The clustering problem has been discussed extensively in the database literature as a tool for many applications, for example, bioinformatics. Traditional clustering algorithms consider all of the dimensions of an input dataset in an attempt to learn as much as possible about each object described. In the high dimensional data, however, many of the dimensions are often irrelevant. Therefore, projected clustering is proposed. A projected cluster is a subset C of data points together with a subset D of dimensions such that the points in C are closely clustered in the subspace of dimensions D. There have been many algorithms proposed to find the projected cluster. Most of them can be divided into three kinds of classification: partitioning, density-based, and hierarchical. The DOC algorithm is one of well-known density-based algorithms for projected clustering. It uses a Monte Carlo algorithm for iteratively computing projected clusters, and proposes a formula to calculate the quality of cluster. The FPC algorithm is an extended version of the DOC algorithm, it uses the mining large itemsets approach to find the dimensions of projected cluster. Finding the large itemsets is the main goal of mining association rules, where a large itemset is a combination of items whose appearing times in the dataset is greater than a given threshold. Although the FPC algorithm has used the technique of mining large itemsets to speed up finding projected clusters, it still needs many user-specified parameters to work. Moreover, in the first step, to choose the medoid, the FPC algorithm applies a random approach for several times to get the medoid, which takes long time and may still find a bad medoid. Furthermore, the way to calculate the quality of a cluster can be considered in more details, if we take the weight of dimensions into consideration. Therefore, in this thesis, we propose an algorithm which improves those disadvantages. First, we observe that the relationship between parameters, and propose a parameter-relationship-based algorithm that needs only two parameters, instead of three parameters in most of projected clustering algorithms. Next, our algorithm chooses the medoid with the median, we choose the medoid only one time and the quality of our cluster is better than that in the FPC algorithm. Finally, our quality measure formula considers the weight of each dimension of the cluster, and gives different values according to the times of occurrences of dimensions. This formula makes the quality of projected clustering based on our algorithm better than that of the FPC algorithm. It avoids the cluster containing too many irrelevant dimensions. From our simulation results, we show that our algorithm is better than the FPC algorithm, in term of the execution time and the quality of clustering.

An organizational communication study of collegiate athletes concludes that social identity theory, time scarcity, and projected selves theory are correlated with psychological/physical health, as well as the ability to predict academic success. Findings indicate that striking a balance between athletics and academics, and the time devoted to both, is necessary in order to achieve physical and psychological health. Furthermore, findings provide a link between the projected future self, social identity and the present motivation to achieve academically. / text

Thesis (D.C.A.)--University of Wollongong, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 175-180.

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We study the problem of proving lower bounds for depth four arithmetic circuits. Depth four circuits have been receiving much attraction when it comes to recent circuit lower bound results, as a result of the series of results culminating in the fact that strong enough lower bounds for depth four circuits will imply super-polynomial lower bounds for general arithmetic circuits, and hence solve one of the most central open problems in algebraic complexity i.e a separation between the VP and VNP classes. However despite several efforts, even for general arithmetic circuits, the best known lower bound is Omega(N log N) by Baur and Strassen (1983), where N is the number of input variables. In the case of arithmetic formulas, Kalorkoti (1985) proved a lower bound that is quadratic in the number of input variables, which has not seen any improvement since then. The situation for depth three arithmetic circuits was also similar for many years, until a recent result by Kayal et. al. (2016) achieved an almost cubic lower bound that improved over the previous best quadratic bound by Shpilka and Wigderson (1999). As the main contribution of this thesis, we prove an Omega(N^1.5) lower bound on the size of a depth four circuit, for an explicit multilinear N-variate polynomial in VNP with degree d = Theta(sqrt(N)). Our approach offers a potential route to proving a super-quadratic lower bound for depth four circuits. Taking cue from the numerous successful results recently, we use the technique of the shifted partial derivatives measure to achieve the said lower bound. Particularly, we use the Dimension of Projected Shifted Partials (DPSP) measure which has been previously used in recent depth four results. Coming to the choice of the hard polynomial, we again follow the status quo and use a variant of the Nisan-Wigderson (NW) polynomial family that has proved to be very helpful over the past few years in arithmetic circuit complexity. Finally, we do a careful analysis of Shoup-Smolensky (1997) and Raz (2010) and compare their techniques to ours. We conclude that our result can potentially be used as a starting point, and techniques similar to Kayal et. al. (2016) can likely be used to strengthen our lower bound to Omega(N^2.5), for general depth four arithmetic circuits. However, unlike depth three circuits, proving a super-quadratic lower bound for depth four circuits remains a prevalent open problem for many years. Previous work like Shoup-Smolensky and Raz implied super-linear lower bounds. To the best of our knowledge, the previous best known lower bound for general depth four circuits is Omega(N^1.33).

The late nineteenth century and early twentieth century were an important period for popular shows involving the moving and projected image, yet there have been few sustained studies that have mapped optical entertainments systematically outside London or that have analysed the influence of such shows on early film exhibition. This thesis has profiled the popular and visual culture of five contrasting South West locations during this period, tracing the development and distribution of magic lantern shows and dioramas as well as identifying the local and touring companies who hosted film on its arrival in the region. Using the local press, the trade press, contemporary publications and ephemera, this thesis has reconstructed an account of local shows and culture which not only deepens our understanding of popular visual entertainments in regional contexts, but which also serves to stand as a comparison to other established urban and metropolitan paradigms and thus to contribute to a wider and more complex national picture. It advances the argument for a broader classification of such shows in response to local findings and for a more nuanced and detailed appraisal and understanding of their provenance and profiles, and the role film played within them. In addition, this thesis interrogates early film exhibition in these resorts following the move to fixed-venue cinemas in the late 1900s and investigates the arrival of cinema and its emergence as a fledgling industry in the region. It offers an overview of investment into the business locally and evidences the varied set of partnerships and individuals responsible for financing the first cinemas here. Responses to the new technologies and local modifications to business models for cinemas and film exhibition are analysed and their diversity examined. Managerial relationships with communities are evidenced as an important contributory factor to the success of many local cinemas, permitting adaptations to the needs of patrons which boosted audiences and increased revenue. The variety of local interpretations of cinema discovered here reflects the social and cultural diversity of these selected sites, and is a key finding of this thesis.

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The images of tourist destinations significantly influence travel choices. Accordingly, destination marketers make great efforts to inform their potential consumers about their destinations using deliberately designed projected images. This research focuses on a Chinese tourism destination, Qingdao, exploring the relationships between the images projected by Qingdao government agencies and those perceived by current visitors and by residents. It also examines the factors that influence the image formation of visitors and residents. Three sources of information are used in this research: promotional materials issued by the Qingdao municipal government and the Qingdao Tourism Administration, key informant interview transcripts and a questionnaires survey. The promotional materials were collected from the aforementioned agencies in May 2009. Key informant interviews were conducted in April and May 2009. Self-administered surveys of 578 visitors and 337 residents of Qingdao were administered throughout May and June 2009. The image construct was conceptualized as having three dimensions: cognitive, affective and overall images. The cognitive image attributes included seafood, scenery, beaches, local people, green space, special events, ethnic attractions, weather, squares, architecture, relaxing atmosphere, resorts, hygiene and cleanliness, cultural attractions, golf course, highway system, accommodation, public transport, shopping, fashion shows, value for money, transportation cost, nightlife, football games, airline schedules, and traffic congestion. The affective image attributes included arousing-sleepy, exciting-gloomy, pleasant-unpleasant, and relaxing-distressful. Qualitative evaluation suggested greater congruence between the images projected by Qingdao government agencies and those perceived by visitors than quantitative correlation analysis. The projected images of Qingdao and images perceived by visitors were consistent in their emphases on certain image themes. However, the correlations between these two types of images suggested that the extent to which these image themes were emphasized differed. Similar results were found in the comparison between the images projected by Qingdao and those perceived by residents. Furthermore, most visitors and residents held positive images of Qingdao. Both similarities and differences were discovered in the cognitive, affective and overall images perceived by visitors and residents. Residents were generally more positive than visitors in their cognitive and affective images. It was found that sex, education, place of residence, and previous travel experience only significantly affected visitors’ images of one or two attributes, while age, occupation, primary motivation, most important information source used and number of sources used significantly influenced visitors’ images of between 5 and 8 attributes. Additionally, place attachment and importance of the 2008 Olympic Games were significantly positively correlated with most of the image attributes examined in this study, while importance of German Heritage and Qingdao International Beer Festival were significantly positively correlated with fewer attributes (8 and 6 attributes, respectively). With regard to the factors influencing resident images, it was discovered that sex, education, age, occupation, length of residence, most important source used and number of sources used significantly affected residents’ images to different degrees, ranging from 7 to 18 attributes. Furthermore, place attachment and the importance of German heritage, the 2008 Olympic Games and Qingdao International Beer Festival were significantly positively correlated with the majority of the image attributes examined in this research. This study is one of very few that compares projected and perceived images although methodological challenges for undertaking such research remain. It is also innovative in that it encompasses both tourists’ and residents’ images. Very few such studies have been undertaken in China which has a massive domestic tourism industry and is a major player in international tourism.

A projected fringe profilometry (PFP) is a wide optical measurement technology to gauge the three dimensional appearance of object.Because of non-contact type , the short retrieve time and low environmental effect,PFP was usually used in many fields.PFP has become rather efficient and precise on gauging the three dimensional appearance of the static obiect because of its persistent development in recent years.However,it is still not mature yet to gauge the dynamic object. If we could develop a gauging way in the dynamic object , the application would be more widespread. First of all,using PFP as the gauging principle and utilzing the math algorithm for analyzing the changes between the dynamic measured object and the blurred fringes.Secondly,reconstructed the inspected object's three dimensional appearance and the velocity. Finally,found out the deformation of the measured object. The technology of this thesis broke through the typical measurement of velocity.We could analyze the velocities of three dimentional dirtions by only single optic imformation.

Previous research has greatly ignored the unique stressors that homicide survivors experience following the murder of their loved one, indicating a general lack of understanding of the experiences and reactions they are subjected to or the coping mechanisms that they utilize. What little research that had been conducted has largely been made up of anecdotal insight of psychological practitioners who had worked with clients. A need exists to speak with the survivors themselves to chronicle their experiences in as much detail as possible to help researchers and practitioners wrap their mind around the totality of the loss as well as ground future research. The participants in the study consisted of twelve persons who had immediate family members who had been murdered. Participants were interviewed utilizing Lincoln & Guba?s Naturalistic Inquiry paradigm. They were initially interviewed and encouraged to discuss their loss in narrative and then were asked a series of specific questions that may or may not have been discussed during the narrative. The collected data was analyzed utilizing the constant comparison methodology. Results indicate that many homicide survivors feel overwhelmed by the changes that occur in the short and long term. None of the participants reported positive experiences interacting with mental health practitioners but virtually everyone endorsed peer-group support. There was also evidence that participants whose loved one was murdered by a person of an ethnicity that differed from their own resulted in racist feelings towards the other ethnicity. Further, there was no evidence that the process of interviewing homicide survivors was in and of itself negatively perceived or harmful; rather some participants reported feeling relieved that they were able to discuss their loss in totality without having to edit themselves. Results suggest that homicide survivors may spend an unusual amount of time reflecting on the person that their loved one may have become had they not been murdered. Suggestions also include how to best notify and support homicide survivors and how practitioners may best relate with their clients.