Physical demands analysis of occupational tasks in neighborhood pubs

This paper describes a case study of a neighborhood pub in British Columbia, Canada. This case study is an examination of three common pub occupations-bartending, waitressing and cooking (n = 17). The aims of this study are to determine the biomechanical loads of job tasks identified as physically demanding for the three occupations analyzed, to assess the potential risk of musculoskeletal injury in these job tasks, and to recommend injury prevention measures. Risk of musculoskeletal injury was assessed with four validated methods (RULA, NIOSH lifting equation, Shoaf pulling model, 3D Static Strength prediction program). Tasks commonly and frequently performed were observed to pose some risk to the working populations and require investigation and changes soon as indicated by the upper extremity and low-back assessment procedures used. Mean combined compression at the lumbrosacral disc in common tasks have been demonstrated to exceed the action limit described by NIOSH. Ligament strain was observed to reach as high as 18% at the lumbosacral joint.     

Piezoelectric properties of the high temperature MPB xPbTiO3 - (1−x)[BiScO3 + Bi(Ni1/2Ti1/2)O3] composition

The ternary perovskite xPbTiO₃ - (1?x)[BiScO₃ + Bi(Ni_1/2Ti_1/2)O₃] (PT-BS-BNiT), where x?=?0.54 is the morphotropic phase boundary composition, was studied for high temperature ferroelectric applications. Polycrystalline ceramics were prepared using the standard solid-state methods. The stoichiometric ceramic was found to have room temperature dielectric permittivity and loss values at 1 kHz of 1490 and 0.049 respectively. Piezoelectric properties, of the stoichiometric composition, measured included: P_r?=?31.0 μC/cm², E_c?=?25.0 kV/cm, d₃₃?=?340 pC/N, d₃₃ ^*?=?896 pm/V, and a bipolar electromechanical strain of 0.25 %. From these data, the Curie temperature was T_C?=?370 °C and the depoling temperature was T_D?=?325 °C. Processing ceramics with excess bismuth improved the low field piezoelectric coefficients with a maximum of d33?=?445 pC/N, while increasing the lead content increased the transition temperatures. The depoling and Curie temperatures of all compositions were measured to be between 275 and 400 °C.     

Next-generation tools for evolutionary invasion analyses

Evolutionary invasion analysis is a powerful technique for modelling in evolutionary biology. The general approach is to derive an expression for the growth rate of a mutant allele encoding some novel phenotype, and then to use this expression to predict long-term evolutionary outcomes. Mathematically, such ‘invasion fitness’ expressions are most often derived using standard linear stability analyses from dynamical systems theory. Interestingly, there is a mathematically equivalent approach to such stability analyses that is often employed in mathematical epidemiology, and that is based on so-called ‘next-generation’ matrices. Although this next-generation matrix approach has sometimes also been used in evolutionary invasion analyses, it is not yet common in this area despite the fact that it can sometimes greatly simplify calculations. The aim of this article is to bring the approach to a wider evolutionary audience in two ways. First, we review the next-generation matrix approach and provide a novel, and easily intuited, interpretation of how this approach relates to more standard techniques. Second, we illustrate next-generation methods in evolutionary invasion analysis through a series of informative examples. Although focusing primarily on evolutionary invasion analysis, we provide several insights that apply to biological modelling in general.     

The preattentive emperor has no clothes: A dynamic redressing.

Preattentive models of early vision have not been supported by the evidence. Instead, an input filtering system, which is dynamically reconfigured so as to optimize performance on the task at hand, is proposed. As a case in point, the authors examined Sagi and Julesz's (1985a) claim that detection tasks are processed preattentively and efficiently (shallow search slopes), whereas discrimination tasks require focal attention and yield inefficient steep slopes. In 5 visual search experiments, efficiency was found to depend not on the nature of the task but on whether the task is single or dual. The second component of a dual task, whether detection or discrimination, is performed inefficiently if it does not fit the configuration of the input system, which had been set optimally for the first component. But, even the second component is processed efficiently if there is enough time to reconfigure the system after processing the first component. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Efficient representation of turbulent flows using data-enriched finite elements

Efficient modal decomposition of high-dimensional turbulent flow data is an important first step for data reduction, analysis, and low-dimensional predictive modeling. The conventional modal decomposition techniques, such as proper orthogonal and dynamic mode decompositions, aim to represent the system response using spatially global basis vectors that span a broad spatial domain. A significant challenge facing approaches based on global domain decomposition is the rapid increase in both the amount of training data and the number of modes that must be retained for an accurate representation of convection dominated turbulent flows. An alternative generalized finite element (GFEM) based approach is explored for efficient representation of high-dimensional fluid flow data. Here, the standard finite element interpolation method is enriched with numerical functions that are learned from a small amount of high-fidelity training data over spatially localized subdomains. The GFEM approach is demonstrated on a 3D flow past a cylinder at Reynolds number of 100 000 and flows inside a 2D lid-driven cavity over a range of Reynolds numbers. Compared with a global proper orthogonal decomposition, the GFEM-based approach increases efficiency in reconstructing the datasets while also substantially reducing the amounts of training data.     

Study of the Free Surface Flow on an Ogee-Crested Fish Bypass

A study of the free surface flow on an ogee-crested fish bypass is presented. The commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code Fluent 6.1 was used to perform the simulations. Structured/unstructured hybrid grids were used to accommodate the complex geometry that included gate slots, flow control gates, and an aeration slot. The volume of fluid (VOF) approach was used to model the water/air interface. The fish bypass exhibits complex free surface features including free nappes and air entrainment from the air slots. Free surface elevations on both sides of the nappe, pressure along the ogee surface, and discharge rating curves were compared against 1:24 experimental data from the laboratory model for different headwater elevations and gate settings. Limited comparison against measured velocities was also performed. Once deemed reliable through validation against experimental data, the computational model was used to analyze the flow field, supplementing the areas of limited experimental data. Though the paper presents the final fish bypass design, CFD was used to guide the design process and provide insight for several variations in the geometry.     

米尔斯坦堂

正AAP学院米尔斯坦堂是位于纽约州伊萨卡市久负盛名的康奈尔大学建筑艺术和规划学院(简称"AAP学院")近百年来新建的第一栋建筑。但新建筑并没有独立于学院原有建筑,而是设计为与原有建筑室内外各层面相接的综合体。约4 400m2的空间内包含了工作室、展廊、评图室以及第一个专属礼堂等学院特别需要的空间。学院原有的4栋建筑位于校园北部边     

Thermal Characterization of Fine Fibers Using an Improved Direct Electrical Heating Method

The transient electrothermal technique has been shown to be an important method for the thermal characterization of fine fibers. However, this study shows that the accuracy of this method hinges on the proper consideration of several sample parameters including the initial electrical resistance and the emissivity of the sample. Such consideration is verified through measurement of platinum samples with various lengths. A multi-level heating scheme is proposed to mitigate the high sensitivity to the initial sample electrical resistance resulting in a demonstrated precision uncertainty of \({<}3~\%\) . Using a recently expanded thermal model accounting for heretofore neglected heat losses, the emissivity of the sample may be measured simultaneously with thermal conductivity. The influence of the vacuum level is demonstrated by the results of measurements at two vacuum levels \({<}0.001\hbox { Pa}\) (diaphragm plus turbo pumps) and \({\sim } 2\hbox { Pa}\) (regular rotary vane pump). Neglecting these considerations can produce seemingly viable measurement results having significant bias error. Based on the characteristics of the expanded model, a new approach is presented that takes advantage of the simplicity of the reduced model, which neglects lateral heat losses from the sample, to obtain sample thermal properties that are independent of heat loss effects. Lastly, several experimental results validate the new model.