Hearing loss has a prevalence of 10.3% in New Zealand, with the Māori population being disproportionately affected compared to the non-Māori population. Hearing loss is an impairment that is under-recognised, under-reported and under-treated. This can be explained by the many existing barriers – the shortage of audiological services, financial cost to an individual seeking treatment, the stigma of both hearing loss and hearing aids, and healthcare seeking rates, particularly among the Māori population. This study aimed to develop a Māori language adaptive digit triplet test that could be offered remotely via the telephone and Internet as a hearing-screening test. Three sets of recordings were made of digit triplets spoken in te reo Māori by a female speaker. Two of these sets were selected for normalisation in speech noise. Normal-hearing participants (8 listeners) with hearing thresholds ≤20 dB HL were tested to establish the intelligibility of the individual recorded digits at various signal-to-noise ratios (-13, -10.5, -8 and -5.5 dB). Psychometric functions were fitted to the intelligibility data, and the digits in each position of the triplet that had the steepest slope were selected as the final test stimuli. The level of each selected digit was then adjusted to achieve equal intelligibility as measured at the midpoints of the psychometric functions. These digits were then assembled into eight equivalent lists of similar difficulty, ready for pilot testing. Due to low participant numbers, the pilot testing phase was not completed. Further development of this test continues as the focus of a follow-on study.

The electrospinning technique is an attractive route for processing conjugated polymers (CPs) in a significant quantity for large-scale applications. However, the processing-structure-property relationship of the electrospinning process for CPs is not well understood. This dissertation provides a fundamental understanding regarding the structure development of CPs in electrospun fibers because of different processing conditions and relates that to fiber properties. Electrospinning was conducted for a mixture of polyethylene oxide (PEO) and poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) of three different molecular weights and two aging conditions: freshly prepared and 24 h aged spinning solutions. The aging of the spinning solution led to the self-assembly of P3HT chains, particularly with dominant H-aggregation for the higher molecular weight of P3HT. Those preexisting H-aggregates in the solution were retained and even increased in the fibers during electrospinning. Single fiber electrical conductivity, measured using a custom-built technique, has been found to increase with increasing molecular weight, particularly, a significant enhancement of that was observed for the fibers from the aged solution compared to the fibers obtained from the freshly prepared solution. Blending insulating polymers in CPs for electrospinning can hamper charge-carrier transfer, particularly when a large amount of insulating polymers is used for electrospinning. Thus, we adopted a coaxial electrospinning approach to avoid the blending of insulating components and to preserve the electrical properties of CPs. The coaxial fiber consisted of flexible polymers such as butyl rubber (BR), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and PEO in the core and P3HT in the shell. BR in the core led to highly stretchable fibers. Further, P3HT in the shell facilitated the direct doping of the fiber without any post-treatment. The electrical conductivity of the doped fibers did not change significantly up to 400% strain and remained almost unchanged under cyclic loading, showing excellent mechanical reversibility. The general applicability of the spinning approach developed here has been demonstrated by successfully electrospinning donor-acceptor CP at the shell of the coaxial fibers. Our results provide new understandings linking the processing of CPs in fibers, the structural evolution of CPs in the fibers, and the corresponding electrical properties as a function of molecular weight, aging of solution, and mechanical loading.

The present study evaluated the use of a self-instructional manual supported by a computer-aided personalized system of instruction (CAPSI) for teaching Discrete-Trials Teaching (DTT) to university students. Prior to studying the manual, five participants taught three tasks, commonly taught to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), to a confederate role-playing a child with an ASD. Using the Discrete-Trials Teaching Evaluation Form (DTTEF), the main researcher assessed the participants’ ability to perform DTT accurately. Subsequently, participants studied a self-instructional manual using CAPSI to demonstrate mastery of study questions about DTT. Finally, participants once again attempted to teach the three tasks to a confederate role-playing a child with an ASD. Overall mean baseline accuracy on the DTTEF was 54.86%, and improved to 84.73% in post-treatment, a 30% improvement. Participants’ self-recorded study time was an average of 12 hours and 48 minutes. The results suggest that CAPSI is an effective educational tool for the delivery of the self-instructional manual. Future research should investigate (1) how to make CAPSI even more effective, and (2) whether these results can be generalized to other populations such as ABA tutors, parents, and paraprofessionals working with children with ASD.

Male infertility may be due to oligozoospermia, asthenozoospermia and teratozoospermia. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is used to address male infertility. However, the percentage of viable embryos obtained by this technique is very low. Pronucleus formation has been identified as one of the key events in fertilisation and gamete decondensation is vital for this process to take place. Decondensation can be initiated by chemicals such as DTT that reduce the disulphide groups between the protamine proteins that keep the DNA of the gamete condensed. An increase in decondensation should translate into a higher fertilization rate and a higher yield of embryos. The research from this thesis has compared the decondensation ability via DTT in human spermatozoa and bovine spermatozoa, to study pronucleus formation in bovine zygotes and bovine embryo formation in the presence of DTT; and lastly the cytotoxic effect of DTT using somatic cells in culture has been investigated. In this study 12 semen samples for either fertile or subfertile subjects were collected, isolated and exposed to 25 mM DTT for 0, 5, 7, and 10 minutes, washed and the morphological changes associated with decondensation was evaluated by phase contrast microscopy. After 5 and 7 minutes 11 of the 12 samples underwent decondensation while after 10 minutes several samples showed a lower rate of decondensation and this was associated with and unusual hypercondensed state, CMA3 staining revealed all spermatozoa samples evaluated were mature. However, after treatment with DTT for 5, 7 and 10 minutes an increase in fluorescence was observed indicating increased protamine thiol group reduction and subsequently increased CMA3 accessibility. For some samples reduced fluorescence was observed possible due to the supercoiling of the DNA. DTT successfully induces decondensation of human spermatozoa, however does this lead to the formation of viable embryos? Due to ethical issues associated with working with human embryos all further studies were done using bovine embryos. Spermatozoa used were derived from Friesian bulls and the samples were pooled to prevent sample bias and interindividual variation. Spermatozoa were exposed to 25 mM of DTT at 5, 7, and 10 minutes as used for human spermatozoa. No decondensation was observed using the same conditions as for human spermatozoa, therefore the ‘swim up’ medium containing heparin and regularly used in IVF procedures for bovines was used, and this resulted in successful decondensation of bovine spermatozoa after 30 minutes. The effects of DTT on pronucleus formation and embryo development were evaluated in three bovine specimens. In the first group, DTT had no significant effect on the parameters measured, namely the number of oocytes that were in metaphase II, with one pronucleus, with two pronuclei, with degeneration of the nucleus and polyspermia. In the second group the percentage cleavage and embryo formation was determined on Day 1 (group 2) and 7 (group 3) respectively and statistical differences were obtained between the control and the DTT group. DTT had no significant effect on all the early parameters measured however later in development DTT had a significant adverse effect on cleavage and eventual embryo development. <p)Cleavage and embryo formation is a process of multiple mitotic divisions resulting in an increase in the number of cells that become smaller with each cell division, while somatic cells also undergo mitotic division although the cell size remains constant. Therefore the L929 cell line, a standardized system used to test toxicity, can be used to investigate the toxic effects of DTT on a dividing cell population. In this study L929 cells were expose to 25mM DTT for 30 minutes, and lysosomal membrane integrity, cell viability and number was determined immediately following exposure and after 48 hours growth. In another experiment the L929 cell line was exposed to all concentrations used in this and other studies for 5, 10 and 20 minutes. At all concentrations and exposure times DTT was found to be cytotoxic to the L929 cell line. How exactly DTT mediates this toxic effect is unknown, however due to its high solubility DTT can cross the cell membranes. The tertiary structure of proteins, enzymes and DNA is vulnerable to the reducing effects of DTT. In conclusion, although DTT induces decondensation in human and bovine spermatozoa, in the bovine model it does not lead to viable embryo formation and this has been confirmed in cell culture where DTT at all concentrations used was found to be cytotoxic. / Dissertation (MSc (Anatomy))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Anatomy / unrestricted

Asphalt joints are inevitable parts of every pavement. They are constructed for different reasons. Although much attention is dedicated to the construction joints (hot with hot pavement), a scientific approach for cold joints (cold with hot pavement) with respect to large patch constructions is still missing. This report tries to evaluate existing construction techniques and to suggest new testing methods of tests. Although, indirect tensile tests IDT and direct tension tests DTT are familiar in the field of asphalt pavement characterization, they have not been used for the assessment of joint quality so far. In this report, these two test types are evaluated and the results are analyzed using finite element software ABAQUS. The results of the comparison of joint compaction techniques on a laboratory scale suggest that joints with angles seem to show more promising behavior than vertical joints. Also, starting compaction from the hot side generally produces better results than compaction starting from cold side.

無線電視的電波頻率具公共財特徵，在電視數位化扮演火車頭的角色，期許它將帶動和促進數位整體產業經濟發展。世界各國在無線電視數位轉換政策和發展均由政府主導並規劃強制性的時程與實施策略。電視數位轉換工程浩大，大部分國家在實際推動無線電視數位轉換之進程並不如預期順利，尤其數位無線電視電波訊號的涵蓋率和數位電視的普及率攸關民眾能否繼續收視和享受無線電視節目與服務，因此除了建置數位改善站和進行民眾宣導與教育之外，政府亦推出數位機上盒的補助措施，針對需要人士提供補助以維護民眾的收視權益，減輕數位轉換政策給民眾帶來的負擔與經濟壓力。 數位轉換後所釋出的無線電頻譜－數位紅利，若有效運用這些頻譜資源不但有助於增加國庫，更有潛在發展不同類型的資通訊服務，因此政府積極導引無線電視數位轉換的政策與發展方向以有利於電視產業在數位時代的的競爭優勢。臺灣推動數位轉換多年，終於於2012年6月30日，五家無線電視正式全面數位化。本研究主要以最早推出數位電視的美國和英國的無線電視數位轉換與實施政策之經驗為鑑，採用文獻分析和深度訪談之研究方法，分別探討分析美國、英國和臺灣無線電視數位轉換相關政策、實施措施和推行的作法，進而提出各國在相關政策所面對的考驗和對策，並提出可供臺灣借鑑之處。 類比訊號關閉在數位轉換只係一個過程，並不是終點。因此，政府在無線電視數位化後的後續相關發展政策和目標願景包括數位紅利和空白頻譜之使用應該更加以縝密研擬。依據臺灣無線電視數位轉換與實施政策之分析和評估，本研究針對臺灣未來在推動相關數位無線電視發展之政策提出建議包括：(一) 釐清第二梯次數位無線電視政策方向與目標、(二) 保護少數民族或弱勢族群收視權益和追尋媒體多元化與文化多樣化、 (三) 適時修法，迎合時下趨勢、 (四) 建議建構水平分工的產業結構、 以及 (五) 積極推動高畫質數位內容發展。 / Terrestrial television uses spectrum so it has the characteristics of the public good. Thus, terrestrial TV should play a leading role in the process of digital television switchover which thereby stimulated the development of national economy as a whole. The government was a key driver in DTT switchover through careful development policy to schedule analogue switch-off date and implementation strategy to meet the objectives. Without a doubt, this is a huge project evidenced by how the implementation process of the DTT switchover has not been smooth and successful as expected for most countries. Particularly in enhancing the reception of the DTV signal, where the transition requires that DTT transmission infrastructure to be built out to provide universal coverage. In addition, comprehensive public awareness and education campaign have been carried out. The government also has to provide digital set-top box equipment subsidies to meet the demand in order to maintain public good and reduce the burden brought about the DTT switchover policy. The digital dividend radio spectrum was released through the transition from analogue to digital by TV broadcasters. This digital dividend has potential benefits to increase the state treasury as a result of licensing. It will also foster the introduction and development of new communication services. Thus, the government wishes to see a DTT platform and competitive advantage continuity in this digital era. As in many countries, the Taiwan government’s aggressive promotion of its DTT switchover policy had succeeded the migration and fully digitized the five terrestrial broadcasters on June 30, 2012. This paper mainly studies the DTT switchover policy in Taiwan and the lessons learned from the United States and the United Kingdom. Literature analysis and in-depth interview were conducted as the research methodologies. Analogue switch-off was one of the digital switchover processes, but it is not the end. Thus, in the next section in developing the perspective policy of DTT objective of the use of digital dividend spectrum and white spaces need to be more meticulous. As mentioned above, based on the DTT switchover and implementation policy, analysis for the future DTT development, the study recommends: (1) The 2nd stage of DTT’s license allocation should be necessary to clarify expectations related to policy objectives, and resolve statutes that conflict with limitations. (2) Protection the public good of national ethnic minority and underprivileged groups, with the pursuit of media pluralism and cultural diversity. (3) Amendments and reviews the law, regulations, standards and practices in a timely manner to adapt to changes in trends for future promotion of policies related to DTT development. (4) To build a vertically integrated DTT industry structure. (5) To actively promote HDTV content development.

The present study evaluated the use of a self-instructional manual supported by a computer-aided personalized system of instruction (CAPSI) for teaching Discrete-Trials Teaching (DTT) to university students. Prior to studying the manual, five participants taught three tasks, commonly taught to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), to a confederate role-playing a child with an ASD. Using the Discrete-Trials Teaching Evaluation Form (DTTEF), the main researcher assessed the participants’ ability to perform DTT accurately. Subsequently, participants studied a self-instructional manual using CAPSI to demonstrate mastery of study questions about DTT. Finally, participants once again attempted to teach the three tasks to a confederate role-playing a child with an ASD. Overall mean baseline accuracy on the DTTEF was 54.86%, and improved to 84.73% in post-treatment, a 30% improvement. Participants’ self-recorded study time was an average of 12 hours and 48 minutes. The results suggest that CAPSI is an effective educational tool for the delivery of the self-instructional manual. Future research should investigate (1) how to make CAPSI even more effective, and (2) whether these results can be generalized to other populations such as ABA tutors, parents, and paraprofessionals working with children with ASD.

No description available.

Die verformungsinduzierten Phasenumwandlungen und die Zwillingsbildung wurden in drei metastabilen austenitischen Cr-Mn-Ni-Stählen mit unterschiedlichem Nickelgehalt im breiten Temperaturbereich untersucht. Die entwickelten STU- und DTU-Diagramme fassen die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse zusammen und charakterisieren die verformungsinduzierten Gefügeänderungsprozesse in Abhängigkeit von der Spannung und der Temperatur. Die thermodynamischen Berechnungen bestätigen die Unterschiede in der chemischen Triebkraft für die Martensitumwandlung zwischen den Stählen und erklären unterschiedliches Werkstoffverhalten. Ein thermodynamisch-mechanisches Modell der verformungsinduzierten α‘-Martensitbildung wurde entwickelt. Der maximale α‘-Martensitanteil wird als Funktion der Gesamttriebkraft und der Temperatur mit einer guten Genauigkeit beschrieben. Des Weiteren wurde ein Modell der Umwandlungsplastizität mit Berücksichtigung der Plastizitätsverringerung infolge der isothermen oder spannungsinduzierten Martensitbildung entwickelt. Außerdem wurde der Einfluss von Mikroseigerungen auf die verformungsinduzierte Martensitbildung anhand drei Modellstähle untersucht und bestätigt.

Diploma thesis focuses on effect of positive reinforcement and it's application in the learning process. The thesis is divided into two parts - theoretical and analytical. Theoretical part describes importance of positive reinforcement in a learning process and behavior overall. How organisms acquire new skills and how effective teaching methods look like. Analytical part provides practical use of positive reinforcement in an effective teaching method called Discrete Trial Teaching. It's application, use, and correct implementation is provided through an example of teaching a motor imitation behavior. KEYWORDS Applied Behavior Analysis; Effective teaching methods; Positive Reinforcement; Principles of learning and behavior; Discrete Trial Teaching