Advancements and Breakthroughs in Ultrasound Imaging

Ultrasonic imaging is a powerful diagnostic tool available to medical practitioners, engineers and researchers today. Due to the relative safety, and the non-invasive nature, ultrasonic imaging has become one of the most rapidly advancing technologies. These rapid advances are directly related to the parallel advancements in electronics, computing, and transducer technology together with sophisticated signal processing techniques. This book focuses on state of the art developments in ultrasonic imaging applications and underlying technologies presented by leading practitioners and researchers from many parts of the world

Affective Computing

This book provides an overview of state of the art research in Affective Computing. It presents new ideas, original results and practical experiences in this increasingly important research field. The book consists of 23 chapters categorized into four sections. Since one of the most important means of human communication is facial expression, the first section of this book (Chapters 1 to 7) presents a research on synthesis and recognition of facial expressions. Given that we not only use the face but also body movements to express ourselves, in the second section (Chapters 8 to 11) we present a research on perception and generation of emotional expressions by using full-body motions. The third section of the book (Chapters 12 to 16) presents computational models on emotion, as well as findings from neuroscience research. In the last section of the book (Chapters 17 to 22) we present applications related to affective computing

Highly migratory shark fisheries research by the National Shark Research Consortium (NSRC), 2002-2007

The National Shark Research Consortium (NSRC) includes the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory, the Pacific Shark Research Center at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, the Shark Research Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and the Florida Program for Shark Research at the University of Florida. The consortium objectives include shark-related research in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the U.S., education and scientific cooperation

Knowledge and Management Models for Sustainable Growth

In the last years sustainability has become a topic of global concern and a key issue in the strategic agenda of both business organizations and public authorities and organisations. Significant changes in business landscape, the emergence of new technology, including social media, the pressure of new social concerns, have called into question established conceptualizations of competitiveness, wealth creation and growth. New and unaddressed set of issues regarding how private and public organisations manage and invest their resources to create sustainable value have brought to light. In particular the increasing focus on environmental and social themes has suggested new dimensions to be taken into account in the value creation dynamics, both at organisations and communities level. For companies the need of integrating corporate social and environmental responsibility issues into strategy and daily business operations, pose profound challenges, which, in turn, involve numerous processes and complex decisions influenced by many stakeholders. Facing these challenges calls for the creation, use and exploitation of new knowledge as well as the development of proper management models, approaches and tools aimed to contribute to the development and realization of environmentally and socially sustainable business strategies and practices

Creativity for children: assessing children’s creativity in play and design recommendations for educational outdoor environments to enhance children’s creativity

This research studied children’s educational outdoor environments in order to understand which contexts and environmental characteristics support children’s creativity in play. Creativity is an important factor in children’s cognitive development; children’s creativity can flourish in outdoor environments as they can engage in free play. Accordingly, this research had two central aims: Aim 1: To classify and assess children’s levels of creativity during play. Aim 2: To develop design principles for educational outdoor environments in order to nurture children's creativity in play. Initially, behaviour observation and the Leuven Wellbeing and Involvement Scale were used to collect data for a pilot study. Children’s play behaviours were observed and analysed, and based on the Evaluation of Potential for Creativity, the Creative Play Taxonomy was designed in relation to the first aim of the study. Then, at two study sites, experimental research was designed. At both study sites, children were observed in four different play contexts. At Study Site One, duration recording was used and the videorecorder observations were coded with the Creative Play Taxonomy using the software The Observer from Noldus. At Study Site Two, narrative recording was used in the observation sessions and focus group discussions were held with the children. The findings from both study sites achieved the second aim of this study. The current research makes two main contributions to knowledge. Firstly, it introduces the Creative Play Taxonomy, which can be used by researchers, psychologists, educationalists and related disciplines to understand, categorise and assess children’s creativity in play. Secondly, it increases the understanding of the particular play contexts that support children’s creativity in play, and the environmental characteristics that enhance these types of play. Accordingly, this research suggests that: - Outdoor play spaces should include a variety of different play contexts to encourage creative play amongst different groups of children. - The most effective play contexts for children’s creativity are those facilitated with flexible, changeable, mouldable, movable, multi-functional and open-ended play materials. - Children’s outdoor play spaces should be facilitated with loose parts, both natural and synthetic, as they are highly supportive of children’s creativity. - Natural outdoor environments and elements highly encourage creative play behaviours amongst children. The findings are intended to guide landscape architects and playground design professionals to produce informed design decisions based on the framework of creativity, in order to nurture children's creative thinking abilities