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Theses/Dissertations

2006

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An Expanding Polygon Based Method For Minimum-Zone Straightness Evaluation, Horatiu G. Cociu Jan 2006

An Expanding Polygon Based Method For Minimum-Zone Straightness Evaluation, Horatiu G. Cociu

Digitized Theses

A novel algorithm for accurate and efficient evaluation of straightness is presented in this thesis. The algorithm starts with an initial solution and verifies if it is the global solution, based on the minimum zone for a subset of points rule as well as the proposed polygon expansion method. If the initial solution is not global, a final solution is computed by the polygon expansion method. It is based on the construction of convex polygons including the furthest point from the corresponding minimum zone edge of the polygon and thereby ensuring that, all the vertices of the polygon are vertices …

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Biochemical And Functional Analysis Of Transcriptional Corepressor Complexes, Jeffery J.M. Cowger Jan 2006

Biochemical And Functional Analysis Of Transcriptional Corepressor Complexes, Jeffery J.M. Cowger

Digitized Theses

Gene expression is dependent on the ability of sequence specific DNA-binding proteins to regulate the transcription of target genes in a coordinated fashion. This is accomplished, in part, through transcription factor-mediated recruitment of coregulators that activate or repress transcription through multiple mechanisms and are referred to as coactivators or corepressors, respectively. I have employed biochemical approaches in an attempt to gain insights into the function of a classical corepressor protein, N-CoR, as well as a zinc finger protein, ZNF217, which is amplified in multiple cancers and of unknown function. I have demonstrated that N-CoR copurifies with the coactivator CBP. The …

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Analysis Of Reaction Time Experiment Data Using Point Process Techniques, Jennifer Lea Asimit Jan 2006

Analysis Of Reaction Time Experiment Data Using Point Process Techniques, Jennifer Lea Asimit

Digitized Theses

Point process data with a latent or hidden component arise in a variety of research fields. Examples include reaction time, forest fires, seismology, and transactional data. We develop statistical methodology that can be applied to point process data with a latent component. The methodology is applied to data from a number of reaction time (RT) experiments. Reaction time experiments have been of interest to psychophysicists for more than a century. A reason for this interest lies in the fact that the time taken to perform a task indicates the complexity of the operations occurring in the brain. We study three …

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An Investigation Of The Correlates And Developmental Sequelae Of Anomalous Maternal Behaviour And Disorganized Attachment Relationships, Sheri L. Madigan Jan 2006

An Investigation Of The Correlates And Developmental Sequelae Of Anomalous Maternal Behaviour And Disorganized Attachment Relationships, Sheri L. Madigan

Digitized Theses

It has long been believed that early relationships with parents play an important role in subsequent social development. Recent research in attachment theory has focused on understanding of the complex intricacies of disorganized attachment and ensuing psychopathology. This study aims to further elucidate our understanding of the origins, correlates, and developmental sequelae of disorganized attachment. This dissertation draws on theory and research from relevant areas of developmental and clinical psychology to investigate the relation between disorganized attachment relationships and 1) unresolved states of mind, and 2) anomalous interactive behavior. A narrative review and meta-analysis reporting on the links between unresolved …

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Autonomic Thread Load Balancing Using Fuzzy Logic, Jack F.G. Baker Jan 2006

Autonomic Thread Load Balancing Using Fuzzy Logic, Jack F.G. Baker

Digitized Theses

In today’s inter-networked and information savvy world, developers of large-scale applications are experiencing an increase in complexity of their software systems due to the continual integration of new services, software, and hardware. The concept of multithreading and, consequently, multi-threaded software, have become the norm, with most software applications today consisting of multiple threads to achieve improved performance and concurrency. However, this performance gain comes at the cost of an increase in the complexity of applications to such an extent that it has begun to exceed the human ability to design, manage, and secure these applications. This complexity affects not only …

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A Role For Pka In Exercise-Induced Hsp70 Expression In Skeletal Muscle, Matthew P. Krause Jan 2006

A Role For Pka In Exercise-Induced Hsp70 Expression In Skeletal Muscle, Matthew P. Krause

Digitized Theses

The mechanisms controlling exercise-induced Hsp70 expression in skeletal muscle are not known. Hence, 12 week old male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into sham (5 % DMSO) or PKA-inhibited (0.36 mg/kg H-89 in 5% DMSO) groups (n=4-8) and exercised for 60 min at 30 m/min on a 2% grade. Exercised animals were subsequently sacrificed at 10-15 min (PKA activity assay; phosphorylated ERK1∕2), 30 min (hsp70-l mRNA evaluated by RT-PCR) or 24 hr (Western blotting of Hsp70) post-exercise and the white vastus (WV), red vastus (RV), and soleus (SOL) were compared to appropriate non-exercised controls. Hsp70 protein increased following exercise in sham …

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Behaviour And Design Of Strengthened Built-Up Hybrid Steel Columns, Katherine K.W. Shek Jan 2006

Behaviour And Design Of Strengthened Built-Up Hybrid Steel Columns, Katherine K.W. Shek

Digitized Theses

Steel bridges designed before the mid-1950s may be deficient according to current design code requirements and thereby require strengthening. This thesis explores the responses of W-shaped compression members, such as existing columns, bents, bracing or truss members, reinforced at the flanges by new steel cover plates. The primary research objectives are: (1) to model the behaviour, accounting for residual and locked-in dead load stresses, different yield strengths of the original W-shape and new flange cover plates, initial out-of-straightness and end eccentricity; and (2) to develop a rationally based practical design method for the compressive resistance of a built-up hybrid compression …

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A Scalable Max-Flow/Min-Cut Algorithm For Sparse Graphs, Andrew T. Delong Jan 2006

A Scalable Max-Flow/Min-Cut Algorithm For Sparse Graphs, Andrew T. Delong

Digitized Theses

Maximum flow algorithms must balance two competing factors in performance: flow should reach its destination via short paths, but finding short paths is expensive. Push-relabel algorithms compute these paths via an evolving map, called a labeling, over the vertices. The first push-relabel algorithms (Goldberg & Tarjan [32]), use three well-known relabeling operations: (local) relabel, global relabel, and gap relabel. We contribute a new push-relabel algorithm that uses more flexible relabeling operations. The three standard operations all become special cases of our new and more general relabeling operations. On sparse graphs, our algorithm is easy to parallelise and operates efficiently within …

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An Image Understanding System For Detecting Indoor Features, Wenxia Shi Jan 2006

An Image Understanding System For Detecting Indoor Features, Wenxia Shi

Digitized Theses

The capability of identifying physical structures of an unknown environment is very important for vision based robot navigation and scene understanding. Among physical structures in indoor environments, corridor lines and doors are important visual landmarks for robot navigation since they show the topological structure in an indoor environment and establish connections among the different places or regions in the indoor environment. Furthermore, they provide clues for understanding the image. In this thesis, I present two algorithms to detect the vanishing point, corridor lines, and doors respectively using a single digital video camera. In both algorithms, we utilize a hypothesis generation …

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An Examination Of The Invasion Pattern And Site Preferences Of The Invasive Shrub European Buckthorn (Rhamnus Cathartica L.) In London, Ontario, Lorie A. Wagner Jan 2006

An Examination Of The Invasion Pattern And Site Preferences Of The Invasive Shrub European Buckthorn (Rhamnus Cathartica L.) In London, Ontario, Lorie A. Wagner

Digitized Theses

European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica L.) is an invasive shrub that was introduced to North America as an ornamental and medicinal plant. European buckthorn is dispersed by birds and flowing water, harbours serious plant pests and diseases, and forms dense stands that compete with native vegetation through an extended leaf-out season. European buckthorn is difficult to remove once established because of long-lived seeds and an ability to resprout after mechanically removal. The purpose of this thesis is to examine European buckthorn’s invasion pattern and site preferences in London, Ontario. Sampling and historical data supported the hypothesis that Medway Creek was closer …

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Asymptotic Properties Of Arma-(I)Garch Models, Pingguo Lu Jan 2006

Asymptotic Properties Of Arma-(I)Garch Models, Pingguo Lu

Digitized Theses

This thesis is motivated to investigate distribution theory of a quasi maximum likelihood estimator (QMLE) and test of goodness-of-fitting of an ARMA-(I)GARCH model. We obtain asymptotic consistency and normality of the QMLEs based on an arbitrary likelihood kernel. It shows that the moment conditions of errors in the ARMA part and innovations in the GARCH part depend on the choice of likelihood kernel. For example, the asymptotic normality of QMLEs based on student t likelihood kernel holds with arbitrary small positive moment on error term and 2 — L moment on innovation term, where 0 ≤ L < 1. It also shows that the asymptotic efficiency of QMLEs depends on the choice of likelihood kernel and the distribution of innovation. For the pure GARCH model with nonzero constant mean, we show that the common practice of using the sample mean to center financial data is workable if the error term has finite variance. Consequently, we study some processes based on residuals of an ARMA-(I)GARCH model. We show that the k-th power partial sum process converges to a Brownian process plus two correction terms, where the correction terms always depend on ARMA-GARCH parameters. We also show that the 111 CUSUM and the self-normalized processes (standardized by the residual sample mean and variance) behave as if the residuals were asymptotically IID. Finally, applications of these results are exhibited with numerical examples. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction of financial return, econometric models such as ARMA, GARCH and their extensions, as well as model estimation and diagnosis. Chapter 2 focuses on the distribution theory of one step QMLEs and two step QMLEs of an ARMA-(I)GARCH model. Special cases like pure ARMA and pure GARCH are considered too. Three specific examples with varied kernels are presented. Chapter 3 deals with the high moment partial sum processes, the CUSUM and the self-normalized processes based on residuals of an ARMA-(I)GARCH model, originally proposed by Kulperger and Yu (2005) for a pure GARCH model. In Chapter 4, we present some numerical examples of the applications of Chapter 2 & 3, for instance, efficiency of QMLEs based on different kernels, CUSUM statistic for testing ARMA-GARCH model structural changes, Jarque-Bera omnibus statistic for testing normality of the unobservable innovation of an ARMA-GARCH model. Finally some conclusions and discussions are put forward. Keywords: ARMA-GARCH, ARMA-IGARCH, quasi-maximum likelihood estimation, two-step estimation, asymptotic consistency, asymptotic normality, asymptotic efficiency, residuals, high moment partial sum process, weak convergence, CUSUM, omnibus, skewness, kurtosis, vn consistency.

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Basic Logical Knowledge And Its Justification, David J. Boutiilier Jan 2006

Basic Logical Knowledge And Its Justification, David J. Boutiilier

Digitized Theses

This thesis contributes to the area within the philosophy of logic that concerns epistemological questions about fundamental logical laws. The state of the literature has been dominated by meaning-theoretic approaches that attempt to answer such questions in terms of conditions for understanding words or for possessing concepts, and empiricist approaches that attempt to characterize logical knowledge as a posteriori. The theoretical contribution made by my work amounts to the presentation of an alternative theory that does not appeal to the notion of rational insight, and which is not psychologistic, conventionalist, or inductivist. The theory that I propose involves a philosophical …

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Clustering High Dimensional Data Using Svm, Tam P. Ngo Jan 2006

Clustering High Dimensional Data Using Svm, Tam P. Ngo

Master's Projects

The Web contains massive amount of documents from across the globe to the point where it has become impossible to classify them manually. This project’s goal is to find a new method for clustering documents that are as close to humans’ classification as possible and at the same time to reduce the size of the documents. This project uses a combination of Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) with Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) calculation as well as Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification. With SVD, data sets are decomposed and can be truncated to reduce the data sets size. The reduced data set …

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Study Of Rna Secondary Structure Prediction Algorithms, Lisa Yu Jan 2006

Study Of Rna Secondary Structure Prediction Algorithms, Lisa Yu

Master's Projects

Dynamic programming algorithms such as Nussinov algorithm and Zuker algorithm define criteria to search the most stable RNA secondary structures. Stochastic Context-Free Grammar (SCFG) predicts the most possible RNA secondary structure using context-free grammar and a defined set of probabilities for each grammar rule. These algorithms form the base of using computer programs to predict RNA secondary structures without pseudoknots. In this report, we review these RNA secondary structure prediction algorithms and present our own software implementations of these algorithms. The Nussinov algorithm is easy to understand. But our results show that the Nussinov algorithm is overly simplified and can …

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York Corpus Christi Cycle Plays : Examined In Light Of The Protestant Reformation, Michelle N. Russell Jan 2006

York Corpus Christi Cycle Plays : Examined In Light Of The Protestant Reformation, Michelle N. Russell

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

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Restoring A Native Grass To Reduce Runoff In The Watsonville Sloughs, Michael A. Powers Jan 2006

Restoring A Native Grass To Reduce Runoff In The Watsonville Sloughs, Michael A. Powers

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder In Children And Adolescents, Bethany E. Giere Jan 2006

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder In Children And Adolescents, Bethany E. Giere

Honors Capstones

The focus of this research paper is to better understand obsessive compulsive disorders, also known as OCD, in children and adolescents. I feel that in order to teach children and adolescents with OCD we, as teachers, need to understand the disorder. I want to be able to help students that may be in my classroom with this disorder. If I understand the disorder I can find the best way to teach the student. I will also be able to help the other students in the class to understand what that child is going through. This capstone project will assist me …

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Revision Of Fin 46, Consolidation Of Variable Interest Entities, And Its Effects On The Accounting Environment, Lindsey Lachiana Jan 2006

Revision Of Fin 46, Consolidation Of Variable Interest Entities, And Its Effects On The Accounting Environment, Lindsey Lachiana

Honors Capstones

Prior to January of 2003, the accounting rules for off-balance sheet financing allowed corporations to abuse special purpose entities, which were permitted to be excluded from a company's financial statements. The collapse of Enron was largely due to off-balance sheet financing. The Enron situation ignited the significance of the problem, which revealed off-balance sheet financing to be detrimental to an enterprise and the investors and creditors relying on the financial statements. FIN 46, Consolidation of Variable Interest Entities, was put into effect as a result of the Enron scandal in January 2003; however it was revised in December 2003 to …

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