A novel method to characterize the elastic/plastic deformation response of thin films

A novel experimental/numerical test method has been developed which allows accurate characterization of the elastic and large-strain plastic mechanical response of thin films. Silicon micromachining techniques have been used to fabricate isolated film features which are mechanically tested using our ultralow-load indentation test system. Macro-scale laboratory testing and finite element analysis were employed to optimize the design of the geometric feature used and to benchmark our analysis capabilities. A simple rigid-plastic geometric analysis of our test structure is developed and applied to the observed force-displacement response, allowing us to extract the uniaxial inelastic stress-strain response of micrometer-scale thin film structures. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the inelastic deformation behavior of metal alloy features of this size scale has been quantitatively determined

Diffusion in supersonic, turbulent, compressible flows

We investigate diffusion in supersonic, turbulent, compressible flows. Supersonic turbulence can be characterized as network of interacting shocks. We consider flows with different rms Mach numbers and where energy necessary to maintain dynamical equilibrium is inserted at different spatial scales. We find that turbulent transport exhibits super-diffusive behavior due to induced bulk motions. In a comoving reference frame, however, diffusion behaves normal and can be described by mixing length theory extended into the supersonic regime.Comment: 11 pages, incl. 5 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review E (a high-resolution version is available at http://www.aip.de./~ralf/Publications/p21.abstract.html

Product Differentiation Costs and Global Competition

The growing competitive intensity on the markets determines the emergence of competition costs that are expressed at a corporate level and have implicit repercussions for the supply system. This type of costs makes it possible to identify a close link between competition costs and supply differentiation costs. Classification by competitive intensity presupposes that the analysis performed identifies the classification of company costs as the discriminating element, in terms of the competitive pressure of the context in which the firm operates. The emergence of competition costs is linked to an attempt to squeeze them as an aspect of vertical, or more specifically, horizontal cooperation strategies.Product Differentiation; Differentiation Costs; Over-Supply; Global Competition; Marketing; Market-Driven Management; Global Corporations; Global Markets DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.4468/2005.1.06garbelli

Development and verification of an endogenous PBPK model to inform hydrocortisone replacement dosing in children and adults with cortisol deficiency

The goal of hormone replacement is to mirror physiology. Hydrocortisone granules and modified release formulations are being developed to optimise cortisol replacement in the rare disease of adrenal insufficiency. To facilitate clinical development, we built and verified a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model for the endogenous hormone cortisol (hydrocortisone) in healthy adults, and children and adults with adrenal insufficiency. The model predicted immediate-release hydrocortisone pharmacokinetics in adults across the dose range 0.5 to 20 mg, with predicted/observed AUCs within 0.8 to 1.25-fold. The model also tightly predicted pharmacokinetic parameters for modified-release formulations, with AUCs within 0.8 to 1.25-fold after single and multiple dosing. Predicted modified-release formulation pharmacokinetics (PK) in 12 to 18-year olds showed PK to be similar to adults. This hydrocortisone PBPK model is a useful tool to predict adult and paediatric pharmacokinetics of both immediate- and modified-release hydrocortisone formulations, and develop clinical dosing regimens

Chaos Driven Decay of Nuclear Giant Resonances: Route to Quantum Self-Organization

The influence of background states with increasing level of complexity on the strength distribution of the isoscalar and isovector giant quadrupole resonance in $^{40}$Ca is studied. It is found that the background characteristics, typical for chaotic systems, strongly affects the fluctuation properties of the strength distribution. In particular, the small components of the wave function obey a scaling law analogous to self-organized systems at the critical state. This appears to be consistent with the Porter-Thomas distribution of the transition strength.Comment: 14 pages, 4 Figures, Illinois preprint P-93-12-106, Figures available from the author

Fly's time

The struggle between public and private efforts to sequence the fly genome is the subject of Michael Ashburner's new book, Won for All: How the Drosophila Genome Was Sequence

Astrophysical Uncertainties in the Cosmic Ray Electron and Positron Spectrum From Annihilating Dark Matter

In recent years, a number of experiments have been conducted with the goal of studying cosmic rays at GeV to TeV energies. This is a particularly interesting regime from the perspective of indirect dark matter detection. To draw reliable conclusions regarding dark matter from cosmic ray measurements, however, it is important to first understand the propagation of cosmic rays through the magnetic and radiation fields of the Milky Way. In this paper, we constrain the characteristics of the cosmic ray propagation model through comparison with observational inputs, including recent data from the CREAM experiment, and use these constraints to estimate the corresponding uncertainties in the spectrum of cosmic ray electrons and positrons from dark matter particles annihilating in the halo of the Milky Way.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Dilepton Spectra from Decays of Light Unflavored Mesons

The invariant mass spectrum of the $e^{+}e^{-}$ and $\mu ^{+}\mu ^{-}$ pairs from decays of light unflavored mesons with masses below the $\phi (1020)$-meson mass to final states containing along with a dilepton pair one photon, one meson, and two mesons are calculated within the framework of the effective meson theory. The results can be used for simulations of the dilepton spectra in heavy-ion collisions and for experimental searches of dilepton meson decays.Comment: 73 pages, 19 figures, 3 tables, REVTeX, new references adde

Time-integrated luminosity recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- collider

This article is the Preprint version of the final published artcile which can be accessed at the link below.We describe a measurement of the time-integrated luminosity of the data collected by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at the ϒ(4S), ϒ(3S), and ϒ(2S) resonances and in a continuum region below each resonance. We measure the time-integrated luminosity by counting e+e-→e+e- and (for the ϒ(4S) only) e+e-→μ+μ- candidate events, allowing additional photons in the final state. We use data-corrected simulation to determine the cross-sections and reconstruction efficiencies for these processes, as well as the major backgrounds. Due to the large cross-sections of e+e-→e+e- and e+e-→μ+μ-, the statistical uncertainties of the measurement are substantially smaller than the systematic uncertainties. The dominant systematic uncertainties are due to observed differences between data and simulation, as well as uncertainties on the cross-sections. For data collected on the ϒ(3S) and ϒ(2S) resonances, an additional uncertainty arises due to ϒ→e+e-X background. For data collected off the ϒ resonances, we estimate an additional uncertainty due to time dependent efficiency variations, which can affect the short off-resonance runs. The relative uncertainties on the luminosities of the on-resonance (off-resonance) samples are 0.43% (0.43%) for the ϒ(4S), 0.58% (0.72%) for the ϒ(3S), and 0.68% (0.88%) for the ϒ(2S).This work is supported by the US Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique and Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physiquedes Particules (France), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (The Netherlands), the Research Council of Norway, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie IEF program (European Union) and the A.P. Sloan Foundation (USA)