Complex modelling in the primary/middle school years

The world’s increasing complexity, competitiveness, interconnectivity, and dependence on technology generate new challenges for nations and individuals that cannot be met by continuing education as usual (Katehi, Pearson, & Feder, 2009). With the proliferation of complex systems have come new technologies for communication, collaboration, and conceptualisation. These technologies have led to significant changes in the forms of mathematical and scientific thinking that are required beyond the classroom. Modelling, in its various forms, can develop and broaden children’s mathematical and scientific thinking beyond the standard curriculum. This paper first considers future competencies in the mathematical sciences within an increasingly complex world. Next, consideration is given to interdisciplinary problem solving and models and modelling. Examples of complex, interdisciplinary modelling activities across grades are presented, with data modelling in 1st grade, model-eliciting in 4th grade, and engineering-based modelling in 7th-9th grades.

Centrifuging rotary vacuum filter mud at Tully Mill

Disposal of mud and ash, particularly in wet weather conditions, is a significant expense for mills. This paper reports on one part of a process to pelletise mud and ash, aimed at making mud and ash more attractive to growers across entire mill districts. The full process is described in a separate paper. The part described in this paper involves re-constituting mud cake from the filter station at Tully Mill and processing it in a decanter centrifuge. The material produced by re-constituting and centrifuging is drier and made up of separate particles. The material needs to mix easily with boiler ash, and the mixture needs to be fed easily into a flue gas drier to be dried to low moisture. The results achieved with the particular characteristics of Tully Mill rotary vacuum filter cake are presented. It was found that an internal rotor with a 20º beach was not adequate to process re-constituted rotary vacuum filter mud. A rotor with a 10º beach worked much more successfully. A total of four tonnes of centrifuged mud with a moisture content ranging from 60% to 65% was produced. It was found that the torque, flocculant rate and dose rate had a statistically significant effect on the moisture content. Feed rate did not have a noticeable impact on the moisture content by itself but torque had a much larger impact on the moisture content at the low feed rate than at the high feed rate. These results indicated that the moisture content of the mud can most likely be reduced with low feed rate, low flocculant rate, high dose rate and high torque. One issue that is believed to affect the operation of a decanter centrifuge was the large quantity of long bagasse fibres in the rotary vacuum filter mud. It is likely that the long fibres limited the throughput of the centrifuge and the moisture achieved.

An additional step towards modelling the mechanical behaviour of sugar cane bagasse

A better understanding of the behaviour of prepared cane and bagasse, especially the ability to model the mechanical behaviour of bagasse as it is squeezed in a milling unit to extract juice, would help identify how to improve the current milling process; for example to reduce final bagasse moisture. Previous investigations have proven with certainty that juice flow through bagasse obeys Darcy’s permeability law, that the grip of the rough surface of the grooves on the bagasse can be represented by the Mohr- Coulomb failure criterion for soils, and that the internal mechanical behaviour of the bagasse can be represented by critical state behaviour similar to that of sand and clay. Current Finite Element Models (FEM) available in commercial software have adequate permeability models. However, commercial software does not contain an adequate mechanical model for bagasse. Progress has been made in the last ten years towards implementing a mechanical model for bagasse in finite element software code. This paper builds on that progress and carries out a further step towards obtaining an adequate material model. In particular, the prediction of volume change during shearing of normally consolidated final bagasse is addressed.

QUT Design Lecture Series

The QUT Design Lecture Series 2010 was a partnered event between QUT School of Design and the State Library of Queensland. The series, spanning from July to September 2010, involved 10 lectures delivered by international, national and local academics, researchers and practitioners. The QUT Design Lecture series 2010 was a public event which examined the cross over between design, digital technologies and artistic practices focusing upon research themes of intangible media, experimental eco-technologies and artistic-design production. Gold Medal Australian Institute of Architects, Clare Design opened the series, whilst internationally awarded and recognised Spanish design group Cloud 9 concluded the series, both focusing on new eco-technologies in the development of contemporary architecture.

Building information modeling in the Australian architecture engineering and construction industry

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a modern approach to the design, documentation, delivery, and life cycle management of buildings through the use of project information databases coupled with object-based parametric modeling. BIM has the potential to revolutionize the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry in terms of the positive impact it may have on information flows, working relationships between project participants from different disciplines and the resulting benefits it may achieve through improvements to conventional methods. This chapter reviews the development of BIM, the extent to which BIM has been implemented in Australia, and the factors which have affected the up-take of BIM. More specifically, the objectives of this chapter are to investigate the adoption of BIM in the Australian AEC industry and factors that contribute towards the uptake (or non uptake) of BIM. These objectives are met by a review of the related literature in the first instance, followed by the presentation of the results of a 2007 postal questionnaire survey and telephone interviews of a random sample of professionals in the Australian AEC industry. The responses suggest that less than 25 percent of the sample had been involved in BIM – rather less than might be expected from reading the literature. Also, of those who have been involved with BIM, there has been very little interdisciplinary collaboration. The main barriers impeding the implementation of BIM widely across the Australian AEC industry are also identified. These were found to be primarily a lack of BIM expertise, lack of awareness and resistance to change. The benefits experienced as a result of using BIM are also discussed. These include improved design consistency, better coordination, cost savings, higher quality work, greater productivity and increased speed of delivery. In terms of conclusion, some suggestions are made concerning the underlying practical reasons for the slow up-take of BIM and the successes for those early adopters. Prospects for future improvement are discussed and proposals are also made for a large scale worldwide comparative study covering industry-wide participants

Human information behavior: Integrating diverse approaches and information use

For millennia humans have sought, organized, and used information as they learned and evolved patterns of human information behaviors to resolve their human problems and survive. However, despite the current focus on living in an "information age," we have a limited evolutionary understanding of human information behavior. In this article the authors examine the current three interdisciplinary approaches to conceptualizing how humans have sought information including (a) the everyday life information seeking-sense-making approach, (b) the information foraging approach, and (c) the problem-solution perspective on information seeking approach. In addition, due to the lack of clarity regarding the role of information use in information behavior, a fourth information approach is provided based on a theory of information use. The use theory proposed starts from an evolutionary psychology notion that humans are able to adapt to their environment and survive because of our modular cognitive architecture. Finally, the authors begin the process of conceptualizing these diverse approaches, and the various aspects or elements of these approaches, within an integrated model with consideration of information use. An initial integrated model of these different approaches with information use is proposed.

Information Behavior: A Socio-Cognitive Ability

Abstract: How has human information behavior evolved? Our paper explores this question in the form of notions, models and theories about the relationship between information behavior and human evolution. Alexander’s Ecological Dominance and Social Competition/Cooperation (EDSC) model currently provides the most comprehensive overview of human traits in the development of a theory of human evolution and sociality. His model provides a basis for explaining the evolution of human socio-cognitive abilities, including ecological dominance, and social competition/cooperation. Our paper examines the human trait of information behavior as a socio-cognitive ability related to ecological dominance, and social competition/cooperation. The paper first outlines what is meant by information behavior from various interdisciplinary perspectives. We propose that information behavior is a socio-cognitive ability that is related to and enables other sociocognitive abilities such as human ecological dominance, and social competition/cooperation. The paper reviews the current state of evolutionary approaches to information behavior and future directions for this research . Keywords: information behavior, socio-cognitive ability, ecological dominance, social competition, social cooperation.

Heterogeneity in auditory alarm sets makes them easier to learn

The primary objective of the experiments reported here was to demonstrate the effects of opening up the design envelope for auditory alarms on the ability of people to learn the meanings of a set of alarms. Two sets of alarms were tested, one already extant and one newly-designed set for the same set of functions, designed according to a rationale set out by the authors aimed at increasing the heterogeneity of the alarm set and incorporating some well-established principles of alarm design. For both sets of alarms, a similarity-rating experiment was followed by a learning experiment. The results showed that the newly-designed set was judged to be more internally dissimilar, and easier to learn, than the extant set. The design rationale outlined in the paper is useful for design purposes in a variety of practical domains and shows how alarm designers, even at a relatively late stage in the design process, can improve the efficacy of an alarm set.

Entertainment industries : entertainment as a cultural system

Entertainment Industries is the first book to map entertainment as a cultural system. Including work from world-renowned analysts such as Henry Jenkins and Jonathan Gray, this innovative collection explains what entertainment is and how it works. Entertainment is audience-centred culture. The Entertainment Industries are a uniquely interdisciplinary collection of evolving businesses that openly monitor evolving cultural trends and work within them. The producers of entertainment – central to that practice– are the new artists. They understand audiences and combine creative, business and legal skills in order to produce cultural products that cater to them. Entertainment Industries describes the characteristics of entertainment, the systems that produce it, and the role of producers and audiences in its development, as well as explaining the importance of this area of study, and how it might be better integrated into Universities.

Virtual worlds as a model-view approach to the communication of business processes models

The improvement and optimization of business processes is one of the top priorities in an organization. Although process analysis methods are mature today, business analysts and stakeholders are still hampered by communication issues. That is, analysts cannot effectively obtain accurate business requirements from stakeholders, and stakeholders are often confused about analytic results offered by analysts. We argue that using a virtual world to model a business process can benefit communication activities. We believe that virtual worlds can be used as an efficient model-view approach, increasing the cognition of business requirements and analytic results, as well as the possibility of business plan validation. A healthcare case study is provided as an approach instance, illustrating how intuitive such an approach can be. As an exploration paper, we believe that this promising research can encourage people to investigate more research topics in the interdisciplinary area of information system, visualization and multi-user virtual worlds.

Cultural studies and the urgency of interdisciplinarity : sooner, not later, we're going to need a cultural science (Os Estudos Culturais e a urgência por interdisciplinaridade: cedo, e não tarde, vamos precisar de uma Ciência da Cultura)

Most of creativity in the digital world passes unnoticed by the industry practices and policies, and it isn't taken into account in the cultural and economic strategies of the creative industries. We should find ways to catalyze this creative production, showing how the user's contribution may contribute to social learning, cultural and economic advancement. To that effect, we must know what is an open creative system and how it works. Based on this diagnosis, the author that interdisciplinarity is urgent and there is also a need for a science of culture. What is at stake is a strategy of integrated development, as regards the upcoming innovation in its complex, productive and learning aspects.

Synthesizing and databasing fossil calibrations: divergence dating and beyond

Divergence dating studies, which combine temporal data from the fossil record with branch length data from molecular phylogenetic trees, represent a rapidly expanding approach to understanding the history of life. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center hosted the first Fossil Calibrations Working Group (3–6 March, 2011, Durham, NC, USA), bringing together palaeontologists, molecular evolutionists and bioinformatics experts to present perspectives from disciplines that generate, model and use fossil calibration data. Presentations and discussions focused on channels for interdisciplinary collaboration, best practices for justifying, reporting and using fossil calibrations and roadblocks to synthesis of palaeontological and molecular data. Bioinformatics solutions were proposed, with the primary objective being a new database for vetted fossil calibrations with linkages to existing resources, targeted for a 2012 launch.

Fashion, the body and technology : tracing early 20th century techno-utopian ideas, aesthetics and impulses in 21st century wearable technology

‘Wearable technology’, or the use of specialist technology in garments, is promoted by the electronics industry as the next frontier of fashion. However the story of wearable technology’s relationship with fashion begins neither with the development of miniaturised computers in the 1970s nor with sophisticated ‘smart textiles’ of the twenty-first century, despite what much of the rhetoric suggests. This study examines wearable technology against a longer history of fashion, highlighted by the influential techno-sartorial experiments of a group of early twentieth century avant-gardes including Italian Futurists Giacomo Balla and F.T. Marinetti, Russian Constructivists Varvara Stepanova and Liubov Popova, and Paris-based Cubist, Sonia Delaunay. Through the interdisciplinary framework of fashion studies, the thesis provides a fuller picture of wearable technology framed by the idea of utopia. Using comparative analysis, and applying the theoretical formulations of Fredric Jameson, Louis Marin and Michael Carter, the thesis traces the appearance of three techno-utopian themes from their origins in the machine age experiments of Balla, Marinetti, Stepanova, Popova and Delaunay to their twenty-first century reappearance in a dozen wearable technology projects. By exploring the central thesis that contemporary wearable technology resurrects the techno-utopian ideas and expressions of the early twentieth century, the study concludes that the abiding utopian impetus to embed technology in the aesthetics (prints, silhouettes, and fabrication) and functionality of fashion is to unify subject, society and environment under a totalising technological order.