The benefits of improved car secondary safety

The term 'secondary safety' refers to the protection that a vehicle provides its occupants when involved in an accident. This paper studies information from the British database of road accident reports between 1980 and 1998, to estimate the reduction in the number of occupant casualties over these years which may be attributed to improvements to secondary safety in cars.The paper shows that the proportion of driver casualties who are killed or seriously injured (KSI) is lower for modern cars than for older cars. The reduction of this proportion is used to assess the improvement in secondary safety. Statistical models are developed to represent the proportion with 'year of first registration' as one of the independent variables, although only an incomplete assessment of the benefits of improved secondary safety can be made with the available data. The assessment compares the number of casualties that would have been expected if secondary safety had remained at the level found in cars first registered in 1980 with the actual casualty numbers. It is estimated that improved secondary safety reduced the number of drivers KSI by at least 19.7% in 1998, in comparison with what might have occurred if all cars had had that lower level of secondary safety. This figure relates to all cars on the road in 1998, and rises to 33%, when confined to the most modern cars (those which were first registered in 1998).     

The importance of axial misalignment on the long term strength of polyethylene pipe butt fusion joints

The importance of axial misalignment at polyethylene pipe butt fusion joints has been assessed by undertaking elevated temperature lifetime tests. Both medium and high density polyethylene pipes were fusion joined to give aligned and controlled misaligned butt joints. These were tested under either a constant or fluctuating internal pressure loading using conditions that induced failure by slow, stable crck growth. It was observed that the lifetime of a butt joined system depends upon both the internal pressure or pressure range applied and the level of misalignment at the butt fusion joint. Increasing either the internal pressure (range) or the misalignment reduced system performance. These two variables of misalignment and internal pressure (range) may be incorporated into a single parameter, the amplified axial stress (or stress range) at the butt joint. This amplified or butt joint axial stress (or stress range) may be derived by considering the additional bending stresses introduced at the butt joint by virtue of misalignment combined with the axial stress loading.     

Emotional modulation of cognitive control: Approach–withdrawal states double-dissociate spatial from verbal two-back task performance.

Emotional states might selectively modulate components of cognitive control. To test this hypothesis, the author randomly assigned 152 undergraduates (equal numbers of men and women) to watch short videos intended to induce emotional states (approach, neutral, or withdrawal). Each video was followed by a computerized 2-back working memory task (spatial or verbal, equated for difficulty and appearance). Spatial 2-back performance was enhanced by a withdrawal state and impaired by an approach state; the opposite pattern held for verbal performance. The double dissociation held more strongly for participants who made more errors than average across conditions. The results suggest that approach–withdrawal states can have selective influences on components of cognitive control, possibly on a hemispheric basis. They support and extend several frameworks for conceptualizing emotion–cognition interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improving spatial representation of global ship emissions inventories

Ship activity patterns depicted by the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS), the Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System (AMVER) data set, and their combination demonstrate different spatial and statistical sampling biases. These differences could significantly affect the accuracy of ship emissions inventories and atmospheric modeling. We demonstrate (using ICOADS) a method to improve global-proxy representativeness by trimming over-reporting vessels that mitigates sampling bias, augment the sample data set, and account for ship heterogeneity. Apparent underreporting to ICOADS and AMVER by ships near coastlines, perhaps engaged in coastwise (short sea) shipping especially in Europe, indicates that bottom-up regional inventories may be more representative locally. Primarily due to the long time series available publicly for ICOADS data, the improved ICOADS data set may be the most appropriate global ship traffic proxy identified to date to be used for a top-down approach. More generally, these three spatial proxies can be used together to perform uncertainty analyses of ship air-emissions impacts on a global scale (http://coast.cms.udel.edu/GlobalShipEmissions/).     

Minimization of free radical damage by metal catalysis of multivitamin/multimineral supplements

Multivitamin/multimineral complexes are the most common dietary supplements. Unlike minerals in foods that are incorporated in bioorganic structures, minerals in dietary supplements are typically in an inorganic form. These minerals can catalyze the generation of free radicals, thereby oxidizing antioxidants during digestion. Here we examine the ability of a matrix consisting of an amino acid and non-digestible oligosaccharide (AAOS) to blunt metal-catalyzed oxidations. Monitoring of ascorbate radical generated by copper shows that ascorbate is oxidized more slowly with the AAOS matrix than with copper sulfate. Measurement of the rate of oxidation of ascorbic acid and Trolox^® by catalytic metals confirmed the ability of AAOS to slow these oxidations. Similar results were observed with iron-catalyzed formation of hydroxyl radicals. When compared to traditional forms of minerals used in supplements, we conclude that the oxidative loss of antioxidants in solution at physiological pH is much slower when AAOS is present.     

Optimization of electrospinning an SU‐8 negative photoresist to create patterned carbon nanofibers and nanobeads

The optimization of electrospinning SU‐8 2100 negative photoresist was performed to create carbon micro/nanofibers and beads that can be patterned after electrospinning by using UV radiation. The fiber diameters had a range of 300 nm to 1 μm, based upon the selected electrospinning parameters. Low concentrations of the SU‐8 2100 resulted in beads while specific higher concentrations produced well‐defined fibers. Fibers and beads were converted to carbon through pyrolysis and retained their three dimensional structure. By utilizing the photosensitive properties of the SU‐8 negative photoresist, the electrospun fibers were patterned by UV photolithography. The fibers and beads were characterized by SEM and Raman microscopy, respectively. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

我真不是素描

<正>简单的纯白瓷块加上素描感十足的黑色包边,营造出立体插画般的视觉错觉。英国陶艺家Katharine Morling用坚硬的陶瓷创作出其他瓶瓶罐罐绝对没有的3D梦幻感。一台堪称古董级别的收银机内似乎装了太多的硬币,抽屉怎么也关不上,一旁放着订书机、记事本、笔筒等小杂物。如果不是有一圈黑色包边清晰地勾勒出轮廓,它们就像是微融的白巧克力。再仔细一看,似乎又像用柔软的纸张剪出的纸艺美物。然而轻轻敲几下,清脆     

Project Management Application for Engineering Program Accreditation Preparation

This paper presents guidelines for applying project management tools and techniques to the process of preparing for a program accreditation site visit. The premise of the paper is that the proven tools and techniques of project management are effective in managing all the steps required in accreditation preparation as well as postvisit followups. The basic lesson offered by the paper’s approach is that accreditation preparation should not be turned into a last-minute crash project. Rather, proactive preparation steps should be instituted early to facilitate communication, cooperation, and coordination of the entire process. The guidelines provided in the paper are useful not only for program review, but also for continuous process and curriculum improvement. The paper cites two graduate program examples of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. preparation at the Air Force Institute of Technology.     

Increase in the Alpha to Gamma Transformation Temperature of Pure Iron upon Very Rapid Heating

In recent years, laser and electron beam welding techniques have been developed with heating rates reaching 1 million K/s, and nonequilibrium microstructures sometimes result. In the present study, the alpha (bcc) to gamma (fcc) transformation in pure iron is studied using a bank of storage batteries for heating and a high speed data acquisition system to monitor the temperature determined from a thermocouple spot welded to the specimen. Heating rates up to 300,000 K/s were obtained with the transformation temperature increasing from the equilibrium value of 1185 K (912 °C) to over 2200 K (1927 °C). The results are presented in terms of continuous heating and isothermal transformation curves.