Automatic conversion of triangular finite element meshes to quadrilateral elements

A method is presented for the fully automatic conversion of a general finite element mesh containing triangular elements into a mesh composed of exclusively quadrilateral elements. The initial mesh may be constructed of entirely triangular elements or may consist of a mixture of triangular and quadrilateral elements. The technique used employs heuristic procedures and criteria to selectively combine adjacent triangular elements into quadrilaterals based on preestablished criteria for element quality. Additional procedures are included to eliminate isolated triangles. The methods operates completely without user intervention once the nodal co-ordinates and element connectivity of the original mesh are supplied.     

Heterogeneous Plantinum Nucleation and Crystallization of a Heavy-Metal Fluoride Glass

The effect of controlled heterogeneous nucleation by platinum on the crystallization of a ZrF₄-BaF₂-LaF₃-AlF₃-NaF (ZBLAN) glass was studied. Various levels of platinum were incorporated into this glass by a combination of PtCl₂-doping and melting-atmosphere variation. The effect of doping levels and melting conditions on the incorporation of platinum and the subsequent nucleation of crystals was studied by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and X-ray diffraction. Increased platinum in the glass resulted in an increased number of nucleation sites for the growth of β-ZrF₄-BaF₂ crystals. Analysis of isothermal and ramp-rate DSC measurements indicated that the crystallization of this glass changed from surface controlled to bulk controlled with an increased number of nuclei. This was confirmed by optical microscopy. In addition, Avrami analysis of the isothermal crystallization data gave an accurate approximation of the number of nuclei in the glass.     

Effect of Oxygen Partial Pressure during Sintering on the Microstructure of Mg-PSZ with Strontia and Silica Additions

The microstructure, average grain size, and density of Mg-PSZ sintered with SrO and SiO₂ additions are found to depend on the partial pressure of oxygen in the sintering atmosphere. Over the range of 10⁻¹ to 10° atm, both the average grain size and the density increase with oxygen partial pressure, for a constant SrO/SiO₂ ratio. The partial pressure of oxygen also affects the microstructural distribution of the remnant liquid phase. At high partial pressures the liquid phase is uniformly distributed, whereas at lower oxygen pressures it is preferentially located near the surface. It is proposed that the microstructure produced by sintering is the result of a competition between liquid-phase-enhanced densification and the migration of the liquid phase to the free surface. The migration is attributed to vaporization of MgO from the liquid phase which increases with decreasing partial pressure of oxygen.     

Does the Youth Corrections System Work? Tracking the Effectiveness of Intervention Efforts With Delinquent Boys in State Custody.

This study adopted a systemic approach to studying intervention efforts with delinquent youth, examining the association between several youth corrections programs and adult criminal outcomes. Two studies were designed to use juvenile and adult court records to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment programs provided to delinquent youth in state custody. The results of Study 1 suggested that court-recorded delinquent charges can be used to estimate delinquency severity. The results of Study 2 presented a discouraging but not entirely unexpected illustration of the effectiveness of intervention efforts among delinquent youth. It was found that time spent in juvenile detention facilities, work programs, and group homes was associated with negative adult criminal outcomes. No links between time spent in youth corrections programs and positive outcomes were identified. Implications for future program evaluation efforts are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determination of Boundary Shear Stress and Reynolds Shear Stress in Smooth Rectangular Channel Flows

A method for computing three-dimensional Reynolds shear stresses and boundary shear stress distribution in smooth rectangular channels is developed by applying an order of magnitude analysis to integrate the Reynolds equations. A simplified relationship between the lateral and vertical terms is hypothesized for which the Reynolds equations become solvable. This relationship has the form of a power law with an exponent of n = 1, 2, or infinity. The semiempirical equations for the boundary shear distribution and the distribution of Reynolds shear stresses are compared with measured data in open channels. The power-law exponent of 2 gave the best overall results while n=infinity gave good results near the boundary.     

Control of a Batch Processing Machine Serving Compatible Job Families

We consider the control of a single batch processing machine with random arrivals, random processing times, and compatible job families (jobs from different families may be processed together in the same batch, with the processing time distribution of the entire batch determined by the job family in the batch having the greatest expected processing time). The objective is to minimize the long-run average time that jobs spend in the system. We present properties possessed by the optimal policies and discuss the structure of these policies. We next develop a simple heuristic scheduling policy to control the machine. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our heuristic over a wide range of problem instances.     

The role of modelling in identifying drug targets for diseases of the cell cycle.

The cell cycle is implicated in diseases that are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the developed world. Until recently, the search for drug targets has focused on relatively small parts of the regulatory network under the assumption that key events can be controlled by targeting single pathways. This is valid provided the impact of couplings to the wider scale context of the network can be ignored. The resulting depth of study has revealed many new insights; however, these have been won at the expense of breadth and a proper understanding of the consequences of links between the different parts of the network. Since it is now becoming clear that these early assumptions may not hold and successful treatments are likely to employ drugs that simultaneously target a number of different sites in the regulatory network, it is timely to redress this imbalance. However, the substantial increase in complexity presents new challenges and necessitates parallel theoretical and experimental approaches. We review the current status of theoretical models for the cell cycle in light of these new challenges. Many of the existing approaches are not sufficiently comprehensive to simultaneously incorporate the required extent of couplings. Where more appropriate levels of complexity are incorporated, the models are difficult to link directly to currently available data. Further progress requires a better integration of experiment and theory. New kinds of data are required that are quantitative, have a higher temporal resolution and that allow simultaneous quantitative comparison of the concentration of larger numbers of different proteins. More comprehensive models are required and must accommodate not only substantial uncertainties in the structure and kinetic parameters of the networks, but also high levels of ignorance. The most recent results relating network complexity to robustness of the dynamics provide clues that suggest progress is possible.     

A physically based approach to granular media mechanics: grain-scale experiments,initial results and implications to numerical modeling

It is generally appreciated that the mechanical behavior of granular media depends fundamentally on the interaction of the constituent particles, and that the validity of numerical models of granular media would be greatly improved with knowledge of the grain-scale mechanics. However, most supporting experimental work has been conducted on highly idealized materials, and a limited amount of information exists on grain-scale force–displacement relationships for naturally occurring materials. To address this shortcoming, we are conducting a program that integrates laboratory experiments on grains of naturally occurring aggregate with the discrete element modeling method, with the goal of relating the grain-scale physical and mechanical properties of granular media to bulk behavior. The paper describes the equipment and methods that have been developed to conduct close-loop controlled, grain-scale experiments under monotonic and cyclic loading conditions, and presents results from an initial set of experiments on unbonded grains. The implications of the grain-scale results to the discrete element model are discussed. Discussions center on the applicability of a physically based approach to the mechanics of granular media in general. In light of future exploration missions and the resulting need to predict the mechanical properties of lunar and planetary regoliths, the paper examines the potential usefulness of our physically based approach to the problem of predicting the behavior of the types of materials found in those environments.