Theory of plenices.

Many structures such as biological, chemical, social and data structures can be graphically represented by trees. Therefore, the concept that is represented by a tree structure may have applications in many branches of human knowledge. For example, in computer science, data structures are an important way of organising information in a computer. A tree is a mathematical structure that can be viewed either as a graph or as a data structure. The two views are equivalent, since a tree data structure contains not only a set of elements, but also connections between the elements, resulting in a tree graph. The first part of this research contains a description of a mathematical object that consists of an arrangement of various mathematical objects. This mathematical object is called a 'plenix' (plural 'plenices'). A plenix is like a tree structure in which every branch is a mathematical object. In other words, a plenix is a sequence of zero or more mathematical objects, where the term mathematical object is taken to include a plenix. This definition of a plenix is similar to the definition of a list in a data structure, that is, a list is an ordered collection of values, where the same value may occur more than once. A list may have other lists as elements. Therefore, a plenix may be considered as an object that has some characteristics of a tree and some characteristics of a list. As an example. Fig 1 represents a plenix. It consists of an arrangement of three numbers, a vector, a matrix, two sets and a Boolean entity. Actually, as illustrated by Fig 1, a plenix consists of a sequence of elements each of which consists of a sequence of elements and so on. The above plenix may be represented as follows: {8,0,1}, T, {a, b}>, 3/5>,[4,7,1,3],3 137 [(6 2)(5 7)]>, 7.4> This plenix consists of four principal elements as follows: {8, 0, 1}, T, {a, b}>, 3/5> [4,7,1,3] 137 [(6 2)(5 7)]> and 7.4 In the case of the plenix of Fig 1, the first and the third elements themselves are plenices. The main aim of this research is to create an algebraic structure on the set of plenices and also to investigate the structure of a plenix from the point of view of pure mathematics. The Thesis is subdivided into seven chapters. Chapter one includes the introduction and the literature review. Chapters two, three and four contain the definition of an algebraic structure on the set of plenices, as well as the study of this structure. hi Chapter two, the fundamental concepts of the theory of plenices are defined. Chapter three is devoted to the description of the concepts of plenix relations. A plenix may act as an operator or be an operand. A plenix may act as a function or be an argument of a function. Also, a plenix may be involved in various processes of calculus. These aspects of plenices are discussed in Chapter four. The structure of a plenix (connection between elements) is at the very heart of the notion of a plenix. The second part of this research, in Chapters five and six, contains the study of the structure of a plenix. The structure of a plenix is called a 'nexus', hi Chapter five, a nexus is defined as a set of sequences of numbers with some conditions. Then, the properties of this set are investigated. In Chapter six, an important type of subnexus is defined that has some resemblance to the concept of prime numbers. These subnexuses are called prime subnexuses. It is then shown that a nexus is equal to the intersection of some of its prime subnexuses. Chapter seven contains the conclusions of the work. I am confident that the material presented in this Thesis will, in due course, find many applications in various branches of human knowledge. However, this Thesis is really a pure mathematical work and does not include any actual applications (other than a reference to the use of the concept of a plenix as a data structure in the first Chapter). The point is that to find practical applications for a mathematical idea, in a field of knowledge, requires in-depth familiarity with that field and this is normally done by an expert in that application rather than the person who has founded the mathematical idea. A final point that needs clarification is that there are only a few publications related to the idea of a plenix, as listed in the references at the end of the Thesis. Therefore the literature survey for this work has had a very limited scope

On Submoduloids of a Moduloid on Nexus

In this paper, the submoduloid of a moduloid on nexus that is generated by a subset, cyclic submoduloid and bounded sets are defined and the properties of structures on it are investigated. Also, the fractions of a moduloid on nexus are defined and shown to be isomorphic with a moduloid on nexus

Analysing the impact of corporate governance on corporate sustainability at board level.

Stakeholders are increasingly holding companies accountable for their environmental and social conduct. Organisations are engaging in, and incorporating, social and environmental issues in their business models, organisational structures and processes. The board of directors are responsible for the overall achievement and oversight of the organisation’s aims and objectives. However, there is little detail on the board’s role in monitoring and overseeing social and environmental issues in the corporate governance realm. This thesis addresses this void in several ways. First a systematic literature review provides a comprehensive synthesis of the extant literature investigating the board of director’s role as a core element of corporate governance in corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Critical assessment of a sample of 67 studies from 18 highly regarded scholarly journals published between 1992 and 2020 uncovers similarities and inconsistencies regarding the effects of various board attributes on CSR-performance. The review reveals these attributes do not work in isolation, but interact with each other and the context in which they are embedded in shaping CSR-performance. Second, empirical analysis of a cross-industry sample of 2891 firm-year observations from 789 FTSE350 and S&P500 listed companies during a 4-year period (2013-2016) investigates the role of the board attributes in driving CSR-performance. The influence of the board-level CSR-committee – a board attribute that despite the increased prevalence of such committees on the board is largely understudied – in driving CSR-performance is explored. This contributes to the growing literature on CSR-committees by investigating their presence, composition and interactive effects with various board attributes in driving CSR-performance. Additionally, contributing to the recent call for investigating interactions among board attributes and their impact on CSR-performance. Finally a configurational approach is used to further explore board attribute interactions and combined impacts on CSR- performance. The results of a Qualitative Comparative Analysis reveals nine board configurations leading to high CSR-performance. This contributes to the argument that “one-size” does not fit all, and different boards can achieve the same results via unique configurations of attributes.PhD in Leadership and Managemen

Point Cloud-based Deep Learning and UAV Path Planning for Surface Defect Detection of Concrete Bridges

Over the past decades, several bridges have collapsed, causing many losses due to the lack of proper monitoring and inspection. Although several new techniques have been developed to detect bridge defects, annual visual inspection remains the main approach. Visual inspection, using naked eyes, is time-consuming and subjective because of human errors. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanning is a new technology to collect 3D point clouds. The main strength of point clouds over 2D images is collecting the third dimension of the scanned objects. Deep Learning (DL)-based methods have attracted the researchers’ attention for concrete surface defect detection. However, no point cloud-based DL method is currently available for semantic segmentation of bridge surface defects without converting the raw point cloud dataset into other representations, which results in increasing the size of the dataset and leads to some challenges regarding storage capacity, cost, and training time. Some promising point cloud-based semantic segmentation methods (i.e., PointNet and PointNet++) have been applied in segmenting bridge components (i.e., slabs, piers), but not for segmenting surface defects (i.e., cracks, spalls). Moreover, most of the current point cloud-based concrete surface defect detection methods focus on only one type of defects. On the other hand, in DL, a dataset plays a key role in terms of variety, diversity, accuracy, and size. The lack of publicly available point cloud datasets for bridge surface defects is one of the reasons of the lack of studies in the area of point cloud-based methods. Furthermore, compared with terrestrial LiDAR scanning, LiDAR-equipped Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is capable of scanning the inaccessible surfaces of the bridges at a closer distance with higher safety. Although the UAV flying path can be controlled using remote controllers, automating and optimizing UAV path planning is preferable for being able to trace a collision-free path with minimum flight time. To increase the efficiency and accuracy of this approach, it is crucial to scan all parts of the bridge with a near perpendicular view. However, in the case of obstacle existence (e.g., bridge piers), achieving full coverage with near perpendicular view may not be possible. To provide more accurate results, using overlapping views is recommended. However, this method could result in increasing the inspection cost and time. Therefore, overlapping views should be considered only for surface areas where defects are expected. Addressing the above issues, this research aims to: (1) create a publicly available point cloud dataset for concrete bridge surface defect semantic segmentation, (2) develop a point cloud-based semantic segmentation DL method to detect different types of concrete surface defects, and (3) propose a novel near-optimal path planning method for LiDAR-equipped UAV with respect to the minimum path length and maximum coverage considering the potential locations of defects. On this premise, a point cloud-based DL method for semantic segmentation of concrete bridge surface defects (i.e., cracks and spalls), called SNEPointNet++, is developed. To have a network with high-performance, SNEPointNet++ focuses on two main characteristics related to surface defects (i.e., normal vector and depth) and takes into account the issues related to the point cloud dataset (i.e., small size and imbalanced dataset). Sensitivity analysis is applied to capture the best combination of hyperparameters and investigate their effects on network performance. The dataset, which was collected from four concrete bridges, was annotated, augmented, and classified into three classes: cracks, spalls, and no defect. This dataset is made available for other researchers. The model was trained and evaluated using 60% and 20% of the dataset, respectively. Testing on the remaining part of the dataset resulted in 93% recall (69% IoU) and 92% recall (82.5% IoU) for cracks and spalls, respectively. Moreover, the results show that the spalls of the segments deeper than 7 cm (severe spalls) can be detected with 99% recall. On the other hand, this research proposes a 3D path planning method for using a UAV equipped with a LiDAR for bridge inspection to have efficient data collection. The method integrates a Genetic Algorithm (GA) and A* algorithm to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), considering the potential locations of bridge surface defects such as cracks. The objective is to minimize the time of flight while achieving maximum visibility. The method provides the potential locations of surface defects to efficiently achieve perpendicular and overlapping views for sampling the viewpoints. Calculating the visibility with respect to the level of criticality leads to giving the priority to covering the areas with higher risk levels. Applying the proposed method on a 3-span bridge in Alberta, the results reveal that considering overlapping views based on the level of criticality of the zones and perpendicular views for all viewpoints leads to accurate and time-efficient data collection

Autism in the Classroom: Educational Issues across the Lifespan

This chapter reviews educational strategies and legal policies impacting effective schooling for children, youth, and young adults. Emphasis is on the classroom manifestation of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and how general education teachers can effectively facilitate learning. Within early school years, the importance of positive student-teacher relationships (STRs) in the face of challenging behaviors is discussed, including ways to build positive STRs. In middle and high school, social relationships serve as protective factors against mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety). Literature on this topic, including issues related to bullying, is presented. In postsecondary settings, young adults with ASD continue to have poor outcomes (e.g. loneliness, unemployment); strategies for helping adolescents transition to adulthood is discussed. While there are many other aspects to educational program appropriate for individuals with ASD (e.g., curriculum content), this chapter highlights recent issues that may be informative to a wide audience—school teachers and staff, researchers, and parents

Photoelectrochemical imaging of gold nanoparticles by light-activated electrochemistry

The concept of light-activated electrochemistry (LAE) on Si was developed as a single-wire electrode array where a light pointer created localized conductive channels on a monolithic monolayer-terminated Si electrode and allowed undertaking spatially-resolved faradaic electrochemistry on the surface of Si electrode at desired locations. Herein, LAE was expanded to an electrochemical imaging technique. In the original work published for LAE and the follow-up studies, the Si electrode was modified and investigated with redox species, such as ferrocene or anthraquinone, attached to a monolayer modified electrode, which limits the working potential of the system, in particular for imaging applications. In this thesis, to overcome this limitation, instead of redox species, AuNPs were attached to the monolayer (SAM) and redox species were dissolved in the electrolyte. Then the behaviour of the construct was studied on Si electrodes using a variety of doping level and types as well as dissolved redox species with various charges and oxidation states. Most favourable results were obtained using an n-type Si for photo oxidation of Co(phen)32+, which is a positively charged species undergoing oxidation initially. Favourable means before attaching AuNPs, the NH2-terminated electrode is passivated against electron transfer to/from Co(phen)32+ in the dark and light, while upon attachment of AuNPs, electron transfer is restored under illumination and is negligible in the dark. Finally, the developed electrode and knowledge were implemented to record a photoelectrochemical image of a AuNP island on an NH2-terminated electrode using a state-of-the-art light projector. The developed imaging technique significantly enhances the versatility of electrochemical imaging compared to the conventional methods like scanning electrochemical microscopy, that employ a mechanically moving tip with predefined geometry, limited scanning speeds and intricate positioning. Whereas, the LAE-based technique developed in this thesis takes advantage of a high-speed light projector, which is versatile in terms of light spot shape, size, and scanning speed, therefore, making it a potential high-speed high throughput electrochemical imaging technique

The impact of corporate governance on corporate social responsibility at the board-level: a critical assessment

The purpose of this research is to synthesise and critically evaluate the extant literature investigating the role of board of directors as a core element of corporate governance in corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Adopting a systematic review approach, a sample of 67 studies from 18 highly regarded scholarly journals published between 1992 and 2020 is examined. Distinguishing between two board attributes of director characteristics and board structures, our study uncovers similarities and inconsistencies regarding the effects of various board characteristics and board structures on CSR performance. First, our study reveals that these attributes do not work in isolation but interact with each other and the context in which they are embedded in shaping CSR performance. Additionally, our review identifies substantial variation in conceptualisations, theoretical frameworks, the use of measurements and the contexts across studies providing a basis to offer a comprehensive synthesis of dominant scholarly discourses and an organising lens for future scholarship