Orientador: Prof. Dr. João Paulo Gois / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Computação, 2015. / Os avanços recentes para a criação de desenhos animados têm incorporado características que fazem alusão a profundidade e orientação tanto de efeitos de iluminação e sombreamento, como também a simulação de transformações geométricas 3D. Esses recursos melhoram a percepção visual de modelos cartoons e permitem a utilização de efeitos distintos e únicos. Um avanço que ganhou atenção nos últimos anos é o Modelo 2.5D, que simula transformações 3D a partir de um conjunto de imagens vetoriais 2D. Com isso, é criada não somente a percepção de orientação 3D, mas também a automatização do processo de criação de quadros intermediários (in-betweening) em uma animação. Entretanto, as técnicas atuais de modelagem 2.5D não permitem o uso de efeitos interativos de iluminação e preenchimento. Neste trabalho, é apresentado uma resolução ao problema de aplicar efeitos de iluminação em modelos 2.5D. A técnica proposta procura explorar, de forma inédita, a flexibilidade da GPU para inferir relevo e simular transformações 3D nos efeitos de preenchimento e iluminação de modelos 2D em tempo real. Demonstramos a aplicação de diversos efeitos, entre eles Phong shading, Cartoon shading, environment mapping, simulação de pelo (fur shading), mapeamento de texturas estáticas e dinâmicas e hatching shading. / Recent advances for designing and animating cartoons have incorporated depth and orientation cues such as shading and lighting effects, as well as the simulation of 3D geometrical transformations. These features improve the visual perception of cartoon models while increase the artists flexibility to achieve distinctive design styles. A recent advance that has gained attention in the last years is the 2.5D modeling, which simulates 3D transformations from a set of 2D vector arts. Therefore it creates not only the perception of animated 3D orientation, but also automatizes the inbetweening process. However, current 2.5D modeling techniques do not allow the use of interactive shading effects. In this work we approach the problem of delivering interactive 3D shading effects to 2.5D modeling. Our technique relies on the graphics pipeline to infer relief and to simulate the 3D transformations of the shading effect inside the 2D models in real-time. We demonstrate the application on Phong, Gooch and cel shadings, as well as environment mapping, fur simulation, animated texture mapping and (object-space and screen-space) texture hatchings.

The study is based on action resarch where four Concept cartoons have been constructed through careful resarch into the structure of the concept. 16 year 2 students in groups of four participated in a survey with the aim of providing knowledge about how students in grades of 1-3 in primary school understand the concept of friction and how their understanding can be developed through the use of Concept cartoons. The students' discussions where recorded on audio files and analyzed thematically. The sociocultural learning perspective emerged both in terms of knowledge that the students showed and through the group discussions, but also traits of construcivism can be seen through the proveneance of concept and the coginition that occurs among the students through the encounter with the conceptual images. The results show that the students in the study are able to relate friction to movment and speed and that friction is a characteristic that can affect speed as well as understanding that fricton is linked to materials.  The result also show that by allowing students to talk about a Concept cartoon together, a consensus is reached and they can trigger each other to reach and show knowledge as well as deepen and expend knowledge. A striking result shows that Concept cartoons can make misconsistent around the concept of friction visible. By allowing active teachers to at the schools' lower ages to work early on Concept cartoons, misconceptions in science can be detected early and turned into good concetual understanding.

Tidigare forskning visar att om lärare utformar NO-lektioner med inslag av kritiskt tänkande, skapar elever ett större positivt intresse till undervisningen och attityderna förändras till dess innehåll. Syftet med studien är att ta reda på hur NO-lärare arbetar med att utveckla elevers kritiska tänkande samt om de kan använda färdigt material. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med sex olika mellanstadielärare och det visade sig att lärarna använder tre strategier för att nå dit, vilka är repetition, progression i olika NTA- laborationer samt skriva kritiska frågor och arbeta utefter EP A-modellen. Studien visar att de intervjuade lärarna anser att det är viktigt att utveckla elevers kritiska förmågor och lärarna arbetar aktivt med detta på lektionerna. Avslutningsvis framhåller studien att lärarna aktivt behöver arbeta med elevers kritiska tänkande och med NTA-materialet, samt att Concept Cartoons hjälper läraren i denna process. / Previous research shows that if teachers design their science classes with elements of critical thinking, pupils’ create a greater positive interest in the teaching and attitudes change towards its content. The purpose of this study is to find out how science teachers work to develop pupils' critical thinking and whether they can use ready-made material. Semi- structured interviews have been conducted with six different middle school teachers and it turned out that the teachers use three strategies to get there, which is repetition, progression in different NTA laboration and writing critical questions and working according to the Think- Pair-Share model. The study shows that the interviewed teachers believe it is important to develop pupils' critical abilities and the teachers work actively with this during class. In conclusion, the study highlights that teachers need to actively work with pupils' critical thinking and the NTA-material and Concept Cartoons help the teacher in this process.

The identification and examination of cultural information strategies and censorship patterns used to propagate the controversial issue of the caricatures in two separate cultural contexts was the aim of this dissertation. It explored discourse used for the coverage of this topic by one newspaper in a restrictive information context and two newspapers in a liberal information context. Message propagation in a restrictive information environment was analyzed using the English daily Kuwait Times from the Middle East; the liberal information environment of the US was analyzed using two major dailies, the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. The study also concurrently identifies and elaborates on the themes and frames through which discourse was presented exposing the cultural ideologies and premises they represent. The topic was approached with an interdisciplinary position with the support and applicability testing of Chatman's insider-outsider theory within information science and Noelle-Neumann's spiral of silence theory and Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model based in the area of mass communication. The study has also presented a new model of information censorship - circle of information censorship, emphasizing conceptual issues that influence the selection and censorship of information.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Thesis (MPhil (Journalism))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / The media plays a fundamental role in shaping societies’ opinions about topical issues. Most human beings depend upon either the print media (newspapers/magazines), television or radio as their sources of news. The advent of the internet since the 1990s revolutionised the media world and created an immediacy on the impact of news like no other previous medium could provide, as it had a combination of audio and visual material. The most effective demonstration of such immediacy would be that of the impact of the September 11 attacks in the USA in 2001. The aftermath of the media’s impact still resonates throughout the world today, especially its impact on those who follow the Islamic faith. This paper aims to explore the impact of the media on this newly derived concept of Islamophobia, especially post 9/11. It includes a case study of the Islamophobic Danish cartoon controversy that occurred in February 2006. This paper discusses the concept of Islamophobia and anti-Islamism, as well as how the events of 9/11 and its media coverage contributed towards the worsening of this sentiment across the globe. The conclusion reached is that instead of the media acting as a mediator between Western society and the global Muslim community and creating an atmosphere of each understanding the other, it acted negatively against Islam, the world’s fastest growing religion.

During Zimbabwe’s 2008 harmonised elections the country’s media laws had a direct impact on the way editorial cartoonists expressed themselves. Although the online newspapers were unregulated and the print media published under Zimbabwe’s media laws, Public Order and Security Act and Access to Information and Protection of Privacy act - the editorial cartoons from both sources show deliberate bias towards one candidate and contempt towards the main rival. The study contextualises the understanding of the editorial cartoon, as practised in an environment of freedom of speech and defined by the four categories identified by Press (1981) and Manning and Phiddian (2004), and delineates the effect of media laws on the newspaper industry in Zimbabwe. The four categories of editorial cartoons identified are descriptive editorial cartoons, laughing satirical editorial cartoons, destructive satirical editorial cartoons, and savage indignation editorial cartoons. The study reviews eight editorial cartoons, read using a semiotic framework investigating non-verbal communication, as defined and suggested by Du Plooy (1996), and a text and language grid, as suggested by Leech (1974), according to the criteria of symbols/metaphors, exaggeration/distortion, stereotypes, caricature, irony, captions, and background knowledge, as developed by Fetsko (2001). A comparative analysis of the cartoons reveals that objectives and functions of the unregulated zimonline.co.za and the regulated the Herald newspapers are the same. They constitute propagandistic representations of Zimbabwean politics that are more an extension of political ideology than they are a reflection of the country’s sociopolitical landscape.

Teachers in the 21st century are confronted with students who are mass consumers of visual texts via social apps on smart devices, media on television, and information in textbooks. Teaching students to analyze and question visual texts may help them construct meaning and critique what they see. Yet, very little is known about teachers’ pedagogical decisions when planning and teaching with visual texts. This study attempted to fill that gap. The purpose of this study was to explore how eighth grade history teachers utilize historical visual texts in their classrooms. Three eighth grade history teachers participated in this study. Data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews, teacher analyses of visual texts, video recorded lessons, and teacher reflections. Data obtained in this study addressed the following questions: How do teachers analyze a historical visual text for use in the classroom? What previous experiences do teachers utilize when planning to teach with a historical visual text? What do teachers’ reflections of a video recorded lesson reveal about the teachers’ instructional experiences with historical visual texts? What do video analyses of teachers utilizing historical visual texts reveal about teachers’ historical thinking and visual literacy pedagogical decisions? The results of this study indicated that the participants lack formal pedagogical content knowledge and prior experiences in teaching with historical visual texts. Yet, the participants reported that their lessons in this study were engaging and meaningful for students. Findings from this study suggest that historical visual texts can be effective in the teaching and learning of history.

published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

Denna studie handlar om det naturvetenskapliga materialet, Concept Cartoons. Materialet är publicerat av Skolverket och tanken är att det ska användas som inspirationsmaterial, diskussionsunderlag och bedömningsstöd i de naturorienterande ämnena. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur lärare och elever upplever Concept Cartoons, på vilket sätt materialet kan användas som bedömningsstöd och hur lärare kan tänkas använda materialet både i undervisning och bedömning inom NO.För att studera Concept Cartoons och vad lärare och elever har att säga om arbetssättet har tre metoder använts; tre observationer, tre gruppintervjuer med fyra elever i varje, tre intervjuer med lärare och en kompletterande analys av materialet. Detta för att ta reda på elevernas respektive lärarnas uppfattning om materialet, samt hur det kan användas i praktiken. Genom observationer i tre klasser i årkurserna 1-3 och sedan uppföljande intervjuer med tolv elever och tre lärare samlades materialet in och analyserades. Resultatet visade att alla elever förutom en ville använda Concept Cartoons igen och samtliga lärarna ville gärna också börja använda materialet i sin undervisning i framtiden. Concept Cartoons stödjer eleverna i att föra en diskussion och ger dem möjligheter att uppvisa naturvetenskapliga kunskaper, men det finns begränsningar i användandet av materialet. Både observationerna och intervjuerna med lärarna påvisade att materialet fungerar bäst som ett bedömningsstöd om det används med mindre elevgrupper.