Taste, or gustation, has long been considered a primitive, and even non-rational, perceptual sense. Taste, as a subject of academic research, has been given very little attention; especially, when contrasted to other human perceptual senses. The knowledge of how people express and discuss their perceptions and sensations of tastes, and, specifically, the descriptions of tastes of chocolate, is very limited. Furthermore, the terminological inconsistency in the vocabulary of chocolate tasting, with the risk of misunderstanding or miscommunication, suggests that a basic method for representing tastes is needed. This thesis presents a study of how people actually express the perception or sensation of tasting, and specifically when tasting chocolate. This study also explores the possibility of crafting a method for use when describing the tastes of chocolate. The study was carried out by holding two tasting workshops. The first one was concerned with recording conversations about tasting chocolate. Participants were asked to taste different kinds of chocolates and, freely, discuss what they perceived and sensed. In the second workshop the participants were asked to describe the tastes of chocolate using predetermined vocabulary and formatted questionnaires. The results of this study are linguistic semantic analyses of the different words that were used, and also a proposal for a prototypical method to use when tasting chocolate.

<p><font face="Times New Roman"> <p align="left">This study looks at the effect of a cross-cultural instructional approach on the learners&rsquo / conceptions of lightning and attitude towards science. It explored Basotho conceptions of lightning and thunder under the following themes: nature of lightning, protection against lightning, animalistic/humanistic behaviour of lighting and nature of wounds inflicted by lightning.</p> </font></p>

<p>The adoption of information technology as an aid to organisational efficiency and effectiveness has a long history in business and public administration, but its application to the processes of teaching and learning in education has been relatively limited. At the dawn of the new millennium this began to change, as educational institutions around the world began to experiment with new ideas for the use of information technology. This happened at the same time that commercial organisations began to realise that they themselves could &ndash / because of the availability of IT based systems &ndash / invest in educational services focused on their own needs. It was against this background that this research project set out to study how South African higher education has incorporated new learning technologies in the delivery of programmes. The study began by exploring the emerging patterns of the use of e-learning in South African higher education. This was to establish a broad understanding of how e-learning was incorporated into the core business of universities. As the study progressed interviews with both teaching and support staff provided course descriptions which were used to expose the kind of considerations that were made in designing, developing and delivering those courses. The main purpose of the study was to answer the question: what pedagogical considerations are necessary for successful course design when using e-learning? By placing the course descriptions on a continuum developed as a part of the conceptual framework in the study it was possible to analyse the course design features that emerged. The framework and its differentiated learning designs (LD1/2/3) can be used for both design and evaluation of courses and can facilitate the use of technology in enhancing teaching and learning.</p>

Today’s information systems engineering involves large number of stakeholders, wide geographical distribution and wide range of tools. Success in system engi-neering depends on effective human communication. Early understanding and modelling of the problem domain is a key to manage large scale systems and pro-jects. This requires stakeholders to reach a certain level of shared interpretation of the domain referred throughout the development We propose a method for semantics driven change impact assessment. In our method, first a collaborative problem analysis is conducted. The problem analysis results in an agreed and committed common understanding of the prob-lem domain, expressed in a conceptual domain model. The constructed concep-tual domain-specific model is then actively used as a communication medium, e.g., to abstract development objects from representation format in order to expli-cate their semantics. Stakeholders browse the domain model and interactively as-sociate to product fragments by selecting concept clusters that best describe the contents (intended meaning) of the product fragments. Associations of the development objects with concepts from domain model, as well as the domain model itself constitute the basis for change impact assess-ment throughout the development. Every revision of a development object in-vokes change impact notifications that are either confirmed or rejected. Accumu-lated statistics are used to refine associations via the domain model to the direct dependency links among development objects. The method has been implemented in a prototype system CO2SY and has been evaluated in an experiment, where a set of test users has been provided with a problem domain description including a domain model and a set of develop-ment objects. The experiment was based on two real world cases. Users were asked to perform tasks using the prototype and two comparative tools. The method and prototype have been evaluated with respect to actual performance and users perceptions. The result shows actual effectiveness, perceived ease of use and usefulness comparing to other tools used in the experiment, as well as intention of the subjects to use the method in future. A discussion of future research directions and possible revisions of the method concludes the thesis.

This thesis examines how pupils in the upper level of compulsory school learn about environmental issues and related theoretical concepts in an instruction employing an investigative approach and thematically organised content. The results of the study give reason to question some central arguments supporting these designs of instruction. Additionally, and primarily, these results contribute to research on concept formation. An understanding of pupils’ difficulties in learning theoretical concepts as a problem of contextualization is derived, representing an alternative to the influential view in which pupils’ difficulties are seen as a problem of conceptual change. Three case studies carried out within the pupils’ regular instruction are presented. The empirical material consists of recorded conversations, observational notes and the pupils’ own written material. The first study shows that the pupils experience difficulty in distinguishing among the different meanings attached to individual concepts in various conceptual contexts. This implies that pupils are often unable to identify the meaning relevant to the specific environmental problem on which they are working. The second study shows that the pupils do not make the connection between theoretical concepts and practical activities, as intended in instruction. Instead, they interpret the concepts within separate practical contexts, i.e. interpretative contexts other than the theoretical contexts. Finally, the third study demonstrates that the context for a pupil’s investigation changes as the pupil’s values concerning the environmental issues are brought to the fore. Thus, the outcome indicates that contextualization is a main factor in pupils’ learning of theoretical concepts. It is shown that the pupils’ understanding of theoretical concepts is dependent on their contextualizations of these concepts, both with regard to different conceptual contexts and with regard to different levels within a context. It is also demonstrated that emotions play a part in pupils’ learning by determining into which context pupils choose to enter.

A prerequisite for improving road safety are reliable and consistent sources of information about traffic and accidents, which will help assess the prevailing situation and give a good indication of their severity. In many countries there is under-reporting of road accidents, deaths and injuries, no collection of data at all, or low quality of information. Potential knowledge is hidden, due to the large accumulation of traffic and accident data. This limits the investigative tasks of road safety experts and thus decreases the utilization of databases. All these factors can have serious effects on the analysis of the road safety situation, as well as on the results of the analyses. This dissertation presents a three-tiered conceptual model to support the sharing of road safety–related information and a set of applications and analysis tools. The overall aim of the research is to build and maintain an information-sharing platform, and to construct mechanisms that can support road safety professionals and researchers in their efforts to prevent road accidents. GLOBESAFE is a platform for information sharing among road safety organizations in different countries developed during this research. Several approaches were used, First, requirement elicitation methods were used to identify the exact requirements of the platform. This helped in developing a conceptual model, a common vocabulary, a set of applications, and various access modes to the system. The implementation of the requirements was based on iterative prototyping. Usability methods were introduced to evaluate the users’ interaction satisfaction with the system and the various tools. Second, a system-thinking approach and a technology acceptance model were used in the study of the Swedish traffic data acquisition system. Finally, visual data mining methods were introduced as a novel approach to discovering hidden knowledge and relationships in road traffic and accident databases. The results from these studies have been reported in several scientific articles.

The main objective of this study is to make a comprehensive analysis of the question &ldquo / Why is there something rather than nothing?&rdquo / , which is one of the major questions of metaphysics, and to find a plausible answer at the end, if it is possible. To begin this analysis, a clarification of what we understand by this question is needed first. For the clarification, a definition of &lsquo / nothingness&rsquo / will be sought. Afterwards, the motivation for us to ask this question, the significance of it, and the content of it will be investigated. This investigation will help us concentrate on and discuss within the framework of causation and necessity our understanding of &ldquo / contingent beings&rdquo / and &ldquo / nothingness&rdquo / . Two main approaches sought to answer this question till now are by theists and physicists. Those approaches will be discussed and compared. And at the end of the comparative analysis of these two approaches, a metaphysical approach which will be a layer of them will be sought.

<p>Coal provides for 77% of South Africa&rsquo / s primary energy needs and is therefore a major resource that supports the socio-economic needs of South African citizens. Power stations are the major consumers of coal in South Africa and produces electricity from burned coal. The burning of coal produces a large volume of ash that is disposed in the form of ash dump systems. The ash&nbsp / dump system is treated with high salinity process water from the power station for dust suppression. The process water contains salts due to evaporation processes from the recirculation&nbsp / &nbsp / of&nbsp / water in the cooling water system. Various studies to evaluate the sustainability of the ash dump system as a sustainable salt sink were therefore conducted. This study aimed to develop a conceptual model for the ash dump system by evaluating the movement of the process water trough the ash dump and the impacts it might have on the underlying weathered dolerite aquifer. This was achieved by evaluating the hydraulic and transport properties of the ash dump system. An initial site conceptual model was first established prior to the application of the hydraulic&nbsp / and transport methods. The initial conceptual model was based on the literature, previous reports and an initial site walk over. Known and tested hydraulic and transport methods were applied&nbsp / n bo.th field and laboratory scale for the saturated part of the ash dump system. The laboratory experiments comprised of column and core experiments. These methods assisted in&nbsp / parameter estimation of hydraulic and transport properties and also assisted in the planning of the field experiments. The field experiments were conducted in the form of slug tests, tracer&nbsp / dilution and natural gradient divergent tracer test experiments. The combined laboratory and field experiments provided statistically significant values that were then used as inputs into the&nbsp / conceptual model. Field experiments were also applied to a surrogate aquifer that represented the underlying shallow weathered dolerite aquifer of the ash dump system. The components of&nbsp / the updated conceptual model identified and investigated include the physical environment, the calculated hydraulic and transport properties.The ash dump can be conceptualized as a 20 to&nbsp / &nbsp / 30 meter high heap of consolidated clay size ash&nbsp / particles built on top of an underlying shallow weathered dolerite aquifer. The ash dup is directly connected to the underlying weathered&nbsp / dolerite aquifer. The saline water within the saturated zone has the ability to move through the ash dump system with hydraulic conductivities ranging between 10-1-10- 2 m/day, with flow&nbsp / velocities of 7-8m/day and effective porosities of 1%-2%. The hydraulic properties of the ash dump are, amongst others, controlled by the ash geology, contact time of the process water with the&nbsp / sh and show a significant reduction in hydraulic conductivity over time, before reaching a steady state. The transport properties are controlled by advection and spreading in available&nbsp / pathways. Results for the surrogate underlying fractured rock aquifer show flow velocities of 31m/day and an effective porosity of 1%.This suggests that the underlying weathered dolerite&nbsp / aquifer is vulnerable to process water contamination from the ash dump system. The study illustrates the importance of a site conceptual model before the application of investigative&nbsp / methods. Hence having a site conceptual model provides an excellent platform for hydraulic and transport estimation. The development of a site conceptual model enhanced the&nbsp / understanding of flow and transport movement of the processed&nbsp / water trough the ash dump, it also assisted as a beneficial tool to enhance ash dump management.</p>

The aim of this study was to quantitatively measure refutation text's power for conceptual change while qualitatively discovering students' preference of refutation or expository text structures. This study also sought to examine if religious interest levels predict conceptual change. Participants for this study were 9th, 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-grade seminary students from the private religious educational system of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). The study was conducted in two sessions. Session 1 involved pretesting, interventions, and posttesting. Session 2 involved delayed posttesting and participant interviews. Results were predominately measured quantitatively with some qualitative interview analysis added to enrich the study. This research study provides insight into the refutation text effects in LDS religious education. Results of the study showed significant differences in conceptual change between participants reading refutation texts and those reading expository texts. In every case, the refutation text group performed higher on posttests than did the expository group. Results also showed participant preference toward refutation text structures. Furthermore, the study found significant correlations that verify topic interest as a possible predictor of conceptual change. Insights are valuable in aiding curriculum developers in implementing effective ways to teach doctrinal principles by utilizing refutation text interventions. The advantages of this research study add to educational research and identify areas for improvement and exploration in further research. This study of refutation text effects in religious education also broadens researchers' understanding of refutation text's power for conceptual change in subjects outside of K-12 science. Results of this study are of interest to researchers, teachers, curriculum writers, and LDS seminary teachers and administrators.

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 4pt; text-align: justify; font-size: 9pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1;Mechanics, first experienced by engineering students in introductory physics courses, encompasses an important set of foundational concepts for success in engineering. However, although it has been well known for some time that acquiring a conceptual understanding of mechanics is one of the most difficult challenges faced by students, very few successful attempts to engender conceptual learning have been described in the literature. On the contrary, research has shown that most students participating in university levelcourses had not acquired a Newtonian understanding of mechanics at the end of their respective course. Recently I have described more than 10 years of experiences of designing and using conceptual labs in engineering education that have successfully fostered insightful learning. In the framework of the larger project I have developed labs applying variation theory in the design of task structure and using sensor-computer-technology (“probe-ware”) for collecting and displaying experimental data in real-time. In previous studies, I have shown that these labs using probe-ware can be effective in learning mechanics with normalised gains in the g≈50-60% range and with effect sizes d≈1.1, but that this technology also can be implemented in ways that lead to low achievements. One necessary condition for learning is that students are able to focus on the object of learning and discern its critical features. A way to establish this, according to the theory of variation developed by Marton and co-workers, is through the experience of difference (variation), rather than through the recognition of similarity. In a lab, an experiential human–instrument–world relationship is established. The technology used places some aspects of reality in the foreground, others in the background, and makes certain aspects visible that would otherwise be invisible. In labs, this can be used to bring critical features of the object of learning into the focal awareness of students and to afford variation. In this study, I will account for how the design of task structure according to variation theory, as well as the probe-ware technology, make the laws of force and motion visible and learnable and, especially, in the lab studied make Newton’s third law visible and learnable. I will also, as a comparison, include data from a mechanics lab that use the same probe-ware technology and deal with the same topics in mechanics, but uses a differently designed task structure. I will argue that the lower achievements on the FMCE-test in this latter case can be attributed to these differences in task structure in the lab instructions. According to my analysis, the necessary pattern of variation is not included in the design. I will also present a microanalysis of 15 hours collected from engineering students’ activities in a lab about impulse and collisions based on video recordings of student’s activities in a lab about impulse and collisions. The important object of learning in this lab is the development of an understanding of Newton’s third law. The approach analysing students interaction using video data is inspired by ethnomethodology  and conversation analysis, i.e. I will focus on students practical, contingent and embodied inquiry in the setting of the lab. I argue that my result corroborates variation theory and show this theory can be used as a ‘tool’ for designing labs as well as for analysing labs and lab instructions.  Thus my results have implications outside the domain of this study and have implications for understanding critical features for student learning in labs.