Fatigue crack propagation in rocker and roller-rocker bearings of railway steel bridges

In this work, a method is proposed for rolling contact fatigue crack propagation analysis using contact and fracture theories in conjunction with fatigue laws. The proposed method is used in the fatigue analysis of rocker and roller-rocker bearings of a railway open web girder bridge which is instrumented with strain gages. Using a contact algorithm based on the minimum energy principle for bodies in rolling contact with dry friction, the normal and tangential pressure distribution are computed. It is seen that the most critical location of a crack in bearings is at a point very close to the contact region, as expected. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Diacylglycerol Kinase Is Stimulated by Arachidonic Acid in Neural Membranes.

The effect of arachidonic acid (AA) on the activity of diacylglycerol (DG) kinase in neural membranes was investigated. When rat brain cortical membranes were incubated with 0.5 mM dipalmitin and [gamma-P-32]ATP, formation of phosphatidic acid (PA) was observed. It was linear up to 5 min, and the initial rate was similar to 1.0 nmol/min/mg of protein. The DG kinase activity was stimulated twofold by 0.25 mM AA. The stimulation was apparent at the earliest time point measured (1 min) and with the lowest concentration of AA tested (62.5 mu M). The stimulation was proportional to the concentration of AA up to 250 mu M. AA was the most potent stimulator of DG kinase, and linolenic acid showed similar to 40% stimulation. Oleic acid showed no effect, whereas linoleic and the saturated fatty acids tested were inhibitory. AA stimulation of DG kinase was observed only with membranes of cerebrum, cerebellum, and myelin and not with brain cytosol or liver membranes. AA also stimulated the formation of PA in the absence of added dipalmitin (endogenous activity) with membranes prepared from whole brain. DG kinase of neural membranes was extracted with 2 M NaCl, which on dialysis yielded a precipitate. Both the precipitate and the supernatant showed DG kinase activity, but only the enzyme in the precipitate was stimulated by AA at concentrations as low as 25 mu M. It is suggested that AA, through its effect on DG kinase, regulates the level of DG in neural membranes, which in turn regulates protein kinase C activity.

Measurement of effective permeability of reinforcement mats using sensitivity analysis

A methodology using sensitivity analysis is proposed to measure the effective permeability which includes the interaction of the resin and the reinforcement. Initially, mold-filling experiments were performed at isothermal conditions on the test specimen and the positions of the flow front were tracked with time using a flow visualization method. Following this, mold-filling experiments were simulated using a commercial software to obtain the positions of the flow front with time at the process conditions used for experiments. Several iterations were performed using different trial values of the permeability until the experimentally tracked and simulated positions of the flow front with time were matched. Finally, the value of the permeability thus obtained was validated by comparing the positions obtained by performing the experiments at different process conditions with the positions obtained by simulating the experiments. In this study, woven roving and chopped strand mats of E-class glass fiber and unsaturated polyester resin were used for the experiments. From the results, it was found that the measured permeabilities were consistent with varying process conditions. POLYM. COMPOS., 2012. (c) 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers

Eye-hand coordination during a double-step task: evidence for a common stochastic accumulator

Many studies of reaching and pointing have shown significant spatial and temporal correlations between eye and hand movements. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether these correlations are incidental, arising from common inputs (independent model); whether these correlations represent an interaction between otherwise independent eye and hand systems (interactive model); or whether these correlations arise from a single dedicated eye-hand system (common command model). Subjects were instructed to redirect gaze and pointing movements in a double-step task in an attempt to decouple eye-hand movements and causally distinguish between the three architectures. We used a drift-diffusion framework in the context of a race model, which has been previously used to explain redirect behavior for eye and hand movements separately, to predict the pattern of eye-hand decoupling. We found that the common command architecture could best explain the observed frequency of different eye and hand response patterns to the target step. A common stochastic accumulator for eye-hand coordination also predicts comparable variances, despite significant difference in the means of the eye and hand reaction time (RT) distributions, which we tested. Consistent with this prediction, we observed that the variances of the eye and hand RTs were similar, despite much larger hand RTs (similar to 90 ms). Moreover, changes in mean eye RTs, which also increased eye RT variance, produced a similar increase in mean and variance of the associated hand RT. Taken together, these data suggest that a dedicated circuit underlies coordinated eye-hand planning.

考虑压头曲率半径和应变梯度的微压痕分析

在压头尖端曲率半径取100nm的前提下,采用Chen和Wang的应变梯度理论,对微压痕实验进行了系统的数值分析.首先通过拟合载荷-位移实验曲线的后半段来确定材料的屈服应力和幂硬化指数值,然后用有限元方法数值模拟压痕实验,并将计算得到的整段载荷-位移曲线及硬度-位移曲线和实验结果进行了比较.结果表明应变梯度理论所预测的计算结果和实验结果很好地符合,包括压痕深度在亚微米和微米范围内的整段曲线.

Diagnostico situacional del sector de pequeños y medianos productores avícolas de huevos de mesa en Nicaragua

En Nicaragua, la producción de huevos experimentó un crecimiento anual del 8% al cierre del año 2012, se espera que para el año 2013 sea superado. La avicultura aporta 2.8% al PIB nacional y 30% al PIB agropecuario. El consumo per cápita de huevos es de 86. No existe en Nicaragua una clasificación oficial del sector avícola de huevos debido a que no ha sido creada por ninguna entidad gubernamental concerniente. Cada actor relacionado con el sector avícola posee una apreciación particular sobre la clasificación; el parámetro con mayor coincidencia es el número de aves en explotación. La avicultura se divide en dos sectores: ANAPA y el sector de pequeños y medianos avicultores de huevos; este último está representado por tres organizaciones: APEMEPAN, UNAPA y COOMPAS. La mayoría de los pequeños y medianos avicultores del país están concentrados en la región del Pacífico con un 88.06% del total de las granjas de los avicultores de huevos de mesa. La avicultura de pequeños y medianos productores de huevos carece de una cadena productiva integrada, la mayoría no cuentan con una planta procesadora de alimentos ni con canales de distribución propios, carecen de plantas incubadoras destinadas para aves ponedoras. Además, el sector de pequeños y medianos avicultores del país posee costos de producción altos, un nivel tecnológico bajo, acceso a capacitación y asistencia técnica escaso, acceso al financiamiento es considerado poco flexible por avicultores; además, afirman que no existen políticas de apoyo al sector; sin embargo en el desarrollo de este estudio se reveló la existencia de ciertas políticas y programas de apoyo principalmente en ministerios como MEFCCA, MIFIC y MAGFOR. Históricamente no ha existido exportación de huevos en Nicaragua y hubo importaciones sólo en el año 2011; actualmente los avicultores afirman la existencia de importaciones ilegales de huevos de procedencia hondureña.

Comparison of constructions of irregular Gallager codes

The low-density parity check codes whose performance is closest to the Shannon limit are `Gallager codes' based on irregular graphs. We compare alternative methods for constructing these graphs and present two results. First, we find a `super-Poisson' construction which gives a small improvement in empirical performance over a random construction. Second, whereas Gallager codes normally take N2 time to encode, we investigate constructions of regular and irregular Gallager codes that allow more rapid encoding and have smaller memory requirements in the encoder. We find that these `fast encoding' Gallager codes have equally good performance.

El ciclo ceremonial de la batalla de La Higueruela (1431)

Resumen: La batalla de La Higueruela (1431) fue el éxito militar más importante en la frontera granadina de Juan II de Castilla. Más allá del hecho militar, este acontecimiento fue una ocasión para el desarrollo de varias ceremonias de la realeza. El estudio de estas ceremonias ofrece un interesante reflejo de las relaciones políticas dentro de la corte castellana.

低密度台阶形闪耀光栅的制作

介绍了制作低密度闪耀光栅的过程,在制作时,对传统的制作过程进行了改进,有效提高了制作质量。以40μm闪耀光栅为例介绍了制作的过程,得到了良好的光栅表面形貌,并且闪耀级次的衍射效率达到了70%以上。相比传统的制作方法,效率提高了5%～10%。对比了理论上的衍射效率,分析了实验误差,发现把存在对准误差的光栅进行处理将会有效地提高其衍射效率,为进一步提高闪耀光栅的衍射效率提供了依据。

Análise molecular vibracional da interface adesivo-dentina após aplicação de múltiplas camadas de sistemas adesivos convencionais de dois passos

O propósito do presente estudo foi analisar o efeito da aplicação de múltiplas camadas consecutivas de dois sistemas adesivos convencionais de dois passos na difusão resinosa e padrão de distribuição dos componentes monoméricos resinosos. Dezesseis terceiros molares humanos hígidos foram tratados com os sistemas adesivos convencionais de dois passos de acordo com as instruções dos fabricantes ou com aplicações em múltiplas camadas consecutivas. Os espécimes foram seccionados paralelamente aos túbulos dentinários e as superfícies submetidas ao polimento com lixas 600, 1200, 1800, 2000 e 4000. Os espectros Raman foram coletados ao longo de uma linha perpendicular a interface adesivo-resina em intervalos de 1 ou 2 m. As medidas de difusão da resina adesiva e distribuição dos componentes monomériccos foram avaliadas pelos picos Raman de 1113 cm-1, 1609 cm-1 e 1454 cm-1. O gradiente de desmineralização usado na determinação da região de hibridização foi avaliado pelo pico de 960 cm-1 da apatita. De acordo com os resultados obtidos, a aplicação de múltiplas camadas apresentou uma tendência de homogeneização dos componentes poliméricos, dependente da composição química da resina adesiva.

萘酞菁硅配合物的合成及激发态性质研究

本文合成了3种轴向配位的萘酞菁硅配合物（NcSiR2，R=Cl、OH、OCH3），研究了3种萘酞菁配合物激发态性质，研究结果表明．随着轴向取代基推电子能力的逐渐增强，激发单线态寿命和激发三线态寿命逐渐缩短，产生单线态氧的能力逐渐下降。

Cr^4＋：YAG被动调QNd：YAG陶瓷激光器的研究

介绍了近几年迅速发展的一种新型激光介质——透明Nd：YAG多晶陶瓷的发展状况，对比分析了多晶陶瓷与单晶的光谱特性、激光特性和连续实验研究情况。并对钛宝石激光器调谐至808nm，端面抽运Nd：YAG陶瓷被动调Q全固态激光器的脉冲运转进行了较为详细的理论分析和实验研究。采用初始透射率为90％的Cr^4＋：YAG可饱和吸收晶体，被动调Q的阈值功率为119mW，当端面抽运功率为465mW时，获得波长为1064nm，脉宽为16ns，重复频率为18．18kHz，单脉冲能量为3．4μJ，平均输出功率为61mW的稳定调Q