Perceived Apparel Fit Issues of High School Adolescents: Comparison of Fit Differences between Athletes and Non-Athletes Using 3D Body Scan Technology

Athletes have problems with fit of their clothing caused by body changes resulting from exercise regimens (Andreoli, et al., 2001). This begins during the high school years, when the importance of body image and body satisfaction have a greater impact (Caglar & Asci, 2010). Tselepis and de Klerk (2004) reported that adolescents use clothing not only to fit in, but to increase body satisfaction. Adolescents reported dissatisfaction with clothing fit, (de Klerk and Tselepis\u27s, 2007). Objectives of the study were to determine (1) whether high school students have the perception that they have problems finding clothing that fits; (2) if the problem is common among both athletes and non-athletes and (3) if body image and body satisfaction are related to athletes and non-athletes reporting problems with fit of clothing

Exploring the Abilities of 3-D Printing and its Viability

The fashion industry encounters its most general difficulties regarding cost of samples, lead time, sustainability, and fit. An emerging technology that could solve these issues is 3-D printing, which utilizes computer-aided technology and a variety of filaments to construct an object. Though 3-D printing technology offers the ability for rapid prototyping, a condensed supply chain by way of creating samples domestically rather than internationally, and a sustainable additive manufacturing process that results in manufacturing with zero excess material, there is question as to whether consumers are ready for 3-D printed clothing to enter their wardrobes. The purpose of this study was to construct a 3-D-printed garment and measure consumer response to the application of this technology to ready-to-wear clothing. Wearability was achieved with the 3-D-printed garment, meaning it mirrors a traditional ready-to-wear garment. The survey instrument measured three factors: perception of 3-D printing, fashion interest, and opinions of the 3-D-printed project garment. Data were analyzed using a t-test for male versus female responses and descriptive statistical methods were utilized to report means and compare responses on the three factors from each age group and ethnicity. Overall the responses for all three factors were positive. The results of this research indicate that a major transformation in ready-to-wear style is feasible and beneficial to the apparel industry because of 3-D printing

Collaboration Makes More Lights Come on than Those on the Runway: Experiential Learning through an Interdisciplinary Fashion Show Project Merges Fashion and Technology

Inspired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit, Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, the idea for the theme Futuristic Floral was born to guide the direction of the Apparel Merchandising and Product Development (AMPD) fashion show. In only the second year of production, we wanted to make sure the show would entertain the audience and be a professional production. However, as educators, our primary goal was to make a lasting impact on the education of our students. This project has pushed our students to think, act, communicate, and create on a level that would not have been possible without the interaction of students from apparel and electrical engineering. The true impact for all students involved remains to be seen when the lights go down after the show and they realize they have been a part of something much bigger than they could create on their own

Exploring the Abilities of 3D Printing and its Viability for Consumption in the Fashion Industry

With the ever-evolving state of today\u27s technology, designers and retailers in the apparel industry are seeking out new technological methods that have the capacity to revolutionize and individualize their brand, as well as meet consumer needs and preferences. An emerging technology is 3D printing, which utilizes computer aided technology and a variety of filaments to construct an object. Though 3D printing technology offers the ability for rapid prototyping, a condensed supply chain, and a sustainable additive manufacturing process, there is question as to whether or not consumers are ready for 3D printed clothing to enter their wardrobes. The purpose of this study was to construct a 3D printed garment and measure consumer response to the application of this technology in ready-to-wear clothing. The results of this research indicate that a major transformation in ready-to-wear style is feasible and beneficial to the apparel industry because of 3D printing

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey: Search Algorithm and Follow-up Observations

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey has identified a large number of new transient sources in a 300 sq. deg. region along the celestial equator during its first two seasons of a three-season campaign. Multi-band (ugriz) light curves were measured for most of the sources, which include solar system objects, Galactic variable stars, active galactic nuclei, supernovae (SNe), and other astronomical transients. The imaging survey is augmented by an extensive spectroscopic follow-up program to identify SNe, measure their redshifts, and study the physical conditions of the explosions and their environment through spectroscopic diagnostics. During the survey, light curves are rapidly evaluated to provide an initial photometric type of the SNe, and a selected sample of sources are targeted for spectroscopic observations. In the first two seasons, 476 sources were selected for spectroscopic observations, of which 403 were identified as SNe. For the Type Ia SNe, the main driver for the Survey, our photometric typing and targeting efficiency is 90%. Only 6% of the photometric SN Ia candidates were spectroscopically classified as non-SN Ia instead, and the remaining 4% resulted in low signal-to-noise, unclassified spectra. This paper describes the search algorithm and the software, and the real-time processing of the SDSS imaging data. We also present the details of the supernova candidate selection procedures and strategies for follow-up spectroscopic and imaging observations of the discovered sources.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal (66 pages, 13 figures); typos correcte

The Fifth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Fifth Data Release (DR5) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). DR5 includes all survey quality data taken through June 2005 and represents the completion of the SDSS-I project (whose successor, SDSS-II will continue through mid-2008). It includes five-band photometric data for 217 million objects selected over 8000 square degrees, and 1,048,960 spectra of galaxies, quasars, and stars selected from 5713 square degrees of that imaging data. These numbers represent a roughly 20% increment over those of the Fourth Data Release; all the data from previous data releases are included in the present release. In addition to "standard" SDSS observations, DR5 includes repeat scans of the southern equatorial stripe, imaging scans across M31 and the core of the Perseus cluster of galaxies, and the first spectroscopic data from SEGUE, a survey to explore the kinematics and chemical evolution of the Galaxy. The catalog database incorporates several new features, including photometric redshifts of galaxies, tables of matched objects in overlap regions of the imaging survey, and tools that allow precise computations of survey geometry for statistical investigations.Comment: ApJ Supp, in press, October 2007. This paper describes DR5. The SDSS Sixth Data Release (DR6) is now public, available from http://www.sdss.or

A review of rapid serial visual presentation-based brain-computer interfaces

International audienceRapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) combined with the detection of event related brain responses facilitates the selection of relevant information contained in a stream of images presented rapidly to a human. Event related potentials (ERPs) measured non-invasively with electroencephalography (EEG) can be associated with infrequent targets amongst a stream of images. Human-machine symbiosis may be augmented by enabling human interaction with a computer, without overt movement, and/or enable optimization of image/information sorting processes involving humans. Features of the human visual system impact on the success of the RSVP paradigm, but pre-attentive processing supports the identification of target information post presentation of the information by assessing the co-occurrence or time-locked EEG potentials. This paper presents a comprehensive review and evaluation of the limited but significant literature on research in RSVP-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Applications that use RSVP-based BCIs are categorized based on display mode and protocol design, whilst a range of factors influencing ERP evocation and detection are analyzed. Guidelines for using the RSVP-based BCI paradigms are recommended, with a view to further standardizing methods and enhancing the inter-relatability of experimental design to support future research and the use of RSVP-based BCIs in practice

The Eighth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Data from SDSS-III

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) started a new phase in August 2008, with new instrumentation and new surveys focused on Galactic structure and chemical evolution, measurements of the baryon oscillation feature in the clustering of galaxies and the quasar Ly alpha forest, and a radial velocity search for planets around ~8000 stars. This paper describes the first data release of SDSS-III (and the eighth counting from the beginning of the SDSS). The release includes five-band imaging of roughly 5200 deg^2 in the Southern Galactic Cap, bringing the total footprint of the SDSS imaging to 14,555 deg^2, or over a third of the Celestial Sphere. All the imaging data have been reprocessed with an improved sky-subtraction algorithm and a final, self-consistent photometric recalibration and flat-field determination. This release also includes all data from the second phase of the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Evolution (SEGUE-2), consisting of spectroscopy of approximately 118,000 stars at both high and low Galactic latitudes. All the more than half a million stellar spectra obtained with the SDSS spectrograph have been reprocessed through an improved stellar parameters pipeline, which has better determination of metallicity for high metallicity stars.Comment: Astrophysical Journal Supplements, in press (minor updates from submitted version

The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

This paper describes the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), marking the completion of the original goals of the SDSS and the end of the phase known as SDSS-II. It includes 11663 deg^2 of imaging data, with most of the roughly 2000 deg^2 increment over the previous data release lying in regions of low Galactic latitude. The catalog contains five-band photometry for 357 million distinct objects. The survey also includes repeat photometry over 250 deg^2 along the Celestial Equator in the Southern Galactic Cap. A coaddition of these data goes roughly two magnitudes fainter than the main survey. The spectroscopy is now complete over a contiguous area of 7500 deg^2 in the Northern Galactic Cap, closing the gap that was present in previous data releases. There are over 1.6 million spectra in total, including 930,000 galaxies, 120,000 quasars, and 460,000 stars. The data release includes improved stellar photometry at low Galactic latitude. The astrometry has all been recalibrated with the second version of the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC-2), reducing the rms statistical errors at the bright end to 45 milli-arcseconds per coordinate. A systematic error in bright galaxy photometr is less severe than previously reported for the majority of galaxies. Finally, we describe a series of improvements to the spectroscopic reductions, including better flat-fielding and improved wavelength calibration at the blue end, better processing of objects with extremely strong narrow emission lines, and an improved determination of stellar metallicities. (Abridged)Comment: 20 pages, 10 embedded figures. Accepted to ApJS after minor correction

A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL

Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio