Reservations about Qualitiative Models

Very little of the knwoledge that an operator of a complex physical system brings to the job is purely quantitative in form. Virtually all of an operator's knowledge can be represented as qualitative relations or quasi-quantitative relations such as rough proportionalities. The realization that computer-based Instruction syste,s need to provide instructions and explanations In terms that students can use, that is, often in qualitative terms, has led to recent efforts in cognitive science and artificial intelligence to develop qualitative simulation models of complex dynamic systems. In this paper we discuss theoretical and pragmatic problems involved in using qualitative models to support automated explanation facilities

Exploring pen and paper interaction with high-resolution wall displays

We introduce HIPerPaper, a novel digital pen and paper inter-face that enables natural interaction with a 31.8 by 7.5 foot tiled wall display of 268,720,000 pixels. HIPerPaper pro-vides a flexible, portable, and inexpensive medium for inter-acting with large high-resolution wall displays. While the size and resolution of such displays allow visualization of data sets of a scale not previously possible, mechanisms for interacting with wall displays remain challenging. HIPerPaper enables multiple concurrent users to select, move, scale, and rotate objects on a high-dimension wall display. ACM Classification: H.5.2 [Information Interfaces and Pre

Engaging the Periphery for Visual Communication on Mobile Phones

While mobile phones have become ubiquitous instruments of communication and social interaction, they still require explicit interaction, placing high demands on attention. Engaging the periphery of users’ attention offers opportunities for awareness and interaction while reducing demands on attention and risks of disruption. We explore the mobile peripheral design space with Emotipix, an application for camera phones that turns the background of the phone’s display into a place for visual conversations. We conducted an exploratory 2-week user study with 6 pairs and one 4-person group, and found that Emotipix facilitated ongoing social practices. Our study shows that there is an unexploited opportunity to use mobile phones for peripheral awareness. We provide recommendations for managing users ’ expectations, desires for control, and privacy in mobile peripheral display design. 1

Составление композиций из поверхностно активных веществ для устранения асфальтенопарофиновых отложений

International audienceWe present SLAPbook, an application using SLAP, translucent and tangible widgets for use on vision-based multi-touch tabletops in Single Display Groupware (SDG) environments. SLAP stands for Silicone ILluminated Active Peripherals and includes widgets such as sliders, knobs, keyboards, and buttons. The widgets add tactile feedback to multi-touch tables while simultaneously providing dynamic relabeling to tangible objects using the table's rear projection. SLAPbook provides multiple users the ability to add and edit content to a guestbook, browse other peoples' entries, and access personal data using a token-based personalization system. Interaction with the table takes place in the personal and public space so that users can make use of personal and shared controls to perform separate and coordinative actions

An Action-Based Approach to Presence: Foundations and Methods

This chapter presents an action-based approach to presence. It starts by briefly describing the theoretical and empirical foundations of this approach, formalized into three key notions of place/space, action and mediation. In the light of these notions, some common assumptions about presence are then questioned: assuming a neat distinction between virtual and real environments, taking for granted the contours of the mediated environment and considering presence as a purely personal state. Some possible research topics opened up by adopting action as a unit of analysis are illustrated. Finally, a case study on driving as a form of mediated presence is discussed, to provocatively illustrate the flexibility of this approach as a unified framework for presence in digital and physical environment

Gendered endings: Narratives of male and female suicides in the South African Lowveld

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11013-012-9258-y. Copyright @ Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012.Durkheim’s classical theory of suicide rates being a negative index of social solidarity downplays the salience of gendered concerns in suicide. But gendered inequalities have had a negative impact: worldwide significantly more men than women perpetrate fatal suicides. Drawing on narratives of 52 fatal suicides in Bushbuckridge, South Africa, this article suggests that Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘symbolic violence’ and ‘masculine domination’ provide a more appropriate framework for understanding this paradox. I show that the thwarting of investments in dominant masculine positions have been the major precursor to suicides by men. Men tended to take their own lives as a means of escape. By contrast, women perpetrated suicide to protest against the miserable consequences of being dominated by men. However, contra the assumption of Bourdieu’s concept of ‘habitus’, the narrators of suicide stories did reflect critically upon gender constructs

Spectral Identification of Lighting Type and Character

We investigated the optimal spectral bands for the identification of lighting types and the estimation of four major indices used to measure the efficiency or character of lighting. To accomplish these objectives we collected high-resolution emission spectra (350 to 2,500 nm) for forty-three different lamps, encompassing nine of the major types of lamps used worldwide. The narrow band emission spectra were used to simulate radiances in eight spectral bands including the human eye photoreceptor bands (photopic, scotopic, and “meltopic”) plus five spectral bands in the visible and near-infrared modeled on bands flown on the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM). The high-resolution continuous spectra are superior to the broad band combinations for the identification of lighting type and are the standard for calculation of Luminous Efficacy of Radiation (LER), Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) and Color Rendering Index (CRI). Given the high cost that would be associated with building and flying a hyperspectral sensor with detection limits low enough to observe nighttime lights we conclude that it would be more feasible to fly an instrument with a limited number of broad spectral bands in the visible to near infrared. The best set of broad spectral bands among those tested is blue, green, red and NIR bands modeled on the band set flown on the Landsat Thematic Mapper. This set provides low errors on the identification of lighting types and reasonable estimates of LER and CCT when compared to the other broad band set tested. None of the broad band sets tested could make reasonable estimates of Luminous Efficacy (LE) or CRI. The photopic band proved useful for the estimation of LER. However, the three photoreceptor bands performed poorly in the identification of lighting types when compared to the bands modeled on the Landsat Thematic Mapper. Our conclusion is that it is feasible to identify lighting type and make reasonable estimates of LER and CCT using four or more spectral bands with minimal spectral overlap spanning the 0.4 to 1.0 um region

Triose Phosphate Isomerase Deficiency Is Caused by Altered Dimerization–Not Catalytic Inactivity–of the Mutant Enzymes

Triosephosphate isomerase (TPI) deficiency is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by various mutations in the gene encoding the key glycolytic enzyme TPI. A drastic decrease in TPI activity and an increased level of its substrate, dihydroxyacetone phosphate, have been measured in unpurified cell extracts of affected individuals. These observations allowed concluding that the different mutations in the TPI alleles result in catalytically inactive enzymes. However, despite a high occurrence of TPI null alleles within several human populations, the frequency of this disorder is exceptionally rare. In order to address this apparent discrepancy, we generated a yeast model allowing us to perform comparative in vivo analyses of the enzymatic and functional properties of the different enzyme variants. We discovered that the majority of these variants exhibit no reduced catalytic activity per se. Instead, we observed, the dimerization behavior of TPI is influenced by the particular mutations investigated, and by the use of a potential alternative translation initiation site in the TPI gene. Additionally, we demonstrated that the overexpression of the most frequent TPI variant, Glu104Asp, which displays altered dimerization features, results in diminished endogenous TPI levels in mammalian cells. Thus, our results reveal that enzyme deregulation attributable to aberrant dimerization of TPI, rather than direct catalytic inactivation of the enzyme, underlies the pathogenesis of TPI deficiency. Finally, we discovered that yeast cells expressing a TPI variant exhibiting reduced catalytic activity are more resistant against oxidative stress caused by the thiol-oxidizing reagent diamide. This observed advantage might serve to explain the high allelic frequency of TPI null alleles detected among human populations