9,713 research outputs found
Nano and Micro indentation studies of bulk zirconia and EB PVD TBCs
In order to model the erosion of a material it is necessary to know the material
properties of both the impacting particles as well as the target. In the case of
electron beam (EB) physical vapour deposited(PVD) thermal barrier coatings
(TBCs) the properties of the columns as opposed to the coating as a whole are
important. This is due to the fact that discrete erosion events are on a similar
scale as the size of the individual columns. Thus nano* and micro* indentation
were used to determine the hardness and the Young"s modulus of the
columns. However, care had to be taken to ensure that it was the hardness of the
columns that was being measured and not the coating as a whole. This paper
discusses the differences in the results obtained when using the two different
tests and relates them to the interactions between the indent and the columns of
the EB PVD TBC microstructure. It was found that individual columns had a
hardness of 14 GPa measured using nano indentation, while the hardness of the
coating, using micro indentation decreased from 13 to 2.4 GPa as the indentation
load increased from 0.1 to 3N. This decrease in hardness was attributed to the
interaction between the indenter and a number of adjacent columns and the
ability of the columns to move laterally under indentation
Fluctuation Scaling, Taylor’s Law, and Crime
Fluctuation scaling relationships have been observed in a wide range of processes ranging from internet router traffic to measles cases. Taylor’s law is one such scaling relationship and has been widely applied in ecology to understand communities including trees, birds, human populations, and insects. We show that monthly crime reports in the UK show complex fluctuation scaling which can be approximated by Taylor’s law relationships corresponding to local policing neighborhoods and larger regional and countrywide scales. Regression models applied to local scale data from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire found that different categories of crime exhibited different scaling exponents with no significant difference between the two regions. On this scale, violence reports were close to a Poisson distribution (α = 1.057±0.026) while burglary exhibited a greater exponent (α = 1.292±0.029) indicative of temporal clustering. These two regions exhibited significantly different pre-exponential factors for the categories of anti-social behavior and burglary indicating that local variations in crime reports can be assessed using fluctuation scaling methods. At regional and countrywide scales, all categories exhibited scaling behavior indicative of temporal clustering evidenced by Taylor’s law exponents from 1.43±0.12 (Drugs) to 2.094±0081 (Other Crimes). Investigating crime behavior via fluctuation scaling gives insight beyond that of raw numbers and is unique in reporting on all processes contributing to the observed variance and is either robust to or exhibits signs of many types of data manipulation
Rapid Mixing for Lattice Colorings with Fewer Colors
We provide an optimally mixing Markov chain for 6-colorings of the square
lattice on rectangular regions with free, fixed, or toroidal boundary
conditions. This implies that the uniform distribution on the set of such
colorings has strong spatial mixing, so that the 6-state Potts antiferromagnet
has a finite correlation length and a unique Gibbs measure at zero temperature.
Four and five are now the only remaining values of q for which it is not known
whether there exists a rapidly mixing Markov chain for q-colorings of the
square lattice.Comment: Appeared in Proc. LATIN 2004, to appear in JSTA
Character Sequence Models for ColorfulWords
We present a neural network architecture to predict a point in color space
from the sequence of characters in the color's name. Using large scale
color--name pairs obtained from an online color design forum, we evaluate our
model on a "color Turing test" and find that, given a name, the colors
predicted by our model are preferred by annotators to color names created by
humans. Our datasets and demo system are available online at colorlab.us
Ablation debris control by means of closed thick film filtered water immersion
The performance of laser ablation generated debris control by means of open immersion techniques have been shown to be limited by flow surface ripple effects on the beam and the action of ablation plume pressure loss by splashing of the immersion fluid. To eradicate these issues a closed technique has been developed which ensured a controlled geometry for both the optical interfaces of the flowing liquid film. This had the action of preventing splashing, ensuring repeatable machining conditions and allowed for control of liquid flow velocity. To investigate the performance benefits of this closed immersion technique bisphenol A polycarbonate samples have been machined using filtered water at a number of flow velocities. The results demonstrate the efficacy of the closed immersion technique: a 93% decrease in debris is produced when machining under closed filtered water immersion; the average debris particle size becomes larger, with an equal proportion of small and medium sized debris being produced when laser machining under closed flowing filtered water immersion; large debris is shown to be displaced further by a given flow velocity than smaller debris, showing that the action of flow turbulence in the duct has more impact on smaller debris. Low flow velocities were found to be less effective at controlling the positional trend of deposition of laser ablation generated debris than high flow velocities; but, use of excessive flow velocities resulted in turbulence motivated deposition. This work is of interest to the laser micromachining community and may aide in the manufacture of 2.5D laser etched patterns covering large area wafers and could be applied to a range of wavelengths and laser types
Knowledge and expectations of labour among primigravid women in the public health sector
Objectives. We analysed knowledge and expectations of the process and pain of labour in primigravidas attending a local midwifery obstetric unit (MOU). It was anticipated that the results of this study could inform the development of interventions aimed at improving the analgesic care of women delivering at primary health care obstetric units. Design. Qualitative analysis of data obtained from in-depth semi-structured interviews. Setting. A Cape Town MOU. Subjects. 30 black African, Xhosa-speaking primigravidas. Outcome measures. An open-ended interview guide was developed. The themes explored included previous painful experiences, knowledge of labour, expectations of and attitudes towards labour pain, and knowledge of biomedical analgesia. Results. Patients were poorly informed about the process and pain of labour. Most women appeared highly motivated concerning their ability to cope with labour. Most expected pain, but had no concept of the severity or duration of the pain, and knew very little concerning methods available for pain relief in labour. Conclusion. Women at this MOU were poorly prepared for the experience of delivery. Antenatal programmes should incorporate sensitive education concerning the process and pain of labour and the methods available to alleviate pain
Fluorides, orthodontics and demineralization: a systematic review
Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of fluoride in preventing white spot lesion (WSL) demineralization during orthodontic treatment and compare all modes of fluoride delivery.
Data sources: The search strategy for the review was carried out according to the standard Cochrane systematic review methodology. The following databases were searched for RCTs or CCTs: Cochrane Clinical Trials Register, Cochrane Oral Health Group Specialized Trials Register, MEDLINE and EMBASE. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied when considering studies to be included. Authors of trials were contacted for further data.
Data selection: The primary outcome of the review was the presence or absence of WSL by patient at the end of treatment. Secondary outcomes included any quantitative assessment of enamel mineral loss or lesion depth.
Data extraction: Six reviewers independently, in duplicate, extracted data, including an assessment of the methodological quality of each trial.
Data synthesis: Fifteen trials provided data for this review, although none fulfilled all the methodological quality assessment criteria. One study found that a daily NaF mouthrinse reduced the severity of demineralization surrounding an orthodontic appliance (lesion depth difference –70.0 µm; 95% CI –118.2 to –21.8 µm). One study found that use of a glass ionomer cement (GIC) for bracket bonding reduced the prevalence of WSL (Peto OR 0.35; 95% CI 0.15–0.84) compared with a composite resin. None of the studies fulfilled all of the methodological quality assessment criteria.
Conclusions: There is some evidence that the use of a daily NaF mouthrinse or a GIC for bonding brackets might reduce the occurrence and severity of WSL during orthodontic treatment. More high quality, clinical research is required into the different modes of delivering fluoride to the orthodontic patient
Delaunay Stability via Perturbations
We present an algorithm that takes as input a finite point set in Euclidean space, and performs a perturbation that guarantees that the Delaunay triangulation of the resulting perturbed point set has quantifiable stability with respect to the metric and the point positions. There is also a guarantee on the quality of the simplices: they cannot be too flat. The algorithm provides an alternative tool to the weighting or refinement methods to remove poorly shaped simplices in Delaunay triangulations of arbitrary dimension, but in addition it provides a guarantee of stability for the resulting triangulation
Technical management techniques for identification and control of industrial safety and pollution hazards
Constructive recommendations are suggested for pollution problems from offshore energy resources industries on outer continental shelf. Technical management techniques for pollution identification and control offer possible applications to space engineering and management
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