97 research outputs found
Development of a thermal acoustical aircraft insulation material
A process was developed for fabricating a light weight foam suitable for thermal and acoustical insulation in aircraft. The procedures and apparatus are discussed, and the foam specimens are characterized by numerous tests and measurements
Dynamic structural and topological phase transitions on the Warsaw Stock Exchange: A phenomenological approach
We study the crash dynamics of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) by using the
Minimal Spanning Tree (MST) networks. We find the transition of the complex
network during its evolution from a (hierarchical) power law MST network,
representing the stable state of WSE before the recent worldwide financial
crash, to a superstar-like (or superhub) MST network of the market decorated by
a hierarchy of trees (being, perhaps, an unstable, intermediate market state).
Subsequently, we observed a transition from this complex tree to the topology
of the (hierarchical) power law MST network decorated by several star-like
trees or hubs. This structure and topology represent, perhaps, the WSE after
the worldwide financial crash, and could be considered to be an aftershock. Our
results can serve as an empirical foundation for a future theory of dynamic
structural and topological phase transitions on financial markets
Thermal/acoustical aircraft insulation material
Attempts made to improve the acoustical properties of low density Fiberfrax foam, an aircraft insulation material, are reported. Characterizations were also made of the physical and thermal properties. Two methods, optimization of fiber blend composition and modification of the foam fabrication process, were examined as possible means of improving foam acoustics. Flame impingement tests were also made; results show performance was satisfactory
Structural and topological phase transitions on the German Stock Exchange
We find numerical and empirical evidence for dynamical, structural and
topological phase transitions on the (German) Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FSE) in
the temporal vicinity of the worldwide financial crash. Using the Minimal
Spanning Tree (MST) technique, a particularly useful canonical tool of the
graph theory, two transitions of the topology of a complex network representing
FSE were found. First transition is from a hierarchical scale-free MST
representing the stock market before the recent worldwide financial crash, to a
superstar-like MST decorated by a scale-free hierarchy of trees representing
the market's state for the period containing the crash. Subsequently, a
transition is observed from this transient, (meta)stable state of the crash, to
a hierarchical scale-free MST decorated by several star-like trees after the
worldwide financial crash. The phase transitions observed are analogous to the
ones we obtained earlier for the Warsaw Stock Exchange and more pronounced than
those found by Onnela-Chakraborti-Kaski-Kert\'esz for S&P 500 index in the
vicinity of Black Monday (October 19, 1987) and also in the vicinity of January
1, 1998. Our results provide an empirical foundation for the future theory of
dynamical, structural and topological phase transitions on financial markets
Application of Leg, Vertical, and Joint Stiffness in Running Performance: A Literature Overview
Stiffness, the resistance to deformation due to force, has been used to model the way in which the lower body responds to landing during cyclic motions such as running and jumping. Vertical, leg, and joint stiffness provide a useful model for investigating the store and release of potential elastic energy via the musculotendinous unit in the stretch-shortening cycle and may provide insight into sport performance. This review is aimed at assessing the effect of vertical, leg, and joint stiffness on running performance as such an investigation may provide greater insight into performance during this common form of locomotion. PubMed and SPORTDiscus databases were searched resulting in 92 publications on vertical, leg, and joint stiffness and running performance. Vertical stiffness increases with running velocity and stride frequency. Higher vertical stiffness differentiated elite runners from lower-performing athletes and was also associated with a lower oxygen cost. In contrast, leg stiffness remains relatively constant with increasing velocity and is not strongly related to the aerobic demand and fatigue. Hip and knee joint stiffness are reported to increase with velocity, and a lower ankle and higher knee joint stiffness are linked to a lower oxygen cost of running; however, no relationship with performance has yet been investigated. Theoretically, there is a desired “leg-spring” stiffness value at which potential elastic energy return is maximised and this is specific to the individual. It appears that higher “leg-spring” stiffness is desirable for running performance; however, more research is needed to investigate the relationship of all three lower limb joint springs as the hip joint is often neglected. There is still no clear answer how training could affect mechanical stiffness during running. Studies including muscle activation and separate analyses of local tissues (tendons) are needed to investigate mechanical stiffness as a global variable associated with sports performance
Fractal Dimensionof the El Salvador Earthquake (2001) time Series
We have estimated multifractal spectrum of the El Salvador earthquake signal
recorded at different locations.Comment: multifractal analysi
Determination of the Hurst Exponent by Use of Wavelet Transforms
We propose a new method for (global) Hurst exponent determination based on
wavelets. Using this method, we analyze synthetic data with predefined Hurst
exponents, fracture surfaces and data from economy. The results are compared
with those obtained from Fourier spectral analysis. When many samples are
available, the wavelet and Fourier methods are comparable in accuracy. However,
when one or only a few samples are available, the wavelet method outperforms
the Fourier method by a large margin.Comment: 10 pages RevTeX, 13 Postscript figures. Some additional material
compared to previous versio
Seven-hour multiunit recordings from rats reveal very long-term correlation in the cortical activity
Heuristic Segmentation of a Nonstationary Time Series
Many phenomena, both natural and human-influenced, give rise to signals whose
statistical properties change under time translation, i.e., are nonstationary.
For some practical purposes, a nonstationary time series can be seen as a
concatenation of stationary segments. Using a segmentation algorithm, it has
been reported that for heart beat data and Internet traffic fluctuations--the
distribution of durations of these stationary segments decays with a power law
tail. A potential technical difficulty that has not been thoroughly
investigated is that a nonstationary time series with a (scale-free) power law
distribution of stationary segments is harder to segment than other
nonstationary time series because of the wider range of possible segment sizes.
Here, we investigate the validity of a heuristic segmentation algorithm
recently proposed by Bernaola-Galvan et al. by systematically analyzing
surrogate time series with different statistical properties. We find that if a
given nonstationary time series has stationary periods whose size is
distributed as a power law, the algorithm can split the time series into a set
of stationary segments with the correct statistical properties. We also find
that the estimated power law exponent of the distribution of stationary-segment
sizes is affected by (i) the minimum segment size, and (ii) the ratio of the
standard deviation of the mean values of the segments, and the standard
deviation of the fluctuations within a segment. Furthermore, we determine that
the performance of the algorithm is generally not affected by uncorrelated
noise spikes or by weak long-range temporal correlations of the fluctuations
within segments.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figure
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