The feeding diversity of subtidal samples of macroinvertebrates from Ria Formosa was estimated with Shannon Wiener information index and complementary evenness. The results were compared with other commonly used methodologies under the European water framework directive, such as diversity indices, AMBI and ITI. Assuming that in a healthy environment all feeding groups are present, and that no g...

Ecological interface design (EID) has shown success as an approach for interface design in the case of a process control microworld. However, in applying the EID approach to larger systems, questions arise as how to support the navigation and integration of abstract information. In this study, three ecological displays were developed for a simulated power plant from the same abstraction hierarc...

Article history: Received 1 November 2006 Received in revised form 29 March 2007 Accepted 17 April 2007 Exploratorymodeling is an approach used when process and/or parameter uncertainties are such that modeling attempts at realistic prediction are not appropriate. Exploratory modeling makes use of computational experimentation to test how varying model scenarios drive model outcome. The goal of...

This study analyzes the work domain of position teaching in terms of means-end relations for the purpose of developing a practical support tool for human workers engaged in industrial robot teaching. A mechanical explanation model is introduced into the analysis to capture the force-displacement relationship inherent in and informative on the work system. The resulting models are used for the a...

The distorted room illusion (DRI) and the attendant argument for perceptual ambiguity is critically analyzed from a Gibsonian/ecological point of view. The notions of multiple specification, conflicting information, and perceptual skill are invoked in showing how the ecological approach can accommodate illusion effects that may remain under mobile binocular viewing conditions. Static optic arra...

Biodiversity measurement, comparison and related hotspot geoinformatics are challenging issues and opportunities in the twenty-first century of statistical ecology, environmental statistics, risk analysis, knowledge discovery, decision making, and decision support in the age of ecological, environmental, and socio-economic indicators. This paper covers diversity measurement and comparison, dive...

Prior research examined how controllers plan in their traditional environment and identified various information uncertainties as detriments to planning. A planning aid was designed to reduce this uncertainty by perceptually representing important constraints. This included integrating spatial information on the radar screen with discrete information (planned sequences of air traffic). Previous...

This paper proposes a qualitative approach for identifying learners’ engagement from their traces of interactions performed in the learning game. Learners’ engagement is an effective indicator of their motivation, acceptance and attachment to the learning activity. Engagement also informs about the relevance of the content and the effectiveness of the proposed interactive learning game. Designe...