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Boundary Objects (boundary + object)
Selected AbstractsA method for representing boundaries in discrete element modelling,part II: KinematicsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 12 2001M. Kremmer Abstract The application of the DEM to engineering problems involving the dynamic behaviour of discontinuous media has necessitated the introduction of moving boundary surfaces. In this paper a method is presented for modelling three-dimensional moving boundary surfaces within the discrete element framework. The surfaces of boundary objects are discretized into triangular planar surfaces using the finite wall method. Wall elements are grouped and each group is associated with a single discrete boundary object which may move independently. Movement comprises any combination of translation and rotation of wall element groups, subject to a given acceleration and velocity during a calculation cycle. The scheme is explicit due to rigidity of the wall elements which are stationary fixed in position and orientation over a time step. Any in-plane velocity is handled as a contact point velocity within a calculation cycle. The kinematic conditions at each calculation cycle may be pre-defined or returned from a separate calculation of rigid body motion of the boundary object. The method provides a means for coupling sphere-based particle dynamics with rigid body dynamics and structural analysis of boundary components. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The emergence of interdisciplinary knowledge in problem-focused researchAREA, Issue 4 2009Anna Wesselink In this paper I explore the specific properties associated with the new knowledge produced by inter- or transdisciplinary research. Using my analysis of a land use planning study in the Meuse valley in The Netherlands, I argue that the process of knowledge integration requires the exercise of value judgement and that the outcomes are emergent. I also show that the selection of a boundary object as objective facilitates interdisciplinary research because it is shared amongst disciplines and because it necessitates judgement in its implementation. [source] GESTALT: a framework for redesign of educational softwareJOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 1 2006M. Puustinen Abstract Design of educational multimedia rarely starts from scratch, but rather by attempting to reuse existing software. Although redesign has been an issue in research on evaluation and on learning objects, how it should be carried out in a principled way has remained relatively unexplored. Furthermore, understanding how empirical research on information and communication technologies (ICT) should feed back into redesign remains difficult. The present paper addresses these problems from the viewpoint of carrying out pedagogical expert evaluations, in the absence of empirical studies of target learners, in order to generate recommendations for redesign. Firstly, redesign proposals should be based on a coherent reconstruction of pedagogical foundations of educational ICT (software, documentation). Secondly, redesign proposals should result from dialogue between stakeholders, such as future users, pedagogical experts, software designers, and deciders. To these ends, we propose a framework, called GESTALT (Goals, (E) SiTuations, Actions, Learners, Tools), as a ,boundary object' for dialogical redesign. Within an activity theory approach, GESTALT is based on analysis of available tools, the actions they support, the characteristics of learners who perform actions, and pedagogical goals that could be achieved in specific situations. An illustrative GESTALT analysis of educational software is provided, principally from the viewpoint of pedagogical experts. Finally, the strengths and limits of GESTALT are discussed. [source] THEORIZING THE UNIVERSITY AS A CULTURAL SYSTEM: DISTINCTIONS, IDENTITIES, EMERGENCIESEDUCATIONAL THEORY, Issue 3 2006Mark Considine In this essay, Mark Considine argues that the prospect of such changes requires us to reflect carefully upon the theoretical and normative underpinnings of universities and to delineate the structures and processes through which they might seek to negotiate their identities. Considine re-theorizes the university as a higher education system composed by distinctions and networks acting through an important class of boundary objects. He moves beyond an environmental analysis, asserting that systems are best theorized as cultural practices based upon actors making and protecting important kinds of distinctions. Thus, the university system must be investigated as a knowledge-based binary for dividing knowledge from other things. This approach, in turn, produces an identity-centering (cultural) model of the system that assumes universities must perform two different acts of distinction to exist: first, they must distinguish themselves from other systems (such as the economy, organized religion, and the labor market), and, second, they must operate successfully in a chosen resource environment. Ultimately, Considine argues that while environmental problems (such as cuts in government grants) may generate periodic crises, threats within identities produce emergencies generating a radical kind of problematic for actor networks. [source] Integrating aspects of working environment into a national research and development program on food technologyHUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 2 2001Ole Broberg In a Danish national research and development program on food technology, it was made a condition that funded projects consider potential working environment impacts. The present study evaluated these projects and concluded that this condition failed to have any significant effect on outcomes. The reasons for this failure are explained by the social construction of the program and the fact that it neglected to consider the sociocultural dynamics within scientific and technological work. The program neither constructed useful boundary objects nor included actors that could link the social worlds of working environment and food science and technology. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source] Developing a dynamic project learning and cross-project learning capability: synthesizing two perspectivesINFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 6 2008Sue Newell Abstract Driven by the complexity of new products and services, project work has become increasingly common in all types of organizations. However, research on project learning suggests that often project teams do not meet their stated objectives and, moreover, there is limited organizational learning from the experiences of project work. We use the dynamic capabilities framework to argue that building a dynamic project learning capability is useful for organizations that make extensive use of projects. We use both survey and interview data to discuss the key ways in which such a dynamic capability can be built. Our survey data demonstrate the importance of documenting project learning, but our interview data show that teams are often remiss at documenting their learning. The results from the two different approaches are synthesized using Boland & Tenkasi's notions of perspective-making and perspective-taking. Importantly, combining the results from the two sets of data suggests that organizations need to emphasize the benefits from project reviews and documentation and explore ways in which the documents produced can be made more useful as boundary objects to encourage the sharing of learning across projects. [source] A method for representing boundaries in discrete element modelling,part I: Geometry and contact detectionINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 12 2001M. Kremmer Abstract The discrete element method for analysis of the dynamic behaviour of discontinuous media is well established. However, its application to engineering problems is still limited to simplified representations of structural boundaries and their kinematics. In this paper a method is developed for representing three-dimensional boundaries of arbitrary geometry and for modelling the interaction between boundary objects and particles within the discrete element modelling framework. The approach, which we term the finite wall method, uses planar triangular elements to approximate the boundary surface topology. Any number of wall elements can be used to model the shape of the structure. A contact detection scheme is presented for boundary surfaces and spheres based on a series of vector projections to reduce the problem dimensionally. The algorithm employs spatial sporting to obtain the set of potential contacts between spheres and wall elements prior to contact resolution. In a further stage, all possible contact conditions including contact with surfaces, edges and corners are explicitly determined. Part I of this two-part series of papers describes the finite wall method for representation of surface geometry and fully elaborates the method for detecting and resolving contact between boundary wall elements and spheres. In Part II the finite wall method is extended to apply kinematics to linearly independent boundary objects using combinations of translational and rotational motion. An approach is developed for coupling the DEM with the FEM for the purpose of optimising the design of structures which are dynamically interacting with particulate media. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A method for representing boundaries in discrete element modelling,part II: KinematicsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, Issue 12 2001M. Kremmer Abstract The application of the DEM to engineering problems involving the dynamic behaviour of discontinuous media has necessitated the introduction of moving boundary surfaces. In this paper a method is presented for modelling three-dimensional moving boundary surfaces within the discrete element framework. The surfaces of boundary objects are discretized into triangular planar surfaces using the finite wall method. Wall elements are grouped and each group is associated with a single discrete boundary object which may move independently. Movement comprises any combination of translation and rotation of wall element groups, subject to a given acceleration and velocity during a calculation cycle. The scheme is explicit due to rigidity of the wall elements which are stationary fixed in position and orientation over a time step. Any in-plane velocity is handled as a contact point velocity within a calculation cycle. The kinematic conditions at each calculation cycle may be pre-defined or returned from a separate calculation of rigid body motion of the boundary object. The method provides a means for coupling sphere-based particle dynamics with rigid body dynamics and structural analysis of boundary components. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] ,It Was Such a Handy Term': Management Fashions and Pragmatic Ambiguity*JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 6 2006Hélène Giroux abstract This article builds on constructs that authors have labelled strategic ambiguity, interpretative viability, umbrella constructs, and boundary objects, and suggests that these constructs all articulate a central concern for collective action and the role of ambiguity therein. It characterizes as pragmatic ambiguity the condition of admitting more than one course of action, and elucidates and operationalizes this new construct. Drawing on the sociology of translation (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1987),[1] it argues that pragmatic ambiguity is both the result and the resource of a collective process of intéressement occurring during the rise in popularity of a new management approach. Following Benders and van Veen (2001), the article posits that pragmatic ambiguity increases during the rise of a management fashion. It provides empirical evidence in support of this claim by means of a longitudinal analysis of quality management (QM) concepts as articulated by several authors both before and during the Quality Movement of the 1980s and 1990s. The analyses of QM texts show that concepts became vaguer, more ambiguous, and more general as the Quality Movement gained momentum, suggesting the presence of a positive feedback loop between pragmatic ambiguity and popularity. In addition, the data illustrate how pragmatic ambiguity was achieved and sustained textually, and how it was supported by a variety of social, linguistic and rhetorical factors. [source] Seeking red herrings in the wood: tending the shared spaces of environmental and feminist geographiesTHE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 1 2007MAUREEN G. REED In this article I argue the need for feminist and environmental geographers to work more diligently to find, mind and tend the intersections of their research agendas to enrich scholarship and deepen impacts on public policy. Such a project requires us to move beyond an obvious call to acknowledge one another's work and towards the boundaries of our respective fields in order to co-create ,boundary objects' that provide opportunities for mutual exchange, collaboration and learning. Rather than being ,red herrings' or diversions from our main research foci, boundary objects bring new insights to taken-for-granted concepts. I focus on one example to argue that social sustainability of rural places is better understood by an integrated understanding of what constitutes a ,worker' in a forestry community. A redefinition of the worker that draws on insights and interests from both environmental and feminist geographers reveals an underlying gender bias in environmental decision-making processes and illustrates how the concept of social sustainability has been artificially restricted in practice. Nevertheless, collaborations are never easy. I draw attention to potential challenges of such collaborations that include the need to establish mutually agreeable protocols, joint commitment to constructive, respectful debate and strategies to ensure that research provides meaningful contributions to theory and public policy. Dans cet article, je vais tenter de montrer que les géographes féministes et les géographes de l'environnement auront à travailler avec plus d'acharnement pour reconnaître, étudier et entretenir les points communs de leurs agendas de recherche en vue d'augmenter la valeur scientifique des études et d'accroître les retombées sur les politiques publiques. Un tel projet exige que nous puissions dépasser le stade de la reconnaissance de nos travaux et se tourner ainsi vers les frontières de nos disciplines afin de co-créer des ,objets frontaliers' qui offrent des possibilités d'échanges d'idées, de collaboration et d'apprentissage. Plutôt qu'être des ,fausses pistes' ou des déviations de nos principaux thèmes de recherche, ces objets frontaliers pourraient apporter un éclairage nouveau sur des concepts tenus pour acquis. À l'aide d'un exemple, j'avance que pour mieux comprendre la durabilité sociale en milieux ruraux, il faut acquérir une compréhension intégrée de l'ensemble des dimensions d'un ,ouvrier' membre d'une communauté forestière. L'ouvrier est redéfini en mettant à contribution les connaissances et intérêts des géographes environnementaux et féministes. Cette définition met au jour un parti pris fondé sur le sexe dans les processus décisionnels en matière d'environnement et démontre de quelle façon le concept de la durabilité sociale s'en trouve artificiellement restreint dans la pratique. Les collaborations ne sont cependant jamais faciles àétablir. J'attire l'attention sur les difficultés potentielles de ces collaborations concernant notamment la mise en place de protocoles acceptables pour les deux parties, la promesse de tenir des débats constructifs et respectueux, et les stratégies visant à garantir que la recherche participe de manière vitale autant au développement de la théorie que des politiques publiques. [source] | ||||||||||||||||