Relationships between Initial Unloading Slope, Contact Depth, and Mechanical Properties for Spherical Indentation in Linear Viscoelastic Solids

Using analytical and finite element modeling, we examine the relationships between initial unloading slope, contact depth, and mechanical properties for spherical indentation in viscoelastic solids with either displacement or load as the independent variable. We then investigate whether the Oliver-Pharr method for determining the contact depth and contact radius, originally proposed for indentation in elastic and elastic-plastic solids, is applicable to spherical indentation in viscoelastic solids. Finally, the analytical and numerical results are used to answer questions raised in recent literature about measuring viscoelastic properties from instrumented spherical indentation experiments.

Patterns of succession in benthic infaunal communities following dredging and dredged material disposal in Monterey Bay

This report is the final product of a two-year study conducted for the Office, Chief of Engineers, by the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Moss Landing, California, under Contract No. DACW39-74-C-OI51 with the Environmental Effects Laboratory (EEL), U. S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES), Yicksburg, Mississippi. (PDF contains 192 pages)

微尺度压痕实验的数值模拟及相关问题研究

目前国际上占主导地位的纳米压痕技术是由Oliver与Pharr提出并发展,目前的纳米压痕可以给出整个加、卸载过程的载荷—位移曲线以及硬度与弹性模量随压痕深度变化的曲线,从而提供了丰富的、比较精确的信息,为利用它探索材料比较完整的力学特性提供了可能.为达到该目的,就必须对压痕实验的加、卸过程进行较为深入的研究.作为主要的研究工具,有限元方法模拟微压痕过程在探讨通过实验数据得到更多、更准确的材料表层力学性能参数以及解释实验现象等方面发挥着重要作用.基于计算机速度与容量的原因,较早进行微压痕过程有限元模拟的BhattacharyaandNix、LaursenandSino都使用圆锥压头模拟维氏显微硬度标准正四棱锥Vicker压头与纳米压痕仪标准正三棱锥Berkovich压头,因为圆锥压头具有旋转对称性,可用二维旋转对称单元(二维实体单元)进行计算从而降低计算规模.即便如此,以当时大型计算机的水平,对规模为400~2000个四节点矩形单元的有限元模型进行一次完整的加、卸载过程也需要1~2天.到目前为止,微尺度压痕实验的数值模拟沿用二维模型.事实上,由于加工工艺的限制,微尺度压痕仪的压头如Berkovich与Vicker压头均不个旋转对称性;就微观尺度而言,实际的表层材料都是非均匀的.这些特征均不能由二维模拟体现,所以该文首先建立三维有限元模型,模拟带滑动接触的微尺度压痕加、卸载过程.在此基础上重点讨论了压头几何效应的问题,如二维模拟与三维模拟的关系、显微硬度与纳米的压痕硬度的关系、不同压头下材料的应力应变场、压痕间距与压痕边界的效应等,最后针对微尺度压痕实验中出现的压痕硬度随压痕深度减小而升高的现象,讨论了影响不同压痕深度硬度值的因素.

Query-by-Example Spoken Term Detection ALBAYZIN 2012 evaluation: overview, systems, results, and discussion

Query-by-Example Spoken Term Detection (QbE STD) aims at retrieving data from a speech data repository given an acoustic query containing the term of interest as input. Nowadays, it has been receiving much interest due to the high volume of information stored in audio or audiovisual format. QbE STD differs from automatic speech recognition (ASR) and keyword spotting (KWS)/spoken term detection (STD) since ASR is interested in all the terms/words that appear in the speech signal and KWS/STD relies on a textual transcription of the search term to retrieve the speech data. This paper presents the systems submitted to the ALBAYZIN 2012 QbE STD evaluation held as a part of ALBAYZIN 2012 evaluation campaign within the context of the IberSPEECH 2012 Conference(a). The evaluation consists of retrieving the speech files that contain the input queries, indicating their start and end timestamps within the appropriate speech file. Evaluation is conducted on a Spanish spontaneous speech database containing a set of talks from MAVIR workshops(b), which amount at about 7 h of speech in total. We present the database metric systems submitted along with all results and some discussion. Four different research groups took part in the evaluation. Evaluation results show the difficulty of this task and the limited performance indicates there is still a lot of room for improvement. The best result is achieved by a dynamic time warping-based search over Gaussian posteriorgrams/posterior phoneme probabilities. This paper also compares the systems aiming at establishing the best technique dealing with that difficult task and looking for defining promising directions for this relatively novel task.

Regulation of mitochondrial division by the Drp1 receptors

Mitochondria can remodel their membranes by fusing or dividing. These processes are required for the proper development and viability of multicellular organisms. At the cellular level, fusion is important for mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis, mitochondrial DNA maintenance, mitochondrial membrane potential, and respiration. Mitochondrial division, which is better known as fission, is important for apoptosis, mitophagy, and for the proper allocation of mitochondria to daughter cells during cellular division.

The functions of proteins involved in fission have been best characterized in the yeast model organism Sarccharomyces cerevisiae. Mitochondrial fission in mammals has some similarities. In both systems, a cytosolic dynamin-like protein, called Dnm1 in yeast and Drp1 in mammals, must be recruited to the mitochondrial surface and polymerized to promote membrane division. Recruitment of yeast Dnm1 requires only one mitochondrial outer membrane protein, named Fis1. Fis1 is conserved in mammals, but its importance for Drp1 recruitment is minor. In mammals, three other receptor proteins—Mff, MiD49, and MiD51—play a major role in recruiting Drp1 to mitochondria. Why mammals require three additional receptors, and whether they function together or separately, are fundamental questions for understanding the mechanism of mitochondrial fission in mammals.

We have determined that Mff, MiD49, or MiD51 can function independently of one another to recruit Drp1 to mitochondria. Fis1 plays a minor role in Drp1 recruitment, suggesting that the emergence of these additional receptors has replaced the system used by yeast. Additionally, we found that Fis1/Mff and the MiDs regulate Drp1 activity differentially. Fis1 and Mff promote constitutive mitochondrial fission, whereas the MiDs activate recruited Drp1 only during loss of respiration.

To better understand the function of the MiDs, we have determined the atomic structure of the cytoplasmic domain of MiD51, and performed a structure-function analysis of MiD49 based on its homology to MiD51. MiD51 adopts a nucleotidyl transferase fold, and binds ADP as a co-factor that is essential for its function. Both MiDs contain a loop segment that is not present in other nucleotidyl transferase proteins, and this loop is used to interact with Drp1 and to recruit it to mitochondria.

Eigenvalue problems associated with Korn's inequalities in the theory of elasticity

Interest in the possible applications of a priori inequalities in linear elasticity theory motivated the present investigation. Korn's inequality under various side conditions is considered, with emphasis on the Korn's constant. In the "second case" of Korn's inequality, a variational approach leads to an eigenvalue problem; it is shown that, for simply-connected two-dimensional regions, the problem of determining the spectrum of this eigenvalue problem is equivalent to finding the values of Poisson's ratio for which the displacement boundary-value problem of linear homogeneous isotropic elastostatics has a non-unique solution.

Previous work on the uniqueness and non-uniqueness issue for the latter problem is examined and the results applied to the spectrum of the Korn eigenvalue problem. In this way, further information on the Korn constant for general regions is obtained.

A generalization of the "main case" of Korn's inequality is introduced and the associated eigenvalue problem is a gain related to the displacement boundary-value problem of linear elastostatics in two dimensions.

Effects of magnetostriction and superlattice formation in ferromagnetic thin films

The contribution to the magnetic uniaxial perpendicular anisotropy which arises from substrate constraint through magnetostrictive effects has been measured in Ni-Fe and Ni-Co thin films evaporated on substrates at room temperature. This was accomplished by measuring the perpendicular anisotropy before and after removal of the film from the substrate. Data are given for the fcc crystal structure regions of both alloy systems, but data for Ni-Co include compositions with less than 60% Ni which have a small percentage of the hcp phase mixed with the fcc phase. The constraint contribution to the perpendicular anisotropy correlates well with the value of the bulk magnetostriction constant using the equation ∆K_˔=3/2λ_sσ. Measured values of isotropic stress for films thicker than 600 Å were 1.6 x 10¹⁰ dyn/cm². In films less than 600 Å thick the isotropic stress decreased with decreasing thickness. After removal of the films from the substrates, the measured perpendicular anisotropy deviated from the expected geometrical shape anisotropy near pure Ni in both alloys. This indicates that additional significant sources of anisotropy exist at these compositions.

The effect of substrate constraint on the crystalline anisotropy K₁ of Ni-Fe epitaxial films has been studied by use of a film removal technique, which involves the evaporation of an epitaxial layer of LiF on MgO, the epitaxial growth of the metallic film on the LiF, and the stripping of the film with water soluble tape. Films ranging in composition from 50% to 100% Ni have been studied. For compositions below 90% Ni the experimental values agree reasonably well with the first order theoretical prediction, ∆K₁=[-9/4(C₁₁-C₁₂)λ² 100+9/2C₄₄λ²111].

In order to compare the magnetic properties of epitaxial thin films more completely with the properties of bulk single crystals, Ni-Fe films ranging in composition from 60% to 90% Ni, which were evaporated epitaxially on (100) MgO substrates, have been subsequently annealed at 400°C in a vacuum of less than 10^-7 Torr to form the ordered Ni₃Fe structure near the 75% composition. This ordered structure has been confirmed by electron diffraction.

The saturation magnetization at Ni₃Fe increased about 6% with ordering which is in good agreement with previous bulk data. Measurements of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy K₁ for the epitaxial films show the same large changes with ordering as observed in bulk single crystal samples. In the (001) plane the magnetostriction constants ^λ100, ^λ111 are directly related to the induced anisotropy due to a uniform uniaxial strain in the [100] and [110] directions respectively. Assuming that the elastic constants of a film are the same as in bulk material and are unchanged by ordering, the changes in strain sensitivity with ordering for the epitaxial films are found to be in good agreement with values predicted from bulk data. The exchange constant A as measured by ferromagnetic resonance has been measured at the Ni₃Fe composition and found to increase 25% with ordering. This seems to indicate a significant increase in the Curie temperature which has only been inferred indirectly for bulk material.

Dokumentazio zerbitzuak Euskal Herriko komunikabideetan

1. ATALA - IKERKETAK / 1ª PARTE - INVESTIGACIONES: I. Euskal Herriko komunikabideetako dokumentazio zerbitzuen analisia. Teresa Agirreazaldegi, Mª Milagros Ronco eta Idoia Camacho. II. Los documentalistas en las redacciones digitales de prensa y televisión: nuevos retos profesionales. Pere Masip, Josep Lluís Micó y José Alberto García Avilés. III. Documentación digital y gestión de contenidos en la televisión de hoy. Carmen Peñafiel y Nereida López. IV. Los documentos audiovisuales y su conservación. Mª Milagros Ronco López. V. Tresna linguistikoak informazioa atzitzeko. Eneko Agirre eta Iñaki Alegria. VI. Sarean Zer? Interneteko berriak lotzeko baliabidea. Gregorio Hernández. 2. ATALA - PROFESIONALEN EKARPENAK / 2ª PARTE - APORTACIONES PROFESIONALES: VII. Euskadi Irratiko Artxiboa. Iñigo Ceberio. VIII. Catalogación y ambientación del sonido en radio y televisión. Itziar Mendia. IX. El área de archivo en el proyecto de digitalización de ETB. Jesús Andérez. X. Media Asset Management (M.A.M.) y plataformas de digitalización de contenidos de ETB. Koldo Lizarralde. XI. El servicio de documentación de la agencia de noticias Atlas País Vasco. Sonia Guardado. XII. Sistema de trabajo del centro de documentación del periódico El Correo. Jesús Oleaga. XIII. La documentación del grupo Vocento. Mauricio Martín XIV. Berria egunkariaren dokumentazio zerbitzua: bi datu-base kazetarien zerbitzura. Margari Eizagirre eta Jon Barandiaran. XV. El servicio de documentación del Grupo Noticias. Isabel Muñoz e Itziar Aldaz. XVI. La hemeroteca de EITB: la orientación al cliente. Marta Iturregi. XVII. Euskarazko tokiko hedabideen balio dokumentalaz. Joxe Rojas. XVIII. Hemeroteka Plus: publikazio idatzien ustiaketa digitala. Julen Arrizabalaga.

A global protocol for monitoring of coral bleaching

Coral bleaching and subsequent mortality represent a major threat to the future health and productivity of coral reefs. However a lack of reliable data on occurrence, severity and other characteristics of bleaching events hampers research on the causes and consequences of this important phenomenon. This article describes a global protocol for monitoring coral bleaching events, which addresses this problem and can be used by people with different levels of expertise and resources.

Coral spawning information

Information on reproduction in reef corals is presented. An understanding of its reproductive behaviour is an important factor in helping to preserve the coral reef ecosystems.

Feeding habits of European hake (Merluccius merluccius) in the central Mediterranean Sea

European hake (Merluccius merluccius) is an important predator of deeper shelf-upper slope Mediterranean communities. It is a nectobenthic species distributed over a wide depth range (20−1000 m) throughout the Mediterranean Sea and the north east Atlantic region (Fisher et al., 1987). Notwithstanding the ecological and economic importance (Oliver and Massutí, 1995) of hake in the Mediterranean, many aspects of its biology (e.g., recruitment and reproduction), due to multiple spawning (Sarano, 1986) and the current state of exploitation, are poorly understood (Arneri and Morales-Nin, 2000).

An Economic Analysis of Texas Shrimp Season Closures

Management of the Texas penaeid shrimp fishery is aimed at increasing revenue from brown shrimp, Penaeus aztecus, landings and decreasing the level of discards. Since 1960 Texas has closed its territorial sea for 45-60 days during peak migration of brown shrimp to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1981 the closure was extended to 200 miles to include the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone. Simulation modeling is used in this paper to estimate the changes in landings, revenue, costs, and economic rent attributable to the Texas closure. Four additional analyses were conducted to estimate the effects of closing the Gulf 1- to 4-fathom zone for 45 and 60 days, with and without effort redirected to inshore waters. Distributional impacts are analyzed in terms of costs, revenues, and rents, by vessel class, shrimp species, vessel owner, and crew.