Developing real-life driving simulations for novice driver education

This paper will describe the technological aspects of producing live-action videos of real traffic scenarios for a new driver education training CD-ROM (CD DRIVES) aimed at novice drivers in New Zealand. CD-DRIVES was created in order to help young drivers practise crucial higher level driving skills such as eye scanning, hazard detection and risk management. We will present a roadmap of the technological advances made through hardware, software and processes used in the production and post-production stages of CD-DRIVES

A Computer-Based Interactive Multimedia Training CD-ROM for Novice Drivers in New Zealand

This paper will describe the psychological and educational rationales behind the development of a computer-based interactive multimedia training CD-ROM (‘CD-DRIVES’) that will be made available to all novice drivers in New Zealand at no cost to the individual. Novice drivers are lacking in crucial higher level driving skills such as eye scanning, hazard detection and risk management. More than 70 real-life traffic simulations allow these drivers to practice such skills from the safety of their own homes

Going synthetic: how scientists and engineers imagine and build a new biology

Synthetic biology practitioners look through an engineer's lens at the incredibly complex, sensitive and seemingly endless resource of living reproductive material and contemplate turning biology into a substrate – composed of modular, wellcharacterised parts – that can be used to design and build new functional devices and systems. It is often explained that this vision for engineering biology may deliver future forms of efficient drug production, renewable sources of biofuel, methods to sense and remediate toxins and numerous other applications. Yet, synthetic biology remains a field in its infancy, facing a barrage of interconnected challenges across technical, social, ethical, legal and political realms. This multifaceted dynamic makes it a timely and important locus for sociophilosophical investigation. This thesis provides a highly empirical ethnographic account of two research groups as they were challenged to design and build a microbiological machine for the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) in 2009. The work examines forms of knowledge and material production in synthetic biology and, in focusing on iGEM, argues that this field is not only a feat of technical engineering, but also one of social engineering as it educates and indoctrinates a next generation of researchers through this unique contest. In this narrative, one discovers a microsocial sphere in which new ideas and biological entities at the intersection of natural and synthetic kingdoms of life are being constructed. Forms of teaching, tools, practices and processes that make imagining, designing and building new living systems possible are illustrated. The reader is also introduced to some international stakeholders and dynamics at play. With gathering media interest, attention from art and design perspectives, as well as publications across social, philosophical, political and legal studies of this ‘new’ biotechnology, there is a great need for the kind of detailed, insider view that this thesis provides – it contributes to an informed space through which constructive questions may be asked as the debate around engineering synthetic life continues to unfold. As such, this work helps to enable a reflection on the kinds of intervention possible in the process of dreaming up ideas of potential future living machines. Involved collaborators, as well as the resistance of life itself, will ultimately govern the limits of synthetic biology

High resolution double crystal X-ray diffractometry and topography of III-V semiconductor compounds

Double crystal diffractometry and topography are now routinely used in many laboratories for the inspection of epitaxially grown devices. However the trend towards thinner layers and more complex structures requires the continued development of novel approaches using these techniques. This thesis is concerned with the development of these approaches to study the structural uniformity of semiconductor materials. The uniformity of large single crystals of lithium niobate has been studied using synchrotron radiation and double crystal X-ray topography. This study has shown a variety of contrast features including low angle grain boundaries and non-uniform dislocation densities. The abruptness of an interface between a layer and the underlying substrate has been studied using glancing incidence asymmetric reflections. Comparisons to simulated structures revealed that a closer match was achieved by the inclusion of a highly mismatched interfacial layer. This study illustrates the need for careful comparison between experimental and simulated rocking curves as different structures may produce very similar rocking curves. A double crystal topographic study of a AlGaAs laser structure revealed X-ray interference fringes. These are shown to be produced from the interaction of two simultaneously diffracting layers separated by a thin layer. Possible formation mechanisms have been discussed showing that these fringes are capable of revealing changes in the active layer at the atomic level. A novel approach has also been developed using synchrotron radiation to study the non-stoichiometry of GaAs. This approach uses the quasi-forbidden reflections which are present in III-V semiconductors due to the differences in the atomic scattering factors. This study has also discussed the behaviour of strong and weak reflections in the region of absorption edges and modelled their behaviour using the anomalous dispersion corrections of Cromer and Liberman

Rock phosphates : fertilisers for sandy soils?

Rock phosphates, from which water solubls phosphorus fertilisers such as superphosphate are manufactured, sometimes appear attractive to farmers because of their relatively low cost. But redearch has shown t6hat on most western australian soils they are not economical fertilisers. However, some deep sandy soils of the State\u27s high rainfall area are exeptions. On these soils, rock phosphates compare favourably with superphosphate for plant growth. But how can these deep sands be identified. This article describes research to define the soil characteristics necessary for rock phosphates and fertilisers containing rock phosphate, such as Coastal superphosphate, to be effective substitutes for superphosphate

Phosphorus nutrition of high rainfall pastures - Peel Harvey estuarine system study

1. Field experiments. A. Sources, rates, time of application of phosphorous on high rainfall Pastures - 80AL2, 80ALS, 81AL5, 81AL6, 81KE2, 81MA4, 82AL10, 82HA31, 82HA32, 83HA26, 83HA27. B. Soil test calibration curve trials. 82HA20, 82HA26, 82HA29, 83HA20, 83HA21, 83HA22, 83HA23, 83HA24, 83HA25. C. P sources and rates on sandy soils of the high rainfall areas - 84AL33, 84AL34, 84HA18, 84HA25. D.Maintenance P trials - 84AL32, 84HA17, 84HA24, 84HA28. 2.Glasshouse Experiments. 84GL5 - 1. Phosphorus sources on subterranean clover on sandy soils. 2. Soil test calibration experiment

Phosphorus nutrition of high rainfall pastures, Sulphur nutrition of pastures and Sulphur - low rainfall.

Phosphorus nutrition of high rainfall pastures - Peel Harvey Estuarine System Study and related phosphorus work. (1) Sources, rates, time of application of phosphorous on high rainfall pastures. 81AL5, 81AL6, 82AL10, 82HA32, 83HA26, 83HA27. (2) P sources and rates on sandy soils of the high rainfall areas. 84AL33, 84AL34, 84HA18, 84HA25. (3) Maintenance rate of P on pastures on sandy soils. 84AL32, 84HA17, 84HA24, 84 HA28. Sulphur nutrition of pastures A. Sulphur - high rainfall (2684 EX/4054EX) (1) Sources, rates, time of application of sulphur to pastures. 80AL4, 80AL4B (2) S sources and rates on pastures on sandy soils of the high rainfall areas. 84HA20, 84HA27 (3) Maintenance rate of S on pastures on sandy soils. 84AL35, 84HA19, 84HA26 B. Sulphur - low rainfall (1) Sulphur on pastures. 82AL9, 82KA4 (2) Sulphur requirements of wheat. 85TS24 81AL5, 81AL6, 82AL10, 82HA32, 83HA26, 83HA27, 84AL33, 84AL34, 84HA18, 84HA25, 84AL32, 84HA17, 84HA24, 84HA28, 80AL4, 80AL4B, 84HA20, 84HA27, 84AL35, 84HA19, 84HA26, 82AL9, 82KA4, 85TS24