Wind power installation : present condition and possible lines of development /

"NASA technical translation NASA TT F-16204."

Effect of Video Camera-Based Remote Roadway Condition Monitoring on Snow Removal-Related Maintenance Operations. 2014

Remote monitoring through the use of cameras is widely utilized for traffic operation, but has not been utilized widely for roadway maintenance operations. The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has implemented a new remote monitoring system, referred to as a Cloud-enabled Remote Video Streaming (CRVS) camera system for snow removal-related maintenance operations in the winter. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of the CRVS camera system in snow removal-related maintenance operations. This study was conducted in two parts: opinion surveys of maintenance station supervisors and an analysis on snow removal-related maintenance costs. The responses to the opinion surveys mostly displayed positive reviews of the use of the CRVS cameras. On a scale of 1 (least effective) to 5 (most effective), the average overall effectiveness given by the station supervisors was 4.3. An expedition trip for this study was defined as a trip that was made to just check the roadways if snow-removal was necessary. The average of the responses received from surveys was calculated to be a 33 percent reduction in expedition trips. For the second part of this study, an analysis was performed on the snow removal-related maintenance cost data provided by UDOT to see if the installation of a CRVS camera had an effect in reducing expedition trips. This expedition cost comparison was performed for 10 sets of maintenance stations within Utah. It was difficult to make any definitive inferences from the comparison of expedition costs over the years for which precipitation and expedition cost data were available; hence a statistical analysis was performed using the Mixed Model ANOVA. This analysis resulted in an average of 14 percent higher ratio of expedition costs at maintenance stations with a CRVS camera before the installation of the camera compared to the ratio of expedition costs after the installation of the camera. This difference was not proven to be statistically significant at the 95 percent confident level, but indicated that the installation of CRVS cameras was on the average helpful in reducing expedition costs and may be considered practically significant. It is recommended that more detailed and consistent maintenance cost records be prepared for accurate analysis of cost records for this type of study in the future.

Electrical activity of the orbicularis muscles before and after installation of ocular prostheses

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Diagnosis and treatment of extraction sockets in preparation for implant placement: report of three cases

This article addresses diagnostic parameters that should be assessed in the treatment of extraction sockets with dental implant placement by presenting three case reports that emphasize the relevance of the amount of remaining bone walls. Diagnosis was based on the analysis of clinical and radiographic parameters (e.g.: bone defect morphology, remaining bone volume, presence of infections on the receptor site). Case 1 presents a 5-wall defect in the maxillary right central incisor region with severe root resorption, which was treated with immediate implant placement. Cases 2 and 3 present, respectively, two- and three-wall bone defects that did not have indication for immediate implants. These cases were first submitted to a guided bone regeneration (GBR) procedure with bone graft biomaterial and membrane barriers, and the implants were installed in a second surgical procedure. The analysis of the preoperative periodontal condition of the adjacent teeth and bone defect morphology is extremely important because these factors determine the choice between immediate implant or GBR treatment followed by implant installation in a subsequent intervention.

Intercepting moving targets: does memory from practice in a specific condition of target displacement affect movement timing?

This investigation aimed at assessing the extent to which memory from practice in a specific condition of target displacement modulates temporal errors and movement timing of interceptive movements. We compared two groups practicing with certainty of future target velocity either in unchanged target velocity or in target velocity decrease. Following practice, both experimental groups were probed in the situations of unchanged target velocity and target velocity decrease either under the context of certainty or uncertainty about target velocity. Results from practice showed similar improvement of temporal accuracy between groups, revealing that target velocity decrease did not disturb temporal movement organization when fully predictable. Analysis of temporal errors in the probing trials indicated that both groups had higher timing accuracy in velocity decrease in comparison with unchanged velocity. Effect of practice was detected by increased temporal accuracy of the velocity decrease group in situations of decreased velocity; a trend consistent with the expected effect of practice was observed for temporal errors in the unchanged velocity group and in movement initiation at a descriptive level. An additional point of theoretical interest was the fast adaptation in both groups to a target velocity pattern different from that practiced. These points are discussed under the perspective of integration of vision and motor control by means of an internal forward model of external motion.

Number of options in a movement sequence affects learners' behavior in a self-controlled practice condition

Self controlling practice implies a process of decision making which suggests that the options in a self controlled practice condition could affect learners The number of task components with no fixed position in a movement sequence may affect the (Nay learners self control their practice A 200 cm coincident timing track with 90 light emitting diodes (LEDs)-the first and the last LEDs being the warning and the target lights respectively was set so that the apparent speed of the light along the track was 1 33 m/sec Participants were required to touch six sensors sequentially the last one coincidently with the lighting of the tar get light (timing task) Group 1 (n=55) had only one constraint and were instructed to touch the sensors in any order except for the last sensor which had to be the one positioned close to the target light Group 2 (n=53) had three constraints the first two and the last sensor to be touched Both groups practiced the task until timing error was less than 30 msec on three consecutive trials There were no statistically significant differences between groups in the number of trials needed to reach the performance criterion but (a) participants in Group 2 created fewer sequences corn pared to Group 1 and (b) were more likely to use the same sequence throughout the learning process The number of options for a movement sequence affected the way learners self-controlled their practice but had no effect on the amount of practice to reach criterion performance.

Relationship between installation torque and uplift capacity of deep helical piles in sand

Le facteur empirique de correlation du torque K(T), qui represente la capacite de soulevement du torque d`installation de pieux helicoidaux, est generalement utilise comme instrument de controle de la qualite sur le terrain pour ce type de fondations. Dans cet article, une relation theorique entre la capacite de soulevement et le torque d`installation de pieux helicoidaux places profondement dans du sable est presentee. Un programme experimental, qui comprend des essais centrifuge et de cisaillement direct a l`interface, a ete effectue dans le but de valider cette relation theorique. Les resultats experimentaux ont ete compares aux resultats predits par l`approche suggeree, et les resultats montrent une bonne concordance. Puisque le modele developpe depend de l`angle de friction residuel a l`interface delta(r) entre la surface de l`helice du pieu et le sable, les resultats de delta(r) obtenus a partir de differents echantillons de sable sont presentes afin d`etre utilises lors de l`application sur le terrain de la relation theorique proposee. De plus, les valeurs de K(T) obtenues dans ces travaux ont ete comparees a celles reportees dans la litterature; celles-ci ayant ete obtenues lors d`essais sur le terrain et en laboratoire sur des pieux helicoidaux dans le sable. Cette analyse a permis de demontrer que les valeurs mesurees de K(T) diminuent lorsque la dimension des pieux augmente, ainsi qu`avec une augmentation de l`angle de friction du sable, dans la plupart des cas. Ces derniers resultats ont aussi ete demontres avec le modele presente.

Expert system for the assessment of power transformer insulation condition based on type-2 fuzzy logic systems

An efficient expert system for the power transformer condition assessment is presented in this paper. Through the application of Duval`s triangle and the method of the gas ratios a first assessment of the transformer condition is obtained in the form of a dissolved gas analysis (DGA) diagnosis according IEC 60599. As a second step, a knowledge mining procedure is performed, by conducting surveys whose results are fed into a first Type-2 Fuzzy Logic System (T2-FLS), in order to initially evaluate the condition of the equipment taking only the results of dissolved gas analysis into account. The output of this first T2-FLS is used as the input of a second T2-FLS, which additionally weighs up the condition of the paper-oil system. The output of this last T2-FLS is given in terms of words easily understandable by the maintenance personnel. The proposed assessing methodology has been validated for several cases of transformers in service. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of precracking method on K(Ic) results for medium-density polyethylene tested under cryogenic condition

The effect of different precracking methods on the results of linear elastic K(Ic) fracture toughness testing with medium-density polyethylene (MDPE) was investigated. Cryogenic conditions were imposed in order to obtain valid K(Ic) values from specimens of suitable size. Most conservative K(Ic) values were obtained by slow pressing a fresh razor blade at the notch root of the specimen. Due to the low deformation level imposed on the crack tip region, the slow pressing razor blade technique also produced less scatter in fracture toughness results. It has been shown that the slow stable crack growth preceding catastrophic brittle failure during K(Ic) tests in MOPE under cryogenic conditions should not be disregarded as it has relevant physical meaning and may affect the fracture toughness results. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thermodynamic information system for diagnosis and prognosis of power plant operation condition

A thermodynamic information system for diagnosis and prognosis of an existing power plant was developed. The system is based on an analytic approach that informs the current thermodynamic condition of all cycle components, as well as the improvement that can be obtained in the cycle performance by the elimination of the discovered anomalies. The effects induced by components anomalies and repairs in other components efficiency, which have proven to be one of the main drawbacks in the diagnosis and prognosis analyses, are taken into consideration owing to the use of performance curves and corrected performance curves together with the thermodynamic data collected from the distributed control system. The approach used to develop the system is explained, the system implementation in a real gas turbine cogeneration combined cycle is described and the results are discussed. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A survey on the sanitary condition of commercial foods of plant origin sold in Brazil

The objective of the study was to evaluate the hygienic conditions and practices of commercial foods of plant origin in establishments and street marketed by street vendors in cities in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Forty different sales points were evaluated (establishments that prepared and sold fruit juices and street vendors that commercialized fresh coconut water, sugarcane juice and orange juice) using a questionnaire with 12 items, divided into three blocks (salesmen/handlers, operations, installations). The results indicated that the activities related to the commerce of fruit beverages in the cities of Sao Goncalo and Rio de Janeiro required the elaboration of a set of actions by the Sanitary Vigilance Agency in order to improve the hygienic and sanitary level and minimize health risk to consumers. Important requirements in the legislation relevant to this type of food are still not followed; adequate packaging and storage of the raw material, obtaining the raw material from registered suppliers, hygiene of the handlers and adequate management of wastes produced during the activities in question are amongst the main items deserving attention. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of stimulus modality and task condition on blink startle modification and on electrodermal responses

Participants in Experiments 1 and 2 performed a discrimination and counting task to assess the effect of lead stimulus modality on attentional modification of the acoustic startle reflex. Modality of the discrimination stimuli was changed across subjects. Electrodermal responses were larger during task-relevant stimuli than during task-irrelevant stimuli in all conditions. Larger blink magnitude facilitation was found during auditory and visual task-relevant stimuli, but not for tactile stimuli. Experiment 3 used acoustic, visual, and tactile conditioned stimuli (CSs) in differential conditioning with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US). Startle magnitude facilitation and electrodermal responses were larger during a CS that preceded the US than during a CS that was presented alone regardless of lead stimulus modality. Although not unequivocal, the present data pose problems for attentional accounts of blink modification that emphasize the importance of lead stimulus modality.

Investigations into effective methods for assessing the condition of insulation in aged power transformers

This paper investigates the effective diagnostic technique(s) for assessing the condition of insulation in aged power transformers. A number of electrical, mechanical and chemical techniques were investigated. Many of these techniques are already used by the utility engineers and two comparatively new techniques are proposed in this paper. Results showing the effectiveness of these diagnostics are presented and correlation between the techniques are also presented. Finally, merits and suitability of different techniques are discussed in this paper.

Numerical and experimental study of seepage in unconfined aquifers with a periodic boundary condition

The assessment of groundwater conditions within an unconfined aquifer with a periodic boundary condition is of interest in many hydrological and environmental problems. A two-dimensional numerical model for density dependent variably saturated groundwater flow, SUTRA (Voss, C.I., 1984. SUTRA: a finite element simulation model for saturated-unsaturated, fluid-density dependent ground-water flow with energy transport or chemically reactive single species solute transport. US Geological Survey, National Center, Reston, VA) is modified in order to be able to simulate the groundwater flow in unconfined aquifers affected by a periodic boundary condition. The basic flow equation is changed from pressure-form to mixed-form. The model is also adjusted to handle a seepage-face boundary condition. Experiments are conducted to provide data for the groundwater response to the periodic boundary condition for aquifers with both vertical and sloping faces. The performance of the numerical model is assessed using those data. The results of pressure- and mixed-form approximations are compared and the improvement achieved through the mixed-form of the equation is demonstrated. The ability of the numerical model to simulate the water table and seepage-face is tested by modelling some published experimental data. Finally the numerical model is successfully verified against present experimental results to confirm its ability to simulate complex boundary conditions like the periodic head and the seepage-face boundary condition on the sloping face. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

No evidence of female choice for a condition-dependent trait in the agamid lizard, Ctenophorus ornatus

Female choice has rarely been documented in reptiles. In this study we examined the variation, condition-dependence and female preference for a range of male morphological and colour traits in the agamid lizard, Ctenophorus ornatus. Colour traits were measured with reflectance spectrophotometry which allows the accurate quantification of colour traits independent of the human visual system. All the colour traits varied greatly in brightness but only the throat showed high variation in the spectral shape. For the morphological traits, chest patch size showed the highest amount of variation and was also condition-dependent. Males with a larger chest patch also had a patch which was a darker black. Female mate choice trials were conducted on male chest patch size and body size, which is the trait females have preferred in other lizard species. Females showed no preference, measured as spatial association, for larger males or males with bigger chest patches. In post-hoc tests females did not prefer males with brighter throats or darker chests, Our findings suggest that females show no spatial discrimination between males on the basis of a range of traits most expected to influence female choice.