Interfaces: The Next NDE Challenge

Nondestructive evaluation, as practiced in the 1960’s, attempted to detect (but was often unable to characterize) the existence of defects in engineering structures. Qualitative criteria were used in the assessment of defect significance and the determination of accept/reject decisions. Advances in elasto-plastic fracture mechanics during the 1970’s focused attention upon the defect size and orientation- if these could be measured, then fracture mechanics was capable of quantitative structural integrity evaluation. The papers presented in this conference series during the 1980’s trace the considerable advances of quantitative nondestructive evaluation in satisfying this measurement need. Nowadays, for monolithic materials with well defined fracture toughness, the overconservative rejection criteria of the past are beginning to be replaced by “retirement for cause” concepts

Geographical boundaries of external and internal agglomeration economies

This chapter analyses the role of traditional factors associated with Marshallian and Jacobsian economies (i.e. external agglomeration) and the role of factors associated to the intra-firm co-location of activities (i.e. internal agglomeration) in influencing location decisions of multinational enterprises (MNEs) within a foreign country. Our empirical analysis considers the location decision of 447 new greenfield investments in manufacturing activities by 384 foreign MNEs in Italy, throughout the period 1998–2012, at a sub-national NUTS-3 level. Findings from a conditional logit model confirm that (1) both external and internal agglomeration economies have a strong effect on MNEs’ location decisions and (2) once allowing for intra-firm co-location, the influence of external forces decreases. Additionally, results obtained through spatial econometrics techniques show a strong spatial decay effect both for the effects associated with intra-firm co-location in contiguous provinces and for the traditional Marshallian forces. Conversely, the benefits of diversity (Jacobsian economies) cross province geographical boundaries

The role of community social capital in the relationship between socioeconomic status and adolescent life satisfaction: mediating or moderating? Evidence from Czech data

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) under contracts No. LG14042 and No. LG 14043.Background. The concept of social capital has been extensively used to explain the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and adolescent health and well-being. Much less is known about the specific mechanism through which social capital impacts the relationship. This paper investigates whether an individual’s perception of community social capital moderates or mediates the association between SES and life satisfaction. Methods. This study employs cross-sectional data from the 2009–2010 Czech Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey: a WHO Collaborative Cross-National Study (HBSC). A sample of 4425 adolescents from the 5th, 7th and 9th grade (94.5% school response rate, 87% student response) was used to perform multilevel analysis. Results. We found that pupils’ life satisfaction was positively related to both family affluence and perceived wealth. Moreover, we found the cognitive component of social capital to be positively associated with life satisfaction. Additionally, a significant interaction was found, such that the social gradient in life satisfaction was flattened when pupils reported high levels of perceived community social capital. Conclusions. The present findings suggest that community social capital acts as an unequal health resource for adolescents, but could potentially represent opportunities for public health policy to close the gap in socioeconomic disparities.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Spin structure of the proton from polarized inclusive deep-inelastic muon-proton scattering

We have measured the spin-dependent structure function g1p in inclusive deep-inelastic scattering of polarized muons off polarized protons, in the kinematic range 0.003<x<0.7 and 1GeV2<Q2<60GeV2. A next-to-leading order QCD analysis is used to evolve the measured g1p(x,Q2) to a fixed Q02. The first moment of g1p at Q02=10GeV2 is \u3931p=0.136\ub10.013 (stat) \ub10.009 (syst) \ub10.005 (evol). This result is below the prediction of the Ellis-Jaffe sum rule by more than two standard deviations. The singlet axial charge a0 is found to be 0.28\ub10.16. In the Adler-Bardeen factorization scheme, \u394g 432 is required to bring \u394\u3a3 in agreement with the quark-parton model. A combined analysis of all available proton, deuteron, and 3He data confirms the Bjorken sum rule

A line-shape analysis for spin-1 NMR signals

An analytic model of the deuteron absorption function has been developed and is compared to experimental NMR signals of deuterated butanol obtained at the SMC experiment in order to determine the deuteron polarization. The absorption function model includes dipolar broadening and a frequency-dependent treatment of the intensity factors. The high-precision TE signal data available are used to adjust the model for Q-meter distortions and dispersion effects. Once the Q-meter adjustment is made, the enhanced polarizations determined by the asymmetry and TE-calibration methods compare well within the accuracy of each method. In analyzing the NMR signals, the quadrupolar coupling constants could be determined for both the C-D and the O-D bonds of deuterated butanol