Examining Visitor Attitudes and Motivations at a Space Science Centre

The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre is a multi-faceted organization whose mission is to educate, inspire and evoke a sense of wonder about the universe, our planet and space exploration. As a popular, Vancouver science centre, it faces the same range of challenges and issues as other major attractions: how does the Space Centre maintain a healthy public attendance in an increasingly competitive market where visitors continue to be presented with an increasingly rich range of choices for their leisure spending and entertainment dollars?This front-end study investigated visitor attitudes, thoughts and preconceptions on the topic of space and astronomy. It also examined visitors’ motivations for coming to a space science centre. Useful insights were obtained which will be applied to improve future programme content and exhibit development.

Road Sign Recognition based onInvariant Features using SupportVector Machine

Since last two decades researches have been working on developing systems that can assistsdrivers in the best way possible and make driving safe. Computer vision has played a crucialpart in design of these systems. With the introduction of vision techniques variousautonomous and robust real-time traffic automation systems have been designed such asTraffic monitoring, Traffic related parameter estimation and intelligent vehicles. Among theseautomatic detection and recognition of road signs has became an interesting research topic.The system can assist drivers about signs they don’t recognize before passing them.Aim of this research project is to present an Intelligent Road Sign Recognition System basedon state-of-the-art technique, the Support Vector Machine. The project is an extension to thework done at ITS research Platform at Dalarna University [25]. Focus of this research work ison the recognition of road signs under analysis. When classifying an image its location, sizeand orientation in the image plane are its irrelevant features and one way to get rid of thisambiguity is to extract those features which are invariant under the above mentionedtransformation. These invariant features are then used in Support Vector Machine forclassification. Support Vector Machine is a supervised learning machine that solves problemin higher dimension with the help of Kernel functions and is best know for classificationproblems.

Economic Evaluation of a Solar Charged Thermal Energy Store for Space Heating

A thermal energy store corrects the misalignment of heating demand in the winter relative to solar thermal energy gathered in the summer. This thesis reviews the viability of a solar charged hot water tank thermal energy store for a school at latitude 56.25N, longitude -120.85W

Solar Collectors for Historic Homes : Linking consumption to perceptions of space

Reduction of household energy consumption is one of the top issues in contemporary discussions on sustainable consumption. This chapter concerns one way through which consumption of purchased energy for house heating can be reduced; by having a solar thermal system added to one's house. However, the fact that one of the components - the solar collector - usually is situated on the roof or the facade of a building, is a recurrent impediment to such installations. In certain contexts, these attributes may melt into the building, while in others, they may be perceived as problematic. The latter may particularly be the case when the appearance of the building is of major imiportance, as with houses deemed worthy of preservation for coming generations. This chapter draws upon a study carried out in Visby Town, a walled Hanseatic town and a World Heritage site on the island of Gotland, Sweden.

‘Being in a womb’ or ‘playing musical chairs’ : the impact of place and space on infant feeding in NICUs

Background: Becoming a parent of a preterm baby requiring neonatal care constitutes an extraordinary life situation in which parenting begins and evolves in a medical and unfamiliar setting. Although there is increasing emphasis within maternity and neonatal care on the influence of place and space upon the experiences of staff and service users, there is a lack of research on how space and place influence relationships and care in the neonatal environment. The aim of this study was to explore, in-depth, the impact of place and space on parents’ experiences and practices related to feeding their preterm babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) in Sweden and England. Methods: An ethnographic approach was utilised in two NICUs in Sweden and two comparable units in England, UK. Over an eleven month period, a total of 52 mothers, 19 fathers and 102 staff were observed and interviewed. A grounded theory approach was utilised throughout data collection and analysis. Results: The core category of ‘the room as a conveyance for an attuned feeding’ was underpinned by four categories: the level of ‘ownership’ of space and place; the feeling of ‘at-homeness’; the experience of ‘the door or a shield’ against people entering, for privacy, for enabling a focus within, and for regulating socialising and the; ‘window of opportunity’. Findings showed that the construction and design of space and place was strongly influential on the developing parent-infant relationship and for experiencing a sense of connectedness and a shared awareness with the baby during feeding, an attuned feeding. Conclusions: If our proposed model is valid, it is vital that these findings are considered when developing or reconfiguring NICUs so that account is taken of the influences of spatiality upon parent’s experiences. Even without redesign there are measures that may be taken to make a positive difference for parents and their preterm babies.