Gestural interfaces are user interfaces controlled by users’ gestures, such as taps, flicks and swipes, without the aid of a conventional pointing device, such as a mouse or a touchpad. The development of touch screen technology has resulted in an increasing number of inventive gestural interfaces. However, recent studies have shown that well-established interaction design principles are generally not followed, or even violated by gestural interfaces. As a result, severe usability issues start to surface: the absence of signifiers for operative gestures, the weakening of visual feedback, the inability to discover every possible actions in the interface, as well as the lack of consistency, all of which are undermining the user experience of these interfaces thus need to be addressed. Further analysis of existing gestural interfaces suggests that the sole dependence on gestural input makes interface design unnecessarily complicated, which in turn makes it challenging to establish a standard. Therefore, an approach to supplement gestures with user attention is proposed. By incorporating eye gaze as a new input modality into gestural interactions, this novel type of interfaces can interact with users in a more intelligent and natural way by collecting input that reflects the users’ interest and intention, which makes the interfaces attentive. To demonstrate the viability of this approach, a system was built to utilise eye-tracking techniques to detect visual attention of users and deliver input data to the applications on a mobile device. A paradigm for attentive gestural interfaces was introduced to provide insights into how such interfaces can be designed. A software prototype with attentive gestural interfaces was created according to the paradigm. It has been found in an experiment that the new type of interfaces helped users learn a new application faster, and modestly increased their accuracy when completing tasks. This provided evidence that attentive gestural interfaces can improve usability in terms of learnability and effectiveness This study is focused on interfaces of mobile devices whose major input mechanism is a touch screen, which are commonly seen and widely adopted. Despite the fact that eye-tracking capability is not generally available on these devices, this study demonstrates that it has great potential to facilitate interfaces that are both gestural and attentive, and it can enable new possibilities for future user interfaces. / published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

Deciphering genetic determinants of tumorigenesis is the greatest challenge and promise of the present-day era of biomedical research. As extensive tumor genome characterization efforts of the past decade had revealed, tumor genomes harbor multiple point mutations and gene copy number alterations. This exquisite complexity brings forth the challenge of distinguishing numerous incidental alterations from those that are functionally relevant to tumorigenesis. During the past decade, functional genetic screens have shown their utility in identifying genetic changes that functionally contribute to tumor-specific hallmarks and thus hold a great potential for identifying promising new targets for the rational design of successful anticancer therapies. A key hallmark of cancer cells is their ability to escape signals that govern homeostasis of normal tissue. In normal epithelia, growth and survival of cells is dictated by their physical anchorage to the extracellular matrix, and disruption of proper cell-matrix anchorage triggers cell death. Tumors of epithelial origin develop ways to subvert anoikis signals, which enables both their uncontrollable expansion at the primary site as well as metastatic colonization of distant organs. Understanding the genetic determinants of matrix-independent growth of cancer cells is a promising approach to identify potent and selective anticancer targets. In the work presented in this dissertation, we use an unbiased functional genetic screening approach to test a large set of eight thousand human genes to identify those that are involved in inducing and maintaining resistance of mammary epithelial cells to matrix detachment-induced cell death. We show that a cell adhesion molecule PVRL4 promotes cell survival in the absence of matrix anchorage in normal epithelial cells and in cancer cells. Our work reveals that PVRL4 promotes anchorage-independent growth by promoting cell-to-cell attachment and matrix-independent c-Src activation. PVRL4 is focally and frequently amplified in several types of solid tumors. Growth of orthotopically implanted tumors in vivo is inhibited by blocking PVRL4-driven cell-to-cell attachment with monoclonal antibodies, demonstrating a novel strategy for targeted therapy of cancer.

The problem addressed by the student was the creation of private, separate spaces within a larger area. It was determined that folding screens could be utilized in a variety of settings and situations thereby providing a flexible solution.As the creation of the folding screens progressed, the student was exposed to ideas and motivating concepts within the artworld which influenced him to consider a more sculptural response to the problem. A shift of the emphasis from the purely functional to a viewer oriented. perceptual interaction with the sculptural space was the result; although the sculptures did not have the obvious usefulness of the folding screens, the student found the sculptures to be personally useful in his artistic development.The primary method of constuction utilized was welding. Several of the sculptures were the result of combining wooden elements and assemblages with welded steel. Sevendifferent artworks were created, three being folding screens and four being sculptural barriers. / Department of Art

Namban screens are a well-known Japanese art form that was produced between the end of the 16th century and throughout the 17th century. More than 90 of these screens survive today. They possess substantial historical value because they display scenes of the first European activities in Japan. Among the subjects depicted on Namban screens, some of the most intriguing are ships: the European ships of the Age of Discovery. Namban screens were created by skillful Japanese traditional painters who had the utmost respect for detail, and yet the European ships they depicted are often anachronistic and strangely. On maps of the Age of Discovery, the author discovered representations of ships that are remarkably similar to the ships represented on the Namban screens. Considering the hypothesis that ships of some of the Namban screens are copies of ships represented on contemporary European cartography, the author realized that one particular historical event connecting Europe and Japan may be the source of these representations. This was the first visit of the Japanese Christian embassy, the Tensho Embassy, to Rome, in 1582. Its journey to Europe and its following visit to the Taiko, or first effective leader of Japan, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, may have been a trigger for the production of one of the most well-known Japanese artworks, the Namban screens.

Thesis (M.S.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2007. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Alexander V. Zale. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-96).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-137). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2005. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Alexander V. Zale. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-78).

Interactive media in public environments, such as touch screen kiosks, is a strongly growing toolfor offering service, information, advertising and entertainment. In order to achieve goodusability when designing the graphical user interface for a customer terminal, it is important tobe aware of the very specific requirements involved with such application. This master thesiscontributes to a framework for the interaction design of touch screen terminals in stores. The purpose of the thesis was to discover usability problems and solutions to usability problemsin existing touch screen terminal interfaces. Moreover the work aimed at revealing what designpatterns can be used or created in order to meet the observed problems. Usability problems stemfrom underlying use qualities. These can be seen as forces in design patterns. It was found thatthe patterns would be more useful if structured into a pattern catalogue, containing both highand low-level patterns. The study was preformed at Instoremedia, a company that, among other things, develops instore touch screen terminals. The product in focus was an interactive product cataloguedeveloped for Telia. The application was partly studied in situ. The study consisted of five steps:analytical evaluation, stakeholder interview, contextual inquiry, user analysis and design patterndevelopment. The study revealed problems, solutions, needs, goals etc, related to the use of theterminal. The final result is a proposed human computer interaction (HCI) design patterncatalogue for in-store touch screen terminals, which helps prevent the observed problems. Itconsists mostly of already known patterns. Three new patterns have been created. The aim isthat the pattern catalogue should be a helpful tool when making designs-decisions for new touchscreen terminals in the future. / Interaktiv media i publika miljöer, såsom pekskärmsterminaler, är på stark uppgång när detgäller att erbjuda service, information, marknadsföring och underhållning. För att uppnå höganvändbarhet i en kundterminals grafiska gränssnitt är det viktigt att vara medveten om despecifika krav som ställs på en sådan applikation. Detta examensarbete bidrar till ett ramverk fördesignen av pekskärmsterminaler i butiker. Syftet med examensarbetet var att hitta användbarhetsproblem och lösningar till potentiellaanvändbarhetsproblem i existerande gränssnitt för pekskärmsterminaler. Vidare syftade arbetettill att ta reda på vilka designmönster som kan användas eller skapas för att möta de observeradeproblemen. Användbarhetsproblem bottnar i underliggande användarbehov. Dessa kan ses somkrafter i designmönster. Det visade sig att designmönster är mer användbara om de ordnas i enmönsterkatalog, som innehåller både hög- och lågnivå mönster. Studien utfördes på Instoremedia, ett företag som bland annat utvecklar pekskärmsterminalerför butiker. I fokus stod en interaktiv produktkatalog utvecklad för Telia. Applikationenstuderades delvis in situ. Studien bestod av fem steg: analytisk utvärdering, intressentintervju,kontextuell undersökning, användaranalys och designmönsterutveckling. Studien avslöjadeproblem, lösningar, behov, mål etc., relaterade till användandet av terminalen. Det slutgiltigaresultatet är en föreslagen designmönsterkatalog för pekskärmsterminaler i butiker, somerbjuder lösningar till de observerade problemen. Katalogen består till största delen av redankända mönster. Tre nya designmönster har utvecklats. Målet är att mönsterkatalogen ska kunnaanvändas som ett redskap under framtida design.

Haole is a contested, multi-faceted word in Hawaii. It generally means “foreigner,” or “white person.” It is used to refer to both tourists, and haoles like me, or those who are born and raised in Hawaii. In either case, it is always negative, referring to something “other” and really, colonial. Paraphrasing rhetorician Kenneth Burke, this thesis analyzes how this word “works in the world,” and from there, explores how identity, culture, and belonging are constructed through language. The essential questions become: are culture and identity constructed and performed, through language, tradition, and cultural engagement? Or is some blood content or ethnicity warranted to claim cultural belonging, and in this case, a Hawaiian identity? The method for this research began with seven interviews with people from Hawaii—a mix of haoles, hapa (mixed race) people, and ethnic Hawaiians—followed by the analyzing of these interviews, and ending with my personal engagement with these findings autoethnographically. Writing this thesis has changed how I see my own identity in Hawaii. I have used this autoethnographic method to share this transformation, explore it, and through it, mimic the in-flux nature of identity construction and language at large. I see this thesis as fluid and subject to change; as a jumping off point for future research on an otherwise “silent” topic, silent in that people in Hawaii do not openly discuss this issue; as the beginning of a necessary dialogue on what it means to be haole, what it means to be Hawaiian, and the nature of identity and cultural construction at large.

Without light, there can be no shadows.  Architectural decisions can be structured in such a way as to filter, manipulate, or diffuse light to create an array of conditions in which both light and shadow become part of the architecture itself.  Light and shadow create spaces within a place, or a place inside of a space.  They can define, emphasize, and disguise. / Master of Architecture