Learning from design creativity: translating processes from practice to education

Paper submitted as part of the 2nd International Conference on Design Creativity, Glasgow 2012. This paper is made available with permission of the Design Society, who own the copyright.This paper develops reflections on design creativity as a cross-curriculum tool in mainstream formal education at primary/elementary level. Evidence comes from a contemporary UK case study of a series of workshops whereby architectural design professionals introduced design creativity into mainstream primary teaching and learning situations, developed through the UK Creative Partnerships‘ programme. This programme, which until recently was funded through central government, introduced principles of collaborative creativity through targeted programmes of change and enquiry involving pupils, teachers and creative practitioners. Following the processes of designing and delivering a programme to embed creative exploration through design tasks which focus on the learning environment, the authors, both architectural practitioners and educators, undertake further reflection back to the architectural profession and the societal role of collaborative creative design. We propose a hybrid practice in which architects might swap skills with teachers, pupils, teaching assistants and school management. This process reveals new creative concepts to pupils and staff, and unearths latent abilities within pupils as they work collaboratively to develop and provide design services for the built fabric or spatial use of school spaces

Efficient real-time path integrals for non-Markovian spin-boson models

Funders: Strathearn - EPSRC, ID: EP/L505079/1, Lovett - EPSRC, ID: EP/K025562/1, Kirton- EPSRC, ID: EP/M010910/1Strong coupling between a system and its environment leads to the emergence of non-Markovian dynamics, which cannot be described by a time-local master equation. One way to capture such dynamics is to use numerical real-time path integrals, where assuming a finite bath memory time enables manageable simulation scaling. However, by comparing to the exactly soluble independent boson model, we show that the presence of transient negative decay rates in the exact dynamics can result in simulations with unphysical exponential growth of density matrix elements when the finite memory approximation is used. We therefore reformulate this approximation in such a way that the exact dynamics are reproduced identically and then apply our new method to the spin-boson model with superohmic environmental coupling, commonly used to model phonon environments, but which cannot be solved exactly. Our new method allows us to easily access parameter regimes where we find revivals in population dynamics which are due to non-Markovian backflow of information from the bath to the system.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Designing spin-channel geometries for entanglement distribution

We investigate different geometries of spin-1/2 nitrogen impurity channels for distributing entanglement between pairs of remote nitrogen vacancy centers (NVs) in diamond. To go beyond the system size limits imposed by directly solving the master equation, we implement a matrix product operator method to describe the open system dynamics. In so doing, we provide an early demonstration of how the time-evolving block decimation algorithm can be used for answering a problem related to a real physical system that could not be accessed by other methods. For a fixed NV separation there is an interplay between incoherent impurity spin decay and coherent entanglement transfer: Long-transfer-time, few-spin systems experience strong dephasing that can be overcome by increasing the number of spins in the channel. We examine how missing spins and disorder in the coupling strengths affect the dynamics, finding that in some regimes a spin ladder is a more effective conduit for information than a single-spin chain.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Predicting death in young offenders: a retrospective cohort study

Objective: To examine predictors of death in young offenders who have received a custodial sentence using data routinely collected by juvenile justice services. Design: A retrospective cohort of 2849 (2625 male) 11–20-year-olds receiving their first custodial sentence between 1 January 1988 and 31 December 1999 was identified. Main outcome measures: Deaths, date and primary cause of death ascertained from study commencement to 1 March 2003 by data-matching with the National Death Index; measures comprising year of and age at admission, sex, offence profile, any drug offence, multiple admissions and ethnic and Indigenous status, obtained from departmental records. Results: Theoverallmortalityratewas7.2deathsper1000person-yearsofobservation. Younger admission age (hazard ratio [HR], 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0–1.9), repeat admissions (HR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.1–2.9) and drug offences (HR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.0–2.1) predicted early death. The role of ethnicity/Aboriginality could only be assessed in cohort entrants from 1996 to 1999. The Asian subcohort showed higher risk of death from drug-related causes (HR, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.1–5.5), more drug offences (relative risk ratio [RRR], 13; 95% CI, 8.5–20.0) and older admission age (oldest group v youngest: RRR, 9.3; 95% CI, 1.3–68.0) than non- Indigenous Australians. Although higher mortality was not identified in Indigenous Australians, this group was more likely to be admitted younger (oldest v youngest: RRR, 0.31; 95% CI, 0.15–0.63) and experience repeat admissions (RRR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.0–2.4). Conclusions: Young offenders have a much higher death rate than other young Victorians. Early detention, multiple detentions and drug-related offences are indicators of high mortality risk. For these offenders, targeted healthcare while in custody and further mental healthcare and social support after release appear essential if we are to reduce the mortality rate in this group

MODELING AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF TORQUE RIPPLE IN PERMANENT MAGNET DC MOTORS

ABSTRACT In this paper we have developed a simple parametric model based on motor geometries to estimate the torque ripple in permanent-magnet DC (PMDC) motors. Torque ripple is the combined results of many different motor design parameters such as magnetic material properties and geometry as well as rotor slot geometry. As the PMDC motors are being used in more precision applications while being produced at a lower price, the effect of torque ripple is becoming an important issued for precision motion control. The main objective of this study is to identify motor parameters that affect the magnitude of the torque ripples as well as developing a cost effective measuring device for motor vendors. The analytical model focused on the effect of air gap volume on effective magnetic flux and in terms impact the torque generation. The effectiveness of the proposed model was verified by experimental data collected with motors from four large volume motor vendors that meets the same design specification. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to identify the key motor parameters that impacted the magnitude of the torque ripple. INTRODUCTION The use of brushed permanent magnet DC (PMDC) motors in machines that are used in precision application has become more common over the years. The reason for this trend is due to an increase in quality and cost effectiveness through advances in manufacturing processes. These advances have not however eliminated a periodic fluctuation of the output torque of the motor which is dependent on angular position and can be termed torque ripple (TR). This paper will first discuss a model of the motor developed torque T D and TR and then compar

Efficient non-Markovian quantum dynamics using time-evolving matrix product operators

AS acknowledges a studentship from EPSRC (EP/L505079/1). PK acknowledges support from EPSRC (EP/M010910/1). DK acknowledges support from the EPSRC CM-CDT (EP/L015110/1). JK acknowledges support from EPSRC programs "TOPNES" (EP/I031014/1) and "Hybrid Polaritonics" (EP/M025330/1). BWL acknowledges support from EPSRC (EP/K025562/1).In order to model realistic quantum devices it is necessary to simulate quantum systems strongly coupled to their environment. To date, most understanding of open quantum systems is restricted either to weak system-bath couplings or to special cases where specific numerical techniques become effective. Here we present a general and yet exact numerical approach that efficiently describes the time evolution of a quantum system coupled to a non-Markovian harmonic environment. Our method relies on expressing the system state and its propagator as a matrix product state and operator, respectively, and using a singular value decomposition to compress the description of the state as time evolves. We demonstrate the power and flexibility of our approach by numerically identifying the localisation transition of the Ohmic spin-boson model, and considering a model with widely separated environmental timescales arising for a pair of spins embedded in a common environment.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Stock assessment of the Australian east coast grey mackerel (Scomberomorus semifasciatus) fishery.

This stock assessment used an age structured model with a yearly time step and age based selectivity to estimate the population size and sustainable harvest limits for Queensland east coast grey mackerel. Separate models were assessed for the north-east and south-east stocks. Data inputs included total harvest, standardised catch rates, age and length structures. For both stocks, unfished biomass was relative to 1960-61, before substantial fishing pressure began.   For the north-east stock, model results suggested that biomass declined to 46 per cent unfished, exploitable biomass in 2010-11. The assessment suggests that the north-east stock is currently between 37 and 58 per cent unfished biomass.   For the south-east stock the results suggest that biomass declined to 38 per cent unfished biomass in 2010-11. The assessment suggests that the south-east stock is currently between 40 and 61 per cent of unfished biomass