18,368 research outputs found
Cosmic magnetic fields and dark energy in extended electromagnetism
We discuss an extended version of electromagnetism in which the usual gauge
fixing term is promoted into a physical contribution that introduces a new
scalar state in the theory. This new state can be generated from vacuum quantum
fluctuations during an inflationary era and, on super-Hubble scales, gives rise
to an effective cosmological constant. The value of such a cosmological
constant coincides with the one inferred from observations as long as inflation
took place at the electroweak scale. On the other hand, the new state also
generates an effective electric charge density on sub-Hubble scales that
produces both vorticity and magnetic fields with coherent lengths as large as
the present Hubble horizon.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of Spanish
Relativity Meeting 2010, Granada, Spain, 6-10 September 201
The role of slip transfer at grain boundaries in the propagation of microstructurally short fatigue cracks in Ni-based superalloys
Crack initiation and propagation under high-cycle fatigue conditions have
been investigated for a polycrystalline Ni-based superalloy by in-situ
synchrotron assisted diffraction and phase contrast tomography. The cracks
nucleated along the longest coherent twin boundaries pre-existing on the
specimen surface, that were well oriented for slip and that presented a large
elastic incompatibility across them. Moreover, the propagation of
microstructurally short cracks was found to be determined by the easy slip
transfer paths across the pre-existing grain boundaries. This information can
only be obtained by characterization techniques like the ones presented here
that provide the full set of 3D microstructural information
Human emotional response to steering wheel vibration in automobiles
This is the post-print (final draft post-refereeing) version of the final published paper that is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.This study investigates what form of correlation may exist between measures of the valence and the arousal dimensions of the human emotional response to steering wheel vibration and the vibration intensity metrics obtained by means of the unweighted and the frequency weighted root mean square (rms). A laboratory experiment was performed with 30 participants who were presented 17 acceleration time histories in random order and asked to rate their emotional feelings of valence and arousal using a self-assessment manikin (SAM) scale. The results suggest a highly linear correlation between the unweighted, Wh weighted and Ws weighted vibration intensity metrics and the arousal measures of the human emotional response. The results also suggest that while vibration intensity plays a significant role in eliciting emotional feelings, there are other factors which influence the human emotional response to steering wheel vibration such as the presence of high peaks or high frequency band amplitudes
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