This qualitative study investigated the remembered lived experiences of six individuals who were diagnosed with Usher syndrome, the effect that the progressive condition had upon their lives, and their experiences with vocational rehabilitation. Usher syndrome is an autosomal recessive condition that presents as deafness or hearing loss with comorbid retinitis pigmentosa sometimes with vestibular areflexia. The participants recalled details of their own reaction to the diagnoses as well as the reactions of their parents. Themes were identified in their responses that included independent dependence, Usher support, parental reaction, lowered expectations, hope, and ongoing change. The participants, three men and three women, reported periods of adjustment and sadness as well as hopes for their future, career accomplishments, and social interactions.

Nowadays visually impaired students attend both mainstream schools and the Lithuanian Education and Training Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired. These students meet certain learning difficulties caused by impaired vision or other problems related to the impairment. This study aimed to investigate and answer a question: „Do the pupils’ choice a vacation that correspond with their abilities and possibilities. The written questionnaire has been used as a method of the study. The questions had to describe to: ь social background of the visually impaired pupils; ь their knowledge about themselves and their family members; ь their perception of their disability and self-esteem; ь opinions of the pupils about quality of vocational couselling; ь learning motivation of the visually impaired pupils; ь intention of adequacy of the visually impaired pupils‘ choice of vocation 169 pupils were involved into the investigation (there were totally blind and those having mild impairment of vision). Conclusions: § The visually impaired pupils particularly need parents‘ encouragement and support. If a family is not interested in educational process of a pupil the pupil doesn’t‘ have any learning motivation and intentions to choice a certain vocation. § The pupil’s choice vocations that do not correspond with their abilities since they do not comprehend their disability adequately. § Vocational counselling in the Lithuanian education and training centre for the... [to full text]

The presence of a blind adjacent to a window affects the natural convective air flow over the window and natural convective heat transfer from the window to the room. Most numerical studies of convective heat transfer between a window-blind system and a room are based on the assumption that the flow remains laminar. However, in the case of larger windows it is to be expected that transition to turbulent flow will occur in the flow over the window. The aim of the present study was to numerically determine the effect of Venetian blind on laminar-to-turbulent transition in the flow over a simple recessed window and on the convective heat transfer from the window. An approximate model of a recessed window that is covered by a venetian blind has been considered. The fluid properties have been assumed constant except for the density change with temperature that gives rise to the buoyancy forces, this being dealt with using the Boussinesq approach. Radiant and conductive heat transfer effects have been neglected. However in the present study the case where there is a constant heat generation rate in the blind slats, as the result of solar radiation absorbed by the slats of the blind, has been considered. The k-epsilon turbulence model with the full effects of the buoyancy forces being accounted for has been used in obtaining the solution. The turbulent, steady and two dimensional governing equations have been solved using the commercial finite-volume based CFD code FLUENT. Results are generated for different blind slat angles, for different distances of the pivot point of the slats from the window and for different constant heat generation rates in the slats. The results show that over a wide range of Rayleigh number, the distance of the blind to the window has a stronger effect on the convective heat transfer from the window and also on the laminar to turbulent transition in the flow over the window than the blind slat angle. Heat generation in the slats increases the Mean Nusselt number and this effect increases as the Rayleigh number decreases. / Thesis (Master, Mechanical and Materials Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-22 21:17:31.777

The study of patristic quotations of the Greek New Testament has proven valuable in the field of textual criticism as a means of locating variant readings both chronologically and geographically, facilitating the reconstruction of the development of the different textual groups. This thesis will document the Pauline citations, adaptations and allusions of Didymus of Alexandria, and then determine their textual affinities, along the lines of earlier studies in this field. Using the methodology developed by B. Ehrman, including both a statistical analysis and a method of group profiling, this study concludes that the text of Paul in Didymus clearly belongs to the Alexandrian group. An appendix giving suggestions for corrections and additions to the critical apparatuses of both the 27th edition of the Nestle-Aland text and the 4th edition of the United Bible Societies text of the Greek New Testament has also been provided.

No description available.

Analysis of existing computerized obstacle avoidance systems has shown that all systems have important limitations: dependency on one sensor type; limited communication capabilities; and failure to reduce the user’s navigation-related physical and mental fatigue. Most of analyzed systems use binaural method or it’s modified version. The model of sutrasonic sonar was defined and programmed during this study. The results of analysis of environment using the model have shown that ultrasonic sonars can be used to help blind and visually impaired people.

Bearing failure is one of the foremost causes of breakdown in rotating machinery. Such failure can be catastrophic and can result in costly downtime. Bearing condition monitoring has thus played an important role in machine maintenance. In condition monitoring, the observed signal at a measurement point is often corrupted by extraneous noise during the transmission process. It is important to detect incipient faults in advance before catastrophic failure occurs. In condition monitoring, the early detection of incipient bearing signal is often made difficult due to its corruption by background vibration (noise). Numerous advanced signal processing techniques have been developed to detect defective bearing signals but with varying degree of success because they require a high Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), and the fault components need to be larger than the background noise. Vibration analyses in the time and frequency domains are commonly used to detect machinery failure, but these methods require a relatively high SNR. Hence, it is essential to minimize the noise component in the observed signal before post processing is conducted. In this research, detection of failure in rolling element bearing faults by vibration analysis is investigated. The expected time intervals between the impacts of faulty bearing components signals are analysed using the blind deconvolution technique as a feature extraction technique to recover the source signal. Blind deconvolution refers to the process of learning the inverse of an unknown channel and applying it to the observed signal to recover the source signal of a damaged bearing. The estimation time period between the impacts is improved by using the technique and consequently provides a better approach to identify a damaged bearing. The procedure to obtain the optimum inverse equalizer filter is addressed to provide the filter parameters for the blind deconvolution process. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed algorithm is assessed initially using different kinds of corrupting noises. The result show that the proposed algorithm works well with simulated corrupting periodic noises. This research also shows that blind deconvolution behaves as a notch filter to remove the noise components. This research involves the application of blind deconvolution technique with optimum equalizer design for improving the SNR for the detection of damaged rolling element bearings. The filter length of the blind equalizer needs to be adjusted continuously due to different operating conditions, size and structure of the machines. To determine the optimum filter length a simulation test was conducted with a pre-recorded bearing signal (source) and corrupted with varying magnitude noise. From the output, the modified Crest Factor (CF) and Arithmetic Mean (AM) of the recovered signal can be plotted versus the filter length. The optimum filter length can be selected by observation when the plot converges close to the pre-determined source feature value. The filter length is selected based on the CF and AM plots, and these values are stored in a data training set for optimum determination of filter length using neural network. A pre-trained neural network is designed to train the behaviour of the system to target the optimum filter length. The performance of the blind deconvolution technique was assessed based on kurtosis values. The capability of blind deconvolution with optimum filter length developed from the simulation studies was further applied in a life bearing test rig. In this research, life time testing is also conducted to gauge the performance of the blind deconvolution technique in detecting a growing potential failure of a new bearing which is eventually run to failure. Results from unseeded new bearing tests are different, because seeded defects have certain defect characteristic frequencies which can be used to track a specific damaged frequency component. In this test, the test bearing was set to operate continuously until failures occurred. The proposed technique was then applied to monitor the condition of the test bearing and a trend of the bearing life was established. The results revealed the superiority of the technique in identifying the periodic components of the bearing before final break-down of the test bearing. The results show that the proposed technique with optimum filter length does improve the SNR of the deconvolved signal and can be used for automatic feature extraction and fault classification. This technique has potential for use in machine diagnostics.

Thesis (M.A. (Psychology)) - Rhodes University, 2008. / For a treatise in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Counselling Psychology.

Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1936.

Thesis (M.S.P.H.)--University of Michigan, 1936.