Research on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) has been around for decades and recently the inner speech paradigm was picked up in the area. The realization of a functioning BCI could improve the life quality of many people, especially persons affected by Locked-In-Syndrome or similar illnesses. Although implementing a working BCI is too large of a commitment for a master's thesis, this thesis will focus on investigating machine learning methods to decode inner speech using data collected from the non-invasive and portable method electroencephalography (EEG). Among the methods investigated are three CNN architectures and transfer learning. The results show that the EEGNet architecture consistently reaches high classification accuracies, with the best model achieving an accuracy of 29.05%.

Magister Artium - MA / As the title indicates, this research is concerned about the displacement and resettlement situation in Arada sub-city, Addis Ababa. The City Administration is implementing an urban redevelopment program to improve the poor infrastructural facilities, service provision,sewerage, sanitation, housing quality and supply. The implementation of these projects displaces households from their residential area exposing them to various impoverishment risks. The Impoverishment Risks and Reconstruction Model (Cernea, 2000), which is a tool used for managing risk identification, prevention and mitigation, stipulates displaced people could encounter one or more of the eight potential risks of landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, social disarticulation, marginalization, increased morbidity and mortality, food insecurity and loss of access to common property resources. Thus many development practitioners advocate the importance of democratization of the displacement and resettlement processes to reduce potential risks.The purpose of the research is to investigate how the displacement and resettlement process has been undertaken and to describe the impoverishment risks displaced households faced.This will contribute to the improvement of the program and other similar programs in the future as it is implemented with short, medium and long term plans. Thus it will indicate more constructive ways of implementing the displacement process that reduces risks by informing concerned agencies of more sustainable ways to configure and implement their work.Academically, the research will test the feasibility of the risk variables described by the IRR model to an inner area of urban context.Therefore, the research will answer the following questions: What impoverishment risks do the households face due to displacement and resettlement to the temporary and condominium houses? What coping mechanisms do households employ to adapt to the new circumstances? Was there access to information? Was the displacement and resettlement process participatory? The research noted that the displaced residents are exposed to impoverishment risks of homelessness, marginalization, lack of services, health hazard and economic impacts.The construction of the Condo house is of a much better standard than the temporary shelters.As a result the transfer of households to the Condo house has relieved them from the risks they had faced at the temporary shelter. However, the design of the Condo building, omission of basic facilities like a customary kitchen and the adopted communal neighborhood regulations imposes new type of risks such as the discontinuation of informal business and unsuitability to daily and cultural practices. The discontinuation of informal business both at the temporary shelter and later at the Condo house severely affected household income generation potential of poor households. These households are afraid that they may end up homeless as they are unable to pay the much more expensive house rental fee.The research concludes the impoverishment risks that displaced households faced could be mitigated by making the displacement and resettlement process participatory, transparent and by coordinating the activities of the implementing agencies. Moreover, this can be achieved by curbing the “demolish and relocate” approach used in the displacement and resettlement process to “relocate and demolish”. This will help to avoid housing the displaced in temporary shelters and associated governance shortcomings from the process which occurred due to the “demolish and relocate” approach.

Culture and language are intrinsically linked, and the question of how to approach teaching culture whilst teaching a language is always going to be one teachers have to ask themselves. A textbook is a tool which is meant to aid teachers and remove some of the burden of decision-making from their shoulders. A good textbook should thus give a teacher all of the tools needed to teach a language, including answers to the aforementioned question. This study was a content analysis of four English Language textbooks used in Swedish high schools. The main focus was on how these textbooks present different cultures. This was then contextualized by comparisons with previous research, with cultural theories, and by a comparison with the guidelines which are presented in the Swedish curriculum. The study found that the textbooks contain little representation of cultures which are not natively English-speaking or which exist outside of the so-called Inner circle of English language, and that even when non-Inner circle cultures are represented, they are either viewed through and Inner circle lens or as a minority culture in an Inner circle context. Furthermore, the literature which is included in the books adheres strictly to the English literary canon as it is generally defined. The textbooks thus do not encourage the teaching of English as an international language, and they therefore go against the guidelines of the Swedish curriculum. They are also representative of a global issue of conservatism in ELT which has been highlighted previously by other authors—and to the existence of which they provide further and current proof.

This study examines how art is used as an educational tool to improve inner-health. The study is conducted in India to gain a cultural perspective different from Sweden. In the study, unstructured qualitative interviews are made mainly with volunteers from the organization Saturday Art Class, but also with the principal at the Sir J. J. Collage of Architecture. The interviews focus on the respondents view on: art as an educational tool, art as a tool to deal with inner-health and the respondent’s view on art and emotions from a cultural perspective. A thematic analyze is applied to understand and structure the collected material and John Dewey’s theory on art, education and experience is used as a theoretical framework when discussing the result. The study discusses what it is about art that makes it improve inner-health and how art, as an educational tool, can help shape both individuals and the society. In relation to the respondent’s experiences, earlier research and Dewey’s theoretical approach, the study identifies three different and co-related perspectives within the art practice that can help art teachers conduct their education for it to benefit inner-health among students, which are: the art practice in itself, reflection through an interactive dialogue and emotional aims. The study also discusses the connection between artistic freedom and democratic values as well as the role of the art teacher during the artistic practice. Lastly, the cultural context in India and SAC is compared to Swedish art education.

Under vinterhalvåret krävs snöröjning på en flygplats och den processen utgör idag ett hinder för flygtrafiken. Snöröjningsprocessen av en landningsbana ser olika ut beroende på flygplats i världen. Swedavia driver ett världsledandeprojekt som avser att automatisera snöröjningsprocessen. Denna rapport visar det ekonomiska resultat som erhålls som följd av att den inre effektiviteten ökas i snöröjningsprocessen. Detta visas genom fyra effektivitetsmått - resursnyttjande, kapabilitet, flexibilitet och ledtid. Resultatet från samtliga effektivitetsmått visar ett övertygande samband mellan processeffektivitet och reducerade kostnader. Andra områden där kostnadsbesparingar kan undersökas är leanslöserier. Leanslöserier har undersökts under projektet och en förbättring har konstaterats inom flera områden, men magnituden har inte beaktats i detta arbete. / Snow removal at the airports is a requirement during the period of October-March. The snow removal process is currently an obstacle for arriving and departing air traffic. Swedavia is implementing a world-leading project with intentions to automate the snow removal process. This report’s purpose is to visualize the financial result because of the increasing inner efficiency of the snow removal process. Resource utilization, capability, flexibility and lead time were used as criteria to illustrate the relation between process efficiency and reduced costs. Using these four criteria, all results indicate a connection between process efficiency and reduced costs. Other areas where cost reduction may be investigated are lean wastes. Lean wastes have been investigated during this project and improvements have been noted in several areas. However, the cost-saving magnitude of these improvements is not considered in this report.

No description available.

The primary purpose of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness of two group counseling methods, a self-directed behavior change group and an experiential growth group, for increasing inner-directedness as measured by Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory, in college students who were differentiated, on the basis of a pre-treatment measure of inner-directedness, into internals and externals. A second goal was to compare the overall outcome of each method with a no-treatment control group. Pretest-posttest gain scores on the "I" scale of the Personal Orientation Inventory were obtained for a sample of 72 college students. The data collected were used to test five specific hypotheses which were developed from theoretical considerations. For internal subjects, the order of effectiveness of the treatment conditions was as follows (from most to least): Experiential growth group, self-directed behavior group, and a no-treatment control group. In comparison, the two treatment methods produced statistically similar results. This finding indicates that internals may become more inner-directed as a result of exposure to a variety of group-counseling approaches. For external subjects, the order of effectiveness of the treatment conditions was as follows (from most to least): Self-directed behavior group, experiential growth group, and no-treatment control group. In comparison, the two treatment methods produced significantly different results. This finding indicates that externals are more responsive to a cognitive-oriented, structured approach, than to an affective-oriented, less structured, member-centered approach. Group gain score means on a measure of inner-directedness were significantly higher for treated subjects than for control subjects. This finding suggests that group counseling is an effective method for increasing inner-direction in college students.

VP6 is one of the minor structural core proteins of African horsesickness virus. The minor core proteins VP1, VP4 and VP6 are presumed to constitute the dsRNA dependent RNA polymerase transcription complex of the virus. In the Orbivirus prototype bluetongue virus (BTV), VP6 has a helicase activity. The aim of this investigation was to characterize the primary structure and nucleic acid binding function of the inner core protein VP6 of African horsesickness virus (AHSV). To characterize the primary structure of AHSV VP6, VP6 genes of serotypes 3 and 6 were cloned and sequenced. Both genes encode a 369 amino acid polypeptide. A comparison to the VP6 proteins of other Orbiviruses indicated that in all cases the proteins are rich in basic residues and in glycine. The proteins are highly conserved within serogroups but the conservation between serogroups is low. VP6 of AHSV-3 and AHSV-6 have 93.5% identity and 96% similarity in amino acid residues. AHSV-6 VP6 has 27% identical and 46% similar amino acid residues to BTV-10 VP6. Phylogenetic analysis of four orbivirus VP6 genes indicated that AHSV and BTV are most closely related to each other. Motifs characteristic of known helicases were identified by sequence analysis. Glycine rich protein motifs and a N-glycosylation signal were present. No nucleic acid binding motifs identified in other proteins were found in AHSV VP6. To characterize the VP6 protein of AHSV VP6, the genes were expressed using both a baculovirus and a bacterial expression system. Proteins were found to be soluble and the VP6 expressed in insect cells was found to be N-glycosylated. The nucleic acid binding function of AHSV VP6 was investigated. Bacterially expressed VP6 was demonstrated to bind nucleic acids by electrophoretic mobility shift assays. Baculovirus expressed VP6 bound double and single-stranded RNA and DNA in nucleic acid overlay protein blot assays. Competition assays indicated that VP6 may have a preference for binding to RNA rather than DNA. Glycosylation was found to play no direct role in nucleic acid binding but the binding is strongly dependent on the NaCl concentration. A series of truncated VP6 peptides were produced to investigate the importance of localized regions in nucleic acid binding. Two partially overlapping peptides were found to bind dsRNA at pH 7.0, while other peptides with the same overlap did not. Binding appeared to be influenced by charge as reflected by the isoelectric points (pI) of the peptides and experiments indicating the effect of pH on the binding activity. However, only peptides containing amino acid residues 190 to 289 showed binding activity. This region corresponded to the region on BTV VP6 that contains two binding domains. It is proposed that the dsRNA binding domain in AHSV VP6 is a sequence of positively charged amino acids constituting a domain that determines the nucleic acid binding characteristics of the peptide. The mechanism of binding of baculovirus expressed VP6 in a nucleic acid overlay protein blot is proposed to be charge related. / Thesis (PhD (Genetics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Genetics / unrestricted

Leaders’ individual transformative capabilities, qualities and skills are critical to the sustainable transformation in organisations. This exploratory research aims to explore the inspiration from the creative process of craftsmen to enable inner development of sustainable leaders for promoting sustainable transformation. Taking experiential learning as an intermediate factor, the thesis asks two research questions. 1) How does the creative process of craftsmen contribute to experiential learning?2) What is the implication of experiential learning to inner development of sustainable leaders? The frameworks of the creative process, the Inner Development Goals and the Experiential Learning Cycle are used to analyse the potential of experiential learning observed through the craftsman's creativity process to enable inner development of sustainable leaders. The research is led in two parts. The first part is an inductive empirical research based on semi-structured interviews with selected craftsmen to understand how craftsmen engage in experiential learning during their creative process. The second part of the research is a deductive theoretical analysis to understand how experiential learning can facilitate inner development of sustainable leaders. The results suggest that engaging in experiential learning through creative process is an innovative pers for sustainable leaders to develop individual transformative capabilities, skills, and competences for their inner development. Theoretical implications and practical recommendations are provided based on the findings of the research.

The use of spectrofluorometers to examine nanomaterials is quite popular using either fluorescence or synchronous measurements. However, understanding how a material’s optical properties can influence spectral acquisition are of great importance to accurately characterize nanomaterials. This dissertation presents a series of computational and experimental studies aimed at enhancing the quantitative understanding of nanoparticle interactions with matter and photons. This allows for more reliable spectrofluorometer based acquisition of nanoparticle containing solutions. Chapter I presents a background overview of the works described in this dissertation. Correction of the gold nanoparticle (AuNP) inner filter effect (IFE) on fluorophore fluorescence using PEGylated AuNPs as an external reference method is demonstrated in Chapter II. The AuNP IFE is corrected to quantify tryptophan fluorescence for surface adsorbed proteins. We demonstrate that protein adsorption onto AuNPs will only induce ~ 20% tryptophan fluorescence reduction instead of the commonly assumed 100% reduction. Using water Raman intensities to determine the effective path lengths of a spectrofluorometer for correction of fluorophore fluorescence is discussed in Chapter III. Using Ni(NO3)2 and K2Cr2O7 as Raman IFE references, the excitation and emission path lengths are found to exhibit chromophore and fluorophore independence, however path lengths are spectrofluorometer dependent. Finally, ratiometric resonance synchronous spectroscopy (R2S2) is discussed in Chapter IV. Using a combination of UV-vis and R2S2 spectroscopy, the optical cross sections of a wide range of nanomaterials were determined. Also on-resonance fluorescence in solution is demonstrated for the first time. The nanoparticles discussed range from photon absorbers, scatterers, simultaneous photon absorbers and scatterers, all the way to simultaneous photon absorbers, scatterers, and emitters.