Supporting Computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) in conceptual design

In order to gain a better understanding of online conceptual collaborative design processes this paper investigates how student designers make use of a shared virtual synchronous environment when engaged in conceptual design. The software enables users to talk to each other and share sketches when they are remotely located. The paper describes a novel methodology for observing and analysing collaborative design processes by adapting the concepts of grounded theory. Rather than concentrating on narrow aspects of the final artefacts, emerging “themes” are generated that provide a broader picture of collaborative design process and context descriptions. Findings on the themes of “grounding – mutual understanding” and “support creativity” complement findings from other research, while important themes associated with “near-synchrony” have not been emphasised in other research. From the study, a series of design recommendations are made for the development of tools to support online computer-supported collaborative work in design using a shared virtual environment

Learners' strategies with multiple representations

This empirical study investigated how varied instantiations of mathematical representations influenced learners' strategies. The analysis took into account gazes, utterances, actions and writings of 18 learners performing 3 tasks using static, dynamic, and interactive instantiations. Results show a variation in frequencies of strategies that the participants of the study employed for using multiple representations. This indicates that varying instantiations of multiple representations influences learners' strategies

The ecology of the Arctic char and the dolly varden in the Becharof Lake drainage, Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2000Becharof Lake is home to both Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) and the closely related Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma), two species known not only to be similar in appearance but also to exhibit similar life histories. The body morphometry, otolith microchemistry, and stomach contents of both species were studied in fish collected from May to September 1998. Morphometric and meristic analysis revealed clear separation in body structure between the two species, as well as potential sub-populations within each species. Otolith microchemistry revealed incidences of anadromy and non-anadromy in both species. Stomach content analysis revealed a broad feeding niche but smaller ranges in food types in individual Arctic char with little seasonal preference, whereas Dolly Varden showed seasonality in food choices. Data suggest that both species can move in and out of the lake system, and that little competition for food or habitat occurs between the two species in the summer months

Insane in the Brain, Blood, and Lungs: Gender-Specific Manifestations of Hysteria, Chlorosis, & Consumption in 19th-Century Literature

This dissertation examines literary and medical texts from throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to better understand prevailing attitudes about gender and disease. The project traces the progression of three diseases – consumption, chlorosis, and hysteria – throughout the long nineteenth century, paying particular attention to the stereotypes and prevailing medical notions of each illness. In general, this work examines the influence of lovesickness, female-patient/male-doctor dynamics, and pathology on the endemic or epidemic nature of each disease. In particular, the first three chapters of this project study tuberculosis – or consumption as it was called in the nineteenth century – and the ways in which society presumed this illness manifested either through the female’s beauty or spirituality. This work also uses nineteenth-century writing from women and men who dispute the notions of the beautiful and spiritual consumptive. The second three chapters of this project examine hypochromic anemia – chlorosis in the nineteenth century – and the prevailing medical notion that its manifestation in younger women could be cured through sex, marriage, and childbearing. In so doing, this dissertation studies its roots in lovesickness, procreation, and the Early Modern era. The final section of three chapters explores the somatic manifestations of hysteria – a disease that appeared endemic to young woman throughout this era – and its comorbid condition of neurasthenia. This project looks at texts written by those so diagnosed as well as by those doing the diagnoses. This work concludes with an afterward focused on how the gender-specific medicine of the past continues to impact racialized medicine of the present.Keywords: Medical humanities, tuberculosis, consumption, chlorosis, anemia, lovesickness, hysteria, neurasthenia, comorbidities, racialized medicine, gender-specific medicine

A CFD technique for estimating the flow distortion effects on LiDAR measurements when made in complex flow fields

The effect of flow distortion on the measurements produced by a LiDAR or SoDAR in close proximity to either complex terrain or a structure creating localised flow distortion is difficult to determine by analytical means. Also, as LiDARs and SoDARs are not point measurement devices, the techniques they employ for velocity measurements leads to complexities in the estimation of the effect of flow distortion on the accuracy of the measurements they make. This paper presents a method by which the effect of flow distortion on measurements made by a LiDAR in a distorted flow field may be determined using computational fluid dynamics. The results show that the error created by the flow distortion will cause the vector measured by a LiDAR to differ significantly from an equivalent point measurement. However, the results of the simulation show that, if the LiDAR is being used to measure the undisturbed flow field above a structure which creates highly localised flow distortion, the LiDAR results are less affected by the distortion of the local flow field than data acquired by a point measurement technique such as a cup anemometer

An experimental and computational analysis of buoyancy driven flows by laser sheet tomography, particle image velocimetry and computational fluid dynamics

This paper contains details of a three pronged investigation into the development of a buoyant jet impinging on a wall in a closed vessel. The development of the flow was measured experimentally by particle image velocimetry (PIV) and laser sheet tomography. The experimental results are compared with a computational model of the flow calculated by the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package PHOENICS

High-density event-related potentials: Current theories and practice

Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) are changes in the ongoing electrical activity of the brain (Electroencephalograms, or EEGs) which are caused by the specific occurrence of a cognitive, motor or perceptual event. Any changes in EEG due to the demands of the task are amplified, averaged and extracted as ERP waveforms (see Figure 1). These wave-forms are measured as the difference between the electrical activity of a baseline reference electrode attached to an electrically inactive site, such as the mastoid bone below the ear or the naison on the nose, and the electrical activity of the areas of the brain covered by the electrodes. These changes allow neuroscientists to determine what areas of brain are being stimulated at a given time (and therefore which brain areas are involved in a given process), precisely when these areas become activated and what happens in these areas when people make an error

HEDIS Measures and Managed Care Enrollment

This article examines the relationship between 1996 health plan enrollment and both HEDIS-based plan performance ratings and individual HEDIS measures. Data were obtained from a large firm that collected, aggregated, and disseminated plan performance ratings to its employees. Plan market share regressions are estimated controlling for out-of-pocket price and model type in addition to the plan ratings and HEDIS measures. The results suggest that employees did not respond strongly to the provided ratings. There are several potential explanations for the lack of response, including difficulty understanding the ratings and never having seen them. In addition, employees may base their plan choices on information that is obtained from their own past experience, friends, family, and colleagues. The pattern of results suggests that such information is important. Counterintuitive signs most likely reflect an inverse correlation between some HEDIS ratings (or measures) and attributes employees observe informally.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68992/2/10.1177_107755879905600204.pd