Adhesively-bonded Patch Repair with Composites

Adhesively-bonded composite patch repairs over cracked or corrosion-damaged metallic aircraft structures have shown great promise for extending life of ageing structures. This study presents the numerical investigation into the interface behaviour of adhesively-bonded cracked aluminum alloy substrate patched with fibre-reinforced composite material. The adhesive is modelled as an elasto-plastic bilinear material to characterise the debond behaviour, while the defective substrate is regarded as linear elastic continuum. Two typical patch shapes were selected based on information available in the literature. Geometric and material nonlinear analyses for square and octagonal patches were performed to capture peel and shear stresses developed between the substrate and the patch to examine the possibility of interface  delamination/ debonding. Parametric studies on adhesive thickness and patch thickness were carried out to predict their infuence on damage tolerance of repaired structures.Defence Science Journal, 2010, 60(3), pp.320-329, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.60.36

Three-dimensional Material and Geometrical Nonlinear Analysis of Adhesively Bonded Single Lap Joint

The paper presents 3-D viscoplastic analysis of adhesively bonded single lap joint considering material and geometric nonlinearity. Total Lagrangian formulation is used to develop a 3-D finite element for geometric nonlinear analysis. The overall geometry of the single lap joint, the loading, and the boundary conditions has been considered, both according to the ASTM testing standards and from those adopted in earlier investigations. The constitutive relations for the adhesive are developed using a pressure-dependant (modified) von Mises yield function and Ramberg-Osgood idealisation for the experimental stress-strain curve. The adherends and adhesive layers are both modelled using 20-noded solid elements. However, observations have been made, in particular, on peel and shear stresses in the adhesive layer, which provide useful insight into the 3-D nature of the problem

India’s contribution to mitigating the impacts of climate change through vegetation management

The changes in natural ecosystems provide opportunity to increase vegetation carbon sink capacity and thereby contribute to mitigation of climate change impacts. The Indian tropics and the large ecological variation within the country afford the advantage of diverse niches and offer opportunities to reveal the role of biotic factors at different levels of organization from populations to ecosystems. The last 4 decades of research and development in the Indian space science community has been primarily application driven in response to the government space programme for national development. The expenditure in R&D over next 5 year suggest that scientific research is higher on the country's agenda. The Indo-UK Terrestrial Carbon Group (IUTCG) comprising both Indian and UK scientists, funded jointly by the Department of Science and Technology, India and the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills organised a workshop to explore ways in which Earth observation data can be effectively utilised in mitigating the impacts of climate change through vegetation management. Effective integration of field observations, collected through various monitoring networks, and satellite sensor data has been proposed to provide country-wide monitoring

Skin pharmacokinetics of miltefosine in the treatment of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in South Asia

Introduction: Post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis (PKDL) arises as a dermal complication following a visceral leishmaniasis (VL) infection. Current treatment options for PKDL are unsatisfactory, and there is a knowledge gap regarding the distribution of antileishmanial compounds within human skin. The present study investigated the skin distribution of miltefosine in PKDL patients, with the aim to improve the understanding of the pharmacokinetics at the skin target site in PKDL. Methods: Fifty-two PKDL patients underwent treatment with liposomal amphotericin B (20 mg/kg) plus miltefosine (allometric dosing) for 21 days. Plasma concentrations of miltefosine were measured on study days 8, 15, 22 and 30, while a punch skin biopsy was taken on day 22. A physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model was developed to evaluate the distribution of miltefosine into the skin. Results: Following the allometric weight-based dosing regimen, median miltefosine concentrations on day 22 were 43.73 μg/g (IQR: 21.94-60.65 μg/g) in skin and 33.29 μg/mL (IQR: 25.9-42.58 μg/mL) in plasma. The median individual concentration ratio of skin to plasma was 1.19 (IQR: 0.79-1.9). In 87% (45/52) of patients, skin exposure was above the suggested EC90 PK target of 10.6 mg/L associated with in vitro susceptibility. Simulations indicated that the residence time of miltefosine in the skin would be more than 2-fold longer than in plasma, estimated by a mean residence time of 604 versus 266 hours, respectively. Conclusion: This study provides the first accurate measurements of miltefosine penetration into the skin, demonstrating substantial exposure and prolonged retention of miltefosine within the skin. These findings support the use of miltefosine in cutaneous manifestations of leishmaniasis. In combination with parasitological and clinical data, these results are critical for the future optimization of combination therapies with miltefosine in the treatment of PKDL

Cluster Density and the IMF

Observed variations in the IMF are reviewed with an emphasis on environmental density. The remote field IMF studied in the LMC by several authors is clearly steeper than most cluster IMFs, which have slopes close to the Salpeter value. Local field regions of star formation, like Taurus, may have relatively steep IMFs too. Very dense and massive clusters, like super star clusters, could have flatter IMFs, or inner-truncated IMFs. We propose that these variations are the result of three distinct processes during star formation that affect the mass function in different ways depending on mass range. At solar to intermediate stellar masses, gas processes involving thermal pressure and supersonic turbulence determine the basic scale for stellar mass, starting with the observed pre-stellar condensations, and they define the mass function from several tenths to several solar masses. Brown dwarfs require extraordinarily high pressures for fragmentation from the gas, and presumably form inside the pre-stellar condensations during mutual collisions, secondary fragmentations, or in disks. High mass stars form in excess of the numbers expected from pure turbulent fragmentation as pre-stellar condensations coalesce and accrete with an enhanced gravitational cross section. Variations in the interaction rate, interaction strength, and accretion rate among the primary fragments formed by turbulence lead to variations in the relative proportions of brown dwarfs, solar to intermediate mass stars, and high mass stars.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, to be published in ``IMF@50: A Fest-Colloquium in honor of Edwin E. Salpeter,'' held at Abbazia di Spineto, Siena, Italy, May 16-20, 2004. Kluwer Academic Publishers; edited by E. Corbelli, F. Palla, and H. Zinnecke

Search for the Chiral Magnetic Effect in Au+Au collisions at sNN=27\sqrt{s_{_{\rm{NN}}}}=27 GeV with the STAR forward Event Plane Detectors

A decisive experimental test of the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME) is considered one of the major scientific goals at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) towards understanding the nontrivial topological fluctuations of the Quantum Chromodynamics vacuum. In heavy-ion collisions, the CME is expected to result in a charge separation phenomenon across the reaction plane, whose strength could be strongly energy dependent. The previous CME searches have been focused on top RHIC energy collisions. In this Letter, we present a low energy search for the CME in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm{NN}}}}=27$ GeV. We measure elliptic flow scaled charge-dependent correlators relative to the event planes that are defined at both mid-rapidity $|\eta|<1.0$ and at forward rapidity $2.1 < |\eta|<5.1$. We compare the results based on the directed flow plane ($\Psi_1$) at forward rapidity and the elliptic flow plane ($\Psi_2$) at both central and forward rapidity. The CME scenario is expected to result in a larger correlation relative to $\Psi_1$ than to $\Psi_2$, while a flow driven background scenario would lead to a consistent result for both event planes[1,2]. In 10-50\% centrality, results using three different event planes are found to be consistent within experimental uncertainties, suggesting a flow driven background scenario dominating the measurement. We obtain an upper limit on the deviation from a flow driven background scenario at the 95\% confidence level. This work opens up a possible road map towards future CME search with the high statistics data from the RHIC Beam Energy Scan Phase-II.Comment: main: 8 pages, 5 figures; supplementary material: 2 pages, 1 figur