Dreamtime Superhighway (TA27)

Dreamtime Superhighway presents a thorough and original contextualization of the rock art and archaeology of the Sydney Basin. By combining excavation results with rock art analysis it demonstrates that a true archaeology of rock art can provide insights into rock art image-making in people’s social and cultural lives. Based on a PhD dissertation, this monograph is a significantly revised and updated study which draws forcefully on rich and new data from extensive recent research—much of it by McDonald herself. McDonald has developed a model that suggests that visual culture—such as rock artmaking and its images and forms—could be understood as a system of communication, as a way of signaling group identifying behaviour. For the archaeologist of art, the anthropologist of art and those of us who try to think about past worlds… this monograph is a must read

MEMS: Another fast-moving target for the compounds to track

AbstractMEMS are the manipulative little devices that have wormed their way to the top of the list of interesting “new” technologies this fall. When looking into the increasing number of MEMS initiatives, one conjectures that their popularity is because MEMS offer systems designers the opportunity to marry the “smaller, faster, smarter” philosophy with old fashioned facts of mechanical and human life

Proving they can take the heat

AbstractA technology update on the progress and promises of high temperature electronics, highlighting unprecedented international cooperation, and featuring two major U.S. catalyst agencies, NASA's Lewis Research Center and the US Air Force's Wright Laboratory

Anadigics' consumer volume savvy

AbstractAdvanced technology professionals grasp the concepts surrounding the construction of the international communications infrastructure, but even they may not realize the growing importance of the GaAs technology that makes it work. Anadigics (Warren, New Jersey), one of the world's leading GaAs MMIC manufacturers, has had its hard hat on straight from the time the infrastructure blueprints were first conceived. In this profile of Anadigics, and in the accompanying interview with Anadigics' co-founder and CEO, Ron Rosenzweig, TFR takes a behind the scenes look at how Anadigics reached true high volume production status and what it takes to succeed in this unprecedented global industry

Music interaction research in HCI

The ubiquity of music consumption is overarching. Statistics for digital music sales, streaming video videos, computer games, and illegal sharing all speak of a huge interest. At the same, an incredible amount of data about every day interactions (sales and use) with music is accumulating through new cloud services. However, there is an amazing lack of public knowledge about everyday music interaction. This panel discusses the state of music interaction as a part of digital media research. We consider why music interaction research has become so marginal in HCI and discuss how to revive it. Our two discussion themes are: orientation towards design vs. research in music related R&D, and the question if and how private, big data on music interactions could enlighten our understanding of ubiquitous media culture

Dating of Bush Turkey Rockshelter 3 in the Calvert Ranges establishes Early Holocene Occupation of the Little Sandy Desert, Western Australia

Systematic excavation of occupied rockshelters that occur in ranges along the Canning Stock Route of the Western Desert has seen the establishment of both a Pleistocene signal (c.24ka BP) as well as the fleshing out of a Holocene sequence. Recent dating of a perched rockshelter in the Calvert Ranges, east of the Durba Hills, has provided a Holocene record filling in previous occupational gaps from the Calvert Ranges. The extrapolated basal date of the site is in the order of 12,000 BP. Assemblages from this site illustrate repeated occupation through the Holocene with a notable shift in raw materials procured for artefact production and their technology of manufacture in the last 1000 years. Engraved and pigment art is thought to span the length of occupation of the shelter. The site illustrates a significant increase in the discard of cultural materials during the last 800 years, a trend observed at other desert sites. Much of the pigment art in this shelter seems likely to date to this most recent period

Barbara Powers: Witch or Myth? The Last Case of Witchcraft in South Carolina

Was an elderly woman from the upstate of South Carolina the last to be accused of and put on trial for witchcraft in the United States? In this paper, we investigate claims from an old letter sent to the president of South Carolina College to determine whether or not Barbara Powers was truly accused of witchcraft during a criminal trial. After thoroughly investigating census data, court records, marriage records, and other historical data in the named counties and those surrounding them, we were unable to determine conclusively if the trial was real or fabricated. Despite not knowing if the case occurred or not, we explored the historical context of the United States and specifically upstate South Carolina in and around 1813. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that may have prompted a witchcraft trial and to analyze moral panics including the causes and ramifications of historical and contemporary moral panics. Ultimately, we concluded that moral panics, such as those that lead to accusations of witchcraft, continue to shape our perceptions of the world

Household behaviour and sustainability: from inactive to involved, and what lies in-between.

In this working paper we present the initial findings from a 2013 postal survey into green and ethical household behaviour. 457 usable questionnaires were returned from 3000 householders in a large northern city in the UK, giving a response rate of 15%. Respondents provided details about their levels of participation in green and ethical activities, their attitudes towards such behaviour, recent purchase decisions in different product categories, and information use and dissemination. Questions were derived from an earlier piece of qualitative research in which we carried out in-depth interviews with self-identified green consumers and a previous quantitative questionnaire. Our latest findings provide evidence to support varying levels of involvement in green and ethical activities, with differences in participation, attitudes, and information seeking. These differences are discussed and marketing implications identified

Fetal atrial septal aneurysm: A cause of fetal atrial arrhythmias

AbstractAtrial arrhythmias are commonly found during fetal echocardiography performed during pregnancy to evaluate fetal arrhythmias. An association between atrial arrhythmias and an atrial septal aneurysm has been noted in children and adults. In this study, 105 fetuses were evaluated by fetal echocardiography, 39 (37%) referred to evaluate fetal arrhythmia and 66 (63%) to rule out congenital heart disease. An atrial septal aneurysm was found in 42 (40%) of the fetuses and an atrial arrhythmia in 37 (35%). An atrial septal aneurysm was found in 25 (64%) of the 39 fetuses referred to evaluate a fetal arrhythmia compared with only 17 (26%) of the 66 fetuses referred to rule out congenital heart disease. In this study, the association of an atrial septal aneurysm with an atrial arrhythmia was highly significant (p < 0.001)

ALEX®: a mobile Adult Literacy Experiential Learning application

An alarmingly high number of adults in the world's most developed countries are linguistically functionally illiterate. The research presented in this paper describes ALEX©, an ongoing attempt to successfully develop an innovative assistive, mobile, experiential language-learning application to support the daily literacy education and needs of such adults, anywhere, anytime. We introduce a set of guidelines we have collated to inform the design of mobile assistive technologies, introduce our application and describe the design activities to date that have led to the development of our current application. We present this overview in the hope that it is useful to others working in the fledgling domains of mobile assistive technology design and/or mobile experiential language-learning technologies