Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Drive's theory'

En 1998, dans son livre intitulé Canguilhem et les normes, le philosophe G. Le Blanc affirme que la création d'un problème ne consiste pas à « inventer de toutes pièces un nouveau problème mais plutôt [à] rouvrir un ancien problème résolu », opération intellectuelle qui revient à « déplacer le problème du questionné au non questionné, du pensé à l'impensé ». En nous laissant guider par ce précepte d'inspiration canguilhemienne, cette thèse doctorale examine de façon critique l'histoire de la formation intellectuelle de Freud et les fondements de l'épistémologie freudienne, problème déjà « clos » depuis les travaux pionniers de S. Bernfeld, F. Wittels, M. Dorer et E. Jones, parmi d'autres, et depuis les études contemporaines de P.-L. Assoun. Notre objectif est d'y analyser l'influence clandestine ou souterraine, mais bien déterminante, du vitalisme, doctrine biomédicale des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles dont la présence dans l'histoire de la pensée freudienne est d'autant plus frappante qu'elle en a été radicalement exclue au profit du primat sans entrave du physicalisme de ladite « École de Helmholtz ». Eu égard à l'inexistence d'évidences empiriques et de références directes de la part de Freud qui permettraient d'établir son rapport au vitalisme, cette recherche essaie de construire ce lien sur la base d'un examen soigneux du contexte historique et épistémologique dans lequel les concepts majeurs de la psychanalyse évoluèrent, particulièrement celui de pulsion {Trieb}. Nous soulignons leurs parallélismes et leurs isomorphismes avec les concepts cruciaux du vitalisme, comme ceux de force vitale ou de principe vital, mais nous soulignons de plus - et c'est notre hypothèse fondamentale - que le projet freudien d'édifier une théorie énergétique du psychisme constitue une tentative d'articulation des registres du vivant et de l'humain et, de ce point de vue, une réponse à la question philosophique et scientifique par excellence qui selon G. Canguilhem s'est posée au XIXe siècle, à savoir « Qu'est-ce que la vie ? ». La première partie de notre recherche est consacrée à essayer de briser le mythe du « Freud mécaniste » et à démontrer que l'interrogation philosophico-biologique sur la nature du vivant est toujours à l'arrière-plan des préoccupations théoriques des penseurs physicalistes et matérialistes qui influencèrent Freud au cours du XIXe siècle. Deuxièmement, nous essayons de rouvrir les rapports de Freud à la Naturphilosophie et à la Médecine Romantique afin de rendre intelligibles les axes cruciaux de ses préoccupations d'ordre vitaliste concernant la pulsionnalité du vivant humain, ainsi que les enjeux théoriques de ses rapports à Darwin, à Goethe et à Fliess, penseurs autour desquels tournent les interrogations philosophiques de Freud concernant la nature de la vie. S'appuyant sur la déclaration de Freud qu'une « vision dualiste élémentaire » constitue l'exigence épistémologique par excellence de sa métapsychologie, la deuxième et dernière partie de notre recherche est consacrée à la construction des liens conceptuels - et à la recherche des incidences clandestines - entre les dualismes pulsionnels de Freud et les théories vitalistes, également dualistes, de Stahl et de Bichat d'abord et de Cl. Bernard ensuite. Dans cette partie de notre recherche, nous tentons de montrer que la conception freudienne de la vie, issue de son point de vue énergétique sur le psychisme, est fondée paradoxalement sur une prééminence des phénomènes de destruction et de mort, tout comme dans les vitalismes des physiologistes allemand et français susmentionnés. Cela nous conduit à formuler l'existence d'une « théorie de la vie » dans la pensée de Freud, théorie dans laquelle celle-ci est conçue comme une sorte de dé-vivre ou comme un certain devenir anti-vital inéluctable, et dont les termes de « vie » et de « mort », de « création » et de « destruction », loin de constituer les termes d'un antagonisme, deviennent les composants d'une unité ontologique<br>In 1998, in his book entitled "Canguilhem et les normes", the philosopher G. Le Blanc asserts that the creation of a problem does not consist in "inventing a new problem with brand-new elements but rather [in] reopening an old, solved problem", an intellectual procedure which amounts to "moving the problem from the questioned to the unquestioned, from the thought to the unthought". Letting ourselves be guided by this precept of Canguilhemian inspiration, this doctoral thesis critically examines the history of Freud's intellectual training and the foundations of Freudian epistemology, a problem already "closed" since the pioneering works of S. Bernfeld , F. Wittels, M. Dorer and E. Jones, among others, and since the contemporary studies of P.-L. Assoun. Our aim is to analyze the clandestine or the underlaying, but determining effects of vitalism, the biomedical doctrine of the 18th and 19th centuries whose presence in the history of Freudian thought is even more striking because it has been radically excluded from it in favor of the unfettered primacy of physicalism of the so-called "School of Helmholtz". Given the lack of empirical evidences and direct references from Freud which would allow us to establish his relationship to vitalism, this research will try to build this link on the basis of a careful examination of the historical and epistemological context in which the main concepts of psychoanalysis evolved, particularly that of drive {Trieb}. We emphasize their parallelisms and their isomorphisms with the crucial concepts of vitalism, such as those of vital force or vital principle, but we also emphasize - and this is our fundamental hypothesis - that the Freudian project of building an energetic theory of psychic processes represents an attempt to articulate the living and the human fields, and, from this point of view, an answer to the main philosophical and scientific question which, according to G. Canguilhem, was formulated in the 19th century, namely "What is life?". The first part of our research is devoted to trying to explode the myth of the "mechanist Freud" and to demonstrate that the philosophical-biological questioning about living beings' nature was always underlaying in the theoretical concerns of the physicalist and materialist thinkers who influenced Freud during the 19th century. Secondly, we try to reopen Freud's relationship to Naturphilosophie and Romantic Medicine, to make intelligible the crucial axes of his vitalist concerns regarding the drive's dimension of human beings, as well as the theoretical issues of his relationship to Darwin, Goethe and Fliess, thinkers around which Freud's philosophical questions concerning the nature of life turned. Considering Freud's statement that an "elementary dualistic vision" constitutes the main epistemological requirement of his metapsychology, the second and last part of our research is devoted to the construction of the conceptual links - and to the search for clandestine implications - between Freud's drive dualistic theories and the equally dualistic vitalist theories of Stahl and Bichat first, and then of Cl. Bernard. In this part of the research, we try to show that the Freudian conception of life, rising from his energetic point of view on the psyche, is paradoxically based on a preeminence of the phenomena of destruction and death, just like in the vitalisms of the German and French physiologists. This leads us to formulate the existence of a sort of "life's theory" in Freud's thinking, theory in which life is conceived as a kind of dis-living or as a certain inevitable anti-vital becoming, and in which the terms of "life" and "death", "creation" and "destruction'", far from represent the terms of an antagonism, become the components of an ontological unity

Newly licensed drivers on a provisional or intermediate licence have the highest crash risk when compared with any other group of drivers. In comparison, learner drivers have the lowest crash risk. Graduated driver licensing is one countermeasure that has been demonstrated to effectively reduce the crashes of novice drivers. This thesis examined the graduated driver licensing systems in two Australian states in order to better understand the behaviour of learner drivers, provisional drivers and the supervisors of learner drivers. By doing this, the thesis investigated the personal, social and environmental influences on novice driver behaviour as well as providing effective baseline data against which to measure subsequent changes to the licensing systems. In the first study, conducted prior to the changes to the graduated driver licensing system introduced in mid-2007, drivers who had recently obtained their provisional licence in Queensland and New South Wales were interviewed by telephone regarding their experiences while driving on their learner licence. Of the 687 eligible people approached to participate at driver licensing centres, 392 completed the study representing a response rate of 57.1 per cent. At the time the data was collected, New South Wales represented a more extensive graduated driver licensing system when compared with Queensland. The results suggested that requiring learners to complete a mandated number of hours of supervised practice impacts on the amount of hours that learners report completing. While most learners from New South Wales reported meeting the requirement to complete 50 hours of practice, it appears that many stopped practising soon after this goal was achieved. In contrast, learners from Queensland, who were not required to complete a specific number of hours at the time of the survey, tended to fall into three groups. The first group appeared to complete the minimum number of hours required to pass the test (less than 26 hours), the second group completed 26 to 50 hours of supervised practice while the third group completed significantly more practice than the first two groups (over 100 hours of supervised practice). Learner drivers in both states reported generally complying with the road laws and were unlikely to report that they had been caught breaking the road rules. They also indicated that they planned to obey the road laws once they obtained their provisional licence. However, they were less likely to intend to comply with recommended actions to reduce crash risk such as limiting their driving at night. This study also identified that there were relatively low levels of unaccompanied driving (approximately 15 per cent of the sample), very few driving offences committed (five per cent of the sample) and that learner drivers tended to use a mix of private and professional supervisors (although the majority of practice is undertaken with private supervisors). Consistent with the international literature, this study identified that very few learner drivers had experienced a crash (six per cent) while on their learner licence. The second study was also conducted prior to changes to the graduated driver licensing system and involved follow up interviews with the participants of the first study after they had approximately 21 months driving experience on their provisional licence. Of the 392 participants that completed the first study, 233 participants completed the second interview (representing a response rate of 59.4 per cent). As with the first study, at the time the data was collected, New South Wales had a more extensive graduated driver licensing system than Queensland. For instance, novice drivers from New South Wales were required to progress through two provisional licence phases (P1 and P2) while there was only one provisional licence phase in Queensland. Among the participants in this second study, almost all provisional drivers (97.9 per cent) owned or had access to a vehicle for regular driving. They reported that they were unlikely to break road rules, such as driving after a couple of drinks, but were also unlikely to comply with recommended actions, such as limiting their driving at night. When their provisional driving behaviour was compared to the stated intentions from the first study, the results suggested that their intentions were not a strong predictor of their subsequent behaviour. Their perception of risk associated with driving declined from when they first obtained their learner licence to when they had acquired provisional driving experience. Just over 25 per cent of participants in study two reported that they had been caught committing driving offences while on their provisional licence. Nearly one-third of participants had crashed while driving on a provisional licence, although few of these crashes resulted in injuries or hospitalisations. To complement the first two studies, the third study examined the experiences of supervisors of learner drivers, as well as their perceptions of their learner’s experiences. This study was undertaken after the introduction of the new graduated driver licensing systems in Queensland and New South Wales in mid- 2007, providing insights into the impacts of these changes from the perspective of supervisors. The third study involved an internet survey of 552 supervisors of learner drivers. Within the sample, approximately 50 per cent of participants supervised their own child. Other supervisors of the learner drivers included other parents or stepparents, professional driving instructors and siblings. For two-thirds of the sample, this was the first learner driver that they had supervised. Participants had provided an average of 54.82 hours (sd = 67.19) of supervision. Seventy-three per cent of participants indicated that their learners’ logbooks were accurate or very accurate in most cases, although parents were more likely than non-parents to report that their learners’ logbook was accurate (F (1,546) = 7.74, p = .006). There was no difference between parents and non-parents regarding whether they believed the log book system was effective (F (1,546) = .01, p = .913). The majority of the sample reported that their learner driver had had some professional driving lessons. Notwithstanding this, a significant proportion (72.5 per cent) believed that parents should be either very involved or involved in teaching their child to drive, with parents being more likely than non-parents to hold this belief. In the post mid-2007 graduated driver licensing system, Queensland learner drivers are able to record three hours of supervised practice in their log book for every hour that is completed with a professional driving instructor, up to a total of ten hours. Despite this, there was no difference identified between Queensland and New South Wales participants regarding the amount of time that they reported their learners spent with professional driving instructors (X2(1) = 2.56, p = .110). Supervisors from New South Wales were more likely to ensure that their learner driver complied with the road laws. Additionally, with the exception of drug driving laws, New South Wales supervisors believed it was more important to teach safety-related behaviours such as remaining within the speed limit, car control and hazard perception than those from Queensland. This may be indicative of more intensive road safety educational efforts in New South Wales or the longer time that graduated driver licensing has operated in that jurisdiction. However, other factors may have contributed to these findings and further research is required to explore the issue. In addition, supervisors reported that their learner driver was involved in very few crashes (3.4 per cent) and offences (2.7 per cent). This relatively low reported crash rate is similar to that identified in the first study. Most of the graduated driver licensing research to date has been applied in nature and lacked a strong theoretical foundation. These studies used Akers’ social learning theory to explore the self-reported behaviour of novice drivers and their supervisors. This theory was selected as it has previously been found to provide a relatively comprehensive framework for explaining a range of driver behaviours including novice driver behaviour. Sensation seeking was also used in the first two studies to complement the non-social rewards component of Akers’ social learning theory. This program of research identified that both Akers’ social learning theory and sensation seeking were useful in predicting the behaviour of learner and provisional drivers over and above socio-demographic factors. Within the first study, Akers’ social learning theory accounted for an additional 22 per cent of the variance in learner driver compliance with the law, over and above a range of socio-demographic factors such as age, gender and income. The two constructs within Akers’ theory which were significant predictors of learner driver compliance were the behavioural dimension of differential association relating to friends, and anticipated rewards. Sensation seeking predicted an additional six per cent of the variance in learner driver compliance with the law. When considering a learner driver’s intention to comply with the law while driving on a provisional licence, Akers’ social learning theory accounted for an additional 10 per cent of the variance above socio-demographic factors with anticipated rewards being a significant predictor. Sensation seeking predicted an additional four per cent of the variance. The results suggest that the more rewards individuals anticipate for complying with the law, the more likely they are to obey the road rules. Further research is needed to identify which specific rewards are most likely to encourage novice drivers’ compliance with the law. In the second study, Akers’ social learning theory predicted an additional 40 per cent of the variance in self-reported compliance with road rules over and above socio-demographic factors while sensation seeking accounted for an additional five per cent of the variance. A number of Aker’s social learning theory constructs significantly predicted provisional driver compliance with the law, including the behavioural dimension of differential association for friends, the normative dimension of differential association, personal attitudes and anticipated punishments. The consistent prediction of additional variance by sensation seeking over and above the variables within Akers’ social learning theory in both studies one and two suggests that sensation seeking is not fully captured within the non social rewards dimension of Akers’ social learning theory, at least for novice drivers. It appears that novice drivers are strongly influenced by the desire to engage in new and intense experiences. While socio-demographic factors and the perception of risk associated with driving had an important role in predicting the behaviour of the supervisors of learner drivers, Akers’ social learning theory provided further levels of prediction over and above these factors. The Akers’ social learning theory variables predicted an additional 14 per cent of the variance in the extent to which supervisors ensured that their learners complied with the law and an additional eight per cent of the variance in the supervisors’ provision of a range of practice experiences. The normative dimension of differential association, personal attitudes towards the use of professional driving instructors and anticipated rewards were significant predictors for supervisors ensuring that their learner complied with the road laws, while the normative dimension was important for range of practice. This suggests that supervisors who engage with other supervisors who ensure their learner complies with the road laws and provide a range of practice to their own learners are more likely to also engage in these behaviours. Within this program of research, there were several limitations including the method of recruitment of participants within the first study, the lower participation rate in the second study, an inability to calculate a response rate for study three and the use of self-report data for all three studies. Within the first study, participants were only recruited from larger driver licensing centres to ensure that there was a sufficient throughput of drivers to approach. This may have biased the results due to the possible differences in learners that obtain their licences in locations with smaller licensing centres. Only 59.4 per cent of the sample in the first study completed the second study. This may be a limitation if there was a common reason why those not participating were unable to complete the interview leading to a systematic impact on the results. The third study used a combination of a convenience and snowball sampling which meant that it was not possible to calculate a response rate. All three studies used self-report data which, in many cases, is considered a limitation. However, self-report data may be the only method that can be used to obtain some information. This program of research has a number of implications for countermeasures in both the learner licence phase and the provisional licence phase. During the learner phase, licensing authorities need to carefully consider the number of hours that they mandate learner drivers must complete before they obtain their provisional driving licence. If they mandate an insufficient number of hours, there may be inadvertent negative effects as a result of setting too low a limit. This research suggests that logbooks may be a useful tool for learners and their supervisors in recording and structuring their supervised practice. However, it would appear that the usage rates for logbooks will remain low if they remain voluntary. One strategy for achieving larger amounts of supervised practice is for learner drivers and their supervisors to make supervised practice part of their everyday activities. As well as assisting the learner driver to accumulate the required number of hours of supervised practice, it would ensure that they gain experience in the types of environments that they will probably encounter when driving unaccompanied in the future, such as to and from education or work commitments. There is also a need for policy processes to ensure that parents and professional driving instructors communicate effectively regarding the learner driver’s progress. This is required as most learners spend at least some time with a professional instructor despite receiving significant amounts of practice with a private supervisor. However, many supervisors did not discuss their learner’s progress with the driving instructor. During the provisional phase, there is a need to strengthen countermeasures to address the high crash risk of these drivers. Although many of these crashes are minor, most involve at least one other vehicle. Therefore, there are social and economic benefits to reducing these crashes. If the new, post-2007 graduated driver licensing systems do not significantly reduce crash risk, there may be a need to introduce further provisional licence restrictions such as separate night driving and peer passenger restrictions (as opposed to the hybrid version of these two restrictions operating in both Queensland and New South Wales). Provisional drivers appear to be more likely to obey some provisional licence laws, such as lower blood alcohol content limits, than others such as speed limits. Therefore, there may be a need to introduce countermeasures to encourage provisional drivers to comply with specific restrictions. When combined, these studies provided significant information regarding graduated driver licensing programs. This program of research has investigated graduated driver licensing utilising a cross-sectional and longitudinal design in order to develop our understanding of the experiences of novice drivers that progress through the system in order to help reduce crash risk once novice drivers commence driving by themselves.

Young drivers are over represented in traffic crashes throughout the world and despite considerable efforts to date, there is still considerable work to be undertaken to develop interventions that will aid in the reduction of this road trauma. Historically, road safety research has been more focused on evaluative research rather than the application of theory and this has effects on the success of interventions. This research used a well supported social psychological theory (Theory of Planned Behavior [TPB]) to investigate the relationship between attitudes and behavior in young drivers with a view to determining if there was an opportunity to move towards acceptable and appropriate interventions to reduce young drivers' involvement in traffic crashes.

Safety is an important aspect of ethical, socially responsible logistics. Current U.S. motor carrier (MC) safety research topical coverage includes the effects of individual and environmental influences, carrier safety management, and regulatory compliance on carrier safety and driver fatigue/safety performance. Interestingly, little research on the subject of truck drivers' safety attitudes and behaviors exists and the underlying decision-making processes that guide drivers' safety-related behaviors have received little attention. Furthermore, researchers have not provided an integrated framework that explains individual, organizational, and regulatory factors' impact on drivers' safety decision-making and performance. Truck drivers' safety judgments, decisions, and actions must adhere to societal safety norms. To that end, ethical decision-making theory that draws from the deontological and teleological traditions in moral philosophy provides a theoretical foundation and integrated framework necessary to better understand drivers' safety decision-making processes. The current research sought to determine how drivers rely on safety norms and perceived consequences in forming safety judgments and behavioral intentions. Furthermore, the study was designed to explore how various factors (i.e., individual, organizational, and regulatory) influence drivers' safety decision-making processes. Specifically, the study sought to answer the broad question, "How do commercial motor vehicle drivers make safety-related decisions, and how do individual, organizational, and regulatory factors influence drivers' safety decision-making processes?" An experimental two-factor design (2×2) was used to manipulate safety norms (i.e., "deontologically unsafe situation" and "deontologically safe situation") and consequences (i.e., "positive consequences" and "negative consequences"). Multivariate statistical analysis revealed that drivers primarily rely on deontological evaluations in forming safety judgments. Furthermore, drivers primarily relied on safety judgments when forming behavioral intentions. Drivers' attitudes toward unsafe actions and the effectiveness of driver-related safety regulations were also influential to drivers' judgments and intentions, respectively. The empirical findings demonstrate to managers that communication and education of safety norms may be highly effective to improve safety in unique occupational contexts where employees are given high levels of responsibility with little physical supervision, and where judgment errors can have devastating consequences for multiple stakeholders.

In recent years, the concept of Authentic Leadership has become an important area of interest and study, encompassing, as it does, personal beliefs and values and how they are aligned and lived in one’s everyday leadership experience, (Cooper et al. 2005; Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Luthans & Avolio, 2003). However, whilst the literature surrounding it is ever-increasing, the concept and construct of Authentic Leadership is fragmented; complicated by different theorists’ perspectives and compounded by a lack of empirical research, particularly within the UK, (Gardner et al. 2011). Based on Novicevic et al.’s (2006) conceptualization, differentiating Authentic Leadership between its psychological and philosophical components, this research presents a new theoretical model of Authentic Leadership. A 4-factor model was developed and empirically tested using a classic psychometric approach, (Nunnally, 1978; Kline, 1979), and a 360° feedback design, as leaders have been shown to over-estimate their self-reported scores compared to subordinate and peer feedback ratings, (Atkins & Wood, 2002). Critically, the model was developed and tested using real leaders rather than students, who are generally more accessible to researchers, (Lagan, 2007). It is hypothesized that the resulting model and statistical data may therefore have greater validity and applied relevance than other comparative research in the field completed utilizing student populations with little or no, real-world leadership experience. Three UK leadership populations were employed: two business leader samples and, for the validation study, senior serving Royal Air Force officers. A 3-factor model emerged which both simplifies and unifies previous theoretical conceptualisations of Authentic Leadership. Whilst not a direct part of the research study, the author suggests that potentially, all modern leadership failures may be traced back to a deficiency in any one of these 3 ‘Pillars’ of Authentic Leadership: Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation or Ethics. Implications for Authentic Leadership Development are identified and some suggestions for future research into the field made.

This study sets out to address the question of whether the costs and the benefits of measuring intellectual capital assets differ depending on the driver for that measure. Although pressure is growing on firms to measure and report on their intellectual capital assets no research has yet been published that questions the costs associated with such actions. And although academic research has purported to show links between the management of intellectual capital assets and real business benefits the research carried out thus far'has not focussed specifically on the benefits of measuring intellectual capital assets. Although there are now a variety of intellectual capital asset measurement frameworks there has been no cross comparison as to which intellectual capital asset measures provide the most business insight or where the outcome of that measurement is most effective. Using a multi method approach the thesis is tested in three phases; an extensive literature review covering intellectual capital, performance measurement and organisational effectiveness; a survey and content analysis to explore what and why companies measure; and structured interviewing of six companies to investigate the costs and the benefits of measurement. The thesis is tested through the investigation of thirteen propositions which show that: firstly, there is a difference in the relative cost of measuring intellectual capital assets given the measurement driver, which is explained by the frequency of measurement, the mode of data collection and analysis, and whether the use of the measure is a by product of some other driver, secondly, that the insight provided by an intellectual capital asset measure differs given the measurement driver, thirdly, that the measurement of intellectual capital assets is most effective for planning the future; and lastly, that particular measurement drivers are effective, to differing degrees, in financial, customer, operational, people and future organisational performance domains.

The evaluation of the Manchester Motor Skills (MMSP) project uses a programme theory driven evaluation approach. The research literature proposes the consideration of implementation and impact models. The implementation model is developed in order to establish the full range of implementation factors that need to be attended to for successful initial and long term implementation of the MMSP in schools. An impact model is proposed, based upon key elements from the implementation model and is to evaluate the success of the MMSP in 10 schools at the levels of; groups of children receiving the programme, teaching of the programme and improving school systems for meeting the needs of children with motor difficulties.

O reconhecimento de atividaes é vital no contexto dos ambientes inteligentes. Mesmo com a facilidade de acesso a sensores móveis baratos, reconhecer atividades continua sendo um problema difícil devido à incerteza nas leituras dos sensores e à complexidade das atividades. A teoria da evidência provê um modelo de reconhecimento de atividades que detecta atividades mesmo na presença de incerteza nas leituras dos sensores, mas ainda não é capaz de modelar atividades complexas ou mudanças na configuração dos sensores ou do ambiente. Este trabalho propõe combinar abordagens baseadas em modelagem de conhecimento com a teoria da evidência, melhorando assim a construção dos modelos da última trazendo a reusabilidade, flexibilidade e semântica rica da primeira.<br>Activity recognition is a vital need in the field of ambient intelligence. It is essential for many internet of things applications including energy management, healthcare systems and home automation. But, even with the many cheap mobile sensors envisioned by the internet of things, activity recognition remains a hard problem. This is due to uncertainty in sensor readings and the complexity of activities themselves. Evidence theory models provide activity recognition even in the presence of uncertain sensor readings, but cannot yet model complex activities or dynamic changes in sensor and environment configurations. This work proposes combining knowledge-based approaches with evidence theory, improving the construction of evidence theory models for activity recognition by bringing reusability, flexibility and rich semantics.

Unlicensed driving remains a serious problem for road safety, despite ongoing improvements in traffic law enforcement practices and technology. While it does not play a direct causative role in road crashes, unlicensed driving undermines the integrity of the driver licensing system and is associated with a range of high-risk behaviours. This thesis documents three studies that were undertaken to explore the scope and nature of unlicensed driving, in order to develop more effective countermeasures to the behaviour.----- Study One utilised official road crash data from the Australian state of Queensland to compare the crash involvement patterns of unlicensed drivers with those of licensed drivers. The results confirmed that unlicensed driving is a relatively small, but significant road safety problem. Unlicensed drivers represent over 6% of the drivers involved in fatal crashes and 5% of those in serious injury crashes. Based on a quasi-induced exposure method, unlicensed drivers were found to be almost three times as likely to be involved in a crash than licensed drivers. In the event of a crash, those involving unlicensed drivers were twice as likely to result in a fatality or serious injury. Consistent with these results, the serious crashes involving unlicensed drivers were more likely to feature risky driving behaviours, such as drink driving, speeding and motorcycle use, than those involving licensed drivers.----- Study Two involved a cross-sectional survey of 309 unlicensed driving offenders who were recruited at the Brisbane Central Magistrates Court. The survey involved a face-to-face interview that took approximately 25 minutes to complete and achieved a response rate of 62.4%. A wide range of offenders participated in the study, including: disqualified and suspended drivers; expired licence holders; drivers without a current or appropriate licence; and those who had never been licensed. The results reinforced concerns about the on-road behaviour of unlicensed drivers. Almost one quarter of all the offenders reported driving unlicensed when they thought they might have been over the alcohol limit. Similarly, 25% reported exceeding the speed limit by 10 km/h or more on most or all occasions, while 15% admitted that they didn't always wear their seat belt. In addition, the results indicated that unlicensed drivers should not be viewed as a homogeneous group. Significant differences were found between the offender types in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics (age, education level, prior criminal convictions); driving history (prior convictions for unlicensed driving and other traffic offences); whether they were aware of being unlicensed; the degree to which they limited their driving while unlicensed; and their drink driving behaviour. In particular, a more deviant sub-group of offenders was identified, that included the disqualified, not currently licensed and never licensed drivers, who reported higher levels of prior criminal offending, alcohol misuse and self-reported drink driving. The results of Study Two also highlight the shortcomings of existing police enforcement practices. Almost one-third of the sample reported that they continued to drive unlicensed after being detected by the police (up until the time of the court hearing), while many offenders reported experiences of punishment avoidance. For example, over one third of the participants reported being pulled over by the police while driving unlicensed and not having their licence checked.----- Study Three involved the further analysis of the cross-sectional survey data to explore the factors contributing to unlicensed driving. It examined the influence of various personal, social and environmental factors on three aspects of the offenders' behaviour: the frequency of their driving while unlicensed; whether they continued to drive unlicensed after being detected; and their intentions to drive unlicensed in the future. This study was also designed to assess the capacity of a number of different theoretical perspectives to explain unlicensed driving behaviour, including deterrence theory and Akers' (1977) social learning theory. At an applied level, the results of Study Three indicated that personal and social factors exert the strongest influence over unlicensed driving behaviour. The main personal influences on unlicensed driving were: the need to drive for work purposes; exposure to punishment avoidance; personal attitudes to unlicensed driving; and anticipated punishments for the behaviour. The main social influences reflected the social learning construct of differential association, namely being exposed to significant others who both engage in unlicensed driving (behavioural dimension) and hold positive attitudes to the behaviour (normative dimension). At a theoretical level, the results of Study Three have two important implications for traffic psychology and criminology. Firstly, they provided partial support for Stafford and Warr's (1993) reconceptualisation of deterrence theory by demonstrating that the inclusion of punishment avoidance can improve the overall predictive utility of the perspective. Secondly, they suggested that social learning theory represents a more comprehensive framework for predicting illegal driving behaviours, such as unlicensed driving. This is consistent with Akers' (1977; 1990) assertion that formal deterrence processes can be subsumed within social learning theory.----- Together, the results of the three studies have important implications for road safety. Most importantly, they question the common assumption that unlicensed drivers drive in a more cautious manner to avoid detection. While the findings indicate that many offenders reduce their overall driving exposure in order to avoid detection, this does not appear to result in safer driving. While it remains possible that unlicensed drivers tend to act more cautiously than they would otherwise, it appears that their driving behaviour is primarily designed to reduce their chances of detection. In terms of countermeasures, the research indicates that a multi-strategy approach is required to address the problem of unlicensed driving. Unlicensed drivers do not represent a homogeneous group who are likely to be influenced by the threat of punishment alone. Rather, innovative strategies are required to address the wide range of factors that appear to encourage or facilitate the behaviour. Foremost among these are punishment avoidance and the need to drive for work purposes.

Unlicensed driving remains a serious problem for road safety, despite ongoing improvements in traffic law enforcement practices and technology. While it does not play a direct causative role in road crashes, unlicensed driving undermines the integrity of the driver licensing system and is associated with a range of high-risk behaviours. This thesis documents three studies that were undertaken to explore the scope and nature of unlicensed driving, in order to develop more effective countermeasures to the behaviour.----- Study One utilised official road crash data from the Australian state of Queensland to compare the crash involvement patterns of unlicensed drivers with those of licensed drivers. The results confirmed that unlicensed driving is a relatively small, but significant road safety problem. Unlicensed drivers represent over 6% of the drivers involved in fatal crashes and 5% of those in serious injury crashes. Based on a quasi-induced exposure method, unlicensed drivers were found to be almost three times as likely to be involved in a crash than licensed drivers. In the event of a crash, those involving unlicensed drivers were twice as likely to result in a fatality or serious injury. Consistent with these results, the serious crashes involving unlicensed drivers were more likely to feature risky driving behaviours, such as drink driving, speeding and motorcycle use, than those involving licensed drivers.----- Study Two involved a cross-sectional survey of 309 unlicensed driving offenders who were recruited at the Brisbane Central Magistrates Court. The survey involved a face-to-face interview that took approximately 25 minutes to complete and achieved a response rate of 62.4%. A wide range of offenders participated in the study, including: disqualified and suspended drivers; expired licence holders; drivers without a current or appropriate licence; and those who had never been licensed. The results reinforced concerns about the on-road behaviour of unlicensed drivers. Almost one quarter of all the offenders reported driving unlicensed when they thought they might have been over the alcohol limit. Similarly, 25% reported exceeding the speed limit by 10 km/h or more on most or all occasions, while 15% admitted that they didn't always wear their seat belt. In addition, the results indicated that unlicensed drivers should not be viewed as a homogeneous group. Significant differences were found between the offender types in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics (age, education level, prior criminal convictions); driving history (prior convictions for unlicensed driving and other traffic offences); whether they were aware of being unlicensed; the degree to which they limited their driving while unlicensed; and their drink driving behaviour. In particular, a more deviant sub-group of offenders was identified, that included the disqualified, not currently licensed and never licensed drivers, who reported higher levels of prior criminal offending, alcohol misuse and self-reported drink driving. The results of Study Two also highlight the shortcomings of existing police enforcement practices. Almost one-third of the sample reported that they continued to drive unlicensed after being detected by the police (up until the time of the court hearing), while many offenders reported experiences of punishment avoidance. For example, over one third of the participants reported being pulled over by the police while driving unlicensed and not having their licence checked.----- Study Three involved the further analysis of the cross-sectional survey data to explore the factors contributing to unlicensed driving. It examined the influence of various personal, social and environmental factors on three aspects of the offenders' behaviour: the frequency of their driving while unlicensed; whether they continued to drive unlicensed after being detected; and their intentions to drive unlicensed in the future. This study was also designed to assess the capacity of a number of different theoretical perspectives to explain unlicensed driving behaviour, including deterrence theory and Akers' (1977) social learning theory. At an applied level, the results of Study Three indicated that personal and social factors exert the strongest influence over unlicensed driving behaviour. The main personal influences on unlicensed driving were: the need to drive for work purposes; exposure to punishment avoidance; personal attitudes to unlicensed driving; and anticipated punishments for the behaviour. The main social influences reflected the social learning construct of differential association, namely being exposed to significant others who both engage in unlicensed driving (behavioural dimension) and hold positive attitudes to the behaviour (normative dimension). At a theoretical level, the results of Study Three have two important implications for traffic psychology and criminology. Firstly, they provided partial support for Stafford and Warr's (1993) reconceptualisation of deterrence theory by demonstrating that the inclusion of punishment avoidance can improve the overall predictive utility of the perspective. Secondly, they suggested that social learning theory represents a more comprehensive framework for predicting illegal driving behaviours, such as unlicensed driving. This is consistent with Akers' (1977; 1990) assertion that formal deterrence processes can be subsumed within social learning theory.----- Together, the results of the three studies have important implications for road safety. Most importantly, they question the common assumption that unlicensed drivers drive in a more cautious manner to avoid detection. While the findings indicate that many offenders reduce their overall driving exposure in order to avoid detection, this does not appear to result in safer driving. While it remains possible that unlicensed drivers tend to act more cautiously than they would otherwise, it appears that their driving behaviour is primarily designed to reduce their chances of detection. In terms of countermeasures, the research indicates that a multi-strategy approach is required to address the problem of unlicensed driving. Unlicensed drivers do not represent a homogeneous group who are likely to be influenced by the threat of punishment alone. Rather, innovative strategies are required to address the wide range of factors that appear to encourage or facilitate the behaviour. Foremost among these are punishment avoidance and the need to drive for work purposes.

<p>Every year many people all over the world are killed and severely injured in road traffic accidents. Even though driving too fast is a behaviour well known to contribute to both the number and the outcome of these accidents, drivers are still speeding. The general aim of this thesis, and its five empirical studies, is therefore to further the knowledge about drivers speeding behaviour by using the theory of planned behaviour and the model underpinning the driver behaviour questionnaire as frames of reference. The behavioural data used is obtained from field trials with intelligent speed adaptation and the speed reducing potential of this system is also examined. The results show that attitude towards exceeding the speed limits, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and moral norm from the theory of planned behaviour, but also violations and inattention errors from the model underpinning the driver behaviour questionnaire, can be used to predict drivers’ everyday speeding behaviour. These two models can also be combined in order to gain further knowledge about the causes of speeding. Identification of drivers’ beliefs about exceeding the speed limits gives further insight into the underlying cognitive foundation of their attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. This provides valuable information for future design of speed reducing measures. Regarding intelligent speed adaptation, the results show that the ISA speed-warning device greatly reduces the amount of time drivers spend above the speed limits, and to some extent also reduces their mean speeds, but that this effect decreases with time. Although the drivers are not totally satisfied with the experience of the ISA speed-warning device, they like the idea and can see its usefulness. As the device tested is a first generation ISA speed-warning device, further research has the potential to greatly improve the system.</p>

Development of a self-consistent theoretical model is of fundamental importance to the study of the solar wind. Such a model is necessary to understand the origin of the solar wind as well as observational and theoretical aspects. For instance, a complete description of the acceleration of solar wind particles, intrinsic velocity and magnetic field components, role of magnetic field in the solar wind's angular momentum loss, and so on has not yet been achieved. This thesis presents two data-driven solar wind models to provide more detailed pictures of the solar wind in the equatorial plane, to extract the solar wind plasma quantities from the direct observations at 1 AU, and to describe the underlying physics. It also provides a comprehensive comparison between analytic predictions, observations, and advanced MHD (magnetohydrodynamics) simulation outputs. Chapter 1 provides a short literature review and a brief introduction for the thesis. Chapter 2 develops an analytic, self-consistent, theoretical model for the solar wind that includes conservation of angular momentum, frozen-in magnetic fields, and radial (r) and azimuthal (φ) components of velocity and magnetic field from the source surface/inner boundary to 1 AU. The solar wind model enforces corotation at the source surface (rs) assumes a constant radial speed at all heliolongitude, and applies near the equatorial plane. This model generalises previous models and reproduces the previous models in the appropriate limits. The model calculates the Alfvénic critical radius (ra) using the radial Alfvénic Mach number at 1 AU, and the predicted values agree with some recent observations. The predicted azimuthal velocity, which is only due to corotation is in the sense of corotation, but varies with, heliolongitudes (φ). Observations of the azimuthal velocity at 1 AU are usually much larger than predictions and not always in the corotation direction. These azimuthal velocities can not be explained by conservation of angular momentum alone. The standard interpretation involving stream-stream interactions and dynamical behaviour seems reasonable. Chapter 3 develops an accelerating solar wind model that includes the following: conservation of angular momentum, deviations from corotation, and non-radial velocity and magnetic field components from an inner boundary (or source surface) to beyond 1 AU. The model includes an accelerating solar wind profile using a solution of the time-steady isothermal equation of motion and predicts locations ra for the Alfvénic critical point which agree with recent observations. This model allows the flow velocity v to not always be parallel to magnetic field B in the corotating frame with the Sun, which results an electric field (E′) in the corotation frame. The resulting (E′ × B) drift may lead to enhanced scattering/heating of sufficiently energetic particles. The model demonstrates the existence of non-zero deviations δvφ from corotation at the source surface. These deviations of corotation are analogous to the transverse velocities caused by granulation and supergranulation motions. The abrupt changes in δvφ(rs,φs) are interpreted in terms of converging and diverging flows at the granulation cell boundaries and centers, respectively. Large range of variations of the angular momentum predicted and then are interpreted in terms of an intrinsic source in the solar wind of vorticity and turbulence from near the Sun towards 1 AU and beyond. Chapter 4 presents a comprehensive comparison where the accelerating solar wind model's predictions, observations are compared qualitatively and quantitatively with Block-Adaptive-Tree-Solarwind-Roe-Upwind-Scheme (BATS-R-US) simulation's outputs for the solar rotation period from November 21 to December 17, 2013. The chapter compares simulation outputs in the ecliptic plane with the analytic model results in the equatorial plane. Comparisons between simulated plasma quantities for long run time and short run time demonstrate that the initial solar wind plasma is entirely swept out by the simulated wind. It appears that high order grid refinement helps the simulation to reach a steady-state MHD system. The current version of the BATS-R-US simulation code treats the solar corona (SC) and the inner heliosphere (IH) separately and discontinuities in simulation outputs remain in the intersection of two modules. Overall, the simulated magnetic fields agree quite well with model predictions, much better than the density, velocity, and temperature. Radial profiles of plasma quantities have some qualitative agreement along a plasma flux tube, but quantitative differences are apparent. Chapter 5 summarizes the results in this thesis and discusses future avenues for research.

Background: The focus of this dissertation is on methods associated with evaluating a program's merit and worth. There are many approaches documented in the literature for evaluating merit and worth. The focus is only on theory driven evaluation (TDE). The premise of TDE is the program theory (PT) must be understood before being able to evaluate the merit and worth of a program. One of the early limitations in the TDE literature was a lack of methods for deriving PT. Renger has recently published methodology describing how existing source documentation could be to develop a program theory. A key component of Renger's methodology is the validation of the PT. Renger suggested using subject matter experts (SME) and program staff to validate the PT. However, it is uncertain whether relying on SMEs to validate a PT is sufficient. Objectives/Methods: Thus the current work focuses on whether there is empirical (i.e., research) and/or statistical (i.e., correlation analyses) support for a PT generated by SMEs. Results: Findings of the correlation analysis provide some evidence of the effectiveness of SMEs validation process. Specifically, weak or very weak statistical support was found for 56.25% (N=9) of relationships between mechanisms of change depicted in the model from Aim 5 (N=16). The results of targeted literature review indicate a strong relationship between the PT generated by SMEs and targeted literature search. Specifically, research evidence was found for 13 (81%) relationships between mechanisms of change identified in the model from Aim 5. Conclusion: PT can be reconstructed from source documentation. Reconstructed PT should be validated. Validation by SME appears to be time a fast, cost-effective way of getting feedback on the initial draft of PT. However, due to the limited scope of targeted literature search and correlational analysis, it is not possible to conclusively determine whether relying on subject matter experts is sufficient to validate reconstructed Program Theory. More research on TDE validation methods is needed.

This dissertation focuses on the interactions between local public sector organisations and institutions in the development of performance measurement (PM) targets and indicators. The research is grounded in the performance measurement and management literature and adopts a joint new institutional and resource dependence perspective. Empirically, the research, which is qualitative and theory-building, consists of case studies undertaken in local public sector organisations in England. The iterative comparison of theory and data has enabled the investigation of a number of relevant themes. In the last decade, the British Government has placed great emphasis on the consistency of objectives, targets and indicators from national to local levels with the aim of enhancing performance, transparency and accountability, and of driving behavior. However, this research shows that the influence of several organizations and the co- existence of various PM initiatives generate confusion and overlaps locally. Moreover, in the cases considered the unmanageable number of indicators and the lack of clarity regarding the drivers and purposes of PM have led to confused massages and counter- productive approaches to the measurement and management of performance. From a theoretical view-point, the favourable comments expressed by interviewees regarding the current PM regime contrast with critics of New Public Management. Furthermore, legitimacy-seeking and efficiency-enhancing rationals have emerged as intertwined and loosely coupled. This is in opposition to what is maintained by early new institutional theorists. In line with resource dependence theory, PM systems were found to be significant components of power systems in organisations. Through the examination of the roles of PM and the investigation of relevant concepts such as 'golden thread' and performance culture, this research aims to make an impact on policy-making and to improve the ways in which targets and indicators are set and used, hence having a positive effect on the services delivered.

This thesis is concerned with the design, control and performance evaluation of a novel design for mechanical drives. This drive operates in a pulsed manner where energy is extracted from the input, stored and then released to the output. A spring acts as the energy store and brakes and clutches control the extraction and release of energy. By controlling the storage and release of this energy the device's output velocity can be controlled independently of the input velocity and since theoretically there is no energy loss the device operates in an analogous fashion to a variable ratio gearbox. Two design variations are presented. A step-up mechanism that is unidirectional and capable of output velocities greater than the input, and a step-up/stepdown device that has bi-directional output velocity capabilities with no theoretical constraint on the value of output velocity. A prototype drive for each design is evaluated and detailed mathematical models are presented and compared to the prototypes. In addition a detailed design methodology is put forward for step-up/stepdowndevices.

Title: Users motivational drives to engage with athletes on social media Authors: Victor Videgren, Alexander Jost Auf Der Stroth, Jean-Paul Mathieu Supervisor: Viktor Magnusson Examiner: Åsa Devine Background: With social media becoming a more and more prominent tool of communication within sports marketing, athletes stand to gain much by implementing it in their branding and marketing efforts. However, existing literature on the matter inclined that further research in which the perspective of the user was taken, thus advancing the understanding of user engagement motivation toward these athletes on social media networks. This study adapted the Uses and Gratifications theory in which six motivational categories had been summarized, these being: Informational, Entertainment, Remunerative, Social, Communicative and Convenience. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe what motivates users to engage with athletes on social media. Methodology: This work has incorporated a qualitative approach sided with a descriptive purpose. The empirical findings were collected through semi- structured interviews. Furthermore, these findings are coded and analysed by taking inspiration from grounded theory. Analysis: The empirical data was discussed within six motivational categories and was used to describe existing theory. Through the process of analysis, patterns of motivational theories interrelating with each other emerged. These being, a common interest which led users to engage with athletes, honesty and transparency which is what users saw and appreciated in the athlete and finally, the building of relationship which was what created from the engagement with athletes on social media. Conclusion: Through the analysis of the motivational drives patterns were discovered regarding users’ motivations to engage with athletes. The three patterns discovered interrelate with each other and are interpreted to be the typical motivation of a user to engage with an athlete on social media. The motivational patterns are “common interests with athlete”, second being the “transparency of athletes” and third “building a relationship” Keywords: Athlete branding, Social media, Uses and Gratification theory, Motivation, Engagement, Marketing, Grounded theory

<p> In 2012 about 30% of the American workers were engaged at work and 70% of workers were either not engaged or fully disengaged. There have been numerous studies on determining employment factors that create engagement and the organizational benefits received from a highly engaged workforce. It has been shown that companies with highly engaged employees experience many organizational benefits including higher employee productivity, lower attrition, better quality, and superior financial results. However, there has been little research conducted on creating a direct linkage between a specific engagement driver and a specific organizational benefit. The purpose of this study is to identify drivers of engagement that positively impact productivity in highly engaged teams at CHG Healthcare Services. CHG Healthcare Services is a healthcare staffing company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 2014, it was estimated that 93% of its 1750 employee were engaged. Quantitative data was collected through a written survey from a random sampling of 98 employees from highly engaged sales and business partner teams. 46 employees completed the survey that asked them to choose the top factors that most positively impacted their individual and team productivity from a list of 23 established engagement drivers. In addition, 9 qualitative focus groups were held with survey participants to gain qualitative understanding into why participant&rsquo;s felt the chosen engagement factors impacted productivity. The findings demonstrated that for employees with over 1 year of experience, 4 engagement drivers made the most meaningful impact on individual and team productivity. These results were similar across all demographic groups reviewed. The engagement drivers most impacting employee productivity were having access to work-life balance, having a positive relationship with their team and leader, having work that is meaningful, and having the authority and autonomy of make decisions affecting their work. The research also showed that one group, first year employees, provided a different set of results. The study demonstrated that first-year employees value employment factors that help support them during the time they are establishing effective relationships in a new environment and building necessary job skills to contribute to the team and company.</p>

Literature Review: Healthcare staff’s hand hygiene adherence has been associated with reduced healthcare-associated infection rates. Addressing poor adherence is therefore imperative. The use of psychological theory in hand hygiene research is lacking. A systematic review was conducted of the application and efficacy of the theory of planned behaviour to understanding healthcare staff’s hand hygiene. Five databases were searched yielding nine relevant articles. The amount of variance accounted for across studies varied widely, explaining 35-70% of intention and 15-79% of actual behaviour. Current methodological limitations and heterogeneity of research aims limit the conclusions that can be drawn and inhibit an overall goodness-of-fit statistic being calculated. A revised model of the theory in relation to hand hygiene is proposed and salient issues discussed. Research Report: Despite a wealth of research, our understanding of hand hygiene adherence and how to improve it remains poor. Reasons for this may lie in an overreliance on self-report methodologies and a lack of reference to psychological theory (Edwards et al. 2012). Therefore a theory-informed, mixed-methods investigation was undertaken to identify key factors influencing nursing staff’s hand hygiene adherence within Critical Care. Three methodologies were triangulated and used concurrently: a) a quantitative questionnaire; b) a Delphi consensus approach; and c) ward observations. ‘Memory, Attention and Decision Processes’ were clearly highlighted as key to staff’s hand hygiene across all three methodologies, whilst ‘Environmental Context and Resources’ were highlighted across the two self-report methodologies. Findings suggest that interventions should prioritise addressing factors related to ‘Memory, Attention and Decision Processes’. ‘Environmental Context and Resources’ were also deemed important but appeared to reflect staff’s perception of busyness and difficulties prioritising hand hygiene rather than externally visible factors. Limitations and implications are discussed. Critical Appraisal: The researcher’s account of the research process, reflections, learning points and critique are offered.

Cette thèse porte sur la conception de contrôleurs pour robots explorateurs autonomes basée sur une approche en ligne (online) intégrée, ne nécessitant pas de vérité terrain ni d'intervention de l'expert humain au cours du processus d'entrainement.Le travail présenté se focalise sur le domaine de la robotique autonome et plus particulièrement la conception de controleurs robotiques pour les essaims de robots.Ce contexte présente deux difficultés spécifiques. Premièrement, les approches basées sur l'usage de simulateur sont d'efficacité limitée : d'une part, la précision du simulateur est limitée compte tenu de la variabilité des robots élémentaires; d'autre part, la complexité de la simulation est super-linéaire en fonction du nombre de robots de l'essaim. Deuxièmement, les approches guidées par le but se heurtent au fait que la fonction objectif n'est pas définie au niveau du robot individuel, mais au niveau de l'essaim.Une première étape vers la conception de contrôleur explorateur autonome est proposée dans cette thèse. L'approche proposée, appelée exploration robotique fondée sur l'évolution et l'information (Ev-ITER) se fonde sur l'hybridation de la robotique évolutionnaire et de l'apprentissage par renforcement utilisant l'entropie. Cette approche procède en deux phases: (i) dans une première phase l'évolution artificielle est utilisée pour générer des contrôleurs primaires (crawlers), dont les trajectoires sont d'entropie élevée dans l'espace sensori-moteur; (ii) dans une seconde phase, l'archive des trajectoires acquises par les controleurs primaires est exploitée pour définir les controleurs secondaires, inspirés de la motivation intrinsèque robuste et permettant l'exploration rigoureuse de l'environnement.Les contributions de cette thèse sont les suivantes. Premièrement, comme désiré Ev-ITER peut être lancé en ligne, et sans nécessiter de vérité terrain ou d'assistance. Deuxièmement, Ev-ITER surpasse les approches autonomes en robotique évolutionnaire en terme d'exploration de l'arène. Troisièmement, le contrôleur Ev-ITER est doté d'une certaine généralité, dans la mesure où il est capable d'explorer efficacement d'autres arènes que celle considérée pendant la première phase de l'évolution. Il est à souligner que la généralité du contrôleur appris vis-à-vis de l'environnement d'entrainement a rarement été considérée en apprentissage par renforcement ou en robotique évolutionnaire<br>This thesis is concerned with building autonomous exploratory robotic controllers in an online, on-board approach, with no requirement for ground truth or human intervention in the experimental setting.This study is primarily motivated by autonomous robotics, specifically autonomous robot swarms. In this context, one faces two difficulties. Firstly, standard simulator-based approaches are hardly effective due to computational efficiency and accuracy reasons. On the one hand, the simulator accuracy is hindered by the variability of the hardware; on the other hand, this approach faces a super-linear computational complexity w.r.t. the number of robots in the swarm. Secondly, the standard goal-driven approach used for controller design does not apply as there is no explicit objective function at the individual level, since the objective is defined at the swarm level.A first step toward autonomous exploratory controllers is proposed in the thesis. The Evolution &amp; Information Theory-based Exploratory Robotics (Ev-ITER) approach is based on the hybridization of two approaches stemming from Evolutionary Robotics and from Reinforcement Learning, with the goal of getting the best of both worlds: (i) primary controllers, or crawling controllers, are evolved in order to generate sensori-motor trajectories with high entropy; (ii) the data repository built from the crawling controllers is exploited, providing prior knowledge to secondary controllers, inspired from the intrinsic robust motivation setting and achieving the thorough exploration of the environment.The contributions of the thesis are threefold. Firstly, Ev-ITER fulfills the desired requirement: it runs online, on-board and without requiring any ground truth or support. Secondly, Ev-ITER outperforms both the evolutionary and the information theory-based approaches standalone, in terms of actual exploration of the arena. Thirdly and most importantly, the Ev-ITER controller features some generality property, being able to efficiently explore other arenas than the one considered during the first evolutionary phase. It must be emphasized that the generality of the learned controller with respect to the considered environment has rarely been considered, neither in the reinforcement learning, nor in evolutionary robotics

Customers in a service setting sometimes seek support from other customers; recent research has demonstrated this phenomenon. This research also found that intercustomer social support has a positive impact on consumer health, as well as the financial returns for the company. Given these positive effects for firms and customers, organizations can benefit from fostering social connections among their customers. While past research has investigated the positive consequences of intercustomer social support, little research to date has investigated the firm’s strategic role in fostering intercustomer social support. The current research seeks to understand key tactics a firm can use to promote intercustomer social support. Using network theory, the present research investigates the impact of network drivers on different dimensions of intercustomer social support. Results demonstrate that identification with the company, employees and customers is significantly associated with levels of instrumental intercustomer social support. Further, the number of customer ties, along with the amount of information flow and the strength of these ties, all impact instrumental and social/emotional social support. Last, this research presents the positive effects that intercustomer social support has on various customer, firm and co-creation outcomes. Contributions to marketing theory and managerial implications are also presented.

Modern Control Theory is applied to analyze an existing aluminum mill drive, which was originally designed by Classical Methods. The system is studied with Optimal Control and z-transform zero-pole locus tools. The results and also the original design are compared with the performance of simulation. The models are built with the transition matrix and iterative procedures. Conclusions about the appropriated design methods and improvements to the control scheme result from the investigation.<br>Master of Science<br>incomplete_metadata

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico<br>Esse estudo teve por objetivo predizer a intenÃÃo comportamental de motoristas considerando as variÃveis da Teoria da AÃÃo Planejada. Para tanto, estruturaram-se dois estudos. No Estudo 1, elaborou-se a Escala de Comportamentos no TrÃnsito; e no Estudo 2, testou-se a influÃncia das atitudes, das normas subjetivas e da percepÃÃo de controle na intenÃÃo. No primeiro estudo, procederam-se com trÃs etapas empÃricas. Na primeira, realizou-se levantamento dos comportamentos infratores descritos no CÃdigo de TrÃnsito Brasileiro e distribuÃram-se aleatoriamente as infraÃÃes em cinco tipos de questionÃrios, contando com 44 itens em cada versÃo. Em seguida, procedeu-se a coleta de dados, que contou com 271 pessoas da populaÃÃo geral de Fortaleza (CE), com idades entre 18 e 80 anos (m = 34,7; dp = 13,8), a maioria homens (53,2%), solteiros (48,3%) e condutores de carro (69,7%), que responderam a versÃo preliminar da escala. Perguntou-se aos condutores se conheciam as situaÃÃes descritas e com que frequÃncia aconteciam em Fortaleza, utilizando uma escala de 5 pontos (1 = Nunca a 5 = Sempre); caso o participante nÃo entendesse o item, deveria marcar âNÃo entendoâ (opÃÃo â0â). As anÃlises foram efetuadas no SPSS. Avaliou-se o poder discriminativo dos itens e calculou-se a frequÃncia de respostas, agrupando-as em: âBaixa FrequÃnciaâ (respostas de 0 a 2) e âAlta FrequÃnciaâ (respostas de 3 a 5). Desse modo, consideraram-se para a prÃxima etapa apenas os itens que apresentaram poder discriminativo e âAlta FrequÃnciaâ acima de 50%. Na etapa II, revisou-se o conteÃdo dos itens selecionados anteriormente e realizou-se uma anÃlise de juÃzes. Ao final dessas avaliaÃÃes, foram mantidos 49 itens (40 referentes a comportamentos de motoristas de carro e de motocicleta, 4 especÃficos de carro e 5 especÃficos de motocicleta). Na etapa III, participaram 248 usuÃrios do Facebook, a maioria entre 18 e 25 anos (58,2%), mulheres (53,7%), solteiras (77,0%) e condutoras de carro (76,6%). Para as anÃlises, foram consideradas apenas as respostas dos motoristas de carro, devido ao reduzido nÃmero de participantes das outras categorias de habilitaÃÃo. Calcularam-se as estatÃsticas descritivas e realizou-se Teste t de Student (poder discriminativo dos itens). Os resultados indicaram que 24 itens discriminaram significativamente os grupos critÃrios. Ademais, os valores do KMO e do Teste de Esfericidade de Bartlett foram satisfatÃrios. Realizou-se uma anÃlise de Componentes Principais, com rotaÃÃo oblimim, considerando os critÃrios de Kaiser e Cattell. Constatou-se estrutura de dois fatores (comportamentos infratores e prossociais no trÃnsito). No Estudo 2, participaram 226 pessoas da populaÃÃo geral de Fortaleza (CE), com idades entre 18 e 86 anos (m = 31,07; dp = 11,72), a maioria homens (66,1%), solteiros (60,5%), com ensino superior completo (37,8%) e condutores de carro (60,5%). Os resultados demonstraram que a percepÃÃo de controle foi o preditor mais significativo da intenÃÃo. NÃo obstante algumas limitaÃÃes, ressalta-se que os objetivos foram alcanÃados, sendo propostos estudos futuros que contribuam para a prediÃÃo dos comportamentos dos motoristas.<br>This study aimed to predict behavioral intention drivers considering the variables of the Theory of Planned Action. To do so, two studies were performed. In Study I, the Behavior Traffic Scale was elaborated and, in Study II, tested the influence of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control in intent. In Study I, three empirical steps were performed. On the first step, the transgressive behaviors in traffic, as described in Brazilian Traffic Code, were randomly distributed into five questionnaires, with 44 items each. Then, data collection was carried out and counted with 271 participants from the general population of Fortaleza (CE), aged between 18 and 80 years (M = 34.7; SD = 13.8), mostly men (53.2 %), single (48.3%) and car drivers (69.7%). They answered demographic questions and the preliminary version of the Behavior Traffic Scale. At this stage, the drivers were asked if they understood the situations described and how often they think these situations happen in Fortaleza (CE), in a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Never and 5 = Always); if the participant did not understand the content of the item, they should mark "I did not understand" (option "0"). Data analysis were performed using SPSS. Specifically, the discriminative power (using t test) and the response frequency of each item were calculated, grouping them in "Low Frequency" (answers 0-2) and "High Frequency" (Answer 3 to 5). For Step II, only the items that showed discriminative power and "High Frequency" above 50% were considered. In this phase, the contents of the 83 selected items were reviewed by judges, and 49 items were kept (40 behaviors of car and motorcycle drivers, 4 for car drivers only and 5 for motorcycle drivers only). Finally, the third step counted with 248 Facebook users aged 18 to 86 years (M = 27.0, SD = 9.3), mostly women (53.7%), single (77.0%) and car drivers (76.6%). For data analysis, it was considered only the car drivers version due to the small number of participants having other license categories. Descriptive statistics and t test (discriminative power) were performed. The results indicated that 24 items significantly discriminated the criteria groups. In addition, there were satisfactory values of KMO and Bartlett's sphericity tests. Moreover, it was conducted a Principal Component Analysis with oblimin rotation, and were considered the criteria of Kaiser and Cattell. The results showed a two-factor structure (transgressive and proactive behaviors). In Study II, 226 people participated in the general population of Fortaleza (CE), aged 18 to 86 years (M = 31.07, SD = 11.72), most men (66.1%), single (60.5%) , university graduates (37.8%) and car drivers (60.5%). The perception of control was the most significant predictor of intention. Despite some limitations, it is emphasized that the objectives were achieved, and proposed future studies that contribute to the prediction of the behavior of drivers.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-01-07T12:17:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 anapaulasoarescampos.pdf: 496075 bytes, checksum: d5d3679c1f15801b7d782cd17fb7eb68 (MD5)<br>Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-01-25T16:42:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 anapaulasoarescampos.pdf: 496075 bytes, checksum: d5d3679c1f15801b7d782cd17fb7eb68 (MD5)<br>Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-25T16:42:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 anapaulasoarescampos.pdf: 496075 bytes, checksum: d5d3679c1f15801b7d782cd17fb7eb68 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-10<br>CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior<br>Com a impossibilidade de sustentar o primeiro dualismo, Freud se viu diante da ameaça de ter que admitir um monismo pulsional. No entanto, Freud sempre considerou fundamental pressupor um dualismo. Em Além do princípio do prazer (1920), ao refletir sobre a relação entre a compulsão à repetição e a atividade pulsional, ele chega ao conceito de pulsão de morte. Em oposição a esta nova classe de pulsão, Freud apresenta a pulsão de vida e, assim, substitui o primeiro dualismo pulsional. Ambas as classes de pulsões teriam entrado em ação com o surgimento da vida a partir da matéria inorgânica. Enquanto a pulsão de morte buscaria retornar ao estado inorgânico, a pulsão de vida buscaria complexificar a vida, dificultando a morte do organismo. Mas a hipótese do segundo dualismo apresenta uma série de dificuldades, que colocam em questão até que ponto Freud conseguiu sustentá-la. Ele próprio reconhece, na obra de 1920, que o novo dualismo pulsional não apresenta o mesmo grau de certeza que os passos anteriores do desenvolvimento de sua teoria das pulsões. O objetivo deste trabalho é, em primeiro lugar, analisar a teoria apresentada em Além do princípio do prazer e discutir alguns dos principais problemas presentes na argumentação freudiana. Em seguida, procuramos analisar as hipóteses elaboradas por Freud sobre as duas classes de pulsões em textos posteriores, tendo em vista analisar em que medida ele consegue sustentar a primariedade e a independência das duas classes de pulsões no restante de sua teoria. Concluímos que os impasses presente no texto de 1920 não são plenamente solucionados e procuramos apontar as principais questões que permanecem em aberto na teoria freudiana acerca do segundo dualismo pulsional.<br>With the impossibility of sustaining the first dualism, Freud was faced with the threat of having to admit a drive monism. However, Freud always considered fundamental to assume a dualism. In Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), when reflecting on the relationship between the repetition compulsion and drive activity, he gets the concept of the death drive. In opposition to this new drive class, Freud presents the life drive and, thus, replaces the first drive dualism. Both drive classes would act with the emergence of life from inorganic matter. While the death drive would return to the inorganic state, the life drive would make the life more complex, making the death of the organism harder. However, the second dualism hypothesis presents a number of difficulties which begs the question if Freud was able to sustain this. In his work of 1920, he recognizes that the new drive dualism does not present the same degree of certainty that the previous steps of the development of his theory of drives. The objective here is, first, to analyze the theory presented in Beyond the Pleasure Principle and discuss some of the main problems present in Freud's argument. Then we analyzed the hypotheses developed by Freud regarding the two drive classes in later works in order to analyze how he can sustain the primarity and independence of the two drive classes in the remaining of his theory. We conclude that the impasses in the text of 1920 are not fully solved and we try to point out the main issues that remain open in the Freudian theory about the second drive dualism.

This thesis focuses on the explanation of anomalies as an approach to anomaly-driven revision of a theory. An anomaly is identified when a theory (or model of a domain) does not accurately reflect a domain observation, indicating that the theory (or model) requires refinement. In some cases an explanation can be generated for an anomalous observation using existing domain knowledge and hence a revision to the existing theory can be provided. Ontologies have been used in both stages of an investigation presented in this thesis; in the first stage, a domain ontology and expert-acquired strategies have been used as part of a knowledge-based system, EIRA (Explaining, Inferencing, and Reasoning about Anomalies), to generate explanations for an anomaly; in the second stage, domain ontologies have been used to suggest refinements to an incorrect or incomplete domain ontology. In the first stage of the investigation, extensive interviews were held with domain experts; the analysis of which led to the identification of both examples of anomalies encountered in the domain and the strategies used by the domain experts to provide (appropriate) explanations for the anomalies. EIRA is able to replicate these explanations; when EIRA is presented with an anomaly, potential explanations are generated by the application of expert-acquired strategies to the domain knowledge, patient data, and information about the clinical situation. To evaluate this approach, EIRA has been applied in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) domain and ICU clinicians have evaluated the explanations produced by EIRA. The strategies used by EIRA have been abstracted further to form generic strategies for anomaly resolution. In the second stage, EIRA has been extended to investigate the use of domain ontologies to suggest refinements to an incomplete or incorrect ontology. These additional refinements are generated by reasoning about analogous concepts from the domain ontology. The findings described in this thesis support the belief that ontologies can be used to generate explanations to refine a theory, further, that the extensive domain knowledge contained in an ontology allows for sophisticated refinements of a knowledge base. Previous approaches to theory revision have largely focused on the refinement of an instantiated rule base, in which limited domain knowledge is incorporated in the rules and hence the refinements are essentially captured in a particular knowledge base. In these earlier approaches, refinements to remove the anomaly were generally suggested after applying machine learning techniques on data from the domain; however, this process requires large datasets, the refinements generated are not always acceptable to domain experts, and providing explanations (using an ontology) to account for anomalies have not been investigated. I believe that the findings reported in this thesis are significant and make a number of contributions including a novel approach to anomaly-driven revision of a theory.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-46).<br>Many contemporary organisations implement programmes to gain a competitive advantage over their rivals. Such organisations invest money and human capital into such programmes and this has given rise to the need for accountability of these programmes. The field of programme evaluation makes use of social science research methods to investigate the effectiveness of programmes and to offer guidance on how best to improve these programmes. Programme evaluation has different approaches and theory-driven evaluation is one such approach. This dissertation makes use of the theory-driven evaluation approach to develop a programme theory for a Financial Services Provider (FSP)'s induction programme. The induction programme that is implemented by the FSP is targeted at new employees and aims to improve their knowledge and skill and in the long term to retain these new employees.

Superconducting circuits provide an architecture upon which cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) can be implemented at microwave frequencies in a highly tunable environment. Known as circuit QED, these systems can achieve larger nonlinearities, stronger coupling and greater controllability than can be achieved in cavity QED, all in a customisable, solid state device, making this technology an exciting test bed for both quantum optics and quantum information processing. These new parameter regimes open up new avenues for quantum technology, while also allowing older quantum optics results to finally be tested. In particular is is now possible to experimentally produce nonclassical states, such as squeezed and Schr\"odinger cat states, relatively simply in these devices. Using open quantum systems methods, in this thesis we investigate four problems which involve the use of nonclassical states in circuit QED. First we investigate the effects of a Kerr nonlinearity on the ability to preserve transported squeezed states in a superconducting cavity, and whether this setup permits us to generate, and perform tomography, of a highly squeezed field using a qubit, with possible applications in the characterisation of sources of squeezed microwaves. Second, we present a novel scheme for the amplification of cat states using a coupled qubit and external microwave drives, inspired by the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. This scheme differs from similar techniques in circuit QED in that it is deterministic and therefore compatible with a protocol for stabilising cat states without the need for complex dissipation engineering. Next we use solutions of Fokker-Planck equations to study the exact steady-state response of two nonlinear systems: a transmon qubit coupled to a readout resonator, where we find good agreement with experiments and see simultaneous bistability of the cavity and transmon; and a parametrically driven nonlinear resonator, where we compare the classical and quantum phases of the system and discuss applications in the generation of squeezed states and stabilisation of cat states. Finally, we investigate the use of two different types of superconducting qubits in a single experiment, seeing that this enables engineering of the self- and cross-Kerr effects in a line of cavities. This could provide a valuable means of entangling cavity states, in addition to a resource for quantum simulation.

The challenges organisations face today are not only offering new products or technologies but also altering the nature of management within organisations. The purpose of this research was to explore issues related to management innovation, their drivers and answer a call for more research on drivers of management innovation. This study makes significant contributions and extends the management innovation literature by providing the link between external and internal drivers of management innovation. The findings from this research provide new insights into innovation development activities by promoting business growth and preventing high failure rates of innovation adoptions.

Two quadtree algorithms are presented that use table driven traversals to reduce the time complexity required to achieve their respective goals. The first algorithm is a two step process that converts a boundary representation of a polygon into a corresponding region representation of the same image. The first step orders the border pixels of the polygon. The second step fills in the polygon in O(B) time where B is the number of border pixels for the polygon of interest. A table propagates the correct values of upcoming nodes in a simulated traversal of the final region quadtree. This is unique because the pointer representation of the tree being traversed does not exist. A linear quadtree representation is constructed as this traversal proceeds. The second algorithm is an update algorithm for a quadtree (or octtree) of moving particles. Particle simulations have had the long-standing problem of calculating the interactions among n particles. It takes O(n2) time for direct computation of all the interactions between n particles. Greengard [Gree87, Carr87] has devised a way to approximate these calculations in linear time using a tree data structure. However, the particle simulation must still rebuild the particle tree after every iteration, which requires O(n log n) time. Our algorithm updates the existing tree of particles, rather than building a new tree. It operates in near linear time in the number of particles being simulated. The update algorithm uses a table to store particles as they move between nodes of the tree.<br>Master of Science

This thesis presents a classic grounded theory study of Condition Management Programmes, which form part of the UK Government Initiative Pathways to Work. Condition Management Programmes provide short, work focused interventions to help people claiming incapacity benefits to return to employment. Delivered jointly between Jobcentre Plus and the NHS, or by providers within the private and voluntary sectors, health care practitioners working in Condition Management Programmes are often faced with competing priorities. This thesis has identified practitioners’ concern with being person driven in a service driven organisation, and presents the emergent grounded theory of Revisioning Service Ideals and Client Realities which explains conceptually the means through which this concern is continually resolved. Practitioners are conceptualised as ‘revisioning’ or making thoughtful, situational adaptations to their practice which either deviate from or retreat within service boundaries. By cycling iteratively between deconstructing and reinstating service ideals, practitioners are able to create a reverberating equilibrium between the expectations and realities of practice, negotiating a person driven approach without compromising service structures completely. The theory has been developed using the full complement of classic grounded theory procedures and is based on interviews with 35 practitioners and observations of 26 practitioner-client sessions. Additional informal observations, programme documentation, client case notes and extant literature were also included as data. The theory adds to current Condition Management literature by explaining the differences across and within programmes, highlighting some important considerations for future development and evaluation within welfare to work. Furthermore, the theory of Revisioning Service Ideals and Client Realities, on account of its conceptual nature, also demonstrates relevance outwith its substantive area. Most notably, offering contributions to current research on treatment fidelity, theories of organisations and bureaucracy, and professional and clinical reasoning by offering a conceptual explanation of the behaviour of practitioners in daily practice.

This thesis concerns the combination of two overlapping fields in physics: condensed matter and electromagnetism. Specifically the problem posed of simulating the movement of magnetic domains by applied magnetic, and electric, fields. In this investigation electronic structure methods are used in an attempt to parametrise longer length-scale micromagnetic simulations. Previous works in the field have relied upon suitable experiments having been conducted, whereas this work can stand alone - albeit with its own propagation of systematic errors. Modelling is undertaken to predict the applicability of cobalt platinum multilayers as a new type of computer memory. Although results are promising, features not in the remit of this thesis, such as practicality, are noted to be major obstacles that would need to be overcome. Ab initio methods are used with varying success to predict the saturation magnetisation, Gilbert damping parameter, and anisotropy parameter of cobalt platinum systems.

This literature-based thesis studies the phenomenon of the regular plural inside compounds according to Giegerich’s (1999) stratal model of English morphology. The strata of his model are defined by their bases: stratum 1 is root-based and stratum 2 is word-based. The model overcomes the failings associated with earlier stratal models defined by their affixes (e.g., Kiparsky, 1982). However, assigning compounding and the regular plural to the same word stratum following Giegerich’s (1999) model leaves an open question in terms of what restricts the interaction between both rules to prevent the generation of ill-formed compounds such as *toys box and *trucks driver. Another question emerges: Should the regular plural inflection be assigned to stratum 2? This question is important because the answer affects how we discuss the interaction between the regular plural and compounding. For example, how do we account for the interaction between a stratum-2 rule and a syntactic rule if we are not dealing with an interaction of two lexical rules at the same stratum? This thesis challenges the theory that inflectional morphology is separate from the lexicon (Anderson, 1988, 1982; Perlmutter, 1988) with supporting evidence from the properties of the possessive inflection. This research contributes significantly to the literature in its analysis of a number of compounds within texts extracted from books, which demonstrates that the internal regular plural morpheme has an evident semantic function that restricts it from appearing inside compounds (that is, on stratum 2 of the base-driven stratification model). The study thereby challenges Lieber and Štekauer’s (2009) view that the internal regular plural morpheme is purposeless and therefore should be regarded as a linking element. I also argue that the possessive inflection is assigned to stratum 2 and can interact with compounding to form possessive compounds, but is restricted by the semantic feature of the non-head element.

In this thesis, we focus on the steady state properties of two systems which are genuinely out of equilibrium. The first project is an application of dynamic field theory to a specific non equilibrium critical phenomenon, while the second project involves both simulations and analytical calculations. The methods of field theory are used on both these projects. In the first part of this thesis, we investigate a generalization of the well-known field theory for directed percolation (DP). The DP theory is known to describe an evolving population, near extinction. We have coupled this evolving population to an environment with its own nontrivial spatio-temporal dynamics. Here, we consider the special case where the environment follows a simple relaxational (model A) dynamics. We find two marginal couplings with upper critical dimension of four, which couple the two theories in a nontrivial way. While the Wilson-Fisher fixed point remains completely unaffected, a mismatch of time scales destabilizes the usual DP fixed point. Some open questions and future work remain. In the second project, we focus on a simple particle transport model far from equilibrium, namely, the totally asymmetric simple exclusion process (TASEP). While its stationary properties are well studied, many of its dynamic features remain unexplored. Here, we focus on the power spectrum of the total particle occupancy in the system. This quantity exhibits unexpected oscillations in the low density phase. Using standard Monte Carlo simulations and analytic calculations, we probe the dependence of these oscillations on boundary effects, the system size, and the overall particle density. Our simulations are fitted to the predictions of a linearized theory for the fluctuation of the particle density. Two of the fit parameters, namely the diffusion constant and the noise strength, deviate from their naive bare values [6]. In particular, the former increases significantly with the system size. Since this behavior can only be caused by nonlinear effects, we calculate the lowest order corrections in perturbation theory. Several open questions and future work are discussed.<br>Ph. D.

Driving while drowsy is a major cause behind road accidents, and exposes the driver to a much higher crash risk compared to driving while alert. Therefore, the use of assistive systems that monitor a driver’s level of vigilance and alert the fatigue driver can be significant in the prevention of accidents. This thesis introduces three different methods towards the detection of drivers’ drowsiness based on yawning measurement. All three approaches involve several steps, including the real time detection of the driver’s face, mouth and yawning. The last approach, which is the most accurate, is based on the Viola-Jones theory for face and mouth detection and the back projection theory for measuring both the rate and the amount of changes in the mouth for yawning detection. Test results demonstrate that the proposed system can efficiently measure the aforementioned parameters and detect the yawning state as a sign of a driver’s drowsiness.

The concept of faster than light travel in general relativity is examined, starting with a review of the Alcubierre metric. This spacetime, although incredible in its implications, has certain unavoidable problems which are discussed in detail. It is demonstrated that in order to describe faster than light travel without any ambiguities, a coordinate independent description is much more convenient. An alternative method of describing superluminal travel is then proposed, which has similarities to the Krasnikov tube.