38,470 research outputs found
Condition matters: pupil voices on the design and condition of secondary schools
This research was produced by Sheffield Hallam University. The project aimed to inform the creation of a national schools Facilities Management network and an ongoing programme to research and benchmark the impact of school condition and design on pupils
Design considerations and test facilities for accelerated radiation effects testing
Test design parameters for accelerated dose rate radiation effects tests for spacecraft parts and subsystems used in long term mission (years) are detailed. A facility for use in long term accelerated and unaccelerated testing is described
Use of remote sensing techniques for geological hazard surveys in vegetated urban regions
The feasibility of using aerial photography for lithologic differentiation in a heavily vegetated region is investigated using multispectral imagery obtained from LANDSAT satellite and aircraft-borne photography. Delineating and mapping of localized vegetal zones can be accomplished by the use of remote sensing because a difference in morphology and physiology results in different natural reflectances or signatures. An investigation was made to show that these local plant zones are affected by altitude, topography, weathering, and gullying; but are controlled by lithology. Therefore, maps outlining local plant zones were used as a basis for lithologic map construction
Effects of Information about Invasive Species on Risk Perception and Seafood Demand by Gender and Race
In this paper we consider the effects of negative and positive risk information on perceived seafood risks and seafood consumption by gender and race. The data is from a Mid-Atlantic survey of coastal seafood consumers. We elicit risk perceptions in three risk scenarios with a dichotomous choice with a follow-up question format. We elicit continuous revealed and stated preference seafood consumption in nine risk and price scenarios. Analysis in four gender and race categories indicates that demographic groups respond to the positive and negative information in different ways. Communication of risk information as risk mitigation policy is a challenge. Key Words:
Track and capture of the orbiter with the space station remote manipulator system
Results of the first study using the real-time, man-in-the-loop Systems Engineering Simulator (SES) for track and capture of the Space Shuttle Orbiter with the space station manipulator are presented. The objectives include evaluation of the operational coordination required between the orbiter pilot and the space station manipulator operator, evaluation of the locations and required number of closed-circuit television cameras, and evaluation of the orbiter grapple fixture clearance geometry. The SES is a premium quality real-time facility with full fidelity orbiter and space station crew workstations and cockpits
The resurrection of group selection as a theory of human cooperation
Two books edited by members of the MacArthur Norms and Preferences Network (an interdisciplinary group, mainly anthropologists and economists) are reviewed here. These books in large part reflect a renewed interest in group selection
that has occurred among these researchers: they promote the theory that human cooperative behavior evolved via selective processes which favored biological and/or cultural group-level adaptations as opposed to individual-level adaptations. In support of this theory, an impressive collection of cross-cultural data are presented which suggest that participants in experimental economic games often do not behave as self-interested income maximizers; this lack of self-interest is regarded as evidence of group selection. In this review, problems with these data and with the theory are discussed. On the data side, it is argued that even if a behavior seems individually-maladaptive in a game context, there is no reason to believe that it would have been that way in ancestral contexts, since the environments of experimental games do not at all resemble those in which ancestral humans would have interacted cooperatively. And on the theory side, it is argued that it is premature to invoke group selection in order to explain human cooperation, because more parsimonious individual-level theories have not yet been exhausted. In summary, these books represent ambitious interdisciplinary contributions on an important topic, and they include unique and useful data; however, they do not make a convincing case that the evolution of human cooperation required group selection
Effect of reheating on predictions following multiple-field inflation
We study the sensitivity of cosmological observables to the reheating phase
following inflation driven by many scalar fields. We describe a method which
allows semi-analytic treatment of the impact of perturbative reheating on
cosmological perturbations using the sudden decay approximation. Focusing on
-quadratic inflation, we show how the scalar spectral index and
tensor-to-scalar ratio are affected by the rates at which the scalar fields
decay into radiation. We find that for certain choices of decay rates,
reheating following multiple-field inflation can have a significant impact on
the prediction of cosmological observables.Comment: Published in PRD. 4 figures, 10 page
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