Navigation Method Enhancing Music Listening Experience by Stimulating Both Neck Sides with Modulated Music Vibration

We propose a method that stimulates music vibration (generated from and synchronized with musical signals), modulated by the direction and distance to the target, on both sides of a user's neck with Hapbeat, a necklace-type haptic device. We conducted three experiments to confirm that the proposed method can achieve both haptic navigation and enhance the music listening experience. Experiment 1 consisted of conducting a questionnaire survey to examine the effect of stimulating music vibrations. Experiment 2 evaluated the accuracy (deg) of users' ability to adjust their direction toward a target using the proposed method. Experiment 3 examined the ability of four different navigation methods by performing navigation tasks in a virtual environment. The results of the experiments showed that stimulating music vibration enhanced the music listening experience, and that the proposed method is able to provide sufficient information to guide the users: accuracy in identifying directions was about 20\textdegree, participants reached the target in all navigation tasks, and in about 80\% of all trials participants reached the target using the shortest route. Furthermore, the proposed method succeeded in conveying distance information, and Hapbeat can be combined with conventional navigation methods without interfering with music listening.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Vault-housed extensometers recorded a rapid initial pulse before precursory magma reservoir inflation related to the 2011 eruption of Shinmoe-dake, Japan

Previous studies of the major eruption at Shinmoe-dake volcano, Japan, in January 2011 suggested that gradual injection of magma from a deep source into a shallow reservoir began in December 2009 and led to the major eruption. To investigate the initial phase of this injection event, we examined extensometer data from the Isa Observatory,  ~ 18.5 km from the summit of Shinmoe-dake, and discovered a strain change event that spanned about 3 days in December 2009. The size of the strain change is comparable to those observed during each sub-Plinian eruption in 2011. The source of the rapid strain change appears to be deeper than the estimated location of the magma reservoir that directly supplied magma to the 2011 eruption sequence. These observations suggest that rapid injection of magma from the deep magmatic plumbing system in December 2009 triggered the continuous ascent of additional magma from depth, which in turn drove the climactic eruptions in January 2011. Extensometers also recorded two rapid strain change events of the same order of magnitude and with similar characteristics in December 2006 and August 2008; however, noticeable inflation of the edifice was not detected immediately following either event. This suggests that transient injection of magma into a shallow reservoir is not always followed immediately by a gradual recharge process

Scattering amplitude from Bethe-Salpeter wave function inside the interaction range

We propose a method to calculate scattering amplitudes using the Bethe-Salpeter wave function inside the interaction range on the lattice. For an exploratory study of this method, we evaluate a scattering length of I=2 S-wave two pions by the use of the on-shell scattering amplitude. Our result is confirmed to be consistent with the value obtained from the conventional finite volume method. The half-off-shell scattering amplitude is also evaluated

Methodology for Agricultural Flood Damage Assessment

This chapter describes a method for assessing flood damage to the agricultural sector, specifically focusing on flood damage to rice crops. The chapter also includes the case studies of flood damage assessment conducted in the Asian river basins, the Pampanga River basin of the Philippines, and the Lower Indus River basin of Pakistan. The assessment was performed by defining flood damage to rice crops as a function of flood depth, duration, and growth stage of rice plants and using depth-duration-damage function curves for each growth stage of rice plants. In the case studies, flood characteristics such as flood depth, duration, and distribution were computed using a rainfall-runoff-inundation (RRI) model. Flood damage to rice crops was assessed for the 2011 flood and 100-year flood events in the case of the Pampanga River basin and for the 2010 flood in the case of Lower Indus River basin. The calculated values of agricultural damage were compared with reported data for validation of methodology, and it was found that the calculated damage reasonably agreed with reported data. The rice-crop damage assessment method described in this chapter can also be applied in other areas for flood risk assessment