Mathematical Modelling of Transient Thermography and Defect Sizing

The principle employed to obtain an image of a sub-surface defect by transient thermography is deceptively simple. A surface is heated by powerful flash lamps and subsequent thermal transients are recorded by an infrared camera. Defects cause perturbations in heat flow which are revealed by the camera. Whilst there is now a considerable body of practical experience of the application of the technique, there is rather less precise quantitative information about the image formation process that could lead to reliable defect sizing. In earlier papers [1,2] one of the authors considered circular air gap defects by treating them as buried uniformly heated disks. The thermal edge-effect occurring at the tip of a perfect crack-like defect was dealt with analytically by adapting the well established Wiener-Hopf [3] solution for the scattering of light or sound from the edge of a semi-infinite half-plane. The problem was solved in the frequency-domain, i.e. to obtain a thermal wave solution, and then a time-domain solution was obtained by a suitable transformation. The analysis showed an edge-effect amounting to a decay in temperature contrast over a distance of about a thermal diffusion length from the edge of the crack. A crucial feature of the edge-effect was the decay of thermal contrast to zero at the crack tip. This, and the edge-effect as a whole, is caused by the flow of heat around the crack tip from the hot upper surface of the crack to the cold under surface. The symmetry of this process ensures that there is no net flux increase for material in front of the crack tip

Youngest dinocephalian fossils extend the Tapinocephalus Zone, Karoo Basin, South Africa.

The dinocephalians (Synapsida, Therapsida) were one of the dominant tetrapod groups of the Middle Permian (Guadalupian Epoch, ∼270-260 million years ago) and are most abundantly recorded in the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone (AZ) of the Main Karoo Basin, South Africa. Dinocephalians are thought to have become extinct near the top of the Abrahamskraal Formation of the Beaufort Group and their disappearance is one criterion used to define the base of the overlying Pristerognathus AZ. Because of the abundance of fossils in the Karoo, the Beaufort Group biozones form the biostratigraphic standard for later Permian terrestrial tetrapod ecosystems, so their stratigraphic delineation is of great importance to Permian palaeobiology. We report two new specimens of the rare tapinocephalid dinocephalian Criocephalosaurus from the lowermost Poortjie Member, which makes them the youngest dinocephalians known from the Main Karoo Basin and extends the Tapinocephalus AZ from the Abrahamskraal Formation up into the Teekloof Formation. The extension of the Tapinocephalus AZ relative to the lithostratigraphy potentially affects the biozone or biozones to which a fossil species can be attributed; this extension has implications for biostratigraphic correlations within the Main Karoo Basin as well as with other basins across Gondwana. These discoveries also indicate that a population of herbivorous tapinocephalids survived as rare constituents of the tetrapod fauna after most generic richness within the clade had already been lost.NCS201

NUCLEIC-ACID BINDING-DRUGS .8. STRUCTURES OF 1-[2-(DIETHYLAMINO)ETHYLAMINO]ANTHRACENE-9,10-DIONE, C20H22N2O2 (I), AND 1,5-BIS[2-(DIETHYLAMINO)ETHYLAMINO]ANTHRACENE-9,10-DIONE, C26H36N4O2(II), MODELS FOR ANTI-TUMOR DRUGS

(I) M r = 322.41, P21/n, a = 7.118 (1), b = 26.873(2), c=8.886(1)A, fl=97.74(1)°, ~ V= 1684.3 (6) A 3, Z = 4, D m = 1.27, D x = 1.271 Mg m -3, 2 (Cu Ka) = 1.54178 A,/~ = 6.67 cm -1, F(000) = 688, T= 298 K, R w= 0.049 for 981 unique significant reflections. (II) Mr=436.61, P21/c, a= 15.360 (2), b = 5.245 (1), c= 15.483 (1)A, fl= 94.23 (1) °, V= 1244.0 (5)/~3, Z = 2, D m -- 1.17, D x = 1.165 Mg m -s, 2(Cu Kt~) = 1.54178/k, /t = 5.98 cm -1, F(000) = 472, T= 298 K, R w = 0.090 for 457 unique significant reflections. The chromophore is highly planar in both compounds

Website design: Technical, social and medical issues for self-reporting by elderly patients

There is growing interest in the use of the Internet for interacting with patients, both in terms of healthcare information provision and information gathering. In this paper we examine the issues in designing healthcare websites for elderly users. In particular this paper uses a year-long case study of the development of a web-based system for self-reporting of symptoms and quality of life with a view to examine the issues relating to website design for elderly users. The issues identified included the technical, social and medical aspects of website design for elderly users. The web-based system developed was based upon the EQ5D health-status questionnaire, a commonly used tool for patient self-reporting of quality of life, and the more specific CROQ (coronary revascularisation outcome questionnaire) questionnaire. Currently self-reporting is generally administered in the form of paper-based questionnaires to be completed in the out-patient clinic, or at home. There are a variety of issues relating to elderly users that imply that websites for elderly patients may involve different design considerations to other types of websites

Sediment disturbance by Ediacaran bulldozers and the roots of the Cambrian explosion

Se han documentado fósiles de rastros de excavadoras de sedimentos en los estratos ediacaranos terminales del Grupo Nama en Namibia, donde se encuentran en el miembro Spitskop de la Formación Urusis (subgrupo Schwarzrand). Consisten en fósiles de trazas unilobadas a bilobadas horizontales a subhorizontales que describen garabatos, círculos y, más raramente, espirales y meandros abiertos, y que muestran una estructura interna indicativa de relleno activo. Su presencia sugiere que la explotación del ecoespacio infaunal poco profundo por parte de bilateros relativamente grandes ya estaba en marcha en los albores del Fanerozoico. El excavado eficiente sugiere que el desarrollo de la espina dorsal está muy probablemente relacionado con el aumento del tamaño del cuerpo de los metazoos. Estos fósiles en trazas son los primeros representantes claros hasta ahora registrados del arrastre de sedimentos, actividad que puede haber tenido un impacto negativo en las comunidades de alimentación en suspensión y/o de osmotrofos, así como en las esteras, lo que representa los primeros ejemplos de ingeniería de ecosistemas y amensalismo de grupos tróficos. La aparición de bulldozers de sedimentos puede haber promovido el establecimiento de gradientes en la distribución horizontal y vertical de material orgánico en relación con entornos espacialmente heterogéneos en el fondo marino en un momento crítico de la evolución de la Tierra.Trace fossils of sediment bulldozers are documented from terminal Ediacaran strata of the Nama Group in Namibia, where they occur in the Spitskop Member of the Urusis Formation (Schwarzrand Subgroup). They consist of unilobate to bilobate horizontal to subhorizontal trace fossils describing scribbles, circles and, more rarely, open spirals and meanders, and displaying an internal structure indicative of active fill. Their presence suggests that exploitation of the shallow infaunal ecospace by relatively large bilaterians was already well underway at the dawn of the Phanerozoic. Efficient burrowing suggests coelom development most likely linked to metazoan body-size increase. These trace fossils are the earliest clear representatives so far recorded of sediment bulldozing, an activity that may have had a negative impact on suspension-feeding and/or osmotroph communities, as well as on matgrounds, representing early examples of ecosystem engineering and trophic-group amensalism. The occurrence of sediment bulldozers may have promoted the establishment of gradients in horizontal and vertical distribution of organic material in connection with spatially heterogeneous environments on the sea floor at a critical time in Earth evolution.• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery. Grants 311726-05/13 y 311727-05/15, para Louis Alberto Buatois y Maria Gabriela Mángano • Palaeontological Scientific Trust (Sudáfrica). Ayuda a John Almond • Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER). Subvención CGL-2012-37237, para Sören JensenpeerReviewe

Action research in physical education: focusing beyond myself through cooperative learning

This paper reports on the pedagogical changes that I experienced as a teacher engaged in an action research project in which I designed and implemented an indirect, developmentally appropriate and child‐centred approach to my teaching. There have been repeated calls to expunge – or at least rationalise – the use of traditional, teacher‐led practice in physical education. Yet despite the advocacy of many leading academics there is little evidence that such a change of approach is occurring. In my role as teacher‐as‐researcher I sought to implement a new pedagogical approach, in the form of cooperative learning, and bring about a positive change in the form of enhanced pupil learning. Data collection included a reflective journal, post‐teaching reflective analysis, pupil questionnaires, student interviews, document analysis, and non‐participant observations. The research team analysed the data using inductive analysis and constant comparison. Six themes emerged from the data: teaching and learning, reflections on cooperation, performance, time, teacher change, and social interaction. The paper argues that cooperative learning allowed me to place social and academic learning goals on an even footing, which in turn placed a focus on pupils’ understanding and improvement of skills in athletics alongside their interpersonal development

Virtual Reality as a New Means of Creation and Communication in Fashion

The research is an analysis of the advantages that virtual fashion has created in fashion communication since the COVID 19 pandemic began in 202 and its link to the different phases involved in fashion processes

Climatic fluctuations inferred for the Middle and Late Pleniglacial (MIS 2) based on high-resolution (∼ca. 20 y) preliminary environmental magnetic investigation of the loess section of the Madaras brickyard (Hungary)

Abstract The Madaras brickyard section found at the northernmost fringe of the Backa loess plateau is one of the thickest and best-developed last glacial loess sequences of Central Europe. In the present work high-resolution magnetic susceptibility measurements (at 2 cm) were implemented on samples from the 10 m-section corresponding to a period between 29 and 11 KY cal b2K. One aim was to compare the findings with the ice core records of northern Greenland in order to establish a high-resolution paleoclimatic record for the last climatic cycle and with findings documented in other biotic and abiotic proxies so far. Our results revealed a strong variability of loess/paleosol formation during MIS 2. Millennial time-scale climatic events that characterize the North Atlantic during the last climatic cycle have been identified. From 29 ka up to the start of the LGM, the recorded MS values show a weak, negative correlation with the temperature proxy, and a weak positive correlation with the dust concentration of Greenland. A strong correlation was observed with the local paleotemperatures. Local climatic factors must have had a more prominent effect here on loess/paleosol development than the climate shifts over Greenland. During the LGM the same pattern is seen with a stronger correlation with the dust concentrations and a weaker correlation with the local temperature. Local climatic factors, plus dust accumulation, must have had a prominent influence on loess/paleosol development here. From the terminal part of the LGM a strong positive correlation of the MS values with the temperature proxy for Greenland accompanied by a strong negative correlation with the dust concentration values is observed. Correlation with local paleotemperatures is positive and moderate, strong. Here climate shifts over Greenland, as well as local endowments equally had an important role on the development of the MS signal