Use of 3D virtual models and physical replicas to enhance user experience within heritage applications

Museums are dedicated to preserving the legacy of the past and educating their visitors, both practices at odds with each other. The rise of multisensory experiences in museology has emphasized the use of touch as a pedagogical tool, but this risks destruction of precious museum objects. The art of3D printing has the potential to overcome this conservational barrier, but such applications are typically ad-hoc, with little design consideration. Furthermore, there is a lack of research into developing best practices for the creation of tangible 3D printed replicas. This thesis employed user experience (UX) methods from consumer industries with pragmatic mixed-methods in order to explore this issue. The research questions addressed a number of issues: 1) The perceptions of museum visitors in regard to 3D printed replicas; 2) The design considerations for replicas in order to provide positive UX for audiences; 3) How they can benefit museum audiences; 4) How they can benefit blind and partially-sighted (BPS) individuals; 5) How replication impacts wider museum practice; 6) How effective UX methods are in understanding museum audiences. Over the course of four studies, a number of key findings were elucidated: •Museum visitors expressed positivity towards the concept of tangible 3D printed replicas but had a limited understanding of it. •Preference was strongly dependant on verisimilitude, a one-dimensional requirement, while print quality was a must-be requirement. •BPS perception was reliant on multisensory interpretation. Object and material judgements were interrelated, highlighting the complex design problems in 3D printing for BPS audiences. •Replicating an object can result in unexpected insights, resulting in novel research opportunities. A set of best design practices were created and a number of emergent research topics highlighted that were unable to be fully explored. These included the preferences of younger visitors, empirical assessment of the impact of3D printed replicas and how print properties truly influence BPS perception

Shifting sands: the narrative construction of early career aboriginal teachers' professional identities at the cultural interface

This study explores issues facing early career Aboriginal teachers as they construct and enact their personal, professional and situated identities when learning to teach. Narrative constructions of identity simultaneously illuminate and challenge dominant discourses about Aboriginal teachers as they take up, resist and/or reject these discourses. The role of Aboriginality is mediated by factors such as lived experience, positioning of and by the teachers and school contexts. These issues are explored through the theoretical perspectives of Foucault, Bourdieu and Nakata. Like shifting sands, identity construction and teaching work can be unstable terrain, requiring complex contextualised understandings, skills and dispositions. Participants are pre-service Aboriginal teachers in an away-from-base secondary Aboriginal Studies teacher education program at the University of Sydney. They are mature-aged with varying levels of experience of formal education and living in Aboriginal communities. Using narrative methodology, eleven in-depth conversational interviews followed by two focus groups revealed emerging storylines and themes and four participants were identified for further interviews to collaboratively construct the final narratives. This approach privileged participant voices and created spaces to articulate the tacit knowledge and understandings that contribute to the development of a professional identity drawn from personal, professional, cultural and contextual sources. Three themes emerged: discourses of Aboriginality, narratives of belonging, and conceptualising a pedagogical cultural identity. The implications of these themes bring focus to pre-service and in-service teacher professional learning based on valuing Aboriginal community engagement. When nurtured early in a teacher’s career, relationships serve a socio-cultural and political role that contribute significantly to the development of agentic and resilient identities at the cultural interface

RISK PERCEPTIONS AND MANAGEMENT RESPONSES: PRODUCER-GENERATED HYPOTHESES FOR RISK MODELING

Farm level risk analyses have used price and yield variability almost exclusively to represent risk. Results from a survey of 149 agricultural producers in 12 states indicate that producers consider a broader range of sources of variability in their operations. Significant differences exist among categories with respect to the importance of the sources of variability in crop and livestock production. Producers also used a variety of management responses to variability. There were significant difference among categories in the importance given to particular responses and their use of them. These results have implications for research, extension, and policy programs.Risk and Uncertainty,

Evaluating museum exhibits: Quantifying visitor experience and museum impact with user experience methodologies

Underpinned by the Model for Museum Exhibit User Experience (MEUX; King et al., Visitor Studies, 2023, 26, 59), this paper develops and presents an evaluation methodology for museum exhibits that utilizes existing methodologies from the user experience sector adapted for the museum and cultural heritage sectors. Two studies are presented: an in‐depth evaluation of the Meat the Future exhibition at Oxford University Museum of Natural History and then a comparative study between this exhibition and two other permanent exhibits at the museum. Quantitative and qualitative data provide a nuanced picture of each exhibit from the visitor perspective and showcase the benefits of the MEUX methods of evaluation. Results show how three different exhibits are constructed in different ways, providing different visitor experiences and outcomes. They are directly compared with identify statistical differences, but do not impose a judgment as to whether any exhibit is better than another. With detailed, nuanced and rigorous data capturing visitor experiences of engaging with exhibits, the MEUX evaluation methodology allows for more sophisticated, standardized and efficient evaluation practices within the sector, with results that directly support further development of exhibits and exhibitions

Limited Effect of Y Chromosome Variation on Coronary Artery Disease and Mortality in UK Biobank

The effect of genetic variation in the male-specific region of the Y chromosome (MSY) on coronary artery disease and cardiovascular risk factors has been disputed. In this study, we systematically assessed the association of MSY genetic variation on these traits using a kin-cohort analysis of family disease history in the largest sample to date. METHODS: We tested 90 MSY haplogroups against coronary artery disease, hypertension, blood pressure, classical lipid levels, and all-cause mortality in up to 152 186 unrelated, genomically British individuals from UK Biobank. Unlike previous studies, we did not adjust for heritable lifestyle factors (to avoid collider bias) and instead adjusted for geographic variables and socioeconomic deprivation, given the link between MSY haplogroups and geography. For family history traits, subject MSY haplogroups were tested against father and mother disease as validation and negative control, respectively. RESULTS: Our models find little evidence for an effect of any MSY haplogroup on cardiovascular risk in participants. Parental models confirm these findings. CONCLUSIONS: Kin-cohort analysis of the Y chromosome uniquely allows for discoveries in subjects to be validated using family history data. Despite our large sample size, improved models, and parental validation, there is little evidence to suggest cardiovascular risk in UK Biobank is influenced by genetic variation in MSY

Structural studies and polymorphism in amorphous solids and liquids at high pressure

When amorphous materials are compressed their structures are expected to change in response to densification. In some cases, the changes in amorphous structure can be discontinuous and they can even have the character of first-order phase transitions. This is a phenomenon referred to as polyamorphism. Most evidence for polyamorphic transitions between low and high density liquids or analogous transformations between amorphous forms of the same substance to date has been indirect and based on the changes in thermodynamic and other structure-related properties with pressure. Recent studies using advanced X-ray and neutron scattering methods combined with molecular dynamics simulations are now revealing the details of structural changes in polyamorphic systems as a function of pressure. Various "two state'' or "two species'' models are used to understand the anomalous densification behaviour of liquids with melting curve maxima or regions of negative melting slope. Thermodynamic analysis of the two state model leads to the possibility of low- to high-density liquid transitions caused by differences in bulk thermodynamic properties between different amorphous forms and on the degree of cooperativity between low- and high-density structural configurations. The potential occurrence of first-order transitions between supercooled liquids is identified as a critical-like phenomenon. In this tutorial review we discuss the background to polyamorphism, incorporating the experimental observations, simulation studies and the two-state models. We also describe work carried on several systems that are considered to be polyamorphic

Iterative evolution of digitate planktonic foraminifera

Digitate shell morphologies have evolved repeatedly in planktonic foraminifera throughout the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. Digitate species are usually rare in fossil and modern assemblages but show increased abundance and diversity at times during the Cretaceous and mid- dle Eocene. In this paper we discuss the morphology and stratigraphic distribution of digitate planktonic foraminifera and establish the isotopic depth ecology of fossil ones to draw parallels with modern counterparts

The Oxford dodo. Seeing more than ever before : X-ray micro-CT scanning, specimen acquisition and provenance

The Oxford Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) has been in the collections of the University of Oxford since 1683, first in the Ashmolean Museum and latterly in Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Prior to this the specimen was part of the collections of the Tradescants, father and son, and likely acquired between 1634 and 1656, in the Musæum Tradescantianum in what is now Vauxhall, south London. It has been thought probable that this specimen was once the live bird recorded in London by Sir Hamon L’Estrange in around 1638, but X-ray CT scanning of the skull for anatomical investigation has cast doubt on the provenance of the Oxford Dodo. The 3D visualisation revealed 115 metal particles embedded within the bone of the skull, concentrated in the left side of the skull. All but five of the particles are less than 1 mm in diameter and their location leads to the conclusion that they represent lead shot consistent with the bird being shot from the rear right of the head, perhaps with a ventral component. This forensic discovery leaves the provenance of the Oxford specimen uncertain but illustrates the value of non-invasive visualisation techniques in determining the potentially complex histories of unique museum objects