Thesis (M.L.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Title from PDF of title page. Document formatted into pages; contains pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 233-244).

Thesis (M. Phil.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-65). Also available in electronic version. Access restricted to campus users.

Dialogic reading is an evidence-based practice for preschool children who are typically developing or at-risk (WWC, 2007). However, there is limited research to evaluate if dialogic reading has similar positive effects on the language and preliteracy skills of preschool children with disabilities (WWC, 2010). This quasi-experimental study examined the effects of dialogic reading, with the incorporation of pause time, on the language and preliteracy skills of 42 preschool children with disabilities within 5 inclusive and 7 self-contained preschool classrooms. Following random assignment of students at the level of the classrooms, participants were equally distributed into an intervention (n=21) and a comparison group (n=21). The intervention consisted of dialogic reading, with the incorporation of pause time, based on the Read Together, Talk Together (RTTT; Pearson Early Learning, 2006) program kit. The targeted outcomes were receptive language skills, expressive language skills, and preliteracy skills. Children received either dialogic reading or typical storybook reading for 10 to 15 minutes per day, three days per week, for six weeks (i.e., 18 sessions in total) in small groups. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-4th Edition (PPVT-4; Dunn & Dunn, 2007), Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-4th Edition (EOWPVT-4; Martin & Brownell, 2011), Get Ready to Read!-Revised (GRTR-R; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 2010), and the ‘Which One Doesn’t Belong’ and Picture Naming subtests of the Individual Growth and Development Indicators of Early Literacy (IGDIs-EL; McConnell, Bradfield, Wackerle-Hollman, & Rodriquez, 2012) were used as pre and posttest assessments. A researcher developed near transfer test of receptive and expressive vocabulary words was also administered pre and post intervention to determine if words specifically targeted during the intervention were learned. These standardized and researcher developed measures were analyzed with one-way ANCOVAs, using pretest scores and age as covariates to determine within and between group differences. The Johnson-Neyman procedure was utilized as necessary when violations of heterogeneity of slopes occurred. Following the intervention period, children in the intervention group scored significantly higher on the receptive and expressive near transfer vocabulary assessments. This occurred both for words that were specifically targeted during dialogic reading, as well as additional vocabulary words in the storybook.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Computer Science and Information Systems / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

This thesis proposes a new genre of theater that combines participatory and interactive narratives with virtual reality technologies and traditional theatrical elements to create a form that is capable of responding to the growing desire for interactive entertainment mediums. A series of participatory narrative events, including traditional theater productions, interactive narrative/drama and role-playing games, are analyzed for their potentialities and limitations. These elements are then used to respond to scholarly writings concerning the problems of participatory narrative forms. From this analysis conclusions are drawn about the necessary elements needed to create this new genre of theater, termed interactive virtual theater, or IVT. The elements are then synthesized into a hypothetical picture of what the IVT of the future might look like.

Tone mapping is a computational task of significance in the context of displaying high dynamic range images on low dynamic range devices. While a number of tone mapping algorithms have been proposed and are in common use, there is no single operator that yields optimal results under all conditions. Moreover, obtaining satisfactory mappings often requires the manual tweaking of parameters. This thesis proposes interactive evolution as a computational tool for tone mapping. An evolution strategy that blends the results from several tone mapping operators while at the same time adapting their parameters is proposed. As well, the results are adapted such that such that approximately uniform perceptual distances between offspring candidate solutions and the parent are ensured. The introduction of a perceptually based step size adaptation technique enhances the control of the variability between newly generated offspring, when compared to parameter space step size adaptation.

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