On the design of systems-oriented university curricula

This paper proposes a tool called the Systems Education Matrix (SEM) for use in informing the work of developers of systems-oriented curricula at colleges and universities around the world. The SEM was developed by Team 1 at the 2008 IFSR Fuschl Conversation held at Fuschl am See in Austria. In order to manage the complex problems we are dealing with today, systems thinking is essential. It is clear that systems education should be acknowledged as an important 'scientific method' that can help today's society to deal with the complexities of contemporary issues. To serve this role effectively, systems education needs to be focused towards the various needs that exist. The members of Team 1 have focused on the nature of systems education that will be required to not only train systems specialists, but to make systems thinking and analysis an integral part of discipline focused research and management

Intelligent Data Storage and Retrieval for Design Optimisation – an Overview

This paper documents the findings of a literature review conducted by the Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre for Aerospace Design Technology at RMIT University. The review investigates aspects of a proposed system for intelligent design optimisation. Such a system would be capable of efficiently storing (and compressing if required) a range of types of design data into an intelligent database. This database would be accessed by the system during subsequent design processes, allowing for search of relevant design data for re-use in later designs, allowing it to become very efficient in reducing the time for later designs as the database grows in size. Extensive research has been performed, in both theoretical aspects of the project, and practical examples of current similar systems. This research covers the areas of database systems, database queries, representation and compression of design data, geometric representation and heuristic methods for design applications.

Der Big Brother in der abendländischen Zivilisation Anspruch und Wirklichkeit der Grundrechte in Österreich

Gibt es in der europäischen Zivilisation einen "Big Brotherâ€? oder handelt es sich dabei bloß um eine Fiktion der Literatur, um ein neues Sendungsformat oder um ein kurzlebiges Modewort. Ich meine, dass es ihn gibt, zweifelsohne in der Literatur, mit Sicherheit aber auch in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Die Metapher "Big Brother" verwende ich in der vorliegenden Arbeit als Hilfskonstrukt für seine unterschiedlichen Erscheinungsformen in der Realität. Es ist nicht immer eindeutig auszumachen, wo der Big Brother auftaucht, sein wandelndes Gesicht hat jedoch in der europäischen Zivilisation eine gewisse Tradition und einen mehr oder weniger festen Platz. In der Kirche, im Staat, in der Gesetzgebung, in der Verwaltung, auf der Straße, in den Köpfen der Menschen, ... Es bleibt die Frage im Raum stehen: Wie ist er dorthin gekommen

Collecting people

Die Überlebenssicherungsstrategie des Menschen als Mängelwesen ohne echte Instinkte besteht im Sammeln von Freunden auf Sozialen Netzwerkplattformen, wie zum Beispiel StudiVZ, Facebook, … Die Handlungsmotivation des Menschen entspricht dabei seinem Streben nach Glück. Dieses glaubt er mittels sozialer Anerkennung von anderen Personen, oder dem Einnehmen einer Machtposition, die ihm innerhalb der Gruppe Big-Man-Status verleiht und ihm ermöglicht die anderen Gesellschaftsmitglieder nach seinem Willen zu beeinflussen, zu erreichen. Kommunikation, die entweder direkt von Angesicht zu Angesicht oder mit technischen Hilfsmitteln auch über weite Distanzen hinweg zwischen zumindest zwei, aber auch mehr Kommunikationspartnern, stattfindet, prägt zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen. Der positive Effekt jeder neuen Technologie ist die anfängliche Arbeitserleichterung und Effizienzsteigerung. Gleichzeitig befördert sie negativ den sukzessiven Verlust verschiedener natürlicher menschlicher Fähigkeiten. Möglicherweise hat das Internet menschliches Denken tatsächlich in Richtung einer Außenverlagerung unseres Erinnerungsvermögens in den Cyberspace verändert. Dennoch nutzen die Menschen immer noch dasselbe archaische Verhaltensmuster als Strategie wie einst, um das persönliche Überleben im Sinne von gut leben für die Zukunft zu sichern.The survival strategy of humans as imperfect creatures without real instincts consists of collecting friends on social network sites such as Studivz, Facebook, … The motivation of human beings to act thereby correlates with their quest for happiness. They believe to attain this by receiving social recognition from others or by taking up a positions of power, which give them the status of a 'big-man' in a group, who’s able to influence the other members of the society as he wishes. Communication, that takes place either directly from face to face or with the help of technology over long distances between at least two, but also more communication partners, forms interpersonal relationships. The positive effect of each new technology is that it makes work initially easier and increases efficiency. At the same time it leads to the negative effect of a gradual loss of certain natural human skills. Perhaps the Internet has indeed changed human thinking towards outsourcing of our capacity for remembering to the Cyberspace. Nevertheless human beings still use the same archaic strategic behavioral patterns as in the past in order to safeguard their personal survival in the sense of having a good life in the future

Politische Partizipation durch Soziale Medien

Direkte von Angesicht zu Angesicht oder in indirekter institutionalisierter Form ablaufende Kommunikation spielt eine wichtige Rolle in einer lebendigen Demokratie. Jedes neue Medium besitzt verändernde Wirkung hinsichtlich der Kommunikationsprozesse, sowie auf die Selbstwahrnehmung der interagierenden Menschen. Der nicht unumstrittene, synonym zum Begriff der Sozialen Medien verwendete Terminus Technicus Web 2.0 umfasst nicht nur die sukzessiven, Schritt für Schritt stattgefundenen Veränderungen im Internet, sondern auch die externen Begleiterscheinungen dieses Technik- Fortschritts in einer sich verändernden Umwelt. Aufgezeigt wird, sowohl das Konzept der Agenda-Setting-Funktion der Massenmedien, dass sich mit der Fragestellung einer wechselseitigen Beeinflussung von Medien- und Public-Agenda auseinandersetzt, als auch: „ob es durch Soziale Medien eine Erweiterung oder einen Bedeutungsverlust erleidet? Hier sind die positiven, negativen Aspekte der Nutzung sozialer Medien für das politische Geschehen und ob eine Demokratisierung der Demokratie erfolgt oder mehr Proteste entstehen, von Interesse. Zur Überprüfung des theoretischen Teils wurden einerseits anhand eines standardisierten Fragebogens an politische AkteurInnen auf regionaler, nationaler und internationaler Ebene sowie Vertreter von NGO’s die Auswirkungen der Nutzung sozialer Medien beleuchtet, sowie anhand der Fremden- und Asylpolitik die theoretischen Konzepte untersucht.Direct face to face communication, as well as communication taking place indirectly in institutionalized form, plays an important role in an active democracy. Any new medium has an impact on the communication process as such as well as on the self-awareness of the interacting people. The not uncontentious technical term Web 2.0, used synonymously to the notion of social media, embraces not only the successive changes the Internet has undergone step by step, but also the external concomitants of this technical progress in a a changing environment. Both, the concept of the agenda-setting function of mass media, which deals with the question of reciprocal influence of media and public agenda, as well as the question if this becomes more or less important thanks to social media, will be discussed. In this context, the positive and negative aspects of the use of social media are of particular interest, notably if their use will lead to a democratization of democracy or to more protests. In order to verify the theoretical part, the effects of the use of social media were examined,on the basis of a standardized catalogue of questions sent to political actors at regional, national, and international level as well as to representatives of NGOs, and an analysis was undertaken with a special focus on immigration- and asylum policy

A technomorphic conceptualisation of biological ‘constructions’ and their evolution

Here, we build on earlier work concerning notions of engineering design and investigate their conceptual connection to evolutionary biology. The basis for this work is an engineering design schema covering the central concepts of function, working principle and construction. Its relevance for evolutionary biology is explored by connecting these concepts to the so-called design space that is used in engineering optimisation. This tool makes it possible to distinguish various optima of performance and to visualise their robustness with respect to disturbances or changes in parameters. The robustness of morphological ‘constructions’ with regard to changes of shape is shown by means of examples from engineering and biology. The characteristics of various ‘landscapes’ in the design space is then related to the concept of evolvability, whereby we explore analogies between systems biology and morphology. A general property of phenotypes from the molecular to the organismal level seems to be that their ‘construction’ facilitates both their robustness and their exploration of the design space while maintaining the performance of the relevant functions at a high level

Refractive surgery in children

Refractive surgery techniques, especially those using laser ablation, have revolutionized the treatment of refractive errors. The short-term results have been well studied in adults, but long-term outcomes are not known. No good studies exist to tell us whether the pediatric eye responds the same as the adult eye to these techniques, but there is reason to believe that the pediatric eye will have many differences, both short- and long-term based on other similar surgeries adapted for pediatrics. These techniques have great potential to add to our armamentarium of treatments for frustrating problems such as unilateral high myopia with amblyopia, but they should be used with caution. The patients who are the most attractive to refractive surgeons, namely, teenagers with typical myopia who want to discard their spectacles, are the patients with potentially the most to lose from a procedure with unknown long-term results for a condition easily treated with other modalities. Those who need it most, namely infants and children with high anisometropia who cannot tolerate contact lenses or spectacles, are the least cooperative, the most difficult to treat postoperatively, and the least able to afford expensive treatments not covered by insurance, are therefore the least likely to be offered the procedure, or to have a study designed to evaluate their specific needs and concerns. It behooves ophthalmologists interested in pediatrics to carefully discuss and research the possible indications and theoretical concerns of these powerful techniques in pediatric eye

Antenatal corticosteroids for fetal lung maturation in threatened preterm delivery: indications and administration

Introduction: Antenatal maternal administration of corticosteroids has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality rates in preterm delivery. Threatened spontaneous or medically indicated preterm delivery for maternal or fetal indications between 24 and 34weeks of gestation with unknown fetal lung maturity status are indications for antenatal corticosteroid administration. Recent studies have challenged current practice of antenatal glucocorticoid use. The goal of this expert letter is to provide recommendations based for the clinical use of antenatal glucocorticoids based on the current evidence from published studies. Methods: The published literature (PubMed search), as well as the recommendations of other national societies, has been searched and taken into consideration for these recommendations. Results/conclusions: The standard regimen of antenatal corticosteroids involves a single course of 2×12mg betamethasone administered intramuscularly within 24h. The administration of corticosteroids usually is performed between 24 and 34weeks gestation. However, under particular circumstances it may be beneficial even at 23weeks and at 35-36weeks of gestation. The evidence to date is clearly against the routine administration of multiple antenatal steroid courses. In special clinical situations, a second course of betamethasone ("rescue course”) may be justifiable. Tocolysis during administration of steroids is not routinely indicated in the absence of contractions, cervical shortening or rupture of membrane

Preventing compulsory admission to psychiatric inpatient care using psycho-education and monitoring: feasibility and outcomes after 12 months

The aim of this study was to evaluate an intervention programme for people with severe mental illness that targets the reduction in compulsory psychiatric admissions. In the current study, we examine the feasibility of retaining patients in this programme and compare outcomes over the first 12 months to those after treatment as usual (TAU). Study participants were recruited in four psychiatric hospitals in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Patients were eligible if they had at least one compulsory admission during the past 24 months. Participants were assigned at random to the intervention or to the TAU group. The intervention programme consists of individualised psycho-education focusing on behaviours prior to illness-related crisis, crisis cards and, after discharge from the psychiatric hospital, a 24-month preventive monitoring. In total, 238 (of 756 approached) inpatients were included in the trial. After 12 months, 80 (67.2 %) in the intervention group and 102 (85.7 %) in the TAU group were still participating in the trial. Of these, 22.5 % in the intervention group (35.3 % TAU) had been compulsorily readmitted to psychiatry; results suggest a significantly lower number of compulsory readmissions per patient (0.3 intervention; 0.7 TAU). Dropouts are characterised by younger age and unemployment. This interim analysis suggests beneficial effects of this intervention for targeted psychiatric patients

It’s SNARC o’ clock: manipulating the salience of the context in a conceptual replication of Bächtold et al.’s (1998) clockface study

The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect consists in faster left-/right-key responses to small/large numbers. (Bächtold et al., Neuropsychologia 36:731–735, 1998) reported the reversal of this effect after eliciting the context of a clockface—where small numbers are represented on the right and large numbers on the left. The present study investigates how the salience of a particular spatial-numerical context, which reflects the level of activation of the context in working memory, can alter Spatial Numerical Associations (SNAs). Four experiments presented the clockface as context and gradually increased its salience using different tasks. In the first two experiments (low salience), the context was presented at the beginning of the experiment and its retrieval was not required to perform the tasks (i.e., random number generation in Experiment 1, magnitude classification and parity judgement in Experiment 2). Results revealed regular left-to-right SNAs, unaffected by the context. In Experiment 3 (medium salience), participants performed magnitude classification and parity judgement (primary task), and a Go/No-go (secondary task) which required the retrieval of the context. Neither the SNARC effect nor a reversed-SNARC emerged, suggesting that performance was affected by the context. Finally, in Experiment 4 (high salience), the primary task required participants to classify numbers based on their position on the clockface. Results revealed a reversed SNARC, as in (Bächtold et al., Neuropsychologia 36:731–735, 1998). In conclusion, SNARC is disrupted when the context is retrieved in a secondary task, but its reversal is observed only when the context is relevant for the primary task