Lift and the leading-edge vortex

Flapping wings often feature a leading-edge vortex (LEV) that is thought to enhance the lift generated by the wing. Here the lift on a wing featuring a leading-edge vortex is considered by performing experiments on a translating flat-plate aerofoil that is accelerated from rest in a water towing tank at a fixed angle of attack of 15°. The unsteady flow is investigated with dye flow visualization, particle image velocimetry (PIV) and force measurements. Leading-and trailing-edge vortex circulation and position are calculated directly from the velocity vectors obtained using PIV. In order to determine the most appropriate value of bound circulation, a two-dimensional potential flow model is employed and flow fields are calculated for a range of values of bound circulation. In this way, the value of bound circulation is selected to give the best fit between the experimental velocity field and the potential flow field. Early in the trajectory, the value of bound circulation calculated using this potential flow method is in accordance with Kelvin's circulation theorem, but differs from the values predicted by Wagner's growth of bound circulation and the Kutta condition. Later the Kutta condition is established but the bound circulation remains small; most of the circulation is contained instead in the LEVs. The growth of wake circulation can be approximated by Wagner's circulation curve. Superimposing the non-circulatory lift, approximated from the potential flow model, and Wagner's lift curve gives a first-order approximation of the measured lift. Lift is generated by inertial effects and the slow buildup of circulation, which is contained in shed vortices rather than bound circulation. © 2013 Cambridge University Press.

Fibers with integrated mechanochemical switches: minimalistic design principles derived from fibronectin.

Inspired by molecular mechanisms that cells exploit to sense mechanical forces and convert them into biochemical signals, chemists dream of designing mechanochemical switches integrated into materials. Using the adhesion protein fibronectin, whose multiple repeats essentially display distinct molecular recognition motifs, we derived a computational model to explain how minimalistic designs of repeats translate into the mechanical characteristics of their fibrillar assemblies. The hierarchy of repeat-unfolding within fibrils is controlled not only by their relative mechanical stabilities, as found for single molecules, but also by the strength of cryptic interactions between adjacent molecules that become activated by stretching. The force-induced exposure of cryptic sites furthermore regulates the nonlinearity of stress-strain curves, the strain at which such fibers break, and the refolding kinetics and fraction of misfolded repeats. Gaining such computational insights at the mesoscale is important because translating protein-based concepts into novel polymer designs has proven difficult.

Improvements in interface design through implicit modeling

Touchscreen devices are often limited by the complexity of their user interface design. In the past, iterative design processes using representative user groups to test prototypes were the standard method for increasing the inclusivity of a given design, but cognitive modeling has potential to be an alternative to rigorous user testing. However, these modeling approaches currently have many limitations, some of which are based on the assumptions made in translating a User Interface (UI) into a definition file that cognitive modeling frameworks can process. This paper discusses these issues and postulates potential approaches to improvements to the translation procedure. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

A dedicated binding mechanism for the visual control of movement.

The human motor system is remarkably proficient in the online control of visually guided movements, adjusting to changes in the visual scene within 100 ms [1-3]. This is achieved through a set of highly automatic processes [4] translating visual information into representations suitable for motor control [5, 6]. For this to be accomplished, visual information pertaining to target and hand need to be identified and linked to the appropriate internal representations during the movement. Meanwhile, other visual information must be filtered out, which is especially demanding in visually cluttered natural environments. If selection of relevant sensory information for online control was achieved by visual attention, its limited capacity [7] would substantially constrain the efficiency of visuomotor feedback control. Here we demonstrate that both exogenously and endogenously cued attention facilitate the processing of visual target information [8], but not of visual hand information. Moreover, distracting visual information is more efficiently filtered out during the extraction of hand compared to target information. Our results therefore suggest the existence of a dedicated visuomotor binding mechanism that links the hand representation in visual and motor systems.

The neural signature of escalating frustration in humans.

Mammalian studies show that frustration is experienced when goal-directed activity is blocked. Despite frustration's strongly negative role in health, aggression and social relationships, the neural mechanisms are not well understood. To address this we developed a task in which participants were blocked from obtaining a reward, an established method of producing frustration. Levels of experienced frustration were parametrically varied by manipulating the participants' motivation to obtain the reward prior to blocking. This was achieved by varying the participants' proximity to a reward and the amount of effort expended in attempting to acquire it. In experiment 1, we confirmed that proximity and expended effort independently enhanced participants' self-reported desire to obtain the reward, and their self-reported frustration and response vigor (key-press force) following blocking. In experiment 2, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to show that both proximity and expended effort modulated brain responses to blocked reward in regions implicated in animal models of reactive aggression, including the amygdala, midbrain periaqueductal grey (PAG), insula and prefrontal cortex. Our findings suggest that frustration may serve an energizing function, translating unfulfilled motivation into aggressive-like surges via a cortical, amygdala and PAG network.

Color center conversion by femtosecond pulse laser irradiation in LiF : F-2 crystals

We report the observation of intense spontaneous emission of green light from LiF:F-2:F-3(+) centers in active channel waveguides generated in lithium fluoride crystals by near-infrared femtosecond laser radiation. While irradiating the crystal at room temperature with 405 nm light from a laser diode, yellow and green emission was seen by the naked eye. Stripe waveguides were fabricated by translating the crystal along the irradiated laser pulse, and their guiding properties and fluorescence spectra at 540 nm demonstrated. This single-step process inducing a waveguide structure offers a good prospect for the development of a waveguide laser in bulk LiF crystals.

降雨作用下滑坡转化泥石流分析研究

对降雨入渗条件下诱发北川县魏家沟泥石流起动的影响因素进行研究。在室内人工降雨试验模拟泥石流起动的基础上,得到魏家沟泥石流起动的临界雨强,并利用FLAC软件建立降雨在坡体中入渗分析的数值模拟模型,分析坡度、雨强、土性参数以及土体饱和度对坡体失稳的影响,坡体在降雨情况下塑性区的出现与延展及坡面拉应力区的发展情况。研究结果表明:降雨入渗后孔隙水压力的升高主要在坡脚附近,即距坡脚1/5的坡高范围内。坡脚处孔隙水压力最大,沿着坡面往上逐渐减小,且坡面较大水平位移也主要集中在1/5坡高范围内。因此,降雨入渗诱发泥石流的起动最先可能出现在坡脚附近,并随着坡度增加、雨强增大、土体饱和度增大,坡体稳定性降低至失稳,促进泥石流的起动。

Industrial development and land use/cover change and their effects on local environment: a case study of Changshu in eastern coastal China

The interactions among industrial development, land use/cover change (LUCC), and environmental effects in Changshu in the eastern coastal China were analyzed using high-resolution Landsat TM data in 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2006, socio-economic data and water environmental quality monitoring data from research institutes and governmental departments. Three phases of industrial development in Changshu were examined (i.e., the three periods of 1990 to 1995, 1995 to 2000, and 2000 to 2006). Besides industrial development and rapid urbanization, land use/cover in Changshu had changed drastically from 1990 to 2006. This change was characterized by major replacements of farmland by urban and rural settlements, artificial ponds, forested and constructed land. Industrialization, urbanization, agricultural structure adjustment, and rural housing construction were the major socio-economic driving forces of LUCC in Changshu. In addition, the annual value of ecosystem services in Changshu decreased slightly during 1990-2000, but increased significantly during 2000-2006. Nevertheless, the local environmental quality in Changshu, especially in rural areas, has not yet been improved significantly. Thus, this paper suggests an increased attention to fully realize the role of land supply in adjustment of environment-friendly industrial structure and urban-rural spatial restructuring, and translating the land management and environmental protection policies into an optimized industrial distribution and land-use pattern.

SketchIT: A Sketch Interpretation Tool for Conceptual Mechanical Design

We describe a program called SketchIT capable of producing multiple families of designs from a single sketch. The program is given a rough sketch (drawn using line segments for part faces and icons for springs and kinematic joints) and a description of the desired behavior. The sketch is "rough" in the sense that taken literally, it may not work. From this single, perhaps flawed sketch and the behavior description, the program produces an entire family of working designs. The program also produces design variants, each of which is itself a family of designs. SketchIT represents each family of designs with a "behavior ensuring parametric model" (BEP-Model), a parametric model augmented with a set of constraints that ensure the geometry provides the desired behavior. The construction of the BEP-Model from the sketch and behavior description is the primary task and source of difficulty in this undertaking. SketchIT begins by abstracting the sketch to produce a qualitative configuration space (qc-space) which it then uses as its primary representation of behavior. SketchIT modifies this initial qc-space until qualitative simulation verifies that it produces the desired behavior. SketchIT's task is then to find geometries that implement this qc-space. It does this using a library of qc-space fragments. Each fragment is a piece of parametric geometry with a set of constraints that ensure the geometry implements a specific kind of boundary (qcs-curve) in qc-space. SketchIT assembles the fragments to produce the BEP-Model. SketchIT produces design variants by mapping the qc-space to multiple implementations, and by transforming rotating parts to translating parts and vice versa.

Understanding Simple Picture Programs

What are the characteristics of the process by which an intent is transformed into a plan and then a program? How is a program debugged? This paper analyzes these questions in the context of understanding simple turtle programs. To understand and debug a program, a description of its intent is required. For turtle programs, this is a model of the desired geometric picture. a picture language is provided for this purpose. Annotation is necessary for documenting the performance of a program in such a way that the system can examine the procedures behavior as well as consider hypothetical lines of development due to tentative debugging edits. A descriptive framework representing both causality and teleology is developed. To understand the relation between program and model, the plan must be known. The plan is a description of the methodology for accomplishing the model. Concepts are explicated for translating the global intent of a declarative model into the local imperative code of a program. Given the plan, model and program, the system can interpret the picture and recognize inconsistencies. The description of the discrepancies between the picture actually produced by the program and the intended scene is the input to a debugging system. Repair of the program is based on a combination of general debugging techniques and specific fixing knowledge associated with the geometric model primitives. In both the plan and repairing the bugs, the system exhibits an interesting style of analysis. It is capable of debugging itself and reformulating its analysis of a plan or bug in response to self-criticism. In this fashion, it can qualitatively reformulate its theory of the program or error to account for surprises or anomalies.

Staging Swissness : Inter-and Intracultural Theatre Translation

Wilkinson, Jane, 'Staging Swissness: Inter- and Intracultural Theatre Translation', Language and Intercultural Communication (2005) 5(1) pp.72-85 RAE2008

Konstrukcje tożsamości i bogactwo kulturowe w autobiografiach Güntera Grassa i Marcela Reicha-Ranickiego jako wyzwanie translatorskie

Wydział Neofilologii: Instytut Filologii Germańskiej

La traduction en polonais des textes d'ancien français: une compétence spécifique

This paper is relating a practical experience of teaching Romance philology students the translation from ancient French into Polish. The main scope is a restitution of an ancient text respecting not only the equivalence at the Iexical and syntactical level, but also the discourse structures, such as the linear sequence of events and events related from different points of view: some examples of solving particular problems are discussed. The whole procedure resembles that of translating from Latin, rather than a translation from one modern language to another.

Rorty's Elective Affinities. The New Pragmatism and Postmodern Thought

The present book is devoted to "European connections of Richard Rorty's neopragmatism". The theme, chosen carefully and intentionally, is supposed to show the motivation behind the writing of the present work, as well as to show its intended extent. Let us consider briefly the first three parts of the theme, to enlighten a little our intentions. "European" is perhaps the most important description for it was precisely that thread that was most important to me, being the only context seriously taken into account, as I assumed right from the start that I would not be writing about rather more widely unknown to me - and much less fascinating (even to Rorty, the hero of the story) from my own, traditional, Continental philosophical perspective - American analytic philosophy. So accordingly I have almost totally skipped "American" connections (to use the distinction I need here) of Rorty's philosophy, that is to say, firstly, a years-long work within analytic philosophy, secondly struggles with it on its own grounds, and finally attempts to use classical American, mainly Deweyan, pragmatism for his own needs and numerous polemics associated with it - the questions that are far away from my interests and that arise limited interest among reading and writing philosophical audience in Poland, and perhaps also among Continental philosophers. It did not seem possible to me to write a book on Rorty in his American connections for they are insufficiently known to me, demanding knowledge of both post-war American analytic philosophy as well as pragmatism of its father-founders. I could see, setting to work on Richard Rorty, that a book on his American connections (leaving aside the issue that it would not be a philosophical problem but rather, let us say, the one of writing a monograph) written by a Polish philosopher in Poland and then in the USA was not a stimulating intellectual challenge but rather a thankless working task. Besides, having spent much time on Rorty's philosophy, writing extensively about him and translating his works, I already knew that the "Continental" context was extremely important to his neopragmatism, and that thinking about it could be relatively prolific (as opposed to the context potentially given by American philosophy).

Development of miniaturized wireless sensor nodes suitable for building energy management and modelling

Buildings consume 40% of Ireland's total annual energy translating to 3.5 billion (2004). The EPBD directive (effective January 2003) places an onus on all member states to rate the energy performance of all buildings in excess of 50m2. Energy and environmental performance management systems for residential buildings do not exist and consist of an ad-hoc integration of wired building management systems and Monitoring & Targeting systems for non-residential buildings. These systems are unsophisticated and do not easily lend themselves to cost effective retrofit or integration with other enterprise management systems. It is commonly agreed that a 15-40% reduction of building energy consumption is achievable by efficiently operating buildings when compared with typical practice. Existing research has identified that the level of information available to Building Managers with existing Building Management Systems and Environmental Monitoring Systems (BMS/EMS) is insufficient to perform the required performance based building assessment. The cost of installing additional sensors and meters is extremely high, primarily due to the estimated cost of wiring and the needed labour. From this perspective wireless sensor technology provides the capability to provide reliable sensor data at the required temporal and spatial granularity associated with building energy management. In this paper, a wireless sensor network mote hardware design and implementation is presented for a building energy management application. Appropriate sensors were selected and interfaced with the developed system based on user requirements to meet both the building monitoring and metering requirements. Beside the sensing capability, actuation and interfacing to external meters/sensors are provided to perform different management control and data recording tasks associated with minimisation of energy consumption in the built environment and the development of appropriate Building information models(BIM)to enable the design and development of energy efficient spaces.