Advances in the assessment of creep data during the past 100 years

Many of the classical models representing the creep and rupture behaviour of metals were developed prior to and during the 1950s and 1960s. Nevertheless their subsequent exploitation, in particular for the assessment of large creep property datasets, was initially limited by the capability of the analytical tools available at the time. Following an apparent decline in activity during the 1970s and 1980s, there has been a resurgence during the last two decades. Advances made in the assessment of creep data during the past 100 years are reviewed and factors contributing to the developments achieved are examine

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) Use in Pediatric Oncology: A new horizon or costly myth?

Complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs) are increasingly being utilized in the pediatric cancer population, despite unproven risks and benefits, and significant additional cost of treatment. Objective: To identify the prevalence of CAM use and the most frequently utilized CAMs, and to examine the physiologic impact of CAM in pediatric cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Additional objectives included identifying the cost associated with CAM, and the rationale for CAM usage

On modeling player fitness in training for team sports with application to professional rugby

It is increasingly important for professional sports teams to monitor player fitness in order to optimize performance. Models have been put forward linking fitness in training to performance in competition but rely on regular measurements of player fitness. As formal tests for measuring player fitness are typically time-consuming and inconvenient, measurements are taken infrequently. As such, it may be challenging to accurately predict performance in competition as player fitness is unknown. Alternatively, other data, such as how the players are feeling, may be measured more regularly. This data, however, may be biased as players may answer the questions differently and these differences may dominate the data. Linear Mixed Methods and Support Vector Machines were used to estimate player fitness from available covariates at times when explicit measures of fitness are unavailable. Using data provided by a professional rugby club, a case study was used to illustrate the application and value of these models. Both models performed well with R^2 values ranging from 60% to 85%, demonstrating that the models largely captured the biases introduced by individual players

Evolution of Relationships Between Dislocation Microstructures and Internal Stresses of AISI 316L During Cyclic Loading at 293K and 573K (20°C and 300°C)

The evolution of dislocation densities and of dislocation microstructures during cyclic loading of AISI 316L is systematically evaluated. In addition, internal stresses are also measured for every cycle and comprehensively analyzed. These observations are made in order to establish relationships between the evolution of dislocation condition and internal stresses, and ultimately to obtain a thorough insight into the complex cyclic response of AISI 316L. Moreover, the dependencies of established relationships on the variation of temperature and strain amplitude are investigated. The back stresses (long-range stresses associated with the presence of collective dislocations over different length scales) are mainly responsible for the cyclic deformation response at high strain amplitudes where dislocations tend to move more quickly in a wavy manner. In contrast, the effective stress, coupling with short-range dislocation interactions, plays an insignificant role on the material cyclic response for wavy slip conditions, but increasingly becomes more important for planar slip conditions. The additionally strong short-range interactions between dislocations and point defects (initially with solute atoms and later in life with corduroy structure) at 573K (300°C) cause dislocations to move in more planar ways, resulting in a significant increase in effective stress, leading to their influential role on the material cyclic response

GESTÃO ESTRATÉGICA E O USO DO BALANCED SCORECARD

Em um ambiente onde o processo de mudança é contínuo, a sobrevivência das empresas tornou-se uma tarefa complexa e difícil. A continuidade dos negócios está associada à implementação de uma estratégia competitiva, que depende fundamentalmente da viabilidade de sua implementação, e da forma como a organização desenvolve seus sistemas de informações gerenciais. Porém utilizar-se de estratégias bem fundamentadas, não basta para obter sucesso, é necessário saber executá-las e usar de ferramentas que forneçam meios para medir o seu desempenho. Este artigo faz uma abordagem sobre o processo estratégico, iniciando com um breve histórico da questão estratégica, passando para conceitos de planejamento estratégico e estratégia competitiva, onde finalmente traz o Balanced Scorecard como meio de gestão por indicadores estratégicos, uma ferramenta que traduz a visão da empresa e seus objetivos em uma série de indicadores financeiros e não-financeiros, alicerçados sobre quatro perspectivas distintas que são: a perspectiva financeira, a perspectiva do cliente, a perspectiva de processos internos e a perspectiva de aprendizado e crescimento

Universal Fluctuations of the Danube Water Level: a Link with Turbulence, Criticality and Company Growth

A global quantity, regardless of its precise nature, will often fluctuate according to a Gaussian limit distribution. However, in highly correlated systems, other limit distributions are possible. We have previously calculated one such distribution and have argued that this function should apply specifically, and in many instances, to global quantities that define a steady state. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, the relevance of this prediction to natural phenomena. The river level fluctuations of the Danube are observed to obey our prediction, which immediately establishes a generic statistical connection between turbulence, criticality and company growth statistics.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

COORDINATING A FACULTY RESPONSE TO COVID-19 IMPACTS: THE 6 C’S OF EDUCATION AND A COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP APPROACH

How do you plan, coordinate, lead and support good practice in a time of evolving and rapid response? This presentation reflects upon faculty leadership, and its role in advocating and supporting Faculty of Science (FSCI) staff and students at the University of Newcastle throughout the COVID-19 context. Using the lens of the ‘6 C’s of Education’ (Fullan & Scott, 2014), we review the approaches, actions, and directions undertaken by central faculty leadership teams, including Executive, FSCI-Global Engagement, FSCI-Teaching & Learning, and the ‘COVID War Council’, and their impact on students, teaching staff and university level decision making processes. Preliminary feedback from staff and students on our COVID-19 response is included, as well as consideration of lingering influences of COVID-19 on policy, procedure and the culture of tertiary education. REFERENCE Fullan, M., & Scott, G. (2014). New pedagogies for deep learning whitepaper: Education PLUS. Collaborative Impact SPC, Seattle, Washington

The Iceland Microcontinent and a continental Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge

The breakup of Laurasia to form the Northeast Atlantic Realm was the culmination of a long period of tectonic unrest extending back to the Late Palaeozoic. Breakup was prolonged and complex and disintegrated an inhomogeneous collage of cratons sutured by cross-cutting orogens. Volcanic rifted margins formed, which are blanketed by lavas and underlain variously by magma-inflated, extended continental crust and mafic high-velocity lower crust of ambiguous and probably partly continental provenance. New rifts formed by diachronous propagation along old zones of weakness. North of the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge the newly forming rift propagated south along the Caledonian suture. South of the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge it propagated north through the North Atlantic Craton along an axis displaced ~ 150 km to the west of the northern rift. Both propagators stalled where the confluence of the Nagssugtoqidian and Caledonian orogens formed a transverse barrier. Thereafter, the ~ 400-km-wide latitudinal zone between the stalled rift tips extended in a distributed, unstable manner along multiple axes of extension that frequently migrated or jumped laterally with shearing occurring between them in diffuse transfer zones. This style of deformation continues to the present day. It is the surface expression of underlying magma-assisted stretching of ductile mid- and lower continental crust which comprises the Icelandic-type lower crust that underlies the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge. This, and probably also one or more full-crustal-thickness microcontinents incorporated in the Ridge, are capped by surface lavas. The Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge thus has a similar structure to some zones of seaward-dipping reflectors. The contemporaneous melt layer corresponds to the 3–10 km thick Icelandic-type upper crust plus magma emplaced in the ~ 10–30-km-thick Icelandic-type lower crust. This model can account for seismic and gravity data that are inconsistent with a gabbroic composition for Icelandic-type lower crust, and petrological data that show no reasonable temperature or source composition could generate the full ~ 40-km thickness of Icelandic-type crust observed. Numerical modeling confirms that extension of the continental crust can continue for many tens of Myr by lower-crustal flow from beneath the adjacent continents. Petrological estimates of the maximum potential temperature of the source of Icelandic lavas are up to 1450 °C, no more than ~ 100 °C hotter than MORB source. The geochemistry is compatible with a source comprising hydrous peridotite/pyroxenite with a component of continental mid- and lower crust. The fusible petrology, high source volatile contents, and frequent formation of new rifts can account for the true ~ 15–20 km melt thickness at the moderate temperatures observed. A continuous swathe of magma-inflated continental material beneath the 1200-km-wide Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge implies that full continental breakup has not yet occurred at this latitude. Ongoing tectonic instability on the Ridge is manifest in long-term tectonic disequilibrium on the adjacent rifted margins and on the Reykjanes Ridge, where southerly migrating propagators that initiate at Iceland are associated with diachronous swathes of unusually thick oceanic crust. Magmatic volumes in the NE Atlantic Realm have likely been overestimated and the concept of a monogenetic North Atlantic Igneous Province needs to be reappraised. A model of complex, piecemeal breakup controlled by pre-existing structures that produces anomalous volcanism at barriers to rift propagation and distributes continental material in the growing oceans fits other oceanic regions including the Davis Strait and the South Atlantic and West Indian oceans