Introduction : the global flow of creative ideas

In the era of late modernism, various pressures play a decisive role in shaping the texture and meaning of the world around us. Population, work, transportation, new technologies of information and communication, lifestyle cultures and other forces are increasingly mobile, and this in turn helps make for a new set of public and personal surroundings. Social life everywhere now appears to share more and more in an international (if not a global) order, even if inequality and stratification remain common inside territories and across territories. Still, the perception is that a particular cultural life is increasingly universal. More and more consumers come to share in its practices and products, with those products becoming more and more homogeneous. This standardization argument finds much support in the apparent internationalization of many elements of media, entertainment, leisure and lifestyle cultures, with cultural conglomerates determined to maximize their global market reach. Once upon a time, in order to understand the economic, political and cultural forces affecting citizens and society, it was mostly deemed sufficient to look within the boundaries of the nation-state. Over the past two decades, these same pressures of globalization have impacted on critical research, highlighting the methodological need to adopt an optic that is more cross-border and transcultural as a means of gaining greater understanding of cultural life.

Numerical simulation for the 3D seepage flow with fractional derivatives in porous media

In this paper, the numerical simulation of the 3D seepage flow with fractional derivatives in porous media is considered under two special cases: non-continued seepage flow in uniform media (NCSFUM) and continued seepage flow in non-uniform media (CSF-NUM). A fractional alternating direction implicit scheme (FADIS) for the NCSF-UM and a modified Douglas scheme (MDS) for the CSF-NUM are proposed. The stability, consistency and convergence of both FADIS and MDS in a bounded domain are discussed. A method for improving the speed of convergence by Richardson extrapolation for the MDS is also presented. Finally, numerical results are presented to support our theoretical analysis.

Modified alternating direction methods for solving a two-dimensional non-continuous seepage flow with fractional derivatives

In this paper, a two-dimensional non-continuous seepage flow with fractional derivatives (2D-NCSF-FD) in uniform media is considered, which has modified the well known Darcy law. Using the relationship between Riemann-Liouville and Grunwald-Letnikov fractional derivatives, two modified alternating direction methods: a modified alternating direction implicit Euler method and a modified Peaceman-Rachford method, are proposed for solving the 2D-NCSF-FD in uniform media. The stability and consistency, thus convergence of the two methods in a bounded domain are discussed. Finally, numerical results are given.

Visualisation of groundwater flow using texture based visualisation techniques

Texture based techniques for visualisation of unsteady vector fields have been applied for the visualisation of a Finite volume model for variably saturated groundwater flow through porous media. This model has been developed by staff in the School of Mathematical Sciences QUT for the study of salt water intrusion into coastal aquifers. This presentation discusses the implementation and effectiveness of the IBFV algorithm in the context of visualisation of the groundwater simulation outputs.

Experimental studies of the shear behavior of LiteSteel Beams

This paper presents the details of experimental studies on the shear behaviour of a recently developed, cold-formed steel beam known as LiteSteel Beam (LSB). The LSB section has a unique shape of a channel beam with two rectangular hollow flanges and is produced by a patented manufacturing process involving simultaneous cold-forming and dual electric resistance welding. To date, no research has been undertaken on the shear behaviour of LiteSteel beams with torsionally rigid, rectangular hollow flanges. In the present investigation, experimental studies involving more than 30 shear tests were carried out to investigate the shear behaviour of 13 different LSB sections. It was found that the current design rules in cold-formed steel structures design codes are very conservative for the shear design of LiteSteel beams. Significant improvements to web shear buckling occurred due to the presence of rectangular hollow flanges while considerable post-buckling strength was also observed. Experimental results are presented and compared with corresponding predictions from the current design codes in this paper. Appropriate improvements have been proposed for the shear strength of LSBs based on AS/NZS 4600 design equations.

Post-buckling Strength of LiteSteel Beams in Shear

This paper presents the details of experimental and numerical studies on the shear behaviour of a recently developed, cold-formed steel beam known as LiteSteel Beam (LSB). The LSB sections are produced by a patented manufacturing process involving simultaneous cold-forming and electric resistance welding. It has a unique shape of a channel beam with two rectangular hollow flanges. Recent research has demonstrated the presence of increased shear capacity of LSBs due to the additional fixity along the web to flange juncture, but the current design rules ignore this effect. Therefore they were modified by including a higher elastic shear buckling coefficient. In the present study, the ultimate shear capacity results obtained from the experimental and numerical studies of 10 different LSB sections were compared with the modified shear capacity design rules. It was found that they are still conservative as they ignore the presence of post-buckling strength. Therefore the design rules were further modified to include the available post-buckling strength. Suitable design rules were also developed under the direct strength method format. This paper presents the details of this study and the results including the final design rules for the shear capacity of LSBs.

Power management and power flow control with back-to-back converters in a utility connected microgrid

This paper proposes a method for power flow control between utility and microgrid through back-to-back converters, which facilitates desired real and reactive power flow between utility and microgrid. In the proposed control strategy, the system can run in two different modes depending on the power requirement in the microgrid. In mode-1, specified amount of real and reactive power are shared between the utility and the microgrid through the back-to-back converters. Mode-2 is invoked when the power that can be supplied by the DGs in the microgrid reaches its maximum limit. In such a case, the rest of the power demand of the microgrid has to be supplied by the utility. An arrangement between DGs in the microgrid is proposed to achieve load sharing in both grid connected and islanded modes. The back-to-back converters also provide total frequency isolation between the utility and the microgrid. It is shown that the voltage or frequency fluctuation in the utility side has no impact on voltage or power in microgrid side. Proper relay-breaker operation coordination is proposed during fault along with the blocking of the back-to-back converters for seamless resynchronization. Both impedance and motor type loads are considered to verify the system stability. The impact of dc side voltage fluctuation of the DGs and DG tripping on power sharing is also investigated. The efficacy of the proposed control ar-rangement has been validated through simulation for various operating conditions. The model of the microgrid power system is simulated in PSCAD.

Improved simultaneous computation of motion detection and optical flow for object tracking

Object tracking systems require accurate segmentation of the objects from the background for effective tracking. Motion segmentation or optical flow can be used to segment incoming images. Whilst optical flow allows multiple moving targets to be separated based on their individual velocities, optical flow techniques are prone to errors caused by changing lighting and occlusions, both common in a surveillance environment. Motion segmentation techniques are more robust to fluctuating lighting and occlusions, but don't provide information on the direction of the motion. In this paper we propose a combined motion segmentation/optical flow algorithm for use in object tracking. The proposed algorithm uses the motion segmentation results to inform the optical flow calculations and ensure that optical flow is only calculated in regions of motion, and improve the performance of the optical flow around the edge of moving objects. Optical flow is calculated at pixel resolution and tracking of flow vectors is employed to improve performance and detect discontinuities, which can indicate the location of overlaps between objects. The algorithm is evaluated by attempting to extract a moving target within the flow images, given expected horizontal and vertical movement (i.e. the algorithms intended use for object tracking). Results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms other widely used optical flow techniques for this surveillance application.

Flow

This is an entry in an encyclopedia of television which has over 1000 entries. This one by John Hartley is titled "Flow" and begins by attributing the concept of 'flow' to Raymond Williams with TV viewers being persuaded to stay watching by on-screen sequencing.