Design by immersion: A transdisciplinary approach to problem-driven visualizations

While previous work exists on how to conduct and disseminate insights from problem-driven visualization work and design studies, the literature does not address how to accomplish these goals in transdisciplinary teams in ways that advance all disciplines involved. In this paper we introduce and define a new methodological paradigm we call design by immersion, which provides an alternative perspective on problem-driven visualization work. Design by immersion embeds transdisciplinary experiences at the center of the visualization process by having visualization researchers participate in the work of the target domain (or domain experts participate in visualization research). Based on our own combined experiences of working on cross-disciplinary, problem-driven visualization projects, we present six case studies that expose the opportunities that design by immersion enables, including (1) exploring new domain-inspired visualization design spaces, (2) enriching domain understanding through personal experiences, and (3) building strong transdisciplinary relationships. Furthermore, we illustrate how the process of design by immersion opens up a diverse set of design activities that can be combined in different ways depending on the type of collaboration, project, and goals. Finally, we discuss the challenges and potential pitfalls of design by immersion

Everybody's got a story: examining the building of empathy and understanding for the bully, the bullied, and the bystander through digital storytelling

Digital storytelling as a pedagogical practice has been extensively explored as a means of increasing engagement, developing 21st century skills such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication, and refining digital literacies in students. However, there is a lack of data on how the use of multimodal digital tools can be used to explore pervasive social issues such as bullying in adolescents. In this study, a group of grade seven students provided their views and self-assessed their levels of empathy and understanding for victims of bullying, bullies and bystanders prior to and after the completion of a digital storytelling project. Using Likert scale data, along with an in-depth content analysis of the stories and presentations the students produced, the study explored whether participation in this digital storytelling project led to a noticeable and measurable impact on their understanding of and empathy for victims of bullying, bullies and bystanders

Assessing the Profitability of Cooperative Advertising Programs in Competing Channels

Producción CientíficaA large literature studied the profitability (effectiveness) of cooperative advertising programs (CAPs) in distribution channels, but very few studies modeled pricing decisions in competitive markets under different channel structures. This paper fills this gap. We propose a game-theoretic model where two competing channels make pricing and promotional decisions. The efectiveness of CAPs is studied under different channel structures to examine how vertical and horizontal externalities can impact the effectiveness of CAPs. Each channel structure can be integrated or decentralized to account for different vertical interaction effects, resulting in three cases: (i) both channels are decentralized (DD), (ii) both are integrated (II), and (iii) a hybrid structure where one channel is decentralized and is competing with an integrated channel (DI). We solve six non-cooperative games: (1) both manufacturers offer CAPs under DD, (2) only one manufacturer offers a CAP under DD, (3) both manufacturers do not offer CAPs under DD, (4) the decentralized manufacturer offers a CAP under DI, (5) the decentralized manufacturer does not offer a CAP under DI, and (6) the channel problem under II. Then, we obtain and compare equilibrium profits and strategies across these games. The main results indicate that the profitability of CAPs depends on the levels of price competition and of the advertising effects. Also,while manufacturers benefit from CAPs, retailers may not find such programs profitable. Finally, the decentralized or integrated structure of the competing channel significantly impacts the effects of cooperative advertising. For example, CAPs can effectively coordinate the DD channel and even help it exceed profits earned by a vertically integrated channel. However, in the DI case, although CAPs can improve total channel profits, they do not fully coordinate the channel.1Research of the first and third authors is supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC). The second author’s research is partially supported by MEC under project ECO2014-52343-P, co-financed by FEDER funds and the COST Action IS1104 “The EU in the new economic complex geography: models, tools and policy evaluation"

Everybody's got a story: examining the building of empathy and understanding for the bully, the bullied, and the bystander through digital storytelling

Digital storytelling as a pedagogical practice has been extensively explored as a means of increasing engagement, developing 21st century skills such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication, and refining digital literacies in students. However, there is a lack of data on how the use of multimodal digital tools can be used to explore pervasive social issues such as bullying in adolescents. In this study, a group of grade seven students provided their views and self-assessed their levels of empathy and understanding for victims of bullying, bullies and bystanders prior to and after the completion of a digital storytelling project. Using Likert scale data, along with an in-depth content analysis of the stories and presentations the students produced, the study explored whether participation in this digital storytelling project led to a noticeable and measurable impact on their understanding of and empathy for victims of bullying, bullies and bystanders

Cooperative Advertising for Competing Manufacturers: The Impact of Long-Term Promotional Effects

Producción CientíficaThe effectiveness of cooperative advertising programs is studied in a market where two competing manufacturers deal with an exclusive retailer and two products. Two twostage game theoretic models are developed to analyze the long-term effects of retailer’s promotions, which can be positive or negative, on the effectiveness of cooperative advertising. Closed-form equilibrium solutions are obtained and compared. We find that the level of product substitutability and the sign and magnitude of the long-term effects of retailer’s promotions on sales determine whether cooperative advertising should be offered and accepted by the manufacturers and retailer. In particular, depending on the level of product substitutability, cooperative advertising can benefit both the manufacturers and retailer even when retailer’s promotions negatively affects future sales. Conversely, it may not be in the interest of the manufacturers to offer cooperative advertising when the products are fairly undifferentiated regardless of the nature of the long-term effects of promotions. Finally, the manufacturers and retailer may refuse to respectively offer or participate in cooperative advertising programs that enhance total channel profits.Research of the first author is supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC). Grant # 1509. The second author’s research is partially supported by MEC under project ECO2014- 52343-P, co-financed by FEDER funds and the COST Action IS1104 “The EU in the new economic complex geography: models, tools and policy evaluation”

A flexible, longitudinal and surrogate consent model: Consent of Infants for Neonatal Secondary-use research (CoINS) Model

Documenting healthcare, along with technology enabling capture of streaming patient telemetry, can deliver large datasets offering opportunities to discover new insights primarily identified through retrospective secondary use research. Research involving health data requires consent of the subject patient or someone with the power to speak on that patient???s behalf. Flexible consent models that capture consent preferences while allowing updates as preferences change are needed. This research proposes and demonstrates one solution in a case study collecting surrogate consent from parents for the physiological data of infant inpatients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and attaching this consent as a wrapper controlling access to their data. 145 parents were approached and 134 provided consent: with 78 percent of infants consented during their first week of life. This research supports the contention that using a flexible consent approach enhances willingness to consent use of infant???s health data for secondary research purposes

Ethylene response and phytohormone-mediated regulation of gene expression in Komagataeibacter xylinus ATCC 53582

Komagataeibacter xylinus ATCC 53582 is a fruit-associated, cellulose-producing bacterium that responds to and synthesizes phytohormones. This thesis elaborates on the ecophysiology of K. xylinus. Responses to indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA) and ethylene, produced in situ from ethephon, were of particular focus. The effect of these phytohormones on K. xylinus cellulose production and expression of cellulose biosynthesis-related genes (bcsA, bcsB, bcsC, bcsD, cmcAx, ccpAx and bglAx) were determined using pellicle assays and reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), respectively. Ethylene enhanced cellulose yield by upregulating bcsA and bcsB expression, while IAA decreased cellulose yield by downregulating bcsA. Differential gene expression within the bacterial cellulose synthesis (bcs) operon is reported and a phytohormone-regulated CRP/FNR transcription factor was identified that may influence K. xylinus cellulose biosynthesis. Based on evidence provided in this thesis, the classification of K. xylinus as a saprophyte and its potential to accelerate fruit ripening in nature is proposed

Design and development of a parallel Proof of Work for permissionless blockchain systems

Blockchain, which is the underlying technology for the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, is a distributed ledger forming a decentralized consensus in a peer-to-peer network. A large number of the current cryptocurrencies use blockchain technology to maintain the network and the peers use a consensus mechanism called Proof of Work to verify and confirm the transactions. However, the transaction speed in this process is significantly slower than traditional digital transaction systems such as credit cards or PayPal. In this thesis, a parallel Proof of Work model is proposed in order to increase the scalability of the processing of the transactions. The goal of this model is to ensure that, no two or more miners put the same effort into solving the same block. This model differs from traditional Proof of Work or the Bitcoin pool mining in many aspects, such as the responsibilities of the manager, contribution of active miners, and the reward system. A proof of concept prototype of the proposed model has been constructed based on the attributes of Bitcoin. The prototype has been tested in a local as well as in a cloud environment and results show the feasibility of the proposed model

Improving understanding of rape proclivity

The current dissertation included three studies that together aimed to improve understanding of rape proclivity as a potential construct related to sexual violence. In the first study, participants' understanding of the items on the Rape Proclivity Measure were assessed to gain insight into participants' perspectives about rape scenarios and to examine the content validity of the measure. Most participants (68.7% to 95.8%) did not view the wording of scenarios as ambiguous, and understood scenarios as incidents of sexual violence, indicating that the Rape Proclivity Measure is comprehensible and has good content validity. However, participants were more likely to label rape scenarios involving: (a) a stranger perpetrator, and (b) use of physical force, as incidents of rape, indicating that their definition of rape matches the rape scripts prevalent in North America. The second study examined the relationship between rape proclivity and various correlates of rape, namely deviant sexual interests, offence supportive cognition (both rape and antisocial), and history of past sexually aggressive behaviour. The aim was to identify the most relevant variables, and to evaluate whether rape proclivity forms a distinct construct or whether it overlaps substantially with one of these other constructs. There was a strong correlation between rape proclivity and correlates of rape. However, in a factor analyses, the various measures of rape proclivity did not form a distinct construct indicating that different measures of rape proclivity may not be assessing the same construct. Finally, the third study aimed to address the gap in the literature regarding the role of rape proclivity, assessed by rape proclivity measures, as a predictor of sexually aggressive behaviour. Results indicated that rape proclivity measured by Sexual Experience Survey-Tactics First Revised (SES-TFR) predicted future sexual violence, but the Rape Proclivity Measure did not. This means that rape proclivity may be a factor related to the perpetration of sexual offending, but care must be taken in the measures that are used. Once proclivity can be identified in a reliable and valid manner, it can be targeted in programs designed to prevent sexual violence

Design and development of a traction motor emulator using a three-phase bidirectional buck-boost AC-DC converter

An industrial drive testing, with a ???real-machine??? can pave way, for some serious issues to test-bench, motor, and the operator. A slight disturbance in control logic amid testing, can damage the physical machine or drive. Such dangerous testing conditions can be avoided by supplanting real motor with a power electronic converter based ???Motor Emulator??? (ME) test-bench system. The conventional ME comprises of two-stage three-phase AC-DC-AC conversion with first-stage AC-DC as emulator and second-stage DC-AC as regenerating unit. This two-stage power conversion, require independent control algorithm, burdening control complexity as well as the number of power electronic switches are quite significant. Therefore, to economize and downsize conventional multistage ME system, this research work experimentally validates a common-DC-bus-configured ME system with only the AC-DC regenerative emulator stage. A bidirectional three-phase AC-DC converter is proposed as the regenerative emulator converter in a common-DC-Bus-configured ME system. The Proposed converter???s operating principle along with mathematical design and control strategy are also presented. To validate the operation of the proposed converter as a common DC-bus-configured emulator, two permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) of 7.5 kW and 2.0 kW are emulated and their simulation and experimental results are presented here. The proposed bi-directional converter inspired from classical buck-boost operation, requires just ten unidirectional IGBT switches preventing any circulating current in the system. The proposed converter also eliminates the regenerative converter stage in classical ME system. Also, the proposed common-DC-bus-configured ME system requires a single stage control unlike independent control in existing ME system. The proposed converter provides four-quadrant operation and emulation of motor under study. The dynamic model of PMSM motor is simulated on the MATLAB simulation platform and the Simulation results are compared with experimental results. From the simulation and experimental results, it is concluded that, with the presented control scheme, the proposed ME converter can be made to draw the same current as a real machine would have drawn, had it been driven by the same DUT. Since, the output current of proposed converter is fed back to DC bus, the input power source requirement is reduced, making the overall ME system more energy efficient