Thermoforming of foam sheet

Thermoforming is a widely used process for the manufacture of foam sheet products. Polystyrene foam food trays for instance can be produced by first heating the thermoplastic foam sheet, causing the gas contained to build up pressure and expand, after which a vacuum pressure can be applied to draw the sheet in the required form on the mould. This production method appears to be a very sensitive process with respect to e.g. the sheet temperature, the pressures applied and the cooling time. More problems can be foreseen when for environmental reasons the blowing agent will be adapted (for instance replaced by a gas with a lower molecular weight). To gain more insight in the occuring phenomena the large deformations of a foam structure have been analysed using finite element modelling. To this end a constitutive model has to be defined. Starting from the basic theory given by Gibson & Ashby [1], the behaviour of a closed cubic cell has been elaborated for large strains. The total stiffness is then the sum of the contributions of the edges and faces of the cell and the gas contained in it. The large deformations cause anisotropy of the cells [2], which influences their tangential stiffness. The constitutive model developed here includes the effects of internal gas pressure and the evolving anisotropy

Turkish Delight – Does Turkey’s accession to the EU bring economic benefits?

We explore the economic implications of the possible Turkish accession to the European Union. We focus on three main changes associated with Turkish membership: (i) accession to the internal European Market; (ii) institutional reforms in Turkey triggered by EU-membership; and (iii) migration in response to the free movement of workers. Overall, the macroeconomic implications for EU countries are small but positive. European exports increase by around 20 percent. Turkey experiences larger economic gains than the EU: consumption per capita is estimated to rise by about 4 percent as a result of accession to the internal market and free movement of labour. If Turkey would succeed in reforming its domestic institutions in response to EU-membership, consumption per capita in Turkey could raise by an additional 9 percent. These benefits would spill over to the EU.Turkey, regional economic integration, general equilibrium model, gravity equations, institutional reform, migration

Perturbing open cavities: Anomalous resonance frequency shifts in a hybrid cavity-nanoantenna system

The influence of a small perturbation on a cavity mode plays an important role in fields like optical sensing, cavity quantum electrodynamics and cavity optomechanics. Typically, the resulting cavity frequency shift directly relates to the polarizability of the perturbation. Here we demonstrate that particles perturbing a radiating cavity can induce strong frequency shifts that are opposite to, and even exceed, the effects based on the particles' polarizability. A full electrodynamic theory reveals that these anomalous results rely on a non-trivial phase relation between cavity and nanoparticle radiation, allowing back-action via the radiation continuum. In addition, an intuitive model based on coupled mode theory is presented that relates the phenomenon to retardation. Because of the ubiquity of dissipation, we expect these findings to benefit the understanding and engineering of a wide class of systems.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Pelaksanaan Perjanjian Sponshorship Arema Indonesia antara PT Arema Indonesia dengan Penerima Perjanjian (Studi Implementasi Perjanjian dan oleh Industri Merchandise Arema Indonesia di Kota Malang)

Penulisan ini ditujukan untuk mengetahui pelaksanaan dan penerapan sistem royalti dan perjanjian yang telah dilakukan oleh manajemen Arema Indonesia dengan para pihak seperti industri merchandise yang dikaji berdasarkan Undang-undang Nomor 15 Tahun 2001 tentang Merek dan Undang-undang Nomor 19 Tahun 2000 tentang Hak Cipta. Adanya permasalahan yang timbul dalam perjanjian antara pihak Arema dan pihak penerima lisensi menjadikan dasar penulisan penelitian ini. Telah diatur bahwa bagi setiap pihak yang ingin menggunakan merk atas produk Arema di Indonesia harus melakukan perjanjian dengan pihak Arema Indonesia yang telah diatur didalam hukum positif Indonesia. Hal ini mengakibatkan bahwa penerima lisensi harus tunduk kepada isi perjanjian lisensi yang dibuat oleh kedua belah pihak. Berdasarkan hal tersebut penulisan ini mampu memberikan gambaran tentang sistem royalty dan perjanjian merek produk Arema di Indonesia

A benefit of context reinstatement to recognition memory in aging: the role of familiarity processes

Reinstatement of encoding context facilitates memory for targets in young and older individuals (e.g., a word studied on a particular background scene is more likely to be remembered later if it is presented on the same rather than a different scene or no scene), yet older adults are typically inferior at recalling and recognizing target–context pairings. This study examined the mechanisms of the context effect in normal aging. Age differences in word recognition by context condition (original, switched, none, new), and the ability to explicitly remember target–context pairings were investigated using word–scene pairs (Experiment 1) and word–word pairs (Experiment 2). Both age groups benefited from context reinstatement in item recognition, although older adults were significantly worse than young adults at identifying original pairings and at discriminating between original and switched pairings. In Experiment 3, participants were given a three-alternative forced-choice recognition task that allowed older individuals to draw upon intact familiarity processes in selecting original pairings. Performance was age equivalent. Findings suggest that heightened familiarity associated with context reinstatement is useful for boosting recognition memory in aging

Improved red-response in thin film a-Si:H solar cells with soft-imprinted plasmonic back reflectors

The impact of controlled nanopatterning on the Ag back contact of an n-i-p a-Si:H solar cell was investigated experimentally and through electromagnetic simulation. Compared to a similar reference cell with a flat back contact, we demonstrate an efficiency increase from 4.5% to 6.2%, with a 26% increase in short circuit current density. Spectral response measurements show the majority of the improvement between 600 and 800 nm, with no reduction in photocurrent at wavelengths shorter than 600 nm. Optimization of the pattern aspect ratio using electromagnetic simulation predicts absorption enhancements over 50% at 660 nm