On the convergence of stresses in fretting fatigue

Fretting is a phenomenon that occurs at the contacts of surfaces that are subjected to oscillatory relative movement of small amplitudes. Depending on service conditions, fretting may significantly reduce the service life of a component due to fretting fatigue. In this regard, the analysis of stresses at contact is of great importance for predicting the lifetime of components. However, due to the complexity of the fretting phenomenon, analytical solutions are available for very selective situations and finite element (FE) analysis has become an attractive tool to evaluate stresses and to study fretting problems. Recent laboratory studies in fretting fatigue suggested the presence of stress singularities in the stick-slip zone. In this paper, we constructed finite element models, with different element sizes, in order to verify the existence of stress singularity under fretting conditions. Based on our results, we did not find any singularity for the considered loading conditions and coefficients of friction. Since no singularity was found, the present paper also provides some comments regarding the convergence rate. Our analyses showed that the convergence rate in stress components depends on coefficient of friction, implying that this rate also depends on the loading condition. It was also observed that errors can be relatively high for cases with a high coefficient of friction, suggesting the importance of mesh refinement in these situations. Although the accuracy of the FE analysis is very important for satisfactory predictions, most of the studies in the literature rarely provide information regarding the level of error in simulations. Thus, some recommendations of mesh sizes for those who wish to perform FE analysis of fretting problems are provided for different levels of accuracy

Oviposition inhibitory activity of the Mexican sunflower Tithonia diversifolia (Asteraceae) polar extracts against the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae (Tetranychidae)

The Mexican sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia, Asteraceae) is an invasive shrub of agricultural and non-agricultural lands in tropical countries. Besides extensive utilizations in the traditional medicine, mainly to treat malaria, the plant is believed to have a great potential in agriculture of developing countries as a green biomass to produce fertilizer, fodder and biopesticides. The plant is known to produce tagitinins, which are sesquiterpene lactones with a bitter taste endowed with toxicity against several insects such as mosquitoes, aphids, and beetles. Here, we evaluated the potential of T. diversifolia against the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae (Tetranychidae), which is one of the most economically important arthropod pests worldwide. The leaf methanolic extract and its ethyl acetate fraction were tested for acute and chronic toxicity and for oviposition inhibitory effects. The chemical composition of the extracts was analyzed by HPLC-MSn and NMR. The main constituents were flavonoid derivatives, phenylpropanoids and sesquiterpene lactones. Among the latter, tagitinin C and tagitinin A were the major compounds. In acute toxicity assays, mortality did not exceed 50% even for the highest tested dose of 150 \u3bcg cm-3. However, in chronic toxicity assays, on day 5 from application, the methanolic extract LD50 was 41.3 \u3bcg cm-3 while LD90 was 98.7 \u3bcg cm-3. Furthermore, both T. diversifolia extracts inhibited oviposition in T. urticae. The ethyl acetate extract was the most active oviposition inhibitor, with an ED50 value of 44.3 \u3bcg cm-3 and an ED90 of 121.5 \u3bcg cm-3. Overall, the good yield rate of the extract and the high crop yield highlighted good prospects of using the extract from this plant for the development of oviposition inhibitors against mite

Quantum-Inspired Tensor Neural Networks for Option Pricing

Recent advances in deep learning have enabled us to address the curse of dimensionality (COD) by solving problems in higher dimensions. A subset of such approaches of addressing the COD has led us to solving high-dimensional PDEs. This has resulted in opening doors to solving a variety of real-world problems ranging from mathematical finance to stochastic control for industrial applications. Although feasible, these deep learning methods are still constrained by training time and memory. Tackling these shortcomings, Tensor Neural Networks (TNN) demonstrate that they can provide significant parameter savings while attaining the same accuracy as compared to the classical Dense Neural Network (DNN). In addition, we also show how TNN can be trained faster than DNN for the same accuracy. Besides TNN, we also introduce Tensor Network Initializer (TNN Init), a weight initialization scheme that leads to faster convergence with smaller variance for an equivalent parameter count as compared to a DNN. We benchmark TNN and TNN Init by applying them to solve the parabolic PDE associated with the Heston model, which is widely used in financial pricing theory.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, minor changes. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2208.0223

A Test Facility to Investigate Sheath Effects during Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating

Nuclear fusion is a promising candidate to supply energy for future generations. At the high temperatures needed for the nuclei to fuse, ions and electrons are no longer bound into atoms. Magnetic fields confine the resulting plasma. One of the heating methods is the ion cyclotron resonant absorption of waves emitted by an external Ion Cyclotron Radio Frequency (ICRF) antenna. The efficiency of ICRF heating is strongly affected by rectified RF electric fields at antenna and other in-vessel components (so-called ‘sheath effects’). The chapter presents an overview of ICRF principles. Attention is given to characterising the detrimental sheath effects through experiments on a dedicated test facility (IShTAR: Ion cyclotron Sheath Test ARrangement). IShTAR has a linear magnetic configuration and is equipped with an independent helicon plasma source. The configuration and capabilities of the test-bed and its diagnostics are described, as well as an analysis of the plasmas

From representing views to representativeness of views: illustrating a new (Q2S) approach in the context of health care priority setting in nine European countries

Governments across Europe are required to make decisions about how best to allocate scarce health care resources. There are legitimate arguments for eliciting societal vales in relation to health care resource allocation given the roles of the general public as payers and potential patients. However, relatively little is known about the views of the general public on general principles which could guide these decisions. In this paper we present five societal viewpoints on principles for health care resources allocation and develop a new approach, Q2S, designed to investigate the extent to which these views are held across a range of European countries. An online survey was developed, based on a previously completed study Q methodology, and delivered between November 2009 and February 2010 across nine countries to 33,515 respondents. The largest proportion of our respondents (44%), were found to most associate themselves with an egalitarian perspective. Differences in views were more strongly associated with countries than with socio-demographic characteristics. These results provide information which could be useful for decision makers in understanding the pluralistic context in which they are making health care resource allocation decisions and how different groups in society may respond to such decisions

Next-Generation Sequencing Reveals High Concordance of Recurrent Somatic Alterations Between Primary Tumor and Metastases From Patients With Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

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International Pediatric Otolaryngology Group (IPOG) consensus recommendations: Hearing loss in the pediatric patient

Objective To provide recommendations for the workup of hearing loss in the pediatric patient. Methods Expert opinion by the members of the International Pediatric Otolaryngology Group. Results Consensus recommendations include initial screening and diagnosis as well as the workup of sensorineural, conductive and mixed hearing loss in children. The consensus statement discusses the role of genetic testing and imaging and provides algorithms to guide the workup of children with hearing loss. Conclusion The workup of children with hearing loss can be guided by the recommendations provided herein

Tyttöjen Tila : kehittämishanke Loviisassa

Tytti Eriksson. Tyttöjen tila- kehittämishanke Loviisassa. Diakonia-ammattikorkeakoulu. Diak, Helsinki, syksy 2016. sivuja 52 liitteitä 5. Sosiaalialan koulutusohjelma, Diakonia ja kristillinen kasvatus, sosionomi, (YAMK) Opinnäytetyön tavoite oli selvittää loviisalaisten yläasteikäisten tyttöjen toiveita ja osallisuutta Loviisaan perustettavan Tyttöjen Tilan toimintaan. Lisäksi työn tarkoituksena oli suunnitella toimintaa ja hakea rahoitusta toiminnan pyörittämiseen ja avata tila Loviisassa. Opinnäytetyö on kehittämishanke, joka toteutettiin kaksiosaisena, kyselytutkimuksena sekä kehittävänä toimintana, joka päättyi tyttöjen tilan perustamiseen. Opinnäytetyön tutkimuksellinen osuus toteutettiin Loviisan kaupungin tilauksesta kyse-lytutkimuksena. Loviisa on kaksikielinen kunta, jossa suomenkielisten osuus väestöstä on 55 % ja ruotsinkielisten 42 %. Kysely tehtiin kaikille yläkouluikäisille loviisalaisty-töille ja se toteutettiin kaksikielisenä. Kyselyt tehtiin keväällä 2016 ja tila avattiin loka-kuussa 2016. Tutkimus oli määrällinen kyselytutkimus ja kehittämishanke. Lisäksi sa-maan aikaan opinnäytetyön tekijä suunnitteli tyttöryhmän kanssa tyttöjen omaa huonetta Loviisan keskustan Forumin nuorisotilaan. Tekijä haki myös rahoitusta toimintaan kol-mella erillisellä rahoitushakemuksella. Tyttötyö ja sukupuolisensitiivinen työ ovat olleet tärkeimpiä suuntaviivoja opinnäyte-työssä. Myös nuorten osallisuus ja nuorten oman äänen kuuluminen ovat vaikuttaneet opinnäytetyöhön ja ovat siinä esillä. Toimintaa halutaan jatkaa yhdessä tyttöjen kanssa ja kehittää sitä heidän toiveidensa mukaisesti. Opinnäytetyön valmistumisvaiheessa yhdestä rahoitushakemuksista on saatu rahaa toi-mintaan. Lisäksi International Soroptimistit Loviisa- naisjärjestö oli tukemassa toimintaa. Tulevaisuudessa kuntasektorilla tulee olemaan tarve hakea rahoitusta toimintaan erilaisista hankkeista ja projektirahoituksista, jotta voidaan turvata laadukkaan ja ennal-taehkäisevän nuorisotyön jatkuvuus kuntien taloudellisen tilanteen heikentyessä. Itse uskon, että työ tulee tulevaisuudessa olemaan enemmän projektiluonteista ja ostopalve-lut tulevat lisääntymään, joten rahoituskanavien ja erilaisten projektien tuntemus tulee jatkossa olemaan myös kuntatyöntekijöiden osaamisaluetta. Opinnäytetyö oli tarpeellinen työn kehittämisen kannalta ja antoi suuntaviivaa toiminnan jatkosta. Tilan avaamiseen lokakuussa osallistui 120 tyttöä. Asiasanat: nuorten osallisuus, sukupuolisensitiivinen työ, tyttötyö, Loviisan kaupunki  Eriksson, Tytti. Girls´ place – development project in Loviisa. Autum 2016.52p.,5 ap-pendices Language Finnish. Diaconia University of Applied Sciences. Degree pro-gramme in Social Services. Diaconia, Christian Education and Youth Work. Degree: Master of Social Services. The purpose of this thesis was to understand the gender-sensitive hopes and aspirations of teenage girls participating in to-be-established Girls Club activities. In addition, the aim was to advise the planning of those activities and to seek funding for opening and running a girls´ club in Loviisa, Finland. This thesis is a development project, which was carried out in two parts, as a survey and as a development activity, which led to the establishment of the girls´ club and its services. In accordance with the town of Loviisa´s research guidance, the research was conducted as a survey. Loviisa is a bilingual municipality consisting of population of 55% Finnish speakers and 42% Swedish speakers. The sample included high-school aged girls in Loviisa and the surveys were conducted bi-lingually. The research was qualitative. In addition, the author planned together with the interviewees the facilities in the town-centre Forum Youth Club. The author also sought funding with three independent appli-cations. The survey took place in the Spring 2016 and the facilities opened in October 2016. Working with the girls and addressing the gender-sensitive issues has been a significant driver for this thesis. The actual participation and the desire to hear the ‘true voice’ of the youth have had a significant impact on this work, as can be seen in the findings. The aspiration is to develop this work, and to do so according to the wishes of teenage girls in Loviisa. One of the original funding applications out of the three has been successful so far. In addition, the International Soroptimist Loviisa - a women’s institution – has been sup-porting this project. It is essential that the municipality- level sector continues to find and to secure funding from a variety of projects, to ensure the continuity of high quality and preemptive youth support work, especially under currently weakening municipality- level economy. The author firmly believes that future work will be more project-based and that the outsourcing of services will increase. Therefore the council and youth workers will need ongoing training about the appropriate funding sources and venues. This thesis is necessary for developing the provision of youth services and to provide pointers for the future services and activities. The first night opening, in October 2016, of the Girls´ Club in Loviisa attracted 120 girls. Keywords: youth participation, youth work, youth support, gender sensitivity, working with teenage girls, Loviisa