A Workflow is an automation of a business process. In general, it consists of processes and activities, which are represented by well-defined tasks. These include 'Office Automation,' 'Health Care' and service-oriented processes such as 'Online Reservations,' 'Online Bookstores' and 'Insurance Claims,' etc. The entities that execute these tasks are humans, application programs or database management systems. These tasks are related and dependent on one another based on business policies and rules. With rapid increases in application domains that use workflow management systems, there is a need for a framework that can be used to implement these applications. In particular, it is essential to provide a formal technique for defining a problem that can be used by various workflow software product developers. In this work, a formal framework based on finite state automata that facilitate modeling and analysis of workflows is presented. The workflow and its specifications are modeled separately as finite state automata models. We provide a general framework for specifying control flow dependencies in the context of supervisory control theory. We also identify several properties of supervisory control theory and demonstrate their use for conducting the analysis of the workflows.

To improve the replication of acoustic guitars, measurements of three Martin OOO style steel-string guitars were made at various stages of their construction. The guitars were constructed in parallel, as similar to each other as possible, with the exception of the soundboard material---which were made of Sitka spruce, Engelmann spruce and Western Red cedar. To improve the similarity of the instruments, methods were developed to measure and control the material properties of key components before their incorporation into the instruments, including a device to measure the thickness of a guitar soundboard attached to the back and sides of the instrument. Some of these measurements were compared to numerical models of the instrument and, after the establishment of a lexicon to describe guitar sounds, some physical factors contributing towards the timbre of guitar sounds were determined. The results of these investigations may be developed to improve the consistency in the manufacture of stringed musical instruments.

La théorie d'invariants de type fini des 3-variétés et leurs entrelacs de Goussarov-Habiro repose sur le calcul de claspers, un ensemble d'outils de calcul topologique. Dans cette thèse, on calcule explicitement les invariants en bas degré pour certaines classes d'objets, par une méthode dite graphique. Nous étudions ainsi les cylindres d'homologie sur une surface à 0 ou 1 composante de bord et les string-links framés des boules d'homologie. Leurs invariants de degré 1 sont caractérisés en termes d'invariants classiques, et une correspondance est établie entre les deux cas. On regarde aussi les invariants de Vassiliev des string-links, du point de vue des claspers. Le calcul des invariants de degré 2 implique la construction d'un certain invariant des string-links à 2 cordes. Le lien entre invariants de Vassiliev et de Goussarov-Habiro est étudié pour les string-links.

<p>The appearance in string theory of higher-dimensional objects known as D-branes has been a source of much of the interesting developements in the subject during the past ten years. A very interesting phenomenon occurs when several of these D-branes are made to coincide: The abelian gauge theory living on each brane is enhanced to a non-abelian gauge theory living on the stack of coincident branes. This gives rise to interesting effects like the natural appearance of non-commutative geometry. The theory governing the dynamics of these coincident branes is still poorly understood however and only hints of the underlying structure have been seen.</p><p>This thesis focuses on an attempt to better this understanding by writing down actions for coincident branes using so-called boundary fermions, originating in considerations of open strings, instead of matrices to describe the non-abelian fields. It is shown that by gauge-fixing and by suitably quantizing these boundary fermions the non-abelian action that is known, the Myers action, can be reproduced. Furthermore it is shown that under natural assumptions, unlike the Myers action, the action formulated using boundary fermions also posseses kappa-symmetry, the criterion for being the correct supersymmetric action for coincident D-branes.</p><p>Another aspect of string theory discussed in this thesis is that of tensionless strings. These are of great interest for example because of their possible relation to higher spin gauge theories via the AdS/CFT-correspondence. The tensionless superstring in a plane wave background, arising as a particular limit of the near-horizon geometry of a stack of D3-branes, is considered and compared to the tensile case.</p>

<p>The main topic of this doctoral thesis is D-branes in string theory, expressed in the language of conformal field theory. The purpose of string theory is to describe the elementary particles and the fundamental interactions of nature, including gravitation as a quantum theory. String theory has not yet reached the status to make falsifiable predictions, thus it is not certain that string theory has any direct relevance to physics. On the other hand, string theory related research has led to progress in mathematics.</p><p>We begin with a short introduction to conformal field theory and some of its applications to string theory. We also introduce vertex algebras and discuss their relevance to conformal field theory. Some classes of conformal field theories are introduced, and we discuss the relevant vertex algebras, as well as their interpretation in terms of string theory.</p><p>In string theory, a D-brane specifies where the endpoint of the string lives. Many aspects of string theory can be described in terms of a conformal field theory, which is a field theory that lives on a two-dimensional space. The conformal field theory counterpart of a D-brane is a boundary state, which in some cases has a natural interpretation as constraining the string end point. The main focus of this thesis is on the interpretation of boundary states in terms of D-branes in curved target spaces.</p>

<p>Denna undersökning handlar om hur videofilm används i undervisningen. Med videofilm avser jag TV, DVD, VHS och filmklipp från Internet eller andra källor. Jag utgick från tre möjligheter med användandet av videofilm i undervisningen: •   videofilm som eleverna kan öva till när de kommer hem, till exempel instruktionsfilmer • filmning av eleverna • förevisning av skickliga musikerFör att ta reda på olika stråklärares tankar och erfarenheter av mediet genomförde jag nio intervjuer. Jag ville också veta efterfrågan på instruktionsvideos bland stråklärare och kontaktade olika producenter och distributörer.    Trots att det inte var vanligt att använda olika medier i undervisningen bland mina respondenter, såg de positivt på videofilm som hjälpmedel. Men det fanns också en rädsla för att mötet mellan lärare och elever skulle kunna upphöra. Det var svårt att se ett samband mellan lärarnas repertoar/metodik och användandet av videofilm. Både lärare och läromedels-förlag trodde att det var en generationsfråga och att användandet av multimedia i undervis-ningen kommer att öka inom de närmaste åren.</p> / <p>This study is about how video films are used in teaching. By video film, I am referring to TV, DVD, VHS and film clips from the Internet or other sources. I imagined three areas of usage in which video films could be used for educational purposes: • video films for the students to bring home to assist with their practising, for example a tutorial video • filming the students • showing skilful musicians I made nine interviews to discover different string teachers’ thoughts and experiences of the medium, and their student’s reactions. I also wanted to know the demand for tutorial videos among string teachers and contacted producers and distributors.   Though media wasn’t frequently used in teaching among my respondents, they saw video films as a helpful aid. But there was also a fear that the interaction between teachers and students would disappear. It was hard to see a connection between teachers’ different repertoire and methods, and their use of video film. Teachers, and companies that produce teaching media, believed that the use of multimedia in education was indicative of the generation, and that we could expect an increase of multimedia use in teaching.</p>

The purpose of this study was to explore string teachers? assessment practices related to string program success. Additionally, the study examined the relationship between teacher characteristics and string program success. This study was conducted by surveying string teachers (N = 201) from around the country. The survey was designed based on the independent variables of teacher characteristics and assessment practices, and the dependent variable of string program success. Results indicated that string teachers most frequently assess with teacher-given verbal criticism, rehearsal skills, attendance, teacher-rated rubrics, and student evaluations. The least common assessment practices used by string teachers were composition assignments, music history assessments, portfolio assessment, improvisation/creativity assignments, and cross-curricular assignments. String program success was correlated with the assessment practices of written assessments, student reflections, teacher-rated rubrics, sightreading skills assessment, student evaluations, music theory assessments, music history assessments, and portfolio assessments, and student rated rubrics. Years of teaching, level of education, musicianship-based assessment, and student-based assessments were predictors of string program success. String program success did not differ as a function of years teaching, however there is a difference in string program success within the characteristics of gender, education level, and primary instrument, as well as primary instrument by education level.

The purpose of this study was to research and demonstrate various techniques that a double bassist may utilize when performing an unaccompanied solo in a jazz setting. This study primarily focused on pizzicato (plucked) styles and sought to maximize the polyphonic potential of the double bass, which has traditionally been considered a homophonic instrument. This study provides a written, organized approach that illustrates recorded examples and augments private instruction for the double bass. This study offers a vocabulary of techniques comprising chords and intervals that allow the double bassist to accompany oneself. It uses an intervallic approach to determining practical ways of voicing chords and accompanying melodic statements. Specific songs from the standard repertoire were chosen to demonstrate self-accompaniment techniques in the contexts of melodic and harmonic movement. Recorded examples are provided that show how specific bassists successfully used certain techniques in the context of songs. Bassists that were examined include Ray Brown, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, Dave Holland, Charlie Hayden, Ron Carter, Edgar Meyer, Lynn Seaton, and David Friesen.

The main purpose of Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) program is to study the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), a deconfined state of matter believed to be created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. Heavy quarks, expected to be produced during the earlier stages of heavy ion collisions, serve as an important probe of the QGP.‎ ‎The following dissertation presents measurements of single muons resulting from the semileptonic decay of heavy flavor quarks in the rapidity range of $1.4 < vertetavert < 1.9$ for Cu+Cu nuclei collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV measured by the PHENIX experiment. Single muon spectra were measured for three different centrality classes (0 - 20 \% , 20 - 40 \%, 40 - 94 \%) within the $p_{T}$ range of 1.0 - 4.0 GeV/c.‎ ‎To calculate single muon spectra, a full background estimate was statistically subtracted from inclusive spectra of muon candidate tracks reconstructed in the PHENIX muon arms. The background was predicted and estimated with a ``Hadron Cocktail", a full-scale data-driven Monte Carlo simulation. The hadron cocktail approach was originally developed and implemented to measure single muon production for Run-5 p+p collisions. First, the relevant light hadrons are generated with a ``realistic'' input (ratios of different particle species and $p_{T}$ spectra). The generated tracks are then propagated through the PHENIX detector geometry using GEANT. At the last step, introduced and implemented specifically for this analysis, the simulated tracks were embedded into real events and finally reconstructed with the PHENIX muon arms reconstruction software. This was done to realistically reproduce detector performance due to effects caused by colliding heavy ions. The hadron cocktail method provides a much better alternative to the previously attempted purely data-driven peacemeal approaches which suffer from very large systematic uncertainties.‎ ‎Finally, using baseline single muon measurements for p+p collisions, nuclear modification factors for all of the above specified centralities have been measured. These are the first measurements of single muon spectra and nuclear modification factors at forward angles for any two heavy colliding ion systems.

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