Mirrors of the World - Supporting Situational Awareness with Computer Screens

In this paper we develop a notion of support for social and situational awareness. Our initial ideas are based on the metaphor of using a mirror to see what you are not looking at. We provide two studies that, for different contexts, apply the metaphor to develop design ideas that fit the context of use

Spin-String Interaction in QCD Strings

I consider the question of the interaction between a QCD string and the spin of a quark or an antiquark on whose worldline the string terminates. The problem is analysed from the point of view of a string representation for the expectation value of a Wilson loop for a spin-half particle. A string representation of the super Wilson loop is obtained starting from an effective string representation of a Wilson Loop. The action obtained in this manner is invariant under a worldline supersymmetry and has a boundary term which contains the spin-string interaction. For rectangular loops the spin-string interaction vanishes and there is no spin-spin term in the resulting heavy quark potential. On the other hand if an allowance is made for the finite intrinsic thickness of the flux-tube, by assuming that the spin-string interaction takes place not just at the boundary of the string world-sheet but extends to a distance of the order of the intrinsic thickness of the flux tube, then we do obtain a spin-spin interaction which falls as the fifth power of the distance. Such a term was previously suggested by Kogut and Parisi in the context of a flux-tube model of confinement.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure; Published version with added discussion and references in section

બાળમજૂર વિધાર્થીઓ તથા સામાન્ય વિધાર્થીઓના અભ્યાસ પ્રત્યેનાં વલણો, અનુકૂલન અને તેમની સમસ્યાઓનો તુલનાત્મક અભ્યાસ

સૃષ્ટિના સર્જનહારની સર્જનાત્મકતાનું સુંદર પાવન જીવંત સ્વરૂપ એટલે બાળક, સ્વામી વિવેકાનંદે કહ્યું છે કે “બાળક એ ઈશ્ર્વરે માનવજાત પર લખેલ જીવંત પ્રેમપત્ર છે.” બાળક એ સુદઢ સમાજનો પાયો છે, સુવિકસિત રાષ્ટ્રનું ભવિષ્ય છે. બાળકનું સુંદર ઘડતર એ એનાં ભાવિ જીવન અને સમાજ તથા રાષ્ટ્ર, તમામને આવરી લેનાર મહત્વનું ઘટક છે. માતા-પિતા વ્યવસાય અર્થે બહાર જતા હોય ત્યારે પણ સંતાનોને ઘરની કામગીરીમાં જોડાવું પડે છે. આની અસર અભ્યાસ પણ પડે છે. જેને લઈ અભ્યાસ પ્રત્યેના વલણોમાં બદલાવ આવે છે, એના અનુકૂલનો પર અસર થાય છે તેમજ અભ્યાસમાં સમસ્યાઓ ઉદ્ભવે છે. જેને લઈ તે પોતાનાં તંદુરસ્ત ભવિષ્ય તરફ ડગ માંડી શક્તો નથી. સમસ્યાઓ તો સજીવ માત્રનાં જીવનમાં આવતી ઘટના છે. પરંતુ જ્યારે કોઈ માનવનિર્મિત પરિસ્થિતિને લઈ કે કોઈ અકળ કારણસર વિદ્યાર્થીઓને અભ્યાસમાં ઉદ્ભવતી સમસ્યાઓનો સામનો તેને કરવો પડે છે, ત્યારે તેને લઈ તે તંદુરસ્ત અભ્યાસ કરી શકતો નથી અને જીવનના વિકાસના પાયારૂપ વિદ્યાભ્યાસ દ્વારા પોતાનો સંપૂર્ણ વ્યક્તિત્વ વિકાસ સાધી શક્તો નથી. સમસ્યાઓ તો કરોળિયાનું એ જાળું છે જેમાં અટવાયેલું બાળક ન તો અભ્યાસ તરફ તંદુરસ્ત વલણ કેળવી શકે છે સારી રીતે અનુકૂલિત થઈ શકે છે. સમય પહેલાની બાળમજૂરીને લઈ અભ્યાસમાં ઉદ્ભવતી સમસ્યાઓ કઈ કઈ છે ? સમસ્યાઓનો વલણ અને અનુકૂલન સાથે સંબંધ રહેલો છે. આ બધી બાબતોને સાંકળી બાળમજૂર વિદ્યાર્થીઓ અને સામાન્ય વિદ્યાર્થીઓની અભ્યાસમાં ઉદ્ભવતી સમસ્યાઓ અંગે અભ્યાસ કરવાનો પ્રયાસ કરવામાં આવ્યો છે

“Show me, how does it look now”: Remote Help-giving in Collaborative Design

This paper examines the role of visual information in a remote help-giving situation involving the collaborative physical task of designing a prototype remote control. We analyze a set of video recordings captured within an experimental setting. Our analysis shows that using gestures and relevant artefacts and by projecting activities on the camera, participants were able to discuss several design-related issues. The results indicate that with a limited camera view (mainly faces and shoulders), participants’ conversations were centered at the physical prototype that they were designing. The socially organized use of our experimental setting provides some key implications for designing future remote collaborative systems

Designing Awareness Support for Distributed Cooperative Design Teams

Motivation – Awareness is an integral part of remote collaborative work and has been an important theme within the CSCW research. Our project aims at understanding and mediating non-verbal cues between remote participants involved in a design project. \ud Research approach – Within the AMIDA1 project we focus on distributed ‘cooperative design’ teams. We especially focus on the 'material' signals – signals in which people communicate through material artefacts, locations and their embodied actions. We apply an ethnographic approach to understand the role of physical artefacts in co-located naturalistic design setting. Based on the results we will generate important implications to support remote design work. We plan to develop a mixed-reality interface supported by a shared awareness display. This awareness display will provide information about the activities happening in the design room to remotely located participants.\ud Findings/Design – Our preliminary investigation with real-world design teams suggests that both the materiality of designers’ work settings and their social practices play an important role in understanding these material signals that are at play. \ud Originality/Value – Most research supporting computer mediated communication have focused on either face-to-face or linguistically oriented communication paradigms. Our research focuses on mediating the non-verbal, material cues for supporting collaborative activities without impoverishing what designers do in their day to day working lives.\ud Take away message – An ethnographic approach allows us to understand the naturalistic practices of design teams, which can lead to designing effective technologies to support group work. In that respect, the findings of our research will have a generic value beyond the application domain chosen (design teams).\u

Experiential Role of Artefacts in Cooperative Design

The role of material artefacts in supporting distributed and co-located work practices has been well acknowledged within the HCI and CSCW research. In this paper, we show that in addition to their ecological, coordinative and organizational support, artefacts also play an ‘experiential’ role. In this case, artefacts not only improve efficiency or have a purely functional role (e.g. allowing people to complete tasks quickly), but the presence and manifestations of these artefacts bring quality and richness to people’s performance and help in making better sense of their everyday lives. In a domain like industrial design, such artefacts play an important role for supporting creativity and innovation. Based on our prolonged ethnographic fieldwork on understanding cooperative design practices of industrial design students and researchers, we describe several experiential practices that are supported by mundane artefacts like sketches, drawings, physical models and explorative prototypes – used and developed in designers’ everyday work. Our main intention to carry out this kind of research is to develop technologies to support designers’ everyday practices. We believe that with the emergence of ubiquitous computing, there is a growing need to focus on personal, emotional and social side of people’s everyday experiences. By focusing on the experiential practices of designers, we can provide a holistic view in the design of new interactive technologies

Collaborative Practices that Support Creativity in Design

Design is a ubiquitous, collaborative and highly material activity. Because of the embodied nature of the design profession, designers apply certain collaborative practices to enhance creativity in their everyday work. Within the domain of industrial design, we studied two educational design departments over a period of eight months. Using examples from our fieldwork, we develop our results around three broad themes related to collaborative practices that support the creativity of design professionals: 1) externalization, 2) use of physical space, and 3) use of bodies. We believe that these themes of collaborative practices could provide new insights into designing technologies for supporting a varied set of design activities. We describe two conceptual collaborative systems derived from the results of our study

Ayurveda concept of Yoga Chakras and their Anatomical aspects

The ancient texts of Ayurveda and various yoga traditions referred term Chakra which indicates energy centre. The word Chakra means itself says about the wheel which circulates energy and governs many physiological processes inside the body. The blockage of Chakra causes abnormal physiology inside the body. Chakras are responsible for positive influence and induce natural healing process of body. Chakras contributed towards the spiritual and moral conducts of individuals. The flow of energies maintained by Chakras provide internal and as well as psychic strength. Root Chakra, Sacral Chakra, Solar Plexus Chakra, Heart Chakra, Throat Chakra, Third Eye Chakra and Crown Chakra are major seven Chakras of body within which the Vishwaprana (universal life force) flows