Motion sickness in automated vehicles with forward and rearward facing seating orientations

Automated vehicles (AV’s) offer greater flexibility in cabin design particularly in a future where no physical driving controls are required. One common concept for an automated vehicle is to have both forward and rearward facing seats. However, traveling backwards could lead to an increased likelihood of experiencing motion sickness due to the inability of occupants to anticipate the future motion trajectory. This study aimed to empirically evaluate the impact of seating orientation on the levels of motion sickness within an AV cabin. To this end, a vehicle was modified to replicate the common concept of automated vehicles with forward and rearward facing seats. Two routes were chosen to simulate motorway and urban driving. The participants were instructed to carry out typical office tasks whilst being driven in the vehicle which consisted of conducting a meeting, operating a personal device and taking notes. The participants conducted the test twice to experience both forward and rearward seating orientations in a randomised crossover design. Levels of sickness reported was relatively low with a significant increase in the mean level of sickness recorded when traveling rearwards. As expected, this increase was particularly pronounced under urban driving conditions. It is concluded that rearward travel in automated vehicles will compromise the passenger experience

Model to predict motion sickness within autonomous vehicles

Background: Motion sickness is common within most forms of transport; it affects most of the population who experience varied symptoms at some stage in their lives. Thus far, there has been no specific method to quantify the predicted levels of motion sickness for a given vehicle design, task and route. Objective: To develop a motion sickness virtual prediction tool that includes the following inputs: human motion, vision, vehicle motion, occupant task and vehicle design. Method: A time domain analysis using a multi-body systems approach has been developed to provide the raw data for post-processing of vehicle motion, occupant motion and vision, based on a virtual route designed to provoke motion sickness, while the digital occupant undertakes a specific non-driving related task. Results: Predicted motion sickness levels are shared for a simple positional sweep of a vehicle cabin due to a prescribed motion and task. Two additional examples are shared within this study; first, it was found that the model can predict the difference found between sitting forwards and backwards in an autonomous vehicle. Second, analysis of a respected and independent study into auxiliary display height shows that the model can predict both relative and absolute levels between the two display heights congruent to the original physical experiment. Conclusion: It has been shown that the tool has been successful in predicting motion sickness in autonomous vehicles and is therefore of great use in guiding new future mobility solutions in the ability to tune vehicle dynamics and control alongside vision and design attributes.</p

Observations of Dispersion Cancellation of Entangled Photon Pairs

An experimental study of the dispersion cancellation occurring in frequency-entangled photon pairs is presented. The approach uses time-resolved up conversion of the pairs, which has temporal resolution at the fs level, and group-delay dispersion sensitivity of $\approx \ 20 \, \mathrm{fs}^2$ under experimental conditions. The cancellation is demonstrated with dispersion stronger than $\pm 10^3 \, \mathrm{fs}^2$ in the signal $(-)$ and idler $(+)$ modes. The observations represent the generation, compression, and characterization of ultrashort biphotons with correlation width as small as 6.8 times the degenerate optical period.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Customer Reactions in Out-of-Stock Situations – Do promotion-induced phantom positions alleviate the similarity substitution hypothesis?

Out-of-Stock (OOS) is a prevalent problem customers face at the POS. In this paper, we demonstrate both theoretically and empirically how OOS-induced substitution patterns can be explained and predicted by means of context and phantom theory. We further analyze the relevance of promotions, for which OOS is most pronounced, as essential driver of differences in customers’ OOS reactions. The results of an online experiment demonstrate that customers substitute unavailable items in accordance to a negative similarity effect which is reduced, however, for OOS items on promotion. The empirical findings further suggest that customers’ OOS responses differ for promoted vs. non-promoted items. We find that customers being affected by a stock-out of promotional products significantly more often postpone purchases and tend to avoid substitution resulting in severe losses for the retailer. However, for non-promoted items, customers easily switch to alternative brands. That way, manufacturers lose profit and possibly loyal customers.Out-of-Stock, Context Effects, Phantoms, Promotion, Consumer Decision Making

The role of cattle manure in enhancing on-farm productivity, macro- and micro-nutrient uptake, and profitability of maize in the Guinea savanna

An on-farm trial was conducted in the northern Guinea savanna of Nigeria, over a period of five years, with the objectives of quantifying the effects on maize of applying cattle manure in combination with synthetic fertilizer with regard to soil characteristics, yield, plant nutrition and profitability. Maize grain yield was significantly increased by the annual application of cattle manure, compared to maize receiving an equal amount of N through synthetic fertilizer, but only from the third year of the experiment. The application of manure resulted in higher soil Kjel N, Bray-I P and exchangeable K values, and an increased N utilization efficiency by maize, suggesting that yield-limiting factors other than N deficiencies were of lesser importance than in the treatment receiving sole inorganic fertilizer. Nutrients other than N applied via the manure, particularly P, K and/or B, may have contributed to the higher grain yields in treatments receiving manure. A partial budgeting analysis revealed that, over a 5-year period, investments in the application of manure, in combination with synthetic fertilizer, resulted in higher margins than the application of fertilizer alone. However, analyses of marginal rates of return of changes from low urea N to high urea N or additional manure applications suggested that it was more profitable to invest in additional urea than in organic manure in the first two years of the experiment. The results suggested that manure applications, even when applied at relatively high rates, did not serve as a quick fix to on-farm soil fertility problems, but over a longer period, manure applied in combination with synthetic fertilizers did provide a significant and profitable contribution to enhanced cereal production