Evaluating cause and effect in user experience digital creativity

This article describes issues in evaluating emotional and affective aspects of interaction. In particular it considers the relationship between experience factors and instrumental goals. The role of qualitative interaction factors varies from system to system, dependent on overall system goals and values, both for user and designer. Defining this role helps us to understand what is significant about emotional experience within interaction, in the context of user and organisational values. The utility and limitations of a range of evaluation methods is considered in relation to issues of tacitness, first-person experience and its relationship both to attitude formation and overt behaviour. In doing so it addresses key questions about the nature of enquiry in user-experience evaluation where experience factors are bound up with instrumental goals

IUS/payload communication system simulator configuration definition study

The requirements and specifications for a general purpose payload communications system simulator to be used to emulate those communications system portions of NASA and DOD payloads/spacecraft that will in the future be carried into earth orbit by the shuttle are discussed. For the purpose of on-orbit checkout, the shuttle is required to communicate with the payloads while they are physically located within the shuttle bay (attached) and within a range of 20 miles from the shuttle after they have been deployed (detached). Many of the payloads are also under development (and many have yet to be defined), actual payload communication hardware will not be available within the time frame during which the avionic hardware tests will be conducted. Thus, a flexible payload communication system simulator is required

Shuttle orbiter S-band payload communications equipment design evaluation

The analysis of the design, and the performance assessment of the Orbiter S-band communication equipment are reported. The equipment considered include: network transponder, network signal processor, FM transmitter, FM signal processor, payload interrogator, and payload signal processor

Learning teamwork in architectural education

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.This work explores the learning of teamwork in the education of professional architects within the context of co-operative education or work-based learning. Using Grounded Theory, three experiences of Teamwork are studied: Taught Teamwork, which was taught at University of Technology, Sydney over a specific period of time; Learned Teamwork, based on experiential learning; and Accidental Teamwork, teamwork that is derived from experiences both inside and outside the University. This study utilises results from earlier research in teamwork and in the management of teams, especially the research by Meredith Belbin and others, and a model of teamwork developed by Meredith Belbin. Evidence is presented from the published literature in the field including reviews of current and past theories, and empirical studies. Initially students in the study regarded learning about professional teamwork as secondary during their architectural studies but this research revealed that they later reassessed teamwork as a critical skill in their professional careers. The basic propositions underpinning this research are that learning teamwork involves both reflection and integrating new knowledge with past experiences, and that teamwork is an appropriate topic to be taught within the university setting. The analysis is conducted from a perspective of both learning teamwork and the governance of teams. The data and analysis offers support for an argument that teamwork is an important skill for professional architects and can be taught in an academic setting. Recommendations for further research are outlined

Starting young? children’s experiences of trying smoking during pre-adolescence

Although the risks smoking poses to health are now well known, many young people continue to take up the habit. While numerous crosssectional studies of adolescents have identified correlates of smoking initiation, much less prospective, longitudinal research has been conducted with young children to gather their accounts of early experiences of smoking, and this study fills that significant gap. Quantitative and qualitative data, collected using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups, are presented from the pre-adolescent phase of the Liverpool Longitudinal Study of Smoking. By age 11, 27% of the cohort had tried smoking, 13% had smoked repeatedly and 3% were smoking regularly. Rates of experimentation increased over time. Qualitative data revealed that curiosity and the role of peers were central to children’s accounts of early smoking. By preadolescence, children are at different stages in their smoking careers, therefore interventionsmust be targeted to their varied experiences. Current prevention strategies often focus on restricting access to cigarettes, but a broad range of intervention measures is required which take account of the multifactorial nature of smoking onset. To be effective, policies that aim to prevent smoking must be grounded in children’s lived experiences

The biology of necrophorus (col) and the mortality of terns (sterna); an ecological study

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An ecological study of moorland enchytraeidae

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Corporate conceptions of sustainable developmentin New Zealand:: a critical analysis

Critical Theory and Foucauldian Theory are employed to construct an epistemological framework from which to critique different theoretical conversations about sustainable development and to tell a contextually grounded story about business and sustainable development in New Zealand. It is concluded that management theory and the 'green business' literature present a case for 'management' of the construct that has itself become part of the 'problem’, constructing 'sustainable development' as 'political sustainability'. The structural causes of unsustainable development and unsustainable business fail to be problematised, providing a gap that this research explores. The emerging 'critical’ literature is reviewed; and a research matrix constructed from the epistemological framework provides a 'weak-strong' heuristic for the empirical investigation. The matrix and the heuristic drive the questions for the empirical investigation and the analysis of the evidence. The discourse in construction at business level and m the broader social context is also largely driven by the management paradigm. It appears that hegemonic elites have coalesced around this paradigm to control what constitutes the discourse of sustainable development. However, the prevailing narrative of 'management’, excluding a more dialectical discourse, is itself meeting contestation. It focuses on the economic and environmental imperatives of sustainable development, paying scant attention to the radical social agenda at the heart of the concept; and overlooks the institutional imperative of sustainable development. The inquiry reveals that this hegemonic appropriation is incomplete, and that emerging counter-hegemonic views are already challenging the dominant paradigm. The conclusion reached is that a more dialectical and inclusive discourse about sustainable development is required that opens the way for democratic participation. Some indications from the empirical research suggest that this might be driven through democratic social movements focusing on local sustainability and alternative means of production and consumption. An important role for business as a 'stakeholder' in this discourse calls for the replacement of asymmetric power by discursive democracy