Slow eye movement as a possible predictor of reaction delays to auditory warning alarms in a drowsy state

In recently developed intelligent vehicles, warning alarms are often used to prompt avoidance behaviours from drivers facing imminent hazardous situations. However, when critical reaction delays to auditory stimulation are anticipated, the alarm should be activated earlier to compensate for such delays. It was found that reaction times to an auditory stimulus significantly increased in the presence of slow eye movement (SEM), which is known to occur frequently during the wake-sleep transition. The reaction delay could not be attributed to temporal effects such as fatigue and was invariant regardless of response effectors (finger or foot). Moreover, it was found that applied pedal force decreased immediately after an auditory stimulus interrupted SEM. Consequently, it was concluded that SEM can be a good predictor of reaction delays to auditory warning alarms when drivers are in a drowsy state. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: The present study demonstrated that simple auditory reaction time significantly increased when SEM emerged. In the design of vehicle safety systems using warning alarms to prompt avoidance behaviours from drivers, such reaction delays during SEM must be taken into account.     

Outline of Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industry ? Suspension-Heater Flash-Furnace Clinker Burning Process

The suspension-preheater flash-furnace (SF) process for cement clinkering introduces a calcining flash furnace operating as an integral portion of a suspension preheater, rotary kiln, and clinker cooler system. Preheated raw meal from the suspension preheater is calcined in the flash furnace to 80 to 90 percent decarbonation. The capacity of the SF rotary kiln is increased thereby, since its function is limited to sintering rather than sintering and calcining. The flash furnace incorporates vortex flow to accomplish the mixing of fuel, raw meal, and gases. Effective distribution within the flash furnace limits temperature gradients and eliminates localized elevated temperatures that might otherwise lead to coating and material build-up. Hot combustion gases are recovered from the clinker cooler for use in the flash furnace. An orifice in the kiln gas exit duct serves to balance the parallel gas flows through the kiln and secondary air duct. Operating pressures and temperatures are described. The smaller size of the rotary kiln used in the SF process leads to extended refractory life as demonstrated by operating experience. The SF process is adaptable to the control of internal alkali, sulfur, and chlorine cycles through a gas bypass and through a unique material withdrawal arrangement from the flash furnace. Existing plants may be modified to incorporate the SF process. Nearly 20 commercial scale plants are operating or are being constructed.     

Plasma copolymer membranes of acrylic acid and the adsorption of lysozyme on the surface

Plasma copolymerization was carried out from the monomer mixtures of acrylic acid with hexamethylxdisilozane and hexametydisillazane, and the membranes composed of the Si-C and/or Si-O networks sustaining carboxylic acid group were fabricated. The carboxylic acid contents were dependent on the discharge power conditions as well as the monomer ratio, and carboxylic acid was introduced at the more density in the polymerization by plasmas under the moderate power conditions. The plasma polymer coatings were effective for the adsorption of lysozyme especially on the plasma copolymer films of acrylic acid.     

Predictive Simulation of Deformation and Failure of Peat-Calcareous Soil Layered Ground Due to Multistage Test Embankment Loading

The continuous behaviour of a ground-embankment system from the stage of deformation up to failure was predicted with respect to an actual test embankment that had been constructed in stages on a soft ground made up of peat and calcareous soil. The behaviour prediction was carried out by employing soil-water coupled finite deformation analysis, which also included simulation of the embankment construction process. The information used in the analysis was limited to such things as the results of soil tests on soil materials (peat and calcareous soil) sampled from the ground, including their sensitivity ratios, and the embankment's construction history. The SYS Cam-clay model was used in the constitutive equations of the soils to determine the material constants of the soils and the initial conditions of the ground, and the computations were performed under plane strain conditions. As a result, the computed profiles of W-type ground settlement and of slip surfaces running through the embankment were found to be in good overall agreement with the actual profiles measured at the site. Furthermore, we found that this slippage is attributable to the undrained shear response of the soil elements in the calcareous soil layer, where slippage begins to occur during embankment loading. In other words, the slippage is caused by the rapid softening behaviour caused by the degradation of structure after the effective stress ratio reaches the vicinity of the critical state line.