Is friction responsible for the reduction of fusion rates far below the Coulomb barrier?

The fusion of two interacting heavy ions traditionally has been interpreted in terms of the penetration of the projectile into the target. Observed rates well below the Coulomb barrier are considerably lower than estimates obtained from penetration factors. One approach in the analysis of the data invokes coupling to non-elastic channels in the scattering as the source of the depletion. Another is to analyze those data in terms of tunneling in semi-classical models, with the observed depletion being taken as evidence of a ``friction'' under the barrier. A complementary approach is to consider such tunneling in terms of a fully quantal model. We investigate tunneling with both one-dimensional and three-dimensional models in a fully quantal approach to investigate possible sources for such a friction. We find that the observed phenomenon may not be explained by friction. However, we find that under certain conditions tunneling may be enhanced or diminished by up to 50%, which finds analogy with observation, without the invocation of a friction under the barrier.Comment: 18 pages, 15 figures embedde

Is child weight status correctly reported to parents? Cross-sectional analysis of National Child Measurement Programme data using ethnic-specific BMI adjustments.

BACKGROUND: BMI underestimates and overestimates body fat in children from South Asian and Black ethnic groups, respectively. METHODS: We used cross-sectional NCMP data (2015-17) for 38 270 children in three inner-London local authorities: City & Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets (41% South Asian, 18.8% Black): 20 439 4-5 year-olds (48.9% girls) and 17 831 10-11 year-olds (49.1% girls). We estimated the proportion of parents who would have received different information about their child's weight status, and the area-level prevalence of obesity-defined as ≥98th centile-had ethnic-specific BMI adjustments been employed in the English National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). RESULTS: Had ethnic-specific adjustment been employed, 19.7% (3112/15 830) of parents of children from South Asian backgrounds would have been informed that their child was in a heavier weight category, and 19.1% (1381/7217) of parents of children from Black backgrounds would have been informed that their child was in a lighter weight category. Ethnic-specific adjustment increased obesity prevalence from 7.9% (95% CI: 7.6, 8.3) to 9.1% (8.7, 9.5) amongst 4-5 year-olds and from 17.5% (16.9, 18.1) to 18.8% (18.2, 19.4) amongst 10-11 year-olds. CONCLUSIONS: Ethnic-specific adjustment in the NCMP would ensure equitable categorization of weight status, provide correct information to parents and support local service provision for families

The Australian dream: Living on the coast

Purpose - This research provides an analysis of the disparate notions and ideas, to form an overview of the possible trends in residential property for the Victorian coastal areas of the Surf Coast and the Bellarine Peninsula. Design/methodology - This paper extends previous survey based research into patterns of urban development in two areas of coastal Victoria. Data from the recent Australian census results updates these earlier findings to investigate whether any changes in theses patterns have occurred since 2005. Findings - These coastal communities and their environment are at serious risk from the increased growth of both population and tourism. It is only with the support of all three tiers of government that the future requirements of coastal communities will be met. Social implications - There needs to be a policy framework of sustainable growth and a funding approach to enable the local councils, not only on the Bellarine Peninsula and the Surf Coast, but on all Australian coastal areas, to embark on an extensive program to provide the necessary services and infrastructure for these changing environments. Originality - This research outlines how Government planning and local councils are working to address these changing urban patterns, outlined in previous research, to protect the Victorian coastal environment

Scenes From a Restaurant: Privacy Regulation in Stressful Situations

Stress results when an individual has less control over an environment or a situation than is desired. One way of regaining control and reducing stress is to regulate privacy by screening the self from spatial, visual or acoustical invasion. This study examined the use of architectural features to regulate privacy under hypothetical situations that are likely to generate low, moderate and high stress, comparing the seating choices of males and females in a variety of dining scenarios in a restaurant. In more stressful circumstances such as those associated with a job interview, participants chose restaurant seating bounded by more architectural features than they did in more relaxed dining situations such as dining with friends. Males and females appeared to be different in their responses to moderate and high stress situations. These results have implications for designers of secondary settings where stressful interactions are likely to take place

Registration And Feature Extraction From Terrestrial Laser Scanner Point Clouds For Aerospace Manufacturing

Aircraft wing manufacture is becoming increasingly digitalised. For example, it is becoming possible to produce on-line digital representations of individual structural elements, components and tools as they are deployed during assembly processes. When it comes to monitoring a manufacturing environment, imaging systems can be used to track objects as they move about the workspace, comparing actual positions, alignments, and spatial relationships with the digital representation of the manufacturing process. Active imaging systems such as laser scanners and laser trackers can capture measurements within the manufacturing environment, which can be used to deduce information about both the overall stage of manufacture and progress of individual tasks. This paper is concerned with the in-line extraction of spatial information such as the location and orientation of drilling templates which are used with hand drilling tools to ensure drilled holes are accurately located. In this work, a construction grade terrestrial laser scanner, the Leica RTC360, is used to capture an example aircraft wing section in mid-assembly from several scan locations. Point cloud registration uses 1.5"white matte spherical targets that are interchangeable with the SMR targets used by the Leica AT960 MR laser tracker, ensuring that scans are connected to an established metrology control network used to define the coordinate space. Point cloud registration was achieved to sub-millimetre accuracy when compared to the laser tracker network. The location of drilling templates on the surface of the wing skin are automatically extracted from the captured and registered point clouds. When compared to laser tracker referenced hole centres, laser scanner drilling template holes agree to within 0.2mm

Exploring the limits of terrestrial laser scanners on aerospace materials

Terrestrial laser scanners are powerful measurement devices commonly used for 3D modelling tasks generating large volumes of data with fast acquisition as a first priority. However, these scanners can alternatively be used to produce near real-time, engineering quality spatial data concerning the changing state of manufactured components. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of two terrestrial laser scanners capturing aerospace materials and components, and their associated quality measures. In order to explore the limitations of the tested TLS instruments, a mechanical jig was designed incorporating both a rotation and translation stage. This study involved three elements of a point cloud processing workflow: data capture, registration and feature extraction. Sphere-based 7DoF registration is applied using two different commercially available software packages with varying levels of user control. To analyse the quality of the registration, control points extracted from captured point clouds were compared to nominal values measured using a laser tracker. The quality of the registration was consistent, with differences kept between 0.4 mm and 0.6 mm. To evaluate the quality of the captured point clouds, two different tests were conducted. This included planar fit tests on an aluminium drilling template, and sphere fitting tests on white 1.5” spherical targets in magnetic nests. One half of the aluminium drilling template was coated with matte spray to reduce erroneous laser reflections. Finally, the registered point clouds were input to a developed algorithm which automatically extracted drilling holes from the drilling template. Previous scanning work performed on aerospace materials showed evidence of optical rattling caused by high intensity reflections from the interior holes in a drilling template. Further exploration showed that the amount of optical rattle varies systematically with incidence angle. This work demonstrates a systematic offset in the location of extracted hole centres in the drilling template. This offset is dependent on laser incidence angle, and can therefore be accounted for when locating manufacturing components from a known scanning position

Turning the Tables: The Psychology of Design for High-Volume Restaurants

The use of colors, sounds, sights, and smells can be applied to restaurant settings to encourage a high customer volume and fast table turns

Mammographic image restoration using maximum entropy deconvolution

An image restoration approach based on a Bayesian maximum entropy method (MEM) has been applied to a radiological image deconvolution problem, that of reduction of geometric blurring in magnification mammography. The aim of the work is to demonstrate an improvement in image spatial resolution in realistic noisy radiological images with no associated penalty in terms of reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio perceived by the observer. Images of the TORMAM mammographic image quality phantom were recorded using the standard magnification settings of 1.8 magnification/fine focus and also at 1.8 magnification/broad focus and 3.0 magnification/fine focus; the latter two arrangements would normally give rise to unacceptable geometric blurring. Measured point-spread functions were used in conjunction with the MEM image processing to de-blur these images. The results are presented as comparative images of phantom test features and as observer scores for the raw and processed images. Visualization of high resolution features and the total image scores for the test phantom were improved by the application of the MEM processing. It is argued that this successful demonstration of image de-blurring in noisy radiological images offers the possibility of weakening the link between focal spot size and geometric blurring in radiology, thus opening up new approaches to system optimization.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

Visual Methods: Using Photographs to Capture Customers’ Experience with Design

Traditional guest feedback methods such as surveys or mystery shopping are not ideal for collecting information about customers\u27 reactions to a hotel\u27s physical design. Because design is a visual medium, survey questions may not capture the whole of a guest\u27s reaction to the design. By the same token, the reaction of mystery shoppers to design is not necessarily representative of all guests. Instead, a photography-based approach allows guests to show managers and researchers what they consider to be the hotel\u27s design highlights and failures. A pilot study indicated that guests took notice of design elements that signified that the hotel was being considerate of their needs, as well as providing a functional, high-quality environment