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Background and aims: Walking is the core physical activity of older persons. The assessment of walking capacity is increasingly important for clinical purposes and clinical research. Differences between assessment tools and protocols for short walks to obtain gait characteristics can be responsible for changes, e.g., in gait speed from 0.1 to 0.2 m/s. The purpose of this study was to generate further knowledge for the harmonization and/or standardization of short walk-test protocols for assessing gait characteristics under supervised conditions. Methods: For this cross-sectional study, 150 community-dwelling older adults (mean age 80.5 ± 4.5 years) were recruited. Participants performed eight walks differing in the distance (8-versus 4-m), static versus dynamic trials and comparing different test speed instructions (usual versus maximal) on an electronic walkway. Results: A meaningful significant difference in mean usual gait speed was documented comparing the 4-m dynamic and static test protocol (0.12 m/s; p = 0.001). For the same comparison over an 8-m distance (dynamic versus static) and for the comparison between usual gait speed over 4-and 8-m, the differences in gait speed were smaller, but still statistically significant (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Gait speed was faster, if the test protocol did not include a static start or stop. The differences were greater for a shorter walking distance. This aspect should be considered for the comparison of study results and is particularly relevant for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Despite of continuous improvement of numerical computations, experimental fatigue tests are still of prior concern for high safety level parts, in particular for the automotive industry. Destructive fatigue tests are required in order to prove to authorities an effective fatigue design by highlighting the weakest link and its failure mode, and possibly taking account for the manufacturing process influence. Actually, experimental tests need for expensive means (i.e. rigs and specimens) and fatigue phenomenon is expected to take long time to get a crack issue. Thus, cost and delay time reduction always calls for more effective methods. Within this framework, we address here some recent improvements dealing with, respectively: a) the optimization of the fatigue test protocol, i.e. how the load time history is applied to the specimen in order to minimize the overall fatigue test duration; b) the reliability of the fatigue strength estimation, i.e. how the experimental data are considered in a reliable statistical model. The first point let us focus on a so-called Locati fatigue test protocol, whereas the second point let us make use of Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian techniques. These improvements are currently and successfully applied to chassis system parts at PSA Peugeot Citroën. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Field investigations reporting increased airborne particles concentrations after ventilation duct cleaning (DC) and emissions of biocides following its use in DC highlight a need to protect building occupants from possible exposures to these harmful pollutants. A new protocol was developed to include tests for assessing duct surface cleanliness and harmful airborne pollutant concentrations associated with DC. Two office buildings undergoing DC were chosen to demonstrate the protocol application. The new protocol was tested for surface cleanliness assessment using a combination of visual inspection and a vacuum test method wherever possible. For airborne pollutant concentration assessments, indoor air exposures to total particle, fungi and VOCs were measured. The test application demonstrates that it is possible to determine harmful airborne pollutant concentration levels attributed to DC activities while still maintaining industrial performance standards of surface cleanliness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Biomass fuels are used by nearly half the world''s population on a daily basis for cooking. While these stoves often look simple in appearance they are notoriously difficult to test. By their very nature biomass stoves are typically fairly uncontrolled devices which often exhibit a large amount of variability in their performance. In order to characterize a stove and understand the processes which are occurring inside, and through this begin to design better stoves, this variability and uncertainty needs to be reduced as much as possible. A parametric study was conducted to better understand what factors lead to variability and uncertainty in cookstove test results and should be controlled in order to obtain repeatable results. Using the Water Boiling Test as a starting point, it was found that significant reductions in test variability could be achieved through minimizing the amount of water vaporization which occurs during the test. Uncertainty was further reduced by using fuels with consistent moisture contents. Based on these findings a new testing methodology, the Emissions and Performance Test Protocol, has been proposed and the benefits of moving to this method presented. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The unprecedented development of communication technology has led to increased complexity of communication protocols and protocol interaction. Correct implementation of communication protocol is very significant. In this paper, we propose a novel test architecture which aims to verify and test IMT-Advanced key technologies of MAC and RRC layer. The proposed architecture contains three parts, including Testing System (TS), Test Adapter (TA) and System under test (SUT). Compared with traditional TTCN-3 test framework a module called TA as a bridge connecting TS and SUT is added into the proposed architecture, which makes testing more simpler and flexible. Properly design of TA enables our architecture support both conformance testing and performance testing, loose the coupling of TS and certain SUT, and become more general-purposed. A test platform is developed and the testing results show that the proposed test architecture is efficient and reliable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]