1,844 research outputs found
Encouraging better hand drying hygiene
Electric hand driers have the potential to improve sanitation when using public toilets; if used properly, electric driers can dry hands more thoroughly than towels, and users do not come into physical contact with potentially contaminated objects. But electric driers are frequently used for just a few seconds--and so the potential advantage is lost. This paper describes the prototyping and evaluation of a system intended to encourage longer hand drying times in public toilets. The challenges are: to develop hygienic interfaces for use in toilet areas; to design simple to use software that is engaging enough to be used several times a day; and to conduct usability and system acceptance tests in an environment in which users are highly sensitive about privacy issues
Learning to generate one-sentence biographies from Wikidata
We investigate the generation of one-sentence Wikipedia biographies from
facts derived from Wikidata slot-value pairs. We train a recurrent neural
network sequence-to-sequence model with attention to select facts and generate
textual summaries. Our model incorporates a novel secondary objective that
helps ensure it generates sentences that contain the input facts. The model
achieves a BLEU score of 41, improving significantly upon the vanilla
sequence-to-sequence model and scoring roughly twice that of a simple template
baseline. Human preference evaluation suggests the model is nearly as good as
the Wikipedia reference. Manual analysis explores content selection, suggesting
the model can trade the ability to infer knowledge against the risk of
hallucinating incorrect information
A high-order spectral deferred correction strategy for low Mach number flow with complex chemistry
We present a fourth-order finite-volume algorithm in space and time for low
Mach number reacting flow with detailed kinetics and transport. Our temporal
integration scheme is based on a multi-implicit spectral deferred correction
(MISDC) strategy that iteratively couples advection, diffusion, and reactions
evolving subject to a constraint. Our new approach overcomes a stability
limitation of our previous second-order method encountered when trying to
incorporate higher-order polynomial representations of the solution in time to
increase accuracy. We have developed a new iterative scheme that naturally fits
within our MISDC framework that allows us to simultaneously conserve mass and
energy while satisfying on the equation of state. We analyse the conditions for
which the iterative schemes are guaranteed to converge to the fixed point
solution. We present numerical examples illustrating the performance of the new
method on premixed hydrogen, methane, and dimethyl ether flames.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figure
House-Swapping with Objective Indifferences
We study the classic house-swapping problem of Shapley and Scarf (1974) in a
setting where agents may have "objective" indifferences, i.e., indifferences
that are shared by all agents. In other words, if any one agent is indifferent
between two houses, then all agents are indifferent between those two houses.
The most direct interpretation is the presence of multiple copies of the same
object. Our setting is a special case of the house-swapping problem with
general indifferences. We derive a simple, easily interpretable algorithm that
produces the unique strict core allocation of the house-swapping market, if it
exists. Our algorithm runs in square polynomial time, a substantial improvement
over the cubed time methods for the more general problem.Comment: 9 page
Macrophages Use Distinct Actin Regulators to Switch Engulfment Strategies and Ensure Phagocytic Plasticity <i>In Vivo</i>
Symmetron Cosmology
The symmetron is a scalar field associated with the dark sector whose
coupling to matter depends on the ambient matter density. The symmetron is
decoupled and screened in regions of high density, thereby satisfying local
constraints from tests of gravity, but couples with gravitational strength in
regions of low density, such as the cosmos. In this paper we derive the
cosmological expansion history in the presence of a symmetron field, tracking
the evolution through the inflationary, radiation- and matter-dominated epochs,
using a combination of analytical approximations and numerical integration. For
a broad range of initial conditions at the onset of inflation, the scalar field
reaches its symmetry-breaking vacuum by the present epoch, as assumed in the
local analysis of spherically-symmetric solutions and tests of gravity. For the
simplest form of the potential, the energy scale is too small for the symmetron
to act as dark energy, hence we must add a cosmological constant to drive
late-time cosmic acceleration. We briefly discuss a class of generalized,
non-renormalizable potentials that can have a greater impact on the late-time
cosmology, though cosmic acceleration requires a delicate tuning of parameters
in this case.Comment: 42 page
Suitability Layers for Mesonet Stations in Tennessee
Mesonet stations are environmental monitoring systems used to examine environmental features such as Precipitation, Temperature, Insolation, Soil Moisture, and Localized Hazards. network of Mesonet stations is an integral part of weather and climate monitoring and the data produced are essential for agriculture, planning, transportation, and other industries. Tennessee is one of the few states without a Mesonet; a bill currently before the state assembly includes funding for such a system. Therefore, this research describes development of a Mesonet suitability layer for Tennessee that can be used to guide placement of individual Mesonet stations across the state, taking into account spacing, terrain, land use, construction suitability, and other factors. Land cover, road centerline, roughness, elevation, flood zone, building footprint, and soil type data were obtained from USGS, FEMA, NLCD, and the Tennessee state database to create each layer. Using ArcGIS Pro, each data layer was converted to a raster and then masked to the state of Tennessee at 30-meter resolution to ensure proper alignment of data overlays. The combined overlay map will identify zones that meet suitability criteria, and it is expected that multiple areas in each county will meet the such that a complete Mesonet network can be sited across the state. This study provides important information needed for final placement of Tennessee’s future Mesonet stations, which will provide essential weather and environmental monitoring data important for Tennessee
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