147 research outputs found
Harald Klingelholler : Sculptures
No full textRefering to notions of language and nature, and to Heidegger's conception of "dwelling", Moos analyses Klingelholler's sculptures made of materials contiguous with those of modern building. The author examines these forms' pervasive spatiality and considers the artist's peculiar use of paper. Biographical notes. 11 bibl. ref
MOOS as Virtual Communities
No full textMany researchers have observed that the Internet has changed the concept of virtual communities (Barnes, 2001, 2003; Jones, 1995, 1998; Rheingold, 1993). A unique example of virtual communities is a MOO—a specialized interactive online community that is usually based on a work of fiction such as book series, theater or television (Bartle, 1990). MOOs share many of the features of multi-user dimensions (MUDs) in that both allow participants to create their own virtual worlds, but some researchers consider MOOs to be “more sophisticated” (Barnes, 2001, p. 94). In a MOO community, the participants or “players” create their own virtual communities—fantasy communities complete with world structures, interpersonal norms and social constructs. Individual participants create characters complete with environment, history and personality constructs. The characters interact and influence each other and their environments, just as do the members of real-world communities. The MOO discussed in this case study is based on acclaimed fantasy author Anne McCaffery’s book series set on the fictional world of “Pern.” The players on DragonWings1 MOO create and develop characters over long periods, often many years, leading to the establishment and creation of a strong MOO. In this article we provide a case study of the DragonWings MOO as a unique virtual community. Because the concept of virtual communities is evolving with the Internet, and no definitive understanding of virtual community or virtual culture yet exists, we have chosen to structure our analysis of DragonWings MOO around the classical anthropological definition of culture and community. A seminal definition of culture, first articulated by Tylor (1871), provides the springboard for a number of anthropological definitions widely used today. Building on Tylor, White (1959), a prominent cultural scholar, defined culture as “within human organisms, i.e., concepts, beliefs, emotions, attitudes; within processes of social interaction among human beings; and within natural objects” (p. 237). He also identified symbols as a primary defining characteristic of culture. White’s simple yet comprehensive definition yields clear criteria that lend themselves to our analysis of MOOs. At the broadest level, an application of the criteria provides support for the acceptance of the Internet as a distinct and unique culture. At a more particular level, they provide a convenient tool for the analysis of a MOO as a virtual community. In the remainder of this article, we will utilize the definition outlined above to demonstrate the features that make DragonWings MOO a unique example of a virtual community. </jats:p
Exploring the meanings of artistic occupation for women living with chronic illness: A comparison of template and interpretative phenomenological approaches to analysis
No full text(Brief Summary)
This article is based on my experience of carrying out two
studies that explored the meanings of artistic occupations
(in particular, textile arts) for women who were living with
long-term health problems (Reynolds 1997, Reynolds and
Prior 2003). Inquiry into the meanings of occupation for
people in the community who are coping with illness and
life transitions is a growing area of occupational therapy
research (for example, Christiansen et al 1999, Jonsson et al
2001, Lyons et al 2002). A better understanding of the
phenomenology of occupation may help to inform
professional practice
Presenting the self in cyberspace: identity play in MOOS
No full textDeposited with permission of the author © 2004 Dr. Andrea ChesterThe use of the Internet has increased exponentially over the last decade. Individuals across all continents are progressively engaging in cyberspace interactions at work, in education, and for leisure. These online interactions, unconstrained by the limitations of corporeal reality, offer the potential for unique presentations of the self. The general aim of the research described in this thesis was to examine self-presentation in cyberspace. The research focused on MOOs, multi-user, text-based, user-extensible online environments, as a likely site for identity experimentation and play in cyberspace. Two studies are described. In the first quantitative study, 75 university students logged on to the front page of a social MOO where they selected a screen name, chose their gender, and provided a character description. As hypothesised, self-presentations were more likely to be based on actual identity rather than hoped for or feared selves. Contrary to expectation, little evidence was found of gender play. Self-presentations were typically positively biased and results suggested that players also perceived themselves more positively in the online context. Although sex and age were generally unrelated to self-presentation strategies, previous online experience, ethnicity, and personality profiles helped to explain self-presentation behaviour.
A qualitative study of a further 20 students in an educational MOO explored players understanding of their initial self-presentational choices and their management of these self-presentations over a 12-week period. Findings from the second study were consistent with the results from the first quantitative study and confirmed a strong desire for authentic self-presentation. Despite this emphasis on authenticity, the intention to play with identity was manifest in the form of selective self-disclosure, fantasy play, and exaggeration of traits. Participants also reported behaving in less inhibited ways online. A low incidence of gender play was noted. The overt identity play assumed by the cyberspace literature was not found in either study. Rather self-presentation in the online context appears to be governed by essentially similar processes to those that shape self-presentation in the offline world. The implications of the findings for teaching and learning, particularly for educators who want to use MOOs for identity experimentation, are discussed
Do colourless green voices speak furiously? Linkages between phonetic and visual perception in synaesthesia
No full textSynaesthesia is an unusual phenomenon, in which additional sensory perceptions are triggered by apparently unrelated sensory or conceptual stimuli. The main foci of this thesis lie in speech sound - colour and voice-induced synaesthesia. While grapheme-colour synaesthesia has been intensively researched, few studies have approached types of synaesthesia based on vocal inducers with detailed acoustic-phonetic and colorimetric analyses. This approach is taken here.
First, a thorough examination of speech-sound - colour synaesthesia was conducted. An experiment is reported that tested to what extent vowel acoustics influence colour associations for synaesthetes and non-synaesthetes. Systematic association patterns between vowel formants and colour measures could be found in general, but most strongly in synaesthetes. Synaesthetes also showed a more consistent pattern of vowel-colour associations. The issue of whether or not speech-sound - colour synaesthesia is a discrete type of synaesthesia independent of grapheme-colour synaesthesia is discussed, and how these might influence each other. Then, two experiments are introduced to explore voice-induced synaesthesia. First, a comprehensive voice description task was conducted with voice synaesthetes, phoneticians and controls to investigate their verbal voice quality descriptions and the colour and texture associations that they have with voices. Qualitative analyses provided data about the nature of associations by the participant groups, while quantitative analyses revealed that for all groups, acoustic parameters such as pitch, pitch range, vowel formants and other spectral properties influenced colour and texture associations in a systematic way. Above all, a strong connection was found between these measures and luminance. Finally, voice-induced synaesthetes, other synaesthetes and controls participated in a voice line-up, of the kind used in forensic phonetic case work. This experiment, motivated by previous findings of memory advantages in synaesthetes in certain areas, tested whether synaesthetes’ voice memory is influenced by their condition. While no difference in performance was found between groups when using normal speech, voice-induced synaesthetes outperformed others in identifying a whispering speaker.
These are the first group studies on the otherwise under-researched type of voice-induced synaesthesia, with a focus on acoustic rather than semantic analysis. This adds knowledge to the growing field of synaesthesia research from a largely neglected phonetic angle. The debate around (re)defining synaesthesia is picked up. The voice description experiment, in particular, leads to a discussion of a synaesthesia spectrum in the population, as many common mechanisms and associations were found. It was also revealed that less common types of synaesthesia are often difficult to define in a rigid way using traditional criteria. Finally, the interplay of different types of synaesthesia is discussed and findings are evaluated against the background of the existing theories of synaesthesia
Isogeometric Potential Flow Analysis of Linear Surface Waves
No full textIn numerical methods, correct geometry description and mesh refinement are a challenge. By using a more geometrically based Finite Element Analysis (FEA) type method called ‘Isogeometric Analysis’ (IGA), exact geometry description can be attained, even on coarse meshes. Furthermore, mesh refinement is relatively easy, since no communication with a geometry description is necessary. From a maritime perspective, this method seems to be very interesting. Therefore, a first step towards an all-inclusive IGA framework for potential flow problems of ships and offshore structures is made by using IGA to solve linear free surface waves in a bounded 2D and 3D domain. The goal of this thesis is twofold. The first goal is finding out which of three weak formulations is best suited for further development. The second goal is testing the advantages of IGA in a potential frame work. A secondary goal is testing MFEM, the C++ finite element library that was used. These goals were reached by testing the three formulations on (1) a sloshing wave, (2) an airy wave and (3) a step wave in a square tank of 1 square m and (4) a sloshing wave in a cubic tank of 1 cubic m3with a cylinder in the middle. The first two have analytical solutions that can be used for verification and validation, the last two are used to compare standard FEA with IGA. The three weak formulations are formed by transforming the strong problem definition into three different weak forms. The main difference between these three being the way the boundary conditions are implemented. The first, reduced formulation is formed by combining the free surface boundary conditions, the second, mixed formulation by implementing all three boundary conditions directly and the third decoupled formulation by decoupling the problem into a free surface and an interior part. The first formulation is the simplest, but is hard to extend towards more complicated problems and is therefore used as a reference solution. The mixed and decoupled formulations are more complicated but can be extended. The first two tests showed that the reduced and mixed formulations have identical results. These results were very accurate: the wave period could be calculated accurately for coarse meshes and, very important, energy was conserved perfectly. The results for the decoupled formulation were significantly worse: more refined meshes were needed to calculate the wave period accurately and the energy showed periodic behaviour. The last two tests demonstrated that IGA offers results comparable to FEA for less degrees of freedom. The more difficult geometry of the fourth problem was much better represented by IGA
Parameter and state estimation of a groundwater model using the Ensemble Kalman Filter
No full textGroundwater is an essential ingredient in farming, knowledge about how this is expected to change over time can help farmers improve yields and save water. Predictions about the groundwater level can be made using a mathematical model. This model takes into account the precipitation and evaporation, the flux towards a deeper aquifer and flux to lateral open structures, with parameters for the different resistances and the storage. This model needs input data which is acquired from among others the KNMI (Koningklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut), with data about the groundwater level at the points of interest acquired from the measurements from the Water board Drenths Overijsselse Delta. The input from the model can be used to generate predictions, whilst the measurement data can be compare with the predictions to obtain more accurate predictions and calibrate the parameters in the model. Combining these factors can be done with the Kalman Filter, a mathematical tool from Data Assimilation which can be used to combine a Mathematical Model and Data into an optimal estimate. Furthermore, it is the wish to improve the parameters in the mathematical model, this causes the state to expand thereby enlarging the problem, and the parameters included in the state causes the problem to become non-linear. The Kalman Filter is only suitable for small linear models but an extension of the regular Kalman Filter can account for these problems, the Ensemble Kalman Filter. To apply all this information for groundwater modeling in a single location, first the numerical errors associated with the different model solutions are tested. It was found that a semi-analytical solution which assumed the input to stay constant over a day to produce the best result. After this the Kalman Filter is compared with the Ensemble Kalman Filter to see whether the Ensemble Kalman Filter can perform comparably in state estimation, it was found that en ensemble size of this was the case. To test if the parameter calibration scheme works as desired and to test the quality of the parameters found, artificial data is created using the model with all parameters set to one. Then, the parameters are shifted to a different value and the parameter Ensemble Kalman Filter is used to try to find the original parameters back. It is found that in almost all cases the parameter calibration cause the parameter to change in the direction of one, within the first 2/3 months most change within the parameter takes place and the standard deviation of the parameters decreases. After this initial period the parameter remains more stable and the standard deviation changes little. Since the model uses multiple parameters for the resistances, the possibility of calibrating these separately was investigated. It was discovered that in the data usually one resistance parameter is lot smaller than the other, it was enough to calibrate only this parameter to account for the resistance. After this, the parameters in the model are calibrated with actual data. The model always becomes a lot closer to the measurements, and interestingly all parameter become larger than 1. Finally the quality of the predictions is tested. Here we saw that the quality improved fast, already 1/3th year was enough to find parameter far better than originally.Applied Mathematic
Autonomous low-cost ozone sensors: development, calibration, and application to study exposure and spatial gradients
No full text2022 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Ozone (O3), a criteria pollutant and atmospheric oxidant, is not routinely measured in rural and remote environments and hence exposure to ozone pollution in these regions remains poorly understood. In this work, we built, calibrated, and deployed five low-cost, autonomous ozone sensor systems (called MOOS) in Northern Colorado, a region that is non-compliant for O3 during the summertime. Each MOOS included the following components: (i) an Aeroqual SM50, a heated metal oxide ozone sensor, mounted inside a custom radiation shield, (ii) a power system that consisted of a 30 W solar panel, 108 Wh lithium-ion battery, and charge controller, (iii) a Particle Boron to acquire, process, and transmit data to the Cloud, and (iv) an environmental sensor to measure temperature, relative humidity, and pressure. In a three-week long collocated study, we found that all MOOS, calibrated using 48 hours of reference data, compared well against reference monitors with a measurement error between 4-6 parts per billion by volume (ppbv). Manufacturer- and laboratory-based calibrations over- and under-estimated ozone levels at higher and lower ozone mixing ratios, respectively. When deployed in Northern Colorado for an additional three weeks to measure O3 exposure and study O3 trends across an urban-rural gradient, we found that the MOOS, calibrated using data from the collocated study and calibrated using 48 hours of reference data in the field, demonstrated good sensor performance (RMSE of 3.98 - 8.80 ppbv and MBE of 0.22 - 3.82 ppbv). Compared to the collocated study, the field study resulted in larger measurement errors for all five MOOS (RMSE of 3.66 - 4.00 versus RMSE of 3.98 - 8.80). Furthermore, there was modest variability in the field performance across the different MOOS (RMSE < 5 ppbv) that could not be explained by environmental differences between the different sites (e.g., proximity of the MOOS to the reference monitor, land use type, temperature). We found that MOOS were able to capture 100% of non-compliant O3 days during the collocated study and between 25-87% of non-compliant O3 days during the field study depending on the calibration approach used. Furthermore, both reference monitors and MOOS deployed along the east-west corridor in Northern Colorado were able to capture the negative, west-east O3 gradients observed in previous aircraft and modeling studies. Overall, our study indicates that the MOOS shows promise as a low-cost O3 sensor that could be used to supplement routine ambient monitoring and characterize regional ozone pollution
Multisensory Contributions to Perceived Quality and Authenticity of Materials for the Vehicle Interior
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