No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

Mammoth Cave National Park (MCNP) contains a diversity of forest types due to a complex mosaic of landform, rock types and land-use history. The point-centered quarter method was used to collect data for a forested vegetation classification. Stratified random sampling was done in each of the various site types found within the boundaries of MCNP. A classification based on the information available in the matrix of species importance values from each site type was constructed using two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN). Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis was used to devise an automated vegetation mapping model that can be used to predict vegetation from environmental variables. A tool to assess the accuracy of model predictions was devised. The predicted vegetation map was stored within the GIS, and allows access to a variety of data associated with inventored, classifed, and predicted plant community types. / Department of Biology

Os paradigmas da criação artística para a CAVE (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment) ainda estão sendo elaborados pois, no âmbito da Realidade Virtual, é uma tecnologia recente e ainda bastante onerosa, fatores que dificultam sua disseminação. Ainda assim, algumas instituições possuem CAVEs para pesquisas artístico-culturais. Dentre elas, figura o centro de pesquisas Ars Electronica que, em parceria com o artista transmídia Maurice Benayoun, produziu em sua CAVE, cuja visitação é aberta ao público, a premiada obra World Skin. Com o intuito de situar o atual estado da arte das experimentações artísticas em CAVEs, esta obra mereceu análise detalhada de seus processos criativos e metodológicos. Nela, o autor investiga as reações cognitivas dos visitantes e propõe uma nova relação espaçocorporal dentro de um mundo virtual. A potencialidade artística da CAVE é grande e existe interesse dos artistas em explorá-la. As novas pesquisas e avanços tecnológicos apontam perspectivas de um maior acesso a este tipo de ambiente imersivo, consolidando-o como um prolífero suporte artístico. / The paradigms behind artistic creation for CAVE (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment) are yet to be elaborate, since in the realm of Virtual Reality, this is a recent and expensive technology, which poses barriers to its own spreading. Even so, some institutions do have CAVEs for culture and artistic research. Among them, there\'s the research center Ars Electronica, which, in partnership with transmedia artist Maurice Benayoun, has produced in its CAVE (which is open for public visits), the award-winning work World Skin. With the objective of placing experimental artistic manifestations in CAVEs, this work has been deeply analyzed, concerning its creative processes and methods. The author evaluates the cognitive reactions of the visitors and proposes a new corporal-space relationship in a virtual world. The artistic potential behind a CAVE seems to be huge, and artists are willing to explore it. According to new researches and recent developed technologies, there will be a broader access to this kind of immersive environment, which might become a highly productive platform for artists.

Ziel dieser Arbeit war es, die Entscheidungsfindung mittels virtueller Methoden im Fahrzeugentwicklungsprozess zu unterstützen. Es wurde ein Interaktionssystem entwickelt, welches auf Propriozeption und taktilem Feedback als multimodale Komponente in Verbindung mit visueller Wahrnehmung beruht. Zur sinnvollen Nutzung der Propriozeption wurde eine Freihandinteraktion basierend auf Fingertracking in der CAVE eingesetzt, welche die Abbildung einer Bedienmetapher sehr ähnlich der eines Bewegungsablaufes im realen Fahrzeug ermöglicht. Das System wurde in Probandenstudien evaluiert. Es wurde gezeigt, dass eine individuelle Anpassung des virtuellen Augenabstandes deutliche Verbesserungen in der virtuellen Raumwahrnehmung erzielt. Zudem wurde eine Kalibriermethodik entwickelt, welche es über eine Integration von visuellem und taktilem Sinn ermöglicht, die konsistente Wahrnehmung des Nutzers zu verbessern. Das visuelltaktile Feedback wurde im Vergleich verschiedener Interaktionsfeedbacks für Aufgaben der virtuellen Interieurbewertung als am besten geeignet verifiziert. Mittels des visuelltaktilen Feedbacks konnte sowohl die Leistung, als auch die Genauigkeit der Aufgabenausführung gesteigert werden. Darauf basierend konnte gezeigt werden, dass sowohl die Präsenz in virtuellen Umgebungen, als auch die Intuitivität signifikant durch das Fingertrackingsystem im Vergleich zur bisher eingesetzten Interaktionsmethode externer Operator gesteigert werden. Obwohl sich die virtuelle Raumwahrnehmung nicht signifikant verbesserte, liegt die Einschätzung unter Betrachtung aller Ergebnisse nahe, dass eine Verortung im virtuellen Fahrzeug deutlich positiv durch das Fingertrackingsystem unterstützt wird. Insgesamt konnte eine Erhöhung der Benutzerakzeptanz und Entscheidungskompetenz realisiert werden.

No description available.

British colonization of the Bahamian island of Eleuthera began in the mid-­‐ seventeenth century with the arrival of Puritans who came from Bermuda, seeking refuge from religious persecution. Funded by a group of British investors called the Eleutherian Adventurers, This first group of settlers shipwrecked and took refuge in a cave, now known as Preacher’s Cave, where they adapted to the island’s maritime tropical environment. Archaeological excavations conducted at Preacher’s Cave recovered a large quantity of faunal remains. This thesis presents an analysis of these materials and compares the resultant findings to existing historical records pertaining to this settlement. Whereas historical sources document chronic shortages of imported food supplies, the archaeological faunal assemblage demonstrates that the Preacher’s Cave settlers relied primarily upon available resources of the sea and nearby habitats. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The poems in Carved take the reader on a journey of self-discovery and explore the inequalities of human relationships: between being silent and the discovery of one's voice. The collection also addresses humanity's destructive imprint and the resiliency of nature in reclaiming what humanity sought to exploit and conquer. The poems expose the ironies in how we imagine things to be, compared to their reality. Some of the poems also draw parallels between the process of going underground and that of being reborn, as well as the spiritual experience of caving.

[pt] Ao longo dos anos, muitos estudos têm explorado o potencial das tecnologias de realidade virtual para apoiar o trabalho colaborativo, em especial para aplicações de treinamento e simulação. Com o uso de um ambiente virtual, é possível criar aplicações para simulação e treinamento capazes de representar cenas reais, permitindo também aumentar a flexibilidade para fazer mudanças estruturais em objetos e outros aspectos do cenário virtual, para, por exemplo, simular situações de emergência e acidentes, difíceis de serem simuladas em um cenário real. Este trabalho estuda o uso da colaboração em ambientes imersivos para dar suporte a treinamentos de usuários. O modelo de colaboração 3C (comunicação, cooperação e coordenação) foi utilizado para modelar e definir as ferramentas de colaboração no desenvolvimento de um aplicativo de realidade virtual colaborativo. O modelo 3C define que em um ambiente de colaboração os indivíduos necessitam trocar informações (comunicação) e se organizarem (coordenação) para que possam trabalhar em conjunto em ambiente compartilhado (cooperação). Para este trabalho foi implementado um programa de treinamento colaborativo entre um usuário imerso em uma CAVE e um usuário remoto não imerso, usando um computador de desktop. Foram implementadas técnicas para ajudar os usuários a realizar a colaboração: waypointing e highlight. Para ajudar o wayfinding, que é o processo cognitivo de definir um caminho através de um ambiente utilizando e adquirindo conhecimento espacial, auxiliado por pistas naturais e artificiais, era permitido ao usuário do desktop posicionar waypoints, pistas artificiais que permitiam a definição de um caminho até o objetivo da tarefa. O highlight consiste na aplicação de uma silhueta nos objetos, destacando-os, permitindo identificar os objetos a serem selecionados com facilidade. Uma série de testes foi elaborada, tendo como principal objetivo avaliar o cenário heterogêneo de colaboração, verificando aspectos como: importância e eficácia da comunicação por áudio, necessidade da comunicação por texto e papel das técnicas auxiliares (highlight e waypointing) como eventuais substitutos ou complementares às técnicas de comunicação, em tarefas baseadas em situações reais com diferentes níveis de complexidade. / [en] Throughout the years, many studies have explored the potential of virtual reality technologies to support collaborative work, particularly for training and simulation applications. By using a virtual environment, it is possible to create applications for simulation and training capable of representing real scenes, which also allow more flexibility to make structural changes to objects and other aspects of the virtual scenario to simulate, for instance, emergency situations and accidents, which are difficult to simulate in a real scenario. This work studies the use of collaboration in immersive environments to support user training. The 3C collaboration model (communication, cooperation and coordination) was used to define the model and collaboration tools in the development of a collaborative virtual reality application. The 3C model defines that in a collaborative environment individuals need to exchange information (communication) and organize (coordination) so they can work together in a shared environment (cooperation). For this work we implemented a collaborative training program between a user immersed in a CAVE and a remote user using a desktop computer. We implement techniques to help users accomplish collaboration: waypointing and highlight. To assist wayfinding, which is the cognitive process of defining a path through an environment using and acquiring spatial knowledge, aided by natural and artificial slopes, it was allowed to the desktop user to create waypoints, artificial slopes that allowed the definition of a path to the task goal. The highlight consists of the application of a silhouette on objects, highlighting them, allowing the users to easily identify the objects of interest. A series of tests was developed with the main objective of evaluating the heterogeneous scenario for collaboration, checking aspects such as: importance and effectiveness of audio communication, text communication need and the role of auxiliary techniques (highlight and waypointing) as eventual substitutes or complements techniques of communication in tasks based on real situations with different levels of complexity.

Le but de cette thèse est de fournir une nouvelle analyse relative aux industries lithiques du Paléolithique moyen venant des grottes de Shanidar et de Bisitun. Ces grottes sont situées dans le centre de la chaine de montagne du Zagros, à l’ouest de l'Iran (Middle Est). Les nombreuses chaines du Zagros s'étendent le long du sud et ouest de l'Iran et dans le nord de l'Iraq. Cette analyse sera effectuée en utilisant une approche techno-fonctionnelle incluant également une étude tracéologique (étude des traces d’utilisation du matériel archéologique au moyen à faible et fort grossissement au moyen d’une loupe binoculaire et d’un microscope optique à réflexion). Les industries lithiques de la région du Zagros ont été fréquemment étudiées par les chercheurs (Coon, 1951/1957; ((Skinner, 1965); (Lindly, 1997) (Dibble, 1984-1993). Cependant, leurs études sont basées sur une analyse typologique comparative offrant ainsi une vision fragmentaire des productions humaines et au-delà des outils qu’ils ont produits. Mes recherches ont pour objectif de reconsidérer les chaînes opératoires de production lithiques en mettant en place une méthode d’analyse techno-fonctionnelle. Ceci afin de percevoir les outils (bruts ou retouchés) dans toute leur dynamique conceptuelle et fonctionnelle c’est-à-dire en tant qu’objectif d’une chaîne opératoire de production et moyen d’une ou plusieurs activités. Le but étant : - dans une perspective synchronique, de repenser la chaîne opératoire en fonction de la finalité et des objectifs de l’outillage : - La variété et la forme des racloirs sont étroitement liées à leurs spécificités fonctionnelles. - Le modèle de réduction, proposé par Dibble, pour ces industries moustériennes est-il valide et fiable ? - dans une perspective diachronique, d’appréhender la singularité des comportements humains, leur diversité et/ou leur variabilité au cours du temps, tout en recherchant les facteurs à l’origine de cette diversité : - environnements : spécificités environnementales de la région du Zagros etc. ; - traditions techniques et culturelles ; - “savoir-faire” et/ou “manières de faire” etc. / The purpose of the dissertation is to provide a new analysis of Middle Palaeolithic industries from Shanidar, Bisitun caves and also Warwasi rockshelter. These sites are located in the center of the Zagros Mountain Range in western Iran (Middle East). Lithic industries in the Zagros region have been frequently studied by researchers (Coon 1951, 1957, Skinner 1965, Lindly 1997, Dibble 1984, 1993). These studies are often based on a comparative typological analysis, therefor for the reasons which are explained in the text, I think the studies are offering a fragmented view of lithic productions and consequently the prehistoric world of technic. This analysis is carried out using a techno-functional approach in the way to consider the chaîne opératoire and its technical role in volumetric matrix (supports) production and the supports in action, in terms of normalized and non-normalized volumes and their potential to complete a task. My objective is also to conduct a technological analysis by synchronic and diachronic perspectives on the lithic industries unearthed from different archaeological sites in Middle East during end of MIS 5, 4 and 3. The two new definitions of the exploitations structures, it means Additional and Integrated structures are a part of structural approach to achive the purposes. The purposes of study are:- In a synchronic perspective, to rethink on the structures of exploitations according to the objectives of production and tools realisation. - From a diachronic perspective, to understand the singularity of past individual’s technical solutions, their diversity and / or their variability over the time, while looking for the factors at the origin of this diversity.The hypotheses;- The variability among the assemblages, including the scrapers are closely related to the subset of incising artifacts and cutting edge geometry.- The Reduction Model, proposed by Dibble, does present only one kind of reduction within Mousterian industries.

This thesis juxtaposes Plato's allegory of the cave with Jacques Derrida's concept of the always already aspect of meaning, a concept derived from Ferdinand de Saussure's work. This theoretical investigation examines the implications of universal Signified forms of word meanings for postmodern composition theory.