Modular norm models: practical representation and analysis of contractual rights and obligations

Requirements Engineering - Compliance analysis requires legal counsel but is generally unavailable in many software projects. Analysis of legal text using logic-based models can help developers...     

The meaning of rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand—Past and future

This paper examines how attitudes towards rivers in Aotearoa New Zealand have evolved since the country's settlement by Europeans, two centuries ago. For most of our postcolonial history, rivers have been viewed as something to be controlled and managed—even “improved.” But today, rivers are increasingly being recognized as embodying a broad range of values from the ecological to the spiritual—not simply as a “channel of water” that can be exploited for human ends. Although much of this evolving understanding stems from the advance in scientific knowledge, much too has its roots in our collective past.     

Olfaction and Selective Rendering

Accurate simulation of all the senses in virtual environments is a computationally expensive task. Visual saliency models have been used to improve computational performance for rendered content, but this is insufficient for multi‐modal environments. This paper considers cross‐modal perception and, in particular, if and how olfaction affects visual attention. Two experiments are presented in this paper. Firstly, eye tracking is gathered from a number of participants to gain an impression about where and how they view virtual objects when smell is introduced compared to an odourless condition. Based on the results of this experiment a new type of saliency map in a selective‐rendering pipeline is presented. A second experiment validates this approach, and demonstrates that participants rank images as better quality, when compared to a reference, for the same rendering budget.     

High Aspect Ratio Sub‐Micrometer Channels Using Wet Etching: Application to the Dynamics of Red Blood Cell Transiting through Biomimetic Splenic Slits

Nanoparticles delivering drugs, disseminating cancer cells, and red blood cells (RBCs) during splenic filtration must deform and pass through the sub‐micrometer and high aspect ratio interstices between the endothelial cells lining blood vessels. The dynamics of passage of particles/cells through these slit‐like interstices remain poorly understood because the in vitro reproduction of slits with physiological dimensions in devices compatible with optical microscopy observations requires expensive technologies. Here, novel microfluidic PDMS devices containing high aspect ratio slits with sub‐micrometer width are molded on silicon masters using a simple, inexpensive, and highly flexible method combining standard UV lithography and anisotropic wet etching. These devices enabled revealing novel modes of deformations of healthy and diseased RBCs squeezing through splenic‐like slits (0.6–2 × 5–10 × 1.6–11 µm³) under physiological interstitial pressures. At the slit exit, the cytoskeleton of spherocytic RBCs seemed to be detached from the lipid membrane whereas RBCs from healthy donors and patients with sickle cell disease exhibited peculiar tips at their front. These tips disappeared much slower in patients' cells, allowing estimating a threefold increase in RBC cytoplasmic viscosity in sickle cell disease. Measurements of time and rate of RBC sequestration in the slits allowed quantifying the massive trapping of spherocytic RBCs.     

Analytical study of the accuracy of discrete element simulations

The numerical errors was used to verify the correctness of key results. The truncation errors, which are larger than the round‐off errors by orders of magnitude, have a superlinear relationship with both the simulation time‐step and the interparticle collision speed. This remains the case regardless of the simulation details including the chosen contact model, particle size distribution, particle density or stiffness. Hence, the total errors can usually be reduced by choosing a smaller time‐step. Increasing the polydispersity in a simulation by including smaller particles necessitates choosing a smaller time‐step to maintain simulation stability and reduces the truncation errors in most cases. The truncation errors are increased by the dissipation of energy by frictional sliding or by the inclusion of damping in the system. The number of contacts affects the accuracy, and one can deduce that because 2D simulations contain fewer interparticle contacts than the equivalent 3D simulations, they therefore have lower accrued simulation errors. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fabrication of Ultrasensitive TES Bolometric Detectors for HIRMES

The high-resolution mid-infrared spectrometer (HIRMES) is a high resolving power (R ~?100,000) instrument operating in the 25–122 μm spectral range and will fly on board the Stratospheric Observatory for Far-Infrared Astronomy in 2019. Central to HIRMES are its two transition edge sensor (TES) bolometric cameras, an 8 × 16 detector high-resolution array and a 64 × 16 detector low-resolution array. Both types of detectors consist of Mo/Au TES fabricated on leg-isolated Si membranes. Whereas the high-resolution detectors, with a noise equivalent power (NEP) ~ 1.5 × 10^?18 W/rt (Hz), are fabricated on 0.45 μm Si substrates, the low-resolution detectors, with NEP ~ 1.0 × 10^?17 W/rt (Hz), are fabricated on 1.40 μm Si. Here, we discuss the similarities and differences in the fabrication methodologies used to realize the two types of detectors.     

Modelling endurance and resumption times for repetitive one-hand pushing

This study’s objective was to develop models of endurance time (ET), as a function of load level (LL), and of resumption time (RT) after loading as a function of both LL and loading time (LT) for repeated loadings. Ten male participants with experience in construction work each performed 15 different one-handed repetaed pushing tasks at shoulder height with varied exerted force and duration. These data were used to create regression models predicting ET and RT. It is concluded that power law relationships are most appropriate to use when modelling ET and RT. While the data the equations are based on are limited regarding number of participants, gender, postures, magnitude and type of exerted force, the paper suggests how this kind of modelling can be used in job design and in further research.

Practitioner Summary: Adequate muscular recovery during work-shifts is important to create sustainable jobs. This paper describes mathematical modelling and presents models for endurance times and resumption times (an aspect of recovery need), based on data from an empirical study. The models can be used to help manage fatigue levels in job design.     

Maize-nutrient response information applied across Sub-Saharan Africa

The profit potential for a given investment in fertilizer use can be estimated using representative crop nutrient response functions. Where response data is scarce, determination of representative response functions can be strengthened by using results from homologous crop growing conditions. Maize (Zea mays L.) nutrient response functions were selected from the Optimization of Fertilizer Recommendations in Africa (OFRA) database of 5500 georeferenced response functions determined from field research conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa. Three methods for defining inference domains for selection of response functions were compared. Use of the OFRA Inference Tool (OFRA-IT; http://agronomy.unl.edu/OFRA) resulted in greater specificity of maize N, P, and K response functions with higher R² values indicating superiority compared with using the Harvest Choice Agroecological Zones (HC-AEZ) and the recommendation domains of the Global Yield Gap Atlas project (GYGA-RD). The OFRA-IT queries three soil properties in addition to climate-related properties while the latter two options use climate properties only. The OFRA-IT was generally insensitive to changes in criteria ranges of 20–25% used in queries suggesting value in using wider criteria ranges compared with the default for information scarce crop nutrient response functions.