This report will deal with the process of creating an example based procedural distribution tool. This is accomplished within the Frostbite game engine editor, FrostEd. By using actual placements of objects in the editor as in-data, the tool provides the artist with an unmatched visual feel for calibrating its properties and settings. Note that this is a unique technique and was invented during the creation of this tool. The tool is based on a machine learning approach. It creates a feature vector from the example placements for each type of object. These vectors are then used to create statistical models which in turn are used to generate new object placements. The process of determining the position and rotation when generating an object is divided into two parts. A new concept called Feature Function (FF) is utilized to provide each element in the population with a probability to obtain a certain position and rotation.

To improve the communication between programming instructors and learners; placeholders, placeholder-characters and placeholder characteristics are investigated via two focus groups. One focus group with instructors, the other with learners. The combined and analyzed results show that placeholder-characters can confuse more than they help, more often for programming beginners. The semantics of a placeholder is the most crucial part of understanding its purpose and strengthens its characteristics. A placeholder using a different letter case from the surrounding code is easier to differentiate and find in a block of code. / Summary The study’s purpose is: To find out if digital characters could improve the communication between programming instructors and learners by standardizing the implication “placeholder” or “replace this”. What characteristics could be used to communicate placeholders? To answer the purpose, it has been broken down into two research questions. What opinions do programming instructors and learners have about using placeholder-characters to improve the communication between them? What characteristics could a placeholder have to better communicate its purpose? To answer the research questions, two focus groups were held. One with instructors and one with learners. They are then asked to discuss placeholders, placeholder- characters and their characteristics. Later transcribed, categorized and analyzed into findings that are discussed and concluded upon. The participants mostly believed that placeholder-characters can confuse more than they are able to help, more often the case for beginners. That the placeholder’s semantics of the label is crucial for understanding the purpose of it. Using a different letter-casing for placeholders could make it easier to find and understand that it deviates from the rest of the code in the concerned code example, preferably “SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE”. A placeholder-character is considered viable to use as a global standard if it complies with the following five requirements: It is universally used (A standard). Available easily (found on any keyboard). Shows what and what not to replace (keep quotation marks). Is understood by programming-software (displayed and compiled correctly). Not used for other purposes in coding already (has another implication). Otherwise it is not considered supposable for implementation.

Selon une conception traditionnelle, l’exemple est défini comme un outil de clarification et d’illustration du discours et de la pensée. La thèse met en lumière comment Jean-Jacques Rousseau déplace les usages séculaires de l’exemple pour le constituer en pierre de touche d’une démarche à la fois littéraire et philosophique en vue d’accéder à une nouvelle connaissance des hommes. Prenant appui sur une analyse des différents procédés d’écriture selon lesquels Rousseau mobilise les exemples dans le Discours sur les sciences et les arts et dans le Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité, l’enquête fait apparaître une fonction à la fois critique, heuristique et anthropologique de l’exemple. Elle analyse ensuite la complexification du statut de l’exemple dans l’Émile qui peut être lu non seulement comme une contribution théorique à une nouvelle pensée de l’exemple mais aussi comme une entreprise en elle-même exemplaire d’une nouvelle réflexion sur l’articulation de la théorie et de la pratique. Dans un troisième temps, elle interroge la valeur exemplaire de La Nouvelle Héloïse à l’aune de plusieurs lettres qui intercalent, au sein de la fiction, un débat réflexif sur la valeur d’exemplarité du livre en train de s’écrire. Enfin, elle s’intéresse au statut problématique du « je » dans Les Confessions dont les protestations d’unicité de leur narrateur fondent, dans une contradiction féconde, un modèle d’exemplarité en lien avec la revendication d’une singularité universelle. / According to a traditionnal conception, example is perceived as an instrument of clarification and illustration of the speech and the thought. The thesis brings into focus how Jean-Jacques Rousseau moves ancient uses of example to turn it into the touchstone of a literary and philosophical process, in order to reach a new understanding of men. Based on an analysis of the different uses of examples in the Discours sur les sciences et les arts and the Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité, the thesis reveals a critical, heuristic and anthropological function of example. Then, the thesis analyses the complexification of the example’s status in Émile, that can be read as a theoretical contribution to a new thought of example, but also as a text exemplary in itself of a new reflexion about the articulation of theory and practice. In a third time, the thesis examines the Nouvelle Héloïse’s exemplary value in the light of several letters, that insert a reflexive debate about the exemplarity of the book. Finally, the thesis takes an interest in the problematic status of the narrator in the Confessions whose the protests of uniqueness create, in a fertile contradiction, a model of exemplarity, connected to the assertion of a universal singularity.

Procedural generation of urban environments is a very difficult problem to solve. Most solutions use predefined production rules which lock them into only few different variations of the result. This works well when producing new urban environments but fails when it comes to the expansion of them. Most cities are too complex to model using an approach which utilises predefined rules. By using an example based approach instead, it is possible to expand any city and still have the new street network follow the layout of the original city, regardless of complexity. This paper describes a method of extracting the necessary information from the GIS database OpenStreetMap and expanding the cities using an example based approach presented by Aliaga et al. The paper will also show how blocks, parcels and buildings can be generated to fit within the urban environment.

In 1 Peter and Philippians Christology motivates the ethical exhortation of their readers. 1 Peter uses Christology as motivation both for Soteriology and ethical exhortation, although Peter implements Christology in his Soteriology only to remind his reader of their new identity as members of the family of God through Christ’s death and resurrection (1 Pet 13-17; 2:1-3). It caused them to suffer from the same society with its social and religious norms in which they previously lived, and which turned hostile towards them after their converson. As believers, though, their life should no longer conform to the society of their pagan neighbours. They have thus unexpectedly encountered verbial abuse and physical suffering from their circumstances. The readers of Peter and Paul suffered from opponents from outside the congregation (1 Pet 2:18-20; 3:13-17; Phil 1:27-30; 2:12-18), from conflicts within the community (Phil 2:1-5), as well as from false teaching directed against Paul’s gospel (Phil 3). To resolve the matters within community and to exhort their readers to stand firm in their faith in Christ Jesus, both Peter and Paul applied Christology to guide their readers on how to conduct their life as believers in their society. Believers are called to follow in the footsteps of Christ, not merely to start the adventure of Christian living, but to persevere up to the end, to the glory of God (cf. Mtt 24:13&Lk 21:19). In 1 Peter, the imperative for ethical exhortative motivation are followed by the indicative of its Christology as motivation: ethical exhortation (vv 13-17) followed by Christology (1:18-21); ethical exhortation (vv 1-3) followed by Christology as example of suffering and exaltation, as well as the foundation of spiritual community of the believers(2:4-8); ethical exhortation of domestic servants (vv 18-21) followed by Christology (vv 22-25); ethical exhortation (vv 13-17) followed by Christology (vv 18-22). In Philippians Christology stands in the center (Phil 2:6-11) as foundation of three ethical exhortations: to stand firm in their faith in Christ Jesus amidst hostile circumstances (1:27-30), to resolve conflicts among themselves (2:1-5), and to work out their salvation by trusting in God (2:12-18). In addition Paul exhorted his readers to imitated Christ, as well as himself, since his eager and absolute goal is to know Christ, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering, as stated in Phil 2:6-11, and to rejoice in the Lord. Both Peter and Paul’s Christology have a soteriological perspective, but the Christology of both 1 Peter and Philippians focuses on the ethical motivation of their readers, to confirm their faith in Christ Jesus in their unstable circumstances. / Thesis (PhD (New Testament Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / New Testament Studies / PhD / unrestricted

This diploma thesis deals with the business property and its meaning in the Czech and Slovak legislations. First of all, a historical background of the business property definition is presented. This term is then described within scope of particular laws where it is defined in slightly different ways. There are mentioned also differences between the Czech and Slovak legislations. Selected judicial cases are used to demonstrate practical applications of the business property term. There is mentioned also the problem of intangible assets protection with no judicial precedent so far. Conceptual differences of the business property meaning are highlighted in a model example. Results, interpretation and comparison of questionnaire investigations both from the Czech Republic and Slovakia are an important part of this work.

A research report submitted to the WITS SCHOOL OF EDUCATION, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Science Education). Johannesburg 2015 / Using qualitative methods, this study reports on the selection and use examples in Probability by a teacher in a multilingual mathematics classroom where learners learn in a language which is not their first or home language. The study involved one teacher together with his Grade 11 multilingual class in a township school in Ekurhuleni South Johannesburg. Data was collected through audio-visual recording of four lessons. In addition two one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with the teacher. Data was analysed using Rowland‘s (2008) categories of exemplification alongside Staples' (2007) conceptual model of collaborative inquiry mathematics practices. In the study it emerged that it is important for teachers to select examples by considering the context, ability of the example to be generalised, consistency in the use of symbols, syllabus requirements and accessibility. It also emerged that the selection of examples together with the accompanying mathematical practices has the potential to support or impede the learning of mathematics. In particular the findings revealed that the practice of ‗guiding the learners with the map‘ declines the cognitive level of examples and hence impedes learning. Code- switching and re-voicing were most frequently used practices seen in the findings with the use of code-switching encouraging full participation of the learners. The study recommends that methodology courses offered at tertiary institutions to pre-service teachers should include the selection, how to select or design and use examples in multilingual classrooms e.g. what constitutes a good example and how to maintain the cognitive level of an example. The study also recommends that more research needs to be done on effective mathematical practices that may be used to implement worked-out examples in multilingual classrooms.

As digital images become ubiquitous in many applications, the need for efficient and effective retrieval techniques is more demanding than ever. Query by Example (QBE) and Query by Concept (QBC) are among the most popular query models. The former model accepts example images as queries and searches for similar ones based on low-level features such as colors and textures. The latter model allows queries to be expressed in the form of high-level semantics or concept words, such as "boat" or "car," and finds images that match the specified concepts. Recent research has focused on the connections between these two models and attempts to close the semantic-gap between them. This research involves finding the best method that maps a set of low-level features into high-level concepts. Automatic annotation techniques are investigated in this dissertation to facilitate QBC. In this approach, sets of training images are used to discover the relationship between low-level features and predetermined high-level concepts. The best mapping with respect to the training sets is proposed and used to analyze images, annotating them with the matched concept words. One principal difference between QBE and QBC is that, while similarity matching in QBE must be done at the query time, QBC performs concept exploration off-line. This difference allows QBC techniques to shift the time-consuming task of determining similarity away from the query time, thus facilitating the additional processing time required for increasingly accurate matching. Consequently, QBC's primary design objective is to achieve accurate annotation within a reasonable processing time. This objective is the guiding principle in the design of the following proposed methods which facilitate image annotation: 1.A novel dynamic similarity function. This technique allows users to query with multiple examples: relevant, irrelevant or neutral. It uses the range distance in each group to automatically determine weights in the distance function. Among the advantages of this technique are higher precision and recall rates with fast matching time. 2.Object recognition based on skeletal graphs. The topologies of objects' skeletal graphs are captured and compared at the node level. Such graph representation allows preservation of the skeletal graph's coherence without sacrificing the flexibility of matching similar portions of graphs across different levels. The technique is robust to translation, scaling, and rotation invariants at object level. This technique achieves high precision and recall rates with reasonable matching time and storage space. 3.ASIA (Automatic Sampling-based Image Annotation) is a technique based on a new sampling-based matching framework allowing users to identify their area of interest. ASIA eliminates noise, or irrelevant areas of the image. ASIA is robust to translation, scaling, and rotation invariants at the object level. This technique also achieves high precision and recall rates. While the above techniques may not be the fastest when contrasted with some other recent QBE techniques, they very effectively perform image annotation. The results of applying these processes are accurately annotated database images to which QBC may then be applied. The results of extensive experiments are presented to substantiate the performance advantages of the proposed techniques and allow them to be compared with other recent high-performance techniques. Additionally, a discussion on merging the proposed techniques into a highly effective annotation system is also detailed.

Instant messaging with Internet-based software is a ubiquitous form of communication in industrialized nations. In fact, many educators are observing that students engage with instant messaging while simultaneously engaged in academic activity. Though this type of multitasking is pervasive, educational researchers have not examined how the practice of instant messaging impacts learning outcomes. This dissertation describes the background, empirical and theoretical foundations, methods and results of a study examining the impact of instant messaging activity on learning, where instant messaging and learning are simultaneous activities. The question posed is grounded in the related areas of instant messaging practices, the Generation M profile, Cognitive Load Theory, and integration of instant messaging in K-16 classrooms. This work presents empirical evidence pointing out the necessity of conducting empirical study regarding how instant messaging activity might impact learning. Quantitative methods used to conduct the study are presented including data collection instruments. The results of the study are discussed in broad terms related to Generation M and Cognitive Load Theory. Methodological limitations related to practice opportunities for the research sample as well as the performance measure used are detailed. In addition, implications of the results in relationship to those teaching members of Generation M in K-16 classrooms as well as those designing instruction for this population are discussed. The discussion concludes with recommendations for further research in this area.

No / Age progression that involves the reconstruction of facial appearance with a natural ageing effect has several applications. These include the search for missing people and identification of fugitives. The majority of age progression methods reported in the literature are data driven. Hence, such methods learn from training data and utilise statistical models such as 3D morphable models and active appearance models (AAM). Principal component analysis (PCA) which is a vital part of these models has an unfortunate drawback of averaging out texture details. Therefore, they work as a low pass filter and as such many of the face skin deformations and minor details become faded. Interestingly, recent work in 2D and 3D animation has shown that patches of the human face are somewhat similar when compared in isolation. Thus, researchers have proposed generating novel faces by compositing small face patches, usually from large image databases. Following these ideas, we propose a novel age progression model which synthesises aged faces using a hybrid of these two techniques. First, an invertible model of age synthesis is developed using AAM and sparse partial least squares regression (sPLS). Then the texture details of the face are enhanced using the patch-based synthesis approach. Our results show that the hybrid algorithm produces both unique and realistic images. Furthermore, our method demonstrates that the identity and ageing effects of subjects can be more emphasised.