In this thesis, repair and positioning are examined with respect to second language learners. The data employed in this analysis consists of oral examinations taken by students of German. These data comprise 22 tape recordings averaging 10 minutes in length. The students’ level of German language proficiency is understood to be intermediate. Conversation analysis is the methodology used to analyse the recorded spoken data. The data is first discussed within the context of research on focus on form, including research on learner uptake. To provide new insights in this discussion, the analysis goes further to include the perspective of positioning theory, in particular the aspect of different storylines. Taking interactional repair as the focus of discussion, my analysis shows that form cannot always be strictly separated from meaning when it comes to repair; it also proves that positioning theory plays a considerable role in relation to both repair initiation by teachers and students as well as their reactions to it. Thus, the participants’ positioning has a significant effect on why some repair moves are likely to occur while others are not.

In this thesis, repair and positioning are examined with respect to second language learners. The data employed in this analysis consists of oral examinations taken by students of German. These data comprise 22 tape recordings averaging 10 minutes in length. The students’ level of German language proficiency is understood to be intermediate. Conversation analysis is the methodology used to analyse the recorded spoken data. The data is first discussed within the context of research on focus on form, including research on learner uptake. To provide new insights in this discussion, the analysis goes further to include the perspective of positioning theory, in particular the aspect of different storylines. Taking interactional repair as the focus of discussion, my analysis shows that form cannot always be strictly separated from meaning when it comes to repair; it also proves that positioning theory plays a considerable role in relation to both repair initiation by teachers and students as well as their reactions to it. Thus, the participants’ positioning has a significant effect on why some repair moves are likely to occur while others are not.

The dark focus is a resting state of accommodation, which occurs when there are not enough stimuli for the eye to focus on. This means that the eye becomes more myopic and some people notice a blur for example at night time, more known as night myopia. In this study the dark focus in Swedish myopes is measured and any difference between early and late onset myopes is investigated. Method: The dominant eye of 56 myopes was first measured with static retinoscopy, using a distant target, and then with near retinoscopy, with the retinoscope beam as the target. The full working distance of 2.00 D was subtracted in both methods and the values were compared. The difference, if any, was the dark focus. Results: The mean value of dark focus was 0.53 D ± 0.26 for the entire group. The mean value for early onset myopes was 0.56 D ± 0.29 and for late onset myopes the mean value was 0.47 D ± 0.21. This showed no significant difference (p-value = 0.18). No significant correlation between amount of refractive error and dark focus was found. Conclusion: The Swedish myopes in this study have a smaller mean value of dark focus than mean values found in other studies using the same technique and the previous findings that early and late onset myopes differ in mean values of dark focus is not applied to this study.

Optical flow indicates a computing method which utilizes the brightness variation of image motion in further image disposition, without the prior understanding of field, environment, or related object. It also reflects the image variation to compute the variation of optical flow field due to the motion of time and distance. The Essay content follows the optical flow as its basis theory consideration to find the direction of image motion. It utilizes the auto-focus principle to search the corrective focus basis, to proceed the identify analysis through the target object. To obtain the visual tracking result after the auto-focus of image definition, moving direction when achieve the target object. The application method is easily to determine the movement or stationary target in the certain field.

This dissertation contributes to a fuller description of the French c'est-cleft by reporting on three empirical studies on its meaning and use, and presenting a unified account of the cleft couched in Stochastic Optimality Theory. The first two studies in this dissertation explore the meaning of the cleft, more specifically the exhaustive meaning. First, the results from a forced-choice task, designed to test the level of exhaustivity of the cleft compared to exclusive sentences and canonical sentences, show that the cleft does not behave like the other two sentence forms. This is taken to indicate that the exhaustivity associated with the cleft is not truth-conditional. Instead, I argue that exhaustivity arises from a pragmatic constraint on the way speakers use language. This argument is supported further in the second study, a corpus study that shows there is no categorical ban on the type of NP that can occur in post-copular position in a cleft. In fact, the cleft interacts felicitously with a number of expressions such as universal quantifiers and additives, which have been claimed to never appear in post-copular position. This corpus study further shows that the primary aspect of the cleft is not to convey exhaustivity, but instead to convey contrast or correction. Finally, the third study, a semi-spontaneous production experiment, helps make precise the situations in which an element is clefted. The results demonstrate that there is a clear asymmetry between the way grammatical subjects or non-subjects are marked: focused subjects are mostly clefted whereas focused non-subjects generally remain in situ. Moreover, the experiment shows that there exists some amount of free variation: subjects can be realized via prosody and non-subjects can be clefted. I conclude my research by proposing that the non-random alternation cleft/canonical is not a categorical phenomenon, but is gradient and explained by a set of constraints on French' syntax, prosody and pragmatics. The cleft is used to provide contrast or a total answer to the question under discussion. / text

This research experimentally investigated the interactive effects of regulatory focus and brand personality on persuasion in advertising. Specifically, the study sought to know whether the interplay would increase a positive attitude toward the advertisement, the brand and purchase intention. The results of this present research showed that excitement brand personality was concerned with a promotion focus and when an exciting brand is advertised with a promotion focused message, the effectiveness of the advertisement was increased. In contrast, competence brand personality was concerned with prevention focus and when a competent brand is advertised with a prevention focused message, the effectiveness of the advertisement was increased. / text

Résoudre une tâche nous met régulièrement au défit d'adopter les stratégies les plus adaptées au contexte et à la nature de celle-ci. En se basant sur la Théorie du Régulatory Focus, la présente étude propose d'utiliser certaines caractéristiques visuelles, formes et couleurs, afin d'amorcer une régulation cognitive susceptible de correspondre à des tâches demandant soit de la précision, soit de la créativité. Ainsi, une première étude identifie certaines formes et couleurs comme ayant la capacité d'activer une cognition soit de type « prevention », soit de type « promotion ». Ces résultats ont servi de base pour concevoir des interfaces graphiques amorçant de manière ciblée l'une ou l'autre de ces orientations cognitives. Il est suggéré que la concordance entre le type d'amorce (e.g., induisant une cognition « prevention »)et le type de tâche (e.g., demandant de la précision) influence positivement performance ainsi que vécu subjectif. Les résultats supportent ces hypothèses : Les participants exécutent plus correctement les tâches lorsque le type de celles-ci concorde avec l'orientation stratégique amorcée par les caractéristiques visuelles de l'interface graphique. De plus, les participants rapportent un vécu plus positif dans ces mêmes conditions. De manière générale, les résultats soulignent les avantages à utiliser le potentiel inhérent des caractéristiques visuelles afin d'optimiser une situation de résolution de tâche. Ces résultats sont considérés comme développant autant la recherche que les domaines plus appliqués. / Task-solving situations are often challenging our ability to approach them in the most adapted state of mind. Building on regulatory focus theory, we propose to use specific color and form characteristics to prime cognitive regulations that are likely to match either creative or accuracy framed tasks. In that line, a first study identified color and form characteristics as being involved in activating either a vigilant prevention cognition or a flexible promotion cognition. These findings were then used to visually design creative or accuracy oriented tasks. It was expected that a fit between the strategic orientations induced by these designs and tasks accuracy or creativity framing, would to positively influence both performance and overall subjective experience. Experimental results supported these predictions: Participants performed better when the visual design was composed of colors and forms inducing a regulatory orientation matching tasks' natures. Regulatory fit had also a global positive impact on subjective variables like fun and satisfaction. Overall, the results point out the advantage of taking benefit from visual characteristics' inherent priming potential. Our research can be related both to research domains (RFT, user experience research, color research) and to concrete applications in actual design processes.

The X-ray emission from a plasma focus has been studied using time integrated and streak photography. The plasma focus, a small volume of very dense and hot plasma was created in a coaxial plasma gun driven by a fast current pulse of period T ~ 2 μsec which was produced by discharging a condensor bank of V = 12-15 kV, and C = 84 μf. Measurements have shown that a diffuse X-ray emitting plasma column is formed in the 'early' pinch stage, which extends a few centimeters in the axial direction, has expansion velocities of between 2-6 x 10⁷ cm/sec. and lasts for 30-60 nsec. In the following 10-30 nsec. X-ray emission occurs from small plasma regions which have little or no axial velocity. The distance between these "hot" spots are of the order of half a centimeter. These measurements and observations of the X-ray emitting regions are consistent with results obtained by Peacock and Mather. By comparing their results with those of this experiment it is concluded that the appearance of the isolated X-ray sources is associated with the m = 0 instability. / Science, Faculty of / Physics and Astronomy, Department of / Graduate

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