Progression of color decision making in introductory design education

Color comprises both subjective and objective aspects within its contextual nature. Research on color design tends to explore this seemingly contradictory concerns from theoretical point of view, as well as architectural and design practice. The aim of this study was to observe subjective, intuitive or heuristic and objective, knowledge‐based or analytical attitudes toward color in design education. In the study 84 introductory design students were surveyed progressively to understand their color decision criteria after completion of three 2‐dimensional colored exercises, specific in terms of color education. Students' responses to open‐ended questions were coded according to the 5 categories, under 2 decision making processes derived from the literature; heuristic approach: preferential and symbolic criteria, and analytic reasoning: formal, thematic, and systematic criteria. A distinction between associative and emotional aspects of symbolic criteria was also revealed by the data analysis. The findings showed a shift from heuristic responses to analytic reasoning, as expected. Additionally, it is also investigated that students not only used heuristic approaches but also analytical components (formal and systematic) of color decision making in varying degrees as well, even before any color subjects covered. Thematic color decisions became a major part of the students' design considerations upon completion of color subjects. The observed increase in the number of color criteria interrelated by the students' among almost all categories explicated a complex decision making process particularly in color design and education. These findings were expected to lead to some further understanding in color decision making in design.     

An interior design exhibition: An assessment of color scheme preferences and the emotional states of students

Color is an essential factor for perceiving objects and their interaction. There are many alternatives to color selection in interior design. Colors can be selected according to a user, physical characteristics of the space or a concept. In this context, research has been conducted on the interior color scheme preferences and emotional states with university students. It contains the findings obtained during an interior design exhibition, which was organized at the interior design department of the university. This exhibition was organized for sampling interior color information, selection methods, and using forms. For the exhibition, to be able to observe the changes in the perception of space and the effects of the color, the visuals were arranged according to different color selection methods in the same space. A survey was conducted during the exhibition to examine color scheme preferences and the relation with emotional states of students on interior designs. In the survey, students were asked whether they would prefer or not each interior space and which emotional state is expressed for each visual separately. The statistical analysis was made, and according to the answers given in the survey, comparative results appeared. It is concluded that the students who participate in the survey have meaningful relationships on the spatial color preferences, and differences are determined in emotional states.     

Moodle and Socrative quizzes as formative aids on theory teaching in a chemical engineering subject

There is a majority opinion on the positive influence of using technologies in teaching. However, few studies account for their effect on students’ final grades. Traditional theory teaching often shows a lack of students’ motivation, engagement and self-efficacy. A way to improve these is to include quizzes, which may allow students to gain in skills acquisition feedback and self-regulation, and to control their own way to construct knowledge. The suggested methodology embeds quizzes and tests through two ICT, each one with a different strategy. One is the use of quick and real-time quizzes with Socrative, focused in promoting motivation and engagement in the classroom. The second is the use of tests with Moodle for a longer time scale (blocks of lessons). Both tests and quizzes were designed as formative activities: the students are able to gain feed-back, weaknesses identification and better programming of their work. Three ‘tools’ (one Moodle test; three Socrative quizzes; no tool/only traditional teaching) were rotated among three different cohorts and blocks in a Chemical Engineering subject (n=49 students). Effects on the students’ learning outcomes (grades) at the final theory exam were evaluated by blocks. A paired-data one-factor ANOVA test showed no significant statistical differences in using Moodle tests or Socrative quizzes or not. Some possible negative influences over data were identified and improvements for further study have been suggested. An intensification of quizzes and tests could be relevant. Although no significant improvement over grades was obtained, the use of both tools was positively valued for students and instructors. Surveys’ results showed that the proposed methodology may create a more attractive and self-regulated educational environment. However, this study supports that students’ previous perceptions about the tools may condition their final perceptions over the ICTs real aid for learning and their future academic outcomes.     

Visual determination of hue suprathreshold color-difference tolerances

This research extends the previous RIT-DuPont research on suprathreshold color-difference tolerances in which CIELAB was sampled in a balanced factorial design to quantify global lack of visual uniformity. The current experiments sampled hue, specifically. Three complete hue circles at two lightnesses (L* = 40 and 60) and two chroma levels ( = 20 and 40) plus three of the five CIE recommended colors (red, green, blue) were scaled, visually, for hue discrimination, resulting in 39 color centers. Forty-five observers participated in a forced-choice perceptibility experiment, where the total color difference of 393 sample pairs were compared with a near-neutral anchor-pair stimulus of 1.03 A supplemental experiment was performed by 30 additional observers in order to validate four of the 39 color centers. A total of 34,626 visual observations were made under the recently established CIE recommended reference conditions defined for the CIE94 color-difference equation. The statistical method logit analysis with three-dimensional normit function was used to determine the hue discrimination for each color center. A three-dimensional analysis was required due to precision limitations of a digital printer used to produce the majority of colored samples. There was unwanted variance in lightness and chroma in addition to the required variance in hue. This statistical technique enabled estimates of only hue discrimination. The three-dimensional analysis was validated in the supplemental experiment, where automotive coatings produced with a minimum of unwanted variance yielded the same visual tolerances when analyzed using one-dimensional probit analysis. The results indicated that the hue discrimination suprathresholds of the pooled observers varied with CIELAB hue angle position. The suprathreshold also increased with the chroma position of a given color center, consistent with previous visual results. The results were compared with current color-difference formulas: CMC, BFD, and CIE94. All three formulas had statistically equivalent performance when used to predict the visual data. Given the lack of a hue-angle dependent function embedded in CIE94, it is clear from these results that neither CMC nor BFD adequately predict the visual data. Thus, these and other hue-suprathreshold data can be used to develop a new color-difference formula with superior performance to current equations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Col Res Appl, 23, 302–313, 1998     

Numerical Process and Plant Simulation Methods

This paper represents an attempt to explicitly map the conceptual activities which constitute a process design task into a series of well-posed, complete and general numerical procedures. In spite of the fact that there is substantial number of design manuals and design procedures which process engineers can consult to choose the most proper approach to a particular problem, there is a remarkable lack of generality on the one side (procedures which apply to the design of a wastewater treatment process cannot be used even in principle to design a fluidized bed system), and an obvious receptivity on the other side (all procedures involve mass and energy balances at some point). With the advance of numerical techniques, virtually every procedure has been computerized, so that engineers can avail themselves of a multitude of computer tools in the majority of their process design activities: as a result of the lack of coordination among different producers though, the situation for what codes are concerned is very confusing: there are many codes which perform nominally the same task, giving (sometimes substantially!) different results when applied to the very same problem; each code sue its won set of property tables, its own I/O format, etc. Finally, with very few exceptions, these codes are not mutually compatible, i.e. the output from any of them cannot be used as the input to any of the other, not only because of the respective formats, but rather because the quantities taken to represent a certain physical process are not the same in different codes. This is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs, both for the final user and for the software producer. Unfortunately, this seems to be a problem for which commercial, technical and historical reasons make it very difficult to find a solution in the short term. The author is convinced that an early exposure to this problem and to a new approach to its solution can only benefit our engineering students, and has therefore endeavored, together with his coworkers, to devise a “modular approach” to the solution of process simulation problems. The material presented here has been originated by a series of lectures and seminars developed in the last three years for master and doctoral level students in Mechanical Engineering. The result of this “distillation” process maybe yet unripe, as they are definitely not complete: but the implications, also in terms of practical application, are very promising, and the approach deserves more attention in the future. The order of presentation of the material is historical/logical: it beings with the old fashioned slide-rule calculations and proceeds towards the most recent developments of AI base methods. The path is made clear from the very beginning: we are trying to extract from the various engineering activities all the essential knowledge which pertains to the engineer himself, with the final goal of transferring this body of knowledge - in some form suitable to machine communication - to a “universal-process simulator”, which can then be applied with a high degree of confidence to variety of particular process simulations.     

The future of color science

Color science is a unique and stimulating blend of many scientific disciplines. Physicists, physiologists, psychologists, psychophysicists, mathematicians, and chemists have all contributed to our understanding of how we see color. Tools and techniques have been developed to help those who work with color in their everyday lives, whether it be in manufacturing, in design, in communication, or in any other field. Some tools, such as the CIE Standard Observer, were derived from empirical color-matching data but can now be explained, at least approximately, on the basis of our knowledge of the physiology of the visual system. Others, such as most color-difference formulae, are still purely empirical and explanations in terms of the actual functioning of the human visual system are largely unknown. It is likely that improved tools and techniques will come in the future as we increase our knowledge of the visual system and how it works. Such increased knowledge will come most readily if there is more cooperation between the various disciplines and less tendency to think along narrow discipline-limited lines.     

Color‐person‐environment relationships

Although the nature of color and the person environment relationship are both well‐documented, it is posited that both domains need to be integrated to understand the active role that color plays in the relationship between a person and the surrounding environment. The color person environment relationship (COL‐PE) introduced in this article is an important theoretical concept for designers, and as a consequence, for environmental‐color researchers to investigate. The potential of color to be an active agent in the relationship between people and environments is introduced by drawing upon what is known about color and the person environment relationship from other sources. The nature of transition spaces is used to emphasize how color affects the emotional connection and disconnection between people and spaces. As an example of COL‐PE, transition spaces highlight the nature of the person who is also psychologically in‐transition and color as a potentially important aspect of the transitory experience. In addition, the connections between color and the constructs that we hold of the people who visit, work, or live in particular environments will be discussed briefly. Designers often focus on the object or artifact which is being colored (whether a building or a chair) as an end in itself, without considering in any depth how the designed objects or places can influence how people experience their daily activities and each other. COL‐PE is introduced as a means to address this omission and broaden designers' understandings of the potential impact of their work. The discussion of the aspects of environmental design (with particular reference to architecture and interior design), introduces the foundation of the COL‐PE as a particular way of addressing color in the built environment. The principles of COL‐PE are relevant for a range of disciplines involved in environmental design including urban design, landscape architecture, interior design, industrial design, and architecture. The COL‐PE aims to make explicit what is often an unrecognized or tacit understanding of the role of environmental color, and thereby, the article highlights the need for research to understand the relationship more fully. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 33, 312–319, 2008.     

Color‐emotion associations,designing color schemes for urban environment‐architectural settings

Color in urban design has become an important issue, each city may present different colors which help to define and describe its architectural features. In the study, color in urban design with architectural setting is studied, façade colors are analyzed with a specific emphasis on the following research questions; “Can color schemes be designed in respect to color‐emotion associations? ” and “Are color‐emotion associations affective while designing architectural setting‐urban environment?.” Non‐color experts, 170 people, from different European and non‐European countries were asked to match the most appropriate adjectives with the given street views in accordance to their color schemes. In the first step, the effect of color is identified in relation to architectural environment‐urban setting, second the relative effect of color is studied as a component of the material. A categorical specification on color cognition and linguistic level of representation is attempted. The results can be a starting point to highlight the importance of preparing color schemes in regard to color‐emotion associations. Abstract color schemes may also provide us an idea about image setting, especially at design process stage. In the study, keywords are linked as environment‐response pairs; such as quiet, calming, lively, exclusive, reserved, and natural. Human psychophysical structure such as “warm‐cool,” “heavy‐light” in regard to visualizing certain colors are evaluated and described in terms of building materials.     

The feasibility of establishing new color image scales using the magnitude estimation method

Color image is one of the most important factors in art and design. In general, artists and designers apply their own personal image meanings into their work. However, the image meaning for a specific work is frequently in conflict with those of the general observer. Thus it is necessary and important to derive one set of merit color image scales which can be utilized to predict the color image meanings of works in parallel with the average person's perception and which can also serve as a guide for artists and designers. In this study, the psychophysical method (magnitude estimation method), usually used in visual measurement of color appearance, was employed to attempt to establish new color image scales to evaluate the color image meanings of works matching those of the average person. The results show that new color image scales WIP are developed, and the relativity between the latest color image scales WIP and the color attributes (say Lightness L*, Hue h, and Chroma C*) of the CIELAB color space is also discussed. The total mean value of coefficient of variation for the results of visual assessment in the experiment of evaluating the color image meanings of the 207 color specimens used, in general, is about 36, similar to that for those experiments conducted using the psychological method. Also, a good relationship between the new color image scales and the color attributes of the CIELAB color space can be found. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 32, 463–468, 2007     

A design software to facilitate learning via repeated practice by Chemical Engineering students

A design software was developed within the paradigm of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) to facilitate learning via a repeated practice approach by Chemical Engineering students reading a core module called Fluid–Solid Systems. The software was developed to be able to generate detailed solution steps to typical engineering design problems encountered within this core module. Students were able to utilize the software to generate complete solutions to such problems for comparisons with their own hand calculations and thereby apply a repeated practice approach towards their learning of engineering design calculations. Highly favorable responses were received from students with regards to the utility of the software towards enhancing their abilities to apply the knowledge they had acquired in the module, engage in independent learning of the subject outside of formal classroom hours and understand concepts that were discussed during lectures and tutorials. Students who utilized the software more frequently throughout the semester performed better in the final examination. Interestingly, a minimum threshold in usage frequency of the software seemed to be necessary for the positive effect on performance in the final examination to be significant. As a TEL intervention to enhance students’ learning via a repeated practice approach, this pedagogical intervention was deemed highly scalable to large class sizes and effective in overcoming constraints relating to limited classroom hours.     

Food and macronutrient intake of elite Ethiopian distance runners

Background

Individuals who have knowledge on the importance of adequate and balanced diet and reflect this knowledge to their behaviors are considered to be more successful in sports life. The present study aims to evaluate the nutrition knowledge of students receiving sports education in universities.

Methods

The study sample consists of 343 voluntary students from the Sports Departments of Hacettepe, Gazi and Ankara Universities in Ankara. The questionnaire used in the study included a demographic section, and 30 questions on true-false nutrition knowledge. For the reliability of the questionnaire, the internal consistency coefficient was calculated and the Kuder Richardson (KR-20) value was found to be 0.71. For higher reliability, 9 dysfunctional questions were excluded from the questionnaire. The research data were collected through a questionnaire form and face-to-face interviews. For the statistical analyses of the data, tables were prepared to show mean, standard deviation ( ) and percentage (%) values. In order to determine the nutrition knowledge of students, the "independent t test" was used for nutrition lesson and gender.

Results

University students receiving sports education and expected to continue their professional lives on sport-related fields were determined to have the lack of knowledge on nutrition. The mean value about the nutrition knowledge of the first year students was found 11.150 ± 2.962, while the mean value of the fourth year students was 13.460 ± 3.703, and the difference is statistically significant (p = .000).

Conclusion

Students, coaches and teachers in physical education were found not to give the necessary importance to their diets, and they were still not aware of the importance of nutrition on performance.     

Practical demonstrations designed and developed by the students for pedagogical learning in transport phenomena

Core disciplines in chemical engineering master, like the case of Transport Phenomena, and although its content is 100% related to the master, are always hard to understand by the students. We have implemented a new methodology where teams of students should perform the concept, design and development of practical demonstrations of Mass Transfer Phenomena and Theoretical Background, in order for all of them to be able to really get involved in the thematic, and thus easily assimilate concepts and theoretical development as applied to practical phenomena. After the first application of this methodology and after a deep analysis of previous results we have made important enhancements on the innovative work. Among several other modifications, students were able to select the field on which each practical demonstration would be developed (among the three usual transport phenomena: mass, fluids and heat) and most particularly encouraged to design and develop practical demonstrations on the thematics and sub-thematics they had higher difficulties. A total of 6 experiments/demonstrations were developed by the students of the two academic years. To determine the perception, impact and improvement made by this methodology, surveys were also made to determine the initial and final status of the students concerning their knowledge and difficulties, so as to conclude fairly about the success of application of this methodology. Final Exam marks have also improved. In this paper we present the results obtained and describe the application steps of this methodology and discus the evaluation of the successful rate of the methodology.     

Chromatic interior environments for the elderly: A literature review

The impact of the physical environment on individuals has arisen as a growing body of research in population wellbeing. Yet, most of studies in this area do not focus on elderly even though they are particularly susceptible to the characteristics of their interior spaces. It is a well‐known fact that to be old is to acquire a tolerance of disabilities based on the gradual degeneration. A common problem is a dysfunction in visual sensitivity and accordingly, the alteration of their environmental color perception. That is why these impairments need to be understood in order to minimize the elderly spatial difficulties. To know at what point there is a loss in the ability to perceive color is necessary to understand how should we take these facts into consideration. A state‐of‐the‐art literature review of current studies from the last 20 years is carried out. The aim is to analyze existing practices on Evidence‐Based Research through a multidisciplinary approach in order to create knowledge about chromatic built environments for the elderly. Data are identified and considered together with empirical experience about color, perception, built environment and elderly. Thus, the way in which elderly perceive the space is explored. The adjustments in the formulation of these impairments throughout any design strategy to adapt the environment to their physiological changes are determined. This article aims to determine a design interpretation of the various findings, demonstrating that color, as a parameter of the visual performance, influences visual comfort and helps performance in architecture for old people.     

药物化学教学中学生创新能力的培养

中国进入WTO后,制药行业要求具有自己的知识产权的药物,新药开发必须走自主创新之路,因此迫切要求在药物研发相关的课程-药物化学课程中培养学生的创新能力.论文根据笔者在药物化学教学过程中对学生创新能力培养的尝试,总结了如何在药物化学教学中培养学生的创新能力.首先必须提高学生的学习兴趣,其次课程着重于药物的研发过程和药物设...     

Improving academic outcomes for minority students by highlighting the work of Norbert Rillieux

Focuses on diversity in hiring and promotion have been somewhat successful at increasing representation in chemical engineering and in company management. However, often the chokepoint preventing people of color from becoming involved in chemical engineering and other STEM fields is in undergraduate education. Despite similar levels of initial enrollment in STEM fields, people of color have a much lower rate of completion than their white peers. There are myriad factors for this, including lack of peer support, lack of mentorship opportunities, bias from professors, and other challenges. These problems may be outside the ability of chemical engineering faculty to fix, but one problem that can easily be improved on is the lack of representation of people of color and course materials. In this work, we discuss the contributions of Norbert Rillieux, a 19 th century scientist, entrepreneur, and one of the earliest chemical engineers. Rillieux was the son of a slave and her “owner”, but traveled to France to receive a first-class scientific education. Using a sophisticated separations system, Rillieux turned sugar from a luxury to a staple by improving the quality and quantity of sugar commercially available. Additionally, his work made sugar production far less dangerous for the enslaved people who worked in sugar production facilities. Despite his contributions to the field, Rillieux’s work has faded into anonymity. In addition to reintroducing his work, we discuss how Rillieux’s work can be used as part of thermodynamics, separations, or introductory engineering courses. Educators can use Rillieux and other examples to easily increase representation in the classroom and improve outcomes for students of color.     

Similarities and differences between male and female novice designers on color‐concept associations for warnings,action required,and signs and equipment status messages

This research examined the male and female novice designers toward color associations for the concepts used for ‘warnings’, ‘action required’, and ‘signs and equipment status’ through a questionnaire‐based study. A total of 178 Hong Kong Chinese final year undergraduate design students (89 males and 89 females) participated in the study. The test used required the participants to indicate their choice of one of nine colors to associations with each of 38 concepts in a color‐concept table, so that any one color could be associated with any one of the concepts. For both male and female groups of novice designers, chi‐square tests revealed a strong color association for each concept tested in this study (P < .05). The results showed males and females agreed on some color‐concept association stereotypes which were therefore gender neutral. The male and female novice designers had the same color associations and similar levels of stereotype strengths for 21 concepts. The nine strongest and therefore most useful color‐concept association stereotypes for both male and female novice designers were: red‐danger, red‐fire, red‐hot, red‐stop, red‐emergency, red‐error, blue‐cold, blue‐male, and green‐exit. However, the male and female novice designers had different color association stereotypes for the standby (green vs. yellow), emergency exit (green vs. red), and toxic (purple vs. black) concepts, and the strengths of the 14 remaining associations for both groups were not at equivalent levels. Overall, it is anticipated that the findings of this study will act as a useful reference for novice designers and other design practitioners to optimize color coding in the design of ‘warnings’, ‘action required’, and ‘signs and equipment status’ messages.     

Color and Spectral Transmittance of Amber Bottle Glass

Because of increased interest in color uniformity among iron-sulfur amber bottle glasses, a study was undertaken of their color, their spectral transmittance, and the relationship of these properties. It was found that the psychophysical attributes of color (C.I.E. system) as computed from complete light-transmittance spectra can actually be estimated for iron-sulfur amber glasses with good accuracy from transmittance at only two suitable wave lengths, 550 and 650 mp. Transmittance at 550 mμ is closely correlated with brightness (C.I.E.) and thus is sufficient to characterize color intensity, which is the most important variable of color quality among commercial amber glasses. There is also fair correlation between transmittance at 550 mμ and transmittance in the ultraviolet. The latter is important in the avoidance of photochemical action on bottled products. Incidental to this work, the transmittances of a large number of glasses were compared with their iron and sulfur contents. Broadly speaking, it was found that transmittance at 550 mp decreases with increasing ferrous iron or with increasing sulfide content. However, this transmittance is affected substantially by other factors, such as gross composition, minor constituents like fluorine, and thermal history, of which no account was taken in the present work. Transmittance at 1050 mp can be correlated closely with ferrous iron content (as determined by chemical analysis) and absorbancy per unit concentration of ferrous iron in carbon-sulfur ambers is about the same as in green glasses containing no sulfur.     

Research on product color design decision driven by brand image

As one of the most important visual characteristics in a product system, color can arouse the user's emotional demands quickly. Due to the complexity of the user's emotional needs mining process, it can be expressed by color image adjectives. Meanwhile, product color trends that meet the user's emotional demands may help decision makers to anticipate a new market positioning and reduce the blindness in the product color design. In this study, the Gray theory combined with the Kansei engineering was used to mine the macro and microscopic factors in product color design decision process based on the product color brand image. The results showed that the constructed method could be used to guide the product color design that was to meet the user's emotional needs comprehensively and quickly. The method solved the problems that exist in the current product color trend prediction research and improved the accuracy of the correlation mining between product color design elements and brand image. Lastly, the color design of the mid-range sedan was taken as an example to prove the feasibility of the research approach. This is a new attempt to guide product color design decisions in two aspects, one is known from the results of product color trends quantitative prediction, and the other one comes from the correlation calculation between product color design elements and brand image.     

Pressure measurements in steel silos with eccentric hoppers

It is known that concentric filling and discharge are the most recommended solutions in silo design. However, different reasons such as costs, space problems and the client's specific requirements have a significant influence on the final design. Therefore, engineers sometimes need to make use of eccentric filling and discharge solutions. These designs are usually related to phenomena such as unfavorable switches in the flow regime, associated with extreme unsymmetrical pressure distributions around the silo wall, oscillations of the load, etc., which may cause failures or instabilities of silo structures, involving then high costs for the industry and, in the worst cases, accidents where human life may be endangered. Understanding about these phenomena associated with hopper eccentricities is still needed.This research work deals with pressure measurements on three steel silos with different hopper eccentricities. The results not only confirm, at a qualitative level, phenomena that have also been described in previous research, but also provide new knowledge concerning non-symmetric loads in wheat and maize silos with conical hoppers of different eccentricities. Non-symmetric components of the pressures and shifts in flow regimes have been studied and discussed in relation to load assessment for the design of silos.