Use of weibull statistics to quantify property variability in TiAl alloys

Tensile experiments have been performed on specimens of four different investment-cast TiAl-based alloys with variations in casting conditions. The average ductilities obtained in these experiments vary between approximately 0.8 to 2.0 pct plastic strain to failure in tension. By using the three-parameter form of the Weibull relation, with the 0.2 pct offset yield strength as the minimum failure strength, the resulting variability in the data can be quantified and is found to be similar for those alloys with similar microstructural scale (grain size). Large variations in lamellar volume fraction, segregation, and phase distribution have a minor influence on property variability, compared to changes in the scale of the grain structure caused by either variations in cooling rate during casting or the addition of grain refiners.     

Building Bridges to Material Properties in General Chemistry Laboratories: A Model for Integration Across Disciplines

Many engineering students enter and exit general chemistry courses with little appreciation of chemistry's relevance to other fields. At WPI many of these students go on to take introductory materials science and arrive with poor attitudes about chemistry and little retention of key concepts, but then become more engaged as they discover connections to engineering applications. Consequently, instructors in chemistry and mechanical engineering collaborated to augment general chemistry laboratories with explicit “bridges” to material properties and applications. Evaluation results showed that while students' attitudes toward chemistry were unaffected by bridging, particular aspects of the students' lab experience were enhanced to a statistically significant degree. Similar cross‐disciplinary collaborations might be considered elsewhere as a means of helping students find meaning and integrate subject matter, in a manner that is more feasible than large‐scale course or curriculum restructuring.     

The Effect of Moisture Content in Epoxy Film Adhesives on their Performance. II. T-Peel and 105°C Lap Shear Strength

The benefits of adhesively bonded structures are well known. However, the most significant factor limiting the extensive application of metal bonding in primary aerospace structures is the prevailing lack of confidence in its long term durability under hostile environmental conditions.^1,2     

Single-Phase Permanent-Magnet Motor Analysis

A unified theoretical approach is presented for the calculation of the performance of the single-phase capacitor-start permanent-magnet (PM) ac line-start motor. The earlier work of Chang and of Finch and Lawrenson on capacitor reluctance motors is extended. As far as possible, a common set of reference frame transformations for steady-state, transient, and asynchronous performance is also provided, permitting the use of all the theory developed for the analysis of the balanced polyphase PM motor. A new approximate technique is given for estimating the average asynchronous torque/speed curve from computed acceleration curves.     

A new approach to model reference adaptive control

In classical model reference adaptive control, the goal is to design a controller to make the closed-loop system act like a prespecified reference model in the face of significant plant uncertainty. Typically, the controller consists of an identifier (or tuner) which is used to adjust the parameters of a linear time-invariant (LTI) compensator, and under suitable assumptions on the plant model uncertainty it is proven that asymptotic matching is achieved. However, the controller is typically highly nonlinear, and the closed loop system can exhibit undesirable behavior, such as large transients or a large control signal, especially if the initial parameter estimates are poor. Furthermore, its ability to tolerate time-varying parameters is typically limited. Here, we propose an alternative approach. Rather than estimating the plant or compensator parameters, instead we estimate what the control signal would be if the plant parameters and plant state were known and the "ideal LTI compensator" were applied. We end up with a linear periodic controller. Our assumptions are reasonably natural extensions of the classical ones to the time-varying setting; we allow rapid parameter variations, although we add a compactness requirement. We prove that we can obtain arbitrarily good tracking, explore the benefits and limitations of the approach, and provide a simulation study.     

A distributed adverse drug reaction detection system using intelligent agents with a fuzzy recognition‐primed decision model

Discovering unknown adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in postmarketing surveillance as early as possible is highly desirable. Nevertheless, current postmarketing surveillance methods largely rely on spontaneous reports that suffer from serious underreporting, latency, and inconsistent reporting. Thus these methods are not ideal for rapidly identifying rare ADRs. The multiagent systems paradigm is an emerging and effective approach to tackling distributed problems, especially when data sources and knowledge are geographically located in different places and coordination and collaboration are necessary for decision making. In this article, we propose an active, multiagent framework for early detection of ADRs by utilizing electronic patient data distributed across many different sources and locations. In this framework, intelligent agents assist a team of experts based on the well‐known human decision‐making model called Recognition‐Primed Decision (RPD). We generalize the RPD model to a fuzzy RPD model and utilize fuzzy logic technology to not only represent, interpret, and compute imprecise and subjective cues that are commonly encountered in the ADR problem but also to retrieve prior experiences by evaluating the extent of matching between the current situation and a past experience. We describe our preliminary multiagent system design and illustrate its potential benefits for assisting expert teams in early detection of previously unknown ADRs. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 22: 827–845, 2007.     

Fast adders using enhanced multiple-output domino logic

Using an enhanced multiple output domino logic (EMODL) implementation of a carry lookahead adder (CLA), sums of several consecutive bits can be built in one nFET tree with a single carry-in. Based on this result, a new sparse carry chain architecture is proposed for the CLA adder. We demonstrate the design approach using a 32-b adder, and show that only four carries are sufficient for generating all sums, with a consequent reduction in the number of stage delays. Using a 1.2-μm CMOS technology, we verify our simulation procedures by fabrication and measurement of a 2.7 ns critical path     

Novel NMDA antagonists: replacement of the pyridinium ring of 6,11-ethanobenzo[b]quinolizinium cations with heteroisoquinolinium cations

Replacement of the pyridinium ring of 6,11-ethanobenzo[b]quinolizinium cations with thiazolium (4a and 4b) and N-methylimidazolium (4c and 4d) resulted in equipotent compounds in the [3H]TCP binding assay. The corresponding N-methyl-1,2,4-triazolium analogs were less potent in this assay. The thiazolium derivative 4b, with a Ki = 2.9 nM, is being evaluated as a possible neuroprotective N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) antagonist.     

Knowledge, data, and models

The object-oriented approach to integrating knowledge data, and models is examined. Under the object-oriented paradigm, everything is an object, which is itself an encapsulation of data and methods to manipulate and access the data within the object. Thus knowledge, data, and models can be defined as special kinds of objects. Active knowledge/data language (KDL), a functional object-oriented database system is considered, covering the active-KDL-type system and functions, and query-driven simulation