Cognitive and affective processes for learning science in immersive virtual reality

As immersive virtual reality (IVR) systems proliferate in classrooms, it is important to understand how they affect learning outcomes and the underlying affective and cognitive processes that may cause these outcomes. Proponents argue that IVR could improve learning by increasing positive affective and cognitive processing, thereby supporting improved performance on tests of learning outcome, whereas opponents of IVR contend that it could hurt learning by increasing distraction, thereby disrupting cognitive learning processes and leading to poorer learning outcomes. In a media comparison study, students viewed a biology lesson either as an interactive animated journey in IVR or as a slideshow on a desktop monitor. Those who viewed the IVR lesson performed significantly worse on transfer tests, reported higher emotional arousal, reported more extraneous cognitive load and showed less engagement based on EEG measures than those who viewed the slideshow lesson, with or without practice questions added to the lessons. Mediational analyses showed that the lower retention scores for the IVR lesson were related to an increase in self-reported extraneous cognitive load and emotional arousal. These results support the notion that immersive environments create high affective and cognitive distraction, which leads to poorer learning outcomes than desktop environments.     

Applied data science in patient-centric healthcare: Adaptive analytic systems for empowering physicians and patients

We define the emerging research field of applied data science as the knowledge discovery process in which analytic systems are designed and evaluated to improve the daily practices of domain experts. We investigate adaptive analytic systems as a novel research perspective of the three intertwining aspects within the knowledge discovery process in healthcare: domain and data understanding for physician- and patient-centric healthcare, data preprocessing and modelling using natural language processing and (big) data analytic techniques, and model evaluation and knowledge deployment through information infrastructures. We align these knowledge discovery aspects with the design science research steps of problem investigation, treatment design, and treatment validation, respectively. We note that the adaptive component in healthcare system prototypes may translate to data-driven personalisation aspects including personalised medicine. We explore how applied data science for patient-centric healthcare can thus empower physicians and patients to more effectively and efficiently improve healthcare. We propose meta-algorithmic modelling as a solution-oriented design science research framework in alignment with the knowledge discovery process to address the three key dilemmas in the emerging “post-algorithmic era” of data science: depth versus breadth, selection versus configuration, and accuracy versus transparency.     

Dairy farmers with larger herd sizes adopt more precision dairy technologies

An increase in the average herd size on Australian dairy farms has also increased the labor and animal management pressure on farmers, thus potentially encouraging the adoption of precision technologies for enhanced management control. A survey was undertaken in 2015 in Australia to identify the relationship between herd size, current precision technology adoption, and perception of the future of precision technologies. Additionally, differences between farmers and service providers in relation to perception of future precision technology adoption were also investigated. Responses from 199 dairy farmers, and 102 service providers, were collected between May and August 2015 via an anonymous Internet-based questionnaire. Of the 199 dairy farmer responses, 10.4% corresponded to farms that had fewer than 150 cows, 37.7% had 151 to 300 cows, 35.5% had 301 to 500 cows; 6.0% had 501 to 700 cows, and 10.4% had more than 701 cows. The results showed that farmers with more than 500 cows adopted between 2 and 5 times more specific precision technologies, such as automatic cup removers, automatic milk plant wash systems, electronic cow identification systems and herd management software, when compared with smaller farms. Only minor differences were detected in perception of the future of precision technologies between either herd size or farmers and service providers. In particular, service providers expected a higher adoption of automatic milking and walk over weighing systems than farmers. Currently, the adoption of precision technology has mostly been of the type that reduces labor needs; however, respondents indicated that by 2025 adoption of data capturing technology for monitoring farm system parameters would be increased.     

马脊梁煤矿井下巷道贯通测量方法分析

在煤矿测量工作中,贯通测量是其中重要工作之一,确保贯通点的误差在设定的范围内,决定了贯通测量的成败。本文将马脊梁煤矿副立井与王村回风立井的贯通作为研究对象,选择使用井下控制测量、竖井联系测量及陀螺定向技术等,设定了贯通测量的方案,开展了误差预计,通过对比预计结果和要求,保证了贯通测量设计的可行性。     

Developing English domestic occupancy profiles

ABSTRACT

Occupancy patterns are necessary to estimate energy demand and evaluate thermal comfort in households. Because of this, many European countries are developing representative domestic schedules to replace outdated criteria. This paper evaluates the state of knowledge of UK domestic occupancy patterns and develops new domestic occupancy profiles for England. The presented research (1) characterizes methods for collecting occupancy data and inferring patterns; (2) identifies and assesses the quality of categories of occupancy patterns used in building simulation; and (3) develops updated occupancy profiles. A systematic scoping review identified social and monitoring surveys as the most deployed data-collection methods. A systematic literature review also established that the occupancy categories most frequently used in UK building simulation are (a) a family with dependent children where the parents work full time; and (b) a retired elderly couple who spend most of their time indoors. The interview sample from the English Housing Survey 2014–15 was used to map household typologies. Results show that categories (a) and (b) combined amount to only 19% of England’s households, which suggest models are over-reliant on these groups. Considering this result, the paper develops occupancy patterns for England derived from 2015 UK Time Use Survey diaries for each household typology previously identified.     

Importance of the color of light for the illumination of urban squares

The objective of this article was to establish the significance of parameters relevant for urban square illumination, particularly those related with the color of light. Performed using a questionnaire and with 154 architecture students as respondents, the survey showed that the 18 parameters can be divided into two groups. The first group of 13 parameters refers to the overall impression, influencing the basic and most important lighting aims like safety, security, orientation, visual comfort, and amenity, whereas the second group includes parameters related to lighting features which may negatively influence the overall impression. The four parameters directly linked to the color of light were evaluated lower than expected, indicating that architecture students were probably translating their attitude toward color in architecture to color of light, thus underestimating this lighting parameter. The survey results also showed that female respondents are more sensitive to parameters, which affect safety and security.     

数字花卉植物的全息可视化与交互实现

花卉植物形态、结构与生长过程的数字化和可视化是现代林业科研的重要研究内 容，数字花卉植物在科普、教育、展示等方面都有着广泛的应用与需求。全息影像技术是一种 新兴的前沿技术，其原理源自佩珀尔幻象，通常用于生成立体感强的影像，实现数字幻象与真 实世界的融合，拥有良好的观赏性，用户接受度较高。将全息影像技术与数字花卉植物相关研 究进行结合，可以加强数字花卉植物的可视化效果，从而实现更好的科普、教育、展示效果。 因此在现有的研究基础之上，考虑实现数字花卉植物的全息可视化，并在可视基础上增加了用 户交互实现，设计出一套兼具展示性和交互性的流程，力求总结出一种具有完整可行性的方案， 从而对数字花卉植物的新型表现形式进行深入研究，以期对数字植物研究与应用的进一步发展 提供参考。     

Soft Matter Technology at KIT: Chemical Perspective from Nanoarchitectures to Microstructures

Bioinspiration has emerged as an important design principle in the rapidly growing field of materials science and especially its subarea, soft matter science. For example, biological cells form hierarchically organized tissues that not only are optimized and designed for durability, but also have to adapt to their external environment, undergo self‐repair, and perform many highly complex functions. Being able to create artificial soft materials that mimic those highly complex functions will enable future materials applications. Herein, soft matter technologies that are used to realize bioinspired material structures are described, and potential pathways to integrate these into a comprehensive soft matter research environment are addressed. Solutions become available because soft matter technologies are benefitting from the synergies between organic synthesis, polymer chemistry, and materials science.     

Misconceptions of human factors concepts

Abstract

Like many scientific topics, Human Factors, and Ergonomics concepts are susceptible to being misunderstood by people unfamiliar with the subject matter. Most of the time these misunderstandings are harmless, like when a safety poster within a work setting encourages employees to 'overcome complacency'. This misunderstanding of complacency suggests it is a motivational aspect of human behaviour correctable with encouragement, whereas the human factors approach to overcoming complacency would be to evaluate how task design could diminish the destructive consequences of unexpected changes within a routine setting. No harm comes from the message within the safety poster, other than some wasted ink and paper, but misconceptions among particular audiences can eventually result in dire consequences for the human operator. This paper presents recent evidence that the concepts are being misapplied by casual consumers of human factors, particularly in the aftermath of accidents within complex systems, in ways detrimental to the core mission of improving the well-being of the human operator. Later, because this special issue presents new ways to demonstrate value via return on investment, practical efforts we can take to overcome such misconceptions are suggested.