<p>This&nbsp / thesis&nbsp / examines&nbsp / the&nbsp / changes&nbsp / that&nbsp / have&nbsp / occurred&nbsp / within&nbsp / West-Coast Renosterveld within&nbsp / the&nbsp / last 350 years, and assesses&nbsp / the viability of&nbsp / the&nbsp / remaining fragments.</p>

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the status of brand loyalty to art festivals with reference to Klein Karoo national Arts Festival (KKNK). This was achieved by firstly analysing and discussing the role of branding in tourism marketing. Secondly, a literature study was conducted to analyse the concept brand loyalty. Thirdly, the results of the empirical research were discussed and finally the conclusions were drawn from the research and recommendations were made with regard to visitors’ loyalty to the KKNK. Literature indicated that when marketing a tourism product or service it involves a complex bundle of value, which is intangible, inseparable, variable and perishable. Therefore the tourist’s experience with the product is important to keep in mind. Every tourist counts in the tourism industry therefore knowledge related to the needs and wants of the tourists. This can be determined by market research that is designed to collect, analyse, interpret and report information. The marketer can use this information to create a marketing mix, however, in the tourism and hospitality industry the four P’s (price, promotion, product, place) are extended with more P’s, namely people, physical environment, processes, packaging, participation, productservice mix, presentation mix and communication mix. The tourism product or festival should be positioned in the minds of the tourists and this cannot be achieved without branding the product. The brand name is used to identify and differentiate the product from its competitors. It also creates meaning for the tourist and establishes a competitive position in the minds of the tourist. Brand loyalty should be an important marketing goal of the tourism product because it reduces a brand’s vulnerability to competitors’ action and create a committed relationship with the tourists that insure lifelong visiting behaviour among tourists or positive word-of-mouth recommendations. Brand loyalty is build on six levels which can also be utilised to determine the visitors loyalty towards the brand and to assist the marketer on focussing on areas which should be improved to achieve a higher level of loyalty. The aim of the marketer should be to achieve the highest level of brand loyalty namely Resonance. For the purpose of this study the visitors’ profile and the current status of brand loyalty, were measured by means of a questionnaire and the objective of the questionnaire was to determine how loyal the visitors were to the KKNK. The questionnaires were distributed among the visitors at the KKNK in Oudtshoorn, in April 2009. Availability sampling was used to collect the data based on the fact that the respondents were conveniently available on the festival grounds and at show venues and willing to complete the questionnaires. A total of 422 questionnaires were completed during the festival. The factor analysis determined that Brand Feelings were the loyalty level that was rated the highest by the respondents to the KKNK. Therefore it was determined that the visitors’ loyalty to KKNK is currently at the fifth loyalty level and will have the most influence on the visitors when deciding to visit or recommend the KKNK. This is expected for a festival that is 15 years old however, the organisers of the KKNK can continue to improve the visitors loyalty until they reach the sixth and highest, loyalty level. This study contributes to the limited available literature on brand loyalty to arts festivals. / Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

The purpose of this thesis is to test the validity of applications of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems in Anatolian archaeology. The focus of the study is an Iron Age fortress &Ccedil / evre Kale and its associated structures. During the course of the study, 5 km long outer wall enclosing a territory around &Ccedil / evre Kale documented for the first time by employing high altitude aerial imagery. In addition to the GIS analyses, examination of the geology, land use and soil quality data showed that the outer wall is in a way acting to guard and protect inhabitants of the fortress and, perhaps more importantly, the well-watered pasture surrounding the fortress and demarcated by the enclosure wall. Evaluation of the available archaeological and historical evidence suggested that &Ccedil / evre Kale might be of a site with significant military importance at least in the first half of the 6th century BC. As a result, this thesis is underlying the importance of high and low altitude aerial imagery in terms of documentation, evaluation and monitoring of the archaeological sites as part of the archaeological research

Surveillance networks are typically monitored by a few people, viewing several monitors displaying the camera feeds. It is then very dicult for a human op- erator to eectively detect events as they happen. Recently, computer vision research has begun to address ways to automatically process some of this data, to assist human operators. Object tracking, event recognition, crowd analysis and human identication at a distance are being pursued as a means to aid human operators and improve the security of areas such as transport hubs. The task of object tracking is key to the eective use of more advanced technolo- gies. To recognize an event people and objects must be tracked. Tracking also enhances the performance of tasks such as crowd analysis or human identication. Before an object can be tracked, it must be detected. Motion segmentation tech- niques, widely employed in tracking systems, produce a binary image in which objects can be located. However, these techniques are prone to errors caused by shadows and lighting changes. Detection routines often fail, either due to erro- neous motion caused by noise and lighting eects, or due to the detection routines being unable to split occluded regions into their component objects. Particle l- ters can be used as a self contained tracking system, and make it unnecessary for the task of detection to be carried out separately except for an initial (of- ten manual) detection to initialise the lter. Particle lters use one or more extracted features to evaluate the likelihood of an object existing at a given point each frame. Such systems however do not easily allow for multiple objects to be tracked robustly, and do not explicitly maintain the identity of tracked objects. This dissertation investigates improvements to the performance of object tracking algorithms through improved motion segmentation and the use of a particle lter. A novel hybrid motion segmentation / optical ow algorithm, capable of simulta- neously extracting multiple layers of foreground and optical ow in surveillance video frames is proposed. The algorithm is shown to perform well in the presence of adverse lighting conditions, and the optical ow is capable of extracting a mov- ing object. The proposed algorithm is integrated within a tracking system and evaluated using the ETISEO (Evaluation du Traitement et de lInterpretation de Sequences vidEO - Evaluation for video understanding) database, and signi- cant improvement in detection and tracking performance is demonstrated when compared to a baseline system. A Scalable Condensation Filter (SCF), a particle lter designed to work within an existing tracking system, is also developed. The creation and deletion of modes and maintenance of identity is handled by the underlying tracking system; and the tracking system is able to benet from the improved performance in uncertain conditions arising from occlusion and noise provided by a particle lter. The system is evaluated using the ETISEO database. The dissertation then investigates fusion schemes for multi-spectral tracking sys- tems. Four fusion schemes for combining a thermal and visual colour modality are evaluated using the OTCBVS (Object Tracking and Classication in and Beyond the Visible Spectrum) database. It is shown that a middle fusion scheme yields the best results and demonstrates a signicant improvement in performance when compared to a system using either mode individually. Findings from the thesis contribute to improve the performance of semi- automated video processing and therefore improve security in areas under surveil- lance.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Faculty of Science, Dept. of Computing, 2009. / Bibliography: p. [265]-280.

This dissertation investigates the validity of the hypothesis that biblical images [imagery] in the narrative model of preaching enhance relevance and recall possibilities of the sermon, filling the open spaces for the listener in a meaningful way. "Imagery" is researched in its application in various genres of the narrative sermon, e.g. the inductive, the narrative as such, metaphor, parable and transformational preaching. In the final analysis, the Midrash hermeneutical model as theoretical exposition and fresh proposition for homiletical possibilities for today was suggested and instruments proposed to aid in the preparaUon of Midrashic narrative sermons. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D.Th. (Practical theology)

[pt] Uma interface cérebro-máquina (ICM) é um sistema que permite a um indivíduo, entre outras coisas, controlar um dispositivo robótico por meio de sinais oriundos da atividade cerebral. Entre os diversos métodos para registrar os sinais cerebrais, destaca-se a eletroencefalografia (EEG), principalmente por ter uma rápida resposta temporal e não oferecer riscos ao usuário, além de o equipamento ter um baixo custo relativo e ser portátil. Muitas situações podem fazer com que uma pessoa perca o controle motor sobre o corpo, mesmo preservando todas as funções do cérebro, como doenças degenerativas, lesões medulares, entre outras. Para essas pessoas, uma ICM pode representar a única possibilidade de interação consciente com o mundo externo. Todavia, muitas são as limitações que impossibilitam o uso das ICMs da forma desejada, entre as quais estão as dificuldades de se desenvolver algoritmos capazes de fornecer uma alta confiabilidade em relação ao reconhecimento de padrões dos sinais registrados com EEG. A escolha pelas melhores posições dos eletrodos e as melhores características a serem extraídas do sinal é bastante complexa, pois é altamente condicionada à variabilidade interpessoal dos sinais. Neste trabalho um método é proposto para escolher os melhores eletrodos e as melhores características para pessoas distintas e é testado com um banco de dados contendo registros de sete pessoas. Posteriormente dados são extraídos com um equipamento próprio e uma versão adaptada do método é aplicada visando uma atividade em tempo real. Os resultados mostraram que o método é eficaz para a maior parte das pessoas e a atividade em tempo real forneceu resultados promissores. Foi possível analisar diversos aspectos do algoritmo e da variabilidade inter e intrapessoal dos sinais e foi visto que é possível, mesmo com um equipamento limitado, obter bons resultados mediante análises recorrentes para uma mesma pessoa. / [en] A brain-machine interface (BMI) system allows a person to control robotic devices with brain signals. Among many existing methods for signal acquisition, electroencephalography is the most often used for BCI purposes. Its high temporal resolution, safety to use, portability and low cost are the main reasons for being the most used method. Many situations can affect a person s capability of controlling their body, although brain functions remain healthy. For those people in the extreme case, where there is no motor control, a BCI can be the only way to interact with the external world. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to overcome many obstacles for making the use of BCI systems to become practical, and the most important one is the difficulty to design reliable algorithms for pattern recognition using EEG signals. Inter-subject variability related to the EEG channels and features of the signal are the biggest challenges in the way of making BCI systems a useful technology for restoring function to disabled people. In this paper a method for selecting subject-specific channels and features is proposed and validated with data from seven subjects. Later in the work data is acquired with different EEG equipment and an adapted version of the proposed method is applied aiming online activities. Results showed that the method was efficient for most people and online activities had promising results. It was possible to analyze important aspects concerning the algorithm and inter and intrasubject variability of EEG signals. Also, results showed that it is possible to achieve good results when multiple analyses are performed with the same subject, even with EEG equipment with well known limitations concerning signal quality.

La première partie de ce travail présente un état de l'art des principaux critères non supervisés, non paramétriques, d'évaluation d'une partition, des méthodes d'estimation préliminaires du nombre de classes, et enfin des méthodes de classification supervisées, semi-supervisées et non supervisées. Une analyse des avantages et des inconvénients de ces critères et méthodes est menée. L'analyse des performances des méthodes de classification et des critères d'évaluation a été également conduite via l'application visée dans cette thèse. Une approche de partitionnement non supervisée, non paramétrique et hiérarchique s'avère la plus adaptée au problème posé. En effet, ce type d'approche et plus particulièrement la classification descendante donne un partitionnement à plusieurs niveaux et met en évidence des informations plus détaillées d'un niveau à l'autre, ce qui permet une meilleure interprétation de la richesse d'information apportée par l'imagerie hyperspectrale et ainsi conduire à une meilleure décision. Dans ce sens, la deuxième partie de cette thèse présente, tout d'abord l'approche de classification descendante hiérarchique non supervisée (CDHNS) développée. Cette approche non paramétrique, permet l'obtention de résultats stables et objectifs indépendamment des utilisateurs finaux. Le second développement conduit, porte sur la sélection de bandes spectrales parmi celles qui composent l'image hyperspectrale originale afin de réduire la quantité d'information à traiter avant le processus de classification. Cette méthode est également non supervisée et non paramétrique. L'approche de classification et la méthode de réduction ont été expérimentées et validées sur une image hyperspectrale synthétique construite à partir des images réelles puis sur des images réelles dont l'application porte sur l'identification des différentes classes algales. Les résultats de partitionnement obtenus sans réduction montrent d'une part, la stabilité des résultats et, d'autre part, la discrimination des classes principales (végétation, substrat et eau) dès les premiers niveaux. Les résultats de la sélection des bandes spectrales font apparaître leur bonne répartition sur toute la gamme spectrale du capteur (visible et proche-infrarouge). Les résultats montrent aussi que le partitionnement avec et sans réduction sont globalement similaires. De plus, le temps de calcul est fortement réduit. / The upstream location of the different algal species causing clogging in the EDF nuclear power plants cooling systems along the Channel coastline, by analyzing hyperspectral aerial image is today the most appropriate means. Indeed, hyperspectral imaging allows, through its spatial resolution and its broad spectral range covering the areas of visible and near infrared, the objective discrimination of plant species on the foreshore, necessarily yielding accurate maps on large coastal areas. To provide a solution to this problem and achieve the objectives, the work conducted within the framework of this thesis lies in the development of unsupervised partitioning approaches to data with large spectral and spatial dimensions. The first part of this work presents a state of the art of main unsupervised criteria, and nonparametric, for partitioning evaluation, the preliminary methods for estimating the number of classes, and finally, supervised, semi-supervised and unsupervised classification methods. An analysis of the advantages and drawbacks of these methods and criteria is conducted. The analysis of the performances of these classification methods and evaluation criteria was also conducted through the application targeted in this thesis. An unsupervised, nonparametric, hierarchical partitioning approach appears best suited to the problem. Indeed, this type of approach, and particularly the descending classification, gives a partitioning at several levels and highlights more detailed information from one level to another, allowing a better interpretation of the wealth of information provided by hyperspectral imaging and therefore leading to a better decision. In this sense, the second part of this thesis presents, firstly the unsupervised hierarchical descending classification (UHDC) approach developed. This nonparametric approach allows obtaining stable and objective results regardless of end users. The second development proposed concerns the selection of spectral bands from those that make up the original hyperspectral image, in order to reduce the amount of information to be processed before the classification process. This method is also unsupervised and nonparametric. The classification approach and the reduction method have been tested and validated on a synthetic hyperspectral image constructed from real images, and then on real images, with application to the identification of different algal classes. The partitioning results obtained without reduction show firstly, the stability of the results and, secondly, the discrimination of the main classes (vegetation, substrate and water) from the first levels. The results of the spectral bands selection method show that the retained bands are well distributed over the entire spectral range of the sensor (visible and near-infrared). The results also show that partitioning results with and without reduction are broadly similar. Moreover, the computation time is greatly reduced.

Face detection, gesture recognition and pornography content assessment are some of the applications that require the detection of human skin in digital imagery. Most methods employ color as the main feature for this task. Whenever the acquisition conditions are controlled, there is available information about illumination, resolution and geometry, making the skin detection problem a relatively easy task for which there are plenty of results in the literature. The problem becomes more challenging in less structured conditions, mainly because of the influence illumination conditions have on the apparent color of objects. There are proposals for color correction that lead to both good and bad classification results, depending on the input data. When dealing with Web imagery, little can be assumed about their content or about the conditions in which they were acquired, and robust techniques are needed for skin detection. This MSc thesis makes a qualitative assessment of seven skin detection models and of four different types of input data. A heuristic is proposed for deciding if an image requires color correction and, if needed, which is the best suited technique. Results are compared by means of measures derived from confusion matrices, and our approach produces competitive classification products. / A detecção de pele humana em imagens digitais é utilizada para diversas aplicações como detecção de faces, reconhecimento de gestos e detecção de pornografia. A forma mais comum de detecção de pele encontrada na literatura é através da cor. A variação de iluminação pode redundar em efeitos nocivos à detecção de pele, pois a aparência da cor de um objeto é diretamente relacionada com a forma em que ele é iluminado. Para a detecção de pele pela cor exclusivamente, estratégias robustas às variações de iluminação e modelos descrevam corretamente o agrupamento das cores da pele devem ser utilizados. Ao enfrentarmos o problema de detecção de pele em ambientes onde não há controle sobre as características da imagem, não encontramos resultados satisfatórios na literatura, principalmente quando se refere à tentativa de minimizar os efeitos da variação de iluminação. As estratégias de correção de cor presentes na literatura melhoram consideravelmente a detecção de pele em algumas situações específicas, mas degradam esta classificação em outras situações. Neste trabalho, avaliamos o desempenho de sete diferentes modelos de detecção de pele, com quatro diferentes tipos de dados de entrada e propusemos uma estratégia para escolha das imagens que serão submetidas à correção de cor e o tipo de técnica de correção de cor mais adequado para esta imagem. A técnica que utiliza um modelo gaussiano bivariado, utilizando as duas primeiras componentes após aplicarmos transformação de componentes principais ao dados RGB da amostra de pele utilizada para treinamento resultou na melhor técnica abordada nesse trabalho ao utilizarmos a correção de cor proposta. Os resultados obtidos são comparados por meio de diversas métricas derivadas da matriz de confusão, e se mostram pelo menos tão bons quanto os alcançados por técnicas disponíveis na literatura.

This study provides a qualitative examination of the role of visualization through an understanding of the thought processes that occur during visualization when Grade 9 learners engage in data handling and spatial tasks. Data were gathered in a problem-centred context from learners' written responses in order to determine the students' visuality. Visuality is defined as how often learners used visualization. In addition interviews were conducted with the learners who described the thought processes that they engaged in during visualization while involved in problem solving. The role of visualization was highlighted through the processes that learners described during the interviews. The tasks which provided manipulative materials helped learners create visual images which promoted the process of visualization. Certain recommendations were made. Knowledge of the role of visualization enables the educator to encourage the use of visualization during the teaching of mathematics. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Mathematical Education)