Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Game intensity'

The origins of agriculture was one of the most significant turning points in human history, yet, no consensus has been reached on its causes. The most commonly cited precursors to agriculture include population pressure, intensive foraging, and sedentism. These critical factors play central roles in models of agricultural origins, yet have not been rigorously tested. In the Levant, the Natufian period (ca. 13,000-10,500 B.P.) immediately preceded agricultural origins. This research applies ecological models to the Natufian archaeological record to formally test whether population pressure, sedentism, and intensified resource use were major catalysts for economic change at the transition to agriculture. It reconstructs predator-prey relationships by recording the potential effects of human hunting on prey populations and examining how these effects change with varying degrees of hunting pressure. The effects of human hunting on prey populations is governed by the ecological characteristics of prey species. Prey species vary in their cost of capture and their resistance to hunting pressure. The presence of some species and not others at archaeological sites may thus reflect changes in human population density. In archaeofaunal assemblages these changes are expressed in the relative abundance and age structures of prey species. The prey composition and prey age profiles from four Natufian sites---Hayonim Cave, Hayonim Terrace, Hilazon Tachtit, and el-Wad Cave---support three major conclusions. First, site occupation intensity reached unprecedented levels in the Early Natufian in comparison to earlier Paleolithic periods in the region. Second, a substantial decrease in site occupation intensity back to virtually pre-Natufian conditions occurred during the Late Natufian in association with the Younger Dryas climatic event. Finally, the Natufians exerted constant, intensive pressure on their resources throughout the duration of the period. These trends have implications for human demography at the regional scale. During the Early Natufian period, human population densities in the Mediterranean zone peaked for the Paleolithic period. With the decline in site occupation intensity in the Late Natufian, human populations became more mobile and partial depopulation of the region occurred. The origins of agriculture thus emerged from a atmosphere of long-term resource stress, not as an immediate response to environmental deterioration in the Late Natufian phase.

Submitted by HENRIQUE SANTOS DA SILVA null (henriquesilva-ef@hotmail.com) on 2017-02-08T17:50:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação Mestrado Henrique Santos da Silva.pdf: 3105261 bytes, checksum: 69873282054967688d17b367cf3341fc (MD5)<br>Approved for entry into archive by LUIZA DE MENEZES ROMANETTO (luizamenezes@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2017-02-09T16:34:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_hs_me_rcla.pdf: 3105261 bytes, checksum: 69873282054967688d17b367cf3341fc (MD5)<br>Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-09T16:34:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_hs_me_rcla.pdf: 3105261 bytes, checksum: 69873282054967688d17b367cf3341fc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-17<br>Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)<br>O objetivo principal do presente estudo foi comparar o consumo de oxigênio (VO2) medido em jogo treino (J-T) de futsal com o VO2 estimado através das equações de regressão geradas a partir da relação entre frequência cardíaca (FC) e VO2 (FC-VO2), obtidas nos testes contínuo em esteira (CONT) e intermitente com recuperação em quadra (IT-R). Com base no VO2 foi calculado o dispêndio energético (DE) no J-T, considerando somente a demanda aeróbia e a demanda total, aeróbia, anaeróbia alática e lática, estimadas a partir do VO2, componente rápido do VO2 pós exercício e o equivalente de 1 mmol•L-1 de lactato sanguíneo ([La-]) para 3 mL de O2•kg-1, respectivamente. Além disso, a intensidade do J-T foi comparada com um jogo oficial (J-O), através da FC. Dez jogadores de futsal profissionais participaram do estudo (22,20 ± 3,22 anos). Nos testes para verificação da FC-VO2, foram realizados o CONT e IT-R, e comparado com as informações do J-T. O VO2 estimado a partir da FC-VO2 foi calculado por 2 métodos, usando a média do consumo estimado (VO2-M), e considerando a aérea integral do consumo estimado (VO2-A). A estimativa do VO2 pela FC-VO2 não diferiu estatisticamente do VO2 medido durante o J-T, tanto quando estimado por CONT ou IT-R. Na análise de correlação de Pearson, a estimativa do VO2 através das equações geradas pelo CONT apresentou correlação classificada como muito fraca e sem significância estatística (P>0,05) com o J-T, por ambos os métodos (VO2-M, r = 0,10; VO2-A, r = -0,01). Já na estimativa do VO2 a partir do IT-R, apresentou correlação moderada e sem significância estatística (P>0.05) (VO2-M, r = 0,47; VO2-A, r = 0,42). A análise de Bland Altman, demonstrou que a estimativa do VO2 por meio da FC-VO2 possui baixa associação com o J-T, tanto quando realizada a partir de teste CONT quando por IT-R. O metabolismo predominante durante a partida (J-T) foi o aeróbio (93%), seguido do anaeróbio alático (5%) e anaeróbio lático (2%). Além disso, foi verificado que o J-T teve intensidade 6% menor do que um J-O. O DE em atividade de futsal (J-T) apresentou 12,92 ± 1,15 kcal•min-1 (MET: 10,66 ± 1,48) quando considerado só o metabolismo aeróbio, e 13,89 ± 1,33 kcal•min-1 (MET: 11,46 ± 1,66) quando considerado aeróbio mais anaeróbio. O DE energético da análise de jogos não oficiais devem ser corrigidos pela intensidade do jogo real, caso se pretenda calcular o DE do J-O de futsal, uma vez que o J-T subestimou o J-O em 6%. A estimativa do VO2 e DE com base na FC-VO2 não deve ser utilizada para estimar o VO2 individualmente. No entanto, considerando que o teste IT-R apresentou correlação moderada e resultados mais próximos ao do J-T, em comparação ao CONT (correlação muito fraca), o teste intermitente com recuperação em quadra (IT-R) pode ser uma alternativa para estimar o VO2 médio de grupos de sujeitos com características similares.<br>The main objective of the present study was to compare the oxygen consumption (VO2) measured in futsal training game (T-G) with the estimated VO2 through the regression equations generated from the relation between heart rate (HR) and VO2 (HR-VO2) obtained in continuous treadmill (CONT) and intermittent with recovery on court (IT-R) tests. Based on VO2, the energy expenditure (EE) in the T-G was calculated, considering only the aerobic demand and the total demand, aerobic, anaerobic, alatic and lactic, estimated from VO2, fast component of VO2 post exercise and the equivalent of 1 mmol•L-1 of blood lactate ([La-]) para 3 mL de O2•kg-1, respectively. In addition, the intensity of the T-G was compared with an official game (O-G) through HR. Ten professional futsal players participated in the study (22.20 ± 3.22 years). In the tests for HR-VO2 verification, the CONT and IT-R were performed, and compared to T-G information. The estimated VO2 from the HR-VO2 was calculated by 2 methods, using the estimated average consumption (VO2-M), and considering the integral area of the estimated consumption (VO2-A). The estimation of VO2 by HR-VO2 did not differ statistically from VO2 measured during T-G, either when estimated by CONT or IT-R. In the Pearson correlation analysis, the estimation of VO2 through the equations generated by CONT showed a very weak correlation and without statistical significance (P> 0.05) with T-G, by both methods (VO2-M, r = 0, 10; VO2-A, r = -0.01). In the estimation of VO2 from the IT-R, it presented moderate correlation and no statistical significance (P> 0.05) (VO2-M, r = 0.47, VO2-A, r = 0.42). The analysis by Bland Altman, showed that the estimation of VO2 by HR-VO2 has a low association with T-G, both when performed from the CONT test and by IT-R. The predominant metabolism during the game (T-G) was aerobic (93%), followed by alactic anaerobic (5%) and lactic anaerobic (2%). In addition, it was verified that the T-G had intensity 6% smaller than an official game (O-G). The EE in futsal (T-G) activity showed 12.92 ± 1.15 kcal•min-1 (MET: 10.66 ± 1.48) when considering only the aerobic metabolism, and 13.89 ± 1.33 kcal•min-1 (MET: 11.46 ± 1.66) when considered aerobic plus anaerobic. The EE of the analysis of unofficial games must be corrected by the intensity of the real game, if you want to calculate the EE of the futsal O-G, since the T-G underestimated the O-G by 6%. The estimation of VO2 and EE based on HR-VO2 should not be used to estimate VO2 individually. However, considering that the IT-R test presented moderate correlation and results closer to that of the T-G, compared to the CONT (very weak correlation), the intermittent with recovery on court test (IT-R) may be an alternative to estimate VO2 average in groups of subjects with similar characteristics.<br>CNPq: 160137/2014-4

[Truncated abstract] Broadly, research literature on the physiological aspects of water polo game play is limited, but particularly so in the women's game. Moreover, significant changes to game rules in recent years are likely to have had an impact on the game demands. Therefore, this research project sought to investigate the physiological characteristics of contemporary elite female water polo players and the demands of match play. Overall, the five studies comprising this thesis aimed to improve the practical knowledge of coaches and sport scientists concerning the training and monitoring of players. Study one (Chapter 3) compared two water polo-specific field tests of aerobic and/or match fitness (MSST, multistage shuttle swim test; and WIST, water polo intermittent shuttle test) with a traditional incremental swimming test to exhaustion (IST, 5 x 200 m). Prior to this study, the physiological responses to the MSST and WIST were not well understood. Additionally, the degree of association between these two tests was unknown. Therefore, 14 Australian National Women's Water Polo Squad players performed the MSST and WIST, and 13 players from a National Water Polo League club performed the MSST, WIST and IST, on separate occasions. Peak heart rate, blood lactate and ratings of perceived exertion were obtained for all tests. Expired air was collected post test for the National League players. The results showed that the National Squad players performed significantly better in the MSST (636 ± 114 vs. 437 ± 118 m, p < 0.001) and WIST (270 ± 117 vs. 115 ± 57 m, p < 0.001) than the National League players. ... Absolute decrement yielded TE of 0.55 s (-0.42-0.81), CV of 26.0% (19.3-41.0) and ICC of -0.002 (-0.44-0.44). Relative (%) decrement yielded TE of 1.6% (1.2-2.3), CV of 27.2% (20.1-42.9) and ICC of -0.02 (-0.46-0.42). Results indicate that total time was a reliable measure, whilst decrement was not. Similar to land-based RSA tests, total time should be the criterion measure of performance in the RST. The RST can form part of a specific battery of field tests for water polo, and can also be used as a conditioning tool. The final study (Chapter 7) was a nutritional-intervention study. Based on the time-motion data from study three, a 59-min match simulation test (MST) was designed to mimic the activity profiles and physical demands of water polo match play. Using a randomized cross-over double-blind design, 12 Australian National Women's Water Polo Squad players ingested 0.3 g·kg-1 of NaHCO3 or placebo, 90 min before performing the MST, which included 56 x 10-m maximal-sprint swims as the performance measure. Although pre-exercise ingestion of NaHCO3 was effective in enhancing extracellular pH and bicarbonate levels, the percentage difference in mean sprint times between trials showed no substantial effects of NaHCO3 (0.4; ±0.9%, effect size = 0.09; ±0.23, p = 0.51). The results suggest that elite water polo players should not expect enhancement in intermittent-sprint performance from NaHCO3 supplementation. These findings are contrary to previous NaHCO3 studies on simulated team-sport performance, but this investigation is unique in that it examined highly-trained athletes performing sport-specific tasks. In conclusion, the findings of this thesis add to the existing literature on the applied physiology of women's water polo. It is hoped that the knowledge gained from these findings will lead to more appropriate conditioning, testing and selection outcomes.

INTRODUCTION Research in sport and exercise science suggested that both placebo and nocebo can influence sport performance (1), with effect ranging from small to moderate (2). Most of studies proposed as treatment nutritional ergogenic aids or peripheral stimulation. However, a more ecological approach lowered into a conventional training session, could exploit some parts of the training itself to administer placebo/nocebo effect. The aim of the present study was to test the effect on the running performance of a placebo/nocebo treatment consisting in conditioning manipulation plus verbal suggestion. METHODS Thirty-nine active young students (mean age 22±0.9) were randomly assigned to CONTROL group, PLACEBO group and NOCEBO group. The experiment consisted in 3 sessions. During TEST Session participants performed the Cooper test to evaluate the cardiorespiratory fitness. During SESSION 1, they performed a high intensity interval training (HIIT) protocol till exhaustion (30s all-out, with 2 min of passive recovery) preceded by a conventional warm-up (20min, running and dynamic stretching). During SESSION 2, warm up consisted in the FIFA 11+ (20min, running and balance exercises) (3), and was used as conditioning treatment. Participants’ expectancy about warm-up efficacy in not-changing/improving/worsening the following HITT performance was manipulated through verbal suggestion in CONTROL/PLACEBO/NOCEBO groups. At last, during the HIIT rest-period a surreptitious manipulation, consisting in none/positive/negative verbal feedback about the current performance, was administered to CONTROL/PLACEBO/NOCEBO group. The time to exhaustion (TTE) and total running distance (TRD) were considered as performance outcome. The rate of perceived exertion (RPE), maximal heart rate (HR) and blood lactate ([LA+]) were used to determine whether participants reached the exhaustion. ANOVA was applied to evaluate normally-distributed parameters, whilst non parametric analysis were applied to not-normally distributed data. RESULTS TTE and TRD values of the PLACEBO group significantly increased in SESSION 2 with respect to SESSION 1 whilst they significantly decreased in NOCEBO group (p&lt;0.05 and p&lt;0.01, respectively). Further, TTE (p&lt;0.05) and TRD (p&lt;0.01) in SESSION 2 of the PLACEBO group was significantly higher than those of NOCEBO group. No differences appeared in the CONTROL group. No differences among groups and session were found in RPE, HR and [LA+]. CONCLUSION The innovative placebo/nocebo treatment proposed in this study succeeded to improve/worsen the running performance of active young adult. These results provide insight on the interaction between the athlete’s cognitive domain and the running performance and pave the way for the application of combined cognitive/motor strategies during training.<br>Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare the acute cardiorespiratory and metabolic effects induced by a High-Intensity Continuous Training (HI-CT) and three High-Intensity Interval Training regimes (HIITs) in young active students. The assessment of internal training load through the rate of perceived exertion (RPE) at iso-time was also a focus. Methods: Fifteen active university students (age: 21.0±1.1 ys, height: 1.74±0.9 m, weight: 64.8±12.9 kg, VO2max 48.1±7.5 mL∙kg-1∙min-1) performed an incremental treadmill test to assess VO2max and maximal aerobic speed (MAS). Then, each participant performed, on testing sessions, separated by a minimum of 72 h and in a randomized order, one HI-CT session at 95% MAS for 8 minutes and three different HIIT sessions (10s-20s, 30s-30s, 50s-30s) with a work phase at 95% MAS and an active recovery at 40% MAS for 16 minutes. Oxygen consumption (VO2), heart rate (HR), time spent near or above 90%VO2max (T@90%VO2max) and blood lactate concentration ([La]+) were measured. The rating of perceived exertion (RPE), by the Borg’s CR 10 scale, was used to assess the subjective level of fatigue experienced at the end of each testing session. Results: The statistical analysis revealed that VO2peak, HRpeak, T@90%VO2max, and RPE values in 10-20 HIIT were significantly lower compared to 30-30 and 50-30 HIIT regimes (p always &lt;0.001). In HI-CT session VO2peak, HRpeak, T@90%VO2max were significantly higher than in 10-20 and 30-30 sessions (p&lt;0.0001 and p&lt;0.05). Blood lactate values were significantly higher in HI-CT and in 50-30 and 30-30 HIITs, compared to 10-20 protocol. Finally, internal workload in HI-CT and 50-30 HIIT was significantly higher than those in 30-30 (p&lt;0.01) and 10-20 (p&lt;0.0001) HIIT sessions. Conclusions: Our results show that in active young subjects a HI-CT and a long work interval HIIT regime (50-30) represent an optimal training stimulus to elicit higher physiological and metabolic responses compared to short work interval HIIT regimes (30-30 and 10-20), being the most effective for stressing both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. Coaches can choose and balance the level of aerobic/anaerobic energy requirements and neuromuscular engagement associated with the three HIIT regimes and a HI-CT protocol based on the expected physiological and metabolic adaptations as well as neuromuscular characteristic and ability level of the athlete/subject individual profile.<br>Purpose: High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), in a variety of forms, is today widely used to improve cardiorespiratory and metabolic function of moderately- or well-trained subjects. The aim of this study was to examine physiological and metabolic responses to three different short-bout HIIT regimes in young active subjects. Methods: Twenty healthy active university students (age: 22.80 ± 2.76 years, height: 178.85 ± 8.64 cm, body mass: 72.51 ± 11.47 kg) were enrolled in this study. They performed one incremental treadmill test to determine the VO2max and maximal aerobic speed (MAS). Then, each participant performed, on separate days, in a randomized order: 1) 15 repetitions of bouts of 10 s at 40% MAS and 10 s at 120%MAS (10-10); 2) 15 repetitions of bouts of 15 s at 40% MAS and 15 s at 120%MAS (15-15); 3) 15 repetitions of bouts of 20 s at 40% MAS and 20 s at 120%MAS (20-20). Peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak), volume of carbon dioxide (VCO2) and heart rate (HR) were continuously monitored during each session. Respiratory-exchange ratio (RER) and blood lactate concentration ([La]) were measured after the end of exercise. The psychophysiological stress was evaluated by the whole-body rating of perceived exertion (RPE), measured by the Borg’s CR 10 scale. Results: The results showed significantly lower VO2peak, VCO2 and blood lactate values in 10-10 protocol, than either in 15-15 or in 20-20 protocol (always p.001). Maximal HR values were the lowest in 10-10 (p.0001), followed by those in 15-15, which, in turn, were lower than those in 20-20 (p.01). RER values recorded in 10-10 protocol were significantly lower than those obtained in 20-20 session (p.05). Similarly, RPE values measured at the end of 10-10 session were the lowest (always p.01), followed by those of 15-15 protocol, that were, in turn, lower than those obtained after the 20-20 regime (p.05). Conclusions: Under our experimental conditions, 15-15 and 20-20 HIIT regimes induced significantly higher VO2peak, RER and ([La]) values, compared to those recorded during 10-10 protocol, whereas maximal HR and RPE were lower during 15-15 and 10-10 compared to 20-20. These results suggest that 15-15 is the most effective short HIIT modality for young active subjects to determine acute cardiorespiratory and metabolic responses, combined with a sustainable perception of effort, also in view of a RPE-based prescription of exercise intensity.<br>This study investigated the effects of two High Intensity Interval Trainings (HIITs) on physiological and metabolic responses and performance parameters, in elite adolescent rowers. Ten elite adolescent male rowers (15.7±0.2 years) were enrolled. A randomized-crossover trial consisting of a 1500 m all-out rowing exercise test and two HIIT sessions (Short: S-HIIT; Long: L-HIIT) matched per training volume, was designed. The L-HIIT consisted of 4x4 min at P@90% of Peak Power Output (PPO) interspersed with 3 min of active recovery (P@30%PPO) while the S-HIIT consisted of 25 repetitions of 30 s at P@100%PPO interspersed with 30 s of active recovery (P@20%PPO). Physiological and metabolic responses and rowing performance parameters were evaluated. The internal workload through the rating of perceived exertion (RPE), was also assessed. ANOVAs were applied and significance level was set at p&lt;0.05. Oxygen Uptake (VO 2 ) (p&lt;0.05), time spent per session in exercise bouts at an intensity close to 90% VO 2 max (T@90%VO 2 max) (p&lt;0.01), Total VO 2 (TotVO 2 ) and blood lactate ([La] + ) (p&lt;0.0001) were significantly higher in L-HIIT than in S-HIIT. Total distance (TD) was significantly higher and PPO was significantly lower in L-HIIT compared to S-HIIT (p&lt;0.0001), respectively. Finally, RPE was significantly higher in L-HIIT respect to S-HIIT (p&lt;0.0001). Our results show that, in elite adolescent rowers, L-HIIT stimulates both aerobic and anaerobic systems to a greater extent and with better performance than S-HIIT. We recommend coaches to incorporate HIIT into the traditional training program, given its effectiveness in improving cardiorespiratory parameters along with a reduced training volume.<br>Aim. Small-Sided Games (SSGs) represent a widely used training modality to develop concurrently physical performance and technical-tactical skills in soccer players1 as well as in other team sports2. This study aimed to compare external and internal training loads in élite junior soccer players between two different SSGs (only ball possession, SSG-POS; ball possession play, and shuttle run after the pass, SSG-SHU) and those of official matches (OM). Methods. Ten élite young male soccer players (age 18.6±1.9 years; weight 73.1±5 kg; height 175± 1.5 cm) were recruited from Under 19 Italian professional team and monitored during 10 official championship matches of the corresponding age category. Players performed two different 5vs5 SSGs (SSG-POS and SSG-SHU) of the same duration (4x4 min–1min rest), 2 times each, in a randomized order, one per week for 4 weeks. SSGs sessions and OM data of locomotor activity were recorded using 10-Hz Global Positioning System. Total distance (TD), Distance at high speed (DHS; 14.4–19.8 km·h-1) (m), distance at very high speed (DVHS; 19.8–25.2 km·h-1) (m); average metabolic power (AMP;W·kg-1); high and very high intensity accelerations (HA; ≥2/3 m·s–2), high and very high intensity decelerations (HD; ≤–2/-3 m·s–2) and the relative distance (Drel; m·min-1) were monitored. Heart rate (HR) was continuously recorded, whereas blood lactate [La]+ was measured at the end of each SSGs session. The internal training load was assessed through the rate of perceived exertion (RPE). ANOVA was applied to statistically evaluate normally-distributed parameters, whilst non parametric statistical analysis were applied to not-normally distributed data. Results. The comparison of locomotor activity parameters between the two SSGs formats showed that TD was higher (p&lt;0.001) in SSG-SHU than in SSG-POS, whilst no significant differences were found in AMP, DHS, DVHS, Drel, HA, HD. HRpeak and RPE values did not differ between SSGs, while [La]+ values in SSG-SHU were significantly higher than in SSG-POS (p&lt;0.001). The comparison between SSGs and OM showed higher values of AMP (p&lt;0.05), HA (p&lt;0.01) and HD (0.001) in SSGs compared to OM. DHS and DHVS values were higher in OM than in both SSGs (p&lt;0.001), while Drel and HRpeak values did not differ between SSGs conditions and OM. Finally, internal workload measured through RPE was found to be higher (p&lt;0.05) after OM, than after either SSG-SHU or SSG-POS. Conclusions. This study shows that SSG-SHU induces higher total distance covered with a higher solicitation of anaerobic energy contribution compared to SSG-POS. Furthermore, our results show that in young élite soccer players both SSGs, when compared to OM, might be an effective training regime in terms of average mean power and speed-based conditioning, with greater enjoyment and lower subjective perception of effort.

<p>Syftet med det här arbetet är att återskapa en förutbestämd intensitetskurva inom ett tvådimensionellt plattformsspel. Arbetet bygger främst på teorier av Mike Lopez som han publicerat i ett antal artiklar på Gamasutra. Lopez artiklar handlar om spelprogression, dvs. hur man ska gå tillväga för att behålla spelarens intresse genom hela spelomgången, och att ha en bra intensitetskurva är en del av progressionen.Under arbetets gång skapas ett spel som sedan en testgrupp får spela igenom. Under testningen mäts deras puls, och den data som utvinns används för att skapa en graf och jämförs sedan med den intensitetskurva som skulle efterliknas. Det visar sig att de flesta kurvor som mätts ut under testningen skiljer sig markant från den önskade kurvan, och några anledningar till detta tros vara en ibland för hög svårighetsgrad, samt att senare delar av spelet inte är lika stressande för spelarna som meningen var.</p>

Due to the broad spectrum of physical characteristics necessary for success in field sports, numerous training modalities have been used develop physical preparedness. Sports like rugby, basketball, lacrosse, and others require athletes to be not only strong and powerful but also aerobically fit and able to recover from high-intensity intermittent exercise. This provides coaches and sport scientists with a complex range of variables to consider when developing training programs. This can often lead to confusion and the misuse of training modalities, particularly in the development of aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. This review outlines the benefits and general adaptations to 3 commonly used and effective conditioning methods: high-intensity interval training, repeated-sprint training, and small-sided games. The goals and outcomes of these training methods are discussed, and practical implementations strategies for coaches and sport scientists are provided.

Ingesting carbohydrate (CHO) before and during prolonged steady-state exercise can significantly improve the endurance capacity (time to exhaustion) of adolescents. This knowledge, combined with current understanding of the physiological and metabolic responses of young people to prolonged steadystate exercise, as well as awareness of youth team games participation statistics, suggests CHO ingestion before and during team games exercise may be beneficial for adolescent team games players. However, research in this area has not been conducted, presenting a notable gap in the paediatric exercise science literature. This thesis described three studies with the aim of investigating the influence of CHO ingestion immediately before, and during, prolonged intermittent, high-intensity exercise on the endurance capacity, sprint performance, and physiological responses of adolescent team games players. The studies investigated a CHO-electrolyte (CHO-E) solution, solutions of differing CHO concentration ([CHO]), and CHO in the form of a gel in trained 12-14 year old soccer, rugby, and field hockey players during a modified Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test (LIST). Study 1 (n = 15) reported a significant 24.4% enhancement of intermittent endurance capacity with ingestion of a 6% CHO-E solution compared with a placebo (PLA, 5.1 ± 1.8 vs. 4.1 ± 1.6 min, P < 0.05, r = 0.51), with distance covered also significantly greater in the CHO trial (851 ± 365 vs. 694 ± 278 m, P < 0.05, r = 0.52). No significant influence of CHO was found for mean sprint times (P = 0.35, r = 0.27) or physiological response except at exhaustion, where peak heart rate was significantly greater in the CHO trial (P < 0.05, r = 0.55). Study two (n = 7) found a significant influence of [CHO] on intermittent endurance capacity, with a 6% solution increasing intermittent endurance capacity by 34.1% compared with a 10% solution (5.5 ± 0.8 vs. 4.1 ± 1.5 min, P < 0.05, r = 0.76). No significant difference was observed between the 2% (4.8 ± 1.2 min) and the 6% (P = 0.10, r = 0.63), or the 2% and the 10% (P = 0.09, r = 0.63) solution. Distance covered was significantly greater with the 6% solution compared with the 10% solution (931 ± 172 vs. 706 ± 272 m, P < 0.05, r = 0.76), but was not significantly different compared with the 2% solution (811 ± 230 m, P = 0.09, r = 0.63) or between the 2% and 10% solutions (P = 0.11, r = 0.61). Carbohydrate concentration did not significantly influence mean sprint times (P = 0.38, r = 0.42) or physiological response. Study three (n = 11) reported a significant 21.1% enhancement in intermittent endurance capacity with ingestion of a CHO gel, isoenergetic to the 6% CHO-E solution used in studies 1 and 2, compared with a PLA gel (4.6 ± 2.0 vs. 3.8 ± 2.4 min, P < 0.05, r = 0.67). Distance covered was also significantly greater in the CHO trial (787 ± 319 vs. 669 ± 424 m, P < 0.05, r = 0.57). No influence of the CHO gel was observed on mean sprint times (P = 0.33, r = 0.31) or physiological response. This thesis reports a significant positive influence of CHO ingestion on the intermittent endurance capacity of adolescent team games players during prolonged intermittent, high-intensity exercise. Ingestion of a 6% CHO-E solution was more beneficial than a PLA solution and a 10% CHO-E solution. When compared to a PLA gel, CHO gel ingestion was analogous in efficacy to a 6% CHO-E solution. Carbohydrate ingestion did not significantly influence sprint performance. The influence of CHO on the physiological responses of adolescent team games players to prolonged intermittent, high-intensity exercise was minimal, with the only reported effect being a significantly greater HR at exhaustion in study 1. This thesis has provided evidence to support the use of CHO before and during team games in adolescent team games players, begun to formulate guidelines for CHO ingestion by adolescent team games players, and provided a robust foundation for further study in this field.

La caracterisation des transducteurs ultrasonores, et plus particulierement la mesure des intensites acoustiques emises par ces derniers est l'objectif principal de cette recherche. Le dispositif utilise est un interferometre laser. Son interet est double ; d'une part acceder a la distribution energetique locale et instantanee au sein des faisceaux emis par les sondes industrielles (controle non destructif) et medicales (echographie, doppler), d'autre part beneficier d'une reference intensite pour etudier l'eventuelle nocivite des ultrasons vis-a-vis des tissus organiques

Neuro-developmental disorders, like Autism Spectrum Disorder, are common in youths and their incidence is increasing over the last decades. Although these disorders are attributed to disrupted brain functioning, there is no agreed biological marker for their diagnosis and treatment, thus they are based on behavioural analysis. Combating autism relies in three particular strands: early diagnosis, intensive personalised intervention (25 hours/week), and effective monitoring strategy of the children to tailor the therapy depending upon evolution of their developmental trajectories. In this dissertation we contribute to each of these aspects as follows: We develop a multi-player game platform (GOLIAH) that enables delivering intensive intervention, not only in clinical, but also at-home settings. It implements the most recent ESDM intervention protocol targeting two "pivotal" skills that promote the learning process. In addition, it automatically generates behavioural measures when the child goes through the intervention process (playing the game). The operational procedure of GOLIAH was validated in a 3-month open trial conducted at Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital and Stella Maris Foundation. We develop a combined developmental and neuro-biological marker strategy for monitoring the trajectory of the children during the intervention. The behavioural parameters for monitoring are based on the performance parameters of the child while playing GOLIAH. For the neurological markers we used wireless EEG-derived functional connectivity networks and its associated parameters. However, since the EEG recorded in mobile environment is corrupted by artefacts, as a first step for EEG processing, we develop two novel artefact reduction algorithms, WPTEMD and WPTICA. Through detailed analysis of semi-simulated and real EEG data and comparison with state-of-the-art algorithms, we establish that WPTEMD works best for wireless EEG data in naturalistic settings. We explore the possibility of using functional brain connectivity networks for early detection of cognitive disabilities in an at-risk population (neonates with HIE). Our analysis shows that two years cognitive outcomes could be predicted from EEG recorded within two weeks of life with 87.5% of accuracy. We expect that over the first few months of life, a periodic monitoring of the functional brain connectivity networks and its parameters could help in improving the final outcome prediction.

Much research has been undertaken to gain insight into business alignment of IT. This alignment basically aims to improve a firm’s performance by an improved harmonization of the business function and the IT function within a firm. The thesis discusses previous approaches and constructs an overall framework, which a potential approach needs to fit in. Being in a highly regulated industry, for airports there is little space left to increase revenues. However, the retailing business has proven to be an area that may contribute towards higher income for airport operators. Consequently, airport management should focus on supporting this business segment. Nevertheless, it needs to be taken into account that smooth airport operations are a precondition for successful retailing business at an airport. Applying the concept of information intensity, the processes of gate allocation and airport retailing have been determined to appraise the potential that may be realized upon (improved) synchronization of the two. It has been found that the lever is largest in the planning phase (i.e. prior to operations), and thus support by means of information technology (for information distribution and improved planning) may help to enable an improved overall retail performance. In order to determine potential variables, which might influence the output, a process decomposition has been conducted along with the development of an appropriate information model. The derived research model has been tested in different scenarios. For this purpose an adequate gate allocation algorithm has been developed and implemented in a purposewritten piece of software. To calibrate the model, actual data (several hundred thousand data items from Frankfurt Airport) from two flight plan seasons has been used. Key findings: The results show that under the conditions described it seems feasible to increase retail sales in the magnitude of 9% to 21%. The most influential factors (besides the constraining rule set and a retail area’s specific performance) proved to be a flight’s minimum and maximum time at a gate as well as its buffer time at gate. However, as some of the preconditions may not be accepted by airport management or national regulators, the results may be taken as an indication for cost incurred, in case the suggested approach is not considered. The transferability to other airport business models and limitations of the research approach are discussed at the end along with suggestions for future areas of research.

A presente tese, que tem como título: “O Brincar das Crianças em Espaços Públicos” é resultado de uma investigação realizada no Programa de Doutorado Diversidade e Mudança em Educação: Políticas e Práticas do Departamento de Organização Educativa (DOE) da Universidade de Barcelona (UB) na Faculdade de Pedagogia. O estudo teve, como proposta geral compreender a afetividade da criança com o lugar onde brinca e como acontece a apropriação dos espaços públicos planejados ou não para o lazer infantil. O presente trabalho é qualitativo e exploratório cuja estratégia metodológica eleita foi o estudo de caso do tipo descritivo-interpretativo e realizou-se na cidade de Barcelona. Dentre as praças escolhidas para a investigação, duas se caracterizam como espaços planejados para o lazer infantil (Praça 1- Jardines de Can Brasó e Praça 2 – Josep Pallach) e a terceira, não projetada para este fim, assim mesmo apresentava um considerável fluxo de usuários e de atividades infantis espontâneas (Praça 3 – Joan Cornudella). No total foram realizadas 80 visitas às praças mencionadas anteriormente, sendo as estas distribuídas igualmente ao longo das estações do ano (vinte visitas para a cada estação), em diferentes horários e momentos, durante um ano (2008-2009). Cada visita tinha uma duração de 3 horas de observação. A investigação utilizou os seguintes instrumentos de coleta das informações: observação não participante (escala de intensidade e qualidade lúdica) e três questionários: i) mapas afetivos; ii) um sobre o brincar das crianças, e; iii) um sobre preferência da praça. Participaram da investigação crianças de 8 a 12 anos do sexo masculino e feminino. Aplicaram-se 41 questionários sobre o mapa afetivo; 42 questionários sobre o brincar das crianças; 42 questionários sobre a preferência da praça e 16 escalas de trajetória e intensidade lúdica nos sujeitos do estudo. Além dos instrumentos citados, foram utilizados outros registros como: método de amostragem temporal, gravações em áudio, fotografias, gravações em vídeo e informações secundárias através de depoimentos dos moradores e documentos existentes dos moradores sobre as praças públicas. Depois da análise dos dados recolhidos, emergiram os seguintes resultados mais relevantes: A praça Jardins de Can Brasó é a praça preferida para jogar com 78% de aprovação dos entrevistados; Os mapas afetivos demonstram que as crianças têm uma estima positiva pelas praças onde jogam; Os resultados confirmam que a estima positiva é gerada pelas imagens encontradas nos mapas afetivos de pertencimento e agradabilidade. Os resultados do estudo demonstram que as imagens de pertencimento e agradabilidade é o principal motivo da apropriação das crianças nas três praças; Descobrimos, também, nesta investigação que os espaços mais amplos das praças são os favoritos para jogar; As dimensões motivação intrínseca e controle interno tiveram um nível muito elevado de frequência e a suspensão da realidade, um nível não representativo na intensidade da qualidade lúdica das crianças que jogam nas três praças. Palavras Chaves: Brincar. Criança. Espaço Público. Mapa Afetivo. Intensidade e Qualidade Lúdica.<br>This thesis, which is entitled: The Play of Children in Public Spaces. The study presented here is the result of an investigation in the Doctoral Program Diversity and Change in Education: Policies and Practices of the Organization Department of Education (DOE) at the University of Barcelona (UB) at the Faculty of Education. The study aimed to understand the affection of children with the place they play and the appropriation of public spaces planned or not for them to play at. This study is qualitative and exploratory whose methodological strategy chosen was the descriptive-interpretative study case, and was held in Barcelona. Among the squares chosen for the research, two are characterized as spaces planned for the play area (Square 1 - Jardines de Can Brasó and Square 2 - Josep Pallach) and the third was not designed for this purpose, but also have a considerable flow of users and spontaneous children's activities (Square 3 - Joan Cornudella). In total, 80 visits were made to the squares mentioned earlier, the visits are distributed evenly throughout the seasons (twenty visits to each station), at different times and moments during one year (2008-2009). Each visit had the duration of 3 hours of observation. The research used the following instruments to collect information: non-participant observation, with an intensity scale and quality play, three questionnaires: i) affective maps, ii) one on the play of children, and iii) a preference on the square. Boys and girls from 8 -12 years old participated in the investigation. 41 questionnaires were applied on the emotional map, 42 questionnaires on the play of children, 42 questionnaires on which space they preferred and 16 of the square path and intensity scales play in the study subjects. In addition to the instruments above, other records were used, for example sampling time, audio recordings, photographs, video recordings and background information through interviews of residents and residents of existing documents on the public squares. After analyzing the data collected, the following results are the most relevant: The Square Jardines de Can Brasó is the children´s favorite with 78% of approval of the interviewees; affective maps show that children have an esteem for the squares where they play; The results confirm that the esteem is generated by the images on the maps of belonging and emotional pleasantness; The study results show that the images of belonging and friendliness are the main reason for the appropriation of the children in the three squares; It was also found in this investigation that the wider spaces are the favorites to play; The intrinsic motivation and internal control dimensions had a very high level of frequency and the suspension of reality intensity level is not representative of the quality play of children playing in the three squares.<br>La presente tesis, que tiene como título: “El Jugar de los Niños en Espacios Públicos” es resultado de una investigación realizada en el Programa de Doctorado Diversidad y Cambio en Educación: Políticas y Prácticas del Departamento de Organización Educativa (DOE) de la Universidad de Barcelona (UB) en la Facultad de Pedagogía. El estudio tuvo como propuesta comprender la afectividad del niño con el lugar donde juega y como acontece la apropiación de los espacios públicos planeados o no para el ocio infantil. La investigación fue realizada en la ciudad de Barcelona. Estudio es cualitativo y exploratorio cuya estrategia metodológica escogida fue el estudio de caso del tipo descriptivo-interpretativo. De entre las plazas escogidas para la investigación, dos se caracterizan como espacios planeados para el ocio infantil (Plaza 1- Jardines de Can Brasó y Plaza 2 – Josep Pallach), mientras que la tercera, no proyectada para este fín, aun así presenta un considerable flujo de usuarios y actividades infantiles espontáneas (Plaza 3 – Joan Cornudella). Fueron hechas en las plazas visitas en días, horarios y estaciones del año (verano, otoño, invierno y primavera) en diferentes momentos. El total de visitas fueron 80 (20 para cada estación del año). Cada visita tenía una duración de 3 horas de observación. Las observaciones tuvieron una duración de un año. Fueron utilizadas las siguientes técnicas de investigación: observación no participante (escala de intensidad y calidad lúdica), mapas afectivos, aplicación de cuestionario sobre el jugar con los niños y el cuestionario de preferencia de la plaza. Participaron de la investigación niños de 8 a 12 años del sexo masculino y femenino. Fueron aplicados 41 cuestionarios: mapa afectivo; 42 cuestionarios: sobre el jugar y el niño; 42 cuestionarios: preferencia de la plaza y 16 Escalas: trayectoria e intensidad lúdica en los sujetos del estudio. Además de los instrumentos citados, fueron utilizadas otras técnicas cómo: método de muestreo temporal, entrevistas grabadas en audio, fotografías, grabaciones en vídeo e informaciones secundarias a través de informes y documentos existentes sobre las plazas públicas. Algunos resultados del estudio: Jardines de Can Brasó es la plaza preferida con 78%; Con los mapas afectivos quedó evidenciado que los niños tienen una estima positiva por las plazas donde juegan; Los resultados confirman que la estima positiva fue generada por las imágenes encontradas en los mapas afectivos de: pertenecer y agradabilidad; El estudio validó que las imágenes de pertenencia y agradabilidad es el principal motivo de la apropiación de los niños en las tres plazas; Descubrimos en esta investigación que los espacios más amplios de las plazas son los favoritos para jugar; Las dimensiones motivación intrínseca y control interno tuvieron un nivel bastante elevado de frecuencia y la suspensión de la realidad, un nivel no representativo en la intensidad de la calidad lúdica de los niños que juegan en las tres plazas.

La realisation avec succes de nouveaux produits fiables, performants et peu couteux est le resume des defis actuels du marche de l'electronique. Relever ces defis passe par un bon choix des moyens de modelisation et de specification et par l'utilisation d'outils specifiques aux applications visees et aux technologies cibles. Cette these propose quelques elements de reponse pour la specification et la synthese des systemes a controle intensif sur les technologies programmables du type fpga et cpld. Les aspects de specification etudies sont relatifs aux modeles abstraits, aux langages de description et aux outils graphiques. Outre l'introduction d'un nouveau modele de description des controleurs communicants, des comparaisons fondees sur les concepts fondamentaux de la modelisation, i. E. La hierarchie, la modularite, la concurrence, la synchronisation etc. , sont suggerees. Des flots de synthese orientes applications dominees par le controle et specifiques aux technologies ciblees sont introduits. Une des contributions de cette these est la recherche systematique de moyens efficaces pour faciliter l'exploration de l'espace des solutions. Dans le cadre de la synthese des controleurs une strategie de choix du codage des etats est presentee. Elle est fondee sur une caracterisation originale des codages, des technologies cibles et de la complexite des controleurs consideres. Enfin, des problemes ouverts sont soulignes et des axes de recherche fondamentale et appliquee a explorer sont proposes.

The Hybrid Warfare phenomena, which is the subject of the current research, has been framed by the work of Professor Agostino Bruzzone (University of Genoa) and Professor Erdal Cayirci (University of Stavanger), that in June 2016 created in order to inquiry the subject a dedicated Exploratory Team, which was endorsed by NATO Modelling &amp; Simulation Group (a panel of the NATO Science &amp; Technology organization) and established with the participation as well of the author. The author brought his personal contribution within the ET43 by introducing meaningful insights coming from the lecture of “Fight by the minutes: Time and the Art of War (1994)”, written by Lieutenant Colonel US Army (Rtd.) Robert Leonhard; in such work, Leonhard extensively developed the concept that “Time”, rather than geometry of the battlefield and/or firepower, is the critical factor to tackle in military operations and by extension in Hybrid Warfare. The critical reflection about the time - both in its quantitative and qualitative dimension - in a hybrid confrontation it is addressed and studied inside SIMCJOH, a software built around challenges that imposes literally to “Fight by the minutes”, echoing the core concept expressed in the eponymous work. Hybrid Warfare – which, by definition and purpose, aims to keep the military commitment of both aggressor and defender at the lowest - can gain enormous profit by employing a wide variety of non-military tools, turning them into a weapon, as in the case of the phenomena of “weaponization of mass migrations”, as it is examined in the “Dies Irae” simulation architecture. Currently, since migration it is a very sensitive and divisive issue among the public opinions of many European countries, cynically leveraging on a humanitarian emergency caused by an exogenous, inducted migration, could result in a high level of political and social destabilization, which indeed favours the concurrent actions carried on by other hybrid tools. Other kind of disruption however, are already available in the arsenal of Hybrid Warfare, such cyber threats, information campaigns lead by troll factories for the diffusion of fake/altered news, etc. From this perspective the author examines how the TREX (Threat network simulation for REactive eXperience) simulator is able to offer insights about a hybrid scenario characterized by an intense level of social disruption, brought by cyber-attacks and systemic faking of news. Furthermore, the rising discipline of “Strategic Engineering”, as envisaged by Professor Agostino Bruzzone, when matched with the operational requirements to fulfil in order to counter Hybrid Threats, it brings another innovative, as much as powerful tool, into the professional luggage of the military and the civilian employed in Defence and Homeland security sectors. Hybrid is not the New War. What is new is brought by globalization paired with the transition to the information age and rising geopolitical tensions, which have put new emphasis on hybrid hostilities that manifest themselves in a contemporary way. Hybrid Warfare is a deliberate choice of an aggressor. While militarily weak nations can resort to it in order to re-balance the odds, instead military strong nations appreciate its inherent effectiveness coupled with the denial of direct responsibility, thus circumventing the rules of the International Community (IC). In order to be successful, Hybrid Warfare should consist of a highly coordinated, sapient mix of diverse and dynamic combination of regular forces, irregular forces (even criminal elements), cyber disruption etc. all in order to achieve effects across the entire DIMEFIL/PMESII_PT spectrum. However, the owner of the strategy, i.e. the aggressor, by keeping the threshold of impunity as high as possible and decreasing the willingness of the defender, can maintain his Hybrid Warfare at a diplomatically feasible level; so the model of the capacity, willingness and threshold, as proposed by Cayirci, Bruzzone and Gunneriusson (2016), remains critical to comprehend Hybrid Warfare. Its dynamicity is able to capture the evanescent, blurring line between Hybrid Warfare and Conventional Warfare. In such contest time is the critical factor: this because it is hard to foreseen for the aggressor how long he can keep up with such strategy without risking either the retaliation from the International Community or the depletion of resources across its own DIMEFIL/PMESII_PT spectrum. Similar discourse affects the defender: if he isn’t able to cope with Hybrid Threats (i.e. taking no action), time works against him; if he is, he can start to develop counter narrative and address physical countermeasures. However, this can lead, in the medium long period, to an unforeseen (both for the attacker and the defender) escalation into a large, conventional, armed conflict. The performance of operations that required more than kinetic effects drove the development of DIMEFIL/PMESII_PT models and in turn this drive the development of Human Social Culture Behavior Modelling (HCSB), which should stand at the core of the Hybrid Warfare modelling and simulation efforts. Multi Layers models are fundamental to evaluate Strategies and Support Decisions: currently there are favourable conditions to implement models of Hybrid Warfare, such as Dies Irae, SIMCJOH and TREX, in order to further develop tools and war-games for studying new tactics, execute collective training and to support decisions making and analysis planning. The proposed approach is based on the idea to create a mosaic made by HLA interoperable simulators able to be combined as tiles to cover an extensive part of the Hybrid Warfare, giving the users an interactive and intuitive environment based on the “Modelling interoperable Simulation and Serious Game” (MS2G) approach. From this point of view, the impressive capabilities achieved by IA-CGF in human behavior modeling to support population simulation as well as their native HLA structure, suggests to adopt them as core engine in this application field. However, it necessary to highlight that, when modelling DIMEFIL/PMESII_PT domains, the researcher has to be aware of the bias introduced by the fact that especially Political and Social “science” are accompanied and built around value judgement. From this perspective, the models proposed by Cayirci, Bruzzone, Guinnarson (2016) and by Balaban &amp; Mileniczek (2018) are indeed a courageous tentative to import, into the domain of particularly poorly understood phenomena (social, politics, and to a lesser degree economics - Hartley, 2016), the mathematical and statistical instruments and the methodologies employed by the pure, hard sciences. Nevertheless, just using the instruments and the methodology of the hard sciences it is not enough to obtain the objectivity, and is such aspect the representations of Hybrid Warfare mechanics could meet their limit: this is posed by the fact that they use, as input for the equations that represents Hybrid Warfare, not physical data observed during a scientific experiment, but rather observation of the reality that assumes implicitly and explicitly a value judgment, which could lead to a biased output. Such value judgement it is subjective, and not objective like the mathematical and physical sciences; when this is not well understood and managed by the academic and the researcher, it can introduce distortions - which are unacceptable for the purpose of the Science - which could be used as well to enforce a narrative mainstream that contains a so called “truth”, which lies inside the boundary of politics rather than Science. Those observations around subjectivity of social sciences vs objectivity of pure sciences, being nothing new, suggest however the need to examine the problem under a new perspective, less philosophical and more leaned toward the practical application. The suggestion that the author want make here is that the Verification and Validation process, in particular the methodology used by Professor Bruzzone in doing V&amp;V for SIMCJOH (2016) and the one described in the Modelling &amp; Simulation User Risk Methodology (MURM) developed by Pandolfini, Youngblood et all (2018), could be applied to evaluate if there is a bias and the extent of the it, or at least making clear the value judgment adopted in developing the DIMEFIL/PMESII_PT models. Such V&amp;V research is however outside the scope of the present work, even though it is an offspring of it, and for such reason the author would like to make further inquiries on this particular subject in the future. Then, the theoretical discourse around Hybrid Warfare has been completed addressing the need to establish a new discipline, Strategic Engineering, very much necessary because of the current a political and economic environment which allocates diminishing resources to Defense and Homeland Security (at least in Europe). However, Strategic Engineering can successfully address its challenges when coupled with the understanding and the management of the fourth dimension of military and hybrid operations, Time. For the reasons above, and as elaborated by Leonhard and extensively discussed in the present work, addressing the concern posed by Time dimension is necessary for the success of any military or Hybrid confrontation. The SIMCJOH project, examined under the above perspective, proved that the simulator has the ability to address the fourth dimension of military and non-military confrontation. In operations, Time is the most critical factor during execution, and this was successfully transferred inside the simulator; as such, SIMCJOH can be viewed as a training tool and as well a dynamic generator of events for the MEL/MIL execution during any exercise. In conclusion, SIMCJOH Project successfully faces new challenging aspects, allowed to study and develop new simulation models in order to support decision makers, Commanders and their Staff. Finally, the question posed by Leonhard in terms of recognition of the importance of time management of military operations - nowadays Hybrid Conflict - has not been answered yet; however, the author believes that Modelling and Simulation tools and techniques can represent the safe “tank” where innovative and advanced scientific solutions can be tested, exploiting the advantage of doing it in a synthetic environment.

Cette thèse identifie et vise à affronter certains verrous scientifiques concernant la conception des scenarios des serious games, leurs utilisations par un meilleur partage entre les concepteurs dans des contextes d’apprentissage ciblés. Les constats motivant ce travail sont (1) la participation indispensable des formateurs dans la phase de conception en se basant sur leurs expertises et leurs objectifs pédagogiques, (2) la nécessité grandissante pour les formateurs experts de formaliser les scénarios décrivant les situations complexes rarement se produisant, (3) la non-adéquation des systèmes-auteurs des jeux sérieux existants à cette population de concepteurs, permettant seulement un nombre limité de scénarios à cause de leurs couts élevés, (4) le faible niveau de réutilisation des scénarios déjà produits dans la vie quotidienne. Notre problématique consiste à lever certains verrous existants dans la conception des jeux sérieux pour la formation dans des domaines d’expertises complexes avec l’hypothèse qu’une meilleure organisation de la connaissance et de la coopération va faciliter la conception. L’étude de cette problématique s’effectue en proposant l’architecture ARGILE (Architecture for Representations, Games, Interactions, and Learning among Experts) adaptée au jeu sérieux « participatif et intensif en connaissances »<br>This PhD aims to confront some scientific challenges concerning the scenarios’ conception of Serious Games, their use through a better share by designers within the context of targeted learning. The findings motivating our work are (1) the significant participation of trainers in the design phase, (2) the growing needs for expert trainers to formalize scenarios describing rarely complex situations, (3) the divergence of existing serious games to these designers which cover a limited number of scenarios due to their high cost, (4) the low re-use’ level of scenarios that have already happened in daily life.Our questioning will lead us to see how we must design serious games for training in complex areas of expertise where reference knowledge is neither stabilized nor unanimous, but rather dynamic and continuously evolving. After having examined the principal mains of application of the Serious Game and having defined it, the study of this questioning led us to propose the ARGILE (Architecture for Representations, Games, Interactions, and Learning Among Experts) architecture, suitable for "participatory and knowledge-intensive" serious games

Orientador: Aparecido Augusto de Carvalho<br>Banca: Cláudio Kitano<br>Banca: Walter Katsumi Sakamoto<br>Banca: Tony Inácio da Silva<br>Banca: Giuliano Pierre Estevam<br>Resumo: Sensores piroelétricos podem ser utilizados para medir a taxa de fluência de energia (intensidade) da radiação X na faixa de diagnóstico médico e de ortovoltagem. Neste trabalho, foi implementado um sistema eletrônico que pode medir taxa de fluência de energia de radiação gama de 1,25 MeV e fótons X de 6 MV e 15 MV. O sistema é constituído por um sensor piroelétrico, um conversor corrente-tensão de alta sensibilidade e um instrumento para registrar a forma de onda e medir o pulso do sinal produzido pelo sensor. Este instrumento pode ser um osciloscópio, um circuito microcontrolado associado a um display de cristal líquido, ou um módulo de aquisição de dados e um laptop. O sensor piroelétrico e o conversor corrente-tensão foram alojados em uma câmara piroelétrica blindada. Seis tipos de sensores piroelétricos foram avaliados, sendo três cerâmicas e três compósitos. Os resultados obtidos com o sistema eletrônico, utilizando os diferentes tipos de sensores, possibilitaram caracterizá-lo em termos de precisão, resolução e sensibilidade. O sistema apresentou resposta linear com a taxa de fluência de energia da radiação, precisão melhor que 3 % e resolução de 5,56 nW/m2. As constantes piezoelétricas d33 dos sensores utilizados não sofreram alteração após os mesmos terem sido irradiados com 45 Gy de radiação na faixa de radioterapia. Estas características, associadas à importância de se medir a taxa de fluência de energia de radiação ionizante, podem tornar o instrumento piroelétrico muito útil no monitoramento de radiação produzida por equipamentos de radioterapia<br>Abstract: Pyroelectric sensors have been be used to measure the energy fluence rate (intensity) of x-radiation in the range of medical diagnosis and orthovoltage. In this work, we implemented an electronic system that can measure the energy fluence rate of 1.25 MeV gamma radiation, 6 MV and 15 MV X-photons. The system consists of a pyroelectric sensor, a high sensitivity current-to-voltage converter and an instrument for measuring and recording the waveform of pulses produced by the pyroelectric sensor. This instrument may be an oscilloscope, a microcontrolled circuit associated with a liquid crystal display, or a data acquisition module connected to a laptop. The pyroelectric sensor and the current-tovoltage converter were placed in an shielded pyroelectric camera. Six types of pyroelectric sensors were evaluated, three ceramics and three composites. The results obtained with the electronic system, using different types of sensors, allowed us to characterize it in terms of precision, resolution and sensitivity. The system has linear response to the energy fluence rate of radiation, precision better than 3 % and resolution of 5,6 nW/m2. The piezoelectric constant d33 of the sensors used have not changed after these have been irradiated with 45 Gy of radiotherapy radiation. These characteristics, associated with the importance of measuring the ionizing radiation energy fluence rate may make the pyroelectric instrument very useful in monitoring radiation produced by radiotherapy equipments<br>Doutor

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-02-25Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:22:12Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 pontes_w_dr_ilha.pdf: 799811 bytes, checksum: 398dc35d3e3ae3ef3dfe294f8ba6793c (MD5)<br>Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)<br>Sensores piroelétricos podem ser utilizados para medir a taxa de fluência de energia (intensidade) da radiação X na faixa de diagnóstico médico e de ortovoltagem. Neste trabalho, foi implementado um sistema eletrônico que pode medir taxa de fluência de energia de radiação gama de 1,25 MeV e fótons X de 6 MV e 15 MV. O sistema é constituído por um sensor piroelétrico, um conversor corrente-tensão de alta sensibilidade e um instrumento para registrar a forma de onda e medir o pulso do sinal produzido pelo sensor. Este instrumento pode ser um osciloscópio, um circuito microcontrolado associado a um display de cristal líquido, ou um módulo de aquisição de dados e um laptop. O sensor piroelétrico e o conversor corrente-tensão foram alojados em uma câmara piroelétrica blindada. Seis tipos de sensores piroelétricos foram avaliados, sendo três cerâmicas e três compósitos. Os resultados obtidos com o sistema eletrônico, utilizando os diferentes tipos de sensores, possibilitaram caracterizá-lo em termos de precisão, resolução e sensibilidade. O sistema apresentou resposta linear com a taxa de fluência de energia da radiação, precisão melhor que 3 % e resolução de 5,56 nW/m2. As constantes piezoelétricas d33 dos sensores utilizados não sofreram alteração após os mesmos terem sido irradiados com 45 Gy de radiação na faixa de radioterapia. Estas características, associadas à importância de se medir a taxa de fluência de energia de radiação ionizante, podem tornar o instrumento piroelétrico muito útil no monitoramento de radiação produzida por equipamentos de radioterapia<br>Pyroelectric sensors have been be used to measure the energy fluence rate (intensity) of x-radiation in the range of medical diagnosis and orthovoltage. In this work, we implemented an electronic system that can measure the energy fluence rate of 1.25 MeV gamma radiation, 6 MV and 15 MV X-photons. The system consists of a pyroelectric sensor, a high sensitivity current-to-voltage converter and an instrument for measuring and recording the waveform of pulses produced by the pyroelectric sensor. This instrument may be an oscilloscope, a microcontrolled circuit associated with a liquid crystal display, or a data acquisition module connected to a laptop. The pyroelectric sensor and the current-tovoltage converter were placed in an shielded pyroelectric camera. Six types of pyroelectric sensors were evaluated, three ceramics and three composites. The results obtained with the electronic system, using different types of sensors, allowed us to characterize it in terms of precision, resolution and sensitivity. The system has linear response to the energy fluence rate of radiation, precision better than 3 % and resolution of 5,6 nW/m2. The piezoelectric constant d33 of the sensors used have not changed after these have been irradiated with 45 Gy of radiotherapy radiation. These characteristics, associated with the importance of measuring the ionizing radiation energy fluence rate may make the pyroelectric instrument very useful in monitoring radiation produced by radiotherapy equipments

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) est un modèle informatique émergent qui étend le cloud et ses services à la périphérie du réseau. Envisager l'exécution d'applications émergentes à forte intensité de ressources dans le réseau MEC, le déchargement de calcul est un paradigme éprouvé réussi pour activer des applications gourmandes en ressources sur les appareils mobiles. De plus, compte tenu de l'émergence de l'application collaborative mobile (MCA), les tâches déchargées peuvent être dupliquées lorsque plusieurs utilisateurs se trouvent à proximité. Cela nous motive à concevoir un schéma de déchargement de calcul collaboratif pour un réseau MEC multi-utilisateurs. Dans ce contexte, nous étudions séparément les schémas de déchargement par calcul collaboratif pour les scénarios de déchargement de MEC, de déchargement de périphérique à périphérique (D2D) et de déchargement hybride, respectivement. Dans le scénario de déchargement de MEC, nous supposons que plusieurs utilisateurs mobiles déchargent des tâches de calcul dupliquées sur les serveurs de périphérie du réseau et partagent les résultats de calcul entre eux. Notre objectif est de développer les stratégies optimales de déchargement collaboratif avec des améliorations de mise en cache afin de minimiser le délai d'exécution global du côté du terminal mobile. À cette fin, nous proposons un déchargement optimal avec un schéma d'amélioration de la mise en cache (OOCS) pour le scénario femto-cloud et le scénario d'informatique mobile, respectivement. Les résultats de la simulation montrent que comparé à six solutions alternatives dans la littérature, notre OOCS mono-utilisateur peut réduire les délais d'exécution jusqu'à 42,83% et 33,28% respectivement pour le femto-cloud mono-utilisateur et l'informatique mobile mono-utilisateur. D'un autre côté, notre système OOCS multi-utilisateur peut encore réduire le délai de 11,71% par rapport à l'OOCS mono-utilisateur grâce à la coopération des utilisateurs. Dans le scénario de déchargement D2D, nous supposons que lorsque des tâches de calcul en double sont traitées sur des utilisateurs mobiles spécifiques et que les résultats de calcul sont partagés via le canal de multidiffusion Device-to-Device (D2D). Notre objectif ici est de trouver une partition réseau optimale pour le déchargement multicast D2D, afin de minimiser la consommation d'énergie globale du côté du terminal mobile. À cette fin, nous proposons d'abord un cadre de déchargement de calcul basé sur la multidiffusion D2D où le problème est modélisé comme un problème d'optimisation combinatoire, puis résolu en utilisant les concepts de correspondance bipartite pondérée maximale et de jeu de coalition. Notez que notre proposition considère la contrainte de délai pour chaque utilisateur mobile ainsi que le niveau de la batterie pour garantir l'équité. Pour évaluer l'efficacité de notre proposition, nous simulons trois composants interactifs typiques. Les résultats de la simulation montrent que notre algorithme peut réduire considérablement la consommation d'énergie et garantir l'équité de la batterie entre plusieurs utilisateurs en même temps. Nous étendons ensuite le déchargement du D2D au déchargement hybride en tenant compte des relations sociales. Dans ce contexte, nous proposons un cadre d'exécution de tâches hybride multicast pour l'informatique mobile, où une foule d'appareils mobiles à la périphérie du réseau s'appuient sur la collaboration D2D assistée par réseau pour l'informatique distribuée sans fil et le partage des résultats. Le cadre est socialement conscient afin de construire des liens D2D efficaces. Un objectif clé de ce cadre est de mettre en place une politique d'attribution de tâches écoénergétique pour les utilisateurs mobiles. Pour ce faire, nous introduisons d'abord le modèle de système de déchargement de calcul hybride social-aware, puis nous formulons le problème d'affectation de tâches économe en énergie en prenant en compte les contraintes nécessaires [...]<br>Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is an emerging computing model that extends the cloud and its services to the edge of the network. Consider the execution of emerging resource-intensive applications in MEC network, computation offloading is a proven successful paradigm for enabling resource-intensive applications on mobile devices. Moreover, in view of emerging mobile collaborative application (MCA), the offloaded tasks can be duplicated when multiple users are in the same proximity. This motivates us to design a collaborative computation offloading scheme for multi-user MEC network. In this context, we separately study the collaborative computation offloading schemes for the scenarios of MEC offloading, device-to-device (D2D) offloading and hybrid offloading, respectively. In the MEC offloading scenario, we assume that multiple mobile users offload duplicated computation tasks to the network edge servers, and share the computation results among them. Our goal is to develop the optimal fine-grained collaborative offloading strategies with caching enhancements to minimize the overall execution delay at the mobile terminal side. To this end, we propose an optimal offloading with caching-enhancement scheme (OOCS) for femto-cloud scenario and mobile edge computing scenario, respectively. Simulation results show that compared to six alternative solutions in literature, our single-user OOCS can reduce execution delay up to 42.83% and 33.28% for single-user femto-cloud and single-user mobile edge computing, respectively. On the other hand, our multi-user OOCS can further reduce 11.71% delay compared to single-user OOCS through users' cooperation. In the D2D offloading scenario, we assume that where duplicated computation tasks are processed on specific mobile users and computation results are shared through Device-to-Device (D2D) multicast channel. Our goal here is to find an optimal network partition for D2D multicast offloading, in order to minimize the overall energy consumption at the mobile terminal side. To this end, we first propose a D2D multicast-based computation offloading framework where the problem is modelled as a combinatorial optimization problem, and then solved using the concepts of from maximum weighted bipartite matching and coalitional game. Note that our proposal considers the delay constraint for each mobile user as well as the battery level to guarantee fairness. To gauge the effectiveness of our proposal, we simulate three typical interactive components. Simulation results show that our algorithm can significantly reduce the energy consumption, and guarantee the battery fairness among multiple users at the same time. We then extend the D2D offloading to hybrid offloading with social relationship consideration. In this context, we propose a hybrid multicast-based task execution framework for mobile edge computing, where a crowd of mobile devices at the network edge leverage network-assisted D2D collaboration for wireless distributed computing and outcome sharing. The framework is social-aware in order to build effective D2D links [...]

碩士<br>國立中央大學<br>電機工程學系<br>106<br>As the attention on the language therapy increased in Taiwan in recent years, the growth of patients discovered with language disorder leads to lack of language therapists. For traditional treatment of speech disorder, speech therapists need to assess and treat patients with communication disorder individually. Such personalized therapy process is inefficient for massive patients waiting for their next rehabilitation appointments. In addition, this treatment performance is ineffective since lack of language therapists. Therefore, we proposed a serious game for rehabilitation on voice intensity and pitch. We hoped patients would not only improve the dysarthria and decay of volume but also be motivated for speech rehabilitation by playing the game. The system recorded a short speech signal from human and calculated its volume (in decibel, dB) and fundamental frequency (in Hertz, Hz) immediately. These two parameters were used to control the animated character and provide visual feedbacks for patients. In order to assess the effectiveness of this game system, we collaborated with a speech therapist of the Taoyuan General Hospital. Eleven subjects including five patients with voice disorder and six normal subjects were involved in the clinical study to see if there were any differences in between. Experiments were carried out for three weeks (one day per week and six times per day with a total time of 30 minutes). Each experiment included 4 pitch and 2 volume games. Besides the experiment of our system (A system), we did the experiment of the game system (B system) for voice disorder from previous study of our laboratory. At the end of the experiments, subjects were presented with a questionnaire which included 11 items aiming at evaluating various aspects of the training experience. After finishing all the experiments, the speech performance of patients was assessed by comparing the results of the first and last experiments. Next, we would like to see the difference between the results of A system and B system. To examine the difference between normal subjects and patients, we analyzed the results of the first and last experiments with the T test and calculated the p value. The results of A system were found that the average frequency range of patients was increased by 103Hz and the average of volume was increased by 12dB. The p value of frequency range is 0.025 and the p value of the volume is 0.023, hence there were significant differences. The results of B system were found that the average frequency range of patients was increased by 68Hz and the average of volume was increased by 16dB. The p value of frequency range is 0.005 and the p value of the volume is 0.01, hence there were significant differences. The results of A system and B system showed the average frequency range and volume of normal subjects for normal subjects were not significant changed in the last experiment. In voice intensity treatment, the effectiveness of B system was better than the effectiveness of A system. We surmised the probable causes including personal error, the lack of sample size and the difference of the game type between two systems. In pitch treatment, the effectiveness of A system was better than the effectiveness of B system. We inferred that the probable reason was the difference of the animation trigger between two systems. The superior frequency range and volume of patients after practices were similar to the results of other research in the literature. It has proved the benefits of this game system for speech therapy. In addition, the feedback of questionnaire showed the subjects were all confident in the system that we presented.

Competition often requires teams that reside at sea level to compete against opponents whose residence is at a moderate altitude. This may pose a potential competitive disadvantage considering that moderate altitude may cause decrements in VO2max, distance covered, and time to exhaustion in endurance athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of altitude on game performance measures. Six NCAA Division I female soccer players (20.33 ± 1.21 y; 168 ± 6.45 cm; 62.5 ± 6.03 kg) were retrospectively examined. Comparisons were made between two competitions that were played at sea level (SL) within two weeks of a game played at a moderate altitude (1840 m) on game characteristics including high intensity running (HIR) and total distance covered (TDC). Analysis was performed on these six players who met a threshold of playing sixty or more minutes in each competition. A 10-Hz global positioning system (GPS) was used to measure distance and velocity. The rate of TDC and HIR during the game (m?min-1) and percentage of time at HIR during competition were evaluated. The two games at SL were averaged to establish baseline performance and the mean results were compared with the single game played at altitude. Paired samples t-tests were performed to determine if any mean differences existed between performance at altitude and sea level. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were seen in minutes played between the games at SL (74.23 ± 2.93 min) versus altitude (83.24 ± 5.27 min). The relative distance rate during the game at altitude was lower at altitude (105.77 ± 10.19 m?min-1) than at SL (120.55 ± 8.26 m?min-1). HIR rate was greater at SL (27.65 ± 9.25 m?min-1) compared to altitude (25.07 ± 7.66 m?min-1). The percent of time spent at high intensity was not significantly different (p = 0.064), yet tended to be greater at sea level (10.4 ± 3.3%) than when they performed at altitude (9.1 ±2.2%). Soccer performance at a moderate altitude appears to reduce the rate at which players run throughout the competition, as well as their rate at a high intensity. Results suggest that teams that reside at SL may be at a competitive disadvantage when competing at altitude.<br>M.S.<br>Masters<br>Child, Family and Community Sciences<br>Education and Human Performance<br>Sport and Exercise Science; Applied Exercise Physiology Track

[ES] La quinta generación de comunicaciones móviles, 5G, promete ser una revolución tecnológica que vaya más allá de multiplicar la velocidad de transmisión de datos de sus predecesoras. Pretende soportar una gran cantidad de dispositivos y alcanzar latencias muy cercanas a 1 milisegundo. Para satisfacer estos ambiciosos requisitos, se han investigado nuevas tecnologías habilitadoras. Una de ellas es el uso de las bandas de ondas milimétricas (mmW) en las cuales hay una gran cantidad de espectro disponible. Para predecir las características del canal radio y evaluar las prestaciones de la 5G de forma fiable en las bandas mmW se requieren modelos de canal complejos. Concretamente, los modelos de propagación más precisos son los basados en trazado de rayos, pero su alto costo computacional los hacen inviables para la caracterización del canal radio en escenarios complejos. Por otro lado, en los últimos años, la tecnología de videojuegos ha desarrollado potentes herramientas para modelar la propagación de la luz en escenarios superrealistas. Dada la cercanía espectral entre el espectro visible y las ondas mmW, la presente Tesis ha estudiado la aplicación de las herramientas de modelado de propagación de la luz de los motores de juego para el modelado del canal radio en mmW. Esta Tesis propone un modelo de estimación de las pérdidas de propagación en mmW llamado "Modelo de Intensidad de Luz'' (LIM). Usando este modelo, basado en los procesos de iluminación realizados por los motores de juego, los transmisores de señal se sustituyen por focos de luz y la intensidad lumínica recibida en un punto se traduce a potencia de señal en milimétricas a través de una función polinómica sencilla. Una de las ventajas de usar los motores de juego es su gran capacidad y la facilidad que tiene el usuario para crear escenarios superrealistas que representen fielmente la geometría de escenarios donde se quiera evaluar el canal radio. De esta forma se pueden obtener estimaciones precisas de las pérdidas de propagación. La estimación de las pérdidas de propagación con LIM ha sido comparada con campañas de medida en las bandas de 28 GHz y 73 GHz y con otros modelos de propagación. Como resultado, el error de estimación de LIM es menor que los modelos estocásticos actuales y es comparable con el modelo de trazado de rayos. Y, además, el coste computacional de LIM comparado con el trazado de rayos es 130 veces menor, lo que posibilita el uso de LIM en escenarios altamente complejos para la estimación del canal radio en tiempo real. Los motores de juego permiten caracterizar de forma diferente la interacción de los materiales con la luz configurando el mapa de normales de sus superficies y sus funciones de dispersión y reflexión. En esta Tesis se ha determinado la caracterización de varios materiales que mejor se ajusta a medidas de laboratorio realizadas en un escenario controlado en la banda de 28 GHz. El modelo de LIM empleando materiales con esta caracterización óptima reduce más de un 50\% su error de estimación con respecto a la aplicación de LIM con los materiales por defecto, mientras que su coste computacional sigue siendo 26 veces menor que el modelo de trazado de rayos. Finalmente, se ha desarrollado sobre un motor de juego una primera versión de plataforma para la emulación de los sistemas 5G que es el punto de partida para un emulador completo de 5G. Esta plataforma no sólo contiene el modelo de LIM sino que incluye varios casos de uso de la 5G en entornos superrealistas. La plataforma, que se basa en el concepto de "Serious Game Engineering", rompe las limitaciones de los simuladores de redes móviles en cuanto a las capacidades de visualización e interacción del usuario con los componentes de la red en tiempo real.<br>[CAT] La cinquena generació de comunicacions mòbils, 5G, promet ser una revolució tecnològica que vaja més enllà de multiplicar la velocitat de transmissió de dades de les seues predecessores. Pretén suportar una gran quantitat de dispositius i aconseguir latències molt pròximes a 1 mil·lisegon. Per a satisfer aquests ambiciosos requisits, s'han investigat noves tecnologies habilitadores. Una d'elles és l'ús de les bandes d'ones mil·limètriques (mmW) en les quals hi ha una gran quantitat d'espectre disponible. Per a predir les característiques del canal ràdio i avaluar les prestacions de la 5G de forma fiable en les bandes mmW es requereixen models de canal complexos. Concretament, els models de propagació més precisos són els basats en traçat de rajos, però el seu alt cost computacional els fan inviables per a la caracterització del canal ràdio en escenaris complexos. D'altra banda, en els últims anys, la tecnologia de videojocs ha desenvolupat potents eines per a modelar la propagació de la llum en escenaris superrealistes. Donada la proximitat espectral entre l'espectre visible i les ones mmW, la present Tesi ha estudiat l'aplicació de les eines de modelatge de propagació de la llum dels motors de joc per al modelatge del canal radie en mmW. Aquesta Tesi proposa un model d'estimació de les pèrdues de propagació en mmW anomenat "Model d'Intensitat de Llum'' (LIM). Usant aquest model, basat en els processos d'il·luminació realitzats pels motors de joc, els transmissors de senyal se substitueixen per focus de llum i la intensitat lumínica rebuda en un punt es tradueix a potència de senyal en mil·limètriques a través d'una funció polinòmica senzilla. Una dels avantatges d'usar els motors de joc és la seua gran capacitat i la facilitat que té l'usuari per a crear escenaris superrealistes que representen fidelment la geometria d'escenaris on es vulga avaluar el canal ràdio. D'aquesta forma es poden obtindre estimacions precises de les pèrdues de propagació. L'estimació de les pèrdues de propagació amb LIM ha sigut comparada amb campanyes de mesura en les bandes de 28~GHz i 73~GHz i amb altres models de propagació. Com a resultat, l'error d'estimació de LIM és menor que els models estocàstics actuals i és comparable amb el model de traçat de rajos. I, a més, el cost computacional de LIM comparat amb el traçat de rajos és 130 vegades menor, la qual cosa possibilita l'ús de LIM en escenaris altament complexos per a l'estimació del canal ràdio en temps real. Els motors de joc permeten caracteritzar de forma diferent la interacció dels materials amb la llum configurant el mapa de normals de les seues superfícies i les seues funcions de dispersió i reflexió. En aquesta Tesi s'ha determinat la caracterització de diversos materials que s'ajusta millor a mesures de laboratori realitzades en un escenari controlat en la banda de 28 GHz. El model de LIM emprant materials amb aquesta caracterització òptima redueix més d'un 50 % el seu error d'estimació respecte a l'aplicació de LIM amb els materials per defecte, mentre que el seu cost computacional continua sent 26 vegades menor que el model de traçat de rajos. Finalment, s'ha desenvolupat sobre un motor de joc una primera versió de plataforma per a l'emulació dels sistemes 5G que és el punt de partida per a un emulador complet de 5G. Aquesta plataforma no solament conté el model de LIM sinó que inclou diversos casos d'ús de la 5G en entorns superrealistes. La plataforma, que es basa en el concepte de "Serious Game Engineering", trenca les limitacions dels simuladors de xarxes mòbils quant a les capacitats de visualització i interacció de l'usuari amb els components de la xarxa en temps real.<br>[EN] The fifth generation of mobile communications, 5G, promises to be a technological revolution that goes beyond multiplying the data transmission speed of its predecessors. It aims to support a large number of devices and reach latencies very close to 1 millisecond. To meet these ambitious requirements, new enabling technologies have been researched. One of these is the use of millimetre-wave bands (mmW) in which a large amount of spectrum is available. Complex channel models are required to predict radio channel characteristics and reliably evaluate 5G performance in the mmW bands. Specifically, the most accurate propagation models are those based on ray tracing, but their high computational cost makes them unfeasible for radio channel characterization in complex scenarios. On the other hand, in recent years, video game technology has developed powerful tools to model the propagation of light in super realistic scenarios. Given the spectral closeness between the visible spectrum and the mmW waves, the present Thesis has studied the application of light propagation modeling tools from game engines for radio channel modeling in mmW. This Thesis proposes a model for estimating propagation losses in mmW called "Light Intensity Model'' (LIM). Using this model, based on the lighting processes performed by the game engines, the signal transmitters are replaced by light sources and the light intensity received at a point is translated into signal strength in mmW through a simple polynomial function. One of the advantages of using the game engines is their great capacity and the ease with which the user can create super realistic scenarios that faithfully represent the geometry of scenarios where the radio channel is to be evaluated. In this way, accurate estimates of propagation losses can be obtained. The estimation of propagation losses with LIM has been compared with measurement campaigns in the 28 GHz and 73 GHz bands and with other propagation models. As a result, the LIM estimation error is smaller than the current stochastic models and is comparable with the ray tracing model. In addition, the computational cost of LIM compared to ray tracing is 130 times lower, allowing the use of LIM in highly complex scenarios for real-time radio channel estimation. The game engines allow to characterize in a different way the interaction of the materials with the light configuring the normal map of their surfaces and their scattering and reflection functions. In this Thesis it has been determined the characterization of several materials that best fits to laboratory measurements made in a controlled scenario in the 28 GHz band. The LIM model using materials with this optimal characterization reduces by more than 50% its estimation error with respect to the application of LIM with default materials, while its computational cost remains 26 times lower than the ray tracing model. Finally, a first version of a platform for the emulation of 5G systems has been developed on a game engine, which is the starting point for a complete 5G emulator. This platform not only contains the LIM model but also includes several 5G use cases in super realistic environments. The platform, which is based on the concept of "`Serious Game Engineering", breaks the limitations of mobile network simulators in terms of visualization capabilities and user interaction with network components in real time.<br>Inca Sánchez, SA. (2019). Serious Game Engineering and Lighting Models for the Realistic Emulation of 5G Systems [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/132695<br>TESIS

碩士<br>國立臺灣師範大學<br>體育研究所<br>90<br>A Study of Exercise Intensity on Volleyball Competition ――On accont of the Women Volleyball Players of 2001 World University Olympic Game―― Student：Tu-Nan Chou Advisor：Chu-Mao Lin,PRO Assist Advisor：Jung-Charng Lin,PH.D. Abstract This study adopts simulated formal volleyball game by using the Mix design two-way ANOVA , one-way ANOVA and K.Pearson correlation coefficient analysis to explore the change of blood lactate value and heart rate, we also to explore the correlation analysis between blood lactate, heart rate and rating of perceived exertion in order to conclude the exercise intensity of volleyball game. The results were in the following： 1. The comparison of blood lactate value during a volleyball game (1) The interaction between various players in various innings was not significant (p > .05), and the blood lactate value in each inning was significantly higher than when the players were rest. 2. The comparison of hart rate during a volleyball game (1) The interaction of HR between various and various innings was not significant (p > .05), and the HR stays in a relative stable situation. The HR of various position players was significantly different (p < .05). (2) The HR of all front row players was significantly higher than the HR of all the back row players (p < .05). And the HR of various position players stay in the front row and stay in the back one was significantly(p<.05). (3) The interaction between various position players and various heart beat intervals was significant (p < .05). Various position players and their heart beat interval distribution do not match in accordance (p < .05). The most frequent interval appears in the 131 — 150 beat/min one (p < .05). 3. The conclusive evaluation of the volleyball game exercise intensity (1) Measure the volleyball game exercise intensity as ‘Waek’ to ‘moderate’ according to the blood lactate value. (2) Measure the volleyball game exercise intensity as ‘moderate’ to ‘strong’ according to the HR.When applying to the volleyball game exercise intensity, the body sensed fatigue level was between ‘exhausted’ and ‘moderate’ according to the rating of perceived exertion. (3) There was accordance when applying the blood lactate value and Heart rate and rating of perceived exertion upon the evaluation of the volleyball game intensity. (4) The HR of various position players can reach about 65 — 75% of personal HRmax%. During the max exercise intensity the ratio will go up to 83 — 94%. The libero players always to stay at back row. So the HR can reach about 78 ~80% of personal HRMAX%. generally the intensity the players endure was about low to moderate level. Since the energy for volleyball exercise mainly comes from anaerobic energy supply system, enhancing the players’ exercise competence on account of anaerobic energy metabolism was the only way to improve the performance of the game. Keyword: exercise intensity, blood lactate, heart rate (HR), rating of perceived exertion（RPE）

Physical inactivity remains one of the biggest societal challenges of the 21st century. The gaming industry and the fitness sector have responded to this alarming fact by introducing game-based or gamified training scenarios and thus established the promising trend of exergaming. Exergames – games controlled by active (whole) body movements – have been extolled as potential attractive and effective training tools. However, the majority of the exergames do not meet the required intensity or effectiveness, nor do they induce the intended training adherence or long-term motivation. One reason for this is that the evaluated exergames were often not co-designed with the user group to meet their specific needs and preferences, nor were they co-designed with an interdisciplinary expert team of game designers (to ensure a good gaming experience) and sports scientists (for a great training experience). Accordingly, the research results from studies with these exergames are rather limited. To fully exploit the potential of these innovative movement tools and to establish them as attractive and effective training approach, it is necessary to understand and explore both the underlying interdisciplinary theories and concepts as well as possible design approaches and their impact on the game and training experience. This dissertation aims to contribute to a better understanding of well-balanced exergame design. It explores and evaluates how different movement-based control devices, exercise concepts, game adaptations, and player modes influence the attractiveness and effectiveness of exergames. The work provides theoretical and practical contributions to the problem area of effective and attractive exergames. For this purpose, a research and development (R&D) approach with iterative phases was followed. As preliminary work for the contributions of this dissertation, exergames were approached from a theoretical perspective. Underlying multidisciplinary theories and concepts of exergames from relevant fields were analyzed and a generic framework was built, which structured the findings based on three interdependent dimensions: the player, the game controller, and the virtual game scenario. Some commercially available exergames were explored to verify the theory-based assumption that the interposition of technology brings specific transformations in the coupling of perception and action that do not occur in real sports situations. Among other things, the comparative pilot study showed that two different controllers (one gesture-based and one haptic device), which allowed for different physical input, were likely to induce diverse gameplay experiences (e.g., higher feeling of flow and self-location when playing with the haptic device) with differently skilled players. However, certain design-specific differences in the two exergame conditions meant that these results could only be interpreted as a first trend. To overcome the limitations of this preliminary study approach (e.g., unequal game design of the commercial exergames and very sports-specific movement concept), Plunder Planet, an adaptive exergame environment, was iteratively designed with and for children and allowed for a single- and cooperative multiplayer experience with two different controller devices. The user-centered design was further informed by insights from the growing body of related R&D work in the field of exergames. The first study presented in this dissertation compared the subjectively experienced attractiveness and effectiveness of Plunder Planet when played with different motion-based controllers. Besides a generally great acceptance of the exergame, it was found that the haptic full-body motion controller provided physical guidance and a more cognitively and coordinatively challenging workout, which was more highly rated by experienced gamers with fewer athletic skills. The gesture-based Kinect sensor felt more natural, allowed more freedom of movement, and provided a rather physically intense but cognitively less challenging workout, which was more highly rated by athletic players with less gameplay experience. Furthermore, experiments were made with an exploratory adaptive algorithm that enabled the cognitive and the physical challenge of the exergame to be manually adapted in real-time based on the player’s fitness and gaming skills. The first and the second study also compared an adaptive with a non-adaptive single player version of Plunder Planet. It could be shown that the (well-balanced) adaptive version of the exergame was better valued than the non-adaptive version with regard to the experienced and measured attractiveness (motivation, game flow, spatial presence experience, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) and effectiveness (heart rate, physical exertion, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) by differently skilled players. Finally, and contrary to the findings from related work, the results of the third study proved that the specifically designed controller technology could be used as an “enabler”, “supporter” and “shaper” of bodily interplay in social exergaming. Based on these promising findings, the goal became to further explore the effectiveness of exergames, refine the adaptive game difficulty algorithm, and explore further attractiveness- and motivation-boosting design approaches. Therefore, the ExerCube, a physically immersive and adaptive fitness game setting, was developed. It was iteratively designed with and for adults and allowed for cooperatively and competitive exergame experiences. With its physically immersive game setup, the ExerCube combines a mixed version of the advantages of both previously tested controllers. A coordinatively and cognitively challenging functional workout protocol with scalable intensity (moderate to high) was developed and the subjective experience of the ExerCube training was compared with a conventional functional training with a personal trainer. The fourth study showed that the game-based training gave signs of reaching a similar intensity to the personal training, but was more highly rated for flow, motivation, and enjoyment. Based on this exploratory comparison of the ExerCube with a personal trainer session, valuable avenues for further design could be identified. Among other things, it could be proved that the player’s focus during the ExerCube session was more on the game than on the own body. Players experienced stronger physical exertion and social pressure with the personal trainer and a stronger cognitive exertion and involvement with the ExerCube. Furthermore, a refined version of the previously tested adaptive game difficulty algorithm was implemented and automated for the first time for purpose of this study. Again it was shown that the adaptive version had benefits with regard to subjectively experienced attractiveness (motivation, game flow, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) and effectiveness (physical exertion, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) compared to the non-adaptive version. In order to further enhance the gaming experience, experiments were also conducted with sound designs and an adaptive audio design with adaptive background music and sound feedback was implemented. It was found to be a promising and beneficial add-on for a user-centered attractive exergame design. To inform the design of a multiplayer version of the ExerCube, different social play mechanics were explored in the fifth study. This resulted in differently balanced experiences of fun, and in physical as well as cognitive exertion. As the preliminary comparative evaluation of the subjectively experienced effectiveness and attractiveness of an ExerCube session and a personal trainer session could prove the general feasibility of the concept and revealed the first indications of the intensity of the ExerCube’s training concept, the objectively measured effectiveness of a single ExerCube session with a functional high-intensity interval training (fHIIT) with a personal trainer was compared in a final sixth study, and after another design iteration. Again, the subjectively experienced attractiveness of both conditions was assessed. It could be shown that the ExerCube is a feasible training device for training at fHIIT-level. While physical exertion was slightly lower than in the conventional fHIIT condition, the ExerCube condition’s average heart rate values reached the fHIIT threshold and also yielded significantly better results for flow, enjoyment, and motivation. The ExerCube training also resulted in a subjectively experienced higher cognitive load (dual-domain training). To sum up, it can be stated that this dissertation provides valuable and fundamental research contributions to the promising field of exergames as attractive and effective training tools. Furthermore, important contributions to design questions in this field could be developed. Since this field is still relatively unexplored, the work presented creates a sound basis for future R&D work in this area.

Cache-based, general purpose CPUs perform at a small fraction of their maximum floating point performance when executing memory-intensive simulations, such as those required for many scientific computing problems. This is due to the memory bottleneck that is encountered with large arrays that must be stored in dynamic RAM. A system of FPGAs, with a large enough memory bandwidth, and clocked at only hundreds of MHz can outperform a CPU clocked at GHz in terms of floating point performance. An FPGA core designed for a target performance that does not unnecessarily exceed the memory imposed bottleneck can then be distributed, along with multiple memory interfaces, into a scalable architecture that overcomes the bandwidth limitation of a single interface. Interconnected cores can work together to solve a scientific computing problem and exploit a bandwidth that is the sum of the bandwidth available from all of their connected memory interfaces. The implementation demonstrates this concept of scalability with two memory interfaces through the use of available FPGA prototyping platforms. Even though the FPGAs operate at 133 MHz, which is twenty one times slower than an AMD Phenom X4 processor operating at 2.8 GHz, the system of two FPGAs performs eight times slower than the processor for the example problem of SMVM in heat transfer. However, the system is demonstrated to be scalable with a run-time that decreases linearly with respect to the available memory bandwidth. The floating point performance of a single board implementation is 12 GFlops which doubles to 24 GFlops for a two board implementation, for a gather or scatter operation on matrices of varying sizes.

碩士<br>國立臺中教育大學<br>幼兒教育學系碩士班<br>105<br>This research is focus on the improvement of sensory integrative function in preschool children after interventional therapy of intensive Sensory Integration Games. In this research, the experimental group was designed to nonrandomized control group, pretest-posttest design, and the research sample were kindergartener, the average age ranged from 4 to 6 years old, in a private kindergarten in Nantou County.The experimental group was sensory integration dysfunction (N=10), and the control group was sensory integration normal (N=10). The experimental group accepted a ten-week test, which was five times a week; one hour each time, and total of fifty times, by the researcher in accordance with the subjects before the test data analysis. According to sensory integration theory, acting in concert with kindergarten theme courses, and then design thematic Sensory Integration Game lesson plans. Reviewing the consultation lesson plans by functional therapist, and then conduct Sensory Integration Game experimental treatment by researcher.To explore the effect of indirect therapy of intensive Sensory Integration Games on improving the sensory integration function of preschool children? To realize what is the difference between the experimental group and the control group and understand whether the sensory integration function of the experimental group is close to the normal children.The results showed that there were significant differences in the scores of the pre-and-post-test in the experimental group, and the improvement of sensory integration was significantly higher than that in the control group without intervention.There was no significant difference between the post-test results of the four sub-test items of "the sequence of action on both sides”, "sensory discrimination", "sensory search" and "attention and activity". Therefore, intensive Sensory Integration Game can improve children's sensory integration after interventional therapy. It is suggested that parents and teachers should use indirect sensory integration therapy to guide the future activities and teaching.

碩士<br>國立彰化師範大學<br>資訊管理學系<br>106<br>With the advancement of the information system, using business simulation teaching games has become a new way of learning. According to Faria et al., using business simulation teaching games to learn has become an effective and interesting method in teaching management subjects. Based on the UTAUT2(unified theory of acceptance & use of technology 2, UTAUT2) model proposed by Venkatesh et al. in 2012, this study explores the factors that users use to use business simulation teaching games. This study used an online questionnaire to collect 143 questionnaires and used Smart PLS3 for statistical verification. The results indicate that convenience condition, hedonic motivation, and price value are salient determinants of users using business simulation teaching game. The finding of this study provide several important and impications for business simulation teaching games research and practice.

碩士<br>遠東科技大學<br>行銷與流通管理系碩士班<br>105<br>With the rapid development of global technology and the rise of internet technology, it drives the development and innovation of intelligent mobile devices, but also meets the demand of consumers. Thus, the various manufacturers are also in response to consumers’ demand for various smart mobile devices. In this study, the users of LINE Get Rich were used as the research object to explore the relationship among system quality, user interface and technology acceptance model. The statistical software SPSS 19.0 and Amos software were used as analysis tools. The samples were analyzed by reliability analysis, correlation analysis, and structural equation model to carry out data analysis. The results of this study indicate that: (1) the system quality cognition to mobile game users has a significant positive effect on the perceived usability; (2) the system quality cognition to mobile game users has no significant effect on perceived ease of use; (3) The user interface awareness of mobile games has a significant positive impact on the perceived usability; (4) The user interface awareness of mobile games has no significant effect on perceived ease of use; (5) the perceived ease of use to mobile game user has a significant positive impact on the perceived usability; (6) the perceived usability to mobile game users has a significant positive impact on the willingness of use; (7) the perceived ease of use to mobile game users has no significant effect on the willingness of use; (8) the user interface awareness of mobile games has no significant effect on the willingness of use; (9) the system quality cognition to mobile game users has a significant positive impact on the willingness of use. The results of the study provide not only the relationship among the game system quality, user interface and technology acceptance model, but also allows the mobile game industry as a reference to the design of the game.

碩士<br>國立臺灣體育學院<br>體育研究所<br>92<br>ABSTRACT 　　To participate the Olympic Games is the aspiration of every athlete, and to win the game is the dream of every athlete. 　　In order to gain the first gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the sports authority in Taiwan put their efforts to provide all the necessary assistances for creating the new sports history. The lifter Wang Shin-Yen who was ranked No. 2 in the world in 2002 (2001 No.3, 2000 No.4 and 1999 No.3) was designated to have the potential winning the gold medal in the Athens Olympic Games. 　　The purpose of this study was to develop a long term and multi-discipline training program to help the lifter Wang Shin-Yen improve his performance. The program will be planed included to use the feedback of sports physiology, kinesiology and psychological skill training, to get the techniques improvement and increase his self- confident. Through the well-designed program, and well-prepared training, the Olympic gold medal will not only be a dream. 　　The training program is preparing for the coming year, and the main purpose is to assist the lifter Wang Shin Yen only concentrating on his training program, nutrition ergogenic aids control and have enough rest after training. Moreover, the prevention of sports injury should be emphasized in the program. After following the training program, to avoid all the outside interferences, it is possible to gain the first gold medal in the coming Athens Olympic Games.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Ensino de Educação Física nos Ensinos Básico e Secundário<br>O objectivo deste estudo consistiu em examinar o efeito da variação do número de jogadores e organização espacial das equipas na frequência cardíaca, percepção subjectiva do esforço e potência muscular do trem inferior no ensino de Basquetebol. A amostra do estudo foi constituída por 10 jogadores amadores de uma equipa de Basquetebol (idade 13.3±0.71 anos; peso 49.0±8.03 kg; altura 160.9±0.91 cm). Os exercícios de esforço foram realizados de 3 formas, 2 vezes cada forma: 3x3; 5x5 (em formato de 5:0); 5x5 (em formato de 4:1). Cada sessão consistiu num aquecimento de 15 minutos e posteriormente 4 séries de esforço de 4 minutos separados por 3 minutos de recuperação activa. Foi mantida uma área de campo por jogador de 21m2. A FCmáx foi determinada pelo yo-yo intermitent recovery test (nível 1) e foram definidas 4 zonas de intensidade: Zona 1 (<75% FCmáx), Zona 2 (75-84% FCmáx), Zona 3 (85-89% FCmáx) e Zona 4 (>90% FCmáx). Foram identificadas diferenças significativas em todas as comparações fisiológicas do 3x3 para com as restantes formas jogadas (p<.01 para frequência cardíaca e percepção subjectiva de esforço e p<.05 para a potência muscular) demonstrando os benefícios da utilização desta forma jogada no ensino/treino da modalidade.<br>The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the variation in the number of players and teams spatial organization on the heart rate, perceived exertion responses and power, in the methodology of Basketball teaching. The study sample consisted in 10 amateur athletes from a male Basketball team (13.3±0.71 years old, 49.0±8.03 kg and 160.9±0.91 cm). The effort exercises were performed in three ways, twice each: 3x3; 5x5 (5:0); 5x5 (4:1). Each session consisted of 15 minutes heating followed by 4 sets of effort, with gaps of 3 minutes for active recovery. Each player had a field area of 21m2. The HRmax was determined by the yo-yo intermitent recovery test (level 1) and were defined 4 intensity zones: Zone 1 (<75% HRmax), Zone 2 (75-84% HRmax), Zone 3 (85-89% HRmax) and Zone 4 (>90% HRmax). Statistically significant differences were found in all the 3x3 physiological comparisons, to the remaining Basketball games (p<.01 to heart rate and subjective perception of effort and p<.05 to power) demonstrating that this small-sided game could be used in order to teaching/training of this sport.