56,235 research outputs found
Automotive automation: Investigating the impact on drivers' mental workload
Recent advances in technology have meant that an increasing number of vehicle driving
tasks are becoming automated. Such automation poses new problems for the ergonomist.
Of particular concern in this paper are the twofold effects of automation on mental
workload - novel technologies could increase attentional demand and workload,
alternatively one could argue that fewer driving tasks will lead to the problem of reduced
attentional demand and driver underload. A brief review of previous research is
presented, followed by an overview of current research taking place in the Southampton
Driving Simulator. Early results suggest that automation does reduce workload, and that
underload is indeed a problem, with a significant proportion of drivers unable to
effectively reclaim control of the vehicle in an automation failure scenario. Ultimately,
this research and a subsequent program of studies will be interpreted within the
framework of a recently proposed theory of action, with a view to maximizing both
theoretical and applied benefits of this domain
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Team-oriented process programming
Team-oriented process programming promises to provide significant support for the planning, directing, and controlling of software engineering projects. In this paper we apply process programming to software engineering teams and show how this can provide powerful new capabilities for the management of software projects. We identify key issues which must be addressed to apply process programming to teams, and present our vision for team-oriented process programming
An investigation into usability and exclusivity issues of digital programmable thermostats
This is the pre-print version of the Article - Copyright @ 2011 Taylor & FrancisWith nearly 60% of domestic energy consumption relating to space heating, the interaction between users and their heating controls is crucial in reducing consumption. Yet, many heating controls are complex and exclude people due to the demands placed upon their capabilities in terms of vision, reach, dexterity and thinking. This study explores the scale of and reasons for user exclusion in relation to digital programmable thermostats. The Exclusion Calculator was used to estimate the percentage of the population excluded from the use of three products. Full user testing was then conducted to elicit specific usability problems of the devices. The participants were a group of 14 younger users (aged 24â44) and 10 older users (aged 62â75). The exclusion calculations underestimated the actual exclusion significantly for both age ranges (p<0.05). None of the older users were able to complete the programming of the thermostats. Additionally, the cognitive demands of these systems were considered using a subjective workload assessment method, based on the NASA Task Load Index, and were found to be excessive. In conclusion, this study makes recommendations to facilitate the design of more inclusive digital programmable thermostats. It is argued that such changes could result in reductions in domestic heat energy consumption.This work is funded by the ESPRC and Buro Happold
The thermal Hall effect of spin excitations in a Kagome magnet
At low temperatures, the thermal conductivity of spin excitations in a
magnetic insulator can exceed that of phonons. However, because they are charge
neutral, the spin waves are not expected to display a thermal Hall effect in a
magnetic field. Recently, this semiclassical notion has been upended in quantum
magnets in which the spin texture has a finite chirality. In the Kagome
lattice, the chiral term generates a Berry curvature. This results in a thermal
Hall conductivity that is topological in origin. Here we report
observation of a large in the Kagome magnet Cu(1-3, bdc) which
orders magnetically at 1.8 K. The observed undergoes a remarkable
sign-reversal with changes in temperature or magnetic field, associated with
sign alternation of the Chern flux between magnon bands. We show that thermal
Hall experiments probe incisively the effect of Berry curvature on heat
transport.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
The first definitive Middle Jurassic atoposaurid (Crocodylomorpha, Neosuchia), and a discussion on the genus Theriosuchus
Atoposaurids were a clade of semiaquatic crocodyliforms known from the Late Jurassic to the latest Cretaceous. Tentative remains from Europe, Morocco, and Madagascar may extend their range into the Middle Jurassic. Here we report the first unambiguous Middle Jurassic (late BajocianâBathonian) atoposaurid: an anterior dentary from the Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK. A comprehensive review of atoposaurid specimens demonstrates that this dentary can be referred to Theriosuchus based on several derived characters, and differs from the five previously recognized species within this genus. Despite several diagnostic features, we conservatively refer it to Theriosuchus sp., pending the discovery of more complete material. As the oldest known definitively diagnostic atoposaurid, this discovery indicates that the oldest members of this group were small-bodied, had heterodont dentition, and were most likely widespread components of European faunas. Our review of mandibular and dental features in atoposaurids not only allows us to present a revised diagnosis of Theriosuchus, but also reveals a great amount of variability within this genus, and indicates that there are currently five valid species that can be differentiated by unique combinations of dental characteristics. This variability can be included in future broad-scale cladistics analyses of atoposaurids and closely related crocodyliforms, which promise to help untangle the complicated taxonomy and evolutionary history of Atoposauridae
Devroye Inequality for a Class of Non-Uniformly Hyperbolic Dynamical Systems
In this paper, we prove an inequality, which we call "Devroye inequality",
for a large class of non-uniformly hyperbolic dynamical systems (M,f). This
class, introduced by L.-S. Young, includes families of piece-wise hyperbolic
maps (Lozi-like maps), scattering billiards (e.g., planar Lorentz gas),
unimodal and H{\'e}non-like maps. Devroye inequality provides an upper bound
for the variance of observables of the form K(x,f(x),...,f^{n-1}(x)), where K
is any separately Holder continuous function of n variables. In particular, we
can deal with observables which are not Birkhoff averages. We will show in
\cite{CCS} some applications of Devroye inequality to statistical properties of
this class of dynamical systems.Comment: Corrected version; To appear in Nonlinearit
Detection of Polarized Broad Emission in the Seyfert 2 Galaxy Mrk 573
We report the discovery of the scattered emission from a hidden broad-line
region (BLR) in a Seyfert 2 galaxy, Mrk 573, based on our recent
spectropolarimetric observation performed at the Subaru Telescope. This object
has been regarded as a type 2 AGN without a hidden BLR by the previous
observations. However, our high quality spectrum of the polarized flux of Mrk
573 shows prominent broad (~3000 km/s) H_alpha emission, broad weak H_beta
emission, and subtle Fe II multiplet emission. Our new detection of these
indications for the presence of the hidden BLR in the nucleus of Mrk 573 is
thought to be owing to the high signal-to-noise ratio of our data, but the
possibility of a time variation of the scattered BLR emission is also
mentioned. Some diagnostic quantities such as the IRAS color, the radio power,
and the line ratio of the emission from the narrow-line region of Mrk 573 are
consistent with the distributions of such quantities of type 2 AGNs with a
hidden BLR. Mrk 573 is thought to be an object whose level of the AGN activity
is the weakest among the type 2 AGNs with a hidden BLR. In terms of the
systematic differences between the type 2 AGNs with and without a hidden BLR,
we briefly comment on an interesting Seyfert 2 galaxy, Mrk 266SW, which may
possess a hidden BLR but has been treated as a type 2 AGNs without a hidden
BLR.Comment: 9 pages including 6 figures, to appear in The Astronomical Journa
Correlators of supersymmetric Wilson-loops, protected operators and matrix models in N=4 SYM
We study the correlators of a recently discovered family of BPS Wilson loops
in supersymmetric U(N) Yang-Mills theory. When the contours lie on
a two-sphere in the space-time, we propose a closed expression that is valid
for all values of the coupling constant and for any rank , by exploiting
the suspected relation with two-dimensional gauge theories. We check this
formula perturbatively at order for two latitude Wilson loops
and we show that, in the limit where one of the loops shrinks to a point,
logarithmic corrections in the shrinking radius are absent at .
This last result strongly supports the validity of our general expression and
suggests the existence of a peculiar protected local operator arising in the
OPE of the Wilson loop. At strong coupling we compare our result to the string
dual of the SYM correlator in the limit of large separation,
presenting some preliminary evidence for the agreement.Comment: 20 page, 8 figure
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