36,543 research outputs found
Cotton spinning to climbing gear: practical aspects of design evolution in Lancashire and the North West of England
This article looks at the role of path dependency in the design of outdoor clothing and equipment, from the perspective of changing and overlapping industrial clusters in Lancashire and Sheffield, from the 1960s. It demonstrates that, unlike the fashion market, design in mountaineering clothing and equipment was originally based heavily upon functionality and hence on user innovation. It shows that skills and knowledge which evolved during the industrial revolution, in both industrial areas, were vitally important to the development of internationally competitive mountaineering equipment firms. It was, however, the way in which these sources of knowledge were combined with sporting expertise that contributed to the design of innovative functional products. In addition, fundamental changes occurred in the relationship between manufacturers and their customers and these were vital to the success of this process, marking a departure from past practice
A finite difference scheme for the equilibrium equations of elastic bodies
A compact difference scheme is described for treating the first-order system of partial differential equations which describe the equilibrium equations of an elastic body. An algebraic simplification enables the solution to be obtained by standard direct or iterative techniques
A compact finite difference scheme for div(Rho grad u) - q2u = 0
A representative class of elliptic equations is treated by a dissipative compact finite difference scheme and a general solution technique by relaxation methods is discussed in detail for the Laplace equation
Covariant nucleon wave function with S, D, and P-state components
Expressions for the nucleon wave functions in the covariant spectator theory
(CST) are derived. The nucleon is described as a system with a off-mass-shell
constituent quark, free to interact with an external probe, and two spectator
constituent quarks on their mass shell. Integrating over the internal momentum
of the on-mass-shell quark pair allows us to derive an effective nucleon wave
function that can be written only in terms of the quark and diquark
(quark-pair) variables. The derived nucleon wave function includes
contributions from S, P and D-waves.Comment: 13 pages and 1 figur
Determination of audit activity in modern conditions
The task of compulsory audit of financial statements is the provision of reasonable assurance that is accepted and performed by the entity in accordance with the requirements of this Law and international standards of audit by checking the financial statements or consolidated financial statements in order to express an independent opinion of the auditor on its compliance with all significant aspects and compliance with the requirements of international financial reporting standards or national accounting (statutory) standards and laws of Ukraine
Evaluating Variable-Length Multiple-Option Lists in Chatbots and Mobile Search
In recent years, the proliferation of smart mobile devices has lead to the
gradual integration of search functionality within mobile platforms. This has
created an incentive to move away from the "ten blue links'' metaphor, as
mobile users are less likely to click on them, expecting to get the answer
directly from the snippets. In turn, this has revived the interest in Question
Answering. Then, along came chatbots, conversational systems, and messaging
platforms, where the user needs could be better served with the system asking
follow-up questions in order to better understand the user's intent. While
typically a user would expect a single response at any utterance, a system
could also return multiple options for the user to select from, based on
different system understandings of the user's intent. However, this possibility
should not be overused, as this practice could confuse and/or annoy the user.
How to produce good variable-length lists, given the conflicting objectives of
staying short while maximizing the likelihood of having a correct answer
included in the list, is an underexplored problem. It is also unclear how to
evaluate a system that tries to do that. Here we aim to bridge this gap. In
particular, we define some necessary and some optional properties that an
evaluation measure fit for this purpose should have. We further show that
existing evaluation measures from the IR tradition are not entirely suitable
for this setup, and we propose novel evaluation measures that address it
satisfactorily.Comment: 4 pages, in Proceeding of SIGIR 201
Unambiguous pure state identification without classical knowledge
We study how to unambiguously identify a given quantum pure state with one of
the two reference pure states when no classical knowledge on the reference
states is given but a certain number of copies of each reference quantum state
are presented. By the unambiguous identification, we mean that we are not
allowed to make a mistake but our measurement can produce an inconclusive
result. Assuming the two reference states are independently distributed over
the whole pure state space in a unitary invariant way, we determine the optimal
mean success probability for an arbitrary number of copies of the reference
states and a general dimension of the state space. It is explicitly shown that
the obtained optimal mean success probability asymptotically approaches that of
the unambiguous discrimination as the number of the copies of the reference
states increases.Comment: v3: 8 pages, minor corrections, journal versio
A Bit-String Model for Biological Aging
We present a simple model for biological aging. We studied it through
computer simulations and we have found this model to reflect some features of
real populations.Comment: LaTeX file, 4 PS figures include
Hypervelocity impact facility for simulating materials exposure to impact by space debris
As a result of man's venturing into space, the local debris contributed by his presence exceeds, at some orbital altitudes, that of the natural component. Man's contribution ranges from fuel residue to large derelect satellites that weigh many kilograms. Current debris models are able to predict the growth of the problem and suggest that spacecraft must employ armor or bumper shields for some orbital altitudes now, and that, the problem will become worse as a function of time. The practical upper limit to the velocity distribution is on the order of 40 km/s and is associated with the natural environment. The maximum velocity of the man-made component is in the 14-16 km/s range. The Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) has verified that the 'high probability of impact' particles are in the microgram to milligram range. These particles can have significant effects on coatings, insulators, and thin metallic layers. The surface of thick materials becomes pitted and the local debris component is enhanced by ejecta from the debris spectrum in a controlled environment. The facility capability is discussed in terms of drive geometry, energetics, velocity distribution, diagnostics, and projectile/debris loading. The facility is currently being used to study impact phenomena on Space Station Freedom's solar array structure, other solar array materials, potential structural materials for use in the station, electrical breakdown in the space environment, and as a means of clarifying or duplicating the impact phenomena on the LDEF surfaces. The results of these experiments are described in terms of the mass/velocity distribution incident on selected samples, crater dynamics, and sample geometry
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