Systems, interactions and macrotheory

A significant proportion of early HCI research was guided by one very clear vision: that the existing theory base in psychology and cognitive science could be developed to yield engineering tools for use in the interdisciplinary context of HCI design. While interface technologies and heuristic methods for behavioral evaluation have rapidly advanced in both capability and breadth of application, progress toward deeper theory has been modest, and some now believe it to be unnecessary. A case is presented for developing new forms of theory, based around generic “systems of interactors.” An overlapping, layered structure of macro- and microtheories could then serve an explanatory role, and could also bind together contributions from the different disciplines. Novel routes to formalizing and applying such theories provide a host of interesting and tractable problems for future basic research in HCI

Cumulative luminosity functions of the X-ray point source population in M31

We present preliminary results from a detailed analysis of the X-ray point sources in the XMM-Newton survey of M31. These sources are expected to be mostly X-ray binaries. We have so far studied 225 of the 535 sources found by automated source detection. Only sources which were present in all three EPIC images were considered. X-ray binaries are identified by their energy spectrum and power density spectrum. Unlike in other surveys we have obtained source luminosities from freely fit emission models. We present uncorrected luminosity functions of the sources analysed so far.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure. To appear in proceedings of IAUS23

Predicting space climate change

The recent decline in the open magnetic flux of the Sun heralds the end of the Grand Solar Maximum (GSM) that has persisted throughout the space age, during which the largest‐fluence Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) events have been rare and Galactic Cosmic Ray (GCR) fluxes have been relatively low. In the absence of a predictive model of the solar dynamo, we here make analogue forecasts by studying past variations of solar activity in order to evaluate how long‐term change in space climate may influence the hazardous energetic particle environment of the Earth in the future. We predict the probable future variations in GCR flux, near‐Earth interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), sunspot number, and the probability of large SEP events, all deduced from cosmogenic isotope abundance changes following 24 GSMs in a 9300‐year record

New Genera and Species of the Megaluropus Group (Amphipoda, Megaluropidae) from American Seas

The species of the Megaluropus group, here placed in three genera, two of which are described as new, are reported from the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. The west African Megaluropus longimerusSchellenberg is redescribed and a lectotype chosen. It is placed in the new genus Gibberosus which otherwise has three American species, G. falciformis, G. myersi, and a new species, G. devaneyi. Megaluropus is now confined to the Old World. A second new genus from the New World, Resupinus, is described to include R. visendus and two new species, R. spinicaudatus and R. coloni. These organisms have been observed to walk upside down in a cradle of their legs similar to melphidippids

Elasmopus balkomanus, a New Species from the Florida Keys (Crustacea, Amphipoda)

Elasmopus balkomanus is described from Looe Key Reef in the Florida Keys. The species is very close to the eastern Pacific E. antennatus but in the male has equally extending rami on uropod 3, only 2 (versus 4-6) spines on each lobe of the tel son in adults, a lateral ridge on the propodus of male gnathopod 2 and very heavily armed flagella of antenna 2 in the male. This species lives in a short-tufted algal turf community on coral rubble but apparently is rare because it has only been collected once in 10 years of sampling in the Florida Keys

Podocerus chelonophilus, a Testudinous Amphipod Newly Recorded from the Western Atlantic Ocean

Podocerus chelonophilus (=P. cheloniae), an amphipod inhabiting the carapace of the loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta, is reported for the first time from the western Atlantic Ocean

Podocerus kleidus, New Species from the Florida Keys (Crustacea, Amphipoda, Dulichiidae)

Podocerus kleidus, a new species from high-current channels in the Florida Keys, is described. The species is very close to P. fulanus from marine channels in California but differs in the strongly cleft coxa I

Wombalano yerang, New Genus and Species of Corophioid (Crustacea, Amphipoda) from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Wombalano is characterized by having a interlocked basket of large spines on the bases of male gnathopod 2; these bases arc curved inward to afford the interlocking capability. This genus differs from Lemboides Stebbing in the even more shortened inner ramus of uropod 3, in the simple mandibular palp, the fused articles of the flagellum on antenna 2, and the immense basket-shovel formed of spines on articl 2 of male gnathopod 2

New Species of Neomegamphopus from Tropical America (Crustacea: Marine Amphipoda)

Neomegamphopus hiatus is described from Venezuela and the Florida Keys, N. pachiatus and N. heardi from Pacific Panama, and N. kalanii from eastern Florida. Neomegamphopus hiatus and N. pachiatus differ from a close congener, N. roosevelti (tropical eastern Pacific), in the much larger coxa 1 of mature males, the less setose gnathopods, and the broader carpus of the first gnathopod bearing a much deeper incision defining the posterior tooth; the carpus is much shorter and stouter in N. hiatus and N. pachiatus than in N. roosevelti. Neomegamphopus heardi differs from the other species in the bifid tooth on the carpus of gnathopod I in males. Questions regarding the reclassification ofthe Isaeidae, Aoridae, and Neomegamphopidae are explored and the three families amalgamated again to their status of 1973 (except Corophiidae which is segregated)

Two New Species of the Siphonoecetes Complex from the Arabian Gulf and Borneo (Crustacea: Amphipoda)

A new species, Siphonoecetes arabicus, is described from the Arabian Gulf, and a new species B. wongi is described in the new genus Borneoecetes from Borneo. The former species does not fit recently described subgenera, thus indicating a necessary reassessment of those taxa