Postbuckling Behaviour of Anisotropic Laminated Composite Plates due to Shear Loading

This study investigates postbuckling behaviour of laminated composite plates using a nine-noded shear flexible quadrilateral plate element. The formulation includes nonlinear strain-displacement relation based on von Karman's assumption. The nonlinear governing equations are solved through iteration. A detailed parametric study is carried out to bring out the influence of ply-angle, aspect ratio and material properties on the postbuckling strength of laminates due to in-plane shear loads

Head in the Clouds-Floating Locomotion in Virtual Reality

Navigating large virtual spaces within the confines of a small tracked volume in a seated position becomes a serious accessibility issue when users' lower seating position reduces their visibility and makes it uncomfortable to reach for items with ease. Hence, we propose a 'floating' accessibility technique, in which a seated VR user experiences the virtual environment from the perspective of a standing eye height. We conducted a user study comparing sitting, standing and floating conditions and observed that the floating technique had no detrimental effect in comparison to the standing technique and had a slight benefit over the sitting technique

Predicting clinically signficant change in an inpatient program for people with severe mental illness

Objective: The first aim of this study was to assess the proportion of patients who achieved reliable and clinically significant change over the course of treatment in an inpatient psychosocial rehabilitation program. The second aim was to determine whether age, gender, length of stay, and diagnosis and co-morbid diagnosis predicted those who were classified as improved or not improved, using clinical significance criteria. Method: Three hundred and thirty-seven patients from inpatient units at Bloomfield Hospital, Orange, New South Wales, Australia were assessed at admission, 3-month reviews and discharge using the expanded Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales and the Kessler 10. Results: Reliable and clinically significant improvement was found for 32.4% of inpatients on psychiatric symptomatology, 19.5% on psychosocial functioning and 20.2% on psychological distress. Logistic regression analyses found that the predictor variables collectively predicted those who made reliable and clinically significant improvement on psychiatric symptomatology, but not on psychosocial functioning or psychological distress. Those with a primary diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder had higher rates of improvement in psychiatric symptomatology compared to those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Those with co-morbid substance abuse disorders showed a trend towards greater improvement. Conclusions: Inpatient treatment is associated with clinically significant improvements for some patients with a severe mental illness. Patients with schizo-affective disorders are proportionally more likely to make improvement

Genetic modifications of horticultural plants by induced mutations and transgenic approach

Climate change has pressed the need to develop improved horticultural crop cultivars capable of tolerating extreme environmental conditions besides sustaining yield and quality. Induced mutations provide a viable option for the generation of a novel genetic variation. In horticultural crops, more than 800 mutant cultivars have so far been developed, and a majority of them are ornamentals followed by vegetables, fruits, decorative trees, berries, nuts, ornamentals and other plants. Transgenic technology has also led to the improvement of horticultural crops for plant type, fruit-shelf life, floral and quality assets besides resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Mutagenesis techniques have been integrated with in vitro culture and other molecular biology technologies, such as molecular markers and high-throughput mutation screening, thereby becoming more powerful and effective in crop breeding.Peer reviewe

Recovering Residual Xenon Propellant for an Ion Propulsion System

Future nuclear-powered Ion-Propulsion- System-propelled spacecraft such as Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter (JIMO) will carry more than 10,000 kg of xenon propellant. Typically, a small percentage of this propellant cannot be used towards the end of the mission because of the pressure drop requirements for maintaining flow. For large missions such as JIMO, this could easily translate to over 250 kg of unusable xenon. A proposed system, the Xenon Recovery System (XRS), for recovering almost all of the xenon remaining in the tank, would include a cryopump in the form of a condenser/evaporator that would be alternatively cooled by a radiator, then heated electrically. When the pressure of the xenon in the tank falls below 0.7 MPa (100 psia), the previously isolated XRS will be brought online and the gas from the tank would enter the cryopump that is initially cooled to a temperature below saturation temperature of xenon. This causes xenon liquefaction and further cryopumping from the tank till the cryopump is full of liquid xenon. At this point, the cryopump is heated electrically by small heaters (70 to 80 W) to evaporate the liquid that is collected as high-pressure gas (<7 MPa; 1,000 psia) in an intermediate accumulator. Check valves between the tank and the XRS prevent the reverse flow of xenon during the heating cycle. The accumulator serves as the high-pressure source of xenon gas to the Xenon Feed System (XFS) downstream of the XRS. This cycle is repeated till almost all the xenon is recovered. Currently, this system is being baselined for JIMO

Penetration of Projectiles in Composite Laminates

This paper deals with the prediction of the penetration phenomenon of a cylindro-conical impactor on the ke;labepoxy-laminated composites using C eight-nded serendipity q&amp;drilateral finite elementbased on first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT). Local as well as global deformations during impact is considered in the evaluation of indentation, penetration, and perforation phases. Local strainsduring impact have been evaluated using the hypothesis made from the available experimental observations of bulging during penetration. A detailed parametric study, considering various projectilesand target plate variables, has been carried out to find their effect on the response of the plate, and ballistic parameters, such as ballistic limit and absorbed energy

Induced genetic diversity in banana

Induced genetic diversity in banana.Peer reviewe

Lunar base habitat designs: Characterizing the environment, and selecting habitat designs for future trade-offs

A survey of distinct conceptual lunar habitat designs covering the pre- and post-Apollo era is presented. The impact of the significant lunar environmental challenges such as temperature, atmosphere, radiation, soil properties, meteorites, and seismic activity on the habitat design parameters are outlined. Over twenty habitat designs were identified and classified according to mission type, crew size; total duration of stay, modularity, environmental protection measures, and emplacement. Simple selection criteria of (1) post-Apollo design, (2) uniqueness of the habitat design, (3) level of thoroughness in design layout, (4) habitat dimensions are provided, and (5) materials of construction for the habitat shell are specified, are used to select five habitats for future trade studies. Habitat emplacement scenarios are created to examine the possible impact of emplacement of the habitat in different locations, such as lunar poles vs. equatorial, above ground vs. below ground, etc

Linear free flexural vibration of cracked functionally graded plates in thermal environment

In this paper, the linear free flexural vibrations of functionally graded material plates with a through center crack is studied using an 8-noded shear flexible element. The material properties are assumed to be temperature dependent and graded in the thickness direction. The effective material properties are estimated using the Mori-Tanaka homogenization scheme. The formulation is developed based on first-order shear deformation theory. The shear correction factors are evaluated employing the energy equivalence principle. The variation of the plates natural frequency is studied considering various parameters such as the crack length, plate aspect ratio, skew angle, temperature, thickness and boundary conditions. The results obtained here reveal that the natural frequency of the plate decreases with increase in temperature gradient, crack length and gradient index

Benchmarking across sectors: Comparisons of residential dual diagnosis and mental health programs

[extract] A Question to Ponder: How does your service compare to other similar services in the industry? How would knowing this help your organisation