In conversations, stories, news reporting, and other forms of natural language, understanding requires participants to make assumptions (hypothesis) based on background knowledge, a process called entailment. These assumptions may then be supported, contradicted, or refined as a conversation or story progresses and additional facts become known and context changes. It is often the case that we do not know an aspect of the story with certainty but rather believe it to be the case; i.e., what we know is associated with uncertainty or ambiguity. In this research a method has been developed to identify different contexts of the input raw text along with specific features of the contexts such as time, location, and objects. The method includes a two-phase SVM classifier along with a voting mechanism in the second phase to identify the contexts. Rule-based algorithms were utilized to extract the context elements. This research also develops a new context˗aware text representation. This representation maintains semantic aspects of sentences, as well as textual contexts and context elements. The method can offer both graph representation and First-Order-Logic representation of the text. This research also extracts a First-Order Logic (FOL) and XML representation of a text or series of texts. The method includes entailment using background knowledge from sources (VerbOcean and WordNet), with resolution of conflicts between extracted clauses, and handling the role of context in resolving uncertain truth.

The problem of price volatility as it pertains to material and labor is a major source of risk and financial distress for all the participants in the construction industry. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to address this problem from both viewpoints of risk analysis and risk management. This dissertation offers three independent papers addressing this goal. In the first paper using the Engineering News Record Construction Cost Index (ENR CCI), a predictive model is developed. The model uses General Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (GARCH) approach which facilitates both forecasting of the future values of the CCI, and capturing and quantifying its volatilities as a separate measure of risk through the passage of time. GARCH (1,1) was recognized as the best model. The maximum volatility was observed in October 2008 and results showed persistent volatility of the CCI in the case of external economic shocks. In the second paper using the same cost index (ENR CCI), the methodology of the first paper is integrated with Value at Risk concept to cautiously estimate the escalation factor in both short and long-term construction projects for avoiding cost overrun due to price volatilities and inflation. Proposed methodology was also applied to two construction projects in which the estimated escalation factors revealed satisfactory performances in terms of accuracy and reliability. Finally, the third paper addresses the price volatility from the view of risk management. It entails two objectives of identifying and ranking of potential management strategies. The former is achieved via in-depth literature review and questionnaire interviews with industry experts. The latter is done using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Quantitative risk management methods, alike those offered in foregoing papers are considered as one of the candidates in dealing with the price volatility risk. Cost, risk allocation and duration were perceived as the most significant criteria (project indicators) in construction projects. Also, Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) with respect to project duration; quantitative risk management methods with respect to the cost; and Price Adjustment Clauses (PAC) with respect to the risk allocation, were recognized as the top strategies to manage the risk of price volatilities.

Recent advances in digital technology have had a significant influence on the quality and speed of sharing and communicating project information in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. The process of acquiring the design intent in order to develop and communicate project schedules, as critical components of project delivery, have similarly been benefitting from such progress. With the relatively recent techniques of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and its capability to integrate the facility design with its construction schedule, meaningul strides have been made in improving the information flow and eventually visualizing the final schedule in 4D. However, the need for faster and more efficient ways of generating both the schedule and its 4D visualization has been growing as it directly impacts the overhead cost, and hence the bottomline, of projects. Lack of direct integration and logical interoperability between the various computer systems used for these processes deprives the industry of the power of synergy that could have resulted from such explicit assimilation of the product and process models and their respective sub-processes. This research develops an approach that interprets 3D building information models into a source of direct input information to generate initial construction schedules for commercial building projects, which ultimately leads to automated visualization of the produced schedule in 4D BIM. By integrating an intermediate product model and generically predefined activities at domains level, it generates initial activities that capture the scope of the work in the design. The method also incorporates semi-automated sequencing algorithms that take into account the logic of support in structural construction and other factors related to work access and user preferences. The methodology has been implemented in a computer application built to substantiate its feasibility and then evaluated with the help of volunteer professionals in the industry by using test cases. The implementation and the tests conducted demonstrated that the developed methodology is feasible and can be considered as a step forward towards complete automation in the industry, while there are still various aspects open for improvement.

A series of heat transfer tests using a single pass slot shaped channel utilizing varying configurations of trapezoid shaped turbulence enhancement strip or varying configurations of high velocity jets issuing from side channels are studied. Thermochromatic Liquid Crystal techniques are used to determine local heat transfer coefficients, which are converted to normalized Nusselt values. The results show a marked improvement over traditional heat transfer enhancements used in the mid-span region of first stage turbine blades.

In my dissertation, I argue that the human body and physical sensations are not only objects or metaphors that appear in cultural artifacts, but also means of political representation. There are cultural artifacts with a corporeal dimension in which human bodily sensations and states, such as sexual arousal, disease, and pain, are represented. The body becomes a dimension integrated in the discursive form of the artwork. The (literary or cinematic) text evokes a texture, a sensitive skin. This corporeal means is politically engaged with the context in which the artwork has been produced: The body becomes a space of political inscription and struggle, and a device to discursively/corporeally fight back. Particularly, I explore a selection of the contemporary cinematic and literary productions in Argentina, Cuba, and Ireland that present political, social, and cultural transformations that took place from the end of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty-first. In order to explain my ideas, I refer to E. K. Sedgwicks Touching Feeling, and I expand on one of the concepts that she presents: texture. As I describe it in my dissertation, texture is the artworks corporeal dimension that appeals to the internal dimension of the body (i.e., pain, sickness, sexual arousal) through a discursive materiality (a particular artistic language in this case, the cinematographic and the literary) that entails a political postulate. Unlike Sedgwick, I consider texture in this dissertation as a plausible analytical notion, a sort of magnifying glass with which to observe the dynamics of corporeality and artistic discourse in literature and cinema. The writers studied include Irish novelist and journalist Colm Tóibín, the Argentine poet and essayist Néstor Perlongher, and the Cuban novelist Reinaldo Arenas. In terms of the filmmakers, I analyze some films directed by Santiago Loza, Iván Fund, Fernando Pérez, Peter Sheridan, Marco Berger, Paula Markovitch, Peter Mullan, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Lucrecia Martel, Deborah Warner, and Carlos Quintela.

This work addresses the micro- and nano-behaviors in metals through constitutive modeling and experiments. The size effect encountered during nanoindentation experiments, which is known as indentation size effect (ISE), is investigated for metal materials. The ISE is believed to be related with the strain gradient at small indentation depths. Geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) are formed in order to accommodate the strain gradient, which results in the increase in the material hardness. The grain boundaries in polycrystalline materials play an important role on the material hardness during nanoindentation experiments as there is a soften-hardening segment in the curve of hardness as a function of the indentation depth. The grain boundaries act as barriers of the movement of dislocations that leads to an increase of the dislocation density. The increasing dislocation density gives the additional increase in material hardness, resulting in the hardening phenomenon. The classical continuum mechanics has to be enhanced with the strain gradient plasticity theory in order to address the ISE. Using the strain gradient plasticity theory, a material intrinsic length scale parameter is incorporated. The length scale bridges the gap between the behaviors in macro-scale and the micro-/nano-scale. The ISE of different materials can be characterized using this length scale parameter. The length scale parameter is determined through the strain plasticity model, the nanoindetation experiments using continuous stiffness measurement (CSM) mode in determining the fitting parameters and the finite element method (FEM) in determining the equivalent plasticity strain in the expression of the length scale. The rate dependency of ISE is investigated and it shows that the hardness increases with the increasing strain rate. The length scales at different strain rates are determined and they decrease with the increasing strain rate, leading to the increase in the hardness. The grain boundary effect on the hardness is verified as there is no hardening-softening phenomenon in single crystalline materials as there is no grain boundary in them. The grain boundary effect is further isolated by using bicrystalline materials. The single grain boundary is investigated through nanoindentation experiments from different distances to the grain boundary. The results show that the hardness increase as the distance decreases, providing a new type of size effect.

In this thesis, I will discuss the influence of education on the identity formation of African American students. Based on the scholarly literature in education theory, I will argue in Bourdieuan theory education, formal education, fails to accommodate the specific needs of African American students because education influences African American students to develop constructions of whiteness" that education reinforces. As education attempts to uphold the status quo of American society, education simultaneously forces African American students to question the relevance of education. In questioning the relevance of education through high-achieving African American students use of language and pursuit of academic achievement, low-achieving African American students offer a critique of education that characterizes education as a white-dominated system where individuals must embody whiteness in order to achieve social acceptance. As a result, African American students choose to disidentify with education rather than to assimilate into White culture to avoid being identified as white− speaking Standard English, following rules and regulations, and maintaining a high grade point average. This critique of education− though not an anti-intellectual response to education because most African Americans still view education as a means to social mobility− signifies education does not educate African American students but instead produces white African American students in order to reproduce societal norms. I will also propose the incorporation of self-knowledge into critical education will facilitate an awareness of personal history and self-worth among African American students not only to disrupt an educational structure of inequality but also to foster a positive self-concept within these students.

In this dissertation, I have analyzed the migrant experience of Chinese immigrants in North America through their representation in literature and photography. Each of its three chapters focuses on three major ethnic issues affecting the lives and identity of Chinese immigrants and their offspring in North America: the first concerns the ways in which occupation, home, and family affect the destinies of Chinese immigrants; the second deals with the role of language in the lives of Chinese immigrants and the career of Chinese migrant writers; the third addresses stereotypes about Chinese immigrants and their offspring and the redefinition of their identity. In this interdisciplinary study, literature inspires us to picture verbally Chinese immigrants struggles under the discriminatory laws and prejudices of society, and their search for respect and equal rights. As for the medium of photography, it provides ample visual evidence that reinforces and complements the literary representations of them. I have chosen to study the literary works by Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Qiu Xiaolong, Ha Jin, Fae Myenne Ng, David Henry Hwang, Li-Young Lee, Wayson Choy, and Ying Chen. All of them are pivotal figures and explorers of contemporary Chinese ethnic literature in the United States and Canada. Their work offers a multifaceted history of the Chinese immigrants in North America from the late nineteenth century to the present. Along with the study of Chinese American photographers, Mary Tape, Benjamen Chinn, Corky Lee, and Wing Young Huie, I have added a discussion of the work of two American photographers, Arnold Genthe and George Grantham Bain. The contrasting views that emerge help to illuminate the processes of stereotyping as well as identity construction. The work of the Americans focuses on the immigrants Chineseness, while that of the Chinese Americans seeks to present Chinese immigrant life and the fight for equality from within the Chinese American community. My discussion of the work of these writers and photographers will bring further attention to the difficulties and the challenges facing the Chinese ethnic group in North America.

This dissertation seeks to contribute to the understanding of the formation of collective memory of State violence in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. By comparing these three cases, I pursue to discern how citizens can challenge the silence and amnesia that the groups in power want to impose on society after a period of State terrorism. In order to examine the process of formation of collective memory, this dissertation highlights two important figures from which citizens have been able to build counter-hegemonic narratives, that is, los exiliados and los desaparecidos. I will highlight how they become lenses through which citizens can construct the memory of State repression. They become the evidence of the repression that the State wants to conceal, and have the potential of becoming important symbolic figures, and sources of knowledge, from which society can challenge silence and oblivion about State terrorism. The unfolding of the objectives and arguments of this dissertation are based on the analysis of literary texts from Argentina, Chile, and Mexico; and on photography of Argentinian and Mexican photographers. I draw on performance studies, anthropological approaches to ritual, and literary criticism to examine how citizens create counter-hegemonic narratives of State repression, and how they incorporate them in the collective memory of their societies.

Affect (emotion) recognition has many applications, such as human assistive robotics, human computer interaction and empathic agents, virtual tutoring, marketing, surveillance, and counseling. Previous research has focused primarily on unimodal or bimodal affect recognition (facial expressions and speech). This research developed multimodal emotion recognition by using data from facial expressions, head position, hand movement, body posture and speech. A novel hybrid event driven fusion technique was used to combine data from multiple input channels at the feature level and decision level. Position and temporal data from tracked feature points was used for training a support vector machine based classifier. New rule based features in addition to existing geometric, kinetic and 3D features were created. An emotional key word look-up using speech recognition technology was incorporated in the recognition process. The research developed a real time affect estimation system that accurately predicts multiple emotions, intensity of the emotions and maintains the context history of recognized emotions.