Materia resonante: patrones que correlacionan con modelos-in-formativos

Through the aid of ever advancing technology, the analysis of complex phenomena offers us more comprehensive insights regarding the intricate inner workings of Nature’s dynamic processes. Through such digital simulations (i.e., of fluid, aero, neuro and vibratory dynamics), the operations and flow of energy are revealed as highly patterned process-structures of activity. These vivid configurations often resemble and correlate with the patterns and motifs found at different scales throughout Nature and in a myriad of cultural artifacts. As intricately braided cellular relationships, these fertile processes evolve into highly integrative systems with re-generative, shape-shifting and re-structuring capabilities. Moreover, they are robust coalitions of event-filled-processes, highly responsive and fluently encoded with information. This embodied potential of generative kinetic in-formation and related patterns have been explored and offer more comprehensive insights regarding the resonances between self-organization, pattern generation and emergent complex morphology. At the heart of this lies the nature of process-structures and their elaborations into multi-dimensionally entrained kinetic patterns of patterns-in-formation. We are experientially embodied with and inextricably embedded within this interplay of ubiquitous metapatterns with reciprocally related cultural artifacts and motifs offering insightful resonances as analytical tools advance and probe further into the inner workings of the human mind and the nature of embodied consciousness.Con la ayuda de una tecnología en constante desarrollo, el análisis de los fenómenos complejos nos ofrece una visión más completa sobre el funcionamiento interno de los procesos dinámicos que suceden en la Naturaleza. A través de simulaciones digitales (por ejemplo, la neurodinámica o la de fluidos, gases y vibratorias), las operaciones y el flujo de energía se revelan como procesos-estructurales de actividad que se ajustan a un modelo. Estas intensas configuraciones a menudo se asemejan y se correlacionan con los patrones y motivos encontrados en distintas escalas a través de la Naturaleza y en numerosos artefactos culturales. De forma similar a relaciones celulares enmarañadamente trenzadas, estos procesos fértiles evolucionan en sistemas altamente integradores con capacidades regenerativas, cambiantes de forma y restructuradoras. Más aún, son robustas coaliciones procesos-eventos-completos, altamente sensibles y con gran información codificada. Esta encarnación del potencial de in-formación cinética generativa y los patrones relacionados, al explorarse, ofrecen amplios puntos de vista con respecto a las interrelaciones entre la autogestión, la generación de patrones y el surgimiento de una morfología compleja. En esto radica la naturaleza de los procesos-estructurales y sus elaboraciones en patrones de los modelos-in-formativos, entrelazados cinéticamente y multidimensionalmente. Estamos experimentalmente encarnados y complejamente inmersos en este juego de metapatrones ubicuos, recíprocamente relacionados con artefactos y motivos culturales, que ofrecen unas resonancias profundas como herramientas analíticas de avance y sondeo que van más allá del funcionamiento interno de la mente humana y de la naturaleza de su conciencia

Privacy Protection for Life-log System

Tremendous advances in wearable computing and storage technologies enable us to record not just snapshots of an event but the whole human experience for a long period of time. Such a \life-logandamp;quot; system captures important events as they happen, rather than an after-thought. Such a system has applications in many areas such as law enforcement, personal archives, police questioning, and medicine. Much of the existing eandamp;reg;orts focus on the pattern recognition and information retrieval aspects of the system. On the other hand, the privacy issues raised by such an intrusive system have not received much attention from the research community. The objectives of this research project are two-fold: andamp;macr;rst, to construct a wearable life-log video system, and second, to provide a solution for protecting the identity of the subjects in the video while keeping the video useful. In this thesis work, we designed a portable wearable life-log system that implements audio distortion and face blocking in a real time to protect the privacy of the subjects who are being recorded in life-log video. For audio, our system automatically isolates the subject\u27s speech and distorts it using a pitch- shifting algorithm to conceal the identity. For video, our system uses a real-time face detection, tracking and blocking algorithm to obfuscate the faces of the subjects. Extensive experiments have been conducted on interview videos to demonstrate the ability of our system in protecting the identity of the subject while maintaining the usability of the life-log video

Engineering of Augmented Reality-Based Information Systems - Design and Implementation for Intralogistics Services

The development of augmented reality glasses is still ongoing and faces barriers in diffusion and concerns about their impact on users, organizations and society. The study aims to find sufficient solutions for this struggling digital innovation and to provide guidance for the implementation of augmented reality glasses in design-oriented projects. During a 3-year consortium research, acceptance and privacy have been identified as major phenomena that influence the adoption of augmented reality glasses in the logistics domain. To forge ahead digital innovation research, the focus of the presented research lies on the diffusion of this technology with design knowledge for the development of augmented reality glasses-based systems. Evidence and artifacts contribute to the still limited knowledge of system design based on augmented reality glasses from a domain-specific instantiation and an implementation framework

Toward an Understanding of Instructor-Student Interactions: A Study of Videoconferencing in the Postsecondary Distance Learning Classroom.

This qualitative case study examined interactions, the effect of instructional strategies on interactions, participant attitudes, and perceptions that occurred during two courses taught via interactive videoconferencing in higher education. Analysis of coded observational data, field notes, and interviews with students and instructors provided insights about the distance learning environment. Using an interaction model, the classroom interactions were grouped into the following categories: (a) learner-content, (b) learner-instructor, (c) learner-learner, and (d) learner-interface. Results showed that learner-instructor and learner-learner interactions were highest during classes which were organized as discussion sessions with specific guidelines for the content and the nature of questions on which the dialog would focus. Several questions on which the dialog would focus. Several instructor strategies appeared to increase interactions with the students at the remote site. Statements of praise and acceptance of student ideas and the use of questions that required the learners to synthesize and draw conclusions rather than simply recall information were effective in soliciting responses. Humanizing the students\u27 learning experiences by using their names and relevant personal experiences increased participation. Use of visual realia and well-designed textual visuals provided a scaffold for connecting the students with course content and facilitated dialog. A strategy that proved to be minimal in effectiveness was the use of peer presentations. During these presentations, fewer interactions occurred and more off-task behaviors were observed. A major determinant of effectiveness in the distance learning classroom is the expertise of the instructor to present content information and elicit student participation. Learner-instructor interactions were impaired by limitations of the technology. Students at the remote site reported feelings of isolation when excluded from informal conversations at the local site. Both instructors and students indicated that the technology created a barrier to spontaneity and the ability to read facial expressions and other physical cues. A mediator located at one remote site helped reduce transactional distance by manipulating the cameras and helping learners to interface with the technology. This assistance allowed the instructor to focus more attention on teaching and engaging students with content information. Additionally, the mediator facilitated student participation through modeling and encouragement

Using cultural-historical activity to study clinical reasoning in context

The aim of this paper is to describe sources of conflict and congruence in critical areas of practice with caregivers of persons with dementia, using cultural-historical activity theory as an analytic framework. Findings are drawn from an ethnographic study that described the context of occupational therapists’ (OTs’) clinical reasoning in a funded, home-based environmental skill-building program designed to help caregivers manage the daily care of a family member with dementia. Data were gathered through observation of intervention sessions, debriefing sessions, semi-structured interviews with therapists, and review of intervention documentation. Primary sources of conflict and congruence within the identified practice context included conflicts between therapists and caregivers concerning which environmental strategies were best for addressing problems in caregiving and expectations regarding OTand caregiver roles. Areas of congruence included the fit between intervention protocols used to guide treatment and the approaches therapists developed to help caregivers modify care receivers’ living environments. The study revealed the complexity of OT practice and demonstrated that practice contexts can be systematically analyzed using cultural-historical activity theory to determine key factors influencing clinical reasoning. The approach also presents an alternative perspective on clinical reasoning that more directly integrates clients/caregivers and therapists as co-constructors of OT intervention

Selling pain to the saturated self

How can we comprehend people who pay for an experience marketed as painful? On one hand consumers spend billions of dollars every year to alleviate different kinds of pain. On the other hand, millions of individuals participate in extremely painful leisure pursuits. In trying to understand this conundrum, we ethnographically study a popular adventure challenge where participants subject themselves to electric shocks, fire and freezing water. Through sensory intensification, pain brings the body into sharp focus, allowing individuals to rediscover their corporeality. In addition, painful extraordinary experiences operate as regenerative escapes from the self. By flooding the consciousness with gnawing unpleasantness, pain provides a temporary relief from the burdens of self-awareness. Finally, when leaving marks and wounds, pain helps consumers create the story of a fulfilled life. In a context of decreased physicality, market operators play a major role in selling pain to the saturated selves of knowledge workers, who use pain as a way to simultaneously escape reflexivity and craft their life narrative

Applications of Computer Vision Technologies of Automated Crack Detection and Quantification for the Inspection of Civil Infrastructure Systems

Many components of existing civil infrastructure systems, such as road pavement, bridges, and buildings, are suffered from rapid aging, which require enormous nation\u27s resources from federal and state agencies to inspect and maintain them. Crack is one of important material and structural defects, which must be inspected not only for good maintenance of civil infrastructure with a high quality of safety and serviceability, but also for the opportunity to provide early warning against failure. Conventional human visual inspection is still considered as the primary inspection method. However, it is well established that human visual inspection is subjective and often inaccurate. In order to improve current manual visual inspection for crack detection and evaluation of civil infrastructure, this study explores the application of computer vision techniques as a non-destructive evaluation and testing (NDE&T) method for automated crack detection and quantification for different civil infrastructures. In this study, computer vision-based algorithms were developed and evaluated to deal with different situations of field inspection that inspectors could face with in crack detection and quantification. The depth, the distance between camera and object, is a necessary extrinsic parameter that has to be measured to quantify crack size since other parameters, such as focal length, resolution, and camera sensor size are intrinsic, which are usually known by camera manufacturers. Thus, computer vision techniques were evaluated with different crack inspection applications with constant and variable depths. For the fixed-depth applications, computer vision techniques were applied to two field studies, including 1) automated crack detection and quantification for road pavement using the Laser Road Imaging System (LRIS), and 2) automated crack detection on bridge cables surfaces, using a cable inspection robot. For the various-depth applications, two field studies were conducted, including 3) automated crack recognition and width measurement of concrete bridges\u27 cracks using a high-magnification telescopic lens, and 4) automated crack quantification and depth estimation using wearable glasses with stereovision cameras. From the realistic field applications of computer vision techniques, a novel self-adaptive image-processing algorithm was developed using a series of morphological transformations to connect fragmented crack pixels in digital images. The crack-defragmentation algorithm was evaluated with road pavement images. The results showed that the accuracy of automated crack detection, associated with artificial neural network classifier, was significantly improved by reducing both false positive and false negative. Using up to six crack features, including area, length, orientation, texture, intensity, and wheel-path location, crack detection accuracy was evaluated to find the optimal sets of crack features. Lab and field test results of different inspection applications show that proposed compute vision-based crack detection and quantification algorithms can detect and quantify cracks from different structures\u27 surface and depth. Some guidelines of applying computer vision techniques are also suggested for each crack inspection application

Exploring 3D Chemical Plant Using VRML

The research project focused on how virtual reality could create an immersive environment and improve in designing a chemical plant. The main problem is the difficulties in designing chemical plant since 2D plant layout cannot provide the real walking-through. The aim of this project is to develop and design 3D Chemical Plant which allows users to explore the virtual plant environment freely. The objectives of this project are to design and develop 3D Chemical Plant in the virtual environment; to enable user to walkthrough the chemical plant; and at the same time evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of 3D Chemical Plant. In completion the project, the framework used is based on the waterfall modeling theory. This study also examines the structure and existing use of VRML (International standard for 3D modelling on the internet) in constmction and architectural practice as a means of investigating its role and potential for extensible construction information visualization in chemical plant. The phases involved in the framework used for project development is the initiation phase, design specification, project development, integration and testing and lastly project implementation. Developments tools have been used in the project are VRML and 3D Max 6. As a result from the evaluation conducted, the mean of 3.5 from level of satisfaction ranking shows that mostly the evaluators are satisfied with the project and feel that the realism of 3D chemical plant and suitability of color and textures will improve the designing of chemical plant in virtual environment. As conclusion, the research project show that VR!VE are very useful and give a good impact for the chemical Engineer in designing a chemical plant

Sensemaking from the body: an enactive ethnography of rowing the Amazon

Drawing on real-time video, an audio journal, interviews and field notes from the first-ever attempt to scull the navigable Amazon, we explore the promise of carnal sociology to enrich our understanding of embodied organizational sensemaking. We investigate the body’s role in sensemaking from two vantage points: “of the body” and “from the body”. Using methodological and conceptual anchors provided in Wacquant’s carnal sociology, we contrast what each approach tells us about the nature and process of sensemaking. Doing so helps us outline a complementary approach to embodied sensemaking that attends to (1) how a “new way of seeing” the body as sentient, sedimented, situated, and capable of suffering enables a more holistic understanding of the role of embodiment in sensemaking; (2) the importance this then places on the “who” of sensemaking; and (3) carnal sociology’s broader methodological implications for organizational sensemaking