Change in the Rate and Pattern of Religious Intermarriage in the Republic of Ireland

Earlier attempts to estimate the rate and to establish the patterns of religious intermarriage in the Republic of Ireland have been limited by a lack of data. This paper presents new findings on intermarriage using previously unavailable Census of Population and survey data. In addition, it is argued that post-Vatican II changes in Roman Catholic Church teaching on intermarriage have had an observable impact on intermarriages with respect to the types of wedding ceremony and conversions.

Gas coupled polymeric capacitive transducers via pad printing

Micropatterning of polymer substrates has been shown to be effective methodology for the manufacture of capacitive transducers. The method involves creating a positive mask of sessile liquid droplets on a polymer substrate. The droplets define the cavity dimensions and spatial distribution, a subsequent processing stage independently defines the cavity depth. Droplets can be defined in a variety of ways – this paper explores the patterning the droplets, and hence cavities, on the polymer substrate via a pad-printing technique. The printing pad is manufactured using 3D printing technique, an example pad is illustrated in Figure 1 – essentially the pad comprises an array of styli. The lateral dimensions and spatial distribution of the styli are replicated via the pattern of deposited droplets on the polymer substrate. The morphology of the styli tips has been explored - planar tips were found to droplet patterns with the highest fidelity. Single element air coupled devices operating with a nominal centre frequency of 500kHz have been constructed and evaluated experimentally. Transducer bandwidths in excess of 100% were observed with two-way insertion loss of 60dB being typical

The status of geography in the high schools of Massachusetts

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Tapered transmission line technique based graded matching layers for thickness mode piezoelectric transducers

Conventionally, in order to acoustically match thickness mode piezoelectric transducers to a low acoustic impedance load medium, multiple quarter wavelength (QW) matching layers are employed at the front face of the device. Typically a number of layers, 2-4 in number, are employed resulting in discrete impedance steps within the acoustic matching scheme. This can result in impedance matching with limited bandwidth characteristics. This paper investigates the application of tapered transmission line filter theory to implement a graded impedance profile, through the thickness of the matching layer scheme, to solve the impedance mismatch problem whilst accounting for enhanced transducer sensitivity and bandwidth

Harmonic analysis of lossy piezoelectric composite transducers using the plane wave expansion method

Periodic composite ultrasonic transducers oer many advantages but the periodic pillar architecture can give rise to unwanted modes of vibration which interfere with the piston like motion of the fundamental thickness mode. In this paper, viscoelastic loss is incorporated into a three dimensional plane wave expansion model (PWE) of these transducers. A comparison with experimental and nite element data is conducted and a design to damp out these lateral modes is investigated. Scaling and regularisation techniques are introduced to the PWE method to reduceill-conditioning in the large matrices which can arise. The identication of the modes of vibration is aided by examining proles of the displacements, electrical potentialand Poynting vector. The dispersive behaviour of a 2-2 composite transducer with high shear attenuation in the passive phase is examined. The model shows thatthe use of a high shear attenuation ller material improves the frequency band gap surrounding the fundamental thickness mode

Skills-Based Grading: A novel approach to teaching formal semantics

This paper reports an implementation of ‘Skills-Based Grading’ (SBG) in a formal semantics course. In traditional grading, every part of every assignment contributes to the final grade. Students are required to progress along a uniform timeline, with partial credit as a safety net. In SBG, by contrast, the course is composed of skills. Students are given multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery in each skill, but full proficiency is required to gain credit. Zuraw et al. (2019) pioneered the use of SBG in linguistics for phonetics and phonology. SBG is known to work well for skills that require algorithmic approaches to arrive at inarguably correct answers. In applying SBG to semantics, we show that it is just as effective for more abstract and philosophical skills. Based on survey and grade data, we substantiate claims that SBG improves student learning, encourages more effective study, lowers student stress, and achieves more equitable outcomes. Since this paper reports our first use of SBG, we conclude with some reflections on improvements for the future

Quantifying ultrasound for sono-crystallization

The application of ultrasound to crystallization processes is a well-established technique employed to control the initiation of nucleation and therefore to achieve control over the crystal size and size distribution. In the context of Apfel’s golden rules of cavitation: "Know thy liquid," "Know thy sound field" and "Know when something happens," the third rule has been satisfied. However, in order to link the applied ultrasonic energy to the enhanced process parameters, it is important to characterize the sound field and cavitation activity in the crystallization solvent. In order to better understand and design sono-crystallization experiments in the context of pharmaceutical manufacturing, measurements of acoustic emissions, broadband integrated voltage and focused beam reflectance measurements (FBRM) have been carried out in five typical crystallization solvents and water at a fundamental frequency of 40 kHz. The approaches taken have been to detect and measure cavitation activity as a function of ultrasonic power, allowing a comparison across the solvents

Analysis of ultrasonic transducers with fractal architecture

Ultrasonic transducers composed of a periodic piezoelectric composite are generally accepted as the design of choice in many applications. Their architecture is normally very regular and this is due to manufacturing constraints rather than performance optimisation. Many of these manufacturing restrictions no longer hold due to new production methods such as computer controlled, laser cutting, and so there is now freedom to investigate new types of geometry. In this paper, the plane wave expansion model is utilised to investigate the behaviour of a transducer with a self-similar architecture. The Cantor set is utilised to design a 2-2 conguration, and a 1-3 conguration is investigated with a Sierpinski Carpet geometry

Properties of photocured epoxy resin materials for application in piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer matching layers

This paper describes the acoustic properties of a range of epoxy resins prepared by photocuring that are suitable for application in piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer matching layers. Materials, based on blends of diglycidyl ether of Bisphenol A and 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol diglycidyl ether, are described. Furthermore, in order to vary the elastic character of the base resin, samples containing polymer microspheres or barium sulfate particles are also described. The acoustic properties of the materials are determined by a liquid coupled through transmission methodology, capable of determining the velocity and attenuation of longitudinal and shear waves propagating in an isotropic layer. Measured acoustic properties are reported which demonstrate materials with specific acoustic impedance varying in the range 0.88–6.25 MRayls. In the samples comprising blends of resin types, a linear variation in the acoustic velocities and density was observed. In the barium sulfate filled samples, acoustic impedance showed an approximately linear variation with composition, reflecting the dominance of the density variation. While such variations can be predicted by simple mixing laws, relaxation and scattering effects influence the attenuation in both the blended and filled resins. These phenomena are discussed with reference to dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and differential scanning calorimetry of the samples

Enhancing the bandwidth of piezoelectric composite transducers for air-coupled non-destructive evaluation

This paper details the development of a novel method for increasing the operational bandwidth of piezocomposites without the need for lossy backing material, the aim being to increase fractional bandwith by geometrical design. Removing the need for lossy backing materials, should in turn increase the transmit efficiency in the desired direction of propagation. Finite element analysis has been employed to determine the mode of operation of the new piezocomposite devices and shows good correlation with that derived experimentally. Through a series of practical and analytical methods it has been shown that additional thickness mode resonances can be introduced into the structure by a simple machining process. The shaped composites described in this paper offer increased operational bandwidth. A simple example of a two step thickness design is described to validate and illustrate the principle. A more complex conical design is presented that illustrates a possible tenfold increase in bandwidth from 30kHz to 300kHz, operating in air without backing. An illustration of the applicability of this type of transducer technology for frequency agile guided mode non-destructive evaluation is then presented