The Effect of end Distance and Number of Ready-to-Assemble Furniture Fasteners on Bending moment Resistance of Corner Joints

Although they are widely used by the furniture industry, ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture fasteners are a relatively new style of joinery. The object of this study was to investigate the effect of end distance of cam-lock RTA fasteners and nonglued wooden dowels on the splitting and bending moment resistance, respectively, of RTA corner joints. Laminated particleboard, cam fasteners, and wooden dowels were used for specimen construction (as used in the furniture industry). In two studies, L-shaped joint specimens 760 mm long were tested in compression. The first study showed that end splits in panels were eliminated when cam fasteners were located 60 mm from the member ends. In the second study, specimens with two cam fasteners supported by 2, 3, 4, or 5 nonglued dowels were tested. These specimens had significantly higher bending moment resistance than comparable joints that used only cam fasteners but no dowels. Thus, it was concluded that unglued dowels used to position parts for assembly substantially reinforce joints constructed with cam fasteners

In-Use Stocks of Iron in the State of Connecticut, USA

A “bottom-up” study was conducted for in-use stocks of iron in the State of Connecticut for the base year of 2000. The study covers 145 product types in the four major categories of transportation, buildings, equipment, and infrastructure. The method of calculation, as well as the allocation of iron in different use categories is discussed. The total result of 9,300 kg of iron per capita is slightly higher than that from a previous study for the city of New Haven, but below the results of national top-down analyses. Possible reasons for these discrepancies are considered. A sensitivity analysis and an error rating were applied to the calculations to examine uncertainties

Product Engineering and Performance Testing in Relation to Strength Design of Furniture

This article contains a narrative description of the history, current status, and possible future progress of the product engineering, strength design, and performance testing of furniture. Product engineering is covered both in general and from a furniture perspective. Strength design of furniture forms the essential part of the article.Reliability concepts are depicted in general both in their application to furniture and in their incorporation into standards for performance testing. The major objective of reliability and performance testing is to improve the durability and safety of furniture products and to predict failure or unexpected problems associated with them.Testing and evaluation are needed to obtain safe and reliable furniture and should provide pertinent expected performance information to manufacturers and customers alike. Both the history of development of strength design and its current stage of development are treated, along with suggestions for its use in improvement of furniture construction. In conclusion, an integrated methodology for the production of high strength furniture in view of current technological improvements is outlined

Recent Developments of Electrochemical Wall Mass Transfer Probes and Their Application to Drag-Reducing Polymers

Electrochemical mass transfer probes are used to measure the velocity gradient at a wall. Recent advances in their application are reviewed. These include corrections for the time response of the probe, the simultaneous measurement at a number of locations of the two components of the fluctuating velocity gradient and a study of the influence of drag reducing polymers on turbulence. It is found that drag-reducing polymers cause an increase in the scale of flow oriented eddies in the viscous sublayer

Experiment assessment of mass effects in the rat_ implications for small animal PET imaging

In vivo imaging using positron emission tomography (PET) is important in the development of new radiopharmaceuticals in rodent animal models for use as biochemical probes, diagnostic agents, or in drug development. We have shown mathematically that, if small animal imaging studies in rodents are to have the same “quality” as human PET studies, the same number of coincidence events must be detected from a typical rodent imaging “voxel” as from the human imaging voxel. To achieve this using the same specifi activity preparation, we show that roughly the same total amount of radiopharmaceutical must be given to a rodent as to a human subject. At high specifi activities, the mass associated with human doses, when administered to a rodent, may not decrease the uptake of radioactivity at non saturable sites or sites where an enzyme has a high capacity for a substrate. However, in the case of binding sites of low density such as receptors, the increased mass injected could saturate the receptor and lead to physiologic effects and non-linear kinetics. Because of the importance of the mass injected for small animal PET imaging, we experimentally compared high and low mass preparations using ex vivo biodistribution and phosphorimaging of three compounds: 2-fluoro-2-deoxyglucos (FDG), 6-fluoro-L-metatyrosin (FMT) and one receptor-directed compound, the serotonin 5HT1A receptor ligand, trans-4-fluoro-N-{2-[4-(2-methoxylphenyl piperazino]ethyl}-N-(2- pyridyl) cyclohexane- carboxamide (FCWAY). Changes in the mass injected per rat did not affect the distribution of FDG, FMT, and FCWAY in the range of 0.6 –1.9 nmol per rat. Changes in the target to nontarget ratio were observed for injected masses of FCWAY in the range of 5–50 nmol per rat. If the specifi activity of such compounds and/or the sensitivity of small animal scanners are not increased relative to human studies, small animal PET imaging will not correctly portray the “true” tracer distribution. These difficultie will only be exacerbated in animals smaller than the rat, e.g., mice.Publicad

Modern Imaging Technology: Recent Advances

This 2-day conference is designed to bring scientist working in nuclear medicine, as well as nuclear medicine practitioners together to discuss the advances in four selected areas of imaging: Biochemical Parameters using Small Animal Imaging, Developments in Small Animal PET Imaging, Cell Labeling, and Imaging Angiogenesis Using Multiple Modality. The presentations will be on molecular imaging applications at the forefront of research, up to date on the status of molecular imaging in nuclear medicine as well as in related imaging areas. Experts will discuss the basic science of imaging techniques, and scheduled participants will engage in an exciting program that emphasizes the current status of molecular imaging as well as the role of DOE funded research in this area

High resolution PET, SPECT and projection imaging in small animals

Positron emission tomography, single photon emission computed tomography and planar projection imaging of radioactive tracers have long been in use for detecting and diagnosing disease in human subjects. More recently, advanced versions of these same technologies have begun to be used across the breadth of modern biomedical research to study non-invasively small laboratory animals in a myriad of experimental settings. In this report, we describe some of the new instruments and techniques that make these measurements possible and illustrate, with a few examples, the potential power of these methods in modern biomedical researchPublicad