Human-systems interaction for virtual environment team training

Virtual environments are increasingly used to support collaborative activities and distance learning. However, few are designed to support students, instructors and simulations in multi-participant team training. This paper describes the Training Studio, a system for authoring, delivering and evaluating multi-participant team training in an immersed virtual environment. The Training Studio focuses on human-systems interaction, allowing multiple students to learn and perform team tasks. The Training Studio supports collaborative learning for either single or multi-participant activity. This is accomplished through the use of agents which are assigned to students to act as personal mentors or missing team members. Conducting team training within a virtual environment introduces complexities and issues unique to team training and multiple-participant virtual environments. This paper describes our approach to virtual environment team training, discussing issues confronted and resulting design considerations and implementations.     

Introduction to the special section on the structure of emotion.

This section is devoted to articles about the structure of affect, the patterned interrelations of moods and emotions. Structural features of affect, such as a bipolar pleasantness–unpleasantness dimension, a circumplex ordering, prototypical discrete emotions, and separable positive and negative emotion clusters, are discussed. It is proposed that positive and negative affect systems create the conditions for the co-occurrence of discrete positive emotions with each other and of discrete negative emotions with each other. The experience of affect tends to be felt along a bipolar pleasantness–unpleasantness dimension because pleasant emotions and unpleasant emotions tend not to be experienced together at intense levels. To move beyond current knowledge, future research in the area must more often use non-self-report measures, more sophisticated statistical and measurement methods, dynamic as well as static data, systematically varied response formats, and experimental manipulations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Homologous Recombination System to Generate Epitope-Tagged Target Genes in Chaetomium thermophilum: A Genetic Approach to Investigate Native Thermostable Proteins

Chaetomium thermophilum is an attractive eukaryotic model organism which, due to its unusually high temperature tolerance (optimal growth at 50–52 °C), has a thermostable proteome that can be exploited for biochemical, structural and biotechnological applications. Site directed gene manipulation for the expression of labeled target genes is a desirable approach to study the structure and function of thermostable proteins and their organization in complexes, which has not been established for this thermophile yet. Here, we describe the development of a homologous recombination system to epitope-tag chromosomal genes of interest in Chaetomium thermophilum with the goal to exploit the derived thermostable fusion proteins for tandem-affinity purification. This genetic approach was facilitated by the engineering of suitable strains, in which factors of the non-homologous end-joining pathway were deleted, thereby improving the efficiency of homologous integration at specific gene loci. Following this strategy, we could demonstrate that gene tagging via homologous recombination improved the yield of purified bait proteins and co-precipitated factors, paving the way for related studies in fundamental research and industrial applications.     

Bovine germinal vesicle oocyte and cumulus cell proteomics

Germinal vesicle (GV) breakdown is fundamental for maturation of fully grown, developmentally competent, mammalian oocytes. Bidirectional communication between oocytes and surrounding cumulus cells (CC) is essential for maturation of a competent oocyte. However, neither the factors involved in this communication nor the mechanisms of their actions are well defined. Here, we define the proteomes of GV oocytes and their surrounding CC, including membrane proteins, using proteomics in a bovine model. We found that 4395 proteins were expressed in the CC and 1092 proteins were expressed in oocytes. Further, 858 proteins were common to both the CC and the oocytes. This first comprehensive proteome analysis of bovine oocytes and CC not only provides a foundation for signaling and cell physiology at the GV stage of oocyte development, but are also valuable for comparative studies of other stages of oocyte development at the molecular level. Furthermore, some of these proteins may represent molecular biomarkers for developmental potential of oocytes.     

Mathematical modeling of swelling in high moisture whey protein gels

Gels prepared from whey proteins can be used for controlled release of nutrients or active ingredients in food systems. The objective of this study was to characterize the water uptake by these hydrophilic gels to aid in the design of release systems. Whey protein isolate (WPI) gels (17% w/w protein) of different aspect ratios were submersed in aqueous solution at pH 7.0. Modeling of mass uptake is presented in terms of Case I (Fickian diffusion) and Case II (kinetic) models. Due to the extent of swelling, the Fickian diffusion with moving boundaries provided the most realistic reflection of the physics. An optimization routine provided the best fit values for the diffusivity. The average diffusivity for the smaller gels (with an initial radius of 6.7 mm) was 1.40 × 10⁻¹⁰ m²/s. The average diffusivity of the larger gels (with an initial radius of 8.5 mm) was 0.79 × 10⁻¹⁰ m²/s. The average diffusivities differed due to the slight variation in the composition of the gels. The model also yielded instantaneous values of the radius and sample length. The functionality of moisture uptake and total surface area was linear. The Fickian diffusion with moving boundary model can be extended to evaluate different geometries for controlled release systems.     

Starch–cassia gum interactions: A microstructure – Rheology study

We present for the first time the interactions of starch and cassia gum – a novel galactomannan recently approved for use in food processing. Viscoelastic, pasting and microstructural characterization of various starches (waxy; high amylose; normal; cross-linked waxy corn starch; potato starch) containing different levels of the cassia gum was carried out. Significant changes were observed in the morphology of granule remnants formed during gelatinization in the starch pastes prepared with and without the addition of cassia gum. The freeze-dried starch–cassia gum pastes presented a shrunken and tight arrangement of the starch granule remnants, when studied by scanning electron microscopy. A significant reduction in the granule remnant size was also calculated using laser diffraction particle size analysis. The extent of interaction with cassia gum differed significantly among the various starch types. All the unmodified corn starches recorded an increase in peak viscosity at all levels of the cassia gum addition. An increase in the final viscosity of these starches was also observed by the addition of cassia gum, with high amylose and normal corn starch showing the maximum. Similarly, the extent of breakdown and setback viscosity also differed among the different starch types. Ranges of dynamic rheological measurements (temperature, time and frequency sweeps) were performed within the viscoelastic zones. Rheological parameters, such as storage modulus (G′), loss modulus (G″) and the gelatinization temperature (T_gel), of the corn starches during the heating cycle were observed to increase, when cassia gum was present at lower levels. The starch–gum systems also exhibited higher tan δ values during both the heating and the cooling cycles, indicating the dominance of the viscous modulus. The G′ and G″ of all the corn starch gels containing cassia gum showed higher values throughout the frequency sweep range. However, the increase in G′ and G″ of different starches was not always consistent with the increase in cassia gum levels. The changes in rheological behaviour during storage of the starch gels, aged on the plate of the rheometer and then studied through time sweeps at 5 °C and frequency sweeps at 25 °C, suggested that the starch gels containing cassia gum had less pronounced changes in the rheological parameters than had their control counterparts.     

Direct tunnelling models for circuit simulation

This paper presents a review of models for direct tunnelling with a view to identifying suitable models for inclusion in a circuit simulator. For thin oxides, the critical quantities required for the derivation of tunnel current are the transparency of the barrier, the oxide field and the supply of carriers for tunnelling. This paper reviews different approaches to the incorporation of these quantities in analytical models. A new model for direct tunnelling, which includes quantum effects in a format suitable for circuit simulation, is outlined. Recent developments in MOSFET models, which include gate current, are briefly discussed.     

GaN HBT: toward an RF device

This paper reviews efforts to develop growth and fabrication technology for the GaN HBT. Conventional devices are grown by plasma assisted MBE on MOCVD GaN templates on sapphire. HBTs were fabricated on LEO material identifying threading dislocations as the primary source of collector-emitter leakage which was reduced by four orders of magnitude for devices on nondislocated material. Base doping studies show that the mechanism of this leakage is localized punch-through caused by compensation near the dislocation. High contact and lateral resistance in the base cause large parasitic common emitter offset voltages (from 1 to 5 V) in GaN HBTs. The effect of this voltage drop on common emitter characteristics is discussed. The combination of this voltage drop and the emitter collector leakage make Gummel and common base characteristics unreliable without verification with common emitter characteristics. The selectively regrown emitter bipolar transistor is presented with a DC current gain of 6 and early voltage greater than 400 V. The transistor operated to voltages over 70 V. This device design reduces base contact resistance, and circumvented difficulties associated with the emitter mesa etch process. The Mg memory effect in MOCVD grown GaN HBTs is discussed, and MBE grown device layers are shown to produce sharp doping profiles. The low current gain of these devices is discussed, and an HBT with a compositionally graded base is presented, as well as simulations predicting further current gain improvements with base grading     

Specifying concrete for chloride environments using controlled permeability formwork

The paper describes a study carried out to explore how controlled permeability formwork (CPF) can be used within existing concrete durability specifications (mix limitations) for chloride environments. Tests were carried out to consider (i) chloride diffusion rates and, under wetting and drying conditions, (ii) rates of chloride contamination build up at cover depth and (iii) reinforcement corrosion. The effects of CPF were measured against design strength, cover depth and cement type of concrete cast against ply-wood formwork (impermeable formwork—IMF). The use of CPF liner on formwork was found to significantly enhance chloride and corrosion resistance of concrete. Moreover, the results demonstrated that CPF could be used within the BS 5328 durability framework for chloride environments to allow either a 20 mm cover reduction (50 to 30 mm) at fixed design strength (40 N/mm²), or a reduction in design strength of 10 N/mm² (50 to 40 N/mm²) at fixed cover depth (30 mm). It was additionally found for Portland cement (PC) concrete that the use of CPF gave equivalent performance to concretes containing PFA and GGBS as constituents of cement and a ternary cement comprising both materials, cast against ply-wood formwork. This suggests that the ‘trade offs’ within BS 8500 for PC/PFA and PC/GGBS cements in chloride environments, could also be permitted for CPF concrete containing PC.     

Assessment of Communications and Collaborative Learning in Civil Engineering Education

Recently, employers have indicated that they are not totally satisfied with the individualistic approach of the average engineering graduate. This may be due to the fact that, today, in many companies, team goals, team contributions, and team rewards often supersede individual actions. In fact, some authorities believe that the development of critical thinking, collaborative learning, communication, and leadership skills is vital for engineering programs, as well as for students. The findings of this study suggest that students have accepted the concept of collaborative teaching and learning. As an example, the evaluation of student-teaching presentations was found to be above average with scores greater than “B” for all categories. In addition, comments indicate that a course utilizing the concepts of collaborative learning and teamwork was interesting and informative and could be of assistance to respondents in future endeavors. Studies also indicate that undergraduates prefer classroom discussion and problem solving, group interaction, teamwork, and the opportunity for student input rather than formal lectures. Also, the results suggest students perceive that they have mastered communication skills in their civil engineering classwork. For comparative purposes, the findings of this investigation can be utilized by other institutions and departments that may wish to study their curriculum.