Ce travail a origine dans le contexte du projet européen Napa-Wine et son premier but est de rendre les applications pair-a-pair conscientes du réseau qui est au dessous. Cette information (e.g. capacité du chemin, latence, etc.) aide a optimiser le trafic P2P et ses bénéfices sont duplices : d'un coté les operateurs peuvent limiter le trafic sur les " peering links " en le confinant dans leur Autonomous System. De l'autre coté les utilisateurs peuvent connaître une meilleure qualité du service due à la proximité des autres noeds. Pour maitriser le problème, nous analysons les applications existantes d'abord, et nous évaluons leur niveau de conscience du réseau : comme plusieurs systèmes sont " closed source ", nous les étudions comme des boites noires au moyen d'une analyse purement passive, puis nous mettons en place un banc d'essai complètement contrôlé et finalement nous utilisons des sondes actives en parallèle pour déduire les propriétés dynamiques du voisinage. Dans une seconde étape, nous vérifions l'état de l'art des algorithmes de diffusion des morceaux vidéo dans un simulateur réaliste où nous modelons latences et débit d'accès selon résultats académiques. Dans un tel scenario, nous étudions comment la diffusion des morceaux vidéo subit une dégradation de performance en présence d'erreurs de mesure et une connaissance obsolète de l'état du système. Finalement nous développons un scenario d'émulation dans lequel nous pouvons tester des vraies applications. Notre banc d'essai peut gérer jusqu'à 200 instances d'applications réelles et émuler la topologie du réseau de recherche existant Abilene ; il permet aussi de exécuter algorithmes d'ingénierie du trafic que nous exploitons pour analyser phénomènes de couplage entre couche IP et routage applicatif.

<p>This project aims to describe how workflow systems can integrate and make use of context information from context rich environments, to enhance the execution of workflow processes. Context information can for example be used to control transitions between activities, activity enactment and process/activity coordination. A dynamic contextual environment also requires that a workflow system is capable of responding to contextual events. A set of requirements for a context-aware workflow system, based on existing workflow standards, theory behind context-aware computing and activity theory, will be presented and elaborated. Prototypes, which illustrate how these requirements can be implemented in a standard based workflow system, are also provided. Based on the solutions presented in the prototypes, a new interface for a workflow enactment service is presented. This new interface serves as the link between the contextual environment and the workflow system. We also present a solution for handling context related exception states. The definition of basic terms in workflow systems are expanded to better support context-aware behaviour. Ideas and solutions for more complex requirements not met in our prototypes are also discussed, such as situated activity coordination.</p>

<p>This examination intends to find out what thoughts children in around 12 years of age thinks about their own television consumption. To examine this, the questions in issue is: “What does the children watch on television?” “Why do they watch the programs they do?” “How do the children speak about their own consumption?” “What does the children learn from TV?” ”Are the children concious of the impressions they take from TV?” “Do they speak critical about TV?” ”Is there anything indicating on some kind of influence from the childrens television consumption?” .To answer these questions I have chose to hold qualitative interviews, to let the children’s own thoughts be the foundation of the examination. The theories in this examine are that the person who does the consumption from different forms of television takes the information personally out of her own reality. Meaning that the person watching is the judge of how she applies the information to herself. Still the theories also want to shed a light on some of themethods that is used in media to sell some sort of irrational messages to the public, such as commercialism or norms. The television is a tool of communication that is interacting with itspublic and thus for that the public will take some sorts of impressions from the different programs on TV. The results will show the importance of reflection and communication about what is going on under the different forms that media is distributed.</p>

<p>The purpose of this degree project is to study if there is a intentional work with technology in the elementary school, preschool to fifth grade, in a municipality. The work will also study what conditions there are in the schools in order to work with technology. 95 questionnaires were distributed to the responsible teachers in all primary schools in the municipality, from preschool to fifth grade. The results of the survey show that more than half of the respondents do not consider themselves to work with technology in the school. The conditions, in order to work with the school subject technology in the municipality, are primarily external such as: material, facilities and the ability to divide students into smaller groups. The primary school teachers are experiencing a lack of knowledge within the subject technology and primarily desire further education to be able to work more with technology. One conclusion that emerged in the survey is that technology is a subject with low priority mainly because of lack of knowledge and competence among the teachers.</p> / <p>Syftet med examensarbetet är att studera om det på ett medvetet sätt arbetas med teknik i grundskolan, år F-5 i en kommun. Arbetet ska även studera vilka förutsättningar det finns på skolorna för att arbeta med teknik. 95 enkäter delades ut till ansvariga klasslärare på samtliga grundskolor i kommunen med ålderspannet F-5. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att mer än hälften av de svarande lärarna inte anser sig arbeta medvetet med teknik i skolan. De förutsättningar som finns för att arbeta med skolämnet teknik i kommunen är främst yttre förutsättningar, dvs. material, lokaler och möjlighet att dela in eleverna i smågrupper. Lärarna upplever en brist på kunskap inom teknikämnet och önskar främst fortbildning och kunskap för att kunna arbeta mer med teknik. En slutsats som framkommit i undersökningen är att teknik är ett lågt prioriterat ämne främst på grund av bristen på kunskap och kompetens hos lärarna.</p>

The study deals with the concept of competing in the market with a dual branding strategy against mono-brands. The research, more specifically, examines the market awareness of the brand regarding the company versus the product. Monsanto SA, as a company, deals in the market as DEKALB. The study is based on the principles of the Burrows model of corporate identity. A tailor-made questionnaire was used as the measuring instrument. A total of 281 respondents completed the questionnaires. Data analysis was done by means of descriptive statistics and a Varimax rotated factor analysis. The reliability of the data was verified by determining the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In this investigation, for the brand DEKALB, only one factor contributes to the brand image identified as dynamism. For Monsanto SA, two factors contribute to the organisation image. These factors are identified as dynamism and visual identity. The research concludes that although brand identities are similar to a large extent, the market views Monsanto SA more defined. A second factor is identified in addition to the common factor in both identities. The final and most important conclusion is that dual branding in the marketing strategy influences corporate identity and image, and vice versa. Monsanto SA should, therefore, take care not to confuse the market. Currently, agreement exists between the two identities, but it could easily result in confusion. Marketing strategies of Monsanto SA and DEKALB should purposefully dovetail to ensure that market confusion does not set in. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2009.

Disorders of consciousness (DOC) occur in severe cases of neurological disease and acquired brain injury, spanning the continuum from complete unresponsiveness (vegetative state) to partial conscious awareness with only erratic voluntary behavioral responses (minimally conscious state). Assessing the patient’s level of awareness of self and their environment through behavioral evaluation is notoriously difficult and may lead to misdiagnosis if residual cognitive function goes undetected. A number of studies (Di et al., 2007; Staffen et al., 2008; Coleman et al., 2007; Qin et al., 2010) applying brain-imaging methods to measure brain activity associated with processing self-referential stimuli (stimuli related to the self) have found similar responses between patients with DOC and healthy volunteers. The present study involved a unique pediatric patient with comorbid quadriplegia and non-communicative impaired awaress who underwent fMRI to explore brain activity associated with the auditory presentation of personally relevant language stimuli: the subject’s own name (SON) and a familiar voice (FV). Activation was observed in the left tranverse temporal gyrus across all auditory stimuli. Presentation of the SON revealed activation in the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and presentation of the FV revealed activation in the left supramarginal gyrus. These findings provide evidence of preserved brain activity in this patient during the presentation of self-referential stimuli and therefore support the application of functional neuroimaging methods to detect residual brain activity in pediatric patients who display impaired awareness.

Converging evidence suggests that phonological awareness is at the core of reading ability. Rapid automatized naming (RAN), defined as how quickly individuals can name continuously presented familiar visual stimuli, is also known to be a strong predictor of reading performance, and reading fluency in particular. The double deficit hypothesis suggests RAN deficits represent an additional core deficit associated with the reading process. Although there are many ways to measure RAN (e.g., using letters, numbers, pictures, objects), not well established is which RAN task is most predictive of the reading fluency skills of clinic referred children. Further research is also needed to understand the relationship between RAN and general processing speed, and the extent to which RAN tasks uniquely predict the reading fluency of clinic-referred children. The purpose of the current study is to determine a) the relationships among phonemic awareness, RAN, general processing speed, and reading fluency; b) the predictive value of phonemic awareness and RAN tasks in determining reading fluency performance; c) which RAN task best predicts reading fluency; and d) if RAN tasks continue to predict reading fluency while controlling for general processing speed. 64 children from a university reading clinic were used as participants in this study. The results suggest that alphanumeric RAN task performance --and letter naming in particular-- are unique contributors to reading fluency performance in dysfluent readers. Further, the results indicate that this contribution to reading fluency extends beyond that of other theoretical components of fluency. / School of Education / School Psychology / PhD / Dissertation

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Diverse sociology theoretical constructs serve as the lens to examine the evolution of two popular symbols of US culture in the last 20 years: yellow ribbons displayed as decoration and awareness ribbons worn as personal accoutrement. This research was motivated by society's weakened state of "collective consciousness," whereby shared beliefs and values have declined and some have completely disappeared, and sought to determine whether symbols will survive in a culture without commitment to the social. Invoking Christopher Lasch's Culture of Narcissism, Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation, David Riesman's theory of other-directedness from The Lonely Crowd, and Stjepan Mestrovic's Postemotional Society, this work examined the significance of public displays of ribbons (whether on animate or inanimate objects), theorized why certain diseases and social causes "earned" their awareness ribbons and others did not, and demonstrated that these ribbons have served as multivalent symbols to accommodate our culture in a postmodern world. These symbols have not maintained their unifying function and now serve at the whim of the individual participant or observer. Ultimately, the act of wearing or displaying awareness ribbons and yellow ribbons, like so many other symbols, has been severed from the idea and is a freefloating, simulacrum to be used in whatever mode our postmodern, postemotional society requires.

This project aims to describe how workflow systems can integrate and make use of context information from context rich environments, to enhance the execution of workflow processes. Context information can for example be used to control transitions between activities, activity enactment and process/activity coordination. A dynamic contextual environment also requires that a workflow system is capable of responding to contextual events. A set of requirements for a context-aware workflow system, based on existing workflow standards, theory behind context-aware computing and activity theory, will be presented and elaborated. Prototypes, which illustrate how these requirements can be implemented in a standard based workflow system, are also provided. Based on the solutions presented in the prototypes, a new interface for a workflow enactment service is presented. This new interface serves as the link between the contextual environment and the workflow system. We also present a solution for handling context related exception states. The definition of basic terms in workflow systems are expanded to better support context-aware behaviour. Ideas and solutions for more complex requirements not met in our prototypes are also discussed, such as situated activity coordination.