Prototype theory states that people have certain expectations when it comes to perpetrators and victims of acts of discrimination. A scenario was developed wherein victim type, severity of assault, assault location, and victim-perpetrator relationship were varied. The perception of bias as a motive and the labeling of the scenario as a hate crime were significantly affected by the independent variables. Scenarios featuring an African American victim were more likely to be labeled as a hate crime than those targeting a non-minority woman. Other factors that resulted in an increased application of the hate crime label were a) the attack was committed by a stranger, b) the attack was more severe, and c) the attack occurred following a political meeting instead of a college class. Overall this study showed that participants did not perceive crimes committed against women to be hate crimes unless that woman was of prototypical minority.

Most arguments about high-rise housing are waged in the shadow of Le Corbusier. The pervasive effects of his dogged half-century spent advocating the benefits of high-rise dwelling are still everywhere apparant. His watchwords - "soleiI, espace, verdure”, "le grand gaspi Iage du temps moderne", "les services communs", "Ies prolongements du Iogis" - are stiII in one form or another the uItimate weapons of the apologists and detractors of high-rise, and the Unites, in particular, have become the touchstone for much of the slab-building around. In view of alI this, one would expect that there exists a solid corpus of critical works explicating Le Corbusier's precise position whose meaning, as a result, would unambiguously and by common consent be implied whenever the Corbusian Freudian-father is invoked. There are not however, any such rigorous citical studies of Le Corbusier's housing proposals and among the general works that do exist, Iittle consensus and indeed some contradiction exists on the definition of the Corbusian solution; that is, on the question of the Unites proper context - the planning matrix within which it fits. The Unite itself, its genesis and its ultimate canonization, has been the subject of even less objective investigation. This study set out to fiII that gap; in the course of my research it was found that Le Corbusier's supposedly-consistent proposals concealed during their long evolution many shifts, disjunctions and non sequiturs. This uneven and disconnected dialogue between the former and latter parts of Le Corbusier's 'oeuvre' that is described in this study reveals the Unite finally as being not at alI firmly embedded in or clearly resulting from his overalI design contexts and housing proposals. It stands, finally, as a separable declaration of Le Corbusier's particular understanding of the psycho/visual nature of human perception, and this is judged to be an inadequate and over - exclusive raison d'etre.

This investigation will use this ability in a different way. Studies have shown that a category can create a grade structure of prototypical items. We will take a graded structure generated by a category, and see if we can recreate the category based on presenting prototypical examples in a variety of ways. Five different sampling techniques will be used to determine which one is the best for category reconstruction. Since the items themselves have bits of information about the category, the number of samples presented will also be manipulated to determine if this is a factor in determining the category. The independent variables investigated were: sampling technique, and prompt conditions. In determining the effect of the independent variables on matching a category, the independent variables were also considered as mediating variables of each other. The method of opportunistic sampling was used for the surveys. The main participants were undergraduate 3rd year students taking a MSci 311 course at the University of Waterloo. Results indicate that there was no statistical significance. Fluctuations in significance levels indicate some random findings. Participants are not discriminating the samples or prompts which were given. This research is a contribution to this field because little research has been conducted in this area and implications are drawn for future research on the saliency of a category or attribute that can vary by context or knowledge

The purpose of this thesis work is to create a prototype for an augmented reality application that isaimed to support service technician when performing service and maintenance of machines andengines. The prototype will be used for investigating what technical limitations there is and toestablish basic usability for the user interface. The method that is used is user studies and analysis toevaluate use cases and user stories. An iterative work process is then applied for design and theprototype is continuously user tested.The resulting prototype uses a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 running on Android operating system. Theframework used for augmented reality is NyARToolkit which handles marker recognition andconnections to Android. NyARToolkit uses OpenGL to visualize 3D models. The 3D models used isin the metasequoia fileformat. The application that implements the framework gets reasonableperformance on Galaxy Tab 2 and the visualization of 3D model is accomplished. A stabile markerrecognition is not attained.The usability has not been studied thoroughly, but it is designed based on the unofficial standard fordesign on mobile devices and for 3D manipulation on mobile devices. The graphical design is aimingfor an open workspace with as few interrupting objects as possible. Clear descriptions of objects are apart that has resulted from usertesting.Judging by the functionality that the prototype indicates it could be assumed that an application of thistype is possible in the given field, which is worked performed by a service technician. The testingequipment that has been used is not of the latest generation of mobile devices which can mean thatnewer models perform better than the ones used for testing. What seems to be limiting the use of themarker recognition is the quality of the video input. The device’s processing power affects howadvanced the 3D environment can be, which in turn can reduce performance when more complex 3Dmodels are used. Since there are several frameworks for the Android platform there is also severalsolutions to making a prototype with the sane functionality. Since I have only explored oneframework there is a possibility that another framework could have produced a more stabile prototypeThe user testing that has been performed points out that a distinct design is needed. Clearly describingtexts for different objects should be used to make the user less confused. An unofficial user designthat is generally used has to be implemented so that the users fell at home when handling theapplication on mobile devices.

The contribution to new knowledge from this research is a novel method for modelling production costs throughout the design phase of a product's lifecycle, from conceptual to detail design. The provision of cost data throughout the design phase allows management to make more accurate bid estimates and encourages designers to design to cost, leading to a reduction in the amount of design rework and product's time to market. The cost modelling strategy adopted incorporates the use of knowledge-based and case-based approaches. Cost estimation is automated by linking design knowledge, required for predicting design features from incomplete design descriptions, to production knowledge. The link between the different paradigms is achieved through the blackboard framework of problem solving which incorporates both case-baseda nd rule-based reasoning. The method described is aimed at innovative design activities in which original designs are produced which are similar to some extent to past design solutions. The method is validated through a prototyping approach. Tests conducted on the prototype confirm that the designed method models costs sufficiently accurately within the range of its own knowledge base. It can therefore be inferred that the designed cost modelling methodology sets out a feasible approach to cost estimation throughout the design phase.

Inconsistencies among testing methods and results in previous research prompted this study that builds upon a systematic usability testing research framework to better understand how interface medium influences users’ abilities to detect usability flaws in applications. Medium was tested to identify its effects on users’ perceptions of usability and abilities to detect usability problems and severe usability problems. Also explored was the relationship between users’ perceptions of usability and abilities to detect usability problems. Results indicated that medium has no effect on users’ abilities to detect usability problems or perceptions of usability. However, results did indicate an interaction between medium and the tested application in which users were able to identify significantly more usability problems on a higher fidelity medium using a particular application. Results also indicated that as users’ perceptions of an application’s usability increases, the users are less able to detect usability problems in that application.

This work is concerned with preliminary studies on developing thermoplastic composite materials suitable for use in fused deposition modeling (FDM). Polypropylene (PP) strands reinforced with continuous thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer (TLCP) fibrils were generated in a novel dual extruder process. Strands were then re-extruded to form short fiber composite monofilaments that were used as feed stock in the FDM 1600 rapid prototyping system. Prototypes containing 40 wt% Vectra A were shown to have tensile properties twice those of parts built using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene copolymer (ABS), a commercially available material used in the FDM 1600 rapid prototyping system. It was also shown that the final mechanical properties of a composite prototype can be tailored to a specific application by adjusting the lay-down pattern, increasing the functionality of the prototype. In order to obtain the maximum tensile properties in these composite prototype, additional studies were performed to determine the effects of thermal and deformation histories on the mechanical properties of monofilaments that were re-extruded from long fiber TLCP reinforced strands. Strands were consolidated uniaxially at temperatures just above the melting point of the matrix in order to determine the effects of thermal history, and an approximate 20% reduction in tensile modulus relative to the modulus of the strands was observed. Monofilaments that could be used as feed stock in FDM were extruded from long fiber TLCP reinforced strands using a capillary rheometer in order to study the effects of capillary diameter, capillary L/D, and apparent shear rate on the tensile properties. / Master of Science

The aim of the research was: *to gain a better understanding on the concepts of Human-computer interaction (HCI) in general and the application of HCI principles in this field; to gain a better understanding of electronic registration systems (e-registration systems) and the use of web forms for this purpose; to gain a better understanding of which HCI principles could be applied to the design of a web form for e-registration; to apply the identified HCI principles to an example of a web form that was to be created; •to evaluate the design of the web form by means of different data-gathering techniques, and •to redesign the web form according to the data obtained from method triangulation. In order to achieve these objectives, the research used, firstly a research methodology to determine which research approach to follow. Secondly, a literature review was then used to identify which HCI principles would be appropriate in the interface design of a web form for e-registration. The empirical part of this study consisted of a web form created according to these HCI principles, which was then evaluated according to usability goals. The evaluation included different data-gathering techniques, namely an observation of the manner in which the participants interacted with the web form, an interview which consisted of in-depth questions regarding the improvement of the web form and a questionnaire which consisted of specific questions regarding the usability of the web form. The web form was redesigned according to the suggestions made by the participants and a final web form prototype was introduced. Finally, recommendations were made for additional studies in order to extend the study of HCI principles application in web forms, specifically in the design of tax e-registration systems in South Africa. / Thesis (MSc (Computer Science))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

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This thesis describes and evaluates the conversion of a conventional gasoline powered all-terrain vehicle (ATV) to an electric ATV. Preliminary studies are performed to obtain initial power and torque requirements for the vehicle. A detailed simulation model of the mechanical load is written and compared to manufacturer supplied data. The load model is then combined with a comprehensive electronic drive and motor simulation using an electromagnetic transient simulation program (PSCAD). A prototype of the vehicle is constructed by selecting the main components, an electric traction motor, batteries and a custom motor drive, using the simulation results. The results of both the simulation and prototypes are compared and evaluated. / February 2009