This study looked at whether drivers overtaking a bicyclist changed the proximities of their passes in response to the level of experience and skill signalled by the bicyclist's appearance. Seven outfits were tested, ranging from a stereotypical sport rider's outfit, portraying high experience and skill, to a vest with 'novice cyclist' printed on the back, portraying low experience. A high-visibility bicycling jacket was also used, as were two commercially available safety vests, one featuring a prominent mention of the word 'police' and a warning that the rider was video-recording their journey, and one modelled after a police officer's jacket but with a letter changed so it read 'POLITE'. An ultrasonic distance sensor recorded the space left by vehicles passing the bicyclist on a regular commuting route. 5690 data points fulfilled the criteria for the study and were included in the analyses. The only outfit associated with a significant change in mean passing proximities was the police/video-recording jacket. Contrary to predictions, drivers treated the sports outfit and the 'novice cyclist' outfit equivalently, suggesting they do not adjust overtaking proximity as a function of a rider's perceived experience. Notably, whilst some outfits seemed to discourage motorists from passing within 1m of the rider, approximately 1-2% of overtakes came within 50 cm no matter what outfit was worn. This suggests there is little riders can do, by altering their appearance, to prevent the very closest overtakes; it is suggested that infrastructural, educational or legal measures are more promising for preventing drivers from passing extremely close to bicyclists.

This study investigated the awareness and use of assistive technology for people with dementia. The aim of the study was to explore barriers to the uptake of, and the unmet needs for, assistive technology for dementia (ATD). The work was carried out with family carers of people with dementia because carers are often the purchasers, end users and main beneficiaries of this type of technology. Focus groups were used to explore carers' views on ATD use, and the problems that might be addressed by ATD, in order to develop a questionnaire for dementia carers. The questionnaire was administered at Alzheimer's Society carer support groups in South Bucks and in Hillingdon Borough (UK). None of the 16 focus group participants or the 42 respondents to the questionnaire had any personal experience of ATD. The dementia carers reported a number of concerns, problems and unmet needs that could be addressed by existing, commercially available ATD products. Some needs for new technology development were identified in the study, but the lack of awareness of ATD appears to be the most important barrier to technology adoption.

Background There is a need for sensor-guided robotic devices that discriminate working conditions and media, and control interaction of tool-points with respect to tissues. At the micro-surgical scale the need is to control exact penetration through flexible tissues and to control relative motion with respect to moving or deforming tissue targets and interfaces.

Abstract.A sensor and electronics system is described that monitors the leakage of urine from continence pads into surrounding underwear. Urinary incontinence is involuntary loss of urine and occurs when the bladder muscles contract without warning or sphincter muscle surrounding the urethra are too weak to prevent leakage. The system comprises a wetness sensor and electronics unit. The sensor is stitched into the underwear and detects overspills of urine from the pad. The electronics unit is attached to the underwear and responds by vibrating, signalling to the wearer that pad has failed. This system has application for individuals who use continence pads in the community but it could also be used in care homes. IntroductionUrinary incontinence is common in the adult population, but there is a wide range of prevalence rates reported in the literature. Some studies report levels as low as 11.5% in women and 6.9% in men, aged over 65 living in the community [1] but another study reported 58% urinary incontinence in healthy middle aged women [2]. The wide variation in reported prevalence is caused by methodological differences between studies [3] with many studies not using standardised validated questionnaires, different time periods over which participants had to report and different definitions of urinary incontinence. The international continence society changed their definition of urinary incontinence from "Urinary incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine that is a social or hygienic problem" [4] to "-any involuntary loss of urine" [5], in an attempt to facilitate comparative epidemiological studies. Although precise prevalence levels are difficult to specify, it is generally accepted that prevalence of incontinence increases with age [6] and that more women than men are affected by urinary incontinence [7]. Surgical, medicinal and physiotherapeutic treatments that are available help to alleviate incontinence but if these treatments are not tried or to adhered to, while waiting for treatments to be effective or when treatments fail, continence pads are often chosen as a management option [8]. The global market for adult continence pads in 2008 was $44 billion and it is also known that significant numbers of women manage their continence needs with menstrual pads [9]. It is therefore clear that vast numbers of people are regularly using pads. Whilst pads are useful for maintaining "social continence" [10], there are a number of problems associated with pad use. Research on the effect of wearing continence pads has shown that the ability of the pad to hold urine was the most important feature in both daytime and night time pad use. However, many women were

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