Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Psychology Dept., 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation (Ph.D. in Computer Science)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2009. / Dissertation supervisor: Singh, Gurminder. "June 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on July 14, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: mobile computing, context awareness, activities as context. Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-117). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Submitted by Marcio Filho (marcio.kleber@ufba.br) on 2017-06-06T13:37:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_marcelo_mendonca.pdf: 29068279 bytes, checksum: 80fb8fb6ea4e3852373e2a42c4467ea6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vanessa Reis (vanessa.jamile@ufba.br) on 2017-06-16T15:11:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_marcelo_mendonca.pdf: 29068279 bytes, checksum: 80fb8fb6ea4e3852373e2a42c4467ea6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-16T15:11:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao_marcelo_mendonca.pdf: 29068279 bytes, checksum: 80fb8fb6ea4e3852373e2a42c4467ea6 (MD5) / Correctly identifying the road area on an image is a crucial task for many traffic analyses based on surveillance cameras and computer vision. Despite that, most of the systems do not provide this functionality in an automatic fashion; instead, the road area needs to be annotated by tedious and inefficient manual processes. This situation results in further inconveniences when one deals with a lot of cameras, demanding considerable effort to setup the system. Besides, since traffic analysis is an outdoor activity, cameras are exposed to disturbances due to natural events (e.g., wind, rain and bird strikes), which may require recurrent system reconfiguration. Although there are some solutions intended to provide automatic road detection, they are not capable of dealing with common situations in urban context, such as poorly-structured roads or occlusions due to objects stopped in the scene. Moreover in many cases they are restricted to straight-shaped roads (commonly freeways or highways), so that automatic road detection cannot be provided in most of the traffic scenarios. In order to cope with this problem, we propose a new approach for road detection. Our method is based on a set of innovative solutions, each of them intended to address specific problems related to the detection task. In this sense, a context-aware background modeling method has been developed, which extracts contextual information from the scene in order to produce background models more robust to occlusions. From this point, segmentation is performed to extract the shape of each object in the image; this is accomplished by means of a superpixel method specially designed for road segmentation, which allows for detection of roads with any shape. For each extracted segment we then compute a set of features, the goal of which is supporting a decision tree-based classifier in the task of assigning the objects as being road or non-road. The formulation of our method — a road detection carried out by a combination of multiple features — makes it able to deal with situations where the road is not easily distinguishable from other objects in the image, as when the road is poorly-structured. A thorough evaluation has indicated promising results in favour of this method. Quantitatively, the results point to 75% of accuracy, 90% of precision and 82% of recall over challenging traffic videos caught in non-controlled conditions. Qualitatively, resulting images demonstrate the potential of the method to perform road detection in different situations, in many cases obtaining quasi-perfect results.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-12T15:51:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 arquivo2013_1.pdf: 7106085 bytes, checksum: 47ad31fd4b9b044b146cc59b0e2bc197 (MD5) license.txt: 1748 bytes, checksum: 8a4605be74aa9ea9d79846c1fba20a33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Em uma época em que os usuários precisam processar uma quantidade cada vez maior de informação e executar tarefas cada vez mais complexas em um intervalo menor de tempo, a introdução do conceito de contexto em sistemas computacionais torna-se uma necessidade. Contexto é definido como as condições interelacionadas em que alguma coisa existe ou ocorre . Contexto é o que viabiliza a identificação do que é ou não relevante em uma dada situação. Sistemas sensíveis ao contexto são aqueles que utilizam contexto para prover informações ou serviços relevantes para a execução de uma tarefa. Projetar um sistema sensível ao contexto não é trivial, uma vez que é necessário lidar com questões relacionadas a que tipo de informação considerar como contexto, como representar essas informações, como podem ser adquiridas e processadas e como projetar o uso do contexto pelo sistema. Embora existam trabalhos que tratem desafios específicos envolvidos no desenvolvimento de sistemas sensíveis ao contexto, a maioria das soluções é proprietária ou restrita a um determinado tipo de aplicação e não são facilmente replicáveis em diferentes domínios de aplicação. Além disso, um outro problema é que projetistas de software têm dificuldade em especificar o que exatamente considerar como contexto e como projetar a sua representação, gerenciamento e uso. Esta tese propõe um framework de apoio ao projeto de sistemas sensíveis ao contexto em diferentes domínios, o qual é composto por quatro elementos principais: (i) uma arquitetura genérica para sistemas sensíveis ao contexto, (ii) um metamodelo de contexto independente de domínio, que guia a modelagem de contexto em diferentes aplicações; (iii) um conjunto de perfis UML que considera a estrutura do contexto e do comportamento sensível ao contexto; e (iv) um processo que direciona a execução de atividades relacionadas à especificação do contexto e ao projeto de sistemas sensíveis ao contexto. Para investigar a viabilidade da proposta, desenvolvemos o projeto de duas aplicações em diferentes domínios. Para uma destas aplicações, foi criado um protótipo funcional, o qual foi avaliado por usuários finais

This study was designed to establish whether emerging market context and global mindset have impact on the effectiveness of such management training programmes in MNCs. The effectiveness of the training programme was measured by how the programme was perceived and valued by participants. The research employed a non-experimental survey design focused on identifying the relationships between the various identified variables (i.e. global mindset, emerging market context and value placed on the training programme) The study was conducted through an anonymous web-based survey in the selected MNC. Data were gathered from 179 managers of the organisation from 51 different countries in both emerging and developed markets. A particular training programme was chosen as the reference point for the survey participants’ evaluations. To enable respondents to easily recall their experiences and impressions of this particular training programme, only managers who had participated in this training between 2007 and 2009 were included in the survey. The study showed that emerging market context and global mindset impact the effectiveness of training programmes in MNCs. Emerging market context however, had no significant impact on the global mindset of training participants. These findings were interpreted and discussed in the context of existing literature and a number of implications and recommendations were drawn. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Architecture today is misunderstood. This statement does not engage in the tectonic, programmatic, systemic or contextual aspects of the art, but involves the presence of architectural meaning and experience. Therefore this depravity does not apply to the general public alone, but also to us, the architects. If we don’t understand architecture, how could we begin to understand our relation to it? I believe that this is because much of today’s architecture doesn’t have the tools to reveal itself. In most religions there is a spiritual significance to light. In the Christian faith, scripture reveals our relationship to light. The Gospel of John 12:35b says: "walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth’’. In the context of the scriptures, man orientates himself in this world by way of light/God (1 John 1:5 – God is light, and in Him is no darkness). This is where he finds his identity and how he understands his existence. If Light (nature and character of God, whole being) is not present, he cannot understand living, nor find meaningful discourse in it. In Silence and Light Louis Kahn (2005) says that with Architecture, the religion is light, it is the giver of all presence, it gives room to the day and brings the season into the room. In our existence that we skillfully conduct amid the biosphere and the first heaven, the matter of architecture and light is very significant. Everyone understands light on a subconscious level; it is ingrained in our composition. Light was created as a precondition for life. Louis Kahn (Silence and Light, 2005) states that everything is spent light, even our bodies. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Architecture / unrestricted

Six experiments investigating the relationship of familiarity and context to the processing of metaphor are presented. Experiment 1 compares time to understand sets containing idiom or metaphor targets following 1-2 sentence contexts in four conditions: NONLITERAL, where the context was completed by an idiom or metaphor, PARAPHRASE, where the same context was completed by a literal target with the same meaning, SURPRISE, where the context was completed by a less-anticipated literal target, and LITERAL, where the target from the NONLITERAL condition was used in its literal sense in a different context. In Experiment 2, sets of dead metaphors replaced the idiom sets, and the metaphor sets had novel metaphors. Experiment 3 matched the targets in each condition for overall printed word frequency, to investigate whether word familiarity was interacting with type of usage. It also included an UNFAMILIAR condition, where the same context was completed by a much less familiar word used literally. Experiment 4 took 20 contexts from Experiment 3 and asked subjects to generate their own endings. Experiment 5 replicated Experiment 3 but with a two-target semantic choice instead of a single response. Experiment 6 shortened contexts and reduced their information content. Its purpose was to see how much context was contributing to understanding, and whether some conditions would be more affected than others. The results may be interpreted as indicating that familiarity with the use of a word is important in determining speed of understanding. Dead metaphors could be understood just as quickly as words used literally, but novel metaphors took longer. Contextual expectations are also a powerful adjunct to the understanding process. When expectations are thwarted, errors and understanding time increases. Metaphor understanding is interpreted as a class-inclusion process in the manner described by Glucksberg and Keysar (1990), where a word used metaphorically is viewed as a prototypical exemplar of a hierarchically superordinate class that becomes extended to incorporate the context topic. This process takes time, but metaphors have a response latency advantage over surprising or unfamiliar literal words encountered in context. When context is reduced, metaphors are still advantageous in terms of time, but are less useful to depth of understanding. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Hegel and Eliot have been chosen for this study not because of their differences but because of similarities in their thought. Although most of Hegel's works are obscure and pedantic, it is possible to show that his early thinking reflects a deep awareness of many of the implications of the new age. A growing number of philosophers and theologians today are apparently "rediscovering" Hegel as one who caught a vision of the transition in man's history and whose insights are valuable today.

abstract: Lifespan psychological perspectives have long suggested the context in which individuals live having the potential to shape the course of development across the adult lifespan. Thus, it is imperative to examine the role of both the objective and subjective neighborhood context in mitigating the consequences of lifetime adversity on mental and physical health. To address the research questions, data was used from a sample of 362 individuals in midlife who were assessed on lifetime adversity, multiple outcomes of mental and physical health and aspects of the objective and subjective neighborhood. Results showed that reporting more lifetime adversity was associated with poorer mental and physical health. Aspects of the objective and subjective neighborhood, such as green spaces moderated these relationships. The discussion focuses on potential mechanisms underlying why objective and subjective indicators of the neighborhood are protective against lifetime adversity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2019