Examensarbetet handlar om förskollärarens förhållningssätt och kunskap kring användandet av lärplattan i förskolan. Syftet med arbetet är att undersöka vad som finns tillgängligt för förskollärare att ta del av för att få ökad kunskap kring lärplattan som verktyg för barns språkutveckling. I arbetet undersöks hur Litteraturhuset Trampolins ryggsäckar påverkar barns möjligheter till språkutveckling genom lärplattan samt kommunens fortbildning och dess utformning. Genom en innehållsanalys av Litteraturhuset Trampolins ryggsäckar, intervjuer med förskollärare som lånat en sådan ryggsäck samt genom en observation av kommunens fortbildning har empiri samlats in och analyserats utifrån ett multimodalt perspektiv.   I arbetets resultat belyses förskollärares upplevelse om att det är värdefullt att kunna ta del av de olika möjligheter som finns tillgängliga genom Trampolin och fortbildning i kommunen. Det blir meningsfullt dels för förskollärare som får möjlighet att utveckla sina egna kunskaper och inspireras till att integrera lärplattan i förskolan dels för barnen när förskollärarens kunskap och förståelse för barns lärande med IT som verktyg förbättras. Detta skapar en diskussion om didaktik kring hur Litteraturhuset Trampolins ryggsäckar och dess färdiga koncept påverkar barns språkutveckling samt hur utformningen av fortbildning inom området bidrar till förskollärares kunskap och engagemang kring lärplattan som pedagogiskt verktyg. Arbetets empiriska del visar att förskollärare önskar mer kunskap om integrering av lärplattan i förskolan vilket stöds av forskning inom området.

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Little attention has been paid to the rhetorical practices and implications of reality television within the field of rhetoric and composition. In fact, it is easy to argue that television as a whole has been largely ignored, leaving the research to scholars in media, communication, and cultural studies. However, the convergence of media has raised questions about the nature of the viewing practices of contemporary television audiences--specifically regarding how to reconcile the complex texts audiences produce in response to television with the passive model of consumption that has defined it. Game scholars, as well as scholars of computers and composition, have theorized the powerful rhetorical potential of play with regard to video games, but they have yet to consider the way play has been invoked in other more traditional media. Therefore, this dissertation seeks to connect old media and new by considering how television, specifically reality TV, engages audiences across platforms, how audiences extend their own experience with reality programs, and what this might mean to rhetoric and composition scholars about contemporary literacy practices. In this dissertation, I argue that reality television has successfully used rhetorics of play and new media technologies to engage audiences within, across, and between programs and their digital environments. Using Survivor as a case study, I analyze the strategies that producers use to invite audiences into the program, specifically focusing on the generic characteristics that instigate play, the program's online presence, and the ways in which viewers respond by producing their own texts such as fantasy Survivor games, blogs, discussion forums, and video mash-ups. By doing so, I demonstrate how reality TV and new media technology have renegotiated the relationship among producers, audiences, and texts. Significantly, viewers become active participants with, as well as producers of, texts. Additionally, I use this research to study how play encourages self-motivated writing, community building, and the possible uses for "serious play" within the composition classroom.

Engineering design often requires the optimisation of multiple objectives, and becomes significantly more difficult and time consuming when the response surfaces are multimodal, rather than unimodal. A surrogate model, also known as a metamodel, can be used to replace expensive computer simulations, accelerating single and multi-objective optimisation and the exploration of new design concepts. The main research focus of this work is to investigate the use of a neural network surrogate model to improve optimisation of multimodal surfaces. Several significant contributions derive from evaluating the Cascade Correlation neural network as the basis of a surrogate model. The contributions to the neural network community ultimately outnumber those to the optimisation community. The effects of training this surrogate on multimodal test functions are explored. The Cascade Correlation neural network is shown to map poorly such response surfaces. A hypothesis for this weakness is formulated and tested. A new subdivision technique is created that addresses this problem; however, this new technique requires excessively large datasets upon which to train. The primary conclusion of this work is that Cascade Correlation neural networks form an unreliable basis for a surrogate model, despite successes reported in the literature. A further contribution of this work is the enhancement of an open source optimisation toolkit, achieved by the first integration of a truly multi-objective optimisation algorithm.

This research study was performed in an attempt to fill an apparent void regarding the relative utility and comprehensiveness of three published, theoretically-based, idiographic, initial assessment inventories: Integral Intake (II), Life-Style Introductory Interview (LI), and Multimodal Life History Inventory (MI). “Experts” -- defined as professors of counseling or psychology and licensed practitioners who have been practicing as counselors or psychologists for at least five years - read through the inventories and then evaluated them by responding to both (qualitative) open-ended questions as well (quantitative) rankings and ratings. The researcher posed three primary research questions: 1) how do participants' evaluations differ regarding the overall helpfulness of the three inventories; 2) how do participants' evaluations differ regarding the comprehensiveness -- both relative to each of the eight dimensions of the client (thoughts, emotions, behaviors, physical aspects of the client, physical aspects of the client's environment, culture, spirituality, and what is most meaningful to the client) and overall -- of the three inventories; and 3) how do participants' evaluations differ regarding the efficiency with which the three inventories assessed the eight dimensions. Results indicated that participants consistently evaluated the II and MI as more helpful, comprehensive, and efficient than the LI - both overall and relative to the eight specific dimensions. The LI was consistently evaluated as the worst of the three inventories -- on all dimensions. The MI was evaluated as the best inventory on four dimensions: the client's thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and physical aspects. The II was evaluated as the best inventory on seven dimensions: physical aspects of the client's environment, client's culture, client's spirituality, what is most meaningful to the client, and, notably, on overall comprehensiveness, overall efficiency, and overall helpfulness. Another goal of this research was to obtain feedback from the participants relative to how to improve the II. This goal was also accomplished and the researcher will implement this feedback into subsequent versions of the Integral Intake.

The purpose of this research is to examine ways that the instructional use of voluntary risk-taking and multimodality might decrease preservice elementary educators' artistic trepidation and assist them to reconceptualize elementary art education. The study investigates participant-reported impacts and insights, and inspects ways that participants utilize multimodality during course assignments. This qualitative action research study was conducted in a semester-long arts methods and materials course with 23 participants who were university preservice elementary education students. Data were collected during instruction through open-ended questionnaires, researcher fieldnotes, participant fieldnotes, course culmination projects, participant artwork, written reflections, and participant-created elementary art lesson plans. A hybrid theoretical construct utilized both multimodal and reconceptualist theories. Participant self-reported comfort ratings during the study indicate increased artistic comfort in both making art and teaching art after instruction. Findings from the study suggest the need for educators to focus on arts integration during course instruction and to address the art apprehension held by some preservice elementary educators. Insights shared confirm that recognizing preservice elementary educators' multimodal skills contributes to educational possibilities for their own future instructional practice. By facilitating voluntary risk-taking and multimodality opportunities during the teaching of art education to preservice elementary educators, this study contributes to scholarship about successful instructional strategies and the importance of contemporary arts methods.

<p>Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive three-dimensional interferometric imaging technique capable of achieving micrometer scale resolution. It is now a standard of care in ophthalmology, where it is used to improve the accuracy of early diagnosis, to better understand the source of pathophysiology, and to monitor disease progression and response to therapy. In particular, retinal imaging has been the most prevalent clinical application of OCT, but researchers and companies alike are developing OCT systems for cardiology, dermatology, dentistry, and many other medical and industrial applications. </p><p>Adaptive optics (AO) is a technique used to reduce monochromatic aberrations in optical instruments. It is used in astronomical telescopes, laser communications, high-power lasers, retinal imaging, optical fabrication and microscopy to improve system performance. Scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) is a noninvasive confocal imaging technique that produces high contrast two-dimensional retinal images. AO is combined with SLO (AOSLO) to compensate for the wavefront distortions caused by the optics of the eye, providing the ability to visualize the living retina with cellular resolution. AOSLO has shown great promise to advance the understanding of the etiology of retinal diseases on a cellular level.</p><p>Broadly, we endeavor to enhance the vision outcome of ophthalmic patients through improved diagnostics and personalized therapy. Toward this end, the objective of the work presented herein was the development of advanced techniques for increasing the imaging speed, reducing the form factor, and broadening the versatility of OCT and AOSLO. Despite our focus on applications in ophthalmology, the techniques developed could be applied to other medical and industrial applications. In this dissertation, a technique to quadruple the imaging speed of OCT was developed. This technique was demonstrated by imaging the retinas of healthy human subjects. A handheld, dual depth OCT system was developed. This system enabled sequential imaging of the anterior segment and retina of human eyes. Finally, handheld SLO/OCT systems were developed, culminating in the design of a handheld AOSLO system. This system has the potential to provide cellular level imaging of the human retina, resolving even the most densely packed foveal cones.</p> / Dissertation

Antalet andraspråkselever i den svenska skolan har idag ökat, vilket innebär att undervisningen behöver anpassas till de nya förutsättningarna. Den här litteraturstudiens syfte är att undersöka andraspråkselevers läs- och skrivutveckling och hur lärare genom multimodala arbetssätt kan stötta denna i ämnet svenska i årskurs 1 – 3. Resultatet i den här studien visar att lärarens stöttning har en avgörande betydelse vid andraspråkselevers utveckling och att det är viktigt att lärare har kunskaper om hur andraspråkselever lär. I studien redovisas även framgångsrika exempel på hur lärare kan stötta andraspråkselever genom att arbeta multimodalt. / <p>Svenska</p>

Introduktion/bakgrund: MS är en sjukdom som innebär att kroppens immunförsvar attackerar det centrala nervsystemet. Personer med MS har visats ha en sämre livskvalitet jämfört med personer som lever med andra kroniska sjukdomar och 78 % deltar inte i någon meningsfull fysisk aktivitet. Enligt de nationella riktlinjerna ska personer med MS erbjudas tillgång till ett multidisciplinärt team men tillgången är varierande. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att beskriva hur personer med MS upplevde individanpassad grupprehabilitering på ett rehabiliteringscenter och beskriva vilka svårigheter som fanns med att överföra den nya kunskapen till vardagen. Metod: Informanterna i studien hade diagnosen MS och deltagit i rehabilitering på ett rehabiliteringscenter i norra Sverige. För att fånga deras upplevelser av individanpassad grupprehabilitering användes en kvalitativ intervjustudie. Resultat: Informanterna ansåg att den individanpassade grupprehabiliteringen var bra avvägd. De kunde lägga fokus på sig själva och lägga upp rehabiliteringen efter egna mål. Grupprehabilitering bidrog med en öppenhet och gemenskap där de kunde lära sig av varandra och personalen. En svårighet ansågs vara att överföra det de lärt sig då familjen inte alltid förstår situationen och att det ska passa in i en vardag som är full av sysslor och måsten vilket är viktigt att ta hänsyn till. Konklusion: Individanpassad rehabilitering gav en möjlighet att fokusera på sig själv och lägga upp rehabiliteringen efter egna mål och förutsättningar medan grupprehabilitering bidrog med en öppenhet och gemenskap där de kunde lära sig av varandra och personalen.