Enhancing design learning using a digital repository

The process of design is context dependent and open-ended, and therefore does not revolve around a specific body of information or knowledge. The educational paradigm shift in the area of engineering design from teaching to coaching and the increased use of social constructivist learning ideals requires students to have access to as wide a range of information as possible. Digital resources provide an excellent opportunity for extending the range of information available to design students and to this end, as part of a joint research program with Stanford University, the University of Strathclyde has developed a groupware product called LauLima to provide students with a collaborative environment which allows them to gather, organise, store and share information. This paper describes the improvement to design learning, based on a Design Knowledge Framework, in a 3rd year product design engineering project from session 03/04 to 04/05 which has been facilitated by the implementation of this technology

Using engineering design tools in multidisciplinary distributed student teams

Collaborative design practice in distributed student teams is becoming more popular as technology makes it easier to communicate ideas with others that are geographically distant. However, a challenge for students is to use design tools which they are not familiar with. These design tools usually differ from each other and engineers may find it much more difficult to share their ideas. This could make the whole design process longer and less successful. Each year the University of Malta, City University London and University of Strathclyde organise a joint collaborative design project, involving engineering students with different disciplines and cultural backgrounds. In this paper, the patterns of use of design tools by students to collaborate with each other are investigated. Based on survey results of students, this paper proposes an approach which can be utilised by engineering students to enhance collaboration in multidisciplinary distributed design teams

TikiWiki: a tool to support engineering design students in concept generation

For student design engineers, the concept generation stage of the design process is usually one of most creative, but poses problems in handling large amounts of information when developing new ideas. Storing such information digitally potentially makes its retrieval and utilisation quicker and easier - ideal for the inherently spontaneous nature of the concept generation task. There is, however, currently a low use of existing electronic resources amongst undergraduate students. This paper discusses how a group of product design engineering students were encouraged to use TikiWiki, a groupware product, as an integral part of a design project. It was observed that a digital repository has a positive effect on concept generation, despite the logistical problems with moving information into the digital domain. Students were able to better interact with the information, evidenced by hierarchical and well constructed topic information resources, a high number of ‘hits’ on their Wiki pages, clear references to information used in concept design templates and instances of ‘topic-led’ designs where the research carried out by a group clearly influenced design direction. Additionally, students showed a strong preference for browsing the structured Wiki pages they had created rather than searching with keywords, in keeping with the open-ended nature of concept generation

Augmenting the 6-3-5 method with design information

This paper describes a comparative study between the 6-3-5 Method and the ICR Grid. The ICR Grid is an evolved variant of 6-3-5 intended to better integrate information into the concept generation process. Unlike a conventional 6-3-5 process where participants continually sketch concepts, using the ICR Grid (the name derived from its Inform, Create, Reflect activities and structured, grid-like output) participants are additionally required to undertake information search tasks, use specific information items for concept development, and reflect on the merit of concepts as the session progresses. The results indicate that although the quantity of concepts was lower, the use of information had a positive effect in a number of areas, principally the quality and variety of output. Although grounded in the area of product development, this research is applicable to any organisation undertaking idea generation and problem solving. As well as providing insights on the transference of information to concepts, it holds additional interest for studies on the composition and use of digital libraries

INP1 involvement in pollen aperture formation is evolutionarily conserved and may require species-specific partners

Pollen wall exine is usually deposited non-uniformly on the pollen surface, with areas of low exine deposition corresponding to pollen apertures. Little is known about how apertures form, with the novel Arabidopsis INP1 (INAPERTURATE POLLEN1) protein currently being the only identified aperture factor. In developing pollen, INP1 localizes to three plasma membrane domains and underlies formation of three apertures. Although INP1 homologs are found across angiosperms, they lack strong sequence conservation. Thus, it has been unclear whether they also act as aperture factors and whether their sequence divergence contributes to interspecies differences in aperture patterns. To explore the functional conservation of INP1 homologs, we used mutant analysis in maize and tested whether homologs from several other species could function in Arabidopsis. Our data suggest that the INP1 involvement in aperture formation is evolutionarily conserved, despite the significant divergence of INP1 sequences and aperture patterns, but that additional species-specific factors are likely to be required to guide INP1 and to provide information for aperture patterning. To determine the regions in INP1 necessary for its localization and function, we used fragment fusions, domain swaps, and interspecific protein chimeras. We demonstrate that the central portion of the protein is particularly important for mediating the species-specific functionality.Funding was provided to AAD by the US National Science Foundation (MCB-1517511) and to VNSS by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (CGL2015-70290-P). PL was supported by the China Scholarship Council. SB-MS was supported by the University of Granada, Spain (grant Cei BioTic). We thank the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center (OSU) and the Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center (USDA/ ARS) for seed stocks, Priscila Rodriguez Garcia (OSU) for help with characterizing Arabidopsis–tomato INP1 chimeras, and Jay Hollick (OSU) for advice on all things maize

Capturing the Surface Texture and Shape of Pollen: A Comparison of Microscopy Techniques

Research on the comparative morphology of pollen grains depends crucially on the application of appropriate microscopy techniques. Information on the performance of microscopy techniques can be used to inform that choice. We compared the ability of several microscopy techniques to provide information on the shape and surface texture of three pollen types with differing morphologies. These techniques are: widefield, apotome, confocal and two-photon microscopy (reflected light techniques), and brightfield and differential interference contrast microscopy (DIC) (transmitted light techniques). We also provide a first view of pollen using super-resolution microscopy. The three pollen types used to contrast the performance of each technique are: Croton hirtus (Euphorbiaceae), Mabea occidentalis (Euphorbiaceae) and Agropyron repens (Poaceae). No single microscopy technique provided an adequate picture of both the shape and surface texture of any of the three pollen types investigated here. The wavelength of incident light, photon-collection ability of the optical technique, signal-to-noise ratio, and the thickness and light absorption characteristics of the exine profoundly affect the recovery of morphological information by a given optical microscopy technique. Reflected light techniques, particularly confocal and two-photon microscopy, best capture pollen shape but provide limited information on very fine surface texture. In contrast, transmitted light techniques, particularly differential interference contrast microscopy, can resolve very fine surface texture but provide limited information on shape. Texture comprising sculptural elements that are spaced near the diffraction limit of light (∼250 nm; NDL) presents an acute challenge to optical microscopy. Super-resolution structured illumination microscopy provides data on the NDL texture of A. repens that is more comparable to textural data from scanning electron microscopy than any other optical microscopy technique investigated here. Maximizing the recovery of morphological information from pollen grains should lead to more robust classifications, and an increase in the taxonomic precision with which ancient vegetation can be reconstructed

Man of Letters, Literary Lady, Journalist or Reporter?

The enormous changes wrought in the British newspaper industry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries brought about a revolution in newspaper reading habits, financing and influence, all aspects of which have been well-documented by historians of the press. But what of the contributor, particularly the freelance whose millions of words formed, mostly anonymously, the content of the new mass market press? How did writers negotiate changes in the literary marketplace during this time as editors demanded more ‘news’ and less in the way of whimsical paragraphing, and sketches, the traditional newspaper output of the professional man, or woman, of letters? Through the study of memoirs, correspondence and the fictional output of contributors to the press during this time, it is possible to discern the often fraught relations between writers and their most lucrative market

Lichen response to ammonia deposition defines the footprint of a penguin rookery

Ammonia volatilized from penguin rookeries is a major nitrogen source in Antarctic coastal terrestrial ecosystems. However, the spatial extent of ammonia dispersion from rookeries and its impacts have not been quantified previously. We measured ammonia concentration in air and lichen ecophysiological response variables proximate to an Adèlie penguin rookery at Cape Hallett, northern Victoria Land. Ammonia emitted from the rookery was 15N-enriched (δ15N value +6.9) and concentrations in air ranged from 36–75 µg m−3 at the rookery centre to 0.05 µg m−3 at a distance of 15.3 km. δ15N values and rates of phosphomonoesterase (PME) activity in the lichens Usnea sphacelata and Umbilicaria decussata were strongly negatively related to distance from the rookery and PME activity was positively related to thallus N:P mass ratio. In contrast, the lichen Xanthomendoza borealis, which is largely restricted to within an area 0.5 km from the rookery perimeter, had high N, P and 15N concentrations but low PME activity suggesting that nutrient scavenging capacity is suppressed in highly eutrophicated sites. An ammonia dispersion model indicates that ammonia concentrations sufficient to significantly elevate PME activity and δ15N values (≥0.1 µg NH3 m−3) occurred over c. 40–300 km2 surrounding the rookery suggesting that penguin rookeries potentially can generate large spatial impact zones. In a general linear model NH3 concentration and lichen species identity were found to account for 72 % of variation in the putative proportion of lichen thallus N originating from penguin derived NH3. The results provide evidence of large scale impact of N transfer from a marine to an N-limited terrestrial ecosystem