Marie Bassford

Axial Disposition of Myosin Heads in Isometrically Contracting Muscles

Meridional x-ray diffraction diagrams, recorded with high angular resolution, from muscles contracting at the plateau of isometric tension show that the myosin diffraction orders are clusters of peaks. These clusters are due to pronounced interference effects between the myosin diffracting units on either side of the M-line. A theoretical analysis based on the polarity of the myosin (and actin) filaments shows that it is possible to extract phase information from which the axial disposition of the myosin heads can be determined. The results show that each head in a crown pair has a distinct structural disposition. It appears that only one of the heads in the pair stereospecifically interacts with the thin filament at any one time.

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Marie Bassford is a senior lecturer of Department of Media Technology in the Faculty of Technology at the De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Jonathan Ivins is a principal lecturer of Department of Media Technology in the Faculty of Technology at the De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. Address for correspondence: Marie Bassford, Department of Media Technology, Faculty of Technology, De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK. Email: mbassford@dmu.ac.uk

A systems-based media effectiveness framework for e-marketing communications

Computer-mediated communications have evolved to enable information interchange in highly active situations. This evolution has been reflected onto digital media towards human-based computer-mediated communication activities such as e-marketing (electronic marketing) communications. We will phrase media used in such active computer-mediated communication setups as “active media”. The term active media embraces interactive, coactive, and proactive digital media. This evolution also requires a major rethinking of how media are being consumed, and raise the need for reassessing the effectiveness of media.

Framework for Creative/Innovative Systems

A framework is proposed in this paper which considers the creative design process as a regulatory process that controls many design activities. The advantage of the proposed framework is that it leads to an adaptive design process that can be tailored to a particular design and designers working habits. The main result of this paper is that it shows that the design process is by no means linear where it follows a set of predetermined design stage. This linear model assumption is implicit in all existing creative design methodologies.

Intelligent Bio-Environments: Exploring Fuzzy Logic Approaches to the Honeybee Crisis

This paper presents an overview of how fuzzy logic can be employed to model intelligent bio-environments. It explores how non-invasive monitoring techniques, combined with sensor fusion, can be used to generate a warning signal if a critical event within the natural environment is on the horizon. The honeybee hive is presented as a specific example of an intelligent bio-environment that unfortunately, under certain indicative circumstances, can fail within the natural world. This is known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). The paper describes the design of a fuzzy logic methodology that utilizes input from non-invasive beehive monitoring systems, combining data from dedicated sensors and other disparate sources. An overview is given of two fuzzy logic approaches that are being explored in the context of the beehive, a fuzzy logic system and an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS).

Creative design dynamics and creative systems

The work presented in this paper demonstrates that creative design is not a process, but rather it should be represented in terms of the dynamics of clusters of creative design activities that represent the interplay between the behaviour of creative design and its context. The clusters of creative design activities are associated with a focus aimed at achieving a certain task. It is shown that there are four types of focus for clusters of creative design activities identified with respect to a desired output to be produced. The outputs are termed scope, ideas, prototypes and product. The research has also shown that there are four levels of granularity of focus clusters of creative design activities depending on the relationships between the different outputs. The switching focus between the clusters of design activities can be seen according to three types of contextualised cues: dreamer, realist and critic.

Active Media: A framework for digital media effectiveness

This paper defines active media as a new paradigm that captures the richness of digital media in affecting every aspect of our lives. The term active media embraces interactive, coactive, and proactive digital media. Active media provide more dynamic and individualized experiences, and target recipients more accurately. Active media allow the integration of different human-centric systems into the era of system of systems. This new paradigm also overcomes the shortcomings of the existing paradigms for media consumption that still consider humans as information processors where media are considered as passive information objects processed by humans. However, media play more active roles in shaping our lives and in changing our behaviour and outlook, thus the process-oriented separation of passive objects and information processors is no longer valid when representing the interaction between media and humans. In this paper, e-marketing is used as an example of the application of active media. E-marketing environments are evolving into becoming more active and this could have a significant impact on the success of products and services. Applying the proposed framework on e-marketing communications will overcome the limitations of existing assessing methodologies by introducing a far wider and richer set of measures to describe, assess, and enhance the effectiveness of active media. The paper introduces an effectiveness framework based on a set of deliberate media effectiveness measures, and gives a sound rationale for choosing these measures. The introduced framework will help in accurately understanding, assessing, and enhancing the impact of active media on human-centred activities.