Investigation of the influence of wall stiffness on the stress ratio in mammoth silos

To calculate the stresses on the walls of silos, it is necessary to have a good estimate of the ratio of horizontal to vertical stress. This ratio however is not known precisely, especially in cases of static stress as found in a mammoth silo. In this paper the influence of the wall stiffness on the ratio of horizontal to vertical stresses in situations with limit strain is investigated. A new test method is developed, with which the ratio can directly be measured. A key feature of this method is the comparability with the practice. The method uses reinforced rubber membranes which have the same order of radial stiffness as mammoth silos. Another objective was to determine the extent to which the ratio of horizontal to vertical stresses with limit strain is dependent on the internal angle of friction, ¿i. Special attention was paid to Jaky's formula, which is often used to calculate the neutral stress ratio

Experimental Evidence of Non-Linear Dissipation Using Acoustic Micro-Lapses

Non-linear material behaviour is observed experimentally in a laboratory using a new method called Acoustic Micro-Lapses (AML). In this approach, the shooting of two waves is synchronised in a way that the second wave (TW) is to sense the fluctuations in material stiffness induced by the first (PW). The tests include four samples; twenty trials are performed for each sample by increasing time-delays between the waves. The recorded waves are decoupled and compared to determine spectral differences by computing a quantity proportional to the energy difference as function of the increasing time delay (). For a tight sandstone and aluminium samples, the random behaviour of implies that TW finds the same equilibrium conditions as PW. The Lucite and the Berea sandstone depict distinct maxima, implying that TW sensed the transitory perturbations induced by PW. Therefore, it is inferred that PW and TW must propagate with different phase speeds. To assess the previous results, quasi-static modelling is performed using two time delayed step functions. The corresponding creep compliance shows a strong discontinuity when the second step is applied, implying the existence of two unrelaxed moduli. This supports the lab data in that the two waves must have different dispersion relations such that they propagate with different speeds

Synthesis and Experiments of Inherently Balanced Umbrella Canopy Designs

This paper shows how umbrella canopies and umbrella canopy-like mechanisms can be designed inherently balanced. Inherently balanced means that the center of mass of the moving parts remains stationary at a single point for any position of the mechanism simply because of the specific design of the mechanism where no countermasses or springs are needed. The advantages of a balanced canopy are that it can be opened and closed easily with minimal effort even if it has large dimensions and that it is inherently safe since the canvas cannot collapse or fall down. Also a shaking ground or floor does not affect an inherently balanced canopy. This is due to its dynamic force balance, allowing the canopy to be perfectly suitable as a retractable roof on for instance a truck on a bumpy road. In this study, three inherently balanced umbrella canopy designs are synthesized from principal vector linkages and their balance conditions are derived. Also a prototype was built and tested to show the feasibility of the design in practice

Effect of structural relaxation on the electronic structure of graphene on hexagonal boron nitride

We performed calculations of electronic, optical and transport properties of graphene on hBN with realistic moir\'e patterns. The latter are produced by structural relaxation using a fully atomistic model. This relaxation turns out to be crucially important for electronic properties. We describe experimentally observed features such as additional Dirac points and the "Hofstadter butterfly" structure of energy levels in a magnetic field. We find that the electronic structure is sensitive to many-body renormalization of the local energy gap.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures. Supplementary material is available at http://www.theorphys.science.ru.nl/people/yuan/attachments/sm_hbn.pd

Effect of structural relaxation on the electronic structure of graphene on hexagonal boron nitride

We performed calculations of electronic, optical and transport properties of graphene on hBN with realistic moir\'e patterns. The latter are produced by structural relaxation using a fully atomistic model. This relaxation turns out to be crucially important for electronic properties. We describe experimentally observed features such as additional Dirac points and the "Hofstadter butterfly" structure of energy levels in a magnetic field. We find that the electronic structure is sensitive to many-body renormalization of the local energy gap.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures. Supplementary material is available at http://www.theorphys.science.ru.nl/people/yuan/attachments/sm_hbn.pd

Artificial neural networks for 3D cell shape recognition from confocal images

We present a dual-stage neural network architecture for analyzing fine shape details from microscopy recordings in 3D. The system, tested on red blood cells, uses training data from both healthy donors and patients with a congenital blood disease. Characteristic shape features are revealed from the spherical harmonics spectrum of each cell and are automatically processed to create a reproducible and unbiased shape recognition and classification for diagnostic and theragnostic use.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Syntactische formuleervaardigheid en het schrijven van opstellen

Meermalen is getracht om syntactische formuleenuuirdigheid direct en objectief te meten aan de hand van gesproken of geschreven teksten. Uitgangspunt hierbij vormde in de regel de syntactische complexiteit van de geproduceerde taaluitingen. Dit heeft echter niet geleid tot een plausibele, duidelijk omschreven en praktisch bruikbare index. N.a.v. een kritische bespreking van de notie complexiteit wordt in dit artikel als nieuw criterium voorgesteld de connectiviteit van de taaluitingen; de expliciete aanduiding van logiscli-scmantische relaties tussen proposities. Connectiviteit is gemakkelijk scoorbaar aan de hand van functiewoorden die verschillende vormen van nevenschikkend en onderschikkend zinsverband markeren. Deze nieuwe index ondetrangt de kritiek die op complexiteit gegeven kon worden, blijkt duidelijk te discrimineren tussen groepen leerlingen die van elkaar verschillen naar leeftijd en opleidingsniveau, en sluit aan bij recente taalpsychologische en sociolinguïstische theorie. Tot besluit worden enige onderwijskundige implicaties aangegeven

De ontwikkeling van syntactische formuleervaardigheid bij kinderen van 9 tot 16 jaar

An essential phenomenon in the development towards syntactic maturity after early childhood is the increasing use of so-called sentence-combining transformations. Especially by using subordination, complex sentences are produced. The research reported here is an attempt to arrive at a more adequate characterization and explanation. Our starting point was an analysis of 280 texts written by Dutch-speaking pupils of the two highest grades of the primary school and the four lowest grades of three different types of secondary education. It was examined whether systematic shifts in the use of certain groups of so-called function words could be traced. We concluded that the development of the syntactic formulating ability can be characterized as an increase in connectivity: the use of all kinds of function words which explicitly mark logico-semantic relations between propositions. This development starts by inserting special adverbs and coordinating conjunctions resulting in various types of coordination. In a later stage, the syntactic patterning of the sentence is affected as well (various types of subordination). The increase in sentence complexity is only one aspect of the entire development. An explanation for the increase in connectivity is offered based upon a distinction between narrative and expository language use. The latter, but not the former, is characterized by frequent occurrence of connectives. The development in syntactic formulating ability includes a high level of skill in expository language use. Speed of development is determined by intensity of training, e.g. in scholastic and occupational settings