978 research outputs found
Using Wii technology to explore real spaces via virtual environments for people who are blind
Purpose - Virtual environments (VEs) that represent real spaces (RSs) give people who are blind the opportunity to build a cognitive map in advance that they will be able to use when arriving at the RS. Design - In this research study Nintendo Wii based technology was used for exploring VEs via the Wiici application. The Wiimote allows the user to interact with VEs by simulating walking and scanning the space. Finding - By getting haptic and auditory feedback the user learned to explore new spaces. We examined the participants' abilities to explore new simple and complex places, construct a cognitive map, and perform orientation tasks in the RS. Originality – To our knowledge, this finding presents the first virtual environment for people who are blind that allow the participants to scan the environment and by this to construct map model spatial representations
Ignition of flammable hydrogen/air mixtures by high mass mechanical impact of Magnox contaminated surfaces
Magnox and its corrosion products are a major constituent of some legacy nuclear waste storage silos which generate hydrogen. An experimental study investigates the likelihood of ignition of hydrogen/air when large mass projectiles impact rusty surfaces with Magnox contamination. Ignition is observed with 50kg projectiles impacting a 45º Magnox-smeared rusty anvil plate with KE as low as 40J. Theoretical calculations relating to the angled impacts reveal that they involve substantial tangential energy losses associated with frictional heating of the impact surfaces. It is shown that these energy losses are particularly dependent on the shape of the projectile since projectile geometry determines the radius of gyration and the relationship of centre of gravity to the impact point. In conclusion, the projectile shape is likely to be of greater importance than the mass (i.e. for a given impact energy) because of its direct bearing on the magnitude of the tangential energy loss
Characterizing precursors to stellar clusters with Herschel
Context. Despite their profound effect on the universe, the formation of massive stars and stellar clusters remains elusive. Recent advances in observing facilities and computing power have brought us closer to understanding this formation process. In the past decade, compelling evidence has emerged that suggests infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) may be precursors to stellar clusters. However, the usual method for identifying IRDCs is biased by the requirement that they are seen in absorption against background mid-IR emission, whereas dust continuum observations allow cold, dense pre-stellar-clusters to be identified anywhere. Aims: We aim to understand what dust temperatures and column densities characterize and distinguish IRDCs, to explore the population of dust continuum sources that are not IRDCs, and to roughly characterize the level of star formation activity in these dust continuum sources. Methods: We use Hi-GAL 70 to 500 m bright sources at the warmest. Finally, we identify five candidate IRDC-like sources on the far-side of the Galaxy. These are cold (20 K), high column density (N(H) gt 10 cm) clouds identified with Hi-GAL which, despite bright surrounding mid-IR emission, show little to no absorption at 8 $m. These are the first inner Galaxy far-side candidate IRDCs of which the authors are aware. Herschel in an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation by NASA.The FITS files discussed in the paper would be released publicly WITH the Hi-GAL data (on the Hi-GAL website) when the Hi-GAL data is released publicly.Peer reviewe
Potential hazard consequences to personnel exposed to the ignition of small volumes of weakly confined stoichiometric hydrogen/air mixture
Many studies have been devoted to understanding the consequence of ignition events that could occur as a result of using hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels or when hydrogen is present in large scale industrial or nuclear waste sites. Little attention has however, been given to the effect of explosion in small scale operations: this could involve service work with manual handling and manipulation of gas containing packages or vessels. The purpose of this study is to begin to address this knowledge gap and report the results of an experimental program carried out to simulate the effect of localised and weakly confined small volume hydrogen explosions on personal safety. Three aspects of personal injury consequences are considered; injury from shock loading to the head/brain, skin burns and acoustic/hearing damage. It is concluded from ignition and acoustic noise exposure experiments, carried with stoichiometric hydrogen /air mixtures, that injuries arising from shock loading or burns to the skin are less likely than hearing damage. It is suggested that further work should focus on the noise exposure and hearing damage effects of small scale explosions
The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. XII. Distance Catalog Expansion Using Kinematic Isolation of Dense Molecular Cloud Structures With 13CO(1-0)
We present an expanded distance catalog for 1,710 molecular cloud structures
identified in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) version 2, representing
a nearly threefold increase over the previous BGPS distance catalog. We
additionally present a new method for incorporating extant data sets into our
Bayesian distance probability density function (DPDF) methodology. To augment
the dense-gas tracers (e.g., HCO+(3-2), NH3(1,1)) used to derive line-of-sight
velocities for kinematic distances, we utilize the Galactic Ring Survey
13CO(1-0) data to morphologically extract velocities for BGPS sources. The
outline of a BGPS source is used to select a region of the GRS 13CO data, along
with a reference region to subtract enveloping diffuse emission, to produce a
line profile of 13CO matched to the BGPS source. For objects with a HCO+(3-2)
velocity, \approx 95% of the new 13CO(1-0) velocities agree with that of the
dense gas. A new prior DPDF for kinematic distance ambiguity (KDA) resolution,
based on a validated formalism for associating molecular cloud structures with
known objects from the literature, is presented. We demonstrate this prior
using catalogs of masers with trigonometric parallaxes and HII regions with
robust KDA resolutions. The distance catalog presented here contains
well-constrained distance estimates for 20% of BGPS V2 sources, with typical
distance uncertainties \lesssim 0.5 kpc. Approximately 75% of the
well-constrained sources lie within 6 kpc of the Sun, concentrated in the
Scutum-Centarus arm. Galactocentric positions of objects additionally trace out
portions of the Sagittarius, Perseus, and Outer arms in the first and second
Galactic quadrants, and we also find evidence for significant regions of
interarm dense gas.Comment: 28 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ.
Distance-Omnibus code available at https://github.com/BGPS/distance-omnibu
The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. XIII. Physical Properties and Mass Functions of Dense Molecular Cloud Structures
We use the distance probability density function (DPDF) formalism of
Ellsworth-Bowers et al. (2013, 2015) to derive physical properties for the
collection of 1,710 Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) version 2 sources with
well-constrained distance estimates. To account for Malmquist bias, we estimate
that the present sample of BGPS sources is 90% complete above 400 and
50% complete above 70 . The mass distributions for the entire sample
and astrophysically motivated subsets are generally fitted well by a lognormal
function, with approximately power-law distributions at high mass. Power-law
behavior emerges more clearly when the sample population is narrowed in
heliocentric distance (power-law index for sources nearer
than 6.5 kpc and for objects between 2 kpc and 10 kpc).
The high-mass power-law indices are generally for
various subsamples of sources, intermediate between that of giant molecular
clouds and the stellar initial mass function. The fit to the entire sample
yields a high-mass power-law . Physical
properties of BGPS sources are consistent with large molecular cloud clumps or
small molecular clouds, but the fractal nature of the dense interstellar medium
makes difficult the mapping of observational categories to the dominant
physical processes driving the observed structure. The face-on map of the
Galactic disk's mass surface density based on BGPS dense molecular cloud
structures reveals the high-mass star-forming regions W43, W49, and W51 as
prominent mass concentrations in the first quadrant. Furthermore, we present a
0.25-kpc resolution map of the dense gas mass fraction across the Galactic disk
that peaks around 5%.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 32 pages, 21 figure
The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey IX: Data Release 2 and Outer Galaxy Extension
We present a re-reduction and expansion of the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey,
first presented by Aguirre et al. (2011) and Rosolowsky et al. (2010). The BGPS
is a 1.1 mm survey of dust emission in the Northern galactic plane, covering
longitudes -10 < \ell < 90 and latitudes |b| < 0.5 with a typical 1-\sigma RMS
sensitivity of 30-100 mJy in a 33" beam. Version 2 of the survey includes an
additional 20 square degrees of coverage in the 3rd and 4th quadrants and 2
square degrees in the 1st quadrant. The new data release has improved angular
recovery, with complete recovery out to 80" and partial recovery to 300", and
reduced negative bowls around bright sources resulting from the atmospheric
subtraction process. We resolve the factor of 1.5 flux calibration offset
between the v1.0 data release and other data sets and determine that there is
no offset between v2.0 and other data sets. The v2.0 pointing accuracy is
tested against other surveys and demonstrated to be accurate and an improvement
over v1.0. We present simulations and tests of the pipeline and its properties,
including measurements of the pipeline's angular transfer function. The Bolocat
cataloging tool was used to extract a new catalog, which includes 8594 sources,
with 591 in the expanded regions. We have demonstrated that the Bolocat 40" and
80" apertures are accurate even in the presence of strong extended background
emission. The number of sources is lower than in v1.0, but the amount of flux
and area included in identified sources is larger.Comment: 36 pages, 16 figures, accepted to ApJS. Data available from
http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/BOLOCAM_GPS
Energy losses during drop weight mechanical impacts with special reference to ignition of flammable atmospheres in nuclear decommissioning: theory and determination of experimental coefficients for impact analysis and prediction
The major purpose of this study is to provide a framework for determination of energy losses resulting from mechanical impacts of the kind that could occur during nuclear decommissioning of waste material. Measurements have been made of final translational and rotational velocities for impacts between projectiles of different length and a massive barrier. This enabled determination of experimental values of the impact coefficients and energy losses. It was found that the total energy losses could be accurately accounted for by the sum of those pertaining to the normal and tangential processes, thus indicating that these include any losses due to vibration. The results obtained clearly support an Amontons–Coulomb friction model and the previously held contention that there is a limiting value for the impulse ratio at low angles of barrier inclination. Although sliding surfaces are likely to be modified during impact, it is shown that any original contamination on the contacting surfaces results in a very large decrease in impulse ratio or friction coefficient. This represents an important finding in the context of mechanical ignition testing indicating that the state of the impact surfaces and their handling need to be taken into account. The difficulties in establishing appropriate values for the impact coefficients and dealing with the effect of mechanical vibrations on the energy losses are discussed and equations derived for determining the tangential and normal energy losses from known initial velocities
Two-group randomised, parallel trial of cognitive and exposure therapies for problem gambling: a research protocol
BACKGROUND: Problem gambling is a serious public health concern at an international level where population prevalence rates average 2% or more and occurs more frequently in younger populations. The most empirically established treatments until now are combinations of cognitive and behavioural techniques labelled cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). However, there is a paucity of high quality evidence for the comparative efficacy of core CBT interventions in treating problem gamblers. This study aims to isolate and compare cognitive and behavioural (exposure-based) techniques to determine their relative efficacy. METHODS: A sample of 130 treatment-seeking problem gamblers will be allocated to either cognitive or exposure therapy in a two-group randomised, parallel design. Repeated measures will be conducted at baseline, mid and end of treatment (12 sessions intervention period), and at 3, 6 and 12 months (maintenance effects). The primary outcome measure is improvement in problem gambling severity symptoms using the Victorian Gambling Screen (VGS) harm to self-subscale. VGS measures gambling severity on an extensive continuum, thereby enhancing sensitivity to change within and between individuals over time. DISCUSSION: This article describes the research methods, treatments and outcome measures used to evaluate gambling behaviours, problems caused by gambling and mechanisms of change. This study will be the first randomised, parallel trial to compare cognitive and exposure therapies in this population. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study was approved by the Southern Adelaide Health Service/Flinders University Human Research Ethics Committee. Study findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations.<br /
Protecting broilers against Campylobacter infection by preventing direct contact between farm staff and broilers
peer-reviewedThe objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that farm staff are the primary vector of Campylobacter transmission into broiler flocks. On 3 different farms and 5 different flocks (3 flocks on farm 1 and 1 flock on each of farms 2 and 3) a small section of the broiler house (3 × 2 m (farm 1) and 1 m × 1 m (farms 2 and 3)) was sectioned off using Perspex or plastic sheeting. This ‘biosecure cube’ (BC) was populated with 25–125 chicks (test birds), a small subset of the general population of up to 30,000 (control) birds in the broiler house. The BC area incorporated the water and feed-lines thus the test and control birds had access to the same feed, water and air. However, unlike in the general broiler house, the farm staff had no direct access to this sub-population. Dead birds were aseptically removed by the researchers. The birds were tested for Campylobacter (faecal and/or caecal samples), on the day of chick arrival and every 7 days thereafter. In farm 1-flock 1 the general broiler population was Campylobacter-positive after 21 days but the test birds remained negative until day 35. The general broiler population in the other 4 flocks were Campylobacter positive as early as day 14, but in all cases the test birds remained negative. Moreover BC broilers were significantly (P < 0.05) heavier than the control birds (400 g on average), at first thinning. It was therefore concluded that preventing direct contact between the farm staff and the broilers prevents Campylobacter infection in broilers
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