User-centred app design for speech sound disorders interventions with tablet computers

Traditional speech and language pathology practice (SLPP) faces challenges delivering effective and timely therapy due to long waiting lists, the need for regular practice outside the clinic and a lack of children’s motivation to engage in persistent practice. Technology has untapped potential to address these issues and improve SLPP. This paper describes the design of a tablet app for delivering technology-enhanced therapy for children with speech sound disorders and investigates the impact of the use of apps on SLPP. The initial design was informed by a nation-wide survey of speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The quantitative analysis disclosed that even though SLPs positively perceive mobile technology, they do not currently fully exploit it in their practice due to a lack of apps in their native language and the limited usefulness of apps in foreign languages. Using a user-centred design process, a multidisciplinary team created three prototypes and a final version of an app that has been tested in real therapeutic sessions during everyday practice and informed by feedback from SLPs and children. The observation analysis is presented based on an adaptation of Koole’s FRAME model. The qualitative findings indicate that SLPs identify mobile apps as enabling greater mobility, allowing new therapeutic approaches, creating possibilities for practice outside the therapeutic setting and increasing children’s motivation, supporting greater persistence to practise in the context of the therapy.     

Overheating in residential passive house: Solution strategies revealed and confirmed through data analysis and simulations

Energy efficiency and living comfort certainly contribute to popularity of the passive house concept. Since these houses are weakly coupled to an environment, any internal energy gains are difficult to be released against small temperature gradients, i.e. in a typical situation occurring in hot summer months. In such a case already a small energy input raises the internal temperature significantly and dramatically affects the living comfort. To provide more information on this problem, we collected and analyzed data from a single family Slovenian passive house. Our goal was to estimate the general house response under real conditions and to investigate overheating in hot summer periods. Different energy gains were identified and explored with respect to their influence on the overheating of this passive house. Results show that windows-opening during the nights in hot summer days, strict shading of the southern and western windows as well as minimization of internal energy sources are necessary and sufficient to keep internal temperature on the comfort level.     

Subsolidus phase equilibria in the RuO2-Bi2O3-ZrO2 system

Subsolidus equilibria in air in the RuO₂-Bi₂O₃-ZrO₂ system were studied with the aim of obtaining information on possible interactions between a Bi₂Ru₂O₇-based cathode and a ZrO₂-based solid electrolyte in solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). No ternary compound was found in the system. The tie lines are between Bi₂Ru₂O₇ and ZrO₂, and between Bi₂Ru₂O₇ and gamma-Bi₂O₃—the ZrO₂ stabilised Bi₂O₃ phase, stable at temperatures over 710 °C.     

17O and 14N quadrupole coupling and the mechanism of the ferroelectric transition in diglycine nitrate

The ^I4N and ¹⁷0 quadrupole couplings in diglycine nitrate have been determined by proton- ¹⁴N and proton-¹⁷0 double resonance. The O─H──O bonded proton is moving between two off-centre sites in the H─bond above T_C and is frozen out in an off-centre site below T_C. The results show that the basic phase transition mechanism is a biasing of the flipping of the ─NH₃ groups around the C─N bondbetween two equilibrium orientations separated by ∼ 60° connected with a corresponding rotation of the NO₃^-; ions, an exchange of the ionic character of the two glycine molecules and a transfer of the O─H──O bonded proton.     

Effect of structural and acidity/basicity changes of CuO–CeO2 catalysts on their activity for water–gas shift reaction

The objective of this work was to investigate the influence of CuO loading and catalyst pretreatment procedure to derive an optimal CuO–CeO₂ catalyst for the water–gas shift reaction (WGS), and to study in detail structure– and surface acidity–activity relationships. Catalyst samples prepared by coprecipitation and a 10, 15 and 20 mol% CuO content were examined by XRD, BET and TPR/TPD analyses and subjected to pulse WGS activity tests in the temperature range of 180–400 °C. Strong structure–activity dependence in the WGS reaction was observed for all catalyst samples. It was established that increasing CuO content has a positive effect on H₂ production during the WGS reaction, due to favored CeO₂ reduction. Increasing calcination temperature on the other hand reduces the BET surface area, induced by CuO sintering and agglomeration of CeO₂ particles, resulting in a negative effect on H₂ production. Distinctive WGS activity dependence on surface acidity was observed and investigated.     

OPTODYNAMIC DEFORMATION OF A METAL PLATE ILLUMINATED BY A GAUSSIAN LASER PULSE

An analytical model is presented that describes the bending process following the absorption of a Gaussian laser pulse by the surface of a moderately thick metal plate. The model is based on the constitutive equations of thermoelastoplasticity and therefore fundamentally describes this optodynamic process. Assuming relatively short laser pulses, Green's function is used as an approximation for the real plate temperature. The plate is assumed to be made of elastic, linearly hardening material.     

A Self-Mixing NMOS Channel-Detector Optimized for mm-Wave and THZ Signals

A self-mixing terahertz signal detector combined with a low noise amplifier and a properly balanced - folded dipole or slot antenna for concentrating millimeter wave signals to NMOS detectors is described. The detector was optimized to 300 GHz signals. The noise equivalent power (NEP) was estimated to 320 pW/√Hz while the total output referred noise of 2.1 μV/(Hz)^1/2 was measured at amplifier gain of 46 dB. This was achieved by using NMOS mixer devices optimized for resistive mixing that operate in a linear region of operation where the channel voltage is set close to zero by means of regulating the virtual ground level. The NMOS device, which is positioned at the antenna connections, has a minimum channel length that permits a far more precise calculation of the coupling devices. A position like termination of the two symmetrical detector devices was distributed between an antenna area and the amplification stage. The detectors were fully integrated using the 250 nm CMOS technology. Good matching was found between mathematically analyzed and simulated noise performances and prototypes measurements, where comparable measurements were performed on a THz array which consists of four pixels with folded dipole antennas or those with slot type antennas.     

Subsolidus phase equilibria in the CaO-poor part of the RuO2-CaO-SiO2 system

During firing the conductive phase based on CaRuO₃ in lead-free thick-film resistors decomposes, presumably due to interactions with the silica-rich glass phase. Subsolidus equilibria in the CaO-poor part of the RuO₂-CaO-SiO₂ diagram were studied with the aim of investigating possible interactions between the conductive phase and silica-rich glasses in thick-film resistors. The tie lines are between CaRuO₃ and CaSiO₃, and between RuO₂ and CaSiO₃. This indicates that the calcium ruthenate is not stable in the presence of the silica-rich glass phase.     

Investigation on electrical and microstructural properties of Thick Film Lead-Free resistor series under various firing conditions

The paper presents investigation of four lead free thick film resistor pastes, developed at ITME, denoted R-100, R-1k, R-10k and R-100k with sheet resistivities of 0.1, 1, 10 and 100 kΩ/□, respectively. The resistors were based on RuO₂ as the conductive phase. The aim of the work was to evaluate the influence of firing conditions of the resistive pastes on a sintering process. The pastes were screen printed onto alumina substrate with prefired AgPd lead-free terminations. They were fired at several temperatures from 750 to 950 °C for 10 min at peak temperature, as well as fired at the highest temperature for 6 h, in order to bring the sintering process into the equilibrium. The properties of the resistors, i.e , sheet resistivity and temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR), microstructure changes, glass crystallization upon firing, etc., were examined. Dried and fired resistor samples were evaluated by X-Ray diffraction analysis and by the scanning electron microscopy. The RuO₂ conductive phase maintained the same crystal structure regardless of the firing conditions. No devitrification was observed in lead-free resistors glasses. The lattice constants of RuO₂ were uniform after firing at temperatures over 800 °C. The resistors matched the desired resistivity and the TCR was the least temperature dependent at the firing temperatures around 850 °C.