Efficient Structure and Motion: Path Planning, Uncertainty and Sparsity

This thesis explores methods for solving the structure-and-motion problem in computer vision, the recovery of three-dimensional data from a series of two-dimensional image projections. The first paper investigates an alternative state space parametrization for use with the Kalman filter approach to simultaneous localization and mapping, and shows it has superior convergence properties compared with the state-of-the-art. The second paper presents a continuous optimization method for mobile robot path planning, designed to minimize the uncertainty of the geometry reconstructed from images taken by the robot. Similar concepts are applied in the third paper to the problem of sequential 3D reconstruction from unordered image sequences, resulting in increased robustness, accuracy and a reduced need for costly bundle adjustment operations. In the final paper, a method for efficient solution of bundle adjustment problems based on a junction tree decomposition is presented, exploiting the sparseness patterns in typical structure-and-motion input data

Adolescent and Emerging Adult Help Seeking Using Anonymous Telephone and Live Chat Technology

Kids Help Phone is an on-demand, single-session, bilingual, free, and confidential service for young people in Canada who seek help for mental health issues and problems of daily living. 232 telephone clients and 230 Live Chat clients responded to the Counselling Client Questionnaire 2 (CCQ-2) to provide a demographic description of the youth who access this anonymous service, and assess and compare the effectiveness of telephone and text-based counselling. Transcripts of counselling sessions were analyzed using the Evidence of Mental Health Symptoms Scale for Adolescents (EMHSS-A) to describe the nature and level of risk associated with the situations clients brought to counselling, particularly as they related to mental health problems. 465 adolescents waiting in queue to access chat counselling responded to the Youth Self Report (YSR) to provide a description of the mental health symptoms of chat clients. Chat transcripts were further analyzed using the Collaborative Interactions Scale (CIS) to assess what works in terms of supporting the therapeutic relationship in time-synchronous text-to-text counselling. More clients had sexual and cultural minority identities than expected given their proportion in the population. 29% and 26% of clients were dealing with high- and medium-risk situations. According to the YSR, 64% of clients scored in the clinical range for affective problems, 56% for obsessive compulsive problems, and 51% for post-traumatic stress problems. Phone and chat clients reported decreased distress and perceived difficulty of their problems, and increased problem clarity, self-efficacy, and hope. Suggestions for how chat counsellors can manage ruptures and repairs in the therapeutic relationship are provided. Keywords: telephone counselling, e-counselling, computer-mediated communication, help-seeking, adolescenc

Using sociocultural and cognitive lenses the nature of reading scaffolding provided by an experienced district literacy coach during an upper elementary small group reading intervention

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on October 26, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Elizabeth BakerIncludes bibliographical references.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2012."July 2012"No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2002) and the reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004) asserted the need for American children to receive scientifically research-based instruction and interventions. A variety of quantitative studies have determined components of effective reading interventions (Edmonds et al., 2009; Simmons et al., 2007; Wanzek, Wexler, Vaughn, & Ciullo, 2009; Vellutino, Scanlon, Small, & Fanuele, 2006 ). Few studies have described instructional strategies teachers provide during scientifically research-based reading interventions. Using sociocultural and cognitive perspectives, I conducted this study with the intent of describing an instructional strategy, scaffolding, provided by an experienced district literacy coach. A constructivist paradigm informed this study's methodology. One experienced district literacy coach and five fourth-grade students participated in this descriptive case study (Merriam, 2009). The coach was observed during the course of the intervention interacting with the students. Informal and semi-structured interviews were conducted weekly as a way to co-construct the district literacy coach's reality of the nature of scaffolding. Artifacts were gathered to triangulate the data. Three key findings emerged about the nature of reading scaffolding: possessing in-depth knowledge of qualities of proficient reading, diagnosing students' needs and strengths, and providing lower-level to higher-level scaffolding.Includes bibliographical reference

Individualized Instruction in Contrast to Total Classroom Instruction in Vocabulary Development

The purpose of this pilot study was to test the null hypothesis there was no significant difference in methods used in teaching vocabulary development in an individualized method as opposed to normal classroom methods. It was also the purpose of this pilot study to: (1) compare the amount of progress in vocabulary development the girls made as to the amount of progress in vocabulary development the boys made; (2) compare the boys of the control group and the experimental group as to which made the greater gains in vocabulary development; (3) compare the girls of the control group and the experimental group as to which made the greater gains in vocabulary development; (4) compare the boys of the control group to the girls of the control group and the boys of the experimental group to the girls of the experimental group as to which made the greater gains in vocabulary development