This project was designed to investigate the possibility of producing alignment layers for liquid crystal devices by cross-linking thin films containing anisotropic polymer bound chromophores via irradiation with polarised ultra violet light. Photocross-linkable polymers find use in microelectronics, liquid crystal displays, printing and UV curable lacquers and inks; so there is an increasing incentive for the development of new varieties of photopolymers in general. The synthesis and characterisation of two new photopolymers that are suitable as potential alignment layers for liquid crystal devices are reported in this thesis. The first polymer contains the anthracene chromophore attached via a spacer unit to a methacrylate backbone and the second used a similarly attached aryl azide group. Copolymers of the new monomers with methyl methacrylate were investigated to establish reactivity ratios in order to understand composition drift during polymerisation.

Thesis (M.S.) in Teaching--University of Maine, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-36).

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, November, 1995. / Title from PDF t.p.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): R. Kevin Wood, Matthew Carlyle. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35). Also available online.

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The present study will be concerned primarily with an interpretation of Lowell's derivation of Prometheus Bound as he adapted that play from the Greek playwright Aeschylus' version, with a study of the development of his themes in that play, and with consideration of some of the sources upon which those themes are dependent.

<p> The notion of nondeterminism is one of the most fundamental concepts in many areas of computer science. Unambiguity, requiring that there be at most one correct sequence of nondeterministic choices, has proved to be one of the most meaningful restrictions of nondeterminism. In the context of space-bounded Turing Machines, several variants of unambiguity have been proposed and studied, and some interesting results have been established, narrowing slightly the gap between deterministic and nondeterministic logarithmic-space computation.</p> <p> We study the different variants of unambiguity in the context of computing multi-valued functions (as opposed to the usual yes/no decision problems). We propose a modification to the standard computation models of Turing Machines and configuration graphs, which allows for unambiguity-preserving composition. We introduce a unified notation, capturing the different flavors of ambiguity. Furthermore, we define a notion of reductions (based on function composition), which allows non-determinism but controls its level of ambiguity. In the light of this framework we establish some reductions between different variants of path counting problems. We also investigate more carefully the technique of inductive counting, and obtain improvement of some existing results.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The multiprocessor task graph scheduling problem has been extensively studied asacademic optimization problem which occurs in optimizing the execution time of parallelalgorithm with parallel computer. The problem is already being known as one of the NPhardproblems. There are many good approaches made with many optimizing algorithmto find out the optimum solution for this problem with less computational time. One ofthem is branch and bound algorithm.In this paper, we propose a branch and bound algorithm for the multiprocessor schedulingproblem. We investigate the algorithm by comparing two different lower bounds withtheir computational costs and the size of the pruned tree.Several experiments are made with small set of problems and results are compared indifferent sections.

Master of Science / Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Todd W. Easton / Integer Programs (IP) are a class of discrete optimization problems that are utilized commercially to improve the function of various systems. Implementation is often aimed at reaching optimal financial objectives with constraints on resources and operation. While incredibly beneficial, IPs are NP-complete, with many IP models being unsolvable. Branch and bound (BB) is the primary method employed to solve IPs to optimality. BB is an exhaustive approach to enumerating all potential integer solutions for a given IP. By utilizing a hierarchical tree structure to tabulate progression of enumeration, BB can guarantee an optimal solution in finite time. However, BB can take an exponential number of iterations to solve an IP. Computationally, this can result in a tree structure that exceeds a computer’s memory capacity, or a prohibitively long solution time. This thesis introduces a modified version of BB call the Quaternary Hyperplane Branching Algorithm (QHBA). QHBA employs a quaternary branching scheme, utilizes hyperplane branching constraints, and generates internal cutting planes to increase efficiency. Implementation of these advancements theoretically improves QHBA in comparison to traditional BB. It can also be shown that QHBA guarantees an optimal solution in a finite number of iterations. A short computational study shows that QHBA results in a 26.7% decrease in solution times when compared to CPLEX, a commercially available IP solver.

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