Asymmetric Cuts In The Contour Method For Residual Stress Measurement

The standard contour method is limited to sectioning test components into two symmetric halves. In this study a new approach is developed to deal with asymmetric cuts in the contour method of residual stress measurement. The proposed approach is demonstrated using finite element (FE) simulations and is validated experimentally using a series of asymmetric contour cuts and neutron diffraction measurements

Dual formulation of the utility maximization problem: the case of nonsmooth utility

We study the dual formulation of the utility maximization problem in incomplete markets when the utility function is finitely valued on the whole real line. We extend the existing results in this literature in two directions. First, we allow for nonsmooth utility functions, so as to include the shortfall minimization problems in our framework. Second, we allow for the presence of some given liability or a random endowment. In particular, these results provide a dual formulation of the utility indifference valuation rule

Use of Urinary Pregnanediol 3-glucuronide to Confirm Ovulation

Objective Urinary hormonal markers may assist in increasing the efficacy of Fertility Awareness Based Methods (FABM). This study uses urinary pregnanediol-3a-glucuronide (PDG) testing to more accurately identify the infertile phase of the menstrual cycle in the setting of FABM. Methods Secondary analysis of an observational and simulation study, multicentre, European study. The study includes 107 women and tracks daily first morning urine (FMU), observed the changes in cervical mucus discharge, and ultrasonography to identify the day of ovulation over 326 menstrual cycles. The following three scenarios were tested: (A) use of the daily pregnandiol-3a-glucuronide (PDG) test alone; (B) use of the PDG test after the first positive urine luteinizing hormone (LH) kit result; (C) use of the PDG test after the disappearance of fertile type mucus. Two models were used: (1) one day of PDG positivity; or (2) waiting for three days of PDG positivity before declaring infertility. Results After the first positivity of a LH test or the end of fertile mucus, three consecutive days of PDG testing over a threshold of 5 μg/mL resulted in a 100% specificity for ovulation confirmation. They were respectively associated an identification of an average of 6.1 and 7.6 recognized infertile days. Conclusions The results demonstrate a clinical scenario with 100% specificity for ovulation confirmation and provide the theoretical background for a future development of a competitive lateral flow assay for the detection of PDG in the urine

Emergenesis: Genetic traits that may not run in familes.

Traits that are influenced by a configuration--rather than by a simple sum-- of polymorphic genes may not be seen to be genetic unless one studies monozygotic twins (who share all their genes and thus all gene configurations) because such “emergenic” traits will tend not to run in families. Personal idiosyncrasies that have been found to be surprisingly concordant among MZ twins separated in infancy and reared apart may be emergenic traits. More speculatively, important human traits like leadership, genius in its many manfestations, being an eflective therapist or parent, as well as certain psychopathological syndromes, may also be emergenic. These ideas re-emphasize the importance of the role played in human aflairs by genetic variation

Deepest Near-IR Surface Photometry of Galaxies in the Local Sphere of Influence

We present near-IR, deep (4 mag deeper than 2MASS) imaging of 56 Local Volume galaxies. Global parameters such as total magnitudes and stellar masses have been derived and the new near-IR data combined with existing 21cm and optical B-band data. We present multiwavelength relations such as the HI mass-to-light ratio and investigate the maximum total baryonic mass a galaxy can have.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, To be published in the proceedings of "Galaxies in the Local Volume", ed. B. Koribalski, H. Jerje

Nuclear-spin relaxation of 207^{207}Pb in ferroelectric powders

Motivated by a recent proposal by O. P. Sushkov and co-workers to search for a P,T-violating Schiff moment of the $^{207}$Pb nucleus in a ferroelectric solid, we have carried out a high-field nuclear magnetic resonance study of the longitudinal and transverse spin relaxation of the lead nuclei from room temperature down to 10 K for powder samples of lead titanate (PT), lead zirconium titanate (PZT), and a PT monocrystal. For all powder samples and independently of temperature, transverse relaxation times were found to be $T_2\approx 1.5$ms, while the longitudinal relaxation times exhibited a temperature dependence, with $T_1$ of over an hour at the lowest temperatures, decreasing to $T_1\approx 7$s at room temperature. At high temperatures, the observed behavior is consistent with a two-phonon Raman process, while in the low temperature limit, the relaxation appears to be dominated by a single-phonon (direct) process involving magnetic impurities. This is the first study of temperature-dependent nuclear-spin relaxation in PT and PZT ferroelectrics at such low temperatures. We discuss the implications of the results for the Schiff-moment search.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure