We build a model structure from the simple point of departure of a structured interval in a monoidal category — more generally, a structured cylinder and a structured co-cylinder in a category.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) currently utilizes drug and light doses which are primarily based on clinical experience. This can lead to a dose which is not sufficient to destroy the entire tumor, or alternatively, it can lead to the undesirable destruction of healthy tissue around the treatment area. PDT of topically applied photosensitizers is one focus of this research. This concerns the diffusion of an externally applied drug into the tissue, as well as its subsequent destruction during the irradiation procedure. This work involves the non-invasive measurement of the inherent fluorescence of the photosensitizer, allowing the determination of the concentration and distribution of drug within the tissue, and thus optimizing this treatment. To do this, one must be able to describe the propagation of light within the tissue. Consequently, a photon diffusion model has been developed to calculate the steady-state spatially resolved fluorescence from a pencil beam excitation in a depth dependent medium. The validity of this model was then verified by comparison with Monte Carlo simulations and measurements made on phantoms with optical properties similar to those of human tissue. Theoretical conditions were then explored, and potential uses of the model were demonstrated. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

This thesis contributes with a number of topics to the subject of string compactifications, especially in the instance of the E₈ × E₈ heterotic string theory compactified on smooth Calabi-Yau threefolds. In the first half of the work, I discuss the Hodge plot associated with Calabi-Yau threefolds that are hypersurfaces in toric varieties. The intricate structure of this plot is explained by the existence of certain webs of elliptic-K3 fibrations, whose mirror images are also elliptic-K3 fibrations. Such manifolds arise from reflexive polytopes that can be cut into two parts along slices corresponding to the K3 fiber. Any two half-polytopes over a given slice can be combined into a reflexive polytope. This fact, together with a remarkable relation on the additivity of Hodge numbers, give to the Hodge plot the appearance of a fractal. Moving on, I discuss a different type of web of manifolds, by looking at smooth Z₃-quotients of Calabi-Yau three-folds realised as complete intersections in products of projective spaces. Non-simply connected Calabi-Yau three-folds provide an essential ingredient in heterotic string compactifications. Such manifolds are rare in the classical constructions, but they can be obtained as quotients of homotopically trivial Calabi-Yau three-folds by free actions of finite groups. Many of these quotients are connected by conifold transitions. In the second half of the work, I explore an algorithmic approach to constructing E₈ × E₈ heterotic compactifications using holomorphic and poly-stable sums of line bundles over complete intersection Calabi-Yau three-folds that admit freely acting discrete symmetries. Such Abelian bundles lead to N = 1 supersymmetric GUT theories with gauge group SU(5) × U(4) and matter fields in the 10, ⁻10, ⁻5, 5 and 1 representations of SU(5). The extra U(1) symmetries are generically Green-Schwarz anomalous and, as such, they survive in the low energy theory only as global symmetries. These, in turn, constrain the low energy theory and in many cases forbid the existence of undesired operators, such as dimension four or five proton decay operators. The line bundle construction allows for a systematic computer search resulting in a plethora of models with the exact matter spectrum of the Minimally Supersymmetric Standard Model, one or more pairs of Higgs doublets and no exotic fields charged under the Standard Model group. In the last part of the thesis I focus on the case study of a Calabi-Yau hypersurface embedded in a product of four CP1 spaces, referred to as the tetraquadric manifold. I address the question of the finiteness of the class of consistent and physically viable line bundle models constructed on this manifold. Line bundle sums are part of a moduli space of non-Abelian bundles and they provide an accessible window into this moduli space. I explore the moduli space of heterotic compactifications on the tetraquadric hypersurface around a locus where the vector bundle splits as a direct sum of line bundles, using the monad construction. The monad construction provides a description of poly-stable S(U(4) × U(1))–bundles leading to GUT models with the correct field content in order to induce standard-like models. These deformations represent a class of consistent non-Abelian models that has co-dimension one in Kähler moduli space.

This thesis investigates the connections between henselian valuations and absolute Galois groups. There are fundamental links between these: On one hand, the absolute Galois group of a field often encodes information about (henselian) valuations on that field. On the other, in many cases a henselian valuation imposes a certain structure on an absolute Galois group which makes it easier to study. We are particularly interested in the question of when a field admits a non-trivial parameter-free definable henselian valuation. By a result of Prestel and Ziegler, this does not hold for every henselian valued field. However, improving a result by Koenigsmann, we show that there is a non-trivial parameter-free definable valuation on every henselian valued field. This allows us to give a range of conditions under which a henselian field does indeed admit a non-trivial parameter-free definable henselian valuation. Most of these conditions are in fact of a Galois-theoretic nature. Throughout the thesis, we discuss a number of applications of our results. These include fields elementarily characterized by their absolute Galois group, model complete henselian fields and henselian NIP fields of positive characteristic, as well as PAC and hilbertian fields.

Granular materials exist in many forms in nature ranging from space debris to sand dunes and from breakfast cereals to pharmaceutical tablets. They can behave like a solid or a viscous fluid or a gas. The gas-like nature of granular materials in rapid flows allows the use of models based on kinetic theory thus revealing in depth complex physics and phenomena. However unlike conventional fluids here the energy balance requires additional dissipation terms as a consequence of inelasticity. The complexity of their interaction and diversity in application has led to numerous studies using experimental methods and numerical simulations in order to determine the most appropriate constitutive relationships for granular gases. With large dissipation the form of the constitutive relationship becomes particularly important, especially in the presence of non-equipartition and anisotropy. This thesis is focused on constitutive models of simple granular flows. A vibrated bed is often used as an idealisation of granular flows, providing a convenient approximation to the simplest type of flow: binary and instantaneous collisions with no rotations. Using finite element method (FE) based COMSOL modules we solve conservation of mass, momentum and energy resulting from granular kinetic theory in axi-symmetric form to generate time and spatial resolved solutions of packing fraction, velocity and granular temperature and compare the predictions to numerical simulation and experiment. At first we show the comparison for two closure sets, one based on a simple near elastic approach while the second based on revised Enskog theory for dense inelastic flows. The results for the second approach show good agreement with the results of previously validated near elastic models and experimental results. The observed differences between the two closure sets are small except for the observation of temperature upturn in a dilute region of the cell away from base. One cause of this is the presence of additional constitutive terms in the balance equations and are a consequence of inelasticity. The models also consider time varying effects at low frequency of excitation. These solutions show existence of wave-like effects in the cell with associated temperature upturn within the hydrodynamic applicability region. Presence of instantaneous cyclic rolling is also seen in both approaches. Evidence from MD simulations and experiments qualitatively support the findings of hydrodynamic models in phase resolved as well as time average behaviour. Subsequently, the frequency of vibration was varied to unlink the wave motion from the bulk temperature. Lack of agreement between experiment and the model predictions are shown to be due to lack of separation of time scale between the grain-base interaction and the base frequency. A sharp decrease of heat flux is measured showing that the energy input is frequency dependent. Analysis of the bulk behaviour shows that at high frequency, hard sphere based models are able to capture the steady state behaviour reasonably well. Further investigations that modulate the driving with a low frequency amplitude change revealed the dynamic nature of flow with the low frequency component. No significant influence of high frequency signal is noted except the reduction of base heat flux. Independent analysis of bulk behaviour for modulated wave excitation using MD simulations and hydrodynamic models showed wave motion in a pattern similar to non-modulated low frequency vibration. A one-dimensional inviscid model was used to determine the underlying scaling relationships for near elastic granular flows. A form of non-dimensionalisation predicts scaling behaviour for the granular flow. The predictions show good results for the dilute flows using hard sphere MD simulations. Results from MD simulations confirm dilute limit scaling of base temperature, packing fractions and heat flux coefficients. At higher inelasticity and loading condition the model fails to capture the real physics suggesting the need for a more accurate model. This simplified model does, however, set the basis for describing the main scalings for vibrofluidized granular beds, and in the future we anticipate that effects of further inelasticity and enhanced density could be incorporated.

This simulation study compared the performance of two multilevel measurement testlet (MMMT) models: Beretvas and Walker’s (2008) two-level MMMT model and Jiao, Wang, and Kamata’s (2005) three-level model. Several conditions were manipulated (including testlet length, sample size, and the pattern of the testlet effects) to assess the impact on the estimation of fixed and random effect parameters. While testlets, in which items share the same stimulus, are common in educational tests, testlet item scores violate the assumption of local item independence (LID) underlying item response theory (IRT). Modeling LID has been widely discussed in previous studies (for example, Bradlow, Wainer, and Wang, 1999; Wang, Bradlow, and Wainer, 2002; Wang, Cheng, and Wilson, 2005). More recently, Jiao et al. (2005) proposed a three-level MMMT (MMMT-3r) in which items are modeled as nested within testlets (level two) and then testlets are nested with persons (level three). Testlet effects are typically modeled as random in previous studies involving LID. However, item effects (difficulties) are commonly modeled as fixed under IRT models: that is, persons with the same ability level are assumed to have the same probability of answering an item correctly. Therefore, it is also important that a testlet effects model permit modeling of item effects as fixed. Moreover, modeling testlet effect as random implies testlets are being sampled from a larger population of testlets. However, as with item effects, researchers are typically more interested in a particular set of items or testlets that are being used in an assessment. Given the interest of the researcher or psychometrician using a testlet response model, it seems more useful to use a testlet response model that permits modeling testlets effects as fixed. An alternative MMMT that permits modeling testlet effect as fixed and/or randomly varying has been proposed (Beretvas and Walker, 2008). The MMMT-2f and MMMT-2r models treat testlet effects as item-set-specific but not person-specific. However, no simulation has been conducted to assess how this proposed model performs. The current study compared the performance of the MMMT-2f, MMMT-2r with that of the MMMT-3r. Results of the present simulation study showed that the MMMT-2r yielded the best parameter bias in estimation on fixed item effects, fixed testlet effects, and random testlet effects for conditions with nonzero equal pattern of random testlet effects’ variance even when the MMMMT-2r was not the generating model. However, random effects estimation did not perform well when unequal random testlet effects’ variances were generated. Fit indices did not perform well either as other studies have found. And it should be emphasized that model differences were of very little practical significance. From a modeling perspective, MMMT-2r does allow the greatest flexibility in terms of modeling testlet effects as fixed, random, or both. / text

The purpose of this study was to examine students' experiences and perceptions of multiple interaction activities (self-directed, peer, and teacher feedback) implemented in a large multilevel EFL writing class in one private technological university in the southern part of Taiwan. Large size writing classes, quite common in private institutions of higher education in Taiwan, cannot be effectively operated to meet individual students' needs in improving their writing performance. Low achievers have difficulties in keeping up with competent writers in learning writing skills while advanced students complain of their learning too little from the class. This research, based on the activity system model proposed by Engestrom (1987), was a case study in which interviewing student participants, observing classroom activities, audiotaping peer response sessions, and examining students' drafts and feedback sheets were the methods to collect data. The qualitative software, ATLAS.ti, was employed to analyze interview and peer response data according to the code lists developed for this purpose. A rubric was developed to examine the changes students made after having incorporated the three types of feedback into their drafts. Major findings indicated that intermediate and low achievers, though making more efforts in conducting self-directed feedback, felt unsatisfied with this activity while high achievers, investing less energy and time, gave more positive opinions to this activity. However, intermediate and low achievers gave a higher percentage of satisfaction to peer response activities than high achievers because the former could obtain more constructive peer feedback than the latter. In addition, all students were in favor of modified teacher feedback but gave negative opinions to traditional teacher feedback. On the whole, intermediate and low achievers, based on their preference, ranked teacher feedback the most important, then peer feedback and finally self-directed feedback whereas high achievers placed teacher feedback first, self-directed feedback second, and peer feedback last. Student writers' responses to each type of feedback were closely related to the amount of constructive comments they received. The more helpful suggestions they obtained, the more positive opinions they gave to a certain type of feedback. In the end of the study, recommendations were made for curriculum designers, classroom practitioners, and further studies.

Orientador: Aguinaldo Robinson de Souza / Banca: Ourides Santim Filho / Banca: Marcelo Carbone Carneiro / Resumo: Este trabalho procurou identificar como estudantes do Ensino Médio se apropriam de conceitos e elaboram determinados modelos inseridos em Cinética Química, especificamente o modelo cinético de colisão de partículas numa reação (Teoria das Colisões). Esta análise e as reflexõe que a seguiram foram baseadas principalmente nos estudos realizados por Piaget (1975, 1975b, 1977), Piaget & Inhelder (1975, 1977), Jun (2000) e Fischbein (1975). Utilizamos como documentos as transcrições das entrevistas (pré e pós-testes) realizadas individualmente com cada aluno. Inicialmente os estudantes foram entrevistados (pré-testes) com o intuito de identificar a familiaridade com a noção de evento probabilístico ou aleatório. Numa segunda etapa (pós-testes) esse conhecimento (ou a ausência parcial/total dele) foi posto à prova numa tentativa de estabelecer relações com um conteúdo específico da Química (Teoria das Colisões). Os resultados obtidos apontam para grandes discrepâncias entre o modelo cinético de colisões elaborado pelos estudantes e o cientificamente aceito. / Abstract: The purpose of this work is to contribute for Science teaching making analysis and reflections on the way high school students appropriate the concepts and models related to Chemical Kinetics, mainly particles collisions' kinetics model in chemical reaction (Collision Theory Model). This investigation was based on Piaget and Inhelder' studies (1975), and also on Piaget (1975, 1977), Jun (2000), and Fischbein (1975) works, which have studied the connection between the young students and the probabilistic thinking. The analysis of the document evidences had the aim to evaluate if the students would be able to achieve generalization and develop concepts about Probability Theory. In the second part these concepts or its partial/total lacks were linked with chemical kinetics in attempt to establish relationships between correct explanation of collision kinetic model and the students' failure models. The obtained result points to great misconceptions related to the correct and scientific model and the student's. / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2007-03-30Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:13:11Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 cirino_mm_me_bauru.pdf: 7880513 bytes, checksum: 90db4c500722605231950129993ca3de (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho procurou identificar como estudantes do Ensino Médio se apropriam de conceitos e elaboram determinados modelos inseridos em Cinética Química, especificamente o modelo cinético de colisão de partículas numa reação (Teoria das Colisões). Esta análise e as reflexõe que a seguiram foram baseadas principalmente nos estudos realizados por Piaget (1975, 1975b, 1977), Piaget & Inhelder (1975, 1977), Jun (2000) e Fischbein (1975). Utilizamos como documentos as transcrições das entrevistas (pré e pós-testes) realizadas individualmente com cada aluno. Inicialmente os estudantes foram entrevistados (pré-testes) com o intuito de identificar a familiaridade com a noção de evento probabilístico ou aleatório. Numa segunda etapa (pós-testes) esse conhecimento (ou a ausência parcial/total dele) foi posto à prova numa tentativa de estabelecer relações com um conteúdo específico da Química (Teoria das Colisões). Os resultados obtidos apontam para grandes discrepâncias entre o modelo cinético de colisões elaborado pelos estudantes e o cientificamente aceito. / The purpose of this work is to contribute for Science teaching making analysis and reflections on the way high school students appropriate the concepts and models related to Chemical Kinetics, mainly particles collisions' kinetics model in chemical reaction (Collision Theory Model). This investigation was based on Piaget and Inhelder' studies (1975), and also on Piaget (1975, 1977), Jun (2000), and Fischbein (1975) works, which have studied the connection between the young students and the probabilistic thinking. The analysis of the document evidences had the aim to evaluate if the students would be able to achieve generalization and develop concepts about Probability Theory. In the second part these concepts or its partial/total lacks were linked with chemical kinetics in attempt to establish relationships between correct explanation of collision kinetic model and the students' failure models. The obtained result points to great misconceptions related to the correct and scientific model and the student's.

To date, the greatest success in predicting recreational travel patterns has been made by the Systems Theory Model. However, discrepancies still occur primarily due to the lack of accurate and extensive information on the socio-demographic variables that influence recreational travel. The research verified the assumption that socio-demographic variables warrant consideration in a recreational model. The analysis indicates specifically the types of socio-demographic variables that influence the various types of recreational travel. Due to a small sample size the results are not directly applicable to the model, however, they establish the types of socio-demographic variables that warrant consideration in a large sample survey. / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)