326 research outputs found
Damping oriented design of thin-walled mechanical components by means of multi-layer coating technology
The damping behaviour of multi-layer composite mechanical components, shown by recent research and application papers, is analyzed. A local dissipation mechanism, acting at the interface between any two different layers of the composite component, is taken into account, and a beam model, to be used for validating the known experimental results, is proposed. Multi-layer prismatic beams, consisting of a metal substrate and of some thin coated layers exhibiting variable stiffness and adherence properties, are considered in order to make it possible to study and validate this assumption. A dynamical model, based on a simple beam geometry but taking into account the previously introduced local dissipation mechanism and distributed visco-elastic constraints, is proposed. Some different application examples of specific multi-layer beams are considered, and some numerical examples concerning the beam free and forced response are described. The influence of the multilayer system parameters on the damping behaviour of the free and forced response of the composite beam is investigated by means of the definition of some damping estimators. Some effective multi-coating configurations, giving a relevant increase of the damping estimators of the coated structure with respect to the same uncoated structure, are obtained from the model simulation, and the results are critically discussed
The Regional Distribution of Public Employment: Theory and Evidence
We analyze the optimal regional pattern of public employment in an information-constrained second-best redistribution policy showing that regionally differentiated public employment can serve as an expenditure side tagging device, bypassing or relaxing the equity-efficiency trade-off. The optimal pattern exhibits higher levels of public employment in low productivity regions and is more pronounced the higher is the degree of regional inequality within the country. Empirically, using a panel of European regions from 1995-2007, we find evidence that public employment is systematically higher in low productivity regions. The latter effect is stronger in countries with higher levels of regional inequality
Motor Current Cyclic-Non-Stationary Analysis for Bearing Diagnostic
The Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA) is a research area focused on the diagnosis of components of
electric motors based on post-processing of the current signal mainly. In particular, the bearing diagnostics
is based on two different assumptions: the fault on the bearing causes a vibration of the shaft it supports,
so there is an air gap variation between stator and rotor causing a modulation in the current signal; the fault
on the bearing hinders the rotation of the shaft, so it can be modeled as an additional loading torque that
the motor satisfies increasing the current signal. In this paper, a cyclic-non-stationarity analysis of the motor
current is used to assess the status of ball-bearings in servomotors, running at variable speed. Both speed of
the motor and motor current are provided by the control loop of the servomotor, that is no external sensors
are used. The cyclic nature of the application allows an average of the cyclic-cyclic order maps to increase
the signal-to-noise ratio. The proposed technique is successfully applied to both healthy and faulty bearings
Kinetic Enhancement of Raman Backscatter, and Electron Acoustic Thomson Scatter
1-D Eulerian Vlasov-Maxwell simulations are presented which show kinetic
enhancement of stimulated Raman backscatter (SRBS) due to electron trapping in
regimes of heavy linear Landau damping. The conventional Raman Langmuir wave is
transformed into a set of beam acoustic modes [L. Yin et al., Phys. Rev. E 73,
025401 (2006)]. For the first time, a low phase velocity electron acoustic wave
(EAW) is seen developing from the self-consistent Raman physics. Backscatter of
the pump laser off the EAW fluctuations is reported and referred to as electron
acoustic Thomson scatter. This light is similar in wavelength to, although much
lower in amplitude than, the reflected light between the pump and SRBS
wavelengths observed in single hot spot experiments, and previously interpreted
as stimulated electron acoustic scatter [D. S. Montgomery et al., Phys. Rev.
Lett. 87, 155001 (2001)]. The EAW is strongest well below the phase-matched
frequency for electron acoustic scatter, and therefore the EAW is not produced
by it. The beating of different beam acoustic modes is proposed as the EAW
excitation mechanism, and is called beam acoustic decay. Supporting evidence
for this process, including bispectral analysis, is presented. The linear
electrostatic modes, found by projecting the numerical distribution function
onto a Gauss-Hermite basis, include beam acoustic modes (some of which are
unstable even without parametric coupling to light waves) and a strongly-damped
EAW similar to the observed one. This linear EAW results from non-Maxwellian
features in the electron distribution, rather than nonlinearity due to electron
trapping.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, accepted in Physics of Plasmas (2006
Description of stochastic and chaotic series using visibility graphs
Nonlinear time series analysis is an active field of research that studies
the structure of complex signals in order to derive information of the process
that generated those series, for understanding, modeling and forecasting
purposes. In the last years, some methods mapping time series to network
representations have been proposed. The purpose is to investigate on the
properties of the series through graph theoretical tools recently developed in
the core of the celebrated complex network theory. Among some other methods,
the so-called visibility algorithm has received much attention, since it has
been shown that series correlations are captured by the algorithm and
translated in the associated graph, opening the possibility of building
fruitful connections between time series analysis, nonlinear dynamics, and
graph theory. Here we use the horizontal visibility algorithm to characterize
and distinguish between correlated stochastic, uncorrelated and chaotic
processes. We show that in every case the series maps into a graph with
exponential degree distribution P (k) ~ exp(-{\lambda}k), where the value of
{\lambda} characterizes the specific process. The frontier between chaotic and
correlated stochastic processes, {\lambda} = ln(3/2), can be calculated
exactly, and some other analytical developments confirm the results provided by
extensive numerical simulations and (short) experimental time series
Dietary Nitrate: Effects on the health of weaning pigs and Antimicrobial activity on seven probiotic Bifidobacterium spp. strains
The potential role of nitrite as an antimicrobial substance in the stomach may be of some importance in the ecology of the gastrointestinal tract and in host physiology. It has been shown that nitrite, under the acidic conditions of the stomach, may kill gut pathogens like Salmonella enteritidis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhimurium, and Yersinia enterocolitica, whereas acid alone has only a bacteriostatic effect. An in vivo study was conducted in order to assess the effects of dietary nitrate on microbiota and on the health of the gut (particularly in the stomach and small intestine). 96 weaning pigs were fed a diet containing high nitrate levels (15 mg and 150 mg) and then challenged with Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium.
Differences in composition of the gut microbiota were assessed by analysing samples from the pigs: To date analysis of 48 pigs has been completed.. Preliminary results demonstrated no effect on the population densities of microbial groups either from the challenge or from nitrate intake. However, increasing the time from challenge decreased either the counts of LAB in the stomach and jejunum or of clostridia in the stomach.
Bifidobacteria also decreased in the stomach contents as nitrate supplementation increased. Supplementing the feedstuff with high dietary nitrate intake and then challenging with Salmonella did not affect the gastric pH or the degree of ulceration in the pigs.
The synergistic bactericidal effects of pH, nitrite and thiocyanate on seven probiotic Bifidobacterium spp. strains were also investigated in an in vitro study.
The results of the in vitro study demonstrated that an inhibitory effect exists on the seven probiotic bifidobacteria investigated with an exposure longer than 2 hours and pH values < 5.0. Addition of thiocyanate also increased the susceptibility of the tested strains. In this in vitro study, the most resistant strains at all conditions were B. animalis subsp. lactis Ra 18 and P32 and B. choerinum Su 877, Su 837 and Su 891
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