Browsing by Subject "Autonomy"
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Item Autonomous time-optimal spacecraft rendezvous and proximity operations using stabilized continuation(2016-05) Kollin, Emily Margaret; Akella, Maruthi Ram, 1972-; Bakolas, EfstathiosThis thesis addresses the minimum-time rendezvous optimal control problem by implementing continuation with a stabilizing input. The rendezvous problem is first formulated as an optimal control problem which is then parameterized to enable the inclusion of the continuation parameter. A stabilizing input is then applied to attenuate the errors accumulated during the process of numerical integration. In this work, a state feedback stabilizing term with an additive open-loop control stabilizing term is implemented. By applying stabilized continuation to a rendezvous scenario in which two spacecraft are initialized in the same planar, circular orbit separated by some phase angle, a family of minimum-time rendezvous solutions is obtained for variable levels of thrust, mass flow rate, or initial phase angle separation. The approach is first demonstrated on a linear harmonic oscillator problem, and then applied to the Keplerian two-body motion model, with and without the inclusion of atmospheric drag perturbations. In addition to rendezvous trajectories, the approach is also applied to generate kinetic impact trajectories. This work considers only translational dynamics in two-dimensional space, however, the scope is not limited strictly to circular orbits. The effectiveness of the stabilized continuation scheme when used to generate minimum-time rendezvous and kinetic impact trajectories is demonstrated through simulations. The optimality of the solutions is verified with the Hamiltonian. The performance of the stabilized continuation scheme is compared against that of a direct shooting method, and the results obtained in this thesis are compared to other results from similar applications in the literature.Item Autonomy road : the cultural politics of Chicana/o autonomous organizing in Los Angeles, California(2011-08) Gonzalez, Pablo, active 21st century 1976-; Flores, Richard R.Since 1994, Chicana/o artists, musicians, and activists have been in dialogue with the Zapatista indigenous movement of Chiapas, Mexico. Such a transnational bridge has resonated in a new and unique form of Chicana/o cultural politics centered on the Zapatista concept of “autonomy” and “autonomous organizing.” In Los Angeles, California, this brand of “Chicana/o urban Zapatismo,” as I refer to it in the dissertation, is symbolic of recent political and cultural organizing efforts by Chicanos to combat housing gentrification, economic restructuring, racial and ethnic cleansing, environmental pollution in low-income areas, and mass anti-immigrant hysteria. This dissertation contends that Chicana/o urban Zapatismo is a result of various local, statewide, national, and international social justice movements that embrace the global trend in urban and rural areas towards constructing locally rooted participatory and democratic methods of organizing that are “horizontal” and that mobilize against such far-reaching social forces as racism and global capitalism. Using ethnographic data and interviews collected between 2005 to 2007, this dissertation maps the emergence of Chicana/o urban Zapatismo by tracing its historical origins to the changing social, political, and economic conditions of ethnic Mexican communities in Los Angeles, California; capturing the everyday internal and external tensions between one primarily working class Chicano autonomous collective, the Eastside Café ECHOSPACE in El Sereno, California; offering the case study of the South Central Farm, a 14-acre Mexican and Latino immigrant community garden; and charting the trans-border organizing of Chicana/o urban Zapatistas surrounding the most recent Zapatista-initiated project, “the Mexican Other Campaign”. These four distinct case studies converge in Los Angeles in the creation of a unique political process referred to as “urban Zapatismo”. This ethnographic study suggests that by uncovering the everyday relationships and tensions between Chicana/o urban Zapatistas in Los Angeles and the communities they live in, researchers looking at the production of different forms of racisms and structural inequalities in urban areas may derive a greater understanding of social (re)organization and mobilization by a growing, diverse, and historically marginalized group like Chicanos in the United States.Item Children's resilience in the presence of mothers' depressive symptoms : examining proximal regulatory processes related to active agency(2014-05) Yan, Ni, active 21st century; Dix, Theodore H.Using a large sample from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, the current study examined the processes through which children's agentic processes promoted their resilience in the face of mothers' depressive symptoms at first grade. Children's resilience in the presence of mothers' depressive symptoms was demonstrated to be homogeneous across domains of academic performance, social competence, internalizing behavior, and externalizing behavior. Children's effortful control, self-assertion, and mastery motivation predicted their resilience in these domains to a varying degree. The agentic processes mediated the relation of different patterns of individual (i.e., child intelligence, temperament), relational (i.e., attachment security), and environmental (i.e., maternal sensitivity, childcare quality) factors to children's resilience across domains. Interrelations among child individual, relational, and environmental characteristics were also observed. Moreover, findings from two analytic approaches converged in terms of underscoring the importance of the agentic system in promoting child resilience in the face of mothers' depressive symptoms. Children's agentic processes promoted their resilience via additive main effects rather than interactive effects.Item The criteria of culture : an evaluation of criteria used in the selection of foreign language texts for C2 research and instruction(2011-12) Sanchez, Chelsea Kathlyn; Garza, Thomas J.; Pulido, Diana C.This report discusses the history of culture instruction in the language classroom and the increasing attraction to teaching culture as a process, as championed by Byram's (1997) discussion of objectives for intercultural communicative competence (ICC), rather than as the static facts reflected in traditional “culture capsule” lessons. Although according to Burwitz-Melzer (2001) such objectives left “teachers at a loss as to what to expect from their learners, how to structure their lessons and how to structure their lessons,” (p.31), using the recent outpouring of literature on ICC and its subfield, transcultural literacy, in this report Byram's original goals are adapted into an instructional timeline to guide teachers in encouraging the development of ICC, with evidence contradicting Byram's claims that such a process cannot be represented linearly or generalized to all language learning contexts. These goals are followed by resulting criteria for the selection of texts and supplementary tasks acting as the focal point of integrated language and culture lessons. These criteria are then translated into a rubric to assist instructors in identifying the aspects of a text that naturally encourage ICC development and which aspects require additional support in order to be beneficial for this purpose. Finally, this rubric is used to assess three lesson plans published in peer-reviewed journals for the contexts of English, Spanish, and German as foreign languages at the university level, as well as a text for a secondary EFL classroom with an example lesson plan of efficient language and culture integration, leading to a discussion of the need for future research on the interaction of text and task in cultural instruction.Item The effects of resistance training on mood following an autonomous vs. yoked protocol(2015-05) Cheshire, Philip Andrew; Bartholomew, John B.; Jowers, EsbelleBackground. Previous research has shown that an individual’s post-exercise mood plays an important role in their likelihood to participate in that exercise activity in the future (Emmons & Diener, 1986; Williams et al., 2008; Williams et al., 2012). Of the possible moderating variables in the exercise-affect relationship, exercise intensity shows the most support. However, an uncoupling effect manifested in Parffit, Rose, & Burgess (2006) showed that self-selecting the intensity acted as an affective buffer and essentially allowed participants to exercise at higher intensity without the expected drop in affect. It may be, therefore, that autonomy may further serve to moderate the impact of exercise on mood. Design. To explore this issue, we employed a "yoked" design (Dickerson & Creedon, 1981). Participants were randomly assignment to either a free-choice resistance exercise, or a yoked control. The yoked participant performs a bout of exercise that matches the selection of their autonomous counterpart. In this study, 14 college-aged students participated in a testing session to estimate 1-repetition maximums, and a resistance exercise session that was either autonomous (self-selected) or a relative replication (yoked). Participants completed mood questionnaires following the resistance exercise session. Results. A 2 (group) x 3 (time) with repeated measures on the second factor showed significant main effects of time for the Felt Arousal Scale F(2, 13) = 4.15, p = .05 and Negative Affect F(2, 11) = 4.28, p = .05 such that arousal and negative affect both declined during recovery. Additionally, five of the seven yoked participants were unable to progress through their relative resistance exercise bout without a decrease in weight in order to achieve the prescribed number of repetitions. Conclusion. Autonomy does not appear to be a critical component of affect following resistance training. Further research is needed to explore resistance training as a model of autonomy manipulation, and to test the possibility of a performance detriment accompanying a loss of autonomy.Item Emerging adulthood explored: Identity development, perceived parental communication, and adult role transitions(2008-08) Henderson, Janis L.; Fischer, Judith L.; Hart, Sybil L.; Reifman, AlanIdentity development in the period of emerging adulthood is explored with additional focus on parent communication and traditional markers of the transition to adulthood. Gender specific analyses versus a gender combined sample and identity domain specific analyses versus global identity assessments are addressed. The sample consisted of 1,694 18 to 25 year olds from three colleges in separate regions of the United States. A positive association was found between identity and parent communication, with father communication more strongly associated with identity than mother communication. Traditional markers of adult transition, work and leaving the parental home, are discussed in relation to the changing demographics of emerging adulthood, with speculation that the two transitions are process-oriented for emerging adults rather than outcome-oriented. Theoretical and methodological implications for future directions are discussed.Item How Journalists Sustain Their Autonomy under Ownership Change: A Case Study in Taiwan(2014-08-04) Yeh, Yu-ChuanThe purpose of this research is to explore how changes in the structure of the print media in Taiwan affect journalists? autonomy, a key element of free speech in a democracy. The case of China Times faces the change of managerial practice and the formalization of control after the changes in ownership. This research attempts to examine how these changes influence journalists? autonomy, and further clarify how journalists react to the change of their autonomy. To examine the problem, I interviewed seven journalists who work or have worked in China Times. In addition, I conducted the archival analysis based on interviewees? blogs and the on-line publications of union at China Times. The results show that with change of managerial practice, which decreased journalists? autonomy, there is a formalization of control. There were three different owners at China Times, each representing three work regimes: paternalist hegemony, market hegemony and subsidiary hegemonic despotism. The changes in ownership resulted in the formalization of control resulting in the break between managers and employees. This division resulted in journalists feeling less autonomous than before. Faced with less autonomy, journalists had to choose whether to stay or to exit.Item Increasing the sense of agency in a first grade classroom(2012-05) Johnson, Larissa Jo; Adair, Jennifer Keys; Brown, ChristopherThis report describes a year-long practitioner-research study documenting the challenges and successes of a first grade teacher’s attempt to increase her students’ sense of agency in the classroom. Through the insight gained from my classes in graduate school, I decided to alter my practices into a more child-centered approach. Throughout the 2011-2012 school year, I have documented the reactions to these changes in my students and myself. I have altered my practice in three main areas. These areas include: implementing a project-approach time period in the classroom schedule entitled, “Discovery Time;” taking a supporting role (as opposed to a directing role) in peer-to-peer conflicts that occur in the classroom; and providing students with more of a voice when learning new concepts which enables them to teach each other more than I teach them. Each of these three areas has required me to give up a substantial amount of control in the classroom and reallocate this control to my students in order to allow them more ownership and direction in their own learning and development. This, in turn, has given my students a greater sense of agency in our classroom.Item Intelligent data acquisition and processing for unmanned aerial vehicles(2012-08) Griggs, Justin; Gale, Richard O.; Sridharan, MohanThis paper describes the design and implementation of a quadrotor that autonomously analyses moving objects and generates real-time waypoints for persistent reconnaissance of objects of interest. The system is equipped with an autopilot to control the craft in flight and an onboard image processor. The processor analyses images to create real-time estimations of target direction and velocity. An algorithm to create a flight plan from the imaging data acquired is described. A simulation of an algorithm to generate optimal trajectories through a sequence of positions and yaw angles is developed. Experimental results of the system are shown.Item Mothers' emotions as predictors of toddlers' autonomous behaviors(2010-12) Bryan, Amy E.; Dix, Theodore H.; Anderson, Edward; Bigler, Rebecca; Hazen-Swann, Nancy; Jacobvitz, DeborahAutonomy is a critical component of early childhood with important implications for children’s competence and well-being (e.g., Erikson, 1963; Mahler, Pine & Bergman, 1975; Sroufe & Rutter, 1984). Although parental autonomy support is associated with the development of early autonomy (e.g., Endsley, Hutcherson, Garner & Martin, 1979; Frodi, Bridges & Grolnick, 1985; Landry, Smith, Swank & Miller-Loncar, 2000), the mechanisms underlying these associations are largely unexplored. Mothers’ emotions and the affective climate of parent-child interactions may be critical factors by which parenting influences early autonomy. This study (a) examined the degree to which discrete, naturally occurring maternal emotions regulate four indicators of autonomy during toddlerhood: co-regulated goal-directed behavior, low aimlessness, self-assertion, and positive initiative, (b) explored mechanisms through which maternal emotion exerts an influence on children’s autonomous behaviors, and (c) isolated the contribution of mothers’ emotions to children’s autonomous behaviors over that of mothers’ autonomy-supportive behavior. Several important findings emerged. First, maternal emotions, both felt and expressed, were related to children’s autonomous behaviors--mostly in ways predicted by emotion and relationship theories. In general, mothers’ frequent joy and infrequent anger, sadness, and fear predicted high autonomy. Second, the affective climate of mothers’ interactions with their toddlers predicted children’s autonomous behaviors over and above mothers’ autonomy-supportive behavior, suggesting that parental emotion is a unique aspect of autonomy support. Finally, different forms of early autonomy were predicted by different emotions in mothers, emphasizing the complexity of autonomy and the need to better define and measure this construct.Item Toward an Aristotelian liberalism(2011-05) Sherman, James Arthur; Bonevac, Daniel A., 1955-; Dancy, Jonathan; Hurka, Thomas; Martinich, Aloysius P.; White, Stephen A.My dissertation develops and defends a contemporary Aristotelian form of political liberalism. I articulate an Aristotelian interpretation of individual autonomy as excellence in deliberating about ends, and develop a decision-theoretic model for representing this type of deliberation. I then provide a precise characterization of individual freedom, building on Amartya Sen’s neo-Aristotelian theory of freedom as capability. I argue that we should understand individual liberty, the guiding value of political liberalism, as a compound of autonomy and freedom as I have articulated these notions. I then argue that liberty in this sense is the proper focus of a liberal theory of distributive justice. I provide a teleological justification of the state’s authority to pursue a liberty-based program of distributive justice, and argue for a liberty-based interpretation of the harm principle as the appropriate limitation on state action.