Traction power system simulation in electrified railways

Electricity has been the major source of power in most railway systems. Reliable, efficient and safe power distribution to the trains is vitally important to the overall quality of railway service. Like any large-scale engineering system, design, operation and planning of traction power systems rely heavily on computer simulation. This paper reviews the major features on modelling and the general practices for traction power system simulation; and introduces the development of the latest simulation approach with discussions on simulation results and practical applications. Remarks will also be given on the future challenges on traction power system simulation.

Monitoring identity of past, current and future : a performance management system perspective

This paper seeks to explore how organisations can effectively use performance management systems (PMS) to monitor collective identities. The monitoring of relationships between identity and an influential PMS—the balanced scorecard (BSC)—are explored. Drawing from identity and management accounting literature, this paper argues that identity products, patternings and processes are commonly positioned, monitored and interpreted through the multiple perspectives and levels of the BSC. Specifically, human, technical and organisational capital under the Learning and Growth perspective of the BSC can incorporate various identity measures that sustain the relative, distinctive and fluid nature of identities. The value of this research is to strengthen the theoretical grounds which position identity as an important dimension of organisational capital in PMS.

Young and unlicensed : risky driving before entering the licensing system

Objective: On-road driving before gaining a valid licence (pre-Licence driving) represents a risk for all road users. Pre-Licence driving among young people who obtained a Provisional licence within an enhanced graduated driver licensing program in Queensland, Australia, was investigated. Methods: Recently-licensed drivers (n = 1032) aged 17-19 years (M = 17.54) completed a survey exploring their driving experiences while on their Learners licence. Six months later, 355 of these drivers completed the same survey exploring their experiences on their Provisional (intermediate) licence. Results: Twelve percent of participants reported pre-Licence driving. Pre-Licence drivers reported significantly more risky driving as Learners and Provisional drivers. Conclusions: Pre-Licence drivers not only place themselves and other road users at risk at the time but also continue to do so through their subsequent risky driving. Pre-licence driving should be discouraged, and parents should be encouraged to monitor car use and the driving behaviour of their children.

ThinkLifecycle

Exhibited at The Fashioning the Future Awards Showcase exhibition Fashioning the Future Awards is the leading international cross-disciplinary platform for celebrating innovative initiatives towards fashion design for sustainability, its development and communication. The 2011 awards are a showcase for exceptional work that celebrates ‘Unique’ ways to create our futures. Fashioning the Future is designed and coordinated by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion. Unique Enterprise Award The Unique Enterprise Award was offered for the consideration of the opportunities that arise from the necessity to solve the issues around water, waste, wellbeing, energy, equality and biodiversity. Winner Alice Payne According to Alice Payne there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a sustainable fashion system. Existing companies will need to evolve, change the way they design and produce garments, offer services rather than products, and engage with the end user to consider the end of life and future lives of their garments. The ThinkLifecycle content management system (CMS) acts as a bridge between existing industry practices and new, redirected practice in which sustainability is at the forefront of commercial thinking. Its chief aim is to embed lifecycle thinking within a company at a daily, operational level.

The ghrelin signalling system is involved in the consumption of sweets

The gastric-derived orexigenic peptide ghrelin affects brain circuits involved in energy balance as well as in reward. Indeed, ghrelin activates an important reward circuit involved in natural- as well as drug-induced reward, the cholinergic-dopaminergic reward link. It has been hypothesized that there is a common reward mechanism for alcohol and sweet substances in both animals and humans. Alcohol dependent individuals have higher craving for sweets than do healthy controls and the hedonic response to sweet taste may, at least in part, depend on genetic factors. Rat selectively bred for high sucrose intake have higher alcohol consumption than non-sucrose preferring rats and vice versa. In the present study a group of alcohol-consuming individuals selected from a population cohort was investigated for genetic variants of the ghrelin signalling system in relation to both their alcohol and sucrose consumption. Moreover, the effects of GHS-R1A antagonism on voluntary sucrose- intake and operant self-administration, as well as saccharin intake were investigated in preclinical studies using rodents. The effects of peripheral grelin administration on sucrose intake were also examined. Here we found associations with the ghrelin gene haplotypes and increased sucrose consumption, and a trend for the same association was seen in the high alcohol consumers. The preclinical data show that a GHS-R1A antagonist reduces the intake and self-administration of sucrose in rats as well as saccharin intake in mice. Further, ghrelin increases the intake of sucrose in rats. Collectively, our data provide a clear indication that the GHS-R1A antagonists reduces and ghrelin increases the intake of rewarding substances and hence, the central ghrelin signalling system provides a novel target for the development of drug strategies to treat addictive behaviours. © 2011 Landgren et al.

A people-to-people recommendation system using Tensor Space Models

Existing recommendation systems often recommend products to users by capturing the item-to-item and user-to-user similarity measures. These types of recommendation systems become inefficient in people-to-people networks for people to people recommendation that require two way relationship. Also, existing recommendation methods use traditional two dimensional models to find inter relationships between alike users and items. It is not efficient enough to model the people-to-people network with two-dimensional models as the latent correlations between the people and their attributes are not utilized. In this paper, we propose a novel tensor decomposition-based recommendation method for recommending people-to-people based on users profiles and their interactions. The people-to-people network data is multi-dimensional data which when modeled using vector based methods tend to result in information loss as they capture either the interactions or the attributes of the users but not both the information. This paper utilizes tensor models that have the ability to correlate and find latent relationships between similar users based on both information, user interactions and user attributes, in order to generate recommendations. Empirical analysis is conducted on a real-life online dating dataset. As demonstrated in results, the use of tensor modeling and decomposition has enabled the identification of latent correlations between people based on their attributes and interactions in the network and quality recommendations have been derived using the 'alike' users concept.

Using the work system method with freshman information systems students

Recent surveys of information technology management professionals show that understanding business domains in terms of business productivity and cost reduction potential, knowledge of different vertical industry segments and their information requirements, understanding of business processes and client-facing skills are more critical for Information Systems personnel than ever before. In an attempt to restrucuture the information systems curriculum accordingly, our view it that information systems students need to develop an appreciation for organizational work systems in order to understand the operation and significance of information systems within such work systems.

Charting the system : the integrated master schedule as a multi-level and poly-temporal boundary object in complex projects

This paper investigates the use of visual artifacts to represent a complex adaptive system (CAS). The integrated master schedule (IMS) is one of those visuals widely used in complex projects for scheduling, budgeting, and project management. In this paper, we discuss how the IMS outperforms the traditional timelines and acts as a ‘multi-level and poly-temporal boundary object’ that visually represents the CAS. We report the findings of a case study project on the way the IMS mapped interactions, interdependencies, constraints and fractal patterns in a complex project. Finally, we discuss how the IMS was utilised as a complex boundary object by eliciting commitment and development of shared mental models, and facilitating negotiation through the layers of multiple interpretations from stakeholders.

The Measurement of Information System Use: Preliminary Considerations

DeLone and McLean (1992, p. 16) argue that the concept of “system use” has suffered from a “too simplistic definition.” Despite decades of substantial research on system use, the concept is yet to receive strong theoretical scrutiny. Many measures of system use and the development of measures have been often idiosyncratic and lack credibility or comparability. This paper reviews various attempts at conceptualization and measurement of system use and then proposes a re-conceptualization of it as “the level of incorporation of an information system within a user’s processes.” The definition is supported with the theory of work systems, system, and Key-User-Group considerations. We then go on to develop the concept of a Functional- Interface-Point (FIP) and four dimensions of system usage: extent, the proportion of the FIPs used by the business process; frequency, the rate at which FIPs are used by the participants in the process; thoroughness, the level of use of information/functionality provided by the system at an FIP; and attitude towards use, a set of measures that assess the level of comfort, degree of respect and the challenges set forth by the system. The paper argues that the automation level, the proportion of the business process encoded by the information system has a mediating impact on system use. The article concludes with a discussion of some implications of this re-conceptualization and areas for follow on research.

Finitude (Mallee:Time)

An interactive installation with full body interface, digital projection, multi-touch sensitive screen surfaces, interactive 3D gaming software, motorised dioramas, 4.1 spatial sound & new furniture forms - investigating the cultural dimensions of sustainability through the lens of 'time'. “Time is change, time is finitude. Humans are a finite species. Every decision we make today brings that end closer, or alternatively pushes it further away. Nothing can be neutral”. Tony Fry DETAILS: Finitude (Mallee:Time) is a major new media/sculptural hybrid work premiered in 2011 in version 1 at the Ka-rama Motel for the Mildura Palimpsest #8 ('Collaborators and Saboteurs'). Each participant/viewer lies comfortably on their back on the double bed of Room 22. Directly above them, supported by a wooden structure, not unlike a house frame, is a semi-transparent Perspex screen that displays projected 3D imagery and is simultaneously sensitive to the lightest of finger touches. Depending upon the ever changing qualities of the projected image on this screen the participant can see through its surface to a series of physical dioramas suspended above, lit by subtle LED spotlighting. This diorama consists of a slowly rotating series of physical environments, which also include several animatronic components, allowing the realtime composition of whimsical ‘landscapes’ of both 'real' and 'virtual' media. Through subtle, non-didactic touch-sensitive interactivity the participant then has influence over both the 3D graphic imagery, the physical movements of the diorama and the 4.1 immersive soundscape, creating an uncanny blend of physical and virtual media. Five speakers positioned around the room deliver a rich interactive soundscape that responds both audibly and physically to interactions. VERSION 1, CONTEXT/THEORY: Finitude (Mallee: Time) is Version 1 of a series of presentations during 2012-14. This version has been inspired through a series of recent visits and residencies in the SW Victoria Mallee country. Further drawing on recent writings by post colonial author Paul Carter, the work is envisaged as an evolving ‘personal topography’ of place-discovery. By contrasting and melding readily available generalisations of the Mallee regions’ rational surfaces, climatic maps and ecological systems with what Carter calls “a fine capillary system of interconnected words, places, memories and sensations” generated through my own idiosyncratic research processes, Finitude (Mallee Time) invokes a “dark writing” of place through outside eyes - an approach that avoids concentration upon what 'everyone else knows', to instead imagine and develop a sense how things might be. This basis in re-imagining and re-invention becomes the vehicle for the work’s more fundamental intention - as a meditative re-imagination of 'time' (and region) as finite resources: Towards this end, every object, process and idea in the work is re-thought as having its own ‘time component’ or ‘residue’ that becomes deposited into our 'collective future'. Thought this way Finitude (Mallee Time) suggests the poverty of predominant images of time as ‘mechanism’ to instead envisage time as a plastic cyclical medium that we can each choose to ‘give to’ or ‘take away from’ our future. Put another way - time has become finitude.