Expressing Inflection Tonally

In Limburg Dutch, the difference between neuter and feminine agreement on adjectives is expressed by a difference in lexical tone. This paper argues that this distinction is due to a difference in underlying representations and not to a paradigmatic antifaithfulness effect. In particular, it argues for a specific version of REALIZE-MORPHEME, the constraint demanding every underlying morpheme to be present in phonological surface representations. The key argument is that a schwa suffix turns up whenever the tonal change from neuter to feminine is not possible

Colored Saturation Parameters for Bipartite Graphs

Let F and H be fixed graphs and let G be a spanning subgraph of H. G is an F-free subgraph of H if F is not a subgraph of G. We say that G is an F-saturated subgraph of H if G is F-free and for any edge e in E(H)-E(G), F is a subgraph of G+e. The saturation number of F in K_{n,n}, denoted sat(K_{n,n}, F), is the minimum size of an F-saturated subgraph of K_{n,n}. A t-edge-coloring of a graph G is a labeling f: E(G) to [t], where [t] denotes the set { 1, 2, ..., t }. The labels assigned to the edges are called colors. A rainbow coloring is a coloring in which all edges have distinct colors. Given a family F of edge-colored graphs, a t-edge-colored graph H is (F, t)-saturated if H contains no member of F but the addition of any edge in any color completes a member of F. In this thesis we study the minimum size of ( F,t)-saturated subgraphs of edge-colored complete bipartite graphs. Specifically we provide bounds on the minimum size of these subgraphs for a variety of families of edge-colored bipartite graphs, including monochromatic matchings, rainbow matchings, and rainbow stars

Developments in the Safety Science Domain and in Safety Management From the 1970s Till the 1979 Near Disaster at Three Mile Island

Objective: What has been the influence of general management schools and safety research into causes of accidents and disasters on managing safety from 1970 till 1979? Method: The study was limited to original articles and documents, written in English or Dutch from the period under concern. For the Netherlands, the professional journal De Veiligheid (Safety) has been consulted. Results and conclusions: Dominant management approaches started with 1) the classical management starting from the 19th century, with scientific management from the start of the 20st century as a main component. During the interwar period 2) behavioural management started, based on behaviourism, followed by 3) quantitative management from the Second World War onwards. After the war 4) modern management became important. A company was seen as an open system, interacting with an external environment with external stakeholders. These schools management were not exclusive, but have existed in the period together. Early 20th century, the U.S. 'Safety First' movement was the starting point of this knowledge development on managing safety, with cost reduction and production efficiency as key drivers. Psychological models and metaphors explained accidents from ‘unsafe acts’. And safety was managed with training and selection of reckless workers, all in line with scientific management. Supported by behavioural management, this approach remained dominant for many years, even long after World War II. Influenced by quantitative management, potential and actual disasters after the war led to two approaches; loss prevention (up-scaling process industry) and reliability engineering (inherently dangerous processes in the aerospace and nuclear industries). The distinction between process safety and occupational safety became clear after the war, and the two developed into relatively independent domains. In occupational safety in the 1970s human errors thought to be symptoms of mismanagement. The term ‘safety management’ was introduced in scientific safety literature as well as concepts as loose, and tightly coupled processes, organizational culture, incubation of a disaster and mechanisms blinding organizations for portents of disaster scenarios. Loss prevention remained technically oriented. Till 1979 there was no clear relation with safety management. Reliability engineering, based on systems theory did have that relation with the MORT technique as a management audit. The Netherlands mainly followed Anglo-Saxon developments. Late 1970s, following international safety symposia in The Hague and Delft, independent research started in The Netherland

Using a Cognitive Model of Web-Navigation to Generate Support for 3D Virtual Navigation

AbstractThough the cognitive processes controlling user navigation in virtual environments as well as in websites are similar, cognitive models of web-navigation have never been used for generating support in virtual environment navigation. We created a simulated 3D building of a hospital and presented users various navigation tasks under two conditions: a control condition and a model-generated support condition. Participants with model-generated support participants took significantly less time to reach their destination and were significantly less disoriented. The impact of model-generated support on disorientation was especially higher for users with low spatial ability

Adapting the complexity level of a serious game to the proficiency of players

As games are continuously assessing the player, this assessment can be used to adapt the complexity of a game to the proficiency of the player in real time. We performed an experiment to examine the role of dynamic adaptation. In one condition, participants played a version of our serious game for triage training that automatically adapted the complexity level of the presented cases to how well the participant scored previously. Participants in the control condition played a version of the game with no adaptation. The adapted version was significantly more efficient and resulted in higher learning gains per instructional case, but did not lead to a difference in engagement. Adapting games to the proficiency of the player could make serious games more efficient learning tools

Game-based learning and the role of feedback. A case study

Burgos, D., Nimwegen, C. v., Oostendorp, H. v., & Koper, E. J. R. (2007). Game-based learning and inmediate feedback. The case study of the Planning Educational Task. International Journal of Advanced Technology in Learning.Educational electronic games and simulations (or simply educational eGames) engage players. They are attractive to awake and keep the focus of a user, and are useful for learning while covering learning objectives and playable goals. In eGames, feedback can improve learning and help the learner to take decisions about his strategy and it also encourages the learner’s motivation. However, too much feedback can in some situations lead to a weaker strategy by the learner to solve the problem presented, resulting in a lower performance. In this paper, we first show the relevance of eGames for learning and its relation with feedback. We introduce the need for appropriate feedback in order to get a better performance, but we also state that feedback depends on the context and on the game and that it is not always required in order to achieve the best performance while solving a problem. We carried out a case study (Planning Educational Task) with real learners/players, to study the differences between having and not having instant destination feedback while solving a problem. We discuss the results and implications of the case study, namely that in the context of our planning game, leaving feedback out improved performance.This paper is partially supported by the European projects TENCompetence (IST-TEL/2004-2.4.10, www.tencompetence.org) and ProLearn (IST Contract number 507310, www.prolearn-project.org). We also thank Dr. Hermina Schijf from Utrecht University for her involvement and assistance during this research project