Franck—Condon analyses on a personal computer: Quadratic coupling,linear coupling,and line broadening

A previously reported program for the calculation of vibronically resolved electronic absorption and emission spectra has been substantially improved to allow for the inclusion of up to five linearly coupled vibronic modes, in addition to the original three quadratically coupled modes, and for energy-weighted line broadening.     

Individuality or conformity? Identity in personal and university academic homepages

The connection between writing and identity has been a subject of academic interest for some time and there is now broad agreement that identity is created from the texts we engage in and the semiotic choices we make. In this view, the process of constructing an identity most clearly involves selecting materials to present to others, a process which is seen most directly in personal homepages. It has become almost obligatory for academics to maintain some kind of online presence, although these homepages can also serve the university in several ways and therefore suppresses more personal facets of identity and act to position the author as an employee. As a result, many academics seek to escape the bland uniformity of the university personal page to present a more multi-faceted identity in a self-managed homepage. This paper explores the this relatively neglected area of composition to show how identity is discursively constructed in a corpus of 100 homepages of 50 academics, one university-managed and the other personally created. Focusing on textual content, design, links and photographs, I contrast some of the ways that academics elect to represent themselves as academics in these two environments.     

Participants’ personal note-taking in meetings and its value for automatic meeting summarisation

This paper reports the results of novel quantitative research on multiple people’s personal note-taking in meetings with the long-term aim of aiding the creation of innovative meeting understanding applications. We present three experiments using a large number of group meetings taken from the Augmented Multi-party Interaction meeting corpus. Statistical techniques were employed for this work. Our findings suggest that temporal note-taking overlap information and the semantic content of the written private notes taken by many meeting participants both point to the majority of the most informative meeting events. Thus, the characteristics of note-taking can be seen as a contributing feature for new automatic meeting summarisation approaches and for the development of future meeting browser environments that better support the needs of individuals and organisations.     

Development of nonlinear disturbance observer based control and nonlinear PID: A personal note

This paper gives an overview of early development of nonlinear disturbance observer design technique and the disturbance observer based control (DOBC) design. Some critical points raised in the development of the methods have been reviewed and discussed which are still relevant for many researchers or practitioners who are interested in this method. The review is followed by the development of a new type of nonlinear PID controller for a robotic manipulator and its experimental tests. It is shown that, under a number of assumptions, the DOBC consisting of a predictive control method and a nonlinear disturbance observer could reduce to a nonlinear PID with special features. Experimental results show that, compared with the predictive control method, the developed controller significantly improves performance robustness against uncertainty and friction. This paper may trigger further research and interests in the development of DOBC and related methods, and building up more understanding between this group of control methods with comparable ones (particularly control methods with integral action).     

The effects of privacy concerns and personal innovativeness on potential and experienced customers’ adoption of location-based services

Location-Based Services (LBS) use positioning technology to provide individual users the capability of being constantly reachable and accessing network services while ‘on the move’. However, privacy concerns associated with the use of LBS may ultimately prevent consumers from gaining the convenience of ‘anytime anywhere’ personalized services. We examine the adoption of this emerging technology through a privacy lens. Drawing on the privacy literature and theories of technology adoption, we use a survey approach to develop and test a conceptual model to explore the effects of privacy concerns and personal innovativeness on customers’ adoption of LBS. In addition, as a number of IS researchers have shown that customers differ in their decision making for continued adoption as compared to initial decision making, we test the research model separately for potential and experienced customers. The results indicate that privacy concerns significantly influence continued adoption as compared to initial adoption. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

“Come on momma,let’s see the drummer”: movement-based interaction and the performance of personal style

Interaction forms are beginning to make more use of the way we move our bodies in the physical and social world. This paper aims to contribute to a new generation of personal computing by showing how the medium of everyday clothing and dress can bring valuable perspectives to the study of human embodiment and movement. The author refers to ideas from fashion theory and clothing design that can contribute to a richer understanding of the many influences that convene emotions of style and identity. In order to indicate the potential of personal style as a social medium with relevance to human computer interaction (HCI), some existing artefacts that entail interaction through movement are referenced, along with research outcomes from biomechanics, dance and performance. In conclusion design strategies are constructed for new movement-based interaction concepts that can have relevance to the changing meanings of identity in twenty-first century mass society.

A company-office system “Valentine” providing informal communication and personal space based on 3D virtual space and avatars

In this paper we propose a virtual office environment that integrates natural communication and secure private space. The features of this system are the following. (1) This system has a virtual shared room based on the idea of “shared room metaphor” and 3D graphics on an SGI workstation is used for this system. It uses Ethernet media (i.e. real-time audio/video streams). (2) This system implements the field of view of a human by using our “around view” technique. This provides more natural communication between members. (3) “Sound effects” are used to help users feel the presence of other members. For instance, members hear the sound of a door opening when someone logs into our system and the sound of footsteps when someone is walking around our virtual room. (4) At times our system limits the flow of awareness information. A person concentrating on his/her work may not want to perceive excessive awareness of others. To support such situation, we define “awareness space” which restricts the field where other members' awareness is transmitted. Awareness space changes in size with the degree of concentration which is measured through two factors: the movement of a chair and the frequency of keyboard typing. (5) “Headphone metaphor”. A picture of a headphone is attached above a person's image and changes color depending on the degree of concentration. This enables other members to recognize his/her state and can be a criterion as to whether he/she is available to communicate or not. (6) In the virtual space, users are represented as avatars built of 3D polygons and still pictures. The avatars change shape automatically according to the users' action.     

Teachers’ personal web use at work

This article presents findings from an online survey of teachers concerning personal web use (PWU) at work. Often considered as ‘cyberslacking’ or ‘Internet abuse’, PWU is a growing phenomenon within increasingly Internet-dependent workplaces. The findings of this study highlight a wide range of types of personal web usage amongst teachers ranging from sending personal emails to social networking and personal banking as well as a range of reasons for PWU from a means of addressing permeable work-life boundaries and coping with work intensification to providing a virtual space for routine resistance. The data also suggest that, rather than being detrimental to the organisation, PWU could potentially be a means of increasing worker productivity and developing the digital literacy of teachers. It concludes by considering the implications of the findings for senior managers within organisations.     

Hardware, Software, and Infoware

Formanyyears,computersciencehasbeenstrainingattheboundsofthecomputer,hopingforalanguage,atechnique,asysternthatwouldtranscendtherigidboundsofthepurelyprocedural.Allofthoseattemptshavefailed,toagreaterorlesserdegree.Yetnow,withoutintendingit,weperhapsfindourselvesimperceptiblyoverthatedge.Thereisnosinglewatershedevent,butwehaveneverthelesscrossedfromonecomputingeraintoanother.TwoMicrosoftonlineencyclopedias,EncartaandCinemania,standoneithersideofacontinentaldivideinelectronicpublishing.Bothma…     

Emerging production systems and industrial relations: Confusion,diffusion, and exclusion?

Although there is debate about emerging production systems, there is little analysis of their direct impact on traditional industrial relations. In this article the authors begin with an exploration of the literature on production systems and argue that there is confusion between the characteristics of, and distinctions between, emerging production systems. As companies diffuse their own production systems, there arises not only a great variety of models, but also a convergence of the principle characteristics of these production models. These are identified as teams, multiskilled workers, and management-initiated employee participation programs. These “new” production models might best be generically termed “lean team” systems, and the consequences for labor and unions are potentially significant. Drawing on research in Colgate-Palmolive, a multinational manufacturing company operating in Australia, one such production model is examined. It would appear that the consequences of the new production system for the union are complex and potentially responsible for their exclusion. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

“Extra-Ordinary” Ergonomics: How to Accommodate Small and Big Persons,the Disabled and Elderly,Expectant Mothers,and Children

Abstract

Data from a previous study of soldier driving postures and seating positions were analysed to develop statistical models for defining accommodation of driver seating positions in military vehicles. Regression models were created for seating accommodation applicable to driver positions with a fixed heel point and a range of steering wheel locations in typical tactical vehicles. The models predict the driver-selected seat position as a function of population anthropometry and vehicle layout. These models are the first driver accommodation models considering the effects of body armor and body-borne gear. The obtained results can benefit the design of military vehicles, and the methods can also be extended to be utilised in the development of seating accommodation models for other driving environments where protective equipment affects driver seating posture, such as vehicles used by law-enforcement officers and firefighters.

Practitioner Summary: A large-scale laboratory study of soldier driving posture and seating position was designed to focus on tactical vehicle (truck) designs. Regression techniques are utilised to develop accommodation models suitable for tactical vehicles. These are the first seating accommodation models based on soldier data to consider the effects of personal protective equipment and body-borne gear.     

Use cases – Yesterday,today, and tomorrow

To my knowledge, no other software engineering language construct as significant as use cases has been adopted so quickly and so widely among practitioners. I believe this is because use cases play a role in so many different aspects of software engineering.Although I first used the term in 1986, I had actually been working on and evolving the concept of use cases since 1967. So many people have asked me how I came up with this concept that I decided to write this article to explain the origins and evolution of use cases. Ill also summarize what they have helped us achieve so far, and then suggest a few improvements for the future.     

An old game,new experience: exploring the effect of players’ personal gameplay history on game experience

This experimental study explores how game experience differs between players with different gameplay histories within the same game universe. We are interested in how prolonged engagement with a game series affects the gameplay experience in relation to the most recent game version in the series. A total of 54 participants were divided into four groups depending on their gaming experience, namely non-gamers, new-gamers, old-gamers and core-gamers. They played the mobile version of Super Mario Run, and questionnaire data was collected after the gameplay session. The results of the study showed that not only the players’ personal gameplay history but also the length of experience or degree of familiarity with the game universe affected the experience of playing a new game in the same game universe. Additionally, familiarity with the game universe had a positive impact on the feeling of competence, immersion, emotions and flow.