Issues in number entry user interface styles: Recommendations for mitigation

Interacting with numbers is a core part of using many interactive computer systems from the remote controls of electronic media appliances to user interfaces of high-integrity systems such as medical devices. Number entry systems are widely used on mobile devices. A wide variety of different user interface designs exist for interacting with numbers. The intricacies of the different styles are not well understood by designers and developers, especially for handling use error. This paper reviews these issues and provides recommendations for mitigating them

Safer Interactive Medical Device Design: Insights from the CHI+MED Project

Interactive medical devices such as infusion pumps, monitors and diagnostic devices help save lives. However, they are also safety critical in that they may fail in use and patient harm or death ensue. It is not just that the software and hardware should meet their specification. The design should help ensure users do not make mistakes. Safety factors become more important as medical devices become mobile and are used by patients as part of their everyday life rather than by trained professionals in well-defined hospital environments. Regulators are increasingly taking home-use seriously as a result of device recalls due to devices that have caused patient harm. We give insights from the research on the CHI+MED project (www.chi-med.ac.uk). It has focussed on understanding how the design of interactive medical devices can support safety. CHI+MED also developed practical tools and guidance that we review

Aichelburg-Sexl boost of an isolated source in general relativity

A study of the Aichelburg--Sexl boost of the Schwarzschild field is described in which the emphasis is placed on the field (curvature tensor) with the metric playing a secondary role. This is motivated by a description of the Coulomb field of a charged particle viewed by an observer whose speed relative to the charge approaches the speed of light. Our approach is exemplified by carrying out an Aichelburg-- Sexl type boost on the Weyl vacuum gravitational field due to an isolated axially symmetric source. Detailed calculations of the boosts transverse and parallel to the symmetry axis are given and the results, which differ significantly, are discussed.Comment: 25 pages, LateX2

Periastron shift in Weyl class spacetimes

The periastron position advance for geodesic motion in axially symmetric solutions of the Einstein field equations belonging to the Weyl class of vacuum solutions is investigated. Explicit examples corresponding to either static solutions (single Chazy-Curzon, Schwarzschild and a pair of them), or stationary solution (single rotating Chazy-Curzon and Kerr black hole) are discussed. The results are then applied to the case of S2-SgrA$^*$ binary system of which the periastron position advance will be soon measured with a great accuracy.Comment: To appear on General Relativity and Gravitation, vol. 37, 200

Morgan-Morgan-NUT disk space via the Ehlers transformation

Using the Ehlers transformation along with the gravitoelectromagnetic approach to stationary spacetimes we start from the Morgan-Morgan disk spacetime (without radial pressure) as the seed metric and find its corresponding stationary spacetime. As expected from the Ehlers transformation the stationary spacetime obtained suffers from a NUT-type singularity and the new parameter introduced in the stationary case could be interpreted as the gravitomagnetic monopole charge (or the NUT factor). As a consequence of this singularity there are closed timelike curves (CTCs) in the singular region of the spacetime. Some of the properties of this spacetime including its particle velocity distribution, gravitational redshift, stability and energy conditions are discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, RevTex 4, replaced with the published versio

Measuring multipole moments of Weyl metrics by means of gyroscopes

Using the technique of Rindler and Perlick we calculate the total precession per revolution of a gyroscope circumventing the source of Weyl metrics. We establish thereby a link between the multipole moments of the source and an ``observable'' quantity. Special attention deserves the case of the gamma-metric. As an extension of this result we also present the corresponding expressions for some stationary space-times.Comment: 18 pages Latex, To appear in J.Math.Phy

Exact relativistic models of thin disks around static black holes in a magnetic field

The exact superposition of a central static black hole with surrounding thin disk in presence of a magnetic field is investigated. We consider two models of disk, one of infinite extension based on a Kuzmin-Chazy-Curzon metric and other finite based on the first Morgan-Morgan disk. We also analyze a simple model of active galactic nuclei consisting of black hole, a Kuzmin-Chazy-Curzon disk and two rods representing jets, in presence of magnetic field. To explain the stability of the disks we consider the matter of the disk made of two pressureless streams of counterrotating charged particles (counterrotating model) moving along electrogeodesic. Using the Rayleigh criterion we derivate for circular orbits the stability conditions of the particles of the streams. The influence of the magnetic field on the matter properties of the disk and on its stability are also analyzed.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:gr-qc/0409109 by other author

On the stability of general relativistic geometric thin disks

The stability of general relativistic thin disks is investigated under a general first order perturbation of the energy momentum tensor. In particular, we consider temporal, radial and azimuthal "test matter" perturbations of the quantities involved on the plane $z=0$. We study the thin disks generated by applying the "displace, cut and reflect" method, usually known as the image method, to the Schwarzschild metric in isotropic coordinates and to the Chazy-Curzon metric and the Zipoy-Voorhees metric ($\gamma$-metric) in Weyl coordinates. In the case of the isotropic Schwarzschild thin disk, where a radial pressure is present to support the gravitational attraction, the disk is stable and the perturbation favors the formation of rings. Also, we found the expected result that the thin disk models generated by the Chazy-Curzon and Zipoy-Voorhees metric with only azimuthal pressure are not stable under a general first order perturbationComment: 11 pages, RevTex. Phys Rev D (in press

The song of the dunes as a self-synchronized instrument

Since Marco Polo (1) it has been known that some sand dunes have the peculiar ability of emitting a loud sound with a well defined frequency, sometimes for several minutes. The origin of this sustained sound has remained mysterious, partly because of its rarity in nature (2). It has been recognized that the sound is not due to the air flow around the dunes but to the motion of an avalanche (3), and not to an acoustic excitation of the grains but to their relative motion (4-7). By comparing several singing dunes and two controlled experiments, one in the laboratory and one in the field, we here demonstrate that the frequency of the sound is the frequency of the relative motion of the sand grains. The sound is produced because some moving grains synchronize their motions. The existence of a velocity threshold in both experiments further shows that this synchronization comes from an acoustic resonance within the flowing layer: if the layer is large enough it creates a resonance cavity in which grains self-synchronize.Comment: minor changes, essentially more references

Quantum, cyclic and particle-exchange heat engines

Differences between the thermodynamic behavior of the three-level amplifier (a quantum heat engine based on a thermally pumped laser) and the classical Carnot cycle are usually attributed to the essentially quantum or discrete nature of the former. Here we provide examples of a number of classical and semiclassical heat engines, such as thermionic, thermoelectric and photovoltaic devices, which all utilize the same thermodynamic mechanism for achieving reversibility as the three-level amplifier, namely isentropic (but non-isothermal) particle transfer between hot and cold reservoirs. This mechanism is distinct from the isothermal heat transfer required to achieve reversibility in cyclic engines such as the Carnot, Otto or Brayton cycles. We point out that some of the qualitative differences previously uncovered between the three-level amplifier and the Carnot cycle may be attributed to the fact that they are not the same 'type' of heat engine, rather than to the quantum nature of the three-level amplifier per se.Comment: 9 pages. Proceedings of 'Frontiers of Quantum and Mesoscopic Thermodynamics', Prague 200