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This study is an investigation of Japanese university English language teachers' self-efficacy beliefs. Research has established that teachers' self-efficacy has considerable influence on a wide variety of teaching practices. However, in the English as a Foreign Language domain, and more specifically at the university level in Japan, self-efficacy beliefs have hardly ever been examined. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' self-efficacy beliefs based on the teachers' native language, teaching experience, contract and tenured status, and gender. Furthermore, the sources of these beliefs, how they are strengthened, and how they are challenged were also explored. In order to provide answers to these questions, the Japanese University Language Teachers' Efficacy Beliefs Scale (JULTEBS), a new instrument measuring language teacher self-efficacy was validated using the Rasch rating-scale model as well as a confirmatory factor analysis. A triangulation strategy mixed-method design was employed in which the collection and analysis of data from the quantitative survey was completed in addition to the collection and analysis of data from qualitative open-ended interviews. A profile analysis, a special application of a MANOVA, was conducted to check the hypotheses for parallelism, levelness, and flatness of the self-efficacy scores among the various groups of respondents. The four self-efficacy variables that were measured were Efficacy in Student Engagement, Efficacy in Instructional Strategies, Efficacy in Classroom Management, and Efficacy in Dealing with Superiors. Semi-structured interviews were also employed to help determine what potentially strengthens and weakens the self-efficacy beliefs of English language teachers. The results showed that native English language teachers perceived themselves to be more efficacious than Japanese English teachers across all four self-efficacy variables. Additionally, more experienced teachers exhibited higher self-efficacy beliefs than less experienced teachers. Tenured teachers and limited-term contract teachers showed similar levels of self-efficacy on all variables except for Efficacy in Dealing with Superiors, where tenured teachers rated themselves higher than contract teachers. Furthermore, male and female teachers showed no statistically significant differences across all four self-efficacy variables. Finally, four themes (Autonomy, Colleagues, Money, and Students) emerged as qualities that could support teachers' self-efficacy, whereas three themes (Administration, Students, and Limited-term Contracts) surfaced as qualities that could weaken teachers' self-efficacy. The findings of this study not only highlight the importance of teacher self-efficacy, but also provide valuable insights into the beliefs of English language teachers, as well as the current state of affairs for these teachers at Japanese universities. / Applied Linguistics

A method using a Fourier series is demonstrated to optimize an LED array for local dimming applications in liquid crystal display backlighting. The same optimization method is also suitable for LED displays in which the Moiré effect must be suppressed during photography with a minimum loss of spatial resolution. Initially, the angular intensity profile of a Lambertian LED is modelled when backlighting a Lambertian rear projection screen and compared to experimental data. An array of optimized LEDs and the resulting screen intensity pattern is then derived such that an intensity distribution with an intensity deviation of less than 2% is achieved. The angular intensity profile of the LED is modified using adjustable Fourier coefficients optimized according to an algorithm. The algorithm is designed to achieve an illuminated screen area of maximum size for a bounded LED backlight array to appear uniform in intensity to an observer. This Fourier series approach provides an elegant method to optimize the intensity profile of LED backlight arrays without the use of ray tracing. A lens was designed in order to provide this optimized intensity profile as well as created and tested. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Measuring the use of resources in a production process has been a subject under great scrutiny since more than a hundred years ago. Traditionally, costing systems and cost accounting systems have been in charge of such functions in manufacturing corporations. On the other hand, in recent years Lean Manufacturing has become a powerful and popular force for change. A premier tool for process visualization and understanding is Value Stream Mapping, and it focuses primarily in the time dimension of the processes. However, it is clear that the interaction of cost and time is very important. This is felt in everyday occurrences, such as paying interests for credit cards, mortgages and other types of loans. It is intuitive that the longer a certain amount of money is held, the more it costs. Also, if a larger amount of money is held for one day, it will obviously cost more than holding a smaller amount of money. Therefore, cost and time, BOTH, determine the real cost of the use of money. However, this simple perception has not been applied equally to the measurement of manufacturing processes. They usually concentrate on either cost or time, but seldom in both at the same time and their interaction. The Westinghouse corporation formalized the concepts of the Cost-Time Profile in 1993, based on work done there during several decades. Simply put, the Cost-Time Profile measures how much money is invested in the manufacturing process of a product and for how long, creating a chart that presents the accumulated cost at every point in time (Cost-Time Profile) and measuring the area under this curve (Cost-Time Investment), and then using this quantification to measure the bottom line impact. This research has accomplished two main things: the detailed consideration of the Cost-Time Profile (CTP) and the issues and factors that affect it, and the extension of the concepts to the new reality of Extended Enterprises. In a logical sequence, the basic concepts of CTP are defined and presented. Then, the extension of them to Inter-Enterprise environments follows. Successive sections present how to build a CTP and the Inter-Enterprise Cost-Time Profile (IE-CTP), as well as discussing the factors that should be taken into account to bring the IE-CTP to practical applications, such as the effect of batching; the interaction with existing accounting systems; the consideration of direct cost, overhead and profit and the relationships between companies in supply networks to build IE-CTPs. Then the issue of how to improve the results of the Cost-Time Investment (CTI) and CTP is addressed, and schedule optimization models are developed; generic improvement scenarios and lean implementation scenarios are discussed; some simulation studies are presented for cases when this tool has advantages over deterministic tools and an IE-CTP specific software tool is presented. After learning how to improve the CTP and CTI, a discussion about how to use it and implement it is presented, and finally the summary and conclusions close this research report, identifying the contributions presented and leaving open avenues for future research. / Ph. D.

Broadband wireless communications require wideband antennas to support large number of users and higher data rates. Desirable features of a wideband antenna are low-profile, dual-polarization and wide bandwidth in a compact size. Many existing wideband antennas are large in size and some have only circular polarization. On the other hand low-profile, dual-polarized antennas frequently have limited bandwidth. This dissertation reports on results from original research into several new wideband antennas. All are compact and planar, and many are low-profile and dual-polarized. Since 1994, Virginia Tech Antenna Group (VTAG) has performed research on the wideband, low-profile and dual-polarized antennas of compact size. This research resulted in the following antenna innovations: the Fourpoint, Fourtear, PICA (Planar Inverted Cone Antenna), diPICA (dipole PICA) and LPdiPICA (Low-Profile diPICA) antennas. They are all planar in geometry so one can easily construct them in a compact size. The antennas were characterized and investigated with extensive simulations and measurements. The computed and measured data demonstrates that some of the antennas appear to have the characteristics of the self-complementary antenna and most of the proposed antennas provide more than a 10:1 impedance bandwidth for a VSWR < 2. Patterns, however, are degraded at the high end of the frequency. Several tapered ground planes were proposed to improve the radiation pattern characteristics without degrading the impedance performance. A simulation result proposed a possibility of another antenna inventions providing 10:1 pattern bandwidth with the 10:1 impedance bandwidth. Research into wideband antennas demonstrated that the newly invented antennas are closely related each other and are evolved from a primitive element, PICA. Not only the comprehensive investigation but also a practical antenna design has been done for commercial base-station array antennas and to phased array antennas for government applications. This dissertation presents results of comprehensive investigation of new planar wideband antennas and its usefulness to the broadband wireless communications. / Ph. D.