Queensland Spatial Excellence Awards 2009 : individual citations

Profesional Citation with address to Spatial Sciences Institution (Queensland) - Education and Professional Development Criteria; including Executive Summary, Teaching, Research, Publications Summary, Professional Service and Summary

Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards WINNERS for 2009

Listing of Asia-Pacific Award winners and award nomination documentation for APSEA education an professional development, includes acceptance speech and photos

Motivation and perception factors influence buying home behaviour in Dilly, East Timor

Demand of low cost housing increased from 1995 to 1997 which is shown by the number of housing loan approval. In order to develop the most suitable marketing plan, developer needs to know some factors which influenced to the decision making process of buying house. This research used a residential development in PT Delta Comoro Permai, Dilly as a case study. A survey to homeowners has been done to evaluate the motivation and perception factors in buying home behaviour. The survey has been done on the 3rd August to 29th August 1998. In this study, four main components have been examined. Physical and linkage are not as important as environment and utilities for the homebuyer. Moreover, the result is consistent with developer’s motto ‘clean, secure, aesthetic, healthy and prosperity’. This study provides further recommendation in the environment and utilities components for the new development in the future.

Designing spatial story-telling software

What does it mean when we design for accessibility, inclusivity and "dissolving boundaries" -- particularly those boundaries between the design philosophy, the software/interface actuality and the stated goals? This paper is about the principles underlying a research project called 'The Little Grey Cat engine' or greyCat. GreyCat has grown out of our experience in using commercial game engines as production environments for the transmission of culture and experience through the telling of individual stories. The key to this endeavour is the potential of the greyCat software to visualize worlds and the manner in which non-formal stories are intertwined with place. The apparently simple dictum of "show, don't tell" and the use of 3D game engines as a medium disguise an interesting nexus of problematic issues and questions, particularly in the ramifications for cultural dimensions and participatory interaction design. The engine is currently in alpha and the following paper is its background story. In this paper we discuss the problematic, thrown into sharp relief by a particular project, and we continue to unpack concepts and early designs behind the greyCat itself.

On the use of different spatial reference frames for movement control

Previous work has shown that amplitude and direction are two independently controlled parameters of aimed arm movements, and performance, therefore, suffers when they must be decomposed into Cartesian coordinates. We now compare decomposition into different coordinate systems. Subjects pointed at visual targets in 2-D with a cursor, using a two-axis joystick or two single-axis joysticks. In the latter case, joystick axes were aligned with the subjects’ body axes, were rotated by –45°, or were oblique (i.e., one axis was in an egocentric frame and the other was rotated by –45°). Cursor direction always corresponded to joystick direction. We found that compared with the two-axis joystick, responses with single-axis joysticks were slower and less accurate when the axes were oriented egocentrically; the deficit was even more pronounced when the axes were rotated and was most pronounced when they were oblique. This confirms that decomposition of motor commands is computationally demanding and documents that this demand is lowest for egocentric, higher for rotated, and highest for oblique coordinates. We conclude that most current vehicles use computationally demanding man–machine interfaces.

Poverty in perception : a study of the twentieth-century prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand, as English-speaking nations with dominant white populations, present an ethnic anomaly not only in South East Asia, but also in the Southern Hemisphere. Colonised by predominantly workingclass British immigrants from the late eighteenth century, an ethnic and cultural connection grew between these two countries even though their indigenous populations and ecological environments were otherwise very different. Building a new life in Australia and New Zealand, the colonists shared similar historic perceptions of poverty – perceptions from their homelands that they did not want to see replicated in their new adopted countries. Dreams of a better life shaped their aspirations, self-identity and nationalistic outlook. By the twentieth century, national independence and self-government had replaced British colonial rule. The inveterate occurrence of poverty in Australia and New Zealand had created new local perspectives and different perceptions of, and about, poverty. This study analyses what relationship existed between the political directions adopted by the twentieth-century prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand and their perceptions of poverty. Using the existential phenomenological theory and methodology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the study adds to the body of knowledge about poverty in Australia and New Zealand by revealing the structure and origin of the poverty perceptions of the twentieth-century prime ministers.

Hertzian space : modelling spatial presences

This design research concerns the generation of spaces that fully respond to people’s presence and their activities and spatialises the dynamics of a full body massage. Researched though digital and physical modelling full size physical form was constructed using Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) foam with three-dimensional shape defined by a computer generated cutting pattern, and assembled into a non-linear articulated surface.

Learning approach and perception of learning context in economics education : a causality test

In the study of student learning literature, the traditional view holds that when students are faced with heavy workload, poor teaching, and content that they cannot relate to – important aspects of the learning context, they will more likely utilise the surface approach to learning due to stresses, lack of understanding and lack of perceived relevance of the content (Kreber, 2003; Lizzio, Wilson, & Simons, 2002; Ramdsen, 1989; Ramsden, 1992; Trigwell & Prosser, 1991; Vermunt, 2005). For example, in studies involving health and medical sciences students, courses that utilised student-centred, problem-based approaches to teaching and learning were found to elicit a deeper approach to learning than the teacher-centred, transmissive approach (Patel, Groen, & Norman, 1991; Sadlo & Richardson, 2003). It is generally accepted that the line of causation runs from the learning context (or rather students’ self reported data on the learning context) to students’ learning approaches. That is, it is the learning context as revealed by students’ self-reported data that elicit the associated learning behaviour. However, other research studies also found that the same teaching and learning environment can be perceived differently by different students. In a study of students’ perceptions of assessment requirements, Sambell and McDowell (1998) found that students “are active in the reconstruction of the messages and meanings of assessment” (p. 391), and their interpretations are greatly influenced by their past experiences and motivations. In a qualitative study of Hong Kong tertiary students, Kember (2004) found that students using the surface learning approach reported heavier workload than students using the deep learning approach. According to Kember if students learn by extracting meanings from the content and making connections, they will more likely see the higher order intentions embodied in the content and the high cognitive abilities being assessed. On the other hand, if they rote-learn for the graded task, they fail to see the hierarchical relationship in the content and to connect the information. These rote-learners will tend to see the assessment as requiring memorising and regurgitation of a large amount of unconnected knowledge, which explains why they experience a high workload. Kember (2004) thus postulate that it is the learning approach that influences how students perceive workload. Campbell and her colleagues made a similar observation in their interview study of secondary students’ perceptions of teaching in the same classroom (Campbell et al., 2001). The above discussions suggest that students’ learning approaches can influence their perceptions of assessment demands and other aspects of the learning context such as relevance of content and teaching effectiveness. In other words, perceptions of elements in the teaching and learning context are endogenously determined. This study attempted to investigate the causal relationships at the individual level between learning approaches and perceptions of the learning context in economics education. In this study, students’ learning approaches and their perceptions of the learning context were measured. The elements of the learning context investigated include: teaching effectiveness, workload and content. The authors are aware of existence of other elements of the learning context, such as generic skills, goal clarity and career preparation. These aspects, however, were not within the scope of this present study and were therefore not investigated.

Spatial cognition for robots

The paper discusses robot navigation from biological inspiration. The authors sought to build a model of the rodent brain that is suitable for practical robot navigation. The core model, dubbed RatSLAM, has been demonstrated to have exactly the same advantages described earlier: it can build, maintain, and use maps simultaneously over extended periods of time and can construct maps of large and complex areas from very weak geometric information. The work contrasts with other efforts to embody models of rat brains in robots. The article describes the key elements of the known biology of the rat brain in relation to navigation and how the RatSLAM model captures the ideas from biology in a fashion suitable for implementation on a robotic platform. The paper then outline RatSLAM's performance in two difficult robot navigation challenges, demonstrating how a cognitive robotics approach to navigation can produce results that rival other state of the art approaches in robotics.

Learning spatial concepts from RatSLAM representations

RatSLAM is a biologically-inspired visual SLAM and navigation system that has been shown to be effective indoors and outdoors on real robots. The spatial representation at the core of RatSLAM, the experience map, forms in a distributed fashion as the robot learns the environment. The activity in RatSLAM’s experience map possesses some geometric properties, but still does not represent the world in a human readable form. A new system, dubbed RatChat, has been introduced to enable meaningful communication with the robot. The intention is to use the “language games” paradigm to build spatial concepts that can be used as the basis for communication. This paper describes the first step in the language game experiments, showing the potential for meaningful categorization of the spatial representations in RatSLAM.

Spaces of hybridity : creating a sense of belonging through spatial awareness

When the colonisers first came to Australia there was an urgent desire to map, name and settle. This desire, in part, stemmed from a fear of the unknown. Once these tasks were completed it was thought that a sense of identity and belonging would automatically come. In Anglo-Australian geography the map of Australia was always perceived in relationship to the larger map of Europe and Britain. The quicker Australia could be mapped the quicker its connection with the ‘civilised’ world could be established. Official maps could be taken up in official history books and a detailed monumental history could begin. Australians would feel secure in where they were placed in the world. However, this was not the case and anxieties about identity and belonging remained. One of the biggest hurdles was the fear of the open spaces and not knowing how to move across the land. Attempts to transpose colonisers’ use of space onto the Australian landscape did not work and led to confusion. Using authors who are often perceived as writers of national fictions (Henry Lawson, Barbara Baynton, Patrick White, David Malouf and Peter Carey) I will reveal how writing about space becomes a way to create a sense of belonging. It is through spatial knowledge and its application that we begin to gain a sense of closeness and identity. I will also look at how one of the greatest fears for the colonisers was the Aboriginal spatial command of the country. Aborigines already had a strongly developed awareness of spatial belonging and their stories reveal this authority (seen in the work of Lorna Little, Mick McLean) Colonisers attempted to discredit this knowledge but the stories and the land continue to recognise its legitimacy. From its beginning Australian spaces have been spaces of hybridity and the more the colonisers attempted to force predetermined structures onto these spaces the more hybrid they became.

Zinc supplementation at conventional doses does not improve the disturbance of taste perception in hemodialysis patients

Objective: To determine the effect of zinc supplementation on taste perception in a group of hemodialysis patients. Design and Setting: Double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study in a teaching hospital dialysis unit. Patients: Fifteen stable hemodialysis patients randomized to placebo (6 male, 2 female; median age, 67; range, 30 to 72 years) or treatment (5 male, 2 female; median age, 60; range, 31 to 76 years). Intervention: Treatment group received zinc sulfate 220 mg per day for 6 weeks, and the placebo group received an apparently identical dummy pill. Main Outcome Measures: Taste scores by visual analogue scales, normalized protein catabolic rate and plasma, whole blood and red cell zinc levels. Results: At baseline, sweet and salt tastes were identified correctly by both groups. Sour was often confused with salt. Sour solutions of different concentrations were not distinguishable. Taste scores were not different after 6 weeks for either group. There was no significant increment in zinc levels or normalized protein catabolic rate for either group. Conclusion: We found a disturbance of taste perception in hemodialysis patients, particularly for the sour modality, which was not corrected by this regimen of zinc supplementation. These results cast doubts on the conclusions of earlier studies that indicated an improvement in taste after zinc supplementation.

Spatial information infrastructure : what can it possibly mean?

Investment begins with imagining that doing something new in the present will lead to a better future. Investment can vary from incidental improvements as safe and beneficial side-effects of current activity through to a more dedicated and riskier disinvestment in current methods of operation and reinvestment in new processes and products. The role of government has an underlying continuity determined by its constitution that authorises a parliament to legislate for peace, order and good government. ‘Good government’ is usually interpreted as improving the living standards of its citizens. The requirements for social order and social cohesion suggest that improvements should be shared fairly by all citizens through all of their lives. Arguably, the need to maintain an individual’s metabolism has a social counterpart in the ‘collective metabolism’ of a sustainable and productive society.

Interrogating statistical models of music perception

We have developed a new experimental method for interrogating statistical theories of music perception by implementing these theories as generative music algorithms. We call this method Generation in Context. This method differs from most experimental techniques in music perception in that it incorporates aesthetic judgments. Generation In Context is designed to measure percepts for which the musical context is suspected to play an important role. In particular the method is suitable for the study of perceptual parameters which are temporally dynamic. We outline a use of this approach to investigate David Temperley’s (2007) probabilistic melody model, and provide some provisional insights as to what is revealed about the model. We suggest that Temperley’s model could be improved by dynamically modulating the probability distributions according to the changing musical context.