Bifurcations and instability in the adhesion of intrinsically curved rods

Motivated by applications such as gecko-inspired adhesives and microdevices featuring slender rod-like bodies, there has been an increase in interest in the deformed shapes of elastic rods adhering to rigid surfaces. A central issue in analyses of the rod-based models for these systems is the stability of the predicted equilibrium configurations. Such analyses can be complicated by the presence of intrinsic curvatures induced by fabrication processes. The results in the present paper are used to show how this curvature can lead to shear-induced bifurcations and instabilities. To characterize potential instabilities, a new set of necessary conditions for stability are employed which cater to the possible combinations of buckling and delaminating instabilities. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Designing intrinsically motivating user interfaces for the ageing population

Older people often find it difficult to learn to use new technology. Although they may want to adopt it, they can find the learning process challenging and frustrating and subsequently lose motivation. This paper looks at how psychological theories of intrinsic motivation could be applied to make the ICT learning process more engaging for older users and describes an experiment set up to test the applicability of these theories to user interface (UI) design. The results of the experiment confirmed that intrinsic motivation theory is a valid lens through which to look at current ICT design and also uncovered significant gender differences in reaction to different kinds of learning tasks. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.