new symmetry transform is proposed which separates the factors affecting the degree of symmetry in an image into three non-linear functions of corresponding pairs of pixels. These factors are: the colour intensity values; the pixel orientations; and the respective distance between the point and potential reflection plane. The strictness of symmetry, or tolerance to non-symmetrical artifacts, is defined in variable parameters which are set to suit the desired application. This new transform is called the Reflectional Symmetry Transform. The structure of its input and output match those of the Generalised Symmetry Transform, which it is intended to replace.

This study looks at one hundred cases of siblicide committed across the United States. Cases are analyzed for criminality patterns which are used by the author to determine offender typologies. The goal of this research is to determine why this type of crime is committed, this question is answered by analyzing offenders and the crimes themselves. This research is important because this type of crime dates back to biblical times with the story of Cane and Able, and it has remained a problem within society. Though this type of crime has been investigated in the past it is necessary to reanalyze similar crimes to remain current on data, over time society changes and with it so does the method and rational for crime. By analyzing crimes of this nature and identifying typologies it will begin to paint a picture of why such crimes occur and can assist those who investigate similar crimes today. To conduct this research one hundred cases of siblicide were collected from across the United States in qualitative form. These cases were found online from reputable news sources that reported on them. They were then compiled into a grid and broken down by date, state, ethnicity and age of offenders and victims. The grid also contains data on weapon used, rational for killing, and a description of the crime that occurred. After the cases were collected, the author picked through the details and began to identify patterns within the cases. From these cases typologies can be created based on similar patterns between the cases. Once typologies are made the data is looked at through a theoretical lens using strain theory to determine if stress could potentially be a leading cause in this crime. The data compiled for this research is still being examined and a conclusion has not yet been made, though the author does expect to see a high level of stressors for those who commit this type of crime. This is expected due to the displacement that can occur with the presence of a sibling. It is expected that in a number of cases factors such as conflict, jealousy and financial stress will be the root cause of the violence that occurs. As for cases of younger children involved in cases the author expects to see a high level of accidental shootings paired with parental neglect. In conclusion this research will shed more light on a crime that has been occurring for thousands of years, and will allow one to understand siblicide in a modern context, by discussing why and how it occurs in today’s society. If it is found that stressor are not the predominant cause of this type of crime it would mean that there is a separate issue to address within this type of crime, and this research would help to identify what it is that truly causes siblicide to occur.

The growing popularity of new generation mobile terminals, known as „smartphones‟,has increased the variety and number of such devices. These devices make use of the resources offered by Universal Mobile Telecommunication Services (UMTS) networks toaccess on-line services such as web browsing, e-mail, audio and video streaming, etc. UMTS networks have to deal with an increasing amount of data traffic generated by smartphones. Because of the fact that the smartphone is battery powered and is trying to satisfy the needs ofboth applications and human users there is a need to be smarter about how to manage both network and terminal resources. This thesis explores the possibility of making a better use of the network and terminal resources by exploiting correlations in the events of the smartphone-generated traffic. We propose a mechanism, through which the network can predict if a terminal is going to produce data transmission or reception in a near future, based on past events in its traffic. According to this prediction, the network will be able to decide if it keeps or releases the resources allocated to the terminal. We analyze the benefits from the network and the terminal point ofview. We also describe a method to estimate an upper bound of the time until the next transmission or reception of data in a near future. We show that it is possible a reduction of the time that each terminal wastes in its maximum power consumption state, but this reduction implies a penalty in the transmission/reception throughput of the terminal. The reduction is not uniform for all terminals: terminals whose traffic presents a predictable behavior gain the most. Estimates of upper bounds of time until the next transmission or reception are more accurate if they are made taking as input information about interarrival times of previous packets. / Den växande populariteten för nya generationens mobila terminaler, så kallade"smartphones", har ökat både antal och sådana produkter. Dessa enheter utnyttjar de resursersom Universal Mobile Telecommunication Services (UMTS) att få tillgång till on-line tjänster såsom web webbläsning, e-post, ljud och video streaming, osv. UMTS-nät har hantera med en ökande mängd data som genereras trafik bysmartphones. På grund av det faktum attsmartphone är batteridriven och försöker för att tillgodose behoven hos både applikationer och mänskliga användare det finns ett behov att vara smartare om hur man kan hantera både nätverk och terminaler resurser. Den avhandling undersöker möjligheten att göra en bättre användning av nätverk och terminaler resurser genom att utnyttja samband i händelserna smartphone-genererade trafik. Vi föreslår en mekanism genom vilken nätet kan förutsäga om terminalen kommer att ta fram dataöverföring orreception i en nära framtid, baserat på tidigare händelser i trafiken. Enligt denna förutsägelse, kommer nätet att kunna avgöra om den håller eller frigör resurser till terminalen. Vi analyserar nytta nätet och terminalen synvinkel. Vi beskriver också en metod för att uppskatta övre gränsen för tiden till nästa sändning eller mottagning av data inom ens nar framtidd. Vi visar att det är möjligt att minska den tid som varje terminal avfall i sin maximal strömförbrukning staten, men denna minskning innebär en straffavgift överföring /mottagning genomströmning av terminalen. Minskningen är notuniform för alla terminaler där trafiken utgör en förutsägbart beteende vinna mest. Uppskattningar av övre gränserna för tid untilthe nästa sändning eller mottagning är mer exakta om de görs tar som indata information om interarrival gånger tidigare paket.

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Throughout the Intermountain West there has been a substantial reduction in both the quantity and quality of sagebrush ecosystems. To ass ist current range management objectives, numerous efforts have been made to classify and map sagebrush communities using remotely sensed data. However, the amount of deta il provided by these broad-scale mapping projects is often limited. This research evaluated the ability of a suite of airborne and satellite imagery to detect sagebrush community structural attributes, specifically percent canopy cover, live cover, density, size-vigor, and spatial arrangement of shrubs. Field data was collected at Camp Williams National Guard Training Facility near Bluffdale, Utah, within a Wyoming big sagebrush community. High-resolution color infrared (CIR) aerial photography, panchromatic, and multi-spectral satellite imagery, including data from Orb image, IKO OS, and Landsat ETM+, were used. Comparisons were made based on the inherent spatial and spectral properties of each image. In addition to the traditional pixel-based method for classifying imagery, a relatively new object-oriented approach to measure sagebrush cover was also explored. Results indicate that the quantification of sagebrush cover can be done fairly accurately in mid-level canopy cover areas regardless of the imagery used. Confidence in the cover estimates did diminish slightly in areas where sagebrush cover was relatively sparse or extremely dense. Not all structural variables were quantifiable using the coarser imagery, due to constraints of spat ial resolution. In these instances the 0.3-meter CIR imagery was exemplified. The object-oriented approach enabled an automatic delineation of the range of variability within sagebrush stands and provided an interesting alternative to measuring sagebrush community structural attributes when compared with the more traditional pixel-based approach. This research was intended to provide a resource for anyone working wi thin sagebrush ecosystems, including rangeland managers, wildlife biologists, or other remote sensors, specifically when decisions related to the appropriate selection of remotely sensed data for some intended management application is necessary. The evaluation of wildlife habitat for sagebrush-obligate species, the direction of fire management strategies and restoration efforts, and the ident ification of appropriate grazing areas are only a few of the potential applications of this work

This study was conducted as part of an 11-state study on family time use coordinated by Cornell University. The particular emphasis of this research was family meal patterns. The independent variables were (1) homemaker's education, (2) homemaker's employment, (3) income of the family, and (4) place of residence of the family. These were analyzed in relation to the amount of time (1) spent in meal preparation, (2) the number of meals the family ate together, and (3) where the family ate their meals. The literature indicated that in the past the homemaker has done most of the meal preparation. It also indicated that American families are eating fewer meals together as a family, and are eating more meals away from home than previously. The analysis of the data collected in this study indicated that meal preparation is still a task done mostly by the homemaker. Homemakers with some college education and those who were full-time homemakers spent more time in meal preparation than other homemakers. Families with higher incomes, families with employed mothers and those families who lived in an urban area ate more meals away from home than other families . Families ate fewer meals together than had been anticipated, the average being slightly less than one meal a day together as a family .

Movements of 22 cougars (Felis concolor) were monitored by radio-telemetry between January 1979 and July 1981 in southern Utah. The population, composed of resident, transient, and juvenile cougars, remained relatively constant in size for 3 years. Densities (0.4-0.5 cougars/100 km2) were considerably lower than has been reported elsewhere. Average annual home area size of resident females (685 km2) and a single resident male (826 km2) were substantially larger than other home area sizes reported. Home areas of resident females overlapped and resident male home areas may have overlapped as well. Despite the degree of overlap observed, with the exception of family groups, close spatial associations were rare. Dispersal of cubs appeared to be independent of adult resident density. Density of resident cougars appears to be regulated by a social pattern based on land tenure but limited by abundance of mule deer, their principal prey on this study area. The relative vulnerability to hunting of different cougar cohorts is discussed.

Understanding the mechanisms that structure biological systems is a primary goal of biology. My research shows that the biological structure is constrained in important ways by general variables such as the number of base pairs in a genome and the number of individuals and species in a community. I used a combination of macroecology, bioinformatics, statistics, mathematics, and advanced computing to pursue my research and published several peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and open-source software as a result.I was funded through a combination of fellowships and scholarships awarded by the Utah State University School of Graduate Studies, College of Science, and Department of Biology, as well as teaching assistantships awarded through the Department of Biology at Utah State University, and research assistantships funded through a CAREER grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (DEB-0953694) awarded to my advisor, Dr. Ethan White. With the help of my advisor, I also obtained a computing grant from Amazon Web Services in the amount of $7,500. Altogether, funding for my research and education totaled approximately $123,500. Using over 9000 communities of plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms, I demonstrated that the forms of empirical species abundance distributions (SADs) are constrained by total abundance and species richness. Using over 300 microbial genomes, I demonstrate that nucleotide aggregation is constrained by genome length and differs between regions of coding and noncoding DNA. General state variables of genomes and ecological communities (i.e. genome length, total abundance and species richness) constrain simple structural properties of each system.

In this study a new approach to active-element pattern analysis, for large phased array antennas, was created using Floquet's theorem. The classic approach to finding active-element patterns uses a full array simulation that can become slow and produce patterns that are specific to certain elements in the array, though basically identical away from the array edge. Instead of producing specific active-element patterns an average active-element pattern could be created and then applied that to the array. The average active-element pattern can be used for every element in the array with a small margin of error. Using Floquet's theorem reduces any differences between elements in the array and gives the most accurate active-element pattern within a reasonable time constraint. Floquet average active-element patterns are computed by using an infinite array and a summation is done for the far-field radiation values of a finite array based on the number of elements using typical pattern multiplication techniques. Therefore, accuracy of the Floquet element approach is excellent for arrays on the size of hundreds to thousands of elements. An active-element pattern is determined by scanning the array and taking the far-field radiation value at each beam scan-angle. Each beam scan-angle value is a summation of the element radiation patterns in that specific direction. These beam scan-angle values are then reduced by the number of elements in the array to form a radiation pattern. This radiation pattern is the average active-element pattern. / Master of Science

Butterfly wing color patterns result from the arrangement of monochromatic scales containing chemical pigments and a delicate architecture that can cause interference or diffraction of light, generating iridescent colors. The latter mechanism is known as structural coloration and, despite its ecological importance, little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying the development of this trait. The Southern Dogface butterfly, Zerene cesonia, exhibits sexually dimorphic development of ultraviolet wing reflectance. Males possess a UV-reflective patch on the forewing that results from nano-structures on the wing scales, which are absent in females. This dimorphism offers an excellent opportunity to explore the genetic mechanisms involved in pattern formation and cyto-structural variation. We used RNA-seq data from imaginal wing discs through late larval and pupal development to identify genes involved in the regulation of color pattern and scale structure formation. We identified candidate genes for the regulation of wing color pre-patterning and sexually-dimorphic development of wing scales. Our results provide a genomic resource for the identification and characterization of genes that participate in the regulation of wing development in pierid butterflies.