Analytical Formulation of the Jacobian Matrix for Non-linear Calculation of the Forced Response of Turbine Blade Assemblies with Wedge Friction Dampers

A fundamental issue in turbomachinery design is the dynamical stress assessment of turbine blades. In order to reduce stress peaks in the turbine blades at engine orders corresponding to blade natural frequencies, friction dampers are employed. Blade response calculation requires the solution of a set of non-linear equations originated by the introduction of friction damping. Such a set of non-linear equations is solved using the iterative numerical Newton-Raphson method. However, calculation of the Jacobian matrix of the system using classical numerical finite difference schemes makes frequency domain solver prohibitively expensive for structures with many contact points. Large computation time results from the evaluation of partial derivatives of the non-linear equations with respect to the displacements. In this work a methodology to compute efficiently the Jacobian matrix of a dynamic system having wedge dampers is presented. It is exact and completely analytical. The proposed methods have been successfully applied to a real intermediate pressure turbine (IPT) blade under cyclic symmetry boundary conditions with underplatform wedge dampers. Its implementation showed to be very effective, and allowed to achieve relevant time savings without loss of precision

International Currency Correlation

The purpose of this project is to examine the effects that one country’s currency can have on another countries currency. Currency is one of the key determinants of how a country’s economy is performing compared to the rest of the world. Some currencies have a negative or positive correlation with other currencies around the world. This data will help investors determine what they can expect to happen to a countries currency when there is a fluctuation in another currency. Certain industry practices where this information will be useful include the hedge fund industry and other global companies. This will be an analytical study looking at fluctuations of different interest rates and currencies around the world. In the end, I am interested in finding out the impact one currency can have on another currency, while at the same time determining if certain models such as the Fama Model still hold true

Van Gogh’s Irises and Other Things to Read for the ESL Student

Van Gogh\u27s Irises is a collection of twenty, original short texts, all under 900 words. Included are eight fictional pieces, six journalistic essays in which an opinion on a given issue is expressed, and six descriptive essays in which the author aims at pure description of an object, event or place. The pieces are followed by Suggestions for Using the Texts in the ESL Classroom, a compilation of ideas for activities to encourage comprehension and discussion of the texts and, eventually, composition by the students themselves. The subjects of the texts are all common, inspired by experiences in everyday life. They range from looking for a job to looking at a painting. Most of the topics are suitable for all ages, although the audience the author usually had in mind when writing them was adult

Parents Accidentally Substitute Similar Sounding Sibling Names More Often then Dissimilar Names

Zenzi M. Griffin, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of AmericaZenzi M. Griffin, Thomas Wangerman, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of AmericaWhen parents select similar sounding names for their children, do they set themselves up for more speech errors in the future? Questionnaire data from 334 respondents suggest that they do. Respondents whose names shared initial or final sounds with a sibling’s reported that their parents accidentally called them by the sibling’s name more often than those without such name overlap. Having a sibling of the same gender, similar appearance, or similar age was also associated with more frequent name substitutions. Almost all other name substitutions by parents involved other family members and over 5% of respondents reported a parent substituting the name of a pet, which suggests a strong role for social and situational cues in retrieving personal names for direct address. To the extent that retrieval cues are shared with other people or animals, other names become available and may substitute for the intended name, particularly when names sound similar.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0318456. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.PsychologyEmail: [email protected]

Multiplexed microfluidic loop-mediated isothermal amplification of the 16s rRNA gene for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis in resource-limited environments

Bacterial infection, or sepsis, places a disproportionately high burden on newborns in developing countries. This is due in part to a lack of diagnostic tools suitable for sustainable use in resource-limited nurseries. One potential vehicle for a new diagnostic assay is loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), a high-yield DNA amplification method. LAMP has been used to detect single genes from bacteria in blood serum samples to aid in sepsis diagnosis. While specific, this approach can only provide detection for one species at a time. LAMP could be adapted to detect a broader set of bacteria, while retaining a degree of specificity that allows clinicians to begin directed antimicrobial therapy. Described herein is the successful design of a novel group of oligonucleotide LAMP primer sets that specifically bind to regions of the 16s rRNA gene of four bacterial Orders. These regions lie on the transition area between sequences that are highly conserved and those that are hypervariable. This allows each primer set to be specific for one Order of bacteria. When primers bind, amplification occurs, and the large quantities of DNA produced could be detected using a fluorescent indicator. The four separate LAMP reactions could be multiplexed on a microfluidic chip to provide clinicians with a two-step sepsis-diagnosis technique that could give a result in only one hour. Future studies should examine fluorescent indicators, reaction multiplexing, and specificity of primers to recognize more species

Can the Wound Be Taken at Its Word?: Performed Trauma in Don DeLillo\u27s The Body Artist and Falling Man

Two of Don DeLillo’s recently published novels, The Body Artist (2001) and Falling Man (2007), feature performance artists performing trauma. Through the bodies of these performers, DeLillo restates the central concern of trauma studies: if trauma is that which denies mediation, how may we speak about traumatic experience? DeLillo’s stagings of traumatic (re)iterations illustrate how the missed originary moment of trauma precludes directly referential content in traumatic representation. But I propose that performed trauma – the knowledge of forgetting addressed to another – recapitulates the structure of traumatic experience itself, thereby revealing trauma to be wholly constituted in repetition, and providing a means of speaking about the unspeakable. I hope to illustrate how restoring trauma to language revives the ethical and political efficacy of traumatic representation

Successful European American Teachers of African American Students in Urban High Schools;an Ethnographic Study of Teachers\u27 Journeys to Success

This qualitative research study describes how one person, a successful European American teacher of African American students in an urban high school, can have a major impact on the educational outcomes of his students. Using ethnographic methodologies, the researcher conducted observations and interviews with successful teachers. The construction of ideas and patterns, which teachers have formed from their own experiences in successfully working with African American students, were brought to light. Personal characteristics identified in the study included items such as having high expectations, building relationships, caring about students and possessing a sense of humor. In addition, the beliefs that influence teaching practices which allow them to be labeled as successful were identified and included having a shared philosophy regarding teaching, classroom procedures and students obtaining mastery of material taught. An unanticipated third finding also emerged, that of cultural sensitivity. It is the belief of the researcher that simply possessing the aforementioned personal characteristics and teaching practices is not enough. The dimension of cultural sensitivity seems to be the key component of successful European American teachers of African American students in urban high school

Successful European American Teachers of African American Students in Urban High Schools;an Ethnographic Study of Teachers\u27 Journeys to Success

This qualitative research study describes how one person, a successful European American teacher of African American students in an urban high school, can have a major impact on the educational outcomes of his students. Using ethnographic methodologies, the researcher conducted observations and interviews with successful teachers. The construction of ideas and patterns, which teachers have formed from their own experiences in successfully working with African American students, were brought to light. Personal characteristics identified in the study included items such as having high expectations, building relationships, caring about students and possessing a sense of humor. In addition, the beliefs that influence teaching practices which allow them to be labeled as successful were identified and included having a shared philosophy regarding teaching, classroom procedures and students obtaining mastery of material taught. An unanticipated third finding also emerged, that of cultural sensitivity. It is the belief of the researcher that simply possessing the aforementioned personal characteristics and teaching practices is not enough. The dimension of cultural sensitivity seems to be the key component of successful European American teachers of African American students in urban high school