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The challenge of intellectual property rights for culturally significant patterns, products and processes
No full textIntellectual Property Rights (IPR) in the UK has been a topic of controversy, frustration and complexity for design and designers for many years and this continues to be the case. The situation is further complicated by the different laws affecting IPR in different countries and, often, a lack of knowledge about IPR especially among young designers. Indeed, there are significant differences in knowledge and understanding of IPR among designers in both economically developed and developing countries. To understand IPR we must first alter or augment our perception of property.
We grow up to consider property as a material entity: a car, a house, a television etc., something tangible that an individual has paid to take possession of or has manufactured themselves and therefore has the right to charge another individual for or even to give away; the last three words are important and may become more important as we begin to discuss IPR in relation to culturally significant patterns, products and practices. For example, many of us will give away our personal property to charity shops or any other non-profit organisation we choose because we believe that, in doing so, we are contributing towards the good of our national and global society.
The concept of design knowledge as a property is covered in depth and breadth by Mwendapole (2005) in her PhD thesis. She explains that, although property is probably not semantically the right word to cover design knowledge it is used because, as MacPherson (1978 : 11) stated, ‘property must be grounded in a public belief that it is morally right; if it is not so justified it does not remain an enforceable claim. If it is not justified, it does not remain property’. Design knowledge can be placed into one of two groups (Rodgers and Clarkson 1998): tacit or explicit. To put this simply, tacit knowledge is what is in the designer’s brain; it has been put there by training, education, practice and experience. It is how the designer collects and interprets previous knowledge. The knowledge will remain tacit throughout most of the idea generation stage and even up to the stages of early sketches. Once the designer moves on to technical drawings, models, computer simulations and so on (i.e. they become explicit) the ideas can be tested, viewed, used and enjoyed in the public domain and therefore should be protected and a value placed on them. How this value is arrived at and whether it is purely temporal or spiritual or both is difficult enough in contemporary society; when the designer is an individual or corporate entity, when the designer is part of a cultural group or ecology that has existed for decades, centuries or even longer, the situation is highly complex
Effect of cusp size, depth and direction on stress concentration
No full textRecently multi-axial machining technology has improved significantly. It has become a widely accepted method of manufacturing components with complex, free form surfaces. Solid billet materials with negligible internal defects are used in this process. This provides increased durability and fatigue life over equivalent cast components. However, multi-axial machining leaves cusps as machining marks. The combination of tool size and step-over generates cusps with different depths and widths. Even though the cusps add extra material on top of the nominal surface, the Finite Element Analysis simulations presented in this paper show that the maximum stress generated within the cusps can be greater than that predicted from the cusp-free geometry. These stress concentrations generated by cusps can reduce the fatigue life and durability of a machined component. In this paper a full factorial analysis of the effect of tool size, cusp width/step-over and cusp direction has been conducted. The analysis uses five different levels of tool size and cusps width and four levels of cusp direction. The results can be used to determine a tool size, cusp width and cusp direction combination with minimum spurious stress raising effect
PV output power enhancement using two mitigation techniques for hot spots and partially shaded solar cells
Full text linkHot spotting is a reliability problem in photovoltaic (PV) panels where a mismatched cell heats up significantly and degrades PV panel output power performance. High PV cell temperature due to hot spotting can damage the cell encapsulate and lead to second breakdown, where both cause permanent damage to the PV panel. Therefore, the design and development of two hot spot mitigation techniques are proposed using a simple, costless and reliable method. The hot spots in the examined PV system was carried out using FLIER i5 thermal imaging camera.
Several experiments have been examined during various environmental conditions, where the PV module I-V curve was evaluated in each observed test to analyze the output power performance before and after the activation of the proposed hot spot mitigation techniques. One PV module affected by hot spot was tested. The output power during high irradiance levels is increased by approximate to 1.25 W after the activation of the first hot spot mitigation technique. However, the second mitigation technique guarantee an increase of the power equals to 3.96 W. Additional test has been examined during partial shading condition. Both proposed techniques ensure a decrease in the shaded PV cell temperature, thus an increase in the output measured power
3D shape measurement of discontinuous specular objects based on advanced PMD with bi-telecentric lens
Full text linkThis paper presents an advanced phase measuring deflectometry (PMD) method based on a novel mathematical model to obtain three dimensional (3D) shape of discontinuous specular object using a bi-telecentric lens. The proposed method uses an LCD screen, a flat beam splitter, a camera with a bi-telecentric lens, and a translating stage. The LCD screen is used to display sinusoidal fringe patterns and can be moved by the stage to two different positions along the normal direction of a reference plane. The camera captures the deformed fringe patterns reflected by the measured specular surface. The splitter realizes the fringe patterns displaying and imaging from the same direction. Using the proposed advanced PMD method, the depth data can be directly calculated from absolute phase, instead of integrating gradient data. In order to calibrate the relative orientation of the LCD screen and the camera, an auxiliary plane mirror is used to reflect the pattern on the LCD screen three times. After the geometric calibration, 3D shape data of the measured specular objects are calculated from the phase differences between the reference plane and the reflected surface. The experimental results show that 3D shape of discontinuous specular object can be effectively and accurately measured from absolute phase data by the proposed advanced PMD method
If the Shoe Fits: Proposing a Randomised Control Trial on the effect of a digitised in-custody footwear technology compared to a paper-based footwear method.
Full text linkIn order to address the issue of footwear capture from individuals arrested for recordable crime, technology has been developed, which is known as Tread Finder. This technology and development was made possible through Home Office Police Innovation Funding. Tread Finder is now a finished product and the technology has been deployed into a North London custody suite. Tread Finder incorporates the use of a 300 dpi scanner and newly developed software enabling capture, assisted coding and automated geographical crime scene searching. This paper sets out the proposal of a Randomised Control Trial to replicate and upscale a previous lab based experiment into a field environment to assess the cost, efficiency and crime solving benefits realised as a result of deploying Tread Finder technology compared with the previous paper based alternative
Curvature based sampling of curves and surfaces
No full textEfficient sampling methods enable the reconstruction of a generic surface with a limited amount of points. The reconstructed surface can therefore be used for inspection purpose. In this paper a sampling method that enables the reconstruction of a curve or surface is proposed. The input of the proposed algorithm is the number of required samples. The method takes into account two factors: the regularity of the sampling and the complexity of the object. A higher density of samples is assigned where there are some significant features, described by the curvature. The analysed curves and surfaces are described through the B-splines spaces. The sampling of surfaces generated by two or more curves is also discussed
Combined EXAFS and ab initio study of copper complex geometries adsorbed on natural illite
Full text linkThe adsorption of copper on the 2:1 clay mineral illite (0.4 to 20 μm in size) was studied using a combination of extended X-ray adsorption fine structure (EXAFS) and hybrid-Density Functional Theory (DFT) modelling. The study evaluates the effect of varying pH and copper concentration on the mechanisms of copper adsorption in solutions at background electrolyte concentration typical of natural surface continental freshwaters in granitic environments. The EXAFS spectra revealed both the elongated square pyramidal and Jahn-Teller octahedral coordinated copper clusters as feasible with the former providing better fits using spertiniite (crystalline copper hydroxide) as model compound. Additionally, ab initio calculations also predicted the square pyramidal geometry to be more stable. Copper ions have four Oeq at an average distance of 1.95(1) Å and two independent Oax at average distances of 2.32(16) Å and 3.06(9) Å, with the latter decreasing to 2.97(2) Å as copper concentration and pH are increased. This may reveal different mechanism by which copper adsorbs on illite, as a weakly bound complex at low pH likely at exchange and edge sites and changing towards more strongly bound complexes at high affinity edge sites at higher pH and copper loads. Above 1% Cu model fits suggest formation of copper oligomers with average Cu-Cu distance of 3.10(2) Å. These occur at pH > 6, where the correlation between Cu-Cu and Al-Al distances in the illite edge surfaces supports the formation of surface precipitates
The Association between Child Maltreatment and Adult Poverty – A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Research
Full text linkChild maltreatment is a global problem affecting millions of children and is associated with an array of cumulative negative outcomes later in life, including unemployment and financial difficulties. Although establishing child maltreatment as a causal mechanism for adult economic outcomes is fraught with difficulty, understanding the relationship between the two is essential to reducing such inequality. This paper presents findings from a systematic review of longitudinal research examining experiences of child maltreatment and economic outcomes in adulthood. A systematic search of seven databases found twelve eligible retrospective and prospective cohort studies. From the available evidence, there was a relatively clear relationship between ‘child maltreatment’ and poorer economic outcomes such as reduced income, unemployment, lower level of job skill and fewer assets, over and above the influence of family of origin socio-economic status. Despite an extremely limited evidence base, neglect had a consistent relationship with a number of long-term economic outcomes, while physical abuse has a more consistent relationship with income and employment. Studies examining sexual abuse found less of an association with income and employment, although they did find a relationship to other outcomes such as sickness absence, assets, welfare receipt and financial insecurity. Nonetheless, all twelve studies showed some association between at least one maltreatment type and at least one economic measure. The task for future research is to clarify the relationship between specific maltreatment types and specific economic outcomes, taking account of how this may be influenced by gender and life course stag
Introduction to IT transformation of safety and risk management systems
No full textThis chapter is an introduction to IT transformation of systems for safety management, risk analysis and/or RAMS analysis. The objective is to provide the reader with an overview of the formidable task of IT transformations in general and in particular for safety management on the GB railways. The chapter can only scratch the surface of this transformation since it deals with selected elements of decades of research and development in the computer sciences. The authors believe that trying to describe the particulars of the transformation is out of scope for this book because it involves so many intricate peculiarities of computer science that it is infeasible to explain within the scope of this chapter
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