Loud, Proud and Prosperous! Report on the Mobility International USA International Symposium on Microcredit for Women with Disabilities

[Excerpt] MIUSA designed the International Symposium on Microcredit for Women with Disabilities in response to recommendations from women leaders with disabilities at WILD, at the Symposium in Beijing, and from our own experience with US-based international development programs. It seemed apparent that economic empowerment of women with disabilities was not high on any agenda – international aid agencies, development organizations, women’s programs, or even disability rights movements. Women with disabilities expressed that they – women with disabilities – would need to take leadership in this area, and that they needed particular knowledge and skills to be effective as leaders in this area

Sand chair: Improving access to Cornish beaches through sustainable design

Sustainable Innovation 2016: ‘Circular Economy’ Sustainable Innovation & Design This paper is a case study describing a collaborative product design and development project between Falmouth University and local charity, Cornwall Mobility (CM), in Truro. The project focused on the design of a beach wheelchair, or ‘sand chair’. An opportunity was identified by CM for greater access to beach wheelchairs in Cornwall. This is part of a wider remit to explore how Cornish beaches can be made more accessible to people with physical disabilities and mobility difficulties to enjoy the physiological and psychological benefits that being by the sea can bring. Beach wheelchairs are frequently used by locals and visitors to Cornwall, including children and adults who are physically disabled through disease or injury, and elderly people who struggle with mobility. The current beach wheelchairs – until recently operated by Cornwall Council – are imported from the USA, are expensive and subject to import duty. In addition, a number of known faults and design improvements have already been recognised with the existing product sourced by CM. Working closely with CM, with the benefit of their expertise in this field, the case study examines the opportunity to develop a much improved designed product at a lower cost that could be manufactured locally, in Cornwall. The project demonstrates how a charity, such as CM, can be empowered through design, to provide improved access to products and services for their users. CM has supported important primary research activities in this product realm due to its advisory role to a large client base. The collaboration has allowed for engagement with CM clients for user centred design practice. As part of this process, CM clients with mobility ranging from paralysis to severe arthritis have been involved in the testing of Sand Chair prototypes. They evaluated the product against two competitor beach wheelchairs and participated in a research exercise to establish the key functional priorities of the product. The wider client base also affords marketing and retail opportunities for the product through CM's existing market networks. The developed product is easier to get in and out of and easier for the person pushing the chair to handle. It is also visually more attractive with aesthetic detailing synonymous with the seaside rather than a hospital. However, in addition to product usability, technical issues relating to materials and manufacturing have also been addressed. Early development saw the exploration of the potential of sheet material as a key structural component. This challenges the commonly prescribed stainless steel tube assembly seen on many beach wheelchairs. Sheet materials can be CNC machined, negating the need for specialist tooling, and provide flexibility in terms of component detailing. It becomes very easy to make bespoke details or component alterations. A dry joint system is used embracing design for disassembly, making the product consistently repairable or upgradable, and allows components to be easily separated for recycling. The assembly of the product does not require a high skill level. The product is now at a mature development stage with further prototype trials planned during summer 2016

Exploiting code mobility for dynamic binary obfuscation

Software protection aims at protecting the integrity of software applications deployed on un-trusted hosts and being subject to illegal analysis. Within an un-trusted environment a possibly malicious user has complete access to system resources and tools in order to analyze and tamper with the application code. To address this research problem, we propose a novel binary obfuscation approach based on the deployment of an incomplete application whose code arrives from a trusted network entity as a flow of mobile code blocks which are arranged in memory with a different customized memory layout. This paper presents our approach to contrast reverse engineering by defeating static and dynamic analysis, and discusses its effectivenes

Changing course in public transport: the car as a component of competitive services

Local public transport has long enjoyed special government protection and mas-sive subsidies. It also plays a special role in transport and environmental policy. With increasing individualization in society, however, the needs of many road and rail user have changed. In a world where the automobile has become the measure of all things public transport companies in many places lack entrepreneurial skills and customer orientation. These shortcomings leave them ill equipped for the imminent European-wide liberalization of licensing procedures for public transport. The present discussion paper by the WZB’s Project Group on Mobility explores what must happen in business practice and transport policy in order to prevent the impending spiral of diminishing demand, worsening supply, and a further slump in demand. More than just organizational innovation is necessary. The key recommendation for improving public transport services is to expand them by adding car sharing and other alternatives centered on the automobile. The objective of adopting the car as a component of competitive services is to link traditional with modern, flexible transport and thereby create an integrated system. -- Bisher steht der öffentliche Personennahverkehr (ÖPNV) unter einem besonderen staatlichen Schutz. Seine Finanzierung basiert zu einem Großteil auf Subven-tionen. Dem ÖPNV kommt zudem eine besondere verkehrs- und umweltpolitische Rolle zu. Die Bedürfnisse vieler Verkehrsteilnehmer haben sich jedoch entspre-chend der gesellschaftlichen Individualisierung verändert. Das Automobil ist das Maß aller Dinge geworden. Doch vielerorts hapert es bei den öffentlichen Ver-kehrsunternehmen an Kundenorientierung und ihre unternehmerischen Fähig-keiten blieben unterentwickelt. Gleichzeitig steht die europaweite Liberalisierung der Konzessionsvergabe im öffentlichen Verkehr vor der Tür. Vor diesem Problemhintergrund geht die Projektgruppe Mobilität des WZB in dem vorliegende discussion paper der Frage nach, was unternehmerisch und verkehrs-politisch geschehen muss, um die drohende Abwärtsspirale sinkender Nachfrage, fortschreitender Angebotsverschlechterung und weiter sinkender Nachfrage zu verhindern. Notwendig sind nicht nur organisatorische Innovationen. Die zentrale Empfehlung für die Verbesserung des Verkehrsangebotes lautet vielmehr, Car Sharing und andere automobile Verkehrsdienstleistungen als “Autobaustein“ in die Produktpalette von öffentlichen Transportunternehmen aufzunehmen. Ziel muss die Verknüpfung von traditionellen mit modernen, flexiblen Verkehrsdienstleistun-gen zu einem integrierten Verkehrsangebot sein.

Micromagnetics of the Domain Wall Mobility in Permalloy Nanowires

The domain wall mobility in long permalloy nanowires with thicknesses of 2-20 nm and widths of 50-200 nm has been simulated. The domain wall is driven into motion by an external magnetic field and the average wall mobility is calculated after the wall has traveled 2.5 mum along the wire. The results were obtained using the three-dimensional dynamic Landau-Lifshitz equation. We find that the domain wall mobility decreases linearly up to the critical field called the Walker field. The decreasing wall mobility is related to the decrease in the dynamic domain wall length as the applied field is increased. The value of the critical field is dependent on the thickness and width of the wire. At the critical field the mobility decreases by an order of magnitude. Above the Walker field the average mobility remains relatively constant for all driving fields, while the instantaneous mobility shows regions of high mobility with long periods of almost no mobility. For large applied fields the domain wall velocity can be large even though the average mobility is low