1,914 research outputs found
Splash control of drop impacts with geometric targets
Drop impacts on solid and liquid surfaces exhibit complex dynamics due to the
competition of inertial, viscous, and capillary forces. After impact, a liquid
lamella develops and expands radially, and under certain conditions, the outer
rim breaks up into an irregular arrangement of filaments and secondary
droplets. We show experimentally that the lamella expansion and subsequent
break up of the outer rim can be controlled by length scales that are of
comparable dimension to the impacting drop diameter. Under identical impact
parameters, ie. fluid properties and impact velocity, we observe unique
splashing dynamics by varying the target cross-sectional geometry. These
behaviors include: (i) geometrically-shaped lamellae and (ii) a transition in
splashing stability, from regular to irregular splashing. We propose that
regular splashes are controlled by the azimuthal perturbations imposed by the
target cross-sectional geometry and that irregular splashes are governed by the
fastest-growing unstable Plateau-Rayleigh mode
Forging a New Path: Fraud and White-Collar Crime in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s 1870s Fiction
Janine Hatter examines Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s 1870s sensation fiction and the changing relationship between crime, genre, gender, class and the periodical press. Focusing on 'Taken at the Flood', 'The Cloven Foot', ‘Dr. Carrick’ and ‘Mr. and Mrs. de Fontenoy’, the chapter examines how Braddon updates her 1860s sensation fiction’s representation of the position of women and criminal activities in line with the changing historical context of the first Married Women’s Property Act (1870). The essay then considers how Braddon uses fraud and white-collar crime to emphasise male middle-class criminal strategies and ingenuity, highlighting their wider impact on society. The chapter concludes by considering syndication of Braddon’s work in provincial newspapers, gaining her a wider geographical and social readership for her warnings about white-collar crime
Evolutionary Roots of Property Rights; The Natural and Cultural Nature of Human Cooperation
Debates about the role of natural and cultural selection in the development of prosocial, antisocial and socially neutral mechanisms and behavior raise questions that touch property rights, cooperation, and conflict. For example, some researchers suggest that cooperation and prosociality evolved by natural selection (Hamilton 1964, Trivers 1971, Axelrod and Hamilton 1981, De Waal 2013, 2014), while others claim that natural selection is insufficient for the evolution of cooperation, which required in addition cultural selection (Sterelny 2013, Bowles and Gintis 2003, Seabright 2013, Norenzayan 2013). Some scholars focus on the complexity and hierarchical nature of the evolution of cooperation as involving different tools associated with lower and the higher levels of competition (Nowak 2006, Okasha 2006); others suggest that humans genetically inherited heuristics that favor prosocial behavior such as generosity, forgiveness or altruistic punishment (Ridley 1996, Bowles and Gintis 2004, Rolls 2005). We argue these mechanisms are not genetically inherited; rather, they are features inherited through cultural selection. To support this view we invoke inclusive fitness theory, which states that individuals tend to maximize their inclusive fitness, rather than maximizing group fitness. We further reject the older notion of natural group selection - as well as more recent versions (West, Mouden, Gardner 2011) – which hold that natural selection favors cooperators within a group (Wynne-Edwards 1962). For Wynne-Edwards, group selection leads to group adaptations; the survival of individuals therefore depends on the survival of the group and a sharing of resources. Individuals who do not cooperate, who are selfish, face extinction due to rapid and over-exploitation of resources
Recommended from our members
Spall And Dynamic Yielding Of Aluminum And Aluminum Alloys At Strain Rates Of 3X10(6) S(-1)
We have explored the role that grain size, impurity particles and alloying in aluminum play in dynamic yielding and spall fracture at tensile strain rates of similar to 3x10(6) We achieved these strain rates shocking the aluminum specimens via laser ablation using the Z-Beamlet Laser at Sandia National Laboratories. The high purity aluminum and 1100 series aluminum alloy produced very different spall strengths and nearly the same yield strengths. In contrast, various grain-sized Al + 3 wt. % Mg specimens presented the lowest spall strength, but the greatest dynamic yield strength. Fracture morphology results and particle analysis are presented along with hydrodynamic simulations to put these results in context. Impurity particles appeared to play a vital role in spall fracture at these fast strain rates. Alloying elements such as Mg seem to be the dominant factor in the dynamic yield results.Mechanical Engineerin
Mesenchymal stromal cells:inhibiting PDGF receptors or depleting fibronectin induces mesodermal progenitors with endothelial potential
Realizing the full therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) awaits improved understanding of mechanisms controlling their fate. Using MSCs cultured as spheroids to recapitulate a three-dimensional cellular environment, we show that perturbing the mesenchymal regulators, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptors or fibronectin, reverts MSCs toward mesodermal progenitors with endothelial potential that can potently induce neovascularization in vivo. MSCs within untreated spheroids retain their mesenchymal spindle shape with abundant smooth muscle α-actin filaments and fibronectin-rich matrix. Inhibiting PDGF receptors or depleting fibronectin induces rounding and depletes smooth muscle α-actin expression; these cells have characteristics of mesenchymoangioblasts, with enhanced expression of mesendoderm and endoderm transcription factors, prominent upregulation of E-cadherin, and Janus kinase signaling-dependent expression of Oct4A and Nanog. PDGF receptor-inhibited spheroids also upregulate endothelial markers platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1 and vascular endothelial-cadherin and secrete many angiogenic factors, and in vivo they potently stimulate neovascularization, and their MSCs integrate within functional blood vessels that are perfused by the circulation. Thus, MSC potency and vascular induction are regulated by perturbing mesenchymal fate
Drop Splashing on a Dry Smooth Surface
The corona splash due to the impact of a liquid drop on a smooth dry
substrate is investigated with high speed photography. A striking phenomenon is
observed: splashing can be completely suppressed by decreasing the pressure of
the surrounding gas. The threshold pressure where a splash first occurs is
measured as a function of the impact velocity and found to scale with the
molecular weight of the gas and the viscosity of the liquid. Both experimental
scaling relations support a model in which compressible effects in the gas are
responsible for splashing in liquid solid impacts.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Quotient Categories and Phases
We study properties of a category after quotienting out a suitable chosen
group of isomorphisms on each object. Coproducts in the original category are
described in its quotient by our new weaker notion of a 'phased coproduct'. We
examine these and show that any suitable category with them arises as such a
quotient of a category with coproducts. Motivation comes from projective
geometry, and also quantum theory where they describe superpositions in the
category of Hilbert spaces and continuous linear maps up to global phase. The
quotients we consider also generalise those induced by categorical isotropy in
the sense of Funk et al.Comment: Fixed typos, added discussion of isotropy, expanded introductio
- …