eARTh : the dynamics of ontological representation

This Australian Indigenous creactive work and its Treatise promote ways of thinking about practice and research that extend well beyond the current discourse. It invites re-thinking on how research can be practice-led in new ways, and what that might mean for future students. When discussing the challenges of today, this work signifies how "Western Style" thinking and theory is wanting in so many ways. It engages a new dynamic and innovative way of theorising, encouraging future students to apply their full capacity of energy and wisdom. (Extract from examiners' reports.)

A review of pedestrian group dynamics and methodologies in modelling pedestrian group behaviours

Observations conducted by researchers revealed that the group interaction within crowds is a common phenomenon and has great influence on pedestrian behaviour. However, most research currently undertaken by various researchers failed to consider the group dynamics when developing pedestrian flow models. This paper presented a critical review of pedestrian models that incorporates group behaviour. Models reviewed in this paper are mainly created by microscopic modelling approaches such as social force, cellular automata, and agent-based method. The purpose of this literature review is to improve the understanding of group dynamics among pedestrians and highlight the need for considering group dynamics when developing pedestrian simulation models.

System dynamics model of the knowledge management process

To effectively manage the challenges being faced by construction organisations in a fast changing business environment, many organisations are attempting to integrate knowledge management (KM) into their business operations. KM activities interact with each other and form a process which receives input from its internal business environment and produces outputs that should be justified by its business performance. This paper aims to provide further understanding on the dynamic nature of the KM process. Through a combination of path analysis and system dynamic simulation, this study found that: 1) an improved business performance enables active KM activities and provide feedback and guidance for formulating learning-based policies; and 2) effective human resource recruitment policies can enlarge the pool of individual knowledge, which lead to a more conducive internal business environment, as well as a higher KM activity level. Consequently, the desired business performance level can be reached within a shorter time frame.

The pattern of coupling dynamics between postural motion, isotonic hand movements and physiological tremor

This study was designed to examine differences in the coupling dynamics between upper limb motion, physiological tremor and whole body postural sway in young healthy adults. Acceleration of the hand and fingers, forearm EMG activity and postural sway data were recorded. Estimation of the degree of bilateral and limb motion-postural sway coupling was determined by cross correlation, coherence and Cross-ApEn analyses. The results of the analysis revealed that, under postural tremor conditions, there was no significant coupling between limbs, muscles or sway across all metrics of coupling. In contrast, performing a rapid alternating flexion/extension movement about the wrist joint (with one or both limbs) resulted in stronger coupling between limb motion and postural sway. These results support the view that, for physiological tremor responses, the control of postural sway is maintained independent to tremor in the upper limb. However, increasing the level of movement about a distal segment of one arm (or both) leads to increased coupling throughout the body. The basis for this increased coupling would appear to be related to the enhanced neural drive to task-specific muscles within the upper limb.

Formation of carbon nanoscrolls from graphene nanoribbons : a molecular dynamics study

Carbon nanoscrolls (CNSs) are one of the carbon-based nanomaterials similar to carbon nanotubes (CNTs) but are not widely studied in spite of their great potential applications. Their practical applications are hindered by the challenging fabrication of the CNSs. A physical approach has been proposed recently to fabricate the CNS by rolling up a monolayer graphene nanoribbon (GNR) around a CNT driven by the interaction energy between them. In this study, we perform extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the various factors that impact the formation of the CNS from GNR. Our simulation results show that the formation of the CNS is sensitive to the length of the CNT and temperature. When the GNR is functionalized with hydrogen, the formation of the CNS is determined by the density and distribution of the hydrogen atoms. Graphyne, the allotrope of graphene, is inferior to graphene in the formation of the CNS due to the weaker bonds and the associated smaller atom density. The mechanism behind the rolling of GNR into CNS lies in the balance between the GNR–CNT van der Waals (vdW) interactions and the strain energy of GNR. The present work reveals new important insights and provides useful guidelines for the fabrication of the CNS.

Targeting and transport : how microtubules control focal adhesion dynamics

Directional cell migration requires force generation that relies on the coordinated remodeling of interactions with the extracellular matrix (ECM), which is mediated by integrin-based focal adhesions (FAs). Normal FA turnover requires dynamic microtubules, and three members of the diverse group of microtubule plus-end-tracking proteins are principally involved in mediating microtubule interactions with FAs. Microtubules also alter the assembly state of FAs by modulating Rho GTPase signaling, and recent evidence suggests that microtubule-mediated clathrin-dependent and -independent endocytosis regulates FA dynamics. In addition, FA-associated microtubules may provide a polarized microtubule track for localized secretion of matrix metalloproteases (MMPs). Thus, different aspects of the molecular mechanisms by which microtubules control FA turnover in migrating cells are beginning to emerge.

Imaging intracellular protein dynamics by spinning disk confocal microscopy

The palette of fluorescent proteins (FPs) has grown exponentially over the past decade, and as a result, live imaging of cells expressing fluorescently tagged proteins is becoming more and more mainstream. Spinning disk confocal (SDC) microscopy is a high-speed optical sectioning technique and a method of choice to observe and analyze intracellular FP dynamics at high spatial and temporal resolution. In an SDC system, a rapidly rotating pinhole disk generates thousands of points of light that scan the specimen simultaneously, which allows direct capture of the confocal image with low-noise scientific grade-cooled charge-coupled device cameras, and can achieve frame rates of up to 1000 frames per second. In this chapter, we describe important components of a state-of-the-art spinning disk system optimized for live cell microscopy and provide a rationale for specific design choices. We also give guidelines of how other imaging techniques such as total internal reflection microscopy or spatially controlled photoactivation can be coupled with SDC imaging and provide a short protocol on how to generate cell lines stably expressing fluorescently tagged proteins by lentivirus-mediated transduction.

In the right space : exploring the dynamics between design, environment and pedagogy

The environments that we inhabit shape our everyday lives, influencing our behaviors and responses (Manu, 2013). As we enter an immersive phase of education in which physical and digital environments become inseparable, should we reconsider the role and importance of design on pedagogical practice? This paper explores the reciprocal cause and effect of space, technology and pedagogy in shaping the design of educational experiences within Queensland University of Technology's collaborative learning spaces.

'Women on a Wiki’ : the role of interactive websites in reflective learning practices for undergraduate women’s health students

Aim Our pedagogical research addressed the following research questions: 1) Can shared ‘cyber spaces’, such as a ‘wiki’, be occupied by undergraduate women’s health students to improve their critical thinking skills? 2) What are the learning processes via which this occurs? 3) What are the implications of this assessment trial for achieving learning objectives and outcomes in future public health undergraduate courses? Methods The students contributed written, critical reflections (approximately 250 words) to the Wiki each week following the lecture. Students reflected on a range of topics including the portrayal of women in the media, femininity, gender inequality, child bearing and rearing, domestic violence, mental health, Indigenous women, older women, and LGBTIQ communities. Their entries were anonymous, but visible to their peers. Each wiki entry contained a ‘discussion tab’ wherein online conversations were initiated. We used a social constructivist approach to grounded theory to analyse the 480 entries posted over the semester. (http://pub336womenshealth.wikispaces.com/) Results The social constructivist approach initiated by Vygotsky (1978) and further developed by Jonasson (1994) was used to analyse the students’ contributions in relation to four key thematic outcomes including: 1) Complexities in representations across contexts; 2) Critical evaluation in real world scenarios; 3) Reflective practice based on experience, and; 4) Collaborative co-construction of knowledge. Both text and image/visual contributions are provided as examples within each of these learning processes. A theoretical model depicting the interactive learning processes that occurred via discussion of the textual and visual stimulus is presented.

Best practice in peer-led curriculum content : informing an interactive program to improve passenger safety among high school seniors

Despite ongoing improvements in behaviour change strategies, licensing models and road law enforcement measures young drivers remain significantly over-represented in fatal and non-fatal road related crashes. This paper focuses on the safety of those approaching driving age and identifies both high priority road safety messages and relevant peer-led strategies to guide the development school programs. It summarises the review in a program logic model built around the messages and identified curriculum elements, as they may be best operationalised within the licensing and school contexts in Victoria. This paper summarises a review of common deliberate risk-taking and non-deliberate unsafe driving behaviours among novice drivers, highlighting risks associated with speeding, driving while fatigued, driving while impaired and carrying passengers. Common beliefs of young people that predict risky driving were reviewed, particularly with consideration of those beliefs that can be operationalised in a behaviour change school program. Key components of adolescent risk behaviour change programs were also reviewed, which identified a number of strategies for incorporation in a school based behaviour change program, including: a well-structured theoretical design and delivery, thoughtfully considered peer-selected processes, adequate training and supervision of peer facilitators, a process for monitoring and sustainability, and interactive delivery and participant discussions. The research base is then summarised in a program logic model with further discussion about the quality of the current state of knowledge of evaluation of behaviour change programs and the need for considerable development in program evaluation.

Understanding welding practices on shipyards : an ethnographic study for designing an interactive robot welder

The aim of this ethnographic study was to understand welding practices in shipyard environments with the purpose of designing an interactive welding robot that can help workers with their daily job. The robot is meant to be deployed for automatic welding on jack-up rig structures. The design of the robot turns out to be a challenging task due to several problematic working conditions on the shipyard, such as dust, irregular floor, high temperature, wind variations, elevated working platforms, narrow spaces, and circular welding paths requiring a robotic arm with more than 6 degrees of freedom. Additionally, the environment is very noisy and the workers – mostly foreigners – have a very basic level of English. These two issues need to be taken into account when designing the interactive user interface for the robot. Ideally, the communication flow between the two parties involved should be as frictionless as possible. The paper presents the results of our field observations and welders’ interviews, as well as our robot design recommendation for the next project stage.

J-Circos : an interactive Circos plotter

Circos plots are graphical outputs that display three dimensional chromosomal interactions and fusion transcripts. However, the Circos plot tool is not an interactive visualization tool, but rather a figure generator. For example, it does not enable data to be added dynamically, nor does it provide information for specific data points interactively. Recently, an R-based Circos tool (RCircos) has been developed to integrate Circos to R, but similarly, Rcircos can only be used to generate plots. Thus, we have developed a Circos plot tool (J-Circos) that is an interactive visualization tool that can plot Circos figures, as well as being able to dynamically add data to the figure, and providing information for specific data points using mouse hover display and zoom in/out functions. J-Circos uses the Java computer language to enable it to be used on most operating systems (Windows, MacOS, Linux). Users can input data into JCircos using flat data formats, as well as from the GUI. J-Circos will enable biologists to better study more complex chromosomal interactions and fusion transcripts that are otherwise difficult to visualize from next-generation sequencing data.

Dynamics of industry architecture and firm’s capability development : role of knowledge integration within product innovation

Aligned with the decline of Marshalian view of industry as constituting homogeneous set of firms, the new perspective is emerging by concentrating more on dynamics of sectors as the building block of industrial changes. Based on new assumptions, much of the action in terms of strategy, technology, and knowledge development does not happen either among firms within a stable industry, or through the growth or decline of certain sectors compared to others. Instead, the action happens in terms of the definition, redefinition, drawing, and redrawing of the very nature of these sectors. Technology does not progress and develop within a sector; rather it shapes (and is shaped by) the encompassing architecture of multiple sectors.

Investigative trends in understanding penalty-kick performance in association football: An ecological dynamics perspective

There have been different approaches to studying penalty-kick performance in association football. In this paper, the authors synthesize key findings within an ecological dynamics theoretical framework. According to this theoretical perspective, information is the cornerstone for understanding the dynamics of action regulation in penalty-kick performance. Research suggests that investigators need to identify the information sources that are most relevant to penalty-kick performance. An important task is to understand how constraints can channel (i.e. change, emphasize or mask) information sources used to regulate upcoming actions and how the influence of these constraints is expressed in players' behavioural dynamics. Due to the broad range of constraints influencing penalty-kick performance, it is recommended that future research adopts an interdisciplinary focus on performance assessment to overcome the current lack of representativeness in penalty-kick experimental designs. Such an approach would serve to capture the information-based control of action of both players as components of this dyadic system in competitive sport.