Engagement

I came here to M��nster as the second part of what could have been a four-part grand tour of art. I went to Kassel for Documenta, but couldn't afford to go to Venice for the Biennale or to Basel for its art fair. I hadn't planned to go to M��nster for the Sculpture Project '07, but a friend said I may as well go if I was in the Netherlands anyway. I came over the border into Germany through Arnhem, driving at somewhere from 130 to 180 kilometers an hour.

The ���Iranian ART Revolution���: infertility, assisted reproductive technology, and third-party donation in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Infertility is a social onus for women in Iran, who are expected to produce children early within marriage. With its estimated 1.5 million infertile couples, Iran is the only Muslim country in which assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) using donor gametes and embryos have been legitimized by religious authorities and passed into law. Th is has placed Iran, a Shia-dominant country, in a unique position vis-��-vis the Sunni Islamic world, where all forms of gamete donation are strictly prohibited. In this article, we first examine the ���Iranian ART revolution��� that has allowed donor technologies to be admitted as a form of assisted reproduction. Then we examine the response of Iranian women to their infertility and the profound social pressures they face. We argue that the experience of infertility and its treatment are mediated by women���s socioeconomic position within Iranian society. Many women lack economic access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) technologies and fear the moral consequences of gamete donation. Thus, the benefits of the Iranian ART revolution are mixed: although many Iranian women have been able to overcome their infertility through ARTs, not all women���s lives are improved by these technologies.

Defining friendworks : communication perspective on social networks types

This paper introduces friendwork as a new term in social networks studies. A friendwork is a network of friends. It is a specific case of an interpersonal social network. Naming this seemingly well known and familiar group of people as a friendwork facilitates its differentiation from the overall social network, while highlighting this subgroup's specific attributes and dynamics. The focus on one segment within social networks stimulates a wider discussion regarding the different subgroups within social networks. Other subgroups also discussed in this paper are: family dependent, work related, location based and virtual acquaintances networks. This discussion informs a larger study of social media, specifically addressing interactive communication modes that are in use within friendworks: direct (face-to-face) and mediated (mainly fixed telephone, internet and mobile phone). It explores the role of social media within friendworks while providing a communication perspective on social networks.

Living walls - a way to green the built environment

Actions Towards Sustainable Outcomes Environmental Issues/Principal Impacts The increasing urbanisation of cities brings with it several detrimental consequences, such as: ��� Significant energy use for heating and cooling many more buildings has led to urban heat islands and increased greenhouse gas emissions. ��� Increased amount of hard surfaces, which not only contributes to higher temperatures in cities, but also to increased stormwater runoff. ��� Degraded air quality and noise. ��� Health and general well-being of people is frequently compromised, by inadequate indoor air quality. ��� Reduced urban biodiversity. Basic Strategies In many design situations, boundaries and constraints limit the application of cutting EDGe actions. In these circumstances, designers should at least consider the following: ��� Living walls are an emerging technology, and many Australian examples function more as internal feature walls. However,as understanding of the benefits and construction of living walls develops this technology could be part of an exterior facade that enhances a building���s thermal performance. ��� Living walls should be designed to function with an irrigation system using non-potable water. Cutting EDGe Strategies ��� Living walls can be part of a design strategy that effectively improves the thermal performance of a building, thereby contributing to lower energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. ��� Including living walls in the initial stages of design would provide greater flexibility to the design, especially of the facade, structural supports, mechanical ventilation and watering systems, thus lowering costs. ��� Designing a building with an early understanding of living walls can greatly reduce maintenance costs. ��� Including plant species and planting media that would be able to remove air impurities could contribute to improved indoor air quality, workplace productivity and well-being. Synergies and References ��� Living walls are a key research topic at the Centre for Subtropical Design, Queensland University of Technology: http://www.subtropicaldesign.bee.qut.edu.au ��� BEDP Environment Design Guide: DES 53: Roof and Facade Gardens ��� BEDP Environment Design Guide: GEN 4: Positive Development ��� Designing for Net Positive Impacts (see green scaffolding and green space frame walls). ��� Green Roofs Australia: www.greenroofs.wordpress.com ��� Green Roofs for Healthy Cities USA: www.greenroofs.org

The quality of interface design for educational courseware development in Malaysian educational context

Interactive educational courseware has been adopted in diverse education sectors such as primary, secondary, tertiary education, vocational and professional training. In Malaysian educational context, the ministry of education has implemented Smart School Project that aims to increase high level of academic achievement in primary and secondary schools by using interactive educational courseware. However, many researchers have reported that many coursewares fail to accommodate the learner and teacher needs. In particular, the interface design is not appropriately designed in terms of quality of learning. This paper reviews educational courseware development process in terms of defining quality of interface design and suggests a conceptual model of interface design through the integration of design components and interactive learning experience into the development process. As a result, it defines the concept of interactive learning experience in a more practical approach in order to implement each stage of the development process in a seamless and integrated way.

Visualisation of Information Uncertainty : Progress and Challenges

Information uncertainty which is inherent in many real world applications brings more complexity to the visualisation problem. Despite the increasing number of research papers found in the literature, much more work is needed. The aims of this chapter are threefold: (1) to provide a comprehensive analysis of the requirements of visualisation of information uncertainty and their dimensions of complexity; (2) to review and assess current progress; and (3) to discuss remaining research challenges. We focus on four areas: information uncertainty modelling, visualisation techniques, management of information uncertainty modelling, propagation and visualisation, and the uptake of uncertainty visualisation in application domains.

���Queer��� ��� does not have a uniform : articulations of queer identity in Australian queer student activist media

This article explores articulations of queer identity in recent Australian queer student media. Print media is of particular importance to queer communities because, as Cover argues, it provides a crucial grounding for community development and a model of queer to guide the positioning of identity and activism. This article uses discourse analysis of queer student activists��� media representations of diversity and inclusiveness to investigate the articulations of queer identity in one specific context: metropolitan Australian universities. This reveals real-life appropriations of this contentious term and contributes to a genealogy of sexuality, documenting one visible moment in history.