A touch of the future: contact-expressive devices

Contact-expressive devices could improve our lives-from practical improvements that let us interact with devices when other modalities are impossible, inappropriate, or inadequate to devices that have important consequences for physical well-being. We can also imagine using contact expressions in devices that are pleasurable, playful, artistic, or otherwise important to a human's experience. This paper discusses the technical development of sensor-motor systems, tactile interfaces, and technologies that can embody and understand affect. Contact-expressive devices are technologies that understand and use touch in meaningful ways-that can distinguish between a press and a caress. Also discussed are the following issues: technical requirements and the nature of contact expressions. Although a fairly large body of research exists regarding nonverbal communication, the majority of this work is on visual expression (facial expressions, physical appearance, direction of gaze, physical posture, and other visible forms of body language) and paralinguistics (such as vocal inflection, pitch, volume, and speech rate). Work needs to begin on studies of human contact with the goal of leveraging those insights for the design of contact-expressive devices-and work needs to begin on the implementation of technologies that have rich contact-expressive range and appeal.     

Development of specialist and advanced practice in North America

North American literature provides interesting ideas about the nature of specialist and advanced practice which are useful in informing British thinking on these subjects. However, the two roles do not have the same meanings as their British counterparts. Clarification of the terminology used and the roles described are essential if we are to understand the concepts. This article presents an overview of the literature about clinical nurse specialist and advanced practitioner roles within North America and identifies differences and similarities between the two.     

Quantitation of vitamin K in human milk

A quantitative method was developed for the assay of vitamin K in human colostrum and milk. The procedure combines preparative and analytical chromatography on silica gel in a nitrogen atmosphere followed by reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Two HPLC steps were used: gradient separation with ultraviolet (UV) detection followed by isocratic separation detected electrochemically. Due to co-migrating impurities, UV detection alone is insufficient for identification of vitamin K. Exogenous vitamin K was shown to equilibrate with endogenous vitamin K in the samples. A statistical method was incorporated to control for experimental variability. Vitamin K₁ was analyzed in 16 pooled milk samples from 7 donors and in individual samples from 15 donors at 1 month post-partrum. Vitamin K₁ was present at 2.94±1.94 and 3.15±2.87 ng/mL in pools and in individuals, respectively. Menaquinones, the bacterial form of the vitamin, were not detected. The significance of experimental variation to studies of vitamin K in individuals is discussed.     

Measurements of stratospheric aerosols with a combined elastic-Raman-backscatter lidar

Improvements made to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Stratospheric Ozone Lidar system have extended its atmospheric-aerosol-measuring capabilities. The methods by which aerosol-scattering ratio, aerosol backscatter, and aerosol extinction are simultaneously derived from lidar data are reported, and results obtained during several intercomparison campaigns at worldwide locations are shown. The results track the evolution of the Mt. Pinatubo aerosol cloud from 1991 to 1994 and report wavelength-dependence information for aerosol backscatter between 308 and 351 nm. Two analysis techniques, a more common inversion method and a combined elastic-Raman-backscatter approach, are also compared.     

Microcavity interferometry for MEMS device characterization

We have developed a high resolution optical technique to measure the electromechanical properties of MEMS microstructures. The technique is applied to microbridges developed for capacitive switching in coplanar radio frequency (RF) waveguides. The thin metal ground plane on the substrate and the bottom of the bridge together form a microcavity for an optical beam. The wavelength of a cavity mode is a sensitive measure of the bridge position relative to the substrate. The technique is applied to the measurement of resonances and damping times of microbridges of varying lengths. It is also used to measure dc changes in bridge height of tenths of nanometers, driven ac displacements of less than a picometer, and bridge displacement noise of hundreds of femtometers per root Hertz. This extreme sensitivity exceeds previously demonstrated optical characterization methods.     

Wind tunnel-based testing of a photoelectrochemical oxidative filter-based air purification unit in coronavirus and influenza aerosol removal and inactivation

Recirculating air purification technologies are employed as potential means of reducing exposure to aerosol particles and airborne viruses. Toward improved testing of recirculating air purification units, we developed and applied a medium-scale single-pass wind tunnel test to examine the size-dependent collection of particles and the collection and inactivation of viable bovine coronavirus (BCoV, a betacoronavirus), porcine respiratory coronavirus (PRCV, an alphacoronavirus), and influenza A virus (IAV), by a commercial air purification unit. The tested unit, the Molekule Air Mini, incorporates a MERV 16 filter as well as a photoelectrochemical oxidating layer. It was found to have a collection efficiency above 95.8% for all tested particle diameters and flow rates, with collection efficiencies above 99% for supermicrometer particles with the minimum collection efficiency for particles smaller than 100 nm. For all three tested viruses, the physical tracer-based log reduction was near 2.0 (99% removal). Conversely, the viable virus log reductions were found to be near 4.0 for IAV, 3.0 for BCoV, and 2.5 for PRCV, suggesting additional inactivation in a virus family- and genus-specific manner. In total, this work describes a suite of test methods which can be used to rigorously evaluate the efficacy of recirculating air purification technologies.     

Towards an understanding of the causes and effects of software requirements change: two case studies

Changes to software requirements not only pose a risk to the successful delivery of software applications but also provide opportunity for improved usability and value. Increased understanding of the causes and consequences of change can support requirements management and also make progress towards the goal of change anticipation. This paper presents the results of two case studies that address objectives arising from that ultimate goal. The first case study evaluated the potential of a change source taxonomy containing the elements ??market??, ??organisation??, ??vision??, ??specification??, and ??solution?? to provide a meaningful basis for change classification and measurement. The second case study investigated whether the requirements attributes of novelty, complexity, and dependency correlated with requirements volatility. While insufficiency of data in the first case study precluded an investigation of changes arising due to the change source of ??market??, for the remainder of the change sources, results indicate a significant difference in cost, value to the customer and management considerations. Findings show that higher cost and value changes arose more often from ??organisation?? and ??vision?? sources; these changes also generally involved the co-operation of more stakeholder groups and were considered to be less controllable than changes arising from the ??specification?? or ??solution?? sources. Results from the second case study indicate that only ??requirements dependency?? is consistently correlated with volatility and that changes coming from each change source affect different groups of requirements. We conclude that the taxonomy can provide a meaningful means of change classification, but that a single requirement attribute is insufficient for change prediction. A theoretical causal account of requirements change is drawn from the implications of the combined results of the two case studies.     

Fixed three-dimensional holographic images

Three-dimensional holograms were recorded in a cerium-doped, strontium barium niobate (SBN:75) photorefractive crystal. These holograms are shown to not degrade after more than one week of continuous readout and to reconstruct reproductions of the original object with an observable field of view of approximately 35 degrees.     

Role conflict and role ambiguity: Do the scales measure these two constructs?

Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to the conflict and ambiguity scales developed by J. R. Rizzo et al (see record 1971-01407-001). Alternative models were contrasted to evaluate the possibilities that (a) the 14 items comprising the scales do measure the two purported constructs, (b) the 14 items measure only one construct, or (c) the 14 items load complexly on a second-order factor model. The second-order factor model was superior across three independent subject samples (total n?=?913), indicating that these measures do not establish role conflict and role ambiguity as two factorially independent constructs. The authors conclude that alternative scales are needed; suggestions for scale development are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hydrogels based on copolymers of N-(2-hydroxyethyl) methacrylamide, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate,and 4-t-butyi-2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate

A nonionic, high water content, high-strength hydrogel based on N-(2-hydroxyethyl)methacrylamide (HMA), 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), and a strengthening agent, 4-t-butyl-2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate (TBCM). The HMA was prepared by the reaction of methacryloyl chloride with ethanol amine. The copolymerization of HMA with varying concentrations of HEMA and TBCM resulted in transparent hydrogel films possessing a wide range of mechanical and physical properties. A copolymer composition of 79 parts HMA, 20.7 parts TBCM, and 0.3 parts ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) gave a transparent, flexible film possessing a water content of 72.6%, a Young's modulus of 0.45 MPa, oxygen permeability of 28 barrers, and a tear strength of 28 N/m. In contrast, a copolymer composition of 40 parts HMA, 59.7 parts TBCM, and 0.3 parts EGDMA gave a hard, transparent film possessing a water content of 33% and a modulus of 504 MPa. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.