The practice of interdisciplinary design in Building Information Modelling (BIM)-enabled projects: A workplace study

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is believed to enable significant efficiency improvements in interdisciplinary design in construction. This is mainly based on the rhetoric of BIM dominated by promoting its capabilities for data transactions. However, literature shows that there are problems in applying BIM technologies in practice, because their use causes unanticipated shifts in the focus and organisation of design projects. Furthermore, changes wrought by applied BIM technologies transcend the boundaries of the organisation of individual projects, and displace the previous ethos of ‘professionalism’ in design in construction. Consequently, there is unresolved confusion and evaluation about BIM technologies in terms of the nature and extent of the change they create. The present research aims to develop a better-informed understanding of BIM-driven change in design in construction through an empirical study of ‘organising’ and ‘order’ in BIM-enabled interdisciplinary design projects. Using a practice-based methodology, this research focused on the interdisciplinary interactions during three projects. A practice-based methodology sees ‘organising ‘and ‘order ‘as continuously accomplished through the ongoing activities that are performed in practices. Therefore, the research scrutinised the interdisciplinary activities and processes which look mundane but enable ‘organising’, and ‘order ‘in the studied projects. Three explanatory organisational concepts are developed through the analyses of the empirical data: ‘organisational premises’, ‘purposeful artefact’, and ‘technological premises’. These concepts provide three different explanations about how ‘organising ‘interdisciplinary design in BIM-enabled projects is accomplished through the ongoing interdisciplinary activities performed in practices. Thus, they produce rich understanding of the complex organisational phenomena. Interdisciplinary design development is then seen as a ‘continuous process of (re-)establishing a shared sense of purposefulness ‘among the members of a design team, which largely depends on previous shared experiences. This continuous requirement for mutual dependency does not align well with the operational characteristics of BIM technologies, which are fundamentally planned and rigid. Therefore, practitioners experience divergent views of ‘organising’ (i.e. and ‘work’) in BIM-enabled projects. The ‘ordering ‘induced by BIM technologies appears in the interface of these different views of ‘organising’(and ‘work'), as it is here that practices unfold, and become directed towards one or other view. In such cases, the extent to which information modelling and design development can be prioritised is determined by the level of reliance on technology, and the level of authority of those individuals who are in control of the BIM technologies. The practice-based understandings of ‘organising ‘and ‘order ‘that emerge from the analyses are used herein to refine the notions of ‘design’, ‘design collaboration’, ‘use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in construction design’, and ‘CT-driven change in construction design’. Thus, the practice-based methodology reveals that some of the main arguments upon which the promotional rhetoric of BIM is founded are incomplete or flawed. Through its methodological and theoretical contributions, the present research evaluated BIM-driven change in design in construction, and created an agenda for further critical and practically-relevant studies into interdisciplinary design in construction. This shows the need for further research which should re-establish the use and development of BIM by aligning it with the realities of actual practice

Technology and Testing

From early answer sheets filled in with number 2 pencils, to tests administered by mainframe computers, to assessments wholly constructed by computers, it is clear that technology is changing the field of educational and psychological measurement. The numerous and rapid advances have immediate impact on test creators, assessment professionals, and those who implement and analyze assessments. This comprehensive new volume brings together leading experts on the issues posed by technological applications in testing, with chapters on game-based assessment, testing with simulations, video assessment, computerized test development, large-scale test delivery, model choice, validity, and error issues. Including an overview of existing literature and ground-breaking research, each chapter considers the technological, practical, and ethical considerations of this rapidly-changing area. Ideal for researchers and professionals in testing and assessment, Technology and Testing provides a critical and in-depth look at one of the most pressing topics in educational testing today

The influence of non-domestic factors on elite sport development and anti-doping policy : the cases of Japan and the UK/England

The aim of this thesis is to examine the extent to which selected aspects of sport policy in Japan and also UK/England are influenced by international forces. The objectives which underpin the research aim are to analyse the characteristics of the domestic policy areas and identify the varying degree of impact of external influences on domestic sport policy. The thesis examines the interactions between domestic and international factors that shape elite sport policy and anti-doping policy and seeks to identify how domestic institutional values and ideas have been shaped by global influences. Importantly, by analysing the nature and mechanisms of global influence that are manifest at the domestic level, it is intended to identify varying degree of impact external to national policy. To achieve the above objectives, a qualitative methodology and related documentary research methods are adopted in the empirical investigations. Policy document analysis and semi-structured interviews are employed. The cases of UK (or England where appropriate) are introduced in order to generate a deeper understanding of the development of Japanese elite sport and anti-doping policy. The thesis draws on a range of theoretical frameworks, including international relations theory, international regime theory and globalisation, to analyse the empirical data. By adopting these theoretical frameworks, it is aimed to identify the possible characteristics of international policy regimes in the policy areas of elite sport and anti-doping... cont'd

Design anthropology skills development: Designing interdisciplinary research for provocation, pedagogy and policymaking

In 2020 the Royal College of Art (RCA) / Future Fashion Factory (FFF) research group received AHRC funding for training in Ethnographic and Design Anthropology methods. Principal Investigator Susan Postlethwaite, Research Fellow Dawn Ellams and Research Associate Kat Thiel, are defining a new approach for practice based fashion research, putting designers at the centre of industry facing investigation, interrogating parallel fields of design research, including Design Thinking, Textile Thinking, Transition Design and definitions of Fashion Theory. The aim for the skills development training is in supporting the design and use of pre and post-FFF micro-project qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. The micro-projects are intended to provide solutions to manufacturing industry problems through Industry 4.0 and 5.0 economic theory lenses. Using a Design Anthropology approach will allow the group to examine the affect and effect of design research on both ECRs and stakeholders, iterate through qualitative data gathering, whilst questioning and understanding the value of designing research projects for impact. The goal is the development of transdisciplinary narratives for policy change, focused on the future of fashion manufacturing, particularly in a UK setting. At the time of publishing, two FFF micro-projects were completed: Twelve Oaks Systems, which has identified the technical and creative opportunities for 3D weave manufacturing for fashion, and GameStyle/ Lockwood Publishing which has developed an IP Framework and recommendations for the required value chain for fashion designers to engage with Gaming. These projects provide initial opportunities for the application of Design Anthropology methods and tools. Feedback from academics involved in the delivery of the training will help the FFF/ RCA research team develop our approach for future micro-projects as they are concluded. The skills development programme was designed and developed in 3 phases. Phase 1 - a series of lectures delivered by academics with expertise in Anthropology, Transition Design, ethnographies and systems thinking; Phase 2 - a series of 3 workshops to further understand the development and application of other funded project methodologies and Phase 3 - dissemination, consisting of an online publication, a podcast and a digital symposium hosted by FFF and RCA as part of the annual showcase in 2022. For this publication the findings are disseminated through an Executive Summary and 3 essays that focus on policymaking, framework design and pedagogy

To what extent are academic services able to help creative aspirations in achieving success?

Academic services have long been provided across a range of subjects. In the creative industries issues have arisen over the convergence of the creative industries in becoming a major player in the UK's economy. This thesis presents the results of research into the extent to which academic services assist creative aspirations. The research found failings and disagreements on many levels which at present is stifling the progress and successfulness of academic services within the creative industries. The thesis views all aspects of how the industries operate and its contribution to the economy in order that academic services can be most effective in serving the creative industries and furthering the skills set within them

Management of Tensions and Paradoxes in the Cultural & Creative Industries

Tensions in cultural & creative industries: a consolidating review and framework. How entrepreneurial practices balance art and business: insights into creative entrepreneurship in the European film industry. Project governance and owner organizational identity: the Venice Biennale case. The COVID-19 pandemic, cultural work and resilience: “The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn”

Application of Photoactive Nanomaterials in Degradation of Pollutants

Photoactive nanomaterials have been receiving increasing attention due to their potential application in the light-driven degradation of water and gas-phase pollutants. However, to exploit the great potential of photoactive materials and access their properties requires fine-tuning of their size/shape-dependent chemical–physical properties, and on the ability to integrate them in photoreactors or to deposit them onto large surfaces. Therefore, the synthetic approach as well as post-synthesis manipulation could strongly affect the final photocatalytic properties of the nanomaterial. The aim of the present Special Issue is to report on the most recent progress towards the application of photoactive nanomaterials and nanomaterial-based coatings in pollutant degradation, paying particular attention to cases close to real application: scalable synthetic approaches to nanocatalysts, preparation of nanocatalyst-based coatings, degradation of real pollutants and bacterial inactivation, and application in building materials

Functional traits of phytoplankton communities, their dynamics and interactions with the abiotic environment – results from Rappbode Reservoir, Germany

Understanding and explaining spatio-temporal dynamics of ecological communities and their interaction with the environment is a central goal in ecology, but at the same time a very challenging task. Functional traits are a promising concept to achieve a better mechanistic understanding of variations in community structure. Traits are characteristics of organisms that directly or indirectly influence fitness and vary largely between different species. As traits functionally link communities with their bio-geochemical environment, they are well suited for explaining how community structure changes in response to changing environmental conditions, and how in turn communities shape their surrounding environment. Despite the potential of trait-based approaches to mechanistically explain the relationship between communities and their environment, they have rarely been applied in freshwater ecology. Therefore, this thesis explores spatio-temporal dynamics in functional traits of freshwater phytoplankton communities and their interaction with the environment, using the Rappbode Reservoir in Germany as a case study. Phytoplankton community data from a seasonally resolved dataset with 50 years of observation from the Rappbode Reservoir were used to translate taxonomic composition into ecologically meaningful functional trait values. The studied functional traits showed consistent, reoccurring seasonal developments that clearly mirrored environmental pressures over the year. From late autumn to spring nutrients and turbulence were high. Hence small celled, fast growing species that are able to rapidly incorporate existing nutrients and tolerate poor light conditions dominated (dominant traits: maximum growth rate, light affinity). In contrast, when turbulence and nutrients were low in summer, large cell size and more complex mechanisms to efficiently exploit mineral nutrients or acquire previously unexploited nutrient pools were key ecological strategies (dominant traits: phosphate affinity, mixotrophy, motility, nitrogen fixation). The similarity in observed trait patterns over several years indicates that despite the diversity and complexity of phytoplankton species dynamics, the seasonal succession is a highly ordered, predictable process, driven by trade-offs between different ecological strategies. During the 50 years of observation, nutrient concentrations in the Rappbode Reservoir decreased strongly (oligotrophication). A comparison between nutrient-rich and nutrient-deficient years revealed that the general intra-annual succession patterns of phytoplankton functional traits remained the same. However, the intra-annual succession patterns were more pronounced in nutrient-rich years. While functional community composition in summer changed little after oligotrophication, spring communities were largely affected by nutrient reductions and functional traits in spring became more similar to the ones in summer. Based on the quantitative analysis of functional traits, the thesis could generalize the existing patterns to provide a quantitative, functional template for seasonal succession patterns in lake ecosystems under nutrient-rich and nutrient-deficient conditions. Over the entire observation period, phytoplankton biomass did not respond to reduced phosphorus concentrations. This unexpected resistance of algal biomass against reductions in the limiting resource phosphorus was caused by changes in internal processes and functional traits of the phytoplankton community, allowing them to adapt to lower nutrient levels without a loss in total biomass. The main casual mechanism for the decoupling of inorganic nutrients from phytoplankton biomasses was an increase in phagotrophic mixotrophs and their ability to make bacterial phosphorus available for the entire phytoplankton community. Further, in nutrient-deficient years biomass losses in spring were compensated by high biomasses in summer. Higher summer biomasses compared to spring biomasses in nutrient-deficient years were probably also linked to a decrease in diatoms in spring. Diatoms are characterized by high sinking velocities. This trait in combination with phosphorus uptake by diatom cells leads to high downward nutrient exports from the pelagic zone. The decrease of diatoms in nutrient-poor years was related to less phosphorus losses over the season, leaving more nutrients for summer phytoplankton. The effect of species with high sinking velocities on seasonal phosphorus processing illustrates the importance of functional trait composition on biogeochemical cycling. A one-year monitoring campaign with a high temporal and depth resolution at Rappbode Reservoir allowed to investigate the impact of vertical phytoplankton trait distributions on the geochemical environment. During summer, a phytoplankton mass development occurred at the depth of the metalimnion, mainly represented by the cyanobacterium Planktothrix rubescens. The positive net growth at larger depth of this metalimnetic species is enabled through the possession of specific traits, e.g. buoyancy regulation and the ability for efficient light harvesting. The data indicated that the occurrence of metalimnetic species was connected to the formation of a metalimnetic oxygen minimum. The oxygen minimum occurred after the metalimnetic algae peak disappeared from the thermocline. Metalimnetic phytoplankton induced oxygen depletion probably through one of the following processes: Oxygen consumption by bacteria related to the degradation of dead organic material from metalimnetic algae or internal respiration of metalimnetic algae towards the end of the growing season leading to net oxygen losses due to the continuation of algal respiration. This constitutes a previously undiscovered mechanism for the development of metalimnetic oxygen minima. In conclusion, the thesis illustrates how trait-based approaches enhance ecological understanding of phytoplankton community dynamics. The trait-based approaches shed light on how phytoplankton communities respond to environmental gradients and how communities can affect their geochemical environment. The thesis also shows that functional traits can be used to reduce the complexity of communities through converting species information into ecologically meaningful functions and that they allow to link changes in community composition to corresponding features in the biogeochemical environment. The quantitative, trait-based approaches used in this study therefore improve our mechanistic understanding of community dynamics and are a step forward to higher predictability and generality in limnology

An Analysis of Muon Neutrino Disappearance from the NuMI Beam Using an Optimal Track Fitter

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Physics, 2015The NOvA experiment is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment based out of Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory that uses two liquid scintillator detectors, one at Fermilab (the "near" detector) and a second 14 kton detector in northern Minnesota (the "far" detector.) The primary physics goals of the NOvA experiment are to measure neutrino mixing parameters through both the $\nu_{\mu}$ disappearance and $\nu_{e}$ appearance channels using neutrinos from the newly upgraded NuMI beam line. The NOvA $\nu_{\mu}$ disappearance analysis can significantly improve the world's best measurement of $\sin^{2}\theta_{23}$. This analysis proceeds by using the measured $\nu_{\mu}$ charged-current energy spectrum in the near detector to predict the spectrum in the far detector, and comparing this to the measured spectrum to obtain a best fit for the oscillation parameters $\sin^{2}\theta_{23}$ and $\Delta m^{2}_{32}$. Since this fit is governed by the shape of the energy spectrum, the best fit will be maximized by obtaining the best possible energy resolution for the individual neutrino events. This dissertation describes an alternate $\nu_{\mu}$ disappearance analysis technique for the NOvA experiment, based on the idea that estimating the energy resolution of the individual events will allow them to be separated into different energy resolution samples in order to improve the final fit. This involves using an optimal tracker to reconstruct particle tracks and momenta, and multivariate methods for estimating the event energies and energy resolutions. The data used for this analysis was taken by the NOvA experiment from February 2014 to May 2015, representing approximately $3.52 \times 10^{20}$ protons on target from the NuMI beam. The best fit oscillation parameters obtained by this alternate technique are $|\Delta m^{2}_{32}| = 2.49^{+0.19}_{-0.17}$~$[\times 10^{-3} {\rm eV}^{2}]$ and $\sin^{2} \theta_{23} =$~$0.51 \pm 0.08$ which is consistent with the hypothesis of maximal mixing, and with the results from T2K and MINOS+ published in 2015