Investigation and characterization of constraint effects on flaw growth during fatigue loading of composite materials

An investigative program is presented in an attempt to add to the current understanding of constraint effects on the response of composite materials under cyclic loading. The objectives were: (1) to use existing data and to develop additional data in order to establish an understanding and quantitative description of flaw growth in unidirectional lamina under cyclic loading at different load direction to fiber direction angles; (2) to establish a similar understanding and description of flaw growth in lamina which are embedded in laminates between other unflawed lamina; (3) to determine the nature of the influence of constraint on flaw growth by quantitatively comparing the results of the tests; and (4) to develop a model and philosophy of constraints effects based on our investigative results

Coarsening Dynamics of a One-Dimensional Driven Cahn-Hilliard System

We study the one-dimensional Cahn-Hilliard equation with an additional driving term representing, say, the effect of gravity. We find that the driving field $E$ has an asymmetric effect on the solution for a single stationary domain wall (or `kink'), the direction of the field determining whether the analytic solutions found by Leung [J.Stat.Phys.{\bf 61}, 345 (1990)] are unique. The dynamics of a kink-antikink pair (`bubble') is then studied. The behaviour of a bubble is dependent on the relative sizes of a characteristic length scale $E^{-1}$, where $E$ is the driving field, and the separation, $L$, of the interfaces. For $EL \gg 1$ the velocities of the interfaces are negligible, while in the opposite limit a travelling-wave solution is found with a velocity $v \propto E/L$. For this latter case ($EL \ll 1$) a set of reduced equations, describing the evolution of the domain lengths, is obtained for a system with a large number of interfaces, and implies a characteristic length scale growing as $(Et)^{1/2}$. Numerical results for the domain-size distribution and structure factor confirm this behavior, and show that the system exhibits dynamical scaling from very early times.Comment: 20 pages, revtex, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Derivative moments in turbulent shear flows

We propose a generalized perspective on the behavior of high-order derivative moments in turbulent shear flows by taking account of the roles of small-scale intermittency and mean shear, in addition to the Reynolds number. Two asymptotic regimes are discussed with respect to shear effects. By these means, some existing disagreements on the Reynolds number dependence of derivative moments can be explained. That odd-order moments of transverse velocity derivatives tend not vanish as expected from elementary scaling considerations does not necessarily imply that small-scale anisotropy persists at all Reynolds numbers.Comment: 11 pages, 7 Postscript figure

Optimal Location of Sources in Transportation Networks

We consider the problem of optimizing the locations of source nodes in transportation networks. A reduction of the fraction of surplus nodes induces a glassy transition. In contrast to most constraint satisfaction problems involving discrete variables, our problem involves continuous variables which lead to cavity fields in the form of functions. The one-step replica symmetry breaking (1RSB) solution involves solving a stable distribution of functionals, which is in general infeasible. In this paper, we obtain small closed sets of functional cavity fields and demonstrate how functional recursions are converted to simple recursions of probabilities, which make the 1RSB solution feasible. The physical results in the replica symmetric (RS) and the 1RSB frameworks are thus derived and the stability of the RS and 1RSB solutions are examined.Comment: 38 pages, 18 figure

Immunometabolism: A ‘Hot’ Switch for ‘Cold’ Pediatric Solid Tumors

Despite the success of immunotherapies in adult solid cancers and pediatric hematological malignancies, limited progress has been made towards implementing these strategies in pediatric solid tumors. These tumors exhibit a high potential to escape antitumor immunity, making them difficult to target by current immunotherapies. This review highlights the altered metabolic pathways in pediatric solid tumors that promote immune escape, and discusses current novel strategies targeting these pathways. We further explore how these strategies could be applied to potentiate immunotherapies for pediatric solid cancers and pose key questions yet to be addressed. Translational challenges to facilitate clinical application of antimetabolic strategies through personalized medicine are identified. We propose preclinical testing of antimetabolic approaches in combination with immunotherapies for pediatric solid cancers

Coherence of Nitrogen-Vacancy Electronic Spin Ensembles in Diamond

We present an experimental and theoretical study of electronic spin decoherence in ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in bulk high-purity diamond at room temperature. Under appropriate conditions, we find ensemble NV spin coherence times (T_2) comparable to that of single NVs, with T_2 > 600 microseconds for a sample with natural abundance of 13C and paramagnetic impurity density ~10^15 cm^(-3). We also observe a sharp decrease of the coherence time with misalignment of the static magnetic field relative to the NV electronic spin axis, consistent with theoretical modeling of NV coupling to a 13C nuclear spin bath. The long coherence times and increased signal-to-noise provided by room-temperature NV ensembles will aid many applications of NV centers in precision magnetometry and quantum information.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; v2 minor correction

Observing two dark accelerators around the Galactic Centre with Fermi Large Area Telescope

We report the results from a detailed $\gamma-$ray investigation in the field of two "dark accelerators", HESS J1745-303 and HESS J1741-302, with $6.9$ years of data obtained by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. For HESS J1745-303, we found that its MeV-GeV emission is mainly originated from the "Region A" of the TeV feature. Its $\gamma-$ray spectrum can be modeled with a single power-law with a photon index of $\Gamma\sim2.5$ from few hundreds MeV to TeV. Moreover, an elongated feature, which extends from "Region A" toward northwest for $\sim1.3^{\circ}$, is discovered for the first time. The orientation of this feature is similar to that of a large scale atomic/molecular gas distribution. For HESS J1741-302, our analysis does not yield any MeV-GeV counterpart for this unidentified TeV source. On the other hand, we have detected a new point source, Fermi J1740.1-3013, serendipitously. Its spectrum is apparently curved which resembles that of a $\gamma-$ray pulsar. This makes it possibly associated with PSR B1737-20 or PSR J1739-3023.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA