This research was simultaneously collective and individual. In this dissertation, my team and I inquired into what it means to undertake playbuilding as qualitative research and be a practitioner, specifically focusing on the roles of artist, researcher, and educator from an applied theatre graduate student perspective. I drew upon the methodological and theoretical frameworks of playbuilding as qualitative research and a/r/tography. Playbuilding as qualitative research offers creative methods for un/re/covering collective and affective ways of knowing. A/r/tography offers the opportunity to explore self and roles through art-making and reflexivity. For me, both are manifestations of the same creative impulse to make meaning and generate new understandings expressed through different perspectives and processes. This research consisted of a cohort of applied theatre graduate students who collectively explored and devised a play on what it means to be an artist/researcher/educator. The play, To Spin a Red Yarn: Enacting Artist/Researcher/Teacher stands as an artefact to the collectives’ generation, interpretation, and performance of research. In addition, I wrote an exegesis that spins my individual story within our collective. The exegesis, Behind the Curtain, extends the world of the play into the text by taking the reader on a dramatic journey through soliloquizing as dialogue. As a result of this study, I theorized a translated a/r/tographical framework into theatre- based language for the use by practitioners that is rooted in theatre practitioner praxis (theory and practice). This praxis-based study was intended to provide knowledge for artist-researchers, educators, and theatre-makers. This research offers artists/researchers/educators access to more stories, insights, and ideas about what it means to be a theatre-based artist/researcher/educator undertaking playbuilding as qualitative research. This research opens up rich possibilities that are commonplace to theatre-makers and performing artists on how different theatrical conventions could be used in playbuilding as qualitative research. For theatre-makers who are interested in combining theatre with academic research, it offers another paradigm to consider, expand, and interconnect the work that they do. Likewise, for a/r/tographers who are theatre-based, this research offers a way to conceive the work they do rooted in theatre-based language. / Graduate / 0465 / 0516 / 0727 / bishopk@uvic.ca

X-ray phase-contrast imaging has seen rapid development in recent decades due to its superior performance in imaging low-absorption objects, compared to traditional attenuation x-ray imaging. Having higher demand on coherence, x-ray phase-contrast imaging is performed mostly at synchrotrons. With the development of different imaging techniques, and the development of laboratory sources and x-ray optics, x-ray phase-contrast imaging can now be implemented on laboratory systems, which is promising and practical for broader range of applications. The subject of this thesis is the implementation, development and comparison of different laboratory phase-contrast methods using a liquid-metal-jet source. The three x-ray phase-contrast imaging methods included in this thesis are the propagation-, grating-, and speckle-based techniques. The grating-based method has been implemented on a laboratory system with a liquid-metal-jet source, which yields several times higher brightness than a standard solid-anode microfocus source. This allows shorter exposure time or a higher signal-to-noise ratio. The performance of the grating-based method has been experimentally and numerically compared with the propagation-based method, and the dose required to observe an object as a function of the object’s diameter has been investigated with simulations. The result indicates a lower dose requirement for the propagation-based method in this system but a potential advantage for the grating-based method to detect relatively large samples using a monochromatic beam. The speckle-based method, both the speckle-tracking and speckle-scanning techniques, has been implemented on a laboratory system for the first time, showing its adaptability to radiation of low temporal coherence. Tomography has been performed and shows the potential applications of this method on quantitative analysis on both absorption and phase information of materials. As a basis for further optimization and comparisons to other methods, the noise properties of the differential phase contrast of the speckle-based method have been studied and an analytical expression for the noise variance introduced, showing a similarity to the grating-based method. / Faskontrastavbildning med röntgenstrålning är en teknik som har utvecklats kraftigt de senaste årtiondena, eftersom den fungerar bättre än traditionella, absorptionsbaserade röntgenundersökningar för objekt med låg absorption. Den har dock höga krav på koherens, vilket gjort att den huvudsakligen används vid stora synkrotron-anläggningar. Tack vare utveckligen av nya avbildningstekniker, laboratoriekällor och röntgenoptik kan numera faskontrast användas även med laboratoriesystem, vilket är lovande då tekniken kan användas vid ett större antal olika tillämpningsområden Denna avhandling syftar till att tillämpa, utveckla och jämföra olika faskontrastmetoder i laboratoriemiljö, med en metallstråleröntgenkälla. De tre faskontrastmetoderna som behandlas i denna avhandling är propogation, gitter och speckelbaserad faskontrast. Den gitterbaserade metoden har implementerats i ett laboratoriesystem med en metallstrålekälla som ger flera gånger högre radians än en vanlig, fast mikrofokuskälla. Den högre radians en möjliggör kortare exponeringstider eller högre signal-brusförhållande. Den gitterbaserade tekniken har jämförts experimentellt och numeriskt med den propageringsbaserade metoden. Den strålningsdos som krävs för observera ett objekt, som funktion av dess diameter, har jämförts för de båda teknikerna, den här gången via simuleringar. Resultaten visar på en lägre strålningsdos för den propagationsbaserade tekniken i detta fall, men även att det finns en potentiell fördel för den gitterbaserade tekniken för något större objekt med monokromatisk röntgenstrålning. Speckelbaserade tekniker, nämare bestämt den som bygger på att spåra speckel och den som bygger på att scanna diffusorn, har för första gången implementerats i laboratoriemiljö. Därmed har visats att de fungerar även för strålning med låg tidskoherens. Tekniken har även använts för tomografi och visar möjliga tillämpningar inom kvantitativ analys av material. För att förenkla framtida optimeringar och jämförelser av tekniken med andra metoder, har brusegenskaperna för den speckelbaserade metoden studerats och visat sig likna den gitterbaserade metoden. / <p>QC 20160921</p>

The academic benefits and enhanced social responsibility that students derive from service-learning (SL), defined as experiential learning that ties community service to academic courses, have been well documented. However, for a college to fully institutionalize SL, a high proportion of faculty needs to include SL in their courses. Based in Kolb's experiential learning theory, the purpose of this study was to enhance planners' understanding of how college faculty's past experiences assigning SL influence their inclination to assign SL in future courses. In this basic qualitative interpretive study, data were collected from 13 individual interviews with faculty who assigned SL at a Southern metropolitan university. Findings were interpreted using Chickering's 7 vectors of student development from the conceptual framework and other relevant perspectives from the literature. One of the major themes from emergent coding of data was that faculty viewed some difficulties as challenges to be overcome rather than as deterrents to using SL. To reduce deterrents, institutions could compensate for extra time required for SL by providing stipends, released time, and support databases; recognizing SL in tenure and promotion; and helping faculty brainstorm how to incorporate SL into courses. To increase incentives to use SL, institutions could provide a full range of training and support for faculty. More courses with SL, besides increasing benefits of SL for all stakeholders, may mean that students form the habit of serving in the community and continue serving and contributing to positive social change, perhaps for a lifetime.

Summary of Thesis Title: Investigation of the Related Factors of School Based Curriculum Development in Elementary and Junior High Schools in Kaohsiung Summary The purposes of this research are to investigate the related factors of school based curriculum development and its present condition of practice in elementary and junior high school in Kaohsiung, analyze how different background variables vary in different levels in SBCD, and predict the effect of practice this curriculum. In order to achieve these goals, according to the investigation and analysis of documents and practical experience, I edit a poll to investigate the related factors of SBCD. I sample 35 public schools and 549 teachers in Kaohsiung as subjects of investigation. Research methods include description and statistic, t- test, one-way analysis variance, step-wise multiple regression analysis. Then I start to undergo statistic and analysis and get the following conclusions and suggestions. Conclusion: I. At present, teachers in elementary and junior high schools put much emphasis on SBCD and it develops quite well. II. Teachers in elementary and junior high schools approve the six standards for SBCD: achieve educational goals, correspond with school expectations, harmony with community conditions, demonstrate school traits, foster teacher¡¦s, professional develment, adapt to student¡¦s needs. III. Male teachers, teachers of special education and teachers graduating from junior colleges emphasize the factors of SBCD and they carry it out better. IV. In schools founded more than 40 years, teachers serving school affairs concurrently put more emphasis on how ¡¨the structure and atmosphere of organizations¡¨, ¡§resources¡¨, ¡§curriculum leadership¡¨ and ¡§curricular management¡¨ effect the practice of SBCD than teachers in charge of a class or a certain subject. V. Teachers in schools founded more than 10 years but less than 20 years lack professional independence. Profession independence and curriculum leadership are not good for teachers in schools of large size. VI. The better the related factors of SBCD, the better SBCD will develop. VII. In the prediction about how the factors of people, curricular cases and organization affect SBCD, ¡§organization¡¨ is the most predictive. Suggestions: I. Suggestions for organizations in charge of education 1. Actively publicize the successful factors of SBCD. Strengthen teachers¡¦ ability to develop this curriculum. 2. Set up centers of curricular guidance and teaching resources. Support the curriculum leadership in every school. 3. Invite outstanding people who perform well in culture to participate in this curriculum. 4. Provide cases earmarked for special efforts with fund to enhance the effect of carrying out SBCD. 5. The size of schools is moderate from containing 26 to 47 classes. If the size is too large or too small, it is disadvantageous to carry out SBCD. 6. Rebuild the manpower of organization. Provide organizations with chances of learning and interaction and create harmonious culture. 7. Only emphasis of the distribution of time can exercise its functions to the utmost. II. Suggestions for schools and teachers¡¨ 1. Cultivate excellent campus culture to create democratic and harmonious organization atmosphere. 2. Provide appropriate and sufficient time and resources to enhance the effect of carrying out this curriculum. 3 .The future direction is to carry out the evaluation of curriculum. So we have to establish teachers¡¦ professional status and carry out the evaluation of effect of SBCD. 4. Make good use of teachers who have taught more than 25 years to set SBCD into action. 5. Encourage female teachers to take part in programs of further education. 6. Strengthen the concern and guidance of curriculum leadership in schools founded more than 10 years but less than 20 years. III. Suggestions for related research in the future 1. Expand the range of research 2. Expand the subjects of research 3. Combine various research methods Key words: curriculum development, school based curriculum development, the effect of school based curriculum development, teachers¡¦ profession development, the evaluation of school based curriculum development

<p>The purpose of this master thesis was to study computer vision algorithms for vehicle detection in monochrome images captured by mono camera. The work has mainly been focused on detecting rear-view cars in daylight conditions. Previous work in the literature have been revised and algorithms based on edges, shadows and motion as vehicle cues have been modified, implemented and evaluated. This work presents a combination of a multiscale edge based detection and a shadow based detection as the most promising algorithm, with a positive detection rate of 96.4% on vehicles at a distance of between 5 m to 30 m. For the algorithm to work in a complete system for vehicle detection, future work should be focused on developing a vehicle classifier to reject false detections.</p>

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) requires the use of scientifically based research (SBR) to guide the selection of appropriate educational interventions. Although NCLB does not stipulate the use of scientifically based research specific to special education, its provisions influence the education of all children. The implementation of scientifically based research is complex and relies on the knowledge and beliefs of practitioners in general and special education. In order to utilize scientifically based research, there is a need to know the level of knowledge and attitudes of practitioners relative to scientifically based research. This study examines the relationship between practitioners' beliefs and actions taken when implementing scientifically based research. The theoretical framework of Argyris and Schön (1974) provides a conceptual framework for the interpretation of the data. Connections between scientifically based research, school leadership, practitioners, and students, including those with disabilities, are also examined. Information and results extracted from survey responses of 403 middle school teachers from a large, urban school district in Texas shed light on how knowledge and beliefs can influence the understanding and the implementation of scientifically based interventions. The results indicate that teachers are somewhat knowledgeable about scientifically based research and interventions. However, their responses to three open-ended questions provide increased insight into their actual knowledge and understanding. The results indicate that initially teachers are in need of more knowledge about scientifically based research and what constitutes quality research. Their responses also indicate that teachers are lacking concise information that would help them understand what makes an effective scientifically based intervention. Teachers could through college or university classes be better prepared to use scientifically based interventions in the classroom. In the classroom, teachers need administrative support, continuous mentoring and coaching, and effective professional development in order to implement interventions with fidelity. Both general and special education teachers need increased knowledge to use scientifically based interventions effectively to increase student learning. / text

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Standard measures used in animal welfare assessments include animal-based measures obtained by observing animals, resource-based measures obtained by observing facilities, and management-based measures obtained by interviewing farmers and checking records. Animal welfare assessments are composed of a variety of measures and can be very different from each other. The objectives of the research presented in this thesis were to investigate inter-observer reliability of three swine welfare assessment programs (ACA™, PQA Plus®, and Welfare Quality®), and to determine the concordance of rankings across the 3 assessments. All assessments and all types of measures were found to be highly reliable. Moderate concordance was found for the rankings of farms across all three assessments. The lowest ranked farms were correlated, indicating that all assessments identified the farms with the lowest levels of animal welfare. Results of this study can be used to identify the best measures and revise current on-farm animal welfare assessments. / Canadian Swine Research and Development Cluster, a Growing Canadian Agri-Innovation Program – Canadian Agri-Science Cluster Initiative of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC); and the Ontario Pork Council

Traditional workflow systems have several drawbacks, e.g. in their inabilities to rapidly react to changes, to construct workflow automatically (or with user involvement) and to improve performance autonomously (or with user involvement) in an incremental manner according to specified goals. Overcoming these limitations would be highly beneficial for complex domains where such adversities are exhibited. Video processing is one such domain that increasingly requires attention as larger amounts of images and videos are becoming available to persons who are not technically adept in modelling the processes that are involved in constructing complex video processing workflows. Conventional video and image processing systems, on the other hand, are developed by programmers possessing image processing expertise. These systems are tailored to produce highly specialised hand-crafted solutions for very specific tasks, making them rigid and non-modular. The knowledge-based vision community have attempted to produce more modular solutions by incorporating ontologies. However, they have not been maximally utilised to encompass aspects such as application context descriptions (e.g. lighting and clearness effects) and qualitative measures. This thesis aims to tackle some of the research gaps yet to be addressed by the workflow and knowledge-based image processing communities by proposing a novel workflow composition and execution approach within an integrated framework. This framework distinguishes three levels of abstraction via the design, workflow and processing layers. The core technologies that drive the workflow composition mechanism are ontologies and planning. Video processing problems provide a fitting domain for investigating the effectiveness of this integratedmethod as tackling such problems have not been fully explored by the workflow, planning and ontological communities despite their combined beneficial traits to confront this known hard problem. In addition, the pervasiveness of video data has proliferated the need for more automated assistance for image processing-naive users, but no adequate support has been provided as of yet. A video and image processing ontology that comprises three sub-ontologies was constructed to capture the goals, video descriptions and capabilities (video and image processing tools). The sub-ontologies are used for representation and inference. In particular, they are used in conjunction with an enhanced Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) domain independent planner to help with performance-based selection of solution steps based on preconditions, effects and postconditions. The planner, in turn, makes use of process models contained in a process library when deliberating on the steps and then consults the capability ontology to retrieve a suitable tool at each step. Two key features of the planner are the ability to support workflow execution (interleaves planning with execution) and can perform in automatic or semi-automatic (interactive) mode. The first feature is highly desirable for video processing problems because execution of image processing steps yield visual results that are intuitive and verifiable by the human user, as automatic validation is non trivial. In the semiautomaticmode, the planner is interactive and prompts the user tomake a tool selection when there is more than one tool available to perform a task. The user makes the tool selection based on the recommended descriptions provided by the workflow system. Once planning is complete, the result of applying the tool of their choice is presented to the user textually and visually for verification. This plays a pivotal role in providing the user with control and the ability to make informed decisions. Hence, the planner extends the capabilities of typical planners by guiding the user to construct more optimal solutions. Video processing problems can also be solved in more modular, reusable and adaptable ways as compared to conventional image processing systems. The integrated approach was evaluated on a test set consisting of videos originating from open sea environment of varying quality. Experiments to evaluate the efficiency, adaptability to user’s changing needs and user learnability of this approach were conducted on users who did not possess image processing expertise. The findings indicate that using this integrated workflow composition and execution method: 1) provides a speed up of over 90% in execution time for video classification tasks using full automatic processing compared to manual methods without loss of accuracy; 2) is more flexible and adaptable in response to changes in user requests (be it in the task, constraints to the task or descriptions of the video) than modifying existing image processing programs when the domain descriptions are altered; 3) assists the user in selecting optimal solutions by providing recommended descriptions.

Master of Science / Department of Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and Health / Mark D. Haub / Linda K. Yarrow / Interest and participation in plant-based lifestyle patterns in North America has increased significantly due to perceived health benefits and concerns about the environment, ethics, and safety of the food supply. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggests that vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate. There is growing evidence that plant-based dietary patterns are more sustainable than animal-based diets because they use fewer natural resources and are less environmentally taxing. With the projected world population growth and declining resources, sustainable diets and environmental sustainability are a must. As the need and interest in plant-based dietary patterns increases, it becomes important to evaluate public perception. There is currently little research focusing on attitudes and perceptions of the broader plant-based dietary pattern, particularly in the college-aged population. This exploratory study investigated individual perceptions of meat, dairy foods, and plant-based alternatives. Study results indicated taste preferences for meat and dairy foods were high. Additionally, students in the College of Agriculture and students who had a rural background were more likely to have a positive perception of meat and dairy foods than plant-based foods. These findings suggest the implementation of interventions such as education and the development of plant-based meat and dairy food alternatives matching their flavor profile as closely as possible may best assist in the shift from an animal-based to a plant-based dietary pattern.