Process development for producing fine-grain casting in space

Assessment of grain growth kinetics at temperatures near the melting point and investigation into the use of potential nucleating agents in combination with the naturally occurring BeO led to the definition of critical low-g experiments which would help to determine whether one or both of these possibilities are valid and whether space processing would be able to yield fine grain ingot beryllium

Elevated temperature crack growth

The purpose is to determine the ability of currently available P-I integrals to correlate fatigue crack propagation under conditions that simulate the turbojet engine combustor liner environment. The utility of advanced fracture mechanics measurements will also be evaluated during the course of the program. To date, an appropriate specimen design, a crack displacement measurement method, and boundary condition simulation in the computational model of the specimen were achieved. Alloy 718 was selected as an analog material based on its ability to simulate high temperature behavior at lower temperatures. Tensile and cyclic tests were run at several strain rates so that an appropriate constitutive model could be developed. Suitable P-I integrals were programmed into a finite element post-processor for eventual comparison with experimental data

Elevated temperature crack growth

It is necessary to relate the processes that control crack growth in the immediate vicinity of the crack tip to parameters that can be calculated from remote quantities, such as forces, stresses, or displacements. The most likely parameters appear to be certain path-independent (PI) integrals, several of which have already been proposed for application to high temperature inelastic problems. The ability of currently available PI-integrals to correlate fatigue crack propagation under conditions that simulate the engine combustor liner environment was determined. The utility of advanced fracture mechanics measurements will also be evaluated and determined during the course of the program

Abelian 2-form gauge theory: superfield formalism

We derive the off-shell nilpotent Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) and anti-BRST symmetry transformations for {\it all} the fields of a free Abelian 2-form gauge theory by exploiting the geometrical superfield approach to BRST formalism. The above four (3 + 1)-dimensional (4D) theory is considered on a (4, 2)-dimensional supermanifold parameterized by the four even spacetime variables x^\mu (with \mu = 0, 1, 2, 3) and a pair of odd Grassmannian variables \theta and \bar\theta (with \theta^2 = \bar\theta^2 = 0, \theta \bar\theta + \bar\theta \theta = 0). One of the salient features of our present investigation is that the above nilpotent (anti-)BRST symmetry transformations turn out to be absolutely anticommuting due to the presence of a Curci-Ferrari (CF) type of restriction. The latter condition emerges due to the application of our present superfield formalism. The actual CF condition, as is well-known, is the hallmark of a 4D non-Abelian 1-form gauge theory. We demonstrate that our present 4D Abelian 2-form gauge theory imbibes some of the key signatures of the 4D non-Abelian 1-form gauge theory. We briefly comment on the generalization of our supperfield approach to the case of Abelian 3-form gauge theory in four (3 + 1)-dimensions of spacetime.Comment: LaTeX file, 23 pages, journal versio

New method for critical failure prediction of complex systems

Rigorous analytical technique, called criticality determination methodology /or CD technique/ determines the probability that a given complex system will successfully achieve stated objectives. The CD technique identifies critical elements of the system by a failure mode and effects analysis

A framework for intracranial saccular aneurysm detection and quantification using morphological analysis of cerebral angiograms

Reliable early prediction of aneurysm rupture can greatly help neurosurgeons to treat aneurysms at the right time, thus saving lives as well as providing significant cost reduction. Most of the research efforts in this respect involve statistical analysis of collected data or simulation of hemodynamic factors to predict the risk of aneurysmal rupture. Whereas, morphological analysis of cerebral angiogram images for locating and estimating unruptured aneurysms is rarely considered. Since digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is regarded as a standard test by the American Stroke Association and American College of Radiology for identification of aneurysm, this paper aims to perform morphological analysis of DSA to accurately detect saccular aneurysms, precisely determine their sizes, and estimate the probability of their ruptures. The proposed diagnostic framework, intracranial saccular aneurysm detection and quantification, first extracts cerebrovascular structures by denoising angiogram images and delineates regions of interest (ROIs) by using watershed segmentation and distance transformation. Then, it identifies saccular aneurysms among segmented ROIs using multilayer perceptron neural network trained upon robust Haralick texture features, and finally quantifies aneurysm rupture by geometrical analysis of identified aneurysmic ROI. De-identified data set of 59 angiograms is used to evaluate the performance of algorithms for aneurysm detection and risk of rupture quantification. The proposed framework achieves high accuracy of 98% and 86% for aneurysm classification and quantification, respectively

Elevated temperature crack growth

The objective of the Elevated Temperature Crack Growth Project is to evaluate proposed nonlinear fracture mechanics methods for application to combustor liners of aircraft gas turbine engines. During the first year of this program, proposed path-independent (P-I) integrals were reviewed for such applications. Several P-I integrals were implemented into a finite-element postprocessor which was developed and verified as part of the work. Alloy 718 was selected as the analog material for use in the forthcoming experimental work. A buttonhead, single-edge notch specimen was designed and verified for use in elevated-temperature strain control testing with significant inelastic strains. A crack mouth opening displacement measurement device was developed for further use

Studies on antihyperlipidemic and endothelium modulatory activities of polyherbal formulation (POL4) and its ingredients in high fat diet-fed rats

A compound herbal formulation (POL4) is used traditionally in interior parts (Distt. Badin) of Sindh, Pakistan, for the treatment of metabolic disorders like diabetes and hyperlipidemia. This study is aimed to determine the effectiveness of POL4 and its ingredients in hyperlipidemia and associated endothelial dysfunction and hypertension. POL4 is composed of equal proportion of Nigella sativa, Cichorium intybus, Trigonella foenum graecum and Gymnema sylvestre mixed in powdered form. Chronic (6 to 7 weeks) administration of POL4 and its ingredients mixed in diet caused a notable attenuation in total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, atherogenic index, C-reactive protein and glucose, while it has increased high density lipoprotein levels. POL4 intervention markedly (p\u3c0.01) reduced systolic blood pressure in rats to 127±1.92 vs. 145.4±1.07 mm of Hg using tail-cuff method and significantly (p\u3c0.05) improved endothelium-dependent relaxation (75±2.88 vs. 82.75±1.22%) to acetylcholine in isolated aortae of rats in treatment groups using force transducer and PowerLab system. Similar activities were assessed on the part of ingredients of POL4. These findings indicate that POL4 and its ingredients possess antihyperlipidemic, endothelium-dependent modulatory and antihypertensive activities, thus providing an evidence to the vernacular use of POL4 in hyperlipidemia and hypertension

Superfield Approach to (Non-)local Symmetries for One-Form Abelian Gauge Theory

We exploit the geometrical superfield formalism to derive the local, covariant and continuous Becchi-Rouet-Stora-Tyutin (BRST) symmetry transformations and the non-local, non-covariant and continuous dual-BRST symmetry transformations for the free Abelian one-form gauge theory in four $(3 + 1)$-dimensions (4D) of spacetime. Our discussion is carried out in the framework of BRST invariant Lagrangian density for the above 4D theory in the Feynman gauge. The geometrical origin and interpretation for the (dual-)BRST charges (and the transformations they generate) are provided in the language of translations of some superfields along the Grassmannian directions of the six ($4 + 2)$-dimensional supermanifold parametrized by the four spacetime and two Grassmannian variables.Comment: LaTeX file, 23 page

Compositional nonblocking verification with always enabled events and selfloop-only events

This paper proposes to improve compositional nonblocking verification through the use of always enabled and selfloop-only events. Compositional verification involves abstraction to simplify parts of a system during verification. Normally, this abstraction is based on the set of events not used in the remainder of the system, i.e., in the part of the system not being simplified. Here, it is proposed to exploit more knowledge about the system and abstract events even though they are used in the remainder of the system. Abstraction rules from previous work are generalised, and experimental results demonstrate the applicability of the resulting algorithm to verify several industrial-scale discrete event system models, while achieving better state-space reduction than before