High temperature static strain sensor development program

Electrical resistance strain gages useful for static strain measurements on nickel or cobalt superalloy parts inside a gas turbine engine on a test stand are being developed. Measurements of this type are of great importance in meeting the goals of the HOST program because, without reliable knowledge of the stresses and strains which exist in specific components, it will be difficult to fully appreciate where improvements in design and materials can be implemented. The first part of the effort consisted of a strain gage alloy development program which will be followed by an investigation of complete strain gage systems which will use the best of the alloys developed together with other system improvements

The development of a high temperature static strain gage system

The objective of this program is to develop electrical resistance strain gages which will permit the measurement of static strains on nickel and cobalt superalloy parts inside gas turbine engines running on a test stand. The specific goal is to develop a complete system able to make strain measurements up to plus or minus 2000 mu strain with a total error of no more than plus or minus 10 percent over a 50 hour period at 1250 K. The initial part of this work consisted of a strain gage alloy development effort in which a variety of alloys were evaluated after being prepared by drop-casting or splat cooling

IT Governance in Virtual Communities: An exploration of the issues in the Caribbean context

With the increased usage of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to facilitate information sharing and exchange, there has been increased development of and participation in virtual communities. In the Caribbean context, virtual communities are being formed in various sectors (public, private, NGO) in the region for collaboration and information sharing purposes. With the reliance of virtual communities on information and communication technologies, effective IT governance may be critical to the success of a virtual community. This paper presents research which will examine the current state of IT governance in virtual communities in the Caribbean, using a research model. This research will then guide the development of an IT governance framework for virtual communities with special reference to the Caribbean context

High temperature static strain gage development contract, tasks 1 and 2

Results are presented for the first two tasks to develop resistive strain gage systems for use up to 1250 K on blades and vanes in gas turbine engines under tests. The objective of these two tasks was to further improve and evaluate two static strain gage alloys identified as candidates in a previous program. Improved compositions were not found for either alloy. Further efforts on the Fe-11.9Al-10.6Cr weigth percent alloy were discontinued because of time dependent drift problems at 1250 K in air. When produced as a 6.5 micrometer thick sputtered film, the Pd-13Cr weight percent alloys is not sufficiently stable for this use in air at 1250 K and a protective overcoat system will need to be developed

Diffusive Atomistic Dynamics of Edge Dislocations in Two Dimensions

The fundamental dislocation processes of glide, climb, and annihilation are studied on diffusive time scales within the framework of a continuum field theory, the Phase Field Crystals (PFC) model. Glide and climb are examined for single edge dislocations subjected to shear and compressive strain, respectively, in a two dimensional hexagonal lattice. It is shown that the natural features of these processes are reproduced without any explicit consideration of elasticity theory or ad hoc construction of microscopic Peierls potentials. Particular attention is paid to the Peierls barrier for dislocation glide/climb and the ensuing dynamic behavior as functions of strain rate, temperature, and dislocation density. It is shown that the dynamics are accurately described by simple viscous motion equations for an overdamped point mass, where the dislocation mobility is the only adjustable parameter. The critical distance for the annihilation of two edge dislocations as a function of separation angle is also presented.Comment: 13 pages with 17 figures, submitted to Physical Review

High temperature static strain gage program

Development of electrical resistance strain gages for static strain measurements of nickel or cobalt superalloy parts inside a gas turbine engine on a test stand was inititated. Measurements of this type are of great importance because without reliable knowledge of the stresses and strains which exist in specific components, it will be difficult to fully appreciate where improvements in design and materials can be implemented. The first part of this effort consists of a strain gage alloy development program which will be followed by an investigation of complete strain gage systems. Efforts to date are summarized

FIMO: scanning for occurrences of a given motif

Summary: A motif is a short DNA or protein sequence that contributes to the biological function of the sequence in which it resides. Over the past several decades, many computational methods have been described for identifying, characterizing and searching with sequence motifs. Critical to nearly any motif-based sequence analysis pipeline is the ability to scan a sequence database for occurrences of a given motif described by a position-specific frequency matrix

Dose–response between frequency of interruption of sedentary time and fasting glucose, the dawn phenomenon and night-time glucose in Type 2 diabetes

Aim: To explore the dose-response between frequency of interruption of sedentary time and basal glucose (fasting glucose, the dawn phenomenon and night-time glucose) in Type 2 diabetes. Methods: In a randomized three-treatment, two-period balanced incomplete block trial, 12 people with Type 2 diabetes (age, 60.0 +/- 3.2 years; BMI, 30.2 +/- 1.4 kg/m(2)) completed two of three conditions: sitting for 7 h interrupted every 60 min (Condition 1), 30 min (Condition 2), and 15 min (Condition 3) by 3-min light-intensity walking breaks. The activPAL3 and FreeStyle Libre were used to assess physical activity/sedentary behaviour and continuous glucose profile. Standardized meals were provided, and changes in basal glucose of the nights and early mornings before and after treatment conditions were calculated (mean +/- SE). Results: After treatment conditions, fasting glucose and duration of the dawn phenomenon were lower for Condition 3 (-1.0 +/- 0.2 mmol/l, P < 0.02; -3.1 +/- 1.3 h, P = 0.004) compared with Condition 1 (-0.1 +/- 0.2 mmol/l; 1.9 +/- 1.2 h). The magnitude of the dawn phenomenon was reduced in Condition 3 (-0.6 +/- 0.4 mmol/l, P = 0.041) compared with Condition 2 (0.6 +/- 0.3 mmol/l). Night-time glycaemic variability (coefficient of variation) was reduced in Condition 3 (-9.7 +/- 3.9%) relative to Condition 2 (6.1 +/- 4.8%, P < 0.03) and Condition 1 (2.5 +/- 1.8%, P = 0.02). There was no change in night-time mean glucose. Conclusions: Frequent interruptions of prolonged sitting with 3 min of light-intensity walking breaks every 15 min improves fasting glucose, the dawn phenomenon and night-time glycaemic variability, and this might be a simple therapeutic intervention to improve glucose control. Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273899

MEME Suite: tools for motif discovery and searching

The MEME Suite web server provides a unified portal for online discovery and analysis of sequence motifs representing features such as DNA binding sites and protein interaction domains. The popular MEME motif discovery algorithm is now complemented by the GLAM2 algorithm which allows discovery of motifs containing gaps. Three sequence scanning algorithms—MAST, FIMO and GLAM2SCAN—allow scanning numerous DNA and protein sequence databases for motifs discovered by MEME and GLAM2. Transcription factor motifs (including those discovered using MEME) can be compared with motifs in many popular motif databases using the motif database scanning algorithm Tomtom. Transcription factor motifs can be further analyzed for putative function by association with Gene Ontology (GO) terms using the motif-GO term association tool GOMO. MEME output now contains sequence LOGOS for each discovered motif, as well as buttons to allow motifs to be conveniently submitted to the sequence and motif database scanning algorithms (MAST, FIMO and Tomtom), or to GOMO, for further analysis. GLAM2 output similarly contains buttons for further analysis using GLAM2SCAN and for rerunning GLAM2 with different parameters. All of the motif-based tools are now implemented as web services via Opal. Source code, binaries and a web server are freely available for noncommercial use at http://meme.nbcr.net

Student Involvement in Flipped Classroom Course Design

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine changes in content knowledge, clinical reasoning, and metacognition with occupational therapy students involved in course design (collaborative participants), with participants engaged in flipped classroom model only (course participants), and to compare results between the collaborative and course participants. Forty-three occupational therapy students participated in this study. Researchers administered three pre- and post-test questionnaires and completed three focus groups. Results demonstrated both groups experienced growth in active learning and clinical reasoning and changed their perception of student involvement. The collaborative participants demonstrated additional benefits of development of relationships, increased accountability, and improved metacognitive learning