Bumper Car Research Articles

Enhancing the recyclability of ELV plastic bumpers: Characterization of molecular, morphological, rheological, mechanical properties and ageing degradation

While the automotive industry has traditionally prioritized metal recycling, the increasing use of plastics in vehicles underlines the need for sustainable management of these materials. Recycling rates of plastics from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) in Europe are low, but recent EU legislation requires 25 % of the plastics in new vehicles to be recycled, forcing innovative designs and strategies to enhance the recovery and quality of recycled resins. This study focuses on post-consumer bumpers, a significant recoverable component of ELVs, by assessing their molecular, morphological, rheological, and mechanical properties to investigate their homogeneity and quality from various sources to assess their suitability for recycling. Since the aging of these materials, caused by thermo-oxidative and thermo-mechanical degradation processes, can compromise the quality of recycled bumpers, we propose a blend of recycled PP from different bumper cars with virgin resin, representing a realistic scenario where the post-consumer ELV bumpers are collected. Interestingly, this blend, which can replace up to 50 % of the virgin resin without additional compatibilizers or additives, mitigates the degradation effects. Furthermore, the study evaluates the degradation resistance of these blends through multiple extrusion cycles and accelerated weathering tests in a temperature-controlled UV chamber to ascertain the number of cycles the material can tolerate without significant quality degradation, and to determine its suitability for long-term applications. Our results not only support the feasibility of using recycled PP for automotive components but also contribute to meeting the EU's recycling targets. This research highlights the potential for significant advances in the circularity of automotive plastics, providing a sustainable pathway for integrating recycled materials into new vehicle production.

A Context-based Teaching Concept on Electric Circuits - Development and First Results

Despite the importance of electricity for today’s industrial society, students often perceive the abstract topic of electric circuits as uninteresting. In order to foster students’ interest, we developed a context-based teaching concept on simple circuits. Building on research findings on students’ interests, the concept covers the topic at the example of contexts like bumper cars, the electric eel, or the electric fence. While previous studies suggest that such a context-based approach can improve affective factors such as student interest, the evidence on the impact on students’ conceptual understanding is inconclusive. Therefore, we empirically evaluated the teaching concept in a field study with 7th and 8th graders to investigate the effects of context-based teaching on students’ conceptual understanding, while also assessing their interest and self-concept. By comparing our concept with conventional teaching in a pre-post-follow-up design, we aim to improve the current state of research regarding the effects of context-based teaching in authentic teaching environments. First analyses did not reveal significant differences between the context-based concept and conventional approaches, neither regarding the affective factors interest and self-concept nor conceptual understanding.

Dynamic Response of Metallic Foams Bumper with Morphology Design Variation in ABAQUS Software Simulation

Variation design of open-cell foams located in the bumper car were investigated in this paper. A brief experimental result on the dynamic response of crash was focused on energy absorption and deformation behavior. The bumper design was based on typical design of bumper compared with gradual density of hexagonal foam type. The method used was imitate crashing real behavior dynamic explicit using ABAQUS simulation software with some extra constraint, such as: crashing object and crash direction. Results showed the design strongly affect the value of energy absorption and deformation. Energy absorption was higher using hexagon foams compare to the normal bumper structure with 4.8740 E6 Joule and 4.8572 E6 respectively. Furthermore, highest energy absorption was by simulated redesign hexagon foam into varying thickness (gradual density) – similar to cortical bone structure – with 4.950 E6 Joule. Meanwhile the deformation shows highest value on typical design of bumper with 4 cm translation after crashed. Expected design has to be safe for passengers with have high ability to absorb energy and minimize the deformation movement.

Study of Physics Learning in Indoor Games at Transmart Surabaya

This study aims to examine the learning of physics in indoor games at Transmart Surabaya. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method, namely by using a documentation study. The target of this research is a modern game that applies the concept of physics contained in the Studio Mini Transmart Surabaya. The method of data collection carried out in this study used the observation method. In this study, it was concluded that some of the games contained in Trans Studio Mini Transmart Rungkut, Surabaya, namely roller coaster games, new york (rotating swing), sky rider, mini electric car, mini train, and bumper car applied several physics concepts. The roller coaster game applies the concept of mechanical energy. In the new york game, the physics concept is applied, namely the concept of rotational motion and harmonic motion. In the game sky rider applies the concept of physics, namely the force of gravity, rotational and circular motion and the moment of inertia. In the mini electric car game, the concept of physics is applied, namely the concept of displacement, velocity, acceleration and friction. In the mini train game, the physics concept is applied, namely acceleration and friction. As well as in the bumper car game applying the concepts of physics, namely acceleration, collision and the law of conservation of momentum.

A Gathering Storm

A Gathering Storm

Simulation and Failure Analysis of Car Bumper Made of Pineapple Leaf Fiber Reinforced Composite

The bumper car made of the Pineapple Leaf Fiber Reinforced Composite (PLFRC) is possible to be produced with the advantage of easy to get, and cheap. Pineapple leaf fiber has chosen as a natural fiber, which the maximum of the strength of 368 MPa. The objective of this study was to determine the maximum capability of front car bumpers using Pineapple Leaf Fiber Reinforced Composite materials through the process of simulating stress analysis with Solidworks 2014 software. The aim also to know the distribution of loads that occur on the front car bumper and predict the critical point position on the design of the bumper. The result will use to develop the alternative lightweight, cheap and environmentally friendly materials in general and the development of the use of pineapple fiber for automotive purposes in particular. Simulations and failure analysis have been conducted and showed an increased impact speed in line with increased displacement, strain, and stress that occur on the surface of the bumper. The bumper can withstand collisions at a speed of less than 70 kph.

Modelling human behaviour in a bumper car ride using molecular dynamics tools: a student project

Amusement parks are excellent laboratories of physics, not only to check physical laws, but also to investigate if those physical laws might also be applied to human behaviour. A group of Physics Engineering students from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya has investigated if human behaviour, when driving bumper cars, can be modelled using tools borrowed from the analysis of molecular dynamics simulations, such as the radial and angular distribution functions. After acquiring several clips and obtaining the coordinates of the cars, those magnitudes are computed and analysed. Additionally, an analogous hard disks system is simulated to compare its distribution functions to those obtained from the cars’ coordinates. Despite the clear difference between bumper cars and a hard disk-like particle system, the obtained distribution functions are very similar. This suggests that there is no important effect of the individuals in the collective behaviour of the system in terms of structure. The research, performed by the students, has been undertaken in the frame of a motivational project designed to approach the scientific method for university students named FISIDABO. This project offers both the logistical and technical support to undertake the experiments designed by students at the amusement park of Barcelona TIBIDABO and accompanies them all along the scientific process.

Semantic Priming Produces Contingent Attentional Capture by Conceptual Content

There is substantial evidence that the capture of spatial attention by salient, irrelevant stimuli is subject to modulation by top-down task set. To accommodate such findings, the theory of Contingent Attention Capture (CAC) proposes that the attention allocation system is "configurable" such that a given stimulus will only capture attention if it is consistent with current top-down "attentional control settings" related to behavioral goals. Most of the previous research on CAC has focused on capture by salient, low level properties, implying that attentional control settings are limited to working memory templates for simple features such as color, orientation, motion, singleton-ness, etc. A recent study, however, found that relatively high-level, categorical content of an image can capture attention if the task requires monitoring for exemplars from that category (Wyble, Folk, & Potter, 2013). This suggests that the activation of categorical representations in semantic memory can also serve as top-down attentional control settings. The present study tested whether these effects are truly the result of semantic memory activation by testing whether images that are semantically related to the task-relevant category also capture attention. Subjects monitored a central RSVP stream for any exemplar (e.g., a ferris wheel) from a pre-specified semantic category (e.g., amusement park rides). Two frames prior to the target image, irrelevant distractor images appeared above and below the stream, one of which could be another exemplar from the relevant category (e.g., bumper cars), an image of a related item (e.g., cotton candy), or an image of an unrelated item (e.g., a hammer). Distractors consisting of exemplar and semantically related images both produced a decrement in target report relative to semantically unrelated distractors, suggesting that the attention allocation system can be configured not only through templates in working memory, but also through the activation and priming of long-term semantic memory representations. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2014

American lobster (Homarus americanus) immune response to infection with the bumper car parasite (Anophryoides haemophila): A transcriptomic analysis

American lobster (Homarus americanus) immune response to infection with the bumper car parasite (Anophryoides haemophila): A transcriptomic analysis

A transcriptomic analysis of American lobster (Homarus americanus) immune response during infection with the bumper car parasite Anophryoides haemophila

Anophryoides haemophila is an important protistan parasite of American lobster, Homarus americanus, as it has been found to infect lobsters in the wild as well as causing major losses of lobsters maintained in commercial holding facilities. Expression of over 14,500 H. americanus hepatopancreatic genes were monitored during an A. haemophila infection challenge in order to elucidate molecular mechanisms involved in the lobster immune response. One hundred and forty-five genes were found to be differentially expressed during infection. For many genes, this study is the first to link their expression to an immune response to a known lobster pathogen. Several of the genes have previously been linked to crustacean or invertebrate immune response including: several anti-lipopolysaccharide factor isoforms (ALFHa), acute phase serum amyloid protein A (SAA), a serine protease inhibitor, a toll-like receptor, several haemocyanin subunits, phagocyte signaling-impaired protein, vitelline membrane outer layer protein-1, trypsin, and a C-type lectin receptor. Microarray results were verified using RT-qPCR and agreement was good between the two methods. The expression of six ALFHa isoforms was monitored via microarray where ALFHa-1, ALFHa-2, ALFHa-4 and ALFHa-6 were differentially expressed while ALFHa-3 and ALFHa7 were not. RT-qPCR analysis confirmed that ALFHa-1, ALFHA-2 and ALFHa-4 expression increased during infection with a peak at 5–7weeks for ALFHa-1 and 10weeks for ALFHa-2 and ALFHa-4. This suggests that different ALFHa isoforms are temporally expressed during A. haemophila infection. Importantly, these results provide evidence that different ALFHa isoforms have more significant roles in responding to A. haemophila infection. Significant increases in SAA gene expression were also found, corroborating previous findings of increased SAA expression during Aerococcus viridans infections; highlighting the importance of SAA as a marker of H. americanus immune activation and potential indicator of H. americanus health.

The ultimate switch

From the outside, transistors seem so simple and straightforward. But inside, they're actually a mess. If you could watch them working at the level of atoms, you'd see the electronic equivalent of a game of bumper cars. Electrons moving through even the best transistor channel can't go in straight lines. Instead they're buffeted continually by a host of imperfections and vibrations, which together put a strict limit on speed and generate a lot of heat in the process.

The Wild Ones

The Wild Ones Bethany Maile (bio) Grouped by age, the colts came first. Ten yearlings leaned into one another, burying forelocks into the next colt’s mane, the herd mentality so deeply learned: safety in numbers, move as a pack. Makeshift bridles ran beneath their jaws. Hooked to the string, a tag with a number: 1529, 1917, 2460. White waves scarred their hips; some hadn’t lost their winter coats; shag clumped on croups and bellies; sagebrush barbs hung in tails—those remnants of wild. Taped to each pen, a bidding form. The mustang is arguably the most familiar symbol of the West. Beer commercials. Rodeo posters. T-shirts puff-painted with stallions bolting across American flags. The most enduring U.S. sports car. The mascot of my high school. The inspiration for countless pop songs. They couldn’t drag us away, sang the Stones. May no man’s touch ever tame, warned Ray LaMontagne. Throwing caution to the wind, I’ll run free too, promised Natasha Bedingfield. The mustang (as an icon, at least) seems inescapable. And though I grew up near the basin of the Owyhee Mountains, a stretch of high desert bluffs home to Idaho’s largest herd, until the Bureau of Land Management’s [End Page 137] (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Adoption, I’d never been so close to the real deal. The desert erupted with flashing lights and megaphoned carnies and the howling sirens of victorious ring tossers. Corndog stands and Tilt-A-Whirls. Packs of tired children sobbed through their cotton candy. Past the main entrance, a fountain splashed. Tired mothers soaked their feet, and in the bandstand, a cover band sang Creedence Clearwater Revival and Moody Blues numbers. No one stopped at the stage, but at the end of “Proud Mary” the singer, a pot-bellied man wearing a tank top and a mullet, fell to his knees and pointed to the passersby. A big finish. Behind the stage, a huddle of mobile kitchens. Pork pulls. Elephant ears. Brooklyn deli. Chicago pizza. Onion rings. Curly fries. Lemonade. Slushies. Pronto Pups. Old West BBQ. The food court abutted a twenty-foot slide and a row of Whack-A-Moles. The rides went on forever. Ferris wheels. The Flying Scooter. Three houses of mirrors. A carousel. Four rollercoasters. Bumper cars. Big Circus Side Show. Dance Dance Revolution. Skydiver. Superman. SuperStar. The High Striker. The Yo-Yo. The Zipper. A petting zoo. Past the petting zoo, the livestock. Swine and sheep and cattle. A bidding floor where ten-year-olds led thousand-pound steers to the center of the ring. From the stands, bidders hollered and steers sold and children beamed. Behind the barn, a dirt path bisected a field. Horses, tied to trailers, waited to be curried out and saddled. A girl in brown braids ran barrels in a corral. George Strait wailed on a pickup’s radio. Then, for a while, nothing. Just flat desert pasture—trampled grass and full-seeded dandelion bulbs. In the far end of the field, invisible from the bumper cars and candied almond stands, a cluster of pens. An occasional breeze, salty with wafts of fried dough, upset cheat grass and wildrye. The faint hollers of running children and chugging rollercoasters were barely audible. The horses had mellowed to the distant clatter, never whinnying or stirring at the strange song of fair-goers, those bells and sirens and whistles. Detached from the fair’s roar, the whole scene stagnant. Four corrals clustered together. A pen for colts, for mares, for stallions, for burros. A few men paced around the animals, bending to check hooves, [End Page 138] holding out hands to test dispositions. That forelock’s no good, that blaze means squirrely genes, don’t want socks neither, might mean weak hooves. A girl tugged her father’s sleeve, begging: “She’s only one hundred dollars.” She pointed to a mare. The animal was taller than the others, brushed down, combed shiny. Her father shook his head and lured her away with the promise of sno-cones. I had imagined a rodeo corral full of stallions, a horseshoe of bleachers packed with potential buyers, but this crowd, sparse...

Impaired neural processing of social attribution in anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa (AN) patients have been found to have problems in social cognition, including the process of thinking about other people's thoughts and feelings, often referred to as Theory of Mind (ToM). We examined neural correlates relating to thinking about social relationships in 17 women in recovery from anorexia (RAN) and 17 healthy women (CON) using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task. The task consisted of short videos of moving shapes that subjects viewed either in the context of performing a social decision related to how the shapes interacted: “People: All friends?” or in the context of performing a visuospatial task related to how the shapes moved after bumping into each other: “Bumper cars: Same weight?”. The RAN participants showed reduced activation in the social cognition network, with the most robust differences in the right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ). There were no significant differences between the CON and RAN groups in regions more active during the visuospatial task. These neural correlates show differences in the processing of social knowledge in RAN subjects suggesting that biological impairments in social cognition may contribute to pathology in AN.

Slipped upper femoral epiphysis – a case of a 'dodgem hip'

A 15-year-old male patient of slim habitus presented three times over 3 days to the emergency department. Four weeks prior to the first attendance, he apparently injured his left knee in a sudden jolt whilst going on a 'bumper car' (dodgems) at a funfair. Since this incident, he had walked with a limp due to the pain in his left knee. He had sustained a slipped upper femoral epiphysis (SUFE) through this unusual mechanism of injury.

A “bumper car” model for the transmission of fluid shear stress to the actin cytoskeleton and the role of the glycocalyx

A “bumper car” model for the transmission of fluid shear stress to the actin cytoskeleton and the role of the glycocalyx

Examining bumper cars as a surrogate for low-speed rear-end and frontal collisions

Examining bumper cars as a surrogate for low-speed rear-end and frontal collisions

Case Report: Outbreak of Bumper Car Disease Caused by Anophryoides haemophila in a Lobster Holding Facility in Nova Scotia, Canada

AbstractThis case report provides pathologic and confirmatory molecular characterization of an outbreak of bumper car disease caused by the scuticociliate Anophryoides haemophila in American lobster Homarus americanus, from a commercial holding facility in Nova Scotia, Canada. Although sporadically and anecdotally reported to be present in Atlantic Canada, this is the first report detailing observations from a natural outbreak of bumper car disease by gross and microscopic pathology and its positive identification by small subunit rRNA gene sequencing. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis confirmed that the genotype of the present outbreak isolate is identical to the original isolate of A. haemophila reported from Maine lobsters in 1993.

Case Report: Whiplash-Associated Disorder From a Low-Velocity Bumper Car Collision: History, Evaluation, and Surgery

Case report of a patient with a whiplash-associated disorder following a bumper car collision. Imaging studies failed to provide an anatomic explanation for the debilitating symptoms. To report a chronic, debilitating pain syndrome after a low-velocity bumper car collision while using complex range-of-motion data for the diagnosis, prognosis, and surgical indication in whiplash-associated disorder. The controversy of whiplash-associated disorder mainly concerns pathophysiology and collision dynamics. Although many investigations attempt to define a universal lesion or determine a threshold of force that may cause permanent injury, no consensus has been reached. Eight years after a low-velocity collision, the patient underwent surgical excision of multiple painful trigger points in the posterior neck. Computerized motion analysis was used for pre- and postoperative evaluations. Surgical treatment resulted in an increase in total active range of motion by 20%, reduced intake of pain medication, doubled the number of work hours, and generally led to a dramatic improvement in quality of life. This case of whiplash-associated disorder after a low-velocity collision highlights the difficulty in defining threshold of injury in regard to velocity. It also illustrates the value of computerized motion analysis in confirming the diagnosis of whiplash-associated disorder and in the evaluation of prognosis and treatment.

Traumatisme cervical en coup de fouet : des concepts aux réalités

Objectives. – To focus on a topic of traumatology and rehabilitation becoming recently a much debated public health problem. Method. – A references search from Medline database with whiplash as keyword was carried out. Were selected articles with abstracts in french or english and focusing on accidentology, biomechanics, demonstrated lesions, epidemiology and treatments. Results. – From 1664 references found, 232 were reviewed. The usual mechanism of crash is a rear-end collision inducing in the occupants of the bumped vehicle a sudden lower cervical spine extension with upper flexion followed by a global flexion. In nearly 50% of the cases, the stress occuring in the collision is comparable to that observed in bumper cars. The velocity changes are seldom up to 15 km/h. A headrest at the level of the center of gravity of the head restrict significantly the extension of the neck. Every structure of the cervical spine could be damaged and mainly the facet joints but the lesions were only demonstrated in severes traumatisms. The discrepancies in incidence among the different countries could be related to their medicolegal system. Although subjectives, the early symptoms are rather similar among patients suggesting true anatomical or functional disorders but the chronicity seems to be mainly related to social and psychological factors. The association of: no posterior midline cervical tenderness, no intoxication, normal alertness, no focal neurological deficit and no painful distracting injuries has a good predictive value of the lack of osteo-articular lesion on X-rays. Except the grade IV of the Quebec task Force (0, no symptom; 1, pain and stiffness; 2, neck complaint and physical signs; 3, neck complaint and neurological signs; 4, fracture or dislocation) the use of a collar should be avoided and the cervical spine should be mobilized. Conclusion. – In most whiplash injuries, the mildness should be early stated, mobilization encouraged, and procedures of compensation shortened.

Estimated prevalence of Aerococcus viridans and Anophryoides haemophila in American lobsters Homarus americanus freshly captured in the waters of Prince Edward Island, Canada.

The Canadian lobster industry holds lobsters Homarus americanus in captivity for various periods to supply markets with live product year-round. Mortality during holding results in considerable losses, estimated at 10 to 15 % yr(-1) by the industry. This study examined the prevalence of Anophryoides haemophila and Aerococcus viridans, causative agents of 'bumper car' disease and gaffkemia, respectively, in lobsters freshly captured in the waters of Prince Edward Island during the spring and fall fishing seasons of 1997. A total of 116 lobsters were sampled in the spring, and 138 in the fall. A. haemophila was not detected in the spring, while the prevalence was 0.72 % in the fall with a 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.02 to 3.97% and an overall prevalence of 0.39% (95% CI: 0.01 to 2.17%). The prevalence of A. viridans was estimated at 6.9% (95% CI: 3.0 to 13.14%) in the spring, 5.8% in the fall (95% CI: 2.54 to 11.10%), and 6.30% overall (95% CI: 3.64 to 10.03%). Because of the reduced interest in food of diseased lobsters, and compromised metabolism in the case of gaffkemia, these prevalence estimates are likely underestimates of the true prevalence of gaffkemia and 'bumper car' disease in the wild populations of lobster around Prince Edward Island.