Experimental Investigation of Effect of Ingredient Particle Size on Dynamic Damping of RTV Silicone Base Magnetorheological Elastomers

AbstractMagnetorheological elastomers (MRE) are a type of smart materials which responds to an externally applied magnetic field which results in enhanced mechanical properties. MRE consists of a non-magnetic matrix material like rubber and a ferromagnetic ingredient. The size of the particle ingredient plays an important role in the property enhancement of the MRE. In the current work, MRE samples were prepared using Room temperature vulcanising Silicone as matrix material and 2 different samples of carbonyl iron powder (3.15μm and 6.25μm diameters) were used as particle ingredients. Microstructure of the sample were studied under Confocal microscope, which showed the smaller diameter powders results in more agglomeration even though the distribution of powders in the matrix were fairly uniform. A test set up was made to conduct dynamic tests to investigate the influence of particle size on the dynamic performance of the prepared MRE samples. Test results in these experiments showed that smaller diameter particle ingredients results in better MR effect

Comparative Study of Taguchi and Genetic Algorithm in Electric Discharge Machining Parameters on Titanium Alloy (Ti 6Al 4V)

The aim of this work is to research the have an effect on of manner parameters and determine the top of the line system parameters in electric discharge machining (EDM) of Titanium alloy (Ti 6Al 4V) .The parameters taken into consideration are peak modern, pulse on time and pulse off time in which as the responses are material removal rate (MRR) and surface Roughness (SR). MITSUBISHI EA8 spark erosion machine is hired for this paintings and copper tungsten electrode of ∅14 mm is utilized in experimental trials. The experimental trials are carried out based totally on Taguchi L27 orthogonal array with 3 levels of every machining parameters. The signal to noise ratio, the evaluation of variance (ANOVA), regression analysis and Genetic algorithm are hired to locate the highest quality stages and to analyze the consequences of machining parameters on metal elimination charge and floor roughness. Confirmation tests with the most beneficial levels of machining parameters are completed which will illustrate the effectiveness of Taguchi and Genetic set of rules optimization approach. Assessment of Taguchi’s and Genetic set of rules had been employed to analyze the effective top quality fee

Factors Influencing Award of Compensation Contraacts: An Analysis of Written Protocols

This study reports the results of an analysis of written protocols collected in a laboratory experiment from 77 subjects while they were making compensation contract selection decisions. Each subject made compensation decisions for four divisional managers operating under them. The researchers varied the level of environmental uncertainty, as well as the level of perceived agent effectiveness. The results show that the type of factors considered by the individuals differed significantly. Subjects indicated that they focused more heavily on one of the two manipulated conditions, but not equally on both. It was also found that, overall, agent effectiveness factors weighed more heavily in the compensation decisions than uncertainty considerations. Additionally, it was found that subjects used some factors in their decisions that were not part of the experimental treatments, lending further evidence to the individuality of influences on compensation contract selections

Age Differences in Suggestibility Following Semantic Illusions: The Role of Prior Knowledge

<p>In the face of declines in memory related to specific events, people maintain intact general knowledge into very old age. Older adults often use this knowledge to support their remembering. Semantic illusions involve situations in which presented information contradicts correct knowledge; the illusion occurs when people fail to notice a contradiction with what they know. Compared to younger adults, older adults' later memories are surprisingly less affected by semantic illusions. That is, they use fewer errors seen in the semantic illusions as answers when later asked related general knowledge questions. Why do older adults show this reduced suggestibility, and what role does their intact knowledge play? In 5 experiments, I explored these questions. Older adults' reduced suggestibility was not due to an age difference in error detection: older adults were no better than younger adults at detecting the errors that contradicted their stored knowledge. In addition, episodic memory failures were not a major factor either; the evidence for their direct involvement was mixed. Instead, prior knowledge seems to have been particularly protective for older adults. They demonstrated more knowledge to begin with but also gained access to even more of their stored knowledge across the duration of experiments, leading them to be less suggestible following semantic illusions. There was also an indication that when knowledge was stably accessible, older adults had a tendency to rely on it more than did younger adults. Broadly, these findings indicate that older adults' intact prior knowledge provides important benefits to their remembering and can even protect them against acquiring erroneous information about the world.</p>Dissertatio

Rituximab for the treatment of refractory simultaneous anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) and membranous nephropathy

Antibody-mediated anti-glomerular basement membrane (anti-GBM) disease occurs rarely in the presence of another B-cell disorder, membranous nephropathy. The coexistence of these two autoimmune disorders would be anticipated to require differing, specific therapies targeted to each disease process. We describe a case of concomitant membranous nephropathy and anti-GBM disease in which conventional therapy, including steroids, plasmapheresis and cyclophosphamide, failed to attenuate the anti-GBM disease, yet responded to an alternative treatment of rituximab. This B-cell directed, monoclonal, chimeric antibody treatment substantially reduced anti-GBM antibody titers and led to discontinuation of plasmapheresis, while maintaining the remission of membranous nephropathy and anti-GBM disease. © 2014 © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of ERA-EDTA. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected]

Ecological Validity of Don\u27t Remember and Don\u27t Know For Distinguishing Accessibility-Versus Availability-Based Retrieval Failures In Older and Younger Adults: Knowledge For News Events

With pursuit of incremental progress and generalizability of findings in mind, we examined a possible boundary for older and younger adults’ metacognitive distinction between what is not stored in memory versus merely inaccessible with materials that are not process pure to knowledge or events: information regarding news events. Participants were asked questions about public events such as celebrity news, tragedies, and political events that were widely experienced in the previous 10–12 years, responding “I don’t know” (DK) or “I don’t remember” (DR) when retrieval failed. Memories of these events are relatively recently acquired in rich, naturalistic contexts and are likely not fully separated from episodic details. When retrieval failed, DR items were recognized with higher accuracy than DK items, both immediately and 2 years later, confirming that self-reported not remembering reflects failures of accessibility, whereas not knowing better captures a lack of availability. In fact, older adults distinguished between the causes of retrieval failures more precisely than younger adults. Together, these findings advance the reliability, validity, and generalizability of using DR and DK as a metacognitive tool to address the phenomenological experience and behavioral consequences of retrieval failures of information that contains both semantic and episodic features. Implications for metacognition in aging and related constructs like familiarity, remembering, and knowing are discussed

Sarcomas of the scalp: a case series

Sarcomas of the scalp are a diverse group of rare and aggressive neoplasms of the head and neck originating from bony or soft tissue elements. Clinical manifestations of sarcomas of the scalp vary from small plaque-like lesions to multifocal nodules with involvement of deeper layers, and it is the extent and grade of the tumor that determines the treatment plan. Majority of the cases are managed surgically with three-dimensional wide excision and robust reconstruction. The role of adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy is limited to those cases with poor prognosis. Very few cases of sarcomas involving the scalp have been reported in the literature. We wish to share a series of three rare mesenchymal tumors of the scalp, two of which were locally advanced at the time of presentation. This case series highlights the surgical management, options for reconstruction and outcomes of these tumors

Memories people no longer believe in can still affect them in helpful and harmful ways

People can come to “remember” experiences they never had, and these false memories—much like memories for real experiences—can serve a variety of helpful and harmful functions. Sometimes, though, people realize one of their memories is false, and retract their belief in it. These “retracted memories” continue to have many of the same phenomenological characteristics as their believed memories (e.g., Mazzoni et al., 2010). But can they also continue to serve functions? Across four experiments, we asked subjects to rate the extent to which their retracted memories serve helpful and harmful functions, and compared these functions to those served by “genuine” autobiographical memories. People rated their retracted memories as serving both helpful and harmful functions, much like their genuine memories. In addition, we found only weak relationships between people’s belief in their memories and the extent to which those memories served perceived functions. These results suggest memories can serve functions even in the absence of belief, and highlight the potential for false memories to affect people’s thinking and behavior even after people have retracted them

Understanding Behavioral Sources of Process Variation Following Enterprise System Deployment

This paper extends the current understanding of the time-sensitivity of intent and usage following large-scale IT implementation. Our study focuses on perceived system misfit with organizational processes in tandem with the availability of system circumvention opportunities. Case study comparisons and controlled experiments are used to support the theoretical unpacking of organizational and technical contingencies and their relationship to shifts in user intentions and variation in work-processing tactics over time. Findings suggest that managers and users may retain strong intentions to circumvent systems in the presence of perceived task-technology misfit. The perceived ease with which this circumvention is attainable factors significantly into the timeframe within which it is attempted, and subsequently impacts the onset of deviation from prescribed practice and anticipated dynamics