Nowadays in mobile and wireless networks environment, Mobile IP is the preferred standard in supporting IP mobility among several standards. However, several problems still need to be solved. One of them is the triangle routing problem. Although drafts have been proposed by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) for solving this problem, the proposed solution can not be achieved unless the draft of the Mobile IP route optimization method becomes a typical standard of the Mobile IP. In this paper, we present an extended routing agent architecture to solve this problem. The Middle Mobility Agent (MMA) in the proposed architecture can intercept datagrams earlier and determine to tunnel the incoming packet or not than the MH¡¦s original home agent. This architecture can solve the triangle routing problem by reducing packet¡¦s routing length. An analytical model and a simulation environment were set up to evaluate and measure the packet¡¦s routing length and delay time of proposed architecture. The evaluation and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can reduce the routing length, delay time and solve the triangle routing problem.

The U.S. has been building the security umbrella in Asia-Pacific after the World War II, from Japan and South Korea in the north, to Philippine, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand in the south, to protect its homeland security and interests in Asia-Pacific from communist threat like Communist China. When the Cold War ended which saw the decline of USSR as a world power, the U.S. security umbrella continues but it now faces a new challenge posed by the rise of China. While Australia is part of the security umbrella of U.S., it is quite different from Japan, South Korea, Philippine and Thailand. Australia is a state with cultures and values similar to the West but is geographically located in Asia-Pacific. It has huge territory that ranks top 6 in the world but sparsely populated with only around twenty one million people. Trade contributes significantly to its economic development due to its relatively small population and abundant resources. China's influence is rising after its economic reform. China has been the most important trade partner of Australia since 2007. However, when Australia seeks a wider bilateral interaction with China, it is expected that this will have an impact on the Australia-United States bilateral relations. The concept of a ¡§Strategic Triangle¡¨ has been used in this dissertation to observe the changes of the Australia-United States-China relationship in different stages. The national interests approach is applied to interpret the importance of relationships of Australia-United States and Australia-China to Australia. Therefore, the contents of Australia¡¦s national interests and Australia's foreign policies are explored first. Then, the bilateral relationship between U.S.-China is examined for its impacts on Australia¡¦s choices between U.S. and China. The Australia-U.S. relationship and Australia-China relationship are also examined respectively to understand the rationale behind Australia's approach toward U.S. and China. Finally, Australia's strategies are reviewed and the possible strategic choices for Australia are discussed. The strategic choices made by Australia could be interpreted from the Australia-U.S.-China triangular relationship.

Accurate computational representations of highly deformable surfaces are indispensable in the fields of computer animation, medical simulation, computer vision, digital modeling, and computational physics. The focus of this dissertation is on the animation of physics-based phenomena with highly detailed deformable surfaces represented by triangle meshes. We first present results from an algorithm that generates continuum mechanics animations with intricate surface features. This method combines a finite element method with a tetrahedral mesh generator and a high resolution surface mesh, and it is orders of magnitude more efficient than previous approaches. Next, we present an efficient solution for the challenging problem of computing topological changes in detailed dynamic surface meshes. We then introduce a new physics-inspired surface tracking algorithm that is capable of preserving arbitrarily thin features and reproducing realistic fine-scale topological changes like Rayleigh-Plateau instabilities. This physics-inspired surface tracking technique also opens the door for a unique coupling between surficial finite element methods and volumetric finite difference methods, in order to simulate liquid surface tension phenomena more efficiently than any previous method. Due to its dramatic increase in computational resolution and efficiency, this method yielded the first computer simulations of a fully developed crown splash with droplet pinch off.

<p>The  Austrian  Business  Cycle  Theory  (ABC)  provides  a  qualitative  explanation  of  why economies go through ups and downs in terms of national income, production output and labor employment. The theory states that interest and money supply policy distort the time preferences of economic agents. If the monetary authority reduces the interest rate through artificial credit expansion the new economic conditions induce both increased production and consumption. The  framework of  the Austrian  theory depends on  savings  to  fuel  investments, i.e. reduced consumption in order to create increased future consumption. Artificially  induced  expansions  create  a wedge between  these producer  and  consumer preferences, and prolonging of the process widens the gap between the economic state and the free market  equilibrium which  is  long-term  sustainable. When  the  financial  system  eventually is unable to maintain inflation of credit to uphold the economy, there will be abandonment of capital investments, resulting in an unavoidable recession. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the theory from a short run perspective, using data from  the United Kingdom  economy. The  theory has previously primarily been  tested  in long run perspectives and mainly on the American economy. To achieve the noted a model was constructed based on the description of the theory by economists Hayek and Garrison, members of the Austrian school of economics. To empirically model the ABC theory the ratio between consumption and investment, the intertemporal  resource allocation, was  calculated and used as a dependent variable  in  regressions with money aggregates, credit and interest rate gap as independent variables. The empirical findings give some support to the theory, with a number of those findings directly in favor of the theory. Credit was shown to better explain changes in the C/I ratio than money aggregates, indicating that credit is more directly suited for investments. The coefficient for the interest rate gap, the difference between the natural interest rate and the market interest rate, showed strong significance. Overall differences between economic expansions and recessions were found statistically significant, which lends support to the model.</p>

The National Research Council (NRC) outlines an assessment design framework in Knowing What Students Know. This framework proposes the integration of three components in assessment design that can be represented by a triangle, with each corner representing: cognition, or model of student learning in the domain; observation, or evidence of competencies; and interpretation, or making sense of this evidence. This triangle representation signifies the idea of a need for interconnectedness, consistency, and integrated development of the three elements, as opposed to having them as isolated from each other. Based on the recommendations for research outlined in the NRC's assessment report, this dissertation aims to conduct a dimensionality analysis of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) mathematics items. PISA assesses 15-year olds' skills and competencies in reading, math, and science literacy, implementing an assessment every three years since 2000. PISA's mathematics assessment framework, as proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has a multidimensional structure: content, processes, and context, each having three to four sub-dimensions. The goal of this dissertation is to show how and to what extent this complex multidimensional nature of assessment framework is reflected on the actual tests by investigating the dimensional structure of the PISA 2003, 2006, and 2009 mathematics items through the student responses from all participating OECD countries, and analyzing the correspondence between the mathematics framework and the actual items change over time through these three implementation cycles. Focusing on the cognition and interpretation components of the assessment triangle and the relationship between the two, the results provide evidence addressing construct validity of PISA mathematics assessment. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used for a dimensionality analysis of the PISA mathematics items in three different cycles: 2003, 2006, and 2009. Seven CFA models including a unidimensional model, three correlated factor (1-level) models, and three higher order factor (2-level) models were applied to the PISA mathematics items for each cycle. Although the results did not contradict the multidimensionality, stronger evidence was found to support the unidimensionality of the PISA mathematics items. The findings also showed that the dimensional structure of the PISA mathematics items were very stable across different cycles. / text

As global economic competition has intensified, many countries have begun focusing on the competitiveness of larger regions of city networks called megaregions. Consisting of two or more cities with specific linkages and connections, megaregions are becoming a new unit that researchers are using to analyze the global economy. The world’s 40 largest megaregions produce two thirds of the global economic output and more than eighty percent of the world’s innovations (Florida et al., 2007). Therefore, understanding the economic characteristics of megaregions can help isolate various challenges and opportunities associated with building on inter-relationships that enhance competitiveness. The Texas Triangle is one of 10 major megaregions in the U.S., and it functions as the primary economic engine of the Texas economy. This study analyzes how the economic characteristics of the major metropolitan areas in the Texas Triangle have changed over time by studying the basic dynamics of these metropolitan areas over the last decade. Results from this study show that each metropolitan area contains specialized export industries and that competition among them seems to be encouraging the economic growth of Texas. The basic industrial structure of the Texas Triangle has not been affected significantly by economic changes over the last decade. Finally, this report presents policy implications related to strengthening traditional economic bases and promoting sustainable economic development such as clean energy in the Texas Triangle. / text

What various roles exist in corporate toxicity? In what environment does toxicity thrive? Do toxic leaders exhibit certain characteristics? Questions such as these can be discovered using this classroom tool! / This case study provides a real-world example of corporate toxicity to illustrate the toxic triangle model and show how situations like this one come to pass (Padilla, 2013). The primary focus will be on WorldCom/MCI and the events leading to the world famous accounting scandal that came to light in 2003. This case briefly examines the three major triangle elements, (1) the role of the leader, (2) the enabling efforts of colluding and conforming followers, and (3) the conducive nature of the specific organizational context, all in correlation with the eventual destruction of the organization. Identifying these elements provides an opportunity for students to analyze an actual account of corporate toxicity through critical thinking and discussion. The questions provided are intended to stimulate a discussion focused on the: (1) events leading to the demise of the organization, (2) characteristics of the primary leader and followers, (3) role the environment played in escalating the situation, and (4) the influences of social pressures.

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Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Projectively textured models are used in an increasingly large number of applicationsthat dynamically combine images with a simple geometric surface in a viewpoint dependentway. These models can provide visual fidelity while retaining the effects affordedby geometric approximation such as shadow casting and accurate perspective distortion.However, the number of stored views can be quite large and novel views must be synthesizedduring the rendering process because no single view may correctly texture the entireobject surface. This work introduces the Master Texture encoding and demonstrates thatthe encoding increases the utility of projectively textured objects by reducing render-timeoperations. Encoding involves three steps; 1) all image regions that correspond to the samegeometric mesh element are extracted and warped to a facet of uniform size and shape,2) an efficient packing of these facets into a new Master Texture image is computed, and3) the visibility of each pixel in the new Master Texture data is guaranteed using a simplealgorithm to discard occluded pixels in each view. Because the encoding implicitly representsthe multi-view geometry of the multiple images, a single texture mesh is sufficientto render the view-dependent model. More importantly, every Master Texture image cancorrectly texture the entire surface of the object, removing expensive computations suchas visibility analysis from the rendering algorithm. A benefit of this encoding is the supportfor pixel-wise view synthesis. The utility of pixel-wise view synthesis is demonstratedwith a real-time Master Texture encoded VDTM application. Pixel-wise synthesis is alsodemonstrated with an algorithm that distills a set of Master Texture images to a singleview-independent Master Texture image.