695915 research outputs found
Sort by
Performance of Tapping Washing in Comparison with Hand Washing and Front-Loading Machine Washing for Knitted Wool Sweaters
No full textWool fiber is widely used for clothing in our daily life due to its’ excellent physical and mechanical properties. However, in daily laundry process, wool products can shrink severely by strong mechanical action in a warm and moist environment due to the fiber surface scales. Aiming to overcome the difficulty of washing delicate clothes such as wool and silk, Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd., invented a new washing machine for delicate clothes, based on tapping actions. The washing performance of wool sweaters of tapping washing (TW), is compared with those of hand washing (HW) and gentle and normal machine washing (GMW, NMW). The results show that TW always gives wool sweater the best appearance, dimensional stability and mechanical property up to 10 washing cycles. The changes of appearance and mechanical properties of wool sweaters are mainly due to the rate of felting shrinkage. By comparing the magnitude, duration, number of mechanical actions and direction of the forces acting on the fabric in TW, HW and GMW, it can be concluded that the direction of forces acting on the fabric has significant effect on wool fabric felting-shrinkage, and unidirectional force has less effect on felting-shrinkage than multidirectional forces. TW can give the lowest felting rate to wool sample because the forces in TW on all parts of the fabric have similar direction
Morphologies and Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae in the Galactic bulge from VLT, HST and Pan-STARRS imaging
No full textThis is the first in a series of papers that present sets of different results for 136 compact, known planetary nebulae within a10 × 10 degree region of the Galactic bulge. We use a large, previously unpublished sample of our own extensive ESO 8 m VLT deep imaging and spectroscopic data. This is combined with archival deep HST imaging where available to provide a detailed morphological classification and study. The influence of angular resolution and sensitivity when assigning a morphology is discussed. A large fraction (68%) of the sample are shown to be bipolars and the implications for this in the context of planetarynebulae progenitors are explored. Four new planetary nebula central stars are also identified which are not in Gaia. This is based on both VLT and deep archival Pan-STARRS broad-band imagery. Some 11 putative central stars previously reported, based on Gaia positions, are also not the true central star. In other cases the Gaia central stars reported in the literature are actually basedon the overall centroid position of a very compact planetary nebula rather than the actual central star within it. Gaia parallax distances and kinematic ages for PNe in this sample are provided where possible based on fresh angular size measures from the new VLT imagery and Gaia distances and literature expansion velocities when available. All these results are discussed within the context of the overall characteristics of the Galactic bulge and its planetary nebula population.Key words: planetary nebulae: general – Galaxy: bulge – Galaxy: centr
Biopsychosocial classification of hearing health-seeking in adults aged over 50 in England
No full textObjectives. Approximately 10-35% of people with a hearing impairment own a hearing aid. The present study aims to identify barriers to obtaining a hearing aid and inform future interventions by examining the biopsychosocial characteristics of adults aged 50+ according to seven categories: i) Did not report hearing difficulties, ii) Reported hearing difficulties, iii) Told a healthcare professional about experiencing hearing difficulties, iv) Referred for a hearing assessment, v) Offered a hearing aid, vi) Accepted a hearing aid, and vii) Reported using a hearing aid regularly. Design. The research was conducted using the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA) wave 7 with data obtained from 9,666 adults living in England from June 2014 to May 2015. Cross-sectional data from a subset of 2,845 participants aged 50-89 years of age with a probable hearing impairment measured by hearing screening (indicating a hearing threshold of >20dB HL at 1 kHz or >35 dB HL at 3k Hz in the better ear). Classification according to hearing health-seeking category was via participants’ self-report. Participants in each category were compared to people in all subsequent categories in order to examine the associations between each category and biopsychosocial correlates (gender, age, ethnicity, educational level, wealth, audiometric hearing level, self-reported health status, cognitive performance, attitudes to aging, living alone, and engagement in social activities) using multiple logistic regression. Results. The proportions of individuals (N = 2,845) in categories i to vii were 40.0% (n=1139), 14.0% (n=396), 4.5% (n=129), 4.0% (n=114), 1.2% (n=34), 7.7% (n=220) and 28.6% (n=813), respectively. Severity of hearing impairment was the only factor predictive of all the categories of hearing health-seeking that could be modelled. Other correlates predictive of at least one category of hearing health-seeking included gender, age, self-reported heath, participation in social activities, and cognitive function. Discussion. For the first time, it was shown that 40.0% of people with an audiometrically identified probable hearing impairment did not report hearing difficulties. Each of the five categories of hearing health-seeking that could be modelled had different drivers and consequently interventions likely should vary depending on the category of hearing health-seeking
Do Humans Imitate Robots? An Investigation of Strategic Social Learning in Human-Robot Interaction
No full textTheories on social learning indicate that imitative choices are usually performed whenever copying the others’ behaviour has no additional cost. Here, we extended such investigations of social learning to Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). Participants played the Economic Investment Game with a robot banker while observing another robot player also investing in the robot banker. By manipulating the robot banker payoff, three conditions of unfairness were created: (1) unfair payoff for the participants, (2) unfair payoff for the robot player and (3) unfair payoff for both. Results showed that when the payoff was low for the participants and high for the robot player, participants invested more money in the robot banker than when both parties received a low return. Also, for this specific condition, participants’ investments increased further with a more interactive robot player (defined as demonstrating increased attention, congruent movements and speech) This suggests that social and cognitive human competencies can be used and transposed to non-human agents. Further, imitation can potentially be extended to HRI, with interactivity likely having a key role in increasing this effect
Shocking granular flows
No full textWhen a lightning bolt darts across the sky, the thunderclap that reaches our ears a few seconds later is an example of a fluid dynamical shock: a wave across which flow properties such as pressure and density change almost discontinuously. In compressible fluids these shocks are associated with high-energy supersonic flows and so require specialist equipment to realise in steady state. But in granular media, shocks occur much more readily and at flow speeds easily obtainable in the laboratory. In the featured article, Khan et al. (2019) exploit this to explore a remarkable range of steady and oscillatory shocks and shock interactions, which demonstrate many of the unique rheological complexities of granular flow.<br/
Sharing Economy in Future Electricity Markets: Security and Privacy Analysis
No full textThis paper performs an in-depth security and privacy analysis of emergent (peer-to-peer) electricity trading markets where individual users (via their smart meters) can trade electricity with other users and market players in a (semi)decentralised manner. Firstly, a high-level overview of future electricity markets is presented,and a comprehensive explanation is offered concerning the evolution of the current (and future) actors regarding their roles. Secondly, business model matrix analysis is deployed to develop and discuss in detail four scenarios based on customers’ information ownership and citizens’ level of involvement. Lastly, an analysis of security and privacy threats is performed which leads to a specification of necessary requirements to mitigate such threats. This paper provides and serves as a benchmark for risk assessment and future design of secure peer-to-peer electricity trading markets.<br/
Giving patients a voice: Implementing patient and public involvement to strengthen research in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textModulation of magnon spin transport in a magnetic gate transistor
No full textWe demonstrate a modulation of up to 18% in the magnon spin transport in a magnetic insulator (Y3Fe5O12, YIG) using a common ferromagnetic metal (permalloy, Py) as a magnetic control gate. A Py electrode, placed between two Pt injector and detector electrodes, acts as a magnetic gate in our prototypical magnon transistor device. By manipulating the magnetization direction of Py with respect to that of YIG, the transmission of magnons through the PyjYIG interface can be controlled, resulting in a modulation of the non-equilibrium magnon density in the YIG channel between the Pt injector and detector electrodes. This study opens up the possibility of using the magnetic gating effect for magnon-based spin logic applications
Three-dimensional advective–diffusive boundary layers in open channels with parallel and inclined walls
No full textWe study the steady laminar advective transport of a diffusive passive scalar released at the base of narrow three-dimensional longitudinal open channels with non-absorbing side walls and rectangular or truncated-wedge-shaped cross-sections. The scalar field in the advective–diffusive boundary layer at the base of the channels is fundamentally three-dimensional in the general case, owing to a three-dimensional velocity field and differing boundary conditions at the side walls. We utilise three-dimensional numerical simulations and asymptotic analysis to understand how this inherent three-dimensionality influences the advective-diffusive transport as described by the normalised average flux, the Sherwood Sh or Nusselt numbers for mass or heat transfer, respectively. We show that Sh is well approximated by an appropriately formulated two-dimensional calculation, even when the boundary layer structure is itself far from two-dimensional. This is a key and novel results which can significantly simplify the modelling of many laminar advection–diffusion scalar transfer problems. The different transport regimes found depend on the channel geometry and a characteristic P´eclet number Pe based on the ratio of the cross-channel diffusion time and the longitudinal advection time. We develop asymptotic expressions for Sh in the various limiting regimes, which mainly depend on the confinement of the boundary layer in the lateral and basenormal directions. For Pe 1 we recover the classical L´evˆeque solution with a cross-channelaveraged shear rate γ1/3, Sh ∝ γ1/3Pe1/3, for both geometries despite strongly curved boundary layers; for parallel walls a secondary regime with Sh ∝ Pe1/2 is found for Pe 1. In the case of truncated wedge channels, further regimes are identified owing to curvature effects, which we capture through a curvature-rescaled P´eclet number Peβ = β2Pe, with β the opening angle of the wedge. For Pe1/2 β 1, the Sherwood number appears to follow Sh ∼ β3/4Pe1/16 β . In all cases, we offer a comparison between our three-dimensional simulations, the asymptotic results and our two-dimensional simplifications, and can thus quantify the error in the flux from the simplified calculations. Our findings are relevant to heat and mass transfer applications in confined U-shaped or V-shaped channels such as for the decontamination and cleaning of narrow gaps or transport processes in chemical or biological microfluidic devices.<br/