Pull-through failures of crest-fixed steel claddings initiated by transverse splitting

Crest-fixed steel claddings made of thin, high strength steel often suffer from local pull-through failures at their screw connections during high wind events such as storms and hurricanes. Currently there aren't any adequate design provisions for these cladding systems except for the expensive testing provisions. Since the local pull-through failures in the less ductile steel claddings are initiated by transverse splitting at the fastener hole, analytical studies have not been able to determine the pull-through failure loads. Analytical studies could be used if a reliable splitting criterion is available. Therefore a series of two-span cladding tests was conducted on a range of crest-fixed steel cladding systems under simulated wind uplift loads. The strains in the sheeting around the critical fastener holes were measured until the pull-through failure. This paper presents the details of the experimental investigation and the results including a strain criterion for the local pull-through failure.

Application of higher-order spectra for automated grading of diabetic maculopathy

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is one of the most common causes of visual loss among diabetes mellitus patients. Early detection and successive treatment may improve the visual acuity. DME is mainly graded into non-clinically significant macular edema (NCSME) and clinically significant macular edema according to the location of hard exudates in the macula region. DME can be identified by manual examination of fundus images. It is laborious and resource intensive. Hence, in this work, automated grading of DME is proposed using higher-order spectra (HOS) of Radon transform projections of the fundus images. We have used third-order cumulants and bispectrum magnitude, in this work, as features, and compared their performance. They can capture subtle changes in the fundus image. Spectral regression discriminant analysis (SRDA) reduces feature dimension, and minimum redundancy maximum relevance method is used to rank the significant SRDA components. Ranked features are fed to various supervised classifiers, viz. Naive Bayes, AdaBoost and support vector machine, to discriminate No DME, NCSME and clinically significant macular edema classes. The performance of our system is evaluated using the publicly available MESSIDOR dataset (300 images) and also verified with a local dataset (300 images). Our results show that HOS cumulants and bispectrum magnitude obtained an average accuracy of 95.56 and 94.39 % for MESSIDOR dataset and 95.93 and 93.33 % for local dataset, respectively.

Quantifying the response of cotton production in eastern Australia to climate change

Abstract The paper evaluates the effect of future climate change (as per the CSIRO Mk3.5 A1FI future climate projection) on cotton yield in Southern Queensland and Northern NSW, eastern Australia by using of the biophysical simulation model APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator). The simulations of cotton production show that changes in the influential meteorological parameters caused by climate change would lead to decreased future cotton yields without the effect of CO2 fertilisation. By 2050 the yields would decrease by 17 %. Including the effects of CO2 fertilisation ameliorates the effect of decreased water availability and yields increase by 5.9 % by 2030, but then decrease by 3.6 % in 2050. Importantly, it was necessary to increase irrigation amounts by almost 50 % to maintain adequate soil moisture levels. The effect of CO2 was found to have an important positive impact of the yield in spite of deleterious climate change. This implies that the physiological response of plants to climate change needs to be thoroughly understood to avoid making erroneous projections of yield and potentially stifling investment or increasing risk.

Franks family papers, 1711-1821, [1965-1968].

Contains business correspondence, accounts and documents relating to Jacob Franks of New York, his two sons, Moses and David, a nephew, Isaac, and a John Franks of Halifax, possibly a member of the family.

Influence of composition on the structure and properties of Fe-Pd-P and Ni-Pd-P amorphous alloys

Ternary alloys of nickel-palladium-phosphorus and iron-palladium- phosphorus containing 20 atomic % phosphorus were rapidly quenched from the liquid state. The structure of the quenched alloys was investigated by X-ray diffraction. Broad maxima in the diffraction patterns, indicative of a glass-like structure, were obtained for 13 to 73 atomic % nickel and 13 to 44 atomic % iron, with palladium adding up to 80%.

Radial distribution functions were computed from the diffraction data and yielded average interatomic distances and coordination numbers. The structure of the amorphous alloys could be explained in terms of structural units analogous to those existing in the crystalline Pd₃P, Ni₃P and Fe₃P phases, with iron or nickel substituting for palladium. A linear relationship between interatomic distances and composition, similar to Vegard's law, was shown for these metallic glasses.

Electrical resistivity measurements showed that the quenched alloys were metallic. Measurements were performed from liquid helium temperatures (4.2°K) up to the vicinity of the melting points (900°K- 1000°K). The temperature coefficient in the glassy state was very low, of the order of 10^-4/°K. A resistivity minimum was found at low temperature, varying between 9°K and 14°K for Ni_x-Pd_80-x -P₂₀ and between 17°K and 96°K for Fe_x-Pd_80-x -P₂₀, indicating the presence of a Kondo effect. Resistivity measurements, with a constant heating rate of about 1.5°C/min,showed progressive crystallization above approximately 600°K.

The magnetic moments of the amorphous Fe-Pd-P alloys were measured as a function of magnetic field and temperature. True ferromagnetism was found for the alloys Fe₃₂-Pd₄₈-P₂₀ and Fe₄₄-Pd₃₆-P₂₀ with Curie points at 165° K and 380° K respectively. Extrapolated values of the saturation magnetic moments to 0° K were 1.70 µ_B and 2.10 µ_B respectively. The amorphous alloy Fe₂₃-Pd₅₇-P₂₀ was assumed to be superparamagnetic. The experimental data indicate that phosphorus contributes to the decrease of moments by electron transfer, whereas palladium atoms probably have a small magnetic moment. A preliminary investigation of the Ni-Pd-P amorphous alloys showed that these alloys are weakly paramagnetic.

High energy photoproduction of neutral mesons

Cross sections for the photoproduction of neutral pi, eta, rho and phi mesons on hydrogen have been measured at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center using a missing mass spectrometer technique. The data cover photon energies between 5.0 and 17.8 GeV and four momentum transfer squared t between -.12 and -1.38 (GeV/c)².

Pion differential cross sections at lower energies show a peak at low momentum transfers, a distinctive dip and secondary maximum for t in the region -.4 to -.9 (GeV /c)², and a smooth decrease at higher momentum transfers. As photon energy increases, the dip becomes less pronounced, in contradiction to the expectations of simple Regge theories based on the exchange of omega and B trajectories only.

Eta photoproduction was measured only below 10 GeV. The cross section has about the same magnitude as the pion production cross section, but decreases exponentially with t, showing no dip.

Rho mesons appear to be diffractively produced. The differential cross section varies approximately as exp(8.5t + 2t²). It falls slowly with energy, decreasing about 35 percent from 6 GeV to 17.8 GeV. A simple quark model relation appears to describe the data well.

Phi meson cross sections are also consistent with diffraction production. The differential cross section varies approximately as exp(4t). The cross section tends to decrease slightly with photon energy.

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte: ?hero' or ?grotesque mediocrity'?

Price, Roger. 'Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte: ?hero' or ?grotesque mediocrity'?', In: Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire: (post) modern interpretations (London: Pluto Press, 2002), pp.145-162 RAE2008

Recueil de pièces fugitives sur divers personnages du temps de Charles IX, et analyse de divers ouvrages du xviie siècle.

Contient : « Passio domini nostri cardinalis Saccheti » ; Paralèlle de M. le Prince [de Condé] et de M. de Turene, » in-impr ; « Epistre du coq à l'asne (1565 et 1585) » ; « L'arche de Noë (1585) » ; « De Gasparo Colignio » ; « La Nicque à Nocque (1585) » ; « Le désespoir du Courtisan » ; « Coq à l'asne (1585) » ; « Le songe de Chicot » ; « Li popoli a l'archiduca » ; « Le qu'as-tu veu de la Cour » ; « Novelle de Aurelia (1561) ; » publiée par MM. Baguenault de Puchesse, Auvray et de Lacombe, Documents sur les guerres de religion dans l'Orléanais. (Orléans, 1902, in-8°), p. 13 ; « Complainte de M. Pierre Lizet sur le trespas de son nez » ; « Epitaphe du mullet de Berthelin, lieutenant de Nyort (1559) » ; « La ville de Paris au cardinal de Lorraine » ; « Imitation des maudissons d'Ovide contre Ibis » ; « Sur Pierre Ronsard » ; Sonnets, épitaphes et autres pièces sur les principaux personnages du temps de Charles IX, François de Lorraine, duc de Guise (fol. 129), Charles, cardinal de Lorraine (fol. 130), Catherine de Médicis (fol. 133), Antoine de Bourbon, roi de Navarre (fol. 136), D'Escars (fol. 138), Ruzé général des finances (fol. 140), Marie Stuart (fol. 142), Dolet (fol. 143), Paul III et Paul IV (fol. 144), le président Lizet (fol. 144), Jules III et les cardinaux, (fol. 145), Louis Guillard, évêque de Chartres (fol. 146), le président Gentil, Marot (fol. 150), Cl. Le Sueur (fol. 151), Jacques de Beaune [Samblançay] (fol. 152), le maréchal de Brissac (fol. 156), Jean Péricard (fol. 157), Jeanne d'Albret (fol. 166), divers procureurs, gens des comptes, etc ; Analyses et extraits de divers ouvrages des PP. Senault et Le Moyne, de Balzac, de Scudéry, Gombaud, Malleville, président Maynard, Voiture, Perrot d'Ablancourt, Pietro della Valle, Molière, Tristan l'Hermite, l'abbé de Marolles, la légation du cardinal Chigi (1664), Brantôme, L'Estoile, baron de l'Isola, Condé, Bussy-Rabutin, Pasquin, etc