Development of high slip-resistant footwear outsole using rubber surface filled with activated carbon/sodium chloride

High slip-resistant footwear outsoles can reduce the risk of slip and fall on wet and icy surfaces. Falls on wet and icy surfaces can cause serious life-threatening injuries, especially for older adults. Here we show that footwear outsoles using the rubbers filled with activated carbon or sodium chloride produce higher friction force and reduce the slip rate in walking. We have identified that small depressions were formed on outsole materials filled with activated carbon or sodium chloride during friction between the rubber and surface leading to some air ingress into the interface. While there are air bubbles between the rubber and surface, real contacts are surrounded by water with negative pressure (Laplace pressure). It is considered that the negative pressure promotes real contact formation, which causes high friction. We consider that the outsole materials filled with activated carbon or sodium chloride can reduce the risk of slip-and-fall accidents.

The mechanics of snow friction as revealed by micro-scale interface observations

The mechanics of snow friction are central to competitive skiing, safe winter driving and efficient polar sleds. For nearly 80 years, prevailing theory has postulated that self-lubrication accounts for low kinetic friction on snow: dry-contact sliding warms snow grains to the melting point, and further sliding produces meltwater layers that lubricate the interface. We sought to verify that self-lubrication occurs at the grain scale and to quantify the evolution of real contact area to aid modeling. We used high-resolution (15 μm) infrared thermography to observe the warming of stationary snow under a rotating polyethylene slider. Surprisingly, we did not observe melting at contacting snow grains despite low friction values. In some cases, slider shear failed inter-granular bonds and produced widespread snow movement with no persistent contacts to melt (μ < 0.03). When the snow grains did not move and persistent contacts evolved, the slider abraded rather than melted the grains at low resistance (μ < 0.05). Optical microscopy revealed that the abraded particles deposited in air pockets between grains and thereby carried heat away from the interface, a process not included in current models. Overall, our results challenge whether self-lubrication is indeed the dominant mechanism underlying low snow kinetic friction.

An experimental study on the relation between friction force and real contact area

Classical laws of friction suggest that friction force is proportional to the normal load and independent of the nominal contact area. As a great improvement in this subject, it is now widely accepted that friction force is proportional to the real contact area, and much work has been conducted based on this hypothesis. In present study, this hypothesis will be carefully revisited by measuring the friction force and real contact area in-site and real-time at both normal loading and unloading stages. Our experiments reveal that the linear relation always holds between friction force and normal load. However, for the relation between friction force and real contact area, the linearity holds only at the loading stage while fails at the unloading stage. This study may improve our understanding of the origin of friction.

Artificial Intelligence Model to Detect Real Contact Relationship between Mandibular Third Molars and Inferior Alveolar Nerve Based on Panoramic Radiographs

This study aimed to develop a novel detection model for automatically assessing the real contact relationship between mandibular third molars (MM3s) and the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) based on panoramic radiographs processed with deep learning networks, minimizing pseudo-contact interference and reducing the frequency of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) use. A deep-learning network approach based on YOLOv4, named as MM3-IANnet, was applied to oral panoramic radiographs for the first time. The relationship between MM3s and the IAN in CBCT was considered the real contact relationship. Accuracy metrics were calculated to evaluate and compare the performance of the MM3–IANnet, dentists and a cooperative approach with dentists and the MM3–IANnet. Our results showed that in comparison with detection by dentists (AP = 76.45%) or the MM3–IANnet (AP = 83.02%), the cooperative dentist–MM3–IANnet approach yielded the highest average precision (AP = 88.06%). In conclusion, the MM3-IANnet detection model is an encouraging artificial intelligence approach that might assist dentists in detecting the real contact relationship between MM3s and IANs based on panoramic radiographs.

Rotation-based schedules in elementary schools to prevent COVID-19 spread: A simulation study

Little is known about how various interventions impact the spread of covid-19 in schools. Here, we examined effects of different types of rotations in various testing contexts using an agent-based modified SIER model run on real contact data acquired in an elementary school in Czechia (624 schoolchildren, 55 teachers, 27k social contacts). The results show that weekly rotations of in-class and distance learning reduce the spread of covid-19 by >75%; regular low-sensitivity (<40%) antigen testing twice a week significantly reduces infections; and the density of revealed contact graphs for older pupils is 1.5 times higher than the younger pupils graph, the teachers network is yet an order of magnitude denser. The results imply that teachers play a disproportionate role in spreading covid-19 and that weekly rotations with regular testing are an effective preventive intervention that can help to keep schools open during a worsened epidemic situation.

A Simple Mechanistic Model for Friction of Rough Partially Lubricated Surfaces

We report experimental measurements of friction between an aluminum alloy sliding over steel with various lubricant densities. Using the topography scans of the surfaces as input, we calculate the real contact area using the boundary element method and the dynamic friction coefficient by means of a simple mechanistic model. Partial lubrication of the surfaces is accounted for by a random deposition model of oil droplets. Our approach reproduces the qualitative trends of a decrease of the macroscopic friction coefficient with applied pressure, due to a larger fraction of the micro-contacts being lubricated for larger loads. This approach relates direct measurements of surface topography to realistic distributions of lubricant, suggesting possible model extensions towards quantitative predictions.

Does Linearity Always Hold between Friction Force and Real Contact Area: An Experimental Study

Classical laws of friction suggest that friction force is proportional to the normal load and independent of the nominal contact area. As a great improvement in this subject, it is now widely accepted that friction force is proportional to the real area in contact, and much work has been conducted based on this hypothesis. In present study, this hypothesis will be carefully revisited by measuring the friction force and real contact area in-site and real-time at both normal loading and unloading stages. Our experiments reveal that the linear relation always holds between friction force and normal load. However, for the relation between friction force and real contact area, the linearity holds only at the loading stage while fails at the unloading stage. This study may improve our understanding of the origin of friction.