706 research outputs found
Fatigue Life Methodology for Tapered Composite Flexbeam Laminates
The viability of a method for determining the fatigue life of composite rotor hub flexbeam laminates using delamination fatigue characterization data and a geometric non-linear finite element (FE) analysis was studied. Combined tension and bending loading was applied to nonlinear tapered flexbeam laminates with internal ply drops. These laminates, consisting of coupon specimens cut from a full-size S2/E7T1 glass-epoxy flexbeam were tested in a hydraulic load frame under combined axial-tension and transverse cyclic bending loads. The magnitude of the axial load remained constant and the direction of the load rotated with the specimen as the cyclic bending load was applied. The first delamination damage observed in the specimens occurred at the area around the tip of the outermost ply-drop group. Subsequently, unstable delamination occurred by complete delamination along the length of the specimen. Continued cycling resulted in multiple delaminations. A 2D finite element model of the flexbeam was developed and a geometrically non-linear analysis was performed. The global responses of the model and test specimens agreed very well in terms of the transverse flexbeam tip-displacement and flapping angle. The FE model was used to calculate strain energy release rates (G) for delaminations initiating at the tip of the outer ply-drop area and growing toward the thick or thin regions of the flexbeam, as was observed in the specimens. The delamination growth toward the thick region was primarily mode 2, whereas delamination growth toward the thin region was almost completely mode 1. Material characterization data from cyclic double-cantilevered beam tests was used with the peak calculated G values to generate a curve predicting fatigue failure by unstable delamination as a function of the number of loading cycles. The calculated fatigue lives compared well with the test data
On the existence of dyons and dyonic black holes in Einstein-Yang-Mills theory
We study dyonic soliton and black hole solutions of the
Einstein-Yang-Mills equations in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space. We prove
the existence of non-trivial dyonic soliton and black hole solutions in a
neighbourhood of the trivial solution. For these solutions the magnetic gauge
field function has no zeros and we conjecture that at least some of these
non-trivial solutions will be stable. The global existence proof uses local
existence results and a non-linear perturbation argument based on the (Banach
space) implicit function theorem.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures. Minor revisions; references adde
Effect of omitting post-milking teat disinfection on the mastitis infection rate of dairy cows over a full lactation
Abstract Fifty-six autumn calving Holstein-Friesian dairy cows were milked as one herd over a complete lactation. Right-sided teats were disinfected post-milking by submersing teats in a chlorohexadine solution, while teat disinfectant was omitted on left-sided teats. Milk samples were taken from individual quarters to measure SCC on thirteen occasions during the lactation. Mean somatic cell count was lower (P<0.01) in milk from disinfected compared to non-disinfected quarters over the full lactation. The number of clinical infections was also significantly lower (P<0.001) in disinfected compared to nondisinfected quarters. Omitting teat disinfection also resulted in a higher (P<0.01) number of non-haemolytic staphylococci and Staphylococcus aureus pathogens in those quarters compared to disinfected quarters
International variation in the definition of ‘main condition' in ICD-coded health data
Hospital-based medical records are abstracted to create International Classification of Disease (ICD) coded discharge health data in many countries. The ‘main condition' is not defined in a consistent manner internationally. Some countries employ a ‘reason for admission' rule as the basis for the main condition, while other countries employ a ‘resource use' rule. A few countries have recently transitioned from one of these approaches to the other. The definition of ‘main condition' in such ICD data matters when it is used to define a disease cohort to assign diagnosis-related groups and to perform risk adjustment. We propose a method of harmonizing the international definition to enable researchers and international organizations using ICD-coded health data to aggregate or compare hospital care and outcomes across countries in a consistent manner. Inter-observer reliability of alternative harmonization approaches should be evaluated before finalizing the definition and adopting it worldwid
The International Workshop on Osteoarthritis Imaging Knee MRI Segmentation Challenge: A Multi-Institute Evaluation and Analysis Framework on a Standardized Dataset
Purpose: To organize a knee MRI segmentation challenge for characterizing the
semantic and clinical efficacy of automatic segmentation methods relevant for
monitoring osteoarthritis progression.
Methods: A dataset partition consisting of 3D knee MRI from 88 subjects at
two timepoints with ground-truth articular (femoral, tibial, patellar)
cartilage and meniscus segmentations was standardized. Challenge submissions
and a majority-vote ensemble were evaluated using Dice score, average symmetric
surface distance, volumetric overlap error, and coefficient of variation on a
hold-out test set. Similarities in network segmentations were evaluated using
pairwise Dice correlations. Articular cartilage thickness was computed per-scan
and longitudinally. Correlation between thickness error and segmentation
metrics was measured using Pearson's coefficient. Two empirical upper bounds
for ensemble performance were computed using combinations of model outputs that
consolidated true positives and true negatives.
Results: Six teams (T1-T6) submitted entries for the challenge. No
significant differences were observed across all segmentation metrics for all
tissues (p=1.0) among the four top-performing networks (T2, T3, T4, T6). Dice
correlations between network pairs were high (>0.85). Per-scan thickness errors
were negligible among T1-T4 (p=0.99) and longitudinal changes showed minimal
bias (<0.03mm). Low correlations (<0.41) were observed between segmentation
metrics and thickness error. The majority-vote ensemble was comparable to top
performing networks (p=1.0). Empirical upper bound performances were similar
for both combinations (p=1.0).
Conclusion: Diverse networks learned to segment the knee similarly where high
segmentation accuracy did not correlate to cartilage thickness accuracy. Voting
ensembles did not outperform individual networks but may help regularize
individual models.Comment: Submitted to Radiology: Artificial Intelligence; Fixed typo
Teaching for the transition: The Canadian PGY-1 neurosurgery \u27rookie camp\u27
Background: Transitioning from medical school to residency is difficult and stressful, necessitating innovation in easing this transition. In response, a Canadian neurosurgical Rookie Camp was designed and implemented to foster acquisition of technical, cognitive and behavioral skills among incoming Canadian post graduate year one (PGY-1) neurosurgery residents. Methods: The inaugural Rookie Camp was held in July 2012 in Halifax. The curriculum was developed based on a national needs-assessment and consisted of a pre-course manual, 7 case-based stations, 4 procedural skills stations and 2 group discussions. The content was clinically focused, used a variety of teaching methods, and addressed multiple CanMEDS competencies. Evaluation included participant and faculty surveys and a pre-course, post-course, and 3-month retention knowledge test. Results: 17 of 23 PGY-1 Canadian neurosurgical residents participated in the Camp. All agreed the course content was relevant for PGY-1 training and the experience prepared them for residency. All participants would recommend the course to future neurosurgical residents. A statistically significant improvement was observed in knowledge related to course content (F(2,32) = 7.572, p\u3c0.002). There were no significant differences between post-test and retention-test scores at three months. Conclusion: The inaugural Canadian Neurosurgery Rookie Camp for PGY-1 residents was successfully delivered, with engagement from participants, training programs, the Canadian Neurosurgical Society, and the Royal College. In addition to providing fundamental knowledge, which was shown to be retained, the course eased junior residents\u27 transition to residency by fostering camaraderie and socialization within the specialty
The acquisition of Sign Language: The impact of phonetic complexity on phonology
Research into the effect of phonetic complexity on phonological acquisition has a long history in spoken languages. This paper considers the effect of phonetics on phonological development in a signed language. We report on an experiment in which nonword-repetition methodology was adapted so as to examine in a systematic way how phonetic complexity in two phonological parameters of signed languages — handshape and movement — affects the perception and articulation of signs. Ninety-one Deaf children aged 3–11 acquiring British Sign Language (BSL) and 46 hearing nonsigners aged 6–11 repeated a set of 40 nonsense signs. For Deaf children, repetition accuracy improved with age, correlated with wider BSL abilities, and was lowest for signs that were phonetically complex. Repetition accuracy was correlated with fine motor skills for the youngest children. Despite their lower repetition accuracy, the hearing group were similarly affected by phonetic complexity, suggesting that common visual and motoric factors are at play when processing linguistic information in the visuo-gestural modality
Report on developing bottom-up Marginal Abatement Cost Curves (MACCS) for representative farm types.
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