Using mouse and keyboard under time pressure: preference, strategies and learning

Visually based point-and-click user interfaces have become very common. This increases the need to understand the mechanics in learning and using pointing devices in order to design appropriate human-computer interaction and thereby to help alleviate musculosketetal symptoms. The paper reports a study of preference, strategies and learning in using keyboard and mouse in a tracking task under time pressure. The keyboard was preferred by 11 out of 12 subjects due primarily to comfort, frustration, and visual strain. One of the most distinguishing features in favour of the keyboard was the opportunity to develop a working strategy facilitating learning.     

Energy and environment : Nordic energy scenarios for 2010 and 2030

The concept of a sustainable energy sector has received wide attention since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987. This paper analyses the possibilities of establishing by 2010 and 2030 an energy system in the Nordic countries which prevents the critical loads of NO_x and SO₂ respectively on the most vulnerable Nordic ecological systems being exceeded. In addition, the present concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere should not be significantly exceeded within a time horizon to around 2050. Different scenarios have been investigated in order to analyse the scope for attaining such a sustainable energy development within the limits of existing technologies and known potentials of renewable energy sources. Data on the technologies are available in a special catalogue.     

Software And Sanity

Can a consultant overcome the forces of human nature and get executives, programmers, and users to work together to produce software that makes everyone happy?     

Survey of occupant behaviour and control of indoor environment in Danish dwellings

Repeated surveys of occupant control of the indoor environment were carried out in Danish dwellings from September to October 2006 and again from February to March 2007. The summer survey comprised 933 respondents and the winter survey 636 respondents. The surveys were carried out by sending out invitations to addresses obtained from a Danish register along with information on dwelling characteristics. Meteorological data was obtained from the Danish Meteorological Institute.Four control mechanisms (window open/closed, heating on/off, lighting on/off and solar shading in/not in use) were analysed separately by means of multiple logistic regression in order to quantify factors influencing occupants’ behaviour.The window opening behaviour was strongly related to the outdoor temperature. The perception of the environment and factors concerning the dwelling also impacted the window opening behaviour.The proportion of dwellings with the heating turned on was strongly related to the outdoor temperature and the presence of a wood burning stove. The solar radiation, dwelling ownership conditions and the perception of the indoor environment also affected the use of heating.The results of the statistical analyses form a basis for a definition of standard behaviour patterns which can be used to make calculation of energy consumption of buildings more accurate.     

Dynamic Methanation of CO2 – Effect of Concentration Forcing

Investigating the effect of concentration forcing of the CO₂ methanation is not only relevant for power‐to‐gas plants but also for the study of dynamic phenomena of this reaction. In this study a Ni/Al₂O₃ catalyst is investigated under concentration forcing at industrially relevant conditions. The dynamic experiments allow an evaluation in terms of the reaction rate and enable the study of the reaction mechanism. The experiments show that no methane is formed in the CO₂‐rich part of the cycle, whereas a fast hydrogenation of carbonaceous species to methane takes place upon switching to H₂.     

NaWuReT-Workshop: Forschung in der Reaktionstechnik für und mit der Gesellschaft

In this article, the results of the NaWuReT (Early Career Reaction Engineers) workshop on the topic “Are we doing relevant science?” are presented. The topics “(In)surmountable hurdles for Citizen Scientists in reaction engineering?” and “Circular Economy in reaction engineering with/for society?” were discussed. Therefrom, a variety of ideas and suggestions were extracted.     

Topography characterization of a deep grating using near-field imaging

Using near-field optical microscopy at the wavelength of 633 nm, we image light intensity distributions at several distances above an approximately 2-microm-deep and a 1-microm-period glass grating illuminated from below under the condition of total internal reflection. The intensity distributions are numerically modeled, and an inversion procedure based on a least-squares-fit optimization is employed to extract the grating geometry from the optical images.     

Analysis on exergy consumption patterns for space heating in Slovenian buildings

Problem of high energy use for heating in Slovenian buildings is analyzed with exergy and energy analysis. Results of both are compared and discussed. Three cases of exterior building walls are located in three climatic zones in winter conditions. Results of energy analyses show that the highest heating energy demand appears in the case with less thermal insulation, especially in colder climate. If the comparison is made only on the energy supply and exergy supply, the results of exergy analysis are the same as those of energy analysis. The main difference appears, if the whole chain of supply and demand is taken into consideration. Exergy calculations enable us to analyze how much exergy is consumed in which part, from boiler to building envelope. They also reveal how much energy is supplied for the purpose of heating. Results show that insulation has much bigger effect than effect of boiler efficiency. However, the most effective solution is to improve building envelope together with boiler efficiency. Better thermal insulation also makes an important contribution to the improvement of thermal comfort conditions. It causes higher surface temperatures resulting in a larger warm radiant exergy emission rate and consequently better thermal comfort.