Laboratory manual, direct and alternating current,

Mode of access: Internet.

Lab demonstration for the engineering unit of the Army specialized training program

Press release attached to verso includes: This picture ran three times. In the issue of May 2,1943, in the general supplement of Nov. 2, 1943, and on Jan. 16, 1944. May 2nd: A demonstration in the mechanical engineering laboratory is being given to these members of the engineering unit of the Army Specialized Training at the University.

Research in the fields of civil engineering, mechanical engineering, instrumentation.

Mode of access: Internet.

CANDE : a modern approach for the structural design and analysis of buried culverts /

Mode of access: Internet.

Location and ages of terrestrial peatlands located on continental shelves and in coastal sediments

This synthesis dataset contains records of freshwater peat and lake sediments from continental shelves and coastal areas. Information included is site location (when available), thickness and description of terrestrial sediments as well as underlying and overlying sediments, dates (when available), and references.

Improving the freshman electrical and computer engineering lab

This thesis covers the challenges of creating and maintaining an introductory engineering laboratory. The history of the University of Illinois Electrical and Computer Engineering department’s introductory course, ECE 110, is recounted. The current state of the course, as of Fall 2008, is discussed along with current challenges arising from the use of a hand-wired prototyping board with logic gates. A plan for overcoming these issues using a new microcontroller-based board with a pseudo hardware description language is discussed. The new microcontroller based system implementation is extensively detailed along with its new accompanying description language. This new system was tried in several sections of the Fall 2008 semester alongside the old system; the students’ final performances with the two different approaches are compared in terms of design, performance, complexity, and enjoyment. The system in its first run shows great promise, increasing the students’ enjoyment, and improving the performance of their designs.

Comparative assessment of seller’s staining test (SST) and direct fluorescent antibody test for rapid and accurate laboratory diagnosis of rabies.

Background: Rabies causes 55, 000 annual human deaths globally and about 10,000 people are exposed annually in Nigeria. Diagnosis of animal rabies in most African countries has been by direct microscopic examination. In Nigeria, the Seller’s stain test (SST) was employed until 2009. Before then, both SST and dFAT were used concurrently until the dFAT became the only standard method. Objective: This study was designed to assess the sensitivity and specificity of the SST in relation to the ‘gold standard’ dFAT in diagnosis of rabies in Nigeria. Methods: A total of 88 animal specimens submitted to the Rabies National Reference Laboratory, Nigeria were routinely tested for rabies by SST and dFAT. Results: Overall, 65.9% of the specimens were positive for rabies by SST, while 81.8% were positive by dFAT. The sensitivity of SST in relation to the gold standard dFAT was 81.0% (95% CIs; 69.7% - 88.6%), while the specificity was 100% (95% CIs; 76% - 100%). Conclusion: The relatively low sensitivity of the SST observed in this study calls for its replacement with the dFAT for accurate diagnosis of rabies and timely decisions on administration of PEP to prevent untimely deaths of exposed humans.

Determination of the parity of the neutral pion via its four-electron decay

We present a new determination of the parity of the neutral pion via the double Dalitz decay pi(0) -> e(+)e(-)e(+)e(-). Our sample, which consists of 30511 candidate decays, was collected from K(L) -> pi(0)pi(0)pi(0) decays in flight at the KTeV-E799 experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. We confirm the negative pi(0) parity and place a limit on scalar contributions to the pi(0) -> e(+)e(-)e(+)e(-) decay amplitude of less than 3.3% assuming CPT conservation. The pi(0)gamma(*)gamma(*) form factor is well described by a momentum-dependent model with a slope parameter fit to the final state phase-space distribution. Additionally, we have measured the branching ratio of this mode to be B(pi(0) -> e(+)e(-)e(+)e(-)) = (3.26 +/- 0.18) x 10(-5).

Precise measurements of direct CP violation, CPT symmetry, and other parameters in the neutral kaon system

We present precise tests of CP and CPT symmetry based on the full data set of K -> pi pi decays collected by the KTeV experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory during 1996, 1997, and 1999. This data set contains 16 x 10(6) K -> pi(0)pi(0) and 69 x 10(6) K -> pi(+)pi(-) decays. We measure the direct CP violation parameter Re(epsilon'/epsilon) = (19.2 +/- 2.1) x 10(-4). We find the K(L) -> K(S) mass difference Delta m = (5270 +/- 12) x 10(6) (h) over tilde s(-1) and the K(S) lifetime tau(S) = (89.62 +/- 0.05) x 10(-12) s. We also measure several parameters that test CPT invariance. We find the difference between the phase of the indirect CP violation parameter epsilon and the superweak phase: phi(epsilon) - phi(SW) =(0.40 +/- 0.56)degrees. We measure the difference of the relative phases between the CP violating and CP conserving decay amplitudes for K -> pi(+)pi(-) (phi(+-)) and for K -> pi(0)pi(0) (phi(00)): Delta phi = (0.30 +/- 0.35)degrees. From these phase measurements, we place a limit on the mass difference between K(0) and (K) over bar (0): Delta M < 4.8 x 10(-19) GeV/c(2) at 95% C.L. These results are consistent with those of other experiments, our own earlier measurements, and CPT symmetry.

Calibração de filtros de fator de transmissão regular em espectrofotometria

A garantia de exatidão e de precisão, assim como da reprodutibilidade, da repetibilidade e da produtividade dos processos de medição, tornaram-se metas da metrologia, visando desta forma uma garantia da qualidade de produtos e serviços. A presente dissertação foi desenvolvida no âmbito de estágio curricular realizado no Departamento de Metrologia (DMET) do Instituto Português da Qualidade (IPQ). O objetivo inicial do estágio visava a participação na calibração de espectrofotómetros. Entretanto, no decorrer do estágio, também foi possível elaborar uma proposta de melhoria aos procedimentos técnicos de calibração existentes na altura, para medições de fatores de transmissão regular, com dois instrumentos de medição de elevada qualidade. Esta proposta de melhoria integra-se na busca de melhoria contínua dos processos no Laboratório de Espectrofotometria (LE), pertencente ao Laboratório Central de Metrologia (LCM) do IPQ. Visando a rastreabilidade metrológica dos resultados obtidos, foi feita a adaptação dos procedimentos existentes. Para a calibração de ambos os espectrofotómetros, utilizaram-se filtros padrão de vidro de tamanho standard (33 mm x 10 mm) e de tamanho superior ao standard (50 mm x 50 mm) certificados pelo Laboratório Primário de Espectrofotometria do Instituto Nacional de Metrologia do Reino Unido, o National Physical Laboratory (NPL). Com o objetivo de otimização de tempo, procedeu-se também à comparação entre resultados obtidos de fator de transmissão para os materiais de referência de tamanho superior, quando corrigidos de acordo com a reta de calibração obtida com filtros padrão de tamanho idêntico, e quando corrigidos de acordo com a reta de calibração obtida com filtros padrão de tamanho standard. No decurso do estágio, surgiu ainda a oportunidade de aplicar a experiência obtida ao caso prático de um filtro de opacímetro fornecido pelo LabMetro do ISQ. Assim, na presente dissertação, apresentam-se também os resultados de medição de fator de transmissão, para esse filtro, obtidos com ambos os espectrofotómetros.

Mechanical performance of natural fiber-reinforced composites for the strengthening of masonry

The growing concerns regarding the environmental impact generated by the use of inorganic materials in different fields of application increased the interest towards products based on materials with low environmental impact. In recent years, researchers have turned their attention towards the development of materials obtained from renewable sources, easily recoverable or biodegradable at the end of use. In the field of civil structures, a few attempts have been done to replace the most common composites (e.g. carbon and glass fibers) by materials less harmful to the environment, as natural fibers. This work presents a comprehensive experimental research on the mechanical performance of natural fibers for the strengthening of masonry constructions. Flax, hemp, jute, sisal and coir fibers have been investigated both from physical and mechanical points of view. The fibers with better performance were tested together with three different matrices (two of organic nature) in order to produce composites. These experimental results represent a useful database for understanding the potentialities of natural fibers as strengthening systems.