What is the problem to which interactive multimedia is the solution?

This is something of an unusual paper. It serves as both the reason for and the result of a small number of leading academics in the field, coming together to focus on the question that serves as the title to this paper: What is the problem to which interactive multimedia is the solution? Each of the authors addresses this question from their own viewpoint, offering informed insights into the development, implementation and evaluation of multimedia. The result of their collective work was also the focus of a Western Australian Institute of Educational Research seminar, convened at Edith Cowan University on 18 October, 1994. The question posed is deliberately rhetorical - it is asked to allow those represented here to consider what they think are the significant issues in the fast-growing field of multimedia. More directly, the question is also asked here because nobody else has considered it worth asking: for many multimedia is done because it is technically possible, not because it offers anything that is of value or provides the solution to a particular problem. The question, then, is answered in various ways by each of the authors involved and each, in their own way, consider a range of fundamental issues concerning the nature, place and use of multimedia - both in education and in society generally. By way of an introduction, the following provides a unifying context for the various contributions made here

Plants from the park : Establishing community harvesting of plants as a conservation tool at Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga National Parks, Uganda

It is now accepted that communities surrounding national parks in developing countries should benefit from conservation if the parks, and their constituent biodiversity, are to have a secure long-term future. It has also been accepted as morally questionable for communities living next to parks to pay the costs for national and international biodiversity conservation, and at the same time being excluded from any level of decision making regarding the management of those parks. Strategies to achieve conservation with equity include community involvement in park management and mechanisms to share conservation benefits

Issues of partial credit in mathematical assessment by computer

The CALM Project for Computer Aided Learning in Mathematics has operated at Heriot‐Watt University since 1985. From the beginning CALM has featured assessment in its programs (Beevers, Cherry, Foster and McGuire, 1991), and enabled both students and teachers to view progress in formative assessment The computer can play a role in at least four types of assessment: diagnostic, self‐test, continuous and grading assessment. The TLTP project Mathwise employs the computer in three of these roles. In 1994 CALM reported on an educational experiment in which the computer was used for the first time to grade, in part, the learning of a large class of service mathematics students (Beevers, McGuire, Stirling and Wild ,1995), using the Mathwise assessment template. At that time the main issues identified were those of ‘partial credit’ and communication between the student and the computer. These educational points were addressed in the next phase of the CALM Project in which the commercial testing program Interactive PastPapers was developed. The main aim of this paper is to describe how Interactive Past Papers has been able to incorporate some approaches to partial credit which has helped to alleviate student worries on these issues. Background information on other features in Interactive Past Papers is also included to provide context for the discussion

Simulation Study of TenTen: A new Multi-TeV IACT array

TenTen is a proposed array of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACT) optimized for the gamma ray energy regime of 10 TeV to 100 TeV, but with a threshold of ~1 to a few TeV. It will offer a collecting area of 10 km2 above energies of 10 TeV. In the initial phase, a cell of 3 to 5 modest-sized telescopes, each with 10-30 m2 mirror area, is suggested for an Australian site. A possible expansion of the array could comprise many such cells. Here we present work on configuration and technical issues from our simulation studies of the array. Working topics include array layout, telescope size and optics, camera field of view, telescope trigger system, electronics, and site surveys.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Proceedings of the ICRC 2007, pdf forma

On a generalized quantum SWAP gate

The SWAP gate plays a central role in network designs for qubit quantum computation. However, there has been a view to generalize qubit quantum computing to higher dimensional quantum systems. In this paper we construct a generalized SWAP gate using only instances of the generalized controlled-NOT gate to cyclically permute the states of d qudits for d prime

TenTen: A New Array of Multi-TeV Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes

The exciting results from H.E.S.S. point to a new population of gamma-ray sources at energies E > 10 TeV, paving the way for future studies and new discoveries in the multi-TeV energy range. Connected with these energies is the search for sources of PeV cosmic-rays (CRs) and the study of multi-TeV gamma-ray production in a growing number of astrophysical environments. TenTen is a proposed stereoscopic array (with a suggested site in Australia) of modest-sized (10 to 30m^2) Cherenkov imaging telescopes with a wide field of view (8 to 10deg diameter) optimised for the E~10 to 100 TeV range. TenTen will achieve an effective area of ~10 km^2 at energies above 10 TeV. We outline here the motivation for TenTen and summarise key performance parameters.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of the 30th ICRC, Merida, Mexico, 200

A sustainable approach to airport design and operations: Case study of Munich airport

The aim of this research is to empirically examine the sustainable aspects of airport design and operations, in the context of Munich Airport, one of the world's major airports. The primary research question addressed by this work is: What aspects of airport design and operation in a major airport are critical to its sustainability and mitigating its contributions to climate change? An exploratory single site case study methodology was utilised and the research concentrated on Munich Airport, Germany's second busiest airport, located in Bavaria, in south east Germany. The primary business of the airport is commercial and general aviation services. Air cargo, catering and retail, and real estate are other important strategic market segments. Data was gathered from the Flughafen M nchen GmbH annual sustainability reports and company websites. Finally, the data was analysed using content analysis. All major aspects of airports infrastructure design and operations were explored, focussing on the environmental impacts. This included water usage and management, energy consumption, waste management, and other key aspects of pollution, including noise. In the case of Munich Airport, the most significant environmental impact factors identified were aircraft emissions and noise, waste, and water management. The significance of sustainable operations in the global aviation industry is, of course, relevant to airports. Since the commencement of operations in 1992, Munich Airport's strategic objectives have incorporated key sustainability focus areas. Indeed, the airport's strategy is essentially sustainability-driven. The airport has implemented systems and procedures to optimise its environmental footprint, and to ensure its compliance with all applicable statutory requirements

Sustainable technologies for aircraft energy generation, storage, and distribution

It is estimated that the contribution of the aviation industry to global warming is currently 2-3%. The projected growth of the industry may increase this to 10-20% by 2050. As such, the aim of this research is to explore how proposed aircraft energy generation, storage, and distribution technologies can improve sustainability in the aviation industry. The primary research question addressed by this work is: What are the current technological trends in aircraft energy generation, storage, and distribution and how much will these technologies help reduce the aviation industries contribution to climate change? An explanatory case study methodology was utilised in this research. A number of research tools were used, specifically document analysis, trend analysis, and technology forecasting methods. The technological developments were identified with a preliminary document analysis. The trend analysis identified which technologies were of importance in terms of the historical development and technology effectiveness. A number of trends were identified in aircraft technologies for energy generation, storage and distribution to improve sustainability. The primary consideration identified was energy storage. That is, energy generation and distribution technologies are a significant facet of future more electric aircraft, and even all-electric aircraft. However, the key enabling technology is the storage of energy, specifically the energy densities in terms of either battery capacity, or hydrogen storage (for use with fuel cells). Aircraft energy generation, storage, and distribution technologies are a single facet of the airframe and avionic systems for greener aircraft; the contributions from other facets maybe more significant, specifically in terms of fuels and engines

Timing analysis techniques at large core distances for multi-TeV gamma ray astronomy

We present an analysis technique that uses the timing information of Cherenkov images from extensive air showers (EAS). Our emphasis is on distant, or large core distance gamma-ray induced showers at multi-TeV energies. Specifically, combining pixel timing information with an improved direction reconstruction algorithm, leads to improvements in angular and core resolution as large as ~40% and ~30%, respectively, when compared with the same algorithm without the use of timing. Above 10 TeV, this results in an angular resolution approaching 0.05 degrees, together with a core resolution better than ~15 m. The off-axis post-cut gamma-ray acceptance is energy dependent and its full width at half maximum ranges from 4 degrees to 8 degrees. For shower directions that are up to ~6 degrees off-axis, the angular resolution achieved by using timing information is comparable, around 100 TeV, to the on-axis angular resolution. The telescope specifications and layout we describe here are geared towards energies above 10 TeV. However, the methods can in principle be applied to other energies, given suitable telescope parameters. The 5-telescope cell investigated in this study could initially pave the way for a larger array of sparsely spaced telescopes in an effort to push the collection area to >10 km2. These results highlight the potential of a `sparse array' approach in effectively opening up the energy range above 10 TeV.Comment: Published in Astroparticle Physic

An optimized chiral nucleon-nucleon interaction at next-to-next-to-leading order

We optimize the nucleon-nucleon interaction from chiral effective field theory at next-to-next- to-leading order. The resulting new chiral force NNLOopt yields \chi^2 \approx 1 per degree of freedom for laboratory energies below approximately 125 MeV. In the A = 3, 4 nucleon systems, the contributions of three-nucleon forces are smaller than for previous parametrizations of chiral interactions. We use NNLOopt to study properties of key nuclei and neutron matter, and demonstrate that many aspects of nuclear structure can be understood in terms of this nucleon-nucleon interaction, without explicitly invoking three-nucleon forces.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure