Emergencies that require immediate evacuation should be encountered with effective preparedness. With over 14 billion dollars in damages and 3,000 people killed each year, fire emergency preparedness is of critical importance. Fire drills aim to prepare and educate people on how to react properly, in order to avoid as many casualties possible. Fire drills can be expensive and time consuming to conduct, and in most cases lack the level of realism to properly educate the trainees. In this thesis, a virtual reality (VR) emergency evacuation training platform is presented. With VR, we aim to eliminate the real life constraints that exist, while succesfully training individuals. The application operator can spawn fires in any desired location, and at the same time the user being trained is getting informed about the safest and fastest path available, while being provided with constant feedback. We generate a grid graph on a given floor plan to run a pathfinding algorithm. We use Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) to formulate the existing constraints in our approach.

El presente estudio tiene como objetivo resaltar la importancia de la educación virtual en una sociedad red, en el que el conocimiento, la innovación, la información y el acceso a las tecnologías constituyen los elementos centrales para el desarrollo. En este contexto, la educación virtual se convierte en un elemento clave para potenciar el aprendizaje permanente, para fortalecer habilidades de comunicación, cooperación y colaboración en red a través de los medios y herramientas que las tecnologías de información y comunicación nos proporciona; esta modalidad implica una serie de cambios, entre los que se destacan (a) los nuevos roles que deben desempeñar los docentes especialistas, docentes tutores y estudiantes, así como (b) la reestructuración de las instituciones educativas, y (c) los nuevos servicios que se ofrecen a los estudiantes. La demanda por las actividades formativas en la modalidad virtual se ve auspiciosa. Sin embargo, para lograr un verdadero y eficiente crecimiento se requiere tomar acciones que permitan disminuir y prevenir los índices de deserción, lo que repercutirá en beneficios tanto para el estudiante, la institución educativa como el sistema educativo y la sociedad en general. Los programas de acogida integrales, que consideren los aspectos académicos y no académicos, entre los que destacan los factores personales y sociales, serán determinantes para lograr una mejor adaptación del estudiante y así afianzar el compromiso asumido para con su formación y con la institución educativa. / Tesis

La labor docente está experimentando en los últimos años cambios relevantes impulsados por la evolución de la sociedad y la aparición de nuevos espacios socializadores; entre ellos los entornos virtuales de aprendizaje (EVA). En esta sucesión de demandas, la formación del profesorado en el uso de los EVA se convierte en un elemento clave en el desarrollo pedagógico, profesional y personal de los docentes. El objetivo de la presente investigación fue analizar el uso educativo del entorno PerúEduca Web por docentes de una institución educativa de la UGEL 05 de Lima Metropolitana y dar respuesta al problema: ¿Cómo usan el entorno PerúEduca Web docentes de una institución educativa de la UGEL 05 de Lima Metropolitana? La primera parte del estudio explica las teorías que fundamentan los entornos virtuales de aprendizaje (EVA) como nuevos escenarios para aprender. Así como, la vinculación de los docentes con estos entornos para aprender y enseñar en el ejercicio profesional y dentro de su formación permanente. La segunda parte de esta investigación presenta el diseño metodológico que estuvo enmarcado en el enfoque cualitativo, método de estudio de caso y de nivel descriptivo, el que permitió comprender el uso educativo del entorno virtual en estudio. Se empleó el guión de entrevista, la guía de observación y el registro etnográfico como instrumentos . Finalmente, en la investigación se concluye que el uso educativo del entorno PerúEduca Web en lo pedagógico, profesional y personal empieza de una motivación intrínseca, generada por la disposición de integrar las tecnologías en el quehacer educativo y establecer relaciones interpersonales en la comunidad docente. Por ende, se demanda que el docente adquiera un mayor conocimiento de las funciones y oportunidades que el EVA ofrece; así como cierto nivel de competencia digital como usuario, para poder hacer un aprovechamiento pedagógico de las herramientas que posee. / The teacher's work is experiencing in recent years significant changes driven by the evolution of society and the emergence of new socializing spaces; including virtual learning environments (EVA). In this series of demands, teacher training in the use of the EVA becomes a key element in the educational, professional and personal development of teachers. The aim of this study was to analyze the educational use of PerúEduca Web environment for teachers of an educational institution UGELs 05 of Lima Metropolitan and respond to the problem: How do you use the Web environment PerúEduca Web by teachers of an educational institution UGEL 05 Metropolitan Lima? The first part of the study explains the theories underlying to virtual learning environments (EVA) as new scenarios to learn. As well as linking teachers with these environments for learning and teaching in develop professional and permanent education. The second part of this study presents the methodology that was framed in the qualitative approach, case studies method and descriptive level, which allowed us to understand the educational use of virtual learning environment. The script interview, observation guide and ethnographic record was used as instruments. Finally, the research concludes that the educational use of the Web environment PerúEduca Web in the level pedagogical, professional and personal, imply intrinsic a motivation generated by the provision of integrated technologies in educational tasks and interpersonal relationships in the teaching community. Therefore, it is claimed that teachers must acquire a better understanding of the roles and opportunities that the EVA provides; as well as some level of digital competence as a user to make a pedagogical use of the tools it has. / Tesis

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo general explicar cómo influye el uso pedagógico de la plataforma “Educaplay” en el desarrollo de las capacidades de comprensión y producción de textos del idioma inglés en alumnos de 1er. año de Secundaria de una institución educativa particular de Lima. Debido a la importancia que tienen las capacidades de comprensión y producción de textos en el área de inglés, es que decidimos apoyarnos en los recursos tecnológicos para lograr su adquisición de una manera adecuada. En particular centramos nuestra investigación en la plataforma Educaplay, la cual proporciona diferentes actividades multimedia para que el docente prepare sus clases con el uso de las tecnologías de la información y de la comunicación (TIC). La presente investigación se abordó desde el enfoque cuantitativo,porque tal como menciona Gómez (2009) utiliza la recolección y el análisis de datos para contestar preguntas de investigación y probar hipótesis establecidas previamente. Es un estudio a nivel explicativo, cuyo diseño desarrollado fue el cuasi-experimental. Tiene como atención primordial explicar y cuantificar la relación entre las variables en este caso el uso de la plataforma Educaplay con el desarrollo de las capacidades de comprensión y producción de textos del idioma inglés en dos grupos (control y experimental) de alumnos del 1er. año de Secundaria de una institución educativa particular de Lima. La población estudiada estuvo constituida por los alumnos de 1ero. de Secundaria de una Institución Educativa Particular de Lima y las muestras fueron elegidas bajo un muestreo aleatorio simple, para ambos grupos experimental y de control. Para el recojo de datos, se utilizó la técnica de observación, encuesta y entrevista. Los instrumentos utilizados fueron la lista de cotejo, los cuestionarios a los alumnos y el guión de entrevista para los docentes. Asimismo, se aplicó un pre-test y post-test para observar el rendimiento académico antes y después de trabajar con la plataforma Educaplay. Los resultados obtenidos en el pre-test y post-test a nivel global los grupos de control y experimental, muestran que el grupo experimental incrementó sus resultados en el post-test luego de trabajar diferentes actividades dentro de la plataforma “Educaplay” comparándolo con los resultados del grupo de control, los cuales disminuyeron luego de seguir trabajando con métodos tradicionales para la adquisición de nuevos conocimientos. / Tesis

European regulation of virtual currencies, its shortcomings and future development Abstract This thesis is focused on the European regulation of virtual currencies, meaning the current Union legal regulation of this phenomenon including further European Union institutions' activities in the area. The aim of the thesis is to introduce the existing approach towards virtual currencies as well as to find some of the shortcomings and to outline the future development of European regulation of virtual currencies. As a part of this thesis, relevant activities associated with distributed ledger technology as a technology related to virtual currencies will be introduced. To achieve the mentioned, the thesis analyzes mainly legislative and non-legislative sources issued by competent institutions of the European Union, equally important are the jurisprudential texts from the area of virtual currencies and related fields. The thesis is divided into five chapters which are further divided into topical subchapters. Each of the chapters includes partial identification of shortcomings and presents the future development in the area. The introductory chapter addresses the introduction of virtual currencies as such and in the context of financial law. Further, technological bases of virtual currencies are described, namely...

by Tang Oo. / Thesis submitted in: December 1997. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-[75]). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Background --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- The Concept of Cross-Path Switching --- p.8 / Chapter 1.3 --- Contribution and Organization of Thesis --- p.12 / Chapter 2 --- The Virtual Path Scheduling Scheme --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1 --- The Trade-off Between Throughput and Concentration Loss --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2 --- Partition of Virtual Paths --- p.19 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Capacity and Route Assignment of Virtual Paths --- p.21 / Chapter 3 --- Performance Analysis and Simulation Results --- p.28 / Chapter 3.1 --- The Improvement of Concentration Loss --- p.28 / Chapter 3.2 --- The Throughput with Look-ahead Scheme --- p.30 / Chapter 3.3 --- The Throughput with Input Smoothing Scheme --- p.34 / Chapter 3.4 --- The Throughput with Bursty Source --- p.37 / Chapter 3.5 --- Buffer Dimensioning and The Cell Loss Probability Due to Buffer Overflow --- p.38 / Chapter 4 --- Capacity Assignment and Evaluation of Multiplexing Gain --- p.47 / Chapter 4.1 --- Principle of Capacity Assignment --- p.47 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Model of Virtual Path --- p.49 / Chapter 4.3 --- Capacity Assignment for CBR Service --- p.51 / Chapter 4.4 --- Capacity Assignment for Real-time VBR Service --- p.53 / Chapter 4.5 --- Capacity Assignment for Non Real-time VBR Service --- p.55 / Chapter 4.6 --- Capacity Matrix --- p.56 / Chapter 4.7 --- The Evaluation of Multiplexing Gain of Input Stage --- p.58 / Chapter 5 --- Discussions and Conclusions --- p.64 / Bibliography --- p.67

Currently, games with rich environments allowing a wide range of possible interactions and supporting a large number of physical simulations make use of a large number of scripts and bespoke physical simulations, adapted to fit the needs of the game. This thesis proposes a methodology that can be used to tie together various different physical simulations, both off-the-shelf and bespoke, such as rigid body physics, electrical and magnetic simulations to give something greater than the sum of the individual parts. We present a notation for designing the overall physical simulation and a means for the different parts to interact. Experiments using an implementation of the methodology containing electricity, rigid body simulation, magnetics (including electro-magnetics), buoyancy and sound show that it is possible to model everyday objects such an electric motor or a doorbell. These object work ‘as expected’, without the need for special scripts and new, originally unexpected, interactions are possible without further modification of the experiment setup.

This study explores the nature of conflict in virtual communication in the course of inter-organisational collaborations. Conflict appears to exist inherently when organisations cooperate together because each company operates with different goals, norms and values, which are vital considerations for successful business collaborations. Special attention, therefore, needs to be paid to gaining a grounded understanding of conflict in the context of virtual communication in the interorganisational business collaborations of today. This research draws on fieldwork carried out over five months, using a multiple-case study approach, involving four cases of inter-organisational collaborations between a large high-tech corporation in Taiwan and its four supplier companies in Korea. In addition, participant observation was employed as the main method of data collection in this study, which allowed for this researcher to gain rich data in a direct way. The collected data included daily logs based on observations, in addition to interviews and documentation. This resulted in an extensive amount of useful information being gathered, which was analysed, categorised, interpreted, and summarised in relation to theory generalisation. In this inter-organisational research setting, it was found that three patterns of interorganisational conflict, namely: business strategic conflict, cultural conflict and organisational process conflict interact to influence participants’ communication media selection and, in turn, conflict is influenced by the selected media. Moreover, it was found that conflict is expressed in email communication in a stylised way that is significantly different from spoken conversation and it could lead to conflict escalation and the subsequent termination of business collaboration. Based on the research findings, a comprehensive framework was established to describe and explain the interrelations between conflict transformation and computer-mediated communication (CMC) in inter-organisational collaborations.

Mathematics, physics, biology, and computer science are combined to create computational modeling, which studies the behaviors and reactions of complex biomedical problems. Modern biomedical research relies significantly on realistic computational human models or “virtual humans�. Relevant study areas utilizing computational human models include electromagnetics, solid mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, ultrasound propagation, thermal propagation, and automotive safety research. These and other applications provide ample justification for the realization of the Visible Human Project® (VHP)-Female v. 4.0, a new platform-independent full body electromagnetic computational model. Along with the VHP-Female v. 4.0, a realistic and anatomically justified Dynamic Breathing Sequence is developed. The creation of such model is essential to the development of biomedical devices and procedures that are affected by the dynamics of human breathing, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging and the calculation of Specific Absorption Rate. The model can be used in numerous application, including Breath-Detection Radar for human search and rescue.

Virtual reality (VR) headsets are becoming more common and will require evolving input mechanisms to support a growing range of applications. Because VR devices require users to wear head-mounted displays, there are accomodations that must be made in order to support specific input devices. One such device, a keyboard, serves as a useful tool for text entry. Many users will require assistance towards using a keyboard when wearing a head-mounted display. Developers have explored new mechanisms to overcome the challenges of text-entry for virtual reality. Several games have toyed with the idea of using motion controllers to provide a text entry mechanism, however few investigations have made on how to assist users in using a physical keyboard while wearing a head-mounted display. As an alternative to controller based text input, I propose that a software tool could facilitate the use of a physical keyboard in virtual reality. Using computer vision, a user€™s hands could be projected into the virtual world. With the ability to see the location of their hands relative to the keyboard, users will be able to type despite the obstruction caused by the head-mounted display (HMD). The viability of this approach was tested and the tool released as a plugin for the Unity development platform. The potential uses for the plugin go beyond text entry, and the project can be expanded to include many physical input devices.