2,839 research outputs found
Small and medium agility dogs alter their kinematics when the distance between hurdles differs
There is currently a lack of research examining the health and welfare implications for competitive agility dogs. The aim of this study was to examine if jump kinematics and apparent joint angles in medium (351 mm - 430 mm to the withers) and small (< 350 mm to the withers) agility dogs altered when distances between consecutive upright hurdles differ. Dogs ran a course of nine hurdles; three set at 3.6 m apart; three at 4 m apart and three at 5 m apart. Both medium (P=0.044) and small (P=0.006) dogs landed closer to the hurdle when consecutive hurdles were set at 3.6 m apart, with small dogs jumping slower at this distance (P=0.006). Results indicate that jump kinematics, but not apparent joint angles, alter when the spacing between hurdles differs. These findings may have implications for the health and welfare of agility dogs and should be used to inform future changes to rules and regulations
A phenomenological study of families who participate in long term independent international travel: the family gap year
Moustakas (1994) emphasizes that phenomenological study arises from the experiences and passions of the researcher that in turn focus and drive the research. This researcher’s own experiences include a 9-month trip around the world with my family that led me to conduct this study exploring the phenomenon of the family gap year. Existing research focuses on the traditional gap year taken by a young person in between graduation from high school and beginning college. This study seeks to add to that knowledge by exploring the related, but also unique, experience of families who take an extended time period off from career and formal school in order to participate together in a multi-continent international trip. The study addresses why families may decide to take such a trip, what they hope to gain from such an experience and whether or not the trip actually met those expectations. It is also attempts to establish whether or not any changes in family members were identified by participants and believed to be attributable to the experience of the family gap year. Findings from this study indicate that the families examined chose this experience because of a desire to travel and see the world with their children. Subjects agreed that the experience met or exceeded expectations in that it provided a unique opportunity to learn about other peoples and cultures and also provided concentrated time to be together and grow closer as a family. Subjects also however referred to less desirable aspects of the trip related to the maintenance required to keep the family on the road, such as travel planning and laundry. Finally many of the participants in the study referenced learning and personal growth in family members that they attributed to the experience of the family gap year. Together these findings represent an early effort to establish an understanding of the phenomenon of the family gap year
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Characterization of Flywheel Energy Storage System for Hybrid Vehicles
Flywheels are excellent secondary energy storage devices and several applications in road vehicles are under development. They can be used in hybrid vehicles with an internal combustion engine (ICE) as the prime mover or can be used in hybrid energy storage (HES) to complement the battery. When used in HES, they are utilized to load level the battery so as to protect it from peak loads and enhance its capacity and life. This paper deals with defining the main characteristics of the flywheel for an application as a secondary energy storage device for an electric vehicle. Various strategies for defining flywheels are explained. A real world customer usage data is also presented. This data is analyzed and its results are used to support the selection of the flywheel characteristics. The results show that the chosen flywheel is sufficiently sized to perform its intended tasks for a c-segment passenger car electric vehicle
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Analysis of Dual Mode Continuously Variable Transmission for Flywheel Energy Storage Systems
There are different types of energy storage devices which are used in today’s hybrid and electric vehicles. Batteries, ultra capacitors and high speed flywheels are the most commonly used ones. While batteries and supercapacitors store energy in the form of electric energy, the flywheel (FW) is the only device that keeps the energy stored in the original form of mechanical energy the same as the moving vehicle. The flywheel needs to be coupled to the driveshaft of the vehicle in a manner which allows it to vary its speed independently of the moving vehicle in order to vary its energy content. In other words a continuously variable transmission (CVT) is needed. The common mechanical variators used in automotive applications, namely the rolling traction drives and the belt drives, have the disadvantage that their speed ratio range defined as the maximum to minimum speed ratio is generally not sufficient for flywheel energy storage system (FESS). One of the ways to improve the ratio range is by using a dual mode transmission, where the ratio coverage of the variator is exploited twice. This paper presents the fundamental kinematics of such a transmission including its variants. The equations of speed ratio, power flow and efficiency are derived for a variator only transmission and a power split CVT (PSCVT) used in dual mode and the results compared
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Simulation based study of battery electric vehicle performance in real world cycles
The development of battery electric vehicles (BEV) must continue since this offers the leading route towards a zero emission transport system. The fuel flexibility of the BEV offers the greatest potential to utilize power from renewable or low emission sources to be used in the transport system. However the limited range and high cost of the BEV remain important issues to be addressed. The battery is the element which strongly affects the cost and range of the BEV. The batteries offer either high specific power or high specific energy, but not both. This paper presents the modelling of a BEV which is used to study the potential for improvement in its energy efficiency. The battery model types have been discussed. The vehicle and other component models have been described. The choice of model parameters and the control strategy has been explained. The simulations have been performed on homologation and real world cycles for different scenarios. Results show significant potential for improvement in the energy efficiency of the BEV in real world usage by the utilization of a secondary energy storage device
Spectral cutoffs in indirect dark matter searches
Indirect searches for dark matter annihilation or decay products in the
cosmic-ray spectrum are plagued by the question of how to disentangle a dark
matter signal from the omnipresent astrophysical background. One of the
practically background-free smoking-gun signatures for dark matter would be the
observation of a sharp cutoff or a pronounced bump in the gamma-ray energy
spectrum. Such features are generically produced in many dark matter models by
internal Bremsstrahlung, and they can be treated in a similar manner as the
traditionally looked-for gamma-ray lines. Here, we discuss prospects for seeing
such features with present and future Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table; conference proceedings for TAUP 2011,
Munich 5-9 Se
Advanced techniques for determining long term compatibility of materials with propellants
A method for the prediction of propellant-material compatibility for periods of time up to ten years is presented. Advanced sensitive measurement techniques used in the prediction method are described. These include: neutron activation analysis, radioactive tracer technique, and atomic absorption spectroscopy with a graphite tube furnace sampler. The results of laboratory tests performed to verify the prediction method are presented
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