Microstructural and environmental effects on fatigue crack propagation in duplex stainless steels

Fatigue crack initiation and propagation in duplex stainless steels are strongly affected by microstructure in both inert and aggressive environments. Fatigue crack growth rates in wrought Zeron 100 duplex stainless steel in air were found to vary with orientation depending on the frequency of crack tip retardation at ferrite/austenite grain boundaries. Fatigue crack propagation rates in 3.5% NaCl solution and high purity water are increased by hydrogen assisted transgranular cyclic cleavage of the ferrite. The corrosion fatigue results are interpreted using a model for the cyclic cleavage mechanism.

Az 1990-2000 között benyújtott magyar szabadalmi bejelentések környezeti hatásának idősoros elemzése (Time series analysis of environmental effects of submitted Hungarian patents between 1990 and 2000)

A szerző e kutatás keretében az 1990–2000 közötti időszak magyar intézményi és egyéni szabadalmi bejelentők, illetve jogosultak („szabadalmasok”) szabadalmainak környezeti hatását vizsgálja. Konkrétan az ebben az időszakban a Magyar Szabadalmi Hivatalnál benyújtott szabadalmi bejelentésekből elfogadott szabadalmakat tanulmányozza, a PIPACS adatbázisban található szabadalmi leírások alapján. A pozitív környezeti hatású szabadalmak száma, valamint az összes szabadalomhoz viszonyított aránya alapján von le következtetéseket a magyar környezeti innovációs tevékenységről, és ennek potenciális magyar környezeti hatásáról. A pozitív környezeti hatású szabadalmak összes megadott szabadalomhoz viszonyított aránya az időszakban 92%-os szignifikanciaszinten növekszik. _______

„Mennyit ér” a fenntarthatóság? – Esettanulmány az externális hatások mérésére azok internalizálására (What is sustainability worth? – A case study of measuring and internalizing negative environmental effects of logistics operation)

A fenntarthatóság központi kérdés a gazdálkodástudományban, ezen belül a logisztikában, hiszen a környezetre rótt szennyezésben e vállalati működési területnek is jelentős a szerepe. A szerzők dolgozata egy konkrét hazai esettanulmány segítségével vizsgálja a kérdéskört. Azt elemzik, vajon egy, az Európai Unióban is új kamiontípus (az ún. EuroCombi) alkalmazása a logisztikai folyamatokban milyen externális hatásokkal jár. Elemzésükben kísérletet tesznek ezeknek az externális hatásoknak a pénzben kifejezett mérésére. Azért fontos mindez, mert e mérés és számszerűsítés nélkül lehetetlen ezeknek a hatásoknak az internalizálása, vagyis belsővé tétele. Így mérés nélkül sem az érintett vállalatok tulajdonosai, sem azok belső döntéshozói, de a külső szabályozó szereplők sem tudják bevonni e hatásokat gazdasági döntéseikbe. Ez a mérés nem egyszerű feladat, de nem is lehetetlen. Mindenképpen alapját, előfeltételét képezi azonban annak, hogy ilyen jellegű döntéseknél az érintettek a társadalmi, környezeti érdekeket is érvényesíteni tudják. ____ Sustainability is a key issue today both for practitioners and researchers. This is true especially for logisticians. Logistics is a function that has a significant CO2 emission and also destructs transportation infrastructure that burden our environment. The article is focusing on these issues with the help of a Hungarian case study. It analysis the effect of applying a new, long and heavy type of truck, called EuroCombi. It presents a methodology usable for measuring these negative external effects in Forint. Without proper measurement internalization of costs these externalities generate is impossible. As it will be presented in details, such a measurement is although not very easy but achievable.

The genetic and environmental effects of parental age on the expression of psychopathology in adoptees

Secondary analysis of 581 adoptees was utilized to determine if parental age is related, either genetically or environmentally, to the development of psychopathology. The significant results showed that proband adoptees (with psychopathology in biologic relatives) with younger birthparents had increased alcohol abuse and those with younger birthfathers had increased antisocial personality while adoptees with older birthparents had increased depression. Analyses on control adoptees (with background free of known genetic disturbances) showed that those with younger adoptive mothers had increased antisocial personality and drug abuse and those with younger adoptive fathers had increased antisocial personality while adoptees with older adoptive fathers had increased depression. Implications of these findings are that adoptees with both younger birth and adoptive parents are more likely to have externalizing symptoms, while adoptees with both older birth and adoptive parents are more like to have internalizing symptoms. This information is beneficial to those involved in adoption placement.

Synchrony on embryonic development of marine turtles: individual variability and environmental effects

[EN] For sea turtles, to hatch and emerge from the nest communally is essential to decrease hatchling mortality. Thus, it is very important within a nest the simultaneous fertilization and the synchronized embryonic development of all eggs. On loggerhead nesting beaches of Cape Verde we have studied the individual variability on developmental synchrony of embryos and the influence on this process of some biological, environmental and management factors. We have compared this trait within and between 34 nests naturally incubated on the beach and 34 nests relocated to a beach hatchery during the 2009 and 2010 nesting seasons.

Synchrony on embryonic development of marine turtles: individual variability and environmental effects

[EN] For sea turtles, to hatch and emerge from the nest communally is essential to decrease hatchling mortality. Thus, it is very important within a nest the simultaneous fertilization and the synchronized embryonic development of all eggs. On loggerhead nesting beaches of Cape Verde we have studied the individual variability on developmental synchrony of embryos and the influence on this process of some biological, environmental and management factors. We have compared this trait within and between 34 nests naturally incubated on the beach and 34 nests relocated to a beach hatchery during the 2009 and 2010 nesting seasons.

Life history & environmental effects on telomere dynamics in Atlantic salmon

While much of the study of molecular biology inevitably focuses on the parts of the genome that contain active genes, there are also non-coding regions that nonetheless play an essential role in maintaining genome integrity. One such region are telomeres, which cap the ends of all eukaryotic chromosomes and play an important role in chromosome protection. Telomere loss occurs at each cell division as a result of the ‘end replication problem’ and a relatively short telomere length is indicative of poor biological state. Thus far, the majority of studies on the dynamics and role of telomeres have been biased towards certain taxa. Research to date has mostly focussed on humans, other mammals and birds. There has been far less research on the telomere dynamics of ectotherms. It is important that we do so, especially since ectothermic vertebrates do not seem to down-regulate telomerase expression in the same way as endotherms, suggesting that their telomere dynamics may be less predictable in the later life stages. The main objective of this thesis was therefore to investigate how life history and environmental effects may influence telomere dynamics in Atlantic salmon Salmo salar. I carried out carefully designed experiments, both in the laboratory and in the wild, using a longitudinal approach where possible, in order to address a number of specific questions that are connected to this central theme. In chapter 2, I demonstrate that there can be significant links between parental life history and offspring telomere dynamics. Maternal life history traits, in particular egg size, were most strongly related to offspring telomere length at the embryonic stages. Paternal life history traits, such as early life growth rate, had a greater association with offspring telomere dynamics in the later stages of development. In chapter 3, using a wild Atlantic salmon population, I found that most individuals experienced a reduction in telomere length during the migratory phase of their life cycle; however the relative rate of telomere loss was dependent on sex, with males experiencing a relatively greater loss. Unexpectedly, I also found that juvenile salmon that had the shortest telomeres at the time of outward migration, had the greatest probability of surviving through to the return migration. In chapter 4, again using a wild system involving experimental manipulations of juvenile Atlantic salmon in Scottish streams, I found that telomere length in juvenile fish was influenced by parental traits and by direct environmental effects. Faster-growing fish had shorter telomeres and there was a greater cost (in terms of reduced telomere length) if the growth occurred in a harsher environment. I also found a positive association between offspring telomere length and the growth history of their fathers (but not mothers), represented by the number of years that fathers had spent at sea. Chapter 5 explored the hypotheses that oxidative DNA damage, catalase (CAT) antioxidant activity and cell proliferation rate are underlying mechanisms linking incubation temperature and telomere dynamics in salmon embryos. No evidence was found for any such effects, but telomere lengths in salmon embryos were found to be significantly affected by the temperature of the water in which they were living. There is also evidence that telomere length significantly increases during embryonic development. In summary, this thesis has shown that a complex mix of environmental and parental effects appear to influence telomere dynamics in Atlantic salmon, with parental effects especially evident during early life stages. It also demonstrated that telomeres lengthen through the embryo stages of development before reducing once the fry begin feeding, indicating that the patterns of telomere loss commonly found in endotherms may differ in ectotherms. Reasons for this variation in telomere dynamics are presented in the final Discussion chapter of the thesis.

Synthetic rating system for railway bridge management

This thesis developed a condition assessment and rating method to identify those bridges in a network which are in most need of repair for an effective life cycle management. The method estimates the contribution of critical factors towards bridge deterioration and uses structural analysis to overcome the subjectivity of traditional current condition assessment methods. This research was a part of the CRC project titled 'Life Cycle Management of Railway Bridges'. Efficient usage of resources and enhancing the safety and serviceability of railway bridges are the significant outcomes of using the proposed method.

Reducing Uncertainties in Estimation of Wind Effects on Tall Buildings Using Aerodynamic Wind Tunnel Tests

Tall buildings are wind-sensitive structures and could experience high wind-induced effects. Aerodynamic boundary layer wind tunnel testing has been the most commonly used method for estimating wind effects on tall buildings. Design wind effects on tall buildings are estimated through analytical processing of the data obtained from aerodynamic wind tunnel tests. Even though it is widely agreed that the data obtained from wind tunnel testing is fairly reliable the post-test analytical procedures are still argued to have remarkable uncertainties. This research work attempted to assess the uncertainties occurring at different stages of the post-test analytical procedures in detail and suggest improved techniques for reducing the uncertainties. Results of the study showed that traditionally used simplifying approximations, particularly in the frequency domain approach, could cause significant uncertainties in estimating aerodynamic wind-induced responses. Based on identified shortcomings, a more accurate dual aerodynamic data analysis framework which works in the frequency and time domains was developed. The comprehensive analysis framework allows estimating modal, resultant and peak values of various wind-induced responses of a tall building more accurately. Estimating design wind effects on tall buildings also requires synthesizing the wind tunnel data with local climatological data of the study site. A novel copula based approach was developed for accurately synthesizing aerodynamic and climatological data up on investigating the causes of significant uncertainties in currently used synthesizing techniques. Improvement of the new approach over the existing techniques was also illustrated with a case study on a 50 story building. At last, a practical dynamic optimization approach was suggested for tuning structural properties of tall buildings towards attaining optimum performance against wind loads with less number of design iterations.

Origins of the sex differences in handedness and mental rotation ability : genetic, environmental and hormonal effects

In humans, well-replicated and robust sex differences in cognitive functions exist for handedness and mental rotation ability. A common characteristic in human cognitive functions is the lateralization of language functions. Handedness is a common measure of laterality and is related to language lateralization. The prevalence of left-handedness is higher in males than in females, the male to female ratio being about 1.2. Among cognitive abilities, the largest sex difference is evident in the Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test (MRT), which requires the ability to rotate objects in mental space. On average, males achieve scores one standard deviation higher than females in the MRT. The present thesis investigated the origins of the sex differences in laterality and spatial ability as represented by handedness and mental rotation ability, respectively. Two population-based Finnish twin cohorts were utilized in this study. Handedness was studied in 25 810 twins and 4068 singletons born before 1958 from the Older Finnish Twin Cohort, and in 4736 twins born in 1983-87 from the FinnTwin12. MRT was studied in a sub-sample of 804 young adult participants from the FinnTwin12 sample. The main findings of this study were: 1) the prevalence of left-handedness was higher among males than among females in both singletons and in twins; 2) males had significantly higher scores than females in MRT; 3) about one quarter of the variance in handedness and about half of the variance in MRT was explained by genetic effects, whereas the remainder of the variance in these traits was explained by environmental effects unique to each individual. The magnitude of the genetic effects was similar in both sexes; 4) left-handedness was significantly less common in female co-twins of a male than in female co-twins of a female, and female co-twins of a male scored significantly higher than did female co-twins of a female in the Mental Rotation Test. This dissertation discusses whether these differences between females from opposite- and same-sex twin pairs are due to the prenatal transfer of testosterone from the male fetus in females with male co-twins or whether they arise from postnatal socialization effects.

Environmental and genetic effects on weight and visual score traits at postweaning in Suffolk sheep

This study aimed to investigate the following environmental effects in Suffolk lambing: contemporary groups, type of birth, and age of animal and age of dam at lambing on conformation (C), precocity (P), musculature (M), and body weight at postweaning (W), and the heritability coefficients and genetic correlations among these traits. Contemporary groups, type of birth, and age of animal and age of dam at lambing were significant for W. For C, all the effects studied were significant, except linear and quadratic effects of age of the animal. For P, all effects studied were significant, except the quadratic effect of age of the animal. For M, the effects of contemporary group, type of birth, and the linear effect of the age of the animal were significant. Heritability estimates were 0.07 +/- 0.03, 0.14 +/- 0.03, 0.09 +/- 0.03, and 0.11 +/- 0.03 for C, P, M, and W, respectively, indicating a positive low response for direct selection. Estimates of genetic correlations among the visual scores (C, P, and M) and W were moderate to highly favorable and positive, ranging from 0.48 to 0.90. These results indicate that selection for visual scores will increase body weight.

Hydrodynamical simulations of early-type galaxies: effects of galaxy shape and stellar dynamics on hot coronae

Early-Type galaxies (ETGs) are embedded in hot (10^6-10^7 K), X-ray emitting gaseous haloes, produced mainly by stellar winds and heated by Type Ia supernovae explosions, by the thermalization of stellar motions and occasionally by the central super-massive black hole (SMBH). In particular, the thermalization of the stellar motions is due to the interaction between the stellar and the SNIa ejecta and the hot interstellar medium (ISM) already residing in the ETG. A number of different astrophysical phenomena determine the X-ray properties of the hot ISM, such as stellar population formation and evolution, galaxy structure and internal kinematics, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) presence, and environmental effects. With the aid of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations performed on state-of-the-art galaxy models, in this Thesis we focus on the effects of galaxy shape, stellar kinematics and star formation on the evolution of the X-ray coronae of ETGs. Numerical simulations show that the relative importance of flattening and rotation are functions of the galaxy mass: at low galaxy masses, adding flattening and rotation induces a galactic wind, thus lowering the X-ray luminosity; at high galaxy masses the angular momentum conservation keeps the central regions of rotating galaxies at low density, whereas in non-rotating models a denser and brighter atmosphere is formed. The same dependence from the galaxy mass is present in the effects of star formation (SF): in light galaxies SF contributes to increase the spread in Lx, while at high galaxy masses the halo X-ray properties are marginally sensitive to SF effects. In every case, the star formation rate at the present epoch quite agrees with observations, and the massive, cold gaseous discs are partially or completely consumed by SF on a time-scale of few Gyr, excluding the presence of young stellar discs at the present epoch.

Reducing uncertainties in estimation of wind effects on tall buildings using aerodynamic wind tunnel tests

Tall buildings are wind-sensitive structures and could experience high wind-induced effects. Aerodynamic boundary layer wind tunnel testing has been the most commonly used method for estimating wind effects on tall buildings. Design wind effects on tall buildings are estimated through analytical processing of the data obtained from aerodynamic wind tunnel tests. Even though it is widely agreed that the data obtained from wind tunnel testing is fairly reliable the post-test analytical procedures are still argued to have remarkable uncertainties. This research work attempted to assess the uncertainties occurring at different stages of the post-test analytical procedures in detail and suggest improved techniques for reducing the uncertainties. Results of the study showed that traditionally used simplifying approximations, particularly in the frequency domain approach, could cause significant uncertainties in estimating aerodynamic wind-induced responses. Based on identified shortcomings, a more accurate dual aerodynamic data analysis framework which works in the frequency and time domains was developed. The comprehensive analysis framework allows estimating modal, resultant and peak values of various wind-induced responses of a tall building more accurately. Estimating design wind effects on tall buildings also requires synthesizing the wind tunnel data with local climatological data of the study site. A novel copula based approach was developed for accurately synthesizing aerodynamic and climatological data up on investigating the causes of significant uncertainties in currently used synthesizing techniques. Improvement of the new approach over the existing techniques was also illustrated with a case study on a 50 story building. At last, a practical dynamic optimization approach was suggested for tuning structural properties of tall buildings towards attaining optimum performance against wind loads with less number of design iterations.