Serious games for higher education: a framework for reducing design complexity

Abstract Serious games open up many new opportunities for complex skills learning in higher education. The inherent complexity of such games, though, requires large efforts for their development. This paper presents a framework for serious game design, which aims to reduce the design complexity at conceptual, technical and practical levels. The approach focuses on a relevant subset of serious games labelled as scenario‐based games. At the conceptual level, it identifies the basic elements that make up the static game configuration; it also describes the game dynamics, i.e. the state changes of the various game components in the course of time. At the technical level, it presents a basic system architecture, which comprises various building tools. Various building tools will be explained and illustrated with technical implementations that are part of the Emergo toolkit for scenario‐based game development. At the practical level, a set of design principles are presented for controlling and reducing game design complexity. The principles cover the topics of game structure, feedback and game representation, respectively. Practical application of the framework and the associated toolkit is briefly reported and evaluated.     

Bulk and Surface Properties of Liquid Al-Li and Li-Zn Alloys

Physicochemical properties like density, surface tension, and viscosity of liquid binary Al-Li and Li-Zn alloys have been measured using draining crucible method. The experimentally measured surface-tension values have been compared to theoretical results based either on the Butler model or the compound formation model assuming the existence of the most favored A ₁ B ₂ and A ₂ B ₃ clusters. Several models for viscosity calculation have been also applied and discussed in confrontation with measured data. Finally, the clustering effects in the liquid Al-Li and Li-Zn alloys have been examined using two microscopic functions, i.e., the concentration fluctuation function in the long-wavelength limit and the Warren-Cowley short-range order parameter.     

Modeling Immune Building Systems for Bioterrorism Defense

This paper presents the results of research on the performance of air-cleaning and air-disinfection systems used for protecting buildings against intentional releases of biological agents. The air-cleaning technologies addressed include dilution ventilation, filtration, and ultraviolet germicidal irradiation. A 40-story commercial office building is modeled using typical occupancy levels and leakage rates for doors, walls, and floors. A steady-state single-zone model is used to predict steady-state conditions resulting from the use of various levels of air cleaning. A transient single-zone model is used to predict transient indoor concentrations from which inhaled doses and estimated casualties are predicted. A transient multizone model is used to evaluate contaminant dispersion and estimate potential casualties. Three design-basis attack scenarios are simulated using various biological weapon agents. Predicted casualties are estimated using an epidemiological model of the dose response curves for each of the agents. The effect of increasing levels of air cleaning is examined under the attack scenarios to evaluate their effectiveness. Results indicate that high levels of protection are possible for building occupants with moderate and affordable levels of air cleaning when filtration is combined with ultraviolet germicidal irradiation. Results also suggest that diminishing returns occur when increased levels of air cleaning are applied. It is hypothesized that the maximum useful size of any air-cleaning system is defined and limited by building physical characteristics alone.     

Geographic Variation in Acadian French /r /: What Can Correspondence Analysis Contribute Toward Explanation?

This article presents elements of a Correspondence Analysis(CA) approach to the measurement of linguistic distances indialectology. It argues that both linguistic and spatial factorsare part of an explanation of geolinguistic variation, and itshows how the exploratory and graphical properties of CA cancontribute to such an explanation. The application is a studyof the different realizations of the phoneme /r/ in AcadianFrench, a dialect spoken in Canada. Data are from the Atlaslinguistique du vocabulaire maritime acadien and include over5,000 tokens from eighteen localities. Using chi-square distances,the analysis results in a two-dimensional space that arrangesthe localities along continua. Linguistic interpretation ofthis space, based on those features of /r/ that are identifiedas accounting for the structuring of these continua, suggestsa hierarchy of phonological processes—including alternationbetween apical and dorsal articulations (in French words), andreplacement of the retroflex rhotic found in English-originwords by apical and dorsal variants. Two external spatial factors,local concentration of francophone speakers and spheres of activity,are shown to correlate with the linguistic distances among localities.     

Interfacial activity of 4-alkylphenylamines and the rate of palladium(II) extraction

Interfacial tension isotherms were determined in hydrocarbon-water systems for 4-alkylphenylamines containing from 6 to 16 carbon atoms in their alkyl chains, and the surface excess isotherms were computed and interpreted using various adsorption isotherms. Palladium(II) was extracted with 4-alkylphenylamines from 3 M HCI solutions. The maximum extraction rate of palladium(II) is observed for 4-decyl- and 4-dodecylphenylamines which exhibit good interfacial activity. Compounds soluble in the aqueous phase (4-hexylphenylamine) or in toluene (4-hexadecylphenylamine) extract palladium(II) slower than 4-decyl- and 4-dodecyl- phenylamines.     

Reducing average and peak temperatures of VLSI CMOS circuits by means of evolutionary algorithm applied to high level synthesis

In this paper an adaptive evolutionary algorithm (AEA) for high-level synthesis, resulting in reduction of the power dissipation in CMOS circuits is presented. It enables us to design contemporary electronic circuits/systems with minimisation of the peak and average power consumption, which leads to reduction of the peak and average temperature of the designed chip. Therefore, the reliability of the integrated circuit (IC) can be improved. The results of experiments carried out for the chosen benchmark circuits show that the achieved reduction of power consumption varies from 4 to 52%.     

Development of texture in low carbon Al-killed sheet steels after uniaxial tensile deformation,deep drawing and stretching

Investigations of texture changes in aluminium-killed low-carbon unalloyed sheet steels by means of neutron diffraction during uniaxial tensile deformation, deep drawing and biaxial stretching. Calculation of the R-values. Application for the prediction of unfavourable deformation data.     

Spatial distributions of residuals produced inside a spallation target

The spallation target model of an accelerator driven system (ADS), consisting of six 5 cm thick and 16 cm in diameter Pb segments, was constructed. Three sets of 17 Bi samples (1/2 inch in diameter and 1 mm thick) were placed in 3 Pb disc-shaped holders inside the target at 5, 10 and 15 cm from its front. After irradiation with 660 MeV proton beam gamma-spectra of radioisotopes produced in Bi were collected several times for each sample with the use of HPGe detectors in order to identify the radioisotopes and to determine their absolute activities. Their spatial distributions were then compared with respective values obtained in the calculations made with the use of FLUKA and/or MCNPX code. A fair agreement with the experiment has been observed.