The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of using novel demonstrations and hands-on activities on promoting student interest and positive perception of learning environment. Thirty-six 8th graders participated in the experimental group in which they were involved in prediction-observation-explanation of discrepant events or novel hands-on activities for 14 weeks. Their interest of learning science and perception of learning environment were compared with that of a control group, which also consisted of 36 8th graders in the same school. The results of the analysis of covariance revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on both instruments documenting students¡¦ level of interest in learning science and their perception of learning environment. The post-treatment interview results further consolidated the quantitative finding of the experimental group students¡¦ significant progress on their emotions of learning science.

No description available.

An interesting alternative for today's high efficiency variable speed drives is the Permanent Magnet-Assisted Synchronous Reluctance Motor drive, which belongs to the family of brushless synchronous AC motor drives. Generally, the reluctance torque of this motor is significant compared to the Permanent Magnet electrical torque. The advantage of increased reluctance torque is the decreased need of expensive permanent magnet (PM) material, which makes this solution thus cheaper than the respective permanent magnet motor. Also due to its synchronous operation, sensorless rotational control is possible along with higher power factor and better efficiency compared to the induction motor (IM). Therefore, this thesis first deals with the implementation of a vector control strategy for speed control of the PMa-synRM motor that can be applied to a washing machine application. The machine is supplied by a current controlled voltage source PWM inverter to control the instantaneous stator currents which are decided by the reference speed. Secondly, the thesis focuses on the sensorless speed operation of the PMa-SynRM to take advantage of the lower costs as well as increased system reliability which otherwise is not possible using the delicate speed or position sensors. The concept involves estimation of the rotor speed and/or position. There are several speed estimation techniques proposed by researchers and among them the observer based technique is proven and commonly used in the industry. The only requirements of the observer system are a very fast signal processor, specialized and optimized to perform complex mathematical calculations. The feasibility and effectiveness of the control techniques are verified using the experimental results, implemented using the Texas Instruments TMS320F2812 eZDSP controller board and the overall motor drive system in the laboratory.

Procedural content generation is a technique used to produce a wide range of computer-generated content in many industries today, the video game industry in particular. This study focuses on how procedural content generation can be applied to create emotionally interesting non-player characters and through this, generate narrative snippets that can immerse and interest a reader. The main points examined are how to achieve this using a modular approach to personality and behaviour, how well readers can distinguish whether motivations and interactions are generated by a computer or written by a human, and to what degree a reader can be immersed in a computer-generated narrative. Procedural narrative could help to reduce workload on large projects or lower costs, and is an area in which there is much room for further research. To answer these problems, a literature review of existing techniques for the creation of emotionally interesting non-player characters was conducted and used to design and construct a prototype implementation for generating procedural narrative. The output of this narrative was dressed up to match the style of a human text and A/B testing was conducted utilising a survey in order to evaluate and compare responses to the two texts. Ultimately, the results showed very little difference between the perception of the human-written text and the computer-written text, with the only aspects found lacking in the computer-written text being clarity of emotion and foreshadowing.

Tato diplomová práce byla vytvořena během studijního pobytu na Uviversity of Estern Finland, Joensuu, Finsko. Tato diplomová práce se zabývá využitím technologie sledování pohledu neboli také sledování pohybu očí (Eye-Tracking) pro interakci člověk-počítač (Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)). Navržený a realizovaný systém mapuje pozici bodu pohledu/zájmu (the point of gaze), která odpovídá souřadnicím v souřadnicovém systému kamery scény do souřadnicového systému displeje. Zároveň tento systém kompenzuje pohyby uživatele a tím odstraňuje jeden z hlavních problémů využití sledování pohledu v HCI. Toho je dosaženo díky stanovení transformace mezi projektivním prostorem scény a projektivním prostorem displeje. Za použití význačných bodů (interesting points), které jsou nalezeny a popsány pomocí metody SURF, vyhledání a spárování korespondujících bodů a vypočítání homografie. Systém byl testován s využitím testovacích bodů, které byly rozložené po celé ploše displeje.

This thesis is interested in detection of corresponding points in images, which display the same object, eventually some of important elements and synchronizing these images. The aim of this thesis is to find, study and choose suitable algorithm for detecting interesting points in image. This algorithm will be apply at couple of images and in these images will find couples of corresponding points across these images. Functional output of this thesis will be application which will realize choosen interesting points detector, algorithm for finding correspondencies of regions and their synchronizing and joint them to one output image.

No description available.

現在有許多對於眼動軌跡與人在認知方面的研究，包括理解狀態以及感興趣的程度；其中，閱讀文章時的眼動軌跡是最常被討論及研究的題材。而本研究的目的就是希望探討讀者在閱讀時的眼動軌跡，與其感興趣程度之間是否存在關係。 / 本研究的特色在於，我們不用一般分析眼動時關心每個AOI（area of interest）上的眼動資料，而是希望將眼動資料以序列的方式分析，並且運用資料探勘的方法，找出眼動序列中區分感興趣程度的眼動軌跡特徵的片段。 / 透過對於眼動軌跡的分析，我們希望研究的結果，在未來可以運用在資訊檢索的領域上，成為一種有效的「隱含式回饋（implicit feedback）」的方式，以改善現有資訊檢索效能。 / Much research has been performed on the relationship between eye movements and human cognition, including comprehension and interesting degree. The purpose of our research is to find out if there are relationships between eye movements of reading and interesting degree. / Instead of analyzing the eye movements on each area of interest, the characteristic of our research is to transform eye movements to sequence data, and to determine the eye movement patterns which discriminate whether user is interesting or not by using the method of data mining. / Through the analysis of the eye movements, our research result can be used as one way of implicit feedback of information retrieval to improve the effectiveness of the search engine.

The dissertation argues that the development of the British abolition movement was based on the abolitionists' perception that their actions were kairotic; they attempted to shape their own kairos by taking temporal events and reinterpreting them to construct a kairotic process that led to a perceived fulfillment: abolition. Thus, the dissertation examines the rhetorical strategies used by white abolitionists to construct an abolitionist kairos that was designed to produce salvation for white Britons more than it was to help free blacks. The dissertation especially examines the three major texts produced by black persons living in England during the late eighteenth centuryIgnatius Sancho's Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho (1782), Ottobauh Cugoano's Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery (1787), and Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789)to illustrate how black rhetoric was appropriated by whites to fulfill their own kairotic desires. By examining the rhetorical strategies employed in both white and black rhetorics, the dissertation illustrates how the abolitionists thought the movement was shaped by, and how they were shaping the movement through, kairotic time. While the dissertation contends that the abolition movement was rhetorically designed to provide redemption, and thus salvation, it illustrates that the abolitionist's intent was not merely to save the slave, but to redeem blacks first in the eyes of white Christians by opening blacks to an understanding and acceptance of God. Perhaps more importantly, abolitionists would use black salvation to buy back their own souls and the soul of their nation in the eyes of God in order to regain their own salvation lost in the slave trade. But ironically, they had to appear to be saving others to save themselves. So white abolitionists used the black narratives to persuade their overwhelmingly white audience that slavery was as bad for them as it was for the African slave. And in the process, a corpus of black writing was produced that gives current readers two glimpses of one world.

A carência de instrumentos de pesquisa que avaliem a qualidade do ensino de ciências no Brasil é latente. A aplicação no Brasil de um instrumento internacional que permita avaliar os interesses e as posturas de jovens estudantes frente às ciências e tecnologias (C&T) é o principal objetivo deste trabalho e um passo importante na discussão desta questão. O ROSE - The Relevance of Science Education é um questionário aplicado a alunos da faixa dos 15 anos de diversos países que nos auxilia a confirmar hipóteses, entender padrões e a traçar tendências sobre o ensino de ciências. O desenvolvimento de uma versão brasileira do questionário ROSE, possibilitou este estudo no País. O instrumento foi aplicado em 2007 a 652 alunos das cidades de São Caetano do Sul/SP e Tangará da Serra/MT, trazendo elementos objetivos sobre a realidade do ensino de ciências em contextos brasileiros bem diversos. O estudo revelou que estes jovens acham a disciplina ciências interessante, mas por outro lado, têm um baixo interesse em exercer ciência profissionalmente. Suas análises evidenciam também a grande preferência das meninas por assuntos relacionados à saúde enquanto que a preferência masculina é por temas de tecnologia e física, ao lado daqueles vinculados à proteção ambiental. No outro extremo, existe um desinteresse, de meninos e meninas, nas questões de botânica e agricultura, bem como naquelas relacionadas à história da Ciência. Estes jovens alunos reconhecem a importância e se interessam pelas questões e desafios ambientais. Os alunos paulistas incluem-se como responsáveis pelas questões do meio ambiente e cobram maior envolvimento da sociedade na proteção ambiental, não acreditam que as C&T possam resolver todos estes problemas, mas são muito esperançosos em relação ao futuro do planeta e da humanidade. Os estudantes matogrossenses, diferentemente, excluem-se das responsabilidades pelos problemas ambientais e colocam nas mãos dos especialistas reger as mudanças necessárias, acreditam no poder das C&T para tais mudanças, mas declaramse menos confiantes no seu sucesso. O ROSE traz claras evidencias de que o ensino de ciências carece de mudanças e colabora com a intenção de redefinir as prioridades brasileiras para seu aprimoramento. Revela dados que, somados àqueles já registrados em pesquisas anteriores, permitem levar - com segurança - a discussão adiante. / The lack of research tools which really evaluate the quality of science teaching in Brazil is concealed. The application of an international instrument which grants the evaluation of young students\' interests and postures towards sciences and technologies (S&T) is the main purpose of this work as well as an important step related to the discussion of this issue. ROSE - The Relevance of Science Education - is a questionnaire applied to 15-yearold students from several countries which helps us confirm hypothesis, understand patterns and outline tendencies as to the teaching of sciences. The development of a Brazilian version of the ROSE questionnaire enabled this study in the country. The device was applied in 2007 to 652 students in the cities of São Caetano do Sul/São Paulo State and Tangará da Serra/Mato Grosso State, helping emerge objective elements about the reality of science teaching in quite different Brazilian contexts (urban/industrialized x rural/agricultural). The study revealed that these youngsters evaluate science study as interesting; however, the possibility of taking science as a professional career has shown low interest. Their analysis also made it clear that most girls show more interest in topics related to health while boys give preference for themes related to technology and physics, as well as those entailed to environmental protection. On the other hand, neither boys nor girls show much interest in botany or agriculture, much less in those related to Science History. These young students recognize the importance of and are interested in environmental matters and challenges. The São Paulo students accept their responsibility as to environmental issues and claim for a society\'s bigger involvement with environmental protection; they do not believe that the S&T can solve all these problems, either. However, they are full of hope towards the future of the planet and mankind. The students of the state of Mato Grosso, differently, do not include themselves as responsible for environmental problems and relegate to specialists the duty of taking the necessary changes. They also believe in the S&T power in terms of these changes; however, they confess to be less trustful in their success. The ROSE opens up clear evidences that science teaching needs changes and contributes to the intention of re-defining Brazilian priorities for the refinement of science teaching. It reveals data that, added to the ones already enrolled in previous researches, allow the follow-up of the discussion of this theme in safe grounds.