Thèses sur le sujet « Multisensory development »

In order to understand and interact with the world, our brains must integrate information from multiple sensory modalities to create coherent representations of scenes and events. The integration of visual, tactile and proprioceptive inputs underpins the subjective sense of self and body ownership. This, in turn, underlies the development of social processes including self-awareness, imitation and empathising, which are impaired in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Evidence suggests that the social functioning deficits characterising ASD could contribute to atypical sensory integration underlying body representation. However, the exact mechanisms underlying sensory integration difficulties have not been specified. Moreover, it is not clear when, and how, visual, tactile and proprioceptive integration matures in typical development. This is important to establish, in order to compare how and why this integration may differ in ASD populations. This thesis firstly aimed to investigate the typical development of multisensory integration underlying body representation. Experiment One found that the ability to optimally integrate visual and proprioceptive inputs during hand localisation increases with age from very little integration in 4-year-olds to almost adult-like in typically developing 10- to 11-year-olds. Experiments Two and Three showed that sensitivity to the spatial constraints of visuo-proprioceptive integration, and sensitivity to the temporal constraints of visuo-tactile integration, develops with age in 4 to 11-year-olds. Together these studies suggest that the maturation of adult-like multisensory integration for body representation follows a protracted time course over childhood. The second aim of this thesis was to investigate the evidence for two prominent theories of atypical sensory integration underlying body representation in ASD. These are 1) an over-reliance on proprioception and 2) temporally extended sensory binding. Experiment Four examined whether trypically developing (TD) adults with a high number of autistic traits exhibit an over-reliance on proprioception. No evidence was found for this, which could indicate that atypical sensory integration is only present in individuals with a clinical diagnosis of ASD. Experiments Five and Six found evidence for temporally extended visuo-tactile integration in children with ASD, compared to TD control participants. Though no evidence was found for a fundamental over-reliance on proprioception, extended binding may have led to reduced processing of temporal synchrony over modality-specific information (i.e. proprioception). Experiment Seven and Eight found no evidence of proprioceptive over-reliance or temporally extended sensory binding in adults with ASD, relative to a TD control group. I conclude that children with ASD demonstrate temporally extended visuo-tactile binding. This represents a developmental delay rather than a life-long deficit; however, it could have a life-long impact on sensory sensitivities and social processing.

Technological advancements in the recent past have provided new methods for learning to speak English as a second language (ESL). The majority of accent reduction training regimes nowadays involve the use of different media as teaching and learning cues such as video or audio signals. However, few such programs have been proven to actually provide efficient and useful feed back to ESL learners, and few offers evidence proving that such multisensory approach of accent reduction is superior to traditional unisensory (auditory-only) approach. The present study intended to design and assess the effectiveness and efficacy of a multisensory, acoustics-based accent reduction training system that is capable of training foreign speakers to correctly produce English vowels by providing instantaneous auditory and visual feedback to the users. The study also validated the system against traditional accent modification regimes by objectively comparing the efficacy of such system with traditional accent reduction training. Results indicate that multimedia-based training with instantaneous visual and auditory feedback yielded significant improvement in accent reduction.
published_or_final_version
Speech and Hearing Sciences
Master
Master of Philosophy

Alteration of one sensory system can have striking effects on the processing and organization of the remaining senses, a phenomenon known as cross-modal plasticity. The goal of this thesis was to understand the circuit basis of this form of plasticity. I established the mouse as a model system for studying cross-modal plasticity by comparing population activity in visual cortex between animals reared in complete darkness from birth (DR) to those housed in a normal light/dark environment (LR). I found that secondary visual cortex (V2L) responds much more strongly to auditory stimuli in DR than LR. I provide evidence that there is a sensitive period for cross-modal responses that ends in early adulthood. I also show that exposure to light later in life reduces V2L auditory activity to LR levels. I recorded single units to show that there is a higher percentage of auditory responsive neurons in DR V2L. In collaboration with Lia Min in Michela Fagiolini’s laboratory, we discovered that this was associated with an increase in the number of projections from auditory thalamus and auditory cortex. We also provide evidence that V2L is multimodal from birth and becomes less so with visual experience. I examined several molecular pathways that are affected by dark-rearing to see if they are involved in cross-modal plasticity. I found that Nogo receptor (NgR), Lynx1, and Icam5 signaling all play a fundamental role in controlling the duration of plasticity. I also show that the hyperconnectivity in NgR -/- and DR mice leads to an increase in multisensory enhancement. In primary visual cortex, cross-modal influences were much weaker. Similar to V2L, the distribution of cell types was affected by NgR signaling. I also found that both the range of cross-modal influence and its sign (excitatory or inhibitory) is dependent on visual experience. Finally, I show that NgR signaling and the maturation of inhibitory circuits affect these two properties. Together, these results provide evidence of the molecular mechanisms underlying cross-modal plasticity. We believe that this will further our knowledge of how to improve rehabilitation strategies after loss of a sensory system.

The purpose of the research was to assess the impact of the process of professional development of English foreign language teachers in Israel who participated in the Explicit Multisensory Phonics Intervention Programme. Previous research focused on changes in knowledge, practices, student attainment, and beliefs. Changes from negative to positive self efficacy were not examined, and a model for the professional development of the English foreign language teacher did not exist. The conceptual framework is based on an integration of the concept of self efficacy with theories of professional development and literacy acquisition. Literacy acquisition is based on the knowledge and practice components of the process of professional development in this research. The process of professional development is set in motion by a sense of negative self efficacy. The attainment of content knowledge is followed by a change of practices and thereafter improved student attainment, leading to changes in teachers’ beliefs and positive self efficacy. The research questions seek to clarify teachers’ incentives for joining the programme, their standard of content knowledge and perceptions of the impact of the process of professional development. A mixed methods approach was used. The content knowledge of teachers was tested with a pre and post test. A questionnaire about the process of professional development was sent to teachers who had participated in the programme since 1991. Several unstructured interviews were held. Results showed that the teachers’ sense of negative self efficacy and failure in the field initiated their need for professional development. The impact of the process of professional development was: increased knowledge, changed practices and beliefs, claimed student attainment and positive self efficacy. The research contributes to knowledge by empirically supporting a theoretically based model for the impact of the process of professional development of English foreign language teachers. Positive and negative self efficacy are key factors in the process of professional development and knowledge is the basis of this process. These conclusions have practical applications for teacher training.

The 21st century automobile has become more than just a simple tool for transportation and more of a brand image or a way for drivers to express their personal taste. This has made it increasingly important for automotive manufacturers to design the driver experience and driver feeling so as to tailor their preferences and interests. Currently there is not enough information on how to design or brand the communication of meaningful feedback from the automobile to the driver. With the development of new advanced technologies such as electric steer-by-wire systems or electric automobiles, the need to provide meaningful feedback to the driver plays a central role in the experience of using the new driving technology. Thus it is important to understand how to assess the emotional response to the stimuli reaching the driver so to be able to optimise at later stage the perceived experience. Steering wheel vibration feedback plays an important role for the driver’s control input when driving. There is currently a lack of research on the formal assessment criteria of driver emotional response used to define automotive steering wheel vibration feedback, therefore this thesis proposes a newly Driver Emotional Semantic (DES) Scale to answer the research question: “How can the emotional response to steering wheel vibration be assessed?”. This study starts with a comparison of a questionnaire survey (Exp.1) and a laboratory test (Exp.2) to identify if a correlation exists between the emotional ratings measured from the expected driver’s perception of the vibration and the experienced emotional feeling of steering wheel vibration. The work then defines a semantic scale to capture the vibrational vocabulary used by the driver to express their feeling of perceived vibration during real-road driving scenarios. Experiment 3 was therefore carried out to gather the underlying semantic descriptors used by drivers during driving scenarios. To test the reliability of the descriptive pairs of the DES rating scale developed, two evaluations of the assessment criteria were carried out: in real road scenarios (Exp.4) and laboratory test setting (Exp.5). Current research findings of this thesis suggest that the consistency of the scale dimensions found in the field study has captured with greater accuracy the driver semantic experience of automotive steering wheel vibration character as compared to the laboratory experiment dimensionality. Results suggest that the main vibrotactile semantic descriptors to assess the human emotional response to automotive steering wheel vibration were found to be four: pleasant, smooth, sharp and powerful. The final proposed DES scale could help automotive research and industry determine and customise the aspects of the automobile towards drivers’ preferences of felt experience.

We perceive the world through sensory experience. Sensory information is registered and processed by our brain in a modality specific fashion. Interestingly, studies have shown that the visual cortex of early but not late blind subjects is able to respond to touch or sound (Sadato et al., 1996; Buchel et al., 1998; Weeks et al., 2000; Gougoux et al., 2009). Here, we investigated whether sensory parcellation in adult cortex is innate or is acquired during early postnatal life in an experience-dependent manner. Furthermore, we studied the anatomical substrates and molecular pathways possibly involved in cross-modal activation and its plasticity. First, mice were reared from birth in total darkness until adulthood (DR) to replicate the human blind condition. Cross-modal activity and the underlying circuitry were analyzed. We found that DR visual cortex was strongly activated by sound stimulation using functional imaging, single-unit recording, and c-Fos immunohistochemistry. Functional analysis was followed by anatomical tracing studies, which showed ectopic projections from the auditory thalamus and auditory cortex into the secondary visual area in DR animals. The second half of our study looked at how visual experience affects cross-modal plasticity. We found that cross-modal activity and ectopic connectivity is present in normally reared young mice (25 postnatal days: P25). Normal sensory experience through the first two months of postnatal life was sufficient to decrease the number of ectopic inputs. Interestingly, exposing DR mice to visual experience as adults established transient functional sensory specificity in the visual cortex without eliminating the ectopic anatomical inputs. Lastly, we tested several molecular pathways that can potentially regulate cross-modal plasticity. We found that myelin signaling and cholinergic modulation controls the duration of cross-modal plasticity and consolidates sensory modularization. Overall, our work proposes a model of how cross-modal inputs into early sensory areas are pruned or retained depending on early life experience. This study provides insight into how the cortex develops functional specificity, and help approach disorders that exhibit abnormal sensory integration and disrupted neuronal connectivity such as Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Cette thèse examine dans quelle mesure les odeurs contribuent au développement de la catégorisation visuelle dans le cerveau humain à l’aide d’une stimulation visuelle périodique rapide couplée à l’électroencéphalographie de surface (FPVS-EEG). Nous avons en particulier cherché à caractériser si une réponse cérébrale sélective à la catégorie visuelle des visages est modulées par la présence d’une odeur corporelle chez le nourrisson (Etudes 1 à 3) et l'adulte (Etude 4).Chez le nourrisson, la sélectivité de l'effet de l’odeur sur la categorisation visuelle a été testée à l’aide de trois catégories étudiées séparément chez trois groupes de nourrissons de 4 mois exposés à une odeur contrôle ou à l’odeur de leur mère. Nous avons observé qu’une réponse sélective aux visages est largement amplifiée par l'odeur maternelle en regard du cortex occipito-temporal droit (Etude 1). En revanche, une réponse sélective aux voitures, mesurée au niveau de la région occipitale droite, ne présente aucun effet de l'odeur (Etude 2). Enfin, en utilisant des objets non faciaux configurés comme des visages (visages illusoires), une réponse sélective à ces visages illusoires est amplifiée au niveau de l’hémisphère droit en présence de l'odeur maternelle, et même intiée chez certains nourrissons qui ne répondent pas à ces visages illusoire en l’absence de l’odeur maternelle (Etude 3). Chez l’adulte, les réponses sélectives aux visages humains, voitures et visages illusoires ont été mesurées en présence d’odeurs corporelles, de gasoil ou d’une odeur contrôle (Etude 4). Tandis que la categorisation des visages humains ou des voitures n’est pas affectée par la présence des odeurs, l’odeur corporelle amplifie la réponse sélective aux visages illusoires, suggérant un effet facilitateur d’une odeur congruente quand la catégorie visuelle est ambigüe. Dans ces quatre études, la réponse visuelle générale élicitée par l’ensemble des stimuli de la séquence visuelle rapide reste stable entre les contextes olfactifs testés, excluant un effet général des odeurs en termes d’éveil/d’attention.Dans l’ensemble, ces résultats démontrent un effet facilitateur important des odeurs corporelles sur la catégorisation d’informations visuelles congruentes (visages humains ou illusoires). Nous illustrons ainsi par ces associations olfacto-visuelles que les informations provenant de différents sens sont intégrées pour favoriser la catégorisation visuelle, particulièrement en début de vie lorsque le système visuel est encore immature, et que ces associations intersensorielles congruentes se maintiennent jusqu’à l’âge adulte dans le cas de stimuli visuels ambigus
This thesis examines whether and how odors contribute to the development of visual categorization in the human brain using fast periodic visual stimulation coupled with scalp electroencephalography (FPVS-EEG). Specifically, we sought to characterize if a neural visual response selective to the face category is modulated by the presence of a body odor in both infants (Study 1, 2, 3) and adults (Study 4).In infants, the selectivity of the odor effect on visual categorization was addressed by testing separately three categories in three groups of 4-month-old infants presented with a control odor or their mother’s odor. We observed that a face-selective response is largely enhanced by maternal odor over the right occipito-temporal cortex (Study 1). By contrast, a car-selective response, observed over the right occipital region, is insensitive to the presence of maternal odor (Study 2). Finally, when using nonface objects configured as faces (i.e., facelike objects), a facelike-selective response is amplified over the right hemisphere when infants are exposed to maternal odor, and even initiated in some infants who do not selectivly respond to facelike objects in the absence of maternal odor (Study 3). In adults, the selective responses to human faces, cars and facelike objects were recorded in a body, gasoline, or control odor context (Study 4). While the categorization of human faces or cars is immune to the presence of odors, the body odor enhances the facelike-selective response, suggesting a facilitating effect of a congruent odor when the visual categroy is ambiguous. For these four studies, the general visual response elicited by all stimuli in the rapid visual sequence remains stable across odor contexts, excluding any general effect of odors in terms of arousal/attention.Altogether, these findings demonstrate a strong facilitative effect of body odors on congruent visual categorizations (i.e., human or illusory faces). We thus illustrate through olfactory-visual associations that information from different senses are integrated to facilitate visual categorization, especially early in life when the visual system is still immature, and that these intersensory congruent associations are maintained until adulthood in the case of ambiguous visual stimuli

Brain injury is a serious clinical problem. The success of recovery from brain injury involves functional compensation in the affected brain area. We are interested in general mechanisms that underlie compensatory plasticity after brain damage, particularly when multiple brain areas or multiple modalities are included. In this thesis, I studied the function of auditory cortex after recovery from neonatal midbrain damage as a model system that resembles patients with brain damage or sensory dysfunction. I addressed maladaptive changes of auditory cortex after invasion by ectopic visual inputs. I found that auditory cortex contained auditory, visual, and multisensory neurons after it recovered from neonatal midbrain damage (Mao et al. 2011). The distribution of these different neuronal responses did not show any clustering or segregation. As might be predicted from the fact that auditory neurons and visual neurons were intermingled throughout the entire auditory cortex, I found that residual auditory tuning and tonotopy in the rewired auditory cortex were compromised. Auditory tuning curves were broader and tonotopic maps were disrupted in the experimental animals. Because lateral inhibition is proposed to contribute to refinement of sensory maps and tuning of receptive fields, I tested whether loss of inhibition is responsible for the compromised auditory function in my experimental animals. I found an increase rather than a decrease of inhibition in the rewired auditory cortex, suggesting that broader tuning curves in the experimental animals are not caused by loss of lateral inhibition. These results suggest that compensatory plasticity can be maladaptive and thus impair the recovery of the original sensory cortical function. The reorganization of brain areas after recovery from brain damage may require stronger inhibition in order to process multiple sensory modalities simultaneously. These findings provide insight into compensatory plasticity after sensory dysfunction and brain damage and new information about the role of inhibition in cross-modal plasticity. This study can guide further research on design of therapeutic strategies to encourage adaptive changes and discourage maladaptive changes after brain damage, sensory/motor dysfunction, and deafferentation.

It is well known that perception is mediated by the five sensory modalities (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste), which allows us to explore the world and build a coherent spatio-temporal representation of the surrounding environment. Typically, our brain collects and integrates coherent information from all the senses to build a reliable spatial representation of the world. In this sense, perception emerges from the individual activity of distinct sensory modalities, operating as separate modules, but rather from multisensory integration processes. The interaction occurs whenever inputs from the senses are coherent in time and space (Eimer, 2004). Therefore, spatial perception emerges from the contribution of unisensory and multisensory information, with a predominant role of visual information for space processing during the first years of life. Despite a growing body of research indicates that visual experience is essential to develop spatial abilities, to date very little is known about the mechanisms underpinning spatial development when the visual input is impoverished (low vision) or missing (blindness). The thesis's main aim is to increase knowledge about the impact of visual deprivation on spatial development and consolidation and to evaluate the effects of novel technological systems to quantitatively improve perceptual and cognitive spatial abilities in case of visual impairments. Chapter 1 summarizes the main research findings related to the role of vision and multisensory experience on spatial development. Overall, such findings indicate that visual experience facilitates the acquisition of allocentric spatial capabilities, namely perceiving space according to a perspective different from our body. Therefore, it might be stated that the sense of sight allows a more comprehensive representation of spatial information since it is based on environmental landmarks that are independent of body perspective. Chapter 2 presents original studies carried out by me as a Ph.D. student to investigate the developmental mechanisms underpinning spatial development and compare the spatial performance of individuals with affected and typical visual experience, respectively visually impaired and sighted. Overall, these studies suggest that vision facilitates the spatial representation of the environment by conveying the most reliable spatial reference, i.e., allocentric coordinates. However, when visual feedback is permanently or temporarily absent, as in the case of congenital blindness or blindfolded individuals, respectively, compensatory mechanisms might support the refinement of haptic and auditory spatial coding abilities. The studies presented in this chapter will validate novel experimental paradigms to assess the role of haptic and auditory experience on spatial representation based on external (i.e., allocentric) frames of reference. Chapter 3 describes the validation process of new technological systems based on unisensory and multisensory stimulation, designed to rehabilitate spatial capabilities in case of visual impairment. Overall, the technological validation of new devices will provide the opportunity to develop an interactive platform to rehabilitate spatial impairments following visual deprivation. Finally, Chapter 4 summarizes the findings reported in the previous Chapters, focusing the attention on the consequences of visual impairment on the developmental of unisensory and multisensory spatial experience in visually impaired children and adults compared to sighted peers. It also wants to highlight the potential role of novel experimental tools to validate the use to assess spatial competencies in response to unisensory and multisensory events and train residual sensory modalities under a multisensory rehabilitation.

The following qualitative study sought to answer three questions: (1) What are the high priority design values used by expert exhibit developers to create meaningful exhibits at children's museums? (2) How do exhibit developers prioritize these design values? (3) What are the desirable outcomes that exhibit developers seek to achieve with the guests who interact with the exhibits? These questions were answered through interviews with children's museum exhibit developers, personal observations, and artifact analysis. The data collected was organized into four cases, each representing a different children's museum and corresponding exhibit developer. The cases were then compared against each other using multiple case study analysis as described by Stake (2006). The data revealed that most of the developers designed exhibits which promoted family learning by encouraging meaningful interactions between parents and children. Other high priority design values used by exhibit developers included physical engagement, multiple entry points, simplicity, durability, multisensory engagement, staff and volunteer facilitation, safety, and immersive environments. Successful museum exhibits empowered guests and were always created using multiple design values. This thesis may be downloaded for free at http://etd.byu.edu.

This research was part of the two-years Horizon 2020 European Project "weDRAW". The aim of the project was that "specific sensory systems have specific roles to learn specific concepts". This work explores the use of the haptic modality, stimulated by the means of force-feedback devices, to convey abstract concepts inside virtual reality. After a review of the current use of haptic devices in education, available haptic software and game engines, we focus on the implementation of an haptic plugin for game engines (HPGE, based on state of the art rendering library CHAI3D) and its evaluation in human perception experiments and multisensory integration.

In my PhD research project, I wanted to investigate infants’ representation of the peripersonal space, which is the portion of environment between the self and the others. In the last three decades research provided evidence on newborns’ and infants’ perception of their own bodies and of other individuals, whereas not many studies investigated infants’ perception of the portion of space where they can interact with both others and objects, namely the peripersonal space. Considering the importance of the peripersonal space, especially in light of its defensive and interactive functions, I decided to investigate the development of its representation focusing on two aspects. On one side, I wanted to study how newborns and infants processed the space around them, if they differentiated between near and far space, possibly perceiving and integrating depth cues across sensory modalities and when and how they started to respond to different movements occurring in the space surrounding their bodies. On the other side, I was interested in understanding whether already at birth the peripersonal space could be considered as a delimited portion of space with special characteristics and, relatedly, if its boundaries could be determined. In order to respond to my first question, I investigated newborns’ and infants’ looking behaviour in response to visual and audio-visual stimuli depicting different trajectories taking place in the space immediately surrounding their body. Taken together, the results of these studies demonstrated that humans show, since the earliest stages of their development, a rudimentary processing of the space surrounding them. Newborns seemed, in fact, to already differentiate the space around them, through an efficient discrimination of different moving trajectories and a visual preference for those directed towards their own body, possibly due to their higher adaptive relevance. They also seemed to integrate multimodal, audio-visual information about stimuli moving in the near space, showing a facilitated processing of congruent audio-visual approaching stimuli. Furthermore, the results of these studies could help understand the development of the integration of multimodal stimuli with an adaptive valence during infancy. When newborns’ and infants were presented with unimodal, visual stimuli, they all directed their visual preferences to the stimuli moving towards their bodies. Conversely, their pattern of looking times was more complex when they were presented with congruent and incongruent audiovisual stimuli. Right after birth infants showed a spontaneous visual preference for congruent audio-visual stimuli, which was challenged by a similarly strong visual preference for adaptively important visual stimuli moving towards their bodies. The looking behaviours of 5-month-old infants, instead, seemed to be driven only by a spontaneous preference for multimodal congruent stimuli, i.e. depicting motion along the same trajectory, irrespective of the adaptive value of the information conveyed by either of the two sensory components of the stimulus. Nine-month-old infants, finally, seemed to flexibly integrate multisensory integration principles with the necessity of directing their attention to ethologically salient stimuli, as shown by the fact that their visual preference for unexpected, incongruent audio-visual stimuli was challenged by the simultaneous presence of adaptively relevant stimuli. Similarly to what happened with newborns, presenting 9-month-old infants with the two categories of preferred stimuli simultaneously led to the absence of a visual preference. Within my project I also investigated the electroencephalographic correlates of the processing of unimodal, visual and auditory, stimuli depicting different trajectories in a sample of 5-month-old infants. The results seemed to provide evidence in support of the role of the primary sensory cortices in the processing of crossmodal stimuli. Furthermore, they seemed to support the possibility that infants’ brain could allocate, already during the earliest stages of processing, different amounts of attention to stimuli with different adaptive valence. Two further studies addressed my second question, namely whether already at birth the peripersonal space could be considered as a delimited portion of space with special characteristics and if its boundaries could be determined. In these studies I measured newborns’ saccadic reaction times (RTs) to tactile stimuli presented simultaneously to a sound perceived at different distances from their body. The results showed that newborns’ RTs were modulated by the perceived position of the sound and that their modulation was very similar to that shown by adults, suggesting that the boundary of newborns’ peripersonal space could be identified in the perceived sound position in whose correspondence the drop of RTs happened. This suggested that at birth the space immediately surrounding the body seems to be already invested of a special salience and characterised by a more efficient integration of multimodal stimuli. As a consequence, it might be considered as a rudimentary representation of the peripersonal space, possibly serving, as a working space representation, early interactions between newly born humans and their environment. Overall, these findings provide a first understanding of how humans start to process the space surrounding them, which, importantly, is the space linking them with others and the space where their first interactions will take place.
Il mio progetto di Dottorato è nato con l’obiettivo di investigare la rappresentazione dello spazio peripersonale, cioè la porzione di spazio tra noi stessi e gli altri, durante l’infanzia. Nel corso degli ultimi trent’anni diversi studi hanno dimostrato la capacità di neonati ed infanti di percepire il proprio corpo, così come gli altri individui. Al contrario, non molti studi si sono interessati alla loro percezione della porzione di spazio dove essi possono interagire con gli oggetti e con gli altri, definita “spazio peripersonale”. Vista l’importanza dello spazio peripersonale, specialmente alla luce delle sue funzioni difensiva da un lato ed interattiva dall’altro, ho deciso di investigarne la rappresentazione concentrandomi su due aspetti. Da un lato, ho studiato come i neonati e gli infanti elaborino lo spazio intorno a loro, se differenzino tra spazio vicino e lontano, se percepiscano ed integrino gli indicatori di profondità provenienti da diverse modalità sensoriali, nonché come e quando inizino a rispondere ai diversi movimenti che hanno luogo nello spazio che circonda il loro corpo. Dall’altro lato, ero interessata a capire se già alla nascita lo spazio peripersonale potesse essere considerato come una porzione delimitata di spazio, contraddistinta da caratteristiche specifiche, e se i suoi confini potessero già essere stimati. Per rispondere alla mia prima domanda, ho analizzato il comportamento visivo di neonati ed infanti in risposta a stimoli visivi e audio-visivi raffiguranti diverse traiettorie che avevano luogo nello spazio immediatamente circostante il corpo. I risultati di questi studi, complessivamente, dimostrano che gli esseri umani mostrano, fin dai primi stadi dello sviluppo, una rudimentale capacità di elaborare lo spazio che circonda il loro corpo. I neonati sembrano, infatti, poter già differenziare lo spazio che li circonda, attraverso un’efficiente discriminazione di diverse traiettorie di movimento ed una preferenza visiva per quelle dirette verso il loro corpo, forse a causa della loro maggiore importanza adattiva. Inoltre, essi sembrano capaci di integrare informazioni multimodali rispetto al movimento di stimoli nello spazio circostante, mostrando un’elaborazione facilitata di stimoli in avvicinamento segnalati, al tempo stesso, da componenti visive ed uditive congruenti. Inoltre, i risultati di questi studi hanno permesso di aumentare la comprensione dello sviluppo della capacità di integrare stimoli multimodali caratterizzati da un’alta valenza adattiva durante l’infanzia. Quando ai neonati ed agli infanti sono stati presentati stimoli visivi (unimodali), essi hanno sempre rivolto la loro preferenza visiva agli stimoli che mostravano un movimento diretto verso il loro corpo. Diversamente, il loro comportamento visivo si è dimostrato più complesso quando sono stati presentati loro stimoli audiovisivi congruenti o incongruenti. Subito dopo la nascita, i neonati hanno mostrato una spontanea preferenza visiva per gli stimoli multimodali caratterizzati da una direzione di movimento congruente, a sua volta contrastata da un’altrettanta forte preferenza visiva per quegli stimoli che, muovendosi verso il loro corpo, erano caratterizzati da una grande salienza adattiva. Il comportamento visivo degli infanti di cinque mesi di età, invece, è sembrato essere guidato solamente da una spontanea preferenza per gli stimoli multimodali congruenti, cioè quelli che rappresentavano movimenti lungo la stessa traiettoria, indipendentemente dal valore adattivo delle informazioni trasmesse da ognuna delle due componenti sensoriali degli stimoli. Gli infanti di nove mesi di età, infine, sono sembrati capaci di integrare con flessibilità i principi dell’integrazione multisensoriale con la necessità di dirigere la loro attenzione verso gli stimoli etologicamente rilevanti, come dimostrato dal fatto che la loro preferenza visiva per gli stimoli audiovisivi incongruenti ed inaspettati è stata contrastata dalla simultanea presenza di stimoli importanti a livello adattivo. Come successo per i neonati, quando agli infanti di questa età venivano presentati contemporaneamente stimoli facenti parte delle due categorie preferite, essi non hanno mostrato alcuna preferenza visiva. All’interno del mio progetto ho anche investigato i correlati elettroencefalografici dell’elaborazione di stimoli unimodali, visivi ed uditivi, raffiguranti diverse traiettorie in un campione di infanti di cinque mesi di età. I risultati sembrano supportare il ruolo delle cortecce sensoriali primarie nell’elaborazione di stimoli provenienti da diverse modalità sensoriali, così come la possibilità che il cervello degli infanti possa assegnare diversi quantitativi di attenzione a stimoli di diversa importanza adattiva, già durante i primissimi stadi dell’elaborazione. Due ulteriori studi hanno indirizzato la mia seconda domanda, ovvero se già alla nascita lo spazio peripersonale possa essere considerato quale una porzione delimitata di spazio contraddistinta da particolari caratteristiche e se i suoi confini possano essere determinati. In questi studi ho misurato i tempi di reazione saccadici ad una stimolazione tattile accompagnata da un suono percepito a diverse distanze dal corpo. I risultati hanno mostrato che i tempi di reazione dei neonati sono stati modulati dalla distanza percepita del suono dal corpo. Inoltre, la modulazione dei tempi di reazione nei neonati è risultata molto simile a quella mostrata dagli adulti, suggerendo che i confini dello spazio peripersonale dei neonati possono essere identificati nella posizione in corrispondenza della quale i tempi di reazione sono drasticamente diminuiti. Questo dato suggerisce che alla nascita lo spazio immediatamente circostante il corpo sembra possedere già un’importanza particolare e sembra essere caratterizzato da una più efficace integrazione di stimoli multimodali. Di conseguenza, potrebbe essere considerato come una rudimentale rappresentazione dello spazio peripersonale, che può essere considerata al servizio delle interazioni precoci tra i neonati ed il loro ambiente. Complessivamente, questi risultati forniscono una prima comprensione di come gli esseri umani inizino a processare lo spazio che li circonda, cioè è lo spazio che li unisce agli altri, nonché lo spazio nel quale le loro prime interazioni avranno luogo.

This thesis is concerned with the continued development of multisensor array sensing technology for the detection and classification of aromas. The technology applies the use of conducting polymers grown across a gap between metallic conductors. The electrochemically deposited films complete a circuit and providing electrical resistance. In this format the films act as chemical resistors (chemiresistors) the current flow being influenced by the polymers' molecular electronics. Devices of this nature are potentially useful as sensors for analytes which cause the reversible modulation of the films' molecular electronics, leading to a detectable resistance change. Variation in the chemical and physical properties of the conducting polymer films has led to the generation of sensing devices capable of providing rapid, meaningful sensory information. The development of multisensor arrays containing a series of sensing devices having broad ranging sensitivities, has enabled effective discrimination of sample analytes. The information generated from such an array provides a 'fingerprint' or patterned response relating directly to the sample analyte. Complex statistical processing techniques have been coupled with the sensor technology to categorise and differentiate between the 'fingerprints' obtained. Instrumentation based on multisensor array technology has been developed by Neotronics Scientific Ltd., who currently market the NOSE (Neotronics Olfactory Sensing Equipment) based upon conducting polymer sensors. The research project resulting in this thesis was intended to develop and examine conducting polymer chemiresistor technology and explore the parameters that contribute to the production of effective discriminating sensors for use in array devices. The study involved an investigation of the variables involved in the electropolymerisation protocols, and expansion of the sensing chemiresistors available. This was achieved by analysis of polymer fabrication methods, and the variation in monomer and electrolyte feedstocks used during polymerisation. Polymer film stability was a major feature of the work performed as the long-term effectiveness of a sensing device is governed by environmental stability allowing reproducible analysis. Sensor optimisation was investigated using an individual system to determine the effect of the electrodeposition protocols, surface morphology, baseline resistance and film thickness. Polymer composition and stability were studied using a series of electrochemical, spectroscopic and surface analysis techniques. The data obtained resulted in the fabrication of chemiresistors not previously tested in electronic nose technology. Experimental optimisation studies also allowed variation in the nature of the responses obtained. A final area of investigation was the analysis of chemiresistors within a multisensor array environment using the NOSE technology. A series of arrays were prepared and the sensors exposed to a number of single, pure, organic analytes. From this data information was obtained on sensor response relating to molecular size, shape, position and nature of functional groups. The multifaceted nature of these experiments increased the number and response characteristics accessible to Neotronics, and provided a contribution to the knowledge surrounding the interactions between conducting polymer films and volatile organic analytes.

Growing needs for precise manipulation in medical surgery, manufacturing automation and structural health monitoring have motivated development of high accuracy, bandwidth and cost-effective sensing systems. Among these is a class of multi-axis electromagnetic devices where embedded magnetic fields can be capitalized for compact position estimation eliminating unwanted friction, stiction and inertia arising from dedicated and separate sensing mechanisms. Using fields for position measurements, however, is a challenging 'inverse problem' since they are often modeled in the 'forward' sense and their inverse solutions are often highly non-linear and non-unique. A general method to design a multisensor system that capitalizes on the existing magnetic field in permanent magnet (PM) actuators is presented. This method takes advantage of the structural field symmetry and meticulous placement of sensors to discretize the motion range of a PM-based device into smaller magnetic field segments, thereby reducing the required characterization domain. Within these localized segments, unique field-position correspondence is induced using field measurements from a network of multiple-axis sensors. A direct mapping approach utilizing trained artificial neural networks to attain multi-DOF positional information from distributed field measurements is employed as an alternative to existing computationally intensive model based methods which are unsuitable for real-time control implementation. Validation and evaluation of this technique are performed through field simulations and experimental investigation on an electromagnetic spherical actuator. An inclinometer was used as a performance comparison and experimental results have corroborated the superior tracking ability of the field-based sensing system. While the immediate application is field-based orientation determination of an electromagnetic actuator, it is expected that the design method can be extended to develop other sensing systems that harnesses other scalar, vector and tensor fields.

Cette thèse examine comment le principe de l'efficience inverse peut être appliqué à l'interaction olfacto-visuelle sur le développement du nourrisson en utilisant une stimulation périodique visuelle rapide (FPVS) avec une approche de marquage fréquentiel en électroencéphalographie (EEG). En particulier, nous avons essayé de confirmer ce principe en nous basant sur le développement de la vision pendant la première année de la vie (étude 1) et une demande visuelle différente à un âge donné (études 2 et 3) car il a été montré que la perception visuelle du nourrisson peut être facilitée par la réception de signaux olfactifs.Nous avons observé qu'un effet de facilitation de l'odeur maternelle sur la catégorisation des visages diminue progressivement avec la maturation du système visuel entre 4 et 12 mois (étude 1), montrant un compromis développemental entre la vision et l'olfaction. Cela suggère que la force de l’effet de l’odeur est liée à celle de la réponse aux visages, ici à partir de stimuli visuels complexes. Ainsi, dans l'étude 2 manipulant la demande visuelle (en simplifiant les stimuli) chez des nourrissons de 4 mois, nous avons trouvé une réponse sélective aux visages plus forte dans ce cas associé à une réduction de l'effet de l’odeur. Enfin, tenant compte de la catégorisation des visages plus efficace dans le cerveau des enfants de 12 mois en raison du développement visuel, dans l’étude 3 nous avons au contraire augmenté la demande visuelle en accélérant la vitesse de présentation des images. Cette fois, une réponse sélective des visages plus faible a été observée, mais l'effet d'odeur n'a pas augmenté, mais plutôt réduit, la réponse, suggérant une surcharge sensorielle.Dans l'ensemble, ce travail de thèse démontre pour la première fois l'application du principe d'efficience inverse à l'olfaction au cours du développement sensoriel. La réponse sélective au visage plus forte (en raison du niveau de maturation suffisant de la vision ou de la diminution de la demande visuelle) conduit à l'interaction olfactive-visuelle la plus faible (c'est-à-dire la facilitation intersensorielle), cependant la faible réponse sélective des visages n'est pas toujours liée à un plus fort effet de l'odeur: seulement quand le système visuel n'est pas suffisamment développé au début de la vie
This thesis examines how the inverse effectiveness principle can be applied to the olfactory-to-visual interaction during infant development using fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) with a frequency-tagging approach in scalp electroencephalography (EEG). In particular, we have tried to confirm this principle based on the developmental improvement of vision (Study 1) and different visual demand at a given age (Study 2 and 3) as it was shown that infant visual perception can be facilitated by the reception of odor cues.We observed that a facilitation effect of maternal body odor on rapid face categorization gradually declines with the progressive maturation of the visual system from 4 to 12 months (Study 1), showing a developmental trade-off between vision and olfaction. This suggests that the strength of the odor effect is linked to the strength of the face-selective response, elicited here using quite complex naturalistic stimuli. Thus, in Study 2, we manipulated visual demand (i.e., simplifying the stimuli) in 4 month-old infants and found a stronger face-selective response in the less demanding categorization that led to the suppression of the odor effect. Taking in account the effective face categorization in 12-month-old brain linked with visual development, in Study 3, we instead increased visual demand by doubling the image presentation rate. As expected, a weaker face-selective response was measured, however the odor effect did not increase but rather reduced the response, suggesting a sensory overload.Overall, this dissertation demonstrates for the first time the application of the inverse effectiveness principle to olfaction during perceptual development, through Study 1 and 2. The stronger face-selective response (due to the sufficient maturation level of vision or decreased visual demand) leads to the weakest olfactory-to visual interaction (i.e. intersensory facilitation), however the low face-selective response not always links to the enhanced odor effect: only when visual system is not enough developed in the early infancy

L'impact des nuages de glace sur le cycle de l'eau et le bilan radiatif est encore incertain en raison de la complexité des processus nuageux qui rend difficile l'acquisition d'observations adéquates sur les propriétés des nuages de glace et leur représentation dans les modèles de circulation générale. Les instruments de télédétection actifs et passifs, tels que les radiomètres, les radars et les lidars, sont couramment utilisés pour les étudier. La restitution des propriétés microphysiques des nuages (extinction, contenu en glace, rayon effectif, ...) peut être effectuée à partir d'un seul instrument ou de la combinaison de plusieurs instruments. L’intérêt de l’utilisation de synergies instrumentales pour restituer les propriétés nuageuses réside dans le fait que cela permet de réduire les incertitudes dues aux lacunes des différents instruments pris séparément. La constellation de satellites A-Train a considérablement amélioré notre connaissance des nuages. Depuis 2006, le lidar à rétrodiffusion visible CALIOP embarqué à bord du satellite CALIPSO et le radar nuage à 94GHz CPR embarqué à bord du satellite CloudSat ont permis l’acquisition de profils nuageux sur l’ensemble du globe et de nombreuses méthodes synergiques de restitution ont été adaptées à ces instruments. En 2021 sera lancé un nouveau satellite, EarthCARE, embarquant des instruments de télédétection de pointe, notamment ATLID, un lidar à haute résolution spectrale (HSRL) à 355 nm et un radar nuage Doppler à 94 GHz. La mission principale de ce satellite est de quantifier les interactions entre les nuages, les aérosols et le bilan radiatif de la Terre afin d'améliorer les prévisions météorologiques et des modèles climatiques. Grâce à son instrumentation avancée installée sur une plate-forme unique, cette nouvelle mission devrait fournir des observations sans précédent des nuages depuis l'espace. Cependant, pour ce faire, les algorithmes synergiques développés pour les mesures de l'A-Train doivent être adaptés à cette nouvelle configuration instrumentale. Au cours de ma thèse, je me suis concentrée sur l'algorithme Varcloud développé en 2007 par Delanoë et Hogan et basé sur une technique variationnelle. La première partie du travail a consisté à adapter certains paramètres du modèle microphysique de l’algorithme aux études récentes d’une large base de données in situ. En particulier, les questions de la paramétrisation du rapport lidar et du choix de la relation masse-diamètre pour les cristaux de glace ont été abordées. La deuxième partie de mon travail a consisté à adapter l'algorithme de restitution Varcloud aux plates-formes aéroportées. Les plates-formes aéroportées sont idéales pour préparer et valider les missions spatiales, permettant de réaliser des mesures sous-trace, colocalisées avec les instruments spatiaux. En particulier, le HALO allemand et le Falcon 20 français ont des charges utiles très complémentaires et sont parfaitement conçus pour la préparation et la validation de la mission EarthCare. Les deux avions embarquent notamment un lidar à haute résolution spectrale (355 nm sur le Falcon et 532 nm sur le HALO) et un radar Doppler à 36 GHz (HALO) et 95 GHz (Falcon). À l'automne 2016, une campagne aéroportée dans laquelle les deux avions étaient impliqués s'est déroulée en Islande, à Keflavik, dans le cadre du projet NAWDEX. Les mesures recueillies au cours de cette campagne fournissent un ensemble de données intéressant pour caractériser la microphysique et la dynamique des nuages dans l'Atlantique Nord, région qui présent un grand intérêt pour les missions Cloudsat-CALIPSO et EarthCARE. En outre, une série de vols communs avec observation de la même scène nuageuse par les deux plates-formes ont été réalisées, fournissant des données permettant d'étudier l'influence de la configuration instrumentale sur les propriétés des nuages de glace restituées
The impact of ice clouds on the water cycle and radiative budget is still uncertain due to the complexity of cloud processes that makes it difficult to acquire adequate observations of ice cloud properties and parameterize them into General Circulation Models. Passive and active remote sensing instruments, radiometers, radars and lidars, are commonly used to study ice clouds. Inferring cloud microphysical properties (extinction, ice water content, effective radius, ...) can be done from one instrument only, or from the synergy of several. The interest of using instrumental synergies to retrieve cloud properties is that it can reduce the uncertainties due to the shortcomings of the different instruments taken separately. The A-Train constellation of satellites has considerably improved our knowledge of clouds. Since 2006, the 532nm backscattering lidar CALIOP on board the satellite CALIPSO and the 94GHz cloud radar CPR on board the satellite CloudSat have acquired cloud vertical profiles globally and many lidar-radar synergetic methods have been adapted to CloudSat and CALIPSO data. In 2021 will be launched a new satellite, EarthCARE, boarding state of the art remote sensing instrumentation, in particular ATLID, a High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) at 355nm and a Doppler cloud radar at 94 GHz. The main mission of this satellite is to quantify interactions between clouds, aerosols and the Earth's radiation budget in order to improve weather prediction and climate models. Thanks to its advanced instrumentation mounted on a single platform, this new mission is expected to provide unprecedented observations of clouds from space. However, to do so, the synergistic algorithms that were developed for A-Train measurements have to be adapted to this new instrumental configuration. During my PhD, I focused on the Varcloud algorithm that was developed in 2007 by Delanoë and Hogan, based on a variational technique. The first part of the work consisted in adapting some parameters of the microphysical model of the algorithm to recent studies of a large dataset of in-situ measurements. In particular, the questions of a parameterization of the lidar extinction-to-backscatter ratio and the choice of the mass-size relationship for ice crystals were addressed. The second part of my work consisted in adapting the Varcloud retrieval algorithm to airborne platforms. Airborne platforms are ideal to prepare and validate space missions, allowing for direct underpasses of spaceborne instruments. Moreover, German and French aircraft, respectively HALO and French Falcon 20 have very complementary payloads and are perfectly designed for the preparation, the calibration and the validation of EarthCare. Both aircraft board a high spectral resolution lidar (355 nm on the French Falcon and 532 nm on the HALO) and a Doppler radar at 36 GHz (HALO) and 95 GHz (Falcon). In fall 2016 a field campaign related to the NAWDEX project took place in Iceland, Keflavik with both aircraft involved. The measurements collected during this campaign provide an interesting dataset to characterize cloud microphysics and dynamics in the North Atlantic, which are of high interest regarding the Cloudsat-CALIPSO and EarthCARE missions. In addition, a series of common legs with the same cloud scene observed by both platforms were performed, providing data to study the influence of the instrumental configuration on the retrieved ice cloud properties

Objectives: Elementary school classrooms that meet the acoustic requirements for near-optimum speech recognition are extremely scarce. Poor classroom acoustics may become a barrier to speech understanding as children enter school. The purpose of this study was threefold: 1) to quantify the extent to which reverberation, lexical difficulty, and presentation mode affect speech recognition in noise, 2) to examine to what extent auditory-visual (AV) integration assists with the recognition of speech in noisy and reverberant environments typical of elementary school classrooms, 3) to understand the relationship between developing mechanisms of multisensory integration and the concurrently developing linguistic and cognitive abilities. Design: Twenty-seven typically developing children and 9 young adults participated. Participants repeated short sentences reproduced by 10 speakers on a 30” HDTV and/or over loudspeakers located around the listener in a simulated classroom environment. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for 70 (SNR70) and 30 (SNR30) percent correct performance were measured using an adaptive tracking procedure. Auditory-visual integration was assessed via the SNR difference between AV and auditory-only (AO) conditions, labeled speech-reading benefit (SRB). Linguistic and cognitive aptitude was assessed using the NIH-Toolbox: Cognition Battery (NIH-TB: CB). Results: Children required more favorable SNRs for equivalent performance when compared to adults. Participants benefited from the reduction in lexical difficulty, and in most cases the reduction in reverberation time. Reverberation affected children’s speech recognition in AO condition and adults in AV condition. At SNR30, SRB was greater than that at SNR70. Adults showed marginally significant increase in AV integration relative to children. Adults also showed increase in SRB for lexically hard versus easy words, at high level of reverberation. Development of linguistic and cognitive aptitude accounts for approximately 35% of the variance in AV integration, with crystalized and fluid cognition composite scores identified as strongest predictors. Conclusions: The results of this study add to the body of evidence in support of children requiring more favorable SNRs to perform the same speech recognition tasks as adults in simulated listening environments akin to school classrooms. Our findings shed light on the development of AV integration for speech recognition in noise and reverberation during the school years, and provide insight into the balance of cognitive and linguistic underpinnings necessary for AV integration of degraded speech.

The classic distinction between the body schema and the body image received renewed interest in cognitive psychology, in part because of the attempts by the leading psychologist Charles Spence and his co-authors to synthesise a mounting body of research into the multisensory nature and functional properties of the neural structures in primate cortex that are sensitive and responsive to cross-modal stimuli generated from the body and objects located close to the body, and the famous rubber hand illusion which purported to illustrate how the perception and understanding of what counts as one’s body, i.e., our body image, can be manipulated to include foreign, body-part-like, objects such as a rubber hand. This approach was intended to settle age old questions about how the body schema – the system sub-personal sensorimotor system that shapes, facilitates and regulates motor control – is implemented in the brain and address historic confusions about how the body schema should be understood as an explanatory concept, as well as the problems surrounding the body schema and image distinction on the grounds of the persistent conflation between the two concepts. However, after offering several proposals as to how the body schema should be used to organise and interpret the empirical data, the distinction fell out of favour with Spence and his colleagues on the grounds of the very problems they intended to resolve. The proposed solution is an alternative theoretical framework that, I shall argue, never materialised. Instead, the various definitions they disseminate, I will claim, simply serve to further perpetuate the same problems and confusions about the body schema. Thus, the current state of the literature on the body image and schema in cognitive psychology is in dire need of a conceptual framework that would help us situate and interpret the important empirical data. I propose that we revisit the philosophical debates that were inspired by the philosopher Shaun Gallagher as part of his project to provide a conceptual analysis of the body schema and image distinction and vindicate its status as an important explanatory device for the explanatory ambitions of embodied cognition. Gallagher’s analysis opens up important questions about how the sub-personal multisensory processes of the body schema not only facilitate moment-by-moment motor behaviours, but how they shape and optimise motor control across developmental timelines, as well the importance of the embodied configuration of an agent and its particular eco-niche for shaping and facilitating its motor behaviours. The second important argument of the thesis is that the response to Gallagher’s analysis has simply served to suppress the line of research that Gallagher inspired because the questions his analysis raises have been overshadowed by more general disputes between Gallagher and his opponents about the shape an analysis of the body schema from the perspective of embodied cognition should take. As such, potentially promising lines of research in relation to the body schema have since dried up. As part of my attempt to make progress on the issues that are laid out at the first and second stages of the thesis, the third stage will involve an exploration into the seminal Bayesian approach to understanding cross-modal cue optimisation as it applies to object perception (Banks & Ernst, 2002) and the recent extension of this paradigm to the multimodal sensorimotor processes that underpin motor behaviour in action-oriented cognitive science (e.g., Friston, 2010). The conclusion of the thesis is that the move from an embodied to an action-oriented analysis of the body schema, and the conceptual distinction of which it is part, provides us with the right kind of theoretical resources to begin to pursue fruitful avenues of research that allow us to begin to address the questions set out by Gallagher’s analysis whilst avoiding (some of) the pitfalls that beset the embodied approach. In the final chapter I use this model of the body schema to illustrate how it can provide the basis for working back up towards a comprehensive theory of the body image and schema distinction, which I then bring to bear on current, as-yet-unaddressed, issues in developmental psychology.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis describes the development of a distributed control system for SSL soccer robots. The project continues on work done to develop a robotics research platform at Stellenbosch University. The wireless communication system is implemented using Player middleware. This enables high level programming of the robot drivers and communication clients, resulting in an easily modifiable system. The system is developed to be used as either a centralised or decentralised control system. The software of the robot’s motor controller unit is updated to ensure optimal movement. Slippage of the robot’s wheels restricts the robot’s movement capabilities. Trajectory tracking software is developed to ensure that the robot follows the desired trajectory while operating within its physical limits. The distributed control architecture reduces the robots dependency on the wireless network and the off-field computer. The robots are given some autonomy by integrating the navigation and control on the robot self. Kalman filters are designed to estimate the robots translational and rotational velocities. The Kalman filters fuse vision data from an overhead vision system with inertial measurements of an on-board IMU. This ensures reliable and accurate position, orientation and velocity information on the robot. Test results show an improvement in the controller performance as a result of the proposed system.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis beskryf die ontwikkeling van ’n verspreidebeheerstelsel vir SSL sokker robotte. Die projek gaan voort op vorige werk wat gedoen is om ’n robotika navorsingsplatform aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch te ontwikkel. Die kommunikasiestelsel is geïmplementeer met behulp van Player middelware. Dit stel die robotbeheerders en kommunikasiekliënte in staat om in hoë vlak tale geprogrameer te word. Dit lei tot ’n maklik veranderbare stelsel. Die stelsel is so ontwikkel dat dit gebruik kan word as óf ’n gesentraliseerde of verspreidebeheerstelsel. Die sagteware van die motorbeheer eenheid is opgedateer om optimale robot beweging te verseker. As die robot se wiele gly beperk dit die robot se bewegingsvermoëns. Trajekvolgings sagteware is ontwikkel om te verseker dat die robot die gewenste pad volg, terwyl dit binne sy fisiese operasionele grense bly. Die verspreibeheerargitektuur verminder die robot se afhanklikheid op die kommunikasienetwerk en die sentrale rekenaar. Die robot is ’n mate van outonomie gegee deur die integrasie van die navigasie en beheer op die robot self te doen. Kalman filters is ontwerp om die robot se translasie en rotasie snelhede te beraam. Die Kalman filters kombineer visuele data van ’n oorhoofse visiestelsel met inertia metings van ’n IMU op die robot. Dit verseker betroubare en akkurate posisie, oriëntasie en snelheids inligting. Toetsresultate toon ’n verbetering in die beheervermoë as ’n gevolg van die voorgestelde stelsel.

Frågeställning: Vilken utveckling av Akademibokhandelns fysiska butiker kan förstärka konkurrenskraften? Syfte: Uppsatsens syfte är att utreda och analysera vilka olika konkurrensmedel som kan ha relevans för Akademibokhandelns framtid, liksom möjlig utveckling av stödtjänster och potentiell breddning av verksamheten. Vidare är avsikten att klargöra hur tillämpning av sensoriska stimuli i Akademibokhandelns servicelandskap kan få betydelse för kunderna samt hur design och uppbyggnad av servicelandskapen kan stärka verksamheten. Metod: En kvalitativ forskningsmetod har använts med inslag av både induktion och deduktion. Datainsamlingen har skett via djupintervjuer och en fokusgrupp. Vidare har även resultatet genomgått en kvalitativ dataanalys. Resultat och slutsatser: Resultatet visar på att implementeringen av sensoriska stimulin i Akademibokhandelns servicelandskap på många sätt är till fördel för företaget, eftersom de generellt har en positiv påverkan på kundernas tjänsteupplevelse. Vidare konstaterades även att en utveckling av företagets stödtjänster ytterligare skulle stärka deras konkurrenskraft. Teoretiskt och praktiskt bidrag: Det teoretiska bidrag som arbetet genererat är hur ett servicelandskap med fokus på implementering av sinnesmarknadsföring kan gestaltas samt hur en integration mellan olika försäljningskanaler kan ta vid. Vi har även presenterat ett antal praktiska bidrag som är relevanta för Akademibokhandelns framtida utveckling. Nyckelord: Servicelandskap, Detaljhandel, Stödtjänster, Bokhandel, Utveckling, Multisensorik, Sinnesmarknadsföring, Breddning av verksamhet
Research question: Which development of Akademibokhandeln physical stores can enhance competitiveness? Purpose: This thesis aims to investigate and analyse the various means of competition that may have relevance to Akademibokhandelns future, as well as the possible development of support services and the potential expansion of the business. The purpose is to clarify if the application of sensory stimuli in Akademibokhandelns servicescape may have implications for customers as well as how the design and construction of the servicescapes can strengthen the business. Method: The thesis has elements of both induction and deduction, and a qualitative research method has been used. Data has been collected through in-depth interviews and a focus group. The data has gone through a qualitative data analysis. Results and conclusions: The result shows an implementation of sensory stimuli in Akademibokhandeln servicescape in many ways will benefit the company as they generally have a positive impact on the customer service experience. Additionally it was found that a development of the company´s support services would further enhance their competitiveness Theoretical and practical contributions: The theoretical contribution this report has generated is based on how a servicescape with a focus on an implementation of sensory marketing can be portrayed and how integration between different sales channels can be beneficial to the company. We have further on presented a number of practical contributions which we view as relevant to Akademibokhandelns Future Development. Key words: Servicescape, Retail, Support Services, Bookstore, Development, Multi-sensory, Sensory Marketing, Expansion of activities

Les troubles du spectre autistique (TSA) sont actuellement caractérisés par une triade d'altérations, incluant un dysfonctionnement social, des déficits de communication et des comportements répétitifs. L'intégration simultanée de multiples sens est cruciale dans la vie quotidienne puisqu'elle permet la création d'un percept unifié. De façon similaire, l'allocation d'attention à de multiples stimuli simultanés est critique pour le traitement de l'information environnementale dynamique. Dans l'interaction quotidienne avec l'environnement, le traitement sensoriel et les fonctions attentionnelles sont des composantes de base dans le développement typique (DT). Bien qu'ils ne fassent pas partie des critères diagnostiques actuels, les difficultés dans les fonctions attentionnelles et le traitement sensoriel sont très courants parmi les personnes autistes. Pour cela, la présente thèse évalue ces fonctions dans deux études séparées. La première étude est fondée sur la prémisse que des altérations dans le traitement sensoriel de base pourraient être à l'origine des comportements sensoriels atypiques chez les TSA, tel que proposé par des théories actuelles des TSA. Nous avons conçu une tâche de discrimination de taille intermodale, afin d'investiguer l'intégrité et la trajectoire développementale de l'information visuo-tactile chez les enfants avec un TSA (N = 21, âgés de 6 à18 ans), en comparaison à des enfants à DT, appariés sur l’âge et le QI de performance. Dans une tâche à choix forcé à deux alternatives simultanées, les participants devaient émettre un jugement sur la taille de deux stimuli, basé sur des inputs unisensoriels (visuels ou tactiles) ou multisensoriels (visuo-tactiles). Des seuils différentiels ont évalué la plus petite différence à laquelle les participants ont été capables de faire la discrimination de taille. Les enfants avec un TSA ont montré une performance diminuée et pas d'effet de maturation aussi bien dans les conditions unisensorielles que multisensorielles, comparativement aux participants à DT. Notre première étude étend donc des résultats précédents d'altérations dans le traitement multisensoriel chez les TSA au domaine visuo-tactile. Dans notre deuxième étude, nous avions évalué les capacités de poursuite multiple d’objets dans l’espace (3D-Multiple Object Tracking (3D-MOT)) chez des adultes autistes (N = 15, âgés de 18 à 33 ans), comparés à des participants contrôles appariés sur l'âge et le QI, qui devaient suivre une ou trois cibles en mouvement parmi des distracteurs dans un environnement de réalité virtuelle. Les performances ont été mesurées par des seuils de vitesse, qui évaluent la plus grande vitesse à laquelle des observateurs sont capables de suivre des objets en mouvement. Les individus autistes ont montré des seuils de vitesse réduits dans l'ensemble, peu importe le nombre d'objets à suivre. Ces résultats étendent des résultats antérieurs d'altérations au niveau des mécanismes d'attention en autisme quant à l'allocation simultanée de l'attention envers des endroits multiples. Pris ensemble, les résultats de nos deux études révèlent donc des altérations chez les TSA quant au traitement simultané d'événements multiples, que ce soit dans une modalité ou à travers des modalités, ce qui peut avoir des implications importantes au niveau de la présentation clinique de cette condition.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are currently characterized by a triad of impairments including social dysfunction, communication deficits and perseverative behaviours. The simultaneous integration of multiple senses is crucial in everyday life as it allows for the creation of a unified percept. Similarly, the allocation of attention to multiple events at the same time is critical in the processing of dynamic environmental information. In daily interactions with the environment, both sensory processing as well as attentional functions are building blocks to typical development (TD). Although not part of the current diagnostic criteria, difficulties with attention functions and sensory processing are very common among autistic persons. The present thesis therefore examined both these functions in two separate studies. The first study is based on the premise that alterations in basic sensory processing might underlie atypical sensory behaviours in ASD, as proposed by current theories of ASD. We conceived a cross-modal size discrimination task to assess the integrity and developmental course of visuo-tactile information in children with ASD (N = 21, aged 6-18 years), compared to age- and performance IQ-matched children with TD. In a simultaneous two-alternative forced-choice task, participants were asked to make a judgement on the size of two stimuli, based on unisensory (visual or tactile) or multisensory (visuo-tactile) inputs. Difference thresholds evaluated the smallest difference at which participants were capable to discriminate size. Children with ASD showed diminished performance and no maturational effects in both unisensory and multisensory conditions, compared to TD participants. Our first study therefore extends previous results of alterations in multisensory processing in ASD to the visuo-tactile domain. In our second study, we evaluated 3D-Multiple Object Tracking (3D-MOT) capacities in autistic adults (N = 15, aged 18-33 years), compared to age- and IQ-matched control participants, who were asked to track one or three moving targets amongst a set of distracters in a virtual reality environment. Performances were measured based on speed thresholds, which evaluates the greatest speed at which observers are capable of successfully tracking moving objects. Autistic individuals displayed overall reduced speed thresholds, whatever the number of spheres to track. These findings extend previous results of altered attention mechanisms in autism with regards to the simultaneous allocation of attention to multiple areas. Together, the findings of our two studies reveal alterations in ASD with regards to the processing of multiple events at the same time, be it within one modality or across modalities, which may have important implications for the clinical presentation of this condition.

abstract: Children with dyslexia have difficulty learning to read. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the use of simultaneous multisensory structured language (multisensory) instruction promoted better letter name and sound production, word reading, and word spelling for second grade children with typical development (TD; N=6) or with dyslexia (DYS; N=5) than structured language instruction alone. The use of non-English graphemes (letters) to represent two pretend languages were used to control for children’s lexical knowledge. A multiple baseline, multiple probe across subjects single-case design, paired with an alternating treatments design, was used to compare the efficacy of multisensory and structure language interventions. Participant’s graphed data was visually analyzed and individual Tau-U and weighted Tau-U effect sizes were calculated for the outcome variables: letter name production, letter sound production, word reading, and word spelling. Both interventions had an overall effect for participants with TD and DYS, though for individual participants intervention effects varied across outcome variables. However, the multisensory intervention did not provide a clear advantage over the structured intervention for participants with TD or DYS.
Dissertation/Thesis
Doctoral Dissertation Speech and Hearing Science 2016

The immateriality of moving images is manifest on a plethora of surfaces, shapes, and formats. Artists have access to a cornucopia of tools and medium to develop different forms of interactivity between the body and media, space, and time. Thus, since the 1960s artists have been pushing the limits of both the virtual and the physical worlds, expanding and transforming the static, two-dimensional frame while utterly, attempting to escape its tangibility. But, what if the video screens evolve into a responsive video membrane specifically designed for chosen moving images? How could this catalyst of sensations push creativity forward? And how would people embrace this innovative form of visualization as it moves them even closer to its subjects? In addition to involving an transdisciplinary inquiry into the artistic development of two responsive video membranes for projected moving images, this doctoral research comprised the ethnographic investigations on how the video display’s materiality, spatiality, and interactivity are key factors in altering perception and augmenting sensory, affective, and cognitive responses to a moving image. Finally, I propose a multisensory approach to the design of responsive video membranes where an emphasis is placed on the interplay among sensory modalities, sensory memories, associations and the sensory imagination. This realization emerges from studies in the fields of fine arts, anthropology of the senses, computer science, and mechanical engineering.

The purpose of the research was to assess the impact of the process of professional development of English foreign language teachers in Israel who participated in the Explicit Multisensory Phonics Intervention Programme. Previous research focused on changes in knowledge, practices, student attainment, and beliefs. Changes from negative to positive self efficacy were not examined, and a model for the professional development of the English foreign language teacher did not exist. The conceptual framework is based on an integration of the concept of self efficacy with theories of professional development and literacy acquisition. Literacy acquisition is based on the knowledge and practice components of the process of professional development in this research. The process of professional development is set in motion by a sense of negative self efficacy. The attainment of content knowledge is followed by a change of practices and thereafter improved student attainment, leading to changes in teachers’ beliefs and positive self efficacy. The research questions seek to clarify teachers’ incentives for joining the programme, their standard of content knowledge and perceptions of the impact of the process of professional development. A mixed methods approach was used. The content knowledge of teachers was tested with a pre and post test. A questionnaire about the process of professional development was sent to teachers who had participated in the programme since 1991. Several unstructured interviews were held. Results showed that the teachers’ sense of negative self efficacy and failure in the field initiated their need for professional development. The impact of the process of professional development was: increased knowledge, changed practices and beliefs, claimed student attainment and positive self efficacy. The research contributes to knowledge by empirically supporting a theoretically based model for the impact of the process of professional development of English foreign language teachers. Positive and negative self efficacy are key factors in the process of professional development and knowledge is the basis of this process. These conclusions have practical applications for teacher training.

博士
國立雲林科技大學
工程科技研究所
103
In the thesis, an intelligent mobile robot system with the unified interface is developed. The mobile robot system contains one master module and some slave modules. It uses the ultrasonic sensor module and reflection infrared sensor module for obstacles, fire detection module, environment detection module, gas detection module for real-time states detection, electronic compass and accelerometer module for posture detection, and power detection module for the current and voltage signals detection and diagnoses. The I2C interface is utilized in the communications between master and slave modules. Besides, the overall system communications with the main controller (PC) via RS232 interface. The system can transmit sensor signals of slave modules to main controller. It can be displayed real-time status of these modules on the user interface. In the detection module, the multisensor fusion algorithms are used to obtain an exact output. In the experimental results of fire detection module, the weighted average method is applied to detect a fire signal. In the gas detection module, the logic filters are utilized to measure an unknown target gas. The module compares the posterior probability values to decide the unknown target gas to be LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) or ethanol. In the power detection module, the combination of improving redundant management method and four current sensors are used to detect and diagnose the current and voltage signals of mobile robots. In addition, an isolated faulty sensor is used to improve the power status.

碩士
國立中正大學
電機工程研究所
87
Multisensor fusion and integration is widely used for applications such as assembly, military command and control for battlefield management, mobile robot navigation, multitarget tracking, and aircraft navigation, etc. The advantages of using multisensor fusion and integration includes: improved system reliability and robustness, increased confidence and resolution, extended coverage and shorter response time. We have developed three kinds of operating mode: direct control mode, assistant control mode, and autonomous control mode on intelligent wheelchair for helping patient and applying on hospital automation based on multisensor fusion and integration technology. According to the requirements of intelligent wheelchair, we develop a two-level approach. In the low-level module, there are hardware architectures, servomotor control, network communication, and sensory system based on an embedded concept. In the high-level module, by employing sensory fusion to extract the environment feature, combine environment information and evaluate user intention, we create force feedback operation interface through prediction decision algorithm and fuzzy theory. Finally, we integrate the low-level and high-level module, and implement software architecture by multithread method to achieve the near real-time performance based on multiple-process concept. We have conducted the experiment by using a blind person operate the intelligent wheelchair in indoor office environment, and the experimental results demonstrates the effectiveness for the intelligent wheelchair system we have developed.

碩士
國立中正大學
電機工程研究所
90
The security of home, office, laboratory, warehouse and factory is important to human being. Accidents are often caused by the negligence of humans. The burglary, fire accidents and toxic gas accidents are increasing year by year. Recently, robotic systems have been successfully applied in factory automation, dangerous environments, hospitals, surgery, entertainment, space exploration, farmland, military, service, etc. Therefore, we suggest the robotic technology combine with the security system as the state-of-the-art robotic application, i.e. security robot. The security robot is able to identify potential hazards to warn human beings in advance. No matter where we are, we can monitor private, public and even dangerous areas through the Internet anytime, anywhere. The study successfully develops a security robot system, which is composed of a multi-sensor-based security robot (MSSR), and a remote surveillance and control system (RSCS). The remote surveillance and control system (RSCS) includes remote mobile security system (RMSS) and PC based security system (PCSS). The MSSR robot was equipped with flame, smoke, and temperature sensors, and the use of adaptive fusion algorithm allows accurate evaluation of a fire occurring. PCSS allows users to monitor and control the security robot by using PC through the Web browser, which can get more high quality images form the security robot than RMSS. The remote mobile security system (RMSS) is a portable-and-wireless monitor and control system, which is composed of a robot-server, several PCs and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). The use of PDA and wireless Internet allows mobile, real-time and interactive communication between the client and robot. The handiness of PDA promotes a remote surveillance and control system to a level of practical applications of real world with little limitations of time and space, and it should replace PC as the main interface of a remote system.

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2004.
Advisor: Dr. Henry E. Fuelberg, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Meteorology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 27, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis explores the ways in which an outdoor play space can provide developmental opportunities for children aged twelve to thirty-six months. This exploration begins by observing one group of toddlers at play in two contrasting types of child care spaces and analyzing the children's play. The observations, together with a description of influential studies, a literature review, field observations, and an interview with caregivers, all support the premise that the outdoor space does have a significant impact on child development. The final outcome of the study is the design of an outdoor play space that reflects the research and promotes the child's social, cognitive, physical, and emotional growth.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of
Graduate

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Educação (área de especialização em Educação de Adultos e Intervenção Comunitária)
De acordo com a Associação Portuguesa de Deficientes, há cerca de meio milhão de pessoas com Dificuldade Intelectual e Desenvolvimental (DID) em Portugal. Por isso, torna-se crucial a conceção de espaços físicos/infraestruturas, que consigam dar resposta às necessidades apresentadas por esta população. Logo é imprescindível que estes locais viabilizem a criação de condições que promovam a qualidade de vida e o bem-estar destes indivíduos. O projeto “Estimulação Multissensorial e Cognitiva em Adultos com Dificuldades Intelectuais e Desenvolvimentais: prevenção do declínio cognitivo e promoção da qualidade de vida” foi desenvolvido num Centro de Atividades Ocupacionais que alberga 70 adultos com DID e teve, como finalidade, a promoção da autonomia e bem-estar destes adultos. Assim sendo, e tendo sempre como referência os interesses, as necessidades e as potencialidades do público-alvo, foram criadas diversas atividades, sustentadas em duas linhas orientadoras: a Estimulação Multissensorial e a Estimulação Cognitiva. Através da análise ao processo e aos resultados foi possível comprovar que se alcançaram resultados bastante positivos, resultados que permitem evidenciar a importância e a pertinência da intervenção em contexto de Centro de Atividades Ocupacionais.
According to the Disabled Portuguese Association (Associação Portuguesa de Deficientes), there are about half a million of individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) in Portugal. Thus, it is essential to create physical facilities adapted to the disabled people’s needs, which promote their life quality and well-being. This project “Cognitive and Multisensory Stimulation in Adults with Developmental and Intellectual Difficulties: prevention of cognitive decline and life quality promotion” was developed in an Occupational Activity Centre that provides lodging for 70 adults with IDD which has as purpose the promotion of their autonomy and well-being. Having always as a reference the interests, needs and potentialities of the target audience, several activities were anchored on two guiding lines: Multisensory Stimulation and Cognitive Stimulation. Through the process analysis and its results, it was possible to prove the importance and the relevance of Occupational Activity Centres in context.