Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 228-251).

Igor Stravinsky's precompositional process was so methodical that his move to serialism is no surprise. After becoming acquainted with the music of Schoenberg and Webern, Stravinsky was moved to experiment with serial techniques. He rejected many of the conventional approaches developed by the serial architects, only to adopt the technique at its basic form—the use of a series of pitches—and cultivate it into his own compositional style. Stravinsky continued to refine his style throughout his serial period (1951–1966) as each composition grew increasingly more serial than the last. For each work composed after 1960, Stravinsky constructed rotation arrays, a serial technique he adopted from Ernst Krenek. These arrays consisted of a twelve-tone row partitioned into hexachords, with each hexachord rotated to create five additional permutations per hexachord. These permutations were then transposed so that the first pitch of the original hexachord was retained for each permutation. This operation was performed on four series forms: prime, inversion, retrograde, and inversion of the retrograde (favored by Stravinsky over the traditional retrograde inversion form). It is from his rotational arrays that Stravinsky systematically chose hexachords to compose A Sermon, a Narrative, and a Prayer (1961); The Flood (1962); Abraham and Isaac (1963); and Requiem Canticles (1966). Though his precompositional charts are very specific in determining pitch application, it is difficult to account for the use of some hexachords that are found in these works but not found in Stravinsky's charts, as the hexachords do not explicitly appear in the charts. Many analysts have glossed over these incongruities. For instance, Joseph Straus mentions very little about these “anomalous hexachords” in Stravinsky's Late Music (2001); and Claudio Spies completely ignores the hexachords in question. In this paper I will identify these anomalous hexachords and attempt to explain their derivation from Stravinsky's charts.

An extended neoclassical rotation theory (poloidal and toroidal) is developed from the fluid moment equations, using the Braginskii decomposition of the viscosity tensor extended to generalized curvilinear geometry and a neoclassical calculation of the parallel viscosity coefficient interpolated over collision regimes. Important poloidal dependences of density and velocity are calculated using the Miller equilibrium flux surface geometry representation, which takes into account elongation, triangularity, flux surface compression/expansion and the Shafranov shift. The resulting set of eight (for a two-ion-species plasma model) coupled nonlinear equations for the flux surface averaged poloidal and toroidal rotation velocities and for the up-down and in-out density asymmetries for both ion species are solved numerically. The numerical solution methodology, a combination of nonlinear Successive Over-Relaxation(SOR) and Simulated Annealing(SA), is also discussed. Comparison of prediction with measured carbon poloidal and toroidal rotation velocities in a co-injected and a counter-injected H-mode discharges in DIII-D [J. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] indicates agreement to within <10% except in the very edge in the co-injected discharge.

Previous investigations comparing direct versus indirectly cued movements have consistently shown that indirectly cued movements take longer to prepare (Neely and Heath, 2010) and involve the recruitment of additional brain areas (Connolly et al., 2000). This increase in processing time has been associated with the additional cognitive transformations required of the task (Neely and Heath, 2010). In the present study we investigated whether differences between direct versus indirectly cued movements are also reflected in the time course of motor preparation. Participants performed a targeting task, moving directly to the location of a visual cue (i.e., directly cued movement) or to a location that differed by 60˚, 90˚, or 120˚ with respect to the visual cue provided (i.e., indirectly cued movements). Participants were instructed to initiate their movements concurrently with an anticipated go-signal. To examine the time course of motor preparation, a startling acoustic stimulus (SAS, 124dB) was randomly presented 150 ms, 500 ms, or 1000 ms prior to the go-signal. Results from the startle trials revealed that the time course of motor preparation was similar regardless of the angle of rotation required and hence whether it was a direct or indirectly cued trial. Specifically, motor preparation was delayed until less than 500 ms prior to movement initiation for both direct and indirectly cued movements. These findings indicate that similar motor preparation strategies are engaged for both types of cued movements, suggesting that the time to prepare a motor response may be similar regardless of whether a cognitive transformation is required.

Dans cette thèse, différents problèmes de la combinatoire des mots et de géométrie discrète sont considérés. Nous étudions d'abord l'occurrence des palindromes dans les codages de rotations, une famille de mots incluant entre autres les mots sturmiens et les suites de Rote. En particulier, nous démontrons que ces mots sont pleins, c'est-à-dire qu'ils réalisent la complexité palindromique maximale. Ensuite, nous étudions une nouvelle famille de mots, appelés mots pseudostandards généralisés, qui sont générés à l'aide d'un opérateur appelé clôture pseudopalindromique itérée. Nous présentons entre autres une généralisation d'une formule décrite par Justin qui permet de générer de façon linéaire et optimale un mot pseudostandard généralisé. L'objet central, le f-palindrome ou pseudopalindrome est un indicateur des symétries présentes dans les objets géométriques. Dans les derniers chapitres, nous nous concentrons davantage sur des problèmes de nature géométrique. Plus précisément, nous donnons la solution à deux conjectures de Provençal concernant les pavages par translation, en exploitant la présence dé palindromes et de périodicité locale dans les mots de contour. À la fin de plusieurs chapitres, différents problèmes ouverts et conjectures sont brièvement présentés. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Palindrome, pseudopalindrome, clôture pseudopalindromique itérée, codages de rotations, symétries, chemins discrets, pavages.

Background In 2008 a global financial crisis erupted. Even though auditors were not to blame for the financial crisis the public questioned how auditors could issue a clean bill of health despite the serious weaknesses. This made the Commission release the 2010 Green Paper on audit policy: Lessons from the Crisis. The Green Paper is a consultation paper which received around 700 replies from various stakeholders. In 2011, the Commission presented their proposal on reform of the audit market, in which many of the key elements had been discussed in the Green Paper. The 2011 proposal seeks to enhance auditor independence and introduce a more dynamic audit market. The proposed reforms are very strict and if the proposal is passed in its current form it would imply a major change of the audit market. This thesis has studied the replies made by investors to the Green Paper; investors are the primary stakeholders and those who should be most concerned with auditor independence. It is therefore important and interesting to study their viewpoints to the Green Paper. Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand and explain investors’ standpoints on the proposals mentioned in the Green Paper to enhance auditor independence, and to examine whether the European Commission, as indicted by the 2011 proposal, require more independence than investors as indicted by the replies made to the Green Paper. Method This study has taken a qualitative approach where the data has been analyzed in-depth. The Green Paper consists of 38 questions; four of these have been studied as they strongly relate to auditor independence. Furthermore this thesis has studied the replies made by investors; investors are the primary stakeholders and those who should be most concerned with auditor independence. It is therefore important and interesting to study their viewpoints to the Green Paper. Conclusion The majority of the respondents’ are negative to the ideas presented in the Green Paper but that does not imply that the Commission requires more independence than investors. Both the Commission and investors argue that status quo is not an option and that auditor independence must be strengthened. What separates their views is how to strengthen auditor independence. The Commission seeks to impose strict regulations while investors prefer good corporate governance as an alternative approach to strengthen auditor independence.

All-optical devices allow improvements in the speed of optical communication and computation systems by avoiding the conversion between the optical and electronic domains. The focus of this thesis is the experimental investigation of a new type of all-optical switch that is based on the control of optical patterns formed by nonlinear interactions between light and matter. The all-optical switch consists of a pair of light beams that counterpropagate through warm rubidium vapor. These beams induce a nonlinear optical instability that gives rise to mirrorless parametric self-oscillation and generates light in the state of polarization that is orthogonal to that of the pump beams. In the far-field, the generated light forms patterns consisting of two or more spots. To characterize this instability, I observe experimentally the amount of generated power and the properties of the generated patterns as a function of pump beam intensity, frequency, and size. Near an atomic resonance, the instability has a very low threshold: with less than 1~mW of total pump power, >3~$\mu$W of power is generated. To apply this system to all-optical switching, I observe that the orientation of the generated patterns can be controlled by introducing a symmetry-breaking perturbation to the system. A perturbation in the form of a weak switch beam injected into the nonlinear medium is suitable for controlling the orientation of the generated patterns. The device operates as a switch where each state of the pattern orientation corresponds to a state of the switch, and spatial filtering of the generated pattern defines the output ports of the device. Measurements of the switch response show that it can be actuated by as few as 600~photons. For a switch beam with 1/e field radius $w_0=185\,\mu$m, 600 photons correspond to $5.4\times10^{-4}$ photons/\lambdasquared which is comparable to the best reported results from all-optical switches based on electromagnetically-induced transparentcy (EIT). This approach to all-optical switching operates at very low light levels and exhibits cascadability and transistorlike response. Furthermore, the sensitivity is comparable to switches using cold-atom EIT or cavity quantum-electrodynamics techniques but is achieved with a simpler system, requiring only one optical frequency and occurring in warm atomic vapor. I develop a numerical model for the switch that exhibits patterns that rotate in the presence of a weak applied optical field. Results from this model, and from my experiment, show that the switch response time increases as the input power decreases. I propose that this increase is due to critical slowing down (CSD). Mapping the pattern orientation to a simple one-dimensional system shows that CSD can account for the observed increase in response time at low input power. The ultimate performance of the device is likely limited by CSD and I conclude that the minimum number of photons capable of actuating the switch is between 400 and 600 photons. / Dissertation

A nanofilm rotation method is developed to study the rotation of nanograins and the formation of various low energy interfaces. Epitaxial (100), (110), (111) and (112) NiO nanofilms are prepared by ion beam sputtering onto the (100), (110), (111) and (112) surfaces of NaCl single crystal. By overlapping of the above films with an angle difference, and annealing at relatively low temperatures 100 ¢Jthe nanograins are induced to rotate till a metastable interface is reached. The rotation process and the metastable interfaces are determined by transmission electron microscopy. Many new interfaces between mixed planes are found, and their orientation relationships and structures are analyzed. The study discovered eight groups of metastable orientation relations, respectively, which have not been reported in literatures. 2¡¦ orientation relationship is [11 ]( 10)//[01 ]( 11) 2¡¦¡¦ orientation relationship is [00 ]( 10)//[ 0 ]( 11) 4e1 orientation relationship is [13 ]( 12)//[110](00 1) 4¡¦ orientation relationship is [1 1]( 12)//[0 0](00 1) 4e2 orientation relationship is [13 ]( 12)//[100](00 1) 5¡¦ orientation relationship is [ 1 ]( 12)// [01 ] ( 11) 6¡¨ orientation relationship is [110]( 12)// [001] ( 10) 6¡¦¡¦¡¦ orientation relationship is [110]( 12)// [ 1] ( 10)

As inspired by the coordination environment of nickel in NikR and NiSOD, imidazole ligands were incorporated into N2SNiII square planar complexes in order to investigate the electronic and structural features of NiII species containing both imidazole and thiolate ligation. Rare examples of nickel complexes containing such ligand sets in continuous tetradentate (N2N'S) and discontinuous (N2S---N') coordination were synthesized and characterized. A significant finding in these studies is that the plane of the imidazole ligand is oriented perpendicular to the N2SNi plane. Further investigations addressed the orientational preference and stereodynamic nature of flat monodentate ligands (L = imidazoles, pyridine and an N-heterocyclic carbene) bound to planar N2SNi moieties. The solid state molecular structures of planar [N2SNiL]n+ complexes accessed through bridge-splitting reactions of dimeric, thiolate-S bridged [N2SNi]2 complexes, reveal that the plane of the added monodentate ligand orients largely orthogonal to the N2SNiL square plane. Variable temperature 1H NMR characterization of dynamic processes and ground state isomeric ratios of imidazole complexes in their stopped exchange limiting spectra, readily correlate with DFT-guided interpretation of Ni-L rotational activation barriers. Full DFT characterization relates the orientation mainly to steric hindrance derived both from ligand and binding pocket. In the case of the imidazole ligands a minor electronic contribution derives from intramolecular electrostatic interactions (imidazole C-2 C-H[superscript delta]+- - S[superscript delta]- interaction). Our group has firmly established the versatility of the (bme-daco)2-, (bme-dach)2-, and (ema)[left arrow]- ligands to accommodate a number of metals (M = Ni, Zn, Cu, and Fe ), and have demonstrated reactivity of such N2S2M complexes occurs predominately at the S-thiolate sites. As vanadium is of interest for its biological, pharmacological and spectroscopic/analytical probe abilities, vanadyl analogues were explored as mimics of possible chelates formed from Cys-X-Cys binding sites in vivo. The structural and electronic changes from the incorporation of V=O2+ in such dianionic and tetraanionic N2S2 binding pockets is investigated and compared to Ni2+ and Zn2+ in similar N2S2 environments. The nucleophilicity of the S-thiolate in these systems is explored with alkylating agents and W(CO)x. Furthermore, the vanadyl interaction with the CGC peptide, the biological analogue of the tetraanionic N2S2 ligand, was produced and characterized by EPR; its W(CO)x adducts were indentified by ?(CO) infrared spectroscopy.

With the rapid advances in technologies, strategies for efficiently operating the spatial data are needed. The spatial data consists of points, lines, rectangles, regions, surface, and volumes. In this thesis, we focus on the region data. There are many important and efficient operations for the region data, such as neighbor finding, rotation, and mirroring. The nearest neighbor (NN) finding is frequently used in geographic information system (GIS). We can find the specific point (e.g., a park, a department store, etc.) that is the closest to our position in geographical information systems. In any representation for the region data, it is not instinctive and easy for nearest neighbor finding, since the coordinate information has been lost. Voros, Chen, and Chang have proposed the strategies for the nearest neighbor finding based on the quadtree in eight directions. Chen and Chang have proposed the nearest neighbor finding based on the Peano curves. These strategies for the nearest neighbor finding based on the quadtree and the Peano curve use a looping process, which is time-consuming. On the other hand, in recent years, many researchers have also focused on finding efficient strategies for the rotating and mirroring operations, which is useful when the animation is performed by computers. The boolean function-based encoding is a considerable amount of space-saving with respect to the other binary image representation. The CBLQ representation saves memory space as compared to the other binary image representations that have proposed the strategies of the set operations. However, the processes for obtaining the rotated or mirrored code based on these two representations are time-consuming, since the coordinate information of all pixels has been lost. Therefore, in this thesis, first, for the nearest neighbor finding based on the quadtrees and the Peano curve, we propose the strategy which uses the bitwise and arithmetic operations, and it is more efficient than the strategies based on the looping processes. Next, we propose efficient strategies for rotating and mirroring images based on the boolean function-based encoding and constant bit-length linear quadtrees (CBLQ) representations. From our simulation study, first, we show that our strategies based on the quadtree and the Peano curve require the least CPU-time and our strategy based on the Hilbert curve requires the least total time (the CPU-time + the I/O time) among the strategies for the nearest neighbor finding based on the quadtree and the three space-filling curves. Next, in most of cases, when the black density is no larger than 50%, the CPU-time based on the boolean function-based encoding is less than that based on CBLQ.