No description available.

Reed's conjecture is a proposed upper bound for the chromatic number of a graph. Reed's conjecture has already been proven for several families of graphs. In this paper, I show how one of those families of graphs can be extended to include additional graphs and also show that Reed's conjecture holds for a family of graphs known as cycle-power graphs, and also for their complements.

Discrete-trials teaching (DTT) is one of the principal techniques used in Applied Behaviour Analysis programs for children with autism. Although the demand for training individuals to implement DTT is high, published studies on strategies to do so are few. I conducted two experiments to investigate a training package for teaching individuals to implement DTT. In Experiment 1, I used a modified multiple-baseline design to evaluate the training package for teaching five university students to implement DTT to teach three tasks to a confederate role-playing a child with autism. Also, in an AB within-subject design with each participant, I compared two components of the training package, a Self-Instructional Manual and Feedback plus Demonstration. Experiment 2 was a systematic replication of Experiment 1, with 2 teaching assistants, a resource teacher, and 3 parents of children with autism as participants. In both experiments I assessed the generalization (G1) of participants’ ability to implement DTT (while teaching the confederate) to teach tasks not targeted for Feedback plus Demonstration, as well as generalization (G2) of DTT while teaching a child with autism. After an average of approximately 3 hours to master the self-instructional manual, participants’ DTT accuracy in both experiments improved from an average of 34% in Baseline to an average of 61% following the Self-Instructional Manual. Results appeared to be due to the Self-Instructional Manual phase for 9 of the 11 participants. Following an average of 35 minutes of Feedback plus Demonstration of DTT of one task, participants’ DTT accuracy improved to an average of 91% while teaching a confederate. The improvement appeared to be due to the intervention with 10 of the 11 participants. The participants’ DTT accuracy averaged 90% during G1 and 86% during G2. These results demonstrate that this training package has considerable potential for teaching DTT to tutors, educational assistants, and parents of children with autism.

A widely used instructional method for teaching children with autism is Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), and a main component of ABA programming is discrete-trials teaching (DTT). DTT is made up of a series of brief teaching trials, with each trial including an antecedent (e.g., an instruction from the teacher), a response from the child, and an immediate consequence (e.g., a reinforcer provided for a correct response). Using a modified multiple-baseline design across participants, Experiment 1 assessed the effectiveness of a DTT self-instructional package (Fazzio & Martin, 2007) for teaching 4 pairs of newly-hired ABA tutors how to apply 21 components of DTT to teach 3 tasks to a confederate role-playing a child with autism. In Experiment 2, a group of 8 additional tutors were each independently presented with the same procedure. In both experiments, in Phase 1(baseline), tutors attempted to teach the 3 tasks to the confederate. In Phase 2 (manual), tutors mastered a 37-page self-instructional manual and once again attempted to teach the same 3 tasks to the confederate. Phase 3 was a within-subject AB design component. That is, if tutors did not meet a DTT mastery criterion of 80% after studying the manual in Phase 2, then they watched a brief video demonstration of a DTT expert teaching a task to a child role-playing a child with autism (Fazzio, 2007), and then once again attempted to teach the 3 tasks to the confederate. Across both experiments: a) The 16 tutors averaged 4.6 hours to master the self-instructional manual, and showed an average improvement in DTT accuracy of 32.2% from baseline; b) For the 13 tutors who did not meet the mastery criterion after reading the manual, their average DTT performance improved an additional 12% after watching the video; c) 13 of the 16 participants met mastery (3 after the manual and 10 after the manual plus video), and the other 3 tutors were very close to mastery. The results suggest that the training package is a practical, economical and efficient method of instructing newly-hired tutors in ABA programs for children with autism.

The intent of this paper is to present the reader with a simple comparison of two systems of vertical transportation. Vertical transportation is a a relatively new field and is the subject of much interest in today's world. As buildings get taller and real estate becomes more expensive, the need to find a quick, efficient system with a small footprint becomes important. By performing a simulation and subjecting the two systems under study to similar traffic conditions, one can determine the effectiveness of one system relative to the other. Additionally, we look at the effects of changing various system attributes to gain a better understanding of the primary drivers of average travel time.

This thesis is concerned with suboptimal adaptive control of discrete linear stochastic processes whose parameters are unknown. The suboptimal adaptive controllers considered are (i) Open Loop Feedback Optimal (OLFO) controller, (ii) self-tuning controller, and (iii) optimal k step ahead controller. Two more controllers, certainty about parameter (CAP) controller and no learning (NOL) controller, that provide bounds on the performance of these adaptive controllers are also considered. Performance of these controllers have been evaluated for a first order process through monte-carlo simulations. Simulation of OLFO controller together with the bounding controllers for the first order process when there is only one unknown parameter revealed that OLFO controller is unsuitable to control unstable processes and would be an unwise choice even for controlling stable processes. Selftuning and OK controllers have been simulated for the first order process with all the parameters unknown. Three cases for the unknown parameters have been considered. They are: (i) constant unknown parameters (ii) slowly time-varying unknown parameters and (iii) rapidly time-varying unknown parameters. Simulation results showed that in certain regions of the unknown parameter space the cost produced by self tuning controller and OK controller are very similar, in certain regions the OK controller produces lesser cost than the self-tuning controller and in certain other regions both controllers perform very badly. But self-tuning controller always took only half as much computing time as OK controller. A necessary condition for convergence of OK controller to a linear constant parameter controller having the same functional form as CAP controller is found out using the ideas of uniform complete observability. For a first order process under OK controller the only occasion the condition would be violated is when there is 'turn-off'. Finally, it is shown that using the combined state/parameter estimator in the place of extended Kalman filter the computational requirement of OK controller can be reduced. For the first order process, OK controller with the combined estimator took only sixty percent as much computing time as the OK controller with extended Kalman filter without any appreciable deterioration in the performance.

High profit (low volume) products are very attractive economically, and are influencing the direction of manufacture towards product based batch processes. One new system which has a great deal of potential is a "pipeless" plant, in which the reactor moves to different areas of the plant where heating, agitation etc. takes place. There are obvious advantages in its use in providing a means of quickly responding to fast market changes while maintaining high product quality with reduced waste. The basic concept has been successfully demonstrated with several production plants already in operation, mainly in Japan. Nevertheless the safety issues associated with pipeless plants have not been dealt with. Three main areas of further work have been identified in the safe design of computer controlled pipeless batch plants: process, computer control, and scheduling safety. In essence it is a batch process that is carried out, and therefore entails all the safety issues associated with a batch process, such as the sharing of resources. As with all new processes, it is necessary to identify and eliminate as many hazards as possible at the design stage. Computers can introduce hazards as well as benefits. There is extensive use of computer control in automated pipeless plants, and the primary manner in which problems occur is through hardware and software failures. Possible hazards need to be identified and eliminated at the design stage, without losing the benefits of plant flexibility and speed of product changeover. Scheduling is usually concerned with optimum product output, and does not consider safety. One of the biggest problems with moving reactors is collisions. To overcome, or minimise the possibility of this problem, the plant layout and schedule require careful consideration. Simulation is a very useful tool for demonstrating the interaction between the two. The aim of this research is to develop an integrated approach to hazard identification and safety requirement specification. The results of which should be a methodology that allows the user to produce a safe design for an economically attractive pipeless plant for batch processes.

No description available.

Consider a binary matroid M given by its matrix representation. We show that if M is a lift of a graphic or a cographic matroid, then in polynomial time we can either solve the single commodity flow problem for M or find an obstruction for which the Max-Flow Min-Cut relation does not hold. The key tool is an algorithmic version of Lehman's Theorem for the set covering polyhedron.

Consider a binary matroid M given by its matrix representation. We show that if M is a lift of a graphic or a cographic matroid, then in polynomial time we can either solve the single commodity flow problem for M or find an obstruction for which the Max-Flow Min-Cut relation does not hold. The key tool is an algorithmic version of Lehman's Theorem for the set covering polyhedron.