Interdisciplinarity: perceptions of the value of computer-supported collaborative work in design for the built environment

This paper presents the findings from a study into the current exploitation of computer-supported collaborative working (CSCW) in design for the built environment in the UK. The research is based on responses to a web-based questionnaire. Members of various professions, including civil engineers, architects, building services engineers, and quantity surveyors, were invited to complete the questionnaire. The responses reveal important trends in the breadth and size of project teams at the same time as new pressures are emerging regarding team integration and efficiency. The findings suggest that while CSCW systems may improve project management (e.g., via project documentation) and the exchange of information between team members, it has yet to significantly support those activities that characterize integrated collaborative working between disparate specialists. The authors conclude by combining the findings with a wider discussion of the application of CSCW to design activity-appealing for CSCW to go beyond multidisciplinary working to achieve interdisciplinary working.

Design for design: support for creative practice in computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW) in design

This paper describes a novel methodology for observing and analysing collaborative design by using the concepts of cognitive dimensions related to concept-based misfit analysis. The study aims at gaining an insight into support for creative practice of graphical communication in collaborative design processes of designers while sketching within a shared white board and audio conferencing environment. Empirical data on design processes have been obtained from observation of groups of student designers solving an interior space-planning problem of a lounge-diner in a shared virtual environment. The results of the study provide recommendations for the design and development of interactive systems to support such collaborative design activities.

AT(1) receptor ligands: virtual-screening-based design with TOPP descriptors, synthesis, and biological evaluation of pyrrolidine derivatives

As a continuing effort to establish the structure-activity relationships (SARs) within the series of the angiotensin II antagonists (sartans), a pharmacophoric model was built by using novel TOPP 3D descriptors. Statistical values were satisfactory (PC4: r(2)=0.96, q(2) ((5) (random) (groups))=0.84; SDEP=0.26) and encouraged the synthesis and consequent biological evaluation of a series of new pyrrolidine derivatives. SAR together with a combined 3D quantitative SAR and high-throughput virtual screening showed that the newly synthesized 1-acyl-N-(biphenyl-4-ylmethyl)pyrrolidine-2-carboxamides may represent an interesting starting point for the design of new antihypertensive agents. In particular, biological tests performed on CHO-hAT(1) cells stably expressing the human AT(1) receptor showed that the length of the acyl chain is crucial for the receptor interaction and that the valeric chain is the optimal one.

Agonist-selective, receptor-specific interaction of human P-2Y receptors with beta-arrestin-1 and-2

Interaction of G-protein-coupled receptors with beta-arrestins is an important step in receptor desensitization and in triggering "alternative" signals. By means of confocal microscopy and fluorescence resonance energy transfer, we have investigated the internalization of the human P2Y receptors 1, 2, 4, 6, 11, and 12 and their interaction with beta-arrestin-1 and -2. Co-transfection of each individual P2Y receptor with beta-arrestin-1-GFP or beta-arrestin-2-YFP into HEK-293 cells and stimulation with the corresponding agonists resulted in a receptor-specific interaction pattern. The P2Y(1) receptor stimulated with ADP strongly translocated beta-arrestin-2-YFP, whereas only a slight translocation was observed for beta-arrestin-1-GFP. The P2Y(4) receptor exhibited equally strong translocation for beta-arrestin-1-GFP and beta-arrestin-2YFP when stimulated with UTP. The P2Y(6), P2Y(11), and P2Y(12) receptor internalized only when GRK2 was additionally cotransfected, but beta-arrestin translocation was only visible for the P2Y(6) and P2Y(11) receptor. The P2Y(2) receptor showed a beta-arrestin translocation pattern that was dependent on the agonist used for stimulation. UTP translocated beta-arrestin-1-GFP and beta-arrestin-2-YFP equally well, whereas ATP translocated beta-arrestin-1-GFP to a much lower extent than beta-arrestin2- YFP. The same agonist-dependent pattern was seen in fluorescence resonance energy transfer experiments between the fluorescently labeled P2Y(2) receptor and beta-arrestins. Thus, the P2Y(2) receptor would be classified as a class A receptor when stimulated with ATP or as a class B receptor when stimulated with UTP. The ligand-specific recruitment of beta-arrestins by ATP and UTP stimulation of P2Y(2) receptors was further found to result in differential stimulation of ERK phosphorylation. This suggests that the two different agonists induce distinct active states of this receptor that show differential interactions with beta-arrestins.

High bandwidth, large workspace haptic interaction: flying phantoms

It is well understood that for haptic interaction: free motion performance and closed-loop constrained motion performance have conflicting requirements. The difficulties for both conditions are compounded when increased workspace is required as most solutions result in a reduction of achievable impedance and bandwidth. A method of chaining devices together to increase workspace without adverse effect on performance is described and analysed. The method is then applied to a prototype, colloquially known as 'The Flying Phantom', and shown to provide high-bandwidth, low impedance interaction over the full range of horizontal movement across the front of a human user.

Applying semiotic analysis to the design and modeling of distributed multimedia systems

Semiotics is the study of signs. Application of semiotics in information systems design is based on the notion that information systems are organizations within which agents deploy signs in the form of actions according to a set of norms. An analysis of the relationships among the agents, their actions and the norms would give a better specification of the system. Distributed multimedia systems (DMMS) could be viewed as a system consisted of many dynamic, self-controlled normative agents engaging in complex interaction and processing of multimedia information. This paper reports the work of applying the semiotic approach to the design and modeling of DMMS, with emphasis on using semantic analysis under the semiotic framework. A semantic model of DMMS describing various components and their ontological dependencies is presented, which then serves as a design model and implemented in a semantic database. Benefits of using the semantic database are discussed with reference to various design scenarios.

Using objects to coordinate design activity in interaction

The coordination of design is a multi-faceted problem in construction. In design interactions in particular the real-time coordination of design activity is a persistent concern. The use of objects to coordinate the activity of design is studied as this happens in interactions between an architect and a building user group, in a setting where maintaining awareness of the design situation is important. An account of ways in which this was accomplished and how design activity is coordinated through interactional practices is provided. The empirical analyses examine design interaction from an ethnomethodological/conversation analysis (EM/CA) informed perspective to examine: ways in which mutual orientation to design issues are accomplished, how objects can provide a resource for the recognition of the activities of others and ways in which objects might be observable as momentarily intelligible. Subtle interactional practices involving talk, gesture and gaze were some of the small ways in which mutual orientation to the design actions of others became observable. The production of actions sequentially, in response to another's action, marked the real-time coordination of design moves in this setting. The relevance of accounts of micro-interaction to develop understanding of design activity and how it is coordinated are considered.

Enhancement of a telemanipulator design with a human arm model

In this chapter we described how the inclusion of a model of a human arm, combined with the measurement of its neural input and a predictor, can provide to a previously proposed teleoperator design robustness under time delay. Our trials gave clear indications of the superiority of the NPT scheme over traditional as well as the modified Yokokohji and Yoshikawa architectures. Its fundamental advantages are: the time-lead of the slave, the more efficient, and providing a more natural feeling manipulation, and the fact that incorporating an operator arm model leads to more credible stability results. Finally, its simplicity allows less likely to fail local control techniques to be employed. However, a significant advantage for the enhanced Yokokohji and Yoshikawa architecture results from the very fact that it’s a conservative modification of current designs. Under large prediction errors, it can provide robustness through directing the master and slave states to their means and, since it relies on the passivity of the mechanical part of the system, it would not confuse the operator. An experimental implementation of the techniques will provide further evidence for the performance of the proposed architectures. The employment of neural networks and fuzzy logic, which will provide an adaptive model of the human arm and robustifying control terms, is scheduled for the near future.

Can social interaction skills be taught by a social agent? The role of a robotic mediator in autism therapy

Increasingly socially intelligent agents (software or robotic) are used in education, rehabilitation and therapy. This paper discusses the role of interactive, mobile robots as social mediators in the particular domain of autism therapy. This research is part of the project AURORA that studies how mobile robots can be used to teach children with autism basic interaction skills that are important in social interactions among humans. Results from a particular series of trials involving pairs of two children and a mobile robot are described. The results show that the scenario with pairs of children and a robot creates a very interesting social context which gives rise to a variety of different social and non-social interaction patterns, demonstrating the specific problems but also abilities of children with autism in social interactions. Future work will include a closer analysis of interactional structure in human-human and robot-human interaction. We outline a particular framework that we are investigating.

Modelling human dynamics in-situ for rehabilitation and therapy robots

This paper outlines some rehabilitation applications of manipulators and identifies that new approaches demand that the robot make an intimate contact with the user. Design of new generations of manipulators with programmable compliance along with higher level controllers that can set the compliance appropriately for the task, are both feasible propositions. We must thus gain a greater insight into the way in which a person interacts with a machine, particularly given that the interaction may be non-passive. We are primarily interested in the change in wrist and arm dynamics as the person co-contracts his/her muscles. It is observed that this leads to a change in stiffness that can push an actuated interface into a limit cycle. We use both experimental results gathered from a PHANToM haptic interface and a mathematical model to observe this effect. Results are relevant to the fields of rehabilitation and therapy robots, haptic interfaces, and telerobotics