Interactive storytelling: how picture book conventions inform multimedia book app narratives

Book applications (apps) have become an active element in children's publishing. Yet there are a lack of standards and design models within this arena. In this paper I analyse the ways in which book apps can draw on the conventions used in print picture books. I propose that through building closer ties between print and digital book formats, the evolutionary trajectory of digital literature may be strengthened. This inquiry involves investigating the use of multimedia, interactivity and playful design in print and digital children's books. I also highlight two key issues relating to digital interactive narratives: the relationship between interactivity and narrative flow, and the relationship between text and audio narration. This is with the view to assessing how picture book conventions can be used to extend the design of digital interactive stories, particularly book apps

Working in the UK without a default retirement age: health, safety and the oldest workers

This article considers the impact on individuals seeking, or in continuing work, and on organisations needing to manage older workers of the abolition of the default retirement age. Organisations will need to develop policies to cope with increasing numbers of workers in their late 60s, 70s and beyond. Here, we focus on the need for employers to plan for an ageing workforce in respect of the health and safety issues which will result from employing increasing numbers of older workers

Anthropomorphism and morphism: Embodiment and the picture book

Through an analysis of my own creative practices and a study of the work of author-illustrator Shaun Tan, this paper illuminates the ways in which contemporary picture books have drawn on notions of hybridity to reinvigorate the convention of anthropomorphism. Picture books have evolved from being a genre specifically for children to a literary form that engages a wide audience. Practitioners who are aware of the broad readership of this art-form create works that can be appreciated by viewers with diverse levels of visual and literary comprehension. Having established the audience as a broad and active factor within this literary field, this paper turns to focus on the picture book as a powerful, yet non-confrontational tool: a tool that encourages thought and discussion on social change, and one that widely deploys the practice of anthropomorphism. Extending upon the analytical writings of Shaun Tan, Bruno Latour, and David Rudd this paper repositions the convention of anthropomorphism, allowing a less human-centric model to emerge. Through this discussion the term morphism is posited as a useful descriptor of transformational representations within visual literature. Through deploying this term, the hegemonic stance that is often presented via the depiction of 'clothed animals', or the portrayal of humans in animal form, can be challenged. This opens the potential for anyone or anything to have a voice, breaking down the traditional model that commonly depicts human domination over 'others' or the human domination of nature

How Far is UP? Encouraging social interaction through children's book app design

Historically picture books have been a social medium, an item understood by a combination of child and adult readers. Book apps are a new format for picture books. These items do not commonly require an adult co-reader; the audio narration 'reads' the text to the child. How Far is UP? is a children's book app designed to foster social engagement. Through interacting with the work users uncover text that contains different information to the audio narration. Pre-literate audience will not be able to comprehend the textual aspect of the narrative. Children will require an adult to read the text aloud and to discuss the content so that together they can formulate deeper narrative meaning. This study draws on children's literary theory with the view to uncovering ways in which interactive digital storybooks can entertain, educate and foster meaningful social, intergenerational bonding

PREDATOR MANAGEMENT FOR DUCKS ON WATERFOWL PRODUCTION AREAS IN THE NORTHERN PLAINS

In 1961, Congress initiated the Accelerated Wetland Acquisition Program, which has resulted in purchase of about 2,450 scattered small Waterfowl Production Area (WPA) management units in the Prairie Pothole Region of Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The WPAs are administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS); increased duck production is a major management objective. Duck recruitment rates in much of the four-state area are very low because of high predation, especially on nests. Principal predators responsible for the predation are six mammalian carnivores and one rodent. The actions of predators on WPAs, especially in central and eastern portions of the area, render many areas ineffectual for duck production. A survey of managers of the 22 Wetland Management Districts in the area revealed that little predator management for increased duck production is being conducted on WPAs and that few data are available from which to evaluate effectiveness of methods being used. Public trapping and hunting are permitted on nearly all WPAs. Habitat management is widely practiced but has had limited impact on predation rates. Other predator management activities include limited or experimental use of selective predator control, nesting structures, artificial islands, and electric fences. There is growing demand for cost-effective and acceptable methods to reduce predation, but the number, size, and arrangement of WPAs pose difficult management problems

Metrology Enabled Reflection Transformation Imaging to Reconstruct Local Detail in Manufactured Surfaces

Understanding the performance of large high performance manufactured structures can require highly accurate dimensional measurement across large volumes with the often conflicting capability to record critical parts of the structure in fine detail. Examples include turbine blades, aircraft wings and off-site manufactured modular structures assembled on-site for city, energy and transport infrastructure. Established large-volume industrial metrology systems such as laser trackers and photogrammetry partially meet the need through the measurement of targets and reflectors, but are limited in capability to record high density local detail needed to capture the finest manufactured features. Whilst large-volume surface sensing is possible with laser radar, photogrammetric pattern projection and contact probing for example, the detail required at a local level typically demands local sensing which generally takes the form of a tracked sensor such as a triangulation laser scanner or hand held touch probe. Local sensing systems face challenges where surfaces have fine detail of similar magnitude to the local sensing system sampling capability and particularly for optical sensors where the light reflected back to the sensor by the surface includes specular reflections compounded by local geometry. This paper investigates how Reflection Transformation Imaging (RTI) with a dome camera and lighting system might be calibrated, characterised and tracked as an alternative technology that is more robust to material surface properties and capable of very fine surface detail capture. Laboratory results demonstrate the capability to characterise and locate the dome to sub-millimetric accuracy within a large-volume tracked space to achieve local surface sampling at the 30 μm × 30 μm level. A method utilising sparse touch probe points to seed conversion of low and high frequency normal maps into a common 3D surface is explored with local agreement with laser tracker surface probe check points to the order of 30 μm

Integrating Outcomes from Probabilistic and Deterministic Seismic Hazard Analysis in the Tien Shan

In this study, we have evaluated the probabilistic and deterministic seismic hazard for the city of Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, which has a population of nearly two million people. Almaty is located in the Tien Shan belt, a low‐strain‐rate environment within the interior of the Eurasian plate that is characterized by large infrequent earthquakes. A robust assessment of seismic hazard for Almaty is challenging because current knowledge about the occurrence of large earthquakes is limited, due to the short duration of the earthquake catalog and only partial information about the geometry, rupture behavior, slip rate, and the maximum expected earthquake magnitude of the faults in the area. The impact that this incomplete knowledge has on assessing seismic hazard in this area can be overcome using both probabilistic and deterministic approaches and integrating the results. First, we simulate ground‐shaking scenarios for three destructive historical earthquakes that occurred in the northern Tien Shan in 1887, 1889, and 1911, using ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs) and realistic fault‐rupture models based on recent geomorphological studies. We show that the large variability in the GMPEs results in large uncertainty in the ground‐motion simulations. Then, we estimate the seismic hazard probabilistically using a Monte Carlo‐based probabilistic seismic hazard analysis and the earthquake catalog compiled from the databases of the International Seismological Centre and the British Geological Survey. The results show that earthquakes of M w Mw 7.0–7.5 at Joyner–Boore distances of less than 10 km from the city pose a significant hazard to Almaty due to their proximity. These potential future earthquakes are similar to the 1887 Verny earthquake in terms of their magnitude and distance from Almaty. Unfortunately, this is the least well understood of the destructive historical earthquakes that have occurred in the northern Tien Shan

Mainstreaming prevention: Prescribing fruit and vegetables as a brief intervention in primary care

This is the author's PDF version of an article published in Public health© 2005.This articles discusses a project at the Castlefields Health Centre in Halton whereby primary care professionals issue a prescription for discounts on fruit and vegetables. The prescription is explicitly linked to the five-a-day message

How Far is Up? the functional properties and aesthetic materiality of children’s storybook applications

This study centres on a project, a children’s book application titled How Far is Up? This artefact is an interactive, narrative-based digital book containing written text, animation, video, audio narration, music and sound effects. Book applications have become a new format for the picture book. Printed picture books are used to teach children literary and social skills; they are cornerstone tools in early developmental education. Increasing numbers of children now read digital books and engage in literature via digital devices. Given the crucial educational and social role that picture books have played in Western cultures, it is timely that we investigate how this medium has changed due to digitisation. This research evaluates the design of book applications and the educational and social implications of remediating the picture book. Theorists of children’s literature and cognitive science suggest the need for a more comprehensive set of principles aimed at guiding book application designers. In particular, there are concerns relating to the design of interactive, animated activities within these artefacts. Evidence shows that these features may distract users from a story. Further to this, existing applications commonly contain an audio narrator who ‘reads’ the written text aloud. An adult is not required to read these items with a child. This is despite the clear educational and social benefits associated with shared reading. My results demonstrate new insights, focused towards three main areas. Firstly, my findings show how designers can apply a counterpointed triad formed from typographic text, imagery and audio, alongside the alluring qualities of animated and interactive features, in order to form a richly described narrative environment. In presenting a refined level of visual movement, designers can direct users’ attention towards narrative detail. Animated interactive activities may also help users to imaginatively engage in application content. Secondly, as a result of deploying my counterpointed triad technique, whereby typographic text, imagery and audio each impart separate narrative messages, the narrator in How Far is Up? does not ‘read’ the written text; the narrator supplies additional story information. In order to comprehend this application’s textual content, a pre-literate child will need to engage in shared reading. Participant studies show that young children can understand and enjoy the How Far is Up? story when they read the application independently. My findings also show that children enjoy reading this application together with an adult, and that this shared reading activity may invoke deeper narrative comprehension and it may support the formation of close social bonds. This application’s design encourages intergenerational social interaction to occur over a shared mobile device. Finally, this research uncovers connections between material practices and social and experiential activities. By extending the counterpointed triad technique, I form a connection between digital and physical environments; highlighting the ways in which functional and aesthetic practices can lead to usable artefacts existing in social and physical contexts. This project contributes to the fields of digital humanities, education and human-computer interaction, and to the disciplines of interaction design, digital design and picture book design