Background: Differential relationships of the dimensions of psychopathy with external factors indicate that psychopathy can be conceptualised as a multifaceted syndrome comprised of distinct subgroups of psychopaths (Blackburn, 1988). However, it is not known whether similar subtypes of psychopathy exist across cultures. The research question which this thesis sought to answer was: Do subtypes of psychopathy exist among murderers, and if so, might the prevalence of these subtypes differ across cultures? Three aims were addressed: i) to compare the trauma histories, dissociative experiences and psychopathic features of British and South African men convicted of murder and the associations among them; ii) to test potential aetiological models of psychopathy; and iii) to explore whether subtypes of psychopathy could be identified among men convicted of murder. Method: Participants were 120 adult male prisoners serving sentences for murder. Sixty participants were British and incarcerated in prisons in England and 60 participants were South African and incarcerated in South Africa. Trauma, dissociation and psychopathy were measured using the Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ; Green, 1996), the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES; Carlson & Putnam, 1993) and the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised Second Edition (PCL-R; Hare, 2003a), respectively. Results: South African participants reported significantly more traumatic and dissociative experiences and possessed more psychopathic features than their British counterparts. Structural equation modelling (SEM) analyses of the entire sample revealed that trauma was positively and directly related to the behavioural features of psychopathy, whereas trauma was positively and indirectly related to the affective features of psychopathy via the partial mediating role of dissociation, suggesting that subtypes of psychopathy may exist among murderers. In addition, cluster analyses identified subtypes of psychopathy, two of which parallel variants of primary and secondary psychopathy described in the literature. Conclusions: Dissociation may mediate the relationship between trauma and psychopathy among individuals who have experienced high levels of trauma, suggesting that there may be a threshold or a ‘cut-off’ level at which witnessing or experiencing trauma becomes detrimental for one’s psychological health. The prevalence of certain subtypes of psychopathy may differ across cultures. Findings have theoretical implications as well as implications for the treatment and risk assessment of offenders.

Scientists say, that sport is an activity, where exercising young man, while reaching lower or higher results has to train his positive character sides: persistence, discipline, responsibility, obedience for rules, positive estimation of himself, individuality etc. A majority of authors understand sport as an ideal means which help to learn to communicate with others, understand what is right and not fair and realize his abilities (Parry, 1994; Mor & Winquist, 2002). That is why it is actual for us to research does sport trains positive character sides for elder class students, because these character sides help to reach good sport results and successful career. Character lineaments developing problems is one of the most common and questionable problems, positive character is very important factor while reaching high sport results and good career therefore it is important to research training peculiarities of positive character sides. In this work we try to answer to question, what positive character sides are typical to going infor sports older students, who take part in after lessons activities and to compare them with character sides of not exercising higher forms students. In our work we hypothesized, that positive character sides will be more typical to older exercising schoolchildrens, who take part in after lessons activities. Our research purpose is to detect sporting and not sporting older schoolchildren’s positive character sides training peculiarities. For... [to full text]

Darbo tema „Paauglių naudojimosi kompiuteriu ypatybės“. Literatūros apžvalga įrodė, kad tyrimų, susijusių su kompiuterio bei interneto naudojimo ypatybėmis, nėra daug. Šio tyrimo metu siekiama atskleisti moksleivių požiūrį į kompiuterį bei internetą. Tikslas – nustatyti paauglių naudojimosi kompiuteriu ypatybes. Darbo objektas – paauglių kompiuterio naudojimo ypatybės. Buvo iškelti keli uždaviniai: atskleisti, kompiuterio bei interneto atsiradimo bei naudojimo, teorinius aspektus; ištirti darbo su kompiuteriu poveikį paauglio organizmui; išsiaiškinti kokiems tikslams paaugliai naudoja kompiuterį ir kiek laiko jis užima laisvalaikio metu; išsiaiškinti paauglių nuomonę apie kompiuterio naudojimo naudą mokslams, poveikį sveikatai, bendravimui su draugais. Tyrimo metodai: literatūros analizė; anketinė apklausa; matematinė statistika. Tyrimui atlikti parengta anoniminė anketa, skirta 15 – 19 metų moksleiviams. Anketą sudaro demografinis blokas (skirtas išsiaiškinti tiriamųjų lytį, amžių, klasę, šeimyninę padėtį) ir pagrindinis klausimų blokas. Tyrime dalyvavo Kelmės rajono Tytuvėnų gimnazijos I – IV klasių moksleiviai. Tyrimas atliktas 2011 metų kovo mėnesį. Anketinės apklausos analizei buvo naudojamos 102 respondentų anketos. Apklausa parodė, kad 93,13 proc. respondentų naudojasi kompiuteriu bei internetu kasdien, 7 proc. kartais, o nesinaudojančių tiriamųjų tarpe nepasitaikė. Kompiuterį namuose turi 96 proc., o internetą 87 proc. moksleivių. 45 proc. respondentų yra linkę... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The theme of the work is „Peculiarities of Teenagers’ Computer Use “. Review of the literature showed that there are not many researches related to usage of computer and Internet. This study is aimed to reveal students' attitudes to the computers and Internet. Objective is to determine the characteristics of teenager computer use. Object of the work is the characteristics of using a computer. Several tasks were raised. The first one is to reveal the theoretical aspects of computers and Internet. The second one is to explore the effects to teenagers’ organism. The third one is to determine the position of the computer in teenagers’ leisure time. Research methods: literature review, questionnaire survey, mathematical statistics. Anonymous questionnaire was prepared for 15-19 year students. The questionnaire consists of demographic block (to find out the gender, age, class, marital status) and the main block of questions. IV grade students from Kelme District Tytuvenai Gymnasium participated in the survey. The survey was conducted in March 2011. 102 questionnaires were used for the analysis of the survey. The survey showed that 93.13 percent respondents use a computer and the Internet on a daily basis, 7 percent sometimes. There were no students who do not use a computer at all. 96 percent of the students have a computer at home and 87 percent have Internet at home. 45 percent use a computer on a desktop for computer. 12 percent of the students turn on computer before going to... [to full text]

No description available.

No description available.

There has been extensive research investigating the differences between global and local feature discrimination. The role that global and local feature discrimination has in sustained attention tasks however has been relatively neglected. In the current research, participants were required to perform a sustained attention task requiring them to engage in either global or local shape stimuli discrimination. Reaction times to local feature discrimination revealed a quadratic trend with time-on-task, with performance levels showing a decline before returning to initial levels towards the end of the task. This trend was not found in the global shape discrimination condition. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was employed to assess hemispheric cerebral oxygenation during the tasks. It was found in both conditions that there was greater oxygenation in the right hemisphere compared to the left hemisphere. It was also found that right hemisphere oxygenation increased with time-on-task. Left hemisphere oxygenation decreased during the global task, while it increased during the local task with time on task. Total cerebral oxygenation, collapsed over both hemispheres, increased more over time in the local discrimination task than the global discrimination task. The performance data and the fNIRS results suggest an increased utilization of bilateral cognitive resources with time-on-task in the local discrimination condition, but not in the global discrimination condition. Results and implications are discussed.

This master’s project report deals with the process development for patterning thesub-micron features using Deep-UV photolithography. Patterning of the sub-micronstructures in the resists UV26 and ZEP520A-7 has been demonstrated successfully. Using theKarl Süss-MJB4 DUV mask aligner, trenches of width down to 535 nm have been obtained.Good results have been obtained in these experiments considering the development time andthe exposure time, which are found to be shorter compared to previously published results.This provides a faster process and higher throughput. Experimental steps along with thefurther improvement areas are discussed.Equipment used include a Karl Süss-MJB4 DUV mask aligner, an optical microscope anda Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).

No description available.

The main objective of this study was to quantify changes in physical features of western Canadian wheat kernels caused by moisture increase using a machine vision system. Single wheat kernels of eight western Canadian wheat classes were conditioned to 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20% (wet basis) moisture content, one after another, using headspaces above various concentrations of potassium hydroxide (KOH) solutions which regulated relative humidity. A digital camera of 7.4 x 7.4 μm pixel resolution with an inter-line transfer charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor was used to acquire images of individual kernels of all samples. A machine vision algorithm developed at the Canadian Wheat Board Centre for Grain Storage Research, University of Manitoba, was implemented to extract 49 morphological features from the wheat kernel images. Of the 49 morphological features, 24, 11, 7, 21, 26, 11, 17, and 9 features of Canada Western Red Spring, Canada Western Amber Durum, Canada Prairie Spring White, Canada Prairie Spring Red, Canada Western Extra Strong, Canada Western Red Winter, Canada Western Hard White Spring, and Canada Western Soft White Spring wheat kernels, respectively, were significantly (α=0.05) different as the moisture content increased from 12 to 20%. Generally the basic morphological features such as area, perimeter, major axis length, minor axis length, maximum radius, minimum radius, and mean radius were linearly increased with increase in moisture content. In all cases the moment and Fourier descriptor features decreased as moisture content increased from 12 to 20%.

The main objective of this study was to quantify changes in physical features of western Canadian wheat kernels caused by moisture increase using a machine vision system. Single wheat kernels of eight western Canadian wheat classes were conditioned to 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20% (wet basis) moisture content, one after another, using headspaces above various concentrations of potassium hydroxide (KOH) solutions which regulated relative humidity. A digital camera of 7.4 x 7.4 μm pixel resolution with an inter-line transfer charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor was used to acquire images of individual kernels of all samples. A machine vision algorithm developed at the Canadian Wheat Board Centre for Grain Storage Research, University of Manitoba, was implemented to extract 49 morphological features from the wheat kernel images. Of the 49 morphological features, 24, 11, 7, 21, 26, 11, 17, and 9 features of Canada Western Red Spring, Canada Western Amber Durum, Canada Prairie Spring White, Canada Prairie Spring Red, Canada Western Extra Strong, Canada Western Red Winter, Canada Western Hard White Spring, and Canada Western Soft White Spring wheat kernels, respectively, were significantly (α=0.05) different as the moisture content increased from 12 to 20%. Generally the basic morphological features such as area, perimeter, major axis length, minor axis length, maximum radius, minimum radius, and mean radius were linearly increased with increase in moisture content. In all cases the moment and Fourier descriptor features decreased as moisture content increased from 12 to 20%.