Examination of the Mechanical, Corrosion, and Tribological Behavior of Friction Stir Welded Aluminum Alloy AA8011

Aluminum alloy AA8011 is emerging as a promising material for modern engineering applications in which improved tensile strength, hardness, corrosion-resistance, and wear-resistance of materials are required. Typically, AA8011 alloys are utilized in air-conditioning ducts and heat exchanger fins in ships, leisure boats, luxury vessels, workboats, fishing vessels, and patrol boats. However, the conventional welding of AA8011 is a challenging procedure. In this context, this paper focuses on the development of an effective solid-state welding methodology for AA8011 alloy welding. The AA8011 alloy was friction stir welded by varying the tool rotation speed, traverse speed, and shoulder diameter. The microhardness, tensile strength, joint efficiency, elongation, corrosion rate, and wear rate of the friction stir welded specimens were compared with the base material. Fractography analysis was conducted after the tensile test and surface morphology analysis after corrosion and wear tests, using scanning electron microscopy. The compositional elements in the corroded and worn section of the specimens were analyzed using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Based on the joint efficiency as a primary constraint, the optimum process parameters for friction stir welding of aluminum alloy AA8011 have been established as follows: tool rotation speed of 1200 rpm, tool traverse speed of 45 mm/min, and tool shoulder diameter of 21 mm

A remote sensing approach to monitor potential fishing zone associated with sea surface temperature and chlorophyll concentration

1025-1030India is the biggest seafood producing country in the world, and its economy relies, to a large extent, on fish production. Recent technologies in the remote sensing field enabled the gathering of information about the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Chlorophyll Concentration (CC) are used for analyzing the Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ). We used Landsat 8 images to create the base map of the Thoothukudi coastline. MODIS-AQUA satellite data were used to derive the SST and Chlorophyll-a for the Thoothukudi coast (Bay of Bengal) for the years 2013 to 2017, for the month of June. PFZ was classified into three classes: High PFZ, Medium PFZ, and Low PFZ. Results shows 2015 has highest PFZ found in the region of Sippikulam and Vembar. During 2016, PFZ identified at Kayalpattinam, Tiruchendur, and Manapad regions. The PFZ level was low during 2017 compared to the previous years. The PFZ has increased in the international maritime boundary line, which forced the fishermen to cross the territorial boundary. This study provides valuable information about fish catching areas to the fishermen and local populations, by reducing fish search time by 30 to 70 %, and consequently the fuel cost and human efforts. Additionally, also reduces the need of crossing the international maritime boundary line

MatryODShka: Real-time 6DoF Video View Synthesis using Multi-Sphere Images

We introduce a method to convert stereo 360{\deg} (omnidirectional stereo) imagery into a layered, multi-sphere image representation for six degree-of-freedom (6DoF) rendering. Stereo 360{\deg} imagery can be captured from multi-camera systems for virtual reality (VR), but lacks motion parallax and correct-in-all-directions disparity cues. Together, these can quickly lead to VR sickness when viewing content. One solution is to try and generate a format suitable for 6DoF rendering, such as by estimating depth. However, this raises questions as to how to handle disoccluded regions in dynamic scenes. Our approach is to simultaneously learn depth and disocclusions via a multi-sphere image representation, which can be rendered with correct 6DoF disparity and motion parallax in VR. This significantly improves comfort for the viewer, and can be inferred and rendered in real time on modern GPU hardware. Together, these move towards making VR video a more comfortable immersive medium.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures, Published at European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV 2020), Project Page: http://visual.cs.brown.edu/matryodshk

Alternative Strategies to Reduce Maternal Mortality in India: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

A cost-effectiveness study by Sue Goldie and colleagues finds that better family planning, provision of safe abortion, and improved intrapartum and emergency obstetrical care could reduce maternal mortality in India by 75% in 5 years

Leveraging human capital to reduce maternal mortality in India: enhanced public health system or public-private partnership?

Developing countries are currently struggling to achieve the Millennium Development Goal Five of reducing maternal mortality by three quarters between 1990 and 2015. Many health systems are facing acute shortages of health workers needed to provide improved prenatal care, skilled birth attendance and emergency obstetric services – interventions crucial to reducing maternal death. The World Health Organization estimates a current deficit of almost 2.4 million doctors, nurses and midwives. Complicating matters further, health workforces are typically concentrated in large cities, while maternal mortality is generally higher in rural areas. Additionally, health care systems are faced with shortages of specialists such as anaesthesiologists, surgeons and obstetricians; a maldistribution of health care infrastructure; and imbalances between the public and private health care sectors. Increasingly, policy-makers have been turning to human resource strategies to cope with staff shortages. These include enhancement of existing work roles; substitution of one type of worker for another; delegation of functions up or down the traditional role ladder; innovation in designing new jobs;transfer or relocation of particular roles or services from one health care sector to another. Innovations have been funded through state investment, public-private partnerships and collaborations with nongovernmental organizations and quasi-governmental organizations such as the World Bank. This paper focuses on how two large health systems in India – Gujarat and Tamil Nadu – have successfully applied human resources strategies in uniquely different contexts to the challenges of achieving Millennium Development Goal Five

Active fixturing: literature review and future research directions

Fixtures are used to fixate, position and support workpieces and represent a crucial tool in manufacturing. Their performance determines the result of the whole manufacturing process of a product. There is a vast amount of research done on automatic fixture layout synthesis and optimisation and fixture design verification. Most of this work considers fixture mechanics to be static and the fixture elements to be passive. However, a new generation of fixtures has emerged that has actuated fixture elements for active control of the part–fixture system during manufacturing operations to increase the end product quality. This paper analyses the latest studies in the field of active fixture design and its relationship with flexible and reconfigurable fixturing systems. First, a brief introduction is given on the importance of research of fixturing systems. Secondly, the basics of workholding and fixture design are visited, after which the state-of-the-art in active fixturing and related concepts is presented. Fourthly, part–fixture dynamics and design strategies which take these into account are discussed. Fifthly, the control strategies used in active fixturing systems are examined. Finally, some final conclusions and prospective future research directions are presented