This thesis focuses upon a series of empirical studies which examine communication and learning in online glocal communities within higher education in Sweden. A recurring theme in the theoretical framework deals with issues of languaging in virtual multimodal environments as well as the making of identity and negotiation of meaning in these settings; analyzing the activity, what people do, in contraposition to the study of how people talk about their activity. The studies arise from netnographic work during two online Italian for Beginners courses offered by a Swedish university. Microanalyses of the interactions occurring through multimodal video-conferencing software are amplified by the study of the courses’ organisation of space and time and have allowed for the identification of communicative strategies and interactional patterns in virtual learning sites when participants communicate in a language variety with which they have a limited experience. The findings from the four studies included in the thesis indicate that students who are part of institutional virtual higher educational settings make use of several resources in order to perform their identity positions inside the group as a way to enrich and nurture the process of communication and learning in this online glocal community. The sociocultural dialogical analyses also shed light on the ways in which participants gathering in discursive technological spaces benefit from the opportunity to go to class without commuting to the physical building of the institution providing the course. This identity position is, thus, both experienced by participants in interaction, and also afforded by the ‘spaceless’ nature of the online environment.

Technology changes often force teachers, trainers, instructional designers, and administrators to make instructional design and delivery decisions that ideally should be based upon pedagogy research. In many circumstances, however, a foundational pedagogy question is only recognized when a technology decision reveals it. Such is the case when deciding what mode (video or audio) to use for learner interaction in a synchronous online learning event. While some research has focused on the learning and the satisfaction of learners when they were interacting, almost no research has addressed the learning value of observing the interactions of other learners. The purpose of this research study was to investigate whether the mode in which direct learner interactions were made affected non-interacting learners' recall of content in a synchronous virtual learning environment. The participants in this study viewed one of three versions of a webinar on Multimedia Games for Learning: a) all learners interacted in video mode; b) all learners interacted in audio mode; or all learners interacted in both video and audio in a mixed mode. No statistically significant difference was found between the video, audio, and mixed treatment conditions in terms of the recall of content from the questions or comments made by directly interacting learners. However, a statically significant difference was found in non-interacting learners' recall of the contributions of direct interactors based on the mode of interaction within the mixed-mode group. Study participants recalled more of the contributions made in the audio mode of interaction than in the video mode when the modes were mixed. These findings suggest that designers of synchronous online learning may choose either video or audio mode without affecting those learners who are not directly interacting but should take care in mixing interaction modes within a single synchronous online learning event. The contributions of the study reach beyond the findings. The study supports vicarious interaction as a process worthy of research and e-Learning design consideration. It provides a model for experimental manipulation of "simulated" synchronous sessions, and it introduces recall of others' verbal contributions as an approach to measurement of the attention granted vicarious interactions by those not interacting directly with others.

Thesis MTech(Electrical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2006 / Reluctance Synchronous Machines (RSM) have, due to their rotor geometry, an inherently high torque ripple. This torque ripple is defined as the deviation of the minimum and maximum torque from the average value. It is unwanted as it indicates uneven pull on the rotor causing deformation of it and hence different air-gaps along the rotor circumference as well as acoustic noise. In applications such as power steering, robotics and radar positioning systems where high precision movement is vital, oscillating torque will lead to the malfunction of these devices and therefore suppressed the use and development of RSMs. Unlike the Induction machine (IM), the RSM has no copper losses in the rotor, which reduces the operating temperature significantly. With the development of electronic drives the quality of the output torque could be improved by means of accurate current- and flux space phasor control methods with much success and made the RSM a possible replacement for the IM. However, reducing torque ripple by means of purely geometrical changes is still a challenge to the machine designer. This thesis will focus on the reduction of torque ripple while leaving the average torque relatively unchanged by changing the rotor geometry. The rotor changes will take place by means of flux barriers and cut-outs while the stator has either semi-closed slots or magnetic wedges. In this work rotor structures with equal harmonic magnitudes but their angles 1800 apart. will be combined to form one machine and identify how torque harmonics respond. The change in average torque and power factor will be evaluated with all geometrical changes made to these machines throughout this work.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de développer des stratégies de commande non linéaire et robuste afin d’assurer une connexion avec succès des systèmes hydroliens dans un réseau électrique de forte puissance. Il s’agira en plus, d’étudier en simulation et en pratique le comportement dynamique de ses systèmes hydroliens commandés suite à des perturbations sévères. Dans un premier temps, nous nous sommes intéressés à la modélisation de tous les éléments de la chaine de production d’énergie hydrolienne, en partant de la marée jusqu’à la génératrice synchrone. Dans un second temps, nous avons proposé trois lois de commande non linéaire ; une pour un système hydrolien mono machine et les deux autres pour deux types de réseau électrique multi-machine. La stabilité de ces lois de commandes est prouvée en utilisant la méthode de Lyapunov et les propriétés spécifiques à la structure variable. La particularité de ces lois de commandes est qu’elles régulent simultanément la tension terminale et la fréquence en agissant uniquement sur l’excitation de la génératrice synchrone. Finalement, nous avons étudié en simulation le comportement dynamique des systèmes hydroliens commandés et les résultats obtenus sous perturbations électrique et mécanique ont montré l’efficacité de la commande proposée par rapport aux commandes CNL et AVR-PSS. Dans un souci de valider pratiquement ces résultats de simulation, la commande non linéaire proposée pour le système hydrolien mono machine est implantée sur un banc d’essai. Les résultats satisfaisants obtenus sous perturbations soutenues sont ensuite comparés à ceux obtenus pratiquement avec les commandes, CNL et AVR-PSS. / This thesis develops nonlinear and robust control strategies in order to ensure a successful connection of marine turbine systems into grid. In addition, it is a question to examine in simulation and practice the dynamic behavior of controlled marine turbine systems under severe perturbations. Firstly, we have modeled all production chain elements of marine turbine system. Secondly, we have proposed three nonlinear control strategies ; one for marine turbine system single machine connected to infinite bus and the both others for two multimachine electrical networks. The developed strategies control stability is proven mathematically by using Lyapunov method and one specific property of variable structure. These strategies control particularity is the two outputs regulation (terminal voltage and frequency) trough a single input (synchronous machine excitation). Finally, simulation results under mechanical and electrical perturbations are presented in order to highlight the robustness qualities of the proposed controllers compared to nonlinear controller CNL and classical AVR-PSS. In view of industrial applications, the proposed control for marine turbine single machine system is implemented on experimental bench. The obtained practical results under hard perturbations are very satisfactory. These results are used to realize a comparative study between the proposed control, the CNL and the AVR-PSS.

Pyroelectric Detector (PED) models are developed considering the classical heat balance equation to simulate the detector’s response under specified radiation conditions. Studies on the behaviour of a PED are presented under the conditions of step function and a pulsed load. Finite Element Methods (FEMs) have been used to obtain 3D models of the resulting temperature field in a Lithium Tantalate (LiTaO3) pyroelectric crystal, incorporated in a complete commercial detector, taking into account details of its geometry and thermal connectivity. The novelty is the achieved facility to predict the response to pulsed radiation, which is valuable for the engineering of pulsed-source sensor systems requiring detection at room temperature. In this thesis, we present a signal processing (SP) algorithm, which combines the principle of Quadrature Synchronous Demodulation (QSD) and Gated Integration (GI), to achieve an improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in pulsed signal measurements. As a first step, the pulse is bracketed by a gating window and the samples outside the window are discarded. The gate duration is calculated to ensure that the periodic signal at the output has an 'apparent' duty factor close to 0.5. This signal is then fed continuously for QSD to extract the magnitude and phase of its fundamental component, referenced to a sinusoidal signal with period defined by the gate length. An improved SNR performance results not only from the increase of the average signal energy, but also from the noise suppression inherent to the QSD principle. We introduce this method as Gated Quadrature Synchronous Demodulation (GQSD), emphasizing the synergy between GΙ and QSD.

The work is focused on the design of synchronous motor control with field weakening possibility. At present synchronous motors used in many applications. Often is used synchronous motor with permanent magnets. This type of motor may have different transverse and axial inductance. In most cases it is desirable to design the engine using a computer model. Therefore the synchronous motor described mathematically in order to create the model of motor. At work is also crated model of synchronous motor control. The control is designed for the highest possible speed range. Therefore, the motor control is consist of two parts. Speed is controlled by voltage in the first part. In the second part speed is controlled by field weakening. Everything is created and simulated in a computer program MATLAB-SIMULINK.

This thesis deals with the simulation modelling of manipulator mechatronic system in ADAMS. The beginning of thesis is dedicated to the theoretical study of the compute modelling electro-mechanical systems and mechatronics approach modelling manipulator’s systems. Next chapters describe the creation of kinematics model of the manipulator with using ADAMS and proposal supporting frame in ANSYS/Workbench environment. The next step, manipulator and supporting frame simulation model is created for the computing vibration a dynamic analysis. At the end of this thesis is used cosimulation ADAMS and Matlab/Simulink for the control of synchronous drivers of manipulator.

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The growth of broadband Internet access has paved the way for the development of many new technologies. As the cost of implementing broadband access soars, the best alternative will be to use fixed wireless for these services. This thesis addresses the possibility of 3rd Generation (3G) mobile cellular wireless systems as the basis for fixed broadband wireless service. Two of the 3G technologies aimed at providing fixed broadband wireless access are Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). This thesis aims to provide a preliminary study on using TD-SCDMA and OFDM for broadband wireless systems. Currently, there is not enough theory and information to establish the feasibility of using either of these technologies for broadband wireless access. First, the basic features and background on synchronous CDMA and OFDM are presented for the reader to better understand these technologies. Then, an example TD-SCDMA system is described, and some analytical and experimental results are presented. Finally, TD-SCDMA's technologies, along with this system's attributes, are compared analytically to that of Vector OFDM (VOFDM). / Master of Science