Current advances in mobile technology have enabled the formation of mobile technology enriched learning environments. This study documents a specific experimental research project in which secondary school learners used mobile cellular phones as a form of mobile technology to create, support and enhance a learning event in physical science studies. Although students used their own mobile phones for the duration of the research, they could connect to the MobilED platform used in this study to access information that they had previously created online. Mobile phones therefore served to extend the physical boundaries of the classroom by creating an ubiquitous and personal learning experience for each student. The experimental learning event was central to the design of the research. The iterative component of the design made it possible for the facilitator to operate as a “reflective practitioner” (Reeves, 2005) who could manipulate the components of the lesson in a quest for optimal success. The data and conclusions of the study confirm that that the texting function of mobile phones may be effective in furthering communication, cooperative learning and access to content. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Curriculum Studies / unrestricted

Dans un contexte de préoccupation croissante pour le défi environnemental, l'objectif de cette thèse est d'apporter quelques pistes de réflexion sur les liens entre incitations et les préférences sociales dans un contexte de choix impliquant des conséquences environnementales. Le chapitre 1 constitue une introduction générale au contexte de notre _étude. Le chapitre 2 vise à fournir un aperçu de la recherche expérimentale étudiant le comportement environnemental dans les disciplines de l'_économie et la psychologie expérimentales. Grâce à un inventaire thématique bibliographique des expériences publiées, nous indentions les principaux déterminants du comportement pro-environnemental et nous décrivons l'évolution de ces études au fil du temps. Le chapitre 3 adapte un jeu de bien public (PGG) à la question de la gestion des déchets. Poursuivant le but de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre, les décideurs conçoivent différents types d'incitations pour agir sur les comportements individuels. Dans notre expérience, les acteurs doivent coopérer afin de réduire le coût du traitement du tri des déchets, ce dernier modélisé au moyen d'un taux d'imposition variable. Les résultats montrent que le conseil, la sanction et la menace de sanction augmentent considérablement la coopération, avec un effet disciplinant plus fort pour la sanction. Le chapitre 4 considère la nature de l'expression des préférences des individus. Ce chapitre étudie la relation entre les préférences sociales et la contribution attentionnelle dans un environnement pro-social. A cette fin, nous présentons une nouvelle expérience où les sujets investissent une réelle attention pour exprimer leurs préférences, puis nous comparons une incitation du type égoïste à une autre pro-sociale. Les résultats montrent que les deux incitations augmentent l'attention accordée. De plus, contrairement aux enseignements de la théorie économique standard, nous trouvons que les préférences sociales des sujets n'expliquent pas la contribution attentionnelle dans un environnement pro-social. / In the context of growing concern for the environmental challenge, the objective of this thesis is to bring some insights on possible links between incentives, social preferences and the environmental context. Chapter 1 is a general introduction. Chapter 2 provides a survey of the experimental research disciplines studying Pro-Environmental Behavior both in the discipline of Economics and Psychology. Thanks to a thematic inventory of the published experiments, we identify the main determinants of Pro-Environmental Behaviors investigated in economics and psychology. Moreover, we provide a statistical description of studies evolution in time. Chapter 3 adapts a public good game to waste management issue. In the context of greenhouse gases emissions reduction, policy makers design different types of incentives to act on individual behaviors. In the experiment, the players have to cooperate in order to reduce the cost of waste sorting treatment. We compare the impact of a sanctioning tax with the impact of a nudge in the form of a third party advice. Results show that advice, sanction and the threat of sanction significantly increase cooperation, with a stronger disciplinary effect for the applied sanction. Chapter 4 considers the nature of individuals' preferences expression, namely a monetary salient effort and an attentional effort. In this chapter we investigate the relation between social preferences and attentional contribution in a pro-social environment. For this purpose, we present a new experiment where subjects have to invest real attention, then we compare a selfish and prosocial incentives. The results show that both incentives increase allocated attention. Moreover, in contradiction with economic theory, we find that subjects' social preferences failed to explain attentional contribution in pro-social environments.

Comparative cognition is the interdisciplinary field of animal cognition and behavior studies, which includes comparative psychology and branches of ethology, biology, and neuroscience. My dissertation shows that the quasi-epistemic value of parsimony plays a problematic role in the experimental setting of comparative cognition. More specifically, I argue that an idiosyncratic interpretation of the statistical hypothesis-testing method, known as the Neyman-Pearson Method (NPM), embeds an Occamist parsimony preference into experimental methodology in comparative cognition, which results in an underattribution bias, or a bias in favor of allegedly simple cognitive ontologies. I trace this parsimony preference to the content of the null hypothesis within the NPM, and defend a strategy for modifying the NPM to guard against the underattribution bias. I recommend adopting an evidence-driven strategy for choosing the null hypothesis. Further, I suggest a role for non-empirical values, such as ethical concerns, in the weighting of Type I and Type II error-rates. I contend that statistical models are deeply embedded in experimental practice and are not value-free. These models provide an often overlooked door through which values, both epistemic and non-epistemic, can enter scientific research. Since statistical models generally, and the NPM in particular, play a role in a wide variety of scientific disciplines, this dissertation can also be seen as a case study illustrating the importance of attending to the choice a particular statistical model. This conclusion suggests that various philosophical investigations of scientific practice - from inquiry into the nature of scientific evidence to analysis of the role of values in science - would be greatly enriched by increased attention to experimental methodology, including the choice and interpretation of statistical models.

No description available.

This study is an attempt to understand if backgrounds with color impact physiology and the ability of a viewer to see color.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第23001号 / 理博第4678号 / 新制||理||1671(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科物理学・宇宙物理学専攻 / (主査)教授 中家 剛, 准教授 市川 温子, 准教授 成木 恵 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

A method of locating structural damage is developed and tested to aid in the evaluation of structural health. This method will help minimize the cost of structural inspection and repair by informing engineers of where damage, due a seismic event, has occurred before the removal of finishes for visual inspection. This thesis begins to answer the question “can structural damage be detected solely through analysis of experimentally measured mode shapes?” The work encompasses construction of a test structure, with three braces that can be repeatedly engaged or dis-engaged, thus allowing for testing of a variety of braced configurations. For this thesis, damage is assumed to cause a change in stiffness. Experimental testing is conducted to acquire mode shapes and frequencies for the 6 dominant modes of the test structure. Lastly, the data is analyzed to identify the configuration of braces engaged on the structure. The accuracy of the method is assessed by the number of configurations that it correctly predicts and the confidence of the predictions.

The thesis analyses the customer behavior of Kiwi.com, a global online retail company for booking flights and proposes marketing interventions to increase the conversion rates in various customer segments. The effectiveness of new behavioral interventions is tested against current marketing efforts using experimental A/B methods. Additionally, areas for further improvements are explored and a design of future product features and marketing behavioral interventions is proposed.

The purpose of this work was to find a suitable calculation method for predicting the function of distribution systems in the design calculations of process and energy equipment. In particular, it aimed at describing the distribution of the working fluid flow in a dividing distribution system and a combined Z-type distribution system (with nozzles located parallel to opposite sides of the system). Analytical and CFD calculation tools validated by data from the performed physical experiments were used in this work. In the CFD method, the prediction of the dividing flow was performed for full 3D and simplified 2D geometry of Z-type distribution systems. The carried-out analyzes show that the prediction of the distribution system function obtained by both analytical and numerical approaches is accurate enough. The relative difference between the experimental and computational relative standard deviations did not exceed 9 %. The main disadvantage of 3D CFD analysis, especially concerning the purpose of the intended application, i.e., the inclusion of a distribution model in a complex modeling system for the initial design of heat transfer equipment, was the extremely long computational time. Analytical models appear to be a reasonable compromise between the accuracy of the flow distribution prediction and the computational times.

This diploma thesis is based on creation of a simulation model of the conveyor bridge between a paint-shop and an assembly hall in the company Škoda Auto, a.s. in Mladá Boleslav. The model was created in the simulation software Plant Simulation on the grounds of an existing model in simulation software SimPro. Analysis of the existing model in software SimPro as well as a system analysis of conveyors used in the respected production section is carried out in the thesis. Results of simulation experiments accomplished with the newly created model follow. These experiments verify the throughput rate for various production programmes. On the grounds of these results a bottleneck analysis of the conveyor system is carried out and arrangements leading to increase in its throughput rate are made.