The development of responsibility in product designers

Investigations of ethics in product design have been limited. This paper offers an insight into designer's perceptions of responsibilities over three levels of expertise; first year design students, graduating design students, and design practitioners. The paper presents the use of some novel methods including triad and card sorting to uncover perceptions of designers responsibilities. The findings give rise to categories of development including knowledge development, ethical development, and role context development. The result is a descriptive model of the development of responsibility in product designers

Graduating product designers and their attitudes to design responsibility: A survey

The notion of responsibility in designing is one that is becoming increasingly important, underlying significant areas of design activity. The research reported in this paper presents the results of a questionnaire study of 50 graduating product designers from 11 UK Universities. We find that students are focussed on environmental issues, have a very clear idea about where their responsibilities end for the products they design, but who display significant differences between the ideas about responsibility they espouse and their practice

Diversity of rangeland bird populations

Most discussion and management of biological diversity occurs at the local population level, which can be defined as that group of organisms of one species that live in a specific area and that tend to interact more frequently with each other than with individuals from other populations. Loss of diversity always occurs first with the extinction of local populations, and, if the process continues long enough, will ultimately lead to extinction at the regional and global scales. Among animals, most changes in the biological diversity of western rangelands have involved local extinctions, and I summarize the general factors that determine whether a population will either persist through time or decline in numbers to local extinction. These include not only events that directly impact local birth and death rates, but also the ability of individual to move between populations. I then discuss the changes that have occurred in the diversity of the bird community in a riparian area along the Lower Truckee River in west-central Nevada that was studied by Ridgeway in 1868 and over a century later by Klebenow and Oakleaf in 1972-76. A comparison of the species that were located in each study indicates that nearly half of the avian diversity that was originally present in this habitat has now disappeared. An analysis of the birds that are now locally extinct suggests four changes in the environment have been important: (1) loss of the total amount of habitat or subhabitats, such as marshy areas near the river; (2) loss of specific resources within the habitat, such as many native fish; (3) changes in the structure of the remaining habitat, such as a loss of ground cover needed by ground-nesting species to protect their young from predators; and (4) loss of connectivity between remaining habitat patches. Restoration of local biological diversity in riparian habitats, for both birds and other animals, will require management actions to address each of these factors

Understanding the performance of the low energy neutrino factory: the dependence on baseline distance and stored-muon energy

Motivated by recent hints of large {\theta}13 from the T2K, MINOS and Double Chooz experiments, we study the physics reach of a Low Energy Neutrino Factory (LENF) and its dependence on the chosen baseline distance, L, and stored-muon energy, E_{\mu}, in order to ascertain the configuration of the optimal LENF. In particular, we study the performance of the LENF over a range of baseline distances from 1000 km to 4000 km and stored-muon energies from 4 GeV to 25 GeV, connecting the early studies of the LENF (1300 km, 4.5 GeV) to those of the conventional, high-energy neutrino factory design (4000 km and 7000 km, 25 GeV). Three different magnetized detector options are considered: a Totally-Active Scintillator Detector (TASD) and two models of a liquid-argon detector distinguished by optimistic and conservative performance estimates. In order to compare the sensitivity of each set-up, we compute the full {\delta}-dependent discovery contours for the determination of non-zero {\theta}13, CP-violating values of {\delta} and the mass hierarchy. In the case of large {\theta}13 with sin^2(2*{\theta}13) = (few)*10^{-3}, the LENF provides a strong discovery potential over the majority of the L-E_{\mu} parameter space and is a promising candidate for the future generation of long baseline experiments aimed at discovering CP-violation and the mass hierarchy, and at making a precise determination of the oscillation parameters.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Teaching HRD personnel : experiences of computer-mediated communication in differently structured environments

This paper will provide an overview of the CMC structure in two different units of study in the Masters of Professional Education and Training at Deakin University. Each of these structures makes a set of demands on participants, and provides differing collaborative learning opportunities. The paper examines the experiences we have had in each of these structures, focusing on student participation, style of contribution to CMC, and the relationship between socialisation processes and knowledge construction.<br /

The Existence of Exactlym-Coloured Complete Subgraphs

AbstractGiven a graphG, its edges are said to be exactlyx-coloured if we have a surjective map from the edges to some set of colours of sizex. Erickson considered the following statement which he denotedP(c,m): if the edges ofKω—the complete graph on vertex set N—are exactlyc-coloured, then there exists an infinite complete subgraph ofKωwhose edges are exactlym-coloured. Ramsey's Theorem states thatP(c,m) is true form=1 and allc⩾1, and can easily be used to show thatP(c,m) holds whenm=2 andc⩾2. Erickson conjectured thatP(c,m) is false wheneverc>m⩾3. We prove that givenm⩾3 there exists an integerC(m) such thatP(c,m) is false for allc⩾C(m)

A Biomimetically Derived Method for Control of Span-Wise Morphing Wings

© 2022 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. This is the accepted manuscript version of a conference paper which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-1986The development of novel morphing wings follows common milestones. This work presents the modelling and control of the recently proposed avian wing span-wise morphing concept. The concept primarily consists of three structural members heavily mimicking the skeletal structure birds employ for flight. This structure is actuated, through the range of motion achievable by avian, with the integration of pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs). Arranged in antagonistic pairs, the PAMs actuate an effective shoulder joint between the aircraft and wing through 90⁰. As well as two joints along the wing through 110⁰, allowing a span-wise reduction of 75% the fully extended span. This adaptive structure is capable of supporting several different aerofoil geometries for application specific aircraft. Initially proposed with a biomimetic derived wing profile more traditional and predictable NACA aerofoils have been applied. In this paper the avian wing span-wise morphing concept is modelled and with the application of inverse kinematics a control system is derived to allow simplified span-length positioning. Similarly, desired wing area is also presented as an input for the system. The model is based on PAM force models to individually model the pneumatic system driving each joint. The mechanical system of each joint is subsequently used to produce a direct kinematic model for wing tip position, and the inverse determined for control. The validity of both the model and system are experimentally tested on a fixed semi-span prototype rig of the morphing concept. Feedback is then introduced. Potentiometers are embedded into each joint to provide joint angle feedback. The tuning of the system is then presented for different dynamic responses. Alongside this development experiments have been conducted into the kinematics avian employ in flight and the flight dynamics they enable. These results are presented and directly applied as parameters for the proposed system. Span morphing retraction and extension rates determined from in vivo flight data of avian, including the Common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and Harris Hawk (Parabuteo unicinctus), are achieved using the avian wing span-wise morphing concept and the proposed control system. These dynamics are used to infer the parameters of an aircraft with the concept wing used as control surfaces

Designing for online communities of learning

This paper will explore the development of online learning communities among postgraduate students at Deakin University who were studying while working. The main objective of the research project being discussed here was to identify impediments to the development of online communities of learning and to suggest how these may be overcome so that students could benefit from the enhancements that online learning communities bring to communities of practice in students\u27 workplaces. While communities of practice develop quite naturally among people working in the same physical space, as people learn from each other as they carry out their tasks at work, they are more difficult to establish in an online setting. Interviews were carried out with students and teachers and the data collected are described. Differing designs of courses, particularly the role of the teacher and the size of the classes, are considered and learning community development in both blended and distance learning environments are discussed.<br /

Limitations of an established community of practice in developing online innovation

This research was undertaken to explore the effectiveness of an already established community of practice among staff at a small rurally-based training organisation as a vehicle through which to develop innovative practice in online collaboration and learning. The research was situated within that ongoing innovation, and used interview and observational techniques to generate the research data from staff and management personnel. Substantial limitations to using an already existing community of practice to develop innovative practice were shown in the research. Development of new behaviours was substantially inhibited by the power of already established behaviours and practices. Additionally, lack of sufficient experience among community members in online technologies was a further barrier to effective and orderly development. The research indicates that the achievement of innovative practice through communities of practice within existing workplaces may best be served by the strategic development of members of those communities, focusing on change from already established behaviours, and by ensuring a mix of skill and experience to support and lead less experienced participants.<br /