Diss. Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2004.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karol. inst., 2005. / Härtill 6 uppsatser.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-108). Also available via the Internet.

published_or_final_version / Biochemistry / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis contributes to the field of academic game studies by reworking and updating the established theories of Espen Aarseth, Janet Murray and Marie-Laure Ryan in understanding the path in videogames. It also draws upon the more recent theoretical discussions of figures such as Jesper Juul, Lev Manovich, Frans Mäyrä and James Newman in order to explore the player’s experience along these paths in the gameworld. By defining a vocabulary of routes through space, the thesis uses the maze in particular as a way of understanding the paths of videogames. The research starts by examining our cultural understanding of the maze within videogames. Various mazes around the UK were walked in order to understand their design and how this may translate into the virtual world of the videogame. The thesis examines the uses of real world mazes through the work of Penelope Doob, and Herman Kern to discuss how the videogame may rework our cultural understanding of the maze due to its increasingly ubiquitous nature. This enables a discussion of maze-paths found within many videogames that are not necessarily categorised by what is often discussed as the maze genre of games. A morphology of maze-paths is devised through comparing the mazes of the real world and the virtual mazes of the videogame. This is achieved by breaking down the maze into separate path types and shows how these paths may link to one another. The thesis argues that the paths of the videogame are generated by the player’s actions. Therefore the focus of this thesis is on the player’s experience along these paths and the objects found at points on them. In acknowledging how to overcome obstacles along the path it is also possible to understand the role of the path in the player’s learning and mastery of the gameworld. This leads to discussions of different types of play experienced by the player in the videogame. Play is separated into what I term purposeful play, being the activities intended by the designer, and appropriated play which is the play formed out of the player’s exploration of the game system. These two terms help to understand player’s incentives for playing along the ruled paths of the gameworld as well as exploring the game’s system further to find new types of play outside of the pre-determined rules. As this thesis is concerned with videogames involving the player’s avatar having a direct relationship with the path, the research also investigates what happens when certain devices break these paths. It was discovered that warp devices reconstruct both temporal and narrative elements within the gamespace, and cause the player’s avatar to temporarily move on tracks through the gameworld. In defining a vocabulary of movement through space on a fixed track, as opposed to a player-determined path, there is a further understanding of the player experience related to each type of route taken in the game. Through an understanding of the maze and defining a vocabulary of maze-paths, tracks and objects found along them, this thesis adds a new contribution to knowledge. It also acknowledges the importance of different types of play within videogames and how these can shape the player experience along the paths of the game.

This thesis evaluates two automatic control systems, PID and LQ, for the purpose of controlling the steel marble in a Brio labyrinth game. The objective has been for these automatic control strategies to bring the marble through the labyrinth and examine how well they handle this problem. A mathematical model of the problem was derived and a detailed model of the labyrinth game was established in Mathworks software Simscape to streamline the development of the structural design and control system. Based on the Simscape model, the labyrinth game was modified with hardware necessary to perform the task. Before the development of the control system commenced, tests were carried out to study the marbles movement in the two models compared with the labyrinth game. This proved that the friction in the labyrinth game is non-linear compared to the models which both showed similar behavior. The control system was then implemented to be tested and evaluated in the Simscape model as well as the labyrinth game. In the Simscape model, they both perform equally well and the PID- and LQ-controller can easily bring the marble through the labyrinth. In the labyrinth game, the LQ controller succeeds in bringing the marble through the labyrinth in 45\% of cases, while the corresponding for the PID controller is 25\%. The LQ controller was the one that generally had the best performance and was able to handle the marbles movement despite the non-linearities. The PID controller's performance was poorer, which is largely due to said non-linearities but also noise in the system, which the LQ controller is not affected as much by. The study shows that non-linearities such as friction are difficult to model. The model-based design is a good method but can be time consuming and the end result can make it difficult to motivate in many cases.

O presente trabalho apresenta soluções e análises desenvolvidas em estruturas extravasoras em aproveitamentos a fio dágua, envolvendo análises nos critérios de operação de diversos tipos de descarregadores, tais como: soleira normal, labirinto, tulipa e comportas específicas. Para tanto se faz necessário o estudo e comparação de resultados a serem desenvolvidos em cada projeto com relação aos fatores hidráulicos, hidrológicos, geológicos, topográficos e dos riscos envolvendo prejuízos decorrentes de falhas nas estruturas hidráulicas. A avaliação de extravasores labirinto em aproveitamentos hidrelétricos de projetos aprovados pela Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica ANEEL tem o objetivo de analisar a segurança em relação à construção e à operação, com foco no desenvolvimento de descarregadores adequados para cada estudo de caso presentes neste trabalho. Esta avaliação indica as condições geométricas, econômicas e hidráulicas do extravasor labirinto adequado para cada situação de aproveitamento hidrelétrico a fio dágua. / This paper studies solutions and analysis developed in spillways structures in hydroelectric development trickle, involving analysis of the operation criteria of several types of dischargers, such as threshold normal maze, morning glory and specific gates. For this purpose it is necessary to study and compare the results to be developed in each project about the factors hydraulic, hydrologic, geologic, topographic and risks involving losses due to failures in hydraulic structures. The evaluation of spillways maze in hydroelectric of projects approved by the National Agency of Electric Energy - ANEEL aims to analyze the safety for the construction and operation, focusing on the development of suitable dischargers for each case study in this work. This assessment indicates the geometric, economic and hydraulic conditions of the most suitable spillways maze for each situation of hydroelectric development trickle.

Tem-se como objetivo nesta tese defender a existência em algumas obras de José Saramago de uma unidade discursiva intertextualizada com a imagem do labirinto. Para defender a ideia da existência do que será nomeado como discurso do labirinto em sua obra serão analisados textos de três momentos distintos da produção literária de José Saramago. Partir-se-á de duas crônicas E agora, José? e O jardim de Boboli publicadas nos jornais A capital e Jornal do Fundão, entre os anos de 1969 e 1972, que foram recolhidas na obra A bagagem do viajante (1996) a fim de verificar de que modo Saramago enquanto leitor interpretava labirinticamente textos verbais e não-verbais da tradição artística. Posteriormente, estudar-se-á como o percurso labiríntico da personagem, intertextualizado com textos literários e outras obras de arte, é construído no romance O ano da morte de Ricardo Reis (1988). No terceiro e último momento será analisado um diálogo entre as personagens do romance Ensaio sobre a cegueira (1995), em que se poderá observar a orientação dialógica da palavra do outro, conforme conceituado por Bakhtin (2015), e verificar o uso da intertextualidade, de acordo com Kristeva (1974), no diálogo das personagens entre si e com obras de arte que perpassariam por variados momentos da História, do século XV ao XX, propondo um percurso labiríntico e reflexivo ao leitor do romance acerca da realidade e da vida do homem no mundo contemporâneo. / The objective of this thesis is to defend the existence of a discursive unit in the intertextual relation some of José Saramagos works establish with the labyrinth image. In order to support what is to be called the labyrinth discourse in his works, three literary pieces published by José Saramago in different moments will be analysed. The first texts will be the chronicles E agora, José? and O jardim de Boboli published in the newspapers A capital and Jornal do Fundão, between 1969 and 1972 and collected in the book A bagagem do viajante (1996). The aim in these texts is to see how Saramago as a reader used to interpret traditional verbal and non-verbal texts in a labyrinthic way. After that, it is going to be studied how the characters labyrinth discourse is built in the book O ano da morte de Ricardo Reis (1988), showing intertextual relations with other texts and other pieces of art. Finally, in the third chapter, a dialogue among the characters in the book Ensaio sobre a cegueira (1995) will also be analysed so as to observe the dialogical guidance in the Others words, as developed by Bakhtin (2015), and to verify the use of intertextuality according to Kristeva (1974) in the dialogues characters have with themselves and with pieces of art which would occur in different times in History, from the fifteenth to the twentieth century, suggesting to the reader a labyrinthic and reflexive way about reality and human life in a contemporary world.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo a análise dos espaços e suas influências no modo de ser das personagens principais do romance Ensaio sobre a cegueira, de José Saramago. Para tanto, analisaremos as diferentes tipologias espaciais no romance, ou seja, espaços interiores, exteriores, ínferos e labirínticos e sua importância quanto ao desenvolvimento do tema proposto pelo narrador. De início, apresentamos um breve estudo sobre a tipologia espacial e sua importância para o estudo da narrativa; em seguida, analisamos os espaços ínferos na obra tendo como foco o manicômio e a igreja; depois, examinamos os espaços labirínticos das ruas, da cidade e do supermercado; posteriormente, estudamos os espaços horizontais e verticais como as casas de algumas personagens centrais. Além disso, tratamos menipéia como expediente que contribui para a formação da autoconsciência das personagens e revela o hibridismo do texto. / The aim of this work is to present an analysis of the space and its influence over the way of being of the main characters in José Saramago\'s work Ensaio sobre a cegueira. We will analyse the different spatial typology in the novel, it means, interior, exterior, inferior and labyrinthic spaces and their importance to the development of the narrator\'s proposed theme. From the beginning, we present a brief study of the spatial typology and its importance to the study of the narrative; subsequently, we analyse the inferior spaces focusing the institution for mentally ill people and the church; moreover, we analyse the labyrinthic spaces of streets, city and supermarket; later, we study the horizontal and vertical spaces such as the houses of some of the main characters. Besides, we deal with menipeia as something that contributes to the formation of the characters\' self-consciousness and reveals the hybridism of the text.

Esta dissertação associa a cerâmica às novas tecnologias do computador objetivando a criação de um CD-ROM híbrido. Trabalho que se realiza na construção de uma grande rede tramada com a poética da terra, dos devaneios da matéria, da massa e do fogo, do laborioso jogo do fazer com as mãos, com a poética do virtual, da extensão do corpo, do caminho labiríntico que se desdobra em muitas possibilidades no instante de um clicar eletrônico. Ao longo do desenvolvimento deste CD-ROM, imagens poéticas estarão entrelaçadas às informações e conhecimento científico sobre o assunto. A partir do conceito de trama é desenvolvida, com registros fotográficos e em vídeos, uma pesquisa pessoal com o material cerâmico em ateliê. Imagens destes trabalhos são utilizadas ao longo da construção do objeto CD-ROM assim como a de outras produções. Neste CD apresentam-se alguns profissionais brasileiros, que utilizam a cerâmica como suporte para sua expressão plástica, seus trabalhos, além de diversas técnicas e processos deste fazer. Todo o conteúdo informativo poderá ser acessado e enriquecido através da interatividade possibilitada pela hipermídia. Trata-se, portanto, de um trabalho que enfoca o individual e o coletivo. Utilizou-se para este desenvolvimento conceitos da área da comunicação e informática, tais como multimídia, hipermídia, hipertexto, interatividade, labirinto e rizoma, entre outros. / This issues associated with ceramic to the new technologies of computer and its goals on the creation of a hybrid CD-ROM. This work takes place in the construction of a great net schemed with the poetic of the earth, of the fantasy of the matter, of the mass and of the fire, the laborious game of doing with hands, with poetic of the virtual, of the extension of the body, of the labyrinth road that is unfolded in a lot of possibility in the moment of electronic clicks. Along the development of this CD-ROM, poetic of images will be interlaced to the information and scientific knowledge on the subject. It starts from the plot concept and it is developed with photographic registration and video, also with a personal research with the ceramic material in atelier. Image of these works have been used along the construction of this CD-ROM, as well as one of another productions. In this CD there are some Brazilians professionals that use the ceramic as support for its plastic expression in their works, besides several techniques and processes of this. The whole informative content can be accessed and enriched, through the integrate possibility for the hypermedia. It is, therefore, a work that focuses the individual and the collectively. It was used for this development several concepts of the area of the communication and computer science as multimedia, hypermedia, hypertext, interactive, labyrinth and rhizome among others.