69 research outputs found

    An Ontological Approach to Inform HMI Designs for Minimizing Driver Distractions with ADAS

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    ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) are in-vehicle systems designed to enhance driving safety and efficiency as well as comfort for drivers in the driving process. Recent studies have noticed that when Human Machine Interface (HMI) is not designed properly, an ADAS can cause distraction which would affect its usage and even lead to safety issues. Current understanding of these issues is limited to the context-dependent nature of such systems. This paper reports the development of a holistic conceptualisation of how drivers interact with ADAS and how such interaction could lead to potential distraction. This is done taking an ontological approach to contextualise the potential distraction, driving tasks and user interactions centred on the use of ADAS. Example scenarios are also given to demonstrate how the developed ontology can be used to deduce rules for identifying distraction from ADAS and informing future designs

    A Critical Review on the Structural Health Monitoring Methods of the Composite Wind Turbine Blades

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    With increasing turbine size, monitoring of blades becomes increasingly im-portant, in order to prevent catastrophic damages and unnecessary mainte-nance, minimize the downtime and labor cost and improving the safety is-sues and reliability. The present work provides a review and classification of various structural health monitoring (SHM) methods as strain measurement utilizing optical fiber sensors and Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG’s), active/ pas-sive acoustic emission method, vibration‒based method, thermal imaging method and ultrasonic methods, based on the recent investigations and prom-ising novel techniques. Since accuracy, comprehensiveness and cost-effectiveness are the fundamental parameters in selecting the SHM method, a systematically summarized investigation encompassing methods capabilities/ limitations and sensors types, is needed. Furthermore, the damages which are included in the present work are fiber breakage, matrix cracking, delamina-tion, fiber debonding, crack opening at leading/ trailing edge and ice accre-tion. Taking into account the types of the sensors relevant to different SHM methods, the advantages/ capabilities and disadvantages/ limitations of repre-sented methods are nominated and analyzed

    Conodont size reduction and diversity losses during the Carnian Humid Episode in SW China

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    The enigmatic biotic and environmental changes during the Carnian Humid Episode (CHE) have been investigated in South China. The body size of conodonts, assessed as length of P1 elements, and their diversity show substantial changes in the mid-Carnian. The well-dated Long Chang, Yongyue and Caizitang sections in southwestern China record a change of palaeoenvironments from shallow-marine carbonate platforms to deeper, euxinic basins. All sections show a major loss of conodont diversity and abundance late in the Julian 1 at a time of rapid warming and marine anoxia. Conodont size saw a reduction in maximum, mean and minimum size during the Julian 2 to Tuvalian 2 interval caused by the short-lived appearance of small species and a size decrease of the survivors. Conodont mean size reduction coincided with marine euxinia or anoxia and temperature fluctuations during the Julian 2 to Tuvalian 2 interval. Carnian conodonts thus follow Bergmann's Rule: element size is inversely correlated to the temperature. Climate warming with the consequential development of marine anoxia or euxinia is probably directly responsible for biotic changes at this time

    Molecular study of the perforin gene in familial hematological malignancies

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    Perforin gene (PRF1) mutations have been identified in some patients diagnosed with the familial form of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and in patients with lymphoma. The aim of the present study was to determine whether patients with a familial aggregation of hematological malignancies harbor germline perforin gene mutations. For this purpose, 81 unrelated families from Tunisia and France with aggregated hematological malignancies were investigated. The variants detected in the PRF1 coding region amounted to 3.7% (3/81). Two of the three variants identified were previously described: the p.Ala91Val pathogenic mutation and the p.Asn252Ser polymorphism. A new p.Ala 211Val missense substitution was identified in two related Tunisian patients. In order to assess the pathogenicity of this new variation, bioinformatic tools were used to predict its effects on the perforin protein structure and at the mRNA level. The segregation of the mutant allele was studied in the family of interest and a control population was screened. The fact that this variant was not found to occur in 200 control chromosomes suggests that it may be pathogenic. However, overexpression of mutated PRF1 in rat basophilic leukemia cells did not affect the lytic function of perforin differently from the wild type protein

    Depositional model at the Cenomanian/Turonian boundary for the Bahloul Formation, Tunisia.

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