Representation and duality of the untyped lambda-calculus in nominal lattice and topological semantics, with a proof of topological completeness

We give a semantics for the lambda-calculus based on a topological duality theorem in nominal sets. A novel interpretation of lambda is given in terms of adjoints, and lambda-terms are interpreted absolutely as sets (no valuation is necessary)

Environmental Literacy of Seventh-Day Adventist Teachers in the Parochial Schools of the Florida Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists

Problem. In the United States, there is an environmental literacy problem. Americans possess limited knowledge about the environment and environmental issues, and they display limited positive action regarding the environment in which they live. Moreover, there is a debate whether a Christian’s interpretation of Gen 1:28 leads either to a lower or to a higher environmental literacy. Does the Seventh-day Adventist teaching community reflect these problems? These are the problems which this dissertation seeks to help solve. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to attempt to assess the environmental literacy of a group of teachers in Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) parochial schools who teach in the schools of the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, to determine what the level of environmental literacy is, and to discover the interpretations that these educators have of Gen 1:28. The study specifically looked at four dimensions of these teachers’ environmental literacy: (a) teachers’ attitudes toward the environment, (b) teachers’ feelings toward their roles in causing environmental change, (c) teachers’ interactions with their environment, and (d) teachers’ level of knowledge about the environment and issues involved. The teachers’ interpretations of Gen 1:28 were also studied. Thus, this study seeks to assist in helping to solve both the environmental literacy and praxis deficits in America. Method. This research employed a survey research method. The teachers of the parochial schools of the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists were asked to respond to the survey. A census survey was utilized to conduct a study of the teachers’ environmental literacy and their interpretation of Gen 1:28. Data analysis included descriptive statistics of the results, correlational analysis to determine relationships between the variables, analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine significance of relationships between variables, and the PASW® general linear model (GLM), which includes ANOVA and regression, to test for interaction effects between demographic variables. Open-ended questions about Gen 1:28 were analyzed in terms of the answers to the research questions for emerging similarities among the participants’ responses. The resulting patterns and themes were examined in relationship to answers on the WELS. Results. The teachers of the parochial schools operated by the Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists who participated in the study showed nominal environmental literacy. The mean total environmental literacy score was 66%. The subscale that the participants scored the highest on was the cognitive subscale (76%), followed by the affective subscale (73%) and, lastly, the behavioral subscale (49%). As suggested by the scores, these teachers have room for improvement. A significant difference in cognitive subscale scores between White, Non-Hispanics, and Hispanics was discovered. The study discovered four themes in teachers’ interpretations of Gen 1:28. The themes included: responsibility, take care of the environment, earth as a gift, and self-serving. Conclusions. Environmental-literacy research needs to be conducted with more groups of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) teachers and the general population of SDAs. The present study provides a baseline on which to build studies. More research could further explore the reason for the apparent disconnect between what is known and felt as compared to what is actually done. This study could be useful in the advancing of discussion about the need for environmental education programs in teacher education and the development of such programs. Before this study, the data did not address the effect that teachers’ religious beliefs have on environmental literacy. Similarly, the effect of ethnicity on environmental literacy has rarely been looked at. This study began to address differences based on ethnicity. Studies could be done on the amount and kind of environmental education preparation that teachers receive and the effects these have on teachers’ environmental literacy

Brightness matching in optical see-through augmented reality

A visual experiment using a beam-splitter-based optical see-through augmented reality (OST-AR) setup tested the effect of the size and alignment of AR overlays with a brightness-matching task using physical cubes. Results indicate that more luminance is required whenARoverlays are oversized with respect to the cubes, showing that observers discount theARoverlay to a greater extent when it is more obviously a transparent layer. This is not explained by conventional color appearance modeling but supports an AR-specific model based on foreground-background discounting. The findings and model will help determine parameters for creating convincingARmanipulation of realworld objects

Characterization and Control of a Multi-Primary LED Light Lab

A new light lab facility has been commissioned at Rochester Institute of Technology with the research goal of studying human visual adaptation under temporally dynamic lighting. The lab uses five-channel LED luminaires with 16 bits of addressable depth per channel, addressed via DMX. Based on spectral measurements, a very accurate multiprimary additive color model has been built that can be used to provide “colorimetric plus” multi-primary channel intensity solutions optimized for spectral accuracy, color fidelity, color gamut, or other attributes. Several spectral tuning and multi-primary solutions are compared, for which accuracy results and IES TM-30-15 color rendition measures are shown

Nonverbal Vocal Interface

Nonverbal vocal interface, meaning the use of non-speech vocal sounds such as oooh and ahhh as input to a computer, provides an interesting and useful input modality for a graphical user interface. Nonverbal vocal interface is a novel improvement over speech-based solutions because voiced sounds may be smoothly modulated, meaning they are well suited to control of continuous variables such as cursor position, while spoken commands are inherently discrete. A graphical user interface is an excellent environment for vocal input because instantaneous visual feedback is crucial to usability, enabling users to see the results of their vocalizations and learn the interface very quickly. Continuously voiced sounds may be easily and independently modulated in dimensions such as volume, pitch, and vowel. These dimensions may be used to augment a familiar input device such as the mouse, adding another degree of freedom to the interaction. For example, a mouse-based painting program may be improved by using vocal volume to control brush size while painting. Vocal input may alternatively be used without other input devices, for example to control the cursor in two dimensions. This offers an opportunity to improve access to computing for users unable to operate a mouse. In this thesis, the use of nonverbal vocal interface for graphical interaction is explored. Vocal dimensions of volume, pitch, and vowel are detected in real time using input from a simple USB microphone and used to affect parameters in several example graphical applications. Effectiveness of the interactive method is tested via measurement of user performance with these example applications

Effect of color gamut and luminance on observer metamerism in HDR displays

Observer metamerism (OM) is one of the potential issues in HDR displays because of the required wide color gamuts and high peak luminance levels. A simulation was performed using hypothetical displays to investigate how OM in HDR displays would vary with changes in color gamuts and peak luminance levels. In this work, a robust metric, observer metamerism magnitude (OMM) is introduced, which quantifies the OM of paired displays, depending on the similarity in spectral bandwidth between them. Also, the effect of changes in peak luminance on OM was found to be small, increasing OMM by 7 ∼ 8 % when peak luminance doubles

Color Layer Scissioning in See-Through Augmented Reality

Color appearance of transparent objects is not adequately described by colorimetry or color appearance models. Despite the fact that the retinal projection of a transparent object is a combination of its color and the background, measurements of this physical combination fail to predict the saliency with which we perceive the object’s color. When the perceive color forms in the mind, awareness of their physical relationship separates the physical combination into two unique perceptions. This is known as color scissioning. In this paper a psychophysical experiment utilizing a seethrough augmented reality display to compare virtual transparent color samples to real color samples is described and confirms the scissioning effect for lightness and chroma attributes. A previous model of color scissioning for AR viewing conditions is tested against this new data and does not satisfactorily predict the observers’ perceptions. However, the model is still found to be a useful tool for analyzing the color scissioning and provides valuable insight on future research directions

How Bright Should It Be: Diffuse White in Optical See-Through Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) realism has been one of the most important aspects of more immersive experiences. Realistic render-ing requires the virtual images to have the correct tone and light intensity compared to the real background for seamless and visually compelling results. In this project, we focus on how bright a 3D rendered white diffusive cube should be on different background con-ditions including the background luminance levels, spatial variance, and luminance con-trast. An interactive psychophysical experi-ment was used to assess the correct lumi-nance level of the cube providing observers the ability to change the cube material reflec-tance and rotation

Observer metamerism: Why do [mis]matches of neutral appear pinkish or greenish?

White lighting and neutral-appearing objects are essential in numerous color applications. In particular, setting or tuning a reference white point is a key procedure in both camera and display applications. Various studies on observer metamerism pointed out that noticeable color disagreements between observers mainly appear in neutral colors. Thus, it is vital to understand how observer metamers of white (or neutral) appear in different colors by different observers. Most observers who participated in a visual demonstration reported that white observer metamers appear pinkish or greenish but rarely yellowish or bluish. In this paper, this intriguing question, “Why observer metamers of white are usually pinkish or greenish?,” is addressed based on simulations. Besides, it is also analyzed that which physiological factors play an essential role in this phenomenon and why it is less likely for humans to perceive yellowish or bluish observer metamers of white