This master's thesis is focused on benchmarking of Real-Time Operating Systems uC/OS-II and uC/OS-III . It describes the basic features of these systems and metrics used for benchmarking of Real-Time Operating Systems. Selected test methods are implemented and based on them are then compared the performance of Real-Time Operating Systems uC/OS-II and uC/OS-III .

<p>U ovom istraživanju je utvrđen uticaj primjene biostimulatora na morfolo&scaron;ke i fiziolo&scaron;ke parametre rasta i razvoja, te na mineralni sastav kod sezonskog cvijeća, kadifice i stalnocvjetajuće begonije.&nbsp; Uticaj biostimulatora je ispitan kroz tri godine istraživanja u za&scaron;tićenom prostoru i na otvorenom polju. Istraživanje je provedeno na mladim biljkama-rasadu prije presađivanja i na odraslim biljkama. U fazi rasada primjenjen je biostimulator Radifarm, a u fazi odraslih biljaka primjenjeni su biostimulatori Megafol, Kendal i Viva.&nbsp; Tretman sa primjenjenim biostimulatorima, u sve tri godine istraživanja i oba načina uzgoja, je značajno uticao na povećanje svježe i suhe mase korijena i nadzemnog dijela ispitivanih cvjetnih vrsta. Takođe, svi praćeni morfolo&scaron;ki parametri rasta i razvoja bili su pod pozitivnim uticajem tretmana biostimulatorima. Kod rasada kadifice i stalnocvjetajuće begonije, tretman Radifarmom je snizio sadržaj prolina u listovima te se i na taj način potvrdio pozitivan uticaj biostimulatora na smanjenje abiotskog stresa. Svi primjenjeni biostimulatori su značajno ubrzali cvjetanje i produžili vrijeme cvatnje u poređenju sa kontrolnim biljkama. Tretmani biostimulatorima su uticali na povećanje ukupnog sadržaja svih elemenata ishrane u cijelim biljkama kadifice i stalnocvjetajuće begonije. Rezultati pokazuju korist primjene biostimulatora u uzgoju sezonskog cvijeća u fazi rasada, ali i u fazi uzgoja na otvorenom polju, jer pozitivno utiču na procese rasta i razvoja kroz ublažavanje abiotskog stresa uzrokovanog presađivanjem. Na kraju, javlja se potreba za daljim istraživanjem mogućnosti primjene biostimulatora i na druge poljoprivredne kulture, kao preporučljive tehnolo&scaron;ke mjere za&scaron;tite životne sredine, jer primjenom biostimulatora ne dolazi do ispiranja azotnih materija u dublje slojeve zemlji&scaron;ta.</p> / <p>This research showed the effect of biostimulant application on morphophysiological growth and development indicators and plant mineral content of seasonal flowers, marigold and begonia.&nbsp; Biostimulant effect was investigated in three years, where plants were grown in greenhouse and in open field. Young seasonal plants before transplanting and adult plants after transplanting in open field were analysed to determine the influence of biostimulant application. Biostimulant Radifarm was applied before transplanting, and Megafol, Kendal and Viva after transplanting.&nbsp; Treatment with applied biostimulants, in three years of investigation and both growing conditions, significantly increased root and stem fresh and dry weight of seasonal flowers. Also, all morphological properties were under positive influence of biostimulants treatment. Furthermore, treatment with biostimulant Radifarm resulted by lower proline content in leaves, which confirmed positive effect biostimulant on abiotical stress conditions. All applied biostimulants, significantly increased earlier flowering and ensured longest flowering in marigold and begonia. The most significant influence of biostimulants application in role of plant nutrition was increased mineral nutrients total content in the whole plant in both sampling.&nbsp; Results showed advantage of biostimulants application in seasonal flowers seedlings production, but also after transplanting in open filed, because their application intensified growth process through damage reduction caused by abiotic stress during transplanting. At the end, there is a need for further investigation of biostimulant function, their application possibilities on others agricultural plants and their combinations in modern agriculture towards environmental friendly production strategy.</p>

Limited English proficiency (LEP) amongst non-English-speaking background (NESB) employees is a major concern for the Government, employers and unions in Australia. Due to their low levels of English proficiency, NESB employees are often unable to carry out effectively the required workplace tasks. In the current climate of rapid change in workplaces, as a result of Award Restructuring, NESB employees may also lack the communication skills necessary to undertake skill-based training and, therefore, be further disadvantaged. In light of these concerns, this study investigated the English learning needs of a group of NESB non-academic staff at the University of Canberra (UC). It established that there was a gap between their present levels of English proficiency and the levels required in their current positions. As a result, these employees are unable to engage effectively in all communication tasks required in the workplace. Following a detailed analysis of the current literature on the provision of workplace English training it is recommended that an English in the Workplace (EWP) program be provided at the UC for NESB non-academic employees. Specific recommendations are made regarding the design and implementation of the learning program.

The University of Canberra (UC) has been involved in GPS processing since the late 1980s. This processing commenced with the GOTEX 1988 campaign and progressed through a series of project specific regional campaigns to the current daily processing of a distributed set of continuously operating sites for the determination of precise GPS station positions for user applications. Most of these earlier campaigns covered only short periods of time, ranging from a few weeks to multiple occupations of a few days to a time over one to two years. With software developments, these multiple occupations were able to be combined to produce results from which crustal motion velocities could be extracted. This first became feasible with the processing of the Australian National Network (ANN), which yielded realistic tectonic velocities from two occupations (1992 and 1993) of sites 12 months apart. Subsequently, this was successfully extended by a further 12 months, with re-occupation of certain sites for a third time in 1994. Analysis of the results indicated that the accuracy of determining the earth signals improved as the time span from first to last observation was increased. The same was true also for the determination of the position of global references sites. However, by current standards the results achieved were poor. Consequently, the process was extended to combine the results of subsequent campaigns with the original ANN data set. From 1995 to 1999, campaigns were conducted across Australia, covering many State and tide gauge sites included in the original ANN solution. These provided additional multiple occupations to improve the determinations for both position and velocity. UC has maintained a data set of the global IGS sites, commencing with the IGS pilot campaign of 1992. Daily data sets for those global sites, which contained days common to the regional campaigns, were processed to produce our own independent global orbit and reference frame connection. The motivation for doing so was fourfold. �Firstly, to see if historic data could be reprocessed using current modern software and thus be able to be incorporated in this and other analysts research programs. �Secondly, to compare the results of the reprocessing of the original data set using modern software with the original ANN solution and then validate both the solutions. �Thirdly, to extend the timespan of observations processed to include more recent campaigns on as many original sites as possible. This to achieve a stronger solution upon which to base the determination of an Australian tectonic plate velocity model and provide quality assurance on the solution comparisons with re-observed sites. �Fourthly, to develop a set of transformation parameters between current coordinate systems and the GDA94 system so as to be able to incorporate new results into the previous system. The final selection of regional and global sessions, spanning from mid 1992 to late 2002, contained almost 1000 individual daily solutions. From this 10 year data span a well determined rigid plate tectonic motion model was produced for Australia. This site velocity model was needed to develop a transformation between the thesis solution in ITRF00 an the GDA94 solution in ITRF92. The significant advantage of the plate velocity model is that all Australian sites can now have computed a realistic velocity, rather than being given a value which has been interpolated between sites whose velocities had been determined over a one or two year span. This plate velocity model is compared with the current tectonic motion NNR-NUVEL-1A model and other recently published models. To perform the comparison between the thesis solution in ITRF00 and the GDA solution in ITRF92 a transformation was developed between the two reference systems. This set of transformation parameters, in conjunction with the plate velocity model developed, enables site solutions at any epoch in the current ITRF00 to be converted onto the GDA94, and vice versa, with a simple, non-varying seven parameter transformation. The comparisons between the solutions are analysed for both horizontal position and height consistency. There were 77 sites whose differences were compared. The horizontal consistency was within estimated precisions for 75 of the 77 sites. However, the vertical comparisons revealed many of the single epoch sites, especially in 1992, have inconsistent results between the two solutions. The heights from this thesis for some West Australian sites were compared with analysis done by DOLA and the height recoveries are very similar, indicating a weakness in the GDA94 solution for some of the single epoch sites. Some of these differences have been resolved but others are still under investigation. This thesis describes the repocessing of the original ANN data set, the addition of later data sets, the results obtained, and the validation comparisons of the old and new solutions. As well as the plate velocity model, transformation is provided which enables the user to compute between the GDA94 system, and any epoch result in ITRF00. Recommendations are made as to which sites need additional work. This includes sites which only need further analysis or investigation and those which require further observations to achieve a result which will have acceptable accuracy and reliability.

Les ressources en uranium ne sont pas inépuisables. Si la filière des réacteurs de 3ème génération continue son développement au rythme actuel, en se fiant aux données sur les ressources en uranium identifiées dans monde, ce serait à partir des années 2030-2040 que les ressources commenceraient à manquer. La découverte de nouveaux gisements exploitables d'uranium deviendrait une priorité. Pour répondre au besoin de développement durable, le CEA contribue à la mise au point des réacteurs de 4ème génération, qui seront déployés vers 2050. Il s'agit notamment d'augmenter le rendement global des réacteurs, de recycler le combustible nucléaire en incluant les actinides mineurs et de mieux gérer les ressources mondiales en matières fissiles. Les futurs réacteurs nucléaires à " neutrons rapides " permettront de mieux exploiter les ressources en uranium et particulièrement en isotope 238, de consommer le plutonium issu du recyclage mais également de transmuter les actinides mineurs en produits de fission beaucoup moins radiotoxiques. Parmi les voies possibles, l'une d'entre elles consiste à remplacer les combustibles actuels (oxydes) par des combustibles carbures, plus denses et possédant une meilleure conductivité thermique que les combustibles oxydes. Cependant, contrairement aux combustibles de type oxydes, les combustibles de type carbures peuvent réagir avec l'oxygène et, à l'état de poudre finement divisée, peuvent devenir pyrophoriques. Le caractère pyrophorique d'un composé est dû à une réaction fortement exothermique qui s'auto-amplifie et conduit à une ignition spontanée dans une atmosphère oxydante comme l'air. Ce comportement pyrophorique des combustibles carbures peut poser des problèmes de sécurité et de sûreté lors des phases de fabrication, de retraitement, de transport et de stockage. Il doit être impérativement compris et maîtrisé afin de définir des conditions sûres de manipulations. Il fait l'objet d'un programme d'étude dans le but de déterminer les domaines d'inflammation et de non inflammation des poudres à base de carbure d'uranium.

Dans cette th ese, nous proposons et utilisons de nouvelles briques conduisant a des protocoles e caces dans le cadre d'une approche modulaire de la cryptographie. Tout d'abord dans un contexte non-interactif en s'appuyant sur les preuves Groth-Sahai, puis avec des interactions en permettant aux Smooth Projective Hash Functions de g erer de nouveaux langages. Dans un premier temps cette th ese s'appuie sur la m ethodologie introduite par Groth et Sahai pour des preuves de connaissance non-interactives pour d evelopper divers protocoles de signatures de groupe dans le mod ele standard, puis de signatures en blanc. Pour cela, nous proposons un syst eme permettant de signer un chi r e de mani ere telle que, sous r eserve de connaissance d'un secret ind ependant du protocole de signature, il soit possible de retrouver une signature sur un clair. Cette approche nous permet entre autre de proposer un protocole de signatures en blanc avec un nombre optimal d'interactions a la n duquel le demandeur peut utiliser une signature usuelle et ce sous des hypoth eses classiques dans le mod ele standard. Ensuite nous proposons une nouvelle m ethodologie pour faire des preuves implicites de connaissance dans un contexte interactif sans oracle al eatoire. Pour cela nous utilisons les smooth projective hash functions, dans un premier temps pour faire des Oblivious Signature-Based Envelopes, puis dans des protocoles d'authenti cation et de mise en accord de cl es. Ce faisant nous pr ecisons la notion de langage, et elargissons grandement le spectre des langages pouvant ^etre trait es a l'aide de ces SPHF. Gr^ace a ce r esultat nous introduisons le concept de LAKE (Language Authenticated Key Exchange) ou encore Echange de cl es authenti e par un langage : un moyen pour deux utilisateurs de se mettre d'accord sur une cl e si chacun poss ede un secret v eri ant une contrainte esp er ee par l'autre. Nous montrons alors comment instancier plusieurs protocoles d' echange de cl e sous ce regard plus effi cacement qu'avec les techniques actuelles, et nous prouvons la s ecurit e de nos instanciations dans le mod ele UC sous des hypoth eses usuelles.

Today the modern power system is more dynamic and its operation is a subject to a number of constraints that are reflected in various management and planning tools used by system operators. In the case of hourly generation planning, Economic Dispatch (ED) allocates the outputs of all committed generating units, which are previously identified by the solution of the Unit Commitment (UC) problem. Thus, the accurate solutions of the ED and UC problems are essential in order to operate the power system in an economic and efficient manner. A number of computation techniques have progressively been proposed to solve these critical issues. One of them is a Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO), which belongs to the evolutionary computation techniques, and it has attracted a great attention of the research community since it has been found to be extremely effective in solving a wide range of engineering problems. The attractive characteristics of PSO include: ease of implementation, fast convergence compared with the traditional evolutionary computation techniques and stable convergence characteristic. Although the PSO algorithms can converge very quickly towards the optimal solutions for many optimisation problems, it has been observed that in problems with a large number of suboptimal areas (i.e. multi-modal problems), PSO could get trapped in those local minima, including ED and UC problems. Aiming at enhancing the diversity of the traditional PSO algorithms, this thesis proposes a method of combining the PSO algorithms with a real-valued natural mutation (RVM) operator to enhance the global search capability and investigate the performance of the proposed algorithm compared with the standard PSO algorithms and other algorithms. Prior to applying to ED and UC problems, the proposed method is tested with some selected mathematical functions where the results show that it can avoid being trapped in local minima. The proposed methodology is then applied to ED and UC problems, and the obtained results show that it can provide solutions with good accuracy and stable convergence characteristic with simple implementation and satisfactory calculation time. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis of PSO parameters has been studied so as to investigate the response of the proposed method to the parameter variations, especially in both ED and UC problems. The outcome of this research shows that the proposed method succeeds in dealing with the PSO' s drawbacks and also shows the superiority over the traditional PSO algorithms and other methods in terms of high quality solutions, stable convergence characteristic, and robustness.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Ousmane Sawadogo, for the Master of Arts degree in Applied Linguistics and TESOL, presented on May 4, 2015, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PERCEPTION OF /q/ IN THE ARABIC /q/-/k/ CONTRAST BY NATIVE SPEAKERS OF AMERICAN ENGLISH: A DISCRIMINATION TASK MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Soo Jung Chang Studies on speech perception have suggested that non-native sound perception is influenced by the listener’s native language. Non-native sound contrast perception depends on a given sound’s similarity or dissimilarity to the listener’s equivalent native language sound. The Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) posits that it is difficult to distinguish non-native sounds when they are perceived as very similar to native sounds and are thus assimilated to a native sound category, but identification is easier when the non-native is sound is dissimilar to a native sound (Best, 1994a). The present study investigated whether native speakers of American English would display very good discrimination of /q/ in the Arabic /q/-/k/ contrast as predicted by the PAM. The Speech Learning Model (SLM) posits that non-native perception is position-sensitive and hypothesizes that the listener’s perception of non-native sounds would vary from one position to another (Flege, 1995). The current study also aimed to investigate whether the discrimination of the Arabic /q/-/k/ contrast would be position-sensitive. The current study also investigated the effect of the vocalic context on the discrimination of /q/. Participants consisted of 22 (6 male and 16 female) native speakers of American English who were students or faculty members at Southern Illinois University. Their ages ranged between 19 and over 50. The data were collected through an online AXB discrimination task survey. Target sounds were represented in 108 pseudowords so that the sounds could be contrasted in minimal pairs. The environments were word-initially followed by /i/, /u/, and /a/; word-medially, between two instances of /i/, two instances of /u/, and two instances of /a/; and word-finally, preceded by /i/, /u/, and /a/. Two pseudoword pairs were selected for each contrast. Four AXB combinations (AAB, ABB, BAA, and BBA) were generated for each of the nine contrasts, which resulted in a total of 36 stimuli. The participants were requested to click on a button to listen to the recordings of these word pairs and check the right answer. The findings were consistent with predictions made by PAM that native speakers of American English would have a very good discrimination of /q/ in the Arabic /q/-/k/ contrast. The results suggested that the uncategorized versus categorized (UC) type could also be of excellent discriminability. SLM was not totally supported because the differences were not statistically significant. However, the data indicated that some positions resulted in better discrimination scores than other positions and that certain vowels likewise resulted in better vocalic discrimination scores. Keywords: Discrimination task, non-native sound perception, Arabic /q/-/k/ contrast, position-sensitive, context-sensitive, vocalic context, UC type assimilation, Speech Leaning Model (SLM), Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM).

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This thesis proposed a framework for conceptualizing critical thinking in language learning. A learning environment where collaborative learning and network technology were combined − computer-mediated collaborative learning (CMCL) − was set up. The main aim was to study the potential of the learning environment in promoting critical thinking (CT) in language learning. The proposed framework of CT in language learning had three aspects: (1) communication, (2) reasoning, and (3) self-reflection. The study was a qualitative one that took place between June 2003 and January 2004. Three case studies were undertaken that involved up to 90 participants, comprising students, teachers, volunteers, and the researcher. All were members of an online learning community, the Bamboo Enterprise. Students worked in groups that investigated environmental problems. The student projects were grouped into three case studies: (1) Using Collaborative Environmental Projects to Promote Communicative Language Learning and Computer Skills, (2) Using Environmental Themes in Computer-Supported Cooperative Learning to Prepare ESL Students for Academic Study in the Australian University Environment, (3) Promoting Communicative Language Learning Through Computer-Supported Cooperative Learning. Findings were based on analyses of five sources of data: (1) interviews with the student participants; (2) teachers’ comments and opinions; (3) questionnaires; (4) students’ overall group work; and (5) online discussions. The investigation found that, overall, the CMCL environment with its particular framework had the potential to promote CT in language learning. However, it had both strengths and weaknesses. The strengths were that it promoted the communicative use of English, encouraged critical thinking in action, and extended the students’ potential to learn a second language. It also encouraged the appropriate use of technology. More importantly, this CMCL environment showed itself to be a viable method of learning and one in which both students and teachers can be empowered. However, along with these advantages, some avenues for improvement were evident. The study found that the students’ grammatical accuracy was low, despite their rich vocabulary and ability to use complex language structures. Some students found working in groups challenging and some never acquired the necessary web skills. Access to the Internet was not always adequate for this type of project. In sum, the students needed more support, especially at the task level, when using this method of language learning.