Perspective-taking is the ability to see the world from another person’s viewpoint and is often measured using “false belief” (FB) tasks. Although most typically developing children pass FB tasks between 4 and 5 years of age, approximately 80% of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) do not. Failure on FB tasks remains a persistent deficit among individuals with ASDs. However, relatively little evidence is available on teaching perspective-taking to children with ASDs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether teaching perspective-taking skill components would produce generalization to untrained task materials and to three perspective-taking tasks with children with autism. Perspective-taking was broken down into 6 behavioural components and each component was taught in a multiple-baseline design within each child. Procedures in the training program included prompt-fading, positive reinforcement, error correction, multiple exemplar training, forward chaining, and narrative response training. Participants consisted of 4 children with a diagnosis of an ASD. The results showed that the training program produced generalization to variations of the training materials for 14 of the 17 components. Generalization to the three perspective-taking tasks, however, was modest. This study contributes to the body of behavioural research on teaching perspective-taking skills to children with ASDs, and provides procedures for teaching component skills of perspective-taking.

Most of the operating vessel traffic management systems experience problems, such as track loss and track swap, which may cause confusion to the traffic regulators and lead to potential hazards in the harbour operation. The reason is mainly due to the limited adaptive capabilities of the algorithms used in the detection process. The decision on whether a target is present is usually based on the magnitude of the returning echoes. Such a method has a low efficiency in discriminating between the target and clutter, especially when the signal to noise ratio is low. The performance of radar target detection depends on the features, which can be used to discriminate between clutter and targets. To have a significant improvement in the detection of weak targets, more obvious discriminating features must be identified and extracted. This research investigates conventional Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) algorithms and introduces the approach of applying ar1ificial intelligence methods to the target detection problems. Previous research has been unde11aken to improve the detection capability of the radar system in the heavy clutter environment and many new CFAR algorithms, which are based on amplitude information only, have been developed. This research studies these algorithms and proposes that it is feasible to design and develop an advanced target detection system that is capable of discriminating targets from clutters by learning the .different features extracted from radar returns. The approach adopted for this further work into target detection was the use of neural networks. Results presented show that such a network is able to learn particular features of specific radar return signals, e.g. rain clutter, sea clutter, target, and to decide if a target is present in a finite window of data. The work includes a study of the characteristics of radar signals and identification of the features that can be used in the process of effective detection. The use of a general purpose marine radar has allowed the collection of live signals from the Plymouth harbour for analysis, training and validation. The approach of using data from the real environment has enabled the developed detection system to be exposed to real clutter conditions that cannot be obtained when using simulated data. The performance of the neural network detection system is evaluated with further recorded data and the results obtained are compared with the conventional CFAR algorithms. It is shown that the neural system can learn the features of specific radar signals and provide a superior performance in detecting targets from clutters. Areas for further research and development arc presented; these include the use of a sophisticated recording system, high speed processors and the potential for target classification.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Drexel University, 2008. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-81).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2008. / "December, 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-41). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-75). Also available via the World Wide Web.

This diploma thesis deals with the problematic of internationalisms and the possibility of their utilization in language education. It concerns broadening the vocabulary by internationalisms of German speakers learning Czech. The theoretical section is devoted to the history and perspectives of Czech language and especially it?s vocabulary. This section provides information about the current condition of foreign language education, and mentions The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which determines the modern schooling of languages. Furthermore, the work is interested in the problems and difficulties of adopting internationalisms. One chapter is dedicated to the, so called ?false friends? that complicate understanding between speakers of different languages. The practical section consists of a couple of thematic chapters into which the internationalisms are divided. In each section, there are model exercises that can be applied in Czech language schooling of foreigners. When selecting exercises, it is necessary to consider the grammatical ability of students. The work is concluded with a vocabulary of internationalisms gathered from the lexicon of different textbooks of Czech language for foreigners.

No description available.

Magister Artium (Psychology) - MA(Psych) / This study is a quantitative investigation into anglers’ environmental behaviours, as associated with the human-nature relationship, within the context of sustainability and conservation psychology. Although much has been researched around pro-environmental behaviours that link to the household (such as energy use and recycling behaviours) and materialism (buying environmentally friendly products), there is comparatively little to show for variables associated with pro-environmental decision-making that relates to the protection of nature. One such environmental problem involves the disregard for environmental laws protecting marine life. The study aimed to extend this line of research by looking at certain environmental fishing behaviours in a sample of recreational False Bay anglers, and using their relationship with nature (i.e. the degree to which the self recognises an interconnectedness between humans and the natural world) to explain these behaviours. Participants were required to sign a consent form, and participated anonymously in the study, particularly due to the sensitive nature of the information they disclose. A convenience sample of 99 anglers was assessed. ANOVA yielded significant biographical differences in NR with regards to particular age, level of education and residential area groups. Logistic regression analysis indicated that Nature Relatedness had significant predictive capacity for these environmental behaviours ( = 0.061), although the Nature Relatedness subscales did not. In conclusion it was speculated that NR might not offer a deep explanation for environmental behaviours in this group, considering a weak correlation between NR and behaviour (r = -.186) and the inability of the NR subscales to predict behaviour. Further research in this area is needed to provide more conclusive results.