Autonomic responses to pressure sensitivity of head, face and neck: Heart rate and skin conductance

Subjective scales are frequently used in the design process of head-related products to assess pressure discomfort. Nevertheless, some users lack fundamental cognitive and motor abilities (e.g., paralyzed patients). Therefore, it is vital to find non-verbal measurements of pressure discomfort and pressure pain. This study gathered the autonomic...

Plastic particles affect N₂O release via altering core microbial metabolisms in constructed wetlands

Constructed wetlands (CWs) have been proven to effectively immobilize plastic particles. However, little is known about the differences in the impact of varying sized plastic particles on nitrous oxide (N₂O) release, as well as the intervention mechanisms in CWs. Here, we built a lab-scale wetland model and introduced plastic...

The contribution shift of ammonia-oxidizing archaea and bacteria to ammoxidation under Ag-NPs/SWCNTs/PS-NPs stressors in constructed wetlands

Ammonia-oxidizing microorganisms (AOMs, archaea (AOA) and bacteria (AOB)) are primarily responsible for the ammoxidation in constructed wetlands (CWs). However, little is known about evaluating the response of AOA and AOB to engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) and quantifying the shift of their contribution to ammoxidation. Herein, we operated a...

Distribution of porosity surrounding a microfiber in cement paste

This study investigates the microstructural changes of cement paste due to the inclusion of polymeric microfiber at different water-to-cement (w/c) ratios. A procedure to quantify the porosity of epoxy impregnated interfacial transition zone (ITZ) is also presented. Results show that the microstructures of the ITZ beneath and above a...

Soft Tissue Thickness Estimation for Head, Face, and Neck from CT Data for Product Design Purposes

Analysing the contact area between head-related products and the corresponding craniofacial profile is necessary to make such products more comfortable. The study of soft tissue biomechanical experiments provides a reliable perspective for understanding such contact areas and improving the comfort. In order to obtain more accurate and visualized...

A sequence-based method for dynamic reliability assessment of MPD systems

Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) system is widely used in the deepwater drilling operation. Reliability assessment plays a critical role in the MPD system in the management of drilling operation risk and the prevention of blowouts. However, the reliability assessment of the MPD system is challenged due to its sequential operations and multiple...

Hybrid Plasmonics Slot THz Waveguide for Subwavelength Field Confinement and Crosstalk between Two Waveguides

The slot waveguide has attracted considerable attention because of its ability to confine and guide electromagnetic energy at the subwavelength scale beyond the diffraction limit. We propose a novel terahertz slot waveguide structure to achieve a better tradeoff between propagation length and field confinement capacity, the novel waveguide...

A CMOS-Compatible Hybrid Plasmonic Slot Waveguide With Enhanced Field Confinement

The emerging field of nanophotonics requires plasmonic devices to be fully compatible with semiconductor fabrication techniques. However, very few feasible practical structures exist at present. Here, we propose a CMOS-compatible hybrid plasmonic slot waveguide (HPSW) with enhanced field confinement. Our simulation results show that the HPSW...