5,732 research outputs found
Living with the user: Design drama for dementia care through responsive scripted experiences in the home
Participation in forms of drama and narrative can provoke empathy and creativity in user-centred design processes. In this paper, we expand upon existing methods to explore the potential for responsive scripted experiences that are delivered through the combination of sensors and output devices placed in a home. The approach is being developed in the context of Dementia care, where the capacity for rich user participation in design activities is limited. In this case, a system can act as a proxy for a person with Dementia, allowing designers to gain experiences and insight as to what it is like to provide care for, and live with, this person. We describe the rationale behind the approach, a prototype system architecture, and our current work to explore the creation of scripted experiences for design, played out though UbiComp technologies.This research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, (AH/K00266X/1) and Horizon Digital Economy Research (RCUK grant EP/G065802/1)
Using cultural probes to inform the design of assistive technologies
This paper discusses the practical implications of applying cultural probes to drive the design of assistive technologies. Specifically we describe a study in which a probe was deployed with home-based carers of people with dementia in order to capture critical data and gain insights of integrating the technologies into this sensitive and socially complex design space. To represent and utilise the insights gained from the cultural probes, we created narratives based on the probe data to enhance the design of assistive technologies.This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/K00266X/1) and RCUK through the Horizon Digital Economy Research grant (EP/G065802/1)
Supersymmetry, Axions and Cosmology
Various authors have noted that in particular models, the upper bound on the
axion decay constant may not hold. We point out that within supersymmetry, this
is a generic issue. For large decay constants, the cosmological problems
associated with the axion's scalar partner are far more severe than those of
the axion. We survey a variety of models, both for the axion multiplet and for
cosmology, and find that in many cases where the cosmological problems of the
saxion are solved, the usual upper bound on the axion is significantly relaxed.
We discuss, more generally, the cosmological issues raised by the pseudoscalar
members of moduli multiplets, and find that they are potentially quite severe.Comment: 27 pages, published version, some discussions clarifie
Relating PH and Ion Release from Ga2O3-Na 2O-CaO-ZnO-SiO2 Bioactive Glasses
Three glasses were designed for this study, including one Ga-free glass (Control), and two Ga-containing glasses (TGa-1, TGa-2). In the Ga-containing glasses, Ga2O3 is included at the expense of ZnO. This study focuses on the relation between pH and ion concentration present in solution in which these bioactive glasses have been submerged for periods of 1, 7, and 14 days. © 2013 IEEE
The Structural Characterization of Ga 2O 3-Na 2O-CaO-ZnO-SiO 2 Bioactive Glasses
The characterization of bioactive glasses in which zinc (Zn) has been incrementally replaced by gallium (Ga). © 2012 IEEE
Brighter prospects? Assessing the franchise advantage using census data
This paper uses Census micro data to examine how starting a business as a franchise rather than an independent business affects its survival and growth prospects. We assess factors that influence the decision to become a franchisee and use various empirical approaches to correct for selection bias in our performance analyses. We find that franchised businesses on average exhibit higher survival rates than independent businesses, but importantly, the difference is small compared to claims in the trade press. The effect is also short lived: conditional on surviving a year or two, we no longer find survival (or growth) differences. We then explore two potential sources for this small survival advantage, namely franchisors’ screening process and the benefits arising from the brand and business know-how provided by franchisors. We find evidence that both of the sources contribute to the franchising advantage
Q ball inflation
We show that inflation can occur in the core of a Q-ball.Comment: 11 pages, latex2e, no figure, references added, final version to
appear in PR
The Cosmological Moduli Problem, Supersymmetry Breaking and Stability in Postinflationary Cosmology
A survey of solutions to the cosmological moduli problem in string theory.
The only extant proposal which may work is Intermediate Scale Inflation as
proposed by Randall and Thomas. Supersymmetry preserving dynamics which could
give large masses to the moduli is strongly constrained by cosmology and
requires the existence of string vacuum states possessing properties different
from those of any known vacuuum. Such a mechanism cannot give mass to the
dilaton unless there are cancellations between different exponentially small
contributions to the superpotential. Our investigation also shows that
stationary points of the effective potential with negative vacuum energy do not
correspond to stationary solutions of the equations of postinflationary
cosmology. This suggests that supersymmetry breaking is a requirement for a
successful inflationary cosmology.Comment: harvma
Supersymmetry Breaking in the Early Universe
Supersymmetry breaking in the early universe induces scalar soft potentials
with curvature of order the Hubble constant. This has a dramatic effect on the
coherent production of scalar fields along flat directions. For the moduli
problem it generically gives a concrete realization of the problem by
determining the field value subsequent to inflation. However it might suggest a
solution if the minimum of the induced potential coincides with the true
minimum. The induced Hubble scale mass also has important implications for the
Affleck-Dine mechanism of baryogenesis. This mechanism requires large squark or
slepton expectation values to develop along flat directions in the early
universe. This is generally not the case if the induced mass squared is
positive, but does occur if it is negative. The resulting baryon to entropy
ratio depends mainly on the dimension of the nonrenormalizable operator in the
superpotential which stabilizes the flat direction, and the reheat temperature
after inflation. Unlike the original scenario, it is possible to obtain an
acceptable baryon asymmetry without subsequent entropy releases.Comment: 11 pages, requires phyzz
Hybridized Affleck-Dine baryogenesis
We propose a novel scenario for Affleck-Dine baryogenesis in the braneworld,
considering the hybrid potential for the Affleck-Dine field. Destabilization of
the flat direction is not due to the Hubble parameter, but is induced by a
trigger field. The moduli for the brane distance plays the role of the trigger
field. Q-balls are unstable in models with large extra dimensions.Comment: 10pages, plain latex2e, references added, to appear in PR
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