Parallel Hybrid Vehicle Optimal Storage System

A paper reports the results of a Hybrid Diesel Vehicle Project focused on a parallel hybrid configuration suitable for diesel-powered, medium-sized, commercial vehicles commonly used for parcel delivery and shuttle buses, as the missions of these types of vehicles require frequent stops. During these stops, electric hybridization can effectively recover the vehicle's kinetic energy during the deceleration, store it onboard, and then use that energy to assist in the subsequent acceleration

A Low Cost Tactor Suit for Vibrotactile Feedback

We constructed low cost tactors for vibrotactile feedback across the human arm for the purpose of providing a physical sensation surrogate for virtual objects. The tactors were built from readily available commercial parts, and provide low amplitude vibration for tactile feedback. The tactors are Velcro mounted on a custom suit designed to ensure localized sensations of each tactor. The suit is designed to be compatible with standard motion capture devices. Our suit provides 24 vibratory tactors in a tactor array on the user’s right arm and hand, and can easily be expanded to include the entire torso and body

Collision Awareness Using Vibrotactile Arrays

What is often missing from many virtual worlds is a physical sense of the confinement and constraint of the virtual environment. To address this issue, we present a method for providing localized cutaneous vibratory feedback to the user’s right arm. We created a sleeve of tactors linked to a real-time human model that activates when the corresponding body area collides with an object. The hypothesis is that vibrotactile feedback to body areas provides the wearer sufficient guidance to acertain the existence and physical realism of access paths and body configurations. The results of human subject experiments clearly show that the use of full arm vibrotactile feedback improves performance over purely visual feedback in navigating the virtual environment. These results validate the empirical performance of this concept

Virtual Training via Vibrotactile Arrays

What is often missing from many virtual worlds and training simulations is a physical sense of the confinement and constraint of the virtual environment. We present a method for providing localized cutaneous vibratory feedback to the user’s right arm. We created a sleeve of tactors linked to a real-time human model; the tactors activate to apply sensation to the corresponding body area. The hypothesis is that vibrotactile feedback to body areas provides the wearer sufficient guidance to assume correct body configurations and ascertain the existence and physical realism of access paths. We present the results of human subject experiments that study both explicit and implicit training of skills using vibrotactile arrays. Implicitly, collision awareness is achieved by activating the appropriate tactor when a body part collides with the scene; thus, the user will attempt to correct his or her body configuration. Explicitly, we use the tactors to guide the body into the proper configuration. The results of human subject experiments clearly show that the use of full arm vibrotactile feedback improves performance over purely visual feedback for navigating the virtual environment, as well as allowing easy acquisition of new skills. These results validate the empirical performance of this concept

Enhanced Collision Perception Using Tactile Feedback

We used a custom designed tactor suit to provide full body vibrotactile feedback across the human arm for the purpose of enabling users to perceive a physical sense of collisions in a virtual world. We constructed a 3-D virtual environment to test arm reach movements. We present the results of human subject trials that test the benefit of using vibrotactile feedback for this purpose. Our preliminary results presented here show a small, but distinct, advantage with the use of tactors. With additional refinements to the system, improved performance results can be obtained

A taxonomy and comparison of haptic actions for disassembly tasks

The usefulness of modern day haptics equipment for virtual simulations of actual maintenance actions is examined. In an effort to categorize which areas haptic simulations may be useful, we have developed a taxonomy for haptic actions. This classification has two major dimensions: the general type of action performed and the type of force or torque required. Building upon this taxonomy, we selected three representative tasks from the taxonomy to evaluate in a virtual reality simulation. We conducted a series of human subject experiments to compare user performance and preference on a disassembly task with and without haptic feedback using CyberGlove, Phantom, and SpaceMouse interfaces. Analysis of the simulation runs shows Phantom users learned to accomplish the simulated actions significantly more quickly than did users of the CyberGlove or the SpaceMouse. Moreover a lack of differences in the post-experiment questionnaire suggests that haptics research should include a measure of actual performance speed or accuracy rather than relying solely on subjective reports of a device’s ease of use

Heterogenized Iridium Water-Oxidation Catalyst from a Silatrane Precursor

A pentamethylcyclopentadienyl (Cp*) iridium water-oxidation precatalyst was modified to include a silatrane functional group for covalent attachment to metal oxide semiconductor surfaces. The heterogenized catalyst was found to perform electrochemically driven water oxidation at an overpotential of 462 mV with a turnover number of 304 and turnover frequency of 0.035 s^(–1) in a 0.1 M KNO3 electrolyte at pH 5.8. Computational modeling of the experimental IR spectra suggests that the catalyst retains its Cp* group during the first hour of catalysis and likely remains monomeric

Soft Templating and Disorder in an Applied 1D Cobalt Coordination Polymer Electrocatalyst

Disordered materials with resilient and soft-templated functional units bear the potential to fill the pipeline of robust catalysts for renewable energy storage. However, for novel materials lacking long-range order, the ability to discern local structure with atomic resolution still pushes the boundaries of current analytical and modeling approaches. We introduce a two-pillar strategy to monitor the formation and unravel the structure of the first disordered onedimensional cobalt coordination polymer catalyst, Co-dppeO2. This target material excels through proven high performance in commercial alkaline electrolyzers and organic transformations. We demonstrate that the key architecture behind this activity is the unconventional embedding of hydrated {H2O-Co2(OH)2-OH2} edge-site motifs, nested into a flexible organic matrix of highly oxidized and bridging hydrophobic dppeO2 ligands. Our combination of in situ spectroscopy and computational modeling of X-ray scattering and absorption spectra, backed with complementary experimental techniques, holds the key to understanding the atomic-range structure of important disordered materials

Personality Is Reflected in the Brain's Intrinsic Functional Architecture

Personality describes persistent human behavioral responses to broad classes of environmental stimuli. Investigating how personality traits are reflected in the brain's functional architecture is challenging, in part due to the difficulty of designing appropriate task probes. Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) can detect intrinsic activation patterns without relying on any specific task. Here we use RSFC to investigate the neural correlates of the five-factor personality domains. Based on seed regions placed within two cognitive and affective ‘hubs’ in the brain—the anterior cingulate and precuneus—each domain of personality predicted RSFC with a unique pattern of brain regions. These patterns corresponded with functional subdivisions responsible for cognitive and affective processing such as motivation, empathy and future-oriented thinking. Neuroticism and Extraversion, the two most widely studied of the five constructs, predicted connectivity between seed regions and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and lateral paralimbic regions, respectively. These areas are associated with emotional regulation, self-evaluation and reward, consistent with the trait qualities. Personality traits were mostly associated with functional connections that were inconsistently present across participants. This suggests that although a fundamental, core functional architecture is preserved across individuals, variable connections outside of that core encompass the inter-individual differences in personality that motivate diverse responses

Helical coherence of DNA in crystals and solution

The twist, rise, slide, shift, tilt and roll between adjoining base pairs in DNA depend on the identity of the bases. The resulting dependence of the double helix conformation on the nucleotide sequence is important for DNA recognition by proteins, packaging and maintenance of genetic material, and other interactions involving DNA. This dependence, however, is obscured by poorly understood variations in the stacking geometry of the same adjoining base pairs within different sequence contexts. In this article, we approach the problem of sequence-dependent DNA conformation by statistical analysis of X-ray and NMR structures of DNA oligomers. We evaluate the corresponding helical coherence length—a cumulative parameter quantifying sequence-dependent deviations from the ideal double helix geometry. We find, e.g. that the solution structure of synthetic oligomers is characterized by 100–200 Å coherence length, which is similar to ∼150 Å coherence length of natural, salmon-sperm DNA. Packing of oligomers in crystals dramatically alters their helical coherence. The coherence length increases to 800–1200 Å, consistent with its theoretically predicted role in interactions between DNA at close separations