4,416 research outputs found
Significance of low energy impact damage on modal parameters of composite beams by design of experiments
This paper presents an experimental study on the effects of multi-site damage on the vibration response of composite beams damaged by low energy impacts around the barely visible impact damage limit (BVID). The variation of the modal parameters with different levels of impact energy and density of damage is studied. Vibration tests have been carried out with both burst random and classical sine dwell excitations in order to compare that which of the methods among Polymax and Half Bandwidth Method is more suitable for damping estimation in the presence of damage. Design of experiments (DOE) performed on the experimental data show that natural frequency is a more sensitive parameter for damage detection than the damping ratio. It also highlighted energy of impact as the factor having a more significant effect on the modal parameters. Half Bandwidth Method is found to be unsuitable for damping estimation in the presence of damage
Non-Newtonian fluid flow through three-dimensional disordered porous media
We investigate the flow of various non-Newtonian fluids through
three-dimensional disordered porous media by direct numerical simulation of
momentum transport and continuity equations. Remarkably, our results for
power-law (PL) fluids indicate that the flow, when quantified in terms of a
properly modified permeability-like index and Reynolds number, can be
successfully described by a single (universal) curve over a broad range of
Reynolds conditions and power-law exponents. We also study the flow behavior of
Bingham fluids described in terms of the Herschel-Bulkley model. In this case,
our simulations reveal that the interplay of ({\it i}) the disordered geometry
of the pore space, ({\it ii}) the fluid rheological properties, and ({\it iii})
the inertial effects on the flow is responsible for a substantial enhancement
of the macroscopic hydraulic conductance of the system at intermediate Reynolds
conditions. This anomalous condition of ``enhanced transport'' represents a
novel feature for flow in porous materials.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. This article appears also in Physical Review
Letters 103 194502 (2009
Inactivation of Bacterial Opportunistic Skin Pathogens by Nonthermal DC-Operated Afterglow Atmospheric Plasma
AIMS: Multidrug-resistant opportunistic pathogens are clinically significant and require the development of new antimicrobial methods. In this study, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus cells were exposed to atmospheric plasma on agar plates and in vitro on porcine skin for the purpose of testing bacterial inactivation.
METHODS AND RESULTS: Microbial inactivation at varying exposure durations was tested using a nonthermal plasma jet generated with a DC voltage from ambient air. The observed reduction in colony forming units was quantified as log10 reductions.
CONCLUSIONS: Direct plasma exposure significantly inactivated seeded bacterial cells by approx. 6 log10 on agar plates and 2-3 log10 on porcine skin. On agar plates, an indirect \u27bystander\u27 inactivation outside the plasma delivery area was also observed. The reduced inactivation observed on the skin surface was most likely due to cell protection by the variable surface architecture.
SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF STUDY: Atmospheric plasma has potential for clinical application as a disinfectant of patient skin and medically relevant surfaces
Analysis of chicken fat as adulterant in butter using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics
Publication and patent analysis of European researchers in the field of production technology and manufacturing systems
This paper develops a structured comparison among a sample of European researchers in the field of Production Technology and Manufacturing Systems, on the basis of scientific publications and patents. Researchers are evaluated and compared by a variegated set of indicators concerning (1) the output of individual researchers and (2) that of groups of researchers from the same country. While not claiming to be exhaustive, the results of this preliminary study provide a rough indication of the publishing and patenting activity of researchers in the field of interest, identifying (dis)similarities between different countries. Of particular interest is a proposal for aggregating analysis results by means of maps based on publication and patent indicators. A large amount of empirical data are presented and discusse
Spin-dependent electrical transport in ion-beam sputter deposited Fe-Cr multilayers
The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity and
magnetoresistance of Xe-ion beam sputtered Fe-Cr multilayers has been
investigated. The electrical resistivity between 5 and 300 K in the fully
ferromagnetic state, obtained by applying a field beyond the saturation field
(H_sat) necessary for the antiferromagnetic(AF)-ferromagnetic(FM) field-induced
transition, shows evidence of spin-disorder resistivity as in crystalline Fe
and an s-d scattering contribution (as in 3d metals and alloys). The sublattice
magnetization m(T) in these multilayers has been calculated in terms of the
planar and interlayer exchange energies. The additional spin-dependent
scattering \Delta \rho (T) = \rho(T,H=0)_AF - \rho(T,H=H_sat)_FM in the AF
state over a wide range of temperature is found to be proportional to the
sublattice magnetization, both \Delta \rho(T) and m(T) reducing along with the
antiferromagnetic fraction. At intermediate fields, the spin-dependent part of
the electrical resistivity (\rho_s (T)) fits well to the power law \rho_s (T) =
b - cT^\alpha where c is a constant and b and \alpha are functions of H. At low
fields \alpha \approx 2 and the intercept b decreases with H much the same way
as the decrease of \Delta \rho (T) with T. A phase diagram (T vs. H_sat) is
obtained for the field- induced AF to FM transition. Comparisons are made
between the present investigation and similar studies using dc magnetron
sputtered and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown Fe-Cr multilayers.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Classical limit in terms of symbolic dynamics for the quantum baker's map
We derive a simple closed form for the matrix elements of the quantum baker's
map that shows that the map is an approximate shift in a symbolic
representation based on discrete phase space. We use this result to give a
formal proof that the quantum baker's map approaches a classical Bernoulli
shift in the limit of a small effective Plank's constant.Comment: 12 pages, LaTex, typos correcte
Ageing of enteric neurons: oxidative stress, neurotrophic factors and antioxidant enzymes
Background: Ageing is associated with gastrointestinal dysfunction, which can have a major impact on quality of life of the elderly. A number of changes in the innervation of the gut during ageing have been reported, including neuronal loss and degenerative changes. Evidence indicates that reactive oxygen species (ROS) are elevated in ageing enteric neurons, but that neurotrophic factors may reduce generation of neuronal ROS. Two such factors, glial cell line derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) have also been found to protect enteric neurons against oxidative stress induced cell death of enteric ganglion cells in vitro. We have investigated the possible roles of neurotrophic factors further, by examining their expression in the gut during ageing, and by analysing their effects on antioxidant enzyme production in cultures of enteric ganglion cells.
Results: Analysis of the expression of GDNF and its receptors c-Ret and GFR α − 1 in rat gut by RT-PCR showed that
expression continues throughout life and into ageing, in both ad libitum(AL) and calorically-restricted (CR) animals. Levels of expression of GDNF and GFR α − 1 were elevated in 24 month AL animals compared to 24 month CR animals, and to 24 CR and 6 month control animals respectively. The related factor Neurturin and its receptor GFR α − 2 were also expressed throughout life, the levels of the GFR – α-2(b) isoform were reduced in 24 m AL animals. Immunolabelling showed that c-Ret and GFR α − 1 proteins were expressed by myenteric neurons in ageing animals. GDNF, but not NT-3, was found to increase expression of Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase and catalase by cultured enteric ganglion cells.
Conclusions: The neurotrophic factors GDNF and neurturin and their receptors continue to be expressed in the ageing gut. Changes in the levels of expression of GDNF , GFR α-1 and GFR α-2(b) isoform occurred in 24 m AL animals. GDNF, but not NT-3, increased the levels of antioxidant enzymes in cultured enteric ganglion cells, indicating a possible mechanism for the reported protective effect of GDNF against menadione-induced neuronal apoptosis in the ageing gut. Together these data suggest that GDNF family members may play a protective role in the gut throughout life, and support the suggestion that dysregulation of neurotrophic factor support could contribute to neuronal ageing in the gut
Off-Equilibrium Dynamics in Finite-Dimensional Spin Glass Models
The low temperature dynamics of the two- and three-dimensional Ising spin
glass model with Gaussian couplings is investigated via extensive Monte Carlo
simulations. We find an algebraic decay of the remanent magnetization. For the
autocorrelation function a typical
aging scenario with a scaling is established. Investigating spatial
correlations we find an algebraic growth law of
the average domain size. The spatial correlation function scales with . The sensitivity of the
correlations in the spin glass phase with respect to temperature changes is
examined by calculating a time dependent overlap length. In the two dimensional
model we examine domain growth with a new method: First we determine the exact
ground states of the various samples (of system sizes up to )
and then we calculate the correlations between this state and the states
generated during a Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: 38 pages, RevTeX, 14 postscript figure
Ambient-aware continuous care through semantic context dissemination
Background: The ultimate ambient-intelligent care room contains numerous sensors and devices to monitor the patient, sense and adjust the environment and support the staff. This sensor-based approach results in a large amount of data, which can be processed by current and future applications, e. g., task management and alerting systems. Today, nurses are responsible for coordinating all these applications and supplied information, which reduces the added value and slows down the adoption rate. The aim of the presented research is the design of a pervasive and scalable framework that is able to optimize continuous care processes by intelligently reasoning on the large amount of heterogeneous care data.
Methods: The developed Ontology-based Care Platform (OCarePlatform) consists of modular components that perform a specific reasoning task. Consequently, they can easily be replicated and distributed. Complex reasoning is achieved by combining the results of different components. To ensure that the components only receive information, which is of interest to them at that time, they are able to dynamically generate and register filter rules with a Semantic Communication Bus (SCB). This SCB semantically filters all the heterogeneous care data according to the registered rules by using a continuous care ontology. The SCB can be distributed and a cache can be employed to ensure scalability.
Results: A prototype implementation is presented consisting of a new-generation nurse call system supported by a localization and a home automation component. The amount of data that is filtered and the performance of the SCB are evaluated by testing the prototype in a living lab. The delay introduced by processing the filter rules is negligible when 10 or fewer rules are registered.
Conclusions: The OCarePlatform allows disseminating relevant care data for the different applications and additionally supports composing complex applications from a set of smaller independent components. This way, the platform significantly reduces the amount of information that needs to be processed by the nurses. The delay resulting from processing the filter rules is linear in the amount of rules. Distributed deployment of the SCB and using a cache allows further improvement of these performance results
- …