2.5 Visual communication As discussed in Reading 2.4, written text has major limitations in representing relationships between things when they do not follow the linear structure of the text. Relationships can be extremely complex, even circular, as you will see in this block. In particular, the linear sequence of text is not able to clearly show context, elements, structure, processes and functions of
2.1 Learning and culture As discussed in Reading 1.6, the behaviour of all living organisms that determines their resource use is mostly controlled by a set of models encoded in their genetic material. Most significant changes in the behaviour of a particular species of organism are usually a result of genetic evolution.
1 Temperature – problem or solution? ‘Have you taken the temperature effects into account?’ (Figure 1) is nearly always a valid question in any discussion about a proposed engineering solution. Everything has a temperature, and everything behaves differently at different temperatures. It therefore deserves its own special plac
Learning outcomes After working through these materials you should be able to: describe and use a general classification of models; outline and discuss the process of systems modelling, where models are used as part of a systemic approach to a range of different situations; recognise that systems models may be used in different ways as part of a process for: improving understanding of a situation; identifying problems or formulating opportunities; supporting decision
3.3 Magnetic tape recorders Experiments showed that the use of paper tape coated with iron oxide particles significantly improved the signal-to-noise ratio and enabled a lower tape speed to be used. A plastic-based version of this magnetic tape, developed by the German company BASF, led to the development of a commercial tape recorder with audio characteristics that could nearly match those of the gramophone record, but not at an economical price. Secret work on tape recorders was undertaken by the Germans throug
1.2.7 Key points Diagrams can be helpful in clarifying your thinking because: they can summarise complex situations, allowing you to appreciate the complexity while seeing the individual components and the connections between the components; they can give you new insights into a situation by making you think carefully about the components and connections and by helping you to learn more effectively.
Learning outcomes After reading this unit you should be able to: appreciate diagrams as a powerful aid to thinking and acting; distinguish between systems diagrams and diagrams helpful in systems work; demonstrate sufficient skills to ‘read’ and ‘draw’ a wide range of diagrams, following given conventions, that help improve your understanding of a situation; select diagrams suited to the needs of the situation you are investigating and the purp
12.1 Gathering data In this section I will review some of the approaches and methods used by companies for identifying and exploiting marketing opportunities. All over the world, producer companies have increasingly learned to keep a careful watch on emerging consumer requirements and changing user needs and wishes. They have not only learned to listen to what consumers say, but to watch what they do. Techniques used in market research to gather consumers’ views on products include both quantitative meth
9.1.2 Limits Second, decide the limits and the variations to the user trip or trips that you are going to take. It is usually a good idea to extend the trip into activities that both precede and succeed the immediate use of the product you are investigating since this may lead you into devising an improved, more integrated overall solution. Similarly, variations on a basic trip – different times of day, different weather conditions, different requirements – will probably bring to light a wider range o
8.1.2 Feedback A second important principle is providing feedback to the user – for example, when you press a button it moves and clicks, or you hear some other sound or you see a light to indicate the action has been registered by the machine. Here's another short video clip from Phillip Joe at IDEO, this time on feedback. 6 Inclusive design This section reveals the importance of designing things to suit all potential users. Inclusive design (or universal design) means designing products so that they can be used easily by as many people as wish to do so. This may sound an obvious goal, but the fact is that many people – some estimates suggest as many as one-fifth of all adults – have difficulty carrying out ordinary tasks with everyday products. Many elderly and disabled people cannot carry out – certainly with 5 Why not design for the ‘average’ user This section explains why it can be misleading to design for an average user; a complete user population should be considered, and often it is more relevant to design for the smallest, tallest, weakest etc. Designing to include extreme users can also benefit the great majority of users. Even when user needs are being considered in design, it is still relatively easy for the designer to fall into the trap of designing for the average user. On the face of it, it seems a good idea to desig 5.7.1 Mixed oxidant gases system This is a relatively new system of disinfection. It involves electrolysis of high-purity NaCl brine to produce a mixture of chlorine dioxide, ozone and hypochlorite. This mixture is separated within the electrochemical cell by a membrane, or by exploiting density difference, and is then metered into the water requiring disinfection. The mixed oxidant gases are generated on demand and this is a great safety advantage, compared with having storage tanks of chlorine on site. The source for the d Acknowledgements The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence. Courtesy of Lanterna at Flickr All other materials included in this unit are derived from conten 1.2 Upbringing; MP for Yorkshire William Wilberforce (Figure 1) was born in Hull, the son and grandson of substantial merchants who had made their fortune in trade between Yorkshire and the Baltic. His father died in 1768 and he subsequently went to live for a period with his uncle and aunt. Through them he was exposed not only to the influence of John Newton, but also to that 2.3.1 Politics MacLean was a socialist from the age of twelve, and a Marxist by the late 1930s, when he believed that the Soviet Union and the Red Army were the only agents that could defeat Fascism. However, he never joined the Communist Party, and by 1944 events in Poland had thoroughly disillusioned him about Stalin and the Soviet Union. One reason why he could never commit himself fully to Communism seems quite clear: he retained from his Calvinist heritage a deep pessimism about human nature and human 2.1.2 The poems Your reading in this unit has already prepared you to some extent, but please read the following poems (both the English and Gaelic versions are given) which are discussed in the recordings, and then listen to the recordings. A company of mountains, an upthrust of mountains a great garth of growing mountains a concourse of summits, of knolls, of hills 4.3 Responses to religion Reasoned responses to religion could take many forms. It was rare for writers to profess outright atheism; even in those cases where we may suspect authors of holding this view, censorship laws made their public expression unlawful. These laws were particularly stringent in France. In many cases reasoned critique was applied to the practices of institutional religion, such as the corruption of the clergy or the rituals of worship, rather than to more fundamental matters of doctrine or faith. 4.4 Physicalism and the hard problem I introduced the hard problem as an explanatory problem – the problem of explaining how consciousness arises. But it can also be presented as a metaphysical problem – the problem of saying what kind of phenomenon consciousness is, and, more specifically, whether it is a physical one. In this section I shall say something about this aspect of the hard problem and its relation to the explanatory one. The terms ‘physical’ and ‘physicalism’ (the view that everything is ph 6 Hospital care In most aspects of medical care, the rich generally enjoyed better access to medical services and better-quality services than the poor. The only exception to this rule was hospital care. In the nineteenth century the ‘deserving’ poor – whose respectability was guaranteed by the need for them to have a letter of admission from a subscriber or employer – could receive medical and surgical treatment in charitable hospitals. The very poor could obtain care through Poor Law hospitals, whi
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Kinloch Ainort
