sMany theories of structure from motion divide the process into twosparts which are solved using different assumptions. Smoothness of thesvelocity field is often assumed to solve the motion correspondencesproblem, and then rigidity is used to recover the 3D structure. Wesprove results showing that, in a statistical sense, smoothness of thesvelocity field follows from rigidity of the motion.

The Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA; L.eBuffe & Naglieri, 1999), a standardized strength-based measure, was used with 125 kindergarten children from two different regions in British Columbia to investigate the relationship between mother and teacher ratings of students’ strengths and behaviour problems. Results suggest that the level of agreement between mother and teacher ratings for children’s strengths is similar to the level of agreement between mother and teacher ratings for children’s problem behaviours. The level of agreement between motherreported and teacher-reported scores was found to be low for all DECA scales and most DECA items, with some differences found upon examination of the sample by gender. The findings revealed three main trends: first, a higher degree of correspondence and a lower degree of difference was found between mother and teacher ratings for the Self-Control scale and items, compared to the other scales and items; second, a lower degree of correspondence and a higher degree of difference was found between mother and teacher ratings for the Attachment scale and items, compared to other scales and items; third, the level of agreement between mothers and teachers ratings was higher for boys than for girls. These patterns of cross-informant correspondences and differences are discussed in the context of the need for practitioners to obtain rating information from both mothers and teachers, since each rater provides a unique perspective. Furthermore, the importance of highlighting children’s strengths in the assessment process is emphasized.

Students who are learning English as a second language (ESL) have lower performance on mathematics problems based in language than students who are fully fluent in English. Students’ performance on word-based mathematics problems is directly related to their English reading comprehension and language fluency (Abedi & Lord, 2001; Brown, 2005; Hofstetter, 2003). This places students who are not fully fluent in English at a disadvantage in the mathematics classroom. Students’ self-efficacy beliefs also impacts their mathematics performance and motivation. The self-efficacy of students who are not fluent in English may be negatively impacted by their struggle with language. For this exploratory study, image-based mathematics problems were created to communicate problem solving questions with pictures instead of language or computational symbols. This problem format was investigated as a potential alternative to word-based or computation-based problems. Grade 6 students registered in ESL level 2, ESL level 4, and not registered in ESL, completed a mathematics task with four computation problems, four language-based problems, and four image-based problems. During a follow-up interview, students’ solution strategies and thought processes were explored further. The results of this study indicated that the inclusion of wordless mathematics problems, such as image-based problems, assisted some of the students who were learning basic English interpersonal communication skills. As nonroutine problems, image-based mathematics also encouraged complex thought and mathematics understanding. Students in ESL Level 2 demonstrated higher self-efficacy beliefs on image-based problems than word problems.

Constitutive model parameters are identified during model calibration through trial-and-error process driven to fit test data. In this research, the calibration of constitutive models is formally handled as an inverse problem. The first phase of this research explores error propagation. Data errors, experimental biases (e.g. improper boundary conditions), and model errors affect the inversion of model parameters and ensuing numerical predictions. Drained and undrained tests are simulated to study the effect of these three classes of errors. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of error surfaces computed by successive forward simulations. The second phase of this research centers on test procedures. Conventional soil tests were developed to create uniform stress and strain fields; consequently, they provide limited amount of information, the inversion is ill-posed, and results enhance uncertainty and error propagation. This research examines soil testing using new, non-conventional loading and boundary conditions to create rich, diverse, non-uniform strain and stress fields. In particular, the flexural excitation of cylindrical soil specimens is shown to provide rich data leading to a more informative test than conventional geotechnical tests. The new test is numerically optimized. Then a set of unique experimental studies is conducted.

In this thesis, direct and inverse problems concerning nodal solutions associated with the one-dimensional p-Laplacian operators are studied. We first consider the eigenvalue problem on (0, 1), −(y0(p−1))0 + (p − 1)q(x)y(p−1) = (p − 1) £fw(x)y(p−1) (0.1) Here f(p−1) := |f|p−2f = |f|p−1 sgn f. This problem, though nonlinear and degenerate, behaves very similar to the classical Sturm-Liouville problem, which is the special case p = 2. The spectrum {£fk} of the problem coupled with linear separated boundary conditions are discrete and the eigenfunction yn corresponding to£fn has exactly n−1 zeros in (0, 1). Using a Pr¡Lufer-type substitution and properties of the generalized sine function, Sp(x), we solve the reconstruction and stablity issues of the inverse nodal problems for Dirichlet boundary conditions, as well as periodic/antiperiodic boundary conditions whenever w(x) £f 1. Corresponding Ambarzumyan problems are also solved. We also study an associated boundary value problem with a nonlinear nonhomogeneous term (p−1)w(x) f(y(x)) on the right hand side of (0.1), where w is continuously differentiable and positive, q is continuously differentiable and f is positive and Lipschitz continuous on R+, and odd on R such that f0 := lim y!0+ f(y) yp−1 , f1 := lim y!1 f(y) yp−1 . are not equal. We extend Kong¡¦s results for p = 2 to general p > 1, which states that whenever an eigenvalue _n 2 (f0, f1) or (f1, f0), there exists a nodal solution un having exactly n − 1 zeros in (0, 1), for the above nonhomogeneous equation equipped with any linear separated boundary conditions. Although it is known that there are indeed some differences, Our results show that the one-dimensional p-Laplacian operator is still very similar to the Sturm-Liouville operator, in aspects involving Pr¡Lufer substitution techniques.

The thesis addresses the problems faced by contractors during the recovery and rebuilding process after hurricanes that struck the southeast region of the United States in 2004-2005 hurricane seasons. It also deals with the practices they normally use to solve such problems. First, through literature review, six possible problems were identified, which were then used to gather information about the major problems faced by the construction industry in post-hurricane projects. The possible problems were site logistics, material transportation, labor, political influences, building permits and site location. Data were then collected via surveys of 450 contractors involved in post-hurricane construction in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. The analysis showed that three of those problems - site logistics, labor and material transportation were identified as major problems among the respondents. The remaining were considered as problems, but not major ones in post-hurricane reconstruction projects. The study recommends practices, such as better planning, scheduling, coordination, supply chain management and use of experienced site personnel, for tackling the problems of site logistics and material transportation. Outsourcing labor was one of the methods suggested to improving conditions with regards to labor problems. The research identifies the problems and provides a list of possible solutions to these problems, as used by the contractors of such projects. Therefore, by using the suggested practices, post-hurricane reconstruction projects can be beneficial for contractors, and the outlook towards these projects as being less profitable can be changed.

Unmanned Vehicles (UVs) are developed for several civil and military applications. For these applications, there is a need for multiple vehicles with different capabilities to visit and monitor a set of given targets. In such scenarios, routing problems arise naturally where there is a need to plan paths in order to optimally use resources and time. The focus of this thesis is to address a basic optimization problem that arises in this setting. We consider a routing problem where some targets have to be visited by specific vehicles. We approach this problem by dividing the routing into two sub problems: partitioning the targets while satisfying vehicle target constraints and sequencing. We solve the partitioning problem with the help of a minimum spanning tree algorithm. We use 3 different approaches to solve the sequencing problem; namely, the 2 approximation algorithm, Christofide's algorithm and the Lin - Kernighan Heuristic (LKH). The approximation algorithms were implemented in MATLAB. We also developed an integer programming (IP) model and a relaxed linear programming (LP) model in C with the help of Concert Technology for CPLEX, to obtain lower bounds. We compare the performance of the developed approximation algorithms with both the IP and the LP model and found that the heuristic performed very well and provided the better quality solutions as compared to the approximation algorithms. It was also found that the approximation algorithms gave better solutions than the apriori guarantees.

The U.S. Navy first took official notice of aviation in 1910, but its development of carrier aviation lagged behind Great Britain??s until the 1920s. The first American aircraft carrier, the Langley, commissioned in 1919, provided the Navy with a valuable platform to explore the potential uses of carrier aviation, but was usually limited to scouting and fleet air defense in the U.S. Navy??s annual interwar exercises called fleet problems. This began to change in 1929 with the introduction of the carriers Lexington and Saratoga in Fleet Problem IX. After this exercise, which included a raid by aircraft from the Saratoga that ??destroyed?? the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, the carriers were assigned a wider variety of roles over the next five years of exercises. During this time, the carriers gained their independence from the battle line, which the smaller and slower Langley had been unable to do. Reflecting the advanced capabilities of the new carriers, the fleet problems conducted during Admiral William Veazie Pratt??s tenure as Chief of Naval Operations, 1930-1933, began to test the employment of the new carriers as the centerpiece of one of the opposing fleets within the exercises. The Lexington and Saratoga were used offensively during these exercises, employing their aircraft to sink surface ships, though not battleships, and successfully strike targets ashore. The carriers became successful in spite of the unreliability of early 1930s carrier aircraft, particularly the torpedo bombers, that could carry heavy payloads. Lessons learned from the Lexington and Saratoga Fleet Problems IX through XIV influenced the design of the next generation of American aircraft carriers, the Yorktownclass, which were authorized in 1933. These new carriers were faster and much larger than the carrier Ranger, commissioned in 1934 and designed before the Lexington and Saratoga began participating in the exercises. Features incorporated into the Yorktownclass based on operational experience included the reduced need for large surface batteries because of the use of escort vessels, the emphasis of armoring against shellfire over aerial bombs and torpedoes, and the capability to launch large numbers of aircraft quickly.

Thesis (EdD)-Open University.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.