Don't panic: Recursive interactions in a miniature metaworld

© 2019 Association for Computing Machinery. Metaworld is a new recursive interaction paradigm for virtual reality, where a miniature display (or 3D map) of the virtual world is presented to the user as a miniature model that itself lives inside the virtual world. The miniature model is interactive and every action which occurs on the miniature world similarly occurs to the greater virtual world and vice-versa. We implemented the metaworld concept in the virtual reality application MetaCity, a city designing sandbox where users can reach into a miniature model and move the cars and skyscrapers. Design considerations of how to display and interact with the miniature model are presented, and a technical implementation of the miniature world is described. The metaworld concept was informally and playfully tested in the MetaCity which revealed a number of novel interactions that enable the user to navigate quickly through large spaces, re-scale objects in the world and manipulate the very fabric of the world itself. These interactions are discussed within the context of four major categories-Experiential Planning, Interdimensional Transformations, Power of the Gods and Self Manipulation

A responsive, contextual and networked approach to enforcing safe design of plant

This working paper begins by discussing current mechanisms, strategies and practices applied by Australian OHS regulators to enforce compliance with OHS law, observing that, in the main, OHS enforcement policy and practice has been designed for and applied to employer and worker duty holders. While some of these approaches may have application in enforcing upstream duties, there is a need to rethink enforcement in relation to safe design and the upstream obligations. Thus, this working paper proposes some possible new directions for enforcement policy and practice, taking account of important contextual factors which influence upstream duty holders and therefore need to shape how OHS regulators oversee and engage with upstream parties

The Missing Link – Regulating Occupational Health and Safety Support

This paper examines the need for Australian workplaces to have, or to have access to, sufficient occupational health and safety (OHS) knowledge, capability and specialised services to be able to fulfil their legal responsibilities and to effectively protect the health, safety and welfare of people at work. The paper is about the role, in all its diversity, of the providers of OHS ‘know-how’ and expertise, who go by an equally diverse range of names. As generalist OHS practitioners they are OHS ‘advisers’, ‘officers’, ‘coordinators’, ‘managers’ or ‘consultants’; as integrated services they are ‘occupational health (and safety) services’ or ‘units’, ‘preventive services’ or ‘OHS support’; and as specialist OHS professionals they are ergonomists, occupational hygienists, safety scientists or engineers, occupational physicians, occupational health nurses, occupational psychologists, occupational physiotherapists and occupational therapists. By whatever title, and the names are not mutually exclusive, this paper is concerned with providing access to OHS support, as well as the role and functions, organisation and funding, professional competence, quality and effectiveness of this support.

Comparison of Silicon Dioxide Films

This experiment compared oxides grown at 950 C for 135 minutes and 1100 C for 15 minutes in dry 02. Two different size capacitors were fabricated with gate areas of .OlfOO crrf and ,0225 cm? • The films were compared by capacitance - voltage measurements. It was found that the 1100 C process yielded a flat band voltage shift of l volt less than the 950 C process

The terminal pleistocene of Klipfonteinrand rock shelter in the Cederberg

This thesis focuses on Klipfonteinrand Rock Shelter in the eastern Cederberg, during the Late Pleistocene period (22.3 - 13.4 cal kyr BP), and specifically the materials analysed after the completion of excavations at the site. The study aims, firstly, to unpack changes in the composition of the archaeological assemblage of Klipfonteinrand during Marine Isotope Stage 2 (MIS 2), by analysing variation in the abundance and composition of lithics, ostrich eggshell, marine shell, charcoal, ochre, bone and roof spall from the site; and, secondly, to situate these changes in the context of changes in palaeoenvironments and patterns in the use of nearby and more distant archaeological sites. Results display a hornfels-dominant lithic assemblage, with a distinctive silcrete-rich Robberg-like industry during the period 22.3 - 16.3 cal kyr BP, categorised by micro-bladelets and bipolar cores. Ostrich eggshell fragments undergo variation in thickness in relation to variation in environmental and climatic changes, and also contain a handful of decorated fragments that mirror a sample from Boomplaas during a similar time period. Donax serra dominates the marine shell assemblage, which peaks in number between 16.6 and 15.9 cal kyr BP, at the time of rapid sea level rise across the subcontinent. Links are drawn between Klipfonteinrand and sites further afield such as Elands Bay Cave, based on the movement of hornfels from the interior to the coast and marine shell from the coast to the interior at the time of sea level rise. Roof spall is smallest and most abundant during colder periods, and charcoal and bone are most abundant then too. Red ochre is the most frequently occurring colour, with ochre having been ground most frequently in the younger levels between 14.4 - 13.4 cal kyr BP. These results are drawn together and Klipfonteinrand Rock Shelter is contextualised in a larger framework of MIS 2 archaeology and palaeoenvironments, on a local, regional and inter-regional scale. The various materials recovered from the excavation show specific diachronic patterns and suggestions are made about lithic technologies, craft and design, and complex landscape use of Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers. The overarching purpose of this is to attempt to gain a better understanding of human behaviour during the environmentally unstable time period presented

Learning and teaching in the context of clinical practice: the midwife as role model.

The purpose of this study was to develop a theory in order to explain the meaning and process of learning the role of the midwife from midwives in the clinical setting. To achieve the depth and detail required in the absence of literature on this topic, the grounded theory approach was adopted. The sample consisted of twenty student midwives and seventeen midwives. Data were collected by means of unstructured interviews which were tape-recorded. Each participant was interviewed on a minimum of two separate occasions. The constant comparative method was used to analyse the data. The findings of the research contribute to knowledge by making explicit how the role of the midwife is interpreted and enacted, the effect this has on what role students learn, how it is learned and hence how the role is transmitted from one generation of midwives to the next. The `emic' perspective facilitated the emergence of a number of theoretical ideas. Central to these are the rules of practice. When midwives rigidly follow written and unwritten rules they prescribe midwifery care which corresponds to the medical model. In doing so they act as obstetric nurses or handmaidens to the doctor. When everything is interpreted as rules to be followed prescriptive midwives appear to be uncaring and detached from the experience of childbirth. The individual needs of women are not met and the relationship between midwife and client is superficial. Midwives who rigidly follow the rules inhibit the growth and development of students providing them with few opportunities to achieve beyond the level of their role model. Midwives are flexible when they interpret the rules for the benefit of women and provide a woman-centred model of care. These midwives therefore act as autonomous practitioners. When rules are interpreted and adapted to meet the needs of women, flexible midwives demonstrate involvement in women's experiences and are empathic, supportive and caring. Midwives who use professional judgement to interpret the rules provide an environment in which senior students can become autonomous practitioners. When midwives demonstrate the role of autonomous practitioner, practise a woman-centred model of care and meet the learning needs of students, they are appropriate role models and teachers. There is conflict in the clinical setting when practitioners who hold opposing attitudes, values and beliefs practice together. Conflict can be avoided when flexible midwives adopt strategies that involve becoming prescriptive or practising by subterfuge. In accordance with Bandura's social learning theory students learn by observing and emulating the example of their role models. Learning is vicarious when students observe the consequences of their role models' actions. When learning the role from a role model is interpreted as a passive process, a behaviourist and pedagogical approach to learning and teaching ensures perpetuation of the obstetric nurse role that is no longer considered acceptable. Role modelling serves as a vehicle for transmitting new behaviour when learning is perceived to be an active process. In this case a humanistic, andragogical and cognitive approach to learning and teaching is adopted giving students the freedom to determine their own role. Practice from a number of role models is emulated. In this way each midwife acquires a unique identity which is derived from an abstract role model rather than a particular person. Students are prepared for the autonomous role of the midwife, and it is this role they wish to emulate

Pine Bluff Baptist Association

https://scholarlycommons.obu.edu/arbaptrec/1021/thumbnail.jp

The use of infringement notices in OHS law enforcement

Infringement notices are now part of OHS law enforcement in several Australian states and territories, as well as in New Zealand. In principle these notices have the potential to favourably influence OHS performance. However, it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about effectiveness in view of limited empirical evidence as well as the considerable diversity in existing schemes. This paper raises some important legal and practical concerns which may qualify the effectiveness of infringement notices, and have implications for policy makers designing and implementing infringement notice schemes, to be applied in OHS law enforcement. The indications are that infringement notices are more suited to non-complex offences where the breach is clearly defined in law and the facts are easily verified. There is a challenge to define expiable OHS offences which are clear-cut and ambiguous but which also clearly have preventive value by virtue of a direct link to OHS risk control. There are reasons for regulators to be more cautious about applying infringement notices to offences involving decisions about .(reasonable) practicability. or the adequacy of risk management processes. There is also reason to keep the level of penalty for infringement notices under review. Current fines in Australia are low by international standards and as the principal role of infringement notices is to deter non-compliance, they need to be set at a level that does deter. This could involve a tiered system of fines where more serious and repeat breaches warrant a higher penalty. There is a series of considerations relating to consistency and transparency in decision making, and procedure for, issuing infringement notices, both to ensure fairness for recipients of notices and effectiveness of infringement notice arrangements. There is a case for OHS regulators to develop and promulgate procedural guidelines addressing key considerations including: the grounds or criteria for issuing an infringement notice, the number of offences identified on a notice (one offence per notice), the time limit within which a notice may be served, arrangements and basis for review and withdrawal of a notice, how infringement notices are used in the context of responsive enforcement and a hierarchy of enforcement measures, and especially their relationship to improvement and prohibition notices, the person to whom notices are served (drawing senior manager.s attention to OHS problems), and how records of infringement notices are used as part of the compliance history of an organisation. To protect the legal rights of recipients, infringement notice formats should clearly set out the right to seek review of a notice or contest it in court, the effect of payment and consequences of non-payment. They should also provide details of the offence and practical arrangements about payment of the fine. There should be a consistent approach whereby infringement notices, that are paid and not subject to a court hearing are not taken into account in subsequent proceedings or civil action. Finally, there is a need for further empirical studies of the use of infringement notices in Australian (and New Zealand) OHS law enforcement in order to determine more clearly the characteristics of infringement notice schemes that are most effective in deterring non-compliance with OHS law. Ultimately, the success of infringement notices depends on their ability to change the behaviour of recipients so that future injury, disease and death are prevented, and this is how they should be judged

Interactive art, immersive technology and live performance

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.This research explores the impact of combining interactive art and immersive technology with live performance. An interactive system was designed to combine the movement of human performers with physical simulations in order to generate complex visualizations that respond to the performers in real-time. This system was used prominently in a series of live performances including dance, music and physical theatre. The performances and system evolved symbiotically throughout this practice-based research. The capabilities of the interactive system was inspired by the demands of each live performance and, in turn, each performance was inspired by the evolving capabilities of the system. A number of immersive technologies including 360 degree stereoscopic visuals, surround sound and physical modeling were added to the system and explored within the context of live interactive performance. Self-reflections of the researcher’s role as interactive artist and technologist is provided. These reflections suggest that the underlying system should be built as flexible and as scalable as possible to cater for different sized venues and budgets. A basic framework is provided for building such a system, utilizing open source software, pre-existing hardware and the flexibility of modern network architectures. Two major works are examined in detail, a physical theatre show and an immersive installation, both paying homage to the classic Australian children’s novel, Dot and the Kangaroo. Interviews with the performers, artists and key contributors of these productions were conducted. These interviews were analyzed using grounded theory techniques to gain insights into the use of interactive and immersive technologies within the productions and how it impacted their professional craft. The interactive technology was found to bring an element of ‘aliveness’ to the visuals, but were most successful when tightly integrated with the physical choreography to portray a specific part of the narrative. The interactive components were perceived to assume many different roles within these productions including that of character, digital set, theatrical mask and lighting state as the artists attempt to identify with the technology through their own personal knowledge base and expertise. The 360 degree visuals of the interactive installation immersed the participants in a digital depiction of the Australian bush, and invited a sense of exploration and play. The large scale installation allowed multiple children to experience the work simultaneously, while live actors promoted a richness of movement and facilitated social interactions amongst the participants. The artistic productions, technological system design and findings based on interviews, analysis and self-reflection are presented as contributions towards the relatively unexplored intersection between interactive art, immersive technology and live performance