http://antidepressionguide.org depression symptoms - depression treatment - depression help - Depression Causes, Symptoms, Types, Signs, Facts, Medication Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:31:05 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/09/17/quad-bike-skis/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/09/17/quad-bike-skis/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:34:00 +0000 Tom Quad bikes are expensive machines that are designed to cope with a wide range of terrains, and are known in some parts of the world as all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). But they do not always cope with snow as well as some users would like.

For all those people, Michael Nanowski and Umed Panu at Lakehead University, Ontario, Canada, have developed a pair of skis that can replace the front wheels of an ATV.
They fit onto the same bolts that usually hold the wheels in place. The result is an easier ride over snow and greater control for the driver.

Read the full patent application for quad bike skis.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/09/17/quad-bike-skis/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/09/03/helicopter-airbags/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/09/03/helicopter-airbags/#comments Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:00:00 +0000 Tom Several of NASA Mars rovers have successfully landed on Mars, protected from impact with the ground by sophisticated airbags.

Now the helicopter manufacturer Bell Helicopter based in Fort Worth, Texas, believes the same technique could be used to protect helicopters in emergency landings (see image, below right).

The bags would be fitted to the underside of a helicopter and deployed only when the vehicle is about to hit the ground at too high a velocity.

The company says the bags are also designed to reinflate after impact to act as flotation devices should the helicopter ditch in water.

Read the full helicopter airbags patent application

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant

]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/09/03/helicopter-airbags/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/07/23/lorry-drivers-power-generator/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/07/23/lorry-drivers-power-generator/#comments Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:48:00 +0000 Tom
A driver may sometimes run their hotel load for as long as five hours per day or night. But the practice is noisy, polluting, wasteful (idling is a particularly fuel inefficient), and wears the engine.

So Richard Stobart at the University of Sussex in southeast England has designed an alternative power source.

His answer is to use exhaust gases while the engine is running normally to heat a tank of pressurised water to its critical temperature – just below boiling.

When the engine is turned off, this water can then be harnessed by allowing it to expand into steam through a turbine that generates electricity. Or it can provide heat directly to the cabin when the weather is cold.

Read the full hotel load power supply patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/07/23/lorry-drivers-power-generator/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/07/04/jet-engine-silencer/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/07/04/jet-engine-silencer/#comments Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:07:00 +0000 Tom
Now, though, Dimitri Papamoschou at the University of California, Irvine, US, says it is possible to quieten a jet engine by separating its exhaust into high and low speed flows.

He says that most of an engine's noise comes from turbulence in the fastest-flowing air. By separating the air into two channels of different speeds, he says the noise can be directed upwards, away from the ground and its inhabitants.

In simulations, funded by NASA, Papamoschou found that this technique can reduce the amount of noise heading towards the ground by more than 6 decibels.

This is a significant amount given that decibels are a logarithmic scale, so that every drop of 3 decibels is equivalent to a halving of power. A "silenced" engine would produce about a quarter of the acoustic energy of a conventional one and be significantly quieter.

Read the jet-engine silencer patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/07/04/jet-engine-silencer/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/06/17/automated-aircraft-carrier-landing/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/06/17/automated-aircraft-carrier-landing/#comments Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:35:00 +0000 Tom Landing on an aircraft carrier is a tricky and dangerous business because the complex movements of both aircraft and ship must be taken into account.

For example, an aircraft carrier might be heaving, swaying and pitching at the same time as the aircraft is pitching, yawing and rolling, yet the pilot has to land one neatly on the other.

Handing that difficult task to a computer has proven difficult. One reason is that the signal between ship and aircraft might be lost at any time due to intentional jamming or unintentional interference.

James Waid and colleagues from US firm Honeywell International say that automated landings are possible if the flight computer has access to GPS measurements of both ship and aircraft.

In the event of a loss of signal between ship and aircraft, or between GPS devices and GPS satellites, the system is able to extrapolate the data to determine whether a safe landing solution exists and if not, aborts the landing.

Read the automated aircraft-carrier landing patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/06/17/automated-aircraft-carrier-landing/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/05/09/plasma-powered-flying-saucer/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/05/09/plasma-powered-flying-saucer/#comments Fri, 09 May 2008 12:00:00 +0000 Tom Pass a current or magnetic field through a conducting fluid and it will generate a force.

Numerous aerospace engineers have tried and failed to exploit this phenomenon, known as magnetohydrodynamics, as an exotic form of propulsion for aircraft. But perhaps attempts so far have all been too big.

A very small design could have a better chance of taking off, says Subrata Roy, an aerospace engineer at the University of Florida, Gainesville, US.

With a span of less than 15 centimetres, his aircraft qualifies as a micro air vehicle (MAV), but it has an unconventional design to say the least. It is a saucer shape covered with electrodes that ionise air to create a plasma. This plasma is then accelerated by an electric field to push air around and generate lift.

Roy says the machine can be filled with helium to reduce its weight, and is efficient enough to be powered by onboard batteries. Its ability to hover and generate lift electronically means that it is particularly robust against gusts of wind that send other MAVs off course, says Roy.
All he needs to do now is build one and get it flying. Like other MAVs, the primary application would probably be surveillance, but a plasma flying saucer would make a great toy too.

Read the full wingless hovering micro-flyer patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/05/09/plasma-powered-flying-saucer/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/03/28/flapping-spy-vehicle/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/03/28/flapping-spy-vehicle/#comments Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:56:00 +0000 Tom If you want a bird's eye view of what is over the next hill, your best bet is a micro air vehicle – an autonomous aircraft with a wing span of less than 15 centimetres. Making a fixed wing aircraft of this size is straightforward enough but there are a number of drawbacks, such as being easily buffeted in by light gusts of wind.

Nature's answer to this problem is to give small birds wings that can be flapped in bursts to avoid sudden gusts. But human engineers have found it hard to build a flapping mechanism that is both light and efficient enough to get a small vehicle off the ground while also carrying a suite of useful instruments, such as a camera and a radio transmitter.

That has not stopped Sunil Agrawal, director of the Mechanical Systems Laboratory at the University of Delaware, and colleagues from trying.

One problem is that flapping is not a simple up and down movement, but a complex series of motions that include rotating the wing to "feather" it in the upward part of a stroke.

With funding from the US Army Research Office, Agrawal, says he has solved this problem using a novel mechanism powered by a single actuator. As well as powering an ornithopter, the group says the mechanism could be used to create a flapping air current, or to propel an underwater vehicle.

Read the full ornithopter UAV patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/03/28/flapping-spy-vehicle/feed/ 0 http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/02/22/flexible-wings/ http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/02/22/flexible-wings/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:23:00 +0000 Tom
But because these aircraft are light, they are also vulnerable to gusts of wind that can fling them off course and disrupt any observations they may be making.
Now, Peter Ifju, an aerospace engineer at the University of Florida, US, and colleagues have developed an aerofoil, or wing shape, that flexes in the wind in response to gusts of wind.

In such a gust, the leading edge of each wing warps to reduce its angle of attack and keep itself pointing into the wind. This flexing can be controlled in such a way that the wing maintains level flight during gusts of wind, Ifju says, and the result should be a smoother ride in blustery conditions.

Read the full flexible wings patent application.

Justin Mullins, New Scientist consultant]]> http://antidepressionguide.org/2008/02/22/flexible-wings/feed/ 0