Strange Carers

The present comment focuses on the distinction between attachment as bond formation and expectations of availability and responsiveness (security) within attachment relationships. We enumerate key components of bonding and functions of carer secure base support. Our analysis has implications for design and suggests that robots are unlikely to serve effectively as sole carers. Even with robots as part-time carers, attachment-like bonds would likely focus on human carers. Similarly, although infants and children would certainly build expectations regarding the availability and responsiveness of robot carers, the quality of human care would probably be the determining influence on later development and competence. Notwithstanding their limitations of robots as attachment figures they have considerable potential to extend parental care and enrich infant exploration. The Sharkey’s paper and further consideration of robots as carers for infants, children, older adults, an

Research requirements to reduce maintenance costs of civil helicopters

The maintenance problems faced by the operators of civil helicopters that result in high costs are documented. Existing technology that can be applied to reduce maintenance costs and research that should be carried out were identified. Good design practice and application of existing technology were described as having a significant impact on reducing maintenance costs immediately. The research and development that have potential for long range reduction of maintenance costs are presented

Invariant manifolds and orbit control in the solar sail three-body problem

In this paper we consider issues regarding the control and orbit transfer of solar sails in the circular restricted Earth-Sun system. Fixed points for solar sails in this system have the linear dynamical properties of saddles crossed with centers; thus the fixed points are dynamically unstable and control is required. A natural mechanism of control presents itself: variations in the sail's orientation. We describe an optimal controller to control the sail onto fixed points and periodic orbits about fixed points. We find this controller to be very robust, and define sets of initial data using spherical coordinates to get a sense of the domain of controllability; we also perform a series of tests for control onto periodic orbits. We then present some mission strategies involving transfer form the Earth to fixed points and onto periodic orbits, and controlled heteroclinic transfers between fixed points on opposite sides of the Earth. Finally we present some novel methods to finding periodic orbits in circumstances where traditional methods break down, based on considerations of the Center Manifold theorem

Latest Results from NEMO-3 & Status of the SuperNEMO Experiment

Neutrinoless double-beta decay is a uniquely sensitive probe of lepton number violating processes, and its observation may answer fundamental questions in neutrino physics, including the nature and the mass scale of the light neutrinos. Tracking calorimeter experiments have particular strengths, including the ability to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay amongst several different isotopes hosted in source foils. Full event reconstruction provides powerful background rejection capability, and the ability to disentangle different mechanisms for neutrinoless double-beta decay in the event of its discovery. These proceedings will give the latest results from the NEMO-3 experiment, including new double-beta decay measurements using the isotopes 48Ca and 150Nd. The current status and future prospects for the SuperNEMO experiment will also be presented

Wireless recording of the calls of Rousettus aegyptiacus and their reproduction using electrostatic transducers

Bats are capable of imaging their surroundings in great detail using echolocation. To apply similar methods to human engineering systems requires the capability to measure and recreate the signals used, and to understand the processing applied to returning echoes. In this work, the emitted and reflected echolocation signals of Rousettus aegyptiacus are recorded while the bat is in flight, using a wireless sensor mounted on the bat. The sensor is designed to replicate the acoustic gain control which bats are known to use, applying a gain to returning echoes that is dependent on the incurred time delay. Employing this technique allows emitted and reflected echolocation calls, which have a wide dynamic range, to be recorded. The recorded echoes demonstrate the complexity of environment reconstruction using echolocation. The sensor is also used to make accurate recordings of the emitted calls, and these calls are recreated in the laboratory using custom-built wideband electrostatic transducers, allied with a spectral equalization technique. This technique is further demonstrated by recreating multi-harmonic bioinspired FM chirps. The ability to record and accurately synthesize echolocation calls enables the exploitation of biological signals in human engineering systems for sonar, materials characterization and imaging

The Infrared Continuum Sizes of Be Star Disks

We present an analysis of the near-infrared continuum emission from the circumstellar gas disks of Be stars using a radiative transfer code for a parametrized version of the viscous decretion disk model. This isothermal gas model creates predicted images that we use to estimate the HWHM emission radius along the major axis of the projected disk and the spatially integrated flux excess at wavelengths of 1.7, 2.1, 4.8, 9, and 18 ?m. We discuss in detail the effect of the disk base density, inclination angle, stellar effective temperature, and other physical parameters on the derived disk sizes and color excesses. We calculate color excess estimates relative to the stellar V -band flux for a sample of 130 Be stars using photometry from 2MASS and the AKARI infrared camera all-sky survey. The color excess relations from our models make a good match of the observed color excesses of Be stars. We also present our results on the projected size of the disk as a function of wavelength for the classical Be star ? Tauri, and we show that the model predictions are consistent with interferometric observations in the H, K', and 12 \mu m bands