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Darbe keliama problema- neatitikimas tarp tobulėjančių ugdymo metodų, griežtėjančių reikalavimų mokytojo asmenybei ir atsiliekančio visuomenės požiūrio į mokytojo darbą bei bandymo spręsti suaugusiųjų ir ugdytinių santykio problemą senais, nebeveikiančiais metodais. Darbe siekiama atskleisti globalizacijos kontekste pakitusios visuomenės socialinių grupių lūkesčius mokytojo asmenybei ir jos būdo bruožams deformuoto tautos būvio sąlygomis, išsiaiškinti, kokie asmenybės būdo bruožai ir savybės labiausiai padėtų mokytojui sėkmingai spęsti iškilusias ugdymo proceso problemas pokyčių laikais. Darbe pateikiami įvairių socialinių grupių požiūrio į mokytojo asmenybės būdo bruožus kokybinio tyrimo rezultatai, kurie nurodo patraukliausius ir labiausiai pageidaujamus mokytojo būdo bruožus. / The problem - the new improving teaching methods and the requirements for the teacher’s personality do not correspond with the aging society’s point of view to teacher’s job and attempt to solve the adult and the students’ problems using old-fashioned, useless methods. What character features could help the teacher solve the problems during the time of changing methodology. Theoretical relevance of the thesis – the changing social groups’ expectations of teacher characteristics are revealed in the context of globalization. The aim of the research - to investigate different social groups’ attitude towards teacher’s personality and to find out which are the most attractive and the most wanted character features in the teacher’s personality.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs) play an important role in modern traffic management, which can be divided into intelligent infrastructure systems and intelligent vehicle systems. Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems (ANPRs) are one of infrastructure systems that allow users to track, identify and monitor moving vehicles by automatically extracting their number plates. ANPR is a well proven technology that is widely used throughout the world by both public and commercial organisations. There are a wide variety of commercial uses for the technology that include automatic congestion charge systems, access control and tracing of stolen cars. The fundamental requirements of an ANPR system are image capture using an ANPR camera and processing of the captured image. The image processing part, which is a computationally intensive task, includes three stages: Number Plate Localisation (NPL), Character Segmentation (CS) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). The common hardware choice for its implementation is often high performance workstations. However, the cost, compactness and power issues that come with these solutions motivate the search for other platforms. Recent improvements in low-power high-performance Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) for image processing have motivated researchers to consider them as a low cost solution for accelerating such computationally intensive tasks. Current ANPR systems generally use a separate camera and a stand-alone computer for processing. By optimising the ANPR algorithms to take specific advantages of technical features and innovations available within new FPGAs, such as low power consumption, development time, and vast on-chip resources, it will be possible to replace the high performance roadside computers with small in-camera dedicated platforms. In spite of this, costs associated with the computational resources required for complex algorithms together with limited memory have hindered the development of embedded vision platforms. The work described in this thesis is concerned with the development of a range of image processing algorithms for NPL, CS and OCR and corresponding FPGA architectures. MATLAB implementations have been used as a proof of concept for the proposed algorithms prior to the hardware implementation. The proposed architectures are speed/area efficient architectures, which have been implemented and verified using the Mentor Graphics RC240 FPGA development board equipped with a 4M Gates Xilinx Virtex-4 LX40. The proposed NPL architecture can localise a number plate in 4.7 ms whilst achieving a 97.8% localisation rate and consuming only 33% of the available area of the Virtex-4 FPGA. The proposed CS architecture can segment the characters within a NP image in 0.2-1.4 ms with 97.7% successful segmentation rate and consumes only 11% of the Virtex-4 FPGA on-chip resources. The proposed OCR architecture can recognise a character in 0.7 ms with 97.3% successful recognition rate and consumes only 23% of the Virtex-4 FPGA available area. In addition to the three main stages, two pre-processing stages which consist of image binarisation, rotation and resizing are also proposed to link these stages together. These stages consume 9% of the available FPGA on-chip resources. The overall results achieved show that the entire ANPR system can be implemented on a single FPGA that can be placed within an ANPR camera housing to create a stand-alone unit. As the benefits of this are drastically improve energy efficiency and removing the need for the installation and cabling costs associated with bulky PCs situated in expensive, cooled, waterproof roadside cabinets.

Volume I. Part I describes the known versions of the Erec/Gereint story, giving whatever information is available about the circumstances of their composition. Particular attention is paid to the manuscript tradition of Erec et Enide by Chrétien de Troyes, to the place occupied in that tradition by the exemplar which was available to Hartmann von Aue, and to the two manuscripts of the French prose adaptation (showing the significance of the text contained in the unpublished Paris MS.). Part II is concerned with the highly problematical relationship between Erec et Enide and the Welsh story of Gereint fab Erbin. It is argued that the author of Gereint must have used a written source that was in a language other than Welsh. However, an important feature of Gereint is the technique of using formulas which, being Welsh, cannot have been taken from the (foreign) narrative source. There is evidence also of borrowing from a passage in the Historia Regum Britanniae, combined with material from Welsh tradition. Since the Welsh author used a technique of composition that will account for the differences between Gereint and Erec there is no advantage in supposing a lost common source. The disadvantages of such a supposition are that Chrétien's source may not have been a written text, and that it requires a belief in a whole series of coincidences to account for the total disappearance of the manuscripts. A final argument is available from the fact that Gereint incorporates information contained in a couplet which seems to be a later interpolation into the Erec text. Volume II contains the material (mainly text) which is to be read in parallel with the main discussion. The major item is an edition of Gereint fab Erbin (with English translation) marked in such a way as to show the different elements of its composition, and with corresponding passages from Erec et Enide set in parallel.

We are sometimes led to a different picture of things when something unexpected occurs which needs explaining. The aim of this thesis is to examine a series of related issues in the philosophy of mind in the light of the unusual condition known to psychologists as ‘synaesthesia’. Although the emphasis will be on the philosophical issues a view of synaesthesia itself will also emerge. Synaesthesia is a distinct type of cross-modal association: stimulation of one sensory modality automatically triggers an additional phenomenal character of experience associated with a second sensory modality in the absence of any direct stimulation of the second modality. Chapter 1 introduces synaesthesia to a philosophical audience by outlining the early history of synaesthesia studies, by summarising contemporary research and by indicating areas of philosophical interest to be considered in the rest of the thesis. Chapter 2 uses synaesthesia to examine one important philosophical model of the mind, Fodor’s modularity hypothesis, and, in turn, investigates the nature of synaesthesia in the light of that model. Fodor claims that cognitive modules can be thought of as belonging to a psychological natural kind in virtue of their possession of most or all of nine specified properties. The most common form of synaesthesia possesses Fodor’s nine specified properties of modularity, and hence it should be understood in terms of an extra cognitive module, and thus as belonging to the abovementioned psychological natural kind. Many psychologists believe that synaesthesia involves a breakdown in modularity. A breakdown in modularity would also explain the apparent presence of the nine specified properties in synaesthesia. I discuss the two concepts of function which underlie the respective theories, defending the breakdown thesis, arguing, in any case, that properties deriving from evolutionary history should also be used to decide between the two theses and thus ultimately membership of a psychological natural kind such as Fodor suggests. The argument is then used to respond to two challenges to the notion of a psychological natural kind. Chapter 3 focuses on the phenomenal character of synaesthetic experience. Externalists about the phenomenal character of experience tend to argue that the character of perceptual experience is to be explained either by the properties objects present to percipients, or by the properties objects are represented by percipients as having. Some internalists argue that there is a need to postulate hrther properties of the individual - in other words, qualia - to account for the individuation of the character of perceptual experience. The existence of additional phenomenal characters of experience in synaesthesia, which cannot directly be explained by reference to features of objects, suggests the existence of extra qualia and thus the presence of qualia in normal perception. The aim of this chapter is to meet the challenge presented by synaesthesia and the extra quaZia argument, and contrariwise, use synaesthesia as a way of fbrther clarifjmg the merits of the respective externalist positions. In the previous chapters the locution of ‘coloured hearing’ will have been adopted. Occasionally the process underlying synaesthesia is described as one of ‘hearing colours’. Chapter 4 rejects the latter usage. In so doing it focuses on the place of synaesthesia vis-a-vis normal perceptual processes. Considerations from previous chapters are further developed in order to shed light both on the metaphysical individuation of perceptual modalities and on how we know the distinctive perceptual modalities. Given the actual content of our concepts of perceptual modalities, it is argued that the actual world is one in which even synaesthetes are unable to hear colours. Consideration is given as to whether there is a possible world in which people could hear colours. The justification of the usage of ‘coloured-hearing’ then leads to a discussion of the relative importance of the individuating conditions of modes of perception. The thesis focuses largely on coloured hearing. What merits the preceding considerations have might be supported if they can be generalised. Chapter 5 goes a small way in that direction.

In Chinese orthography, phonetic compounds comprise about 80% of the most frequent characters. They contain separate phonological and semantic elements, referred to as phonetic and semantic radicals respectively. A dominant type exists in which the se-mantic radical appears on the left and the phonetic radical on the right (SP characters); an opposite, minority structure also exists in which the semantic radical appears on the right and the phonetic radical on the left (PS characters). Through statistical analyses, connectionist modelling, behavioural experiments, and neuroimaging studies, this dis-sertation demonstrates that the distinct structures of these two types of characters allow us crucial insights into the relationship between brain structure and reading processes. The statistical analyses of a Chinese lexical database show that, because of the different information profiles of SP and PS characters and the imbalanced distribution between them in the lexicon, the overall information is skewed to the right. This information skew provides important opportunities to examine the interaction between foveal split-ting and the information structure of the characters. The foveal splitting hypothesis as-sumes a vertical meridian split in the foveal representation and the consequent contra-lateral projection to the two cerebral hemispheres; it has been shown to have important implications for visual word recognition. The square shape and the condensed structure of Chinese characters make them a severe test case for the split fovea claim. Through a lateralized cueing examination and a TMS study of the semantic radical combinability effect with foveally presented characters in character semantic judgements, a flexible division of labour between the hemispheres in character recognition is demonstrated, with each hemisphere responding optimally to the information in the contralateral visual hemifield. The interaction between stimulation site and radical combinability in the TMS study also provides further support for the split fovea claim, suggesting functional foveal splitting as a universal processing constraint in reading. Even if foveal splitting is true, it is still unclear about how far the effects of foveal split-ting can extend from the retina into the process of character recognition. We show that, in naming isolated, foveally presented SP and PS characters, adult male and female readers process them differently, with opposite patterns of ease and difficulty: males responded significantly faster to SP than PS characters; females showed a non-significant tendency in the opposite direction. This result is also supported by a corre-sponding ERP study showing larger N350 amplitude elicited by PS character than SP characters in the male brain, and an opposite pattern in the female brain. The split fovea claim suggests that the two halves of a centrally fixated character are initially processed in different hemispheres. The male brain typically relies more on the left hemisphere for phonological processing compared with the female brain, causing this gender difference to emerge. This interaction is also predicted by an implemented computational model, contrasting a split cognitive architecture, in which the mapping between orthography to phonology is mediated by two partially encapsulated, interconnected processing do-mains, and a non-split cognitive architecture, in which the mapping is mediated by a single, undifferentiated processing domain. Thus, the effects of foveal splitting in read-ing extend far enough to interact with the gender of the reader in a naturalistic reading task. In short, this dissertation demonstrates that foveal splitting is a universal language proc-essing phenomenon, precise enough to project the two radicals of a centrally-fixated Chinese character to different hemispheres to allow a flexible division of labour be-tween the two hemispheres to emerge, and its effects in reading extend far enough into word recognition to interact with the gender of the reader in a naturalistic reading task. The results can also be extrapolated to Chinese word and sentence processing as well as to other languages. This dissertation thus has contributed to a better understanding of the relationship between brain structure and language processes.

Detective fiction highlights those qualities of masculinity that are most valuable to a contemporary culture. In mysteries a cultural context is more thoroughly revealed than in any other genre of literature. Through the crimes, an audience can understand not only the fears of a particular society but also the level of calumny that society assigns to a crime. As each generation has needed a particular set of qualities in its defense, so the detective has provided them. Through the detective's response to particular crimes, the reader can learn the delineation of forgivable and unforgivable acts. These detectives illustrate positive masculinity, proving that fiction has more uses than mere entertainment. In this paper, I trace four detectives, each from a different era. Sherlock Holmes lives to solve problems. His primary function is to solve a riddle. Lord Peter Wimsey takes on the moral question of why anyone should detect at all. His stories involve the difficulty of justifying putting oneself in the morally superior position of judge. The Mike Hammer stories treat the difficulty of dealing with criminals who use the law to protect themselves. They have perverted the protections of society, and Hammer must find a way to bring them to justice outside of the law. The Kate Martinelli stories focus more on the victims of crime than on the criminals. Martinelli discovers the motivations that draw a criminal toward a specific victim and explains what it is about certain victims that makes villains want to harm them. All of these detectives display the traditional traits of the Western male. They are hunters; they protect society as a whole. Yet each detective fulfills a certain cultural role that speaks to the specific problems of his or her era, proving that masculinity is a more fluid role than many have previously credited.

No. 1-2-3-4! (Motoric Key) consist of a weave series and a printed edition. Each piece with the outline 21x21 cm, a size similar to a hand, or a handkerchief, generic in the relation to a blueprint of a weave sample or a leaflet; a utilitarian object to use and be used. An economical outline that enables a mobility and simplicity of direction. A one made as one, one, one, through two years. A handkerchief tool. Potential efficiency, tunes and characters, stating the importance of listening as a way of working.

Mötet mellan människor är något som kan vara spännande och få en att upptäcka något nytt i livet, likaså i film. Dessa möten mellan karaktärer gör att handlingen drivs framåt och skapar ett spännande interagerande mellan karaktärer. I detta kandidatarbete har vi valt att fokusera på mötet mellan hjälten och skurken, oftast två starka och viktiga karaktärer inom film. Karaktärsrollerna är hämtade från Voglers The writer’s Journey (1997). För att få en bredare bild av hur rollerna kan se ut i film har vi valt att analysera två olika filmer i olika genre, filmerna vi valt är Die Hard (1988) och Alien (1979). Vi har tagit hjälp av analysmodellen som presenteras i From Antz to Titanic - A students guide to film analysis (2000) och format modellen till vårt passande. En av delarna i analysen fokuserar på hur de tekniska aspekterna i scener kan hjälpa till att föra berättelsen vidare. Grundat i undersökningen har en kompletterande gestaltning i form av en film skapats där vi har använt oss av karaktärsrollerna som vi analyserat. / Meetings between people can be exciting and make you discover something new, also in movies. Meetings between the characters drives the plot forward, and create exciting interaction between the characters. We have chosen to focus on meetings between the hero and the villain, two strong and important character roles in the film. The character roles are taken from Vogler, The Writer's Journey (1997). To get a broader picture of how roles may appear in film, we have chosen to analyze two different films in different genres, the films we have chosen are Die Hard (1988) and Alien (1979). We have used the analytical model presented in From Antz to Titanic - A student's guide to film analysis (2000) and formed the model to our fitting. One of the parts of the analysis focuses on the technical aspects of the scenes that can help move the story forward. Based on our survey of character roles and meetings between them, we have created a movie to portray this.

As a bachelor’s degree project, the study examines elements that may affect or distort players’ perception of opponents’ behavior in games. More specifically in stationary character driven games such as Texas Hold ‘em Poker. Elements that were chosen as a focus in the study were visual character design and participants previous experiences, such as knowledge of games in general and familiarity with Texas Hold ‘em Poker. A game prototype was designed as a tool to use when examining the subject. In the game prototype, players were seated at a Texas Hold ‘em Poker table and faced two opponents. One opponent was designed to be visually aggressive and the other visually defensive. Participants of the study were asked to answer a questionnaire and the resulting answers were analyzed in an attempt to find relevant information in regards to the subject of this project. The results of the study suggest that the elements chosen do affect players’ perception of opponents’ behavior. / Som ett kandidatexamensarbete undersöktes vilka element som kan påverka eller förvränga spelares uppfattning om motståndares beteende i spel. Mer specifikt i stationära karaktärsdrivna spel så som Texas Hold ‘em Poker. Element som utvaldes för undersökningen utgjordes av visuell karaktärsdesign och medverkandes tidigare erfarenheter, så som kunskap om spel i allmänhet och kännedom om Texas Hold ‘em Poker. En spelprototyp skapades som ett verktyg för att undersöka ämnet. I spelprototypen sattes spelare vid ett Texas Hold ‘em Poker-bord och mötte två motståndare. En motståndare var utformad att vara visuellt aggressiv och den andra visuellt defensiv. Medverkande i studien blev tillfrågade via ett frågeformulär och de resulterande svaren analyserades i ett försök att hitta relevant information gällande ämnet. Studiens resultat antyder att elementen som valdes verkligen påverkar spelares uppfattning om motståndares beteende i spel.