Transitions in the morphological features, habitat use, and diet of young-of-the-year goosefish (Lophius americanus)

This study was designed to improve our understanding of transitions in the early life history and the distribution, habitat use, and diets for young-of-the-year (YOY) goosefish (Lophius americanus) and, as a result, their role in northeastern U.S. continental shelf ecosystems. Pelagic juveniles (>12 to ca. 50 mm total length [TL]) were distributed over most portions of the continental shelf in the Middle Atlantic Bight, Georges Bank, and into the Gulf of Maine. Most individuals settled by 50−85 mm TL and reached approximately 60−120 mm TL by one year of age. Pelagic YOY fed on chaetognaths, hyperiid amphipods, calanoid copepods, and ostracods, and benthic YOY had a varied diet of fishes and benthic crustaceans. Goosefish are widely scattered on the continental shelf in the Middle Atlantic Bight during their early life history and once settled, are habitat generalists, and thus play a role in many continental shelf habit

Two Glass Transitions Associated to Different Dynamic Disorders in the Nematic Glassy State of a Non-Symmetric Liquid Crystal Dimer Dopped with gamma-Alumina Nanoparticles

In the present work, the nematic glassy state of the non-symmetric LC dimer -(4-cyanobiphenyl-4-yloxy)--(1-pyrenimine-benzylidene-4-oxy) undecane is studied by means of calorimetric and dielectric measurements. The most striking result of the work is the presence of two different glass transition temperatures: one due to the freezing of the flip-flop motions of the bulkier unit of the dimer and the other, at a lower temperature, related to the freezing of the flip-flop and precessional motions of the cyanobiphenyl unit. This result shows the fact that glass transition is the consequence of the freezing of one or more coupled dynamic disorders and not of the disordered phase itself. In order to avoid crystallization when the bulk sample is cooled down, the LC dimer has been confined via the dispersion of -alumina nanoparticles, in several concentrations.

Transitions in the erosive wear behavior of a glass-ceramic

The mechanisms of material removal were investigated during the erosive wear of a glass-ceramic. The effects of erodent particle shape, velocity and angle were studied. Single impacts and incremental erosion tests were performed, to study the development of surface features and to elucidate the mechanisms of material removal. It was found that transitions in mechanism occurred which depended on the particle shape, impact velocity and impact angle. The mechanisms of material removal, for erosion by silica sand, changed from fine scale fracture and plastic processes below a transition point to large-scale cracking of the surface above. Spherical glass beads caused wear dominated by fatigue, with a very strong dependence of wear rate on the impact conditions. This work indicates that laboratory erosion testing of glass-ceramic and other brittle materials should reflect the conditions present in practice, and that account must be taken of possible changes in wear mechanisms.

Influencing factors of successful transitions towards product-service systems: A simulation approach

Product-Service Systems (PSS) are new business strategies moving and extending the product value towards its functional usage and related required services. From a theoretical point of view the PSS concept is known since a decade and many Authors reported reasonable possible success factors: higher profits over the entire life-cycle, diminished environmental burden, and localization of required services. Nevertheless the PSS promises remain quantitatively unproven relaying on a simple theory that involves a few constructs with some empirical grounding, but that is limited by weak conceptualization, few propositions, and/or rough underlying theoretical logic. A plausible interpretation to analyze the possible evolution of a PSS strategy could be considering it as a new business proposition competing on a traditional Product-Oriented (PO) market, assumed at its own equilibrium state at a given time. The analysis of the dynamics associated to a possible transition from a traditional PO to a PSS strategy allows investigating the main parameters and variables influencing an eventual successful adoption. This research is worthwhile because organizations undergoing fundamental PSS strategy are concerned about change and inertia key processes which, despite equilibrium theory and because of negative feedback loops, could undermine, economically, the return of their PSS proposition. In this paper Authors propose a qualitative System Dynamics (SD) approach by considering the PSS as a perturbation of an existing PO market featured by a set of known parameters. The proposed model incorporates several PSS factors able to influence the success of a PSS proposition under a set of given and justified assumptions, attempting to place this business strategy in a dynamic framework.