Nightingallery: theatrical framing and orchestration in participatory performance

The Nightingallery project encouraged participants to converse, sing, and perform with a musically responsive animatronic bird, playfully interacting with the character while members of the public could look on and observe. We used Nightingallery to frame an HCI investigation into how people would engage with one another when confronted with unfamiliar technologies in conspicuously public, social spaces. Structuring performances as improvisational street theatre, we styled our method of exhibiting the bird character. We cast ourselves in supporting roles as carnival barkers and minders of the bird, presenting him as if he were a fantastical creature in a fairground sideshow display, allowing him the agency to shape and maintain dialogues with participants, and positioning him as the focal character upon which the encounter was centred. We explored how the anthropomorphic nature of the bird itself, along with the cultural connotations associated with the carnival/sideshow tradition helped signpost and entice participants through the trajectory of their encounters with the exhibit. Situating ourselves as secondary characters within the narrative defining the performance/use context, our methods of mediation, observation, and evaluation were integrated into the performance frame. In this paper, we explore recent HCI theories in mixed reality performance to reflect upon how genre-based cultural connotations can be used to frame trajectories of experience, and how manipulation of roles and agency in participatory performance can facilitate HCI investigation of social encounters with playful technologies.     

3D line-support grid flattening for more accurate geostatistical reservoir population with petrophysical properties

Reservoir models are essential if we need to clearly understand the fossil resources and, hence, to make better use of them. Feeding these models with physical properties on the basis of wells data is a key step in their construction. Line-support (LS) grid is the most popular grid in reservoir engineering, it is massively used for reservoir simulations. In the current methods used to populate with properties the LS grid of a reservoir unit, a Cartesian grid of equivalent size (in each direction), obtained by averaging the edge lengths, is first of all completed. The properties calculated in this way are then transferred as they are into the initial LS grid, because there is cell-for-cell correspondence. This leads to distortion of the Cartesian grid, making it fit the shape of the LS grid. This has the effect of altering calculations of correlation distances between well markers in geostatistical population simulations. Consequently, this primarily induces distortions on the simulated bodies. To resolve this problem, in this paper, we propose innovative methods for a “smooth” conversion from the LS grid of the structural space to the Cartesian grid of the geostatistical population space. The basic principle is to calculate the correlation distances between wells on the basis of “quasi-isometric” flattening of the stratigraphic unit LS grid in the population space. This same flattening technique is then used for inverse transfer of the properties from the population space to the structural space.     

Assessing the capabilities of the zonal model to predict the isothermal airflow induced by a linear ceiling diffuser

The objective of this work is to evaluate the quality of the zonal airflow predictions compared to those provided by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools for an isothermal airflow induced in a room by a linear ceiling diffuser. This comparative analysis was conducted for a typical rectangular office designed for two people, considering two different arrangements of obstacles within the room volume. The ventilation was provided by a four-way ceiling diffuser type with large aspect ratio slots, the outlet integrated into it, operating in a three-way mode with slot Reynolds number of 2700. As a result, the airflow was transitional or weakly turbulent. The airflow patterns obtained with the zonal models were first compared qualitatively with the CFD computations. A quantitative comparison based on the mean velocities at the interface of the zonal grid was then carried out. The characteristic features of the zonal predictions are shown and the limitations of the zonal and CFD approaches are discussed.     

Trade‐Offs in Seed Dispersal Strategies Across Riparian Trees: The How Matters as Much as the When

Riparian Salicaceae are prolific producers of short‐lived seeds that require very restrictive hydro‐geomorphic conditions for establishment. It is generally assumed that if floods are able to create nursery sites timed with seed dispersal, recruitment will occur. Other spatial and temporal seed dispersal patterns besides the dispersal period have historically received little attention. However, seed dispersal patterns can be highly variable between regions, species and over the years. In this paper, we report the seed dispersal patterns of three dominant riparian Salicaceae trees in Europe: Populus alba, P. nigra and Salix alba to suggest possible trade‐offs between seed dispersal patterns, germinability, longevity and establishment. Seed rain of the three species was monitored in 33 glue‐coated traps for three months yearly from 2006 to 2008 in an 8‐km stretch of the Middle Ebro River (N Spain), which has a pluvio‐nival regime. P. alba dispersed seeds earlier during a shorter time period and with a fewer number of seed release pulses compared with P. nigra, and especially with S. alba. With overlapping seed dispersal periods, the two latter species occupy similar landform units but rarely compete with P. alba, usually at higher elevations, as shown in a previous study in the same study area. The three species had very high germinability immediately after release (>90%), but longevity in S. alba was eight times shorter than that of its two Populus counterparts. We suggest that S. alba has compensated its lower seed quality with a more spaced seed release in several pulses of similar magnitude. With similar seed dispersal patterns and germinability but a higher longevity, P. nigra had a much higher density of individuals than S. alba in the recruitment zones of the study area. We hope that our results may inform river managers about how to optimize river flows to promote sexual regeneration of these species. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Morphological and Mechanical Investigation of Double-Layer Reciprocal Structures

The simple connection conditions of reciprocal structures means that technological constraints become geometrical constraints and bending moments are increased. Geometrical constraints can be dealt by using form-finding methods such as a dynamic relaxation algorithm, but resisting bending moments to gain stiffness is difficult to accomplish without increasing the weight of the structure. For standard reticulated structures, common strategies consist in introducing curvature in the structure and/or modifying the structure into a double-layer space structure. The proposed paper is thus an attempt to apply these strategies to reciprocal structures and to develop spherical domes with a structural thickness. Several configurations will be investigated and compared in term of geometrical feasibility and structural performance.