The aim of this thesis is to offer a small contribution to the developing field of studying table-top role-playing games as a social activity by examining the practices in which players engage in order to display and develop their competence and identity as “role-playing gamers” in a particular social setting. The theoretical and analytical framework of nexus analysis (e.g. Scollon & Scollon, 2004; Jones & Norris, 2005) was chosen for its ability to engage complex social activities through the mapping of the historical trajectories of the participants’ accumulations of personal experiences (historical bodies), social positions taken in relation to others (interaction order) and discourses embedded in the scene of action (discourses in place) as they come together to form the “nexus of practice”. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study, using (auto)ethnographic methods of data collection. The main body of data was collected during an elective university course and consisted of audio and video recordings of three table-top role-playing sessions as well as of field notes, interviews, and the participants’ own written and visual descriptions of their histories with role-playing games; these were supplemented with further correspondence with the participants during the analytic process. The findings of this study suggest that within this particular group of people coming together for a particular purpose at a particular time, expectations of identity and competence at playing role-playing games, stemming from personal histories, shaped the participants’ interactions in at least six ways; 1) with each other, 2) with the physical organisation and layout of the game space, 3) with each other’s portrayal of their characters, 4) with artefacts brought into the nexus by the participants, 5) with the game mechanics, and 6) with other texts. Competence at role-playing games within the “Game Night nexus” was not perceived as simply competence at the rules of the game system or as the ability to convincingly play a role, but also as fluency in related practices such as providing game-essential artefacts (e.g. rule books or food items), and using and recognising intertextual allusions to works of fiction such as films, TV series, or works of literature. Identity practices were often linked with competence, as displays of competence were understood as a way of strengthening one’s identity, and could be either positive (“I am a gamer”) or negative (“I am not a gamer”). Although this thesis presents a case study, it also intends to offer some hypotheses on discourses and practices that could be found cycling within larger communities of “geek/gamer” subculture. Thus, it offers a springboard for future academic discussions on the role of individual role-playing gamers in the geek subculture. / Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoitus on tuottaa uutta sisältöä sille kasvavalle tutkimuksen alalle, jossa tutkitaan pöytäroolipelejä sosiaalisena toimintana. Työ tutkii pelaajien omaksumia käytänteitä eli toistuvia toimintamalleja, joiden tavoitteena on ilmaista ja kehittää asiantuntijuutta ja identiteettiä ”roolipelaajina” eräässä tietyssä sosiaalisessa miljöössä. Teoreettiseksi ja metodologiseksi viitekehykseksi valittiin neksusanalyysi (esim. Scollon & Scollon, 2004; Jones & Norris, 2005), sillä sen katsottiin kykenevän käsittelemään monimutkaisia sosiaalisia tilanteita kartoittamalla osallistujien henkilökohtaisten kokemushistorioiden (historical body) kehityskaaria, heidän toisiin henkilöihin nähden ottamiaan sosiaalisia positioita (vuorovaikutusjärjestys, interaction order) sekä toimintapaikasta kumpuavia diskursseja (discourses in place) näiden kietoutuessa yhteen muodostamaan ”käytänteiden risteyskohdan” (nexus of practice). Tutkimus tapahtui kvalitatiivisena tapaustutkimuksena, jossa käytettiin (auto)etnografisia tiedonkeruumenetelmiä. Aineistosta suurin osa kerättiin valinnaisen yliopistokurssin aikana ja koostui kolmen pöytäroolipelisession ääni- ja videotallenteista, kenttämuistiinpanoista, haastatteluista sekä osallistujien itse laatimista kirjallisista ja piirretyistä kuvauksista omista roolipelihistorioistaan. Tätä aineistoa täydennettiin tutkimuksen kuluessa sähköpostikirjeenvaihdolla osallistujien kanssa. Tutkimuksen tulokset antavat ymmärtää että tämän nimenomaisen ihmisryhmän, tarkoituksen ja tapahtuma-ajan puitteissa kokemushistoriasta kumpuavat ennakko-odotukset roolipelaajaidentiteetistä ja -asiantuntijuudesta muokkasivat osallistujien vuorovaikutusta ainakin kuudella eri tavalla: 1) vuorovaikutusta toisten pelaajien kanssa, 2) pelitilassa vallitsevan fyysisen järjestyksen kanssa, 3) toistensa tapojen tuoda esille hahmoaan kanssa 4) osallistujien neksukseen tuomien esineiden kanssa, 5) pelimekaniikkojen kanssa ja 6) muiden tekstien kanssa. “Peli-iltaneksuksen” sisällä roolipeliasiantuntijuutta ei koettu vain pelijärjestelmän sääntöjen tuntemuksena tai kykynä esittää hahmonsa roolia uskottavasti, vaan myös pätevyytenä muissa asiaan liittyvissä käytänteissä kuten peliin liittyvien tarvikkeiden (esim. sääntökirjojen tai eväiden) tarjoamisena muille ja intertekstuaalisten viittausten fiktiivisiin teoksiin, kuten elokuviin, TV-sarjoihin tai kirjallisuuteen, käyttäminen ja tunnistaminen. Identiteettikäytänteet liittyivät usein asiantuntijuuteen, koska asiantuntijuuden ilmaisut koettiin tavaksi vahvistaa omaa identiteettiään, joka saattoi olla joko positiivinen (”olen pelaaja” tai negatiivinen (”en ole pelaaja”). Vaikka tämä pro gradu -tutkielma on tapaustutkimus, pyrkii se silti myös tarjoamaan hypoteeseja diskursseista ja käytänteistä joita voisi olla mahdollista löytää suuremmista yhteisöistä ”nörtti/pelaaja”-alakulttuurin sisällä. Täten se tarjoaa ns. ”astinlaudan” tuleville akateemisille keskusteluille yksittäisten roolipelaajien roolista nörttialakulttuurissa.

<div>The development work of a race car revolves around numerous goals such as drag reduction,</div><div>maximizing downforce and side force, and maintaining balance. Commonly, these goals</div><div>are to be met at the same time thus increasing the level of difficulty to achieve them. The</div><div>methods for data acquisitions available to a race team during the season is mostly limited to</div><div>wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics, both of which are being heavily regulated</div><div>by sanctioning bodies. While these methods enable data collection on a regular basis</div><div>with repeat-ability they are still only a simulation, and as such they come with some margin</div><div>of error due to a number of factors. A significant factor for correlation error is the effect of</div><div>tires on the flow field around the vehicle. This error is a product of a number of deficiencies</div><div>in the simulations such as inability to capture loaded radius, contact patch deformation in</div><div>Y direction, sidewall deformation and overall shifts in tire dimensions. These deficiencies</div><div>are evident in most WT testing yet can be captured in CFD. It is unknown just how much</div><div>they do affect the aerodynamics performance of the car. That aside, it is very difficult to</div><div>correlate those findings as most correlation work is done at WT which has been said to be</div><div>insufficient with regards to tire effect modeling. Some work had been published on the effect</div><div>of tire deformation on race car aerodynamics, showing a large contribution to performance</div><div>as the wake from the front tires moves downstream to interact with body components. Yet</div><div>the work done so far focuses mostly on open wheel race cars where the tire and wheel assembly</div><div>is completely exposed in all directions, suggesting a large effect on aerodynamics.</div><div>This study bridges the gap between understanding the effects of tire deformation on race car</div><div>aerodynamics on open wheel race cars and closed wheel race cars. The vehicle in question</div><div>is a hybrid of the two, exhibiting flow features that are common to closed wheel race cars</div><div>due to each tire being fully enclosed from front and top. At the same time the vehicle is</div><div>presenting the downstream wake effect similar to the one in open wheel race cars as the</div><div>rear of the wheelhouse is open. This is done by introducing a deformable tire model using</div><div>FEA commercial code. A methodology for quick and accurate model generation is presented</div><div>to properly represent true tire dimensions, contact patch size and shape, and deformed dimension,</div><div>all while maintaining design flexibility as the model allows for different inflation</div><div>pressures to be simulated. A file system is offered to produce CFD watertight STL files that</div><div>can easily be imported to a CFD analysis, while the analysis itself presents the forces and</div><div>flow structures effected by incorporating tire deformation to the model. An inflation pressure</div><div>sweep is added to the study in order to evaluate the influence of tire stiffness on deformation</div><div>and how this results in aerodynamic gain or loss. A comparison between wind tunnel</div><div>correlation domain to a curved domain is done to describe the sensitivity each domain has</div><div>with regards to tire deformation, as each of them provides a different approach to simulating</div><div>a cornering condition. The Study suggests introducing tire deformation has a substantial</div><div>effect on the flow field increasing both drag and downforce.In addition, flow patterns are</div><div>revealed that can be capitalized by designing for specific cornering condition tire geometry.</div><div>A deformed tire model offers more stable results under curved and yawed flow. Moreover,</div><div>the curved domain presents a completely different side force value for both deformed and</div><div>rigid tires with some downforce distribution sensitivity due to inflation pressure.</div>

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study was conducted to investigate the contribution of progressive elaboration on the effectiveness of conducting projects. Effectiveness relates to project success in contrast to efficiency which relates to project management success. This study attempts to determine what the contribution of progressive elaboration of project detail is on the success of conducting projects, by examining three different aspects of project management. First, a historical background study was done of project management, highlighting the origin, paradigms and trends within project management. The underlying finding here is that in spite of the fact that it originated from a hard rules based environment, probably with memes delaying it from progress, project management is changing into a theoretically based hard and soft science, offering exciting opportunities. This was followed by a look into current best practice by means of the Project Management Institute’s (PMI’s) Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide (PMBOK Guide). Each of their nine project management knowledge areas was explored to determine the applicability of applying progressive elaboration within that area. Both scope management and risk management presented excellent opportunities for applying progressive elaboration while cost, quality, human resource and procurement management posed to be problematic. The third comparison area shows that a theoretical foundation exists, and that the theory underwrites progressive elaboration. Progressive elaboration has the potential of improving the effectiveness of projects, and of ensuring greater project success. The practical implementation is not well presented in literature and further research in this area is proposed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doelwit van hierdie studie is om te bepaal watter invloed of bydrae progressiewe uitbreiding in projekbestuur het op die effektiwiteit van die uitvoering daarvan. Effektiwiteit hou verband met die sukses van 'n projek, in teenstelling met doelmatigheid wat verband hou met die sukses van die projekbestuur proses. Hierdie studie poog om te bepaal wat die bydrae van die progressiewe uitbouing van projek detail op die sukses van projekte is. Die vraag word beantwoord deur na drie verskillende aspekte van projekbestuur te kyk. Eerstens is ' historiese agtergrondstudie gedoen wat poog om die oorsprong, sekere paradigmas en tendense in projekbestuur te ondersoek. Die slotsom hiervan is dat alhoewel projekbestuur sy oorsprong het in harde, reëlsgebaseerde omgewing, met oorgedraagde gebruike wat verandering strem, dit tog besig is om te migreer na 'n teoreties gefundeerde hard en sag gekombineerde wetenskap wat opwindende geleenthede bied. Vervolgens is gekyk na 'n hedendaagse beste praktyk model soos gevind in die “Project Management Institute (PMI)” se “Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide(PMBOK Guide)”. Elk van die nege projekbestuurkennisareas is ondersoek om te bepaal wat die toepaslikheid van implementering van progressiewe uitbreiding in die spesifieke kennisarea is. Beide werkomvang-bestuur en risikobestuur het uitstekende geleenthede gebied vir die toepassing van progressiewe uitbreiding, terwyl koste, kwaliteit, menslike hulpbron en kontrak-bestuur uitdagings voorgehou het. In die laaste van die vergelykings areas is daar getoon dat 'n teoretiese basis vir projekbestuur bestaan en dat die teorie progressiewe uitbouing onderskryf. Progressiewe uitbreiding beloof om die effektiwiteit van die uitvoering van projekte te verbeter en sodoende die kanse op sukses van projekte te verbeter. Praktiese implementering word nie volledig in die literatuur beskryf nie en verdere navorsing in die verband word aanbeveel.

<p> </p><div> <div> <div> <p> </p><div> <div> <div> <p> </p><div> <div> <div> <p>The current state of the art in biopotential recordings rely on radiative electromagnetic (EM) fields. In such transmissions, only a small fraction of this energy is received since the EM fields are widely radiated resulting in lossy inefficient systems. Using the body as a communication medium (similar to a ’wire’) allows for the containment of the energy within the body, yielding order(s) of magnitude lower energy than radiative EM communication. The first part of this work introduces Animal Body Communication for untethered rodent biopotential recording and for the first time this work develops the theory and models for animal body communication circuitry and channel loss. In vivo experimental analysis proves that ABC successfully transmits acquired electrocardiogram (EKG) signals through the body with correlation greater than 99% when compared to traditional wireless communication modalities, with a 50x reduction in power consumption. The second part of this work focusses on the analysis and design of an Electro-Quasistatic Human Body Communication (EQS-HBC) system for simultaneous sensing and transmission of biopotential signals. In this work, detailed analysis on the system level interaction between the sensing and transmitting circuitry is studied and a design to enable simultaneous sensing and transmission is proposed. Experimental analysis was performed to understand the interaction between the Right Leg-Drive circuitry and the HBC transmission along with the effect of the ADC quantization on signal quality. Finally, experimental trials proves that EKG signals can be transmitted through the body with greater than 96% correlation when compared to Bluetooth systems at extremely low powers. </p> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div>

No description available.

This thesis consists of a workshop that investigates theperformative act of designers in producing gendered productaesthetics. Product designers make many active choicesin the project they are working on, but what about thenot so active choices, the once that just happen becauseit looks right or because it fits the product? By putting thegendered assumptions of fomgiving into the hands of thedesigners, I hope to generating a realisation of the (re)creationof the gender norms of society into products. I wish toput the designers in a position where they formgive wrongin relation to the norms of product aesthetics, so that theform feels unfitting or misplaced. This to expose the suggestionof how the development of products not only isan iterative design process, but also an iterative processof re-installing norms and objectives of society into thedesign. The end product of this project will be a workshopwhere the designers gets to try out how another normativeagreement of product aesthetics would appear.

Betweenness is a project questioning the relation between us and what we surround us with. To reveal our assumptions around artifacts and by doing so create an conversation between us viewers/ users and the objects themselves. Who owns the dialogue: the object or the viewer? Taking a deeper dive into the symbols and languages of objects, the quiet voices they posses and the functions surfaces, the visualization circle around words such as visual function, ornamentation,  material displacement and attraction.  By trying to convey the objects “inner thoughts” and creating a dialogue it pushes our ideas of what is desirable, what is strange, what is useful or even beautiful. The trick is in the contrast between what we see and what we know, bordering into imaginary, creating voices for ambiguous objects.

Mitt examensarbete består av en gestaltande del och en skriftlig. Den gestaltande delen är ett utforskande i hur jag i text och bild kan gestalta känslan separationsångest. Förlusten av en annan person, en tidigare förmåga eller till och med sig själv. I det här projektet undersöker jag delvis vem jag är i förhållande till mitt skapande efter att ha genomgått en utmattning. Det har också varit viktigt att låta projektet få vara ett sökande med hjälp av handen. För att släppa kontrollen och samtidigt hitta tillit till min egen förmåga igen. I den skiftliga delen berättar jag om min arbetsprocess i både text och bild. Jag går igenom olika faser, insikter, kompromisser, vändningar och beslut i kronologisk ordning. Liksom den gestaltande delen av mitt examensarbete är även den skriftliga delen ett visuellt narrativ där bilderna ges stort utrymme.

This project report offers insight into my research, creative process and work during my two-year Master in visual communication at Konstfack, Stockholm.Clean: Not the Monochrome, Universal and Neutral Modernism You Expect is the published culmination of a period of visual research highlighting Modernism — Modernist (graphic) design and architecture to be precise — as a power structure by uncovering its connections to colonialism and design authoritarianism through misperception, whiteness, exclusive practicing and imposition.The book uses intersections of visual material, personal experience and theory to deconstruct the inheritance of the creative practitioner working in the realm of Modernism as well as its presumed neutrality.

I mitt arbete har jag undersökt liminalitet som ett rumsligt begrepp. Jag har tagit trappan som utgångspunkt för detta och arbetat fram ett förslag för gestaltning av trappan som liminalt rum. Med hjälp av teoretisk research, platsstudier och att gå ett otal trappsteg upp och ner, har jag skapat förståelse för hur taktilitet skapar och förstärker den rumsliga upplevelsen. I och med mitt arbete, har jag argumenterat för hur och varför vi skapar mening i våra liv genom liminalitet som ritual kopplat till inredningsarkitektur. Jag har även skapat förståelse för hur en gestaltning av liminalitet skulle kunna se ut rumsligt, där utgångspunkten är den taktila upplevelsen.