title: A multidimensional activity theory framework for human computer interaction with Digital Twins

authors: Adeel, Aleeza

subjects: Digital Twins

abstract: This paper introduces a human-centred framework to address the interaction and usability challenges of complex Digital Twin (DT) systems by proposing a new generation of Activity Theory, named Pyramidal Activity Theory (PAT). Digital twins are virtual representations of physical processes, systems, or components that are continuously synchronised with real-world data. Despite their growing adoption across industries, their graphical representation remains challenging due to the diversity of application domains, where multiple models—spanning different users, phases, and scales—are typically distributed across heterogeneous software packages. These complexities often result in inconsistencies, fragmented workflows, and communication barriers across domains. The proposed model builds upon the previous generation of activity theory, extending it into a 3D pyramidal structure while excluding motivational factors to focus exclusively on interaction mechanics. PAT provides a coherent model for designing unified, user-centred interfaces by capturing dynamic interactions among the key elements of DT systems—Users, Tools (Models), Live Data, Interfaces, and Outcomes—and their interrelationships. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate its applicability. Case Study 1 maps human–system interactions in advanced manufacturing, clarifying roles and activity flows to make the framework understandable and directly applicable for practitioners. Case Study 2 validates PAT through an implemented prototype for industrial energy optimisation.

The proposed model introduces a novel 3D interaction paradigm, providing a scalable and adaptable framework for digital twin interface design. It improves usability, standardisation, and decision-making by clarifying stakeholder roles, reducing cognitive load through “black-box” model integration, and ensuring consistent logic from regional planning to unit-level control. The paper concludes with future research directions, including usability testing, interface refinement, and alignment with interoperability and accessibility standards.

text: A multidimensional activity theory framework for human computer interaction with Digital Twins This paper introduces a human-centred framework to address the interaction and usability challenges of complex Digital Twin (DT) systems by proposing a new generation of Activity Theory, named Pyramidal Activity Theory (PAT). Digital twins are virtual representations of physical processes, systems, or components that are continuously synchronised with real-world data. Despite their growing adoption across industries, their graphical representation remains challenging due to the diversity of application domains, where multiple models—spanning different users, phases, and scales—are typically distributed across heterogeneous software packages. These complexities often result in inconsistencies, fragmented workflows, and communication barriers across domains. The proposed model builds upon the previous generation of activity theory, extending it into a 3D pyramidal structure while excluding motivational factors to focus exclusively on interaction mechanics. PAT provides a coherent model for designing unified, user-centred interfaces by capturing dynamic interactions among the key elements of DT systems—Users, Tools (Models), Live Data, Interfaces, and Outcomes—and their interrelationships. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate its applicability. Case Study 1 maps human–system interactions in advanced manufacturing, clarifying roles and activity flows to make the framework understandable and directly applicable for practitioners. Case Study 2 validates PAT through an implemented prototype for industrial energy optimisation.

The proposed model introduces a novel 3D interaction paradigm, providing a scalable and adaptable framework for digital twin interface design. It improves usability, standardisation, and decision-making by clarifying stakeholder roles, reducing cognitive load through “black-box” model integration, and ensuring consistent logic from regional planning to unit-level control. The paper concludes with future research directions, including usability testing, interface refinement, and alignment with interoperability and accessibility standards.

year: 2025

title: Analysis of the South Westland Basin, New Zealand

authors: Sircombe, Keith Nicholas

abstract: Running parallel to the thrust front of the Southern Alps, an elongate, predominantly offshore and relatively deep basin, considered to have originated as a foreland basin, has previously been identified in South Westland, South Island, New Zealand. An integrative approach to basin analysis has been undertaken in this thesis to test the hypothesis that this basin has been formed by the loading of the Pacific Plate onto the Australia Plate during the Late Cenozoic. The two principal approaches to this problem undertaken in this thesis are seismic mapping of industry acquired seismic reflection profiles available for the basin and geodynamical analysis of the basin geometry and its stratigraphy.

Seismic mapping reveals a thick sedimentary section that can be divided broadly into five sequences. The thickness distribution of these units have been digitized into a computer database for subsequent modelling and mapping. The five sequences are titled Sequence E through to A from the basement to the surface. The lowermost sequence, Sequence E, is a thin sheet of marginal marine sediments thickening toward the west. It is believed to have formed in a rift margin setting during the Late Cretaceous-Eocene, overlain by a regionally extensive limestone formed during a marine transgression in the Oligocene. Sequence D has a sheet-like form comprising turbiditic systems deposited in bathyal depths between around 30 Ma and 15 Ma. This is coincident with increasing convergence across the Alpine Fault and initial loading of the Australia Plate, and Sequence D may represent the early underfill stage of foreland basin development. Sequence C is wedge-like in form, consisting of deep water turbiditic systems rapidly deposited between 5 Ma and 3.1 Ma. This corresponds with the uplift of the inner margin of the basin along the South Westland Fault Zone. Sequence B is a prominent lensoidal form prograding facies consisting of mudstone with frequent coarser beds deposited between 3.1 Ma and 1.2 Ma. Sequence A tops the section with a possible eustatically controlled and predominantly slumped deposit of mudstone with thick units of bioclasts near the present surface.

Geodynamic analysis reveals an early stage of thermal subsidence due to late Cretaceous rifting that preceded Tasman Sea spreading. It is compatible with a lithospheric stretching factor of 1.25. Increasingly rapid subsidence since 15-10 Ma is interpreted as possible fault-controlled subsidence due to strike-slip deformation combined with loading resulting from increased convergence across the Alpine Fault. This is followed by the uplift of the inner margin of the basin around 5 Ma to form the presently exposed coastal strip. This event probably also contributed to the loading of the Australia Plate. Flexural analysis of the basement structure of the Australia Plate reveals an unusually weak lithosphere with a rigidity around 9.79 x 10²⁰ Nm. Several alternative interpretations are presented to explain this unusually weak lithosphere, such as high heat flows, lithospheric decoupling and inherited structures. The complex evolution of the basin from rift margin, through strike-slip to foreland basin is believed to have left behind structures that may constrain and/or enhance the flexural response of the Australia Plate.

text: Analysis of the South Westland Basin, New Zealand Running parallel to the thrust front of the Southern Alps, an elongate, predominantly offshore and relatively deep basin, considered to have originated as a foreland basin, has previously been identified in South Westland, South Island, New Zealand. An integrative approach to basin analysis has been undertaken in this thesis to test the hypothesis that this basin has been formed by the loading of the Pacific Plate onto the Australia Plate during the Late Cenozoic. The two principal approaches to this problem undertaken in this thesis are seismic mapping of industry acquired seismic reflection profiles available for the basin and geodynamical analysis of the basin geometry and its stratigraphy.

Seismic mapping reveals a thick sedimentary section that can be divided broadly into five sequences. The thickness distribution of these units have been digitized into a computer database for subsequent modelling and mapping. The five sequences are titled Sequence E through to A from the basement to the surface. The lowermost sequence, Sequence E, is a thin sheet of marginal marine sediments thickening toward the west. It is believed to have formed in a rift margin setting during the Late Cretaceous-Eocene, overlain by a regionally extensive limestone formed during a marine transgression in the Oligocene. Sequence D has a sheet-like form comprising turbiditic systems deposited in bathyal depths between around 30 Ma and 15 Ma. This is coincident with increasing convergence across the Alpine Fault and initial loading of the Australia Plate, and Sequence D may represent the early underfill stage of foreland basin development. Sequence C is wedge-like in form, consisting of deep water turbiditic systems rapidly deposited between 5 Ma and 3.1 Ma. This corresponds with the uplift of the inner margin of the basin along the South Westland Fault Zone. Sequence B is a prominent lensoidal form prograding facies consisting of mudstone with frequent coarser beds deposited between 3.1 Ma and 1.2 Ma. Sequence A tops the section with a possible eustatically controlled and predominantly slumped deposit of mudstone with thick units of bioclasts near the present surface.

Geodynamic analysis reveals an early stage of thermal subsidence due to late Cretaceous rifting that preceded Tasman Sea spreading. It is compatible with a lithospheric stretching factor of 1.25. Increasingly rapid subsidence since 15-10 Ma is interpreted as possible fault-controlled subsidence due to strike-slip deformation combined with loading resulting from increased convergence across the Alpine Fault. This is followed by the uplift of the inner margin of the basin around 5 Ma to form the presently exposed coastal strip. This event probably also contributed to the loading of the Australia Plate. Flexural analysis of the basement structure of the Australia Plate reveals an unusually weak lithosphere with a rigidity around 9.79 x 10²⁰ Nm. Several alternative interpretations are presented to explain this unusually weak lithosphere, such as high heat flows, lithospheric decoupling and inherited structures. The complex evolution of the basin from rift margin, through strike-slip to foreland basin is believed to have left behind structures that may constrain and/or enhance the flexural response of the Australia Plate.

year: 1993

title: Time to Diagnosis and Persistence: The Two Major Determinants of Effective Tuberculosis Control

authors: Ruthe, Alaine Tess

subjects: tuberculosis

abstract: The greatest challenge confronting effective tuberculosis (TB) eradication is the time to diagnosis, and duration of treatment of chronically infected individuals which represent a pool of infection. In an attempt to help limit the spread of TB in New Zealand, a fast SNP based diagnostic test was developed, to quickly identify the highly transmissible and virulent endemic Rangipo strain. The role of VapBC toxin-antitoxin systems in M. tuberculosis has been the subject of great interest recently, due to their expanded number in the genome and links with virulence and the regulation of cell growth in response to environmental stress. Their ability to regulate growth under adverse conditions for presumed survival advantages possibly leading to dormancy or persistence, make them ideal candidates for the development of new M. tuberculosis treatments. To establish differential expression of vapC, and therefore identify possible pathways and functions of the VapBC proteins, RT-qPCR was used to assess the expression levels of vapB and vapC in M. smegmatis under conditions of stress. No consistant changes in vapC mRNA levels were observed, resulting in the hypothesis that it is not the transcriptional differences which are important in the regulation of VapC, but post-transcriptional factors. In order to investigate the function(s) of M. tuberculosis VapBCs, these VapBC proteins were expressed and purified in M. smegmatis, and the VapC toxin tested for RNase activity. The purification, expression, RNase testing and bioinformatic analysis of M. tuberculosis VapCs suggested that VapCRv2530c, VapCRv0065 and VapCRv0617 may all target the same recognition sequence, UA*GG. Bioinformatic analysis revealed an abundance of this target sequence in horizontal gene transfer and TA genes, raising the possibility that VapC toxins could be functioning as selfish elements, or initiating transcriptional regulation cascades when a rapid change in the proteomic response and metabolic state of the cell is required. It is intriguing that the three M. tuberculosis VapC proteins tested thus far appear to target the same recognition sequence, possibly suggesting that all 47 VapCs are RNases and are targeting the same sequence. Alternatively; VapCs may belong to sub-groups targeting different sequences, allowing M. tuberculosis to exude both gross and fine metabolic control; or, they may share the same target, but are regulated by different activators triggered in response to different environmental stimuli.

text: Time to Diagnosis and Persistence: The Two Major Determinants of Effective Tuberculosis Control The greatest challenge confronting effective tuberculosis (TB) eradication is the time to diagnosis, and duration of treatment of chronically infected individuals which represent a pool of infection. In an attempt to help limit the spread of TB in New Zealand, a fast SNP based diagnostic test was developed, to quickly identify the highly transmissible and virulent endemic Rangipo strain. The role of VapBC toxin-antitoxin systems in M. tuberculosis has been the subject of great interest recently, due to their expanded number in the genome and links with virulence and the regulation of cell growth in response to environmental stress. Their ability to regulate growth under adverse conditions for presumed survival advantages possibly leading to dormancy or persistence, make them ideal candidates for the development of new M. tuberculosis treatments. To establish differential expression of vapC, and therefore identify possible pathways and functions of the VapBC proteins, RT-qPCR was used to assess the expression levels of vapB and vapC in M. smegmatis under conditions of stress. No consistant changes in vapC mRNA levels were observed, resulting in the hypothesis that it is not the transcriptional differences which are important in the regulation of VapC, but post-transcriptional factors. In order to investigate the function(s) of M. tuberculosis VapBCs, these VapBC proteins were expressed and purified in M. smegmatis, and the VapC toxin tested for RNase activity. The purification, expression, RNase testing and bioinformatic analysis of M. tuberculosis VapCs suggested that VapCRv2530c, VapCRv0065 and VapCRv0617 may all target the same recognition sequence, UA*GG. Bioinformatic analysis revealed an abundance of this target sequence in horizontal gene transfer and TA genes, raising the possibility that VapC toxins could be functioning as selfish elements, or initiating transcriptional regulation cascades when a rapid change in the proteomic response and metabolic state of the cell is required. It is intriguing that the three M. tuberculosis VapC proteins tested thus far appear to target the same recognition sequence, possibly suggesting that all 47 VapCs are RNases and are targeting the same sequence. Alternatively; VapCs may belong to sub-groups targeting different sequences, allowing M. tuberculosis to exude both gross and fine metabolic control; or, they may share the same target, but are regulated by different activators triggered in response to different environmental stimuli.

year: 2015