A progress report on the evaluation of metal cutting coolants

An intensive investigation into the grinding process was carried out in The College of Aeronautics Machine Tools Laboratory during 1955-6. The outcome of this work was a method of evaluating the efficiency of grinding wheel specifications. Briefly, this consists of holding all other conditions constant and changing the grinding wheel specification from the grinding tests made then the rate of grinding wheel wear and the maximum metal removal rate is ascertained. This data may be used to compare one specification to another. The method has been used to select the best wheel specification for a wide range of materials, especially the more difficult machinable alloys examples being the stainless steel and the alloys intended for use at high temperatures. During the ten years since 1956 the method has been further developed by retaining the grinding wheel specification constant and varying the work piece material to determine the grinding machinability of alloys, and also a much more valuable criteria of the grinding process - the efficiency of coolants when used in the grinding process. This work on coolant evaluation has received detailed and extensive attention. The results of tests carried out on more than 300 coolant samples ranging from oil based and water soluble coolants with varying percentages of addative has revealed that the coolant can increase the life of the grinding wheel face by 10 times. All results found from the method of evaluation are expressed in terms of maximum metal removal rate and volume of metal which may be removed at maximum rate

Different Multilayer Substrate Approaches to Improve Array Antenna Characteristics for Radar Applications

The aim of this paper is to investigate deeply in multi-layer substrate technique as a way of improving the characteristics of patch array antenna for electronic scanning radar application. The basic array antenna consists of 8 patches mounted on a FR-4 substrate and operating at 3GHz frequency. The feeding technique is microstrip technology. This structure has some disadvantages as a poor gain and a narrow bandwidth. In fact, the obtained gain value does not exceed 7 dB which could be explained by the lossy nature of the FR4 substrate. On the other side, the narrow bandwidth is caused by the microstrip limitations. For this reason, the technique of multi-layer substrate is proposed in this paper. Many approaches are investigated and the distance between the layers is studied. The design and simulations of each approach are performed under the tool Advanced Design System of Keysight Company. A comparison between simulation results of all approaches including simulation results of the basic array antenna will be analyzed

Who uses foodbanks and why? Exploring the impact of financial strain and adverse life events on food insecurity

Background Rising use of foodbanks highlights food insecurity in the UK. Adverse life events (e.g. unemployment, benefit delays or sanctions) and financial strains are thought to be the drivers of foodbank use. This research aimed to explore who uses foodbanks, and factors associated with increased food insecurity. Methods We surveyed those seeking help from front line crisis providers from foodbanks (N = 270) and a comparison group from Advice Centres (ACs) (N = 245) in relation to demographics, adverse life events, financial strain and household food security. Results About 55.9% of foodbank users were women and the majority were in receipt of benefits (64.8%). Benefit delays (31.9%), changes (11.1%) and low income (19.6%) were the most common reasons given for referral. Compared to AC users, there were more foodbank users who were single men without children, unemployed, currently homeless, experiencing more financial strain and adverse life events (P = 0.001). Food insecurity was high in both populations, and more severe if they also reported financial strain and adverse life events. Conclusions Benefit-related problems appear to be a key reason for foodbank referral. By comparison with other disadvantaged groups, foodbank users experienced more financial strain, adverse life events, both increased the severity of food insecurity

What speech and language therapy do community dwelling stroke survivors with aphasia receive in the UK?

BACKGROUND: Speech and language therapy provision for aphasia (a language disorder) post stroke has been studied over time through surveys completed by speech and language therapists. This paper revisits provision based on what was received by 278 patients in 21 UK speech and language therapy departments in 2014-2016. AIMS: To explore the speech and language therapy received by community dwelling people with post stroke aphasia in the UK. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: A quantitative content analysis was conducted by two speech and language therapist researchers. Therapy goals recorded were coded into categories and subcategories. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the frequency with which goal categories were targeted, average therapy time received, length and frequency of therapy sessions, personnel involved and mode of delivery. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: Forty-five percent of participants were in receipt of therapy in the three month window observed. Six goal categories were identified. Rehabilitation was the most frequent (60%) followed by enabling (17.2%), review (4.3%), assessment (3.6%), supportive (3.5%) and activity to support therapy (2.8%). The median amount of therapy received in three months was 6.3 hours at an average of one 60-minute session every two weeks. Seventy-seven percent of therapy sessions were delivered by qualified speech and language therapists and 23% by assistants. Ninety percent of sessions were one to one, face to face sessions whilst 9.5% were group sessions. DISCUSSION: In line with previous reports, speech and language therapy for community dwelling stroke survivors with aphasia is restricted. Rehabilitation is a large focus of therapy but the intensity and dose with which it is provided is substantially lower than that required for an effective outcome. Despite this, one to one face to face therapy is favoured. More efficient methods to support more therapeutic doses of therapy are not commonly used in routine clinical services

How should autonomous vehicles overtake other drivers?

Previous research examining trust of autonomous vehicles has largely focused on holistic trust, with little work on evaluation of specific behaviours and interactions with human-controlled vehicles. Six experiments examined the influence of pull-in distance, vehicle perspective (overtaking/being overtaken), following distance and immersion on self-reported evaluations of, and physiological responses to, autonomous motorway overtakes. We found that: (i) overtake manoeuvres were viewed more positively as pull-in distance increased before reaching a plateau at approximately 28 m, (ii) physiological-based orienting responses occurred for the smallest pull-in distances, (iii) participants being overtaken were more forgiving of a sharper pull-in if the overtaking vehicle was followed closely by another vehicle, and (iv) for two of three cross-experiment comparisons participants were more forgiving of smaller pull-in distances with lower immersion levels. Overall, the results suggest that the acceptability of an overtake manoeuvre increases linearly with pull-in distance up to a set point for both overtaking and being overtaken manoeuvres, with some influence of traffic context and levels of immersion. We discuss the findings in terms of implications for the development of assisted and fully autonomous vehicle systems that perform in a way that will be acceptable to both the vehicle occupants and other road users

Black-browed albatrosses, international fisheries and the Patagonian Shelf

Albatrosses have among the most remarkable travelling capacities of any extant animal. However, previous studies regarding their movements at sea have mainly focused on breeding birds commuting between the nest site and offshore feeding grounds. In this study, we compare the movement patterns and at-sea activity of breeding and inter-breeding black-browed albatrosses Diomedea melanophris from the Falkland Islands. Data were recorded via global location and activity sensors for 26 incubating birds [during single foraging trips lasting 6.8 d on average) and 6 inter-breeding individuals (during non-stop offshore journeys of 127.5 d on average). Our results showed that foraging black-browed albatrosses utilise vast offshore areas (the average foraging area was 102000 +_ 132 000 km2 by incubating birds and 1552 000 * 970 000 km2 by inter-breeding birds). However, mean forag~ngr ange was similar in both groups (691 * 330 km and 680 t 192 km by incubating and interbreeding birds, respectively) as were their core foraging areas and their at-sea activity patterns. Our results thus indicate that black-browed albatrosses from the Falkland Islands, which represent the largest albatross population world-wide (ca 800 000 individuals), mainly rely on marine resources available within the Patagonian Shelf area. Although this hghly productive continental shelf is the largest of the Southern Hemisphere, rapid development of industrial fisheries currently results in the removal of over 1.4 million tonnes of fish and squid per year in this zone. As our data also show significant spatio-temporal overlap between human and albatross fishing activities within the Patagonian Shelf, we anticipate major detrimental effects on the albatross population in terms of competition for food and additional mortality caused by bird bycatch

A connection between stress and development in the multicelular prokaryote Streptomyces coelicolor

Morphological changes leading to aerial mycelium formation and sporulation in the mycelial bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor rely on establishing distinct patterns of gene expression in separate regions of the colony. sH was identified previously as one of three paralogous sigma factors associated with stress responses in S. coelicolor. Here, we show that sigH and the upstream gene prsH (encoding a putative antisigma factor of sH) form an operon transcribed from two developmentally regulated promoters, sigHp1 and sigHp2. While sigHp1 activity is confined to the early phase of growth, transcription of sigHp2 is dramatically induced at the time of aerial hyphae formation. Localization of sigHp2 activity using a transcriptional fusion to the green fluorescent protein reporter gene (sigHp2–egfp) showed that sigHp2 transcription is spatially restricted to sporulating aerial hyphae in wild-type S. coelicolor. However, analysis of mutants unable to form aerial hyphae (bld mutants) showed that sigHp2 transcription and sH protein levels are dramatically upregulated in a bldD mutant, and that the sigHp2–egfp fusion was expressed ectopically in the substrate mycelium in the bldD background. Finally, a protein possessing sigHp2 promoter-binding activity was purified to homogeneity from crude mycelial extracts of S. coelicolor and shown to be BldD. The BldD binding site in the sigHp2 promoter was defined by DNase I footprinting. These data show that expression of sH is subject to temporal and spatial regulation during colony development, that this tissue-specific regulation is mediated directly by the developmental transcription factor BldD and suggest that stress and developmental programmes may be intimately connected in Streptomyces morphogenesis

Recruitment of older adults to three preventative lifestyle improvement studies

YesBackground: Recruiting isolated older adults to clinical trials is complex, time-consuming and difficult. Previous studies have suggested querying existing databases to identify appropriate potential participants. We aim to compare recruitment techniques (general practitioner (GP) mail-outs, community engagement and clinician referrals) used in three randomised controlled trial (RCT) studies assessing the feasibility or effectiveness of two preventative interventions in isolated older adults (the Lifestyle Matters and Putting Life In Years interventions). Methods: During the three studies (the Lifestyle Matters feasibility study, the Lifestyle Matters RCT, the Putting Life In Years RCT) data were collected about how participants were recruited. The number of letters sent by GP surgeries for each study was recorded. In the Lifestyle Matters RCT, we qualitatively interviewed participants and intervention facilitators at 6 months post randomisation to seek their thoughts on the recruitment process. Results: Referrals were planned to be the main source of recruitment in the Lifestyle Matters feasibility study, but due to a lack of engagement from district nurses, community engagement was the main source of recruitment. District nurse referrals and community engagement were also utilised in the Lifestyle Matters and Putting Life In Years RCTs; both mechanisms yielded few participants. GP mail-outs were the main source of recruitment in both the RCTs, but of those contacted, recruiting yield was low (< 3%). Facilitators of the Lifestyle Matters intervention questioned whether the most appropriate individuals had been recruited. Participants recommended that direct contact with health professionals would be the most beneficial way to recruit. Conclusions: Recruitment to the Lifestyle Matters RCT did not mirror recruitment to the feasibility study of the same intervention. Direct district nurse referrals were not effective at recruiting participants. The majority of participants were recruited via GP mail-outs, which may have led to isolated individuals not being recruited to the trials. Further research is required into alternative recruitment techniques, including respondent-driven sampling plus mechanisms which will promote health care professionals to recruit vulnerable populations to research.The Lifestyle Matters RCT was funded by the Medical Research Council (grant number G1001406); Sheffield Health and Social Research Consortium; National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme (project number 09/ 3004/01

Mind, rationality, and cognition: an interdisciplinary debate

This article features an interdisciplinary debate and dialogue about the nature of mind, perception, and rationality. Scholars from a range of disciplines—cognitive science, applied and experimental psychology, behavioral economics, and biology—offer critiques and commentaries of a target article by Felin, Koenderink, and Krueger (2017): “Rationality, Perception, and the All-Seeing Eye,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. The commentaries raise a number of criticisms and issues concerning rationality and the all-seeing-eye argument, including the nature of judgment and reasoning, biases versus heuristics, organism–environment relations, perception and situational construal, equilibrium analysis in economics, efficient markets, and the nature of empirical observation and the scientific method. The debated topics have far-reaching consequences for the rationality literature specifically, as well as for the cognitive, psychological, and economic sciences more broadly. The commentaries are followed by a response from the authors of the target article. Their response is organized around three central issues: (1) the problem of cues; (2) what is the question?; and (3) equilibria, $500 bills, and the axioms of rationality