Therapeutic horseback riding (THR) uses the horse as a therapeutic apparatus in physical and psychological therapy. This dissertation suggests a more appropriate technique for measuring the effect of THR. A research survey of the statistical methods used to determine the effect of THR was undertaken. Although researchers observed clinically meaningful change in several of the studies, this was not supported by statistical tests. A logistic regression approach is proposed as a solution to many of the problems experienced by researchers on THR. Since large THR related data sets are not available, data were simulated. Logistic regression and t-tests were used to analyse the same simulated data sets, and the results were compared. The advantages of the logistic regression approach are discussed. This statistical technique can be applied in any field where the therapeutic value of an intervention has to be proven scientifically. / Mathematical Sciences / M. Sc. (Statistics)

nÃo hà / Para se facilitar a aprendizagem cientÃfica, à preciso investigar a concepÃÃo de estratÃgias didÃticas alternativas, procurando-se estabelecer vinculaÃÃes entre o uso pedagÃgico do computador e o laboratÃrio de prÃticas cientÃficas, como ferramentas de apoio pedagÃgico ao desenvolvimento do processo de ensino-aprendizagem. A presente pesquisa focou a concepÃÃo de estratÃgias de ensino e aprendizagem, atravÃs da realizaÃÃo de sessÃes didÃticas, de quÃmica, articulando-se pedagogicamente os laboratÃrios de experimentaÃÃo cientÃfica e de informÃtica, para facilitar, junto aos alunos, a aprendizagem significativa de conhecimentos de quÃmica orgÃnica, especificamente a funÃÃo hidrocarbonetos. Aportou-se na teoria de aprendizagem significativa de Ausubel, nos mapas conceituais de Novak e na proposta construcionista de Valente. Realizou-se o uso do software educativo Jmol, enaltecendo-se a construÃÃo colaborativa de conhecimentos, competÃncias e habilidades. Tais aÃÃes foram realizadas com a participaÃÃo de onze alunos, do 3 ano do ensino mÃdio de uma escola pÃblica do municÃpio de Beberibe, concebidas em quatro etapas: preliminar, teÃricoexperimental, prÃtico-virtual e colaborativa. A abordagem metodolÃgica da pesquisa foi do tipo qualitativa e se caracterizou como pesquisa exploratÃria. Os dados obtidos por meio dos questionÃrios, e as observaÃÃes do professor-pesquisador permitiram analisar e concluir haver indÃcios de desenvolvimento da capacidade criativa, colaborativa, que os alunos se motivaram para desenvolver novas habilidades e construir novos conhecimentos, atravÃs da realizaÃÃo pedagÃgica da prÃtica de experimentaÃÃo de quÃmica orgÃnica e utilizaÃÃo do software Jmol. O experimento da produÃÃo de etino na etapa teÃrico-experimental foi uma maneira de trabalhar de forma mais clara, dinÃmica e colaborativa a ressignificaÃÃo e construÃÃo de conhecimentos. O uso pedagÃgico e colaborativo do software Jmol na etapa prÃtico-virtual e de mapa conceitual na etapa colaborativa, possibilitaram aos alunos desenvolver uma compreensÃo mais facilitadora do conceito, escrita, representaÃÃo e visualizaÃÃo em trÃs dimensÃes de compostos da funÃÃo hidrocarbonetos. / To facilitate the science learning, you need to investigate the design of didactic strategies alternatives, and seeking to establish linkages between the pedagogical use of the computer and the laboratory of scientific practices, such as tools of pedagogical support for the development of the teaching-learning process. The present research focused on the design of strategies for teaching and learning, through the completion of didactic sessions, of chemistry, articulating it is pedagogically the laboratories of scientific experimentation and computer, to facilitate, together with the students, the significant learning of the knowledge of organic chemistry, specifically the light hydrocarbons. Disembarked on the theory that meaningful learning of Ausubel, the conceptual map of Novak and the proposal of constructionist Valente. There was the use of educational software Jmol, praising the collaborative construction of knowledge, skills and abilities. Such actions were carried out with the participation of 11 students, of the 3rd year of secondary education in a public school in the municipality of Beberibe, designed in four stages: preliminary, theoretical and experimental, practical-virtual and collaborative. The methodological approach of the research was qualitative and is characterized as exploratory research. The data obtained by the use of questionnaires, and observations of the teacher-researcher allowed to analyze and conclude there is evidence of the development of creative ability, collaborative, which the students are motivated to develop new skills and build new knowledge through the realization of pedagogical practice of experimentation of organic chemistry and use of software Jmol. The experiment of the production of ethno in step theoretical-experimental was a way of working in a more clear, dynamic and collaborative signification and construction of knowledge. The use of pedagogical and collaborative software Jmol in the stage-practical virtual and conceptual map in the stage collaborative enabled students to develop an understanding more facilitator of the concept, writing, representation and visualization in three dimensions of compounds of light hydrocarbons.

This thesis aims to solve the mathematical inverse problem of characterizing sea waves based on the responses obtained from a marine vessel sailing under certain sea conditions. By researching this problem the thesis contributes to the marine industry by improving products that are using ocean behavior for controlling ship's dynamics. Knowledge about the current state of the sea, such as the wave frequency and height, is important for navigation, control, and for the safety of a vessel. This information can be retrieved from specialized weather reports. However, such information is not at all time possible to obtain during a voyage, and if so usually comes with a certain delay. Therefore this thesis seeks solutions that can estimate on-line the waves' state using methods in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The specific investigation methods are Transfer Functions augmented with Genetic Algorithm, Artificial Neural Networks and Case-Based Reasoning. These methods have been configured and validated using the n-fold cross validation method. All the methods have been tested with an actual implementation. The algorithms have been trained with data acquired from a marine simulation program developed in Simulink. The methods have also been trained and tested using monitored data acquired from an actual ship sailing on the Baltic Sea as well as wave data obtained from a buoy located nearby the vessel's route. The proposed methods have been compared with state-of-the art reports in order evaluate the novelty of the research and its potential applications in industry. The results in this thesis show that the proposed methods can in fact be used for solving the inverse problem. It was also found that among the investigated methods it is the Transfer Function augmented with Genetic Algorithm which yields best results. This Master Thesis is conducted under the Master of Engineering Program in Robotics at Mälardalens högskola in Västerås, Sweden. The thesis was proposed by Q-TAGG R&D AB in Västerås, Sweden, a company which specializes in marine vessel dynamics research.

Cette thèse a pour objet de décrire l’argumentation des élèves dans dix « cafés scientifiques » sur l’eau potable ayant eu lieu en 2011-2012 dans quatre écoles au Mexique, aux USA et en France. Il s’agit d’environnements éducatifs semi-formels (activité organisée à l’école mais extracurriculaire). Cette démarche est détaillée dans une première partie, avec la présentation des divers ancrages théoriques qui l’ont inspirée, issus de la linguistique interactionnelle, des études de l’argumentation, et de plusieurs traditions de recherches en éducation ; puis la définition des principales questions de recherche ; et enfin une présentation détaillée du corpus d’analyse.Au niveau mésoscopique, est proposée dans la partie II une analyse de la qualité des interactions lors du travail en petits groupes d’élèves, inspirée de la typologie des types de discours de Mercer (1996). Le discours d’exploration est appréhendé à partir de 5 indicateurs adaptés à la situation pédagogique, et attesté dans les trois pays. Ses frontières avec le discours d’accumulation et le discours de dispute sont précisées. Enfin, l’ensemble de la typologie est questionnée et affinée, à l’aune de cas problématiques interrogeant les unités d’analyse pertinentes et l’alternance entre les différents types de discours. La partie III analyse plutôt le travail de construction des arguments par les élèves, à l’échelle microscopique, à partir de trois grands types de ressources : savoirs, principes généraux incluant lois, normes et valeurs, et émotions. Un relevé exhaustif des éléments de savoir-croyance et des principes généraux utilisés par les élèves est réalisé. Est ensuite proposé un modèle du recours à ces principes dans l’interaction argumentative, inspiré de celui de la structure conversationnelle de l’argumentation de Muntigl et Turnbull (1998). Enfin, trois études de cas donnent à voir le fonctionnement discursif de la mobilisation des émotions à des fins argumentatives, à partir d’outils proposés par Plantin (2011). Dans la partie IV, à l’échelle macroscopique, les dix débats réalisés sur les différents terrains sont comparés. Le cadrage du débat est caractérisé sur le plan de l’orientation thématique vers des domaines de savoir et celui de la préférence pour certains modèles cognitifs de l’eau. Est également étudiée la façon dont les élèves construisent l’objet de discours « eau » et le présentent préférentiellement sous certains éclairages (Grize, 1990, 1996), phénomène analysé à l’aide d’outils textométriques. Les résultats des votes d’opinion individuels et par groupe réalisés tout au long des débats sont enfin présentés. L’ensemble de ces éléments (11-14) convergent pour décrire le travail discursif des élèves comme l’activation et le renforcement de scenarios d’affrontement entre argumentaires typiques. Ainsi, chaque sous-corpus national se caractérise par un scenario argumentatif propre, qui domine les débats, même si d’autres scenarios, minoritaires, cohabitent avec lui.Finalement, ce travail offre un modèle cohérent de l’argumentation des élèves, qui permet de caractériser à différents niveaux ces scenarios argumentatifs. / This thesis aims at describing students’ argumentation in ten « scientific cafés » about drinking water organized in 2011-2012 in Mexico, the USA and France. These events can be characterized as a semi-formal educational context (at school but an extra-curricular activity). Part I begins with a literature review of theoretical backgrounds in interactional linguistics, argumentation studies, and education research. The main research questions and the empirical data used in the study are then presented.Part II reports an analysis of the quality of students’ interactions at the mesoscopic level, while they are working in small groups, based on Mercer’s talk typology (1996). Exploratory talk is evidenced in each of the three countries, and is analyzed with 5 indicators taking into account the specificities of the pedagogical situation. The boundaries between exploratory talk, cumulative talk and disputational talk are discussed. The whole typology is refined, with the presentation of problematic atypical cases, raising the issues of the relevant unit of analysis and the alternation between different types of talk. Part III consists of an analysis of students’ work of building up their arguments at the microscopic level. To do so, they use 3 types of resources: knowledge, general principles (including laws, norms and values), and emotions. An inventory of the knowledge-belief elements and general principles used by the students is presented. An interactional model of the argumentative use of these general principles is then proposed, based on Muntigl and Turnbull’s model of the conversational structure of argumentation (1998). Finally, three case studies describe the role of emotions in students’ argumentation, using Plantin’s conceptual and methodological tools (2011).In the last chapter, Part IV, the ten debates are analyzed and compared at the macroscopic level. They are characterized by their tendency for orientation of the discourse towards disciplinary knowledge fields and their preference for certain cognitive models of water over others. There is also an analysis of how the students build « water » as a discourse object (“objet de discours”), and present it in specific lights (“éclairage”) (Grize, 1990, 1996). This analysis depends notably on the use of textometric tools. Results of individual and group opinion votes during the cafés are also presented. These three sets of results converge to give a global picture of students’ discursive work as the activation and strengthening of typical scenarios of opposing arguments. Each national sub-corpus has a specific, preferred argumentative scenario, which dominates the debates, even though there are alternative minority scenarios coexisting with the dominant scheme.In summary, this thesis offers a coherent model of students’ argumentation, and permits the characterization of such argumentative scenarios at different levels.

Présentes dans de nombreux domaines, les clauses limitatives de réparation et les clauses exonératoires de responsabilité constituent une pratique très courante. Si elles se rencontrent le plus souvent en matière contractuelle, ces conventions peuvent également aménager la responsabilité extracontractuelle d’un potentiel responsable qui connaîtrait déjà la victime éventuelle, tel un voisin ou un cotraitant dans la réalisation d’un ouvrage. Malgré leur utilité et leur fréquence pratique, ces clauses pâtissent aujourd’hui d’un régime incertain, qui suscite nombre d’interrogations, tant en matière contractuelle qu’extracontractuelle. Pour savoir si une clause limitative ou exonératoire de responsabilité peut jouer en faveur du responsable, il faut dans un premier temps vérifier sa validité. Or, tant les droits spéciaux (droit des transports, droit de la consommation…) que la jurisprudence (notamment l’arrêt Chronopost) ont porté de multiples atteintes aux règles classiques de validité de ces stipulations. Il est dès lors nécessaire d’instaurer des directives renouvelées afin de clarifier cette question primordiale. Dans un second temps, il n’est pas certain que la clause relative à la responsabilité, pourtant valable, puisse déployer tous ses effets. L’efficacité de ces stipulations revêt ainsi une grande importance. Cependant, là encore, les règles de paralysie en cas de faute qualifiée du responsable, ainsi que celles qui gouvernent l’opposabilité des clauses aux tiers victimes d’un dommage causé par un manquement contractuel, méritent d’être rénovées pour balayer les incertitudes qui jalonnent aujourd’hui la matière. À l’heure où le droit de la responsabilité civile est en passe d’être réformé, cette étude propose un nouveau régime applicable aux clauses relatives à la responsabilité pour que la notion recouvre sa fonction de véritable outil de prévisibilité pour les parties. / Limitation and exclusion clauses constitute a very common practice in many areas. Although they are more often used in the contractual field, these agreements can also change tort liability of a potential tortfeasor who would already know the potential victim, as a neighbour or a consortium member. Nowadays, despite their utility and practical frequency, these stipulations suffer from an uncertain regime, that gives rise to questions, as much in contractual field as in tort field. Firstly, to know whether an exclusion clause can be invoked by the responsible, we need to verify its validity. Yet, both laws in different fields (transport law, consumer law …) and case law (especially the famous Chronopost case) have affected the classic rules of validity of these stipulations. There is therefore a need to establish new guidelines to clarify this important question. Secondly, it is not certain that the exclusion clause, however valid, will apply. The effectiveness of these provisions is also of great importance. Nevertheless, the rules governing the paralysis in case of gross fault from the responsible and those who regulate the enforceability of clauses to third parties, victims of a damage caused by a breach of contract, should be renovated to sweep away the uncertainties that confuse the subject. At a time when French civil liability law is about to be reformed, this study proposes a new regime for exclusion and limitation clauses in order to restore their true function of foreseeability for parties.

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This thesis describe about determination of camera motion parameters in plane. At first there are introduce the basics of motion tracking, is focused to find out displacement between two input images. Below is describe the algorithm GoodFeatruresToTrack, which find out the most significant point in a first image. The point is search out the good point, which will be easy to track in next image, reduce the data volume and prepare the input information (array of significant point) for the algorithm Lucas-Kanade optical flow. In second part is deal with processing and utilization estimations optical flow. There is median filtration, below is describe computation of homogenous transformation, which describe all affine transformation in affine space. As the result are coordinates, which describe the shift between the two input images as X-axis and Y-axis value. The project used the library Open Computer Vision.

This thesis deals with the consolidation of the financial statements in a situation where the unite does not fulfil the conditions for its processing yet, but in the near future it is likely to be confirmed. The thesis includes description of progressive time schedule of work while preparing the consolidated financial statements for the specific analyzed consolidation group headed by parent company ENVINET a.s..

The diploma thesis was elaborated for as part of design documentation for new multifunctional building in Litovel. The building will be used for purposes of bus and train station, another way for administration purposes. The building contains the second and a third floor with a modern look suitably fits into the surrounding countryside. The significant emphasis was on both nice appearance of the building, so the correct process engineering and dispositional solution. The building is designed so that in terms of design and implementation easily accomplishable. Furthermore, to meet all the requirements for building physics and fire safety. During seminar work was solved problems of summer overheating of the room situated on the south side of the building. For the preparation of project documentation for construction was used CAD software and specialized software for structural calculations of statics and construction.

This thesis discusses how a variety of factors like socio-economic status and educational levels of family/parents affect Std 8 pupils' school performance in twelve selected secondary schools in Thohoyandou, Venda in the Northern Province. It further examines how parents motivate pupils to do well at school, and how the expectations of parents and other relatives as well as teachers as significant others contribute to the academic attainment of pupils.. It also focuses on the favourable conditions in the pupils' learning home environment such as availability of a private study-room, language used at home, adequacy of time for both relaxation and schoolwork, learning facilities, parental involvement and nutritional values that help in promoting and enhancing pupil school performance. Finally, the author provides some recommendations about how parents can actively involve themselves in their children's education. AFRIKAANS : Hierdie tesis bespreek die wyse waarop 'n aantal faktore, soos die sosioekonomiese status en die opvoedkundige peil van die familie/ouers, st. 8 leerlinge se skoolprestasies beinvloed in twaalf geselekteerde skole in Thohoyandou, Venda, in die Noordelike Provinsie. Dit ondersoek ook die wyse waarop ouers leerlinge motiveer om goed te doen op skoal, asook hoe dit wat betekenisvolle mense soos ouers, ooms, tantes en onderwysers van hulle verwag, bydra tot die bereik van die verlangde akademiese sukses van die leerlinge. Dit fokus ook op gunstige toestande in die leerling se tuisomgewing, byvoorbeeld die beskikbaarheid van 'n private studeerkamer, taalgebruik by die huis, genoeg tyd om te slaap en te eet, ontspanning en skoolwerk, leerfassiliteite, ouerlike betrokkenheid en die voedingsvlakke wat help om leerlinge se skoolprestasies aan te moedig en te verbeter. Ten laaste voorsien die outeur ook 'n paar voorstelle oor hoe ouers aktief betrokke kan raak by 'n leerling se opvoeding. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 1997. / Sociology / unrestricted