Asimov's Coming Back

Ever since the word ‘ROBOT’ first appeared in a science\ud fiction in 1921, scientists and engineers have been trying\ud different ways to create it. Present technologies in\ud mechanical and electrical engineering makes it possible\ud to have robots in such places as industrial manufacturing\ud and assembling lines. Although they are\ud essentially robotic arms or similarly driven by electrical\ud power and signal control, they could be treated the\ud primitive pioneers in application. Researches in the\ud laboratories go much further. Interdisciplines are\ud directing the evolution of more advanced robots. Among these are artificial\ud intelligence, computational neuroscience, mathematics and robotics. These disciplines\ud come closer as more complex problems emerge.\ud From a robot’s point of view, three basic abilities are needed. They are thinking\ud and memory, sensory perceptions, control and behaving. These are capabilities we\ud human beings have to adapt ourselves to the environment. Although\ud researches on robots, especially on intelligent thinking, progress slowly, a revolution\ud for biological inspired robotics is spreading out in the laboratories all over the world

An Analysis of Vermont Academy\u27s Internationalization Effort

While the concept of delivering global education has become a popular trend among American universities and colleges, American secondary schools, particularly independent schools, are also making global educational opportunities available to their students. Vermont Academy, a 141-year-old independent, coeducational, college preparatory and boarding high school in Saxtons River, Vermont, does not have a formal, comprehensive and well-articulated internationalization plan even though various international components have been existing on campus for years. The International Student Program, trimester abroad programs and several global partnerships are some examples of the current internationalization initiatives at Vermont Academy. The American Council on Education’s CIGE Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement (CIGE) Model for Comprehensive Internationalization serves as a guideline to both secondary and higher educations in the U.S. The model has six components, including articulated institutional commitment; administrative leadership, structure, and staffing; curriculum, cocurriculum, and planning outcomes; faculty policies and practices; student mobility; and collaboration and partnerships (American Council on Education, 2016). This Capstone’s goal is to use the CIGE Model for Comprehensive Internationalization as a main guideline to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of VA’s current state of internationalization. The Capstone recognizes the existence of several internationalization components such as student mobility, international student support and established global partnerships at VA. Meanwhile, it recommends that Vermont Academy should include more global commitment into its mission statement; create a global academic curriculum; continue to support and refine its existing trimester-abroad programs; support faculty-student collaboration on short-term global travel; promote more diversity among the faculty and students; and develop alternative funding sources to support future internationalization efforts. These recommendations would help further internationalizes VA in order to educate students with global competency that suits the needs and challenges presented in the 21st Century

An investigation of breakage behaviour of single sand particles using a high-speed microscope camera

Much research has focused on the micro-mechanics of sand particles. The single particle uniaxial compression test is a common way to study breakage behaviour. However, there is still little agreement on particle breakage criteria and the mechanisms of breakage remain uncertain, partly because of the often rapid brittle failure of sand particles. In this study, a series of single particle uniaxial compression tests on different kinds of sand particles were carried out, using a high-speed microscope camera to capture the processes of breakage. This enabled a maximum of 2000 frames to be obtained per second to identify clearly the failure processes and crack propagation. Four failure modes have been proposed based on the rapidity of failure and the size and number of particle fragments created during the breakage: splitting, explosive, explosive–splitting and chipping. The relationship between the particle strength and the breakage mode has then been explored, investigating also whether immersion would affect the breakage mode and strength. The morphologies of the sand particles including local roundness, particle size, aspect ratio, regularity and two-dimensional sphericity were measured to investigate their influence. With assistance of the high-speed microscope camera, the crack initiation locations were identified and the frequency of different locations obtained, comparing the results with existing particle micro-mechanical theories

The Development of a Micromechanical Apparatus Applying Combined Normal–Shear–Bending Forces to Natural Sand Grains with Artificial Bonds

Natural soils are often cemented, and there has been a need to better understand and properly model their behavior for the safe design and assessment of critical infrastructure. This necessitates the study of cemented soils at the scale of the grain. In this study, a new-generation apparatus is presented that is capable of conducting complex load path tests on two natural sand grains cemented with an artificial bonding component. Thus, the apparatus gives the opportunity to obtain insights into the micromechanics of cemented soils/weak rocks and contribute to the development of more accurate models to be utilized in the discrete element analysis of geomaterials. Apart from the presentation of the major technical features of the new apparatus, a description of the methods which were used for specimen preparation and mounting, as well as a preliminary set of experiments, are presented and discussed in this note

Cellular O-Glycome Reporter/Amplification to explore O-glycans of living cells

Protein O-glycosylation has key roles in many biological processes, but the repertoire of O-glycans synthesized by cells is difficult to determine. Here we describe an approach termed Cellular O-Glycome Reporter/Amplification (CORA), a sensitive method used to amplify and profile mucin-type O-glycans synthesized by living cells. Cells convert added peracetylated benzyl-α-N-acetylgalactosamine to a large variety of modified O-glycan derivatives that are secreted from cells, allowing for easy purification for analysis by HPLC and mass spectrometry (MS). Relative to conventional O-glycan analyses, CORA resulted in an ∼100-1,000-fold increase in sensitivity and identified a more complex repertoire of O-glycans in more than a dozen cell types from Homo sapiens and Mus musculus. Furthermore, when coupled with computational modeling, CORA can be used for predictions about the diversity of the human O-glycome and offers new opportunities to identify novel glycan biomarkers for human diseases

Higher Spin Black Holes from CFT

Higher spin gravity in three dimensions has explicit black holes solutions, carrying higher spin charge. We compute the free energy of a charged black hole from the holographic dual, a 2d CFT with extended conformal symmetry, and find exact agreement with the bulk thermodynamics. In the CFT, higher spin corrections to the free energy can be calculated at high temperature from correlation functions of W-algebra currents.Comment: 24 pages; v2 reference adde

Design considerations for the brushless doubly-fed (induction) machine

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology. A design procedure for the brushless doubly-fed machine is based on equations derived from a simplified equivalent circuit. The method allows the many variables in the design of this machine to be handled in a straightforward way. Relationships are given for the division of slot area between the two stator windings and for the design of the magnetic circuit. The design method is applied to a frame size 180 machine. In particular, calculated values for flux densities in the machine have been verified by time stepping finite element analysis for actual operating conditions. The approach outlined can also be used as part of a design optimisation routine

Laser anneal of oxycarbosilane low-k film

Submilisecond laser anneal has been experimentally investigated for porogen removal and its ability to improve the mechanical strength in oxycarbosilane ultra low-k films compromised due to the introduction of porosity. We report the occurrence of extensive bond rearrangements inferred from Fourier-transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy, elastic recoil detection (ERD) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) in the energy range of 1.4-8 eV. The laser anneal affects most notably the organic content of the organosilicate matrix leading to depletion and reorganization. Nevertheless, the tested conditions reveal a processing window which allows for 13% improvement of Young’s modulus as compared to the reference film, annealed in a conventional furnace at 400°C for 2 h, while not impacting the relative dielectric constant of 2.25

A miniature triaxial apparatus for investigating the micromechanics of granular soils with in situ X-ray micro-tomography scanning

The development of a miniature triaxial apparatus is presented. In conjunction with an X-ray microtomography (termed as X-ray μCT hereafter) facility and advanced image processing techniques, this apparatus can be used for in situ investigation of the micro-scale mechanical behavior of granular soils under shear. The apparatus allows for triaxial testing of a miniature dry sample with a size of 8 mm × 16 mm (diameter × height). In situ triaxial testing of a 0.4–0.8 mm Leighton Buzzard sand (LBS) under a constant confining pressure of 500 kPa is presented. The evolutions of local porosities (i.e., the porosities of regions associated with individual particles), particle kinematics (i.e., particle translation and particle rotation) of the sample during the shear are quantitatively studied using image processing and analysis techniques. Meanwhile, a novel method is presented to quantify the volumetric strain distribution of the sample based on the results of local porosities and particle tracking. It is found that the sample, with nearly homogenous initial local porosities, starts to exhibit obvious inhomogeneity of local porosities and localization of particle kinematics and volumetric strain around the peak of deviatoric stress. In the post-peak shear stage, large local porosities and volumetric dilation mainly occur in a localized band. The developed triaxial apparatus, in its combined use of X-ray μCT imaging techniques, is a powerful tool to investigate the micro-scale mechanical behavior of granular soils