Gaming Business Communities: Developing online learning organisations to foster communities, develop leadership, and grow interpersonal education

This paper explores, through observation and testing, what possibilities from gaming can be extended into other realms of human interaction to help bring people together, extend education, and grow business. It uses through action learning within the safety of the virtual world within Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Further, I explore how the world of online gaming provides opportunity to train a wide range of skills through extending Revans’ (1980) learning equation and action inquiry methodology. This equation and methodology are deployed in relation to a gaming community to see if the theories could produce strong relationships within organisations and examine what learning, if any, is achievable. I also investigate the potential for changes in business (e.g., employee and customer relationships) through involvement in the gaming community as a unique place to implement action learning. The thesis also asks the following questions on a range of extended possibilities in the world of online gaming: What if the world opened up to a social environment where people could discuss their successes and failures? What if people could take a real world issue and re‐create it in the safe virtual world to test ways of dealing with it? What education answers can the world of online gaming provide

4D trajectory optimization of commercial flight for green civil aviation

For the current development of green civil aviation, this study aims to optimize the green four-dimensional (4D) trajectory of commercial flight by taking into account conventional cost and environmental cost. Some fundamental models, efficient processing methodologies, and conventional objectives are proposed to construct the framework of trajectory optimization. Based on the environmental cost including greenhouse gas cost and harmful gas cost, green objective functions are presented. The A* algorithm and the trapezoidal collocation method are employed to optimize the lateral path and vertical profile for 4D optimization trajectory generation. A case study for the A320 from Barcelona Airport to Frankfurt Airport yields the results that the optimal costs can be obtained under different objectives and the total cost can be more optimized by adjusting the weights of environmental cost and conventional cost. The study builds an aided tool for 4D trajectory optimization and demonstrates that environmental factors and conventional factors should be taken into comprehensive consideration when constructing the flight trajectory in the future, as well as it can underpin the green and sustainable development of the air transport industry

Distributed game

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia InformáticaThe demand for online games has risen over the years, expanding multiplayer support for new and different game genres. Among them are Massively Multiplayer Online games, one of the most popular and successful game types in the industry. Nowadays, this industry is thriving, evolving alongside technological advancements and producing billions in revenue, making it an economic importance. However, as the complexity of these games grows, so do the challenges they face when constructing them. This dissertation aims to implement a distributed game, through a proof of concept or an existing game, using a distributed architecture to acquire knowledge in the construction of such complex systems and the effort involved in dealing with consistency, maintaining communication infrastructure, and managing data in a distributed way. It is also intended that this project implements multiple mechanisms capable of autonomously helping manage and maintain the correct state of the system. To evaluate the proposed solution, a detailed analysis is carried out with performance benchmark analysis, stress testing, followed by an examination of its security, scalability, and distribution’s resilience. Overall, the present research work allowed for a greater understanding of the technologies and approaches used in constructing a gaming system, establishing a new set of development opportunities to be further investi gated upon the constructed solution.A procura por jogos online aumentou ao longo dos anos, expandindo o suporte multiplayer para novos e diferentes géneros. Entre estes estão os jogos Massively Multiplayer Online, um dos tipos de jogos mais populares e bem-sucedidos na indústria. Atualmente, esta indústria está a prosperar, evoluindo com os avanços tecnológicos e gerando milhares de milhões em receita, tornando-se uma importância económica. Porém, à medida que a complexidade destes jogos aumenta, também aumenta os problemas encontrados durante a sua construção. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo implementar um jogo distribuído, através de uma prova de conceito ou um jogo existente, usando uma arquitetura distribuída a fim de adquirir conhecimento na construção destes sistemas complexos e o esforço envolvido em lidar com consistência, manter a infraestrutura de comunicação e gerir dados de maneira distribuída. Para isto, é pretendido que este projeto também implemente vários mecanismos capazes de, forma autônoma, ajudar a gerir e manter o correto estado do sistema. Para avaliar o solução proposta, uma análise detalhada é realizada sobre o desempenho, segurança, escalabilidade e resiliência da distribuição do sistema. De forma geral, o presente trabalho de pesquisa permitiu uma maior compreensão das tecnologias e abordagens utilizadas na construção de um sistema de jogos, estabelecendo um novo conjunto de oportunidades de desenvolvimento a serem investigadas sobre a solução construída

Deictic Expressions Used in Felix Kjellberg’s YouTube Channel “PewDiePie”

Abstrak Felix Kjellerberg, atau yang lebih dikenal dengan sebutan “PewDiePie”,  adalah seorang comedian dan video blogger berkebangsaan Swedia. Dia terkenal dengan channel YouTube miliknya. Dia adalah salah seorang blogger YouTube dengan pengikut terbanyak, yang mana sangat menyukai penampilannya sebagai host dari “PewDiePie” channel. Dalam setiap videonya, dia selalu memikat dan menghibur para penontonnya melalui percakapan, mimic, dan emosinya, terutama pemilihan kata ang dia pakai untuk membuat banyak penonton tertawa, dengan tujuan untuk menciptakan atmosfir yang menenangkan. Penelitian ini meliputi penggunaan ekspresi deixis oleh Felix Kjellberg di YouTube video channel miliknya, yang mana menggunakan teori deixis yang dikemukakan oleh Stephen C. Levinson (1983) dan ditambah dengan teori komedi dan humor ang dikemukakan oleh Raymond (1980) and Henderson (1993). Tujuan utama penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui deixis yang digunakan oleh Felix Kjellberg dalam YouTube video channel miliknya. Langkah-langkahnya adalah sebagai berikut: (1) mendeskripsikan exspresi deixis yang digunakan oleh Felix Kjellberg dalam YouTube video channel miliknya; (2) mendeskripsikan tujuan utama Felix dalam menggunakan ekspresi deixis di YouTube video channel miliknya; (3) menguak tipe ekspresi deixis terbanyak ang dipakei oleh Felix Kjellberg di YouTube video channel miliknya. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif untuk mendeskripsikan interpretasi-interpretasi ekspresi deixis yang digunakan oleh Felix Kjellberg. Dengan mengidentifikasi dan menganalisi semua sampel penelitian, ekspresi deixis dikategorikan menjadi lima tipe, yaitu: deixis perseorangan, deixis tempat, deixis waktu, deixis kondisi, dan deixis sosial. Keywords: deixis, YouTube, PewDiePie channel, Felix Kjellberg, humor, komedi     Abstract Felix Kjellerberg, better known for his alias “PewDiePie” is a Swedish comedian and video blogger. He is famous for his comedic YouTube videos. He is one of the YouTube leading channel with the most subscribers recorded, which loves his attractiveness as a “PewDiePie” channel video host. In every videos, he always can entertains his audiences up through his gestures, mimics, and his emotions, especially his choice of words that make people laughing, in order to make a fun and relaxing atmosphere. This study deals with the use of deixis expressions used by Felix Kjellberg on his YouTube video channel “PewDiePie” relating to the theory of deixis proposed by Stephen C. Levinson (1983) and adding theory of humor and comedies proposed by Raymond (1980) and Henderson (1993). The main purpose of this study is to know the deixis used by Felix Kjellberg on his YouTube video channel “PewDiePie”. The steps are as follows: (1) describe the deixis expressions used by Felix Kjellberg on his YouTube video channel “PewDiePie”; (2) describe the Felix’s main purpose of using deixis expressions on his YouTube video channel “PewDiePie”; (3) figure out the most used deixis expressions on his YouTube video channel “PewDiePie”. This study uses descriptive qualitative method in order to describe the interpretation of deixis expressions and the types of deixis expressions used by Felix Kjellberg. By identifying and analyzing all of those utterances, they are categorized in five types of deixis expressions, which are: person deixis, place deixis, time deixis, discourse deixis, social deixis. Keywords: deixis, YouTube, PewDiePie channel, Felix Kjellberg, humor, comed

The Way We Play: Exploring the specifics of formation, action and competition in digital gameplay among World of Warcraft raiders

This thesis explores the specific practices of group gameplay (called ‘raiding’) in the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMO). In particular, it presents ethnographic research conducted by the author between 2009 and 2012 where she studied raiding in World of Warcraft (WoW), a game environment that is a complicated and malleable space with many pathways of play built into it, not the least of which are the particular ways that raiders choose to shape and sustain their play experience. Building on Galloway’s ‘four moments of gamic action’ as a theoretical framework from which to consider gamic representation among raiders and through ethnographic research on raiding gameplay practices, this thesis considers the ways that formation, competition and gamic action have distinguished raiding within the online, persistent game environment, forming to become a set of interwoven principles that work in concert to sustain long-term raiding activity. The objective of this thesis is twofold: first, to contribute to the gap in games research on raiding gameplay practices in MMOs; and second, to consider how the study of online group play through the context of MMO raiding can impact further geographical research into the digital game, particularly within the contexts of the virtual and playful. Conclusions drawn from this work suggest that the study of game raiding (and its persistence) offers an important perspective to understanding the nature of the complex online game environment; an environment that is at once controlled and malleable, multisensory and immersive, engaging yet sustaining, and complex yet localized, creating many simultaneous moments in gamic action where these representations of space, action, formation and competition function not so much to define gameplay but more so to shape and enable it

Evaluating Apoenzyme-Coenzyme-Substrate Interactions of Methane Monooxygenase with an Engineered Active Site for Electron-Harvesting: A Computational Study

Energy generation via natural gas is viewed as one of the most promising environmentally friendly solutions for ever-increasing energy demand. Of the several alternatives available, natural gas-powered fuel cells are considered to be one of the most efficient for producing energy. Biocatalysts, present in methanotrophs, known as methane monooxygenases (MMOs) are well known for their ability to quite effectively activate and oxidize methane at low temperature. To utilize MMOs effectively in a fuel cell, the enzymes should be directly attached onto the anode. However, there is a knowledge gap on how to attach MMOs to an electrode and once attached the impact of active site modification on enzyme functionality. The overall goal of this work was to computationally evaluate the feasibility of attaching MMOs to a metal electrode and evaluate its functionality using docking and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations. It is surmised that MMOs could be attached to a metal electrode by engineering the active site, i.e., Flavin Adenine Dinucleotide (FAD) coenzyme to attract metal clusters (surfaces) via Fe-S functionalization and such modification will keep the active site functionality unfettered. This work was geared toward performing a structural analysis to identify the spatial distribution of FAD binding site(s) in correlation to Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD) and subsequently to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing FeS-functionalized FAD for anchoring the enzyme system to a metal electrode. This work is intended to provide valuable mechanistic insights on critical chemical reactions that occur within the apoenzyme/coenzyme system and electron transport pathways so that future researchers could utilize the knowledge when fabricating MMO-based electrodes to be used in fuel cells

Education Unleashed: Participatory Culture, Education, and Innovation in Second Life

Part of the Volume on the Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and LearningWhile virtual worlds share common technologies and audiences with games, they possess many unique characteristics. Particularly when compared to massively multiplayer online role-playing games, virtual worlds create very different learning and teaching opportunities through markets, creation, and connections to the real world, and lack of overt game goals. This chapter aims to expose a wide audience to the breadth and depth of learning occurring within Second Life (SL). From in-world classes in the scripting language to mixed-reality conferences about the future of broadcasting, a tremendous variety of both amateurs and experts are leveraging SL as a platform for education. In one sense, this isn't new since every technology is co-opted by communities for communication, but SL is different because every aspect of it was designed to encourage this co-opting, this remixing of the virtual and the real

The prediction of edge raggedness via a single-channel filter model of the visual system

Edge raggedness is a psychophysical term which refers to the fidelity of a high-contrast edge, which has been degraded by some process, compared to an ideal edge. It has been suggested that the processing of high-contrast edges shares the same spatial-frequency processing mechanisms with that of sinewave gratings. This study uses first-order psychophysical principles, determined using sinewave grating stimuli, in a model to process edges in order to derive a quantitative metric proportional to perceived edge raggedness. The derived metric is the rms power of the processed edge power spectrum. First, the need for a two-dimensional analysis is established, then a model is developed which predicts the results of a psychophysical raggedness experiment. Finally, several distorted edge types are processed in order to determine edge raggedness. The two-dimensional single channel approach is successful in predicting the relative raggedness, as a function of specific distortion parameters, for various distorted edge types. Further psychophysical testing is needed to establish the exact relationship between perceived raggedness and the rms power metric