Transitional issues of induction into design education for international undergraduate students : a case study analysis of architecture

The overarching aim of this paper is to present and discuss a collaborative undertaking between the School of Architecture and Building and the Academic Skills Unit at Deakin University, Australia in a programme called The Integrated Support Programme for Architecture. It does this in the following ways. It provides a justification for the setting up of an integrated programme for international architecture students. It describes the programme that was set up and outlines the reasons for collaboration between an academic School and an Academic Skills support services unit to prepare students both nationally and internationally as graduates of architecture. It then reports on a study undertaken to evaluate the programme in terms of student response and perception. Following this, it highlights directions for effective and strategic transition of past and present learning for international students. Using a case study analysis, the thrust of this paper is to advance knowledge and understanding of the pertinent issues related to international students either commencing or articulating into the professional course of architecture. It is envisaged that in this discussion matters may be raised for a strategic and effective transition of generic and internationalised learning for international students.

Computational simulation of gas flow and heat transfer near immersed object in fluidised bed

To improve the understanding of the heat transfer mechanism and find a reliable and simple heat-transfer model, the gas flow and heat transfer between fluidised beds and immersed object surfaces was numerically simulated based on a double particlelayer and porous medium model. The velocity field and temperature distribution of gas were discussed to analyse the heat transfer process.

Upregulated MT1-MMP/TIMP-2 axis in the TSU-Pr1-B1/B2 model of metastatic progression in transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder

Muscle invasive transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder is associated with a high frequency of metastasis, resulting in poor prognosis for patients presenting with this disease. Models that capture and demonstrate step-wise enhancement of elements of the human metastatic cascade on a similar genetic background are useful research tools. We have utilized the transitional cell carcinoma cell line TSU-Pr1 to develop an in vivo experimental model of bladder TCC metastasis. TSU-Pr1 cells were inoculated into the left cardiac ventricle of SCID mice and the development of bone metastases was monitored using high resolution X-ray. Tumor tissue from a single bone lesion was excised and cultured in vitro to generate the TSU-Pr1-B1 subline. This cycle was repeated with the TSU-Pr1-B1 cells to generate the successive subline TSU-Pr1-B2. DNA profiling and karyotype analysis confirmed the genetic relationship of these three cell lines. In vitro, the growth rate of these cell lines was not significantly different. However, following intracardiac inoculation TSU-Pr1, TSU-Pr1-B1 and TSU-Pr1-B2 exhibited increasing metastatic potential with a concomitant decrease in time to the onset of radiologically detectable metastatic bone lesions. Significant elevations in the levels of mRNA expression of the matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) membrane type 1-MMP (MT1-MMP), MT2-MMP and MMP-9, and their inhibitor, tissue inhibitor of metalloprotease-2 (TIMP-2), across the progressively metastatic cell lines, were detected by quantitative PCR. Given the role of MT1-MMP and TIMP-2 in MMP-2 activation, and the upregulation of MMP-9, these data suggest an important role for matrix remodeling, particularly basement membrane, in this progression. The TSU-Pr1-B1/B2 model holds promise for further identification of important molecules.

On the simultaneous estimation of optical flow and object state

This thesis focuses on the enhancement of differential optical flow techniques. The framwork of differential optical flow has been built upon to improve object motion estimation within a video stream or image sequence. This augmentation comes in the form of a combined optical flow and object state estimation method (SEOS)

Prototyping real-time systems using Petri net and object-oriented models

The objective of the research for this thesis is to develop techniques in order to build an executable model of a real-time system. This model is to be used early in the development of the system not only to detect errors in the specification of the system but also to validate expectations of the developer as to the operation of the system. A graphical specification of a real-time system called the transformation schema was chosen to be used to build the model. Two executable models of a real-time system are described.

The roles of object-image relative motion and static depth information in the perception of heading

Investigates visual information that enables human to effectively guide their movement through the environment. This problem is fundamental to the study of human behaviour, since survival is contingent upon the acquisition of resources that lie in different locations throughout the environment.

Novel spectral descriptor for object shape

In this paper, we propose a novel descriptor for shapes. The proposed descriptor is obtained from 3D spherical harmonics. The inadequacy of 2D spherical harmonics is addressed and the method to obtain 3D spherical harmonics is described. 3D spherical harmonics requires construction of a 3D model which implicitly represents rich features of objects. Spherical harmonics are used to obtain descriptors from the 3D models. The performance of the proposed method is compared against the CSS approach which is the MPEG-7 descriptor for shape contour. MPEG-7 dataset of shape contours, namely, CE-1 is used to perform the experiments. It is shown that the proposed method is effective.

A generic virtual reality interaction system and its extensions using the common object request broker architecture (CORBA)

The paper describes the design and implementation of an immersive Virtual Reality (VR) interaction system. The system aims to provide a flexible mechanism for programmers to implement interaction in their VR applications, making good use of all accepted practices in the field. The paper further describes how the system was extended to a multi-user system using the CORBA middleware layer.

Procedural modeling facilities for hierarchical object generation

We modify a selection of interactive modeling tools for use in a procedural modeling environment. These tools are selection, extrusion, subdivision and curve shaping. We create human models to demonstrate that these tools are appropriate for use on hierarchical objects. Our tools support the main benefits of procedural modeling, which are: the use of parameterisation to control and very a model, varying levels of detail, increased model complexity, base shape independence and database amplification. We demonstrate scripts which provide each of these benefits.