Background. Procedural Content Generation (PCG) in Video Games can be used as a tool for efficiently producing large varieties of new content using less manpower, making it ideal for smaller teams of developers who wants to compete with games made by larger teams. One particular facet of PCG is the generation of mazes. Designers that want their game to feature mazes also need to know how to evaluate their maze-complexity, in order to know which maze fits the difficulty curve best. Objectives. This project aims to investigate the difference in complexity between the maze generation algorithms recursive backtracker (RecBack), Prim’s algorithm (Prims), and recursive division (RecDiv), in terms completion time, when solved using a depth-first-search (DFS) algorithm. In order to understand which parameters affect completion time/complexity, investigate possible connections between completion time, and the distribution of branching paths, distribution of corridors, and length of the path traversed by DFS. Methods. The main methodology was an implementation in the form of a C# application, which randomly generated 100 mazes for each algorithm for five different maze grid resolutions (16x16, 32x32, 64x64, 128x128, 256x256). Each one of the generated mazes was solved using a DFS algorithm, whose traversed nodes, solving path, and completion time was recorded. Additionally, branch distribution and corridor distribution data was gathered for each generated maze. Results. The initial results showed that mazes generated by Prims algorithm had the lowest complexity (shortest completion time), the shortest solving path, the lowest amount of traversed nodes, and the lowest proportion of 2-branches, but the highest proportion of all other branch types. Additionally Prims had the highest proportion of 4-6 length paths, but the lowest proportion of 2 and 3 length paths. Later mazes generated by RecDiv had intermediate complexity, intermediate solving path, intermediate traversed nodes, intermediate proportion of all branch types, and the highest proportion of 2-length paths, but the lowest proportion of 4-6 length paths. Finally mazes generated by RecBack had opposite statistics from Prims: the highest complexity, the longest solving path, the highest amount of traversed nodes, the highest proportion of 2-branches, but lowest proportion of all other branch types, and the highest proportion of 3-length paths, but the lowest of 2-length paths. Conclusions. Prims algorithm had the lowest complexity, RecDiv intermediate complexity, and RecBack the highest complexity. Increased solving path length, traversed nodes, and increased proportions of 2-branches, seem to correlate with increased complexity. However the corridor distribution results are too small and diverse to identify a pattern affecting completion time. However the corridor distribution results are too diverse to make it possible to discern a pattern affecting completion time by just observing the data.

Jan Amos Komenský is a great figure of the Czech nation. However, despite his fame, he is a much more significant thinker than he is generally regarded to be. Labyrinth of the World and Paradise of the Heart has no equivalent in its time or in older Czech literature. Even if Komenský wrote nothing else, this book would guarantee him a prominent place in Czech literature. In Labyrinth, Komenský shows himself as a great believer who exactly uncovers human pride, uncovers imaginary and untrue independence of man and shows exactly and aptly the futility and true face of many human endeavours. Labyrinth is a merciless criticism of man. It is never nihilistic, though {--} it is always based on a deep and realistic sense of purpose, a deep feeling for the ethical. That is why Komenský{\crq}s irony {--} which is the essential accord of Labyrinth {--} is irony of sadness. Some of Komenský{\crq}s ideas are close and understandable to us; however, some are much more distant. It remains a question if what seems to us to be old, outdated or naive in Komenský, is a basis without which it is not possible to understand well and realize what we are no longer willing to identify with. Is the ``critic of rationalism{\crqq} and great believer in Komenský, so distant to us, his most important basis that gives viability and future to his own ideas as well as to all human endeavours? This work briefly describes the ideas and storyline of Komenský{\crq}s Labyrinth. Each chapter of this thesis attempts to find what is most important in the mass of text of Labyrinth and thus to briefly point out the significance of each part of the book. Sometimes exact quotations are used which should show the real sense of Komenský{\crq}s ideas in a better way. Quotations from the Bible which could be a base of Komenský{\crq}s ideas are matched to individual chapters. The attempt is to find those ideas of Komenský which could be used and could be useful in our society. On the basis of an elaboration on the book, this work attempts to point out the importance of real belief and keeping to its rules for the life of a man and a society as a whole.

A presente dissertação visa estudar os processos imbricados no percurso da atividade leitora diante da tessitura das produções artísticas contemporâneas. Para isso, primeiramente apresentaremos aspectos históricos e sociais relacionados às transformações ocorridas no mundo da linguagem e seus suportes, a fim de que possamos conceber a leitura como uma prática cultural que, há tempos, extrapola os limites do verbal. Em seguida, aprofundaremos o estudo compreendendo a leitura em seu caráter perceptivo e cognitivo, tomando como fio condutor o sentido humano da visão e observando como, a partir deste último, a leitura concretiza-se em uma labiríntica ação de olhar, em um complexo movimento interno, mental e cognitivo de busca e produção de sentidos. Procuraremos observar ainda a leitura enquanto atividade individual e única, no que se refere a cada leitura e cada leitor, apresentando reflexões sobre a construção do olhar, ou seja, do ponto de vista de que lança mão o leitor para a leitura dos textos, dos seres, enfim, do mundo que o rodeia. Por fim, analisaremos o filme O Labirinto do Fauno (2006), de Guillermo Del Toro, focalizando as relações estabelecidas entre literatura e cinema e demonstrando como os recursos próprios do cinema, bem como sua inter-relação de códigos e linguagens, concorrem para a construção de sentidos. Concomitantemente, a análise evidenciará desafios impostos ao leitor relacionados às linguagens empregadas mas que as extrapolam. Identificando as especificidades de cada forma narrativa (literária e cinematográfica) e seu entrelaçamento, observaremos em que medida a compreensão ampla do filme requer por parte do leitor a reconstrução das relações da obra com a sociedade e com outros textos, épocas, lugares e discursos; o desvendamento do texto enquanto forma esteticamente elaborada; e a procura de uma possível interpretação que conceba a obra como um objeto de simbolização do mundo. Assim, por meio da análise, buscaremos identificar modos que parecem marcar o percurso da atividade leitora e o lugar do leitor tendo em vista as formas expressivas de nossa atualidade. / This dissertation aims to study the processes imbricated in the course of the reading activity before the tessitura of contemporary artistic productions. For such, we will firstly present historical and social aspects related to the changes in the world of language and its supports, so that we are able to conceive reading as a cultural practice that, for a long time, has been extrapolating the limits of the verbal. Then, we will perform a profound study comprehending reading in its perceptive and cognitive nature, taking as guiding principle the human sense of vision and observing how, from the latter, the reading manifests itself in a labyrinthine action of looking, in a complex internal, mental and cognitive movement of search and production of senses. We will seek to further observe reading as a peculiar and unique activity, with respect to each reading and each reader, presenting reflections on the construction of the look, that is, from the point of view that the reader makes use of to read texts, the beings, in short, the world around him. Finally, we will analyze the film Pan\'s Labyrinth (2006), by Guillermo Del Toro, focusing on the relations established between literature and cinema and showing how the own cinema resources, as well as their inter-relationship of codes and languages, lead to construction of senses. Concomitantly, the analysis will show the challenges to the reader related to the languages employed, but that go beyond them. Identifying the specificities of each narrative form (literary and cinematographic) and its interlacement, we will observe to what extent the ample understanding of the film requires, by the reader, the reconstruction of the work relations with society and with other texts, times, places and speeches; the unveiling of the text as aesthetically developed form; and the search for a possible interpretation that sees the work as an object symbolizing the world. Thus, through analysis, we will seek to identify ways that seem to mark the course of the reading activity and the readers place considering the expressive forms of our present.

Introdução: A instabilidade postural é uma manifestação tardia da doença de Parkinson (DP), sendo incapacitante e um fator de risco para quedas. O comprometimento das respostas posturais na DP é provavelmente a causa mais importante das quedas. Estas respostas posturais dependem de informações vestibulares, somatossensoriais e visuais, que são integradas nos núcleos da base, tronco cerebral e medula espinhal. Este estudo avalia um possível papel do sistema vestibular na fisiopatologia da instabilidade postural através da vertical visual subjetiva (VVS). A VVS avalia o julgamento da vertical gravitacional e é um teste sensível da função otolítica. Objetivo: Analisar a VVS em pacientes com DP e comparar com os controles normais; correlacionar a direção das inclinações da VVS e o lado de maior comprometimento da doença; correlacionar a VVS com as escalas Unified Parkinsons Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Hoehn e Yahr (HY); determinar se as inclinações da VVS estão relacionadas à instabilidade postural. Métodos: Pacientes com DP foram submetidos a: exame neurológico completo; escalas UPDRS e HY; teste clínico para avaliação da instabilidade postural e o teste da VVS foi realizado em 45 pacientes e 45 controles normais. Resultados: As inclinações da VVS nos controles tiveram valores entre -2,7º a +2,4º, média +0,18º e DP = 1.17, e entre -6,4º a +5,6º, média -0,50º e DP = 2.89 nos pacientes. Não houve diferença das médias entre pacientes e controles, porém os pacientes tiveram variabilidade maior. A avaliação da variabilidade no grupo dos pacientes utilizou os valores absolutos de cada medida da VVS. As médias dos valores absolutos da VVS nos controles e pacientes foram 1,55º e 3,65º, respectivamente, sendo maiores nos pacientes (p<0,0001). Houve uma fraca correlação positiva entre os resultados da VVS a avaliação motora da escala UPDRS; razoável correlação positiva com a escala HY e uma boa correlação entre a VVS e a severidade da instabilidade postural. Conclusões: Os erros do julgamento da VVS foram significantemente maiores em pacientes comparados aos controles. Além disso, houve uma fraca correlação com as escalas UPDRS e Hoehn e Yahr, e boa correlação da VVS com a instabilidade postural. Estes resultados sugerem que as vias aferentes do sistema vestibular estão comprometidas nos pacientes com DP e poderiam estar envolvidas nos mecanismos que levam à instabilidade postural, indicando que a instabilidade postural não é um fenômeno exclusivamente motor / Introduction: Postural instability is a late manifestation of Parkinsons disease (PD). The impairment of postural responses on PD is probably the most important cause of falls. These postural responses depend on vestibular, somatossensorial and visual inputs, and they are integrated on basal ganglia, brainstem and spinal cord. By use of the subjective visual vertical (SVV), this study evaluates a possible role of the vestibular system on the hysiopathology of postural instability. The SVV makes the judgment of gravitational vertical and is a specific test of otolith function. Objective: To analyze the SVV in patients with PD and to compare with normal controls; to correlate the direction of SVV-inclinations with the side of more impairment disease; to correlate the SVV with the Unified Parkinsons Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), the Hoehn and Yahr (HY) scales, to determine if the inclination of SVV is related to the postural instability. Methods: Patients with idiopathic PD were submitted to: complete neurological examination; the scales UPDRS and HY; the clinical test to postural instability and the SVV test. The measurement of SVV was performed in 45 patients and 45 normal controls. Results: The SVV-inclination ranged from -2.7º to +2.4º, mean 0.18º and SD = 1.17 in controls, and from -6.4º to +5.6º, mean -0.50º and SD = 2.89 in patients. There was no difference in mean between patients and controls, but patients had a greater deviation. The variability evaluation in patients group used absolute values of SVV. The means of absolute values of SVV in controls and patients were 1.55º and 3.65º, respectively, and were greater in patients (p < 0.0001). There was a weak correlation between SSV and scores in the motor evaluation of UPDRS scale. A reasonable correlation was found between SVV values and scores in the HY scale. There was a good correlation between SVV and severity of postural instability. Conclusions: The error of judgment of SVV was significantly increased in the patients compared to controls. Further, there was a weak correlation with UPDRS and HY scales, and a good correlation of SVV with postural instability. These results suggest that the afferent pathways of vestibular system are impaired in patients with PD and could be involved in mechanisms underlying postural instability; so that, postural instability is not only a motor phenomemon

Most people are familiar with the BRIO labyrinth game and the challenge of guiding the ball through the maze. The goal of this project was to use this game to create a platform for evaluation of control algorithms. The platform was used to evaluate a few different controlling algorithms, both traditional automatic control algorithms as well as algorithms based on online incremental learning. The game was fitted with servo actuators for tilting the maze. A camera together with computer vision algorithms were used to estimate the state of the game. The evaluated controlling algorithm had the task of calculating a proper control signal, given the estimated state of the game. The evaluated learning systems used traditional control algorithms to provide initial training data. After initial training, the systems learned from their own actions and after a while they outperformed the controller used to provide initial training.

The development of alternative binder systems for tungsten carbide (WC) based cemented carbides has again become of relevance due to possible changes in EU regulations regarding the use of Cobalt (Co). A framework for the ICME (Integrated Computational Materials Engineering) based Materials Design is presented to accelerate the development of alternative binder systems. Part one of this work deals with the design of the cemented carbide composite hardness. It has been shown that the intrinsic binder hardness is comparable to a bulk metal alloy and that based on the binder solubilities a solid solution strengthening model developed in this work can be employed. Using a method presented in this work the non-equilibrium, frozen-in binder solubilities can be obtained. Both the design of the binder phase and composite hardness is presented based on a general Materials Design approach. Part two deals with a multiscale approach to model the surface gradient formation. The experimentally missing data on liquid binder diffusion has been calculated using AIMD (Ab initio Molecular Dynamics). The diffusion through the liquid cemented carbide binder has to be reduced to an effective diffusion value due to the solid carbides acting as obstacles that increase the diffusion path. The geometrical reduction of the diffusion has been investigated experimentally using the SIMS (secondary ion mass spectroscopy) technique in WC-Nickel-58Nickel diffusion couples. The geometrical contribution of the so-called labyrinth factor has been proven by the combination of the experiments and in conjunction with DICTRA simulations using the precise liquid AIMD diffusivities. Unfortunately, despite the improved kinetic database and the geometrical diffusion reduction, the surface gradient formation cannot be explained satisfactory in complex cemented carbide grades. Additional, but so far unidentified, contributions have to be considered to predict the surface gradient thickness. / <p>QC 20170919</p>

The master´s thesis concentrates on a project of steam turbine with controlled extraction points destined for a communal waste incineration plant. First, there the history of devices using steam as a moving medium is introduced and than follows the description of computing program, where the calculation was running. The master´s thesis subject consists in the thermodynamic project of turbine vaning, in basic project of gearbox including the check calculations and in technical economic comparison of single shaft and twin shaft constructional design. The design documentation is worked up according to the calculated outcomes and contains longitudinal section of turbine and dispositional turbine and gearbox settlement.

In this paper numerical flow calculations with respect to the annular gaps with added radial grooves normaly used on the spools of directional control valves were carried out. The impact of various annular gap geometries and radial grooves during variable pressure conditions, and while using different hydraulic fluids, on the flows through annular gaps were investigated for different flow regimes. Samples with different geometries and numbers of radial groves on the spool of the directional control valve were also made for the purpose of carrying out flow measurements. The two different hydraulic fluids that were used in the numerical simulations and for the flow measurements were a hydraulic mineral oil and tap water. The results of the numerical calculations for the different models of the radial grooves with axially symmetric geometries show their impact on the internal leakage with respect to three different regimes of flow. The results of the numerical calculations based on the use of a hydraulic oil show a trend that was established by the experimental investigation.

The scholarly consensus is that the early essays “Il mare dell’oggettività” and “La sfida al labirinto” are two of the most important Italo Calvino wrote on his literary poetics, influencing the metaphors and problematics of his entire corpus: the sea of objectivity, the labyrinth, chaotic flux, a rational cogito subjectivity, binary oppositions etc. The essays were made available to a general public in the collection Una pietra sopra in 1980, part of a selection of texts handpicked by Calvino himself. Curiously, the 1986 English translation titled The Uses of Literature does not contain these important and influential essays, making them unavailable to an Anglophone audience. These essays are here now translated, accompanied by a critical commentary by the translator about their relevance and importance to Calvino’s corpus. The problematics discussed in these essays would re-emerge, with remarkable consistency, in the metaphorical imagery Calvino deployed throughout his career. Nevertheless, Calvino evolves the problematics significantly throughout his career, almost inverting his original stance. Rather than this being an inversion, however, the translator argues that Calvino’s evolution represents a dialectical movement propelled by contradiction, and that therein lies the actual poetics or the stylized mode of thought that these essays inaugurated. Viewing the essays in this light renders them, and Calvino’s entire corpus, ripe for dialogic encounter and collision with otherwise parallel philosophical traditions and schools of thought.

Projektet utgår ifrån en frågeställning om hur skolbyggnaden i sig kan stimulera till lärande och nyfikenhet. Det finns flera sätt som detta kan utföras på, men det här projektet fokuserar på hur detta kan utföras genom utformning av rumsligheter. Inspirationen kommer huvudsakligen ifrån spelmiljödesign och från arkitekten Herman Hertzberger och hans bok "Space and Learning". Byggnaden består av ett program för en mellan- och högstadieskola, som är distribuerat på ett sätt som gör det utmanande att orientera sig. Rummen är utplacerade som kuber med helt eller delvis massiva väggar. De binds samman av en glasfasad, och mellanrummet som skapas blir en yta av öppen aktivitet och där intressanta rumsligheter skapas.  En annan metod för att stimulera och väcka nyfikenhet är att skapa siktlinjer. De är horisontella: genom glaspartier i väggarna, och vertikala: genom öppningar i bjälklaget.  Tanken är att eleverna allt eftersom de utforskar och lär känna sin skola också lär sig hitta, inte bara till sina klassrum eller toaletterna, utan också till spännande vrår och rumsligheter som skapas i mellanrummen. Det blir en kontrast mellan rummen; där aktiviteten är styrd av lärare och läroplanen, och ytorna i mellan där aktiviteten inte är styrd utan skapas av eleverna själva. / This project is grounded in a question about how a school building in itself can stimulate learning and curiousity. There are many ways of which this can be executed, but this project focuses on spatial design. Inspiration comes mostly from environmental design in games and from the architect Herman Hertzberger and his book "Space and Learning". The building consists of a program for middle school and junior high school, and is distributed in a way that makes orientation intentionally hard. The rooms are placed as cubes with massive or partly massive walls. They are connected by a glass facade, and the space between becomes place for interesting spatialities.  Another method for creating stimulation and curiousity is sightlines. They are horizontal: in the shape of glass walls, and vertical: by openings in the floor structure. The idea is that the students, by exploring and getting to know their school, also learns to find not only their classrooms or lavatories, but also those nooks and crannies that is formed in the in between space. There becomes a contrast between the rooms: where the activities are ruled by teachers and the curriculum, and the in between spaces: where the activity is free and formed by the students themselves.