Interactive narratives have been used in a variety of applications, including video games, educational games, and training simulations. Maintaining engagement within such environments is an important problem, because it affects entertainment, motivation, and presence. Performance arts theorists have discussed and formalized many techniques that increase engagement and enhance dramatic content o...

The impact of school-based Tae Kwon Do training on self-regulatory abilities was examined. A self-regulation framework including three domains (cognitive, affective, and physical) was presented. Children (N = 207) from kindergarten through Grade 5 were randomly assigned by homeroom class to either the intervention (martial arts) group or a comparison (traditional physical education) group. Outc...

In this paper, we assess the forecasting performance of count data models applied to arts attendance. We estimate participation models for two artistic activities that differ in their degree of popularity -museum and jazz concertswith data derived from the 2002 release of the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts for the United States. We estimate a finite mixture model – a zero-inflated n...

For more than three decades, analyses of non-experimental data have reported considerable heterogeneity in teacher impacts on student achievement. We use data from a random-assignment experiment in Los Angeles Unified School District to test the validity of various non-experimental specifications. To do so, we first generated estimates for a group of teachers during a pre-experimental period an...

Del Vecchio, Hirata, and Franchini (2011) studied the effort: pause ratio of mixed martial arts by analyzing 26 bouts in two separate mixed martial arts events in Sao Paulo, Brazil. They referenced research identifying effort:pause ratios from other combat sports ranging from 10:1 (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu), 2:1 (judo and wrestling), and 1:3/1:4 (taekwondo). The authors identified an effort:pause ra...

Computer-Assisted Interactive Documentary and Performance Arts in Illimitable Space Miao Song, Ph.D. Concordia University, 2014 This major component of the research described in this thesis is 3D computer graphics, specifically the realistic physics-based softbody simulation and haptic responsive environments. Minor components include advanced human-computer interaction environments, non-linear...

Showcasing work has always been at the heart of the arts community, whether it be through an exhibition, site-specific installation or performance. Representation of the original work has also been important and use of print-based options like exhibition catalogues is now complemented by use of websites and multi-media friendly services like Flickr and YouTube and Vimeo. These services also pro...

Supplying sufficient early reflections to audience members is an important prerequisite to good acoustic quality in performing arts spaces. However, the relationship between the geometry of a room and its acoustic efficiency in terms of early energy has rarely been investigated using basic geometrical principles. The present study demonstrates the possibility of predicting the average value of ...

outh America’s most famous forms of martial arts are, arguably, Brazilian jiujitsu (adapted from traditional Japanese Judo by a Brazilian family in the 1920s), and capoeira, an African descendant form that encompasses dance, music, and (mostly) non-contact athletic acrobatics. Both forms can be natively referred to as jogo—game—with the participants being players (jogadores). Capoeira jogadores...