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Modeling and formal veriļ¬cation of gaming storylines
Video games are becoming more and more interactive with increasingly complex plots. These plots typically involve multiple parallel storylines that may converge and diverge based on player actions. This may lead to situations that are inconsistent or impassable. Current techniques for planning and testing game plots involve naive means such as text documents, spreadsheets, and critical path testing. Recent academic research [1] [2] [3] examines the design planning problems, but neglect testing and veriļ¬cation of the possible plot lines. These complex plots have thus until now been handled inadequately due to a lack of a formal methodology and tools to support them. In this dissertation, we describe how we develop methods to 1) characterize storylines (SChar), 2) deļ¬ne a storyline description language (SDL), and 3) create a storyline veriļ¬cation tool based in formal veriļ¬cation techniques (StoCk) that use our SDL as input. SChar (Storyline Characterization) help game developers characterize the category of story line they are working on (e.g. linear, branching and plot) through a tool that give a set of guided questions. Our SDL allows its users to describe storylines in a consistent format similar to how they reason about storylines, but in such a way that it can be used for formal veriļ¬cation. StoCk accepts storylines, described in SDL, to be formally veriļ¬ed using SPIN for errors. StoCk is also examined in three common use cases found in the gaming industry used as a tool 1) during storyline creation 2) during quality assurance and 3) during storyline implementation. The combination of SChar, SDL, and StoCk provides designers, writers, and developers a novel methodology and tools to verify consistency in large and complex game plots.Electrical and Computer Engineerin
Mobilizing learning: mobile Web 2.0 scenarios in tertiary education
Based upon three years of mobile learning (mlearning) projects, a major implementation project has
been developed for integrating the use of mobile web 2.0 tools across a variety of departments and
courses in a tertiary education environment. A participatory action research methodology guides and
informs the project. The project is based upon an explicit social constuctivist pedagogy, focusing on
student collaboration, and the sharing and critique of student-generated content using freely available
web 2.0 services. These include blogs, social networks, location aware (geotagged) image and video
sharing, instant messaging, microblogging etcā¦ Students and lecturers are provided with either an
appropriate smartphone and/or a 3G capable netbook to use as their own for the duration of the
project. Keys to the projects success are the level of pedagogical and technical support, and the level
of integration of the tools into the courses ā including assessment and lecturer modelling of the use of
the tools. The projects are supported by an intentional community of practice model, with the
researcher taking on the role of the ātechnology stewardā. The paper outlines three different scenarios
illustrating how this course integration is being achieved, establishing a transferable model of mobile
web 2.0 integration and implementation. The goal is to facilitate a student-centred, collaborative,
flexible, context-bridging learning environment that empowers students as content producers and
learning context generators, guided by lecturers who effectively model th
Influence network linkages across implementation strategy conditions in a randomized controlled trial of two strategies for scaling up evidence-based practices in public youth-serving systems.
BackgroundGiven the importance of influence networks in the implementation of evidence-based practices and interventions, it is unclear whether such networks continue to operate as sources of information and advice when they are segmented and disrupted by randomization to different implementation strategy conditions. The present study examines the linkages across implementation strategy conditions of social influence networks of leaders of youth-serving systems in 12 California counties participating in a randomized controlled trial of community development teams (CDTs) to scale up use of an evidence-based practice.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 directors, assistant directors, and program managers of county probation, mental health, and child welfare departments. A web-based survey collected additional quantitative data on information and advice networks of study participants. A mixed-methods approach to data analysis was used to create a sociometric data set (n = 176) to examine linkages between treatment and standard conditions.ResultsOf those network members who were affiliated with a county (n = 137), only 6 (4.4%) were directly connected to a member of the opposite implementation strategy condition; 19 (13.9%) were connected by two steps or fewer to a member of the opposite implementation strategy condition; 64 (46.7%) were connected by three or fewer steps to a member of the opposite implementation strategy condition. Most of the indirect steps between individuals who were in different implementation strategy conditions were connections involving a third non-county organizational entity that had an important role in the trial in keeping the implementation strategy conditions separate. When these entities were excluded, the CDT network exhibited fewer components and significantly higher betweenness centralization than did the standard condition network.ConclusionAlthough the integrity of the RCT in this instance was not compromised by study participant influence networks, RCT designs should consider how influence networks may extend beyond boundaries established by the randomization process in implementation studies.Trial registrationNCT00880126
Added mass of whipping modes for ships at high Froude number by a free surface boundary element method coupled with strip theory
Accurate prediction of the whipping response of a ship's structure following a wave impact is fundamental to both the prediction of instantaneous local stresses and global fatigue life assessment. In particular the added mass effect of the surrounding water has a profound effect on the modal frequencies. ``Strip theory'', routinely used for analysis of rigid body motions of ships in waves, is extended in this paper to include ship flexure. Moreover, the theoretical foundation of the method is discussed and it is shown that, although the theory becomes invalid for rigid body motions of high-speed vessels, the ship flexure problem is an ideal application of the theory. The associated two-dimensional free surface gravity wave problem is solved using a boundary element method based on wave functions given by Wehausen and Laitone (1960), which is also described. Results are validated against a fully three-dimensional solution, and incorporation of the added mass into a finite element model is shown to give excellent agreement with full scale measurements
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