2,451 research outputs found
Wall turbulence control
A variety of wall turbulence control devices which were experimentally investigated are discussed; these include devices for burst control, alteration of outer flow structures, large eddy substitution, increased heat transfer efficiency, and reduction of wall pressure fluctuations. Control of pre-burst flow was demonstrated with a single, traveling surface depression which is phase-locked to elements of the burst production process. Another approach to wall turbulence control is to interfere with the outer layer coherent structures. A device in the outer part of a boundary layer was shown to suppress turbulence and reduce drag by opposing both the mean and unsteady vorticity in the boundary layer. Large eddy substitution is a method in which streamline curvature is introduced into the boundary layer in the form of streamwise vortices. Riblets, which were already shown to reduce turbulent drag, were also shown to exhibit superior heat transfer characteristics. Heat transfer efficiency as measured by the Reynolds Analogy Factor was shown to be as much as 36 percent greater than a smooth flat plate in a turbulent boundary layer. Large Eddy Break-Up (LEBU) which are also known to reduce turbulent drag were shown to reduce turbulent wall pressure fluctuation
Feeding live prey to zoo animals: response of zoo visitors in Switzerland
In summer 2007, with the help of a written questionnaire, the attitudes of more than 400 visitors to the zoological garden of Zurich, Switzerland, toward the idea of feeding live insects to lizards, live fish to otters, and live rabbits to tigers were investigated. The majority of Swiss zoo visitors agreed with the idea of feeding live prey (invertebrates and vertebrates) to zoo animals, both off- and on-exhibit, except in the case of feeding live rabbits to tigers on-exhibit. Women and frequent visitors of the zoo disagreed more often with the on-exhibit feeding of live rabbits to tigers. Study participants with a higher level of education were more likely to agree with the idea of feeding live invertebrates and vertebrates to zoo animals
off-exhibit. In comparison to an earlier study undertaken in Scotland, zoo visitors in Switzerland were more often in favor of the live feeding of vertebrates. Feeding live prey can counter the loss of hunting skills of carnivores and improve the animals’ well-being. However, feeding enrichments have to strike a balance between optimal living conditions of animals and the quality of visitor experience.
Our results show that such a balance can be found, especially when live feeding of mammals is carried out off-exhibit. A good interpretation of food enrichment might help zoos to win more support for the issue, and for re-introduction programs and conservation
Analysis of Dislocation Mechanism for Melting of Elements: Pressure Dependence
In the framework of melting as a dislocation-mediated phase transition we
derive an equation for the pressure dependence of the melting temperatures of
the elements valid up to pressures of order their ambient bulk moduli. Melting
curves are calculated for Al, Mg, Ni, Pb, the iron group (Fe, Ru, Os), the
chromium group (Cr, Mo, W), the copper group (Cu, Ag, Au), noble gases (Ne, Ar,
Kr, Xe, Rn), and six actinides (Am, Cm, Np, Pa, Th, U). These calculated
melting curves are in good agreement with existing data. We also discuss the
apparent equivalence of our melting relation and the Lindemann criterion, and
the lack of the rigorous proof of their equivalence. We show that the would-be
mathematical equivalence of both formulas must manifest itself in a new
relation between the Gr\"{u}neisen constant, bulk and shear moduli, and the
pressure derivative of the shear modulus.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, 9 eps figure
Robotic Arm Manipulator Using Active Control for Sample Acquisition and Transfer, and Passive Mode for Surface Compliance
A robotic arm that consists of three joints with four degrees of freedom (DOF) has been developed. It can carry an end-effector to acquire and transfer samples by using active control and comply with surface topology in a passive mode during a brief surface contact. The three joints are arranged in such a way that one joint of two DOFs is located at the shoulder, one joint of one DOF is located at the elbow, and one joint of one DOF is located at the wrist. Operationally, three DOFs are moved in the same plane, and the remaining one on the shoulder is moved perpendicular to the other three for better compliance with ground surface and more flexibility of sample handling. Three out of four joints are backdriveable, making the mechanism less complex and more cost effectiv
Fluctuations and phase transitions in Larkin-Ovchinnikov liquid crystal states of population-imbalanced resonant Fermi gas
Motivated by a realization of imbalanced Feshbach-resonant atomic Fermi
gases, we formulate a low-energy theory of the Fulde-Ferrell and the
Larkin-Ovchinnikov (LO) states and use it to analyze fluctuations, stability,
and phase transitions in these enigmatic finite momentum-paired superfluids.
Focusing on the unidirectional LO pair-density wave state, that spontaneously
breaks the continuous rotational and translational symmetries, we show that it
is characterized by two Goldstone modes, corresponding to a superfluid phase
and a smectic phonon. Because of the liquid-crystalline "softness" of the
latter, at finite temperature the 3d state is characterized by a vanishing LO
order parameter, quasi-Bragg peaks in the structure and momentum distribution
functions, and a "charge"-4, paired Cooper-pairs, off-diagonal-long-range
order, with a superfluid-stiffness anisotropy that diverges near a transition
into a nonsuperfluid state. In addition to conventional integer vortices and
dislocations the LO superfluid smectic exhibits composite half-integer
vortex-dislocation defects. A proliferation of defects leads to a rich variety
of descendant states, such as the "charge"-4 superfluid and Fermi-liquid
nematics and topologically ordered nonsuperfluid states, that generically
intervene between the LO state and the conventional superfluid and the
polarized Fermi-liquid at low and high imbalance, respectively. The fermionic
sector of the LO gapless superconductor is also quite unique, exhibiting a
Fermi surface of Bogoliubov quasiparticles associated with the Andreev band of
states, localized on the array of the LO domain-walls.Comment: 56 pages, 21 figure
Freezing transition of the vortex liquid in anisotropic superconductors
We study the solid-liquid transition of a model of pancake vortices in
laminar superconductors using a density functional theory of freezing. The
physical properties of the system along the melting line are discussed in
detail. We show that there is a very good agreement with experimental data in
the shape and position of the first order transition in the phase diagram and
in the magnitude and temperature dependence of the magnetic induction jump at
the transition. We analyze the validity of the Lindemann melting criterion and
the Hansen-Verlet freezing criterion. Both criteria are shown to be good to
predict the phase diagram in the region where a first order phase transition is
experimentally observed.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure
Theoretical study of the thermal behavior of free and alumina-supported Fe-C nanoparticles
The thermal behavior of free and alumina-supported iron-carbon nanoparticles
is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations, in which the effect of the
substrate is treated with a simple Morse potential fitted to ab initio data. We
observe that the presence of the substrate raises the melting temperature of
medium and large nanoparticles ( = 0-0.16, = 80-1000, non-
magic numbers) by 40-60 K; it also plays an important role in defining the
ground state of smaller Fe nanoparticles ( = 50-80). The main focus of our
study is the investigation of Fe-C phase diagrams as a function of the
nanoparticle size. We find that as the cluster size decreases in the
1.1-1.6-nm-diameter range the eutectic point shifts significantly not only
toward lower temperatures, as expected from the Gibbs-Thomson law, but also
toward lower concentrations of C. The strong dependence of the maximum C
solubility on the Fe-C cluster size may have important implications for the
catalytic growth of carbon nanotubes by chemical vapor deposition.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, higher quality figures can be seen in article 9
at http://alpha.mems.duke.edu/wahyu
Universities and community-based research in developing countries: community voice and educational provision in rural Tanzania
The main focus of recent research on the community engagement role of universities has been in developed countries, generally in towns and cities and usually conducted from the perspectives of universities rather than the communities with which they engage. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the community engagement role of universities in the rural areas of developing countries, and its potential for strengthening the voice of rural communities. The particular focus is on the provision of primary and secondary education. The paper is based on the assumption that in order for community members to have both the capacity and the confidence to engage in political discourse for improving educational capacity and quality, they need the opportunity to become involved and well-versed in the options available, beyond their own experience. Particular attention is given in the paper to community-based research (CBR). CBR is explored from the perspectives of community members and local leaders in the government-community partnerships which have responsibility for the provision of primary and secondary education in rural Tanzania. The historical and policy background of the partnerships, together with findings from two case studies, provide the context for the paper
Immersed nano-sized Al dispersoids in an Al matrix; effects on the structural and mechanical properties by Molecular Dynamics simulations
We used molecular dynamics simulations based on a potential model in analogy
to the Tight Binding scheme in the Second Moment Approximation to simulate the
effects of aluminum icosahedral grains (dispersoids) on the structure and the
mechanical properties of an aluminum matrix. First we validated our model by
calculating several thermodynamic properties referring to the bulk Al case and
we found good agreement with available experimental and theoretical data.
Afterwards, we simulated Al systems containing Al clusters of various sizes. We
found that the structure of the Al matrix is affected by the presence of the
dispersoids resulting in well ordered domains of different symmetries that were
identified using suitable Voronoi analysis. In addition, we found that the
increase of the grain size has negative effect on the mechanical properties of
the nanocomposite as manifested by the lowering of the calculated bulk moduli.
The obtained results are in line with available experimental data.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to J. Phys: Condens. Matte
Optimizing Performance of Continuous-Time Stochastic Systems using Timeout Synthesis
We consider parametric version of fixed-delay continuous-time Markov chains
(or equivalently deterministic and stochastic Petri nets, DSPN) where
fixed-delay transitions are specified by parameters, rather than concrete
values. Our goal is to synthesize values of these parameters that, for a given
cost function, minimise expected total cost incurred before reaching a given
set of target states. We show that under mild assumptions, optimal values of
parameters can be effectively approximated using translation to a Markov
decision process (MDP) whose actions correspond to discretized values of these
parameters
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