Combustor liner construction

A combustor liner is fabricated from a plurality of individual segments each containing counter/parallel Finwall material and are arranged circumferentially and axially to define the combustion zone. Each segment is supported by a hook and ring construction to an opened lattice frame with sufficient tolerance between the hook and ring to permit thermal expansion with a minimum of induced stresses

Embodied carbon and construction cost differences between Hong Kong and Melbourne buildings

Limiting the amount of embodied carbon in buildings can help minimize the damaging impacts of global warming through lower upstream emission of CO2. This study empirically investigates the embodied carbon footprint of new-build and refurbished buildings in both Hong Kong and Melbourne to determine the embodied carbon profile and its relationship to both embodied energy and construction cost. The Hong Kong findings suggest that mean embodied carbon for refurbished buildings is 33-39% lower than new-build projects, and the cost for refurbished buildings is 22-50% lower than new-build projects (per square metre of floor area). The Melbourne findings, however, suggest that mean embodied carbon for refurbished buildings is 4% lower than new-build projects, and the cost for refurbished buildings is 24% higher than new-build projects (per square metre of floor area). Embodied carbon ranges from 645-1,059 kgCO2e/m2 for new-build and 294-655 kgCO2e/m2 for refurbished projects in Hong Kong, and 1,138-1,705 kgCO2e/m2 for new-build and 900-1,681 kgCO2e/m2 for refurbished projects in Melbourne. The reasons behind these locational discrepancies are explored and critiqued. Overall, a very strong linear relationship between embodied energy and construction cost in both cities was found and can be used to predict the former, given the latter

Internal agent states : experiments using the swarm leader concept

In recent years, an understanding of the operating principles and stability of natural swarms has proven to be a useful tool for the design and control of artificial robotic agents. Many robotic systems, whose design or control principals are inspired by behavioural aspects of real biological systems such as leader-follower relationship, have been developed. We introduced an algorithm which successfully enhances the navigation performance of a swarm of robots using the swarm leader concept. This paper presents some applications based on that work using the simulations and experimental implementation using a swarming behaviour test-bed at the University of Strathclyde. Experimental and simulation results match closely in a way that confirms the efficiency of the algorithm as well as its applicability

Efficacy and Safety of Pediatric Critical Care Physician Telemedicine Involvement in Rapid Response Team and Code Response in a Satellite Facility

OBJECTIVES: Satellite inpatient facilities of larger children's hospitals often do not have on-site intensivist support. In-house rapid response teams and code teams may be difficult to operationalize in such facilities. We developed a system using telemedicine to provide pediatric intensivist involvement in rapid response team and code teams at the satellite facility of our children's hospital. Herein, we compare this model with our in-person model at our main campus. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: A tertiary pediatric center and its satellite facility. PATIENTS: Patients admitted to the satellite facility. INTERVENTIONS: Implementation of a rapid response team and code team model at a satellite facility using telemedicine to provide intensivist support. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: We evaluated the success of the telemedicine model through three a priori outcomes: 1) reliability: involvement of intensivist on telemedicine rapid response teams and codes, 2) efficiency: time from rapid response team and code call until intensivist response, and 3) outcomes: disposition of telemedicine rapid response team or code calls. We compared each metric from our telemedicine model with our established main campus model. MAIN RESULTS: Critical care was involved in satellite campus rapid response team activations reliably (94.6% of the time). The process was efficient (median response time 7 min; mean 8.44 min) and effective (54.5 % patients transferred to PICU, similar to the 45-55% monthly rate at main campus). For code activations, the critical care telemedicine response rate was 100% (6/6), with a fast response time (median 1.5 min). We found no additional risk to patients, with no patients transferred from the satellite campus requiring a rapid escalation of care defined as initiation of vasoactive support, greater than 60 mL/kg in fluid resuscitation, or endotracheal intubation. CONCLUSIONS: Telemedicine can provide reliable, timely, and effective critical care involvement in rapid response team and Code Teams at satellite facilities

Weakly Equivalent Arrays

The (extensional) theory of arrays is widely used to model systems. Hence, efficient decision procedures are needed to model check such systems. Current decision procedures for the theory of arrays saturate the read-over-write and extensionality axioms originally proposed by McCarthy. Various filters are used to limit the number of axiom instantiations while preserving completeness. We present an algorithm that lazily instantiates lemmas based on weak equivalence classes. These lemmas are easier to interpolate as they only contain existing terms. We formally define weak equivalence and show correctness of the resulting decision procedure

Cyclic and constant temperature aging effects on magnetic materials for inverters and converters

Cyclic and constant temperature aging effects on magnetic materials for inverters and converter

Steady-state evoked potentials possibilities for mental-state estimation

The use of the human steady-state evoked potential (SSEP) as a possible measure of mental-state estimation is explored. A method for evoking a visual response to a sum-of-ten sine waves is presented. This approach provides simultaneous multiple frequency measurements of the human EEG to the evoking stimulus in terms of describing functions (gain and phase) and remnant spectra. Ways in which these quantities vary with the addition of performance tasks (manual tracking, grammatical reasoning, and decision making) are presented. Models of the describing function measures can be formulated using systems engineering technology. Relationships between model parameters and performance scores during manual tracking are discussed. Problems of unresponsiveness and lack of repeatability of subject responses are addressed in terms of a need for loop closure of the SSEP. A technique to achieve loop closure using a lock-in amplifier approach is presented. Results of a study designed to test the effectiveness of using feedback to consciously connect humans to their evoked response are presented. Findings indicate that conscious control of EEG is possible. Implications of these results in terms of secondary tasks for mental-state estimation and brain actuated control are addressed

Large time existence for 3D water-waves and asymptotics

We rigorously justify in 3D the main asymptotic models used in coastal oceanography, including: shallow-water equations, Boussinesq systems, Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) approximation, Green-Naghdi equations, Serre approximation and full-dispersion model. We first introduce a ``variable'' nondimensionalized version of the water-waves equations which vary from shallow to deep water, and which involves four dimensionless parameters. Using a nonlocal energy adapted to the equations, we can prove a well-posedness theorem, uniformly with respect to all the parameters. Its validity ranges therefore from shallow to deep-water, from small to large surface and bottom variations, and from fully to weakly transverse waves. The physical regimes corresponding to the aforementioned models can therefore be studied as particular cases; it turns out that the existence time and the energy bounds given by the theorem are always those needed to justify the asymptotic models. We can therefore derive and justify them in a systematic way.Comment: Revised version of arXiv:math.AP/0702015 (notations simplified and remarks added) To appear in Inventione

Creating Informal Play Opportunities: Are Parents\u27 and Preschoolers\u27 Initiations Related to Children\u27s Competence With Peers?

Preschoolers\u27 social competence may depend on the frequency with which informal play activities are initiated by parents\u27, children, and playmates. In this study, measures of children\u27s peer relations in informal and school contexts and the frequency of parents\u27, children\u27s, and peers\u27 play initiations were obtained with 83 preschool children and their families on 2 occasions. Frequent parent initiations were associated with higher levels of prosocial behavior, lower levels of nonsocial behavior and, among boys, greater peer acceptance in preschools. Children who were more initiating of informal peer contacts displayed less anxious behavior in school and were better liked by their classmates. Finally, the degree to which parents involved children in the process of arranging informal play activities was positively related to the frequency with which children initiated their own peer contacts