Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, my husband Liwen and my son Ethan. They have always been there for me. Their endless love and support kept me going for the whole idea of " Ph. D. " v Acknowledgements

1. These notes are the first half of the contents of the course given by the second author at the Bachelier Seminar (February 8-15-22 2008) at IHP. They also correspond to topics studied by the first author for her Ph.D.thesis. 2. Comments are welcome and may be addressed to :

Acknowledgments I would like to thank my three reviewers, Alberto Apos-tolico, Gregory Kucherov, and Irena Rusu for taking time out of their busy schedule to read my dissertation and write a review. I would like also to express my gratitude to Marie-Pierre Béal for being in my committee. A very special thanks goes out to Maxime Crochemore for his continuous support for my work since the beginni...

We would like to welcome our readers to the twenty-eighth issue of 49 th Parallel and our second of 2012. In the last few months there have been some exciting developments at the journal and we hope that 49 th Parallel will continue to flourish in the future. We would like to welcome our new Articles Editor, Galateia Demetriou, to the 49 th Parallel team. Galateia is a second year doctoral rese...

c Journal of Maritime Research ▪ 24/1(2010) 27 Mr. sc. Edvard Tijan / M. Sc. Adrijana Agatić, univ. bacc. ing., student Sveučilište u Rijeci / University of Rijeka Pomorski fakultet u Rijeci / Faculty of Maritime Studies Rijeka Studentska 2 51000 Rijeka Hrvatska / Croatia Dr. sc. Bojan Hlača / Ph. D. Lučka uprava Rijeka / Rijeka Port Authority Riva 1 51000 Rijeka Hrvatska / Croatia Pregledni čl...

Ferdinand Freudenstein (1926-2006) is widely acknowledged to be the father of modern kinematics of mechanisms and machines. His Ph. D. thesis in 1954 and subsequent research papers by him and his students have influenced academic and industrial research, teaching and practice related to the analysis and design of mechanisms and machines throughout the world. In this article, we revisit Freudens...

iii To mankind and science iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am especially indebted to my academic advisor, Dr. Constantin F. Aliferis. Without his colossal commitment and contribution to this project, this work would probably never exist. I would also like to acknowledge members of my Ph. Statnikova, and my mother-in-law, Ludmila Morozyuk. Their encouragement and support were crucial for my Ph.D. studies ...

ii To my family. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all those who helped me in completing this dissertation. Most and foremost, Karem Sakallah, who has been an outstanding academic advisor and a very good friend for the course of my graduate work at Michigan. His suggestions, thorough reviews, and encouragement at the various stages of my Ph.D research are gratefully acknowledged. Many ...