Thesis (MA (Geography and Environmental Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / River basins have long been attracting human settlement and development, promising water and fertile lands (Newson 1992). The Bot River Catchment on the southern coast of South Africa is no exception. However, much of the development in this catchment has not been controlled and its land and water resources are being abused. This is affecting the water quality and quantity of the river system and estuary at an alarming rate. In this thesis, the ‘reference’ land cover in the Bot River Catchment is recreated. This term is used to describe “the hydrological state of the catchment as it was when completely covered in natural vegetation, thus before it was impacted by humans” (Jacobs & Bruwer 2002:12). A rainfall-runoff model is employed to investigate the effects of various land covers on the catchment’s runoff quantity, by comparing the simulation results of the catchment’s reference and current state. The results of the model point to a large reduction in runoff since the reference state of the catchment. As the rainfall-runoff model applied did not allow for modelling of the annual agriculture that dominates the catchment, the runoff reduction was attributed to the smaller areas of perennial agriculture, forestry and alien vegetation infestation. The simulation results confirmed the threat of current land use practices on the environmental integrity of the Bot River Catchment. A transition to agricultural practices that are more suited to the climate is suggested and the eradication of alien vegetation should be seen as a priority. Most importantly, a holistic approach should be taken towards the management of the Bot River Catchment. The altered hydrodynamic regime of the Bot River Estuary is symptomatic of misuse of the entire catchment. As ongoing demographic and land use pressures create a new generation of water management problems (Department of Water Affairs & Forestry 1993), a deeper understanding of the relationships between the different components in the Bot River Catchment becomes increasingly urgent.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:48:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VeruscaKGR_DISSERT.pdf: 1561104 bytes, checksum: 8cf444f0891dd9cd7517204b9dd26c41 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-21 / This works aims at investigating the effects of adding waste from RCBP-polyester button manufacturing to Portland cement concrete, particularly regarding its consistency and mechanic strength. The RCBP used came from a button factory located in Parnamirim, RN, Brazil. The waste was added to the concrete on different ratios: 5 %, 10 %, 15 % and 20 % of the total cement mass. A sample of concrete without the RCBP was used as reference, 1:1,33:2,45:0,50. For the mechanic strength test four samples were tested with different ages (3, 7 and 28 days old) and mixtures. Furthermore, a Slump Test was also conducted in order to verify the concrete s consistency. A tendency to a reduction in the compression resistance was noticed for all samples. For the samples with 5 % and 10 %, there was also an increase in the traction resistance during inflexion, regarding the reference concrete. In the microstructural analysis, the RBCP was observed to show an irregular and porous surface, thus explaining the consistency decrease / O presente trabalho objetivou avaliar a influ?ncia da incorpora??o do res?duo de corte de bot?o em poli?ster-RCBP sobre a plasticidade e a resist?ncia mec?nica em concreto de cimento Portland. O RCBP utilizado na pesquisa originou-se do material descartado por uma empresa fabricante de bot?o localizada no munic?pio de Parnamirim/RN. Utilizou-se o res?duo, como carga no concreto, nas concentra??es de 0 %, 5 %, 10 %, 15 % e 20 %, em rela??o ? massa do cimento. O tra?o de refer?ncia do concreto utilizado na pesquisa apresenta a propor??o, em massa, de 1:1,33:2,45:0,50 (cimento:areia:brita:?gua/cimento). Nos ensaios de resist?ncia ? compress?o foram testados quatro corpos-de-prova para cada idade (3, 7 e 28 dias) e tra?o, enquanto que para os ensaios de resist?ncia ? tra??o na flex?o foram testados dois corpos-de-prova para cada tra?o. Al?m disso, fez-se o Slump Test, com vistas a verificar a consist?ncia do concreto. Observou-se uma tend?ncia de redu??o da resist?ncia ? compress?o e abatimento para todos os tra?os com incorpora??o do RCBP. Houve um aumento de resist?ncia ? tra??o na flex?o para os tra?os de 5 % e 10 %, em rela??o ao concreto sem incorpora??o do res?duo, superando o sugerido pela NBR 6118/2003 que apresenta uma correla??o entre resist?ncia ? tra??o e ? compress?o. Na an?lise microestrutural, observou-se que o RCBP apresentou uma superf?cie irregular e porosa, podendo ser o motivo do decr?scimo do abatimento

Syftet med studien har varit att exemplifiera faktorer som kan påverka hur lärare ser på programmering. För att få en djupare förståelse samt bidra med egna förförståelser har jag använt mig av kvalitativa intervjuer från ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv. Tätt ihop har jag även utgått från fenomenografin som ämnar att tolka olika människors uppfattning kring ett och samma objekt för att kunna belysa faktorer från olika synsätt. Under analysen stod det klart att samtliga deltagare anser att elever bör lära sig programmering för kunna bidra och samverka i samhället. Det fanns även ett samband mellan inställningen till programmering och hur lärarna tycks betrakta sin egna kompetens och undervisningen i sig, där de som är mer positiva till programmering är benägna att prata i positiva termer om sin egna kompetens samt att utforska olika sätt att lära ut programmering. Avslutningsvis visar även studien på att oavsett inställning eller hur de ser på sin egna kompetens så anser samtliga att de programmeringsverktyg som används är roliga att använda och alla elever ges chansen att lära sig.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2016-06-10T00:27:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 JanainaSiqueiraBorda_TESE.pdf: 2734621 bytes, checksum: 45160291f3ca65a355a6a3fdda9a3569 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-06-13T19:59:16Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 JanainaSiqueiraBorda_TESE.pdf: 2734621 bytes, checksum: 45160291f3ca65a355a6a3fdda9a3569 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-13T19:59:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JanainaSiqueiraBorda_TESE.pdf: 2734621 bytes, checksum: 45160291f3ca65a355a6a3fdda9a3569 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-26 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico (CNPq) / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior (CAPES) / O sistema ?ptico acess?rio, o Complexo pr?-tectal, e o col?culo superior s?o importantes centros de controle de uma variedade de movimentos oculares, sendo extremamente necess?rios para a forma??o de imagem, consequentemente para a percep??o visual. O sistema ?ptico acess?rio ? constitu?do pelos n?cleos: n?cleo terminal dorsal, n?cleo terminal lateral, n?cleo terminal medial e n?cleo intersticial do fasc?culo superior posterior. Do ponto de vista funcional eles contribuem para a estabiliza??o da imagem, participando da atividade visuomotora onde todas as c?lulas do sistema respondem a movimentos lentos dos olhos e a est?mulos visuais, o que ? importante para o pr?prio funcionamento dos outros sistemas visuais. O complexo pr?-tectal compreende um conjunto de n?cleos situados na transi??o mesodiencef?lica, s?o eles: n?cleo pr?-tectal anterior, n?cleo pr?-tectal posterior, n?cleo pr?-tectal medial, n?cleo pr?-tectal olivar e o n?cleo do trato ?ptico, sendo todos recipientes de proje??o retiniana e funcionalmente est?o relacionados com a via do reflexo pupilar a luz e o nistagmo optocin?tico. O col?culo superior ? uma importante esta??o visual subcortical formado por camadas e, apresenta um papel funcional importante no controle dos movimentos dos olhos e da cabe?a em resposta a est?mulos multissensoriais. Nosso objetivo foi fazer um mapeamento das proje??es retinianas que incidem sobre o sistema ?ptico acess?rio, os n?cleos do complexo pr?-tectal e os do col?culo superior, buscando principalmente, no caso do complexo pr?-tectal, uma melhor delimita??o dessas estruturas, por meio do rastreamento anter?grado com a subunidade B da toxina col?rica (CTb) seguido de t?cnica imunoistoqu?mica e, caracterizar (medir ?rea e di?metro) os bot?es sin?pticos presentes nas fibras/terminais dos n?cleos do complexo pr?-tectal. Em nossos resultados o sistema ?ptico acess?rio, incluindo uma regi?o que parece ser o n?cleo terminal medial, e o col?culo superior apresentaram-se fortemente marcados por fibras/terminais imunorreativos a CTb, bem como o complexo pr?-tectal nos n?cleos: n?cleo trato ?ptico, n?cleo pr?-tectal olivar, n?cleo pr?-tectal anterior e n?cleo pr?-tectal posterior. De acordo com a caracteriza??o dos bot?es foi poss?vel fazer uma melhor delimita??o desses n?cleos. / The accessory optical system, the pretectal complex, and superior colliculus are important control centers in a variety of eye movement, being extremely necessary for image formation, consequently to visual perception. The accessory optical system is constituted by the nuclei: dorsal terminal nucleus, lateral terminal nucleus, medial terminal nucleus and interstitial nucleus of the posterior superior fasciculus. From a functional point of view they contribute to the image stabilization, participating in the visuomotor activity where all system cells respond to slow eye movements and visual stimuli, which is important for the proper functioning of other visual systems. The pretectal complex comprises a group of nuclei situated in mesodiencephalic transition, they are: anterior pretectal nucleus, posterior pretectal nucleus, medial pretectal nucleus, olivary pretectal nucleus and the nucleus of the optic tract, all retinal projection recipients and functionally are related to the route of the pupillary light reflex and the optokinetic nystagmus. The superior colliculus is an important subcortical visual station formed by layers and has an important functional role in the control of eye movements and head in response to multisensory stimuli. Our aim was to make a mapping of retinal projections that focus on accessory optical system, the nuclei of pretectal complex and the superior colliculus, searching mainly for pretectal complex, better delineation of these structures through the anterograde tracing with the B subunit of cholera toxin (CTb) followed by immunohistochemistry and characterized (measured diameter) synaptic buttons present on the fibers / terminals of the nucleus complex pr?-tectal. In our results accessory optical system, including a region which appears to be medial terminal nucleus and superior colliculus, were strongly marked by fibers / terminals immunoreactive CTb as well as pretectal complex in the nucleus: optic tract, olivary pretectal nucleus, anterior pretectal nucleus and posterior pretectal nucleus. According to the characterization of the buttons it was possible to make a better definition of these nucleus.

Med anledning av utbildningsdepartementets förslag att införa programmering som skolämne utfördes en undersökning för att avgöra vad elever och lärare i grundskolan anser om betydelsen av programmering i grundskolan (Utbildningsdepartementet, 2015). Avsikten med undersökningen är att visa om och i så fall hur elever får kunskap genom programmering samt vilken typ av kunskap som kan erhållas. Observationer och kunskapstester genomfördes med grundskoleelever i de tidigare årskurserna. Därtill genomfördes intervjuer med barn och lärare. Resultatet av undersökningen visade att elever och lärare är positivt inställda till programmering i skolan och till de webbaserade blockprogrammeringsprogrammen Code.org och Scratch. Lärare hävdande att programmering kan förbättra elevernas förmåga att kunna lösa vardagliga problem på olika konkreta sätt, en förmåga som sedan kan användas i framtida lärosituationer och i förlängningen även under yrkesutövning. Förskollärare som använder Blue-bot-programmering i sin verksamhet menar att Blue-bot-övningarna ökar barns kunskaper och förståelse i problemlösning.

During the last decade, there has been an increase in the number of automated programs (bots) that perform tasks such as harvesting information or making posts on social media. CAPTCHA was developed as a defense against bots, but several common CAPTCHAs have usability issues and are difficult for users to solve. This project aims to determine if a non-visible user input-based CAPTCHA can help solve this problem. The CAPTCHA looks for patterns in the user input, that is, signs that the input is controlled by scripted logic. The CAPTCHA is evaluated by looking at how capable it is at identifying patterns, human mouse movements and bot-controlled mouse movements. Additionally, it is investigated if there exists a data sequence size at which the pattern recognition algorithm can most successfully detect patterns and avoid false negatives. The results showed that interval sizes 40-50 provide the best results. Using these sizes, the pattern recognition algorithm was able to fulfill the commonly accepted rates of at least a 99 % success rate and at most a 10 % false negative rate. This shows that the CAPTCHA is robust under the circumstances investigated.

Research on bot detection on online social networks has received a considerable amount of attention in Swedish news media. Recently however, criticism of the research field of bot detection on onlinesocial networks has been presented, highlighting the need to investigate the research field to determine if information based on flawed research has been spread. To investigate the research field, this study has attempted to review the process of bot detection on online social networks and evaluate the proposed criticism of current bot detection research by: conducting a literature review of bots on online social networks, conducting a literature review of methods for bot detection on online social networks, and detecting bots in three different politically associated data sets with Swedish Twitter accounts usingfive different bot detection methods. Results of the study showed minor evidence that previous research may have been flawed. Still, based on the literature review of bot detection methods, it was determined that this criticism was not extensive enough to critique the research fieldof bot detection on online social networks as a whole. Further, problems highlighted in the criticism were recognized to potentially have arose from a lack of differentiation between bot types in research. An insufficient differentiation between bot types in research was also acknowledged as a factor which could lead to difficulties ingeneralizing the results from bot detection studies measuring the effect of bots on political opinions. Instead, the study acknowledged that a good bot differentiation could potentially improve bot detection.

“MeatSpace” is a group of related bodies of work including podcasts, prints and videos produced by working with simulation technologies such as “weak A.I.”, virtual reality, and 3d scans. Collectively the works explore how people relate to these technologies and how they relate to us. They share thematic or process-oriented sensibilities involving a series of rule-based steps that alternate between the procedural and the intentional. “Uncanny” is defined as strangely familiar. Something which falls in the Uncanny Valley feels wrong, but the reasons may be difficult to articulate. “MeatSpace” is an ongoing experiment to see where our own digital reflections fall in an uncanny spectrum of unsettling familiarity. I am continuously assessing the meaning of words like “consciousness" and “choice”, wondering if they are simply interpretations of randomness and determinism. So I search for genuine glimmers of agency in technologies from the present and the past to better understand my own. The groupings within “MeatSpace” are titled “The Intrinsia Chatbox” (podcast), “Outside the Chatbox” (podcast), “Sweet Space/Spatial Awareness”(prints, video, augmented reality), “Formulaics”(music videos), and “Texture Maps/Morph Maps” (prints, video). “MeatSpace” uses manipulation of photogrammetry, volumetric video capture, procedural music generation, animations made in virtual reality, and a video podcast which showcases conversations with chatbots. I see these as acts of collaboration and play with the digital world and it’s developing tools and inhabitants. These processes employ both randomness and control, operating between meatspace and the digital world, between comfort and the uncanny valley.

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This diploma thesis deals with the design and implementation of an automatic Air hockey player. In particular, a gaming table and a kinematic type of H-bot robot and electronics are designed. The movement of the robot is ensured by two stepper motors, which are controled by the Arduino Micro using timer interrupts. The thesis is improved by additional elements, such as goal detection using photoelectric sensors and automatic firing of the puck from the goal and others. The Air hockey robot was practically realized in cooperation with Ondřej Sláma.