An Overview of Computer Graphics Industry Standards.

This paper presents the status of the family of computer graphics standards that have been under development in recent years. In order to take advantage of the graphics standards, the industrial communities should be aware of what standards exist, and the relationship of the standards to each other. Since it is also beneficial to understand the process for the development of standards, the role of organizations in the standards-making field and the standardization process is presented. This discussion will provide an introduction and reference source for the computer graphics standards for those who have a need to understand the emerging standards, but have no technical involvement in their development. A level of understanding is provided which will assist in determining whether or not a particular standard would be appropriate for an intended application, and if further research into the standard might be required

How the doctorate contributes to the formation of active researchers: what the research tells us

While much research focuses on factors contributing to doctoral completion, few studies explore the role of the doctorate in forming active researchers with the skills, know-how and appetite to pursue research post-completion. This article investigates 15 existing studies for evidence of what factors in the doctoral experience may contribute to the formation of an active researcher with a capacity for later research productivity. The analysis reveals a productive advisor may be key to forming an active researcher and, although inconclusive, productivity post-completion. Further detailed research is required, however, into how the advisor influences candidates' productivity. The article also points to other potentially influential factors requiring further investigation, such as: developing collaborative capacities, conceptualising the purpose of the doctorate as forming an active researcher, advisor mentoring and fostering emotional engagement with research

The entrepreneurial subjectivity of successful researchers

This article begins the work of examining what kind of doctoral experiences positively influence researcher development, and what other attributes may contribute to a successful research career. It reports preliminary findings from the analysis of survey responses by a sample of successful mid-career researchers. Positive doctoral experiences and the early establishment of research activity are found to be important to researcher development. Successful researchers were also found to be able to acknowledge the importance of their 'soft skills', and to have flexible, responsive and adaptive dispositions. We term this disposition 'an entrepreneurial subjectivity' and argue that it is an important and underexamined characteristic of the successful researcher

Displaced mothers: Birth and resettlement, gratitude and complaint

In narratives of displaced Karen women from Burma, both before and after resettlement in Australia, women framed their birthing experiences with those of persecution and displacement. Although grateful for the security of resettlement in Australia, social inclusion was negligible and women's birthing experiences occurred in that context. Women described the impact of the lack of interpreting services in Australian hospitals and an absence of personal and communal care that they expected. Frequently, this made straightforward births confusing or difficult, and exacerbated the distress of more complicated births. Differences in individual responses related to women's histories, with younger women displaying more preparedness to complain and identify discrimination. The problems identified with health care, coupled with the inability of many of the women to complain requires attention, not just within the health-care system, but more widely as part of social attitudes concerning Australia's obligations to those who seek asylum

Independence interrupted: creativity, context and the 'independent scholar'

Social and networked conceptions of creativity highlight the key role of collaboration and connection making in the work involved in creating and imagining new knowledge. With governments around the world keen to harness the potential of research to foster innovation and economic growth, the question arises as to whether the research degree experience is preparing graduates to be creative, or mobilise creativity, in this way. In this chapter we explore this issue through examining the persistent figure of the 'independent scholar' in accounts of research education and practice. We draw on preliminary analysis of data collected on the role of the doctorate in mid-career research success based on a survey of Australian Research Council Future Fellowship recipients. Our analysis focuses on responses to two open ended questions concerning; a) to what respondents' attribute their mid-career research sucess, and d) the extent to which the PhD experience provides preparation for a research career. We identify intriguing tensions and contradictions in the ways in which being and becoming a successful researcher are conceived. Most notably, the findings suggest that success can be achieved through different modes of working - and being trained - as a researcher. These have implications for universities seeking to promote research collaboration and creativity

Strong "quantum" chaos in the global ballooning mode spectrum of three-dimensional plasmas

The spectrum of ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) pressure-driven (ballooning) modes in strongly nonaxisymmetric toroidal systems is difficult to analyze numerically owing to the singular nature of ideal MHD caused by lack of an inherent scale length. In this paper, ideal MHD is regularized by using a $k$-space cutoff, making the ray tracing for the WKB ballooning formalism a chaotic Hamiltonian billiard problem. The minimum width of the toroidal Fourier spectrum needed for resolving toroidally localized ballooning modes with a global eigenvalue code is estimated from the Weyl formula. This phase-space-volume estimation method is applied to two stellarator cases.Comment: 4 pages typeset, including 2 figures. Paper accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Letter

Transport of <i>Sporosarcina pasteurii</i> in sandstone and its significance for subsurface engineering technologies

The development of microbially mediated technologies for subsurface remediation and rock engineering is steadily increasing; however, we are lacking experimental data and models to predict bacterial movement through rock matrices. Here, breakthrough curves (BTCs) were obtained to quantify the transport of the ureolytic bacterium, Sporosarcina pasteurii, through sandstone cores, as a function of core length (1.8–7.5 cm), bacterial density (4 × 10&lt;sup&gt;6&lt;/sup&gt; to 9 × 10&lt;sup&gt;7&lt;/sup&gt; cells/ml) and flow rate (5.8–17.5 m/s). &lt;i&gt;S. pasteurii&lt;/i&gt; was easily immobilised within the homogeneous sandstone matrix (&gt;80%) in comparison to a packed sand column (&lt;20%; under similar experimental conditions), and percentage recovery decreased almost linearly with increasing rock core length. Moreover, a decrease in bacterial density or flow rate enhanced bacterial retention. A numerical model based on 1D advection dispersion models used for unconsolidated sand was fitted to the BTC data obtained here for sandstone. Good agreement between data and model was obtained at shorter rock core lengths (&lt;4 cm), suggesting that physicochemical filtration processes are similar in homogeneous packed sand and sandstones at these lengths. Discrepancies were, however observed at longer core lengths and with varying flow rates, indicating that the attributes of consolidated rock might impact bacterial transport progressively more with increasing core length. Implications of these results on microbial mineralisation technologies currently being developed for sealing fluid paths in subsurface environment is discussed

&quot;Here nobody holds your heart&quot;: Metaphoric and embodied emotions of birth and displacement among Karen women in Australia

Our objective was to explore the ways in which displaced Karen mothers expressed emotions in narrative accounts of motherhood and displacement. We contextualized and analyzed interview data from an ethnographic study of birth and emotions among 15 displaced Karen mothers in Australia. We found that women shared a common symbolic language to describe emotions centered on the heart, which was also associated with heart &quot;problems.&quot; This, along with hypertension, collapsing, or a feeling of surrender were associated responses to extremely adverse events experienced as displaced peoples. A metaphoric schema of emotional terms centered on the heart was connected to embodied expressions of emotion related to illness of the heart. This and other embodied responses were reactions to overwhelming difficulties and fear women endured due to their exposure to political conflict and global inequity

Up and away: ontogenic transference as a pathway for aerial dispersal of microplastics

Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous pollutants found in marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. With so many MPs in aquatic systems it is inevitable that they will be ingested by aquatic organisms, and be transferred up through the food chain. However, to date, no study has considered whether MPs can be transmitted by means of ontogenic transference i.e. between life stages that utilise different habitats. Here, we determine whether fluorescent polystyrene beads could transfer between Culex mosquito life stages and, particularly, could move into the flying adult stage. We show for the first time that MPs can be transferred ontogenically from a feeding (larva) into a non-feeding (pupa) life stage and subsequently into the adult terrestrial life stage. However, transference is dependent on particle size, with smaller 2 µm MPs transferring readily into pupae and adult stages, whilst 15 µm MPs transferred at a significantly reduced rate. Microplastics appear to accumulate in the Malpighian tubule renal excretion system. The transfer of MPs to the adults represents a potential aerial pathway to contamination of new environments. Thus, any organism that feeds on terrestrial life phases of freshwater insects could be impacted by MPs found in aquatic ecosystems