Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Gabe M'

Lietuvos kurčiųjų vyrų krepšinio komandos varžybinės veiklos rodiklių analizei pasirinkti du čempionatai: 2007 metų II – asis ir 2011 metų III – asis pasaulio kurčiųjų vyrų krepšinio čempionatai. Juose Lietuvos klausos negalią turintys krepšininkai laimėjo aukso medalius. Varžybinės veiklos rodiklių analizei surinkti oficialūs 2007 metų II – ojo pasaulio kurčiųjų vyrų krepšinio čempionato (Guangihou, Kinija) penkių rungtynių ir 2011 metų III – ojo pasaulio čempionato (Sicilija, Italija) penkių rungtynių rezultatų protokolai. Tyrimo objektas. Lietuvos kurčiųjų krepšininkų varžybinė veikla 2007 ir 2011 m. pasaulio krepšinio čempionatuose. Tyrimo tikslas. Atlikti Lietuvos kurčiųjų vyrų krepšinio rinktinės 2007 ir 2011 m. pasaulio kurčiųjų vyrų krepšinio čempionatų rodiklių analizę. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti ir įvertinti Lietuvos kurčiųjų vyrų rinktinės kiekybinius varžybinės veiklos rodiklius 2007 ir 2011 m. pasaulio čempionatuose. 2. Nustatyti ir įvertinti Lietuvos kurčiųjų vyrų rinktinės kokybinius varžybinės veiklos rodiklius 2007 ir 2011 m. pasaulio čempionatuose. 3. Nustatyti ir įvertinti greitų atakų skaičių ir efektyvumą per rungtynes. Pagrindiniai tyrimo rezultatai: Analizuojant Lietuvos kurčiųjų vyrų krepšinio rinktinės 2007 ir 2011m. pasaulio čempionatų rodiklius, buvo nustatyta kad dauguma varžybinės veiklos rodiklių skyrėsi, tačiau nereikšmingi. 2011 metų pasaulio čempionate Lietuvos rinktinė vidutiniškai per vienas rungtynes pelnė 14,6 taško mažiau nei 2007... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]
Lithuanian deaf men basketball team game activities analysis appoint two championships 2007 year second and 2011 year one world deaf men basketball championships. These Lithuanian hearing impuiced whoes players won gold medals. Activities analys select official 2007 years second world championships (Guanghou, China) five game in 2011 year world champioships ( Sicily, Italy) five games results protocols. Research object: Lithuanian deaf men national basketball team 2007 and 2011 years world championships game indicators analys. Research purpose: Perform Lithuanian deaf men national basketball team game activities 2007 and 2011 years. World deaf men basketball championships peculiarity. Research task: 1. Indentifying and evaluating Lithuanian deaf men national team quantitative the competitive performance 2007 and 2011 y. world championships. 2. Indentifying and evaluating Lithuanian deaf men national team’s quality of competitive performance 2007 and 2011y.world championships. 3. Indentifying and evaluating fast attacks number and efficiency during the game. Main results: Lithuanian deaf men national basketball team 2007 and 2011 years world‘s championships indicators were established maches performance difeced but the difference in performance wasn‘t big 2011 years world championship averaged per one game earned 14,6 score less then 2007 year world champioship howewer significant difference wansn‘t found (p>0,05). But between Lithuanian and contestants a significent... [to full text]

Human beings must constantly adapt to an uncertain and mutable world by generating efficient behavioral strategies to pursue their goals. The complexity of this task increases in interactive contexts, where the outcomes of our actions depend also on the choices of other agents. When the environment does not provide reliable feedback, the effectiveness of behavioral strategies rests on the ability to handle available knowledge: agents have indeed to extract relevant information from noisy signals and build an exhaustive representation of the set of potential actions and outcomes available to themselves and to others. Individual differences in the implementation of these information- processing operations may underlie behavioral heterogeneity in several judgment and decision making tasks. Here we report three eye-tracking studies revealing the existence of distinct information-processing strategies in different individuals. Study 1 explores inter-individual differences in the generation of relational representations of interdependent contingencies. In Study 2 and Study 3, we move towards social contexts to investigate the mechanisms of strategy generation underlying strategic behavior in interaction. Our findings indicate that gaze data can disclose individual differences in the process of spontaneous strategy generation in both individual and interacting settings. We also report results suggesting that the emergence of unsophisticated information-processing strategies is associated with cognitive style. Moreover, we show that the attentional mechanisms sustaining the generation of unsophisticated strategies can be reconsidered and updated under the impact of endogenous and exogenous cues revealing the existence of alternative information-processing behaviors.

Human beings must constantly adapt to an uncertain and mutable world by generating efficient behavioral strategies to pursue their goals. The complexity of this task increases in interactive contexts, where the outcomes of our actions depend also on the choices of other agents. When the environment does not provide reliable feedback, the effectiveness of behavioral strategies rests on the ability to handle available knowledge: agents have indeed to extract relevant information from noisy signals and build an exhaustive representation of the set of potential actions and outcomes available to themselves and to others. Individual differences in the implementation of these information- processing operations may underlie behavioral heterogeneity in several judgment and decision making tasks. Here we report three eye-tracking studies revealing the existence of distinct information-processing strategies in different individuals. Study 1 explores inter-individual differences in the generation of relational representations of interdependent contingencies. In Study 2 and Study 3, we move towards social contexts to investigate the mechanisms of strategy generation underlying strategic behavior in interaction. Our findings indicate that gaze data can disclose individual differences in the process of spontaneous strategy generation in both individual and interacting settings. We also report results suggesting that the emergence of unsophisticated information-processing strategies is associated with cognitive style. Moreover, we show that the attentional mechanisms sustaining the generation of unsophisticated strategies can be reconsidered and updated under the impact of endogenous and exogenous cues revealing the existence of alternative information-processing behaviors.

Summary Quickly and correctly receiving and interpreting the information transmitted from the eyes of others is an essential cognitive ability for humans. Studies have shown that observers can automatically shift their attention in the direction signalled by the averted gaze. This thesis focused on the modulatory effect of ethnicity on gaze-driven orienting of attention, particularly under a cross-cultural context. In Chapter 1, we give a background introduction to gaze-driven orienting of attention and its social modulators. Next, in Chapter 2, the focus is to explore the modulatory effect of ethnicity on gaze-driven orienting in Caucasian and Asian individuals. In particular, five experiments are presented which have been conducted by applying the gaze-cueing paradigm to investigate the influence of faces belonging to different ethnicities on the gaze-cueing effect in Italian and Chinese participants. The results showed that White individuals exhibited a stronger gaze-cueing effect for White rather than Black faces, but they exhibited a similar gaze-cueing effect for White and Asian faces. As for the Asian individuals, they showed a stronger gaze-cueing effect for White (outgroup) rather than Asian (ingroup) faces. It is the first time that an asymmetric gaze-cueing effect was reported in Asian individuals. Thus, in Chapter 3, an eye-tracking technique and the oculomotor interference paradigm were adopted to further investigate this phenomenon. The results from two eye movement experiments revealed consistent patterns, similar to what we found in the experiments illustrated in Chapter 2, suggesting that the social knowledge activated by the ethnicity of the face (e.g., perceived social status of the different ethnic groups) plays a role in modulating gaze-driven orienting. Finally, in Chapter 4, the influence of masked faces on gaze-cueing effect in different cultural contexts was investigated through online experiments, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that the gaze-cueing effect emerged irrespective of whether masked or unmasked faces were used, in both Italian and Chinese individuals. Chapter 5 is dedicated to highlighting and summarizing our findings, discussing the limitations of our work, and identifying future routes by using different experimental designs and new techniques with the aim of extending upon the present results.
Summary Quickly and correctly receiving and interpreting the information transmitted from the eyes of others is an essential cognitive ability for humans. Studies have shown that observers can automatically shift their attention in the direction signalled by the averted gaze. This thesis focused on the modulatory effect of ethnicity on gaze-driven orienting of attention, particularly under a cross-cultural context. In Chapter 1, we give a background introduction to gaze-driven orienting of attention and its social modulators. Next, in Chapter 2, the focus is to explore the modulatory effect of ethnicity on gaze-driven orienting in Caucasian and Asian individuals. In particular, five experiments are presented which have been conducted by applying the gaze-cueing paradigm to investigate the influence of faces belonging to different ethnicities on the gaze-cueing effect in Italian and Chinese participants. The results showed that White individuals exhibited a stronger gaze-cueing effect for White rather than Black faces, but they exhibited a similar gaze-cueing effect for White and Asian faces. As for the Asian individuals, they showed a stronger gaze-cueing effect for White (outgroup) rather than Asian (ingroup) faces. It is the first time that an asymmetric gaze-cueing effect was reported in Asian individuals. Thus, in Chapter 3, an eye-tracking technique and the oculomotor interference paradigm were adopted to further investigate this phenomenon. The results from two eye movement experiments revealed consistent patterns, similar to what we found in the experiments illustrated in Chapter 2, suggesting that the social knowledge activated by the ethnicity of the face (e.g., perceived social status of the different ethnic groups) plays a role in modulating gaze-driven orienting. Finally, in Chapter 4, the influence of masked faces on gaze-cueing effect in different cultural contexts was investigated through online experiments, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that the gaze-cueing effect emerged irrespective of whether masked or unmasked faces were used, in both Italian and Chinese individuals. Chapter 5 is dedicated to highlighting and summarizing our findings, discussing the limitations of our work, and identifying future routes by using different experimental designs and new techniques with the aim of extending upon the present results.

Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ph.D.
Game theory is the study of tactical interactions involving conflicts and cooperations among multiple decision makers called players with applications in diverse disciplines such as economics, biology, management, communication networks, electric power systems and control. This dissertation studies a statistical differential game problem where finite N players optimize their system performance by shaping the distribution of their cost function through cost cumulants. This research integrates game theory with statistical optimal control theory and considers a statistical Nash non-cooperative nonzero-sum game for a nonlinear dynamic system with nonquadratic cost functions. The objective of the statistical Nash game is to find the equilibrium solution where no player has the incentive to deviate once other players maintain their equilibrium strategy. The necessary condition for the existence of the Nash equilibrium solution is given for the m-th cumulant cost optimization using the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations. In addition, the sufficient condition which is the verification theorem for the existence of Nash equilibrium solution is given for the m-th cumulant cost optimization using the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations. However, solving the HJB equations even for relatively low dimensional game problem is not trivial, we propose to use neural network approximate method to find the solution of the HJB partial differential equations for the statistical game problem. Convergence proof of the neural network approximate method solution to exact solution is given. In addition, numerical examples are provided for the statistical game to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed theoretical developments.
Temple University--Theses

Experiential value is an important driver of customer repeat behaviour and is necessary for achieving sustained behaviour. Understanding the value gained by consumers is particularly important when adopting innovative techniques, such as new technology. Social marketing (behaviour change) practice is increasingly using the technology of mobile games (m-games), yet there is little scholarly research to explain how these games can create experiential value for the user, or which game attributes influence this value. A key finding of this thesis is the importance of achieving a balance between entertainment value and behaviour value through the use of key game attributes relating to disguise and performance. The research offers a contribution to address current managerial problems faced by social marketing practitioners looking to employ m-games to achieve behavioural outcomes.

The present work is aimed at investigating a phenomenon called gaze-mediated orienting of attention, namely the tendency to automatically shift attention in the direction signaled by an averted gaze. In particular, throughout my thesis, two topics will be discussed, namely the automaticity and modulability of gaze-mediated orienting. In Chapter 2, the focus was on the automaticity of gaze-mediated orienting of attention. In particular, 4 experiments were conducted with the aim to test a strong interpretation of automaticity for two central cues, namely gaze and arrows. Results showed that, even though both cues were distractors not relevant for the task at hand, they nonetheless triggered an attentional shift thus leading to the conclusion that the orienting of attention mediated by gaze and arrows is automatic. In Chapter 3, the focus was on the modulability of gaze-mediated orienting of attention. Even though the view of an averted gaze can trigger an automatic attentional shift, as demonstrated in Chapter 2, it is implausible that this happens also in real-life situations. It is more likely that some factors influence this phenomenon so that some eyes are prioritized over others. In several experiments we tested this assumption by investigating the role of gender membership and social status, respectively in children and adults, in modulating gaze-mediated orienting. Results showed that, when the social characteristics of the face are salient to participants, gaze-mediated orienting can be modulated by such variables. In the General Discussion, the attempt was to reconcile the apparently opposite characteristics of gaze-mediated orienting of attention, namely automaticity and modulability by focusing on the role of both experimental paradigm and saliency of social variables. At last, the importance of taking into account an ecological perspective in studying attention was stressed.
Il presente lavoro ha lo scopo di indagare un fenomeno noto come orientamento dell’attenzione mediato dallo sguardo, ovvero la tendenza a spostare automaticamente l’attenzione nella stessa direzione indicata da uno sguardo deviato. In particolare, due grandi tematiche sono state affrontate: l’automaticità e la possibile influenza di variabili sociali. Nel Capitolo 2, è stata indagata l’automaticità dell’orientamento dell’attenzione mediato dallo sguardo. In particolare, sono stati condotti 4 esperimenti con lo scopo di testare una interpretazione forte del concetto di automaticità per due indizi centrali, ovvero sguardo e frecce. I risultati hanno mostrato che, nonostante i due indizi fossero distrattori non rilevanti per il compito da svolgere, essi comunque generavano un orientamento dell’attenzione portando quindi a concludere che l’orientamento dell’attenzione originato da frecce e sguardo sia automatico. Nel Capitolo 3, ci si è focalizzati sulla modulabilità dell’orientamento dell’attenzione mediato dallo sguardo. Infatti, sebbene sia stato dimostrato, anche nel precedente capitolo, che la semplice visione di uno sguardo deviato genera una risposta automatica di orientamento, è inverosimile che questo avvenga anche in situazioni reali. E’ invece più probabile che alcuni fattori influiscano così che venga data una priorità ad alcuni sguardi rispetto ad altri. In vari esperimenti, è stata testata la possibilità che l’appartenenza di genere e lo status sociale modulino l’orientamento dell’attenzione, rispettivamente in bambini e adulti. I risultati hanno mostrato che, quando le caratteristiche sociali del volto sono salienti ai partecipanti, l’orientamento dell’attenzione può essere modulato da variabili sociali. Nella Discussione Generale, è stata discussa l’ambivalenza dei risultati fin qui trovati, ovvero che l’orientamento dell’attenzione mediato dallo sguardo sia al contempo automatico e modulabile, cercando di conciliare queste due caratteristiche apparentemente opposte tra loro. In particolare, ci si è focalizzati sul ruolo sia del paradigma sperimentale che della salienza delle variabili sociali nell’influenzare i risultati trovati. Infine, è stata messa luce l’importanza di adottare una prospettiva quanto più ecologica nello studio dell’attenzione.

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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico
In this work, we present the GATE, an approach based on middleware for interperceptive applications. Through the services offered by the GATE, we extension we extend the concept of Interperception for integration with several devices, including set-top box, mobile devices (cell phones), among others. Through this extension ensures the implementation of virtual environments in these devices. Thus, users who access the version of the computer environment may interact with those who access the same environment by other devices. This extension is just a part of the services provided by the GATE, that remerges as a new proposal for multi-user virtual environments creation.
Neste trabalho, apresentamos o GATE, uma abordagem baseada em middleware para aplica??es interperceptivas. Atrav?s dos servi?os oferecidos pelo GATE, estendemos o conceito da Interpercep??o para a integra??o com v?rios dispositivos, incluido set-top box, dispositivos m?veis (celulares), entre outros. Atrav?s desta extens?o garantimos a execu??o de ambientes virtuais nesses dispositivos. Assim, usu?rios que acessarem a vers?o do ambiente pelo computador poder?o interagir com aqueles que acessarem o mesmo ambiente por outros dispositivos. Essa extens?o ? apenas uma parte dos servi?os garantidos pelo GATE, surge como uma nova proposta para cria??o de ambientes virtuais multisu?rios.

Alors que les cultures ont des conceptions différentes du jeu, comment inciter des utilisateurs, issus d’horizons variés, à jouer avec une même œuvre vidéoludique, qui véhicule ses propres représentations de ce qu’est le jeu ? Cette question est centrale dans l’industrie globalisée des jeux vidéo. Quelles seraient les configurations d’échanges mises en place��pour permettre une médiation interculturelle ? Les logiques de globalisation prégnantes dans ces productions ne nécessitent-elles pas l’émergence d’une nouvelle culture ludique transnationale, menant à une homogénéisation des pratiques ? Ces interrogations sont abordées par l’étude du game design, qui recouvre le travail de conception destiné à faire adopter à l’individu une attitude ludique à partir d’une structure de jeu. L’analyse de ce processus nécessite d’interroger en premier lieu le possible rôle de l’industrie vidéoludique comme culture à part entière, avec son histoire, ses normes et répertoires d’action. Un second moment est consacré à la définition d’outils d’analyse permettant de comprendre comment un logiciel peut présenter une certaine « jouabilité ». Une dernière partie rend compte de méthodes que mobilisent les joueurs pour actualiser la potentialité ludique d’une œuvre en ligne, en recourant à la description ethnométhodologique. Par ces trois entrées, on montre que pour comprendre le phénomène, il faut considérer que la médiation ludique interculturelle par support informatique ne se réalise pas par l’influence de la structure sur le joueur mais résulte d’une construction, nécessitant de tenir compte des contradictions et complémentarités qu’engage cette mise en relation
Considering that each culture has a different understanding of what it means “to play”, one of the key question that the video games industry raises every day can be summarized by the following sentence : how can I make various kinds of people play with a same product ? This question needs other inquiries to get some answers : do the videogame industry produces a transnational culture of play, that creates homogenization through minds and practices ? If it’s not the case, how can we understand the planetary success of videogames ? Game design allows to explore these issues as it concerns the process of transmitting the will to play to an individual. This exploration begins with the definition of the video game industry as a particular culture, with his own history, norms and representations. A second chapter focus on the conceptual tools that can be used to understand how a game is designed to present a certain “playability”. Finally, a third part reports an analysis of ethnomethods and interpretative procedures that players used in an online game to get involved in a ludic universe. These three chapters show that, in order to understand the phenomenon, it is essential to support the thesis according to which an intercultural ludic mediation is not carried out by the influence of the game on the player but results from a construction which creates contradictions and complementarities within the act of play

In three experimental studies, I examined the effects of group membership and status differences on group-based trust. Participants played the Investment Game (Berg, Dickhaut, & McCabe, 1995) with an ingroup or an outgroup member. Study 1 and 2 analyzed the relationship between two natural groups: Northern Italians (high-status group) and Southern Italians (low-status group). In both studies, the investment of Northern participants in the ingroup and outgroup partner condition was not significantly different. In Study 1, Southern participants invested more money in the outgroup than in the ingroup condition, whereas, in Study 2, they showed only a slight tendency to outgroup favoritism. These findings did not confirm the general expectation of higher trust toward ingroup members, derived from previous literature on group-based trust (Brewer, 2006; Tanis & Postmes, 2005). They instead provided some support for predictions based on system justification theory (Jost & Banaji, 1994). In Study 3, the minimal group paradigm (see Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971) was adopted. Group status, ingroup identification and shared knowledge of group membership were manipulated (see Jin & Yamagishi, 1997). Results generally supported predictions based on social identity theory, while they were contrary to the model of group exchange heuristic (T. Yamagishi et al., 1999; T. Yamagishi & Kiyonari, 2000).
In tre studi sperimentali, ho esaminato gli effetti dell’appartenenza di gruppo e dello status sulla fiducia intergruppi. I partecipanti giocavano l’Investment Game (Berg, Dickhaut, & McCabe, 1995) con un membro dell’ingroup o dell’outgroup. Nello Studio 1 e 2 si è analizzata la relazione tra due gruppi naturali: italiani settentrionali (gruppo di alto status) e meridionali (gruppo di basso status). In entrambi gli studi, l’investimento dei partecipanti settentrionali nelle condizioni partner dell’ingroup e partner dell’outgroup non è risultato significativamente diverso. Nello Studio 1, i partecipanti meridionali hanno investito più denaro nella condizione partner dell’outgroup piuttosto che nella condizione partner dell’ingroup, mentre, nello Studio 2, hanno mostrato solo una debole tendenza al favoritismo per l’outgroup. Questi risultati non confermano l’ipotesi generale di una maggiore fiducia verso i membri dell’ingroup, derivata dalla precedente letteratura sulla fiducia intergruppi (Brewer, 2006; Tanis & Postmes, 2005), ma piuttosto forniscono sostegno alla teoria della giustificazione del sistema (Jost & Banaji, 1994). Nello Studio 3, si è adottato il paradigma dei gruppi minimali (vedi Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971). Si sono manipolati lo status dell’ingroup, l’identificazione e la conoscenza condivisa dell’appartenenza categoriale (vedi Jin & Yamagishi, 1997). I risultati complessivamente confermano le ipotesi basate sulla teoria dell’identità sociale e contraddicono il modello dell’euristica di gruppo (T. Yamagishi et al., 1999; T. Yamagishi & Kiyonari, 2000).

La Guinea-Bissau è uno Stato indipendente dal 1974, quando la guerra di liberazione guidata dal PAIGC (Partito africano per l'indipendenza della Guinea e Capo Verde) contro il regime coloniale portoghese terminò. Lo scopo di questo studio è indagare su quali cambiamenti siano avvenuti tra i fula di Gabù (una regione a nord-est del Paese) durante e dopo la guerra, in termini di forme di organizzazione sociale, concentrandomi sulle variabili del concetto di libertà attraverso l’analisi della memoria attorno all’evento bellico. Più in particolare, questa ricerca mira a mostrare come la lotta di liberazione e la guerra abbiano colpito le nozioni di libertà e schiavitù tra i fula di Gabù. A tal fine, ho fatto costante riferimento alle due principali categorie sociali intraetniche dei fula, i rimbe (nati liberi) e i jiyaabe (discendenti di schiavi), e alle reciproche modalità relazionali nel corso della storia. A subire l’impatto maggiore della guerra di liberazione sono state proprio le forme in cui queste soggettività si relazionano tra di loro piuttosto che effettivi cambiamenti di status o della formazione sociale fula. Un primo impatto della guerra di liberazione per i fula di Gabù è stato quello di essere passati da una posizione privilegiata, in quanto gruppo sociale prediletto dagli europei, a essere marginalizzati dal nuovo ordine politico post-indipendenza. Il processo di marginalizzazione è stato testimoniato principalmente da una parte dei fula, i rimbe, i quali hanno sentito di essere stati defraudati dei loro poteri tradizionali e perseguitati alla fine della guerra da parte del PAIGC. I rimbe hanno attribuito alla mancanza di autorità una generale fragilizzazione del gruppo fula nel contesto nazionale. I jiyaabe sentono invece di essersi liberati dalle ingiustizie e dalle atrocità del sistema coloniale. Un secondo impatto è emerso analizzando le diverse idee di libertà e liberazione presso i fula, il filo rosso di questa ricerca: la liberazione dal giogo coloniale portoghese; il maggiore grado di libertà ottenuto dai discendenti di schiavi, le influenze ideologiche del partito indipendentista su tali concetti all’interno del contesto della lotta rivoluzionaria. La semantica della libertà fula comprende una ricca terminologia che inizia con il termine dimo (singolare di rimbe), che significa libero per nascita, nobile, puro. A questo livello, solo i nati liberi possono avere libertà. Il termine più trasversale hettaare con cui traducono liberdade, si riferisce al benessere socioeconomico, alla felicità, alla mancanza di preoccupazioni. Questa forma di libertà, con l’indipendenza e l’ideologia egualitaria del partito, è diventata accessibile a tutti e prescinde da restrizioni genealogiche. I principali sostenitori della guerra sono stati i jiyaabe i quali hanno potuto migliorare la loro posizione socio-economica in seno al partito. Sebbene però questi ultimi abbiano avuto accesso a un maggior grado di libertà, non possono ancora ritenersi liberi in senso assoluto, perché quella libertà è prerogativa dei rimbe. Investigando sui modi con cui la libertà è stata percepita dai soggetti della ricerca prima e dopo l’indipendenza è risultato che nonostante notevoli modificazioni nell'etichetta delle relazioni intraetniche tra nati liberi e discendenti di schiavi, come il fatto che sia diventato inadeguato definire schiavo qualcuno in pubblico, a livello implicito e nell'intimità dei soggetti queste distinzioni godono ancora di ottima salute e rappresentano il cardine dell'identità fula.
Guinea-Bissau has been an independent state since 1974, when the liberation war led by the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) against the Portuguese colonial rule ended. The purpose of this study is to investigate what changes occurred among the fula of Gabù (a region north-east of the country) during and after the war, in terms of forms of social organization, focusing on the variables of the concept of freedom through the analysis of the memory around the war event. More specifically, this research aims to show how the liberation struggle and the war have hit the notions of freedom and slavery among the fulas of Gabù. To this end, I have made constant reference to the two main intraethnic social categories of the fula, the rimbe (free born) and the jiyaabe (descendants of slaves), and to the specif forms of reciprocal relationship throughout history. The forms in which these subjectivities relate to each other rather than actual changes in status or fula social formation have been the main impact of the war of liberation. A first impact of the liberation war for the fulas of Gabu was that of having passed from a privileged position, as a social group favored by the Europeans, to being marginalized by the new post-independence political order. The process of marginalization was witnessed mainly by a part of the fula, the rimbe, who felt they had been defrauded of their traditional powers and persecuted at the end of the war by the PAIGC The rimbe attributed to the lack of authority a general fragmentation of the fula group in the national context. The jiyaabe feel instead of having freed themselves from the injustices and atrocities of the colonial system. A second impact emerged analyzing the different ideas of freedom and liberation among the fula, the red thread of this research: the liberation from the Portuguese colonial yoke; the greater degree of freedom obtained by the descendants of slaves, the ideological influences of the independentist party on such concepts within the context of the revolutionary struggle. The fula semantics of freedom includes a rich terminology that begins with the term dimo (singular of rimbe), which means free by birth, noble, pure. At this level, only those born free can have freedom. The more transverse term hettaare with which they translate liberdade, refers to the socio-economic well-being, to happiness, to the lack of worries. This form of freedom, with the independence and the egalitarian ideology of the party, has become accessible to all and regardless of genealogical restrictions. The main supporters of the liberation war were the jiyaabe who were able to improve their socio-economic position within the party. Although the latter have had access to a greater degree of freedom, they can not yet be considered free in an absolute sense, because that freedom is the prerogative of the rimbe. Investigating the ways in which freedom has been perceived by the research subjects before and after independence has been found, notwithstanding significant changes in the etiquette of intra-ethnic relations between free and slave descendants, such as the fact that it has become inadequate to define a slave as someone in public, on an implicit level and in the intimacy of the subjects these distinctions still enjoy excellent health and are the cornerstone of the fula identity.

Mid/side processing techniques are commonly used in the music recording industry to widen the stereo image to create a more enveloping listening experience. Since the gaming industry is now in need of better audio solutions to stay on par with the recent visual advances intechnology; these mid/side techniques could potentially be a useful tool for sound designers to use. In this study, an experiment was conducted where 16 participants were asked to play 4 scenarios with different audio settings meant to enhance envelopment in different ways. After each scenario the participants were asked to rate their preference and perceived envelopment followed by a short survey after all 4 scenarios were completed. The quantitative data showed very little evidence suggesting the mid/side processing to be neither perceived more enveloping nor more preferred than the other versions, except for a group with gamers that played games less than 6 hours per week. The qualitative data on the other hand, showed hints at the mid/side version having envelopment as its defining attribute along with it making the sound design more exciting and making some sounds more powerful. The main problem with the mid/side technique seems to be that it has to exclude in-game spatialization for the widened stereo image to be perceived as enveloping. However, if it is applied on sounds that do not need to be spatialized then it might be able to improve the perceived envelopment of those sounds.

Osteoclast formation is a complex process requiring the temporal activation of a yet unknown number of transcription factors. Osteoclast differentiation is dependent on two cytokines: macrophage colony stimulating factor (M-CSF) and receptor activator of NF-kB ligand (RANKL). These agents induce gene expression changes during the differentiation process, presumably by inducing transcription factors. A search for genes that are regulated in the developing osteoclast was performed using both differential display and gene arrays. Differential display revealed a novel member of the krüppel-associated box (KRAB) containing transcription repressor, KROCS, which was shown to be down regulated during osteoclast formation. The potential targets for this gene remain unknown, as do the targets of the majority of the other members of the krüppel associated box (KRAB) containing family of transcription repressors. In addition to KROCS, three other genes were also identified including ADO21, PRO1859 and an endogenous retrovirus like gene and the regulation of vitamin D up-regulated protein (VDUP) was also confirmed. Array analysis identified a number of other transcription factors regulated during osteoclast formation including the up-regulated NFATc1, GABP?, FBP, EGR1 and the repressed RelB and KOX31, a KRAB containing transcription repressor. The array also identified calmodulin 1 a member of the NFAT activation pathways as up-regulated by RANKL. The expression of NFATc1 to 4 in human osteoclasts was investigated showing NFATc1 to be the most expressed NFATc in osteoclasts. The transcription variants of NFATc1 were tested for expression differences showing that the mRNAs encoding the protein isoforms B and C were most expressed. The involvement of calmodulin, calcineurin and NFATc1 involvement in osteoclast formation was further studied by the use of inhibitors. BAPTA-AM is an intracellular chelator of calcium that prevents changes in calcium concentration. Phenoxybenzamine irreversibly binds calmodulin in the presence of calcium, inhibiting the action of calmodulin. Cyclosporin A (CsA) is an inhibitor of calcineurin. Use of both BAPTA-AM and phenoxybenzamine resulted in inhibition of osteoclast formation, decreasing the percentage of multinucleated cells from 54% in control cultures to 7.9% and 7.1% respectively. Both BAPTA-AM and phenoxybenzamine treated cells showed a marked reduction in TRAP activity with only 14.5% and 16.8% respectively staining positive for TRAP. This represents an approximate 60% reduction in TRAP positive cells compared to control osteoclasts. Both BAPTA-AM treated and phenoxybenzamine treated cells were negative for bone resorption. Addition of increasing doses of cyclosporin A (CsA) to M-CSF and RANKL treated cells resulted in the inhibition of multinucleated osteoclast formation. At 1000ng/mL CsA the formation of TRAP positive cells with more than one nucleus had reduced to less than 5% from 54% without the presence of CsA. Cells treated with 1000ng/mL CsA were unable to resorb bone, however the percentage of cells that were TRAP positive remained unchanged with CsA treatment. No significant decrease in expression of cathepsin K or TRAP transcripts were observed by real-time quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) in cells treated with CsA. Although all three agents inhibited the formation of multinuclear giant cells, both BAPTA-AM and phenoxybenzamine resulted in TRAP negative cells, whereas CsA resulted in TRAP positive cells. These results implicate the intracellular calcium increase caused by RANKL and calmodulin activation as a regulator of TRAP but place the calcineurin activation of NFATc1 downstream of TRAP induction. The regulation of a series of other genes was tested to determine if some RANKL mediated regulation of osteoclast genes were 'sensitive to CsA while others were 'resistant'. Of 28 genes tested, 13 were significantly affected by CsA and were considered 'sensitive' while the RANKL mediated regulation of 15 genes was unaffected by CsA and these were considered 'resistant'. This is strong evidence for two pathways of gene activation in osteoclasts, a CsA 'sensitive' pathway involving calcineurin, NFAT and possibly other transcription factors and a CsA 'resistant' pathway of gene activation, not dependent on calcineurin. Surprisingly, the RANKL mediated induction of NFATc1 was not inhibited by CsA, suggesting that NFATc1 induction is dependent on the resistant pathway. The identity of the second pathway (or pathways) is yet to be established, however the data indicate that this pathway mediate the RANKL sensitive regulation of at least one half of genes in human osteoclasts. The corollary if that only one half of osteoclast genes are dependent on calcineurin and presumably NFATc1 activation. There was no unifying principle that separated the CsA resistant from sensitive pathways of RANKL regulation. Cell surface markers, chemokines and transcription factors were among those affected by CsA. Even classical osteoclast markers fell neatly into two categories. The RANKL mediated induction of calcitonin receptor (CalcR) was inhibited by more than 100 fold in the presence of CsA implicating NFAT/calcineurin in the regulation of CalcR expression in osteoclasts. In contrast, the RANKL mediated induction of TRAP or cathepsin K, two prominent osteoclast markers, was totally unaffected by CsA. The expression of a series of chemokines and receptors was investigated. MCP-1 and RANTES were RANKL induced, and this induction was sensitive to CsA. The CC chemokines MCP-1 and RANTES were down regulated by around 10 fold in the presence of CsA. In contrast the RANKL mediated induction of MCP-1 receptor was resistant to CsA. The existence of chemokine and receptor in the same cell provides for a RANKL inducible autocrine loop, suggesting that MCP-1 should act directly on osteoclasts. The fact that the RANKL induction of the MCP-1 receptor, CCR2B, is unaffected by CsA suggests that exogenous MCP-1 should still signal in CsA treated osteoclasts. Addition of either MCP-1 or RANTES to CsA treated cultures resulted in a recovery of 70-80% of the multinuclear TRAP positive phenotype. The MCP-1 and RANTES induced multinuclear cell could not overcome the CsA induced inhibition of bone resorption. Surprisingly, MCP-1 and RANTES induced multinucleation in the absence of RANKL (M-CSF and chemokine treated cells) resulting in 50% of the normal multinucleation present in cells treated with RANKL. The data suggest that chemokines produced by osteoclasts are involved in promoting a multinuclear phenotype. When inhibited by CsA, osteoclasts fail to produce both MCP-1 and RANTES, although their respective receptors are present. This failure to produce MCP-1 and RANTES prevents the formation of an autocrine loop. When provided with MCP-1 or RANTES the CsA inhibited osteoclasts are subsequently able to pass through to the stage of a multinucleated giant cell. Similarly, in the absence of RANKL, chemokines promote the formation of TRAP positive osteoclast-like giant cells visually indistinguishable from osteoclasts. However, the multinuclear cells formed by chemokines in the absence of RANKL were also incapable of bone resorption. In order to determine if chemokines were capable of stimulating bone resorption, after osteoclasts had formed, pre-differentiated mature osteoclasts were plated onto bone and treated with a range of cytokines. The results showed that bone resorption occurred only in cultures that were exposed continuously to RANKL. These data indicate that chemokine induction by RANKL is required for multinucleation but that RANKL is required for bone resorption. The functional testing of genes detected by array analysis proved crucial involvement of both the NFAT pathway and CC chemokines in osteoclast formation knd function. Other genes identified such as GABP and FBP, are likely to be key factors in the development of a functional osteoclast. Future works investigating human osteoclast formation should take into strong consideration the genes identified in this thesis as targets for further functional studies.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Medical Science
Full Text

Following the decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011), which struck down the state of California’s appeal to restrict the sale of games deemed to have “deviant violence” to those 18 or older and the court’s recommendation that parents use the ESRB Ratings System instead, this ethnographic study sought to better understand what parents thought of laws on video games and how they used the recommended ratings system. A total of 30 interviews using semi-structured open-ended questions were conducted and analyzed to reveal what parents thought of laws on video games, how they used the ESRB Ratings System to assess video game content, and what other methods they used for video game content assessment in addition to the ratings system. This research utilized Dervin and Nilan’s (1986) sense-making methodology as a way to learn how parents bridged their knowledge gap when it came to learning about video game content and how they made sense of the knowledge gained to determine the content appropriateness for their children. Analyses of the collected data provided the foundation for a model on the effects of the parent-child relationship on parental information behavior.

An important issue in human cognition concerns face processing. Faces are incontestably one of the most important biological stimuli for humans. They convey crucial social cues, such as age, sex, emotion and identity information, and are the basis of verbal and non-verbal communication. Face processing and recognition have been extensively studied over the past years, through different methodology including neuroimaging and electrophysiology, mostly aimed at testing the extent to which faces can be considered a class of special visual stimuli (e. g. Farah, Wilson, Drain, & Tanaka, 1998; but see also Gauthier, Behrmann, & Tarr, 2004). Despite there is no complete agreement on this debated issue all authors concord on the fact that there are at least two reasons that make faces special: face recognition exhibit functional characteristics not found in the recognition of other visual stimuli and, second, the neural substrate that mediates face recognition is anatomically separated from the those mediating general object recognition (e.g. Farah, Rabinowitz, Quinn, & Liu, 2000). The majority of the literature on face processing was aimed primarily to investigate the ability to discriminate between faces and non-face like objects (e.g. Gauthier, Behrmann, & Tarr, 1999), as well as defining which kind of processing is involved (configural vs. featural processing) (e.g. Maurer, Grand, & Mondloch, 2002) and the ability to perceive the uniqueness of individual faces (e.g. Bruce & Young, 1986), thus focusing primarily on face-identity related aspects of recognition It has been claimed that the recognition of facial identity is based on invariant facial features, such as eyes, nose, mouth and their reciprocal configurational relations. As well as these invariant aspects, faces have another essential component: their changeable aspects, that carry a variety of socially important cues that are essential to social interaction. Indeed, since birth most face viewing occurs in the context of social interactions and faces provide a wealth of information, beyond identity, which facilitate social communication. Indeed, facial features can move, changing their reciprocal relations, generating for example facial expression, lip or eye movement. In fact, while these changeable aspects do not modify the identity of that particular face, they result constitute in different visual stimuli which convey different social signals. The ability to process such social relevant information may represent a more highly developed visual perceptual skill than the recognition of identity. Only recently however, the study of these aspects have started to be investigated. Among the different neuroanatomical - functional models proposed in literature, the Haxby and colleagues’s (2000) take into account both important components, invariant features and changeable aspects of a face. The network includes visual (“core”) regions, which process invariant facial features, as well as limbic and prefrontal (“extended”) regions that process changeable aspects of faces (Haxby, Hoffman, & Gobbini, 2000; Ishai, 2008). Starting from Haxby model, the attention of the present work has been focused on the role of the changeable aspect of a face within social interaction. More specifically, the aim of the current series of studies was to investigate how observer could process, use, interact and react to different social signals (i.e. gaze direction, head orientation, facial expressions). In experiment 1 we explored the perception of different gaze directions and the role of conflicting information in gaze following behaviour was investigated using ERPs. In experiment 2 we examined the effect of the combination between gaze direction and head positions on allocation of attentional resources and thus on the processing of subsequent target using fMRI. In experiment 3 we studied how non-emotional facial expressions could help recognition of identity in a clinical population (i.e. congenital prosopagnosia). It is well known that others’ gaze direction and body position attract our attention (Ricciardelli, Baylis, & Driver, 2000), and it also has been demonstrated the existence of an automatic tendency to follow the gaze of others, leading to joint attention (Ricciardelli, Bricolo, Aglioti, & Chelazzi, 2002). It is known that we can use those signals to modulate our attention, but it is still unclear the nature and the time course of control processes involved in this modulation. In the first part of the present study we investigate this issue on gaze by using different methodologies: electrophysiological method in order to investigate the time course of the gaze following behaviour (the fact that ultimately the observer’s look and attend where another person is looking); and neuroimaging method to explore what neural system is activated when a temporal allocation of resource is required and influenced by seeing actors with different gaze direction and head orientation. In experiment 1 we wanted to trace the time course of the processed involved in a gaze cueing task in which the effect was investigated in an overt paradigm. By combining eye movement and ERP recordings we investigate the involvement of conflict monitoring processes in various contexts and at different times with respect to the distracter’s eyes movement. We used ERP because they provide a measure of the timing of the elaboration of gaze observed and of the consequent planning of a saccadic response. Participants were instructed to saccade towards one of two lateral targets in a Posner like paradigm. Seventy-five milliseconds before, or after the instruction onset, a distracting face gazed towards a target (goal-directed), congruent or incongruent with the instructed direction, or towards an empty spatial location (non-goal-directed). We analyzed the N2 and Error-Related Negativity (ERN) measures, known to be involved in conflict monitoring processes (respectively in pre-response conflict and in error detection). Results interestingly showed that a certain degree of control over the gaze following response is possible, suggesting that tendency to follow the gaze of others is more flexible than previously believed, as it seems to depend not only on an early visuo-motor priming (Crostella, Carducci, & Aglioti, 2009), but also on the circumstances (i.e. context) associated with the seen gaze shift. In experiment 2 we explored activations in face neural system in order to verify whether social cues indicating mutual contact enhanced or reduced attention for subsequent events. More specifically it has been investigated how the processing of gaze direction (averted, directed) and head position (deviated, frontal) diminishes attentional blink (AB) for subsequent visual events. We used fMRI in order to measure the hemodynamic response (change in blood flow) related to neural activity in attentional and face processing systems when the temporal allocation of resource is linked to gaze direction and head position processing. Results showed that when the eyes and the head were oriented in the same direction (i.e., congruent conditions), attract attention and increase the processing of subsequent visual events, than when they were oriented in opposite directions (i.e., incongruent), In fact analysis showed that congruent gaze direction and head orientation increased activity within bilateral temporoparietal junction, an area that is strongly associated with mentalizing and understanding intentions of other’s (Redcay et al., 2010), as well as increased activity in regions of the face perception network, such as Occipital Face Area, Superior Temporal Sulcus and anterior insula (Ishai, 2008), but these responses were drastically diminished during AB. Moreover activity in bilateral Intraparietal Sulcus, a region involved in gaze perception (Calder et al., 2007) and attention (Marois, Chun, & Gore, 2000), decreased during AB in parallel to the decrease in recognition performance, thus when head and gaze were averted. These results show that head and gaze directions seem to be powerful social cues that are able to modulate the AB effect and, more generally, influence the observer's attention in reacting to subsequent visual stimuli. Together with the results from Experiment 1, these findings validate the issue that humans has a neural system to process other’s gaze direction and that this system is complexity linked with attentional networks both to allocate resource and to share the attention with someone else. Another important features connected with social signals in face perception are facial expressions which were investigated in the second part of the present work. The idea that facial identity and facial expressions are processed by separate visual route has well established in face research. The model proposed by Haxby and colleagues (2000) contain a separate route for facial identity but it is unknown if a single system supports the processing of emotional and non-emotional facial expressions whereas non emotional facial expressions are expressions that are not supported by an affective state. A previous study (Comparetti, Ricciardelli, & Daini, 2011) on normal subjects suggests that non-emotional facial expressions could be processed in a specific way dissociable from emotions and from other facial features. In perceiving emotional expressions congenital prosopagnosic individuals (people who are unable to recognize faces and maintain the disability lifelong in absence of any obvious brain damage) are indistinguishable from control but it’s still unknown if they could process non-emotional facial expressions. This hypothesis was tested in Experiment 3 by investigating whether and how CP participants could elaborate facial expressions that not convey an affective state (A. J. O'Toole, Roark, & Abdi, 2002). Using the Face inversion paradigm, as in Comparetti et al. (2011) we tested if non-emotional facial expressions could be processed by system, differentiated from identity recognition system and emotion processing in CP subjects with pathological score at standard face recognition tasks. We carried out a behavioural study in which we compared performance in a recognition task and in a same/different judgement task, using upright and inverted faces. In the experiment were manipulated respectively internal features, emotional and non-emotional facial expressions. Results demonstrated that in these subjects non emotional facial expressions are processed and facilitated the judgment in the upright orientation, while emotions and features manipulation did not. Overall, the present thesis has investigated issues from the current domain of processes associated with face perception and social information essential for adaptive behavior in a complex social environment. It provides further evidence that social signs are important and are processed even if they are not relevant for the task. For example gaze cueing is observed even when the participants are motivated to orient away from gaze direction because the target will be in an uncued location (experiment 1) or even if it is not relevant for the task (experiment 2) and facial expressions are elaborated even if only the identity of the face will be required (experiment 3). More specifically it has been investigated how people react to social signal and could plan their behaviours reacting to the social information given by a face. In fact in Experiment 1 has been demonstrated that other’s gaze is a strong trigger to allocate our attention to an important location in space but more deeply other’s gaze it’s really important when the two actors have something in common (i. e. the same peripheral targets); in fact, under certain conditions, the gaze following behaviour could be controlled and specifically when the context is not shared. Moreover the Experiment 2 has shown how people could allocate temporarily their attention responding to gaze direction and head orientation, and demonstrating that when the different signals are congruent it is possible to reallocate attentional resources to process subsequent event. Finally in Experiment 3 it has been demonstrated that a facial expression that does not convey an universal affective state could be processed by congenital prosopagnosic individuals and these expressions could be used as a cue to arrive to the identity.

Depuis deux d??cennies, des chercheurs et des diffuseurs utilisent des mod??lisations 3D pour rendre compte d'espaces et de structures du pass??. Cependant, les historiens demeurent g??n??ralement r??ticents envers cette mani??re de repr??senter l'histoire. Pourtant, la science historique peut tirer parti du 3D de plusieurs fa??ons. Une mod??lisation peut servir de laboratoire, une approche d??j?? utilis??e en arch??ologie. Par exemple, ?? partir d'un mod??le 3D du Colis??e, les historiens pourraient s'int??resser aux interactions entre la population romaine et le b??timent, aux techniques de construction, ?? l'impact de cette architecture monumentale sur l'??volution urbaine. La mod??lisation ne doit pas non plus se limiter aux grands monuments du pass??. L'??volution de l'architecture vernaculaire, d'un quartier populaire, d'un complexe industriel ou d'un village aborig??ne peut tout aussi bien se pr??ter ?? une analyse tirant profit d'une mod??lisation. Mais avant d'int??grer une telle approche ?? la discipline historique, il faut assurer les chercheurs du caract??re scientifique d'une maquette 3D. Un tel environnement doit pouvoir r??pondre aux m??mes crit??res scientifiques que toute autre production historique de nature acad??mique. De tels syst??mes ??? incorporant des objets virtuels, des sources et des ??l??ments narratifs ??? sont pr??sentement en d??veloppement, et je porterai donc mon attention sur l'??laboration d'une proc??dure efficace pour cr??er des environnements virtuels pertinents respectant les pratiques historiennes.

Background Radiomercury 197mHg and 197Hg, henceforth referred to as 197(m)Hg, is a promising theranostic radionuclide endowed with properties that allow diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The aim of this work was to investigate the capabilities of 197(m)Hg for nuclear medicine imaging. Therefore measurements were performed by using a Philips BrightView SPECT camera. Furthermore, Monte Carlo simulations using the GATE software were performed to theoretically explore the imaging contribution from the various gamma and X-ray emissions from 197(m)Hg for a commercial clinical camera with low-energy high-resolution (LEHR) and high-energy general-purpose (HEGP) collimators. We estimated the spatial resolution by using a four-quadrant bar phantom, and we evaluated the planar and tomographic images from an abdominal phantom containing three cylindrical sources of 197(m)Hg solution. Results A good accordance between measurements and simulations was found for planar and SPECT imaging. Simulations allowed the decomposition of the detected energy spectrum into photon origins. Measurements and simulations for the bar phantom revealed that for the LEHR collimator, the 6-mm pattern could be resolved, whereas for the HEGP collimator, the resolution is about 10 mm. Furthermore, we found that no significant image distortion results from high-energy photons when using the LEHR collimator. Conclusions We demonstrated the imaging capabilities of 197(m)Hg which is essential both for diagnostic applications and to determine the in vivo biodistribution for dose calculations in therapeutic applications.

La presente tesi mira ad offrire una prospettiva esplorativa rispetto a forme, organizzazioni e contenuti di apprendimento originali e caratterizzanti l'attuale "ecologia dei media", proponendo una mappatura etnografica e qualitativa delle dinamiche partecipative inerenti la discussione, la modificazione, la progettazione e la creazione di giochi (digitali o "analogici") all'interno di comunità e contesti sia "virtuali" che "reali", dentro e fuori dalle istituzioni educative formali. Queste comunità e questi contesti saranno visti come "playgrounds", spazi di produzione orizzontali, eterarchici e reticolari in cui viene ad oggi costruita dal basso l'alfabetizzazione sistemica, costruttivista, cooperativa e transdisciplinare necessaria per essere attivi "costruttori di mondi" nell'era dell'informazione. La prima parte delle trattazione sarà intesa a contestualizzare storicamente e transdisciplinarmente lo studio del gioco e del giocare, sia attraverso una retrospettiva bibliografica intesa ad evidenziare il rapporto contrastato tra atteggiamenti giocosi e "serietà" dei contesti di apprendimento formale, che con un esplorazione della rilevanza delle dinamiche ludiche nei processi psichici, sociali, culturali ed evolutivi, concludendo con la proposta del "game design" come possibile metafora unificante, atta ad esplorare proficuamente la varietà delle scienze del vivente. La seconda parte approfondirà lo stretto legame tra l'attuale configurazione "partecipativa" delle culture mediali e le scelte metodologiche operate durante il mio lavoro di ricerca, evidenziando la rilevanza politica della rivoluzione digitale nel perturbare gli assetti istituzionali attraverso la sua influenza sulla strutturazione dei sistemi di apprendimento formale ed informale, nonché le conseguente di questo spostamento di paradigma sulle fondamenta epistemologiche della ricerca in ambito sociale. La terza parte offrira quindi, attraverso una serie di casi e "schizzi etnografici, un sintetico spaccato delle realtà plurali del "Do It Together" ludico, evidenziando in esse l'uso e la co-costruzione di metafore e modelli complessi (sul piano sia logico-formale che estetico). Verranno inoltre illustrate difficoltà, criticità e momenti di "insight" incontrati nel corso del lavoro sul campo svolto nelle comunità di creatori di giochi, in contesti sia formali che informali, online e offline. L'intero percorso sarà volto a proporre un nuovo possibile ruolo per le professioni educative: quello del meta-designer, co-costruttore di spazi interattivi aperti e animatore di comunità ludiche/educanti/ricercanti le cui attività, definite attraverso modalità non-programmatiche e co-progettate, possano muoversi attraverso ed al di là della media education, intesa come meta-disciplina volta alla costruzione di un modello inclusivo, distribuito e democratico dell'apprendere.
The present dissertation is aimed at offering an explorative perspective toward original forms, organizations and contents of learning which characterize the present "media ecology", proposing an ethnographic and qualitative mapping of participatory dynamics as pertaining the discussion, modification, design, and creation of games (be them digital or "analog") within a plurality of communities and contexts, be them "virtual" or "real", within and without formal learning institutions. These communities and contexts will be thematized as "playgrounds", spaces of production and interaction characterized by horizontality, heterarchy and reticularity, spaces where a systems-oriented, constructivist, cooperative and transdisciplinary literacy is being built from the grassroots, a literacy necessary to be an active and participative "world maker" in the present Information Age. Part I of this tractation will be aimed at contextualizing the study of play and games from an historical and transdisciplinary standpoint, both through a literature review aimed at highlighing the contested relationship between playfulness and the serious character of formal learning contexts, and through an exploration of play's relevance in psychological, social, cultural and evolutive processes, concluding with the proposal of "game design" as a possible, unifying metaphor for the diversity of the sciences of living systems. Part II will explore the close links between the present participatory patterns within media cultures and the methodological choices I operated during my fieldwork, highlighting the political relevance of the "Information Revolution" in disrupting institutional infrastructures through its influence on the patterning of learning systems both formal and informal, evidencing the consequences of this paradigm shift on the epistemological fundations of research in human sciences. Part III will then offer, through a series of Cases and "ethnographic sketches", a synthetic panorama of the plural realities of ludic "Do It Together", evidencing within them the use and co-construction of complex models and metaphors (both on a formal and on an aesthetical level). In discussing the fieldwork within communities of game creators (be them formal or informal, online or offline), ample space will be given to difficulties, criticalities and insights, so as to further highlight the methodological quandaries of working in these specificcontexts. The whole of this work will, in conclusion, be aimed at proposing a new, possible role for learning professionals: that of the meta-designer, co-constructor of interactive open spaces and catalyst of ludic/learning/researching communities, where the activities, defined through non-programmatic and co-designed patterns of participation, will move through and beyond media education, meant as a meta-discipline aimed at the construction of an inclusive, distributed and democratic paradigm of learning.

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CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar técnicas com complexidade computacional reduzida para implementação em hardware do modulador de amplitude em quadratura M-ária (M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation - M-QAM) de elevada ordem, que pode ser viável para sistemas banda larga. As técnicas propostas abrangem as constelações M-QAM quadradas e cruzadas (número par e ímpar de bits), a regra de decisão abrupta (hard decison rule), derivação de constelações M-QAM de baixa ordem das de elevada ordem. A análise de desempenho em termos de taxa de bits errados (bit error rate - BER) é realizada quando os símbolos M-QAM são corrompidos por ruído Gaussiano branco aditivo (additive white Gaussian noise - AWGN) e ruído Gaussiano impulsivo aditivo (additive impulsive Gaussian noise - AIGN). Os resultados de desempenho da taxa de bits errados mostram que a perda de desempenho das técnicas propostas é, em média, inferior a 1 dB, o que é um resultado surpreendente. Além disso, a implementação das técnicas propostas em arranjo de portas programáveis em campo (field programmable gate array - FPGA) é descrita e analisada. Os resultados obtidos com as implementações em dispositivo FPGA mostram que as técnicas propostas podem reduzir consideravelmente a utilização de recursos de hardware se comparadas com as técnicas presentes na literatura. Uma melhoria notável em termos de redução da utilização de recursos de hardware é conseguida através da utilização da técnica de modulação M-QAM genérica em comparação com a técnica de regra de decisão heurística (heuristic decision rule - HDR) aprimorada e uma técnica previamente concebida, a tà c cnica HDR. Com base nas análises apresentadas, a técnica HDR aprimorada é menos complexa do que a técnica HDR. Finalmente, os resultados numéricos mostram que a técnica de modulação M-QAM genérica pode ser oito vezes mais rápida do que as outras duas técnicas apresentadas, quando um grande número de símbolos M-QAM (p. ex., > 1000) são transmitidos consecutivamente.
This work aims at introducing techniques with reduced computational complexity for hardware implementation of high order M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) which may be feasible for broadband communication systems. The proposed techniques cover both square and cross M-QAM constellations (even and odd number of bits), hard decision rule, derivation of low-order M-QAM constellations from high order ones. Performance analyses, in terms of bit error rate (BER) is carried out when the M-QAM symbols are corrupted by either additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) or additive impulsive Gaussian noise (AIGN). The bit error rate performance results show that the performance loss of the proposed techniques is, on average, less than 1 dB, which is a remarkable result. Additionally, the implementation of the proposed techniques in field programmable gate array (FPGA) device is described and outlined. The results based on FPGA show that the proposed techniques can considerably reduce hardware resource utilization. A remarkable improvement in terms of hardware resource utilization reduction is achieved by using the generic M-QAM technique in comparison with the enhanced heuristic decision rule (HDR) technique and a previously designed technique, the HDR technique. Based on the analyses performed, the enhanced HDR technique is less complex than the HDR technique. Finally, the numerical results show that the generic M-QAM technique can be eight times faster than the other two techniques when a large number of M-QAM symbols (e.g., > 1000) are consecutively transmitted.

Hazard perception is an important skill for drivers. In hazard perception tasks experienced drivers typically excel more than novices, most likely reflecting greater hazard perception skills. Experiment 1 aimed at isolating experiential effects on HP. In Experiment 1 novice-, experienced- and motorcyclists engaged in a HP test which presented participants with a wide field of vision including side views and information from behind the vehicle. The results showed that novice drivers were less efficient in scanning the rear view and side mirrors and the lateral locations, and had later responses for peripheral locations. It was therefore concluded that novice drivers have difficulties taking into account peripheral information. Using a motorcycle simulator, Experiment 2 showed that practise can have some positive impact in improving this deficit. Specifically, after a four-sessions practise novices were quicker to scan peripheral locations. While this improvement however was obtained on a narrower field of view, Experiment 3 further explored importance of the available visual field for hazard perception and how different experiential group make use of the additional inforation which is provided in wide field of vision conditions. Specifically, the performances of novice and experienced drivers were examined in a narrow and in a wide- field of vision condition. Based on Experiment 1 one would expect experienced drivers to be more affected by the enlargement of the field of vision, as have wider scanning patterns. The results of Experiment 3 indeed demonstrated that when a wider field of view is available experienced drivers maintained a lower speed than novice drivers and had a lower speed at closer distance to hazards. Altogether the results suggest that, although even when only a narrow field of view is available training can still be efficient, the width of the visual field is important in determining the hazard perception performance and help to differentiate the abilities of experienced and novice drivers in driving situations.
La percezione del pericolo è una abilità importante quando si guida. In compiti di percezione del pericolo i guidatori esperti hanno prestazioni migliori dei guidatori inesperti. L'esperimento 1 aveva come obiettivo isolare i fattori legati all’esperienza che agiscono sulla percezione del pericolo (HP). Nell’esperimento 1 guidatori esperti, non esperti e motociclisti erano impegnati in un compito di percezione del pericolo in cui i partecipanti vedevano dei video di situazioni di pericolo su un campo visivo allargato che includeva gli specchietti laterali e lo specchietto retrovisore. I risultati mostrano che i guidatori esperti erano più efficienti dei guidatori non esperti nel considerare l’informazione presentata negli specchietti e nelle posizioni laterali, e avevano tempi di reazione inferiori ai pericoli presentati in posizioni periferiche. Si può concludere che i guidatori non esperti avevano difficoltà nel prendere in considerazione l’informazione periferica. Utilizzando un simulatore di guida l’esperimento 2 ha mostrato che la pratica può avere un impatto positivo nel miglioramento di questo deficit. In specifico, dopo quattro sessioni di pratica i soggetti non esperti erano più veloci nell’osservare posizioni periferiche sullo schermo. Mentre questo miglioramento è stato ottenuto con un campo visivo ridotto, l’esperimento 3 ha esplorato l’importanza delle dimensioni del campo visivo per la percezione del pericolo e come gruppi di soggetti con diversa esperienza facciano un diverso uso dell’informazione aggiuntiva fornita nella condizione con campo visivo allargato. In base ai risultati dell’esperimento 1 ci si aspetterebbe che siano i guidatori esperti ad essere più influenzati dall’allargamento del campo visivo. I risultati dell’esperimento 3 in effetti mostrano che quando più informazione è disponibile grazie ad un campo visivo allargato i guidatori esperti mantengono velocità inferiori rispetto ai guidatori non esperti e hanno velocità più basse in prossimità del pericolo. In generale, i risultati mostrano che l’ampiezza del campo visivo è importante nel determinare la perfomance in compiti di percezione del pericolo e aiuta a differenziare le abilità di guidatori esperti e non esperti nelle situazioni di guida.

Vi è un ampio e diffuso consenso che suggerisce che il tirocinio (internship), come forma di apprendimento esperienziale, può essere uno strumento efficace per lo sviluppo delle competenze tecniche e trasferibili degli studenti e quindi come strumento di rafforzamento dell'occupabilità (employabiltiy) dei laureati. Numerosi studi hanno anche scoperto che le esperienze internazionali possono sviluppare le competenze più apprezzate dai datori di lavoro. Questa ricerca affronta una lacuna all'intersezione di questi due campi di studio. La maggior parte degli studi analizza le esperienze internazionali con un focus distintivo sull'aspetto internazionale e non sui diversi tipi di esperienze, ad es. studiare all’estero rispetto a fare un tirocinio (internship) all’estero. La domanda a cui questo studio si propone di rispondere è se il tirocinio (internship) e il contesto internazionale abbinati estendono l'esperienza di apprendimento oltre a quella sviluppata attraverso un tirocinio domestico da solo. Quando la progettazione di questo studio è stata inizialmente pianificata, è stato fatto un grande sforzo per identificare uno strumento per misurare l'occupabilità (employability) nel modo più obiettivo possibile. Le misurazioni basate sull’utilizzo di giochi digitali (digital game-based assessments) sono state identificate come lo strumento più appropriato per farlo in modo obiettivo. In questo studio i comportamenti che definiscono l’occupabilita’ (employability) degli studenti risultato in oltre 30 indicatori quantitativi. Questi indicatori convergono con le competenze trasferibili che sono state identificate come quelle richieste dal mercato del lavoro e ampiamente analizzate nella letteratura sull'occupabilità (employability). I dati per questo studio sono stati raccolti nel triennio 2017-19 e sono stati coinvolti un totale di 1315 studenti italiani. L'analisi fattoriale esplorativa ha esaminato la struttura alla base degli indicatori di occupabilità (employability) generati dalle valutazioni basate sul gioco digitale (digital game-based assessments). I risultati rivelano diversi temi significativi che contribuiscono ulteriormente alla conoscenza e comprensione di ciò che influenza l'occupabilità (employability) dei laureati. Il primo risultato che emerge dalle analisi di questo studio risponde alla domanda di ricerca. Quando un tirocinio (internship) si svolge all’estero, c'è un apprendimento esperienziale aggiuntivo dato dal contesto internazionale, che contribuisce ulteriormente all'apprendimento esperienziale e trasformativo già sviluppato attraverso un tirocinio (internship) domestico. Inoltre, risulta anche che questo elemento aggiuntivo sia associato a comportamenti di occupabilità (employability) legati a fattori cognitivi e non sociali. Ciò contrasta con gli studi precedenti sull'impatto delle esperienze internazionali, che generalmente associano questo tipo di esperienze allo sviluppo di competenze di tipo sociale e interpersonale. Questo studio rileva infine che quando sembra esserci una superiorità degli studenti maschi nei comportamenti di occupabilità (employability) legati dalle capacità cognitive, questa superiorità scompare quando associata a stage internazionali.
There is a large and widespread consensus suggesting that internships, as one form of experiential learning, can be an effective instrument for the development of students’ technical and transferable skills and therefore as enhancing graduate employability. Separately, studies have found that international experiences can develop the skills most valued by employers. This research addresses a gap at the intersection of these two fields of study. Most studies analyze international experiences with a distinctive focus on the international and not on the different types of experiences, e.g. study abroad versus internships. The question this study aims to answer is whether an internship and an international context combine to extend the learning experience beyond that developed through a domestic internship alone. When the design of this study was initially planned, much effort was put into identifying a tool to measure employability in the most objective way possible. Digital game-based assessments were identified as the most appropriate tool to do this objectively. Insights into behaviors in this study result in over 30 quantitative descriptors of employability, which converge with the lists of transferable skills that have been identified as those demanded by the labor market and extensively analyzed in the employability literature. The data for this study was collected over three years 2017-19, and a total of 1315 Italian students were involved. Exploratory factor analysis examined the structure underlying the employability descriptors generated by the digital game-based assessments. The findings reveal several significant themes that further contribute to our current knowledge and understanding of what influences graduates’ employability. The first finding answers the research question. When an internship takes place in a country different from that of the student’s home, there is additional experiential learning from the international context, which contributes further to the experiential and transformative learning already developed through the internship. It also appears that this additional element is associated with employability behaviors predicted by Cognitive and not Social factors. This contrasts with earlier studies on the impact of international experiences, which generally find that social and interpersonal skills are developed. This study also finds that when there appears to be a gender bias toward male students in employability behaviors predicted by cognitive abilities, this bias disappears when associated with international internships.

Vi è un ampio e diffuso consenso che suggerisce che il tirocinio (internship), come forma di apprendimento esperienziale, può essere uno strumento efficace per lo sviluppo delle competenze tecniche e trasferibili degli studenti e quindi come strumento di rafforzamento dell'occupabilità (employabiltiy) dei laureati. Numerosi studi hanno anche scoperto che le esperienze internazionali possono sviluppare le competenze più apprezzate dai datori di lavoro. Questa ricerca affronta una lacuna all'intersezione di questi due campi di studio. La maggior parte degli studi analizza le esperienze internazionali con un focus distintivo sull'aspetto internazionale e non sui diversi tipi di esperienze, ad es. studiare all’estero rispetto a fare un tirocinio (internship) all’estero. La domanda a cui questo studio si propone di rispondere è se il tirocinio (internship) e il contesto internazionale abbinati estendono l'esperienza di apprendimento oltre a quella sviluppata attraverso un tirocinio domestico da solo. Quando la progettazione di questo studio è stata inizialmente pianificata, è stato fatto un grande sforzo per identificare uno strumento per misurare l'occupabilità (employability) nel modo più obiettivo possibile. Le misurazioni basate sull’utilizzo di giochi digitali (digital game-based assessments) sono state identificate come lo strumento più appropriato per farlo in modo obiettivo. In questo studio i comportamenti che definiscono l’occupabilita’ (employability) degli studenti risultato in oltre 30 indicatori quantitativi. Questi indicatori convergono con le competenze trasferibili che sono state identificate come quelle richieste dal mercato del lavoro e ampiamente analizzate nella letteratura sull'occupabilità (employability). I dati per questo studio sono stati raccolti nel triennio 2017-19 e sono stati coinvolti un totale di 1315 studenti italiani. L'analisi fattoriale esplorativa ha esaminato la struttura alla base degli indicatori di occupabilità (employability) generati dalle valutazioni basate sul gioco digitale (digital game-based assessments). I risultati rivelano diversi temi significativi che contribuiscono ulteriormente alla conoscenza e comprensione di ciò che influenza l'occupabilità (employability) dei laureati. Il primo risultato che emerge dalle analisi di questo studio risponde alla domanda di ricerca. Quando un tirocinio (internship) si svolge all’estero, c'è un apprendimento esperienziale aggiuntivo dato dal contesto internazionale, che contribuisce ulteriormente all'apprendimento esperienziale e trasformativo già sviluppato attraverso un tirocinio (internship) domestico. Inoltre, risulta anche che questo elemento aggiuntivo sia associato a comportamenti di occupabilità (employability) legati a fattori cognitivi e non sociali. Ciò contrasta con gli studi precedenti sull'impatto delle esperienze internazionali, che generalmente associano questo tipo di esperienze allo sviluppo di competenze di tipo sociale e interpersonale. Questo studio rileva infine che quando sembra esserci una superiorità degli studenti maschi nei comportamenti di occupabilità (employability) legati dalle capacità cognitive, questa superiorità scompare quando associata a stage internazionali.
There is a large and widespread consensus suggesting that internships, as one form of experiential learning, can be an effective instrument for the development of students’ technical and transferable skills and therefore as enhancing graduate employability. Separately, studies have found that international experiences can develop the skills most valued by employers. This research addresses a gap at the intersection of these two fields of study. Most studies analyze international experiences with a distinctive focus on the international and not on the different types of experiences, e.g. study abroad versus internships. The question this study aims to answer is whether an internship and an international context combine to extend the learning experience beyond that developed through a domestic internship alone. When the design of this study was initially planned, much effort was put into identifying a tool to measure employability in the most objective way possible. Digital game-based assessments were identified as the most appropriate tool to do this objectively. Insights into behaviors in this study result in over 30 quantitative descriptors of employability, which converge with the lists of transferable skills that have been identified as those demanded by the labor market and extensively analyzed in the employability literature. The data for this study was collected over three years 2017-19, and a total of 1315 Italian students were involved. Exploratory factor analysis examined the structure underlying the employability descriptors generated by the digital game-based assessments. The findings reveal several significant themes that further contribute to our current knowledge and understanding of what influences graduates’ employability. The first finding answers the research question. When an internship takes place in a country different from that of the student’s home, there is additional experiential learning from the international context, which contributes further to the experiential and transformative learning already developed through the internship. It also appears that this additional element is associated with employability behaviors predicted by Cognitive and not Social factors. This contrasts with earlier studies on the impact of international experiences, which generally find that social and interpersonal skills are developed. This study also finds that when there appears to be a gender bias toward male students in employability behaviors predicted by cognitive abilities, this bias disappears when associated with international internships.