This study links traffic sign visibility and legibility to quantify the effects of damage or deterioration on sign retroreflective performance. In addition, this study proposes GIS-based data integration strategies to obtain and extract climate, location, and emission data for in-service traffic signs. The proposed data integration strategy can also be used to assess all transportation infrastructures’ physical condition. Additionally, non-parametric machine learning methods are applied to analyze the combined GIS, Mobile LiDAR imaging, and digital photolog big data. The results are presented to identify the most important factors affecting sign visual condition, to predict traffic sign vandalism that obstructs critical messages to drivers, and to determine factors contributing to the temporary obstruction of the sign messages. The results of data analysis provide insight to inform transportation agencies in the development of sign management plans, to identify traffic signs with a higher likelihood of failure, and to schedule sign replacement.

The use of high technology in common daily tasks is boarding all areas of civil engineering; pavement evaluation is not the exception. Accordingly, current pavement imaging systems have been able to collect images at highway speeds and with the use of proper software, this digital information can be translated into pavement distress reports in which all distresses are classified and presented by their type, extent, severity, and location. However, a number of issues regarding the quality of pavement images and the appropriate conditions to acquire them, remain to be addressed. These issues surfaced during the development of a pavement evaluation vehicle for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). The work involved in this thesis proposes basic criteria to evaluate the performance of pavement imaging systems. Mainly four parameters (1) spatial resolution, (2) brightness resolution, (3) optical distortion, and (4) signal to noise ratio, have been identified to assess the quality of a pavement imaging system. First, each of the four parameters is studied in detail in USF's Visual Imaging Laboratory to formulate relevant criteria that can be used to evaluate imaging systems. Then, the developed criteria are used to evaluate the FDOT Survey Vehicle's pavement imaging system. The evaluation speed does not seem to have any significant influence on the spatial resolution, brightness resolution and signal to noise ratio. Little or no optical distortion was observed on the images on wheel paths. Limitations of the imaging system were also determined in terms of the brightness resolution and noise. The conclusions drawn from this study can be used to (1) enhance pavement imaging systems and (2) setup appropriate guidelines to perform automated distress surveys, under varying lighting conditions and speeds to obtain good quality images.

Durant les dernières décennies, des réseaux de logistiques inverses ont été lancésdans plusieurs pays industrialisés dans l’objectif de préserver l’environnement. La mise enplace et la gestion de cette logistique concernent les différents niveaux, stratégique, tactique etopérationnel existants dans le cadre de la logistique directe pour tout système de productionde biens industriels. Pour améliorer ce type de réseau, la modélisation et la simulation sontdes outils efficaces. Après avoir présenté un état de l’art de ce domaine, notre étude sefocalise sur la planification de certains sous-ensembles (appelés maillons) de cette chaineinverse (i.e. collecte-tri, désassemblage) au niveau tactique, c'est-à-dire à moyen terme. Lebut de ce travail est donc de proposer un modèle générique en programmation linéaire dans uncontexte multi-produit et multi-période, qui cherche à maximiser le profit total du maillonétudié et qui prend en compte l’incertitude sur la qualité des produits traités. Le modèlelinéaire en nombres entiers (déterministe, stochastique et évaluation stochastique) est ainsiformulé autour d’un profit contraint par les capacités du maillon, l’évolution des stocksentrants et sortants et la livraison des produits traités aux clients, avec une politique delivraison sans déclassement ou avec déclassement des produits. / During the last decades, reverse logistics networks have been launched in severalindustrialized countries with the aim of preserving the environment. The implementation andmanagement of the reverse logistics concerns the different levels (strategic, tactical andoperational) existing in the framework of forward logistics for any production system. Toimprove this type of network, modeling and simulation are effective tools. After presenting astate of the art in this domain, our study focuses on the planning of two sub-systems of thereverse logistics chain (i.e. collection-sorting and disassembly) on the tactical level that is tosay the medium term. The aim of this work is to propose a generic model by linearprogramming in a multi-product and multi-period context, which searches for maximizingthe total profit of the sub-system studied, taking into account the uncertainty of the productssupplied. The integer linear model (deterministic, stochastic and stochastic assessment) is thusformulated around a profit constrained by the sub-system capacity, the evolution of incomingand outgoing inventory and the delivery of products to customers: a delivery policyauthorizing the quality degrading of products or not.

This study examines the art practices and management of the National Art Galleries of Australia and New Zealand in the period between the wars, 1918-1939.It does so in part to account for the pervading conservatism and narrow corridors of aesthetic acceptability evident in their acquisitions and in many of their dealings. It aims to explore the role of Britishness, through an examination of the influence of the London Royal Academy of Art, within theses emerging official art institutions. This study argues that the dominant artistic ideology illustrated in these National Gallery collections was determined by a social elite, which was, at its heart, British. Its collective taste was predicated on models established in Great Britain and on traditions and on connoisseurship. This visual instruction in the British ideal of culture, as seen through the Academy, was regarded as a worthy aspiration, one that was at once both highly nationalistic and also a tool of Empire unity. This ideal was nationalistic in the sense that it marked the desire of these Boards to claim for the nation membership of the world's civil society, whilst also acknowleging that the vehicle to do so was through an enhanced alliance with British art and culture. The ramifications of an Empire-first aesthetic model were tremendous. The model severely constrained taste in domestic art, limited the participation of indigenous peoples and shaped the reception of modernism. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

培養學生自我學習的能力是大學教育的重要目標，為了支援教學研究，大學圖書館常設有教授指定參考書的服務。在圖書館有限的經費與空間限制下，指定參考書可以保障學生使用課堂所需資料的權利、減少學生的負擔，並方便學生使用。本研究的目的是為了瞭解台灣地區大學院校圖書館中，館員對於教授指定參考書的看法、各校的設置情形、管理方式以及實施上的困難，並尋求最佳的管理方式。 本研究採用問卷調查法，調查對象為台灣地區96個大學院校圖書館，問卷回收率達94.79 ％，其中有效問卷計89份。在回收的問卷中，有69個(約77.5 ％)的圖書館表示目前有提供此項服務。 研究結果顯示，幾乎所有受訪館員，對於指定參考書支援教學的基本功能都抱持高度的肯定。一般而言，由於借閱期限和使用地點的限制，而影響到其他讀者的權利是指定參考書最大的缺點。指定參考書多沒有一個獨立的存放區域，而是最常被放置在參考室或流通區，由參考館員或流通館員兼管。指定參考資料的類型趨於多樣化，不再限於館藏內的紙本書籍。此外，國內大學圖書館對於著作權的保護不夠完善，沒有制定與指定參考書服務相關的影印政策，且在重製資料前並未徵求著作權人同意。多數的圖書館也缺乏定期的統計和評鑑。圖書館在提供此項服務時，最常遭遇的困難則為教師的參與意願不高。 針對調查結果，本研究建議指定參考書的規劃應與館藏發展政策相互配合，方能更適切的滿足學生需求。國內應成立著作權仲介團體，並訂定適合我國國情的非營利教育機構合理使用規範，供圖書館作為提供指定參考書服務時的依循。未來教授指定參考書要朝向電子化的方向努力，提昇使用的便捷性。圖書館應定期進行指定考書服務的統計、評鑑，以做有效的規劃與預測。向教師宣導指定參考書之意義及重要性，並加強教學過程與圖書館資源的密切配合，以教學圖書館的概念培養學生自我學習的能力。 / Reserve services have existed in libraries for many years. They provide special access to a limited number of materials. Photocopied articles , library books and non-library items such as instructor-owned book are often placed on reserve to support class assignments or supplemental course reading. This thesis describes the current status of the reserve service in the college and university libraries in Taiwan based on responses to questionnaires sent to the directors of such libraries. The survey was conducted in March 1999. The questionnaires were sent to ninety-six college and university libraries , and ninety-one institutions participated. The questionnaire had six main components : (1)librarian opinion about reserve service, (2)whether the library provide reserve service, (3)management of reserve collection, (4)copyright protective policy, (5)automation, and (6)difficulties.

This thesis describes a new approach to achieving high quality distributed garbage collection using the Train Algorithm. This algorithm has been investigated for its ability to provide high quality collection in a variety of contexts, including persistent object systems and distributed object systems. Prior literature on the distributed Train Algorithm suggests that safe, complete, asynchronous, and scalable collection can be attained, however an approach that achieves this combination of behaviour has yet to emerge. The mechanisms and policies described in this thesis are unique in their ability to exploit the distributed Train Algorithm in a manner that displays all four desirable qualities. Further the mechanisms allow any number of mutator and collector threads to operate concurrently within a site; this is also a unique property amongst train-based mechanisms (distributed or otherwise). Confidence in the quality of the approach promoted in this thesis is obtained via a top-down approach. Firstly a concise behavioural model is introduced to capture fundamental requirements for safe and complete behaviour from train-based collection mechanisms. The model abstracts over the techniques previously introduced under the banner of the Train Algorithm. It serves as a self- contained template for correct train-based collection that is independent of a target object system for deployment of the algorithm. Secondly a means to instantiate the model in a distributed object system is described. The instantiation includes well-established techniques from prior literature, and via the model these are correctly refined and reorganised with new techniques to achieve asynchrony, scalability, and support for concurrency. The result is a flexible approach that allows a distributed system to exhibit a variety of local collection mechanisms and policies, while ensuring their interaction is safe, complete, asynchronous, and scalable regardless of the local choices made by each site. Additional confidence in the properties of the new approach is obtained from implementation within a distributed object system simulation. The implementation provides some insight into the practical issues that arise through the combination of distribution, concurrent execution within sites, and train-based collection. Executions of the simulation system are used to verify that safe collection is observed at all times, and obtain evidence that asynchrony, scalability, and concurrency can be observed in practice. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Computer Science, 2004.

L'indexation des images est une étape indispensable pour valoriser un fond d'archive professionnel ou des collections d'images personnelles. Le "documentaliste" se doit de décrire précisément chaque document collecté dans la perspective de le retrouver. La difficulté est alors d'interpréter les contenus visuels et de les associer entre eux afin de couvrir différentes catégories qui peuvent être souvent très subjectives. Dans ce travail, nous nous inspirons du principe de l'apprentissage actif pour aider un utilisateur dans cette tâche de structuration de collections d'images. A partir de l'analyse des contenus visuels des images, différentes stratégies de sélection active sont développées afin d'aider un utilisateur à identifier et cerner des catégories pertinentes selon son point de vue. Nous proposons d'exprimer ce problème de classification d'images avec apprentissage actif dans le cadre du Modèle des Croyances Transférables (MCT). Ce formalisme facilite la combinaison, la révision et la représentation des connaissances que l'on peut extraire des images et des classes existantes à un moment donné. La méthode proposée dans ce cadre permet ainsi une représentation détaillée de la connaissance, notamment en représentant explicitement les cas d'appartenances à aucune ou à de multiples catégories, tout en quantifiant l'incertitude (liée entre autre au fossé sémantique) et le conflit entrainé par l'analyse des images selon différentes modalités (couleurs, orientations). Une interface homme-machine a été développée afin de valider notre approche sur des jeux de tests de référence, des collections d'images personnelles et des photographies professionnelles issues de l'Institut National de l'Audiovisuel. Une évaluation a été conduite auprès d'utilisateurs professionnels et a montré des résultats très positifs en termes d'utilité, d'utilisabilité et de satisfaction.

Les aérosols atmosphériques consistent en un mélange hétérogène de particules de différentes natures. La technique MEB-EDS permet de caractériser à la fois morphologiquement et chimiquement la fraction particulaire de l'aérosol à l'échelle de la particule individuelle. Pour rendre l'analyse représentative, un système de pilotage de la platine combiné avec un logiciel d'analyse d'image permet d'examiner en mode automatisé des milliers de particules par échantillon. Le développement de détecteurs X dotés de fenêtres minces, qui limitent l'absorption des éléments de faibles numéros atomiques, permet la détection du carbone, de l'azote et de l'oxygène, éléments très abondants dans les échantillons environnementaux. Pour bénéficier de ce progrès technologique rendant faisable l'analyse qualitative étendue à C, N, O, il convient en premier lieu d'optimiser le choix du substrat de collection des particules, afin que sa contribution spectrale soit différenciable de celle de la particule. A cette fin, une procédure de fabrication de plaquettes de bore a été mise au point. Par ailleurs, la technique MEB-EDS n'est pas standardisée pour l'analyse élémentaire quantitative de particules micrométriques dont le volume est plus petit que le volume d'interaction. Les performances d'un programme de quantification inverse par simulation des trajectoires électroniques au sein des particules par la méthode de Monte Carlo ont été évaluées pour des particules modèles de tailles comprises entre 0,25 et 10 µm. L'ensemble de la procédure analytique a permis d'atteindre des justesses estimées à +/-8,8% d'erreur relative moyenne, C, N et O compris.

<p>The aim of this study is to examine how work at music departments in public libraries has changed with time. To analyze this, the role of music libraries as well as music library users, selection, holdings, acquisition and technological development have been examined. The examined data consists of qualitative interviews with music librarians and library assistants at public libraries in Sweden. To get a time perspective, handbooks and articles about music departments in libraries have also been analyzed.</p><p>This study emanates from Sanna Talja’s discourse analysis of music libraries in Finland. In her study of Finnish music libraries she has found three discourses that give the library different roles in society. The first discourse, <em>The General Education Repertoire</em>, states that the role of the music library is to educate the citizens by supplying a broad record collection with “classics” from all kinds of genres. The second discourse, <em>The Alternative Repertoire</em>,<em> </em>states that the role of the library is to be an alternative to commercial music and the record industry by providing alternative music, that can’t be found everywhere. The third discourse, <em>The Demand Repertoire</em>, states that the role of the library is to satisfy the library users’ needs and thus adapt the collection and acquisitions to the local demand.</p><p>The study shows that all three discourses are present at the public libraries examined in this master’s thesis. My interviewees state that they want to offer a broad collection with all genres represented but they find it also important to provide alternative music that is difficult to find elsewhere. At the same time, a demand repertoire, where the collection is more adapted to users’ wishes and needs, gets more common and librarians have a less critical attitude towards certain genres that were formerly banned at public libraries.</p><p>The study also shows that work at public libraries has changed a lot with time. The music departments started with only listening service, began later to loan their music collections to the users and now even provide music files that can be downloaded and played on mp3-players. Loan figures of phonograms remain high, but have started to drop, which can partly be due to downloading and the fact that the number of young music library users, such as adolescents, has gone down. The technological development has also changed work at the music library, among other things information research, acquisition and selection. Even though technological development has changed the work and tasks at music libraries, the role of the librarian is still quite the same. An important task still is to search for and provide information even though the strategies and facilities are different.</p>

As the practice of integrative medicine becomes more common, it is important for library science professionals to understand the research needs of integrative medicine professionals in order to best provide resources and services to this population. This paper surveys integrative medicine professionals affiliated with the four North Carolina academic programs and centers for integrative medicine. The results of this study indicate that this population may need more targeted library services due to the difficulty in finding information in this field.