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Design culture is tentatively embracing the acoustic conditions and auditory awareness of spaces and objects, thus creating new opportunities for spatial sound practitioners. This thesis examines the making of seven spatial sound design projects in diverse milieux and an eighth project - the establishment of an electroacoustic studio within a school of architecture and design. The projects and the studio are considered models for the ways in which electroacoustic practices might advance the auditory spatial awareness of students and researchers in the academy, and the general community through an interlocking program of teaching, research and events. The creation of the projects and establishment of the studios also articulate a transformation in my own practice from composer to design researcher. Five of the projects are intended to engender in listeners a greater awareness of the acoustic environment and the auditory spatial qualities of those environments, whi ch listeners daily inhabit. Supporting these project studies is a discussion on issues and conditions of making and materials to elucidate my approach to creating spatial sound designs in diverse milieux. Two of the projects investigated the auditory spatial awareness of different communities in Melbourne, with the view of establishing ideas about the auditory culture and the actual environments of that experience. The final project is a facility to house a community of practitioners who aspire to privilege the auditory design and experience of space, through a series of research, teaching and performance activities. While evaluating just how my practice transformed over the course of the projects, I also propose that the combination of the Studio's main elements is critical to the advancement of sound-based research and design as a design discipline. Note to audio and visual materials - This thesis was accompanied by a custom-built multi-channel sound playback environment using Max/MSP and Flash. For further details on this player and Quicktime files, contact lawrence.harvey@rmit.edu.au.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Three col. maps in pocket. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 177-188). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2005 / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 139 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-95).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-179).

Thesis (Ph.D. in mechanical engineering)--Washington State University, August 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2006. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Barry H. Pyle. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-72).

Traditionally, we've focussed on the question of how to make a system easy to code the first time, or perhaps on how to ease the system's continued evolution. But if we look at life cycle costs, then we must conclude that the important question is how to make a system easy to operate. To do this we need to make it easy for the operators to see what's going on and to then manipulate the system so that it does what it is supposed to. This is a radically different criterion for success.What makes a computer system visible and controllable? This is a difficult question, but it's clear that today's modern operating systems with nearly 50 million source lines of code are neither. Strikingly, the MIT Lisp Machine and its commercial successors provided almost the same functionality as today's mainstream sytsems, but with only 1 Million lines of code. This paper is a retrospective examination of the features of the Lisp Machine hardware and software system. Our key claim is that by building the Object Abstraction into the lowest tiers of the system, great synergy and clarity were obtained.It is our hope that this is a lesson that can impact tomorrow's designs. We also speculate on how the spirit of the Lisp Machine could be extended to include a comprehensive access control model and how new layers of abstraction could further enrich this model.

Building designers aim to create buildings with high quality internal environments which are energy and cost efficient in their use. Failure to attain these objectives simultaneously can lead to reduced building occupant productivities. An important aspect of the building services system which can have a major effect on the provision of occupant comfort within a building is the adopted control strategy. The research project investigated the use of fuzzy control strategies as a means of achieving good standards of comfort provision for occupants while maintaining or improving energy and cost efficiencies for the operation of the building HVAC services. This represented a multi-variant controls objective which was capable of being fulfilled by a fuzzy controller. A one zone building computer model was developed using Matlab and Simulink software as a platform for the development of fuzzy control strategies. The model incorporated building services Heating Ventilating and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) system models. A Proportional + Integral + Derivative (PID) control strategy was used as a benchmark control methodology against which to compare the developed fuzzy control strategies. Three types of fuzzy controller were developed during the course of the research project. These were a Proportional Derivative Fuzzy Controller (PDFC), a Fuzzy Ventilation Controller, and the Fuzzy High Level Controller. The PDFC used the inputs of error and rate of change of error from a specified zone environmental condition set point in much the same way as a PID controller would to control the HVAC plant. Simulation results indicated that the PDFC control strategy was capable of achieving performance levels equal to the conventional PID control strategy. The Fuzzy Ventilation Controller was used to control the rate of fresh outside air entering the building zone through the mechanical ventilation system in order to make use of the 'free' cooling and dehumidification available by purging the indoor air when possible. Simulation results showed improvements in the indoor environmental quality provided, and the energy efficiency and cost efficiency of running the HVAC plant. Finally, the Fuzzy High Level Controller used a fuzzy supervisor to control the actions of the fuzzy ventilation controllers. Simulation results showed that the fuzzy supervisor was able to improve the comfort conditions provided and the energy and cost efficiencies of the operation of the HVAC plant when compared to the use of the fuzzy ventilation control strategies alone.

The effects of the application of increasing concentrations of the growth retardant paclobutrazol (PBZ) to in vitro cultures of Populus and Betula species was studied, with a view to translating the effect into the field, and ultimately to control undesired tree growth commercially. Plant growth and associated regulatory effects were studied under controlled conditions over an eight to twelve week culture period, after which explants were harvested. At harvest, explants of both species were removed from their culture universals after growing on hard agarose gel media containing a range of PBZ concentrations. Explant fresh weight, height and dry weight was recorded. Spent culture medium was frozen, thawed and centrifuged for analysis, by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), of PBZ uptake. Other investigation carried out included the influence of PBZ on explants' response to directional light, and the phytosterol content of explant leaves. It was shown that treatments of PBZ, irrespective of concentration, had a regulatory effect on the growth of explants of both species. Recorded height, fresh weight and dry weight of explants showed a reduced growth proportional with increased PBZ concentration. Explant response to the higher concentrations was different for each species, with Betula showing a higher degree of retardation at lower concentration than Populus. Uptake of PBZ also appeared to be species dependent, the average uptake of the available PBZ being 70% and 51% for Populus and Betula, respectively. Even though there was very little growth at high concentration, explants appeared reasonably healthy; no symptoms associated with tree decline, chlorosis, die back and or death, were observed on explants treated with PBZ, however a failure to leaf and severe stunting indicated potential over regulation at 5 pM in Betula explants. This investigation has shown that a dose-dependant response can be obtained from tissuecultured tree species and that the response appears to be species specific.