Visualizing Diffusion Tensor Images of the Mouse Spinal Cord

Within biological systems water molecules undergo continuous stochastic Brownian motion. The rate of this diffusion can give clues to the structure of underlying tissues. In some tissues the rate is anisotropic - faster in some directions than others. Diffusion-rate images are second-order tensor fields and can be calculated from diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance images. A 2D diffusion tensor image (DTI) and an associated anatomical scalar field, created during the tensor calculation, define seven dependent values at each spatial location. Understanding the interrelationships among these values is necessary to understand the data. We present two new methods for visually representing DTIs. The first method displays an array of ellipsoids where the shape of each ellipsoid represents one tensor value. The novel aspect of this representation is that the ellipsoids are all normalized to approximately the same size so that they can be displayed in context. The second method uses concepts from oil painting to represent the seven-valued data with multiple layers of varying brush strokes. Both methods successfully display most or all of the information in DTIs and provide exploratory methods for understanding them. The ellipsoid method has a simpler interpretation and explanation than the painting-motivated method; the painting-motivated method displays more of the information and is easier to read quantitatively. We demonstrate the methods on images of the mouse spinal cord. The visualizations show significant differences between spinal cords from mice suffering from Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis (EAE) and spinal cords from wild-type mice. The differences are consistent with pathology differences shown histologically and suggest that our new non-invasive imaging methodology and visualization of the results could have early diagnostic value for neurodegenerative diseases

Art and Medicine: A Collaborative Project Between Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar and Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar

Four faculty researchers, two from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, and two from Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar developed a one semester workshop-based course in Qatar exploring the connections between art and medicine in a contemporary context. Students (6 art / 6 medicine) were enrolled in the course. The course included presentations by clinicians, medical engineers, artists, computing engineers, an art historian, a graphic designer, a painter, and other experts from the fields of art, design, and medicine. To measure the student experience of interdisciplinarity, the faculty researchers employed a mixed methods approach involving psychometric tests and observational ethnography. Data instruments included pre- and post-course semi-structured audio interviews, pre-test / post-test psychometric instruments (Budner Scale and Torrance Tests of Creativity), observational field notes, self-reflective blogging, and videography. This book describes the course and the experience of the students. It also contains images of the interdisciplinary work they created for a culminating class exhibition. Finally, the book provides insight on how different fields in a Middle Eastern context can share critical /analytical thinking tools to refine their own professional practices

Artistic Frames: An Arts-Based Study of Teachers? Experiences with Arts-Integrated English Language Arts for Students with Dis/abilities

This arts-based, qualitative investigation focused on high school English teachers of students with learning dis/abilities (Baglieri & Knopf, 2004) who used visual arts integration (Eisner, 2002) to find out how teachers experience using visual arts in English and what their experiences mean (Zoss & White, 2011) in order to understand why certain experiences stood out for the teachers as being important. I framed the study theoretically with complexity theories of teaching and learning (Davis, Sumara, & Luce-Kapler, 2008), while combining aspects of sociocultural theory (Smagorinsky, 2001; Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1991), cognitive pluralism (John-Steiner, 1997) and Dewey’s notion of experience (1934/1980). The teacher participants were three high school English teachers employed at an independent school for students with learning dis/abilities. A/r/tography (Irwin & Springgay, 2008; Springgay, Irwin, & Kind, 2005, 2008) influenced my methodology in that I created visual art to theorize the data and my experiences conducting the study. I collected data during spring and summer 2011. Data sources included participant observation and field notes (Dewalt & Dewalt, 2002), photography (Coover, 2004; Harper 2000, 2002), teachers’ visual texts (La Jevic & Springgay, 2008), artifacts (Prior, 2003), and interviews (Smagorinsky, 2008; Smagorinsky & Coppock, 1994). I used qualitative methods of coding analysis (Charmaz, 2006; Ezzy, 2002; Saldaña, 2009) and visual analysis (Riessman, 2008; Rose, 2001), as well as arts-based methods for educational research (Cahnmann-Taylor & Siegesmund, 2008). This study fills a gap in empirical research in both English education and special education by examining English teachers integrating art in classes for students with dis/abilities. Furthermore, understanding how teachers experience visual arts integration can inform methods courses for teaching secondary English educators

The Heritage Digital Twin: a bicycle made for two. The integration of digital methodologies into cultural heritage research

The paper concerns the definition of a novel ontology for cultural heritage based on the concept of digital twin. The ontology, called Heritage Digital Twin ontology, is a compatible extension of the well-known CIDOC CRM ISO standard for cultural heritage documentation and incorporates all the different documentation systems presently in use for cultural heritage documentation. In the authors' view, it supports documentation interoperability at a higher level than the ones currently in use and enables effective cooperation among different users.Comment: Submitted to Open Research Europe. 30 pages, 9 figure

Artist as rhetor: strategies for the visual communication of artistic & scientific concepts

The notion that art, like science, contributes to scholarly discourse remains a contentious issue in academic debate. However an increased interest in the visual image within intellectual inquiry and a shift in the scholarly position concerning the image as a valid form of inquiry has provided an avenue in which to argue that art is a legitimate form of knowledge. This argument is premised on the notion that images are significant to both artistic and scientific discourse in that both disciplines have long utilised the image as a means to construct meaning and communicate concepts. Consequently the key insights derived from this study’s research findings are understood through a framework of visual rhetoric. This study, through a constructivist grounded theory approach, presents a substantive theory of the visual image in academic discourse and in doing so advances the understanding that art is an authoritative way of knowing. In this way this study identifies the image, which is the product of an image-making process, as knowledge artefact whereby knowledge exists through a plurality of practices involving both verbal and visual forms of representation. For this study the image-maker is considered significant to the production, representation and dissemination of knowledge. This is because as rhetor the image-maker, whether artisan or artist, utilises the image to bring forth new findings and thus new knowledge

Conceptualising design knowledge and its recontextualisation in the studiowork component of a design foundation curriculum

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.Universities of Technology have traditionally prepared students for the world of work and their close ties with industry directly impact on vocational curriculum, which has to impart subject knowledge and specialized knowledge valued by industry, whilst simultaneously encouraging the acquisition of vocational identity. This study of a Design Foundation Course’s curriculum is located at a University of Technology which is currently undergoing a process of re-curriculation, which has initiated a process of examining subject knowledge and its structuring in various course’s curricula. In the light of these developments, an examination of the nature of design knowledge and the role of the foundation curriculum in the transfer of core disciplinary knowledge to underprepared students appeared both timely and necessary

Field sketching and the interpretation of landscape : exploring the benefits of fieldwork and drawing in contemporary landscape practice

This thesis explores potential roles for field sketching in, landscape observation and assessment, landscape planning and design, landscape representation, and in addressing the experiential dimension of the landscape.The research seeks to define and legitimise the old technique of field sketching, and the use and development of field sketches by students and practitioners of landscape architecture, and other landscape disciplines. The wider values of, fieldwork, hand -generated field notations, drawing as an interactive dialogue with others, and the sketch as a type of landscape representation, are also recognised.Whilst accurate representation and precise geometrical definition of the landscape can now be achieved quickly with photographs and by semi - automated digital means, interpretation requires careful observation. Sketching involves an observer stopping and looking and interpreting slowly and carefully. Field sketching and the uses of the field sketch are proposed as bringing an effectiveness to landscape work, valuable because of the interpretation it involves, and the time it does take: timeless because of its simplicity.A personal way of working is investigated, based on a Grounded Theory approach. Systematic analysis of case studies is made through reflection-on-practice. Practice observations (data) are collated and interpreted by practical sorting tasks, to propose a series of how to do and why important principles regarding field sketching. External support for the research findings is sought from literature, considering the broad themes of: fieldwork and the experience of landscapes, field sketching and drawing as craft and expression, and developing and using field sketches.Applications for field sketching to meet contemporary needs in landscape architecture are proposed: the sketch as a designer's tool, sketch-based visualisations as interpretive images, and field sketching as a participative technique that can be used to engage the inquirer, collaborators, and the public with landscape experience -grounded decisions

A Standardised Procedure for Evaluating Creative Systems: Computational Creativity Evaluation Based on What it is to be Creative

Computational creativity is a flourishing research area, with a variety of creative systems being produced and developed. Creativity evaluation has not kept pace with system development with an evident lack of systematic evaluation of the creativity of these systems in the literature. This is partially due to difficulties in defining what it means for a computer to be creative; indeed, there is no consensus on this for human creativity, let alone its computational equivalent. This paper proposes a Standardised Procedure for Evaluating Creative Systems (SPECS). SPECS is a three-step process: stating what it means for a particular computational system to be creative, deriving and performing tests based on these statements. To assist this process, the paper offers a collection of key components of creativity, identified empirically from discussions of human and computational creativity. Using this approach, the SPECS methodology is demonstrated through a comparative case study evaluating computational creativity systems that improvise music