Controllable load sharing for soft adhesive interfaces on three-dimensional surfaces

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Sukho; Drotlef, Dirk-Michael; Majidi, Carmel; Sitti, Metin

2017-05-01

For adhering to three-dimensional (3D) surfaces or objects, current adhesion systems are limited by a fundamental trade-off between 3D surface conformability and high adhesion strength. This limitation arises from the need for a soft, mechanically compliant interface, which enables conformability to nonflat and irregularly shaped surfaces but significantly reduces the interfacial fracture strength. In this work, we overcome this trade-off with an adhesion-based soft-gripping system that exhibits enhanced fracture strength without sacrificing conformability to nonplanar 3D surfaces. Composed of a gecko-inspired elastomeric microfibrillar adhesive membrane supported by a pressure-controlled deformable gripper body, the proposed soft-gripping system controls the bonding strength by changing its internal pressure and exploiting the mechanics of interfacial equal load sharing. The soft adhesion system can use up to ˜26% of the maximum adhesion of the fibrillar membrane, which is 14× higher than the adhering membrane without load sharing. Our proposed load-sharing method suggests a paradigm for soft adhesion-based gripping and transfer-printing systems that achieves area scaling similar to that of a natural gecko footpad.

Microcogeneration in buildings with low energy demand in load sharing application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angrisani, Giovanni; Canelli, Michele; Roselli, Carlo; Sasso, Maurizio

2015-01-01

Highlights: • The use of microcogenerator (MCHP) in buildings with low energy demand is evaluated. • The load sharing approach leads to suitable thermal and electric loads for MCHP. • Dynamic simulations are carried out considering two different climates. • A sensitivity analysis with respect to the self-consumed electricity is performed. • MCHPs with internal combustion engine perfectly match with well-insulated buildings. - Abstract: The paper investigates the introduction of a MCHP (Micro Combined Heat and Power) system in buildings with low energy demand with respect to the current building stock. A load sharing approach between a multifamily residential building and an office one is taken into account. Dynamic simulations are carried out in order to evaluate the thermo-economic performance of the analyzed system. Particular attention is given to the estimation of the electric load of the different users, as the economic profitability of a MCHP system is strongly influenced by the amount of self-consumed electricity. In order to analyze the influence of climatic conditions, two different geographical locations in Italy (Naples and Turin, having 1034 and 2617 heating degree days, respectively) are considered. The results of this study indicate that the installation of MCHP systems in buildings with low energy demand allows to increase the percentage of self-consumed electricity reducing the bidirectional electricity flow between the users and the external grid, as well as the impact on the grid itself due to the large diffusion of distributed generation systems. Moreover this study shows that the load sharing approach between users with different load profile leads to better energy, environmental and economic results with respect to a conventional system. The climatic conditions play an important role on the MCHP operational hours and hence on the thermo-economic performance of the system. The primary energy saving of the system located in Turin is

Planetary Load Sharing in Three-Point Mounted Wind Turbine Gearboxes: A Design and Test Comparison

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Keller, Jonathan [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Guo, Yi [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Zhang, Zhiwei [Romax InSight, Nottingham, (United Kingdom); Lucas, Doug [The Timken Company, Jackson Township, OH (United States)

2017-04-06

This work compares the planetary load-sharing characteristics of wind turbine gearboxes supported by cylindrical roller bearings (CRBs) and preloaded tapered roller bearings (TRBs) when subjected to rotor moments. Planetary bearing loads were measured in field-representative dynamometer tests and compared to loads predicted by finite-element models. Preloaded TRBs significantly improved load sharing. In pure torque conditions, the upwind planet bearing load in the gearbox with preloaded TRBs was only 14% more than the assumed load compared to 47% more for the gearbox with CRBs. Consequently, the predicted fatigue life of the complete set of planetary bearings for the gearbox with preloaded TRBs is 3.5 times greater than that of the gearbox with CRBs.

Effects of Peer-Tutor Competences on Learner Cognitive Load and Learning Performance during Knowledge Sharing

Science.gov (United States)

Hsiao, Ya-Ping; Brouns, Francis; van Bruggen, Jan; Sloep, Peter B.

2012-01-01

In Learning Networks, learners need to share knowledge with others to build knowledge. In particular, when working on complex tasks, they often need to acquire extra cognitive resources from others to process a high task load. However, without support high task load and organizing knowledge sharing themselves might easily overload learners'…

Can listed property shares be a surrogate for direct property investment behaviour?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Douw Boshoff

2012-03-01

Full Text Available The listed property sector in South Africa has grown to a size which could be considered to be a good representation of the income producing property market in general. Stock market listed property investment funds offer the opportunity to compare indirect property investment to direct property investment, which could bridge the gap between irrational investment behaviour and intrinsic asset values. This study investigates the relationship between listed property share prices and the property values in listed property funds. The share prices are correlated with various factors, such as the accounting ratios of the companies, the financial statements of the companies and general economic variables. The outcome of the study is an explanation of the behaviour of listed property shares, and its relationship to the direct property market and the general economy. This would assist in the explanation of market behaviour and provides the opportunity to more accurately predict portfolio asset values, which might be used in the valuation of individual real estate assets.

Reliability demonstration test for load-sharing systems with exponential and Weibull components.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jianyu Xu

Full Text Available Conducting a Reliability Demonstration Test (RDT is a crucial step in production. Products are tested under certain schemes to demonstrate whether their reliability indices reach pre-specified thresholds. Test schemes for RDT have been studied in different situations, e.g., lifetime testing, degradation testing and accelerated testing. Systems designed with several structures are also investigated in many RDT plans. Despite the availability of a range of test plans for different systems, RDT planning for load-sharing systems hasn't yet received the attention it deserves. In this paper, we propose a demonstration method for two specific types of load-sharing systems with components subject to two distributions: exponential and Weibull. Based on the assumptions and interpretations made in several previous works on such load-sharing systems, we set the mean time to failure (MTTF of the total system as the demonstration target. We represent the MTTF as a summation of mean time between successive component failures. Next, we introduce generalized test statistics for both the underlying distributions. Finally, RDT plans for the two types of systems are established on the basis of these test statistics.

Reliability Analysis of Load-Sharing K-out-of-N System Considering Component Degradation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chunbo Yang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The K-out-of-N configuration is a typical form of redundancy techniques to improve system reliability, where at least K-out-of-N components must work for successful operation of system. When the components are degraded, more components are needed to meet the system requirement, which means that the value of K has to increase. The current reliability analysis methods overestimate the reliability, because using constant K ignores the degradation effect. In a load-sharing system with degrading components, the workload shared on each surviving component will increase after a random component failure, resulting in higher failure rate and increased performance degradation rate. This paper proposes a method combining a tampered failure rate model with a performance degradation model to analyze the reliability of load-sharing K-out-of-N system with degrading components. The proposed method considers the value of K as a variable which is derived by the performance degradation model. Also, the load-sharing effect is evaluated by the tampered failure rate model. Monte-Carlo simulation procedure is used to estimate the discrete probability distribution of K. The case of a solar panel is studied in this paper, and the result shows that the reliability considering component degradation is less than that ignoring component degradation.

Proportional Load Sharing and Stability of DC Microgrid with Distributed Architecture Using SM Controller

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Rashad

2018-01-01

Full Text Available DC microgrids look attractive in distribution systems due to their high reliability, high efficiency, and easy integration with renewable energy sources. The key objectives of the DC microgrid include proportional load sharing and precise voltage regulation. Droop controllers are based on decentralized control architectures which are not effective in achieving these objectives simultaneously due to the voltage error and load power variation. A centralized controller can achieve these objectives using a high speed communication link. However, it loses reliability due to the single point failure. Additionally, these controllers are realized through proportional integral (PI controllers which cannot ensure load sharing and stability in all operating conditions. To address limitations, a distributed architecture using sliding mode (SM controller utilizing low bandwidth communication is proposed for DC microgrids in this paper. The main advantages are high reliability, load power sharing, and precise voltage regulation. Further, the SM controller shows high robustness, fast dynamic response, and good stability for large load variations. To analyze the stability and dynamic performance, a system model is developed and its transversality, reachability, and equivalent control conditions are verified. Furthermore, the dynamic behavior of the modeled system is investigated for underdamped and critically damped responses. Detailed simulations are carried out to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

A GPS-Based Control Method for Load Sharing and Power Quality Improvement in Microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Golsorkhi, Mohammad; Lu, Dylan; Savaghebi, Mehdi

2016-01-01

This paper proposes a novel control method for accurate sharing of load current among the Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and high power quality operating in islanded ac microgrids. This control scheme is based on hierarchical structure comprising of decentralized primary controllers and a cen....... The secondary controller produces compensation signals at fundamental and dominant harmonics to improve the voltage quality at a sensitive load bus. Experimental results are presented to validate the efficacy of the proposed method.......This paper proposes a novel control method for accurate sharing of load current among the Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and high power quality operating in islanded ac microgrids. This control scheme is based on hierarchical structure comprising of decentralized primary controllers...

Planetary Load Sharing in Three-Point- Mounted Wind Turbine Gearboxes: Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Guo, Yi [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Keller, Jonathan A [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-09-15

Wind turbine gearboxes do not achieve their expected design life. The cost of gearbox replacements and rebuilds and the downtime associated with these failures increase the cost of wind energy. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Energy established the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Gearbox Reliability Collaborative (GRC). Its goals are to understand the root causes of premature gearbox failures and improve their reliability. To date, the GRC has focused on a 750-kW drivetrain with a three-stage, three-point-mounted gearbox. A nonproprietary version of the gearbox containing CRBs with C3 clearances in the planetary stage was customized. Two of these gearboxes, GB1 and GB2, were manufactured and then tested in the National Wind Technology Center's 2.5-MW dynamometer and in the field. Major GRC findings include the detrimental effect of rotor moments on planetary load sharing and predicted fatigue, and the risk of bearing sliding in low-torque conditions for three-point configuration drivetrains. Based on the knowledge gained from testing and analysis of the original design, the GRC gearbox was redesigned to improve its load-sharing characteristics and predicted fatigue. This new gearbox is named GB3. As shown in Figure 1, its key improvement is the incorporation of preloaded TRBs that support the planet carrier and planets. Roller loads can be optimized and bearing life maximized with a small preload [4]. These preloaded bearings, along with interference-fitted planet pins, improve alignments and load-sharing characteristics. A semi-integrated planet bearing design also increases capacity and eliminates outer race fretting. Romax Technology, with Powertrain Engineers and the Timken Company (Timken), completed the redesign. Timken manufactured and instrumented the planet gears and bearings. Brad Foote Gearing manufactured the other gearing and assembled the gearbox.

Time-dependent fiber bundles with local load sharing. II. General Weibull fibers.

Science.gov (United States)

Phoenix, S Leigh; Newman, William I

2009-12-01

Fiber bundle models (FBMs) are useful tools in understanding failure processes in a variety of material systems. While the fibers and load sharing assumptions are easily described, FBM analysis is typically difficult. Monte Carlo methods are also hampered by the severe computational demands of large bundle sizes, which overwhelm just as behavior relevant to real materials starts to emerge. For large size scales, interest continues in idealized FBMs that assume either equal load sharing (ELS) or local load sharing (LLS) among fibers, rules that reflect features of real load redistribution in elastic lattices. The present work focuses on a one-dimensional bundle of N fibers under LLS where life consumption in a fiber follows a power law in its load, with exponent rho , and integrated over time. This life consumption function is further embodied in a functional form resulting in a Weibull distribution for lifetime under constant fiber stress and with Weibull exponent, beta. Thus the failure rate of a fiber depends on its past load history, except for beta=1 . We develop asymptotic results validated by Monte Carlo simulation using a computational algorithm developed in our previous work [Phys. Rev. E 63, 021507 (2001)] that greatly increases the size, N , of treatable bundles (e.g., 10(6) fibers in 10(3) realizations). In particular, our algorithm is O(N ln N) in contrast with former algorithms which were O(N2) making this investigation possible. Regimes are found for (beta,rho) pairs that yield contrasting behavior for large N. For rho>1 and large N, brittle weakest volume behavior emerges in terms of characteristic elements (groupings of fibers) derived from critical cluster formation, and the lifetime eventually goes to zero as N-->infinity , unlike ELS, which yields a finite limiting mean. For 1/21 but with 0

Conditional load and store in a shared memory

Science.gov (United States)

Blumrich, Matthias A; Ohmacht, Martin

2015-02-03

A method, system and computer program product for implementing load-reserve and store-conditional instructions in a multi-processor computing system. The computing system includes a multitude of processor units and a shared memory cache, and each of the processor units has access to the memory cache. In one embodiment, the method comprises providing the memory cache with a series of reservation registers, and storing in these registers addresses reserved in the memory cache for the processor units as a result of issuing load-reserve requests. In this embodiment, when one of the processor units makes a request to store data in the memory cache using a store-conditional request, the reservation registers are checked to determine if an address in the memory cache is reserved for that processor unit. If an address in the memory cache is reserved for that processor, the data are stored at this address.

Research on Multiple-Split Load Sharing Characteristics of 2-Stage External Meshing Star Gear System in Consideration of Displacement Compatibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shuai Mo

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This paper studies the multiple-split load sharing mechanism of gears in two-stage external meshing planetary transmission system of aeroengine. According to the eccentric error, gear tooth thickness error, pitch error, installation error, and bearing manufacturing error, we performed the meshing error analysis of equivalent angles, respectively, and we also considered the floating meshing error caused by the variation of the meshing backlash, which is from the floating of all gears at the same time. Finally, we obtained the comprehensive angle meshing error of the two-stage meshing line, established a refined mathematical computational model of 2-stage external 3-split loading sharing coefficient in consideration of displacement compatibility, got the regular curves of the load sharing coefficient and load sharing characteristic curve of full floating multiple-split and multiple-stage system, and took the variation law of the floating track and the floating quantity of the center wheel. These provide a scientific theory to determine the load sharing coefficient, reasonable load distribution, and control tolerances in aviation design and manufacturing.

Robust transport by multiple motors with nonlinear force–velocity relations and stochastic load sharing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kunwar, Ambarish; Mogilner, Alexander

2010-01-01

Transport by processive molecular motors plays an important role in many cell biological phenomena. In many cases, motors work together to transport cargos in the cell, so it is important to understand the mechanics of the multiple motors. Based on earlier modeling efforts, here we study effects of nonlinear force–velocity relations and stochastic load sharing on multiple motor transport. We find that when two or three motors transport the cargo, then the nonlinear and stochastic effects compensate so that the mechanical properties of the transport are robust. Similarly, the transport is insensitive to compliance of the cargo-motor links. Furthermore, the rate of movement against moderate loads is not improved by increasing the small number of motors. When the motor number is greater than 4, correlations between the motors become negligible, and the earlier analytical mean-field theory of the multiple motor transport holds. We predict that the effective diffusion of the cargo driven by the multiple motors under load increases by an order of magnitude compared to that for the single motor. Finally, our simulations predict that the stochastic effects are responsible for a significant dispersion of velocities generated by the 'tug-of-war' of the multiple opposing motors

Prediction-based dynamic load-sharing heuristics

Science.gov (United States)

Goswami, Kumar K.; Devarakonda, Murthy; Iyer, Ravishankar K.

1993-01-01

The authors present dynamic load-sharing heuristics that use predicted resource requirements of processes to manage workloads in a distributed system. A previously developed statistical pattern-recognition method is employed for resource prediction. While nonprediction-based heuristics depend on a rapidly changing system status, the new heuristics depend on slowly changing program resource usage patterns. Furthermore, prediction-based heuristics can be more effective since they use future requirements rather than just the current system state. Four prediction-based heuristics, two centralized and two distributed, are presented. Using trace driven simulations, they are compared against random scheduling and two effective nonprediction based heuristics. Results show that the prediction-based centralized heuristics achieve up to 30 percent better response times than the nonprediction centralized heuristic, and that the prediction-based distributed heuristics achieve up to 50 percent improvements relative to their nonprediction counterpart.

Optimal task partition and state-dependent loading in heterogeneous two-element work sharing system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Levitin, Gregory; Xing, Liudong; Ben-Haim, Hanoch; Dai, Yuanshun

2016-01-01

Many real-world systems such as multi-channel data communication, multi-path flow transmission and multi-processor computing systems have work sharing attributes where system elements perform different portions of the same task simultaneously. Motivated by these applications, this paper models a heterogeneous work-sharing system with two non-repairable elements. When one element fails, the other element takes over the uncompleted task of the failed element upon finishing its own part; the load level of the remaining operating element can change at the time of the failure, which further affects its performance, failure behavior and operation cost. Considering these dynamics, mission success probability (MSP), expected mission completion time (EMCT) and expected cost of successful mission (ECSM) are first derived. Further, optimization problems are formulated and solved, which find optimal task partition and element load levels maximizing MSP, minimizing EMCT or minimizing ECSM. Effects of element reliability, performance, operation cost on the optimal solutions are also investigated through examples. Results of this work can facilitate a tradeoff analysis of different mission performance indices for heterogeneous work-sharing systems. - Highlights: • A heterogeneous work-sharing system with two non-repairable elements is considered. • The optimal work distribution and element loading problem is formulated and solved. • Effects of element reliability, performance, operation cost on the optimal solutions are investigated.

Load sharing in the growth of bundled biopolymers.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Ruizhe; Carlsson, A E

2014-11-01

To elucidate the nature of load sharing in the growth of multiple biopolymers, we perform stochastic simulations of the growth of biopolymer bundles against obstacles under a broad range of conditions and varying assumptions. The obstacle motion due to thermal fluctuations is treated explicitly. We assume the "Perfect Brownian Ratchet" (PBR) model, in which the polymerization rate equals the free-filament rate as soon as the filament-obstacle distance exceeds the monomer size. Accurate closed-form formulas are obtained for the case of a rapidly moving obstacle. We find the following: (1) load sharing is usually sub-perfect in the sense that polymerization is slower than for a single filament carrying the same average force; (2) the sub-perfect behavior becomes significant at a total force proportional to the logarithm or the square root of the number of filaments, depending on the alignment of the filaments; (3) for the special case of slow barrier diffusion and low opposing force, an enhanced obstacle velocity for an increasing number of filaments is possible; (4) the obstacle velocity is very sensitive to the alignment of the filaments in the bundle, with a staggered alignment being an order of magnitude faster than an unstaggered one at forces of only 0.5 pN per filament for 20 filaments; (5) for large numbers of filaments, the power is maximized at a force well below 1 pN per filament; (6) for intermediate values of the obstacle diffusion coefficient, the shape of the force velocity relation is very similar to that for rapid obstacle diffusion.

Investigation of Load Sharing in Hybrid (2G/3G) Mobile Networks

OpenAIRE

Martynas Stirbys; Karolis Žvinys

2015-01-01

The main purpose of this work is to investigate load sharing methods for 2G/3G cellular networks in order to determine their impact on the network and users. One of the study aims is to analyze the performance of the methods. Moreover the paper provides an overview of the methods circumstances, limitations. Directed Retry and Load Based Handover methods were chosen. Data was obtained from real Lithuanian mobile operator’s network. The paper also discusses the changes in Key Performance Indica...

Investigation of Load Sharing in Hybrid (2G/3G Mobile Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martynas Stirbys

2015-07-01

Full Text Available The main purpose of this work is to investigate load sharing methods for 2G/3G cellular networks in order to determine their impact on the network and users. One of the study aims is to analyze the performance of the methods. Moreover the paper provides an overview of the methods circumstances, limitations. Directed Retry and Load Based Handover methods were chosen. Data was obtained from real Lithuanian mobile operator’s network. The paper also discusses the changes in Key Performance Indicators.

Active load current sharing in fuel cell and battery fed DC motor drive for electric vehicle application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pany, Premananda; Singh, R.K.; Tripathi, R.K.

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Load current sharing in FC and battery fed dc drive. • Active current sharing control using LabVIEW. • Detail hardware implementation. • Controller performance is verified through MATLAB simulation and experimental results. - Abstract: In order to reduce the stress on fuel cell based hybrid source fed electric drive system the controller design is made through active current sharing (ACS) technique. The effectiveness of the proposed ACS technique is tested on a dc drive system fed from fuel cell and battery energy sources which enables both load current sharing and source power management. High efficiency and reliability of the hybrid system can be achieved by proper energy conversion and management of power to meet the load demand in terms of required voltage and current. To overcome the slow dynamics feature of FC, a battery bank of adequate power capacity has to be incorporated as FC voltage drops heavily during fast load demand. The controller allows fuel cell to operate in normal load region and draw the excess power from battery. In order to demonstrate the performance of the drive using ACS control strategy different modes of operation of the hybrid source with the static and dynamic behavior of the control system is verified through simulation and experimental results. This control scheme is implemented digitally in LabVIEW with PCI 6251 DAQ I/O interface card. The efficacy of the controller performance is demonstrated in system changing condition supplemented by experimental validation.

Circuit for automatic load sharing in parallel converter modules

Science.gov (United States)

Nagano, S. (Inventor)

1979-01-01

A nondissipative circuit for automatic load sharing in parallel converter modules having push-pull power transistors is presented. Each transistor has a separate current-sensing transformer and an impedance-adjusting transformer in series with its collector. The impedance-adjusting transformer functions as a current-controlled variable impedance that is responsive to the difference between the peak collector current of the transistor and the average peak current of all collector currents of power transistors in all modules, thereby to control the collector currents of all power transistors with reference to the average peak collector current.

The Comprehensive Biomechanics and Load-Sharing of Semirigid PEEK and Semirigid Posterior Dynamic Stabilization Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. K. Sengupta

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Alternatives to conventional rigid fusion have been proposed for several conditions related to degenerative disc disease when nonoperative treatment has failed. Semirigid fixation, in the form of dynamic stabilization or PEEK rods, is expected to provide compression under loading as well as an intermediate level of stabilization. This study systematically examines both the load-sharing characteristics and kinematics of these two devices compared to the standard of internal rigid fixators. Load-sharing was studied by using digital pressure films inserted between an artificially machined disc and two loading fixtures. Rigid rods, PEEK rods, and the dynamic stabilization system were inserted posteriorly for stabilization. The kinematics were quantified on ten, human, cadaver lumbosacral spines (L3-S1 which were tested under a pure bending moment, in flexion-extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation. The magnitude of load transmission through the anterior column was significantly greater with the dynamic device compared to PEEK rods and rigid rods. The contact pressures were distributed more uniformly, throughout the disc with the dynamic stabilization devices, and had smaller maximum point-loading (pressures on any particular point within the disc. Kinematically, the motion was reduced by both semirigid devices similarly in all directions, with slight rigidity imparted by a lateral interbody device.

Decentralized Load Sharing in a Low-Voltage Direct Current Microgrid With an Adaptive Droop Approach Based on a Superimposed Frequency

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Peyghami, Saeed; Mokhtari, Hossein; Blaabjerg, Frede

2017-01-01

Conventional droop methods for load sharing control in low-voltage direct current microgrids suffer from poor power sharing and voltage regulation, especially in the case when operating many dc sources with long feeders. Hence, the communication-based approaches are employed to improve the load s...

Comparison of the load-sharing characteristics between pedicle-based dynamic and rigid rod devices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahn, Yoon-Ho; Chen, W-M; Lee, Kwon-Yong; Park, Kyung-Woo; Lee, Sung-Jae

2008-01-01

Recently, numerous types of posterior dynamic stabilization (PDS) devices have been introduced as an alternative to the fusion devices for the surgical treatment of degenerative lumbar spine. It is hypothesized that the use of 'compliant' materials such as Nitinol (Ni-Ti alloy, elastic modulus = 75 GPa) or polyether-etherketone (PEEK, elastic modulus = 3.2 GPa) in PDS can restore stability of the lumbar spine without adverse stress-shielding effects that have often been found with 'rigid' fusion devices made of 'rigid' Ti alloys (elastic modulus = 114 GPa). Previous studies have shown that suitably designed PDS devices made of more compliant material may be able to help retain kinematic behavior of the normal spine with optimal load sharing between the anterior and posterior spinal elements. However, only a few studies on their biomechanical efficacies are available. In this study, we conducted a finite-element (FE) study to investigate changes in load-sharing characteristics of PDS devices. The implanted models were constructed after modifying the previously validated intact model of L3-4 spine. Posterior lumbar fusion with three different types of pedicle screw systems was simulated: a conventional rigid fixation system (Ti6Al4V, Φ = 6.0 mm) and two kinds of PDS devices (one with Nitinol rod with a three-coiled turn manner, Φ = 4.0 mm; the other with PEEK rod with a uniform cylindrical shape, Φ = 6.0 mm). To simulate the load on the lumbar spine in a neutral posture, an axial compressive load (400 N) was applied. Subsequently, the changes in load-sharing characteristics and stresses were investigated. When the compressive load was applied on the implanted models (Nitinol rod, PEEK rod, Ti-alloy rod), the predicted axial compressive loads transmitted through the devices were 141.8 N, 109.8 N and 266.8 N, respectively. Axial forces across the PDS devices (Nitinol rod, PEEK rod) and rigid system (Ti-alloy rod) with facet joints were predicted to take over 41%, 33

Optimized load sharing control by means of thermal reliability management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nesgaard, Carsten; Andersen, Michael Andreas E.

2004-01-01

time and system cost. However, due to non-ideal parts each converter unit deviates from the ideal case, which makes a power system comprised of parallel-connected converters a rather poor performing system. To account for the non-ideal parts some form of load sharing is needed, whereby it is ensured......With new applications for high-current low-output voltage power systems emerging nearly every day the need for new and cost-efficient power system designs is a matter of course. As output voltage levels continue to decrease an approach that seems more and more attractive is the implementation...... that each converter in the configuration delivers its share of the total output power. In other words parallel-operation of multiple converters is employed when specifications require a highly reliable system, designable within a very short time frame and at low costs. However, to make full use...

Decentralized Method for Load Sharing and Power Management in a PV/Battery Hybrid Source Islanded Microgrid

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karimi, Yaser; Oraee, Hashem; Golsorkhi, Mohammad

2017-01-01

This paper proposes a new decentralized power management and load sharing method for a photovoltaic based islanded microgrid consisting of various PV units, battery units and hybrid PV/battery units. Unlike the previous methods in the literature, there is no need to communication among the units......, the operation of each unit is divided into five states and modified active power-frequency droop functions are used according to operating states. The frequency level is used as trigger for switching between the states. Efficacy of the proposed method in different load, PV generation and battery conditions...... and the proposed method is not limited to the systems with separate PV and battery units or systems with only one hybrid unit. The proposed method takes into account the available PV power and battery conditions of the units to share the load among them. To cover all possible conditions of the microgrid...

Influence of inclination angles on intra- and inter-limb load-sharing during uphill walking.

Science.gov (United States)

Hong, Shih-Wun; Leu, Tsai-Hsueh; Li, Jia-Da; Wang, Ting-Ming; Ho, Wei-Ping; Lu, Tung-Wu

2014-01-01

Uphill walking is an inevitable part of daily living, placing more challenges on the locomotor system with greater risk of falls than level walking does. The current study aimed to investigate the effects of inclination angles on the inter-joint and inter-limb load-sharing during uphill walking in terms of total support moment and contributions of individual joint moments to the total support moment. Fifteen young adults walked up walkways with 0°, 5°, 10° and 15° of slope while kinematic and kinetic data were collected and analyzed. With increasing inclination angles, the first peak of the total support moment was increased with unaltered individual joint contributions, suggesting an unaltered inter-joint control pattern in the leading limb to meet the increased demands. The second peak of the total support moment remained unchanged with increasing inclination angles primarily through a compensatory redistribution of the hip and knee moments. During DLS, the leading limb shared the majority of the whole body support moments. The current results reveal basic intra- and inter-limb load-sharing patterns of uphill walking, which will be helpful for a better understanding of the control strategies adopted and for subsequent clinical applications. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effect of elbow angle and external moment on load sharing of elbow muscles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Praagman, M.; Chadwick, E.K.J.; van der Helm, F.C.T.; Veeger, H.E.J.

2010-01-01

To study elbow muscle load sharing we investigated the effect of external flexion-extension (FE) and pronation-supination (PS) moments and elbow angle on muscle activation and oxygen consumption (V̇O2).Two data sets were obtained. First, (n=6) electromyography (EMG) of elbow flexors (long and short

Biomechanical validation of load-sharing rip-stop fixation for the repair of tissue-deficient rotator cuff tears.

Science.gov (United States)

Burkhart, Stephen S; Denard, Patrick J; Konicek, John; Hanypsiak, Bryan T

2014-02-01

Poor-quality tendon is one of the most difficult problems the surgeon must overcome in achieving secure fixation during rotator cuff repair. A load-sharing rip-stop construct (LSRS) has recently been proposed as a method for improving fixation strength, but the biomechanical properties of this construct have not yet been examined. To compare the strength of the LSRS construct to that of single-row fixation for rotator cuff repair. Controlled laboratory study. Rotator cuff tears were created in 6 cadaveric matched-pair specimens and repaired with a single row or an LSRS. In the LSRS repair, a 2-mm suture tape was placed as an inverted mattress stitch in the rotator cuff, and sutures from 2 anchors were placed as simple stitches that passed medial to the suture tape. The suture tape limbs were secured with knotless anchors laterally before sutures were tied from the medial anchors. Displacement was observed with video tracking after cyclic loading, and specimens were loaded to failure. The mean load to failure was 371 ± 102 N in single-row repairs compared with 616 ± 185 N in LSRS repairs (P = .031). There was no difference in displacement with cyclic loading between the groups (3.3 ± 0.8 mm vs. 3.5 ± 1.1 mm; P = .561). In the single-row group, 4 of 6 failures occurred at the suture-tendon interface. In the LSRS group, only 1 failure occurred at the suture-tendon interface. The ultimate failure load of the LSRS construct for rotator cuff repair was 1.7 times that of a single-row construct in a cadaveric model. The LSRS rotator cuff repair construct may be useful in the repair of difficult tears such as massive tears, medial tears, and tears with tendon loss.

Load sharing in distributed real-time systems with state-change broadcasts

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Kang G.; Chang, Yi-Chieh

1989-01-01

A decentralized dynamic load-sharing (LS) method based on state-change broadcasts is proposed for a distributed real-time system. Whenever the state of a node changes from underloaded to fully loaded and vice versa, the node broadcasts this change to a set of nodes, called a buddy set, in the system. The performance of the method is evaluated with both analytic modeling and simulation. It is modeled first by an embedded Markov chain for which numerical solutions are derived. The model solutions are then used to calculate the distribution of queue lengths at the nodes and the probability of meeting task deadlines. The analytical results show that buddy sets of 10 nodes outperform those of less than 10 nodes, and the incremental benefit gained from increasing the buddy set size beyond 15 nodes is insignificant. These and other analytical results are verified by simulation. The proposed LS method is shown to meet task deadlines with a very high probability.

An Enhanced Instantaneous Circulating Current Control for Reactive power and Harmonic Load Sharing in Islanded Microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lorzadeh, Iman; Askarian Abyaneh, Hossein; Savaghebi, Mehdi

2017-01-01

To address inaccurate load demand sharing problems among parallel inverter-interfaced voltage-controlled distributed generation (DG) units in islanded microgrids with different DG power ratings and mismatched feeder impedances, an enhanced voltage control scheme based on actively compensation of ...

Active load sharing technique for on-line efficiency optimization in DC microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sanseverino, E. Riva; Zizzo, G.; Boscaino, V.

2017-01-01

Recently, DC power distribution is gaining more and more importance over its AC counterpart achieving increased efficiency, greater flexibility, reduced volumes and capital cost. In this paper, a 24-120-325V two-level DC distribution system for home appliances, each including three parallel DC......-DC converters, is modeled. An active load sharing technique is proposed for the on-line optimization of the global efficiency of the DC distribution network. The algorithm aims at the instantaneous efficiency optimization of the whole DC network, based on the on-line load current sampling. A Look Up Table......, is created to store the real efficiencies of the converters taking into account components tolerances. A MATLAB/Simulink model of the DC distribution network has been set up and a Genetic Algorithm has been employed for the global efficiency optimization. Simulation results are shown to validate the proposed...

Effect of perceptual load on conceptual processing: an extension of Vermeulen's theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Xie, Jiushu; Wang, Ruiming; Sun, Xun; Chang, Song

2013-10-01

The effect of color and shape load on conceptual processing was studied. Perceptual load effects have been found in visual and auditory conceptual processing, supporting the theory of embodied cognition. However, whether different types of visual concepts, such as color and shape, share the same perceptual load effects is unknown. In the current experiment, 32 participants were administered simultaneous perceptual and conceptual tasks to assess the relation between perceptual load and conceptual processing. Keeping color load in mind obstructed color conceptual processing. Hence, perceptual processing and conceptual load shared the same resources, suggesting embodied cognition. Color conceptual processing was not affected by shape pictures, indicating that different types of properties within vision were separate.

Control of thumb force using surface functional electrical stimulation and muscle load sharing

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Background Stroke survivors often have difficulties in manipulating objects with their affected hand. Thumb control plays an important role in object manipulation. Surface functional electrical stimulation (FES) can assist movement. We aim to control the 2D thumb force by predicting the sum of individual muscle forces, described by a sigmoidal muscle recruitment curve and a single force direction. Methods Five able bodied subjects and five stroke subjects were strapped in a custom built setup. The forces perpendicular to the thumb in response to FES applied to three thumb muscles were measured. We evaluated the feasibility of using recruitment curve based force vector maps in predicting output forces. In addition, we developed a closed loop force controller. Load sharing between the three muscles was used to solve the redundancy problem having three actuators to control forces in two dimensions. The thumb force was controlled towards target forces of 0.5 N and 1.0 N in multiple directions within the individual’s thumb work space. Hereby, the possibilities to use these force vector maps and the load sharing approach in feed forward and feedback force control were explored. Results The force vector prediction of the obtained model had small RMS errors with respect to the actual measured force vectors (0.22±0.17 N for the healthy subjects; 0.17±0.13 N for the stroke subjects). The stroke subjects showed a limited work range due to limited force production of the individual muscles. Performance of feed forward control without feedback, was better in healthy subjects than in stroke subjects. However, when feedback control was added performances were similar between the two groups. Feedback force control lead, especially for the stroke subjects, to a reduction in stationary errors, which improved performance. Conclusions Thumb muscle responses to FES can be described by a single force direction and a sigmoidal recruitment curve. Force in desired direction can be

Distributed Control to Ensure Proportional Load Sharing and Improve Voltage Regulation in Low-Voltage DC Microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Anand, Sandeep; G. Fernandes, Baylon; Guerrero, Josep M.

2013-01-01

DC microgrids are gaining popularity due to high efficiency, high reliability, and easy interconnection of renewable sources as compared to the ac system. Control objectives of dc microgrid are: 1) to ensure equal load sharing (in per unit) among sources; and 2) to maintain low-voltage regulation...

Functionalized PLA polymers to control loading and/or release properties of drug-loaded nanoparticles.

Science.gov (United States)

Thauvin, Cédric; Schwarz, Bettina; Delie, Florence; Allémann, Eric

2017-11-15

Advantages associated with the use of polylactic acid (PLA) nano- or microparticles as drug delivery systems have been widely proven in the field of pharmaceutical sciences. These biodegradable and biocompatible carriers have demonstrated different loading and release properties depending on interactions with the cargo, preparation methods, particles size or molecular weight of PLA. In this study, we sought to show the possibility of influencing these properties by modifying the structure of the constituting polymer. Seven non-functionalized or functionalized PLA polymers were specifically designed and synthesized by microwave-assisted ring-opening polymerization of d,l-lactide. They presented short hydrophobic and/or hydrophilic groups thanks to the use of C20 aliphatic chain, mPEG1000, sorbitan esters (Spans ® ) or polysorbates (Tweens ® ), their PEGylated analogues, as initiators. Then, seven types of drug-loaded nanoparticles (NP) were prepared from these polymers and compared in terms of physico-chemical characteristics, drug loading and release profiles. Although the loading properties were not improved with any of the functionalized PLA NP, different release profiles were observed in an aqueous medium at 37 °C and over a period of five days. The presence of PEG moieties in the core of PLA-polysorbates NP induced a faster release while the addition of a single aliphatic chain induced a slower release due to better interactions with the active molecule. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In vitro evaluation of stiffness and load sharing in a two-level corpectomy: comparison of static and dynamic cervical plates.

Science.gov (United States)

Fogel, Guy R; Li, Zhenyu; Liu, Weiqiang; Liao, Zhenhua; Wu, Jia; Zhou, Wenyu

2010-05-01

Anterior cervical plating has been accepted in corpectomy and fusion of the cervical spine. Constrained plates were criticized for stress shielding that may lead to subsidence and pseudarthrosis. A dynamic plate allows load sharing as the graft subsides. Ideally, the dynamic plate design should maintain adequate stiffness of the construct while providing a reasonable load sharing with the strut graft. The purpose of the study was to compare dynamic and static plate kinematics with graft subsidence. The study designed was an in vitro biomechanical study in a porcine cervical spine model. Twelve spines were initially tested in intact condition with 20-N axial load in 15 degrees of flexion and extension range of motion (ROM). Then, a two-level corpectomy was created in all specimens with spines randomized to receive either a static or dynamic plate. The spines were retested under identical conditions with optimal length and undersized graft. Range of motion and graft loading were analyzed with a one-way analysis of variance (p<.05). Both plates significantly limited ROM compared with the intact spine in both graft length conditions. In extension graft, load was significantly higher (p=.001) in the static plate with optimal length, and in flexion, there was a significant loss of graft load (p=.0004). In flexion, the dynamic plate with undersized graft demonstrated significantly more load sustained (p=.0004). Both plates reasonably limited the ROM of the corpectomy. The static plate had significantly higher graft loads in extension and significant loss of graft load in flexion, whereas the dynamic plate maintained a reasonable graft load in ROM even when graft contact was imperfect. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Materials properties, loads, and stress analysis, Spartan REM: Appendix A

Science.gov (United States)

Marlowe, D. S.; West, E. J.

1984-01-01

The mechanical properties, load tests, and stress analysis of the Spartan Release Engagement Mechanism (REM) is presented. The fracture properties of the components of the unit are also discussed. Detailed engineering drawings are included.

Automatic load sharing in inverter modules

Science.gov (United States)

Nagano, S.

1979-01-01

Active feedback loads transistor equally with little power loss. Circuit is suitable for balancing modular inverters in spacecraft, computer power supplies, solar-electric power generators, and electric vehicles. Current-balancing circuit senses differences between collector current for power transistor and average value of load currents for all power transistors. Principle is effective not only in fixed duty-cycle inverters but also in converters operating at variable duty cycles.

Filament wound pressure vessels with load sharing liners for space shuttle orbiter applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ecord, G.M.

1976-01-01

Early in the development of orbiter propulsion and environmental control subsystems it was recognized that use of overwrapped pressure vessels with load sharing liners may provide significant weight savings for high pressure gas containment. A program is described which was undertaken by Rockwell International to assess the utility for orbiter applications of titanium 6Al--4V and Inconel 718 liners overwrapped with Kevlar fibers. Also briefly described are programs administered by the NASA Lewis Research Center to evaluate cryoformed steel liners overwrapped with Kevlar fibers and to establish a method that can guarantee cyclic life of the vessels

Enhanced Load Power Sharing Accuracy in Droop-Controlled DC Microgrids with Both Mesh and Radial Configurations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yiqi Liu

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The rational power sharing among different interface converters should be determined by the converter capacity. In order to guarantee that each converter operates at the ideal condition, considering the radial and mesh configuration, a modified strategy for load power sharing accuracy enhancement in droop-controlled DC microgrid is proposed in this paper. Two compensating terms which include averaging output power control and averaging DC voltage control of neighboring converters are employed. Since only the information of the neighboring converter is used, the complexity of the communication network can be reduced. The rational distribution of load power for different line resistance conditions is realized by using modified droop control that can be regarded as a distributed approach. Low bandwidth communication is used for exchanging sampled information between different converters. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method for different network configurations and line resistances under different communication delay is analyzed in detail. Simulation results derived from a DC microgrid with three converters is implemented in MATLAB/Simulink to verify the proposed approach. Experimental results from a 3 × 10 kW prototype also show the performance of the proposed modified droop control scheme.

Load sharing with a local thermal network fed by a microcogenerator: Thermo-economic optimization by means of dynamic simulations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angrisani, Giovanni; Canelli, Michele; Rosato, Antonio; Roselli, Carlo; Sasso, Maurizio; Sibilio, Sergio

2014-01-01

The cogeneration is the combined production of electric and/or mechanical and thermal energy starting by a single energy source; in particular in this paper the analysis will be focused on a cogeneration system with electric power lower than 15 kW (micro-cogeneration). The paper analyzes a system consisting of a natural gas-fired micro-cogeneration unit (MCHP), a heat storage and a peak boiler. The system provides thermal and electric energy to two end-users, the former is a tertiary building (office), where the generation system is located, and the latter is a residential building connected to the former through a district heating micro-grid. In order to analyze the influence of climatic conditions, two different geographical locations in Italy (Benevento and Milano) are considered, that are also characterized by different natural gas and electricity tariffs. Particular attention is paid to the choice of the users, in order to obtain more stable and continuous electric and thermal loads (load sharing approach) and to increase the operating hours per year of the MCHP unit. The operation of the MCHP is governed by a control system, aimed to optimize a thermo-economic objective function. The models representing the components, the thermo-economic objective function and the buildings have been implemented in a widely used commercial software for building simulations. The models are calibrated and validated through data obtained from experimental tests carried out in the laboratory of the University of Sannio (Benevento). The results of the simulations highlight the potential benefits of the thermal load sharing approach. In particular, this study shows that an MCHP unit connected by means of a thermal micro-grid to different users in “load sharing mode” can obtain a high number of operating hours as well as significant energy (Primary Energy Saving) and environmental (avoided CO 2 equivalent emissions) benefits with respect to an appropriate reference system

Study on Mechanical Properties of Barite Concrete under Impact Load

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Z. F.; Cheng, K.; Wu, D.; Gan, Y. C.; Tao, Q. W.

2018-03-01

In order to research the mechanical properties of Barite concrete under impact load, a group of concrete compression tests was carried out under the impact load by using the drop test machine. A high-speed camera was used to record the failure process of the specimen during the impact process. The test results show that:with the increase of drop height, the loading rate, the peak load, the strain under peak load, the strain rate and the dynamic increase factor (DIF) all increase gradually. The ultimate tensile strain is close to each other, and the time of impact force decreases significantly, showing significant strain rate effect.

Kinematics and load-sharing of an anterior thoracolumbar spinal reconstruction construct with PEEK rods: An in vitro biomechanical study.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Ruozhou; Huang, Zhiping; Liu, Xiang; Tong, Jie; Ji, Wei; Liu, Sheting; Zhu, Qingan

2016-12-01

Polyetheretherketone rod constructs provide adequate spinal stability. Kinematics and load sharing of anterior thoracolumbar reconstruction with polyetheretherketone rods under preload remains unknown. Eight human cadaveric specimens (T11-L3) were subjected to a pure moment of 5.0Nm in flexion-extension, lateral bending and axial rotation, and flexion-extension with a compressive preload of 300N. An anterior reconstruction of L1 corpectomy was conducted with a surrogate bone graft and anterior rod constructs (polyetheretherketone or titanium rods). An axial load-cell was built in the surrogate bone graft to measure the compressive force in the graft. Range of motion, neutral zone and compressive force in the graft were compared between constructs. The polyetheretherketone rod construct resulted in more motion than the titanium rod construct, particularly in extension (P=0.011) and axial rotation (P=0.001), but less motion than the intact in all directions except in axial rotation. There was no difference in range of motion or neutral zone between constructs in flexion-extension under preload. The polyetheretherketone rod construct kept the graft compressed 52N which was similar to the titanium rod construct (63N), but allowed the graft compressed more under the preload (203N vs. 123N, P=0.003). The compressive forces fluctuated in flexion-extension without preload, but increased in flexion and decreased in extension under preload. The polyetheretherketone rod construct allowed more motion compared to the titanium rod construct, but provided stability in flexion and lateral bending without preload, and flexion and extension under preload. The anterior graft shared higher load under preload, particularly for the polyetheretherketone rod construct. The results of this study suggest that rigidity of rods in the anterior reconstruction affects kinematic behavior and load sharing. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decentralized method for load sharing and power management in a hybrid single/three-phase islanded microgrid consisting of hybrid source PV/battery units

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karimi, Yaser; Guerrero, Josep M.; Oraee, Hashem

2016-01-01

This paper proposes a new decentralized power management and load sharing method for a photovoltaic based, hybrid single/three-phase islanded microgrid consisting of various PV units, battery units and hybrid PV/battery units. The proposed method takes into account the available PV power...... and battery conditions of the units to share the load among them and power flow among different phases is performed automatically through three-phase units. Modified active power-frequency droop functions are used according to operating states of each unit and the frequency level is used as trigger...... for switching between the states. Efficacy of the proposed method in different load, PV generation and battery conditions is validated experimentally in a microgrid lab prototype consisted of one three-phase unit and two single-phase units....

Mechanical properties of stanene under uniaxial and biaxial loading: A molecular dynamics study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mojumder, Satyajit [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka 1000 (Bangladesh); Amin, Abdullah Al [Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case western Reverse University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106 (United States); Islam, Md Mahbubul, E-mail: mmi122@psu.edu [Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 (United States)

2015-09-28

Stanene, a graphene like two dimensional honeycomb structure of tin has attractive features in electronics application. In this study, we performed molecular dynamics simulations using modified embedded atom method potential to investigate mechanical properties of stanene. We studied the effect of temperature and strain rate on mechanical properties of α-stanene for both uniaxial and biaxial loading conditions. Our study suggests that with the increasing temperature, both the fracture strength and strain of the stanene decrease. Uniaxial loading in zigzag direction shows higher fracture strength and strain compared to the armchair direction, while no noticeable variation in the mechanical properties is observed for biaxial loading. We also found at a higher loading rate, material exhibits higher fracture strength and strain. These results will aid further investigation of stanene as a potential nano-electronics substitute.

Synchronization properties of coupled chaotic neurons: The role of random shared input

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumar, Rupesh; Bilal, Shakir; Ramaswamy, Ram

2016-01-01

Spike-time correlations of neighbouring neurons depend on their intrinsic firing properties as well as on the inputs they share. Studies have shown that periodically firing neurons, when subjected to random shared input, exhibit asynchronicity. Here, we study the effect of random shared input on the synchronization of weakly coupled chaotic neurons. The cases of so-called electrical and chemical coupling are both considered, and we observe a wide range of synchronization behaviour. When subjected to identical shared random input, there is a decrease in the threshold coupling strength needed for chaotic neurons to synchronize in-phase. The system also supports lag–synchronous states, and for these, we find that shared input can cause desynchronization. We carry out a master stability function analysis for a network of such neurons and show agreement with the numerical simulations. The contrasting role of shared random input for complete and lag synchronized neurons is useful in understanding spike-time correlations observed in many areas of the brain.

Synchronization properties of coupled chaotic neurons: The role of random shared input

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kumar, Rupesh [School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067 (India); Bilal, Shakir [Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007 (India); Ramaswamy, Ram [School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067 (India); School of Physical Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067 (India)

2016-06-15

Spike-time correlations of neighbouring neurons depend on their intrinsic firing properties as well as on the inputs they share. Studies have shown that periodically firing neurons, when subjected to random shared input, exhibit asynchronicity. Here, we study the effect of random shared input on the synchronization of weakly coupled chaotic neurons. The cases of so-called electrical and chemical coupling are both considered, and we observe a wide range of synchronization behaviour. When subjected to identical shared random input, there is a decrease in the threshold coupling strength needed for chaotic neurons to synchronize in-phase. The system also supports lag–synchronous states, and for these, we find that shared input can cause desynchronization. We carry out a master stability function analysis for a network of such neurons and show agreement with the numerical simulations. The contrasting role of shared random input for complete and lag synchronized neurons is useful in understanding spike-time correlations observed in many areas of the brain.

Stability, Power Sharing, & Distributed Secondary Control in Droop-Controlled Microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simpson-Porco, John; Dorfler, Florian; Bullo, Francesco

2013-01-01

Motivated by the recent and growing interest in microgrids, we study the operation of droop-controlled DC/AC inverters in an islanded inductive microgrid. We present a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a synchronized steady state that is unique and locally exponentially stable....... We discuss a selection of controller gains which leads to a sharing of power among the generators, and show that this proportional selection enforces actuation constraints for the inverters. Moreover, we propose a distributed integral controller based on averaging algorithms which dynamically...... regulates the system frequency in the presence of a time-varying load. Remarkably, this distributed-averaging integral controller has the additional property that it maintains the power sharing properties of the primary droop controller. Finally, we present experimental results validating our controller...

An investigation into the role of listed property shares in a retirement fund portfolio in South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mkhethwa Mkhize

2011-04-01

Full Text Available The main aim of this research paper was to investigate the role of listed property shares in a retirement fund portfolio in South Africa, one objective being to determine the appropriate weightings to be allocated to listed property shares. This research paper uses data collected from January 1995 to December 2004. The Elton and Gruber computer programme is used to test the data to give optimal weightings to the listed property sector and to produce an efficient frontier. The results of this research paper demonstrated the benefits offered by listed property shares and revealed that the sector should be treated as a separate asset class from equity owing to low correlation of returns between these two classes of assets. Results also demonstrated that an increase in the allocation to the listed property sector results in better investment performance over the study period.

Effect of loading orientations on the microstructure and property of Al−Cu single crystal during stress aging

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Jiqiang [School of Material Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083 (China); Chen, Zhiguo, E-mail: zgchen@mail.csu.edu.cn [School of Material Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083 (China); Hunan University of Humanities, Science and Technology, Loudi 417000 (China); Deng, Yunlai [School of Material Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083 (China); State Key Laboratory of High Performance and Complex Manufacturing, Central South University, Changsha 410083 (China); Guo, Xiaobin; Ren, Jieke [School of Material Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083 (China)

2016-07-15

The precipitation behavior and property of Al−Cu alloy during stress aging under various loading orientations were investigated using single crystals. The resulting microstructures and the strength property were examined by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and compression test, respectively, and the effect of the distribution of θ′-plates on strength property were discussed. The results show that the precipitation distribution of θ′ was significantly affected by the loading orientation during stress aging of Al−Cu single crystals. Loading along close to 〈011〉{sub Al} directions provided more uniform precipitation distribution of θ′ as compared to loading along close to 〈001〉{sub Al} directions, and therefore provided higher strengthening stress of the θ′-plates for the stress aging sample. The results suggested that regulating the distribution of θ′ and therefore improving strength property are possible via controlling the loading orientation during stress aging. - Highlights: • We studied the effect of loading directions on stress aging of Al−Cu single crystal. • Precipitation distribution of θ′ was noticeably affected by the loading direction. • Loading along close to 〈011〉{sub Al} directions reduced the stress-orienting effect. • The strength property is closely related to the precipitation distribution of θ′. • It is possible to regulate the distribution of θ′ and improve strength property.

Analysis of Dynamic Properties of Piezoelectric Structure under Impact Load

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taotao Zhang

2015-10-01

Full Text Available An analytical model of the dynamic properties is established for a piezoelectric structure under impact load, without considering noise and perturbations in this paper. Based on the general theory of piezo-elasticity and impact mechanics, the theoretical solutions of the mechanical and electrical fields of the smart structure are obtained with the standing and traveling wave methods, respectively. The comparisons between the two methods have shown that the standing wave method is better for studying long-time response after an impact load. In addition, good agreements are found between the theoretical and the numerical results. To simulate the impact load, both triangle and step pulse loads are used and comparisons are given. Furthermore, the influence of several parameters is discussed so as to provide some advices for practical use. It can be seen that the proposed analytical model would benefit, to some extent, the design and application (especially the airport runway of the related smart devices by taking into account their impact load performance.

Characterization and Design of Zeolite Catalysts Solid Acidity, Shape Selectivity and Loading Properties

CERN Document Server

Niwa, Miki; Okumura, Kazu

2010-01-01

Zeolites are microporous, aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial adsorbents. Zeolite-based catalysts are used by industrial chemical companies in the interconversion of hydrocarbons and the alkylation of aromatic compounds. The current book deals with the characterization of specific properties of Zeolites and calculations for the design of catalysts. Measurements and utilization of solid acidity, shape selectivity, and loading properties, that are three prominent properties of a Zeolite catalyst, are treated in detail. These features concern chemical vapor deposition of silica, shape selectivity, loading properties, solid activity, Brønsted or Lewis character, ammonia temperature programmed desorption, control of the pore-opening size by chemical vapor deposition of silica and XAFS analysis of metals being highly dispersed inside and outside a framework.

Effect of kenaf short fiber loading on mechanical properties of biocomposites

Science.gov (United States)

Andilolo, J.; Nikmatin, S.; Nugroho, N.; Alatas, H.; Wismogroho, A. S.

2017-05-01

The research of biocomposite product with kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) short fiber as a filler and Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) as the matrix had been done to understand the mechanical properties of this material. Kenaf short fiber was obtained from mechanical sieving after doing the mechanical milling. TAPPI method has been done to determine the chemical properties. In order to form a granular biocomposite a single screw extruder was performed with a variation of particle loading 10 and 15%. The original of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) has been used as matrix. The fabrication of speciment had been done by molding injection process. Mechanical properties test was done by ASTM standarization. The results showed the density of the fibers of 1.008 g/cm3 with a fiber length of 897.07 µm and a diameter of 66.38 µm. Tensile strength of kenaf short fiber loading 10 and 15% was 23.522 ± 8.36 MPa and 20.739 ± 6.79 MPa, respectively. The tensile properties showed a decreasing trend as the fiber loading was increased. The values of impact strength were 68.657 ± 4.89 kJ m-2 and 82.090 ± 5.56 kJ m-2, respectively and the hardness values were 96.60 ± 6.03 HR and 105.20 ± 13.17 HR, respectively. Kenaf fiber can be a good reinforcement candidate for high performance polymer bio-composites.

Role of subchondral bone properties and changes in development of load-induced osteoarthritis in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Adebayo, O O; Ko, F C; Wan, P T; Goldring, S R; Goldring, M B; Wright, T M; van der Meulen, M C H

2017-12-01

Animal models recapitulating post-traumatic osteoarthritis (OA) suggest that subchondral bone (SCB) properties and remodeling may play major roles in disease initiation and progression. Thus, we investigated the role of SCB properties and its effects on load-induced OA progression by applying a tibial loading model on two distinct mouse strains treated with alendronate (ALN). Cyclic compression was applied to the left tibia of 26-week-old male C57Bl/6 (B6, low bone mass) and FVB (high bone mass) mice. Mice were treated with ALN (26 μg/kg/day) or vehicle (VEH) for loading durations of 1, 2, or 6 weeks. Changes in articular cartilage and subchondral and epiphyseal cancellous bone were analyzed using histology and microcomputed tomography. FVB mice exhibited thicker cartilage, a thicker SCB plate, and higher epiphyseal cancellous bone mass and tissue mineral density than B6 mice. Loading induced cartilage pathology, osteophyte formation, and SCB changes; however, lower initial SCB mass and stiffness in B6 mice did not attenuate load-induced OA severity compared to FVB mice. By contrast, FVB mice exhibited less cartilage damage, and slower-growing and less mature osteophytes. In B6 mice, inhibiting bone remodeling via ALN treatment exacerbated cartilage pathology after 6 weeks of loading, while in FVB mice, inhibiting bone remodeling protected limbs from load-induced cartilage loss. Intrinsically lower SCB properties were not associated with attenuated load-induced cartilage loss. However, inhibiting bone remodeling produced differential patterns of OA pathology in animals with low compared to high SCB properties, indicating that these factors do influence load-induced OA progression. Copyright © 2017 Osteoarthritis Research Society International. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decentralized Method for Load Sharing and Power Management in a Hybrid Single/Three-Phase-Islanded Microgrid Consisting of Hybrid Source PV/Battery Units

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karimi, Yaser; Oraee, Hashem; Guerrero, Josep M.

2017-01-01

This paper proposes a new decentralized power management and load sharing method for a photovoltaic based, hybrid single/three-phase islanded microgrid consisting of various PV units, battery units and hybrid PV/battery units. The proposed method is not limited to the systems with separate PV...... in different load, PV generation and battery conditions is validated experimentally in a microgrid lab prototype consisted of one three-phase unit and two single-phase units....

Properties and Semicrystalline Structure Evolution of Polypropylene/Montmorillonite Nanocomposites under Mechanical Load

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stribeck, Norbert; Zeinolebadi, Ahmad; Ganjaee Sari, Morteza

2012-01-01

Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) monitors tensile and load-cycling tests of metallocene isotactic polypropylene (PP), a blend of PP and montmorillonite (MMT), and two block copolymer compatibilized PP/MMT nanocomposites. Mechanical properties of the materials are similar, but the semicrystalline......%. Other results concern the evolution of Strobl’s block structure and void formation during tensile loading....

Share opportunity sets and cooperative games

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Caprari, E.; Patrone, F.; Pusillo, L.; Tijs, S.H.; Torre, A.

2008-01-01

In many share problems there is ana priorigiven a natural set of possible divisions to solve the sharing problem. Cooperative games related to such share sets are introduced, which may be helpful in solving share problems. Relations between properties of share sets and properties of games are

Effects of repeated biaxial loads on the creep properties of cardinal ligaments.

Science.gov (United States)

Baah-Dwomoh, Adwoa; De Vita, Raffaella

2017-10-01

The cardinal ligament (CL) is one of the major pelvic ligaments providing structural support to the vagina/cervix/uterus complex. This ligament has been studied mainly with regards to its important function in the treatment of different diseases such as surgical repair for pelvic organ prolapse and radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer. However, the mechanical properties of the CL have not been fully determined, despite the important in vivo supportive role of this ligament within the pelvic floor. To advance our limited knowledge about the elastic and viscoelastic properties of the CL, we conducted three consecutive planar equi-biaxial tests on CL specimens isolated from swine. Specifically, the CL specimens were divided into three groups: specimens in group 1 (n = 7) were loaded equi-biaxially to 1 N, specimens in group 2 (n = 8) were loaded equi-biaxially to 2N, and specimens in group 3 (n = 7) were loaded equi-biaxially to 3N. In each group, the equi-biaxial loads of 1N, 2N, or 3N were applied and kept constant for 1200s three times. The two axial loading directions were selected to be the main in-vivo loading direction of the CL and the direction that is perpendicular to it. Using the digital image correlation (DIC) method, the in-plane Lagrangian strains in these two loading directions were measured throughout the tests. The results showed that CL was elastically anisotropic, as statistical differences were found between the mean strains along the two axial loading directions for specimens in group 1, 2, or 3 when the equi-biaxial load reached 1N, 2N, or 3N, respectively. For specimens in group 1 and 2, no statistical differences were detected in the mean normalized strains (or, equivalently, the increase in strain over time) between the two axial loading directions for each creep test. For specimens in group 3, some differences were noted but, by the end of the 3rd creep test, there were no statistical differences in the mean normalized strains between

Share Opportunity Sets and Cooperative Games

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Caprari, E.; Patrone, F.; Pusillo, L.; Tijs, S.H.; Torre, A.

2006-01-01

In many share problems there is a priori given a natural set of possible divisions to solve the sharing problem.Cooperative games related to such share sets are introduced, which may be helpful in solving share problems.Relations between properties of share sets and properties of games are

Electrical properties of conducting loads produced from polyaniline deposited in natural fibers and nanoclays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kosenhoski, Dirlaine; Saade, Wesley; Pinto, Camila P.; Becker, Daniela; Dalmolin, Carla; Pachekoski, Wagner M.

2015-01-01

Conducting polymers are known for their excellent magnetic and electrical properties, but they still are an expensive and limited choice to their use as a conducting load for composite materials. An alternative to optimize the electrical conductivity of polymeric composites is the deposition of a conducting polymer on materials already used as loads, as the deposition on natural fibers or the encapsulation of polymeric chains in the voids of host structures. In this work, bananastem fiber and montmorillonite nanoclay (MMT) were used as host structures for polyaniline synthesis in order to produce conducting loads. Samples were characterized by FT-IR and X-Rays Diffraction in order to confirm the formation of polyanilina / bananastem fibers or polyanilina / nanoclays loads. Influence on the electrical properties of the composites were evaluated by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), showing the maintenance of the electric conductivity of polyaniline and its potential use as a load for the formation of conducting composites. (author)

Long-term dynamic loading improves the mechanical properties of chondrogenic mesenchymal stem cell-laden hydrogel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

AH Huang

2010-02-01

Full Text Available Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs are an attractive cell source for cartilage tissue engineering given their ability to undergo chondrogenesis in 3D culture systems. Mechanical forces play an important role in regulating both cartilage development and MSC chondrogenic gene expression, however, mechanical stimulation has yet to enhance the mechanical properties of engineered constructs. In this study, we applied long-term dynamic compression to MSC-seeded constructs and assessed whether varying pre-culture duration, loading regimens and inclusion of TGF-beta3 during loading would influence functional outcomes and these phenotypic transitions. Loading initiated before chondrogenesis decreased functional maturation, although chondrogenic gene expression increased. In contrast, loading initiated after chondrogenesis and matrix elaboration further improved the mechanical properties of MSC-based constructs, but only when TGF-beta3 levels were maintained and under specific loading parameters. Although matrix quantity was not affected by dynamic compression, matrix distribution, assessed histologically and by FT-IRIS analysis, was significantly improved on the micro- (pericellular and macro- (construct expanse scales. Further, whole genome expression profiling revealed marked shifts in the molecular topography with dynamic loading. These results demonstrate, for the first time, that dynamic compressive loading initiated after a sufficient period of chondro-induction and with sustained TGF-beta exposure enhances matrix distribution and the mechanical properties of MSC-seeded constructs.

Mechanical properties of the human spinal cord under the compressive loading.

Science.gov (United States)

Karimi, Alireza; Shojaei, Ahmad; Tehrani, Pedram

2017-12-01

The spinal cord as the most complex and critical part of the human body is responsible for the transmission of both motor and sensory impulses between the body and the brain. Due to its pivotal role any types of physical injury in that disrupts its function following by shortfalls, including the minor motor and sensory malfunctions as well as complicate quadriplegia and lifelong ventilator dependency. In order to shed light on the injuries to the spinal cord, the application of the computational models to simulate the trauma impact loading to that are deemed required. Nonetheless, it has not been fulfilled since there is a paucity of knowledge about the mechanical properties of the spinal cord, especially the cervical one, under the compressive loading on the grounds of the difficulty in obtaining this tissue from the human body. This study was aimed at experimentally measuring the mechanical properties of the human cervical spinal cord of 24 isolated fresh samples under the unconfined compressive loading at a relatively low strain rate. The stress-strain data revealed the elastic modulus and maximum/failure stress of 40.12±6.90 and 62.26±5.02kPa, respectively. Owing to the nonlinear response of the spinal cord, the Yeoh, Ogden, and Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic material models have also been employed. The results may have implications not only for understanding the linear elastic and nonlinear hyperelastic mechanical properties of the cervical spinal cord under the compressive loading, but also for providing a raw data for investigating the injury as a result of the trauma thru the numerical simulations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fullerene–epoxy nanocomposites-enhanced mechanical properties at low nanofiller loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rafiee, Mohammad A.; Yavari, Fazel; Rafiee, Javad; Koratkar, Nikhil

2011-01-01

In this study, we characterized the mechanical properties of fullerence (C 60 ) epoxy nanocomposites at various weight fractions of fullerene additives in the epoxy matrix. The mechanical properties measured were the Young’s modulus, ultimate tensile strength, fracture toughness, fracture energy, and the material’s resistance to fatigue crack propagation. All of the above properties of the epoxy polymer were significantly enhanced by the fullerene additives at relatively low nanofiller loading fractions (∼0.1 to 1% of the epoxy matrix weight). By contrast, other forms of nanoparticle fillers such as silica, alumina, and titania nanoparticles require up to an order of magnitude higher weight fraction to achieve comparable enhancement in properties.

The preparation, cytocompatibility and antimicrobial property of micro/nano structural titanium loading alginate and antimicrobial peptide

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Zhiyuan; Zhong, Mou; Sun, Yuhua; Chen, Junhong; Feng, Bo

2018-03-01

Titanium with hybrid microporous/nanotubes (TMNT) structure on its surface was fabricated by acid etching and subsequently anodization at different voltages. Bovine lactoferricin, a kind of antimicrobial peptide, and sodium alginate (NaAlg) were loaded onto titanium surface through layer by layer assembly. The drug release, cytocompatibility and antimicrobial property against S.aureus and E.coil were studied by release experiment, osteoblast and bacterial cultures. Results indicated that samples with nanotubes of bigger diameter carried more drugs and had better biocompatibility, and drug-loaded samples acquired better biocompatibility compared with drug-free samples. Furthermore, the drug-loaded samples exhibited good initial antimicrobial property, but weak long-term antimicrobial property. Therefore, drug-loaded titanium with micro/nano structure, especially, of big diameter nanotubes, could be a promise material for medical implants, such as internal/external fixation devices.

A Shared Scratchpad Memory with Synchronization Support

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Henrik Enggaard; Maroun, Emad Jacob; Kristensen, Andreas Toftegaard

2017-01-01

Multicore processors usually communicate via shared memory, which is backed up by a shared level 2 cache and a cache coherence protocol. However, this solution is not a good fit for real-time systems, where we need to provide tight guarantees on execution and memory access times. In this paper, we...... propose a shared scratchpad memory as a time-predictable communication and synchronization structure, instead of the level 2 cache. The shared on-chip memory is accessed via a time division multiplexing arbiter, isolating the execution time of load and store instructions between processing cores....... Furthermore, the arbiter supports an extended time slot where an atomic load and store instruction can be executed to implement synchronization primitives. In the evaluation we show that a shared scratchpad memory is an efficient communication structure for a small number of processors; in our setup, 9 cores...

Intellectual property rights, benefit-sharing and development of "improved traditional medicines": A new approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Willcox, Merlin; Diallo, Drissa; Sanogo, Rokia; Giani, Sergio; Graz, Bertrand; Falquet, Jacques; Bodeker, Gerard

2015-12-24

Protection of intellectual property rights and benefit-sharing are key issues for all ethnopharmacological research. The International Society of Ethnobiology has produced helpful guidelines on access and benefit-sharing which are widely viewed as a "gold standard" but the question remains how best to apply these guidelines in practice. Difficult questions include ownership of traditional knowledge, making appropriate agreements, and how appropriately to share benefits. We present the case study of the development of an "improved traditional medicine" for malaria in Mali and we report how benefit-sharing was applied in this case. The knowledge about the selected plant came independently from several families and traditional healers. The IPR approach was to recognise that this traditional knowledge belongs to the people of Mali and was used for their benefit in developing a new "improved traditional medicine" (ITM). The traditional healer whose method of preparation was used, and who collaborated in clinical trials, did not request any financial reward but asked for the ITM to be named after him. The most sustainable benefit for the community was sharing the results of which preparation of which medicinal plant seemed to be the most effective for treating malaria. Attempts at providing a health centre and training a health worker for the village did not prove to be sustainable. Respect for intellectual property rights and benefit-sharing are possible even in a context where the knowledge is not owned by a clearly identified person or group of people. The most sustainable benefits are intangible rather than material: namely recognition, improved knowledge about which traditional treatment is the best and how to prepare and take it. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Teilen, Sharing 1 und Sharing 2: die Sharing Economy im Licht theoretischer Zugänge

OpenAIRE

Haase, Michaela; Pick, Doreén

2016-01-01

Der Artikel geht theoretischen Zugängen zum Sharing-Begriff nach. Er erläutert den Beitrag, aber auch die Grenzen von Dienstleistungstheorie und Property-Rights-Theorie für das Verständnis der Sharing Economy. Gründe für die Unterscheidung zwischen kommerzieller und nichtkommerzieller Sharing Economy werden dargelegt sowie mögliche Impulse der Sharing Economy für Änderungen im Verständnis wirtschaftlichen Handels und seiner Organisationsformen erörtert. This article elaborates on theoretic...

Dynamic tensile loading improves the functional properties of mesenchymal stem cell-laden nanofiber-based fibrocartilage.

Science.gov (United States)

Baker, Brendon M; Shah, Roshan P; Huang, Alice H; Mauck, Robert L

2011-05-01

Fibrocartilaginous tissues such as the meniscus serve critical load-bearing roles, relying on arrays of collagen fibers to resist tensile loads experienced with normal activity. As these structures are frequently injured and possess limited healing capacity, there exists great demand for tissue-engineered replacements. Toward recreating the structural features of these anisotropic tissues in vitro, we employ scaffolds composed of co-aligned nanofibers that direct mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) orientation and the formation of organized extracellular matrix (ECM). Concomitant with ECM synthesis, the mechanical properties of constructs increase with free-swelling culture, but ultimately failed to achieve equivalence with meniscal fibrocartilage. As mechanical forces are essential to the development and maintenance of musculoskeletal tissues, this work examined the effect of cyclic tensile loading on MSC-laden nanofibrous constructs. We hypothesized that loading would modulate the transcriptional behavior of MSCs, spur the deposition of ECM, and lead to enhancements in construct mechanical properties compared to free-swelling controls. Fiber-aligned scaffolds were seeded with MSCs and dynamically loaded daily in tension or maintained as nonloaded controls for 4 weeks. With mechanical stimulation, fibrous gene expression increased, collagen deposition increased, and the tensile modulus increased by 16% relative to controls. These results show that dynamic tensile loading enhances the maturation of MSC-laden aligned nanofibrous constructs, suggesting that recapitulation of the structural and mechanical environment of load-bearing tissues results in increases in functional properties that can be exploited for tissue engineering applications.

Probabilistic Infinite Secret Sharing

OpenAIRE

Csirmaz, László

2013-01-01

The study of probabilistic secret sharing schemes using arbitrary probability spaces and possibly infinite number of participants lets us investigate abstract properties of such schemes. It highlights important properties, explains why certain definitions work better than others, connects this topic to other branches of mathematics, and might yield new design paradigms. A probabilistic secret sharing scheme is a joint probability distribution of the shares and the secret together with a colle...

Attention and Visuospatial Working Memory Share the Same Processing Resources

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing eFeng

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Attention and visuospatial working memory (VWM share very similar characteristics; both have the same upper bound of about four items in capacity and they recruit overlapping brain regions. We examined whether both attention and visuospatial working memory share the same processing resources using a novel dual-task-costs approach based on a load-varying dual-task technique. With sufficiently large loads on attention and VWM, considerable interference between the two processes was observed. A further load increase on either process produced reciprocal increases in interference on both processes, indicating that attention and VWM share common resources. More critically, comparison among four experiments on the reciprocal interference effects, as measured by the dual-task costs, demonstrates no significant contribution from additional processing other than the shared processes. These results support the notion that attention and VWM share the same processing resources.

Effect of Drug Loading Method and Drug Physicochemical Properties on the Material and Drug Release Properties of Poly (Ethylene Oxide Hydrogels for Transdermal Delivery

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachel Shet Hui Wong

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Novel poly (ethylene oxide (PEO hydrogel films were synthesized via UV cross-linking with pentaerythritol tetra-acrylate (PETRA as cross-linking agent. The purpose of this work was to develop a novel hydrogel film suitable for passive transdermal drug delivery via skin application. Hydrogels were loaded with model drugs (lidocaine hydrochloride (LID, diclofenac sodium (DIC and ibuprofen (IBU via post-loading and in situ loading methods. The effect of loading method and drug physicochemical properties on the material and drug release properties of medicated film samples were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM, swelling studies, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR, tensile testing, rheometry, and drug release studies. In situ loaded films showed better drug entrapment within the hydrogel network and also better polymer crystallinity. High drug release was observed from all studied formulations. In situ loaded LID had a plasticizing effect on PEO hydrogel, and films showed excellent mechanical properties and prolonged drug release. The drug release mechanism for the majority of medicated PEO hydrogel formulations was determined as both drug diffusion and polymer chain relaxation, which is highly desirable for controlled release formulations.

On a model for the prediction of the friction coefficient in mixed lubrication based on a load-sharing concapt with measured surface roughness

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Akchurin, Aydar; Bosman, Rob; Lugt, Pieter Martin; van Drogen, Mark

2015-01-01

A new model was developed for the simulation of the friction coefficient in lubricated sliding line contacts. A half-space-based contact algorithm was linked with a numerical elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication solver using the load-sharing concept. The model was compared with an existing asperity-based

Parameter studies to determine sensitivity of slug impact loads to properties of core surrounding structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gvildys, J.

1985-01-01

A sensitivity study of the HCDA slug impact response of fast reactor primary containment to properties of core surrounding structures was performed. Parameters such as the strength of the radial shield material, mass, void, and compressibility properties of the gas plenum material, mass of core material, and mass and compressibility properties of the coolant were used as variables to determine the magnitude of the slug impact loads. The response of the reactor primary containment and the partition of energy were also given. A study was also performed using water as coolant to study the difference in slug impact loads

The design of models for cryogenic wind tunnels. [mechanical properties and loads

Science.gov (United States)

Gillespie, V. P.

1977-01-01

Factors to be considered in the design and fabrication of models for cryogenic wind tunnels include high model loads imposed by the high operating pressures, the mechanical and thermodynamic properties of materials in low temperature environments, and the combination of aerodynamic loads with the thermal environment. Candidate materials are being investigated to establish criteria for cryogenic wind tunnel models and their installation. Data acquired from these tests will be provided to users of the National Transonic Facility.

Assessing Knowledge Sharing Among Academics: A Validation of the Knowledge Sharing Behavior Scale (KSBS).

Science.gov (United States)

Ramayah, T; Yeap, Jasmine A L; Ignatius, Joshua

2014-04-01

There is a belief that academics tend to hold on tightly to their knowledge and intellectual resources. However, not much effort has been put into the creation of a valid and reliable instrument to measure knowledge sharing behavior among the academics. To apply and validate the Knowledge Sharing Behavior Scale (KSBS) as a measure of knowledge sharing behavior within the academic community. Respondents (N = 447) were academics from arts and science streams in 10 local, public universities in Malaysia. Data were collected using the 28-item KSBS that assessed four dimensions of knowledge sharing behavior namely written contributions, organizational communications, personal interactions, and communities of practice. The exploratory factor analysis showed that the items loaded on the dimension constructs that they were supposed to represent, thus proving construct validity. A within-factor analysis revealed that each set of items representing their intended dimension loaded on only one construct, therefore establishing convergent validity. All four dimensions were not perfectly correlated with each other or organizational citizenship behavior, thereby proving discriminant validity. However, all four dimensions correlated with organizational commitment, thus confirming predictive validity. Furthermore, all four factors correlated with both tacit and explicit sharing, which confirmed their concurrent validity. All measures also possessed sufficient reliability (α > .70). The KSBS is a valid and reliable instrument that can be used to formally assess the types of knowledge artifacts residing among academics and the degree of knowledge sharing in relation to those artifacts. © The Author(s) 2014.

Polybiguanide (PHMB) loaded in PLA scaffolds displaying high hydrophobic, biocompatibility and antibacterial properties

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Llorens, Elena; Calderón, Silvia [Departament d' Enginyeria Química, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Av. Diagonal 647, Barcelona E-08028 (Spain); Valle, Luis J. del, E-mail: luis.javier.del.valle@upc.edu [Departament d' Enginyeria Química, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Av. Diagonal 647, Barcelona E-08028 (Spain); Puiggalí, Jordi [Departament d' Enginyeria Química, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Av. Diagonal 647, Barcelona E-08028 (Spain); Center for Research in Nano-Engineering (CrNE), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Edifici C, C/Pasqual i Vila s/n, Barcelona E-08028 (Spain)

2015-05-01

Polyhexamethylenebiguanide hydrochloride (PHMB), a low molecular weight polymer related to chlorohexidine (CHX), is a well-known antibacterial agent. In this study, polylactide (PLA) nanofibers loaded with PHMB were produced by electrospinning to obtain 3D biodegradable scaffolds with antibacterial properties. PLA fibers loaded with CHX were used as control. The electrospun fibers were studied and analyzed by SEM, FTIR, DSC and contact angle measurements. PHMB and CHX release from loaded scaffolds was evaluated, as well as their antibacterial activity and biocompatibility. The results showed that the nanofibers became smoother and their diameter smaller with increasing the amount of loaded PHMB. This feature led to an increase of both surface roughness and hydrophobicity of the scaffold. PHMB release was highly dependent on the hydrophilicity of the medium and differed from that determined for CHX. Lastly, PHMB-loaded PLA scaffolds showed antibacterial properties since they inhibited adhesion and bacterial growth, and exhibited biocompatible characteristics for the adhesion and proliferation of both fibroblast and epithelial cell lines. - Highlights: • Nanofibers of PLA-PHMB (antibacterial polymer) were prepared by electrospinning. • PHMB has hydrophilic character but the PLA-PHMB scaffolds were highly hydrophobic. • The high-hydrophobicity of the new scaffolds conditioned the release of PHMB. • The controlled release of PHMB inhibited the growth and bacterial adhesion. • PLA-PHMB scaffolds have biocompatibility with fibroblast and epithelial cells.

Polybiguanide (PHMB) loaded in PLA scaffolds displaying high hydrophobic, biocompatibility and antibacterial properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Llorens, Elena; Calderón, Silvia; Valle, Luis J. del; Puiggalí, Jordi

2015-01-01

Polyhexamethylenebiguanide hydrochloride (PHMB), a low molecular weight polymer related to chlorohexidine (CHX), is a well-known antibacterial agent. In this study, polylactide (PLA) nanofibers loaded with PHMB were produced by electrospinning to obtain 3D biodegradable scaffolds with antibacterial properties. PLA fibers loaded with CHX were used as control. The electrospun fibers were studied and analyzed by SEM, FTIR, DSC and contact angle measurements. PHMB and CHX release from loaded scaffolds was evaluated, as well as their antibacterial activity and biocompatibility. The results showed that the nanofibers became smoother and their diameter smaller with increasing the amount of loaded PHMB. This feature led to an increase of both surface roughness and hydrophobicity of the scaffold. PHMB release was highly dependent on the hydrophilicity of the medium and differed from that determined for CHX. Lastly, PHMB-loaded PLA scaffolds showed antibacterial properties since they inhibited adhesion and bacterial growth, and exhibited biocompatible characteristics for the adhesion and proliferation of both fibroblast and epithelial cell lines. - Highlights: • Nanofibers of PLA-PHMB (antibacterial polymer) were prepared by electrospinning. • PHMB has hydrophilic character but the PLA-PHMB scaffolds were highly hydrophobic. • The high-hydrophobicity of the new scaffolds conditioned the release of PHMB. • The controlled release of PHMB inhibited the growth and bacterial adhesion. • PLA-PHMB scaffolds have biocompatibility with fibroblast and epithelial cells

Textile properties of synthetic prolapse mesh in response to uniaxial loading

Science.gov (United States)

Barone, William R.; Moalli, Pamela A.; Abramowitch, Steven D.

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND Although synthetic mesh is associated with superior anatomic outcomes for the repair of pelvic organ prolapse, the benefits of mesh have been questioned because of the relatively high complication rates. To date, the mechanisms that result in such complications are poorly understood, yet the textile characteristics of mesh products are believed to play an important role. Interestingly, the pore diameter of synthetic mesh has been shown to impact the host response after hernia repair greatly, and such findings have served as design criteria for prolapse meshes, with larger pores viewed as more favorable. Although pore size and porosity are well-characterized before implantation, the changes in these textile properties after implantation are unclear; the application of mechanical forces has the potential to greatly alter pore geometries in vivo. Understanding the impact of mechanical loading on the textile properties of mesh is essential for the development of more effective devices for prolapse repair. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to determine the effect of tensile loading and pore orientation on mesh porosity and pore dimensions. STUDY DESIGN In this study, the porosity and pore diameter of 4 currently available prolapse meshes were examined in response to uniaxial tensile loads of 0.1, 5, and 10 N while mimicking clinical loading conditions. The textile properties were compared with those observed for the unloaded mesh. Meshes included Gynemesh PS (Ethicon, Somerville, NJ), UltraPro (Artisyn; Ethicon), Restorelle (Coloplast, Minneapolis, MN), and Alyte Y-mesh (Bard, Covington, GA). In addition to the various pore geometries, 3 orientations of Restorelle (0-, 5-, 45-degree offset) and 2 orientations of UltraPro (0-, 90-degree offset) were examined. RESULTS In response to uniaxial loading, both porosity and pore diameter dramatically decreased for most mesh products. The application of 5 N led to reductions in porosity for nearly all groups

Reduced-complexity adaptive multi-channel assignment for shared access points in over-loaded small-cell networks

KAUST Repository

Radaydeh, Redha Mahmoud

2013-06-01

This paper proposes a reduced-complexity downlink multi-channel assignment scheme when feedback links are capacity-limited. The system model treats the case when multiple access points are allocated to serve scheduled users in over-loaded (i.e. dense) pico/femtocell networks. It assumes that the deployed access points can be shared simultaneously and employ isotropic antenna arrays of arbitrary sizes. Moreover, they transmit their data on a common physical channel and can not coordinate their transmissions. On the other hand, each scheduled user can be served by single transmit channel from each active access point at a time, and it lacks coordination with concurrent active users. The scheme operates according to the occupancy of available transmit channels, wherein extensively occupied access points are avoided adaptively, while reducing the load of processing. The operation is linked to a target performance via controlling the observed aggregate interference from the projected set of serving points. Through the analysis, results for the scheduled user outage performance, and the average number of active access points are presented. Numerical and simulations studies clarify the gains of the proposed scheme for different operating conditions. © 2013 IEEE.

Reduced-complexity adaptive multi-channel assignment for shared access points in over-loaded small-cell networks

KAUST Repository

Radaydeh, Redha Mahmoud; Qaraqe, Khalid A.; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2013-01-01

This paper proposes a reduced-complexity downlink multi-channel assignment scheme when feedback links are capacity-limited. The system model treats the case when multiple access points are allocated to serve scheduled users in over-loaded (i.e. dense) pico/femtocell networks. It assumes that the deployed access points can be shared simultaneously and employ isotropic antenna arrays of arbitrary sizes. Moreover, they transmit their data on a common physical channel and can not coordinate their transmissions. On the other hand, each scheduled user can be served by single transmit channel from each active access point at a time, and it lacks coordination with concurrent active users. The scheme operates according to the occupancy of available transmit channels, wherein extensively occupied access points are avoided adaptively, while reducing the load of processing. The operation is linked to a target performance via controlling the observed aggregate interference from the projected set of serving points. Through the analysis, results for the scheduled user outage performance, and the average number of active access points are presented. Numerical and simulations studies clarify the gains of the proposed scheme for different operating conditions. © 2013 IEEE.

Acid loading test (pH)

Science.gov (United States)

... this page: //medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003615.htm Acid loading test (pH) To use the sharing features on this page, please enable JavaScript. The acid loading test (pH) measures the ability of the ...

Load forecasting method considering temperature effect for distribution network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meng Xiao Fang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available To improve the accuracy of load forecasting, the temperature factor was introduced into the load forecasting in this paper. This paper analyzed the characteristics of power load variation, and researched the rule of the load with the temperature change. Based on the linear regression analysis, the mathematical model of load forecasting was presented with considering the temperature effect, and the steps of load forecasting were given. Used MATLAB, the temperature regression coefficient was calculated. Using the load forecasting model, the full-day load forecasting and time-sharing load forecasting were carried out. By comparing and analyzing the forecast error, the results showed that the error of time-sharing load forecasting method was small in this paper. The forecasting method is an effective method to improve the accuracy of load forecasting.

Influence of Cobalt on the Properties of Load-Sensitive Magnesium Alloys

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kai Kerber

2012-12-01

Full Text Available In this study, magnesium is alloyed with varying amounts of the ferromagnetic alloying element cobalt in order to obtain lightweight load-sensitive materials with sensory properties which allow an online-monitoring of mechanical forces applied to components made from Mg-Co alloys. An optimized casting process with the use of extruded Mg-Co powder rods is utilized which enables the production of magnetic magnesium alloys with a reproducible Co concentration. The efficiency of the casting process is confirmed by SEM analyses. Microstructures and Co-rich precipitations of various Mg-Co alloys are investigated by means of EDS and XRD analyses. The Mg-Co alloys’ mechanical strengths are determined by tensile tests. Magnetic properties of the Mg-Co sensor alloys depending on the cobalt content and the acting mechanical load are measured utilizing the harmonic analysis of eddy-current signals. Within the scope of this work, the influence of the element cobalt on magnesium is investigated in detail and an optimal cobalt concentration is defined based on the performed examinations.

Load rate dependence of the mechanical properties of thermal barrier coating systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zotov, Nikolay; Eggeler, Gunther [Institut fuer Werkstoffe, Ruhr Universitaet Bochum, 44780 Bochum (Germany); Bartsch, Marion [Institut fuer Werkstoff-Forschung, DLR Koeln, 51147 Koeln (Germany)

2009-07-01

Thermal barrier coatings (TBC), composed of yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) ceramic top coat (TC) and intermetallic NiCoCrAlY bond coat (BC) are commonly used as protective coatings of Ni-based high temperature gas engine components. Nanoindentation techniques are increasingly applied for determining the TBC mechanical properties on a nanometre scale. However, little is known about the load-rate dependence of the mechanical properties, which is important for better understanding of cyclic thermal fatigue experiments. Nanoindentations with different load rates omega were performed on polished cross-sections of TBC, deposited by EB-PVD on IN625 substrates (S), using a XP Nanoindenter (MTS) equipped with Berkovich diamond tip. The Young's modulus (E) of the TC is independent of omega, while E for the BC and the S decreases with omega. The hardness (H) of the TC and the BC increases, while H for the S decreases with omega. From the dependence of H on omega, creep power-law exponents c = 0.24(11) and c = 0.023(6) for the TC and the BC were determined. For all TBC components, a decrease with omega of the power-law exponents n and m, describing the loading and unloading nanoindentation curves, is observed.

Load-Deflection and Friction Properties of PEEK Wires as Alternative Orthodontic Wires.

Science.gov (United States)

Tada, Yoshifumi; Hayakawa, Tohru; Nakamura, Yoshiki

2017-08-09

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is now attracting attention as an alternative to metal alloys in the dental field. In the present study, we evaluated the load-deflection characteristics of PEEK wires in addition to their frictional properties. Three types of PEEK wires are used: two sizes of rectangular shape, 0.016 × 0.022 in² and 0.019 × 0.025 in² (19-25PEEK), and rounded shape, diameter 0.016 in (16PEEK). As a control, Ni-Ti orthodontic wire, diameter 0.016 in, was used. The three-point bending properties were evaluated in a modified three-point bending system for orthodontics. The static friction between the orthodontic wire and the bracket was also measured. The load-deflection curves were similar among Ni-Ti and PEEK wires, except for 16PEEK with slot-lid ligation. The bending force of 19-25PEEK wire was comparable with that of Ni-Ti wire. 19-25PEEK showed the highest load at the deflection of 1500 μm ( p 0.05). No significant difference was seen in static friction between all three PEEK wires and Ni-Ti wire ( p > 0.05). It is suggested that 19-25PEEK will be applicable for orthodontic treatment with the use of slot-lid ligation.

Mechanical properties of two-way different configurations of prestressed concrete members subjected to axial loading

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Chaobi; Chen, Jian Yun; Xu, Qiang; Li, Jing [School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian (China)

2015-08-15

In order to analyze the mechanical properties of two-way different configurations of prestressed concrete members subjected to axial loading, a finite element model based on the nuclear power plant containments is demonstrated. This model takes into account the influences of different principal stress directions, the uniaxial or biaxial loading, and biaxial loading ratio. The displacement-controlled load is applied to obtain the stress-strain response. The simulated results indicate that the differences of principal stress axes have great effects on the stress-strain response under uniaxial loading. When the specimens are subjected to biaxial loading, the change trend of stress with the increase of loading ratio is obviously different along different layout directions. In addition, correlation experiments and finite element analyses were conducted to verify the validity and reliability of the analysis in this study.

Magnetic properties of iron loaded MCM-48 molecular sieves

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Elias, Veronica R. [Centro de Investigacion y Tecnologia Quimica, Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, Facultad Regional Cordoba. Cordoba (Argentina); CONICET (Argentina); Oliva, Marcos I. [Facultad de Matematica, Astronomia y Fisica, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Cordoba (Argentina); IFEG-CONICET (Argentina); Vaschetto, Eliana G. [Centro de Investigacion y Tecnologia Quimica, Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, Facultad Regional Cordoba. Cordoba (Argentina); Urreta, Silvia E., E-mail: urreta@famaf.unc.edu.a [Facultad de Matematica, Astronomia y Fisica, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Cordoba (Argentina); Eimer, Griselda A. [Centro de Investigacion y Tecnologia Quimica, Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, Facultad Regional Cordoba. Cordoba (Argentina); CONICET (Argentina); Silvetti, Silvia P. [Facultad de Matematica, Astronomia y Fisica, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba, Cordoba (Argentina)

2010-11-15

Mesoporous molecular sieves of MCM-48 type were loaded with iron by the wet impregnation method, using Fe(III) nitrate or Fe(II) sulfate aqueous solutions as Fe sources, to obtain a magnetic porous composite. The iron loaded materials were characterized by XRD, N{sub 2} adsorption and DRUV-vis and compared with the Si-MCM-48 host. Their magnetic properties were studied by measuring the hysteresis loops up to 1.5 T at different temperatures (5-300 K) and by magnetization vs. temperature curves following the conventional zero field cooling (ZFC) and field cooling (FC) protocols. Materials with high structure regularity and surface area are obtained, which exhibit a mixed paramagnetic and superparamagnetic behavior, arising in isolated iron ions inserted in the host framework, and in small iron oxide clusters or nanoparticles forming inside the pores, respectively. Larger hematite particles (8-13 nm) grown on the external surface provide a quite small ferromagnetic contribution to the hysteresis loop.

Magnetic properties of iron loaded MCM-48 molecular sieves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elias, Veronica R.; Oliva, Marcos I.; Vaschetto, Eliana G.; Urreta, Silvia E.; Eimer, Griselda A.; Silvetti, Silvia P.

2010-01-01

Mesoporous molecular sieves of MCM-48 type were loaded with iron by the wet impregnation method, using Fe(III) nitrate or Fe(II) sulfate aqueous solutions as Fe sources, to obtain a magnetic porous composite. The iron loaded materials were characterized by XRD, N 2 adsorption and DRUV-vis and compared with the Si-MCM-48 host. Their magnetic properties were studied by measuring the hysteresis loops up to 1.5 T at different temperatures (5-300 K) and by magnetization vs. temperature curves following the conventional zero field cooling (ZFC) and field cooling (FC) protocols. Materials with high structure regularity and surface area are obtained, which exhibit a mixed paramagnetic and superparamagnetic behavior, arising in isolated iron ions inserted in the host framework, and in small iron oxide clusters or nanoparticles forming inside the pores, respectively. Larger hematite particles (8-13 nm) grown on the external surface provide a quite small ferromagnetic contribution to the hysteresis loop.

Properties and Behavior of Geopolymer Concrete Subjected to Explosive Air Blast Loading: A Review

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Mohd Mortar Nurul Aida

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The severe damage to civilian buildings, public area, jet aircraft impact and defense target under explosive blast loading can cause a huge property loss. Most of researcher discusses the topics on design the concrete material model to sustain againts the explosive detonation. The implementation of modern reinforcement steels and fibres in ordinary Portland cement (OPC concrete matrix can reduce the extreme loading effects. However, most researchers have proved that geopolymer concrete (GPC has better mechanical properties towards high performance concrete, compared to OPC. GPC has the high early compressive strength and high ability to resist the thermal energy from explosive detonation. In addition, OPC production is less environmental friendly than geopolymer cement. Geopolymer used can lead to environmental protection besides being improved in mechanical properties. Thus, this paper highlighted on an experimental, numerical and the analytical studies cause of the explosive detonation impact to concrete structures.

Analysis of the Effect of Loading Process on Tribological System Properties

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Radoslav Majdan

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The effect of loading on the properties of selected sliding pair is monitored and analysed in the submitted contribution. The obtained results of dynamic loading were also compared with static loading. The experimental tests were performed using the testing machine Tribotestor M10. Steel 11 600 was selected as a material sample for the shaft as it belongs to commonly used materials in the manufacturing of agricultural components of shaft type or pin type. A full-bronze centrifugally moulded bearing shell from the material CuSn12 was selected as the second element of friction pair. Two oils were selected for lubrication of friction node – the mineral gear oil Madit PP80 and ecological oil Plantohyd 46 S. The selected friction pairs were tested in three loading regimes according to the methodology (two dynamic processes and one static process. 60 tribological tests were performed, i.e. 10 for each type of loading and lubrication. The weight losses of the friction pair elements were part of the tracked and analysed parameters. The polluted oil was examined using the ferrographic analysis to verify the weight losses. The abrasion particles of friction pair and their contribution to oil pollution were also analysed. Following the performed experiments different effects of loading regimes may be concluded, essentially in terms of wear size and the number and size of wear particles as well. The obtained results confirmed that the power spectral density of generated signal is probably an important criterion for assessment in terms of simulated random dynamic load in given experiment. In terms of technical application in loading processes – power spectral density is actually the amount of energy supplied to the process.

Study on Roadheader Cutting Load at Different Properties of Coal and Rock

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Xueyi Li

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The mechanism of cutting process of roadheader with cutting head was researched, and the influences of properties of coal and rock on cutting load were deeply analyzed. Aimed at the defects of traditional calculation method of cutting load on fully expressing the complex cutting process of cutting head, the method of finite element simulation was proposed to simulate the dynamic cutting process. Aimed at the characteristics of coal and rock which affect the cutting load, several simulations with different firmness coefficient were taken repeatedly, and the relationship between three-axis force and firmness coefficient was derived. A comparative analysis of cutting pick load between simulation results and theoretical formula was carried out, and a consistency was achieved. Then cutting process with a total cutting head was carried out on this basis. The results show that the simulation analysis not only provides a reliable guarantee for the accurate calculation of the cutting head load and improves the efficiency of the cutting head cutting test but also offers a basis for selection of cutting head with different geological conditions of coal or rock.

Properties of single-walled carbon nanotube-based aerogels as a function of nanotube loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Worsley, Marcus A.; Pauzauskie, Peter J.; Kucheyev, Sergei O.; Zaug, Joseph M.; Hamza, Alex V.; Satcher, Joe H.; Baumann, Theodore F.

2009-01-01

Here, we present the synthesis and characterization of low-density single-walled carbon nanotube-based aerogels (SWNT-CA). Aerogels with varying nanotube loading (0-55 wt.%) and density (20-350 mg cm -3 ) were fabricated and characterized by four-probe method, electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and nitrogen porosimetry. Several properties of the SWNT-CAs were highly dependent upon nanotube loading. At nanotube loadings of 55 wt.%, shrinkage of the aerogel monoliths during carbonization and drying was almost completely eliminated. Electrical conductivities are improved by an order of magnitude for the SWNT-CA (55 wt.% nanotubes) compared to those of foams without nanotubes. Surface areas as high as 184 m 2 g -1 were achieved for SWNT-CAs with greater than 20 wt.% nanotube loading.

The Statistical Properties of Host Load

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Peter A. Dinda

1999-01-01

Full Text Available Understanding how host load changes over time is instrumental in predicting the execution time of tasks or jobs, such as in dynamic load balancing and distributed soft real‐time systems. To improve this understanding, we collected week‐long, 1 Hz resolution traces of the Digital Unix 5 second exponential load average on over 35 different machines including production and research cluster machines, compute servers, and desktop workstations. Separate sets of traces were collected at two different times of the year. The traces capture all of the dynamic load information available to user‐level programs on these machines. We present a detailed statistical analysis of these traces here, including summary statistics, distributions, and time series analysis results. Two significant new results are that load is self‐similar and that it displays epochal behavior. All of the traces exhibit a high degree of self‐similarity with Hurst parameters ranging from 0.73 to 0.99, strongly biased toward the top of that range. The traces also display epochal behavior in that the local frequency content of the load signal remains quite stable for long periods of time (150–450 s mean and changes abruptly at epoch boundaries. Despite these complex behaviors, we have found that relatively simple linear models are sufficient for short‐range host load prediction.

Optimizing the Loads of multi-player online game Servers using Markov Chains

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Saeed, Aamir; Olsen, Rasmus Løvenstein; Pedersen, Jens Myrup

2015-01-01

that is created due to the load balancing of servers. Load balancing among servers is sensitive to correct status information. The Markov based load prediction was introduced in this paper to predict load of under-loaded servers, based on arrival (μ) and departure (λ) rates of players. The prediction based...... that need to be considered when developing load balancing algorithm, that is the reliability of the information that is shared. Simulation results show that Markov based prediction of load information performed better from the normal load status information sharing....

HIV Viral Load: MedlinePlus Lab Test Information

Science.gov (United States)

... this page: https://medlineplus.gov/labtests/hivviralload.html HIV Viral Load To use the sharing features on this page, please enable JavaScript. What is an HIV Viral Load? An HIV viral load is a ...

Influence of normal loads and sliding velocities on friction properties of engineering plastics sliding against rough counterfaces

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nuruzzaman, D M; Chowdhury, M A; Rahaman, M L; Oumer, A N

2016-01-01

Friction properties of plastic materials are very important under dry sliding contact conditions for bearing applications. In the present research, friction properties of engineering plastics such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and nylon are investigated under dry sliding contact conditions. In the experiments, PTFE and nylon slide against different rough counterfaces such as mild steel and stainless steel 316 (SS 316). Frictional tests are carried out at low loads 5, 7.5 and 10 N, low sliding velocities 0.5, 0.75 and 1 m/s and relative humidity 70%. The obtained results reveal that friction coefficient of PTFE increases with the increase in normal loads and sliding velocities within the observed range. On the other hand, frictional values of nylon decrease with the increase in normal loads and sliding velocities. It is observed that in general, these polymers show higher frictional values when sliding against SS 316 rather than mild steel. During running-in process, friction coefficient of PTFE and nylon steadily increases with the increase in rubbing time and after certain duration of rubbing, it remains at steady level. At identical operating conditions, the frictional values are significantly different depending on normal load, sliding velocity and material pair. It is also observed that in general, the influence of normal load on the friction properties of PTFE and nylon is greater than that of sliding velocity. (paper)

Development of postcompressional textural tests to evaluate the mechanical properties of medicated chewing gum tablets with high drug loadings.

Science.gov (United States)

Al Hagbani, Turki; Nazzal, Sami

2018-02-01

Medicated chewing gum tablets (CGTs) represent a unique platform for drug delivery. Loading directly compressible gums with high concentrations of powdered medication, however, results in compacts with hybrid properties between a chewable gum and a brittle tablet. The aim of the present study was to develop textural tests that can identify the point at which CGTs begin to behave like a solid tablet upon drug incorporation. Curcumin (CUR) CGTs made with Health in gum were prepared with increasing CUR load from 0 to 100% and were characterized for their mechanical properties by a single-bite (knife) and a two-bite tests. From each test several parameters were extracted and correlated with drug loading. In the single-bite test, the change in the resistance of the compacts to plastic deformation was found to give a definitive guide on whether they behave as gums or tablets. A more in depth analysis of the impact of CUR loading on the chewability of the CGTs was provided by the two-bite test where CUR loading was found to have a nonlinear impact on the mechanical properties of compacts. An upper limit of 10% was found to yield compacts with gum-like properties, which were abolished at higher CUR loads. The textural test procedure outlined in this study are expected to assist those involved in the formulation of medicated gums for pharmaceutical applications in making an informed decision on the impact of drug loading on gum behavior before proceeding with clinical testing. There is a growing interest in utilizing medicated chewing gums for drug delivery, especially those made using directly compressible gum bases, such as Health in gum. Directly compressing a gum base with high amounts of solid drug powder, however, poses a challenge as it may result in compressed compacts with hybrid properties between a chewing gum and a hard tablet. Currently, official Pharmacopeias do not specify a testing procedure for the estimation of the mechanical and textural properties of

Residual torsional properties of composite shafts subjected to impact loadings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sevkat, Ercan; Tumer, Hikmet

2013-01-01

Highlights: • Impact loading reduces the torsional strength of composite shaft. • Impact energy level determines the severity of torsional strength reduction. • Hybrid composite shafts can be manufactured by mixing two types of filament. • Maximum torque capacity of shafts can be estimated using finite element method. - Abstract: This paper presents an experimental and numerical study to investigate residual torsional properties of composite shafts subjected to impact loadings. E-glass/epoxy, carbon/epoxy and E-glass–carbon/epoxy hybrid composite shafts were manufactured by filament winding method. Composite shafts were impacted at 5, 10, 20 and 40 J energy levels. Force–time and energy–time histories of impact tests were recorded. One composite shaft with no impact, and four composite shafts with impact damage, five in total, were tested under torsion. Torque-twisting angle relations for each test were obtained. Reduction at maximum torque and maximum twisting angle induced by impact loadings were calculated. While 5 J impact did not cause significant reduction at maximum torque and maximum twisting angle, remaining impact loadings caused 34–67% reduction at maximum torque, and 30–61% reduction at maximum twisting angle. Reductions increased with increasing energy levels and varied depending on the material of composite shafts. The 3-D finite element (FE) software, Abaqus, incorporated with an elastic orthotropic model, was then used to simulate the torsion tests. Good agreement between experimental and numerical results was achieved

Establishing Tenant Ownership on the Basis of Proportional Co-ownership Share of the Real Property

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Davorin Pichler

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The survey of the Osijek District and County Courts procedures related to the motion to determine the usable values of flats and into procedures of establishing separate parts of real property by the means of apportioning plans as well as the tenant ownership study procedures resulted in different and inconsistent approaches in the process of creation of the study and establishing the usable surface area. The paper deals with the analysis of judicial decisions on determining usable surface and indicates the problems emerging in practice while establishing the tenant ownership based on proportional co-ownership share of the real property. It also gives suggestions to passing a by-law on the procedure of tenant ownership study creation i.e. calculation of usable values of particular real property shares and usable values of all flats and other independent premises of the entire real property. Its goals are equal interpretation and application of tenant ownership by all parties to the procedure as well as legal security, uniform application of law and harmonisation of judicial practice. As a possible approach to the solutions in Croatian legal system the paper also analyses the regulation of tenant ownership in the Republic of Slovenia. In conclusion, it establishes the need for professional training of judges, court counsellors, court appointed expert witnesses, civil servants through application of a multidisciplinary approach to the issue of tenant ownership procedure based on other scientific disciplines e.g. civil engineering and economics.

RHEOLOGICAL PROPERTIES AND THE ENERGETIC VALUE OF WHEAT FLOUR SUBSTITUTED BY DIFFERENT SHARES OF WHITE AND BROWN RICE FLOUR

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Nada Nikolić

2011-09-01

Full Text Available In order to produce dough with a lower gluten content, more enriched with rice components and satisfactory rheological properties, the rheological properties, energetic value and cake baking properties of wheat and white or brown rice flour in shares from 3 to 30% (w/w were investigated in this paper. The water absorption in wheat-rice flour mixtures was lower and decreased to 53.5% and 54.0% along with the increase of the white and the brown rice flour share, respectively, than in wheat flour, where it was 58.8%. In the dough made from rice flour, a gluten network had thinner filaments, about 2 and 1 μm in width for white and brown rice flour, respectively, compared to those in the dough from wheat flour only, where it was about 7 μm. The dough from rice flour had almost twice higher gelatinization maximum than the gelatinization maximum of the wheat flour only. The energetic values of the dough from rice flour were smaller than the energetic value of the wheat flour, for only 1.32%. Based on Cluster analysis, the white or brown rice flour share of 20% was pointed out.

High heat load properties of TiC dispersed Mo alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tokunaga, Kazutoshi; Yoshida, Naoaki; Miura, Yasushi; Kurishita, Hiroaki; Kitsunai, Yuji; Kayano, Hideo.

1996-01-01

Electron beam high heat load experiment of new developed three kinds of TiC dispersed Mo alloys (Mo-0.1wt%TiC, Mo-0.5wt%TiC and Mo-1.0wt%TiC) was studied so as to evaluate it's high heat load at using as the surface materials of divertor. The obtained results indicated that cracks were not observed by embrittlement by recrystallization until about 2200degC of surface temperature and the gas emission properties were not different from sintered molibdenum. However, at near melting point, deep cracks on grain boundary and smaller gas emission than that of sintered Mo were observed. So that, we concluded that TiC dispersed Mo alloy was good surface materials used under the conditions of the stationary heat flux and less than the melting point, although not good one to be melted under nonstationary large heat flux. (S.Y.)

Effect of fiber loading on mechanical and morphological properties of cocoa pod husk fibers reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane composites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El-Shekeil, Y.A.; Sapuan, S.M.; Algrafi, M.W.

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Increase in fiber loading increased tensile strength and modulus of the composites. • Tensile strain was decreasing with increase in fiber loading. • Flexural strength and modulus increased with increase in fiber content. • Impact strength was deteriorated with increasing fiber loading. • Morphology observations shown a good adhesion between fibers and matrix. - Abstract: In this study, cocoa (Theobroma cacao) pod husk (CPH) fiber reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) was prepared by melt compounding method using Haake Polydrive R600 internal mixer. The composites were prepared with different fiber loading: 20%, 30% and 40% (by weight), with the optimum processing parameters: 190 °C, 11 min, and 40 rpm for temperature, time and speed, respectively. Five samples were cut from the composite sheet. Mean value was taken for each composite according to ASTM standards. Effect of fiber loading on mechanical (i.e. tensile, flexural properties and impact strength) and morphological properties was studied. TPU/CPH composites showed increase in tensile strength and modulus with increase in fiber loading, while tensile strain was decreasing with increase in fiber loading. The composite also showed increase in flexural strength and modulus with increase in fiber content. Impact strength was deteriorated with increase in fiber loading. Morphology observations using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) showed fiber/matrix good adhesion

Rethinking the Sharing Economy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kornberger, Martin; Leixnering, Stephan; Meyer, Renate

2017-01-01

Our paper focuses on a non-standard sharing example that harbors the potential to disrupt received wisdom on the sharing economy. While originally entering the field to analyze, broadly from a governance perspective, how the 2015 refugee crisis was handled in Vienna, Austria, we found that the no...... of sharing: economic and moral. Our paper contributes to this Special Issue of the Academy of Management Discoveries by highlighting and explaining the two-fold economic and moral nature of sharing and the organization of sharing between movement and platform....... sharing of resources (i.e., the economic dimension): the sharing of a distinct concern (i.e., the moral dimension of sharing). Our discovery exemplifies such a moral dimension that is rather different from the status quo materialistic treatments focusing on economic transactions and property rights...

A GPS-Based Control Framework for Accurate Current Sharing and Power Quality Improvement in Microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Golsorkhi, Mohammad; Savaghebi, Mehdi; Lu, Dylan

2017-01-01

This paper proposes a novel hierarchical control strategy for improvement of load sharing and power quality in ac microgrids. This control framework is composed of a droop based controller at the primary level, and a combination of distributed power sharing and voltage conditioning schemes...... consensus protocol to ensure proportional sharing of average power. The voltage conditioning scheme produces compensation signals at fundamental and dominant harmonics to improve the voltage quality at a sensitive load bus. Experimental results are presented to validate the efficacy of the proposed method....... dynamic response. The droop coefficient, which acts as a virtual resistance is adaptively changed as a function of the peak current. This strategy not only simplifies the control design but also improves the current sharing accuracy at high loading conditions. The distributed power sharing scheme uses...

Development of a novel sodium fusidate-loaded triple polymer hydrogel wound dressing: Mechanical properties and effects on wound repair.

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Sung Giu; Kim, Kyeong Soo; Kim, Dong Wuk; Kim, Dong Shik; Seo, Youn Gee; Go, Toe Gyung; Youn, Yu Seok; Kim, Jong Oh; Yong, Chul Soon; Choi, Han-Gon

2016-01-30

To develop a novel sodium fusidate-loaded triple polymer hydrogel dressing (TPHD), numerious polyvinyl alcohol-based (PVA) hydrogel dressings were prepared with various hydrophilic polymers using the freeze-thaw method, and their hydrogel dressing properties were assessed. Among the hydrophilic polymers tested, sodium alginate (SA) improved the swelling capacity the most, and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) provided the greatest improvement in bioadhesive stength and mechanical properties. Thus, PVA based-TPHDs were prepared using different ratios of PVP:SA. The effect of selected PVP:SA ratios on the swelling capacity, bioadhesive strength, mechanical properties, and drug release, permeation and deposition characteristics of sodium fusidate-loaded PVA-based TPHDs were assessed. As the ratio of PVP:SA increased in PVA-loaded TPHD, the swelling capacity, mechanical properties, drug release, permeation and deposition were improved. The TPHD containing PVA, PVP, SA and sodium fusidate at the weight ratio of 10/6/1/1 showed excellent hydrogel dressing properties, release, permeation and deposition of drug. Within 24h, 71.8 ± 1.3% of drug was released. It permeated 625.1 ± 81.2 μg/cm(2) through the skin and deposited of 313.8 ± 24.1 μg/cm(2) within 24h. The results of in vivo pharmacodynamic studies showed that sodium fusidate-loaded TPHD was more effective in improving the repair process than was a commercial product. Thus, this sodium fusidate-loaded TPHD could be a novel tool in wound care. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Consolidation Theory for a Stone Column Composite Foundation under Multistage Loading

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Shenggen Huang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The consolidation theories considering instant load cannot fully reveal the consolidation mechanism of a stone column composite foundation used in the expressway embankments due to the time effect of loading; that is, the expressway embankments are often constructed in several stages for a long time. Meanwhile, owing to the special property that the pile-soil stress ratio is larger than 1, the consolidation theory for sand drain well foundation cannot be used directly in the consolidation analysis of stone column composite foundation. Based on the principle that the vertical load applied on the composite foundation is shared by the stone column and the surrounding soil, the governing solutions for the stone column composite foundation under a multistage load are established. By virtue of the separation of variables, the corresponding solutions of degree of consolidation for loading stage and maintaining load stage are derived separately. According to the Carrillo theorem, the solution for the average total degree of consolidation of entire composite foundation is also obtained. Finally, the reasonableness of the present solution has been verified by comparing the consolidation curve calculated by the present solution with that measured by site test.

Sliding contact loading enhances the tensile properties of mesenchymal stem cell-seeded hydrogels

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AH Huang

2012-07-01

Full Text Available The primary goal of cartilage tissue engineering is to recapitulate the functional properties and structural features of native articular cartilage. While there has been some success in generating near-native compressive properties, the tensile properties of cell-seeded constructs remain poor, and key features of cartilage, including inhomogeneity and anisotropy, are generally absent in these engineered constructs. Therefore, in an attempt to instill these hallmark properties of cartilage in engineered cell-seeded constructs, we designed and characterized a novel sliding contact bioreactor to recapitulate the mechanical stimuli arising from physiologic joint loading (two contacting cartilage layers. Finite element modeling of this bioreactor system showed that tensile strains were direction-dependent, while both tensile strains and fluid motion were depth-dependent and highest in the region closest to the contact surface. Short-term sliding contact of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC-seeded agarose improved chondrogenic gene expression in a manner dependent on both the axial strain applied and transforming growth factor-β supplementation. Using the optimized loading parameters derived from these short-term studies, long-term sliding contact was applied to MSC-seeded agarose constructs for 21 d. After 21 d, sliding contact significantly improved the tensile properties of MSC-seeded constructs and elicited alterations in type II collagen and proteoglycan accumulation as a function of depth; staining for these matrix molecules showed intense localization in the surface regions. These findings point to the potential of sliding contact to produce engineered cartilage constructs that begin to recapitulate the complex mechanical features of the native tissue.

Sensing Properties of Pd-Loaded Co3O4 Film for a ppb-Level NO Gas Sensor

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Takafumi Akamatsu

2015-04-01

Full Text Available We prepared 0.1 wt%–30 wt% Pd-loaded Co3O4 by a colloidal mixing method and investigated the sensing properties of a Pd-loaded Co3O4 sensor element, such as the sensor response, 90% response time, 90% recovery time, and signal-to-noise (S/N ratio, toward low nitric oxide (NO gas levels in the range from 50 to 200 parts per billion. The structural properties of the Pd-loaded Co3O4 powder were investigated using X-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy. Pd in the powder existed as PdO. The sensor elements with 0.1 wt%–10 wt% Pd content have higher sensor properties than those without any Pd content. The response of the sensor element with a 30 wt% Pd content decreased markedly because of the aggregation and poor dispersibility of the PdO particles. High sensor response and S/N ratio toward the NO gas were achieved when a sensor element with 10 wt% Pd content was used.

Review of Active and Reactive Power Sharing Strategies in Hierarchical Controlled Microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Han, Yang; Li, Hong; Shen, Pan

2017-01-01

Microgrids consist of multiple parallel-connected distributed generation (DG) units with coordinated control strategies, which are able to operate in both grid-connected and islanded mode. Microgrids are attracting more and more attention since they can alleviate the stress of main transmission...... systems, reduce feeder losses, and improve system power quality. When the islanded microgrids are concerned, it is important to maintain system stability and achieve load power sharing among the multiple parallel-connected DG units. However, the poor active and reactive power sharing problems due...... in this paper for active power sharing. Moreover, nonlinear and unbalanced loads could further affect the reactive power sharing when regulating the active power, and it is difficult to share the reactive power accurately only by using the enhanced virtual impedance method. Therefore, the hierarchical control...

Influence of multiwall carbon nanotube functionality and loading on mechanical properties of PMMA/MWCNT bone cements.

Science.gov (United States)

Ormsby, Ross; McNally, Tony; Mitchell, Christina; Dunne, Nicholas

2010-08-01

Poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement-multi walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposites with weight loadings ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 wt% were prepared. The MWCNTs investigated were unfunctionalised, carboxyl and amine functionalised MWCNTs. Mechanical properties of the resultant nanocomposite cements were characterised as per international standards for acrylic resin cements. These mechanical properties were influenced by the type and wt% loading of MWCNT used. The morphology and degree of dispersion of the MWCNTs in the PMMA matrix at different length scales were examined using field emission scanning electron microscopy. Improvements in mechanical properties were attributed to the MWCNTs arresting/retarding crack propagation through the cement by providing a bridging effect and hindering crack propagation. MWCNTs agglomerations were evident within the cement microstructure, the degree of these agglomerations was dependent on the weight fraction and functionality of MWCNTs incorporated into the cement.

Effects of Kenaf Loading on Processability and Properties of Linear Low-Density Polyethylene/Poly (Vinyl Alcohol/Kenaf Composites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ai Ling Pang

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This study was conducted to evaluate the possibility of utilizing kenaf (KNF in LLDPE/PVOH to develop a new thermoplastic composite. The effect of KNF loading on the processability and mechanical, thermal and water absorption properties of linear low-density polyethylene/poly (vinyl alcohol/kenaf (LLDPE/PVOH/KNF composites were investigated. Composites with different KNF loadings (0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 phr were prepared using a Thermo Haake Polydrive internal mixer at a temperature of 150 °C and rotor speed of 50 rpm for 10 min. The results indicate that the stabilization torque, tensile modulus, water uptake, and thermal stability increased, while tensile strength and elongation at break decreased with increasing filler loading. The tensile fractured surfaces observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM supported the deterioration in tensile properties of the LLDPE/PVOH/KNF composites with increasing KNF loading.

Mechanical and fracture properties at impact loading of selected steels for nuclear power engineering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buchar, J.; Bilek, Z.

1988-01-01

The possibilities are briefly characterized of experimental research of mechanical and fracture properties of steels used in nuclear power engineering. Attention is paid to plastic deformation and the assessment of fracture formation during impact loading. The results are reported for steels 15Kh2MFA and 10GN2MFA. For steel 15Kh2MFA the effect was also studied of neutron radiation at different temperatures. From the theory developed for non-irradiated material 10GN2MFA, a prediction is made within the original model of the fracture stress value for steel 15Kh2MFA in both non-irradiated and irradiated states. The conclusion is arrived at that the existing methods of assessing steel properties at impact load allow obtaining knowledge of all significant effects during actual stress, this using only small specimens of the materials. (Z.M.). 4 figs., 8 refs

Assessing the physical-chemical properties and stability of dapivirine-loaded polymeric nanoparticles.

Science.gov (United States)

das Neves, José; Amiji, Mansoor; Bahia, Maria Fernanda; Sarmento, Bruno

2013-11-18

Nanocarriers may provide interesting delivery platforms for microbicide drugs and their characterization should be addressed early in development. Differently surface-engineered dapivirine-loaded, poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL)-based nanoparticles (NPs) were obtained by nanoprecipitation using polyethylene oxide (PEO), sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), or cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as surface modifiers. Physical-chemical properties of NP aqueous dispersions were evaluated upon storage at -20-40 °C for one year. NPs presented 170-200 nm in diameter, roundish-shape, low polydispersity index (≤0.18), and high drug association efficiency (≥97%) and loading (≥12.7%). NPs differed in zeta potential, depending on surface modifier (PEO: -27.9 mV; SLS: -54.7 mV; CTAB: +42.4 mV). No interactions among formulation components were detected by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), except for SLS-PCL NPs. Colloidal properties of NPs were lost at -20 °C storage. Negatively charged NPs were stable up to one year at 5-40°C; as for CTAB-PCL NPs, particle aggregation was observed from 30 to 90 days of storage depending on temperature. Colloidal instability affected the in vitro drug release of CTAB-PCL NPs after 360 days. In any case, no degradation of dapivirine was apparent. Overall, PEO-PCL and SLS-PCL NPs presented suitable properties as nanocarriers for dapivirine. Conversely, CTAB-PCL NPs require additional strategies in order to increase stability. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Review: Optimising cognitive load and usability to improve the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Cognitive load theory views learning as involving active processing of information by working memory via separate visual and auditory channels. This system is of ... The fields of cognitive load theory and human-computer interaction share a common goal in striving to reduce extraneous cognitive load. The load induced by ...

Material properties for reactor pressure vessels and containment shells under dynamic loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Albertini, C.

1997-01-01

The effects of high strain rate, dynamic biaxial loading and deformation mode (tension, shear) on the mechanical properties of AISI 316 austenitic stainless steel in as-received and pre-damaged (creep, LCF) conditions are reported. This research was conducted to assess the performances of the containment shell of fast breeder reactors. The results of this research have been utilized to prepare similar investigations for SA 537 Class 1 ferritic steel used for the containment shell of LWR. The first results of these investigations are reported. A programme to study the mechanical properties of plain concrete with real size aggregate at high strain rate is described. (orig.)

Effect of epoxidised soybean oil loading as plasticiser on physical, mechanical and thermal properties of polyvinylchloride

Science.gov (United States)

Rahmah, M.; Nurazzi, N. Mohd; Farah Nordyana, A. R.; Syed Anas, S. M.

2017-07-01

The aim of this paper is to study the effect of epoxidised soybean oil (ESO) as an alternative plasticizer on physical, mechanical and thermal properties of plasticised polyvinyl chloride (PPVC). Samples were prepared using 10, 20, 30 and 40% by weight percent of ESO. The samples were characterized for density, water absorption, tensile, hardness and thermal properties. The addition of ESO as plasticizer in PVC had caused significant effect on the physical and mechanical properties of PPVC. Increasing of ESO loading had resulted in decreased density, tensile strength, tensile modulus but increased in elongation at break and shore hardness. From water absorption study, it was observed that the all the samples reached the plateau absorption at days 8 to 10 with absorption percentages of between 1.8 to 2%. In general the crystallinity of PPVC maintained between 10 to 13% with increase in ESO loading while the melting point ( Tm) is slightly decreased about 3 to 6°C. In this study, ESO which acts as plasticiser were found to result in lower glass transition temperature (Tg). The enhancements of super cooling with higher ESO loading were found to increase the crystallization temperature, promoting crystallisation and act as nucleating agent.

Variability in dynamic properties of tantalum : spall, attenuation and load/unload.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Furnish, Michael David; Reinhart, William Dodd; Trott, Wayne Merle; Vogler, Tracy John; Chhabildas, Lalit Chandra

2005-07-01

A suite of impact experiments was conducted to assess spatial and shot-to-shot variability in dynamic properties of tantalum. Samples had a uniform refined {approx}20 micron grain structure with a strong axisymmetric [111] crystallographic texture. Two experiments performed with sapphire windows (stresses of approximately 7 and 12 GPa) clearly showed elastic-plastic loading and slightly hysteretic unloading behavior. An HEL amplitude of 2.8 GPa (corresponding to Y 1.5 GPa) was observed. Free-surface spall experiments showed clear wave attenuation and spallation phenomena. Here, loading stresses were {approx} 12.5 GPa and various ratios of impactor to target thicknesses were used. Spatial and shot-to-shot variability of the spall strength was {+-} 20%, and of the HEL, {+-} 10%. Experiments conducted with smaller diameter flyer plates clearly showed edge effects in the line and point VISAR records, indicating lateral release speeds of roughly 5 km/s.

Mechanical properties of HDPE/UHMWPE blends: effect of filler loading and filler treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Lai, K L K; Roziyanna, A; Ogunniyi, D S; Zainal, Arifin M I; Azlan, Ariffin A

2004-05-01

Various blend ratios of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) were prepared with the objective of determining their suitability as biomaterials. In the unfilled state, a blend of 50/50 (HDPE/UHMWPE) ratio by weight was found to yield optimum properties in terms of processability and mechanical properties. Hydroxyapatite (HA) was compounded with the optimum blend ratio. The effects of HA loading, varied from 0 to 50wt% for both filled and unfilled blends were tested for mechanical properties. It was found that the inclusion of HA in the blend led to a remarkable improvement of mechanical properties compared to the unfilled blend. In order to improve the bonding between the polymer blend and the filler, the HA used was chemically treated with a coupling agent known as 3-(trimethoxysiyl) propyl methacrylate and the treated HA was mixed into the blend. The effect of mixing the blend with silane-treated HA also led to an overall improvement of mechanical properties.

Theoretical Analysis of the Dynamic Properties of a 2-2 Cement-Based Piezoelectric Dual-Layer Stacked Sensor under Impact Load.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Taotao; Liao, Yangchao; Zhang, Keping; Chen, Jun

2017-05-04

Cement-based piezoelectric materials are widely used due to the fact that compared with common smart materials, they overcome the defects of structure-incompatibility and frequency inconsistency with a concrete structure. However, the present understanding of the mechanical behavior of cement-based piezoelectric smart materials under impact load is still limited. The dynamic characteristics under impact load are of importance, for example, for studying the anti-collision properties of engineering structures and aircraft takeoff-landing safety. Therefore, in this paper, an analytical model was proposed to investigate the dynamic properties of a 2-2 cement-based piezoelectric dual-layer stacked sensor under impact load based on the piezoelectric effect. Theoretical solutions are obtained by utilizing the variable separation and Duhamel integral method. To simulate the impact load and verify the theory, three types of loads, including atransient step load, isosceles triangle load and haversine wave load, are considered and the comparisons between the theoretical results, Li's results and numerical results are presented by using the control variate method and good agreement is found. Furthermore, the influences of several parameters were discussed and other conclusions about this sensor are also given. This should prove very helpful for the design and optimization of the 2-2 cement-based piezoelectric dual-layer stacked sensor in engineering.

The FOSS GIS Workbench on the GFZ Load Sharing Facility compute cluster

Science.gov (United States)

Löwe, P.; Klump, J.; Thaler, J.

2012-04-01

Compute clusters can be used as GIS workbenches, their wealth of resources allow us to take on geocomputation tasks which exceed the limitations of smaller systems. To harness these capabilities requires a Geographic Information System (GIS), able to utilize the available cluster configuration/architecture and a sufficient degree of user friendliness to allow for wide application. In this paper we report on the first successful porting of GRASS GIS, the oldest and largest Free Open Source (FOSS) GIS project, onto a compute cluster using Platform Computing's Load Sharing Facility (LSF). In 2008, GRASS6.3 was installed on the GFZ compute cluster, which at that time comprised 32 nodes. The interaction with the GIS was limited to the command line interface, which required further development to encapsulate the GRASS GIS business layer to facilitate its use by users not familiar with GRASS GIS. During the summer of 2011, multiple versions of GRASS GIS (v 6.4, 6.5 and 7.0) were installed on the upgraded GFZ compute cluster, now consisting of 234 nodes with 480 CPUs providing 3084 cores. The GFZ compute cluster currently offers 19 different processing queues with varying hardware capabilities and priorities, allowing for fine-grained scheduling and load balancing. After successful testing of core GIS functionalities, including the graphical user interface, mechanisms were developed to deploy scripted geocomputation tasks onto dedicated processing queues. The mechanisms are based on earlier work by NETELER et al. (2008). A first application of the new GIS functionality was the generation of maps of simulated tsunamis in the Mediterranean Sea for the Tsunami Atlas of the FP-7 TRIDEC Project (www.tridec-online.eu). For this, up to 500 processing nodes were used in parallel. Further trials included the processing of geometrically complex problems, requiring significant amounts of processing time. The GIS cluster successfully completed all these tasks, with processing times

Effect of fiber distribution and realignment on the nonlinear and inhomogeneous mechanical properties of human supraspinatus tendon under longitudinal tensile loading.

Science.gov (United States)

Lake, Spencer P; Miller, Kristin S; Elliott, Dawn M; Soslowsky, Louis J

2009-12-01

Tendon exhibits nonlinear stress-strain behavior that may be partly due to movement of collagen fibers through the extracellular matrix. While a few techniques have been developed to evaluate the fiber architecture of other soft tissues, the organizational behavior of tendon under load has not been determined. The supraspinatus tendon (SST) of the rotator cuff is of particular interest for investigation due to its complex mechanical environment and corresponding inhomogeneity. In addition, SST injury occurs frequently with limited success in treatment strategies, illustrating the need for a better understanding of SST properties. Therefore, the objective of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the inhomogeneous tensile mechanical properties, fiber organization, and fiber realignment under load of human SST utilizing a novel polarized light technique. Fiber distributions were found to become more aligned under load, particularly during the low stiffness toe-region, suggesting that fiber realignment may be partly responsible for observed nonlinear behavior. Fiber alignment was found to correlate significantly with mechanical parameters, providing evidence for strong structure-function relationships in tendon. Human SST exhibits complex, inhomogeneous mechanical properties and fiber distributions, perhaps due to its complex loading environment. Surprisingly, histological grade of degeneration did not correlate with mechanical properties.

Mechanical Properties of a Unidirectional Basalt-Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Under a Loading Simulating Operation Conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Lobanov, D. S.; Slovikov, S. V.

2017-01-01

The results of experimental investigations of unidirectional composites based on basalt fibers and different marks of epoxy resins are presented. Uniaxial tensile tests were carried out using a specimen fixation technique simulating the operation conditions of structures. The mechanical properties of the basalt-fiber-reinforced plastics (BFRPs) were determined. The diagrams of loading and deformation of BFRP specimens were obtain. The formulations of the composites with the highest mechanical properties were revealed.

Continuously Growing Ultrathick CrN Coating to Achieve High Load-Bearing Capacity and Good Tribological Property.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zechao; Wang, Yongxin; Cheng, Xiaoying; Zeng, Zhixiang; Li, Jinlong; Lu, Xia; Wang, Liping; Xue, Qunji

2018-01-24

Continuous growth of traditional monolayer CrN coatings up to 24 h is successfully achieved to fabricate ultrathickness of up to 80 μm on the 316 stainless steel substrate using a multiarc ion plating technique. The microstructures, mechanical properties, and tribological properties evolution with the CrN coating continuously growing was evaluated in detail. The transmission electron microscopy observations and inverse Fourier-filtered images reveal a relaxation mechanism during the continuous growth of CrN coating, which can lead to a decrease in the residual stress when coating growth time exceeds 5 h. The scratch test and friction test results both show that the load-bearing capacity of coating is significantly increased as CrN coatings growing thicker. During the scratch test, the ultrathick CrN coating of thickness 80.6 μm is not failed under the load of 180 N, and the dominant failure mechanism is the cohesive failure including wedge spallation and cracking. The dry-sliding friction test results show the mean coefficient of friction and the wear rate of ultrathick CrN are respectively decreased by 17.2 and 56.8% at most compared with the thin coating (thickness is 5.4 μm). The ultrahigh load-bearing capacity and excellent tribological property are attributed to the relaxation mechanism and limited contact pressure as the coating grows continuously.

Synthesis of polyoxometalate-loaded epoxy composites

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Benjamin J

2014-10-07

The synthesis of a polyoxometalate-loaded epoxy uses a one-step cure by applying an external stimulus to release the acid from the polyoxometalate and thereby catalyze the cure reaction of the epoxy resin. Such polyoxometalate-loaded epoxy composites afford the cured epoxy unique properties imparted by the intrinsic properties of the polyoxometalate. For example, polyoxometalate-loaded epoxy composites can be used as corrosion resistant epoxy coatings, for encapsulation of electronics with improved dielectric properties, and for structural applications with improved mechanical properties.

Wettability alteration properties of fluorinated silica nanoparticles in liquid-loaded pores: An atomistic simulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sepehrinia, Kazem; Mohammadi, Aliasghar, E-mail: amohammadi@sharif.edu

2016-05-15

Highlights: • Properties of fluorinated silica nanoparticles were investigated in water or decane-loaded pores of mineral silica using molecular dynamics simulation. • The water or decane-loaded pores represent liquid bridging. • Addition of nanoparticles to liquid-loaded pores results in weakening of the liquid bridge. • The hydrophobicity of the pore wall increases in the presence of adsorbed fluorinated silica nanoparticles. - Abstract: Control over the wettability of reservoir rocks is of crucial importance for enhancing oil and gas recovery. In order to develop chemicals for controlling the wettability of reservoir rocks, we present a study of functionalized silica nanoparticles as candidates for wettability alteration and improved gas recovery applications. In this paper, properties of fluorinated silica nanoparticles were investigated in water or decane-loaded pores of mineral silica using molecular dynamics simulation. Trifluoromethyl groups as water and oil repellents were placed on the nanoparticles. Simulating a pore in the presence of trapped water or decane molecules leads to liquid bridging for both of the liquids. Adsorption of nanoparticles on the pore wall reduces the density of liquid molecules adjacent to the wall. The density of liquid molecules around the nanoparticles decreases significantly with increasing the number of trifluoromethyl groups on the nanoparticles’ surfaces. An increased hydrophobicity of the pore wall was observed in the presence of adsorbed fluorinated silica nanoparticles. Also, it is observed that increasing the number of the trifluoromethyl groups results in weakening of liquid bridges. Moreover, the free energy of adsorption on mineral surface was evaluated to be more favorable than that of aggregation of nanoparticles, which suggests nanoparticles adsorb preferably on mineral surface.

Wettability alteration properties of fluorinated silica nanoparticles in liquid-loaded pores: An atomistic simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sepehrinia, Kazem; Mohammadi, Aliasghar

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Properties of fluorinated silica nanoparticles were investigated in water or decane-loaded pores of mineral silica using molecular dynamics simulation. • The water or decane-loaded pores represent liquid bridging. • Addition of nanoparticles to liquid-loaded pores results in weakening of the liquid bridge. • The hydrophobicity of the pore wall increases in the presence of adsorbed fluorinated silica nanoparticles. - Abstract: Control over the wettability of reservoir rocks is of crucial importance for enhancing oil and gas recovery. In order to develop chemicals for controlling the wettability of reservoir rocks, we present a study of functionalized silica nanoparticles as candidates for wettability alteration and improved gas recovery applications. In this paper, properties of fluorinated silica nanoparticles were investigated in water or decane-loaded pores of mineral silica using molecular dynamics simulation. Trifluoromethyl groups as water and oil repellents were placed on the nanoparticles. Simulating a pore in the presence of trapped water or decane molecules leads to liquid bridging for both of the liquids. Adsorption of nanoparticles on the pore wall reduces the density of liquid molecules adjacent to the wall. The density of liquid molecules around the nanoparticles decreases significantly with increasing the number of trifluoromethyl groups on the nanoparticles’ surfaces. An increased hydrophobicity of the pore wall was observed in the presence of adsorbed fluorinated silica nanoparticles. Also, it is observed that increasing the number of the trifluoromethyl groups results in weakening of liquid bridges. Moreover, the free energy of adsorption on mineral surface was evaluated to be more favorable than that of aggregation of nanoparticles, which suggests nanoparticles adsorb preferably on mineral surface.

The Influence of the Loading Rate on the Mechanical Properties of Drawing Steel Sheet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Buršák, M.

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The paper analyzes the influence of the loading rate in the interval from 1 to 1000 mm/min on the mechanical properties of drawing steel sheet H260LAD with the gauge of 1 mm, used for the manufacture of automotive parts, under tension and bending conditions. It describes the aspects of material characteristics under tension and bending conditions, while bending tests were made on notched specimens (a modified impact bending test. The paper presents knowledge that using a modified notch toughness test it is possible to achieve the pressability (formability characteristics corresponding to dynamic strain rates even under the static loading.

Dietary phosphorus concentrations related to breaking load and chemical bone properties in heifers.

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, S N; Lawrence, L A; McDowell, L R; Warnick, A C; Wilkinson, N S

1990-04-01

Effects of dietary P on breaking load and chemical properties of bone were evaluated in growing beef heifers. Initially, 14 weaned Angus heifers received ad libitum a low P diet (.10% P dry basis) for 270 d. Heifers were subsequently randomly allotted into two groups (7 heifers/group) and received ad libitum either .12 or .20% P (dry basis). The experimental endpoint was 245 d of the treatment phase for nonpregnant and 3 wk postpartum for pregnant heifers. Results indicate that chemical and physical properties of bovine bones are sensitive to dietary P. Mineralization of rib bones was less at .12% P (dry basis). Rib bone density (g/cm3) and mineral content expressed on a per unit volume basis (mg/cm3) were the most sensitive parameters measured. Breaking load results of 12th ribs also indicated a greater amount of mineral present in heifers receiving .20% P (153.8 vs. 114.3 kg). Vertebral bone density and mineral concentrations on a per unit volume basis were also sensitive to dietary P and clearly ranked the two dietary P amounts, whereas percentage of bone ash or mineral concentration expressed on an ash basis did not.

Compressive Properties of PTFE/Al/Ni Composite Under Uniaxial Loading

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Huai-xi; Li, Yu-chun; Feng, Bin; Huang, Jun-yi; Zhang, Sheng; Fang, Xiang

2017-05-01

To investigate the mechanical properties of pressed and sintered PTFE/Al/Ni (polytetrafluoroethylene/aluminum/nickel) composite, uniaxial quasi-static and dynamic compression experiments were conducted at strain rates from 10-2 to 3 × 103/s. The prepared samples were tested by an electrohydraulic press with 300 kN loading capacity and a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) device at room temperature. Experimental results show that PTFE/Al/Ni composite exhibits evident strain hardening and strain rate hardening. Additionally, a bilinear relationship between stress and {{log(}}\\dot{ɛ} ) is observed. The experimental data were fit to Johnson-Cook constitutive model, and the results are in well agreement with measured data.

High Heat Load Properties of Ultra Fine Grain Tungsten

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhou, Z.; Du, J.; Ge, C.; Linke, J.; Pintsuk, G.; Song, S.X.

2007-01-01

Full text of publication follows: Tungsten is increasingly considered as a promising candidate armour materials facing the plasma in tokamaks for medium to high heat flux components (EAST, ASDEX, ITER). Fabrication tungsten with ultra fine grain size is considered as an effective way to ameliorate some disadvantages of tungsten, such as its brittleness at room temperature. But the research data on the performance of ultra fine grain tungsten is still very limit. In this work, high heat load properties of pure ultra-fine grain tungsten have been studied. The ultra fine grain tungsten samples with average grain size of 0.2 μm, 1 μm and 3 μm were fabricated by resistance sintering under ultra high pressure. The annealing experiments for the investigation of the material resistance against grain growth have been done by annealing samples in a vacuum furnace at different temperature holding for 2 hours respectively. It is found that recrystallization and grain growth occur at heating temperature of 1250 deg. c. The finer the initial grain sizes of tungsten, the smaller its grain growth grain. The effects of transient high thermal loads (off normal events like disruptions) on tungsten surface morphology have been performed in electron beam test facility JUDITH. The thermal loads tests have been carried out with 4 ms pulses at different power density of 0.22, 0.33, 0.44, 0.55 and 0.88 GW/m 2 respectively. Horizontal cracks formed for all tungsten samples at 0.44 GW/m 2 . Particle erosions occurred for tungsten with 3 μm size at 0.33 GW/m 2 and for tungsten with 0.2 and 1 μm size at 0.55 GW/m 2 . The weight loss of tungsten with 0.2, 1 and 3 μm size are 2,0.1,0.6 mg respectively at 0.88 GW/m 2 . The effects of a large number of very short transient repetitive thermal loads (ELM-like) on tungsten surface morphology also have been performed by using a fundamental wave of a YAG laser. It is found that tungsten with 0.2 μm size has the best performance. (authors)

High Heat Load Properties of Ultra Fine Grain Tungsten

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhou, Z.; Du, J.; Ge, C. [Lab. of Special Ceramic and P/M, University of Science and Technology, 100083 Beijing (China); Linke, J.; Pintsuk, G. [FZJ-Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH, Association Euratom-FZJ, Institut fur Plasmaphysik, Postfach 1913, D-52425 Juelich (Germany); Song, S.X. [Research Center on Fusion Materials (RCFM), University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB), 100083 Beijing (China)

2007-07-01

Full text of publication follows: Tungsten is increasingly considered as a promising candidate armour materials facing the plasma in tokamaks for medium to high heat flux components (EAST, ASDEX, ITER). Fabrication tungsten with ultra fine grain size is considered as an effective way to ameliorate some disadvantages of tungsten, such as its brittleness at room temperature. But the research data on the performance of ultra fine grain tungsten is still very limit. In this work, high heat load properties of pure ultra-fine grain tungsten have been studied. The ultra fine grain tungsten samples with average grain size of 0.2 {mu}m, 1 {mu}m and 3 {mu}m were fabricated by resistance sintering under ultra high pressure. The annealing experiments for the investigation of the material resistance against grain growth have been done by annealing samples in a vacuum furnace at different temperature holding for 2 hours respectively. It is found that recrystallization and grain growth occur at heating temperature of 1250 deg. c. The finer the initial grain sizes of tungsten, the smaller its grain growth grain. The effects of transient high thermal loads (off normal events like disruptions) on tungsten surface morphology have been performed in electron beam test facility JUDITH. The thermal loads tests have been carried out with 4 ms pulses at different power density of 0.22, 0.33, 0.44, 0.55 and 0.88 GW/m{sup 2} respectively. Horizontal cracks formed for all tungsten samples at 0.44 GW/m{sup 2}. Particle erosions occurred for tungsten with 3 {mu}m size at 0.33 GW/m{sup 2} and for tungsten with 0.2 and 1 {mu}m size at 0.55 GW/m{sup 2}. The weight loss of tungsten with 0.2, 1 and 3 {mu}m size are 2,0.1,0.6 mg respectively at 0.88 GW/m{sup 2}. The effects of a large number of very short transient repetitive thermal loads (ELM-like) on tungsten surface morphology also have been performed by using a fundamental wave of a YAG laser. It is found that tungsten with 0.2 {mu}m size has

Effects of Zoledronate and Mechanical Loading during Simulated Weightlessness on Bone Structure and Mechanical Properties

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, R. T.; Nalavadi, M. O.; Shirazi-Fard, Y.; Castillo, A. B.; Alwood, J. S.

2016-01-01

Space flight modulates bone remodeling to favor bone resorption. Current countermeasures include an anti-resorptive drug class, bisphosphonates (BP), and high-force loading regimens. Does the combination of anti-resorptives and high-force exercise during weightlessness have negative effects on the mechanical and structural properties of bone? In this study, we implemented an integrated model to mimic mechanical strain of exercise via cyclical loading (CL) in mice treated with the BP Zoledronate (ZOL) combined with hindlimb unloading (HU). Our working hypothesis is that CL combined with ZOL in the HU model induces additive structural and mechanical changes. Thirty-two C57BL6 mice (male,16 weeks old, n8group) were exposed to 3 weeks of either HU or normal ambulation (NA). Cohorts of mice received one subcutaneous injection of ZOL (45gkg), or saline vehicle, prior to experiment. The right tibia was axially loaded in vivo, 60xday to 9N in compression, repeated 3xweek during HU. During the application of compression, secant stiffness (SEC), a linear estimate of slope of the force displacement curve from rest (0.5N) to max load (9.0N), was calculated for each cycle once per week. Ex vivo CT was conducted on all subjects. For ex vivo mechanical properties, non-CL left femurs underwent 3-point bending. In the proximal tibial metaphysis, HU decreased, CL increased, and ZOL increased the cancellous bone volume to total volume ratio by -26, +21, and +33, respectively. Similar trends held for trabecular thickness and number. Ex vivo left femur mechanical properties revealed HU decreased stiffness (-37),and ZOL mitigated the HU stiffness losses (+78). Data on the ex vivo Ultimate Force followed similar trends. After 3 weeks, HU decreased in vivo SEC (-16). The combination of CL+HU appeared additive in bone structure and mechanical properties. However, when HU + CL + ZOL were combined, ZOL had no additional effect (p0.05) on in vivo SEC. Structural data followed this trend with

Load following operation of nuclear power plants for meeting power system requirements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Isoda, Hachiro

1987-01-01

This paper describes a calculating program on the availability factors of nuclear, thermal and pumed storage hydro power stations and some calculated results for typical three load factors, 55 %, 60 % and 71 %, are provided when the share of the nuclea power station in the generation facilities is increased. The load following requirement of the nuclear power station is also provided. Load following requirement: If there is a 10 % pumped storage hydro power station, the nuclear power station enables to be operated with its rated output up to 30 % - 35 % of its share. Its daily load following operation for 40 % and 50 % nuclear power station needs every weekend and every day respectively. Availability factor: The availability factor of the nuclear power station manages to get 80 % (maximum availability factor of the nuclear power station in this study) up to 30 % share of it with 10 % pumpued storage hydro power station. When the nuclear power station shares 40 % and 50 %, its availability factor decreases down 1 % and 5 % respectively. (author)

Theoretical Analysis of the Dynamic Properties of a 2-2 Cement-Based Piezoelectric Dual-Layer Stacked Sensor under Impact Load

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taotao Zhang

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Cement-based piezoelectric materials are widely used due to the fact that compared with common smart materials, they overcome the defects of structure-incompatibility and frequency inconsistency with a concrete structure. However, the present understanding of the mechanical behavior of cement-based piezoelectric smart materials under impact load is still limited. The dynamic characteristics under impact load are of importance, for example, for studying the anti-collision properties of engineering structures and aircraft takeoff-landing safety. Therefore, in this paper, an analytical model was proposed to investigate the dynamic properties of a 2-2 cement-based piezoelectric dual-layer stacked sensor under impact load based on the piezoelectric effect. Theoretical solutions are obtained by utilizing the variable separation and Duhamel integral method. To simulate the impact load and verify the theory, three types of loads, including atransient step load, isosceles triangle load and haversine wave load, are considered and the comparisons between the theoretical results, Li’s results and numerical results are presented by using the control variate method and good agreement is found. Furthermore, the influences of several parameters were discussed and other conclusions about this sensor are also given. This should prove very helpful for the design and optimization of the 2-2 cement-based piezoelectric dual-layer stacked sensor in engineering.

Preparation of magnetic polylactic acid microspheres and investigation of its releasing property for loading curcumin

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li Fengxia [Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Molecular Design and Preparation of Flame Retarded Materials, College of Science, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040 (China); Li Xiaoli, E-mail: lixiaoli0903@163.com [Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Molecular Design and Preparation of Flame Retarded Materials, College of Science, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040 (China); Li Bin, E-mail: libinzh62@163.com [Heilongjiang Key Laboratory of Molecular Design and Preparation of Flame Retarded Materials, College of Science, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040 (China)

2011-11-15

In order to obtain a targeting drug carrier system, magnetic polylactic acid (PLA) microspheres loading curcumin were synthesized by the classical oil-in-water emulsion solvent-evaporation method. In the Fourier transform infrared spectra of microspheres, the present functional groups of PLA were all kept invariably. The morphology and size distribution of magnetic microspheres were observed with scanning electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering, respectively. The results showed that the microspheres were regularly spherical and the surface was smooth with a diameter of 0.55-0.75 {mu}m. Magnetic Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} was loaded in PLA microspheres and the content of magnetic particles was 12 wt% through thermogravimetric analysis. The magnetic property of prepared microspheres was measured by vibrating sample magnetometer. The results showed that the magnetic microspheres exhibited typical superparamagnetic behavior and the saturated magnetization was 14.38 emu/g. Through analysis of differential scanning calorimetry, the curcumin was in an amorphous state in the magnetic microspheres. The drug loading, encapsulation efficiency and releasing properties of curcumin in vitro were also investigated by ultraviolet-visible spectrum analysis. The results showed that the drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were 8.0% and 24.2%, respectively. And curcumin was obviously slowly released because the cumulative release percentage of magnetic microspheres in the phosphate buffer (pH=7.4) solution was only 49.01% in 72 h, and the basic release of curcumin finished in 120 h. - Highlights: > We prepare magnetic polylactic acid microspheres loading curcumin. > The classical oil-in-water emulsion solvent-evaporation method is used. > The magnetic microspheres are regularly spherical with a diameter of 0.55-0.75 {mu}m. > They show a certain sustained release effect on in vitro drug releasing.

Preparation of magnetic polylactic acid microspheres and investigation of its releasing property for loading curcumin

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Fengxia; Li Xiaoli; Li Bin

2011-01-01

In order to obtain a targeting drug carrier system, magnetic polylactic acid (PLA) microspheres loading curcumin were synthesized by the classical oil-in-water emulsion solvent-evaporation method. In the Fourier transform infrared spectra of microspheres, the present functional groups of PLA were all kept invariably. The morphology and size distribution of magnetic microspheres were observed with scanning electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering, respectively. The results showed that the microspheres were regularly spherical and the surface was smooth with a diameter of 0.55-0.75 μm. Magnetic Fe 3 O 4 was loaded in PLA microspheres and the content of magnetic particles was 12 wt% through thermogravimetric analysis. The magnetic property of prepared microspheres was measured by vibrating sample magnetometer. The results showed that the magnetic microspheres exhibited typical superparamagnetic behavior and the saturated magnetization was 14.38 emu/g. Through analysis of differential scanning calorimetry, the curcumin was in an amorphous state in the magnetic microspheres. The drug loading, encapsulation efficiency and releasing properties of curcumin in vitro were also investigated by ultraviolet-visible spectrum analysis. The results showed that the drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were 8.0% and 24.2%, respectively. And curcumin was obviously slowly released because the cumulative release percentage of magnetic microspheres in the phosphate buffer (pH=7.4) solution was only 49.01% in 72 h, and the basic release of curcumin finished in 120 h. - Highlights: → We prepare magnetic polylactic acid microspheres loading curcumin. → The classical oil-in-water emulsion solvent-evaporation method is used. → The magnetic microspheres are regularly spherical with a diameter of 0.55-0.75 μm. → They show a certain sustained release effect on in vitro drug releasing.

Effects of Different Montmorillonite Nanoclay Loading on Cure Behavior and Properties of Diglycidyl Ether of Bisphenol A Epoxy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alfred Tcherbi-Narteh

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The primary focus of this study was to understand the effects of different amounts of montmorillonite nanoclay (MMT loading on viscosity, cure behavior, reaction mechanism, and properties of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA epoxy composites. Influence of 1–3 wt.% MMT on rheological and subsequent cure behavior of SC-15 epoxy resin was studied using nonisothermal and isothermal rheometry and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC. Rheological properties were influenced by different amounts of MMT at lower shear rates prior to and during curing. Cure reaction mechanism was unaffected by different MMT concentration; however heat and activation energy of reactions increased with increasing MMT loading. Samples with 2 wt.% MMT showed highest reaction rate constant, indicative of catalytic behavior. X-ray diffraction (XRD and transmission electron microscope (TEM revealed mainly intercalated microstructure throughout the MMT infused epoxy composite samples irrespective of the percent loading.

A worldwide flock of Condors : load sharing among workstation clusters

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Epema, D.H.J.; Livny, M.; Dantzig, van R.; Evers, X.; Pruyne, J.

1996-01-01

Condor is a distributed batch system for sharing the workload of compute-intensive jobs in a pool of unix workstations connected by a network. In such a Condor pool, idle machines are spotted by Condor and allocated to queued jobs, thus putting otherwise unutilized capacity to efficient use. When

Novel instrument for characterizing comprehensive physical properties under multi-mechanical loads and multi-physical field coupling conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Changyi; Zhao, Hongwei; Ma, Zhichao; Qiao, Yuansen; Hong, Kun; Ren, Zhuang; Zhang, Jianhai; Pei, Yongmao; Ren, Luquan

2018-02-01

Functional materials represented by ferromagnetics and ferroelectrics are widely used in advanced sensor and precision actuation due to their special characterization under coupling interactions of complex loads and external physical fields. However, the conventional devices for material characterization can only provide a limited type of loads and physical fields and cannot simulate the actual service conditions of materials. A multi-field coupling instrument for characterization has been designed and implemented to overcome this barrier and measure the comprehensive physical properties under complex service conditions. The testing forms include tension, compression, bending, torsion, and fatigue in mechanical loads, as well as different external physical fields, including electric, magnetic, and thermal fields. In order to offer a variety of information to reveal mechanical damage or deformation forms, a series of measurement methods at the microscale are integrated with the instrument including an indentation unit and in situ microimaging module. Finally, several coupling experiments which cover all the loading and measurement functions of the instrument have been implemented. The results illustrate the functions and characteristics of the instrument and then reveal the variety in mechanical and electromagnetic properties of the piezoelectric transducer ceramic, TbDyFe alloy, and carbon fiber reinforced polymer under coupling conditions.

Silver nanoparticle-loaded chitosan-starch based films: Fabrication and evaluation of tensile, barrier and antimicrobial properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yoksan, Rangrong; Chirachanchai, Suwabun

2010-01-01

The fabrication of silver nanoparticles was accomplished by γ-ray irradiation reduction of silver nitrate in a chitosan solution. The obtained nanoparticles were stable in the solution for more than six months, and showed the characteristic surface plasmon band at 411 nm as well as a positively charged surface with 40.4 ± 2.0 mV. The silver nanoparticles presented a spherical shape with an average size of 20-25 nm, as observed by TEM. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against E. coli, S. aureus and B. cereus of the silver nanoparticles dispersed in the γ-ray irradiated chitosan solution was 5.64 μg/mL. The silver nanoparticle-loaded chitosan-starch based films were prepared by a solution casting method. The incorporation of silver nanoparticles led to a slight improvement of the tensile and oxygen gas barrier properties of the polysaccharide-based films, with diminished water vapor/moisture barrier properties. In addition, silver nanoparticle-loaded films exhibited enhanced antimicrobial activity against E. coli, S. aureus and B. cereus. The results suggest that silver nanoparticle-loaded chitosan-starch based films can be feasibly used as antimicrobial materials for food packaging and/or biomedical applications.

Kenaf/PP and EFB/PP: Effect of fibre loading on the mechanical properties of polypropylene composites

Science.gov (United States)

Anuar, N. I. S.; Zakaria, S.; Harun, J.; Wang, C.

2017-07-01

Kenaf and empty fruit bunch (EFB) fibre which are the important natural fibres in Malaysia were studied as nonwoven polymer composites. The effect of fibre loading on kenaf polypropylene and EFB polypropylene nonwoven composite was studied at different mixture ratio. Kenaf polypropylene nonwoven composite (KPNC) and EFB polypropylene nonwoven composite (EPNC) were prepared by carding and needle-punching techniques, followed by a compression moulding at 6 mm thickness. This study was conducted to identify the optimum fibre loading of nonwoven polypropylene composite and their effect on the mechanical strength. The study was designed at 40%, 50%, 60% and 70% of fibre content in nonwoven mat and composite. The tensile strength, flexural strength and compression strength were tested to evaluate the composite mechanical properties. It was found that the mechanical properties for both kenaf and EFB nonwoven composites were influenced by the fibre content. KPNC showed higher mechanical strength than EPNC. The highest flexural strength was obtained at 60% KPNC and the lowest value was showed by 40% EPNC. The tensile and flexural strength for both KPNC and EPNC decreased after the fibre loading of 60%.

Influence of load and reinforcement content on selected tribological properties of Al/SiC/Gr hybrid composites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sandra Veličković

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Hybrid materials with the metal matrix are important engineering materials due to their outstanding mechanical and tribological properties. Here are presented selected tribological properties of the hybrid composites with the matrix made of aluminum alloy and reinforced by the silicon carbide and graphite particles. The tribological characteristics of such materials are superior to characteristics of the matrix – the aluminum alloy, as well as to characteristics of the classical metal-matrix composites with a single reinforcing material. Those characteristics depend on the volume fractions of the reinforcing components, sizes of the reinforcing particles, as well as on the fabrication process of the hybrid composites. The considered tribological characteristics are the friction coefficient and the wear rate as functions of the load levels and the volume fractions of the graphite and the SiC particles. The wear rate increases with increase of the load and the Gr particles content and with reduction of the SiC particles content. The friction coefficient increases with the load, as well as with the SiC particles content increase.

Pricing Shared Appreciation Mortgages

OpenAIRE

Zhong, Yina

2006-01-01

This paper develops a model for the valuation of shared appreciation mortgage (SAM) and examines the effect of reduction in interest rate on the mortgage duration and share of property appreciation lender charges. The recent rise in SAM availability, as a result of some secondary market financial support and prerequisite standardization, motivates a more careful consideration of the underlying SAM value. The primary difference between the SAM model and the model for general traditional mor...

Mechanical, thermal and friction properties of rice bran carbon/nitrile rubber composites: Influence of particle size and loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Mei-Chun; Zhang, Yinhang; Cho, Ur Ryong

2014-01-01

Highlights: • A novel rice bran carbon (RBC) is used to reinforce nitrile rubber. • We study the effect of RBC particle size on the performances of nitrile rubber. • We study the effect of RBC loading on the performances of nitrile rubber. • The addition of RBC improves the mechanical properties of nitrile rubber. • The addition of RBC improves the anti-skid properties of nitrile rubber. - Abstract: Four types of rice bran carbon (RBC) with different particle sizes were compounded with nitrile rubber (NBR) in a laboratory size two-roll miller. The obtained RBC/NBR composites were characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and tensile tests. Experimental results showed the RBC with lowest particle size exhibited best dispersion state and superior reinforcement ability. Then, we investigated the influence of RBC loading on the morphology, vulcanization characteristics, mechanical, thermal and friction properties of NBR composites. Experimental results indicated that the incorporation of RBC resulted in higher torque values, longer curing time, but shorter scorch time. The addition of RBC remarkably improved the mechanical properties of NBR composites. However, when the RBC loading exceeded 60 phr, the improvement in the tensile strength was not significant due to the poor dispersion state and weak interfacial bonding between RBC and NBR matrix, which were confirmed by Mooney–Rivlin stress–strain curves and FE-SEM observations. The thermal stabilities of RBC/NBR composites were largely improved as the loading of RBC increased. Friction tests revealed that under a certain concentration, the presence of RBC increased the static friction coefficient of NBR composites, suggesting the anti-skid role of RBC in the NBR composites. The overall results demonstrated that RBC could act as ideal filler for NBR composites providing both economic and environmental advantages

Evaluation of hypericin-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles: physicochemical properties, photostability and phototoxicity.

Science.gov (United States)

Youssef, Tareq; Fadel, Maha; Fahmy, Rania; Kassab, Kawser

2012-01-01

Hypericin (HYP), a natural photosensitizer, has powerful photo-oxidizing ability, tumor-seeking characteristics, and minimal dark toxicity; nevertheless, it has proven high lipid solubility compared to its sparingly water soluble nature. Therefore, its formulation into solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) has attracted increasing attention as a potential drug-delivery carrier. Two HYP-loaded SLNs formulations were prepared utilizing microemulsion-based technique. Thereafter, the physicochemical properties of the formulations were investigated and evaluated. HYP-loaded SLNs showed spherical shape with mean particle size ranging from 200-300 nm for both formulations (FA and FB). The encapsulation efficiencies reached above 80% and FA showed significant higher encapsulation than FB (Phypericin and lipids forming the cores in both formulations. Spectroscopic measurements of the photostability study showed that hypericin encapsulation into SLNs improved its photostability, compared to free HYP in 0.1% ethanolic solution. However, photocytotoxicity studies on HepG2 cells revealed an evident inhibition of the photodynamic efficacy of HYP-loaded SLNs, compared to free HYP. In conclusion, although the elevated entrapment efficiency of HYP into SLNs increased its photostability, it decreased its phototoxicity which might be due to the quenching deactivation of HYP molecules resulting from SLN compactness and thickness structure. © 2012 Informa Healthcare USA, Inc.

Insensitivity of proportional fairness in critically loaded bandwidth sharing networks

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vlasiou, M.; Zhang, J.; Zwart, B.

2014-01-01

Proportional fairness is a popular service allocation mechanism to describe and analyze the performance of data networks at flow level. Recently, several authors have shown that the invariant distribution of such networks admits a product form distribution under critical loading. Assuming

Enhancement of mechanical and tribotechnical properties of polymer composites with thermoplastic UHMWPE and PEEK matrices by loading carbon nanofibers/nanotubes

Science.gov (United States)

Panin, S. V.; Kornienko, L. A.; Anh, Nguyen Duc; Alexenko, V. O.; Ivanova, L. R.

2017-12-01

For comparative evaluation of the influence of carbon nanofiber/nanotube loading in two different thermoplastic matrices (UHMWPE and PEEK), some mechanical and tribotechnical properties of the nanocomposites have been studied. It is shown that mechanical properties of nanocomposites change in various manners with increasing loading of carbon nanofibers and nanotubes. Herewith, the wear resistance of the "UHMWPE+1 wt% CNF and PEEK + 1 wt% CNF" composites under dry sliding friction is doubled. It is shown that, regardless of various effects on permolecular structure formation, the studied nanofillers enhance the wear resistance of the composites in a similar manner. A comparative analysis of the influence of nanofillers on the modification of mechanical and tribotechnical properties of UHMWPE- and PEEK-based matrices is made.

Direct access inter-process shared memory

Science.gov (United States)

Brightwell, Ronald B; Pedretti, Kevin; Hudson, Trammell B

2013-10-22

A technique for directly sharing physical memory between processes executing on processor cores is described. The technique includes loading a plurality of processes into the physical memory for execution on a corresponding plurality of processor cores sharing the physical memory. An address space is mapped to each of the processes by populating a first entry in a top level virtual address table for each of the processes. The address space of each of the processes is cross-mapped into each of the processes by populating one or more subsequent entries of the top level virtual address table with the first entry in the top level virtual address table from other processes.

Rapid feedback responses correlate with reach adaptation and properties of novel upper limb loads.

Science.gov (United States)

Cluff, Tyler; Scott, Stephen H

2013-10-02

A hallmark of voluntary motor control is the ability to adjust motor patterns for novel mechanical or visuomotor contexts. Recent work has also highlighted the importance of feedback for voluntary control, leading to the hypothesis that feedback responses should adapt when we learn new motor skills. We tested this prediction with a novel paradigm requiring that human subjects adapt to a viscous elbow load while reaching to three targets. Target 1 required combined shoulder and elbow motion, target 2 required only elbow motion, and target 3 (probe target) required shoulder but no elbow motion. This simple approach controlled muscle activity at the probe target before, during, and after the application of novel elbow loads. Our paradigm allowed us to perturb the elbow during reaching movements to the probe target and identify several key properties of adapted stretch responses. Adapted long-latency responses expressed (de-) adaptation similar to reaching errors observed when we introduced (removed) the elbow load. Moreover, reaching errors during learning correlated with changes in the long-latency response, showing subjects who adapted more to the elbow load displayed greater modulation of their stretch responses. These adapted responses were sensitive to the size and direction of the viscous training load. Our results highlight an important link between the adaptation of feedforward and feedback control and suggest a key part of motor adaptation is to adjust feedback responses to the requirements of novel motor skills.

Improvement of mechanical and biological properties of Polycaprolactone loaded with Hydroxyapatite and Halloysite nanotubes.

Science.gov (United States)

Torres, E; Fombuena, V; Vallés-Lluch, A; Ellingham, T

2017-06-01

Hydroxyapatite (HA) and Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) percentages have been optimized in Polycaprolactone (PCL) polymeric matrices to improve mechanical, thermal and biological properties of the composites, thus, to be applied in bone tissue engineering or as fixation plates. Addition of HA guarantees a proper compatibility with human bone due to its osteoconductive and osteoinductive properties, facilitating bone regeneration in tissue engineering applications. Addition of HNTs ensures the presence of tubular structures for subsequent drug loading in their lumen, of molecules such as curcumin, acting as controlled drug delivery systems. The addition of 20% of HA and different amounts of HNTs leads to a substantial improvement in mechanical properties with values of flexural strength up to 40% over raw PCL, with an increase in degradation temperature. DMA analyses showed stability in mechanical and thermal properties, having as a result a potential composite to be used as tissue engineering scaffold or resorbable fixation plate. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Psychometrics of shared decision making and communication as patient centered measures for two language groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez, Kiara; Wang, Ye; Alegria, Margarita; Ault-Brutus, Andrea; Ramanayake, Natasha; Yeh, Yi-Hui; Jeffries, Julia R; Shrout, Patrick E

2016-09-01

Shared decision making (SDM) and effective patient-provider communication are key and interrelated elements of patient-centered care that impact health and behavioral health outcomes. Measurement of SDM and communication from the patient's perspective is necessary in order to ensure that health care systems and individual providers are responsive to patient views. However, there is a void of research addressing the psychometric properties of these measures with diverse patients, including non-English speakers, and in the context of behavioral health encounters. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of 2 patient-centered outcome measures, the Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire-9 (SDM-Q) and the Kim Alliance Scale-Communication subscale (KAS-CM), in a sample of 239 English and Spanish-speaking behavioral health patients. One dominant factor was found for each scale and this structure was used to examine whether there was measurement invariance across the 2 language groups. One SDM-Q item was inconsistent with the configural invariance comparison and was removed. The remaining SDM-Q items exhibited strong invariance, meaning that item loadings and item means were similar across the 2 groups. The KAS-CM items had limited variability, with most respondents indicating high communication levels, and the invariance analysis was done on binary versions of the items. These had metric invariance (loadings the same over groups) but several items violated the strong invariance test. In both groups, the SDM-Q had high internal consistency, whereas the KAS-CM was only adequate. These findings help interpret results for individual patients, taking into account cultural and linguistic differences in how patients perceive SDM and patient-provider communication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Universal failure model for multi-unit systems with shared functionality

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Volovoi, Vitali

2013-01-01

A Universal Failure Model (UFM) is proposed for complex systems that rely on a large number of entities for performing a common function. Economy of scale or other considerations may dictate the need to pool resources for common purpose, but the resulting strong coupling precludes the grouping of those components into modules. Existing system-level failure models rely on modularity for reducing modeling complexity, so the UFM will fill an important gap in constructing efficient system-level models. Conceptually, the UFM resembles cellular automata (CA) infused with realistic failure mechanisms. Components’ behavior is determined based on the balance between their strength (capacity) and their load (demand) share. If the load exceeds the components’ capacity, the component fails and its load share is distributed among its neighbors (possibly with a time delay and load losses). The strength of components can degrade with time if the load exceeds an elastic threshold. The global load (demand) carried by the system can vary over time, with the peak values providing shocks to the system (e.g., wind loads in civil structures, electricity demand, stressful activities to human bodies, or drought in an ecosystem). Unlike the models traditionally studied by CA, the focus of the presented model is on the system reliability, and specifically on the study of time-to-failure distributions, rather than steady-state patterns and average time-to-failure characteristics. In this context, the relationships between the types of failure distributions and the parameters of the failure model are discussed

Potential for shared log transport services

Science.gov (United States)

Tim McDonald; Steve Taylor; Jorge Valenzuela

2001-01-01

A simulation model of a log transport logistics network was developed. The model could be structured to either share truck capacity among a group of loggers, or to assign a fixed number of trucks to individual loggers. Another variation of the model allowed the use of a staging yard to set out loaded trailers and deliver them to destinations using dedicated shuttle...

Combination of Sharing Matrix and Image Encryption for Lossless $(k,n)$ -Secret Image Sharing.

Science.gov (United States)

Bao, Long; Yi, Shuang; Zhou, Yicong

2017-12-01

This paper first introduces a (k,n) -sharing matrix S (k, n) and its generation algorithm. Mathematical analysis is provided to show its potential for secret image sharing. Combining sharing matrix with image encryption, we further propose a lossless (k,n) -secret image sharing scheme (SMIE-SIS). Only with no less than k shares, all the ciphertext information and security key can be reconstructed, which results in a lossless recovery of original information. This can be proved by the correctness and security analysis. Performance evaluation and security analysis demonstrate that the proposed SMIE-SIS with arbitrary settings of k and n has at least five advantages: 1) it is able to fully recover the original image without any distortion; 2) it has much lower pixel expansion than many existing methods; 3) its computation cost is much lower than the polynomial-based secret image sharing methods; 4) it is able to verify and detect a fake share; and 5) even using the same original image with the same initial settings of parameters, every execution of SMIE-SIS is able to generate completely different secret shares that are unpredictable and non-repetitive. This property offers SMIE-SIS a high level of security to withstand many different attacks.

City tourism and the sharing economy – potential effects of online peer-to-peer marketplaces on urban property markets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stefan Brauckmann

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential effects of the so-called sharing economy on growing city tourism as well as on urban property markets. Design/methodology/approach – Official statistical data and a geo-information system (GIS are used on a small scale in order to identify concentration processes among overnight visitors and the potential concomitant conflicts with other interest groups. Findings – Currently, the effects of the sharing economy on housing markets and city tourism are barely measurable and are limited to a few central locations. However, a growing demand can be discerned in housing-like accommodation concepts which can be operated via booking platforms. As there is likely to be strong future growth in this area, continuous market observation (monitoring is urgently advised. Research limitations/implications – Official statistics only allow an analysis of overnight guests staying with larger accommodation providers. Booking platforms for holiday homes and other temporary accommodation options have such little interest in data transparency that the overall phenomenon of city tourism can be addressed only in part. Practical implications – Associating various data within the GIS enables municipal administrators and urban planners to identify potential sources of conflict within the property markets in good time and effectively counteract these where possible. Social implications – Increases in property prices directly attributable to growing city tourism may lead to the displacement of less financially secure members of the established population as well as businesses. Originality/value – The sharing economy is a relatively new research topic which will become increasingly important in future. The identification of potential sources of conflict due to tourist accommodation has therefore not yet been comprehensively carried out on a small scale.

Experimental Investigation on the Fatigue Mechanical Properties of Intermittently Jointed Rock Models Under Cyclic Uniaxial Compression with Different Loading Parameters

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Yi; Dai, Feng; Dong, Lu; Xu, Nuwen; Feng, Peng

2018-01-01

Intermittently jointed rocks, widely existing in many mining and civil engineering structures, are quite susceptible to cyclic loading. Understanding the fatigue mechanism of jointed rocks is vital to the rational design and the long-term stability analysis of rock structures. In this study, the fatigue mechanical properties of synthetic jointed rock models under different cyclic conditions are systematically investigated in the laboratory, including four loading frequencies, four maximum stresses, and four amplitudes. Our experimental results reveal the influence of the three cyclic loading parameters on the mechanical properties of jointed rock models, regarding the fatigue deformation characteristics, the fatigue energy and damage evolution, and the fatigue failure and progressive failure behavior. Under lower loading frequency or higher maximum stress and amplitude, the jointed specimen is characterized by higher fatigue deformation moduli and higher dissipated hysteresis energy, resulting in higher cumulative damage and lower fatigue life. However, the fatigue failure modes of jointed specimens are independent of cyclic loading parameters; all tested jointed specimens exhibit a prominent tensile splitting failure mode. Three different crack coalescence patterns are classified between two adjacent joints. Furthermore, different from the progressive failure under static monotonic loading, the jointed rock specimens under cyclic compression fail more abruptly without evident preceding signs. The tensile cracks on the front surface of jointed specimens always initiate from the joint tips and then propagate at a certain angle with the joints toward the direction of maximum compression.

[Effects of the verbal loading on laterality difference in visual field (author's transl)].

Science.gov (United States)

Kawai, M

1980-02-01

In connection with the Kinsbourne's attention-model, the relation between the level of hemisphere sharing of loading task and the visual-laterality difference was examined under verbal loading conditions. The subjects were 13 (8 male and 5 female) right-handed college students. The loading tasks in Exp. I were the "same-different" judgment of Japanese hiragana alphabets and of triliteral hiragana words, and "true-false" judgment of short statements. In Exp. II, a procedure to eliminate configurational matching of the letters was followed. The results of the two experiments suggest that the visual-laterality effect occurs only when the level of hemisphere sharing of the loading task exceeds a certain lower bound.

AC loss, interstrand resistance and mechanical properties of prototype EU DEMO TF conductors up to 30 000 load cycles

Science.gov (United States)

Yagotintsev, K.; Nijhuis, A.

2018-07-01

Two prototype Nb3Sn cable-in-conduit conductors conductors were designed and manufactured for the toroidal field (TF) magnet system of the envisaged European DEMO fusion reactor. The AC loss, contact resistance and mechanical properties of two sample conductors were tested in the Twente Cryogenic Cable Press under cyclic load up to 30 000 cycles. Though both conductors were designed to operate at 82 kA in a background magnetic field of 13.6 T, they reflect different approaches with respect to the magnet winding pack assembly. The first approach is based on react and wind technology while the second is the more common wind and react technology. Each conductor was tested first for AC loss in virgin condition without handling. The impact of Lorentz load during magnet operation was simulated using the cable press. In the press each conductor specimen was subjected to transverse cyclic load up to 30 000 cycles in liquid helium bath at 4.2 K. Here a summary of results for AC loss, contact resistance, conductor deformation, mechanical heat production and conductor stiffness evolution during cycling of the load is presented. Both conductors showed similar mechanical behaviour but quite different AC loss. In comparison with previously tested ITER TF conductors, both DEMO TF conductors possess very low contact resistance resulting in high coupling loss. At the same time, load cycling has limited impact on properties of DEMO TF conductors in comparison with ITER TF conductors.

Analysis of natural stone block pavements in urban shared areas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pablo Zoccali

2018-06-01

Full Text Available This paper analysed and verified an existing block stone pavement in an urban shared area. Fatigue and rutting verification was performed respectively for bound and unbound pavement materials using analytical curves available in the literature. The commercial finite element (FE software Abaqus® was used to calculate the response of the pavement when subjected to different loading, construction and geometrical configurations (i.e. type of analysis, shape and size of meshes, boundary conditions, and bonding contacts between the pavements layers. At the end of this study, a static model of a structure with hexahedral blocks having sides of 0.02 m, with full bonded layers and restrained horizontal displacements on the model sides, was implemented to evaluate the maximum tensile stress induced in a block when the load is applied at its centre. This analysis highlighted the need for rigorous criteria for a correct design, in order to avoid inappropriate and expensive use of road materials. Keywords: Block pavement, Commercial vehicle loads, Finite element model, Hexagonal Stone block, Pedestrian pavement, Shared area

Knowledge-Based System to Support Plug Load Management

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Electrical plug loads comprise an increasingly larger share of building energy consumption as improvements have been made to Heating, Ventilation, and Air...

Mapping the landscape of shared leadership

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ulhøi, John Parm; Müller, Sabine

2014-01-01

As can be seen from the substantial increase in the volume and scope of leadership publications over the last ten to fifteen years, leadership is a construct with important social and relational properties. Shared leadership in particular has attracted considerable attention from organization......, and to develop synthesized framework of shared leadership. The paper closes with a brief discussion of avenues for future research and implications for managers....... and management scholars, although there has been surprisingly little focus on the key structuring processes and mechanisms that enable shared leadership. The aim of this paper is to rectify this by identifying the critical factors and mechanisms which enable shared leadership and its antecedents and outcomes...

Multiagent-Based Reactive Power Sharing and Control Model for Islanded Microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chen, Feixiong; Chen, Minyou; Li, Qiang

2016-01-01

of the control model, in which the uncertainty of intermittent DGs, variations in load demands, as well as impacts of time delays are considered. The simulation results demonstrate the eectiveness of the control model in proportional reactive power sharing, and the plug and play capability of the control model......In islanded microgrids (MGs), the reactive power cannot be shared proportionally among distributed generators (DGs) with conventional droop control, due to the mismatch in feeder impedances. For the purpose of proportional reactive power sharing, a multiagent system (MAS) based distributed control...

Collaborate, compete and share

Science.gov (United States)

Pugliese, Emanuele; Castellano, Claudio; Marsili, Matteo; Pietronero, Luciano

2009-02-01

We introduce and study a model of an interacting population of agents who collaborate in groups which compete for limited resources. Groups are formed by random matching agents and their worth is determined by the sum of the efforts deployed by agents in group formation. Agents, on their side, have to share their effort between contributing to their group’s chances to outcompete other groups and resource sharing among partners, when the group is successful. A simple implementation of this strategic interaction gives rise to static and evolutionary properties with a very rich phenomenology. A robust emerging feature is the separation of the population between agents who invest mainly in the success of their group and agents who concentrate in getting the largest share of their group’s profits.

Influence of alkaline treatment and fiber loading on the physical and mechanical properties of kenaf/polypropylene composites for variety of applications☆

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Majid Niaz Akhtar; Abu Bakar Sulong; M.K. Fadzly Radzi; N.F. Ismail; M.R. Raza; Norhamidi Muhamad; Muhammad Azhar Khan

2017-01-01

Due to current trend and increasing interest towards natural based fiber products, Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) fibers have been used for the developments of many products. Therefore, Kenaf fiber-reinforced composites have been widely used in engineering and industrial applications. The present work deals with the fabricating and characterization of untreated and treated kenaf/polypropylene (PP)-reinforced composites. Composites of PP reinforced with treated and untreated kenaf fibers were fabricated using the injection molding technique. Different fiber loadings of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 wt%treated and untreated kenaf composites were also prepared. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) were performed on the treated, untreated kenaf fibers and kenaf/PP composites. Moreover, the alkaline-treated kenaf composites exhibit better physical, morphological, and mechanical properties because of the compatibility of kenaf with PP. However, variations in tensile and flexural properties depend on treatment and kenaf fiber contents. The percentage increase in the mechanical properties of the treated kenaf/PP composites relative to that of PP was also measured. In addition, 40 wt%kenaf fiber loading resulted in higher mechanical properties. By contrast, kenaf/PP composite with 50%fiber loading was not successfully prepared because of improper mixing and the burning of kenaf fibers in the PP matrix. To conclude, 40%kenaf/PP composites with superior physical and mechanical properties may be used in variety of applications such as automotive, sports, construction, animal bedding, and mass production industries.

Grafting C8-C16 alkyl groups altered the self-assembly and curcumin –loading properties of sodium caseinate in water

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yaqiong Zhang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The data presented here are related to the research article entitled “Synthesis and characterization of alkylated caseinate, and its structure-curcumin loading property relationship in water” (Zhang et al., 2018 [1]. This data article reports the detailed spectra information for 1H NMR, 13C NMR and UPLC-Q-TOF MS of the N-succinimidyl fatty acid esters with various alkyl chain lengths (Cn-NHSs, n = 8, 12, 14 and 16. 1H NMR, 13C NMR and UPLC-Q-TOF MS spectra for C16-NHS are shown as an example. Then the stacked 1H NMR spectra of the obtained alkylated caseinates (Cn-caseinates, n = 8, 12, 14 and 16 are provided. The surface hydrophobicity index (S0 of Cn-caseinates with different substitution degrees (SD of alkyl groups is shown. Additionally, Visual appearances for the formed aqueous dispersions of curcumin-loaded native caseinate (NaCas and Cn-caseinates self-assemblies are shown. X-ray diffraction patterns of curcumin, C16-caseinate, its physical mixture and curcumin-loaded C16-caseinate self-assemblies are examined. The re-dispersibility and short-term storage stability of the curcumin-loaded NaCas and C16-caseinate self-assemblies are also studied. Keywords: Caseinate, Alkylated caseinate, Self-assembly, Curcumin-loading property

External representation of argumentation in CSCL and the management of cognitive load

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bruggen, J.M.; Kirschner, P.A.; Jochems, W.

2002-01-01

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments, particularly environments where students share external representations, are discussed as an interesting area for the application of cognitive load theory (CLT). CSCL environments share a number of characteristics that will induce

Leaching and antimicrobial properties of silver nanoparticles loaded onto natural zeolite clinoptilolite by ion exchange and wet impregnation

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Missengue, RNM

2015-11-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to compare the leaching and antimicrobial properties of silver that was loaded onto the natural zeolite clinoptilolite by ion exchange and wet impregnation. Silver ions were reduced using sodium borohydride (NaBH(sub4...

Effects of matrix properties on microscale damage in thermoplastic laminates under quasi-static and impact loading

KAUST Repository

Wafai, B. Husam

2018-03-01

Thermoplastics reinforced with continuous fibers are very promising building materials for the auto industry and consumer electronics to reduce the weight of vehicles and portable devices, and to deliver a high impact tolerance at the same time. Polypropylene is an abundant thermoplastic, and its glass fibers composites make a valuable solution that is suitable for mass production. But the adoption of such composites requires a deep understanding of their mechanical behavior under the relevant loading conditions. In this Ph.D. work, we aim to understand the damage process in continuous glass fiberreinforced polypropylene in detail. We will focus in particular on developing an approach for microscale observation of damage during the out-of-plane loading process and will use these observations for both qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the composite. We will apply our approach to two kinds of polypropylene composites, one of them is specially designed to withstand impact. The comparison between the two types of composites at slow and fast loading cases will shed some light on the effect of the polymer properties on the behavior of composites under out-of-plane loading.

Sharing information among existing data sources

Science.gov (United States)

Ashley, W. R., III

1999-01-01

The sharing of information between law enforcement agencies is a premise for the success of all jurisdictions. A wealth of information resides in both the databases and infrastructures of local, state, and regional agencies. However, this information is often not available to the law enforcement professionals who require it. When the information is, available, individual investigators must not only know that it exists, but where it resides, and how to retrieve it. In many cases, these types of cross-jurisdictional communications are limited to personal relationships that result from telephone calls, faxes, and in some cases, e-mail. As criminal elements become more sophisticated and distributed, law enforcement agencies must begin to develop infrastructures and common sharing mechanisms that address a constantly evolving criminal threat. Historically, criminals have taken advantage of the lack of communication between law enforcement agencies. Examples of this are evident in the search for stolen property and monetary dealings. Pawned property, cash transactions, and failure to supply child support are three common cross- jurisdictional crimes that could be better enforced by strengthening the lines of communication. Criminal behavior demonstrates that it is easier to profit from their actions by dealing in separate jurisdictions. For example, stolen property is sold outside of the jurisdiction of its origin. In most cases, simply traveling a short distance to the adjoining county or municipality is sufficient to ensure that apprehension of the criminal or seizure of the stolen property is highly unlikely. In addition to the traditional burglar, fugitives often sell or pawn property to finance their continued evasion from the law. Sharing of information in a rapid manner would increase the ability of law enforcement personnel to track and capture fugitives, as well as criminals. In an example to combat this threat, the State of Florida recently acted on the need to

Eggshell bacterial load is related to antimicrobial properties of feathers lining barn swallow nests.

Science.gov (United States)

Peralta-Sánchez, Juan Manuel; Soler, Juan José; Martín-Platero, Antonio Manuel; Knight, Rob; Martínez-Bueno, Manuel; Møller, Anders Pape

2014-02-01

The use of feathers to line bird's nests has traditionally been interpreted as having a thermoregulatory function. Feather-degrading bacteria growing on feathers lining nests may have antimicrobial properties, which may provide an additional benefit to lining nests with feathers. We test the hypothesis that the production of antimicrobial substances by feather bacteria affects the microbiological environment of the nest, and therefore the bacterial density on eggshells and, indirectly, hatching success. These effects would be expected to differ between nests lined with pigmented and white feathers, because bacteria grow differently on feathers of different colors. We experimentally manipulated the composition of pigmented and unpigmented feathers in nests of the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica) and studied the antimicrobial properties against the keratin-degrading bacterium Bacillus licheniformis of bacteria isolated from feathers of each color. Analyzed feathers were collected at the end of the incubation period, and antimicrobial activity was defined as the proportion of bacteria from the feathers that produce antibacterial substances effective against B. licheniformis. Our experimental manipulation affected antimicrobial activity, which was higher in nests with only white feathers at the beginning of incubation. Moreover, white feathers showed higher antimicrobial activity than black ones. Interestingly, antimicrobial activity in feathers of one of the colors correlated negatively with bacterial density on feather of the opposite color. Finally, antimicrobial activity of white feathers was negatively related to eggshell bacterial load. These results suggest that antimicrobial properties of feathers in general and of white feathers in particular affect the bacterial environment in nests. This environment in turn affects the bacterial load on eggshells, which may affect hatching success.

Decentralized Coordination of Load Shedding and Plant Protection Considering High Share of RESs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hoseinzadeh, Bakhtyar; Silva, Filipe Miguel Faria da; Bak, Claus Leth

2016-01-01

variable using voltage drop data coordinated with plant protection scheme. A frequency anti stalling scheme is developed to interrupt more load feeders in case of frequency stall between consecutive set points. This time-based approach adjusts the time delay of the relay stages to disconnect the feeders...... with more voltage drop first, in order to bring the frequency back to the permissible range before the tolerable time period of plant protection relays is over. The load curtailment is stopped to avoid over LS, if the proposed algorithm recognizes that the frequency reaches the safe region in time based......This paper estimates the average Rate of Change of Frequency (ROCOF) following islanding and/or cascading event/s using inflection points of frequency profile. Moreover, a frequency collapse barrier scheme is set up by tuning the frequency set points of Load Shedding (LS) relays as a dynamic...

Military boot attenuates axial loading to the lower leg.

Science.gov (United States)

Yoganandan, Narayan; Schlick, Michael; Arun, Mike W J; Pintar, Frank A

2014-01-01

Biomechanical tests to understand injury mechanisms and derive injury tolerance information using Post-Mortem Human Subjects (PMHS) have not used foot protection and they have primarily focused on civilian environments such as automotive and athletic- and sports-related events. As military personnel use boots, tests with the boot are required to understand their effect on attenuating lower leg loads. The purpose of this study was therefore, to determine the modulation of human lower leg kinematics with boot compressions and share of the force absorbed by the boot from underbody blast loading. Axial impacts were delivered to the Hybrid III dummy lower leg in the neutral position. The dummy leg was instrumented with its internal upper and lower tibia load cells, and in addition, a knee load cell was attached to the proximal end. Tests were conducted at 4.4 to 8.9 m/s, with and without boots, and repeat tests were done. Morphologies of the force-time responses were similar at the three load cell locations and for all input combinations and booted and unbooted conditions. However, booted tests resulted in considerably lower maximum forces (approximately two-third reduction) than unbooted tests. These results clearly show that boots can absorb a considerable share of the impact energy and decrease impact loads transmitted to the lower leg under vertical loading, thus necessitating the generation of tolerance data using PMHS for this environment.

In-Situ Load System for Calibrating and Validating Aerodynamic Properties of Scaled Aircraft in Ground-Based Aerospace Testing Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Commo, Sean A. (Inventor); Lynn, Keith C. (Inventor); Landman, Drew (Inventor); Acheson, Michael J. (Inventor)

2016-01-01

An In-Situ Load System for calibrating and validating aerodynamic properties of scaled aircraft in ground-based aerospace testing applications includes an assembly having upper and lower components that are pivotably interconnected. A test weight can be connected to the lower component to apply a known force to a force balance. The orientation of the force balance can be varied, and the measured forces from the force balance can be compared to applied loads at various orientations to thereby develop calibration factors.

The Effect of Nano Loading and Ultrasonic Compounding of EVA/LDPE/Nano-magnesium Hydroxide on Mechanical Properties and Distribution of Nano Particles

Science.gov (United States)

Azman, I. A.; Salleh, R. M.; Alauddin, S. M.; Shueb, M. I.

2018-05-01

Blends of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) and Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) are promising composite which have good mechanical properties to environmental stress cracking. However, they lack fire resistant properties, which limits it usage in wire and cable industry. In order to improve flame retardancy ability, a range of nano-magnesium hydroxide (nano-MH) loading which is from 0 phr to maximum of 20 phr with ultrasonic extrusion 0-100 kHz frequencies have been introduced. Ultrasonic extrusion was used to improve the distribution of nano-MH. It was found that, 10 phr of nano loading with 100 kHz ultrasonic assisted has greater tensile strength compared to the nanocomposite without ultrasonication. Further increase of nano MH loading, will decrease the tensile properties. Better elongation at break was observed at10 phr nano-MH with the frequency of 50 kHz. The sample of 20 phr of nanoMH assisted with 50 kHz ultrasonic exhibits good flexural properties while 10 phr of nano-MH without the ultrasonic assisted demonstrates good in izod impact properties. From the evaluation of mechanical properties studied, it was found that 10 phr of nano-MH has shown the best performance among all the samples tested for EVA/LDPE/nano-MH composites. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) has been conducted on 10 phr sample with different frequencies in order to observe the distribution of nano-MH particles. The sample with 100 kHz frequency shows more uniform dispersion of nano-MH in EVA/LDPE composites. This investigation indicates that the ultrasonic technology can enhance the mechanical properties studied as well as the dispersion of nano particles in the composite.

Influence of alkaline treatment and fiber loading on the physical and mechanical properties of kenaf/polypropylene composites for variety of applications

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Majid Niaz Akhtar; Abu Bakar Sulong; M.K.Fadzly Radzi; N.F.Ismail; M.R.Raza; Norhamidi Muhamad; Muhammad Azhar Khan

2016-01-01

Due to current trend and increasing interest towards natural based fiber products,Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) fibers have been used for the developments of many products.Therefore,Kenaf fiber-reinforced composites have been widely used in engineering and industrial applications.The present work deals with the fabricating and characterization of untreated and treated kenaf/polypropylene (PP)-reinforced composites.Composites of PP reinforced with treated and untreated kenaf fibers were fabricated using the injection molding technique.Different fiber loadings of 10,20,30,40,50 wt％ treated and untreated kenaf composites were also prepared.Xray diffraction (XRD),scanning electron microscopy (SEM),Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) were performed on the treated,untreated kenaf fibers and kenaf/PP composites.Moreover,the alkaline-treated kenaf composites exhibit better physical,morphological,and mechanical properties because of the compatibility of kenaf with PP.However,variations in tensile and flexural properties depend on treatment and kenaf fiber contents.The percentage increase in the mechanical properties of the treated kenaf/PP composites relative to that of PP was also measured.In addition,40 wt％kenaf fiber loading resulted in higher mechanical properties.By contrast,kenaf/PP composite with 50％ fiber loading was not successfully prepared because of improper mixing and the burning of kenaf fibers in the PP matrix.To conclude,40％ kenaf/PP composites with superior physical and mechanical properties may be used in variety of applications such as automotive,sports,construction,animal bedding,and mass production industries.

Influence of alkaline treatment and fiber loading on the physical and mechanical properties of kenaf/polypropylene composites for variety of applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Majid Niaz Akhtar

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Due to current trend and increasing interest towards natural based fiber products, Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus fibers have been used for the developments of many products. Therefore, Kenaf fiber-reinforced composites have been widely used in engineering and industrial applications. The present work deals with the fabricating and characterization of untreated and treated kenaf/polypropylene (PP-reinforced composites. Composites of PP reinforced with treated and untreated kenaf fibers were fabricated using the injection molding technique. Different fiber loadings of 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 wt% treated and untreated kenaf composites were also prepared. X-ray diffraction (XRD, scanning electron microscopy (SEM, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR spectroscopy and thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA were performed on the treated, untreated kenaf fibers and kenaf/PP composites. Moreover, the alkaline-treated kenaf composites exhibit better physical, morphological, and mechanical properties because of the compatibility of kenaf with PP. However, variations in tensile and flexural properties depend on treatment and kenaf fiber contents. The percentage increase in the mechanical properties of the treated kenaf/PP composites relative to that of PP was also measured. In addition, 40 wt% kenaf fiber loading resulted in higher mechanical properties. By contrast, kenaf/PP composite with 50% fiber loading was not successfully prepared because of improper mixing and the burning of kenaf fibers in the PP matrix. To conclude, 40% kenaf/PP composites with superior physical and mechanical properties may be used in variety of applications such as automotive, sports, construction, animal bedding, and mass production industries.

Modeling of the time sharing for lecturers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Yu. Shakhova

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In the context of modernization of the Russian system of higher education, it is necessary to analyze the working time of the university lecturers, taking into account both basic job functions as the university lecturer, and others.The mathematical problem is presented for the optimal working time planning for the university lecturers. The review of the documents, native and foreign works on the study is made. Simulation conditions, based on analysis of the subject area, are defined. Models of optimal working time sharing of the university lecturers («the second half of the day» are developed and implemented in the system MathCAD. Optimal solutions have been obtained.Three problems have been solved:1 to find the optimal time sharing for «the second half of the day» in a certain position of the university lecturer;2 to find the optimal time sharing for «the second half of the day» for all positions of the university lecturers in view of the established model of the academic load differentiation;3 to find the volume value of the non-standardized part of time work in the department for the academic year, taking into account: the established model of an academic load differentiation, distribution of the Faculty number for the positions and the optimal time sharing «the second half of the day» for the university lecturers of the department.Examples are given of the analysis results. The practical application of the research: the developed models can be used when planning the working time of an individual professor in the preparation of the work plan of the university department for the academic year, as well as to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the administrative decisions in the development of local university regulations.

7 CFR 762.147 - Servicing shared appreciation agreements.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... percent of any positive appreciation in the market value of the property securing the loan or line of... 7 Agriculture 7 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Servicing shared appreciation agreements. 762.147..., DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE SPECIAL PROGRAMS GUARANTEED FARM LOANS § 762.147 Servicing shared appreciation...

Evaluation of Fatigue Crack Propagation of Gears Considering Uncertainties in Loading and Material Properties

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haileyesus B. Endeshaw

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Failure prediction of wind turbine gearboxes (WTGs is especially important since the maintenance of these components is not only costly but also causes the longest downtime. One of the most common causes of the premature fault of WTGs is attributed to the fatigue fracture of gear teeth due to fluctuating and cyclic torque, resulting from stochastic wind loading, transmitted to the gearbox. Moreover, the fluctuation of the torque, as well as the inherent uncertainties of the material properties, results in uncertain life prediction for WTGs. It is therefore essential to quantify these uncertainties in the life estimation of gears. In this paper, a framework, constituted by a dynamic model of a one-stage gearbox, a finite element method, and a degradation model for the estimation of fatigue crack propagation in gear, is presented. Torque time history data of a wind turbine rotor was scaled and used to simulate the stochastic characteristic of the loading and uncertainties in the material constants of the degradation model were also quantified. It was demonstrated that uncertainty quantification of load and material constants provides a reasonable estimation of the distribution of the crack length in the gear tooth at any time step.

Structure and properties of gadolinium loaded calcium phosphate glasses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Cuiling; Liang, Xiaofeng; Li, Haijian; Yu, Huijun; Li, Zhen; Yang, Shiyuan

2014-01-01

The glass samples with composition xGd 2 O 3 –(50 − x)CaO–50P 2 O 5 (0 ⩽ x ⩽ 9 mol%) were prepared by the conventional melt quench method. The structure and properties of gadolinium loaded in calcium phosphate glasses were investigated using XRD, SEM, DTA, IR and Raman spectroscopy. The XRD and SEM analysis for the samples show that the majority of samples are amorphous, and crystallization occurs when the content of Gd 2 O 3 containing is up to 6 mol%. Two main crystalline phases, Ca 2 P 2 O 7 and Gd 3 (P 2 O 7 ) 3 , are embedded in an amorphous matrix. IR and Raman data indicate that glass structure consists of predominantly metaphosphate (Q 2 ) units and the depolymerization of phosphate network with the addition of Gd 2 O 3 . Both the chemical durability and the glass transition temperature (T g ) are improved with the increase of Gd 2 O 3 , which suggests that the Gd acts a role of strengthening the cross-links between the phosphate chains of the glass

Estimating lithospheric properties at Atla Regio, Venus

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Roger J.

1994-01-01

Magellan spehrical harmonic gravity and topography models are used to estimate lithospheric properties at Alta Regio, Venus, a proposed hotspot with dynamic support from mantle plume(s). Global spherical harmonic and local representations of the gravity field share common properties in the Atla region interms of their spectral behavior over a wavelength band from approximately 2100 to approximately 700 km. The estimated free-air admittance spectrum displays a rather featureless long-wavelength portion followed by a sharp rise at wavelengths shorter than about 1000 km. This sharp rise requires significant flexural support of short-wavelength structures. The Bouguer coherence also displays a sharp drop in this wavelength band, indicating a finite flexural rigidity of the lithosphere. A simple model for lithospheric loading from above and below is introduced (D. W. Forsyth, 1985) with four parameters: f, the ratio of bottom loading to top loading; z(sub m), crustal thickness; z(sub l) depth to bottom loading source; and T(sub e) elastic lithosphere thickness. A dual-mode compensation model is introduced in which the shorter wavelengths (lambda approximately less than 1000 km) might be explained best by a predominance of top loading by the large shield volcanoes Maat Mons, Ozza Mons, and Sapas Mons, and the longer wavelengths (lambda approximately greater than 1500 km) might be explained best by a deep depth of compensation, possibly representing bottom loading by a dynamic source. A Monte Carlo inversion technique is introduced to thoroughly search out the four-space of the model parameters and to examine parameter correlation in the solutions. Venus either is a considerabe deficient in heat sources relative to Earth, or the thermal lithosphere is overthickened in response to an earlier episode of significant heat loss from the planet.

Material properties under intensive dynamic loading

CERN Document Server

Cherne, Frank J; Zhernokletov, Mikhail V; Glushak, B L; Zocher, Marvin A

2007-01-01

Understanding the physical and thermomechanical response of materials subjected to intensive dynamic loading is a challenge of great significance in engineering today. This volume assumes the task of gathering both experimental and diagnostic methods in one place, since not much information has been previously disseminated in the scientific literature.

Load Estimation by Frequency Domain Decomposition

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Ivar Chr. Bjerg; Hansen, Søren Mosegaard; Brincker, Rune

2007-01-01

When performing operational modal analysis the dynamic loading is unknown, however, once the modal properties of the structure have been estimated, the transfer matrix can be obtained, and the loading can be estimated by inverse filtering. In this paper loads in frequency domain are estimated by ...

Load balancing in 5G Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsirakis Christos

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The expected huge increase of mobile devices and user data demand by 2020 will stress the current mobile network in an unprecedented way. The future mobile networks must meet several strong requirements regarding the data rate, latency, quality of service and experience, mobility, spectrum and energy efficiency. Therefore, efforts for more efficient mobile network solutions have been recently initiated. To this direction, load balancing has attracted much attention as a promising solution for higher resource utilization, improved system performance and decreased operational cost. It is an effective method for balancing the traffic and alleviating the congestion among heterogeneous networks in the upcoming 5G networks. In this paper, we focus on an offloading scenario for load balancing among LTE and Wi-Fi networks. Additionally, network graphs methodology and its abstracted parameters are investigated in order to better manage wireless resource allocation among multiple connections. The COHERENT architectural framework, which consists of two main control components, makes use of such abstracted network graphs for controlling or managing various tasks such as traffic steering, load balancing, spectrum sharing and RAN sharing. As a result, the COHERENT project eventually develops a unified programmable control framework used to efficiently coordinate the underlying heterogeneous mobile networks as a whole.

Temperature and Pressure Dependences of the Elastic Properties of Tantalum Single Crystals Under Tensile Loading: A Molecular Dynamics Study

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Wei-bing; Li, Kang; Fan, Kan-qi; Zhang, Da-xing; Wang, Wei-dong

2018-04-01

Atomistic simulations are capable of providing insights into physical mechanisms responsible for mechanical properties of the transition metal of Tantalum (Ta). By using molecular dynamics (MD) method, temperature and pressure dependences of the elastic properties of Ta single crystals are investigated through tensile loading. First of all, a comparative study between two types of embedded-atom method (EAM) potentials is made in term of the elastic properties of Ta single crystals. The results show that Ravelo-EAM (Physical Review B, 2013, 88: 134101) potential behaves well at different hydrostatic pressures. Then, the MD simulation results based on the Ravelo-EAM potential show that Ta will experience a body-centered-cubic (BCC) to face-centered-cubic (FCC) phase transition before fracture under tensile loading at 1 K temperature, and model size and strain rate have no obvious effects on tensile behaviors of Ta. Next, from the simulation results at the system temperature from 1 to 1500 K, it can be derived that the elastic modulus of E 100 linearly decrease with the increasing temperature, while the yielding stress decrease with conforming a quadratic polynomial formula. Finally, the pressure dependence of the elastic properties is performed from 0 to 140 GPa and the observations show that the elastic modulus increases with the increasing pressure overall.

Influence of Rock Properties on Wear of M and SR Grade Rubber with Varying Normal Load and Sliding Speed

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pal Samir Kumar

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Rubbers are interesting materials and are extensively used in many mining industries for material transportation. Wear of rubber is a very complex phenomenon to understand. The present study aims to explain the influence of rock properties on wear of M and SR grade rubber used in top cover of conveyor belts. Extensive laboratory experiments were conducted under four combinations of normal load and sliding speed. The wear of both the rubber types were analyzed based on the rock properties like shear strength, abrasivity index and fractal dimension. A fully instrumented testing set up was used to study the wear of rubber samples under different operating conditions. In general, wear was higher for M grade rubber compared to SR grade rubber. Increase in shear strength of rocks depicts decreasing trend for the wear of M and SR grade rubber at lower load conditions. Moreover, a higher load combination displays no definite trend in both the rubbers. The strong correlation between the wear of rubber and frictional power for all rubber-rock combinations has given rise to the parameter A, which reflects the relative compatibility between the rubber and rock. Increase of Cerchar’s Abrasivity Index of rocks shows gradual enhancement in wear for M grade rubber in all the load and speed combinations whereas, it fails in SR grade rubber due to its higher strength. The wear of rubber tends to decrease marginally with the surface roughness of rocks at highest normal load and sliding speed in M grade rubber. However, the wear of M and SR grade rubber is influenced by the surface roughness of rocks.

Can medio-lateral baseplate position and load sharing induce asymptomatic local bone resorption of the proximal tibia? A finite element study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wong Pius

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Asymptomatic local bone resorption of the tibia under the baseplate can occasionally be observed after total knee arthroplasty (TKA. Its occurrence is not well documented, and so far no explanation is available. We report the incidence of this finding in our practice, and investigate whether it can be attributed to specific mechanical factors. Methods The postoperative radiographs of 500 consecutive TKA patients were analyzed to determine the occurrence of local medial bone resorption under the baseplate. Based on these cases, a 3D FE model was developed. Cemented and cementless technique, seven positions of the baseplate and eleven load sharing conditions were considered. The average VonMises stress was evaluated in the bone-baseplate interface, and the medial and lateral periprosthetic region. Results Sixteen cases with local bone resorption were identified. In each, bone loss became apparent at 3 months post-op and did not increase after one year. None of these cases were symptomatic and infection screening was negative for all. The FE analysis demonstrated an influence of baseplate positioning, and also of load sharing, on stresses. The average stress in the medial periprosthetic region showed a non linear decrease when the prosthetic baseplate was shifted laterally. Shifting the component medially increased the stress on the medial periprosthetic region, but did not significantly unload the lateral side. The presence of a cement layer decreases the stresses. Conclusion Local bone resorption of the proximal tibia can occur after TKA and might be attributed to a stress shielding effect. This FE study shows that the medial periprosthetic region of the tibia is more sensitive than the lateral region to mediolateral positioning of the baseplate. Medial cortical support of the tibial baseplate is important for normal stress transfer to the underlying bone. The absence of medial cortical support of the tibial baseplate may lead

Random subspaces for encryption based on a private shared Cartesian frame

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bartlett, Stephen D.; Hayden, Patrick; Spekkens, Robert W.

2005-01-01

A private shared Cartesian frame is a novel form of private shared correlation that allows for both private classical and quantum communication. Cryptography using a private shared Cartesian frame has the remarkable property that asymptotically, if perfect privacy is demanded, the private classical capacity is three times the private quantum capacity. We demonstrate that if the requirement for perfect privacy is relaxed, then it is possible to use the properties of random subspaces to nearly triple the private quantum capacity, almost closing the gap between the private classical and quantum capacities

Self-castellation of tungsten monoblock under high heat flux loading and impact of material properties

OpenAIRE

Panayotis, S.; Hirai, T.; Wirtz, Marius; Barabash, V.; Durocher, A.; Escourbiac, F.; Linke, J.; Loewenhoff, Th.; Merola, M.; Pintsuk, G.; Uytdenhouwen, I.

2017-01-01

In the full-tungsten divertor qualification program at ITER Organization, macro-cracks, so called self-castellation were found in a fraction of tungsten monoblocks during cyclic high heat flux loading at 20MW/m2. The number of monoblocks with macro-cracks varied with the tungsten products used as armour material. In order to understand correlation between the macro-crack appearance and W properties, an activity to characterize W monoblock materials was launched at the IO. The outcome highligh...

Preparation and antioxidant properties of selenium nanoparticles-loaded chitosan microspheres

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bai K

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Kaikai Bai,1,2 Bihong Hong,1,2 Jianlin He,1,2 Zhuan Hong,1,2 Ran Tan1,2 1Third Institute of Oceanography, 2Engineering Research Center of Marine Biological Resource, Comprehensive Utilization, State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen, People’s Republic of China Abstract: Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs, as a special form of selenium (Se supplement, have attracted worldwide attention due to their favorable properties and unique bioactivities. Herein, an eco-friendly and economic way to prepare stable SeNPs is introduced. SeNPs were synthesized in aqueous chitosan (CTS and then embedded into CTS microspheres by spray-drying, forming selenium nanoparticles-loaded chitosan microspheres (SeNPs-M. The physicochemical properties including morphology, elemental state, size distribution and surface potential were investigated. Institute of Cancer Research mice were used as model animal to evaluate the bioactivities of SeNPs-M. Trigonal-phase SeNPs of ~35 nm were synthesized, and SeNPs-M physically embedding those SeNPs were successfully prepared. Amazingly, acute toxicity test indicated that SeNPs-M were much safer than selenite in terms of Se dose, with a LD50 of around 18-fold of that of selenite. In addition, SeNPs-M possessed powerful antioxidant activities, as evidenced by a dramatic increase of both Se retention and the levels of glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase and catalase. The design of SeNPs-M can offer a new way for further development of SeNPs with a higher efficacy and better biosafety. Thus, SeNPs-M may be a potential candidate for further evaluation as an Se supplement with antioxidant properties and be used against Se deficiency in animals and human beings. Keywords: selenium, nano, microsphere, chitosan, antioxidant

Durability and plasticity of a material under different trajectories cycle loading in dependence on the loading prehistory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mozharovskij, N.S.; Bobyr', N.I.

1979-01-01

Results of investigations into the durability and plasticity of a material under combined proportional cyclic loading over different trajectories depending upon the values of intensity of preliminary plastic deformation obtained by different loading methods are presented. The effect of loading prehistory type on material plastic properties and its durability are shown

Durability and plasticity of a material under different trajectories cycle loading in dependence on the loading prehistory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mozharovskii, N S; Bobyr, N I [Kievskij Politekhnicheskij Inst. (Ukrainian SSR)

1979-12-01

Results of investigations into the durability and plasticity of a material under combined proportional cyclic loading over different trajectories depending upon the values of intensity of preliminary plastic deformation obtained by different loading methods are presented. The effect of loading prehistory type on material plastic properties and its durability are shown.

Shared cross-modal associations and the emergence of the lexicon

OpenAIRE

Cuskley, Christine F.

2013-01-01

This thesis centres around a sensory theory of protolanguage emergence, or STP. The STP proposes that shared biases to make associations between sensory modalities provided the basis for the emergence of a shared protolinguistic lexicon. Crucially, this lexicon would have been grounded in our perceptual systems, and thus fundamentally non-arbitrary. The foundation of such a lexicon lies in shared cross-modal associations: biases shared among language users to map properties in ...

Dual small fragment plating improves screw-to-screw load sharing for mid-diaphyseal humeral fracture fixation: a finite element study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kosmopoulos, Victor; Luedke, Colten; Nana, Arvind D

2015-01-01

A smaller humerus in some patients makes the use of a large fragment fixation plate difficult. Dual small fragment plate constructs have been suggested as an alternative. This study compares the biomechanical performance of three single and one dual plate construct for mid-diaphyseal humeral fracture fixation. Five humeral shaft finite element models (1 intact and 4 fixation) were loaded in torsion, compression, posterior-anterior (PA) bending, and lateral-medial (LM) bending. A comminuted fracture was simulated by a 1-cm gap. Fracture fixation was modelled by: (A) 4.5-mm 9-hole large fragment plate (wide), (B) 4.5-mm 9-hole large fragment plate (narrow), (C) 3.5-mm 9-hole small fragment plate, and (D) one 3.5-mm 9-hole small fragment plate and one 3.5-mm 7-hole small fragment plate. Model A showed the best outcomes in torsion and PA bending, whereas Model D outperformed the others in compression and LM bending. Stress concentrations were located near and around the unused screw holes for each of the single plate models and at the neck of the screws just below the plates for all the models studied. Other than in PA bending, Model D showed the best overall screw-to-screw load sharing characteristics. The results support using a dual small fragment locking plate construct as an alternative in cases where crutch weight-bearing (compression) tolerance may be important and where anatomy limits the size of the humerus bone segment available for large fragment plate fixation.

Load and distinctness interact in working memory for lexical manual gestures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mary eRudner

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The Ease of Language Understanding model (ELU, Rönnberg et al., 2013 predicts that decreasing the distinctness of language stimuli increases working memory load; in the speech domain this notion is supported by empirical evidence. Our aim was to determine whether such an over-additive interaction can be generalized to sign processing in sign-naïve individuals and whether it is modulated by experience of computer gaming. Twenty young adults with no knowledge of sign language performed an n-back working memory task based on manual gestures lexicalized in sign language; the visual resolution of the signs and working memory load were manipulated. Performance was poorer when load was high and resolution was low. These two effects interacted over-additively, demonstrating that reducing the resolution of signed stimuli increases working memory load when there is no pre-existing semantic representation. This suggests that load and distinctness are handled by a shared amodal mechanism which can be revealed empirically when stimuli are degraded and load is high, even without pre-existing semantic representation. There was some evidence that the mechanism is influenced by computer gaming experience. Future work should explore how the shared mechanism is influenced by pre-existing semantic representation and sensory factors together with computer gaming experience.

Load and distinctness interact in working memory for lexical manual gestures.

Science.gov (United States)

Rudner, Mary; Toscano, Elena; Holmer, Emil

2015-01-01

The Ease of Language Understanding model (Rönnberg et al., 2013) predicts that decreasing the distinctness of language stimuli increases working memory load; in the speech domain this notion is supported by empirical evidence. Our aim was to determine whether such an over-additive interaction can be generalized to sign processing in sign-naïve individuals and whether it is modulated by experience of computer gaming. Twenty young adults with no knowledge of sign language performed an n-back working memory task based on manual gestures lexicalized in sign language; the visual resolution of the signs and working memory load were manipulated. Performance was poorer when load was high and resolution was low. These two effects interacted over-additively, demonstrating that reducing the resolution of signed stimuli increases working memory load when there is no pre-existing semantic representation. This suggests that load and distinctness are handled by a shared amodal mechanism which can be revealed empirically when stimuli are degraded and load is high, even without pre-existing semantic representation. There was some evidence that the mechanism is influenced by computer gaming experience. Future work should explore how the shared mechanism is influenced by pre-existing semantic representation and sensory factors together with computer gaming experience.

Reliable file sharing in distributed operating system using web RTC

Science.gov (United States)

Dukiya, Rajesh

2017-12-01

Since, the evolution of distributed operating system, distributed file system is come out to be important part in operating system. P2P is a reliable way in Distributed Operating System for file sharing. It was introduced in 1999, later it became a high research interest topic. Peer to Peer network is a type of network, where peers share network workload and other load related tasks. A P2P network can be a period of time connection, where a bunch of computers connected by a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port to transfer or enable disk sharing i.e. file sharing. Currently P2P requires special network that should be designed in P2P way. Nowadays, there is a big influence of browsers in our life. In this project we are going to study of file sharing mechanism in distributed operating system in web browsers, where we will try to find performance bottlenecks which our research will going to be an improvement in file sharing by performance and scalability in distributed file systems. Additionally, we will discuss the scope of Web Torrent file sharing and free-riding in peer to peer networks.

Generation Following with Thermostatically Controlled Loads via Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers Sharing Algorithm

OpenAIRE

Burger, Eric M.; Moura, Scott J.

2015-01-01

A fundamental requirement of the electric power system is to maintain a continuous and instantaneous balance between generation and load. The intermittency and uncertainty introduced by renewable energy generation requires the expansion of ancillary power system services to maintain such a balance. In this paper, we examine the potential of thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs), such as refrigerators and electric water heaters, to provide generation following services in real-time energy m...

Heavy-Load Lifting

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bloomquist, Kira; Oturai, Peter; Steele, Megan L

2018-01-01

of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal....... repetition maximum (RM), two sets of 15-20 repetitions) and heavy-load (85-90% 1RM, three sets of 5-8 repetition) upper-extremity resistance exercise separated by a one-week wash-out period. Swelling was determined by bioimpedance spectroscopy and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry, with breast cancer......-related lymphedema symptoms (heaviness, swelling, pain, tightness) reported using a numeric rating scale (0-10). Order of low- versus heavy-load was randomized. All outcomes were assessed pre-, immediately post-, and 24- and 72-hours post-exercise. Generalized estimating equations were used to evaluate changes over...

Ethnobotany/ethnopharmacology and mass bioprospecting: issues on intellectual property and benefit-sharing.

Science.gov (United States)

Soejarto, D D; Fong, H H S; Tan, G T; Zhang, H J; Ma, C Y; Franzblau, S G; Gyllenhaal, C; Riley, M C; Kadushin, M R; Pezzuto, J M; Xuan, L T; Hiep, N T; Hung, N V; Vu, B M; Loc, P K; Dac, L X; Binh, L T; Chien, N Q; Hai, N V; Bich, T Q; Cuong, N M; Southavong, B; Sydara, K; Bouamanivong, S; Ly, H M; Thuy, Tran Van; Rose, W C; Dietzman, G R

2005-08-22

Ethnobotany/ethnopharmacology has contributed to the discovery of many important plant-derived drugs. Field explorations to seek and document indigenous/traditional medical knowledge (IMK/TMK), and/or the biodiversity with which the IMK/TMK is attached, and its conversion into a commercialized product is known as bioprospecting or biodiversity prospecting. When performed in a large-scale operation, the effort is referred to as mass bioprospecting. Experiences from the mass bioprospecting efforts undertaken by the United States National Cancer Institute, the National Cooperative Drug Discovery Groups (NCDDG) and the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) programs demonstrate that mass bioprospecting is a complex process, involving expertise from diverse areas of human endeavors, but central to it is the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that recognizes issues on genetic access, prior informed consent, intellectual property and the sharing of benefits that may arise as a result of the effort. Future mass bioprospecting endeavors must take heed of the lessons learned from past and present experiences in the planning for a successful mass bioprospecting venture.

Benchmarking and monitoring framework for interconnected file synchronization and sharing services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mrówczyński, Piotr; Mościcki, Jakub T.; Lamanna, Massimo

2018-01-01

computing and storage infrastructure in the research labs. In this work we present a benchmarking and monitoring framework for file synchronization and sharing services. It allows service providers to monitor the operational status of their services, understand the service behavior under different load...... types and with different network locations of the synchronization clients. The framework is designed as a monitoring and benchmarking tool to provide performance and robustness metrics for interconnected file synchronization and sharing services such as Open Cloud Mesh....

The Consumer Science of Sharing: A Discussant's Observations

OpenAIRE

Rudmin, Floyd Webster

2016-01-01

This discussant’s response to the collected articles on the consumer behavior of sharing draws on a 1983–99 record of research on the psychology of ownership and property. The major recommendations here are: (1) that sharing be defined as the simultaneous or sequential use of an object (e.g., car), a space (e.g., living room), or an intangible (e.g., identity) by more than one individual; (2) that sharing be better described and analyzed by the naive phenomenology methods used by Ichheiser, H...

Modern ICT Tools: Online Electronic Resources Sharing Using Web ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Modern ICT Tools: Online Electronic Resources Sharing Using Web 2.0 and Its Implications For Library And Information Practice In Nigeria. ... The PDF file you selected should load here if your Web browser has a PDF reader plug-in installed (for example, a recent version of Adobe Acrobat Reader). If you would like more ...

Surface properties and dye loading behavior of Zn2SnO4 nanoparticles hydrothermally synthesized using different mineralizers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Annamalai, Alagappan; Eo, Yang Dam; Im, Chan; Lee, Man-Jong

2011-01-01

We present for the first time the influence of different mineralizers on the isoelectric point (IEP) of zinc stannate (Zn 2 SnO 4 ) nanoparticles hydrothermally prepared using three different mineralizers, viz., Na 2 CO 3 , KOH and tert-butyl amine, and the effect of the IEPs on the dye loading behavior of Zn 2 SnO 4 based photoelectrodes in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). To produce highly crystalline, uniform sized Zn 2 SnO 4 nanoparticles, hydrothermal processing parameters, such as reaction temperature, time, and the mineralizers used have been critically adjusted. The structural and morphological features of the as-synthesized Zn 2 SnO 4 nanoparticles have been observed using both scanning and transmission electron microscopy. For the surface state characterization of shape- and size-controlled Zn 2 SnO 4 nanoparticles, the IEPs of Zn 2 SnO 4 surfaces were determined through zeta potential measurements. The IEPs were found to be 5.7, 7.4 and 8.1 for Zn 2 SnO 4 nanoparticles formed using Na 2 CO 3 , KOH and tert-butyl amine, respectively, suggesting that the surface properties of Zn 2 SnO 4 nanoparticles can be manipulated through the choice of the mineralizers used during the hydrothermal reaction. The amount of N719 dye loading on the surfaces of Zn 2 SnO 4 electrodes having different IEPs was also evaluated. It was revealed that the higher the IEP, the higher the dye loading amount, which means that the IEP mainly affects the dye loading at the dye-metal oxide interface. - Highlights: → The effect of various mineralizers on the isoelectric point of Zn 2 SnO 4 was discussed. → The IEP of Zn 2 SnO 4 can be modified by the choice of mineralizer. → Change in IEP affects the surface properties and the morphology of Zn 2 SnO 4 particles. → Modified surface affects the N719 dye loading behaviour of the Zn 2 SnO 4 based DSSCs.

Optimal Adaptive Droop Control for Effective Load Sharing in AC Microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Anvari-Moghaddam, Amjad; Shafiee, Qobad; Quintero, Juan Carlos Vasquez

2016-01-01

During the past few years, microgrids (MGs) have been becoming more attractive as effective means to integrate different distributed energy resources (DERs). To coordinate active and reactive power sharing among DERs, conventional droop control method is widely used as a decentralized control...... control strategy is developed in two levels. The upper control level is a mixed-objective optimization algorithm that provides optimal set-points for power generations considering system’s constraints and goals, while the lower control level is responsible for tracking the reference signals coming from...

The effect of the triblock properties on the morphologies and photophysical properties of nanoparticle loaded with carboxylic dendrimer phthalocyanine

Science.gov (United States)

Lv, Huafei; Chen, Zhe; Yu, Xinxin; Pan, Sujuan; Zhang, Tiantian; Xie, Shusen; Yang, Hongqin; Peng, Yiru

2016-09-01

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an emerging alternative treatment for various cancers and age-related macular degeneration. Phthalocyanines (Pcs) and their substituted derivatives are under intensive investigation as the second generation photosensitizers. A big challenge for the application of Pcs is poor solubility and limited accumulation in the tumor tissues, which severely reduced its PDT efficacy. Nano-delivery systems such as polymeric micelles are promising tools for increasing the solubility and improving delivery efficiency of Pcs for PDT application. In this paper, nanoparticles of amphiphilic triblock copolymer poly(L-lysine)-b-poly (ethylene glycol)-b-poly(L-lysine) were developed to encapsulate 1-2 generation carboxylic poly (benzyl aryl ether) dendrimer. The morphologies and photophysical properties of polymeric nanoparticles loaded with 1-2 generation dendritic phthalocyanines (G1-ZnPc(COOH)8/m and G2-ZnPc(COOH)16/m) were studied by AFM, UV/Vis and fluorescent spectroscopic method. The morphologies of self-assembled PLL-PEG-PLL aggregates exhibited concentration dependence. Its morphologies changed from cocoon-like to spheral. The diameters of G1-ZnPc(COOH)8/m and G2-ZnPc(COOH)16/m were in the range of 33-147 nm, increasing with the increase of the concentration of PLL-PEG-PLL. The morphologies of G2-ZnPc(COOH)16/m also changed from cocoon-like to sphere with the increase of the concentration of PLL-PEG-PLL. It was found that, the no obviously Q change was observed between the free phthalocyanines and nanoparticles. The fluorescence intensity of polymer nanoparticles were higher enhanced compared with free dendritic phthalocyanines. The dendrimer phthalocyanine loaded with poly(L-lysine)-b-poly (ethylene glycol)-b-poly(L-lysine) presented suitable physical stability, improved photophysical properties suggesting it may be considered as a promising formulation for PDT.

The plant membrane surrounding powdery mildew haustoria shares properties with the endoplasmic reticulum membrane

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kwaaitaal, Mark Adrianus Cornelis J; Nielsen, Mads Eggert; Böhlenius, Henrik

2017-01-01

Many filamentous plant pathogens place specialized feeding structures, called haustoria, inside living host cells. As haustoria grow, they are believed to manipulate plant cells to generate a specialized, still enigmatic extrahaustorial membrane (EHM) around them. Here, we focused on revealing...... properties of the EHM. With the help of membranespecific dyes and transient expression of membrane-associated proteins fused to fluorescent tags, we studied the nature of the EHM generated by barley leaf epidermal cells around powdery mildew haustoria. Observations suggesting that endoplasmic reticulum (ER...... that it is not a continuum of the ER. Furthermore, GDP-locked Sar1 and a nucleotide-free RabD2a, which block ER to Golgi exit, did not hamper haustorium formation. These results indicated that the EHM shares features with the plant ER membrane, but that the EHM membrane is not dependent on conventional secretion...

Inattentional Deafness: Visual Load Leads to Time-Specific Suppression of Auditory Evoked Responses.

Science.gov (United States)

Molloy, Katharine; Griffiths, Timothy D; Chait, Maria; Lavie, Nilli

2015-12-09

Due to capacity limits on perception, conditions of high perceptual load lead to reduced processing of unattended stimuli (Lavie et al., 2014). Accumulating work demonstrates the effects of visual perceptual load on visual cortex responses, but the effects on auditory processing remain poorly understood. Here we establish the neural mechanisms underlying "inattentional deafness"--the failure to perceive auditory stimuli under high visual perceptual load. Participants performed a visual search task of low (target dissimilar to nontarget items) or high (target similar to nontarget items) load. On a random subset (50%) of trials, irrelevant tones were presented concurrently with the visual stimuli. Brain activity was recorded with magnetoencephalography, and time-locked responses to the visual search array and to the incidental presence of unattended tones were assessed. High, compared to low, perceptual load led to increased early visual evoked responses (within 100 ms from onset). This was accompanied by reduced early (∼ 100 ms from tone onset) auditory evoked activity in superior temporal sulcus and posterior middle temporal gyrus. A later suppression of the P3 "awareness" response to the tones was also observed under high load. A behavioral experiment revealed reduced tone detection sensitivity under high visual load, indicating that the reduction in neural responses was indeed associated with reduced awareness of the sounds. These findings support a neural account of shared audiovisual resources, which, when depleted under load, leads to failures of sensory perception and awareness. The present work clarifies the neural underpinning of inattentional deafness under high visual load. The findings of near-simultaneous load effects on both visual and auditory evoked responses suggest shared audiovisual processing capacity. Temporary depletion of shared capacity in perceptually demanding visual tasks leads to a momentary reduction in sensory processing of auditory

Favorable recycling photocatalyst TiO2/CFA: Effects of loading percent of TiO2 on the structural property and photocatalytic activity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shi Jianwen; Chen Shaohua; Ye Zhilong; Wang Shumei; Wu Peng

2010-01-01

A series of photocatalysts TiO 2 /CFA were prepared using coal fly ash (CFA), waste discharged from coal-fired power plant, as substrate, and then these photocatalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction analysis, nitrogen adsorption test and ultraviolet-visible absorption analysis. The effects of loading percent of TiO 2 on the photocatalytic activity and re-use property of TiO 2 /CFA were evaluated by the photocatalytic decoloration and mineralization of methyl orange solution. The results show that the pore volume and the specific surface area of the TiO 2 /CFA both increased with the increase in the loading percent of TiO 2 , which improved the photocatalytic activity of TiO 2 /CFA. However, when the loading percent of TiO 2 was too high (up to 54.51%), superfluous TiO 2 was easy to break away from CFA in the course of water treatment, which was disadvantaged to the recycling property of TiO 2 /CFA. In this study, the optimal loading percent of TiO 2 was 49.97%, and the efficiencies of photocatalytic decoloration and mineralization could be maintained above 99% and 90%, respectively, when the photocatalyst was used repeatedly, without any decline, even at the sixth cycle.

Effect of graphite loading on the electrical and mechanical properties of Poly (Ethylene Oxide)/Poly (Vinyl Chloride) polymer films

Science.gov (United States)

Hajar, M. D. S.; Supri, A. G.; Hanif, M. P. M.; Yazid, M. I. M.

2017-10-01

In this study, films consisting of a blend of poly (ethylene oxide)/poly (vinyl chloride) (PEO/PVC) and a conductive filler, graphite were prepared and characterized for their mechanical and electrical properties. Solid polymer blend films based on PEO/PVC (50/50 wt%/wt%) with different graphite loading were prepared by using solution casting technique. Electrical conductivity results discovered the conductivity increased with increasing of filler loading. However, increasing amount of graphite loading led to a decreased in tensile strength and young’s modulus of PEO/PVC/Graphite polymer films. The dispersion of graphite and mechanism of conductive path in the polymer films were also investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The morphology of the PEO/PVC/Graphite polymer films shows that agglomeration occurred to complete the connection of conductive path, thus improving the conductivity behavior of the polymer films.

Quantum load balancing in ad hoc networks

Science.gov (United States)

Hasanpour, M.; Shariat, S.; Barnaghi, P.; Hoseinitabatabaei, S. A.; Vahid, S.; Tafazolli, R.

2017-06-01

This paper presents a novel approach in targeting load balancing in ad hoc networks utilizing the properties of quantum game theory. This approach benefits from the instantaneous and information-less capability of entangled particles to synchronize the load balancing strategies in ad hoc networks. The quantum load balancing (QLB) algorithm proposed by this work is implemented on top of OLSR as the baseline routing protocol; its performance is analyzed against the baseline OLSR, and considerable gain is reported regarding some of the main QoS metrics such as delay and jitter. Furthermore, it is shown that QLB algorithm supports a solid stability gain in terms of throughput which stands a proof of concept for the load balancing properties of the proposed theory.

An Improved Droop Control Strategy for Reactive Power Sharing in Islanded Microgrid

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Han, Hua; Liu, Yao; Sun, Yao

2015-01-01

For microgrid in islanded operation, due to the effects of mismatched line impedance, the reactive power could not be shared accurately with the conventional droop method. To improve the reactive power sharing accuracy, this paper proposes an improved droop control method. The proposed method...... in output voltage amplitude. Therefore, the voltage recovery operation is proposed to compensate the decrease. The needed communication in this method is very simple, and the plug-and-play is reserved. Simulations and experimental results show that the improved droop controller can share load active...... and reactive power, improve the power quality of the microgrid, and also have a good dynamic performance....

Time and Cognitive Load in Working Memory

Science.gov (United States)

Barrouillet, Pierre; Bernardin, Sophie; Portrat, Sophie; Vergauwe, Evie; Camos, Valerie

2007-01-01

According to the time-based resource-sharing model (P. Barrouillet, S. Bernardin, & V. Camos, 2004), the cognitive load a given task involves is a function of the proportion of time during which it captures attention, thus impeding other attention-demanding processes. Accordingly, the present study demonstrates that the disruptive effect on…

Effect of cocoa pod husk filler loading on tensile properties of cocoa pod husk/polylactic acid green biocomposite films

Science.gov (United States)

Sanyang, M. L.; Sapuan, S. M.; Haron, M.

2017-10-01

Over the years, cocoa-pod husk (CPH) generation significantly increased due to the growing global demand of chocolate products, since cocoa bean is the main ingredient for chocolate production. Proper utilization of CPH as natural filler for reinforcement of polymer composites provides economic advantages as well as environmental solutions for CPH waste disposal problems. In this study, CPH filled PLA composite films were developed using solution casting method. The effect of CPH loading on the tensile properties of CPH/PLA composite films were investigated. The obtained results manifested that increasing CPH loading from 0% to 10 % significantly increased tensile strength of CPH/PLA composite. However, further addition of CPH loading up to 15 % decreased the tensile strength of film samples. As CPH loading increased from 0% to 15%, tensile modulus of CPH/PLA composite films also increased from 1.5MPa to 10.4MPa, whereas their elongation at break reduced from 190% to 90%. These findings points out CPH as a potential natural filler for reinforcing thermoplastic polymer composites.

Optimal Design and Real Time Implementation of Autonomous Microgrid Including Active Load

OpenAIRE

Mohamed A. Hassan; Muhammed Y. Worku; Mohamed A. Abido

2018-01-01

Controller gains and power-sharing parameters are the main parameters affect the dynamic performance of the microgrid. Considering an active load to the autonomous microgrid, the stability problem will be more involved. In this paper, the active load effect on microgrid dynamic stability is explored. An autonomous microgrid including three inverter-based distributed generations (DGs) with an active load is modeled and the associated controllers are designed. Controller gains of the inverters ...

Anomalous dispersion properties of TM waves in subwavelength metallic waveguides loaded by uniaxial metamaterials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Guanghui, E-mail: wanggh@scnu.edu.cn; Lei, Yuandong; Zhang, Weifeng

2015-02-20

Dispersion properties of transverse magnetic (TM) waves in a subwavelength metallic waveguide loaded by uniaxial metamaterials are investigated, based on two kinds of uniaxial metamaterials with different orientations of optical axis. The numerical results show that the existence of fundamental TM{sub 0} mode and high-order TM modes in the waveguide system is dependent on the orientation of optical axis. In addition, their anomalous dispersion properties are clarified. When the orientation of optical axis is selected properly, there are two branches of dispersion curves for each high-order mode—one is normal dispersion and another belongs to anomalous dispersion, showing a transition from a backward wave to a forward one with the increase of working frequency. Moreover, the group velocity and energy flow distribution for TM{sub 1} mode are also demonstrated. These properties may have potential applications in optical information storage, integrated optics and nanophotonic devices. - Highlights: • Two kinds of subwavelength uniaxial metamaterial waveguides are constructed. • We demonstrate anomalous dispersion properties of transverse magnetic (TM) guided modes. • There are two branches of dispersion curves for high-order TM modes, showing a transition from a backward wave to a forward one. • Group velocity can approach to zero, having potential application in optical information storage. • Negative group velocity and energy flow distribution for TM modes are shown.

Properties of natural rubber/attapulgite composites prepared by latex compounding method: Effect of filler loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muttalib, Siti Nadzirah Abdul; Othman, Nadras; Ismail, Hanafi

2015-01-01

This paper reports on the effect of filler loading on properties of natural rubber (NR)/attapulgite (ATP) composites. The NR/ATP composites were prepared by latex compounding method. It is called as masterbatch. The masterbatch was subsequently added to the NR through melt mixing process. The vulcanized NR/ATP composites were subjected to mechanical, swelling and morphological tests. All the results were compared with NR/ATP composites prepared by conventional system. The composites from masterbatch method showed better results compared to composites prepared by conventional method. They have higher tensile properties, elongation at break and tear strength. The images captured through scanning electron microscopy test revealed the improvement of tensile strength in masterbatch NR/ATP composites. It can be seen clearly that masterbatch NR/ATP have better filler dispersion compared to conventional method NR/ATP composites

Properties of natural rubber/attapulgite composites prepared by latex compounding method: Effect of filler loading

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Muttalib, Siti Nadzirah Abdul, E-mail: sitinadzirah.amn@gmail.com; Othman, Nadras, E-mail: srnadras@usm.my; Ismail, Hanafi, E-mail: ihanafi@usm.my [School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Seri Ampangan, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang (Malaysia)

2015-07-22

This paper reports on the effect of filler loading on properties of natural rubber (NR)/attapulgite (ATP) composites. The NR/ATP composites were prepared by latex compounding method. It is called as masterbatch. The masterbatch was subsequently added to the NR through melt mixing process. The vulcanized NR/ATP composites were subjected to mechanical, swelling and morphological tests. All the results were compared with NR/ATP composites prepared by conventional system. The composites from masterbatch method showed better results compared to composites prepared by conventional method. They have higher tensile properties, elongation at break and tear strength. The images captured through scanning electron microscopy test revealed the improvement of tensile strength in masterbatch NR/ATP composites. It can be seen clearly that masterbatch NR/ATP have better filler dispersion compared to conventional method NR/ATP composites.

On load paths and load bearing topology from finite element analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelly, D; Reidsema, C; Lee, M

2010-01-01

Load paths can be mapped from vector plots of 'pointing stress vectors'. They define a path along which a component of load remains constant as it traverses the solution domain. In this paper the theory for the paths is first defined. Properties of the plots that enable a designer to interpret the structural behavior from the contours are then identified. Because stress is a second order tensor defined on an orthogonal set of axes, the vector plots define separate paths for load transfer in each direction of the set of axes. An algorithm is therefore presented that combines the vectors to define a topology to carry the loads. The algorithm is shown to straighten the paths reducing bending moments and removing stress concentration. Application to a bolted joint, a racing car body and a yacht hull demonstrate the usefulness of the plots.

34 CFR 74.23 - Cost sharing or matching.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... property for cost sharing or matching shall be the lesser of— (1) The certified value of the remaining life of the property recorded in the recipient's accounting records at the time of donation; or (2) The... volunteer services must be consistent with those paid for similar work in the recipient's organization. In...

Further Theoretical Insight into the Mechanical Properties of Polycaprolactone Loaded with Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Fillers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saverio Maietta

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Experimental/theoretical analyses have already been performed on poly(ε-caprolactone (PCL loaded with organic–inorganic fillers (PCL/TiO2 and PCL/ZrO2 to find a correlation between the results from the small punch test and Young’s modulus of the materials. PCL loaded with Ti2 (PCL = 12, TiO2 = 88 wt % and Zr2 (PCL = 12, ZrO2 = 88 wt % hybrid fillers showed better performances than those obtained for the other particle composition. In this context, the aim of current research is to provide further insight into the mechanical properties of PCL loaded with sol–gel-synthesized organic–inorganic hybrid fillers for bone tissue engineering. For this reason, theoretical analyses were performed by the finite element method. The results from the small punch test and Young’s modulus of the materials were newly correlated. The obtained values of Young’s modulus (193 MPa for PCL, 378 MPa for PCL/Ti2 and 415 MPa for PCL/Zr2 were higher than those obtained from a previous theoretical modelling (144 MPa for PCL, 282 MPa for PCL/Ti2 and 310 MPa for PCL/Zr2. This correlation will be an important step for the evaluation of Young’s modulus, starting from the small punch test data.

Structure and properties of gadolinium loaded calcium phosphate glasses

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Cuiling [Analytical and Testing Center, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Nonmetal Composites and Functional Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); Liang, Xiaofeng, E-mail: XFLiang@swust.edu.cn [Analytical and Testing Center, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Nonmetal Composites and Functional Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); Li, Haijian; Yu, Huijun; Li, Zhen [Analytical and Testing Center, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Nonmetal Composites and Functional Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China); Yang, Shiyuan [State Key Laboratory Cultivation Base for Nonmetal Composites and Functional Materials, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang 621010 (China)

2014-10-15

The glass samples with composition xGd{sub 2}O{sub 3}–(50 − x)CaO–50P{sub 2}O{sub 5} (0 ⩽ x ⩽ 9 mol%) were prepared by the conventional melt quench method. The structure and properties of gadolinium loaded in calcium phosphate glasses were investigated using XRD, SEM, DTA, IR and Raman spectroscopy. The XRD and SEM analysis for the samples show that the majority of samples are amorphous, and crystallization occurs when the content of Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3} containing is up to 6 mol%. Two main crystalline phases, Ca{sub 2}P{sub 2}O{sub 7} and Gd{sub 3}(P{sub 2}O{sub 7}){sub 3}, are embedded in an amorphous matrix. IR and Raman data indicate that glass structure consists of predominantly metaphosphate (Q{sup 2}) units and the depolymerization of phosphate network with the addition of Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3}. Both the chemical durability and the glass transition temperature (T{sub g}) are improved with the increase of Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3}, which suggests that the Gd acts a role of strengthening the cross-links between the phosphate chains of the glass.

A novel harmonic current sharing control strategy for parallel-connected inverters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Guan, Yajuan; Guerrero, Josep M.; Savaghebi, Mehdi

2017-01-01

A novel control strategy which enables proportional linear and nonlinear loads sharing among paralleled inverters and voltage harmonic suppression is proposed in this paper. The proposed method is based on the autonomous currents sharing controller (ACSC) instead of conventional power droop control...... to provide fast transient response, decoupling control and large stability margin. The current components at different sequences and orders are decomposed by a multi-second-order generalized integrator-based frequency locked loop (MSOGI-FLL). A harmonic-orthogonal-virtual-resistances controller (HOVR......) is used to proportionally share current components at different sequences and orders independently among the paralleled inverters. Proportional resonance controllers tuned at selected frequencies are used to suppress voltage harmonics. Simulations based on two 2.2 kW paralleled three-phase inverters...

Shared Value Potential of Transporting Cargo via Hyperloop

OpenAIRE

Werner, Max; Eissing, Klaus; Langton, Sebastian

2016-01-01

This research estimates the shared value created by constructing a hypothetical Hyperloop to transport cargo along 300 km in Northern Germany. Following Porter and Kramer (2011, 2012), we identified and evaluated eight factors that create shared value: travel speed, operating costs, safety, noise pollution, air pollution, climate effect/carbon footprint, separation effect/property efficiency, and maintenance. Using official data compiled by several German institutes and organizations, we cond...

Understanding Interdependency Through Complex Information Sharing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando Rosas

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The interactions between three or more random variables are often nontrivial, poorly understood and, yet, are paramount for future advances in fields such as network information theory, neuroscience and genetics. In this work, we analyze these interactions as different modes of information sharing. Towards this end, and in contrast to most of the literature that focuses on analyzing the mutual information, we introduce an axiomatic framework for decomposing the joint entropy that characterizes the various ways in which random variables can share information. Our framework distinguishes between interdependencies where the information is shared redundantly and synergistic interdependencies where the sharing structure exists in the whole, but not between the parts. The key contribution of our approach is to focus on symmetric properties of this sharing, which do not depend on a specific point of view for differentiating roles between its components. We show that our axioms determine unique formulas for all of the terms of the proposed decomposition for systems of three variables in several cases of interest. Moreover, we show how these results can be applied to several network information theory problems, providing a more intuitive understanding of their fundamental limits.

Unleashing Lessons: Sharing Stories About the Fine Art of Systems Engineering

Science.gov (United States)

Singer, Christopher E.

2010-01-01

NASA leaders have a responsibility to share their unique oral histories with junior-level employees on whom NASA's future depends. This presentation will give a few examples of how the imaginative, flexible art of systems engineering is as necessary to mission success as is the rigorous, disciplined side of engineering. Engineering space systems involves many disciplines propulsion, loads, dynamics, and so forth that are based on the foundations of scientific principles and methodology and the application of the laws of physics. The term rocket scientist is an apt term, considering that the underlying chemical properties of propellants and the subatomic properties of materials must be understood to harness the powerful energy necessary to escape Earth's gravity in machines that can withstand the stresses and forces to which they are subjected, not to mention the harsh space environments in which they must work. This is a simplistic, yet illustrative, explanation of the scientific side of the engineer s challenge. Bringing together these individual parts into a solid system goes beyond the science of engineering to employ the art of systems engineering. Systems engineers are known for their ability to integrate various solutions to meet or exceed challenging requirements. As the old adage goes, measure twice and cut once. The act of measuring is balancing rigid, inflexible requirements with creative compromises to attain the optimum solution to the challenge of space flight. Then, we cut out those answers that are too risky, expensive, dangerous, and so forth. The process of sharing stories about the little-discussed art of engineering, also known as the art of compromise, will equip the workforce to subjectively judge the best right answer from among the many presented, while objectively integrating the various piece parts into a unified whole.

Realising the potential of shared space in facilities management

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Brinkø, Rikke

individuals or groups from different organisational contexts, and this PhD investigates the intricate processes con-cerning shared space in a facilities management context. The overall aim is divided in a theoretical and a practical part, with the theoretical focused on contributing with new knowledge...... of shared space, building towards a new method for efficient and sustainable facilities management operation of buildings and properties. The practical part is focused on connecting this new knowledge to practical applications and developing tools that can be used to work with shared spaces in a practice...... categories according to degree of sharing, and lists a number of characteristics of shared spaces to provide a starting point for discussing, developing and working with shared space in both academia and practice. The guide on the other hand synthesises the theoretical knowledge resulting from the study...

Bulk Electric Load Cost Calculation Methods: Iraqi Network Comparative Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qais M. Alias

2016-09-01

Full Text Available It is vital in any industry to regain the spent capitals plus running costs and a margin of profits for the industry to flourish. The electricity industry is an everyday life touching industry which follows the same finance-economic strategy. Cost allocation is a major issue in all sectors of the electric industry, viz, generation, transmission and distribution. Generation and distribution service costing’s well documented in the literature, while the transmission share is still of need for research. In this work, the cost of supplying a bulk electric load connected to the EHV system is calculated. A sample basic lump-average method is used to provide a rough costing guide. Also, two transmission pricing methods are employed, namely, the postage-stamp and the load-flow based MW-distance methods to calculate transmission share in the total cost of each individual bulk load. The three costing methods results are then analyzed and compared for the 400kV Iraqi power grid considered for a case study.

Eugenol-loaded chitosan nanoparticles: II. Application in bio-based plastics for active packaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Woranuch, Sarekha; Yoksan, Rangrong

2013-07-25

The aim of the present research was to study the possibility of using eugenol-loaded chitosan nanoparticles as antioxidants for active bio-based packaging material. Eugenol-loaded chitosan nanoparticles were incorporated into thermoplastic flour (TPF) - a model bio-based plastic - through an extrusion process at temperatures above 150°C. The influences of eugenol-loaded chitosan nanoparticles on crystallinity, morphology, thermal properties, radical scavenging activity, reducing power, tensile properties and barrier properties of TPF were investigated. Although the incorporation of 3% (w/w) of eugenol-loaded chitosan nanoparticles significantly reduced the extensibility and the oxygen barrier property of TPF, it provided antioxidant activity and improved the water vapor barrier property. In addition, TPF containing eugenol-loaded chitosan nanoparticles exhibited superior radical scavenging activity and stronger reducing power compared with TPF containing naked eugenol. The results suggest the applicability of TPF containing eugenol-loaded chitosan nanoparticles as an antioxidant active packaging material. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Creatine Loading, Resistance Exercise Performance, and Muscle Mechanics.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevenson, Scott W.; Dudley, Gary A.

2001-01-01

Examined whether creatine (CR) monohydrate loading would alter resistance exercise performance, isometric strength, or in vivo contractile properties of the quadriceps femoris muscle compared with placebo loading in resistance-trained athletes. Overall, CR loading did not provide an ergogenic benefit for the unilateral dynamic knee extension…

To share and be shared

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Winther, Ida Wentzel

2018-01-01

to another. To a certain degree, they share their everyday lives, things, places, memories, and past/future, but as the ones who move back and forth, they belong a little less in each place. This article is about children who are shared between their parent, households and siblings. They are shared...

Hybrid shared/distributed parallelism for 3D characteristics transport solvers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dahmani, M.; Roy, R.

2005-01-01

In this paper, we will present a new hybrid parallel model for solving large-scale 3-dimensional neutron transport problems used in nuclear reactor simulations. Large heterogeneous reactor problems, like the ones that occurs when simulating Candu cores, have remained computationally intensive and impractical for routine applications on single-node or even vector computers. Based on the characteristics method, this new model is designed to solve the transport equation after distributing the calculation load on a network of shared memory multi-processors. The tracks are either generated on the fly at each characteristics sweep or stored in sequential files. The load balancing is taken into account by estimating the calculation load of tracks and by distributing batches of uniform load on each node of the network. Moreover, the communication overhead can be predicted after benchmarking the latency and bandwidth using appropriate network test suite. These models are useful for predicting the performance of the parallel applications and to analyze the scalability of the parallel systems. (authors)

24 CFR 206.107 - Mortgagee election of assignment or shared premium option.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... § 206.123(a)(2)-(5). (v) The mortgage is a first lien of record and title to the property securing the... under any of the circumstances described in § 206.123(a)(2)-(5). (b) No election for shared appreciation. Shared appreciation mortgages shall be insured by the Secretary only under the shared premium option. [54...

Optimization and Control for Sharing of the ITER Vacuum Vessel Support Force

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rozov, V.

2006-01-01

The ITER Vacuum Vessel (VV) is a complex body supported in 9 points below lower ports by restraints in the radial, toroidal and vertical directions. The applied load produces a combination of reaction forces, which must be consistent with the design of the supported object. A reasonable sharing of the load among the supports is important for overall performance of the structure and helps to avoid excessive stress at the joints between the VV and lower ports. Optimization has been performed of the sharing of the total horizontal load applied to the ITER VV between radial and toroidal restraints. An effective method of finding simple parametric relationships between the design parameters of supports and the balance of the reaction forces has been developed. This allows purely analytical prediction of the sharing of the reaction forces for any desired stiffness of the applied restraints with no need for finite element structural analysis, and also allows control of the sharing by a proper selection of parameters of the supports. The method is based on the use of elementary mono-directional schemes - equivalent oscillators built for the main global modes, in static problems. The types of schemes and parameters of their members, related to the a-priori unknown stiffness of the VV structure under the supports, are found from consideration of the free vibration problem for the object using a 3D model of the VV with mass simulators - a series of simple eigenvalue analyses with variation of stiffness of the external restraints, that demands quite moderate computational resources. The equivalent schemes for the main modes not only enable simple one-line analytical calculation of the natural frequencies at any desired stiffness of the supports, but also indicate the contributions and balance of stiffness, to be considered in the static problem. The results of assessments of the reaction forces by direct static structural analyses for several cases are in agreement with values

Effect of physical property of supporting media and variable hydraulic loading on hydraulic characteristics of advanced onsite wastewater treatment system.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Meena Kumari; Kazmi, Absar Ahmad

2015-01-01

A laboratory-scale study was carried out to investigate the effects of physical properties of the supporting media and variable hydraulic shock loads on the hydraulic characteristics of an advanced onsite wastewater treatment system. The system consisted of two upflow anaerobic reactors (a septic tank and an anaerobic filter) accommodated within a single unit. The study was divided into three phases on the basis of three different supporting media (Aqwise carriers, corrugated ring and baked clay) used in the anaerobic filter. Hydraulic loadings were based on peak flow factor (PFF), varying from one to six, to simulate the actual conditions during onsite wastewater treatment. Hydraulic characteristics of the system were identified on the basis of residence time distribution analyses. The system showed a very good hydraulic efficiency, between 0.86 and 0.93, with the media of highest porosity at the hydraulic loading of PFF≤4. At the higher hydraulic loading of PFF 6 also, an appreciable hydraulic efficiency of 0.74 was observed. The system also showed good chemical oxygen demand and total suspended solids removal efficiency of 80.5% and 82.3%, respectively at the higher hydraulic loading of PFF 6. Plug-flow dispersion model was found to be the most appropriate one to describe the mixing pattern of the system, with different supporting media at variable loading, during the tracer study.

Structural properties and release of insulin-loaded reverse hexagonal (HII) liquid crystalline mesophase.

Science.gov (United States)

Mishraki-Berkowitz, Tehila; Aserin, Abraham; Garti, Nissim

2017-01-15

Insulin loading into the H II mesophases was examined as a function of its concentration, with addition of glycerol as a cosolvent and with addition of phosphatidylcholine (PC) as a structural stabilizer. The structural properties, the molecular interactions, the viscoelastic properties, and the dynamic behavior were investigated by SAXS, ATR-FTIR, and rheological measurements. Insulin release was then monitored and analyzed. Insulin incorporation into the H II systems shrank the cylinders as it competed with the lipids in water-bonding. Insulin interrupted the interface while increasing τ max and creating a more solid-like response. Upon addition of PC, cooperative flow behavior was detected, which is probably the reason for increase in insulin cumulative release from 28% to 52% after 300 min. In the presence of glycerol, the system was less cooperative but insulin was more compactly folded, resulting in a slight improvement in insulin release (up to 6%). Addition of both PC and glycerol caused the maximum release (55%). The addition of additives into the H II system demonstrates how structural modifications can improve insulin release, and influence future design of encapsulated drug delivery systems. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Conceptual study of axial offset fluctuations upon stepwise power changes in a thorium–plutonium core to improve load-following conditions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lau, Cheuk Wah; Dykin, Victor; Nylén, Henrik; Björk, Klara Insulander; Sandberg, Urban

2014-01-01

Highlights: • Thorium–plutonium mixed oxide to improve nuclear reactors load-following capability. • SIMULATE-3 was the main calculation tool. • The Ringhals-3 PWR unit in Sweden was used as a reference. • Lower xenon poisoning and shorter reactor dead time. - Abstract: The increased share of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, will increase the demand for load-following power sources, and nuclear reactors could be one option. However, during rapid load-following events, traditional UOX cores could be restricted by the volatile oscillation of the power distribution. Therefore, a conceptual study on stability properties of Th-MOX PWR concerning axial offset power excursion during load-following events are investigated and discussed. The study is performed in SIMULATE-3 for a realistic PWR core (Ringhals-3) at the end of cycle, where the largest amplitude of the axial offset oscillations is expected. It is shown that the Th-MOX core possesses much better stability characteristics and shorter reactor dead time compared with a traditional UOX core, and the main reasons are the lower sensitivity to perturbations in the neutron spectrum, lower xenon poisoning and lower thermal neutron flux

Economic impact and policy implications from urban shared transportation: The case of Pittsburgh's shared bike system.

Science.gov (United States)

Pelechrinis, Konstantinos; Zacharias, Christos; Kokkodis, Marios; Lappas, Theodoros

2017-01-01

During the last years the number of cities that have installed and started operating shared bike systems has significantly increased. These systems provide an alternative and sustainable mean of transportation to the city dwellers. Apart from the energy sustainability benefits, shared bike systems can have a positive effect on residents' health, air quality and the overall condition of the currently crumbling road network infrastructure. Anecdotal stories and survey studies have also identified that bike lanes have a positive impact on local businesses. In this study, driven by the rapid adoption of shared bike systems by city governments and their potential positive effects on a number of urban life facets we opt to study and quantify the value of these systems. We focus on a specific aspect of this value and use evidence from the real estate market in the city of Pittsburgh to analyze the effect on dwellers' properties of the shared bike system installed in the city in June 2015. We use quasi-experimental techniques and find that the shared bike system led to an increase in the housing prices (both sales and rental prices) in the zip codes where shared bike stations were installed. We further bring into the light potential negative consequences of this impact (i.e., gentrification) and discuss/propose two public policies that can exploit the impact of the system for the benefit of both the local government as well as the city dwellers.

Economic impact and policy implications from urban shared transportation: The case of Pittsburgh's shared bike system.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Konstantinos Pelechrinis

Full Text Available During the last years the number of cities that have installed and started operating shared bike systems has significantly increased. These systems provide an alternative and sustainable mean of transportation to the city dwellers. Apart from the energy sustainability benefits, shared bike systems can have a positive effect on residents' health, air quality and the overall condition of the currently crumbling road network infrastructure. Anecdotal stories and survey studies have also identified that bike lanes have a positive impact on local businesses. In this study, driven by the rapid adoption of shared bike systems by city governments and their potential positive effects on a number of urban life facets we opt to study and quantify the value of these systems. We focus on a specific aspect of this value and use evidence from the real estate market in the city of Pittsburgh to analyze the effect on dwellers' properties of the shared bike system installed in the city in June 2015. We use quasi-experimental techniques and find that the shared bike system led to an increase in the housing prices (both sales and rental prices in the zip codes where shared bike stations were installed. We further bring into the light potential negative consequences of this impact (i.e., gentrification and discuss/propose two public policies that can exploit the impact of the system for the benefit of both the local government as well as the city dwellers.

Decreasing Serial Cost Sharing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hougaard, Jens Leth; Østerdal, Lars Peter

The increasing serial cost sharing rule of Moulin and Shenker [Econometrica 60 (1992) 1009] and the decreasing serial rule of de Frutos [Journal of Economic Theory 79 (1998) 245] have attracted attention due to their intuitive appeal and striking incentive properties. An axiomatic characterization...... of the increasing serial rule was provided by Moulin and Shenker [Journal of Economic Theory 64 (1994) 178]. This paper gives an axiomatic characterization of the decreasing serial rule...

Decreasing serial cost sharing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hougaard, Jens Leth; Østerdal, Lars Peter Raahave

2009-01-01

The increasing serial cost sharing rule of Moulin and Shenker (Econometrica 60:1009-1037, 1992) and the decreasing serial rule of de Frutos (J Econ Theory 79:245-275, 1998) are known by their intuitive appeal and striking incentive properties. An axiomatic characterization of the increasing serial...... rule was provided by Moulin and Shenker (J Econ Theory 64:178-201, 1994). This paper gives an axiomatic characterization of the decreasing serial rule....

Cost-effectiveness Assessment of 5G Systems with Cooperative Radio Resource Sharing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Nikolikj

2015-11-01

Full Text Available By use of techno-economic analysis of heterogeneous hierarchical cell structures and spectral efficiencies of the forthcoming advanced radio access technologies, this paper proposes various cost-efficient capacity enlargement strategies evaluated through the level of the production cost per transferred data unit and achievable profit margins. For the purpose of maximizing the aggregate performance (capacity or profit, we also assess the cooperative manners of radio resource sharing between mobile network operators, especially in the cases of capacity over-provisioning, when we also determine the principles to provide guaranteed data rates to a particular number of users. The results show that, for heavily loaded office environments, the future 5G pico base stations could be a preferable deployment solution. Also, we confirm that the radio resource management method with dynamic resource allocation can significantly improve the capacity of two comparably loaded operators which share the resources and aim to increase their cost effectiveness.

[Development of Inhalable Dry Powder Formulations Loaded with Nanoparticles Maintaining Their Original Physical Properties and Functions].

Science.gov (United States)

Okuda, Tomoyuki

2017-01-01

 Functional nanoparticles, such as liposomes and polymeric micelles, are attractive drug delivery systems for solubilization, stabilization, sustained release, prolonged tissue retention, and tissue targeting of various encapsulated drugs. For their clinical application in therapy for pulmonary diseases, the development of dry powder inhalation (DPI) formulations is considered practical due to such advantages as: (1) it is noninvasive and can be directly delivered into the lungs; (2) there are few biocomponents in the lungs that interact with nanoparticles; and (3) it shows high storage stability in the solid state against aggregation or precipitation of nanoparticles in water. However, in order to produce effective nanoparticle-loaded dry powders for inhalation, it is essential to pursue an innovative and comprehensive formulation strategy in relation to composition and powderization which can achieve (1) the particle design of dry powders with physical properties suitable for pulmonary delivery through inhalation, and (2) the effective reconstitution of nanoparticles that will maintain their original physical properties and functions after dissolution of the powders. Spray-freeze drying (SFD) is a relatively new powderization technique combining atomization and lyophilization, which can easily produce highly porous dry powders from an aqueous sample solution. Previously, we advanced the optimization of components and process conditions for the production of SFD powders suitable to DPI application. This review describes our recent results in the development of novel DPI formulations effectively loaded with various nanoparticles (electrostatic nanocomplexes for gene therapy, liposomes, and self-assembled lipid nanoparticles), based on SFD.

Biodegradable polyesters reinforced with triclosan loaded polylactide micro/nanofibers: Properties, release and biocompatibility

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. J. del Valle

2012-04-01

Full Text Available Mechanical properties and drug release behavior were studied for three biodegradable polyester matrices (polycaprolactone, poly(nonamethylene azelate and the copolymer derived from 1,9-nonanediol and an equimolar mixture of azelaic and pimelic acids reinforced with polylactide (PLA fibers. Electrospinning was used to produce suitable mats constituted by fibers of different diameters (i.e. from micro- to nanoscale and a homogeneous dispersion of a representative hydrophobic drug (i.e. triclosan. Fabrics were prepared by a molding process, which allowed cold crystallization of PLA micro/nanofibers and hot crystallization of the polyester matrices. The orientation of PLA molecules during electrospinning favored the crystallization process, which was slightly enhanced when the diameter decreased. Incorporation of PLA micro/nanofibers led to a significant increase in the elastic modulus and tensile strength, and in general to a decrease in the strain at break. The brittle fracture was clearer when high molecular weight samples with high plastic deformation were employed. Large differences in the release behavior were detected depending on the loading process, fiber diameter size and hydrophobicity of the polyester matrix. The release of samples with the drug only loaded into the reinforcing fibers was initially fast and then became slow and sustained, resulting in longer lasting antimicrobial activity. Biocompatibility of all samples studied was demonstrated by adhesion and proliferation assays using HEp-2 cell cultures.

36 CFR 1004.11 - Load, weight and size limits.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... § 1004.11 Load, weight and size limits. (a) Vehicle load, weight and size limits established by State law... following are prohibited: (1) Operating a vehicle that exceeds a load, weight or size limit designated by... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Load, weight and size limits...

Shared Value Potential of Transporting Cargo via Hyperloop

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Max Werner

2016-08-01

Full Text Available This research estimates the shared value created by constructing a hypothetical Hyperloop to transport cargo along 300 km in Northern Germany. Following Porter-Kramer (2011, we identified and evaluated eight factors that create shared value: travel speed, operating costs, safety, noise pollution, air pollution, climate effect/carbon footprint, separation effect/ property efficiency, and maintenance. Using official data compiled by several German institutes and organizations, we conducted comparative analysis to quantify and compare the abovementioned factors for Hyperloop and over-the-road cargo transport in Germany. Then, we monetized the individual and collective benefits of the shared value created by Hyperloop replacing a significant share of cargo transported by truck. Our findings indicate that the hypothetical Hyperloop project in Northern Germany would create €660 to €900 million of shared value annually. Our research method establishes a framework for assessing future transportation projects like Hyperloop, and our findings can be generalized to industrialized nations beyond Germany.

Assessment of burned coal shale properties based on cyclic load

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Grygierek Marcin

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Road surfaces that are subjected to cyclic loads generated by vehicle wheels must meet the requirements concerning the durability in the assumed period of use. The durability of the layered pavement construction systems depends on the value and frequency of the load as well as on the mechanical features of its individual layers. Layers of unbound, mechanically stabilized mixtures are a significant aspect of surfaces that are susceptible. Mixtures of this type can be applied both to the subgrade layers as well as to the bottom pavement layers, including the improved course. Considering the cyclic nature of the load on the surface of the entire system, mechanically stabilized layers are subject to continuous, but slow, densification during the period of use, which results in the formation of permanent deformations and so-called structural ruts. Post-mining waste is frequently used in road construction. which is the so-called burned shale that can be used for the bottom layers of the surface and layers of the improved subgrade (soil replacement. This material was the subject of the analysis. The evaluation was based mainly on the results of pilot studies covering cyclic loads of the layer/course made of the so-called red shale. The applied research method was aimed at preliminary assessment of its suitability for the assessment of the behaviour of the disintegrated medium under the conditions of test loads simulating the movement of vehicles.

Assessment of burned coal shale properties based on cyclic load

Science.gov (United States)

Grygierek, Marcin; Kalisz, Piotr; Pacześniowski, Krzysztof; Pytlik, Andrzej; Zięba, Magdalena

2018-04-01

Road surfaces that are subjected to cyclic loads generated by vehicle wheels must meet the requirements concerning the durability in the assumed period of use. The durability of the layered pavement construction systems depends on the value and frequency of the load as well as on the mechanical features of its individual layers. Layers of unbound, mechanically stabilized mixtures are a significant aspect of surfaces that are susceptible. Mixtures of this type can be applied both to the subgrade layers as well as to the bottom pavement layers, including the improved course. Considering the cyclic nature of the load on the surface of the entire system, mechanically stabilized layers are subject to continuous, but slow, densification during the period of use, which results in the formation of permanent deformations and so-called structural ruts. Post-mining waste is frequently used in road construction. which is the so-called burned shale that can be used for the bottom layers of the surface and layers of the improved subgrade (soil replacement). This material was the subject of the analysis. The evaluation was based mainly on the results of pilot studies covering cyclic loads of the layer/course made of the so-called red shale. The applied research method was aimed at preliminary assessment of its suitability for the assessment of the behaviour of the disintegrated medium under the conditions of test loads simulating the movement of vehicles.

Visual short-term memory load strengthens selective attention.

Science.gov (United States)

Roper, Zachary J J; Vecera, Shaun P

2014-04-01

Perceptual load theory accounts for many attentional phenomena; however, its mechanism remains elusive because it invokes underspecified attentional resources. Recent dual-task evidence has revealed that a concurrent visual short-term memory (VSTM) load slows visual search and reduces contrast sensitivity, but it is unknown whether a VSTM load also constricts attention in a canonical perceptual load task. If attentional selection draws upon VSTM resources, then distraction effects-which measure attentional "spill-over"-will be reduced as competition for resources increases. Observers performed a low perceptual load flanker task during the delay period of a VSTM change detection task. We observed a reduction of the flanker effect in the perceptual load task as a function of increasing concurrent VSTM load. These findings were not due to perceptual-level interactions between the physical displays of the two tasks. Our findings suggest that perceptual representations of distractor stimuli compete with the maintenance of visual representations held in memory. We conclude that access to VSTM determines the degree of attentional selectivity; when VSTM is not completely taxed, it is more likely for task-irrelevant items to be consolidated and, consequently, affect responses. The "resources" hypothesized by load theory are at least partly mnemonic in nature, due to the strong correspondence they share with VSTM capacity.

Load Balancing in Hypergraphs

Science.gov (United States)

Delgosha, Payam; Anantharam, Venkat

2018-03-01

Consider a simple locally finite hypergraph on a countable vertex set, where each edge represents one unit of load which should be distributed among the vertices defining the edge. An allocation of load is called balanced if load cannot be moved from a vertex to another that is carrying less load. We analyze the properties of balanced allocations of load. We extend the concept of balancedness from finite hypergraphs to their local weak limits in the sense of Benjamini and Schramm (Electron J Probab 6(23):13, 2001) and Aldous and Steele (in: Probability on discrete structures. Springer, Berlin, pp 1-72, 2004). To do this, we define a notion of unimodularity for hypergraphs which could be considered an extension of unimodularity in graphs. We give a variational formula for the balanced load distribution and, in particular, we characterize it in the special case of unimodular hypergraph Galton-Watson processes. Moreover, we prove the convergence of the maximum load under some conditions. Our work is an extension to hypergraphs of Anantharam and Salez (Ann Appl Probab 26(1):305-327, 2016), which considered load balancing in graphs, and is aimed at more comprehensively resolving conjectures of Hajek (IEEE Trans Inf Theory 36(6):1398-1414, 1990).

Between sharing and protecting: Public research in the year of the potato

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jonge, de B.

2008-01-01

Countries, companies and farming communities are increasingly involved in issues of sharing and protecting plant genetic resources, (traditional) knowledge and technologies. Intellectual Property Rights and Access and Benefit-Sharing policies currently regulate the transfer and usage of much of this

Thermodynamical quantum information sharing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wiesniak, M.; Vedral, V.; Brukner, C.

2005-01-01

Full text: Thermodynamical properties fully originate from classical physics and can be easily measured for macroscopic systems. On the other hand, entanglement is a widely spoken feature of quantum physics, which allows to perform certain task with efficiency unavailable with any classical resource. Therefore an interesting question is whether we can witness entanglement in a state of a macroscopic sample. We show, that some macroscopic properties, in particular magnetic susceptibility, can serve as an entanglement witnesses. We also study a mutual relation between magnetic susceptibility and magnetisation. Such a complementarity exhibits quantum information sharing between these two thermodynamical quantities. Magnetization expresses properties of individual spins, while susceptibility might reveal non-classical correlations as a witness. Therefore, a rapid change of one of these two quantities may mean a phase transition also in terms of entanglement. The complementarity relation is demonstrated by an analytical solution of an exemplary model. (author)

OK, Computer: File Sharing, the Music Industry, and Why We Need the Pirate Party

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adrian Cosstick

2009-03-01

Full Text Available The Pirate Party believes the state and big business are in the process of protecting stale and inefficient models of business for their own monetary benefit by limiting our right to share information. The Pirate Party suggests that they are achieving this goal through the amendment of intellectual property legislation. In the dawn of the digital era, the Pirate Party advocates that governments and multinational corporations are using intellectual property to: crack down on file sharing which limits the ability to share knowledge and information; increase the terms and length of copyright to raise profits; and build code into music files which limits their ability to be shared (Pirate Party, 2009. There are a number of ‘copyright industries’ that are affected by these issues, none more so than the music industry. Its relationship with file sharing is topical and makes an excellent case study to address the impact big business has had on intellectual property and the need for the Pirate Party’s legislative input. The essay will then examine the central issues raised by illegal file sharing. In particular, the future for record companies in an environment that increasingly demands flexibility, and whether the Pirate Party’s proposal is a viable solution to the music industry’s problems

Nanoindentation study of size effect and loading rate effect on mechanical properties of a thin film metallic glass Cu49.3Zr50.7

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pang Jianjun; Tan Mingjen; Liew, K.M.; Shearwood, Christopher

2012-01-01

A binary metallic glass (MG) Cu 49.3 Zr 50.7 in the form of thin film was successfully grown on a Si (1 0 0) substrate by magnetron sputtering. The mechanical properties, specifically, hardness and modulus at various peak loads and loading rates were characterized through instrumented nanoindentation. Unlike other metallic glasses showing an indentation size effect (ISE), the composition of this study does not have an ISE, which is phenomenologically the result of the negligible length scale according to the strain gradient plasticity model. The proportional specimen resistance model is applicable to the load-displacement behaviors and suggests that the frictional effect is too small to contribute to the ISE. The occurrence of plasticity depends on loading rates and can be delayed so that the displacement during the load holding segment increases logarithmically. In addition, the hardness and modulus are both dependent on the loading rates as well, i.e., they increase as the loading rate increases up to 0.1 mN/s and then hold constant, which is independent of creep time (≤100 s). These loading-rate-dependent behaviors are interpreted as the result of viscoelastic effect rather than free volume kinetics.

The Evolution of a Sharing Platform into a Sustainable Business

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Constantiou, Ioanna; Eaton, Ben; Tuunainen, Virpi Kristiina

2016-01-01

A number of sharing economy start-ups have taken both digital and physical product markets by storm. These start-ups operate on two-sided platforms and enable sharing of physical products or services based on physical assets. Interestingly, they are subject to both the dynamics of the digital world...... (i.e., network effects), and the constraints of the physical world (i.e., issues of accountability when physical property is destroyed). We investigate how Airbnb, a sharing platform, evolve into a sustainable business with an in-depth case analysis based on data retrieved from a number of blogs...... understanding of the evolution of sharing platforms into sustainable and competitive businesses....

Palm oil biodiesel synthesized with potassium loaded calcined hydrotalcite and effect of biodiesel blend on elastomer properties

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Trakarnpruk, Wimonrat; Porntangjitlikit, Suriya [Petrochemistry and Polymer Science, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330 (Thailand)

2008-07-15

Biodiesel was prepared from palm oil by transesterification with methanol in the presence of 1.5%K loaded-calcined Mg-Al hydrotalcite. Fatty acid methyl esters content of 96.9% and methyl ester yield of 86.6% were achieved using a 30:1 methanol to oil molar ratio at 100{sup o}C for 6 h and 7 wt% catalyst. The biodiesel was characterized and its impact on elastomer properties was evaluated. The compatibility of B10 diesel blend (10% biodiesel) with six types of elastomers commonly found in fuel systems (NBR, HNBR, NBR/PVC, acrylic rubber, co-polymer FKM, and terpolymer FKM) were investigated. The physical properties of elastomers after immersion in tested fuels (for 22, 670, and 1008 h at 100{sup o}C) were measured according to American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM). These include swelling (mass change and volume change), hardness, tensile and elongation, as well as the dynamic mechanical property. The results showed that properties of NBR, NBR/PVC and acrylic rubber were affected more than other elastomers. This is due to the absorption and dissolving of biodiesel by rubber in these samples. Co-polymer FKM and terpolymer FKM which are fluoroelastomers show little property change. (author)

MEASUREMENT OF WASTE LOADING IN SALTSTONE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Harbour, J; Vickie Williams, V

2008-01-01

One of the goals of the Saltstone variability study is to identify the operational and compositional variables that control or influence the important processing and performance properties of Saltstone grout mixtures. One of those properties of importance is the Waste Loading (WL) of the decontaminated salt solution (DSS) in the Saltstone waste form. Waste loading is a measure of the amount of waste that can be incorporated within a waste form. The value of the Saltstone waste loading ultimately determines the number of vaults that will be required to disposition all of the DSS. In this report, the waste loading is defined as the volume in milliliters of DSS per liter of Saltstone waste form. The two most important parameters that determine waste loading for Saltstone are water to cementitious material (w/cm) ratio and the cured grout density. Data are provided that show the dependence of waste loading on the w/cm ratio for a fixed DSS composition using the current premix material (45% Blast Furnace Slag (BFS), 45% Fly Ash (FA) and 10% Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)). The impact of cured grout density on waste loading was also demonstrated. Mixes (at 0.60 w/cm) made with a Modular Caustic side extraction Unit (MCU) simulant and either OPC or BFS have higher cured grout densities than mixes made with premix and increase the WL to 709 mL/L for the OPC mix and 689 mL/L for the BFS mix versus the value of 653 mL/L for MCU in premix at 0.60 w/cm ratio. Bleed liquid reduces the waste loading and lowers the effective w/cm ratio of Saltstone. A method is presented (and will be used in future tasks) for correcting the waste loading and the w/cm ratio of the as-batched mixes in those cases where bleed liquid is present. For example, the Deliquification, Dissolution and Adjustment (DDA) mix at an as-batched 0.60 w/cm ratio, when corrected for % bleed, gives a mix with a 0.55 w/cm ratio and a WL that has been reduced from 662 to 625 mL/L. An example is provided that

Economic impact and policy implications from urban shared transportation: The case of Pittsburgh’s shared bike system

Science.gov (United States)

Zacharias, Christos; Kokkodis, Marios; Lappas, Theodoros

2017-01-01

During the last years the number of cities that have installed and started operating shared bike systems has significantly increased. These systems provide an alternative and sustainable mean of transportation to the city dwellers. Apart from the energy sustainability benefits, shared bike systems can have a positive effect on residents’ health, air quality and the overall condition of the currently crumbling road network infrastructure. Anecdotal stories and survey studies have also identified that bike lanes have a positive impact on local businesses. In this study, driven by the rapid adoption of shared bike systems by city governments and their potential positive effects on a number of urban life facets we opt to study and quantify the value of these systems. We focus on a specific aspect of this value and use evidence from the real estate market in the city of Pittsburgh to analyze the effect on dwellers’ properties of the shared bike system installed in the city in June 2015. We use quasi-experimental techniques and find that the shared bike system led to an increase in the housing prices (both sales and rental prices) in the zip codes where shared bike stations were installed. We further bring into the light potential negative consequences of this impact (i.e., gentrification) and discuss/propose two public policies that can exploit the impact of the system for the benefit of both the local government as well as the city dwellers. PMID:28859121

Automated load balancing in the ATLAS high-performance storage software

CERN Document Server

Le Goff, Fabrice; The ATLAS collaboration

2017-01-01

The ATLAS experiment collects proton-proton collision events delivered by the LHC accelerator at CERN. The ATLAS Trigger and Data Acquisition (TDAQ) system selects, transports and eventually records event data from the detector at several gigabytes per second. The data are recorded on transient storage before being delivered to permanent storage. The transient storage consists of high-performance direct-attached storage servers accounting for about 500 hard drives. The transient storage operates dedicated software in the form of a distributed multi-threaded application. The workload includes both CPU-demanding and IO-oriented tasks. This paper presents the original application threading model for this particular workload, discussing the load-sharing strategy among the available CPU cores. The limitations of this strategy were reached in 2016 due to changes in the trigger configuration involving a new data distribution pattern. We then describe a novel data-driven load-sharing strategy, designed to automatical...

The Atlas load protection switch

CERN Document Server

Davis, H A; Dorr, G; Martínez, M; Gribble, R F; Nielsen, K E; Pierce, D; Parsons, W M

1999-01-01

Atlas is a high-energy pulsed-power facility under development to study materials properties and hydrodynamics experiments under extreme conditions. Atlas will implode heavy liner loads (m~45 gm) with a peak current of 27-32 MA delivered in 4 mu s, and is energized by 96, 240 kV Marx generators storing a total of 23 MJ. A key design requirement for Atlas is obtaining useful data for 95601130f all loads installed on the machine. Materials response calculations show current from a prefire can damage the load requiring expensive and time consuming replacement. Therefore, we have incorporated a set of fast-acting mechanical switches in the Atlas design to reduce the probability of a prefire damaging the load. These switches, referred to as the load protection switches, short the load through a very low inductance path during system charge. Once the capacitors have reached full charge, the switches open on a time scale short compared to the bank charge time, allowing current to flow to the load when the trigger pu...

Influence of lactose addition to gentamicin-loaded acrylic bone cement on the kinetics of release of the antibiotic and the cement properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Frutos, Gloria; Pastor, José Ygnacio; Martínez, Noelia; Virto, María Rosa; Torrado, Susana

2010-03-01

The purpose of this study was to characterize a poly(methyl methacrylate) bone cement that was loaded with the antibiotic gentamicin sulphate (GS) and lactose, which served to modulate the release of GS from cement specimens. The release of GS when the cement specimens were immersed in phosphate-buffered saline at 37 degrees Celsius was determined spectrophotometrically. The microstructure, porosity, density, tensile properties and flexural properties of the cements were determined before and after release of GS. A kinetics model of the release of GS from the cement that involved a coupled mechanism based on dissolution/diffusion processes and an initial burst effect was proposed. Dissolution assay results showed that drug elution was controlled by a diffusion mechanism which can be modulated by lactose addition. Density values and mechanical properties (tensile strength, flexural strength, elastic modulus and fracture toughness) were reduced by the increased porosity resulting from lactose addition, but maintained acceptable values for the structural functions of bone cement. The present results suggest that lactose-modified, gentamicin-loaded acrylic bone cements are potential candidates for use in various orthopaedic and dental applications. Copyright 2009 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Uncertain Buckling Load and Reliability of Columns with Uncertain Properties

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Köylüoglu, H. U.; Nielsen, Søren R. K.; Cakmak, A. S.

Continuous and finite element methods are utilized to determine the buckling load of columns with material and geometrical uncertainties considering deterministic, stochastic and interval models for the bending rigidity of columns. When the bending rigidity field is assumed to be deterministic, t....... for structural design, the lower bound is of crucial interest. The buckling load of fixed-free, simple-supported, pinned-fixed, fixed-fixed columns and a sample frame are calculated....

Prediction of Spring Rate and Initial Failure Load due to Material Properties of Composite Leaf Spring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oh, Sung Ha; Choi, Bok Lok

2014-01-01

This paper presented analysis methods for adapting E-glass fiber/epoxy composite (GFRP) materials to an automotive leaf spring. It focused on the static behaviors of the leaf spring due to the material composition and its fiber orientation. The material properties of the GFRP composite were directly measured based on the ASTM standard test. A reverse implementation was performed to obtain the complete set of in-situ fiber and matrix properties from the ply test results. Next, the spring rates of the composite leaf spring were examined according to the variation of material parameters such as the fiber angles and resin contents of the composite material. Finally, progressive failure analysis was conducted to identify the initial failure load by means of an elastic stress analysis and specific damage criteria. As a result, it was found that damage first occurred along the edge of the leaf spring owing to the shear stresses

Pharmaceutical properties of supramolecular assembly of co-loaded cardanol/triazole-halloysite systems.

Science.gov (United States)

Massaro, Marina; Colletti, Carmelo G; Noto, Renato; Riela, Serena; Poma, Paola; Guernelli, Susanna; Parisi, Filippo; Milioto, Stefana; Lazzara, Giuseppe

2015-01-30

Halloysite nanotubes were explored as drug carrier for cardanol, which is considered as a promising natural anticancer active species. To this aim, besides the pristine nanoclay, a chemical modification of the nanocarrier was performed by attaching triazolium salts with different hydrophobicity at the outer surface of the hollow nanotubes. The interaction between cardanol and nanotubes was highlighted in solution by HPLC. This method proved the loading of the drug into the nanotubes. The solid dried complexes formed by pristine and modified halloysite with the cardanol were characterized by IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis as well as water contact angle to evidence the structure, thermal properties and wettability of the obtained materials. The kinetics of cardanol release as well as cell viability experiments provided promising results that put forward a new strategy for potential applications of cardanol as active antiproliferative molecule and clay nanotubes as drug carrier. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Application of homomorphism to secure image sharing

Science.gov (United States)

Islam, Naveed; Puech, William; Hayat, Khizar; Brouzet, Robert

2011-09-01

In this paper, we present a new approach for sharing images between l players by exploiting the additive and multiplicative homomorphic properties of two well-known public key cryptosystems, i.e. RSA and Paillier. Contrary to the traditional schemes, the proposed approach employs secret sharing in a way that limits the influence of the dealer over the protocol and allows each player to participate with the help of his key-image. With the proposed approach, during the encryption step, each player encrypts his own key-image using the dealer's public key. The dealer encrypts the secret-to-be-shared image with the same public key and then, the l encrypted key-images plus the encrypted to-be shared image are multiplied homomorphically to get another encrypted image. After this step, the dealer can safely get a scrambled image which corresponds to the addition or multiplication of the l + 1 original images ( l key-images plus the secret image) because of the additive homomorphic property of the Paillier algorithm or multiplicative homomorphic property of the RSA algorithm. When the l players want to extract the secret image, they do not need to use keys and the dealer has no role. Indeed, with our approach, to extract the secret image, the l players need only to subtract their own key-image with no specific order from the scrambled image. Thus, the proposed approach provides an opportunity to use operators like multiplication on encrypted images for the development of a secure privacy preserving protocol in the image domain. We show that it is still possible to extract a visible version of the secret image with only l-1 key-images (when one key-image is missing) or when the l key-images used for the extraction are different from the l original key-images due to a lossy compression for example. Experimental results and security analysis verify and prove that the proposed approach is secure from cryptographic viewpoint.

Load-following operation of PWR plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jang, Jong Hwa; Oh, Soo Yul; Koo, Yang Hyun; Lee, Jae Han [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1993-12-01

The load-following operation of nuclear power plants will become inevitable due to the increased nuclear share in the total electricity generation. As a groundwork for the load-following capability of the Korean next generation PWRs, the state-of-the-art has been reviewed. The core control principles and methods are the main subject in this review as well as the impact of load-following operations on the fuel performance and on the mechanical integrity of components. To begin with, it was described what the load-following operation is and in what view point the technology should be reviewed. Afterwards the load-following method, performance and problems in domestic 900 MWe class PWRs were discussed, and domestic R and D works were summarized. Foreign technologies were also reviewed. They include Mode G and Mode X of Foratom, D and L bank method of KWU, the method using PSCEA of ABB-CE, and MSHIM of Westinghouse. The load-following related special features of Foratom`s N4 plant, KWU`s plants, ABB-CE`s Systems 80+, and Westinghouse`s AP600 were described in each technology review. The review concluded that the capability of N4 plant with Mode X is the best and the methods in System, 80+ and AP600 would require verifications for the continued and usual load-following operation. It was recommended that the load-following operation experiences in domestic PWRs under operation be required to settle down the capability for the future. In addition, a more enhanced technology is required for the Korean next generation PWR regardless what the reference plant concept is. 30 figs., 19 tabs., 75 refs. (Author).

Optimal load scheduling in commercial and residential microgrids

Science.gov (United States)

Ganji Tanha, Mohammad Mahdi

Residential and commercial electricity customers use more than two third of the total energy consumed in the United States, representing a significant resource of demand response. Price-based demand response, which is in response to changes in electricity prices, represents the adjustments in load through optimal load scheduling (OLS). In this study, an efficient model for OLS is developed for residential and commercial microgrids which include aggregated loads in single-units and communal loads. Single unit loads which include fixed, adjustable and shiftable loads are controllable by the unit occupants. Communal loads which include pool pumps, elevators and central heating/cooling systems are shared among the units. In order to optimally schedule residential and commercial loads, a community-based optimal load scheduling (CBOLS) is proposed in this thesis. The CBOLS schedule considers hourly market prices, occupants' comfort level, and microgrid operation constraints. The CBOLS' objective in residential and commercial microgrids is the constrained minimization of the total cost of supplying the aggregator load, defined as the microgrid load minus the microgrid generation. This problem is represented by a large-scale mixed-integer optimization for supplying single-unit and communal loads. The Lagrangian relaxation methodology is used to relax the linking communal load constraint and decompose the independent single-unit functions into subproblems which can be solved in parallel. The optimal solution is acceptable if the aggregator load limit and the duality gap are within the bounds. If any of the proposed criteria is not satisfied, the Lagrangian multiplier will be updated and a new optimal load schedule will be regenerated until both constraints are satisfied. The proposed method is applied to several case studies and the results are presented for the Galvin Center load on the 16th floor of the IIT Tower in Chicago.

Cooperative Games arising from Information Sharing Situations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brânzei, R.; Tijs, S.H.; Timmer, J.B.

2000-01-01

Relations are established between information sharing (IS) situations and IS-games on one hand and information collecting (IC) situations and IC-games on the other hand. It is shown that IC-games can be obtained as convex combinations of so-called local games. Properties are described which IC-games

Loads and loads and loads: The influence of prospective load, retrospective load, and ongoing task load in prospective memory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Beat eMeier

2015-06-01

Full Text Available In prospective memory tasks different kinds of load can occur. Adding a prospective memory task can impose a load on ongoing task performance. Adding ongoing task load can affect prospective memory performance. The existence of multiple target events increases prospective load and adding complexity to the to-be-remembered action increases retrospective load. In two experiments, we systematically examined the effects of these different types of load on prospective memory performance. Results showed an effect of prospective load on costs in the ongoing task for categorical targets (Experiment 2, but not for specific targets (Experiment 1. Retrospective load and ongoing task load both affected remembering the retrospective component of the prospective memory task. We suggest that prospective load can enhance costs in the ongoing task due to additional monitoring requirements. Retrospective load and ongoing task load seem to impact the division of resources between the ongoing task and retrieval of the retrospective component, which may affect disengagement from the ongoing task. In general, the results demonstrate that the different types of load affect prospective memory differentially.

Preparation of 5-fluorouracil loaded chitosan microparticle and its drug release properties

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Mingming

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Chitosan is one kind of good biocompatible polymer and is suitble for drug carriers. Preparation of 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu loaded chitosan (CS particles and in vitro release experiment were performed using ionic crosslinking method with sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP as crosslinker. The optimal preparing parameters were verified by 5-Fu release experiments. The drug loading, and release behavior of drug loaded microparticles in vitro were investigated. The optimal preparation conditions were: the temperature 25°C, the ratio of CS to TPP 5:1, the CS concentration 1.5g/L, stirring speed 650rpm. Under these conditions, the drug loading of particles was up to 45%.

A 10 bit 200 MS/s pipeline ADC using loading-balanced architecture in 0.18 μm CMOS

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Linfeng; Meng, Qiao; Zhi, Hao; Li, Fei

2017-07-01

A new loading-balanced architecture for high speed and low power consumption pipeline analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is presented in this paper. The proposed ADC uses SHA-less, op-amp and capacitor-sharing technique, capacitor-scaling scheme to reduce the die area and power consumption. A new capacitor-sharing scheme was proposed to cancel the extra reset phase of the feedback capacitors. The non-standard inter-stage gain increases the feedback factor of the first stage and makes it equal to the second stage, by which, the load capacitor of op-amp shared by the first and second stages is balanced. As for the fourth stage, the capacitor and op-amp no longer scale down. From the system’s point of view, all load capacitors of the shared OTAs are balanced by employing a loading-balanced architecture. The die area and power consumption are optimized maximally. The ADC is implemented in a 0.18 μm 1P6M CMOS technology, and occupies a die area of 1.2 × 1.2 mm{}2. The measurement results show a 55.58 dB signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) and 62.97 dB spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) with a 25 MHz input operating at a 200 MS/s sampling rate. The proposed ADC consumes 115 mW at 200 MS/s from a 1.8 V supply.

Mechanical properties and microstructure of austenitic steels loaded with helium using tritium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sacovy, Paulette; Brun, Gilbert; Delaplace, Jean; Devaux, Joel; Fidelle, J.P.

1982-06-01

Following a review of the principle of the method using the radioactive decay of tritium to helium 3 to introduce helium into thick metallic test specimens, the results of preliminary tests performed on austenitic steels are presented. 304L and 316 steel specimens were loaded with helium, treated at 760 0 C to precipitate the helium in bubbles, and then strained by tensile stress at 800 0 C. In the material most loaded with helium (304 steel containing 230 ppm at. helium), a significant increase in distributed and total elongation at 800 0 C was observed. In the least loaded material (steel 316 containing 13 ppm at. helium), only total elongation decreased. Neither the yield stress nor the breaking load was altered by the presence of helium. Observations made by electron microscopy in the most loaded material revealed the presence, after heat treatment at 760 0 C, of very small bubbles of helium and also imperfect dislocation loops. The cause of these fault loops is discussed [fr

A Wireless Power Sharing Control Strategy for Hybrid Energy Storage Systems in DC Microgrids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yang, Jie; Jin, Xinmin; Wu, Xuezhi

2017-01-01

In order to compensate multiple time scales power fluctuation resulted from distributed energy resources and loads, hybrid energy storage systems are employed as the buffer unit in DC microgrid. In this paper, a wireless hierarchical control strategy is proposed to realize power sharing between...

Information Sharing and Knowledge Sharing as Communicative Activities

Science.gov (United States)

Savolainen, Reijo

2017-01-01

Introduction: This paper elaborates the picture of information sharing and knowledge sharing as forms of communicative activity. Method: A conceptual analysis was made to find out how researchers have approached information sharing and knowledge sharing from the perspectives of transmission and ritual. The findings are based on the analysis of one…

Social capital and knowledge sharing: effects on patient safety.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Chia-Wen; Huang, Heng-Chiang; Chiang, Chi-Yun; Hsu, Chiu-Ping; Chang, Chia-Chen

2012-08-01

This article is a report on a study that empirically examines the influence of social capital on knowledge sharing and the impact of knowledge sharing on patient safety. Knowledge sharing is linked to many desirable managerial outcomes, including learning and problem-solving, which are essential for patient safety. Rather than studying the tangible effects of rewards, this study examines whether social capital (including social interaction, trust and shared vision) directly supports individual knowledge sharing in an organization. This cross-sectional study analysed data collected through a questionnaire survey of nurses from a major medical centre in northern Taiwan. The data were collected over a 9-month period from 2008 to 2009. The data analysis was conducted using the Partial Least Squares Graph v3.0 program to evaluate the measurement properties and the structural relationships specified in the research model. Based on a large-scale survey, empirical results indicate that Registered Nurses' perceptions of trust and shared vision have statistically significant and direct effects on knowledge sharing. In addition, knowledge sharing is significantly and positively associated with patient safety. The findings suggest that hospital administrators should foster group trust and initiate a common vision among Registered Nurses. In addition, administrators and chief knowledge officers of hospitals should encourage positive intentions towards knowledge sharing. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Properties of Shredded Roof Membrane–Sand Mixture and Its Application as Retaining Wall Backfill under Static and Earthquake Loads

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bennett Livingston

2017-04-01

Full Text Available About 20 billion square feet of Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM rubber is installed on roofs in the United States and most of them will be reaching the end of their lifespan soon. The purpose of this study is to investigate potential reuses of this rubber in Civil Engineering projects rather than disposing it into landfills. First, laboratory tests were performed on various shredded rubber-sand mixtures to quantify the basic geotechnical engineering properties. The laboratory test results show that the shredded rubber-sand mixture is lightweight with good drainage properties and has shear strength parameters comparable to sand. This indicates that the rubber-sand mixture has potential to be used for retaining wall backfill and many other projects. To assess the economic advantage of using shredded rubber-sand mixtures as a lightweight backfill for retaining walls subjected to static and earthquake loadings, geotechnical designs of a 6 m tall gravity cantilever retaining wall were performed. The computed volume of concrete to build the structural components and volume of backfill material were compared with those of conventional sand backfill. Results show significant reductions in the volume of concrete and backfill material in both static and earthquake loading conditions when the portion of shredded rubber increased in the mixture.

Surface properties and dye loading behavior of Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} nanoparticles hydrothermally synthesized using different mineralizers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Annamalai, Alagappan; Eo, Yang Dam [Department of Advanced Technology Fusion, Konkuk University, 1 Hwayang-dong, Kwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701 (Korea, Republic of); Im, Chan [Department of Chemistry, Konkuk University, 1 Hwayang-dong, Kwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701 (Korea, Republic of); Lee, Man-Jong, E-mail: leemtx@konkuk.ac.kr [Department of Advanced Technology Fusion, Konkuk University, 1 Hwayang-dong, Kwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701 (Korea, Republic of)

2011-10-15

We present for the first time the influence of different mineralizers on the isoelectric point (IEP) of zinc stannate (Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4}) nanoparticles hydrothermally prepared using three different mineralizers, viz., Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3}, KOH and tert-butyl amine, and the effect of the IEPs on the dye loading behavior of Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} based photoelectrodes in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). To produce highly crystalline, uniform sized Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} nanoparticles, hydrothermal processing parameters, such as reaction temperature, time, and the mineralizers used have been critically adjusted. The structural and morphological features of the as-synthesized Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} nanoparticles have been observed using both scanning and transmission electron microscopy. For the surface state characterization of shape- and size-controlled Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} nanoparticles, the IEPs of Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} surfaces were determined through zeta potential measurements. The IEPs were found to be 5.7, 7.4 and 8.1 for Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} nanoparticles formed using Na{sub 2}CO{sub 3}, KOH and tert-butyl amine, respectively, suggesting that the surface properties of Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} nanoparticles can be manipulated through the choice of the mineralizers used during the hydrothermal reaction. The amount of N719 dye loading on the surfaces of Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} electrodes having different IEPs was also evaluated. It was revealed that the higher the IEP, the higher the dye loading amount, which means that the IEP mainly affects the dye loading at the dye-metal oxide interface. - Highlights: {yields} The effect of various mineralizers on the isoelectric point of Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} was discussed. {yields} The IEP of Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} can be modified by the choice of mineralizer. {yields} Change in IEP affects the surface properties and the morphology of Zn{sub 2}SnO{sub 4} particles. {yields} Modified surface affects the N719 dye loading behaviour of the Zn{sub 2

Residual stresses and mechanical properties of metal matrix composites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Persson, Christer.

1993-01-01

The large difference in coefficient of thermal expansion of the matrix and particles in a metal matrix composite will introduce residual stresses during cooling from process temperature. These stresses are locally very high, and are known to influence the mechanical behaviour of the material. Changes in the stress state will occur during heat treatments and when the material is loaded due to different elastic, plastic, and creep properties of the constituents. The change of residual stresses in an Al-SiC particulate composite after different degree of plastic straining has been studied. The effect of plastic straining was modelled by an Eshelby model. The model and the measurements both show that the stress in the loading direction decreases for a tensile plastic strain and increases for a compressive plastic strain. By x-ray diffraction the stress response in the matrix and particles can be measured independently. This has been used to determine the stress state under and after heat treatments and under mechanical loading in two Al 15% SiC metal matrix composites. By analysing the line width from x-ray experiment the changes in the microstrains in the material were studied. A finite element model was used to model the generation of thermal residual stresses, stress relaxation during heat treatments, and load sharing during the first load cycle. Calculated stresses and microstrains were found to be in good agreement with the measured values. The elastic behaviour of the composite can be understood largely in terms of elastic load transfer between matrix and particles. However, at higher loads when the matrix becomes plastic residual stresses also become important. 21 refs

Time and cognitive load in working memory.

OpenAIRE

Barrouillet , Pierre; Bernardin , Sophie; Portrat , Sophie; Vergauwe , Evie; Camos , Valérie

2007-01-01

International audience; According to the time-based resource-sharing model (P. Barrouillet, S. Bernardin, & V. Camos, 2004), the cognitive load a given task involves is a function of the proportion of time during which it captures attention, thus impeding other attention-demanding processes. Accordingly, the present study demonstrates that the disruptive effect on concurrent maintenance of memory retrievals and response selections increases with their duration. Moreover, the effect on recall ...

Grafting C8-C16 alkyl groups altered the self-assembly and curcumin -loading properties of sodium caseinate in water.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yaqiong; Yang, Puyu; Yao, Fangyi; Liu, Jie; Yu, Liangli Lucy

2018-02-01

The data presented here are related to the research article entitled "Synthesis and characterization of alkylated caseinate, and its structure-curcumin loading property relationship in water" (Zhang et al., 2018) [1]. This data article reports the detailed spectra information for 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR and UPLC-Q-TOF MS of the N-succinimidyl fatty acid esters with various alkyl chain lengths (Cn-NHSs, n = 8, 12, 14 and 16). 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR and UPLC-Q-TOF MS spectra for C16-NHS are shown as an example. Then the stacked 1 H NMR spectra of the obtained alkylated caseinates (Cn-caseinates, n = 8, 12, 14 and 16) are provided. The surface hydrophobicity index (S 0 ) of Cn-caseinates with different substitution degrees (SD) of alkyl groups is shown. Additionally, Visual appearances for the formed aqueous dispersions of curcumin-loaded native caseinate (NaCas) and Cn-caseinates self-assemblies are shown. X-ray diffraction patterns of curcumin, C16-caseinate, its physical mixture and curcumin-loaded C16-caseinate self-assemblies are examined. The re-dispersibility and short-term storage stability of the curcumin-loaded NaCas and C16-caseinate self-assemblies are also studied.

Factor structure underlying components of allostatic load.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeanne M McCaffery

Full Text Available Allostatic load is a commonly used metric of health risk based on the hypothesis that recurrent exposure to environmental demands (e.g., stress engenders a progressive dysregulation of multiple physiological systems. Prominent indicators of response to environmental challenges, such as stress-related hormones, sympatho-vagal balance, or inflammatory cytokines, comprise primary allostatic mediators. Secondary mediators reflect ensuing biological alterations that accumulate over time and confer risk for clinical disease but overlap substantially with a second metric of health risk, the metabolic syndrome. Whether allostatic load mediators covary and thus warrant treatment as a unitary construct remains to be established and, in particular, the relation of allostatic load parameters to the metabolic syndrome requires elucidation. Here, we employ confirmatory factor analysis to test: 1 whether a single common factor underlies variation in physiological systems associated with allostatic load; and 2 whether allostatic load parameters continue to load on a single common factor if a second factor representing the metabolic syndrome is also modeled. Participants were 645 adults from Allegheny County, PA (30-54 years old, 82% non-Hispanic white, 52% female who were free of confounding medications. Model fitting supported a single, second-order factor underlying variance in the allostatic load components available in this study (metabolic, inflammatory and vagal measures. Further, this common factor reflecting covariation among allostatic load components persisted when a latent factor representing metabolic syndrome facets was conjointly modeled. Overall, this study provides novel evidence that the modeled allostatic load components do share common variance as hypothesized. Moreover, the common variance suggests the existence of statistical coherence above and beyond that attributable to the metabolic syndrome.

Elastic properties of RCC under flexural loading-experimental and ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

For a simply supported beam subjected to gradually increasing load, the applied moment .... For simulation of material non-linearity, parabolic stress–strain ..... reinforcement, finite element meshes with discrete reinforcement are more realistic.

Characterizing Center of Mass and Moment of Inertia of Soldiers' Loads Packed for Combat

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Hasselquist, Leif; Bensel, Carolyn K; Norton, Karen; Piscitelle, Louis; Schiffman, Jeffrey M

2004-01-01

...) location and moment of inertia (MOI) may be influenced in combat load packing. In addition, the physical properties of the combat loads were compared to the properties of a laboratory fabricated backpack...

Design and Analysis for an Operator's Action Sharing System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jung, Yeonsub; Seong, Nokyu

2013-01-01

In the paper, contrary to HRP approach, no more FPD is introduced because there is no room to install. The same workstation and the same LDP should be utilized for ream transparency. A action sharing system will be introduced at ShinKori 3,4 MCR, and further applied to other APR1400 plant if necessary. The project started and applied by the end of 2014. Despite benefit of action sharing system, there are lots of challenges to overcome such as traffic load, and interfaces. The challenges have been analyzed thoroughly. Traffic load can be reduced through vector graphics, video driver, and capture and compressing techniques. Furthermore interfaces for action sharing system are developed and evaluated to reduce secondary workload. Advanced digital control rooms have lots of advantages compared to analog control room. They can integrate all process variables into more comprehensible forms. Advanced alarm processor can suppress trivial alarms, and P and ID based mimic isplays can be integrated with context sensitive menu for referencing. Moreover computer based procedures have been introduced at more advanced MCR. Because all these display appears at flat panel display (FPD), they can be easily modified if necessary. These days newly introduced MCRs are advanced types, and analog control rooms are no more built. In spite of this trend, advanced control rooms have shortage in view of team transparency. For example, shift supervisor cannot tell which devices reactor operator is manipulating. APR1400 MCR has large display panel to share the same situation awareness among crew member. Because LDP has fixed display comparing switchable display in FPD, situation awareness can be enhanced. However, even LDP cannot show the active device that crew member are manipulating due to either limited number of devices in LDP or no demarcation for the active device. During construction of ShinKori 3/4, the demarcation box for the active device has been introduced and called an Active

Final Report: Multi-State Sharing Initiative

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Begoli, Edmon [ORNL; Boehmann, Brant [ORNL; DeNap, Frank A [ORNL

2012-04-01

SAR system was an outstanding success and contributed greatly to the security and resiliency of their states. At least one state commented that SERRI's implementation of the MSSI SAR actually 'jump started' and accelerated deployment and acceptance of the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (NSI). While all states were enthusiastic about their systems, South Carolina and Tennessee appeared to be the heaviest users of their respective systems. With NSI taking the load of sharing SARs with other states, Tennessee has redeployed the MSSI SAR system within Tennessee to allow SAR sharing between state and local organizations including Tennessee's three Homeland Security Regions, eleven Homeland Security Districts, and more than 500 police and sheriff offices, as well as with other states. In one success story from South Carolina, the Economy SAR System was used to compile similar SARs from throughout the state which were then forwarded to field liaison officers, emergency management personnel, and law enforcement officers for action.

Wrox SharePoint 2010 SharePoint911 three-pack

CERN Document Server

Klindt, Todd; Mason, Jennifer; Rogers, Laura; Drisgill, Randy; Ross, John; Riemann, Larry; Perran, Amanda; Perran, Shane; Sanford, Jacob J; Stubbs, Paul; Caravajal, Steve

2012-01-01

The Wrox SharePoint 2010 SharePoint911 Three-Pack combines the contents of three full e-books written by the experts from SharePoint911.  That's over 1800 pages of hands-on advice from Todd Klindt, Shane Young, Laura Rogers, Randy Drisgill, Jennifer Mason, John Ross, and Larry Riemann, among others. In Beginning SharePoint 2010: Building Business Solutions with SharePoint (ISBN 978-0-470-61789-2) by Amanda Perran, Shane Perran, Jennifer Mason, and Laura Rogers, readers learn the core concepts, terminology, and features of SharePoint 2010. In Professiona

Compressive Load Resistance Characteristics of Rice Grain

OpenAIRE

Sumpun Chaitep; Chaiy R. Metha Pathawee; Pipatpong Watanawanyoo

2008-01-01

Investigation was made to observe the compressive load property of rice gain both rough rice and brown grain. Six rice varieties (indica and japonica) were examined with the moisture content at 10-12%. A compressive load with reference to a principal axis normal to the thickness of the grain were conducted at selected inclined angles of 0°, 15°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 70°. The result showed the compressive load resistance of rice grain based on its characteristic of yield s...

Functional Outcome and Healing of Large and Massive Rotator Cuff Tears Repaired With a Load-Sharing Rip-Stop Construct.

Science.gov (United States)

Noyes, Matthew P; Ladermann, Alexandre; Denard, Patrick J

2017-09-01

To prospectively review functional outcomes and healing rates of large and massive rotator cuff tears repaired with a load-sharing rip-stop (LSRS) technique. Twenty-one consecutive patients underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair with an LSRS construct between January and December 2014. Seventeen patients with a minimum of 2 years' follow-up were included. Four patients did not complete clinical evaluations and functional outcome scores at a minimum of 2 years' follow-up and were lost to follow-up. Ultrasound imaging was used to assess for rotator cuff healing at a minimum of 6 months postoperatively. Range of motion, strength, and functional outcome scores were evaluated at final follow-up. Mean active forward elevation improved from 109° preoperatively to 153° postoperatively, and mean supraspinatus strength improved by 1 strength grade, from 3.5 preoperatively to 4.4 postoperatively. When we compared preoperative and postoperative values, the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons score improved from 40.8 to 89.5, the Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation score improved from 32.8 to 83.1, the Simple Shoulder Test score improved from 3.8 to 10.3, and the pain score on a visual analog scale decreased from 4.8 to 0.8 (P rotator cuff tears. This construct may be an alternative for tears not amenable to double-row repair. Level IV, therapeutic case series. Copyright © 2017 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hybrid FRC under repeated loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Komlos, K.; Babal, B.; Nuernbergerova, T.

1993-01-01

Fibre reinforced concretes (FRC) containing several volume fractions in different ratios of two types of fibres - polypropylene and steel, were tested under repeated loading. Mechanical properties of specimens - cubes 150/150/150 mm (for compressive strength), prisms 100/100/400 (for flexural strength), short cylinders 150/60 mm (for impact strength) have been experimentally investigated before and after cyclic loading at the age of 28 days curing time. Mix proportions were designed after DIN 1045 with max. aggregate size 8 mm and grading curve B 8. Portland Cement PC 400 in the amount of 450 kg. m -3 was applied and W/C ratio 0.55. Workability of mixes was measured by Vebe method and regulated by plasticizing admixture Ligoplast Na. Maximum hybrid fibre volume fraction (polypropylene + steel) was 1.0%. Dynamic forces generated in Schenck testing machine with frequency 16 Hz had sinusoidal wave form varying between 0.7 and 0.1 of static mechanical characteristics. The number of cycles in all tests was 10 5 . The residual MOR at static four point bending test and working diagram force-deflection was carried out as well. The impact properties after repeated loading in compression were tested by means of falling weight test. Relationships between composition of fibre composites with different combination of polypropylene (0.2, 0.3, 0.5% by volume) and steel (0.5, 0.7, and 0.8% by volume) fibre content were obtained and technological properties of mixes as well. (author)

Joint switched multi-spectrum and transmit antenna diversity for spectrum sharing systems

KAUST Repository

Sayed, Mostafa M.

2013-10-01

In spectrum sharing systems, a secondary user (SU) is allowed to share the spectrum with a primary (licensed) network under the condition that the interference observed at the receivers of the primary users (PU-Rxs) is below a predetermined level. In this paper, we consider a secondary network comprised of a secondary transmitter (SU-Tx) equipped with multiple antennas and a single-antenna secondary receiver (SU-Rx) sharing the same spectrum with multiple primary users (PUs), each with a distinct spectrum. We develop transmit antenna diversity schemes at the SU-Tx that exploit the multi-spectrum diversity provided by the existence of multiple PUs so as to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the SU-Rx. In particular, assuming bounded transmit power at the SU-Tx, we develop switched selection schemes that select the primary spectrum and the SU-Tx transmit antenna that maintain the SNR at the SU-Rx above a specific threshold. Assuming Rayleigh fading channels and binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) transmission, we derive the average bit-error-rate (BER) and average feedback load expressions for the proposed schemes. For the sake of comparison, we also derive a BER expression for the optimal selection scheme that selects the best antenna/spectrum pair that maximizes the SNR at the SU-Rx, in exchange of high feedback load and switching complexity. Finally, we show that our analytical results are in perfect agreement with the simulation results. © 2013 IEEE.

Microgrid Reactive and Harmonic Power Sharing Using Enhanced Virtual Impedance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

He, Jinwei; Wei Li, Yun; Guerrero, Josep M.

2013-01-01

To address the load sharing problem in islanding microgrids, this paper proposes an improved approach which regulates the distributed generation (DG) unit interfacing virtual impedance at fundamental and selected harmonic frequencies. In contrast to the conventional virtual impedance control where...... only a line current feed-forward term is added to the DG voltage reference, the proposed virtual impedances at fundamental and harmonic frequencies are realized using DG line current and point of common coupling (PCC) voltage feed-forward terms, respectively. With this modification, the mismatched DG...... feeder impedances can be properly compensated, resulting in accurate reactive and harmonic power sharing at the same time. In addition, this paper shows that the microgrid PCC harmonic voltages can be mitigated by reducing the magnitude of DG unit equivalent harmonic impedance. Finally, an improved...

Simultaneous profiling of seed-associated bacteria and fungi reveals antagonistic interactions between microorganisms within a shared epiphytic microbiome on Triticum and Brassica seeds

Science.gov (United States)

Links, Matthew G; Demeke, Tigst; Gräfenhan, Tom; Hill, Janet E; Hemmingsen, Sean M; Dumonceaux, Tim J

2014-01-01

In order to address the hypothesis that seeds from ecologically and geographically diverse plants harbor characteristic epiphytic microbiota, we characterized the bacterial and fungal microbiota associated with Triticum and Brassica seed surfaces. The total microbial complement was determined by amplification and sequencing of a fragment of chaperonin 60 (cpn60). Specific microorganisms were quantified by qPCR. Bacteria and fungi corresponding to operational taxonomic units (OTU) that were identified in the sequencing study were isolated and their interactions examined. A total of 5477 OTU were observed from seed washes. Neither total epiphytic bacterial load nor community richness/evenness was significantly different between the seed types; 578 OTU were shared among all samples at a variety of abundances. Hierarchical clustering revealed that 203 were significantly different in abundance on Triticum seeds compared with Brassica. Microorganisms isolated from seeds showed 99–100% identity between the cpn60 sequences of the isolates and the OTU sequences from this shared microbiome. Bacterial strains identified as Pantoea agglomerans had antagonistic properties toward one of the fungal isolates (Alternaria sp.), providing a possible explanation for their reciprocal abundances on both Triticum and Brassica seeds. cpn60 enabled the simultaneous profiling of bacterial and fungal microbiota and revealed a core seed-associated microbiota shared between diverse plant genera. PMID:24444052

Improving Frequency Stability Based on Distributed Control of Multiple Load Aggregators

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hu, Jianqiang; Cao, Jinde; Guerrero, Josep M.

2017-01-01

into the traditional centralized proportional-integral-based automatic generation control (AGC) framework, which has formed the coupled secondary frequency control structure. It has been shown that the total power mismatch in each control area is shared with both AGC units and load aggregators, and the system...

Beginning SharePoint 2010 Administration Windows SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

CERN Document Server

Husman, Göran

2010-01-01

Complete coverage on the latest advances in SharePoint 2010 administration. SharePoint 2010 comprises an abundance of new features, and this book shows you how to take advantage of all SharePoint 2010's many improvements. Written by a four-time SharePoint MVP, Beginning SharePoint 2010 Administration begins with a comparison of SharePoint 2010 compared to the previous version and then examines the differences between WSS 4.0 and MSS 2010. Packed with step-by-step instructions, tips and tricks, and real-world examples, this book dives into the basics of how to install, manage, and administrate

Microcracking in composite laminates under thermal and mechanical loading. Thesis

Science.gov (United States)

Maddocks, Jason R.

1995-01-01

Composites used in space structures are exposed to both extremes in temperature and applied mechanical loads. Cracks in the matrix form, changing the laminate thermoelastic properties. The goal of the present investigation is to develop a predictive methodology to quantify microcracking in general composite laminates under both thermal and mechanical loading. This objective is successfully met through a combination of analytical modeling and experimental investigation. In the analysis, the stress and displacement distributions in the vicinity of a crack are determined using a shear lag model. These are incorporated into an energy based cracking criterion to determine the favorability of crack formation. A progressive damage algorithm allows the inclusion of material softening effects and temperature-dependent material properties. The analysis is implemented by a computer code which gives predicted crack density and degraded laminate properties as functions of any thermomechanical load history. Extensive experimentation provides verification of the analysis. AS4/3501-6 graphite/epoxy laminates are manufactured with three different layups to investigate ply thickness and orientation effects. Thermal specimens are cooled to progressively lower temperatures down to -184 C. After conditioning the specimens to each temperature, cracks are counted on their edges using optical microscopy and in their interiors by sanding to incremental depths. Tensile coupons are loaded monotonically to progressively higher loads until failure. Cracks are counted on the coupon edges after each loading. A data fit to all available results provides input parameters for the analysis and shows them to be material properties, independent of geometry and loading. Correlation between experiment and analysis is generally very good under both thermal and mechanical loading, showing the methodology to be a powerful, unified tool. Delayed crack initiation observed in a few cases is attributed to a

Effect of the loading rate on compressive properties of goose eggs.

Science.gov (United States)

Nedomová, Š; Kumbár, V; Trnka, J; Buchar, J

2016-03-01

The resistance of goose (Anser anser f. domestica) eggs to damage was determined by measuring the average rupture force, specific deformation and rupture energy during their compression at different compression speeds (0.0167, 0.167, 0.334, 1.67, 6.68 and 13.36 mm/s). Eggs have been loaded between their poles (along X axis) and in the equator plane (Z axis). The greatest amount of force required to break the eggs was required when eggs were loaded along the X axis and the least compression force was required along the Z axis. This effect of the loading orientation can be described in terms of the eggshell contour curvature. The rate sensitivity of the eggshell rupture force is higher than that observed for the Japanese quail's eggs.

Share and share alike? Social information and interaction style in coordination of shared use

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Niemantsverdriet, Karin; van de Werff, T.C.F.; van Essen, H.A.; Eggen, J.H.

2018-01-01

Interfaces are commonly designed from the perspective of individual users, even though most of the systems we use in everyday life are in fact shared. We argue that more attention is needed for system sharing, especially because interfaces are known to influence coordination of shared use. In this

A New Configuration for Power Sharing of Two Z-Source Inverters

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Ghani varzaneh

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a new structure to provide the ability for power sharing of two Z-source inverters. According to the operation principles of Z-source inverters, only one input source supplies the circuit, which is a limitation particularly for the stand alone systems feeded by limited output power such as photovoltaics and feul cells. Furthermore; if one source fails to supply,  the load can't be supplied. This paper covers those via interconnection of impedance network of two Z-source inverters. The operating principles of the proposed topology for the stand-alone and power sharing conditions are described and the relations are derived. The topology is simulated, which the results verify the theoretical analysis and well performance of the system. 

strength properties of shea-butter nuts under compressive loading

African Journals Online (AJOL)

NIJOTECH

Compression tests were performed on heat-treated Shea-butter nuts to study the effects of ... the only source of vegetable oil. It was also .... the longitudinal axis, while in the lateral loading position ... Multiple Range Test (DMRT) was used to.

Two Coupled Queues with Vastly Different Arrival Rates: Critical Loading Case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Charles Knessl

2011-01-01

Full Text Available We consider two coupled queues with a generalized processor sharing service discipline. The second queue has a much smaller Poisson arrival rate than the first queue, while the customer service times are of comparable magnitude. The processor sharing server devotes most of its resources to the first queue, except when it is empty. The fraction of resources devoted to the second queue is small, of the same order as the ratio of the arrival rates. We assume that the primary queue is heavily loaded and that the secondary queue is critically loaded. If we let the small arrival rate to the secondary queue be O(ε, where 0≤ε≪1, then in this asymptotic limit the number of customers in the first queue will be large, of order O(ε-1, while that in the second queue will be somewhat smaller, of order O(ε-1/2. We obtain a two-dimensional diffusion approximation for this model and explicitly solve for the joint steady state probability distribution of the numbers of customers in the two queues. This work complements that in (Morrison, 2010, which the second queue was assumed to be heavily or lightly loaded, leading to mean queue lengths that were O(ε-1 or O(1, respectively.

Characterization of load dependent creep behavior in medically relevant absorbable polymers.

Science.gov (United States)

Dreher, Maureen L; Nagaraja, Srinidhi; Bui, Hieu; Hong, Danny

2014-01-01

While synthetic absorbable polymers have a substantial history of use in medical devices, their use is expanding and becoming more prevalent for devices where long term loading and structural support is required. In addition, there is evidence that current absorbable medical devices may experience permanent deformations, warping (out of plane twisting), and geometric changes in vivo. For clinical indications with long term loading or structural support requirements, understanding the material's viscoelastic properties becomes increasingly important whereas these properties have not been used historically as preclinical indications of performance or design considerations. In this study we measured the static creep, creep recovery and cyclic creep responses of common medically relevant absorbable materials (i.e., poly(l-lactide, PLLA) and poly(l-co-glycolide, PLGA) over a range of physiologically relevant loading magnitudes. The results indicate that both PLLA and PLGA exhibit creep behavior and failure at loads significantly less than the yield or ultimate properties of the material and that significant material specific responses to loading exist. In addition, we identified a strong correlation between the extent of creep in the material and its crystallinity. Results of the study provide new information on the creep behavior of PLLA and PLGA and support the use of viscoelastic properties of absorbable polymers as part of the material selection process. © 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Chitosan films incorporated with nettle (Urtica dioica L.) extract-loaded nanoliposomes: I. Physicochemical characterisation and antimicrobial properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Haghju, Sara; Beigzadeh, Sara; Almasi, Hadi; Hamishehkar, Hamed

2016-07-17

The objective of this study was to characterise and compare physical, mechanical and antimicrobial properties of chitosan-based films, containing free or nanoencapsulated nettle (Urtica dioica L.) extract (NE) at concentrations of 0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5% w/w. Nanoliposomes were prepared using soy-lecithin by thin-film hydration and sonication method to generate an average size of 107-136 nm with 70% encapsulation efficiency. The information on FT-IR reflected that some new interaction have occurred between chitosan and nanoliposomes. Despite the increasing yellowness and decreasing whiteness indexes, the nanoliposomes incorporation improved the thermal properties and mechanical stiffness and caused to decrease water vapour permeability (WVP), moisture uptake and water solubility. The possible antimicrobial activity of the films containing NE-loaded nanoliposomes against Staphylococcus aureus was decreased in comparison to free NE-incorporated films, which could be due to the inhibition effect of the encapsulation that prevents the release of NE from the matrix.

Effect of Co and Mo Loading by Impregnation and Ion Exchange Methods on Morphological Properties of Zeolite Y Catalyst

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Didi Dwi Anggoro

2016-03-01

Received: 10th November 2015; Revised: 16th January 2016; Accepted: 16th January 2016 How to Cite: Anggoro, D.D., Hidayati, N., Buchori, L., Mundriyastutik, Y. (2016. Effect of Co and Mo Loading by Impregnation and Ion Exchange Methods on Morphological Properties of Zeolite Y Catalyst. Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis, 11 (1: 75-83. (doi:10.9767/bcrec.11.1.418.75-83 Permalink/DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.9767/bcrec.11.1.418.75-83

Attention induced neural response trade-off in retinotopic cortex under load.

Science.gov (United States)

Torralbo, Ana; Kelley, Todd A; Rees, Geraint; Lavie, Nilli

2016-09-14

The effects of perceptual load on visual cortex response to distractors are well established and various phenomena of 'inattentional blindness' associated with elimination of visual cortex response to unattended distractors, have been documented in tasks of high load. Here we tested an account for these effects in terms of a load-induced trade-off between target and distractor processing in retinotopic visual cortex. Participants were scanned using fMRI while performing a visual-search task and ignoring distractor checkerboards in the periphery. Retinotopic responses to target and distractors were assessed as a function of search load (comparing search set-sizes two, three and five). We found that increased load not only increased activity in frontoparietal network, but also had opposite effects on retinotopic responses to target and distractors. Target-related signals in areas V2-V3 linearly increased, while distractor response linearly decreased, with increased load. Critically, the slopes were equivalent for both load functions, thus demonstrating resource trade-off. Load effects were also found in displays with the same item number in the distractor hemisphere across different set sizes, thus ruling out local intrahemispheric interactions as the cause. Our findings provide new evidence for load theory proposals of attention resource sharing between target and distractor leading to inattentional blindness.

A new shared-memory programming paradigm for molecular dynamics simulations on the Intel Paragon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

D'Azevedo, E.F.; Romine, C.H.

1994-12-01

This report describes the use of shared memory emulation with DOLIB (Distributed Object Library) to simplify parallel programming on the Intel Paragon. A molecular dynamics application is used as an example to illustrate the use of the DOLIB shared memory library. SOTON-PAR, a parallel molecular dynamics code with explicit message-passing using a Lennard-Jones 6-12 potential, is rewritten using DOLIB primitives. The resulting code has no explicit message primitives and resembles a serial code. The new code can perform dynamic load balancing and achieves better performance than the original parallel code with explicit message-passing

26 CFR 1.665(g)-2A - Application of separate share rule.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... for the benefit of his wife and upon her death the property was to continue in the same trust for his two sons, Y and Z. The separate share rule is applicable to this trust. The trustee had discretion to pay or accumulate the income to the wife, and after her death was to pay each son's share to him after...

Numerical Loading of a Maxwellian Probability Distribution Function

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewandowski, J.L.V.

2003-01-01

A renormalization procedure for the numerical loading of a Maxwellian probability distribution function (PDF) is formulated. The procedure, which involves the solution of three coupled nonlinear equations, yields a numerically loaded PDF with improved properties for higher velocity moments. This method is particularly useful for low-noise particle-in-cell simulations with electron dynamics

Improved antimicrobial property and controlled drug release kinetics of silver sulfadiazine loaded ordered mesoporous silica

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suman Jangra

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The present study deals with the loading of silver sulfadiazine into ordered mesoporous silica material by post-impregnation method and its effect on the in vitro release kinetics and antimicrobial property of the drug. The formulated SBA-15 silica material with rope-like morphology and SBA-15-silver sulfadiazine (SBA-AgSD were characterized by UV–visible spectrophotometer, small and wide-angle powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD, field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM and high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM. Thermo-gravimetric analysis of SBA-AgSD revealed a high loading amount of 52.87%. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption analysis confirmed the drug entrapment into host material by revealing a reduced surface area (214 m2/g and pore diameter (6.7 nm of the SBA-AgSD. The controlled release of silver sulfadiazine drug from the mesoporous silica to simulated gastric, intestinal and body fluids was evaluated. The Korsmeyer–Peppas model fits the drug release data with the non-Fickian diffusion model and zero order kinetics of SBA-AgSD. The antibacterial performance of the SBA-AgSD was evaluated with respect to Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The controlled drug delivery of the SBA-AgSD revealed improved antibacterial activity, thus endorsing its applicability in effective wound dressing.

Beginning SharePoint 2010 Building Business Solutions with SharePoint

CERN Document Server

Perran, Amanda; Mason, Jennifer; Rogers, Laura

2010-01-01

Two SharePoint MVPs provide the ultimate introduction to SharePoint 2010Beginning SharePoint 2010: Building Team Solutions with SharePoint provides information workers and site managers with extensive knowledge and expert advice, empowering them to become SharePoint champions within their organizations.Provides expansive coverage of SharePoint topics, as well as specialty areas such as forms, excel services, records management, and web content managementDetails realistic usage scenarios, and includes practice examples that highlight best practices for configuration and customizationIncludes de

Dielectric properties of PLZT-x/65/35 (2≤x≤13 under mechanical stress, electric field and temperature loading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Pytel

2013-01-01

Full Text Available We investigated the effect of uniaxial pressure (0÷1000 bars applied parallely to the ac electric field on dielectric properties of PLZT-x/65/35 (2≤x≤13 ceramics. There was revealed a significant effect of the external stress on these properties. The application of uniaxial pressure leads to the change of the peak intensity of the electric permittivity (ϵ, of the frequency dispersion as well as of the dielectric hysteresis. The peak intensity ϵ becomes diffused/sharpened and shifts to a higher/lower temperatures with increasing the pressure. It was concluded that the application of uniaxial pressure induces similar effects as increasing the Ti ion concentration in PZT system. We interpreted our results based on the domain switching processes under the action of combined electromechanical loading.

First passage times for combinations of random loads

OpenAIRE

Jacobs, Patricia A.

1985-01-01

Structures are subject to changing loads from various sources. In many instances these loads fluctuate in time apparently random fashion. Models are considered for which the stress put on the structure by various loads simultaneously can be described by a regenerative process. The distribution of the first time until the stress on the structure exceeds a given level x is studied. Asymptotic properties of the distribution are given for a large stress level x and for the tail of the distributio...

Water quality of storm runoff and comparison of procedures for estimating storm-runoff loads, volume, event-mean concentrations, and the mean load for a storm for selected properties and constituents for Colorado Springs, southeastern Colorado, 1992

Science.gov (United States)

Von Guerard, Paul; Weiss, W.B.

1995-01-01

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires that municipalities that have a population of 100,000 or greater obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits to characterize the quality of their storm runoff. In 1992, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Colorado Springs City Engineering Division, began a study to characterize the water quality of storm runoff and to evaluate procedures for the estimation of storm-runoff loads, volume and event-mean concentrations for selected properties and constituents. Precipitation, streamflow, and water-quality data were collected during 1992 at five sites in Colorado Springs. Thirty-five samples were collected, seven at each of the five sites. At each site, three samples were collected for permitting purposes; two of the samples were collected during rainfall runoff, and one sample was collected during snowmelt runoff. Four additional samples were collected at each site to obtain a large enough sample size to estimate storm-runoff loads, volume, and event-mean concentrations for selected properties and constituents using linear-regression procedures developed using data from the Nationwide Urban Runoff Program (NURP). Storm-water samples were analyzed for as many as 186 properties and constituents. The constituents measured include total-recoverable metals, vola-tile-organic compounds, acid-base/neutral organic compounds, and pesticides. Storm runoff sampled had large concentrations of chemical oxygen demand and 5-day biochemical oxygen demand. Chemical oxygen demand ranged from 100 to 830 milligrams per liter, and 5.-day biochemical oxygen demand ranged from 14 to 260 milligrams per liter. Total-organic carbon concentrations ranged from 18 to 240 milligrams per liter. The total-recoverable metals lead and zinc had the largest concentrations of the total-recoverable metals analyzed. Concentrations of lead ranged from 23 to 350 micrograms per liter, and concentrations of zinc ranged from 110

Parallel-vector algorithms for particle simulations on shared-memory multiprocessors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nishiura, Daisuke; Sakaguchi, Hide

2011-01-01

Over the last few decades, the computational demands of massive particle-based simulations for both scientific and industrial purposes have been continuously increasing. Hence, considerable efforts are being made to develop parallel computing techniques on various platforms. In such simulations, particles freely move within a given space, and so on a distributed-memory system, load balancing, i.e., assigning an equal number of particles to each processor, is not guaranteed. However, shared-memory systems achieve better load balancing for particle models, but suffer from the intrinsic drawback of memory access competition, particularly during (1) paring of contact candidates from among neighboring particles and (2) force summation for each particle. Here, novel algorithms are proposed to overcome these two problems. For the first problem, the key is a pre-conditioning process during which particle labels are sorted by a cell label in the domain to which the particles belong. Then, a list of contact candidates is constructed by pairing the sorted particle labels. For the latter problem, a table comprising the list indexes of the contact candidate pairs is created and used to sum the contact forces acting on each particle for all contacts according to Newton's third law. With just these methods, memory access competition is avoided without additional redundant procedures. The parallel efficiency and compatibility of these two algorithms were evaluated in discrete element method (DEM) simulations on four types of shared-memory parallel computers: a multicore multiprocessor computer, scalar supercomputer, vector supercomputer, and graphics processing unit. The computational efficiency of a DEM code was found to be drastically improved with our algorithms on all but the scalar supercomputer. Thus, the developed parallel algorithms are useful on shared-memory parallel computers with sufficient memory bandwidth.

Experimental Investigation into Corrosion Effect on Mechanical Properties of High Strength Steel Bars under Dynamic Loadings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hui Chen

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The tensile behaviors of corroded steel bars are important in the capacity evaluation of corroded reinforced concrete structures. The present paper studies the mechanical behavior of the corroded high strength reinforcing steel bars under static and dynamic loading. High strength reinforcing steel bars were corroded by using accelerated corrosion methods and the tensile tests were carried out under different strain rates. The results showed that the mechanical properties of corroded high strength steel bars were strain rate dependent, and the strain rate effect decreased with the increase of corrosion degree. The decreased nominal yield and ultimate strengths were mainly caused by the reduction of cross-sectional areas, and the decreased ultimate deformation and the shortened yield plateau resulted from the intensified stress concentration at the nonuniform reduction. Based on the test results, reduction factors were proposed to relate the tensile behaviors with the corrosion degree and strain rate for corroded bars. A modified Johnson-Cook strength model of corroded high strength steel bars under dynamic loading was proposed by taking into account the influence of corrosion degree. Comparison between the model and test results showed that proposed model properly describes the dynamic response of the corroded high strength rebars.

Elastoplastic Stability and Failure Analysis of FGM Plate with Temperature Dependent Material Properties under Thermomechanical Loading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kanishk Sharma

Full Text Available Abstract The present paper explores the stability and failure response of elastoplastic Ni/Al2O3 functionally graded plate under thermomechanical load using non-linear finite element formulation based on first-order shear deformation theory and von-Karman’s nonlinear kinematics. The temperature dependent thermoelastic material properties of FGM plate are varied in the thickness direction by controlling the volume fraction of the constituent materials (i.e., ceramic and metal with a power law, and Mori-Tanaka homogenization scheme is applied to evaluate the properties at a particular thickness coordinate of FGM plate. The elastoplastic behavior of FGM plate is assumed to follow J2-plasticity with isotropic hardening, wherein the ceramic phase is considered to be elastic whereas the metal is assumed to be elastic-plastic in accordance with the Tamura-Tomota-Ozawa model. Numerical studies are conducted to examine the effects of material and geometrical parameters, viz. material in-homogeneity, slenderness and aspect ratios on the elastoplastic bucking and postbuckling behavior and the failure response of FGM plate. It is revealed that material gradation affects the stability and failure behavior of FGM plate considerably. Furthermore, it is also concluded that FGM plate with elastic material properties exhibits only stable equilibrium path, whereas the elastoplastic FGM plate shows destabilizing response after the ultimate failure point.

32 CFR 32.23 - Cost sharing or matching.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... sharing or matching shall be the lesser of: (1) The certified value of the remaining life of the property recorded in the recipient's accounting records at the time of donation; or (2) The current fair market... services shall be consistent with those paid for similar work in the recipient's organization. In those...

45 CFR 74.23 - Cost sharing or matching.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... sharing or matching shall be the lesser of: (1) The certified value of the remaining life of the property recorded in the recipient's accounting records at the time of donation; or (2) The current fair market... services shall be consistent with those paid for similar work in the recipient's organization. In those...

Fully vs. Sequentially Coupled Loads Analysis of Offshore Wind Turbines

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Damiani, Rick; Wendt, Fabian; Musial, Walter; Finucane, Z.; Hulliger, L.; Chilka, S.; Dolan, D.; Cushing, J.; O' Connell, D.; Falk, S.

2017-06-19

The design and analysis methods for offshore wind turbines must consider the aerodynamic and hydrodynamic loads and response of the entire system (turbine, tower, substructure, and foundation) coupled to the turbine control system dynamics. Whereas a fully coupled (turbine and support structure) modeling approach is more rigorous, intellectual property concerns can preclude this approach. In fact, turbine control system algorithms and turbine properties are strictly guarded and often not shared. In many cases, a partially coupled analysis using separate tools and an exchange of reduced sets of data via sequential coupling may be necessary. In the sequentially coupled approach, the turbine and substructure designers will independently determine and exchange an abridged model of their respective subsystems to be used in their partners' dynamic simulations. Although the ability to achieve design optimization is sacrificed to some degree with a sequentially coupled analysis method, the central question here is whether this approach can deliver the required safety and how the differences in the results from the fully coupled method could affect the design. This work summarizes the scope and preliminary results of a study conducted for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement aimed at quantifying differences between these approaches through aero-hydro-servo-elastic simulations of two offshore wind turbines on a monopile and jacket substructure.

Hydrogen production over Au-loaded mesoporous-assembled SrTiO3 nanocrystal photocatalyst: Effects of molecular structure and chemical properties of hole scavengers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Puangpetch, Tarawipa; Chavadej, Sumaeth; Sreethawong, Thammanoon

2011-01-01

Graphical abstract: Formic acid, which is the smallest and completely-dissociated water-soluble carboxylic acid, exhibited the highest hydrogen production enhancement ability over the 1 wt.% Au-loaded mesoporous-assembled SrTiO 3 nanocrystal photocatalyst. Display Omitted Research highlights: → The 1 wt.% Au-loaded mesoporous-assembled SrTiO 3 nanocrystal photocatalyst was synthesized. → The molecular structure and chemical properties of hole scavengers affected H 2 production rate. → Formic acid exhibited the highest photocatalytic H 2 production enhancement ability. -- Abstract: The hydrogen production via the photocatalytic water splitting under UV irradiation using different compounds as hole scavengers (including methanol, formic acid, acetic acid, propanoic acid, hydrochloric acid, and sulfuric acid) under a low concentration range ( 3 nanocrystal photocatalyst. The results indicated that the hydrogen production efficiency greatly depended on the molecular structure, chemical properties, and concentration of the hole scavengers. Formic acid, which is the smallest and completely-dissociated water-soluble carboxylic acid, exhibited the highest hydrogen production enhancement ability. The 2.5 vol.% aqueous formic acid solution system provided the highest photocatalytic hydrogen production rate.

Probability problems in seismic risk analysis and load combinations for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

George, L.L.

1983-01-01

This workshop describes some probability problems in power plant reliability and maintenance analysis. The problems are seismic risk analysis, loss of load probability, load combinations, and load sharing. The seismic risk problem is to compute power plant reliability given an earthquake and the resulting risk. Component survival occurs if its peak random response to the earthquake does not exceed its strength. Power plant survival is a complicated Boolean function of component failures and survivals. The responses and strengths of components are dependent random processes, and the peak responses are maxima of random processes. The resulting risk is the expected cost of power plant failure

Preparation and drug-loading properties of Fe3O4/Poly(styrene-co-acrylic acid) magnetic polymer nanocomposites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, Wensheng; Shen, Yuhua; Xie, Anjian; Zhang, Weiqiang

2013-01-01

Fe 3 O 4 /poly(styrene-co-acrylic acid) magnetic polymer nanocomposites were synthesized by the dispersion polymerization method using styrene as hard monomer, acrylic acid as functional monomer, Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles modified with oleic acid as core, and poly(styrene-co-acrylic acid) as shell. Drug-loading properties of magnetic polymer nanocomposites with curcumin as a model drug were also studied. The results indicated that magnetic polymer nanocomposites with monodisperse were obtained, the particle size distribution was 50–120 nm, and the average size was about 100 nm. The contents of poly(styrene-co-acrylic acid) and Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles in magnetic polymer nanocomposites were 74% and 24.7%, respectively. The drug-loading capacity and entrapment efficiency were 2.5% and 44.4%, respectively. The saturation magnetization of magnetic polymer nanocomposites at 300 K was 20.2 emu/g without coercivity and remanence. The as-prepared magnetic polymer nanocomposites have not only lots of functional carboxyl groups but also stronger magnetic response, which might have potential applications in drug carrier and targeted drug release

Shared leadership

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ulhøi, John Parm; Müller, Sabine

2012-01-01

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, this paper comprehensively will review the conceptual and empirical literature to identify such critical underlying mechanisms which enable shared or collective leadership. Second, this article identifies the antecedents and outcomes of shared leadership...... according to the literature review to develop a re-conceptualised and synthesized framework for managing the organizational issues associated with shared leadership on various organizational levels. The paper rectifies this by identifying the critical factors and mechanisms which enable shared leadership...... and its antecedents and outcomes, and to develop a re-conceptualized and synthesized framework of shared leadership. The paper closes with a brief discussion of avenues for future research and implications for managers....

The science of sharing and the sharing of science.

Science.gov (United States)

Milkman, Katherine L; Berger, Jonah

2014-09-16

Why do members of the public share some scientific findings and not others? What can scientists do to increase the chances that their findings will be shared widely among nonscientists? To address these questions, we integrate past research on the psychological drivers of interpersonal communication with a study examining the sharing of hundreds of recent scientific discoveries. Our findings offer insights into (i) how attributes of a discovery and the way it is described impact sharing, (ii) who generates discoveries that are likely to be shared, and (iii) which types of people are most likely to share scientific discoveries. The results described here, combined with a review of recent research on interpersonal communication, suggest how scientists can frame their work to increase its dissemination. They also provide insights about which audiences may be the best targets for the diffusion of scientific content.

Share Conversion, Pseudorandom Secret-Sharing and Applications to Secure Computation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

R.J.F. Cramer (Ronald); I.B. Damgård (Ivan); Y. Ishai

2005-01-01

htmlabstractWe present a method for converting shares of a secret into shares of the same secret in a different secret-sharing scheme using only local computation and no communication between players. In particular, shares in a replicated scheme based on a CNF representation of the access structure

Sharing City

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

This magazine offers an insight into the growing commercial innovation, civic movements, and political narratives surrounding sharing economy services, solutions and organisational types. It presents a cross-section of the manifold sharing economy services and solutions that can be found in Denmark....... Moreover, 15 thought leading experts - professionals and academic - have been invited to give their perspective on sharing economy for cities. This magazine touches upon aspects of the sharing economy as mobility, communities, sustainability, business development, mobility, and urban-rural relation....

Quantitative analysis of impact measurements using dynamic load cells

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brent J. Maranzano

2016-03-01

Full Text Available A mathematical model is used to estimate material properties from a short duration transient impact force measured by dropping spheres onto rectangular coupons fixed to a dynamic load cell. The contact stress between the dynamic load cell surface and the projectile are modeled using Hertzian contact mechanics. Due to the short impact time relative to the load cell dynamics, an additional Kelvin–Voigt element is included in the model to account for the finite response time of the piezoelectric crystal. Calculations with and without the Kelvin–Voigt element are compared to experimental data collected from combinations of polymeric spheres and polymeric and metallic surfaces. The results illustrate that the inclusion of the Kelvin–Voigt element qualitatively captures the post impact resonance and non-linear behavior of the load cell signal and quantitatively improves the estimation of the Young's elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio. Mathematically, the additional KV element couples one additional differential equation to the Hertzian spring-dashpot equation. The model can be numerically integrated in seconds using standard numerical techniques allowing for its use as a rapid technique for the estimation of material properties. Keywords: Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, Dynamic load cell

On multiuser switched diversity transmission for spectrum sharing systems

KAUST Repository

Qaraqe, Marwa

2012-01-01

In this paper, we develop multiuser access schemes for spectrum sharing systems whereby secondary users share the spectrum with primary users. In particular, we devise two schemes for selecting the user among those that satisfy the interference constraints and achieve an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) level. The first scheme selects the user with the maximum SNR at the receiver, whereas in the second scheme the users are scanned in a sequential manner until an acceptable user is found. In addition, we consider two power adaptive settings. In the on/off power adaptive setting, the users transmit based on whether the interference constraint is met or not while in the full power adaptive setting, the users vary their transmission power to satisfy the interference constraint. Finally, we present numerical results of our proposed algorithms where we show the trade-off between the average spectral efficiency and average feedback load of both schemes. © 2012 ICST.

Quantum secret sharing via local operations and classical communication.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Ying-Hui; Gao, Fei; Wu, Xia; Qin, Su-Juan; Zuo, Hui-Juan; Wen, Qiao-Yan

2015-11-20

We investigate the distinguishability of orthogonal multipartite entangled states in d-qudit system by restricted local operations and classical communication. According to these properties, we propose a standard (2, n)-threshold quantum secret sharing scheme (called LOCC-QSS scheme), which solves the open question in [Rahaman et al., Phys. Rev. A, 91, 022330 (2015)]. On the other hand, we find that all the existing (k, n)-threshold LOCC-QSS schemes are imperfect (or "ramp"), i.e., unauthorized groups can obtain some information about the shared secret. Furthermore, we present a (3, 4)-threshold LOCC-QSS scheme which is close to perfect.

Pharmacokinetic properties and antitumor efficacy of the 5-fluorouracil loaded PEG-hydrogel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kim Bokyung

2010-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background We have studied the in vitro and in vivo utility of polyethylene glycol (PEG-hydrogels for the development of an anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU delivery system. Methods A 5-FU-loaded PEG-hydrogel was implanted subcutaneously to evaluate the drug retention time and the anticancer effect. For the pharmacokinetic study, two groups of male rats were administered either an aqueous solution of 5-FU (control group/or a 5-FU-loaded PEG-hydrogel (treated group at a dose of 100 mg/kg. For the pharmacodynamic study, a human non-small-cell lung adenocarcinoma (NSCLC cell line, A549 was inoculated to male nude mice with a cell density of 3 × 106. Once tumors start growing, the mice were injected with 5-FU/or 5-FU-loaded PEG-hydrogel once a week for 4 weeks. The growth of the tumors was monitored by measuring the tumor volume and calculating the tumor inhibition rate (IR over the duration of the study. Results In the pharmacokinetic study, the 5-FU-loaded PEG-hydrogel gave a mean residence time (MRT of 8.0 h and the elimination half-life of 0.9 h; these values were 14- and 6-fold, respectively, longer than those for the free solution of 5-FU (p Conclusion We suggest that 5-FU-loaded PEG-hydrogels could provide a useful tool for the development of an anticancer drug delivery system.

The science of sharing and the sharing of science

OpenAIRE

Milkman, Katherine L.; Berger, Jonah

2014-01-01

Why do members of the public share some scientific findings and not others? What can scientists do to increase the chances that their findings will be shared widely among nonscientists? To address these questions, we integrate past research on the psychological drivers of interpersonal communication with a study examining the sharing of hundreds of recent scientific discoveries. Our findings offer insights into (i) how attributes of a discovery and the way it is described impact sharing, (ii)...

Shared decision making

Science.gov (United States)

... page: //medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000877.htm Shared decision making To use the sharing features on this page, ... treatment you both support. When to use Shared Decision Making Shared decision making is often used when you ...

Fuel loads and fuel type mapping

Science.gov (United States)

Chuvieco, Emilio; Riaño, David; Van Wagtendonk, Jan W.; Morsdof, Felix; Chuvieco, Emilio

2003-01-01

Correct description of fuel properties is critical to improve fire danger assessment and fire behaviour modeling, since they guide both fire ignition and fire propagation. This chapter deals with properties of fuel that can be considered static in short periods of time: biomass loads, plant geometry, compactness, etc. Mapping these properties require a detail knowledge of vegetation vertical and horizontal structure. Several systems to classify the great diversity of vegetation characteristics in few fuel types are described, as well as methods for mapping them with special emphasis on those based on remote sensing images.

Sharing data is a shared responsibility: Commentary on: "The essential nature of sharing in science".

Science.gov (United States)

Giffels, Joe

2010-12-01

Research data should be made readily available. A robust data-sharing plan, led by the principal investigator of the research project, requires considerable administrative and operational resources. Because external support for data sharing is minimal, principal investigators should consider engaging existing institutional information experts, such as librarians and information systems personnel, to participate in data-sharing efforts.

Loads and loads and loads: the influence of prospective load, retrospective load, and ongoing task load in prospective memory

Science.gov (United States)

Meier, Beat; Zimmermann, Thomas D.

2015-01-01

In prospective memory tasks different kinds of load can occur. Adding a prospective memory task can impose a load on ongoing task performance. Adding ongoing task load (OTL) can affect prospective memory performance. The existence of multiple target events increases prospective load (PL) and adding complexity to the to-be-remembered action increases retrospective load (RL). In two experiments, we systematically examined the effects of these different types of load on prospective memory performance. Results showed an effect of PL on costs in the ongoing task for categorical targets (Experiment 2), but not for specific targets (Experiment 1). RL and OTL both affected remembering the retrospective component of the prospective memory task. We suggest that PL can enhance costs in the ongoing task due to additional monitoring requirements. RL and OTL seem to impact the division of resources between the ongoing task and retrieval of the retrospective component, which may affect disengagement from the ongoing task. In general, the results demonstrate that the different types of load affect prospective memory differentially. PMID:26082709

Loads and loads and loads: the influence of prospective load, retrospective load, and ongoing task load in prospective memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Meier, Beat; Zimmermann, Thomas D

2015-01-01

In prospective memory tasks different kinds of load can occur. Adding a prospective memory task can impose a load on ongoing task performance. Adding ongoing task load (OTL) can affect prospective memory performance. The existence of multiple target events increases prospective load (PL) and adding complexity to the to-be-remembered action increases retrospective load (RL). In two experiments, we systematically examined the effects of these different types of load on prospective memory performance. Results showed an effect of PL on costs in the ongoing task for categorical targets (Experiment 2), but not for specific targets (Experiment 1). RL and OTL both affected remembering the retrospective component of the prospective memory task. We suggest that PL can enhance costs in the ongoing task due to additional monitoring requirements. RL and OTL seem to impact the division of resources between the ongoing task and retrieval of the retrospective component, which may affect disengagement from the ongoing task. In general, the results demonstrate that the different types of load affect prospective memory differentially.

Effects of Rubber Loading on the Ultrasonic Backward Radiation Profile of Leaky Lamb Wave

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Song, Sung Jin; Jung, Min Ho; Kim, Young H.; Kwon, Sung Duk

2002-01-01

The characterization of adhesive property in multi-layer materials has been hot issue for a long time. In order to evaluate adhesive properties, we constructed fully automated system for the backward radiation of leaky Lamb wave. The backward radiation profiles were obtained for the bare steel plate and plates with rubber-loading. The rf waveforms and frequency spectra of backward radiation show the characteristics of involved leaky Lamb wave modes. As the thickness of rubber-loading increased, the amplitude of profile at the incident angle of 13.4' exponentially decreased. Scanning the incident position over the partially rubber-loaded specimen shows good agreement with the actual rubber-loading. The backward radiation of leaky Lamb wave has great potential to evaluate the adhesive condition as well as material properties of plates

The Costs of Benefit Sharing: Historical and Institutional Analysis of Shared Water Development in the Ferghana Valley, the Syr Darya Basin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilkhom Soliev

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Ongoing discussions on water-energy-food nexus generally lack a historical perspective and more rigorous institutional analysis. Scrutinizing a relatively mature benefit sharing approach in the context of transboundary water management, the study shows how such analysis can be implemented to facilitate understanding in an environment of high institutional and resource complexity. Similar to system perspective within nexus, benefit sharing is viewed as a positive sum approach capable of facilitating cooperation among riparian parties by shifting the focus from the quantities of water to benefits derivable from its use and allocation. While shared benefits from use and allocation are logical corollary of the most fundamental principles of international water law, there are still many controversies as to the conditions under which benefit sharing could serve best as an approach. Recently, the approach has been receiving wider attention in the literature and is increasingly applied in various basins to enhance negotiations. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the costs associated with benefit sharing, particularly in the long run. The study provides a number of concerns that have been likely overlooked in the literature and examines the approach in the case of the Ferghana Valley shared by Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan utilizing data for the period from 1917 to 2013. Institutional analysis traces back the origins of property rights of the transboundary infrastructure, shows cooperative activities and fierce negotiations on various governance levels. The research discusses implications of the findings for the nexus debate and unveils at least four types of costs associated with benefit sharing: (1 Costs related to equity of sharing (horizontal and vertical; (2 Costs to the environment; (3 Transaction costs and risks of losing water control; and (4 Costs as a result of likely misuse of issue linkages.

Adaptive multi-channel downlink assignment for overloaded spectrum-shared multi-antenna overlaid cellular networks

KAUST Repository

Radaydeh, Redha Mahmoud

2012-10-19

Overlaid cellular technology has been considered as a promising candidate to enhance the capacity and extend the coverage of cellular networks, particularly indoors. The deployment of small cells (e.g. femtocells and/or picocells) in an overlaid setup is expected to reduce the operational power and to function satisfactorily with the existing cellular architecture. Among the possible deployments of small-cell access points is to manage many of them to serve specific spatial locations, while reusing the available spectrum universally. This contribution considers the aforementioned scenario with the objective to serve as many active users as possible when the available downlink spectrum is overloaded. The case study is motivated by the importance of realizing universal resource sharing in overlaid networks, while reducing the load of distributing available resources, satisfying downlink multi-channel assignment, controlling the aggregate level of interference, and maintaining desired design/operation requirements. These objectives need to be achieved in distributed manner in each spatial space with as low processing load as possible when the feedback links are capacity-limited, multiple small-cell access points can be shared, and data exchange between access points can not be coordinated. This contribution is summarized as follows. An adaptive downlink multi-channel assignment scheme when multiple co-channel and shared small-cell access points are allocated to serve active users is proposed. It is assumed that the deployed access points employ isotropic antenna arrays of arbitrary sizes, operate using the open-access strategy, and transmit on shared physical channels simultaneously. Moreover, each active user can be served by a single transmit channel per each access point at a time, and can sense the concurrent interference level associated with each transmit antenna channel non-coherently. The proposed scheme aims to identify a suitable subset of transmit channels

7 CFR 3015.172 - Federal share of real property, equipment, and supplies.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... equipment. To calculate the Federal share of replacement equipment the following procedures shall be...: Determine the percentage of the replacement equipment's costs that was covered by the amount received for... the step 2 percentage. (4) Step 4: If an additional outlay for the replacement equipment was charged...

32 CFR 37.550 - May I accept intellectual property as cost sharing?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... DoD GRANT AND AGREEMENT REGULATIONS TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS Pre-Award Business Evaluation... software) as cost sharing, because: (1) It is difficult to assign values to these intangible contributions... the same cost of lost opportunity to a recipient as contributions of cash or tangible assets. The...

The impact of emotional intelligence on faculty members' knowledge sharing behaviors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Masoomeh Arabshahi,

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Universities and institutions of higher education with a professional, special, educational and cultural environment, play an important role in effective knowledge management and preparing the background for knowledge sharing. Faculty members are known as the main elements of the university who own mental and intellectual property. Their knowledge sharing under certain conditions along with knowledge sharing behaviors improve individual and organizational operations. Moreover, the tendency to do these actions is the most important factor in knowledge sharing behavior and emotional intelligence (EQ, as one of the social intelligence factors, can guide individual thinking and activity. This study examines the impact of emotional intelligence on faculty members' knowledge sharing behaviors. Regarding the purpose and nature, this study was functional and its methodology was exploratory and due to evaluation of the relations and impacts among variables, it was a correlational method. Data collection included interviews with experts for the qualitative part and a questionnaire for the quantitative part. The qualitative findings indicate different emotional intelligence dimensions, which includes self-awareness, social skills, coping with pressure, adaptability and overall creation. In addition, the result of EQ dimensions on knowledge sharing behavior reveal that “social skills, coping with pressure, and overall creation” share a link with faculty members' research behavior among the four dimensions of knowledge sharing behavior and that “adaptability” has no significant relationship with knowledge sharing behavior.

Working memory load modulates the neural response to other's pain: Evidence from an ERP study.

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Fang; Zhu, Xiangru; Luo, Yuejia; Cheng, Jiaping

2017-03-22

The present study investigated the time course of processing other's pain under different conditions of working memory (WM) load. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while the participants held two digits (low WM load) or six digits (high WM load) in WM and viewed pictures that showed others who were in painful or non-painful situations. Robust WM-load×Picture interactions were found for the N2 and LPP components. In the high WM-load condition, painful pictures elicited significantly larger amplitudes than non-painful pictures. In the low WM load condition, the difference between the painful and non-painful pictures was not significant. These ERP results indicate that WM load can influence both the early automatic N2 component and late cognitive LPP component. Compared with high WM load, low WM load reduced affective arousal and emotional sharing in response to other's pain and weakened the cognitive evaluation of task irrelevant stimuli. These findings are explained from the load theory perspective. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bearing load distribution studies in a multi bearing rotor system and a remote computing method based on the internet

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yang, Zhao Jian; Peng, Ze Jun; Kim, Seock Sam

2004-01-01

A model in the form of a Bearing Load Distribution (BLD) matrix in the Multi Bearing Rotor System (MBRS) is established by a transfer matrix equation with the consideration of a bearing load, elevation and uniform load distribution. The concept of Bearing Load Sensitivity (BLS) is proposed and matrices for load and elevation sensitivity are obtained. In order to share MBRS design resources on the internet with remote customers, the basic principle of Remote Computing (RC) based on the internet is introduced ; the RC of the BLD and BLS is achieved by Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) technology

Open Architecture Data System for NASA Langley Combined Loads Test System

Science.gov (United States)

Lightfoot, Michael C.; Ambur, Damodar R.

1998-01-01

The Combined Loads Test System (COLTS) is a new structures test complex that is being developed at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to test large curved panels and cylindrical shell structures. These structural components are representative of aircraft fuselage sections of subsonic and supersonic transport aircraft and cryogenic tank structures of reusable launch vehicles. Test structures are subjected to combined loading conditions that simulate realistic flight load conditions. The facility consists of two pressure-box test machines and one combined loads test machine. Each test machine possesses a unique set of requirements or research data acquisition and real-time data display. Given the complex nature of the mechanical and thermal loads to be applied to the various research test articles, each data system has been designed with connectivity attributes that support both data acquisition and data management functions. This paper addresses the research driven data acquisition requirements for each test machine and demonstrates how an open architecture data system design not only meets those needs but provides robust data sharing between data systems including the various control systems which apply spectra of mechanical and thermal loading profiles.

Mechanical Properties of Steel-FRP Composite Bars under Tensile and Compressive Loading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zeyang Sun

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The factory-produced steel-fiber reinforced polymer composite bar (SFCB is a new kind of reinforcement for concrete structures. The manufacturing technology of SFCB is presented based on a large number of handmade specimens. The calculated stress-strain curves of ordinary steel bar and SFCB under repeated tensile loading agree well with the corresponding experimental results. The energy-dissipation capacity and residual strain of both steel bar and SFCB were analyzed. Based on the good simulation results of ordinary steel bar and FRP bar under compressive loading, the compressive behavior of SFCB under monotonic loading was studied using the principle of equivalent flexural rigidity. There are three failure modes of SFCB under compressive loading: elastic buckling, postyield buckling, and no buckling (ultimate compressive strength is reached. The increase in the postyield stiffness of SFCB rsf can delay the postyield buckling of SFCB with a large length-to-diameter ratio, and an empirical equation for the relationship between the postbuckling stress and rsf is suggested, which can be used for the design of concrete structures reinforced by SFCB to consider the effect of reinforcement buckling.

Magnetic adsorbent constructed from the loading of amino functionalized Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} on coordination complex modified polyoxometalates nanoparticle and its tetracycline adsorption removal property study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ou, Jinzhao; Mei, Mingliang; Xu, Xinxin, E-mail: xuxx@mail.neu.edu.cn

2016-06-15

A magnetic polyoxometalates based adsorbent has been synthesized successfully through the loading of amino functionalized Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} (NH{sub 2}-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4}) on nanoparticle of a coordination complex modified polyoxometalates (CC/POMNP). FTIR illustrate there exist intense hydrogen bonds between NH{sub 2}-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} and CC/POMNP, which keep the stability of this adsorbent. At room temperature, this adsorbent exhibits ferromagnetic character with saturation magnetization of 8.19 emu g{sup −1}, which provides prerequisite for fast magnetic separation. Water treatment experiment illustrates this POM based magnetic adsorbent exhibits high adsorption capacity on tetracycline. The adsorption process can be described well with Temkin model, which illustrates the interaction between adsorbent and tetracycline plays the dominated role in tetracycline removal. The rapid, high efficient tetracycline adsorption ability suggests this POM based magnetic adsorbent exhibits promising prospect in medical and agriculture waste water purification. A magnetic polyoxometalates based adsorbent, which exhibits excellent tetracycline adsorption removal property has been synthesized through the loading of NH{sub 2}-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} on coordination complex modified polyoxometalates - Graphical abstract: A magnetic polyoxometalates based adsorbent, which exhibits excellent tetracycline adsorption removal property has been synthesized through the loading of NH{sub 2}-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} on coordination complex modified polyoxometalate. Display Omitted - Highlights: • A POM based magnetic adsorbent was fabricated through the loading of NH{sub 2}-Fe{sub 3}O{sub 4} on POM nanoparticle. • This adsorbent possesses excellent tetracycline adsorption property. • Saturation magnetization value of this adsorbent is 8.19 emug−1, which is enough for magnetic separation.

A Novel High Mechanical Property PLGA Composite Matrix Loaded with Nanodiamond-Phospholipid Compound for Bone Tissue Engineering.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Fan; Song, Qingxin; Huang, Xuan; Li, Fengning; Wang, Kun; Tang, Yixing; Hou, Canglong; Shen, Hongxing

2016-01-20

A potential bone tissue engineering material was produced from a biodegradable polymer, poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), loaded with nanodiamond phospholipid compound (NDPC) via physical mixing. On the basis of hydrophobic effects and physical absorption, we modified the original hydrophilic surface of the nanodiamond (NDs) with phospholipids to be amphipathic, forming a typical core-shell structure. The ND-phospholipid weight ratio was optimized to generate sample NDPC50 (i.e., ND-phospholipid weight ratio of 100:50), and NDPC50 was able to be dispersed in a PLGA matrix at up to 20 wt %. Compared to a pure PLGA matrix, the introduction of 10 wt % of NDPC (i.e., sample NDPC50-PF10) resulted in a significant improvement in the material's mechanical and surface properties, including a decrease in the water contact angle from 80 to 55°, an approximately 100% increase in the Young's modulus, and an approximate 550% increase in hardness, thus closely resembling that of human cortical bone. As a novel matrix supporting human osteoblast (hFOB1.19) growth, NDPC50-PFs with different amounts of NDPC50 demonstrated no negative effects on cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation. Furthermore, we focused on the behaviors of NDPC-PFs implanted into mice for 8 weeks and found that NDPC-PFs induced acceptable immune response and can reduce the rapid biodegradation of PLGA matrix. Our results represent the first in vivo research on ND (or NDPC) as nanofillers in a polymer matrix for bone tissue engineering. The high mechanical properties, good in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility, and increased mineralization capability suggest that biodegradable PLGA composite matrices loaded with NDPC may potentially be useful for a variety of biomedical applications, especially bone tissue engineering.

Encapsulation of lycopene in Chlorella pyrenoidosa: Loading properties and stability improvement.

Science.gov (United States)

Pu, Chuanfen; Tang, Wenting

2017-11-15

Aiming to improve the stability of lycopene and incorporate it into a complex nutraceutical, exogenous lycopene-loaded Chlorella pyrenoidosa cells (CPCs) were developed. The complex had an encapsulation yield of 13.06±0.89% and an encapsulation efficiency of 96.31±3.10%. Fluorescence analyses indicated that lycopene was encapsulated in the CPCs. X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetric analyses were conducted and compared to those of the non-loaded CPCs, lycopene and their physical mixture. These studies demonstrated that lycopene was amorphous in the complex. The degradation kinetics indicated that encapsulation increased the stability of lycopene. The antioxidant activity of lycopene loaded CPCs against DPPH free radicals was higher than that of the unencapsulated lycopene after storage at 25°C for 25d. This study proved the feasibility of encapsulation of lycopene in the CPCs and combined the activities of both materials, which could be employed in the production of novel nutraceuticals to reduce oxidative stress. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of habitual loading on patellar tendon mechanical and morphological properties in basketball and volleyball players.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Z J; Ng, G Y F; Fu, S N

2015-11-01

Tendon mechanical properties are linked to sports performance and tendon-related injuries, such as tendinopathy. Whether habitual loading, such as participation in regular jumping activities, would induce adaptation on tendon mechanical properties remains unclear. Forty healthy subjects (10 sedentary, 15 volleyball players, and 15 basketball players) aged between 18 and 35 years were recruited. Supersonic shearwave imaging was used to measure the shear elastic modulus and thickness and cross-sectional area (CSA) of the proximal patellar tendons of both knees at 30° of flexion. Significant group differences in tendon shear elastic modulus were found among the three groups. In the dominant leg, reduction in tendon shear elastic modulus by 18.9 % (p = 0.018) and 48.7 % (p = 0.000) were observed in the basketball and volleyball players, respectively, when compared with sedentary subjects. In the non-dominant leg, reduction in tendon shear elastic modulus were 27.3 % (p = 0.034) and 47.1 % (p = 0.02) in the basketball and volleyball players, respectively. The athlete groups were found to have larger CSA but with similar tendon thickness than sedentary group. The CSA were larger by 24-29 % and by 22-24 % in the basketball players and volleyball players, for the dominant and non-dominant legs, respectively (all p < 0.05). Age and body mass are related to tendon stiffness and CSA, particularly in the sedentary subjects. The proximal patellar tendon can undergo substantial adaptation on tendon mechanical and morphological properties when exposed in jumping sports. Intrinsic factors such as age and body mass could influence tendon properties.

Thymoquinone-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers: preparation, gastroprotection, in vitro toxicity, and pharmacokinetic properties after extravascular administration

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdelwahab SI

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Siddig Ibrahim Abdelwahab,1 Bassem Yousef Sheikh,2 Manal Mohamed Elhassan Taha,1 Chee Wun How,3 Rasedee Abdullah,3 Umar Yagoub,1 Rashad El-Sunousi,1 Eltayeb EM Eid31Medical Research Centre, Jazan University, Jazan, Saudi Arabia; 2Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Taibah University, Medina, Saudi Arabia; 3Laboratory of Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, Institute of Bioscience, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, MalaysiaBackground: Nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs, composed of solid and liquid lipids, and surfactants are potentially good colloidal drug carriers. Thymoquinone is the main bioactive compound of Nigella sativa. In this study, the preparation, gastroprotective effects, and pharmacokinetic (PK properties of thymoquinone (TQ-loaded NLCs (TQNLCs were evaluated.Method: TQNLCs were prepared using hydrogenated palm oil (Softisan® 154, olive oil, and phosphatidylcholine for the lipid phase and sorbitol, polysorbate 80, thimerosal, and double distilled water for the liquid lipid material. A morphological assessment of TQNLCs was performed using various methods. Analysis of the ulcer index, hydrogen concentration, mucus content, and biochemical and histochemical studies confirmed that the loading of TQ into the NLCs significantly improved the gastroprotective activity of this natural compound against the formation of ethanol-induced ulcers. The safety of TQNLC was tested on WRL68 liver normal cells with cisplatin as a positive control.Results: The average diameter of the TQNLCs was 75 ± 2.4 nm. The particles had negative zeta potential values of −31 ± 0.1 mV and a single melting peak of 55.85°C. Immunohistochemical methods revealed that TQNLCs inhibited the formation of ethanol-induced ulcers through the modulation of heat shock protein-70 (Hsp70. Acute hepatotoxic effects of the TQNLCs were not observed in rats or normal human liver cells (WRL-68. After validation, PK studies in rabbits showed that the PK properties of TQ

Controlled load with supporting power grid property; Gesteuerte Verbraucher mit netzstuetzender Eigenschaft

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zimmermann, Olaf; Potthoff, Ulrich [Fraunhofer-Institut fuer Verkehrs- und Infrastruktursysteme (IVI), Dresden (Germany)

2012-07-01

In the German grid, the proportion of volatile energy is steadily increasing for several years. The ratio between energy production and consumption must be always balanced. With the unsteady supply of renewable energy in particular, the power plant and grid control is facing new challenges. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems was analyzed, if power regulation of selected loads could make a contribution to the reliability of supply. The power consumption should be regulated as a function of the available energy supply. As suitable loads stationary refrigeration equipment or the growing number of plug-in electric vehicles have been identified. The Fraunhofer IVT's approach is an autonomous and decentralized system in which each load accommodates its consumption automatically based on locally determinable network parameters. (orig.)

High heat load properties of nanostructured, recrystallized W–1.1TiC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tokunaga, K., E-mail: tokunaga@riam.kyushu-u.ac.jp [Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka 816-8580 (Japan); Kurishita, H.; Arakawa, H.; Matsuo, S. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, IMR, Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan); Hotta, T. [Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka 816-8580 (Japan); Araki, K.; Miyamoto, Y.; Fujiwara, T.; Nakamura, K. [Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka 816-8580 (Japan); Takida, T.; Kato, M.; Ikegaya, A. [A.L.M.T. Corp., Toyama 931-8543 (Japan)

2013-11-15

Steady state (1973 K, 180 s) and repeated (723 K–1524 K, 380 times) heat loading experiments of ITER grade W and toughened, fine-grained, recrystallized W–1.1TiC (TFGR W–1.1TiC) have been performed using an electron beam irradiation system. In ITER grade W, the irradiation around 1973 K causes recrystallization and grain growth up to the average diameters of 50–100 μm. Repeated irradiations cause significant surface roughening, cracking at grain boundaries and surface exfoliation. On the other hand, TFGR W–1.1TiC does not exhibit any surface roughening or cracking after repeated heat loading although grain boundaries on the surface of TFGR W–1.1TiC can be observed after irradiation at around 1973 K 180 s by steady state heat loading.

Fair Access to and Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources : National ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Fair Access to and Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources : National Policy Development (China, Jordan, Nepal, Peru). Local practices pertaining to biodiversity conservation, crop improvement and natural resource management are under stress. Existing laws and mechanisms - such as intellectual property rights (IPRs) ...

Open innovation: Towards sharing of data, models and workflows.

Science.gov (United States)

Conrado, Daniela J; Karlsson, Mats O; Romero, Klaus; Sarr, Céline; Wilkins, Justin J

2017-11-15

Sharing of resources across organisations to support open innovation is an old idea, but which is being taken up by the scientific community at increasing speed, concerning public sharing in particular. The ability to address new questions or provide more precise answers to old questions through merged information is among the attractive features of sharing. Increased efficiency through reuse, and increased reliability of scientific findings through enhanced transparency, are expected outcomes from sharing. In the field of pharmacometrics, efforts to publicly share data, models and workflow have recently started. Sharing of individual-level longitudinal data for modelling requires solving legal, ethical and proprietary issues similar to many other fields, but there are also pharmacometric-specific aspects regarding data formats, exchange standards, and database properties. Several organisations (CDISC, C-Path, IMI, ISoP) are working to solve these issues and propose standards. There are also a number of initiatives aimed at collecting disease-specific databases - Alzheimer's Disease (ADNI, CAMD), malaria (WWARN), oncology (PDS), Parkinson's Disease (PPMI), tuberculosis (CPTR, TB-PACTS, ReSeqTB) - suitable for drug-disease modelling. Organized sharing of pharmacometric executable model code and associated information has in the past been sparse, but a model repository (DDMoRe Model Repository) intended for the purpose has recently been launched. In addition several other services can facilitate model sharing more generally. Pharmacometric workflows have matured over the last decades and initiatives to more fully capture those applied to analyses are ongoing. In order to maximize both the impact of pharmacometrics and the knowledge extracted from clinical data, the scientific community needs to take ownership of and create opportunities for open innovation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Study of Shared-Memory Mutual Exclusion Protocols Using CADP

Science.gov (United States)

Mateescu, Radu; Serwe, Wendelin

Mutual exclusion protocols are an essential building block of concurrent systems: indeed, such a protocol is required whenever a shared resource has to be protected against concurrent non-atomic accesses. Hence, many variants of mutual exclusion protocols exist in the shared-memory setting, such as Peterson's or Dekker's well-known protocols. Although the functional correctness of these protocols has been studied extensively, relatively little attention has been paid to their non-functional aspects, such as their performance in the long run. In this paper, we report on experiments with the performance evaluation of mutual exclusion protocols using Interactive Markov Chains. Steady-state analysis provides an additional criterion for comparing protocols, which complements the verification of their functional properties. We also carefully re-examined the functional properties, whose accurate formulation as temporal logic formulas in the action-based setting turns out to be quite involved.

HydroShare: A Platform for Collaborative Data and Model Sharing in Hydrology

Science.gov (United States)

Tarboton, D. G.; Idaszak, R.; Horsburgh, J. S.; Ames, D. P.; Goodall, J. L.; Couch, A.; Hooper, R. P.; Dash, P. K.; Stealey, M.; Yi, H.; Bandaragoda, C.; Castronova, A. M.

2017-12-01

HydroShare is an online, collaboration system for sharing of hydrologic data, analytical tools, and models. It supports the sharing of and collaboration around "resources" which are defined by standardized content types for data formats and models commonly used in hydrology. With HydroShare you can: Share your data and models with colleagues; Manage who has access to the content that you share; Share, access, visualize and manipulate a broad set of hydrologic data types and models; Use the web services application programming interface (API) to program automated and client access; Publish data and models and obtain a citable digital object identifier (DOI); Aggregate your resources into collections; Discover and access data and models published by others; Use web apps to visualize, analyze and run models on data in HydroShare. This presentation will describe the functionality and architecture of HydroShare highlighting its use as a virtual environment supporting education and research. HydroShare has components that support: (1) resource storage, (2) resource exploration, and (3) web apps for actions on resources. The HydroShare data discovery, sharing and publishing functions as well as HydroShare web apps provide the capability to analyze data and execute models completely in the cloud (servers remote from the user) overcoming desktop platform limitations. The HydroShare GIS app provides a basic capability to visualize spatial data. The HydroShare JupyterHub Notebook app provides flexible and documentable execution of Python code snippets for analysis and modeling in a way that results can be shared among HydroShare users and groups to support research collaboration and education. We will discuss how these developments can be used to support different types of educational efforts in Hydrology where being completely web based is of value in an educational setting as students can all have access to the same functionality regardless of their computer.

Loading Effect of Aluminum Hydroxide onto the Mechanical, Thermal Conductivity, Acoustical and Burning Properties of the Palm-based Polyurethane Composites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nor Rabbiatul Adawiyah Norzali; Khairiah Badri; Khairiah Badri; Mohd Zaki Nuawi

2011-01-01

Effects of aluminium hydroxide (ATH) addition on the properties of palm-based polyurethane composites were investigated. The hybrid composites were prepared by mixing 10 wt % of oil palm empty fruit bunch fiber (EFB) with ATH at varying amount of 2, 4 and 6 wt % of the overall mass of the resin. The compression stress and modulus gave the highest values of 575 and 2301 kPa, respectively at 2 wt % loading of ATH. The compression stress and modulus decreased drastically at 4 wt % (431 kPa and 1659 kPa, respectively) and further decreased at 6 wt % ATH (339 and 1468 kPa, respectively). However, the burning rate is inversely proportional to the loading percentage where the highest burning rate was observed at 2 wt % ATH. Sound absorption analysis indicated a large absorption coefficient at high frequency (4000 Hz) for all samples. The highest absorption coefficient was obtained from PU-EFB/ ATH with 4 wt % ATH. (author)

Docetaxel-Loaded Nanoparticles Assembled from β-Cyclodextrin/Calixarene Giant Surfactants: Physicochemical Properties and Cytotoxic Effect in Prostate Cancer and Glioblastoma Cells

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Gallego-Yerga

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Giant amphiphiles encompassing a hydrophilic β-cyclodextrin (βCD component and a hydrophobic calix[4]arene (CA4 module undergo self-assembly in aqueous media to afford core-shell nanospheres or nanocapsules, depending on the nanoprecipitation protocol, with high docetaxel (DTX loading capacity. The blank and loaded nanoparticles have been fully characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS, ζ-potential measurements and cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM. The data are compatible with the distribution of the drug between the nanoparticle core and the shell, where it is probably anchored by inclusion of the DTX aromatic moieties in βCD cavities. Indeed, the release kinetics profiles evidenced an initial fast release of the drug, which likely accounts for the fraction hosted on the surface, followed by a slow and sustained release rate, corresponding to diffusion of DTX in the core, which can be finely tuned by modification of the giant amphiphile chemical structure. The ability of the docetaxel-loaded nanoparticles to induce cellular death in different prostate (human LnCap and PC3 and glioblastoma (human U87 and rat C6 cells was also explored. Giant amphiphile-based DTX formulations surpassing or matching the antitumoral activity of the free DTX formulation were identified in all cases with no need to employ any organic co-solvent, thus overcoming the DTX water solubility problems. Moreover, the presence of the βCD shell at the surface of the assemblies is intended to impart stealth properties against serum proteins while permitting nanoparticle surface decoration by supramolecular approaches, paving the way for a new generation of molecularly well-defined antitumoral drug delivery systems with improved specificity and efficiency. Altogether, the results provide a proof of concept of the suitability of the approach based on βCD-CA4 giant amphiphiles to access DTX carriers with tunable properties.

Geospatial patterns in traditional knowledge serve in assessing intellectual property rights and benefit-sharing in northwest South America

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Cámara-Leret, Rodrigo; Paniagua-Zambrana, Narel; Svenning, J.-C.

2014-01-01

medicinal palm (Arecaceae) uses is unique and how much is shared across (i) four countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia), (ii) two cultural groups (Amerindian and non-Amerindian), (iii) 52 Amerindian tribes, (iv) six non-Amerindian groups, (v) 41 communities, and (vi) individuals in the 41 communities...... in the number of unshared and shared uses accounted for by the five birth cohorts. Results We found that most knowledge was not shared among countries, cultural groups, tribes, communities, or even individuals within them. Still, a minor knowledge component was widely shared, even across countries. General...

Design and Analysis for an Operator's Action Sharing System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jung, Yeonsub; Seong, Nokyu [KHNP Central Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2013-10-15

In the paper, contrary to HRP approach, no more FPD is introduced because there is no room to install. The same workstation and the same LDP should be utilized for ream transparency. A action sharing system will be introduced at ShinKori 3,4 MCR, and further applied to other APR1400 plant if necessary. The project started and applied by the end of 2014. Despite benefit of action sharing system, there are lots of challenges to overcome such as traffic load, and interfaces. The challenges have been analyzed thoroughly. Traffic load can be reduced through vector graphics, video driver, and capture and compressing techniques. Furthermore interfaces for action sharing system are developed and evaluated to reduce secondary workload. Advanced digital control rooms have lots of advantages compared to analog control room. They can integrate all process variables into more comprehensible forms. Advanced alarm processor can suppress trivial alarms, and P and ID based mimic isplays can be integrated with context sensitive menu for referencing. Moreover computer based procedures have been introduced at more advanced MCR. Because all these display appears at flat panel display (FPD), they can be easily modified if necessary. These days newly introduced MCRs are advanced types, and analog control rooms are no more built. In spite of this trend, advanced control rooms have shortage in view of team transparency. For example, shift supervisor cannot tell which devices reactor operator is manipulating. APR1400 MCR has large display panel to share the same situation awareness among crew member. Because LDP has fixed display comparing switchable display in FPD, situation awareness can be enhanced. However, even LDP cannot show the active device that crew member are manipulating due to either limited number of devices in LDP or no demarcation for the active device. During construction of ShinKori 3/4, the demarcation box for the active device has been introduced and called an Active

Study on Determination Method of Fatigue Testing Load for Wind Turbine Blade

Science.gov (United States)

Liao, Gaohua; Wu, Jianzhong

2017-07-01

In this paper, the load calculation method of the fatigue test was studied for the wind turbine blade under uniaxial loading. The characteristics of wind load and blade equivalent load were analyzed. The fatigue property and damage theory of blade material were studied. The fatigue load for 2MW blade was calculated by Bladed, and the stress calculated by ANSYS. Goodman modified exponential function S-N curve and linear cumulative damage rule were used to calculate the fatigue load of wind turbine blades. It lays the foundation for the design and experiment of wind turbine blade fatigue loading system.

Modular load flow for restructured power systems

CERN Document Server

Hariharan, M V; Gupta, Pragati P

2016-01-01

In the subject of power systems, authors felt that a re-look is necessary at some conventional methods of analysis. In this book, the authors have subjected the time-honoured load flow to a close scrutiny. Authors have discovered and discussed a new load flow procedure – Modular Load Flow. Modular Load Flow explores use of power – a scalar – as source for electrical circuits which are conventionally analysed by means of phasors – the ac voltages or currents. The method embeds Kirchhoff’s circuit laws as topological property into its scalar equations and results in a unique wonderland where phase angles do not exist! Generators are shown to have their own worlds which can be superimposed to obtain the state of the composite power system. The treatment is useful in restructured power systems where stakeholders and the system operators may desire to know individual generator contributions in line flows and line losses for commercial reasons. Solution in Modular Load Flow consists of explicit expression...

Fabrication of Sericin/Agrose Gel Loaded Lysozyme and Its Potential in Wound Dressing Application

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meirong Yang

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Sericin is a biomaterial resource for its significant biodegradability, biocompatibility, hydrophilicity, and reactivity. Designing a material with superabsorbent, antiseptic, and non-cytotoxic wound dressing properties is advantageous to reduce wound infection and promote wound healing. Herein, we propose an environment-friendly strategy to obtain an interpenetrating polymer network gel through blending sericin and agarose and freeze-drying. The physicochemical characterizations of the sericin/agarose gel including morphology, porosity, swelling behavior, crystallinity, secondary structure, and thermal property were well characterized. Subsequently, the lysozyme loaded sericin/agarose composite gel was successfully prepared by the solution impregnation method. To evaluate the potential of the lysozyme loaded sericin/agarose gel in wound dressing application, we analyzed the lysozyme loading and release, antimicrobial activity, and cytocompatibility of the resulting gel. The results showed the lysozyme loaded composite gel had high porosity, excellent water absorption property, and good antimicrobial activities against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Also, the lysozyme loaded gel showed excellent cytocompatibility on NIH3T3 and HEK293 cells. So, the lysozyme loaded sericin/agarose gel is a potential alternative biomaterial for wound dressing.

A gravity loading countermeasure skinsuit

Science.gov (United States)

Waldie, James M.; Newman, Dava J.

2011-04-01

Despite the use of several countermeasures, significant physiological deconditioning still occurs during long duration spaceflight. Bone loss - primarily due to the absence of loading in microgravity - is perhaps the greatest challenge to resolve. This paper describes a conceptual Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit (GLCS) that induces loading on the body to mimic standing and - when integrated with other countermeasures - exercising on Earth. Comfort, mobility and other operational issues were explored during a pilot study carried out in parabolic flight for prototype suits worn by three subjects. Compared to the 1- or 2-stage Russian Pingvin Suits, the elastic mesh of the GLCS can create a loading regime that gradually increases in hundreds of stages from the shoulders to the feet, thereby reproducing the weight-bearing regime normally imparted by gravity with much higher resolution. Modelling shows that the skinsuit requires less than 10 mmHg (1.3 kPa) of compression for three subjects of varied gender, height and mass. Negligible mobility restriction and excellent comfort properties were found during the parabolic flights, which suggests that crewmembers should be able to work normally, exercise or sleep while wearing the suit. The suit may also serve as a practical 1 g harness for exercise countermeasures and vibration applications to improve dynamic loading.

Time- & Load-Dependence of Triboelectric Effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Shuaihang; Yin, Nian; Zhang, Zhinan

2018-02-06

Time- and load-dependent friction behavior is considered as important for a long time, due to its time-evolution and force-driving characteristics. However, its electronic behavior, mainly considered in triboelectric effect, has almost never been given the full attention and analyses from the above point of view. In this paper, by experimenting with fcc-latticed aluminum and copper friction pairs, the mechanical and electronic behaviors of friction contacts are correlated by time and load analyses, and the behind physical understanding is provided. Most importantly, the difference of "response lag" in force and electricity is discussed, the extreme points of coefficient of friction with the increasing normal loads are observed and explained with the surface properties and dynamical behaviors (i.e. wear), and the micro and macro theories linking tribo-electricity to normal load and wear (i.e. the physical explanation between coupled electrical and mechanical phenomena) are successfully developed and tested.

Effect of load, area of contact, and contact stress on the tribological properties of polyimide bonded graphite fluoride films

Science.gov (United States)

Fusaro, R. L.

1981-01-01

A pin-on-disk type of friction and wear apparatus was used to study the effect of load, contact stress and rider area of contact on the friction and wear properties of polyimide-bonded graphite fluoride films. Different rider area contacts were obtained by initially generating flats (with areas of 0.0035, 0.0071, 0.0145, and 0.0240 cm) on 0.476-cm radius hemispherically-tipped riders. Different projected contact stresses were obtained by applying loads of 2.5-to 58.8-N to the flats. Two film wear mechanisms were observed. The first was found to be a linear function of contact stress and was independent of rider area of contact. The second was found to increase exponentially as the stress increased. The second also appeared to be a function of rider contact area. Wear equations for each mechanism were empirically derived from the experimental data. In general, friction coefficients increased with increasing rider contact area and with sliding duration. This was related to the build-up of thick rider transfer films.

To share or not to share : Parental, sibling, and situational influences on sharing with a younger sibling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Berkel, Sheila R.; Van Der Pol, Lotte D.; Groeneveld, Marleen G.; Hallers-Haalboom, Elizabeth T.; Endendijk, Joyce J.; Mesman, Judi; Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J.

2015-01-01

Sharing is an important indicator of internalised prosocial values. We examined predictors of sharing of 302 preschoolers with their younger siblings in a one-year longitudinal study. Sharing was observed during different home visits, once with father and once with mother. We examined the following

To share or not to share, that is the question. Conditions for the willingness to share knowledge

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Andriessen, J.H.E.

2006-01-01

Sharing knowledge is an important aspect of most modern organisation. Ideas about how to stimulate knowledge sharing abound, but without much theorising. The objective of this article is to link basic motivation theories to empirical studies of knowledge sharing and its conditions. The paper starts

Ordinary Share Price Behaviour Around 'C' Share Issues by Investment Trusts

OpenAIRE

Adams, Andrew T; Szakacs, M

1995-01-01

This paper examines the "C" share issue, a method of issuing shares which is peculiar to the UK investment trust industry. In particular, we analyse abnormal returns and discount/premium to net asset value behaviour of the ordinary shares both before and after the announcement of "C" share issues. The research was conducted using event study methodology and an innovative approach to the analysis of discount/premium movements. The results suggest a tendency for the ordinary shares to outperfor...

Distributed Secondary Control for DC Microgrid Applications with Enhanced Current Sharing Accuracy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lu, Xiaonan; Guerrero, Josep M.; Sun, Kai

2013-01-01

With the consideration of line resistances in a dc microgrid, the current sharing accuracy is lowered down, since the dc output voltage cannot be exactly the same for different interfacing converters. Meanwhile, the dc bus voltage deviation is involved by using droop control. In this paper...... control diagram is accomplished and the requirement of distributed configuration in a microgrid is satisfied. The experimental validation based on a 2×2.2 kW prototype was implemented to demonstrate the proposed approach......., a distributed secondary control method is proposed. Droop control is employed as the primary control method for load current sharing. Meanwhile, the dc output voltage and current in each module is transferred to the others by the low bandwidth communication (LBC) network. Average voltage and current controllers...

Sedative load and salivary secretion and xerostomia in community-dwelling older people.

Science.gov (United States)

Tiisanoja, Antti; Syrjälä, Anna-Maija; Komulainen, Kaija; Hartikainen, Sirpa; Taipale, Heidi; Knuuttila, Matti; Ylöstalo, Pekka

2016-06-01

The aim was to investigate how sedative load and the total number of drugs used are related to hyposalivation and xerostomia among 75-year-old or older dentate, non-smoking, community-dwelling people. The study population consisted of 152 older people from the Oral Health GeMS study. The data were collected by interviews and clinical examinations during 2004-2005. Sedative load, which measures the cumulative effect of taking multiple drugs with sedative properties, was calculated using the Sedative Load Model. The results showed that participants with a sedative load of either 1-2 or ≥3 had an increased likelihood of having low stimulated salivary flow (xerostomia (OR: 2.5, CI: 0.5-12) compared with participants without a sedative load. The results showed that the association between the total number of drugs and hyposalivation was weaker than the association between sedative load and hyposalivation. Sedative load is strongly related to hyposalivation and to a lesser extent with xerostomia. The adverse effects of drugs on saliva secretion are specifically related to drugs with sedative properties. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons A/S and The Gerodontology Association. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Probing the impact of loading rate on the mechanical properties of viral nanoparticles

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Snijder, J.; Ivanovska, I.L.; Baclayon, M.; Roos, W.H.; Wuite, G.J.L.

2012-01-01

The effects of changes in the loading rate during the forced dissociation of single bonds have been studied for a wide variety of interactions. Less is known on the loading rate dependent behaviour of more complex systems that consist of multiple bonds. Here we focus on viral nanoparticles, in

Efficiency of Capacitively Loaded Converters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Thomas; Huang, Lina; Andersen, Michael A. E.

2012-01-01

This paper explores the characteristic of capacitance versus voltage for dielectric electro active polymer (DEAP) actuator, 2kV polypropylene film capacitor as well as 3kV X7R multi layer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) at the beginning. An energy efficiency for capacitively loaded converters...... is introduced as a definition of efficiency. The calculated and measured efficiency curves for charging DEAP actuator, polypropylene film capacitor and X7R MLCC are provided and compared. The attention has to be paid for the voltage dependent capacitive load, like X7R MLCC, when evaluating the charging...... polypropylene film capacitor can be the equivalent capacitive load. Because of the voltage dependent characteristic, X7R MLCC cannot be used to replace the DEAP actuator. However, this type of capacitor can be used to substitute the capacitive actuator with voltage dependent property at the development phase....

Simultaneous loading patterns optimization for two successive cycles of pressurized water reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, Akio; Sugimura, Erina; Kitamura, Yasunori; Yamane, Yoshihiro

2004-01-01

In this paper, simultaneous optimization is carried out for successive two cycles of pressurized water reactors. At first, a simplified problem of the simultaneous optimization was studied by assuming the batch-wise power sharing as independent variable, i.e., batch-wise power sharing was optimized without considering corresponding loading patterns. The optimization of the batch-wise power sharing was carried out for the conventional single cycle, the equilibrium cycle and the two successive (tandem) cycles. The analysis indicated that the tandem cycle optimization well reproduce that of the equilibrium cycle optimization, which is considered as a typical case of the true multicycle optimization. Next, simultaneous optimization of loading patterns for tandem cycles is carried out using the simulated annealing method. Since the design space of the tandem cycles optimization is much larger than that of the conventional single cycle optimization, the optimization condition (i.e., number of calculated patterns) are established through sensitivity study. The optimization results are compared with those obtained by the successive single cycle optimizations and it is clarified that the successive single cycle optimization well reproduces the optimization results obtained by the simultaneous optimization if objective functions are appropriately chosen. The above result will be encouraging for the current in-core optimization method since single cycle optimization is utilized due to limitation of computation time. (author)

To Share or Not to Share: Parental, Sibling, and Situational Influences on Sharing with a Younger Sibling

Science.gov (United States)

Van Berkel, Sheila R.; Van der Pol, Lotte D.; Groeneveld, Marleen G.; Hallers-Haalboom, Elizabeth T.; Endendijk, Joyce J.; Mesman, Judi; Bakermans-Kranenburg, Marian J.

2015-01-01

Sharing is an important indicator of internalised prosocial values. We examined predictors of sharing of 302 preschoolers with their younger siblings in a one-year longitudinal study. Sharing was observed during different home visits, once with father and once with mother. We examined the following predictors: both children's externalising…

Poling of PVDF matrix composites for integrated structural load sensing

Science.gov (United States)

Haghiashtiani, Ghazaleh; Greminger, Michael A.; Zhao, Ping

2014-03-01

The purpose of this study is to create and evaluate a smart composite structure that can be used for integrated load sensing and structural health monitoring. In this structure, PVDF films are used as the matrix material instead of epoxy resin or other thermoplastics. The reinforcements are two layers of carbon fiber with one layer of Kevlar separating them. Due to the electrical conductivity properties of carbon fiber and the dielectric effect of Kevlar, the structure acts as a capacitor. Furthermore, the piezoelectric properties of the PVDF matrix can be used to monitor the response of the structure under applied loads. In order to exploit the piezoelectric properties of PVDF, the PVDF material must be polarized to align the dipole moments of its crystalline structure. The optimal condition for poling the structure was found by performing a 23 factorial design of experiment (DoE). The factors that were studied in DoE were temperature, voltage, and duration of poling. Finally, the response of the poled structure was monitored by exposing the samples to an applied load.

Ratcheting of pressurized piping subjected to seismic loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scavuzzo, R.J.; Lam, P.C.; Gau, J.S.

1992-01-01

The ABAQUS finite element code was used to model a pressurized pipe and subjected to cyclic bending loads to investigate ratcheting. A 1-in. schedule 40 pipe was loaded with a slow (static) cyclic load. The pipe internal pressure was varied from 0 to 6000 psi. In this paper, two types of materials were considered: an elastic perfectly plastic and a bilinear elastic-plastic material. Two types of finite elements of the ABAQUS program were compared to analytical solutions to evaluate the element accuracy in the plastic regime. Depending upon loading conditions and specified material properties, three different responses were observed from the finite element analyses: cyclic plasticity, ratcheting of the hoop strain, or shakedown. These analytical results are compared to some experimental measurements

Mixed Membrane Matrices Based on Nafion/UiO-66/SO3H-UiO-66 Nano-MOFs: Revealing the Effect of Crystal Size, Sulfonation, and Filler Loading on the Mechanical and Conductivity Properties.

Science.gov (United States)

Donnadio, Anna; Narducci, Riccardo; Casciola, Mario; Marmottini, Fabio; D'Amato, Roberto; Jazestani, Mehdi; Chiniforoshan, Hossein; Costantino, Ferdinando

2017-12-06

Mixed membrane matrices (MMMs) made up with Nafion and nanocrystals of zirconium metal-organic framework (MOF) UiO-66 or the analogous sulfonated SO 3 H-UiO-66 were prepared by varying the filler loading and the size of the crystals. The combined effects of size and loading, together with the presence of sulfonic groups covalently linked to the MOFs, were studied with regard to the conductivity and mechanical properties of the obtained composite matrices. A large screening of membranes was preliminarily made and, on the most promising samples, an accurate conductivity study at different relative humidities and temperatures was also carried out. The results showed that membranes containing large crystals (200 nm average size) in low amounts (around 2%) displayed the best results in terms of proton conductivity values, reaching values by 30% higher than those of pure Nafion, while leaving the mechanical properties substantially unchanged. On the contrary, MMMs containing MOFs of small size (20 nm average size) did not show any conductivity improvements if compared to pure Nafion membranes. The effect of MOF sulfonation was negligible at low filler loading whereas it became important at loading values around 10%. Finally, membranes with a high filler loading (up to 60 wt %) of sulfonated UiO-66 showed a slight reduction of conductivity in comparison with membranes loaded at 20% of nonsulfonated ones.

Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Epoxy Composites Containing Zirconia-Impregnated Halloysite Nanotubes with Different Loadings.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Suhyun; Kim, Moon Il; Shon, Minyoung; Seo, Bongkuk; Lim, Choongsun

2018-09-01

Epoxy resins are widely used in various industrial fields due to their low cost, good workability, heat resistance, and good mechanical strength. However, they suffer from brittleness, an issue that must be addressed for further applications. To solve this problem, additional fillers are needed to improve the mechanical and thermal properties of the resins; zirconia is one such filler. However, it has been reported that aggregation may occur in the epoxy composites as the amount of zirconia increases, preventing enhancement of the mechanical strength of the epoxy composites. Herein, to reduce the aggregation, zirconia was well dispersed on halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), which have high thermal and mechanical strength, by a conventional wet impregnation method. The HNTs were impregnated with zirconia at different loadings using zirconyl chloride octahydrate as a precursor. The mechanical and thermal strengths of the epoxy composites with these fillers were investigated. The zirconia-impregnated HNTs (Zr/HNT) were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and tunneling electron microscopy (TEM). The hardening conditions of the epoxy composites were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermal strength of the epoxy composites was studied by thermomechanical analysis (TMA) and micro-calorimetry and the mechanical strength of the epoxy composites (flexural strength and tensile strength) was studied by using a universal testing machine (UTM). The mechanical and thermal strengths of the epoxy composites with Zr/HNT were improved compared to those of the epoxy composite with HNT, and also increased as the zirconia loading on HNT increased.

Life prediction of different commercial dental implants as influence by uncertainties in their fatigue material properties and loading conditions.

Science.gov (United States)

Pérez, M A

2012-12-01

Probabilistic analyses allow the effect of uncertainty in system parameters to be determined. In the literature, many researchers have investigated static loading effects on dental implants. However, the intrinsic variability and uncertainty of most of the main problem parameters are not accounted for. The objective of this research was to apply a probabilistic computational approach to predict the fatigue life of three different commercial dental implants considering the variability and uncertainty in their fatigue material properties and loading conditions. For one of the commercial dental implants, the influence of its diameter in the fatigue life performance was also studied. This stochastic technique was based on the combination of a probabilistic finite element method (PFEM) and a cumulative damage approach known as B-model. After 6 million of loading cycles, local failure probabilities of 0.3, 0.4 and 0.91 were predicted for the Lifecore, Avinent and GMI implants, respectively (diameter of 3.75mm). The influence of the diameter for the GMI implant was studied and the results predicted a local failure probability of 0.91 and 0.1 for the 3.75mm and 5mm, respectively. In all cases the highest failure probability was located at the upper screw-threads. Therefore, the probabilistic methodology proposed herein may be a useful tool for performing a qualitative comparison between different commercial dental implants. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

What to Share and Why to Share? A Case Study of CrossBoundary Information Sharing in Taiwan e-Government

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tung-Mou Yang

2013-06-01

Full Text Available In the public sector, cross-boundary information sharing has been an important theme among governmental collaboration and is critical to organizational efficiency and performance. This research explores the types and characteristics of shared information and the intended purposes of information sharing. In the case study, the cross-boundary shared information can be abstracted into five fundamental types: the collected raw data, the value-added information, the administration oriented information, the administration-oriented knowledge, and the domain-oriented knowledge. Another framework is proposed to conceptualize the purposes of interagency information sharing. The identified seven purposes are administrative work, information search and verification, information aggregation, business process chain, innovative service, experience-based knowledge sharing, and crisis and emergency. The seven purposes do not mean to be an exhaustive list but to provide an initial conceptualization to perceive the functionalities and roles that cross-boundary information sharing plays among government agencies. The two proposed frameworks can help both researchers and practitioners perceive and clarify the fundamental part of cross-boundary information sharing in the public sector. The finding of this research is also expected to enrich the current information-sharing theories and to contribute to the current e-Government literature from an international perspective.

Dosimetric properties of carbon loaded LiF detectors for beta photon extremity dosimetry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burgkhardt, B.; Klipfel, A.

1990-01-01

The dosimetric properties of carbon loaded LiF detectors manufactured by Alnor and Vinten are presented in comparison with various LiF detectors. In particular, the beta and photon response, the residual reading after repeated annealing in the oven or reader as well as light sensitivity and fading are discussed. In comparison with LiF detectors of 240 mg.cm -2 , LiF + C detectors indicate a photon response of only 2% and in finger rings irradiated on a finger phantom an unexpected high photon energy response. Regarding repeated use, oven annealing in air or N 2 affects mainly Vinten LiF + 1% C by discoloration and reduces the 147 Pm response of LiF + C detectors by between 1% and 6% per N 2 annealing, whereas reader annealing in the Toledo and Alnor reader does not affect the relative beta response. The residual dose H 0 of LiF + C remains sufficiently low after oven annealing, but increases for Alnor LiF + 4% C after reader annealing, which is therefore more suitable for Vinten LiF + 1% C. Spurious detector reading exceeds H 0 and its standard deviation by a factor of 2 to 3. (author)

Polycrystalline deformation in engineering materials: Insights from neutron diffraction during loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bourke, M.; Brown, D.

1999-01-01

In-situ measurements using the non-destructive penetration of neutrons are commonplace at neutron sources and permit investigations within environmental chambers at stress, pressure, or temperature. Many of these studies explore the microstructural performance of engineering materials under service conditions. For example, by measuring phase strains during the application of static loads, neutron diffraction provides insight into failure, relaxation and load transfer mechanisms. Mechanical loading of a sample on a neutron spectrometer is usually performed with a customized load frame (small enough to fit into the typically limited available space) with the load axis horizontal. Diffraction data are recorded using detectors that surround the sample and strains are determined from changes in the measured interplanar lattice spacings in directions determined by the scattering geometry. These elastic strains indicate how the applied stress is shared throughout the microstructure. During a test, conventional strain gauges also record the macroscopic strain; that is the sum of the plastic and elastic contributions. Beyond yield the plastic contribution usually dominates the total strain but the elastic phase strains respond to the applied stress at any given load and provide clues about which phase (in a multiphase system) or which crystal orientation (in a single phase polycrystal) dictates failure

Property of filler-loaded magnetic ferrite from plastic waste bottle used to treat municipal domestic sewage.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Ru-Jin; Gong, Li-Ying; Zhu, Hai-Dong; Liu, Qiao; Xu, Li-Xia; Lu, Lu; Yang, Qi-Zhi

2018-06-01

The present work investigates the properties of self-made magnetic filler from plastic waste bottle and explores a new technology approach of waste plastic resource utilization. The magnetic filler was prepared by air plasma modification and loading magnetic ferrite on the plastic strip from waste plastic bottle. The surface properties of magnetic filler were characterized by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), contact angle system and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). AFM images of original and modified plastic strip showed that low-temperature plasma treatment markedly increased the surface roughness of plastic strip. The mean roughness (Ra) of plastic strip rose from 1.116 to 5.024 nm. FTIR spectra indicated that a lot of polar oxygenic groups were introduced onto the surface of plastic by plasma modification. Modification by low-temperature plasma increased the hydrophilicity of plastic strip surface. When treatment time is 40 s, water contact angle of plastic strip surface reduced from 78.2° of original plastic strip to 25.3°. When used in bioreactor, magnetic filler had very favorable microenvironment for microorganism growth. Magnetic filler was more efficient for removing chemical oxygen demand (COD) and [Formula: see text] in sewage than nonmagnetic filler. The resource utilization of plastic wastes will become reality if the magnetic filler is applied widely.

Formal requirements for exclusion of the preferential right to shares

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marjanski Vladimir

2014-01-01

Full Text Available A preferential subscription right to shares is a subjective property right of a shareholder based on which he or she has a preferential right of subscription to shares from a new issue in proportion to the number of fully paid-in shares of that class he or she holds on the date of adoption of the decision on issuing of shares compared with the total number of shares of that class. However, this right of a shareholder can be completely or partially excluded, if formal and substantial requirements for such exclusion are met. This paper focuses primarily on analysis of formal requirements for exclusion envisaged by the Serbian Law on Companies with a brief review of EU law and comparative law. According to the Serbian Law on Companies, there are three formal requirements for exclusion of a preferential subscription right: 1. shares are issued through the offer for which there is no obligation to publish a prospectus; 2. there is a written proposal for exclusion from the Board of Directors, or of the Supervisory Board if a company has a two-tier management system; 3. the exclusion is based on a decision of the General Meeting of the Joint-stock company. With regards formal requirements, the paper concentrates on several weaknesses of the Serbian Law on Companies which considerably undermine the position of the so-called small shareholders.

Evolutionary Game Theory-Based Evaluation of P2P File-Sharing Systems in Heterogeneous Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yusuke Matsuda

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Peer-to-Peer (P2P file sharing is one of key technologies for achieving attractive P2P multimedia social networking. In P2P file-sharing systems, file availability is improved by cooperative users who cache and share files. Note that file caching carries costs such as storage consumption and processing load. In addition, users have different degrees of cooperativity in file caching and they are in different surrounding environments arising from the topological structure of P2P networks. With evolutionary game theory, this paper evaluates the performance of P2P file sharing systems in such heterogeneous environments. Using micro-macro dynamics, we analyze the impact of the heterogeneity of user selfishness on the file availability and system stability. Further, through simulation experiments with agent-based dynamics, we reveal how other aspects, for example, synchronization among nodes and topological structure, affect the system performance. Both analytical and simulation results show that the environmental heterogeneity contributes to the file availability and system stability.

A gelatin composite scaffold strengthened by drug-loaded halloysite nanotubes.

Science.gov (United States)

Ji, Lijun; Qiao, Wei; Zhang, Yuheng; Wu, Huayu; Miao, Shiyong; Cheng, Zhilin; Gong, Qianming; Liang, Ji; Zhu, Aiping

2017-09-01

Mechanical properties and anti-infection are two of the most concerned issues for artificial bone grafting materials. Bone regeneration porous scaffolds with sustained drug release were developed by freeze-drying the mixture of nanosized drug-loaded halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and gelatin. The scaffolds showed porous structure and excellent biocompatibility. The mechanical properties of the obtained composite scaffolds were enhanced significantly by HNTs to >300%, comparing to those of gelatin scaffold, and match to those of natural cancellous bones. The ibuprofen-loaded HNTs incorporated in the scaffolds allowed extended drug release over 100h, comparing to 8h when directly mixed the drug into the gelatin scaffold. The biological properties of the composite scaffolds were investigated by culturing MG63 cells on them. The HNTs/gelatin scaffolds with excellent mechanical properties and sustained drug release could be a promising artificial bone grating material. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

NO{sub 2} gas sensing of flame-made Pt-loaded WO{sub 3} thick films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Samerjai, Thanittha [Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Program, Faculty of Graduate School, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200 (Thailand); Tamaekong, Nittaya [Program in Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Maejo University, Chiang Mai 50290 (Thailand); Liewhiran, Chaikarn [Department of Physics and Materials Science, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200 (Thailand); Wisitsoraat, Anurat [Nanoelectronics and MEMS Laboratory, National Electronics and Computer Technology Center, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120 (Thailand); Phanichphant, Sukon, E-mail: sphanichphant@yahoo.com [Materials Science Research Center, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200 (Thailand)

2014-06-01

Unloaded WO{sub 3} and 0.25–1.0 wt% Pt-loaded WO{sub 3} nanoparticles for NO{sub 2} gas detection were synthesized by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) and characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The BET surface area (SSA{sub BET}) of the nanoparticles was measured by nitrogen adsorption. The NO{sub 2} sensing properties of the sensors based on unloaded and Pt-loaded WO{sub 3} nanoparticles were investigated. The results showed that the gas sensing properties of the Pt-loaded WO{sub 3} sensors were excellent to those of the unloaded one. Especially, 0.25 wt% Pt-loaded WO{sub 3} sensor showed highest response to NO{sub 2} than the others at low operating temperature of 150 °C. - Graphical abstract: The response of 0.25 wt% Pt-loaded WO3 sensor was 637 towards NO{sub 2} concentration of 10 ppm at 150 °C. - Highlights: • Unloaded and Pt-loaded WO{sub 3} nanoparticles for NO{sub 2} gas detection were synthesized by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP). • Gas sensing properties of the Pt-loaded WO{sub 3} sensors were excellent to those of the unloaded one. • 0.25 wt% Pt-loaded WO{sub 3} sensor showed highest response to NO{sub 2} at low operating temperature of 150 °C.

"Job-Sharing" Storage of Hydrogen in Ru/Li₂O Nanocomposites.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Lijun; Tang, Kun; Oh, Hyunchul; Manickam, Kandavel; Bräuniger, Thomas; Chandran, C Vinod; Menzel, Alexander; Hirscher, Michael; Samuelis, Dominik; Maier, Joachim

2015-06-10

A "job-sharing" hydrogen storage mechanism is proposed and experimentally investigated in Ru/Li2O nanocomposites in which H(+) is accommodated on the Li2O side, while H(-) or e(-) is stored on the side of Ru. Thermal desorption-mass spectroscopy results show that after loading with D2, Ru/Li2O exhibits an extra desorption peak, which is in contrast to Ru nanoparticles or ball-milled Li2O alone, indicating a synergistic hydrogen storage effect due to the presence of both phases. By varying the ratio of the two phases, it is shown that the effect increases monotonically with the area of the heterojunctions, indicating interface related hydrogen storage. X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic resonance results show that a weak LiO···D bond is formed after loading in Ru/Li2O nanocomposites with D2. The storage-pressure curve seems to favor H(+)/H(-) over H(+)/e(-) mechanism.

Universal algorithm of time sharing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silin, I.N.; Fedyun'kin, E.D.

1979-01-01

Timesharing system algorithm is proposed for the wide class of one- and multiprocessor computer configurations. Dynamical priority is the piece constant function of the channel characteristic and system time quantum. The interactive job quantum has variable length. Characteristic recurrent formula is received. The concept of the background job is introduced. Background job loads processor if high priority jobs are inactive. Background quality function is given on the base of the statistical data received in the timesharing process. Algorithm includes optimal trashing off procedure for the jobs replacements in the memory. Sharing of the system time in proportion to the external priorities is guaranteed for the all active enough computing channels (back-ground too). The fast answer is guaranteed for the interactive jobs, which use small time and memory. The external priority control is saved for the high level scheduler. The experience of the algorithm realization on the BESM-6 computer in JINR is discussed

36 CFR 212.9 - Principles for sharing use of roads.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... roads. 212.9 Section 212.9 Parks, Forests, and Public Property FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE... of roads. The use of roads under arrangements for sharing costs or performance shall be in accordance with the following: (a) Road improvement. Use of a road for commercial hauling, except occasional or...

Behavior of prestressed concrete subjected to low temperatures and cyclic loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berner, D.E.

1984-01-01

Concrete has exhibited excellent behavior in cryogenic containment vessels for several decades under essentially static conditions. Tests were conducted to determine the response of prestressed lightweight concrete subjected to high-intensity cyclic loading and simultaneous cryogenic thermal shock, simulating the relatively dynamic conditions encountered offshore or in seismic areas. Lightweight concrete has several attractive properties for cryogenic service including: (1) very low permeability, (2) good strain capacity, (3) relatively low thermal conductivity, and (4) a low modulus of elasticity. Experimental results indicated that the mechanical properties of plain lightweight concrete significantly increase with moisture content at low temperatures, while cyclic loading fatigue effects are reduced at low temperatures. Also, tests on uniaxially and on biaxially prestressed lightweight concrete both indicate that the test specimens performed well under severe cyclic loading and cryogenic thermal shock with only moderate reduction in flexural stiffness. Supplementary tests conducted in this study indicate that conventionally reinforced concrete degrades significantly faster than prestressed concrete when subjected to cyclic loading and thermal shock

Racial Discrimination in the Sharing Economy: Evidence from a Field Experiment

OpenAIRE

Edelman, Benjamin Gordon; Luca, Michael; Svirsky, Daniel Alejandro

2017-01-01

In an experiment on Airbnb, we find that applications from guests with distinctively African-American names are 16% less likely to be accepted relative to identical guests with distinctively White names. Discrimination occurs among landlords of all sizes, including small landlords sharing the property and larger landlords with multiple properties. It is most pronounced among hosts who have never had an African-American guest, suggesting only a subset of hosts discriminate. While rental market...

The Sharing Economy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Avital, Michel; Carroll, John M.; Hjalmarsson, Anders

2015-01-01

The sharing economy is spreading rapidly worldwide in a number of industries and markets. The disruptive nature of this phenomenon has drawn mixed responses ranging from active conflict to adoption and assimilation. Yet, in spite of the growing attention to the sharing economy, we still do not know...... much about it. With the abundant enthusiasm about the benefits that the sharing economy can unleash and the weekly reminders about its dark side, further examination is required to determine the potential of the sharing economy while mitigating its undesirable side effects. The panel will join...... the ongoing debate about the sharing economy and contribute to the discourse with insights about how digital technologies are critical in shaping this turbulent ecosystem. Furthermore, we will define an agenda for future research on the sharing economy as it becomes part of the mainstream society as well...

Investigation of Zinc Oxide-Loaded Poly(Vinyl Alcohol) Nanocomposite Films in Tailoring Their Structural, Optical and Mechanical Properties

Science.gov (United States)

Aslam, Muhammad; Kalyar, Mazhar Ali; Raza, Zulfiqar Ali

2018-04-01

Wurtzite ZnO nanoparticles, as a nanofiller, were incorporated in a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) matrix to prepare multipurpose nanocomposite films using a solution casting approach. Some advanced analytical techniques were used to investigate the properties of prepared nanocomposite films. The mediation of ZnO nanofillers resulted in modification of structural, optical and mechanical properties of nanocomposite films. A comprehensive band structure investigation might be useful for designing technological applications like in optoelectronic devices. The experimental results were found to be closely dependent on the nanofiller contents. Some theoretical models like Tauc's and Wemple-DiDomenico, were employed to investigate the band structure parameters. The imaginary part of the dielectric constant was used to investigate the band gap. Then, the Helpin-Tsai model was employed to predict Young's moduli of the prepared nanocomposite films. On 3 wt.% ZnO nanofiller loading, the optical band gap of the PVA-based nanocomposite film was decreased from 5.26 eV to 3 eV, the tensile strength increased from 25.3 MPa to 48 MPa and Young's modulus increased from 144 MPa to 544 MPa.

Static and dynamic load-balancing strategies for parallel reservoir simulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anguille, L.; Killough, J.E.; Li, T.M.C.; Toepfer, J.L.

1995-01-01

Accurate simulation of the complex phenomena that occur in flow in porous media can tax even the most powerful serial computers. Emergence of new parallel computer architectures as a future efficient tool in reservoir simulation may overcome this difficulty. Unfortunately, major problems remain to be solved before using parallel computers commercially: production serial programs must be rewritten to be efficient in parallel environments and load balancing methods must be explored to evenly distribute the workload on each processor during the simulation. This study implements both a static load-balancing algorithm and a receiver-initiated dynamic load-sharing algorithm to achieve high parallel efficiencies on both the IBM SP2 and Intel IPSC/860 parallel computers. Significant speedup improvement was recorded for both methods. Further optimization of these algorithms yielded a technique with efficiencies as high as 90% and 70% on 8 and 32 nodes, respectively. The increased performance was the result of the minimization of message-passing overhead

Effect of load on the tribological properties of hypereutectic Al-Si alloy under boundary lubrication conditions

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Parveen; Wani, M. F.

2017-11-01

Researchers reported that the IC engine components (piston, cylinder liner etc) fail due to the friction losses (~45%) and wear losses (~25-40%). So the demand of light weight, low friction and wear resistance alloys increases day by day, which reduces the emission and increases the efficiency of the IC engine. In this connection, tribological tests on hypereutectic Al-25Si alloy were performed using a ball-on-disk configuration under dry and lubricated sliding conditions. Hypereutectic Al-25Si alloy was prepared by rapid solidification process with T6 condition. T6 condition improves the friction, wear and mechanical properties of the alloy. Friction coefficient and wear rate of the alloy was measured under high loads ranging from 100 to 300 N. It was found that the friction coefficient (COF) and wear rate of hypereutectic Al-25Si alloy/steel tribo pair increased with increase in load. Significant reduction in COF and wear rate was accomplished with SAE20W50 engine oil and Si particles act as solid lubricant. Optical microscope, 3D surface profilometer and scanning electron microscope (SEM) coupled with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) were used for characterization the worn surface morphologies. The morphology, size and distribution of high Si particles due to its fabrication process caused the improvements in COF and wear rate under lubricated conditions. Adhesive wear, abrasive wear and plastic deformation acted as the dominant wear mechanism for hypereutectic Al-25Si alloy.

Joint multiuser switched diversity and adaptive modulation schemes for spectrum sharing systems

KAUST Repository

Qaraqe, Marwa

2012-12-01

In this paper, we develop multiuser access schemes for spectrum sharing systems whereby secondary users are allowed to share the spectrum with primary users under the condition that the interference observed at the primary receiver is below a predetermined threshold. In particular, we devise two schemes for selecting a user among those that satisfy the interference constraint and achieve an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio level. The first scheme selects the user that reports the best channel quality. In order to alleviate the high feedback load associated with the first scheme, we develop a second scheme based on the concept of switched diversity where the base station scans the users in a sequential manner until an acceptable user is found. In addition to these two selection schemes, we consider two power adaptive settings at the secondary users based on the amount of interference available at the secondary transmitter. In the On/Off power setting, users are allowed to transmit based on whether the interference constraint is met or not, while in the full power adaptive setting, the users are allowed to vary their transmission power to satisfy the interference constraint. Finally, we present numerical results for our proposed algorithms where we show the trade-off between the average spectral efficiency and average feedback load for both schemes. © 2012 IEEE.

Joint multiuser switched diversity and adaptive modulation schemes for spectrum sharing systems

KAUST Repository

Qaraqe, Marwa; Abdallah, Mohamed M.; Serpedin, Erchin; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim; Alnuweiri, Hussein M.

2012-01-01

In this paper, we develop multiuser access schemes for spectrum sharing systems whereby secondary users are allowed to share the spectrum with primary users under the condition that the interference observed at the primary receiver is below a predetermined threshold. In particular, we devise two schemes for selecting a user among those that satisfy the interference constraint and achieve an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio level. The first scheme selects the user that reports the best channel quality. In order to alleviate the high feedback load associated with the first scheme, we develop a second scheme based on the concept of switched diversity where the base station scans the users in a sequential manner until an acceptable user is found. In addition to these two selection schemes, we consider two power adaptive settings at the secondary users based on the amount of interference available at the secondary transmitter. In the On/Off power setting, users are allowed to transmit based on whether the interference constraint is met or not, while in the full power adaptive setting, the users are allowed to vary their transmission power to satisfy the interference constraint. Finally, we present numerical results for our proposed algorithms where we show the trade-off between the average spectral efficiency and average feedback load for both schemes. © 2012 IEEE.

Self-castellation of tungsten monoblock under high heat flux loading and impact of material properties

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. Panayotis

2017-08-01

Full Text Available In the full-tungsten divertor qualification program at ITER Organization, macro-cracks, so called self-castellation were found in a fraction of tungsten monoblocks during cyclic high heat flux loading at 20MW/m2. The number of monoblocks with macro-cracks varied with the tungsten products used as armour material. In order to understand correlation between the macro-crack appearance and W properties, an activity to characterize W monoblock materials was launched at the IO. The outcome highlighted that the higher the recrystallization resistance, the lower the number of cracks detected during high heat flux tests. Thermo-mechanical finite element modelling demonstrated that the maximum surface temperature ranges from 1800 °C to 2200 °C and in this range recrystallization of tungsten occurred. Furthermore, it indicated that loss of strength due to recrystallization is responsible for the development of macro-cracks in the tungsten monoblock.

Knowledge Sharing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Holdt Christensen, Peter

The concept of knowledge management has, indeed, become a buzzword that every single organization is expected to practice and live by. Knowledge management is about managing the organization's knowledge for the common good of the organization -but practicing knowledge management is not as simple...... as that. This article focuses on knowledge sharing as the process seeking to reduce the resources spent on reinventing the wheel.The article introduces the concept of time sensitiveness; i.e. that knowledge is either urgently needed, or not that urgently needed. Furthermore, knowledge sharing...... is considered as either a push or pull system. Four strategies for sharing knowledge - help, post-it, manuals and meeting, and advice are introduced. Each strategy requires different channels for sharing knowledge. An empirical analysis in a production facility highlights how the strategies can be practiced....

Understanding negative impacts of perceived cognitive load on job learning effectiveness: a social capital solution.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Chieh-Peng

2010-12-01

This study proposes a model explaining how social capital helps ease excessively required mental effort. Although organizational researchers have studied both social capital and cognitive load, no prior research has critically examined the role of social capital in improving individuals' mental load and effort and consequently enhancing job learning effectiveness. This study surveys participants made up of professionals in Taiwan's information technology industry. It measures the constructs with the use of 5-point Likert-type scale items modified from existing literature. The survey data were analyzed with the use of structural equation modeling. Job learning effectiveness is negatively influenced by role ambiguity and role conflict. Time pressure has a positive influence on role ambiguity and role conflict Although the relationship between task complexity and role ambiguity is insignificant, task complexity has a positive influence on role conflict. Because the relationship between network ties and role conflict is insignificant, trust has a negative influence on role conflict. Last, shared vision has a negative influence on role ambiguity. This study provides an example of how social capital can be applied as a useful remedy to ease the negative impact of perceived cognitive load on job learning effectiveness. The negative relationship between shared vision and role ambiguity suggests that a shared vision helps in disseminating organizationally common goals and directions among employees to alleviate individuals' mental efforts in dealing with the ambiguity of their job roles. A firm's management team should take actions to decrease role conflict by strengthening trust among employees.

In vitro and In vivo Characterisation of Piroxicam-Loaded Dika Wax ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Purpose: To formulate piroxicam-loaded lipospheres and evaluate their in vitro and in vivo properties. Method: Piroxicam-loaded lipospheres were prepared by hot homogenization technique using dika wax and Phospholipon® 90G (1:1, 1:2 and 2:1) as the lipid matrix. Characterisation, based on particle size

Nerve growth factor loaded heparin/chitosan scaffolds for accelerating peripheral nerve regeneration.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Guicai; Xiao, Qinzhi; Zhang, Luzhong; Zhao, Yahong; Yang, Yumin

2017-09-01

Artificial chitosan scaffolds have been widely investigated for peripheral nerve regeneration. However, the effect was not as good as that of autologous grafts and therefore could not meet the clinical requirement. In the present study, the nerve growth factor (NGF) loaded heparin/chitosan scaffolds were fabricated via electrostatic interaction for further improving nerve regeneration. The physicochemical properties including morphology, wettability and composition were measured. The heparin immobilization, NGF loading and release were quantitatively and qualitatively characterized, respectively. The effect of NGF loaded heparin/chitosan scaffolds on nerve regeneration was evaluated by Schwann cells culture for different periods. The results showed that the heparin immobilization and NGF loading did not cause the change of bulk properties of chitosan scaffolds except for morphology and wettability. The pre-immobilization of heparin in chitosan scaffolds could enhance the stability of subsequently loaded NGF. The NGF loaded heparin/chitosan scaffolds could obviously improve the attachment and proliferation of Schwann cells in vitro. More importantly, the NGF loaded heparin/chitosan scaffolds could effectively promote the morphology development of Schwann cells. The study may provide a useful experimental basis to design and develop artificial implants for peripheral nerve regeneration and other tissue regeneration. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Absolute symbolic addressing, a structure making time-sharing easier

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Debraine, P.

1968-08-01

Time-sharing of computers asks for a certain number of conditions, particularly, an efficient dynamic loading of programs and data. This paper indicates a paging method making linkages with a minimum of table-looking operations. The principle is to use associative memory registers for calling blocks of physical memory, the block address being given by the concatenation of a file number (located in a base register) and a page number (located in the instruction proper). The position within the block is given by a displacement located in the instruction. A second associated base register contains the local part (page number + displacement) of the base address. This extended base register system allows executing programs in a very large programming complex without loss of time. The addresses are fixed at assembly time and the blocks can be loaded anywhere without modification for execution. The various problems associated with the execution of complex programs are presented in this context and shown to be easily solved by the proposed system, the realization of which would be very easy starting from the computer structures existing now. (author) [fr

A Qualitative Analysis of Real-Time Continuous Glucose Monitoring Data Sharing with Care Partners: To Share or Not to Share?

Science.gov (United States)

Litchman, Michelle L; Allen, Nancy A; Colicchio, Vanessa D; Wawrzynski, Sarah E; Sparling, Kerri M; Hendricks, Krissa L; Berg, Cynthia A

2018-01-01

Little research exists regarding how real-time continuous glucose monitoring (RT-CGM) data sharing plays a role in the relationship between patients and their care partners. To (1) identify the benefits and challenges related to RT-CGM data sharing from the patient and care partner perspective and (2) to explore the number and type of individuals who share and follow RT-CGM data. This qualitative content analysis was conducted by examining publicly available blogs focused on RT-CGM and data sharing. A thematic analysis of blogs and associated comments was conducted. A systematic appraisal of personal blogs examined 39 blogs with 206 corresponding comments. The results of the study provided insight about the benefits and challenges related to individuals with diabetes sharing their RT-CGM data with a care partner(s). The analysis resulted in three themes: (1) RT-CGM data sharing enhances feelings of safety, (2) the need to communicate boundaries to avoid judgment, and (3) choice about sharing and following RT-CGM data. RT-CGM data sharing occurred within dyads (n = 46), triads (n = 15), and tetrads (n = 2). Adults and children with type 1 diabetes and their care partners are empowered by the ability to share and follow RT-CGM data. Our findings suggest that RT-CGM data sharing between an individual with diabetes and their care partner can complicate relationships. Healthcare providers need to engage patients and care partners in discussions about best practices related to RT-CGM sharing and following to avoid frustrations within the relationship.

Domain-general involvement of the posterior frontolateral cortex in time-based resource-sharing in working memory: An fMRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Vergauwe, Evie; Hartstra, Egbert; Barrouillet, Pierre; Brass, Marcel

2015-07-15

Working memory is often defined in cognitive psychology as a system devoted to the simultaneous processing and maintenance of information. In line with the time-based resource-sharing model of working memory (TBRS; Barrouillet and Camos, 2015; Barrouillet et al., 2004), there is accumulating evidence that, when memory items have to be maintained while performing a concurrent activity, memory performance depends on the cognitive load of this activity, independently of the domain involved. The present study used fMRI to identify regions in the brain that are sensitive to variations in cognitive load in a domain-general way. More precisely, we aimed at identifying brain areas that activate during maintenance of memory items as a direct function of the cognitive load induced by both verbal and spatial concurrent tasks. Results show that the right IFJ and bilateral SPL/IPS are the only areas showing an increased involvement as cognitive load increases and do so in a domain general manner. When correlating the fMRI signal with the approximated cognitive load as defined by the TBRS model, it was shown that the main focus of the cognitive load-related activation is located in the right IFJ. The present findings indicate that the IFJ makes domain-general contributions to time-based resource-sharing in working memory and allowed us to generate the novel hypothesis by which the IFJ might be the neural basis for the process of rapid switching. We argue that the IFJ might be a crucial part of a central attentional bottleneck in the brain because of its inability to upload more than one task rule at once. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multi-party semi-quantum key distribution-convertible multi-party semi-quantum secret sharing

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Kun-Fei; Gu, Jun; Hwang, Tzonelih; Gope, Prosanta

2017-08-01

This paper proposes a multi-party semi-quantum secret sharing (MSQSS) protocol which allows a quantum party (manager) to share a secret among several classical parties (agents) based on GHZ-like states. By utilizing the special properties of GHZ-like states, the proposed scheme can easily detect outside eavesdropping attacks and has the highest qubit efficiency among the existing MSQSS protocols. Then, we illustrate an efficient way to convert the proposed MSQSS protocol into a multi-party semi-quantum key distribution (MSQKD) protocol. The proposed approach is even useful to convert all the existing measure-resend type of semi-quantum secret sharing protocols into semi-quantum key distribution protocols.

Banking and back-loading emission permits

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chaton, Corinne; Creti, Anna; Peluchon, Benoît

2015-01-01

In this article we focus on the so-called back-loading policy adopted by the European Commission to increase the carbon market price. This environmental measure consists of removing a share of the allowances allocated for a given period in order to reallocate some or all of them later on. To analyze the impact of the permits back-loading, we determine the CO 2 price equilibrium with and without the policy measure, considering not only the market for permits but also the output market of regulated sectors. We propose a two-period model, where the market for permits is perfectly competitive, and the output market can be either competitive or oligopolistic. First, we define the condition under which banking from one period to another is optimal. This condition, that is the absence of arbitrage opportunities (AOA), depends not only from the period initial allocation but also on production market fundamentals. When this condition is satisfied, the market for emission is shown intertemporally efficient. Second, we point out that the back-loading measure may create inefficiencies or leave unaffected the permits price, if it alters the AOA. -- Highlights: •Relationship between the market for permits and the output market of regulated sectors. •Analysis of CO 2 prices and banking. •Impact of a recent environmental policy measure (backloading) on CO 2 prices

Mechanical Properties and Real-Time Damage Evaluations of Environmental Barrier Coated SiC/SiC CMCs Subjected to Tensile Loading Under Thermal Gradients

Science.gov (United States)

Appleby, Matthew; Zhu, Dongming; Morscher, Gregory

2015-01-01

SiC/SiC ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) require new state-of-the art environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) to withstand increased temperature requirements and high velocity combustion corrosive combustion gasses. The present work compares the response of coated and uncoated SiC/SiC CMC substrates subjected to simulated engine environments followed by high temperature mechanical testing to asses retained properties and damage mechanisms. Our focus is to explore the capabilities of electrical resistance (ER) measurements as an NDE technique for testing of retained properties under combined high heat-flux and mechanical loading conditions. Furthermore, Acoustic Emission (AE) measurements and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) were performed to determine material damage onset and accumulation.

Sensitivity of lumbar spine loading to anatomical parameters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Putzer, Michael; Ehrlich, Ingo; Rasmussen, John

2016-01-01

Musculoskeletal simulations of lumbar spine loading rely on a geometrical representation of the anatomy. However, this data has an inherent inaccuracy. This study evaluates the in uence of dened geometrical parameters on lumbar spine loading utilizing ve parametrized musculoskeletal lumbar spine ...... lumbar spine model for a subject-specic approach with respect to bone geometry. Furthermore, degeneration processes could lead to computational problems and it is advised that stiffness properties of discs and ligaments should be individualized....

Enhanced Photocatalytic Properties of Ag-Loaded N-Doped Tio2 Nanotube Arrays

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gao Dawei

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Highly ordered TiO2 nanotube (TiO2 NT arrays were prepared by anodic oxidizing method on the surface of the Ti substrate. Nitrogen-doped TiO2 nanotube (N-TiO2 NT arrays were carried out by ammonia solution immersion, and Ag nanoparticles loaded N-doped TiO2 nanotube (Ag/N-TiO2 NT arrays were obtained by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR technique. The samples were characterized by the X-ray diffraction (XRD, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM, photoluminescence (PL emission spectra, ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS. The result indicated that the diameter and wall thickness of the TiO2 NT are 100–120 and 20–30 nm, respectively. Moreover, the morphology and structure of the highly ordered TiO2 NTs were not affected by N-doping. Furthermore, Ag nanoparticles were evenly deposited on the surface of TiO2 NTs in the form of elemental silver. Finally, the photocatalytic activity of Ag/N-TiO2 NTs was evaluated by degradation of methyl orange (MO under visible-light irradiation. The Ag/N-TiO2 NTs exhibited enhanced photocatalytic properties, which could reach 95% after 90-min irradiation.

Self-healing of mechanically-loaded self consolidating concretes with high volumes of fly ash

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mustafa Sahmaran; Suleyman B. Keskin; Gozde Ozerkan; Ismail O. Yaman [University of Gaziantep, Gaziantep (Turkey). Department of Civil Engineering

2008-11-15

This article discusses the effects of self-healing on self consolidating concretes incorporating high volumes of fly ash (HVFA-SCC) when subjected to continuous water exposure. For this purpose, self consolidating concretes with fly ash replacement ratios of 0%, 35%, and 55% were prepared having a constant water-cementitious material ratio of 0.35. A uniaxial compression load was applied to generate microcracks in concrete where cylindrical specimens were pre-loaded up to 70% and 90% of the ultimate compressive load determined at 28 days. Later, the extent of damage was determined as percentage of loss in mechanical properties and percentage of increase in permeation properties. After pre-loading, concrete specimens were stored in water for a month and the mechanical and permeation properties are monitored at every two weeks. It was observed that HVFA-SCC mixtures initially lost 27% of their strength when pre-loaded up to 90% of their ultimate strength, and after 30 days of water curing that reduction was only 7%, indicating a substantial healing. On the other hand, for SCC specimens without fly ash that were pre-loaded to the same level, the loss in strength was initially 19%, and after a month of moist curing it was only 13%. Similar observations were also made on the permeation properties with greater effects. As the HVFA-SCCs studied have an important amount of unhydrated fly ash available in their microstructure, these observations are attributed to the self-healing of the pre-existing cracks, mainly by hydration of anhydrous fly ash particles on the crack surfaces.

Efficient field testing for load rating railroad bridges

Science.gov (United States)

Schulz, Jeffrey L.; Brett C., Commander

1995-06-01

As the condition of our infrastructure continues to deteriorate, and the loads carried by our bridges continue to increase, an ever growing number of railroad and highway bridges require load limits. With safety and transportation costs at both ends of the spectrum. the need for accurate load rating is paramount. This paper describes a method that has been developed for efficient load testing and evaluation of short- and medium-span bridges. Through the use of a specially-designed structural testing system and efficient load test procedures, a typical bridge can be instrumented and tested at 64 points in less than one working day and with minimum impact on rail traffic. Various techniques are available to evaluate structural properties and obtain a realistic model. With field data, a simple finite element model is 'calibrated' and its accuracy is verified. Appropriate design and rating loads are applied to the resulting model and stress predictions are made. This technique has been performed on numerous structures to address specific problems and to provide accurate load ratings. The merits and limitations of this approach are discussed in the context of actual examples of both rail and highway bridges that were tested and evaluated.

Case Study: Indigenous Knowledge and Data Sharing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cameron Neylon

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The IDRC-funded project 'Empowering Indigenous Peoples and Knowledge Systems Related to Climate Change and Intellectual Property Rights' is part of the Open and Collaborative Science in Development Network (OCSDNet. The project “examiners processes of open and collaborative science related to indigenous peoples’ knowledge, climate change and intellectual property rights”. Natural Justice, the lead organisation has a strong ethical stance on the agency and control over knowledge being vested with the contributing project participants, communities of the Nama and Griqua peoples of the Western Cape of South Africa. The project focuses on questions of how climate change is affecting these communities, how do they produce and maintain knowledge relating to climate change, how that knowledge is characterised and shared (or not with wider publics, and how legal frameworks promote or hinder the agenda of these indigenous communities and their choices to communicate and collaborate with wider publics. Indigenous Knowledge is an area where ethical issues of informed consent, historical injustice, non-compatible epistemologies and political, legal, and economic issues all collide in ways that challenge western and Anglo-American assumptions about data sharing. The group seeks to strongly model and internally critique their own ethical stance in the process of their research, through for instance, using community contracts and questioning institutional informed consent systems.

Creep-fatigue life property of FBR high-temperature structural materials under tension-torsion loading and life evaluation method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogata, Takashi; Nitta, Akito

1994-01-01

Creep-fatigue damage in high temperature structural components in a FBR progress under multiaxial stress condition depending on their operating conditions and configuration. Therefore, multiaxial stress effects on creep-fatigue damage evolution must be clarified to make precise creep-fatigue damage evaluation of these components. In this study, creep-fatigue tests in FBR high temperature materials such as SUS304, 316FR stainless steels and a modified 9Cr steel were conducted under biaxial stress subjecting tension-compression and torsion loading, in order to examine biaxial stress effects on failure mechanism and life property, and to discuss creep-fatigue life evaluation methods under biaxial stress. Main results obtained in this study are summarized as follows: 1. The main cracks under cyclic torsion loading propagated by shear mode in three materials. But intergranular failure was occurred in SUS304 and 316FR, and transgranular failure was observed in Mod.9Cr steel. 2. Nonlinear damage accumulation model proposed based on uniaxial creep-fatigue test results was extended to apply for creep-fatigue damage evaluation under biaxial stress state by considering the biaxial stress effects on fatigue and creep damage evolution. 3. It was confirmed that creep-fatigue life under biaxial stress could be predicted by the extended evaluation method with higher accuracy than existing methods. (author)

Dynamic quantum secret sharing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jia, Heng-Yue; Wen, Qiao-Yan; Gao, Fei; Qin, Su-Juan; Guo, Fen-Zhuo

2012-01-01

In this Letter we consider quantum secret sharing (QSS) between a sender and a dynamic agent group, called dynamic quantum secret sharing (DQSS). In the DQSS, the change of the agent group is allowable during the procedure of sharing classical and quantum information. Two DQSS schemes are proposed based on a special kind of entangled state, starlike cluster states. Without redistributing all the shares, the changed agent group can reconstruct the sender's secret by their cooperation. Compared with the previous quantum secret sharing scheme, our schemes are more flexible and suitable for practical applications. -- Highlights: ► We consider quantum secret sharing between a sender and a dynamic agent group, called dynamic quantum secret sharing (DQSS). ► In the DQSS, the change of the agent group is allowable during the procedure of sharing classical and quantum information. ► Two DQSS schemes are proposed based on a special kind of entangled state, starlike cluster states. ► Without redistributing all the shares, the changed agent group can reconstruct the sender's secret by their cooperation. ► Compared with the previous quantum secret sharing scheme, our schemes are more flexible and suitable for practical applications.

Tamper-proof secret image-sharing scheme for identifying cheated secret keys and shared images

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Chien-Chang; Liu, Chong-An

2013-01-01

A (t,n) secret image-sharing scheme shares a secret image to n participants, and the t users recover the image. During the recovery procedure of a conventional secret image-sharing scheme, cheaters may use counterfeit secret keys or modified shared images to cheat other users' secret keys and shared images. A cheated secret key or shared image leads to an incorrect secret image. Unfortunately, the cheater cannot be identified. We present an exponent and modulus-based scheme to provide a tamper-proof secret image-sharing scheme for identifying cheaters on secret keys or shared images. The proposed scheme allows users to securely select their secret key. This assignment can be performed over networks. Modulus results of each shared image is calculated to recognize cheaters of a shared image. Experimental results indicate that the proposed scheme is excellent at identifying cheated secret keys and shared images.

Experimental investigation of the dielectric properties of soil under hydraulic loading

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bittner, Tilman; Bore, Thierry; Karlovšek, Jurij; Scheuermann, Alexander; Wagner, Norman

2017-01-01

An experimental set-up was developed in order to determine the coupled hydraulic, dielectric and mechanical properties of granular media under hydraulic loading. The set-up consisted of a modified column for permeability tests involving a flow meter and pressure transducers along the sample to quantify the hydraulic gradient. A newly developed open-ended coaxial probe allowed the measurement of the frequency dependent dielectric permittivity of the material under test. The shear strength of the sample within the column was measured using a conventional vane shear device. In this paper, the overall set-up is introduced with focus on the open-ended coaxial probe. The design and calibration of the probe are introduced in detail. A numerical study showed that the sensitive cylindrical volume of the probe was approximately 150 mm in diameter with a depth of 65 mm. An investigation with glass beads showed that the set-up allowed the parameterization of the hydraulic, mechanic and dielectric parameters of granular materials under the influence of vertical flow. A satisfactorily good correlation between porosity and the real part of the dielectric permittivity was detected. The critical hydraulic gradient defining the transition of a fixed bed of particles to fluidization was characterized by a sharp peak in the evolution of the hydraulic conductivity and could easily be determined from the measurements. The shear strength of the material under test reduces linearly with increasing hydraulic gradient. Future investigations will be carried out to provide the required parameterizations for experimental and numerical investigations of the internal erosion of granular media. (paper)

Curcumin-loaded mixed micelles: preparation, optimization, physicochemical properties and cytotoxicity in vitro.

Science.gov (United States)

Duan, Yuwei; Wang, Juan; Yang, Xiaoye; Du, Hongliang; Xi, Yanwei; Zhai, Guangxi

2015-01-01

Although curcumin (CUR) can inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of tumors, the poor water solubility restricted its clinical application. The aim of this study was to improve the aqueous solubility of CUR and make more favorable changes to bioactivity by preparing curcumin-loaded phospholipid-sodium deoxycholate-mixed micelles (CUR-PC-SDC-MMs). CUR-PC-SDC-MMs were prepared by the thin-film dispersion method. Based on the results of single factor exploration, the preparation technology was optimized using the central composite design-response surface methodology with drug loading and entrapment efficiency (EE%) as indicators. The images of transmission electron microscopy showed that the optimized CUR-PC-SDC-MMs were spherical and well dispersed. The average size of the mixed micelles was 66.5 nm, the zeta potential was about -26.96 mV and critical micelle concentration was 0.0087 g/l. CUR was encapsulated in PC-SDC-MMs with loading capacity of 13.12%, EE% of 87.58%, and the solubility of CUR in water was 3.14 mg/ml. The release results in vitro showed that the mixed micelles presented sustained release behavior compared to the propylene glycol solution of CUR. The IC50 values of CUR-loaded micelles and free drug in human breast carcinoma cell lines were 4.10 μg/ml and 6.93 µg/ml, respectively. It could be concluded from the above results that the CUR-PC-SDC-MMs system might serve as a promising nanocarrier to improve the solubility and bioactivity of CUR.

Working memory resources are shared across sensory modalities.