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Within the framework of image reconstruction in cylindrical electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) sensors, the purpose of this study is to select the structure of a sensor in terms of number and size of the electrodes, to predict the radius and the position of a single circular shape lying in the cross-section defined by the sensor electrodes.

Nonlinear black-box models using a set of physically independent capacitances and least-square support vector machines models selected with a sophisticated validation method are implemented.

The coordinates of circular shapes are well estimated in fixed and variable permittivity environments even with noisy data. Various numerical experiments are presented and discussed. Sensors formed by three or four electrodes covering 50 per cent of the sensor perimeter provide the best prediction performances.

The proposed method is limited to the detection of a single circular shape in a cylindrical ECT sensor.

This method can be advantageously implemented in real-time applications, as it is numerically cost-effective and necessitates a small amount of measurements.

The contribution is two-fold: a fast computation of a circular shape position and radius with a satisfactory precision compared to the sensor size, and the determination of a cylindrical ECT sensor architecture that allows the most efficient predictions.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a rapid method for calculating capacitive sensor signal variations for any small permittivity or electrode modifications at any position in space.

When a capacitive sensor is probing its surrounding, the modification of the permittivity, the displacement or the deformation of one or more electrodes induce a signal variation which depends on the position of the modification. Seeing that modification as a small perturbation and using Gauss identity, it is possible to find integral expressions of the sensor sensitivity map.

Capacitive sensor sensitivity map expressions depend only on the perturbation to measure, on the electric field before the perturbation, and on a sensitivity field which is the electric field produced by the sensor when the measuring electrode is held to 1 V while the others, except the floating ones, are grounded. The sensitivity field is a kind of Green's function for the capacitive sensor. The knowledge of the electric and sensitivity fields makes it possible to obtain the whole sensor sensitivity map at once without requiring time consuming parametric calculations.

The sensitivity field calculation provides a simple and direct view of the capacitive sensor capabilities. That should improve capacitive sensor design.

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards No. 208 includes directives rendering the morphological estimation of passengers mandatory for advanced air bag systems. The dynamic automatic suppression system uses both the morphological and positional information about the passenger to allow or prevent air bag deployment. Various solutions have been proposed to obtain these information by using capacitive sensors. This paper presents a method, that makes possible use of such sensors in the car industry by correcting their responses from these perturbing parameters.

WE have now received the skeleton programme of, and the invitations to, the Annual Meeting of the Library Association which opens at Harrogate with a service at the Parish Church on Sunday, September 17th. The arrangements that are to be made locally are attractive; the picture of the interior of the Royal Hall, which we receive with the list of hotels and boarding houses, seems to promise a useful meeting place where perhaps the acoustics will be better than those to which we are normally accustomed at conferences. The Majestic Hotel, which has been chosen as headquarters, is not quite so expensive as some hotels which have hitherto been chosen although it is not cheap, and it has the advantage of being quite near to the meeting place.

The aim of this paper is to model the dynamic path of adjustment towards pre‐unemployment levels of wellbeing for a group of full‐time workers who experienced job loss.

Based on data from the German Socio‐economic Panel, a large‐scale panel survey, the paper captures the non‐linear nature of the adaptation process by using an Exponential Smooth Transition Autoregressive (ESTAR) model.

The study finds that adaptation takes place in a non‐linear fashion, with the speed of adjustment being higher for high earners, those with high pre‐unemployment levels of life satisfaction and those who were most satisfied with their jobs before becoming unemployed. It also finds that most of the adaptation takes place during the first year of unemployment, with adaptation speeds decreasing with unemployment duration, suggestive of possible habituation effects being present.

This is the first study to model the dynamic path of adjustment towards pre‐unemployment wellbeing levels as a non‐linear process. Despite the challenge posed by adaptation theory and the recent interest in the wellbeing effects of job loss, there is only sparse empirical evidence on the dynamics of the adaptation to unemployment process.

The authors introduce an innovative and practical approach for conducting, directing, and teaching qualitative research through inquiry-based learning at the undergraduate level. Folknography is a qualitative research methodology that allows the undergraduate to successfully learn the academic concepts and guidelines required for participating in field investigations. This methodology relies heavily on the investigative techniques associated with ethnography, phenomenology, and sociology. Data collection techniques are specifically designed to reveal thick descriptions that represent the subjective attitudes, perspectives, and interpretations of the folk selected for investigation. The main objective of study is to gather qualitative data that allows for the emergence of a collective voice assumed to be representative of the targeted population. This chapter identifies three separate research projects in which undergraduate students immersed themselves in a specific setting; and, from that perspective, made important discoveries that expanded their knowledge of socio-cultural phenomena. Folknography is presented in this chapter as parallel actions; first, as a method of teaching undergraduates research; and, second as a system of data collection specific to qualitative investigations.

This chapter contributes to deepening understandings of the diversity of young people’s political participation and the socio-political and cultural influences that shape the uptake of activism. Drawing on scholarly theorisation of ‘implicit activism’, it begins from the premise that forms of activism vary depending on the social values, culture, and politics of different societies. To unpack the relationships between socio-political and cultural contexts and different forms of activism, this study addresses the question: what kind of activism do Japanese citizenship teachers envisage for secondary school students? Interviews were conducted with 11 educators across Japan; data were thematically analysed, and findings suggest that Japanese citizenship teachers encourage implicit forms of activism. This includes students being encouraged to develop personal and political efficacy to participate in political structures and raise their voices. Teachers also aim to develop students’ critical thinking skills to analyse society, with a focus on decoding political messages in one’s daily life. In the Japanese social and cultural context, which favours cohesion rather than confrontation, the endorsement of philanthropic activism, such as making donations, is also evident. Findings indicate that implicit forms of activism are embedded in everyday life. The study offers fresh insights into less tangible forms of activism characterised by small acts that address social concerns and issues affecting people’s own lives and the lives of others. It is argued that such implicit activism should not be overlooked, for as with explicit activism, it is also centrally concerned with fostering change.