The inexorable resistance of inertia determines the initial regime of drop coalescence

Drop coalescence is central to diverse processes involving dispersions of drops in industrial, engineering and scientific realms. During coalescence, two drops first touch and then merge as the liquid neck connecting them grows from initially microscopic scales to a size comparable to the drop diameters. The curvature of the interface is infinite at the point where the drops first make contact, and the flows that ensue as the two drops coalesce are intimately coupled to this singularity in the dynamics. Conventionally, this process has been thought to have just two dynamical regimes: a viscous and an inertial regime with a crossover region between them. We use experiments and simulations to reveal that a third regime, one that describes the initial dynamics of coalescence for all drop viscosities, has been missed. An argument based on force balance allows the construction of a new coalescence phase diagram

A qualitative study of primary care professionals’ views of case finding for depression in patients with diabetes or coronary heart disease in the UK

<p>Background Routinely conducting case finding (also commonly referred to as screening) in patients with chronic illness for depression in primary care appears to have little impact. We explored the views and experiences of primary care nurses, doctors and managers to understand how the implementation of case finding/screening might impact on its effectiveness.</p> <p>Methods Two complementary qualitative focus group studies of primary care professionals including nurses, doctors and managers, in five primary care practices and five Community Health Partnerships, were conducted in Scotland.</p> <p>Results We identified several features of the way case finding/screening was implemented that may lead to systematic under-detection of depression. These included obstacles to incorporating case finding/screening into a clinical review consultation; a perception of replacing individualised care with mechanistic assessment, and a disconnection for nurses between management of physical and mental health. Far from being a standardised process that encouraged detection of depression, participants described case finding/screening as being conducted in a way which biased it towards negative responses, and for nurses, it was an uncomfortable task for which they lacked the necessary skills to provide immediate support to patients at the time of diagnosis.</p> <p>Conclusion The introduction of case finding/screening for depression into routine chronic illness management is not straightforward. Routinized case finding/screening for depression can be implemented in ways that may be counterproductive to engagement (particularly by nurses), with the mental health needs of patients living with long term conditions. If case finding/screening or engagement with mental health problems is to be promoted, primary care nurses require more training to increase their confidence in raising and dealing with mental health issues and GPs and nurses need to work collectively to develop the relational work required to promote cognitive participation in case finding/screening.</p&gt

Predictive risk modelling of real-world wastewater network incidents

Due to growing pressure on wastewater network operators to deliver improved serviceability and lower costs to customers, there is a real need for greater understanding of the factors which influence incident rates, enabling effective prioritisation of proactive maintenance. This paper applies decision trees to investigate both static factors, such as sewer material and diameter, and derived factors, such as sewer velocity, for the prediction of blockages on the network of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water. The results obtained illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach when identifying important explanatory factors and predicting sewers that are likely to block.Innovate UKDŵr Cymru Welsh Water (DCWW)University of Exeter’s Centre for Water Systems (CWS

Strong sexual size dimorphism in the Dark-eared Myza Myza celebensis, a Sulawesi-endemic honeyeater, with notes on its wing markings and moult

We present morphometric and moult data for the Sulawesi-endemic Dark-eared Myza, based on 35 individuals captured at Lore Lindu National Park, Central Sulawesi, during March–April and July 2011. Four individuals banded in March were recaptured at the study site in July, suggesting that the population is probably sedentary. Like most meliphagids, although this species is not sexually dimorphic in plumage, measurements show that males are significantly heavier and have longer wings, tail and head–bill than females. Seven of the 16 adults in March–April and five of the 19 in July were moulting their primary feathers. Assuming that primary moult follows breeding, estimated laying dates for adults in the final stages of moult suggest breeding in December and early April, the latter corroborated by the presence of brood patches on two females in late March. A brood patch on a female in July further suggests that the breeding season is protracted. All birds photographed also showed distinct buff tips to most, if not all, secondary coverts and buff fringes to median coverts, a feature that appears to have gone unnoticed in the literature

Enhancing biofeedback-driven self-guided virtual reality exposure therapy through arousal detection from multimodal data using machine learning

Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is a novel intervention technique that allows individuals to experience anxiety-evoking stimuli in a safe environment, recognise specific triggers and gradually increase their exposure to perceived threats. Public-speaking anxiety (PSA) is a prevalent form of social anxiety, characterised by stressful arousal and anxiety generated when presenting to an audience. In self-guided VRET, participants can gradually increase their tolerance to exposure and reduce anxiety-induced arousal and PSA over time. However, creating such a VR environment and determining physiological indices of anxiety-induced arousal or distress is an open challenge. Environment modelling, character creation and animation, psychological state determination and the use of machine learning (ML) models for anxiety or stress detection are equally important, and multi-disciplinary expertise is required. In this work, we have explored a series of ML models with publicly available data sets (using electroencephalogram and heart rate variability) to predict arousal states. If we can detect anxiety-induced arousal, we can trigger calming activities to allow individuals to cope with and overcome distress. Here, we discuss the means of effective selection of ML models and parameters in arousal detection. We propose a pipeline to overcome the model selection problem with different parameter settings in the context of virtual reality exposure therapy. This pipeline can be extended to other domains of interest where arousal detection is crucial. Finally, we have implemented a biofeedback framework for VRET where we successfully provided feedback as a form of heart rate and brain laterality index from our acquired multimodal data for psychological intervention to overcome anxiety

Energy Trends: September 2020

Energy Trends and Energy Prices are produced by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on a quarterly basis. Both periodicals are published concurrently in June, September, December and March. The September editions cover the second quarter of the current year

Phase Transitions on Nonamenable Graphs

We survey known results about phase transitions in various models of statistical physics when the underlying space is a nonamenable graph. Most attention is devoted to transitive graphs and trees

WiseEye: next generation expandable and programmable camera trap platform for wildlife research

Funding: The work was supported by the RCUK Digital Economy programme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub; award reference: EP/G066051/1. The work of S. Newey and RJI was part funded by the Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS). Details published as an Open Source Toolkit, PLOS Journals at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169758Peer reviewedPublisher PD