Search results for "falling"
showing 10 items of 78 documents
A test of the Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure
2014
Abstract The Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters (BEST) procedure is attractive for a simple soil hydraulic characterization but testing the ability of this procedure to estimate soil properties is necessary. The BEST predictions were compared with soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity data measured in the laboratory and the field, respectively, at ten Sicilian field sites. Provided that BEST yielded physically possible scale parameters of the soil characteristic curves in most of the four replicated infiltration runs at a site, the measured water retention was satisfactorily predicted (i.e., not statistically significant differences between measurements and predictions…
DETECTING FALLS AT HOME: USER-CENTERED DESIGN OF A PERVASIVE TECHNOLOGY
2016
Falling is the main cause of domestic accidents and fatal injuries to seniors at home. In this paper, we describe the design process for a new pervasive technology (CIRDO). The aim of this technology is to detect falls (via audio and video sensors) and to alert the elderly's family or caregivers. Two complementary studies were performed. Firstly, the actual risk situations of older adults were analyzed. Secondly, social acceptance was investigated for the different homecare field stakeholders. Our results highlight the tensions among social actors towards the tool and their impacts on technology acceptance by the elderly. Also, we show a significant change in the fall process due to the dev…
Help! Is my Chatbot Falling into the Uncanny Valley? : An Empirical Study of User Experience in Human-Chatbot Interaction
2019
Original article available at http://dx.doi.org/10.17011/ht/urn.201902201607 Advances in artificial intelligence strengthen chatbots’ ability to resemble human conversational agents. For some application areas, it may be tempting not to be transparent regarding a conversational agent’s nature as chatbot or human. However, the uncanny valley theory suggests that such lack in transparency may cause uneasy feelings in the user. In this study, we combined quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate this issue. First, we used a 2 x 2 experimental research design (n = 28) to investigate effects of lack in transparency on the perceived pleasantness of the conversation in addition to percei…
Manual packing and soil reuse effects on determination of saturated hydraulic conductivity of a loam soil
2022
Abstract Performing laboratory measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ks, of sieved soil is important for many scientific purposes such as testing theories and methods to determine Ks. A given soil mass can be used only once or it can be reused after a previous use. Little is known on the dependence of the Ks measurements on both the applied packing method and the reuse of the same soil mass. This lack of knowledge makes comparisons among different investigations more or less uncertain. Four packing methods were tested on an initially dry loam soil by measuring Ks with the simplified falling head (SFH) technique. The four methods differed by the used compacting procedure (dropping…
Factors Influencing Point Measurement of Near-surface Saturated Soil Hydraulic Conductivity in a Small Sicilian Basin
2017
Hydraulic conductivity of saturated soil, Ks, controls many hydrological processes. Parameterization of basin hydrological models in terms of Ks is complicated and uncertain owing to the very high spatial variability of this soil property. A small Sicilian basin was intensively sampled by the simplified falling head technique to obtain spatially distributed Ks data, and an attempt to explain their spatial variability on the basis of soil physical characteristics, digital elevation model-derived topographic attributes and land cover was carried out. High Ks values were obtained when clay content was low and both elevation and mean slope were high. Moreover, differences in Ks among land cover…
Source shape and data analysis procedure effects on hydraulic conductivity of a sandy-loam soil determined by ponding infiltration runs
2017
Performing ponding infiltration runs with non-circular sources could represent a good means to sample completely an area of interest. Regardless of the shape of the source, predicting the expected reliability of the collected data by infiltrometers should facilitate soil hydraulic characterisation and also allow a more conscious use of the field data. The influence of the shape of the infiltration source (i.e., circular or square) and the analysis procedure of the steady-state infiltration data on the saturated hydraulic conductivity, Ks, of a sandy-loam soil was tested in this investigation. Circular and square surfaces sampled with the pressure infiltrometer (PI) yielded similar estimates…
Optimal Robust Quantum Control by Inverse Geometric Optimization
2020
International audience; We develop an inverse geometric optimization technique that allows the derivation of optimal and robust exact solutions of low-dimension quantum control problems driven by external fields: we determine in the dynamical variable space optimal trajectories constrained to robust solutions by Euler-Lagrange optimization; the control fields are then derived from the obtained robust geodesics and the inverted dynamical equations. We apply this method, referred to as robust inverse optimization (RIO), to design optimal control fields producing a complete or half population transfer and a NOT quantum gate robust with respect to the pulse inhomogeneities. The method is versat…
Evaluation of Load transfer in rigid pavements by Rolling wheel deflectometer and Falling weight deflectometer
2020
Abstract Rigid pavements have widespread use, e.g, in motorways and airports, due to their excellent properties such as high bearing capacity and long lifetime. However, when rigid pavements fail it is often due to bad load transfer efficiency (LTE) at its joints. Traditional methods of measuring LTE can be time consuming. Here, we study the possibility of measuring LTE using a moving load with the aim of achieving higher productivity. An experiment simulating Rolling Weight Deflectometer (RWD) measurements on a joint was carried out to gain understanding and confidence that can guide the analysis of real RWD data. Continuous data from measurements across a joint allows for determination of…
Hybrid Lattice Boltzmann/Dynamic Self-Consistent Field Simulations of Microphase Separation and Vesicle Formation in Block Copolymer Systems
2011
We present a hybrid numerical method to introduce hydrodynamics in dynamic self-consistent field (SCF) studies of inhomogeneous polymer systems. It solves a set of coupled dynamical equations: The ...
Toward the Development of Load Transfer Efficiency Evaluation of Rigid Pavements by a Rolling Wheel Deflectometer
2020
The jointed rigid pavement is currently evaluated by the Falling weight deflectometer which is rather slow for the testing of the jointed pavements. Continuous nondestructive evaluation of rigid pavements with a rolling wheel deflectometer can be used to measure the load transfer and is investigated. Load transfer is an important indicator of the rigid pavement&rsquo