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This study is prepared as an analysis on potential application and commercialization of the wing-in-ground effect craft (WIGE craft) as a new transportation system for domestic market. As the needs analysis and concept exploration phases commonly carried out within the concept development of a new complex system, this study may serve as validation answers to some basic questions such as “Is there a valid need for this new system?”, “Is there a practical approach to satisfying such need?”, “What performance is required?”, and “Is there at least one feasible approach to achieving such performance at an affordable cost?”. The analysis on potential of application and commercialization of WIGE craft would constitute a basis for making a decision as to whether or not to invest in a further development effort. The conducted analysis can be also considered as a “feasibility study”, which in this case has been based on comparison of certain key features of a WIGE craft with those of other existing transportation vehicles that remain offering services as the “proven” alternative concepts. The key features of a WIGE craft should be in the first place in its capabilities, operational effectiveness, and in its performance requirements, which are supposed to achieve the most beneficial balance between capability, operational life, and cost. During the process of study, it has been found that a WIGE craft may fill in the gap between aircrafts and marine vehicles in terms of technological and operational advantages. However, the operational costs of WIGE craft have been found to be relatively higher if compared to those of other existing transport vehicles. Besides, as a matter of fact, a WIGE craft has never reached acceptance as mainstream transport vehicles, because apparently a WIGE craft contains inherent stability problem due to coupled effect of variation in angle of attacks and in altitude above the surface, which require a solid and generic solution. A further development

The third issue of Field Notes addresses the constant question of how AAA defines “Asia” but is in no way intended to survey or comprehensively cover any of the entry points in how to map Asia. Instead, it is to point to the entanglements between them and provide an additional space, along with AAA’s other projects, to construct reference points and connections across time, sites, and geographies. We realize that there is something about the positioning of Asia, Art, and Archive next to each other that presupposes a mapping process. Acknowledging both the value and limitations of the map as a tool, AAA has attempted to trace the phenomena, practices, discourses, and developments in contemporary art in Asia by building up a collection based on breadth (via a widespread network of researchers, advisors, collaborators, and friends) and depth (through focused thematic archival projects). As such, we are practicing a mapping of Asia that no longer depends on the map as artifact, but as something that lives and continues to unfold. And while we believe that AAA’s collection allows for a comparison of cross-regional histories and ideological networks, we must stress the importance of reading its material in conjunction with other mapping and archival initiatives…, https://www.librarystack.org/mapping-asia/?ref=unknown

The second issue of Field Notes continues to address AAA’s core questions, examining the manifestations of Asia, its methodologies, maps, networks, and geographies. This issue proposes the archive as a method to illustrate the way in which initiatives like AAA are taking the archive to counter, complicate, and reimagine systems in which narratives of modern and contemporary art are being produced, circulated, and understood. How do archives of today respond to contemporary conditions through practice? What can an archive look like – what forms does it take (published anthologies, network of archives, physical archive, exhibition platform, online database)? Who are the people working in and defining the archive (curators, art historians, psychoanalysts, professional archivists, etc.)? How does an archive define its scope and does this evolve over time? What is the place of subjectivity within the construct of the archive? This is the origin of our inquiry. We are curious about the actioning of the archive, the internal mechanics that determine what becomes factually present in reality. In approaching these questions from the perspective of “how” we were hoping to get closer to an understanding of “why”…, https://www.librarystack.org/archive-as-method/?ref=unknown

Published in 2012, the e-journal’s inaugural issue, with contributions from over 40 scholars, critics, curators, and artists, addresses a theme that is central not only to AAA, but is one of the most vexed topics in recent years: the notion of the “contemporary in art,” with specificity to the contexts of Asia. Acknowledging Hal Foster and Terry Smith’s “Questionnaire on ‘The Contemporary'” in the Fall 2009 issue of October, as well as writings by John Clark and Joan Kee amongst others, we invited curators, artists, critics, and academics from Asia to contribute their thoughts on the topic. As an archive of “contemporary art in Asia,” the issue helped us to consider AAA’s collection as a shifting frame, situated in the present but also connecting past and future. The issue also drew upon a text from the archive from 1967 on Sri Lankan artist Ivan Peries by Senake Bandaranayake (first published in Third Text in 1987), looking at the position of a modernist artist of the “Third World.”, https://www.librarystack.org/the-and-an-expanded-questionnaire-on-the-contemporary/?ref=unknown

Background: When reading with a stand magnifier (SM), navigation along each line of text and retracing back to the correct position at the beginning of the next line has been suggested as a major difficulty for people with low vision. In this study, we evaluated the immediate impact of using a simple and inexpensive line guide on navigation performance.--- Methods: Twenty-nine participants with age-related macular degeneration read short passages of text using their habitual SM with and without a temporary line guide attached. Magnifier movements were recorded using a 3 SPACE Isotrak system. Reading time, magnifier movement strategies, navigation times and navigation errors were determined. A short questionnaire was used to quantify participants’ perceived difficulties with page navigation and their preference for reading with or without the line guide.--- Results: For some participants, the line guide improved the control of the vertical positioning of the SM when reading along a line (p=0.01), but it increased the number of corrective vertical movements at the end of the retrace (p=0.001). There was a small but significant decrease (about 6wpm) in reading speed and increase in navigation times (p<0.05) when using the line guide; however 48% participants indicated a preference for reading with it attached to their SM. There was a trend (p=0.08) for those who preferred the line guide to report greater habitual difficulties with SM manipulation.--- Conclusion: After only minimal instruction in how to use the line guide, forward navigation control improved, but the design of the guide made retracing the SM to the start of the next line more difficult resulting in slower reading speeds. Nevertheless 48% of participants expressed a preference for having the line guide attached to their SM. Improvements to the design of the line guide and strategies that may improve retrace navigation performance are suggested.

Purpose. People with low vision often use optical low vision aids to assist reading. There have been numerous training programs recommended to train people using magnifiers for reading. However, most of the programs are time consuming and labor intensive. In this study, we investigated the effects of home-based large print reading practice on reading performance when stand magnifiers (STM's) are first prescribed. Methods. Thirty-two subjects with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and with minimal experience in using magnifiers for reading were recruited. They were divided into three groups: control, practice 1 (P1), and practice 2 (P2). Before the prescription of STM's, all the subjects were given the same amount of in-office practice with the STM (weeks 0 to 2). In addition, in these 2 weeks, P1 and P2 subjects were given large print books to read daily at home. P2 subjects were required to read the large print books through a reduced field of view. The control group subjects received no additional reading practice. Reading rates with and without STM's on passages of text were assessed for all the subjects regularly for 20 weeks. Results. There were no significant differences between the control, P1, and P2 groups in the increase in reading rate with STM (p = 0.29). At week 0, reading rate for small print with STM was significantly slower than reading rate on the equivalent-sized large print (p = 0.004); however, as time went on, reading rate with STM's increased significantly (p = 0.02). After 2 weeks of in-office magnifier practice and repeated measures of reading rate with STM, reading rate with STM had improved such that it was not significantly different from reading rate on large print (p = 0.11). Conclusion. Supervised, short-term, in-office practice with the magnifier was effective in improving magnifier reading performance to achieve maximum reading rate. Additional large print reading practice did not result in any greater improvement in reading rate

Background: In the past, practitioners have used distance and/or near visual acuity (VA) to calculate required magnification for low vision aids. Magnification was usually under-estimated when compared with the final magnification prescribed. Recent studies have emphasised the importance of acuity reserve in determining the required magnification for optimum reading rate. Two different approaches have been proposed for the appropriate acuity reserve to use in calculating magnification. These are a fixed acuity reserve of 0.3 log unit or an individual determination of optimum acuity reserve. The aim of this study was to investigate the magnification and reading rates with low vision aids selected by the two methods. Methods: Nineteen low vision subjects with age-related macular degeneration (ARM) who were experienced magnifier-users were recruited. Reading rates and near VA with low vision aids determined by the fixed and individual acuity reserve methods were compared with the same measures made with the subjects’ own magnification. Results: There were no significant differences in reading rate and near VA measured with low vision aids selected by either the fixed or individual acuity reserve methods or the subject’s own magnifiers. Reading rate with low vision aids was not significantly different from reading rate for large print with conventional near additions. Thus, for experienced users, magnifiers do not cause reduced reading rate. Conclusions: The fixed acuity reserve method is simple to apply as only near VA and print size of the target reading task are required. For the individual acuity reserve method, reading rate at different print sizes need to be measured. We recommend the use of a fixed acuity reserve (0.3 log unit) for the calculation of required magnification for low vision patients. If near VA or reading rate are not satisfactory with the magnification calculated by this method, individual assessment of required acuity reserve is necessary.