The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) is an independent organization devoted to the development of standards.

American Society for Testing and Materials

The measurement of meaning

The theory of affordances

IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence

Much has been written about theory and practice in the law, and the tension between practitioners and theorists. Judges do not cite theoretical articles often; they rarely "apply" theories to particular cases. These arguments are not revisited. Instead the Essay explores the working and interaction of theory and practice, practitioners and theorists. The Essay starts with a story about solving a legal issue using our intellectual tools - theory, practice, and their progenies: experience and "gut." Next the Essay elaborates on the nature of theory, practice, experience and "gut." The third part of the Essay discusses theories that are helpful to practitioners and those that are less helpful. The Essay concludes that practitioners theorize, and theorists practice. They use these intellectual tools differently because the goals and orientations of theorists and practitioners, and the constraints under which they act, differ. Theory, practice, experience and "gut" help us think, remember, decide and create. They complement each other like the two sides of the same coin: distinct but inseparable.

Of Theory and Practice

Reflections upon the meaning of the word ‘design’ are made and a relatively complete definition of the paradigm of human centred design is formulated. Aspects of both the background and the current practice of the paradigm are presented, as is a basic structural model of the design questions addressed. Examples are provided of the economic benefit of human centred design in business settings as an approach for designing products, systems and services which are physically, perceptually, cognitively and emotionally intuitive. Examples are further provided of the coherence of the paradigm with the logic and structure of several currently popular marketing and banding frameworks. Finally, some strategic implications of adopting human centred design as a business strategy are suggested.

What Is Human Centred Design

In this study the static and dynamic characteristics of conventional open cell polyurethane (PU), of auxetic (negative Poisson’s ratio) and of iso-density foams were analysed. The specimens were produced from conventional gray open-cells polyurethane foam with 30-35 pores/inch and 0.0027 g/cm 3 density, by means of process which has been previously defi ned by the authors. Poisson’s ratio measurements were performed under quasi-static conditions using an MTS 858 servo-hydraulic test machine and a video image acquisition system. For the auxetic foams the results suggested similar behaviour to that previously reported in the literature, with signifi cant increases in stiffness during compressive loading, and a signifi cant dependence of the Poisson’s ratio on the applied strain. Transmissibility tests, performed in accordance with the ISO 13753 procedure for antivibration glove materials, suggested a strong dependence of the transmissibility on the foam manufacturing parameters. Within the frequency range from 10 to 31.5 Hz the transmissibility was found to be greater than 1, while it was less than 1 at all frequencies greater than 31.5 Hz. The transmissibility results were similar to the mean values for 80 resilient materials tested by Koton et. al., but were higher than the fi ve best materials (not all polymeric) identifi ed by the same researchers. In this study it has been suggested that the resilient behaviour of glove isolation materials should also be evaluated in terms of the indentation characteristics. A simple, linear elastic, Finite Element simulation was therefore performed, and the indentation results suggested that auxetic foams offer a signifi cant decrease in compressive stresses with respect to conventional PU foams.

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Mechanical Performance of Auxetic Polyurethane Foam for Antivibration Glove Applications

https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/1268/1/acgy2006bea.pdf

Bump Extraction Algorithm for Variable Amplitude Fatigue Loading

https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/1435/1/gsdr2004fwf.pdf

Joseph Giacomin

Papers

What Is Human Centred Design

Mechanical Performance of Auxetic Polyurethane Foam for Antivibration Glove Applications

Bump Extraction Algorithm for Variable Amplitude Fatigue Loading

Frequency weighting for the evaluation of steering wheel rotational vibration

An analysis of human comfort when entering and exiting the rear seat of an automobile