Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Strong face'

This hermeneutical study interprets and describes the phenomena of ageing and living with disability. The lived experiences of 14 older men and the horizon of this researcher developed an understanding of what it is like for men to grow old and, for some, to live with the effects of a major disability. The study is grounded in the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer and framed in the context of embodiment, masculinity, and narrative. I conducted multiple in-depth interviews with older men aged from 67 to 83 years of age. Seven of the participants had experienced a stroke and I was able to explore the phenomenon of disability with them. Through thematic and narrative analyses of the textual data interpretations were developed that identified common meanings and understandings of the phenomena of ageing and disability. These themes and narratives reveal that the men's understandings are at odds with conventional negative views of ageing and disability. These older men are 'alive and kicking', they voice counternarratives to the dominant construction of ageing as decline and weakness, and have succeeded in remaking the lifeworld after stroke. Overall I have come to understand an overarching meaning of older men 'working it out' as illustrative of a strong face of ageing and disability. Older men seek out opportunities to participate actively in community life and, despite the challenges of ageing and disability, lead significant and meaningful lives. These findings challenge and extend our limited understandings of men's experiences of ageing and living with disability. This interpretation offers gendered directions for policy development, clinical practice, and future research.

This hermeneutical study interprets and describes the phenomena of ageing and living with disability. The lived experiences of 14 older men and the horizon of this researcher developed an understanding of what it is like for men to grow old and, for some, to live with the effects of a major disability. The study is grounded in the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer and framed in the context of embodiment, masculinity, and narrative. I conducted multiple in-depth interviews with older men aged from 67 to 83 years of age. Seven of the participants had experienced a stroke and I was able to explore the phenomenon of disability with them. Through thematic and narrative analyses of the textual data interpretations were developed that identified common meanings and understandings of the phenomena of ageing and disability. These themes and narratives reveal that the men�s understandings are at odds with conventional negative views of ageing and disability. These older men are �alive and kicking�, they voice counternarratives to the dominant construction of ageing as decline and weakness, and have succeeded in remaking the lifeworld after stroke. Overall I have come to understand an overarching meaning of older men �working it out� as illustrative of a strong face of ageing and disability. Older men seek out opportunities to participate actively in community life and, despite the challenges of ageing and disability, lead significant and meaningful lives. These findings challenge and extend our limited understandings of men�s experiences of ageing and living with disability. This interpretation offers gendered directions for policy development, clinical practice, and future research.

In 2014 the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) adopted the Framework for Great Schools to act as a gauge for measuring and monitoring school improvement. The amalgamation of this framework entails six components- two of which are the foci of this study: trust and strong family-community ties as it relates to the engagement of families. Educational research (Mapp & Kuttner, 2013) has revealed the direct correlation of school improvement and student achievement with purposeful-intentional parent engagement. Therefore, this qualitative- comparative study explored school leaders’ capacity to address issues of impoverished and homeless families, their ability to foster trust and strong family-community ties with families and their protocol for progress monitoring and refinement. Participants in this study include six principals, four parents, four Students in Temporary Housing Liaisons (STHL) and two Community-based Organization representatives. All of these principals are affiliated with Title 1 elementary schools in NYC and Long Island which have a temporary housing population of 10% or greater. Data was collected using interview questions designed by the researcher, 3.4 indicator of NYC’s 2015-2016 Quality Review Rubric and NYC’s 2015-2016 Learning Environment (LE) survey.

This study focused on identifying leadership ability and embedded school cultures to answer three research questions: 1. How are school leaders addressing issues of poverty and homelessness faced by families of their student population? 2. What structures or partnerships have schools established to address the needs of this population of families? 3. How is or to what extent is the school building trust in creating strong family-community ties?

The findings of this study revealed that issues of poverty and homelessness hamper the building of trust and strong family- community ties. The contributing factors that are barriers to building trust and strong family-community ties are poor student attendance and parent involvement, immigration status, language/culture, negative experiences with schools, lack of communication and the disregard of parents as stakeholders. The barriers school leaders encountered vary from school to school thus their approaches to addressing the needs of families differed. Schools were most effective in meeting the needs of students and their families when they worked collaboratively with CBO partnerships and other agencies. This collaborative effort provided additional resources both human and financial to support addressing the needs of homeless and impoverished families. Lastly, protocols and methods used at the school level did not specifically measure trust and community-ties but success of activities or events that were geared toward families.

Automatically recognizing human faces has attracted a lot of attention in the academic, commercial, and industrial communities during the last few decades due to its law intrusiveness and less cooperativeness. Face recognition technology has a variety of potential applications in information security, law enforcement, surveillance, smart cards, and access control. Despite significant advances in face recognition technology, it has yet to be put to wide use in industrial or commercial communities, mainly because of high error rates in real scenarios. Existing face recognition systems have achieved promising recognition accuracy under controlled condition. However, these systems are highly sensitive to environmental factors due to changing appearance of human face, such as variations in expression, illumination, pose, partial occlusion, and time gap between training and testing data capture. A practical face recognition system should be more robust against these varying conditions. Especially in some applications such as access control to sensitive areas, monitoring border crossing, and identifying criminals or terrorists, the system should be capable of identifying individuals who use disguise accessories to hide one’s identity to remain elusive from low enforcement. Furthermore, many reported face recognition techniques rely heavily on the size and representative of training set, and most of them will suffer serious performance drop or even fail to work if only one training sample per person is available to the system. Hence, face recognition from one sample per person is an important but challenging problem both in theory and for real-world applications. Fewer samples per person mean less laborious effort for collecting them, lower costs for storing and processing them.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith School of Engineering
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
Full Text

The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report concludes that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) could weaken substantially but is very unlikely to collapse in the 21st century. However, the assessment largely neglected Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) mass loss, lacked a comprehensive uncertainty analysis, and was limited to the 21st century. Here in a community effort, improved estimates of GrIS mass loss are included in multicentennial projections using eight state-of-the-science climate models, and an AMOC emulator is used to provide a probabilistic uncertainty assessment. We find that GrIS melting affects AMOC projections, even though it is of secondary importance. By years 2090-2100, the AMOC weakens by 18% [-3%, -34%; 90% probability] in an intermediate greenhouse-gas mitigation scenario and by 37% [-15%, -65%] under continued high emissions. Afterward, it stabilizes in the former but continues to decline in the latter to -74% [+4%, -100%] by 2290-2300, with a 44% likelihood of an AMOC collapse. This result suggests that an AMOC collapse can be avoided by CO2 mitigation.

This paper considers the influences of fate and free will in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Current scholarship on the topic generally agrees that Rowling champions free will by allowing her characters learning opportunities through their choices. By using Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy on fate and free will and by more closely examining the Harry Potter texts, this paper demonstrates fate’s stronger presence in Rowling’s fictional world. Certain strong-willed characters rise above their peers’ fated states by embracing their personal fates and exercising their wills to create themselves within fated destinies. The paper also explores the possibility of an authority directing fate.

This research has investigated the factors influencing the kinetics and efficacy of natural organic matter (NOM) removal during the anionic ion exchange process (IEX). A holistic approach was undertaken to evaluate various IEX resins in terms of their NOM removal kinetics and regeneration efficiency under batch and consecutive multiple loading cycles. Initial screenings indicated the strongly basic resin as a better candidate for NOM removal, and hence it was employed for subsequent experiments. Different treatment parameters (resin dose, contact time, NOM source) were tested and detailed kinetic evaluations were conducted to determine the affinity and removal rate of NOM as well as nitrate, and sulfate that are generally present in natural waters. Results obtained showed a substantial removal of NOM (up to 80 %) and nitrate (up to 80 %), and a superior removal for sulfate (up to 98 %). Charge density and molecular weight were found to play a major role in the removal process. Different mathematical and physical models were employed to predict the experimental data and the rate-limiting step was found to be pore diffusion which was affected by the resin dose/solute concentrations ratio. Moreover, the impact of IEX resins on NOM fractions and subsequent water quality parameters was investigated in this study. Humic (-like) substances were mainly targeted by IEX, and more hydrophilic and/or non-ionic fractions were slightly removed. Application of IEX reduced the formation potential of carbonaceous and nitrogenous disinfection by-products by 13-20 % and 3-50 %, respectively. Also, the practice of IEX treatment reduced the assimilable organic carbon levels by 30-40 %. Additionally, a positive effect of IEX, as a pretreatment to UV/H₂O₂, at reducing the ⦁OH scavenging characteristics of the water was observed. Electrical energy per order for removing a probe compound (i.e., pCBA) showed 20-40 % reduction indicating the improvement in the efficacy of UV/H₂O₂ treatment. Findings of this study display the robustness of IEX process for drinking water applications and lay down a quantitative approach for evaluating the kinetics of this process under various treatment conditions.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Chemical and Biological Engineering, Department of
Graduate

Cette thèse étudie deux aspects d'interaction entre deux joueurs dans le modèle du calcul et de la communication quantique.Premièrement, elle étudie deux primitives cryptographiques quantiques, des briques de base pour construire des protocoles cryptographiques complexes entre deux joueurs, comme par exemple un protocole d'identification. La première primitive est la ``mise en gage quantique". Cette primitive ne peut pas être réalisée de manière inconditionnellement sûre, mais il possible d'avoir une sécurité lorsque les deux parties sont soumis à certaines contraintes additionnelles. Nous étudions cette primitive dans le cas où les deux joueurs sont limités à l'utilisation d'états et d'opération gaussiennes, un sous-ensemble de la physique quantique central en optique, donc parfaitement adapté pour la communication via fibres optiques. Nous montrons que cette restriction ne permet malheureusement pas la réalisation de la mise en gage sûre. Pour parvenir à ce résultat, nous introduisons la notion de purification intrinsèque, qui permet de contourner l'utilisation du théorème de Uhlman, en particulier dans le cas gaussien. Nous examinons ensuite une primitive cryptographique plus faible, le ``tirage faible à pile ou face'', dans le modèle standard du calcul quantique. Carlos Mochon a donné une preuve d'existence d'un tel protocole avec un biais arbitrairement petit. Nous donnons une interprétation claire de sa preuve, ce qui nous permet de la simplifier et de la raccourcir grandement.La seconde partie de cette thèse concerne l'étude de méthodes pour prouver des bornes inférieures dans le modèle de la complexité en requête. Il s'agit d'un modèle de complexité central en calcul quantique dans lequel de nombreux résultats majeurs ont été obtenus. Dans ce modèle, un algorithme ne peut accéder à l'entrée uniquement en effectuant des requêtes sur chacun des bits de l'entrée. Nous considérons une extension de ce modèle dans lequel un algorithme ne calcule pas une fonction, mais doit générer un état quantique. Cette généralisation nous permet de comparer les différentes méthodes pour prouver des bornes inférieures dans ce modèle. Nous montrons d'abord que la méthode par adversaire ``multiplicative" est plus forte que la méthode ``additive". Nous montrons ensuite une réduction de la méthode polynomiale à la méthode multiplicative, ce qui permet de conclure à la supériorité de la méthode par adversaire multiplicative sur toutes les autres méthodes. Les méthodes par adversaires sont en revanche souvent difficiles à utiliser car elles nécessite le calcul de normes de matrices de très grandes tailles. Nous montrons comment l'étude des symétries d'un problème simplifie grandement ces calculs. Enfin, nous appliquons ces formules pour prouver la borne inférieure optimale du problème INDEX-ERASURE un problème de génération d'état quantique lié au célèbre problème GRAPH-ISOMORPHISM
This dissertation studies two different aspects of two-player interaction in the model of quantum communication and quantum computation.First, we study two cryptographic primitives, that are used as basic blocks to construct sophisticated cryptographic protocols between two players, e.g. identification protocols. The first primitive is ``quantum bit commitment''. This primitive cannot be done in an unconditionally secure way. However, security can be obtained by restraining the power of the two players. We study this primitive when the two players can only create quantum Gaussian states and perform Gaussian operations. These operations are a subset of what is allowed by quantum physics, and plays a central role in quantum optics. Hence, it is an accurate model of communication through optical fibers. We show that unfortunately this restriction does not allow secure bit commitment. The proof of this result is based on the notion of ``intrinsic purification'' that we introduce to circumvent the use of Uhlman's theorem when the quantum states are Gaussian. We then examine a weaker primitive, ``quantum weak coin flipping'', in the standard model of quantum computation. Mochon has showed that there exists such a protocol with arbitrarily small bias. We give a clear and meaningful interpretation of his proof. That allows us to present a drastically shorter and simplified proof.The second part of the dissertation deals with different methods of proving lower bounds on the quantum query complexity. This is a very important model in quantum complexity in which numerous results have been proved. In this model, an algorithm has restricted access to the input: it can only query individual bits. We consider a generalization of the standard model, where an algorithm does not compute a classical function, but generates a quantum state. This generalization allows us to compare the strength of the different methods used to prove lower bounds in this model. We first prove that the ``multiplicative adversary method'' is stronger than the ``additive adversary method''. We then show a reduction from the ``polynomial method'' to the multiplicative adversary method. Hence, we prove that the multiplicative adversary method is the strongest one. Adversary methods are usually difficult to use since they involve the computation of norms of matrices with very large size. We show how studying the symmetries of a problem can largely simplify these computations. Last, using these principles we prove the tight lower bound of the INDEX-ERASURE problem. This a quantum state generation problem that has links with the famous GRAPH-ISOMORPHISM problem

In 2008 a new educational initiative termed “School without segregation” was implemented in Iceland. Its goal was to ensure that all children would be provided with education suited to individual variations in social and educational needs. Coinciding with this policy initiative a new technology strategy was implemented in the municipality of Kópavogur, Iceland´s second largest city, with the aim to equip children to deal with the fundamental technological changes in modern society and integrate technology in their education. As an integral part of this strategy all students in Kópavogur, from the fifth to the tenth grade were given iPads in 2015. The affected population was approximately 4.700 students and over 450 teachers. A significant body of research has examined how students fare when technology is integrated into their education. However, this thesis aims to examine how the implementation of this tablet-centric initiative affected the working environment of the municipality´s teachers, a subject that has been researched to a much lesser extent. With the aid of personal interviews communication between stakeholders of the initiative, strategies to motivate and encourage teachers in dealing with the change in their working environment and support afforded during the process was examined. Special focus was placed on the extent of involvement and participation of teachers during the implementation and the question of whether teachers´ opinions had an impact throughout the process. The thesis analysis is based on 18 semi-formal interviews with teachers from all of the city´s nine schools. Additionally, the team in charge of leading the implementation was interviewed to further broaden the scope. In brief, the thesis highlights that contention surrounded various aspects of the implementation. Many of the teachers felt overwhelmed and hesitant and described feeling that their concerns went unnoticed. Today, however, three years down the road, the iPads seem to have become an integral part of the everyday working environment of teachers and students alike and none of the teachers want to go back to teaching without iPads.

Este trabalho visa a estudar o modelo de percolação independente, de Bernoulli, em grafos, tendo como objetivo principal obter condições que garantam a ocorrência de transição de fase. Iniciamos apresentando as definições e algumas técnicas fundamentais para o modelo de percolação (de elos ou de sítios) em um grafo infinito, conectado e localmente finito. Demonstramos então dois resultados essenciais: os fatos do parâmetro crítico não depender da escolha do vértice e da existência de um aglomerado infinito ter probabilidade 0 ou 1. Também obtemos um limitante inferior para o parâmetro crítico quando o grafo é de grau limitado. Para finalizar esta parte introdutória, analisamos a percolação em grafos particulares, a saber, a rede hipercúbica Z^d (para a qual mostramos a existência de transição de fase em dimensão d >= 2 e a unicidade do aglomerado infinito na fase supercrítica) e alguns tipos de árvores (para as quais apresentamos os parâmetros críticos). Na parte mais importante da dissertação, tendo como base os trabalhos de Benjamini e Schramm, de Häggström, Schonmann e Steif e de Lyons e Peres, introduzimos os conceitos de transitividade, amenabilidade e amenabilidade forte para um grafo. Fazemos uma detalhada discussão destas definições: provamos que a constante de Cheeger ancorada não depende do vértice em que é ancorada, estudamos relações entre os conceitos (amenabilidade e amenabilidade forte são noções distintas, bem como condições necessárias e suficientes para ambas) e calculamos a constante de Cheeger e a constante de Cheeger ancorada para alguns grafos. Finalmente, utilizando a técnica de crescimento do aglomerado, apresentamos para a probabilidade crítica um limitante superior que depende da constante ancorada. Isto nos permite concluir que ocorre transição de fase para qualquer grafo infinito, conectado, fracamente não-amenável (de constante de Cheeger ancorada positiva) e de grau limitado.
This work intends to study independent Bernoulli percolation model on graphs; the main purpose is obtaining conditions for phase transition. We begin presenting the definitions and some basic techniques for bond percolation and site percolation models on infinite, connected, locally finite graphs. We prove two essential results: the critical parameter is independent of the choice of the vertex and the probability that there exists an infinite cluster takes the values 0 and 1 only. We also obtain a lower bound for critical parameter when the graph is of bounded degree. To finish this preliminary part, we analyze percolation on particular graphs, namely the d-dimensional cubic lattice Z^d (for which we prove that there exists phase transition in dimension d >= 2 and the uniqueness of the infinite cluster in supercritical phase) and some trees (for which we present the critical parameters). In the most important part of this essay, founded in the works of Benjamini and Schramm, Häggström, Schonmann and Steif and Lyons and Peres, we introduce the concepts of transitivity, amenability and strong amenability. We discuss in detail these definitions: we prove that anchored Cheeger constant does not depend on the choice of the vertex, we study some relations (amenability and strong amenability are distinct notions, and necessary and sufficient conditions for both) and we obtain Cheeger constant and anchored Cheeger constant for some graphs. Finally, using the growing cluster technique, we present for the critical probability an upper bound that depends on the anchored constant. This permits us to conclude that there exists phase transition on infinite, connected, weakly non-amenable graphs of bounded degree.

During face-to-face meetings, humans use multimodal information, including verbal information, visual information, body language, facial expressions, and other non-verbal gestures. In contrast, during computer-mediated-communication (CMC), humans rely either on mono-modal information such as text-only, voice-only, or video-only or on bi-modal information by using audiovisual modalities such as video teleconferencing. Psychologically, the difference between the two lies in the level of the subjective experience of presence, where people perceive a reduced feeling of presence in the case of CMC. Despite the current advancements in CMC, it is still far from face-to-face communication, especially in terms of the experience of presence. This thesis aims to introduce new concepts, theories, and technologies for presence design where the core is actions for creating presence. Thus, the contribution of the thesis can be divided into a technical contribution and a knowledge contribution. Technically, this thesis details novel technologies for improving presence experience during mediated communication (video teleconferencing). The proposed technologies include action robots (including a telepresence mechatronic robot (TEBoT) and a face robot), embodied control techniques (head orientation modeling and virtual reality headset based collaboration), and face reconstruction/retrieval algorithms. The introduced technologies enable action possibilities and embodied interactions that improve the presence experience between the distantly located participants. The novel setups were put into real experimental scenarios, and the well-known social, spatial, and gaze related problems were analyzed. The developed technologies and the results of the experiments led to the knowledge contribution of this thesis. In terms of knowledge contribution, this thesis presents a more general theoretical conceptual framework for mediated communication technologies. This conceptual framework can guide telepresence researchers toward the development of appropriate technologies for mediated communication applications. Furthermore, this thesis also presents a novel strong concept – presence through actions - that brings in philosophical understandings for developing presence- related technologies. The strong concept - presence through actions is an intermediate-level knowledge that proposes a new way of creating and developing future 'presence artifacts'. Presence- through actions is an action-oriented phenomenological approach to presence that differs from traditional immersive presence approaches that are based (implicitly) on rationalist, internalist views.

碩士
國立清華大學
資訊工程學系
102
In this thesis, we propose a novel approach to 3D hair modeling from multi-view images of a specific person. The reconstructed 3D hair model can be integrated with the reconstructed 3D face model to obtain a complete human head model for vivid facial animation. In our 3D hair reconstruction system, we first estimate 2D orientation of the hair regions in each view, and estimate an initial 3D orientation field of hair according to the relative position to the reconstructed face model. Then the initial 3D orientations are refined by optimizing a cost function carefully designed to combine multi-view constraint, 3D orientation constraint, and strand constraint. Then, our algorithm grows the 3D hair strands from the root points, which are uniformly sampled on the pre-defined surface region of the reconstructed 3D head model, along the direction determined by the refined 3D orientation field. Finally, we show some experimental results of the reconstructed 3D hair strand models by using the proposed algorithm.

In 2008, the topic of “evolution” was introduced into the Life Science syllabus for the first time in South African schools. Evolution is a controversial topic in most countries and the controversy will be experienced in South African schools. This controversy results from the erroneous belief that teachers and most people have that religion and evolutionary theory contradict each other. This research study explored the difficulties faced by teachers with strong religious beliefs when they teach evolution. Eight teachers with strong religious beliefs were identified. Teachers of the Muslim and Christian faith who taught at either religious or secular schools formed part of the research study. The teachers were subjected to an in-depth interview where they were questioned about their religious beliefs and their opinions about creation and evolution. They also described how they taught evolution and explained how they coped with the conflict of faith and science that they experienced when they taught evolution. These teachers also experienced myriad difficulties when they taught evolution. These difficulties were described to me as the researcher. The findings indicated that all of the Muslim teachers and three of the four Christian teachers interviewed are Creationists. This leads to personal conflict that some of the teachers interviewed experience because of their belief that evolution and religious belief contradict each other. Two of the teachers in this study also experience a lack of confidence with the subject knowledge because they lack training in evolutionary theory. Due to this lack of training there are some teachers who harbour misconceptions about evolutionary concepts and who pass these misconceptions to learners. There is also pressure placed on teachers to teach creationism or to teach creationism alongside evolution from some religious leaders, some parents and certain members of the community. A few teachers with strong religious beliefs could teach evolution very superficially or these teachers could even sabotage their teaching of evolution. Teachers also experience difficulties teaching the learners in their class. The findings indicate that learners in religious schools may refuse to learn about evolution and learners in certainschools choosenot to do Life Sciences from Grade 10 to avoid learning about evolution. There are certain strategies that teachers employ to minimise the conflict they experience when teaching evolution. Learners were told they had to study evolution in order to pass the matriculation examination. Teachers also explained to learners that they needed to study evolution so that they could argue for Creationism from a position of knowledge and not ignorance. Certain teachers interviewed taught learners that science needs to be considered separate to religion. The conflict of faith and science that teachers experience when they teach evolution causes difficulties for these teachers.This conflict could arise from personal conflict with their faith or they could experience discord from learners, parents and members from the community in which they teach.

This study explores the experiences of young string players in a music collective called Face the Music. The organization consists of musicians aged 10 to 18, and is dedicated to the preparation and performance of music by living classical composers. I begin with the assertion that contemporary classical music, hereinafter referred to as contemporary music, is often misinterpreted and underappreciated by the general public, and even musicians themselves. There is minimal research exploring what contemporary classical music education is or could be, especially regarding non-professional musicians and/or adolescents. From this starting point, I explore the experiences of 18 members, six coaches, and one parent. Data includes focus group interviews with young string players in quartet settings, individual interviews with coaches, field notes, and a variety of musical artifacts. Face the Music musicians were highly flexible and versatile musicians; they identified as performers, composers, and improvisers—and possibly rebels of some kind. In addition to these subjectivities, their most prominent characteristic was revealed in their “polytonal roles,” a concept I explicate. Findings suggest complex relationships between their emotions and contemporary music. Several disparate benefits, especially social benefits, were manifested through the idea of community. Coaches at Face the Music perceived their roles as pushing the boundaries of traditional classical music training and promoting living composers. The unsureness and uncertainty from the young string players also reflect the ambiguous nature of contemporary music. Findings suggest that there is a space for music educators to re-conceptualize contemporary classical music education for young musicians.

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Statistics and Information Management, specialization in Information Analysis and Management
This dissertation aims to study the similarities between term and preterm infants in the mother-infant interactions and the infant’s development of the self-regulation. There are three main experiences related to the infant’s self-regulation development and the mother-infant interactions: Still-Face Experiment, Free-Play Situation and the Strange Situation Experiment. The Apgar scores (measure of the general health of the newborn) and the Care-Index scores were found to be significantly different for preterm and term infants. The Apgar scores were also different across the majority of the infant’s weight groups and mother’s age groups. Also, some of the Care-Index maternal scales (maternal sensitivity and passivity) were found to be significantly different for the majority of education levels. The relation between the Still-Face Experiment and the Strange Situation Experiment was already discussed in several studies and is supported by this dissertation: Self-Comfort, Socially Negative and Socially Positive behaviors are related with the Insecure, Resistant and Secure attachments. Both preterm and term infants displayed a Socially Positive behavior and a Secure attachment in the majority of cases. However, tests shown that the results of these experiences could depend on the sample type (preterm or term infants). When analyzed separately, preterm and term infants seem to have similar results in each analysis. However, this was not found to be true: the results for the Still-Face Experiment, Free-Play Situation and the Strange Situation Experiment were significantly different for preterm and term infants.

Project Work presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies Management
The existence of fake news is an extremely topical concern which calls into question the veracity of the broadcasted information. Since nowadays the search and production of news is mainly done online, the costs with content production are low and the content’s reach and speed of propagation is very high. These factors facilitate the dissemination of fake news in social platforms that are not specialized means of communication, namely in online social networks. Therefore, this study aims to characterize different profiles of Portuguese individuals based on their susceptibility to several news topics. The attainment of the mentioned profiles is going to be a valuable contribution to information management and it is going to allow future definition of measures to mitigate the propagation of fake news in social platforms. To achieve this, critical literature review was done and accompanied by the creation of a survey to analyze how academic background and topic of the news pieces influence the accuracy of individuals identifying false news. This dissertation intents to understand if there is anyone immune to fake news, or if individuals can be more or less immune depending on the topic.