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<p> The experience shows that any shortcoming in defining the requirements for computer based systems imperils the deliverables of all the subsequent stages of their development. This importance is undeniable when dealing with manufacturing software-systems due to their significant role in all spheres of human life. These systems have very stringent non-functional requirements such as accuracy and real-time constraints. The development of manufacturing software-systems is very challenging and requires special caution, since any mistake might have broad impact on very expensive work-pieces or might lead to a machining accident with irreparable effects. The success of their development depends largely on the quality of their Software Requirements Specification Document (SRSD).</p> <p> We propose a new requirements template specifically designed for manufacturing systems. The template is structured to reflect their characteristics including multi-constraints and multi-disciplinary problems, multi-stage processes, multi-tasking, dynamic behavior, evolutionary nature, time-varying physical characteristics, and the usage of complex scientific models. A complementary usage of goal-driven, viewpoint oriented, and scenario-based approach is adopted for structuring the template content. To provide a high quality SRSD, the template is designed to enhance unambiguity, consistency, completeness, precision, non-redundancy, and good organization of the requirements document as well as other criteria including breadth of applicability and methodology independence.</p> <p> An automated tool for requirements management according to the proposed template has been designed and implemented. The requirements management tool provides relatively secure and easy-to-use capabilities for the documentation and the retrieval of the requirements. It accelerates capturing the requirements, improves system quality by enhancing the reduction of requirements errors, and helps in establishing a common understanding between the system builders and the stakeholders. In addition to a user friendly environment for changing the information, we developed a powerful dynamic report generator that can be configured by the user and that provides a simple way for retrieving the requirements and formatting them.</p> <p> Both the template and the tool have been validated using the requirements for a Tool Trajectory Planning for High Speed Machining system developed at the Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Centre, Institute for Aerospace Research (Montreal).</p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Several recent studies show that previous experience can influence observers’ search strategy in a way that improves search performance. The purpose of the present study is to investigate how the experience of difficult color discriminability affects search strategies. Two participant groups either experienced difficult color discriminability in a half of the trials (i.e., hard-discrimination group) or experienced easy search in all trials (i.e., easy-discrimination group) in a dual-target search task. Participants were required to respond to the presence of a target (colored T) among distractors (colored pseudo-L). Eye movements were recorded to understand which feature information is used to guide attention, and behavioral performance was measured to compare search efficiency between the two groups. The hard-discrimination group fixated more distractors with target-dissimilar colors than the easy-discrimination group, suggesting the hard-discrimination group used shape information to guide search more than the easy-discrimination group. However, error rates and response times were not significantly different between groups. The results demonstrate that the experience of difficult color discriminability discourages observers from guiding attention by color, and encourages them to use shape information.

This thesis addresses the synthesis of a new mix-metal trimetallic nitride template endohedral metallofullerene (TNT-EMF) and the functionalizations of M3N@C80 (M = Sc, Gd, Ho) under the high-speed vibration milling (HSVM) condition. In addition, this thesis discusses the internal motion of the cluster, Sc3N inside three different carbon cages, C68, C78 and C80. Water-soluble derivatives of endohedral metallofullerenes possess a unique potential for medical applications, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, X-ray contrast agents and nuclear medicine. The TNT-EMFs have inherent advantages over other endohedral metallofullerenes, such as M@C60 and M@C82, due to the encapsulation of up to three metal atoms inside the carbon cages. M3N@C80(OH)m(O)n (M = Sc, Gd, Ho) were synthesized under the HSVM condition and characterized by FT-IR, MALDI-TOF and XPS. The relaxivity studies on these water-soluble derivatives have shown that Gd-based metallofullerols have significantly higher relaxivities than commercially used MRI contrast agents (e.g. OmniscanTM) and can be the next generation MRI contrast agent. The Ho containing species has a high R2/R1 ratio compared to other samples showing the potential to be a T2 agent. In contrast to homonuclear M3N clusters, there is a paucity of mixed-metal cluster cases of TNT-EMFs reported to date because the mixed-metal metallofullerenes are difficult to be separated and purified. In this thesis, CeSc2N@C80 was synthesized, separated in pure form and fully characterized. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction shows that CeSc2N@C80 consists of a four atom asymmetric top (CeSc2N) inside a C80 (Ih ) carbon cage and the nitride ion is not located at the center of the carbon cage but is offset by 0.36 &Aring;. The NMR studies, together with the XPS results, show that CeSc2N@C80 is a weakly paramagnetic system with a single buried f electron spin. A new cage isomer of the Sc3N@C80 (D5h) metallofullerene was also isolated from the Ce-Sc mixture and the cage symmetry was confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The internal motion of the metal-nitride cluster, Sc3N within the carbon cages (C68, C78 and C80) was studied at various temperatures using 45Sc NMR spectroscopy. The reorientation barriers (presumably dominated by motion internal to the cage) were calculated for these three TNT-EMFs. The preliminary results show that the quadrupole coupling constant of Sc3N@C80 (Ih) is quite close to that of Sc3N@C68. / Master of Science

This thesis identifies a facile and versatile technique for creating multi-scale porous titania with tunable meso-scale morphology. Three templating approaches were simultaneously utilized in achieving this; namely, soft-templating by template-free self-assembly of an aligned macroporous structure, freeze-casting for the preservation of particle dispersion found in suspension, and hard-templating by the use of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) as sacrificial material. A systematic study was conducted wherein three synthesis parameters (water content, alcohol solvent content, and drying method) were varied in the hydrolysis of titanium tetra-isopropoxide (TTIP) by the sol-gel method to determine their contribution to the formation of multi-scale porous titania exhibiting aligned macrochannels and mesoporosity. The optimal synthesis settings for producing multi-scale porous titania were identified as H2O/TTIP molar ratio of 30, without any isopropanol (acting as solvent), and freeze-drying after freezing at -40°C. Subsequently, CNCs were added in various quantities (0-50vol%) to the hydrolysis of TTIP using these optimized settings to achieve more direct and precise control of the final titania meso-structure. Morphological studies revealed that the final titania bodies maintained the formation of macrochannels 1-3 μm in diameter as a result of hydrolysis in excess water in the absence of an organic solvent and exhibited successful templating mutually affected by CNC addition and freeze-casting. Freeze-drying preserved particle dispersion in the colloid suspension, hindering agglomeration otherwise found after oven-drying and enhanced the CNCs' role of disrupting titania aggregation and increasing interconnectivity. Thus, meso-structured multi-scale porous titania was prepared by a combined templating strategy using template-free self-assembly, freeze-casting, and CNC hard-templating. / MS / Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) has been shown to exhibit desirable properties including physical and chemical stability and biocompatibility making it a material of great interest in a variety of fields including pigments and biomedicine. Furthermore, the material’s photocatalytic activity (i.e. ability to absorb light energy to generate usable charge) has led to its implementation in solar cells, in the production of hydrogen as an eco-friendly fuel, and in decontaminating water from organic pollutants. While TiO₂ has shown great promise in these applications, there remains a need to identify a simple strategy to synthesize TiO₂ with a tunable multi-scale porous structure with pores of different sizes and shapes to improve its performance. To this end, a facile and versatile procedure was used to prepare multi-scale porous TiO₂ with tunable morphology. In investigating the effect of water content, alcohol content and drying method on the final morphology, a multi-scale structure was achieved by synthesizing TiO₂ in the absence of an alcohol solvent and within a new moderate range of water content that had not been previously explored. Lacking an effective and easy strategy to further manipulate the multi-scale morphology, this self-assembly technique was modified by incorporating cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) into the synthesis procedures to further tune the structure on the nanometric scale by altering the final porosity and surface area. The final TiO₂ samples exhibited multi-scale porous structures that could be manipulated by combining the self-assembly and CNC-templating techniques in an adaptable strategy to tailor the TiO₂ morphology for its various uses in photocatalysis and biomedicine.

This thesis investigates an intelligent system that can in real time infer the course of action of a human opponent in a competitive environment. Such an achievement would indicate the possibility that machines can not only interpret human behavior as it happens, but also predict the future course of action that a human might take. This thesis first examines several different application of intention recognition, describes the approach of Template Based Interpretation (TBI), and details the process of creating an efficient and accurate intention recognition system. The domain chosen is chess. The system's objective was to discern the opponent's strategy. It is able to use the board positions and other relevant data of the current state to gain an understanding of the movement patterns of the opposition.

The aim of this study is to examine homosexual men’s identities, and focus on how they form their identities in fiction when it comes to being both homosexual and religious. In order to be able to approach and study this phenomenon, three research questions are used: how is identity constructed discursively when it comes to the combination of homo- sexuality and religiosity, what affects the formation of homosexual men’s religious/non- religious identity and how do homosexuality and religiosity affect one another in identity formation? The theory used in this study is discourse theory which includes the following concepts that have been chosen and used to analyze the material: antagonism, hegemonic interven- tion, hegemony, interpellation, subject position and the chain of equivalence. Together with these concepts and with template analysis style, a qualitative discourse analysis is made to categorize and analyze the findings made in the material. The material in this study consists of Jonas Gardell’s novel Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar, 1. Kärleken and Tony Kushner’s play script Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. The material was chosen because of the themes homosexuality and religiosity are includ- ed, and thus were eligible to be used in this study. Three religious groups are being touched upon in this study, namely Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism and Judaism. This study showed that the relationship between the identities homosexual and religious is mostly antagonistic in the material used in this study, but there was an exception in once case where the combination of these two identities seemed to be possible. The an- tagonistic relationship between these identities lead to a hegemonic intervention where the individual had to choose the one or the other of the identities in order to reach hegem- ony. In most cases homosexual and religious were not included in the same chain of equivalence, and seemed to rule each other out. / Syftet i denna studie var att göra en kvalitativ diskursanalys av homosexuella mäns identiteter och fokusera på relationen mellan identiteterna homosexuell och religiös hos homosexuella män i skönlitteratur. För att kunna närma sig och analysera detta fenomen formulerades tre frågor: hur konstrueras identitet diskursivt när det gäller kombinationen av homosexualitet och religiositet, vad påverkar formandet av homosexuella mäns religiös/icke-religiös identitet och hur påverkar homosexualitet och religiositet varandra i formandet av identitet? Den teori som används i denna studie är diskursteori som innehåller de följande begrepp som har valts och använts för att kunna analysera materialet: antagonism, hegemonisk intervention, hegemoni, interpellation, subjektsposition och ekviva- lenskedja. Dessa begrepp tillsammans med template analysis style användes för att kategorisera och göra en kvalitativ diskursanalys av materialet. Materialet i denna studie består av Jonas Gardells roman Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar, 1. Kärleken och Tony Kushners pjäsmanus Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Materialet valdes på grund av de gemensamma teman, homosexualitet och religiositet, som förekommer i båda verken. De tre religiösa grupper som förekommer i dessa verk är Jehovas vittnen, mormonism och judendom. Resultatet visar att relationen mellan identiteterna homosexuell och religiös mestadels är antagonistisk i det material som använts i studien, men det fanns ett undantag där kombinationen av dessa två identiteter var möjlig. Den antagonist- iska relationen mellan dessa två identiteter ledde till en hegemonisk intervention där individen var tvungen att välja den ena eller den andra av de två identiteterna för att kunna uppnå hegemoni. I majoriteten av fallen var inte homosexuell och religiös inkluderade i samma ekvivalenskedja, utan de utesluter snarare varandra.

La phase la plus consommatrice de ressources d'une production de logiciels est l'étape de vérification qualité, incluant la vérification fonctionnelle des programmes. Donc, à cause de ces coûts, l'industrie de développement des logiciels exécute rarement une vérification minutieuse de ses produits. Une des stratégies les plus prometteuses pour réduire les coûts de vérification des logiciels est de rendre cette vérification aussi automatique que possible. Actuellement, cette industrie repose essentiellement sur une seule phase de tests pour vérifier les fonctionnalités des programmes. Nous avons donc cherché à automatiser le test fonctionnel des logiciels en fournissant une assistance pour l'étape de génération des scénarios de test. Le test basé sur des modèles (MBT) est une théorie de test qui a eu un grand succès dans l'automatisation du processus de test. Une méthode MBT analyse un modèle formel ou une spécification d'un logiciel pour produire des scénarios de test qui sont exécutés plus tard par le programme. La plupart de ces méthodes travaillent avec des machines à états finis (FSM) qui limite leur application puisque les FSMs ne peuvent pas décrire tous les logiciels. Cependant, un gros avantage de ces méthodes est qu'elles atteignent un haut degré d'automatisation. Dans cette thèse nous montrons, au contraire, le niveau d'automatisation que nous avons obtenu en appliquant une méthode MBT, connue comme Test Template Framework (TTF), sur des spécifications Z. Comme Z est basé sur la logique de premier ordre et la théorie du jeu, il est beaucoup plus expressif que les FSMs, rendant ainsi nos résultats applicables à une plus large gamme de programmes. / The most resource-consuming phase of software production is the verification of its qualities, including functional correctness. However, due to its costs, the software industry seldom performs a thorough verification of its products. One of the most promising strategies to reduce the costs of software verification is making it as automatic as possible. Currently, this industry relies basically only on testing to verify functional correctness. Therefore, we sought to automate functional testing of software systems by providing tool support for the test case generation step. Model-based testing (MBT) is a testing theory that has achieved impressive successes in automating the testing process. Any MBT method analyses a formal model or specification of the system under test to generate test cases that later are executed on the system. Almost all methods work with some form of finite state machines (FSM) which limits their application since FSM's cannot describe general systems. However, a great advantage of these methods is that they reach a high degree of automation. In this thesis we show, on the contrary, the degree of automation we have achieved by applying a MBT method, known as Test Template Framework (TTF), to Z specifications. Since Z is based on first-order logic and set theory it is far more expressive than FSM's, thus making our results applicable to a wider range of programs. During this thesis we have improved the TTF and developed a tool, called Fastest, that implements all of our ideas.

<p>The rapid growth in the development of Internet-basedinformation systems increases the demand for natural langu-ageinterfaces that are easy to set up and maintain. Unfortunately,the problem of understanding natural language queries is farfrom being solved. Therefore this research proposes a simplertask of matching a one-sentence-long user question to a numberof question templates, which cover the knowledge domain of theinformation system, without in-depth understanding of the userquestion itself.The research started with development of an FAQ(Frequently Asked Question) answering system that providespre-stored answers to user questions asked in ordinary English.The language processing technique developed for FAQ retrievaldoes not analyze user questions. Instead, analysis is appliedto FAQs in the database long before any user questions aresubmitted. Thus, the work of FAQ retrieval is reduced tokeyword matching without understanding the questions, and thesystem still creates an illusion of intelligence.Further, the research adapted the FAQ answering techniqueto a question-answering interface for a structured database,e.g., relational database. The entity-relationship model of thedatabase is covered with an exhaustive collection of questiontemplates - dynamic, parameterized "frequently asked questions"- that describe the entities, their attributes, and therelationships in form of natural language questions. Unlike astatic FAQ, a question template contains entity slots - freespace for data instances that represent the main concepts inthe question. In order to answer a user question, the systemfinds matching question templates and data instances that fillthe entity slots. The associated answer templates create theanswer.Finally, the thesis introduces a generic model oftemplate-based question answering which is a summary andgene-ralization of the features common for the above systems:they (i) split the application-specific knowledge domain into anumber of question-specific knowledge domains, (ii) attach aquestion template, whose answer is known in advance, to eachknowledge domain, and (iii) match the submitted user questionto each question template within the context of its ownknowledge domain.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>automated question answering, FAQ answering,question-answering system, template-based question answering,question template, natural language based interface</p>