Prediction of fatigue behaviour in stress-concentrators of arbitrary geometry

A new method is outlined which aims to predict high-cycle fatigue behavior of components which fail from stress-concentrators. This involves examination of the stress field in the vicinity of the stress-concentrator, and comparison with stress fields for cracks at known stress intensities. Methods which are currently used for simple notch geometries can thus be generalised, making the approach applicable to stress concentrators of any geometry. The method of prediction is shown to be stable, providing a solution of good accuracy when compared to analytical methods for standard specimen geometries. Favourable comparisons with experimental data have been achieved both for standard notches and for a corner geometry which represents a typical component case.     

Biophysical Model of Larval Yellow Perch Advection and Settlement in Lake Michigan

Potential for large-scale physical transport processes to affect recruitment of Lake Michigan yellow perch (Perca flavescens) was studied by examining the variation in larval distribution, growth rate, and settlement during June–August 1998–2003 using a 3D particle transport model linked with an individual-based bioenergetics growth model. In all years, virtual larvae were released nearshore in southwestern Lake Michigan, a known and important spawning region for yellow perch. For any given year, the same circulation pattern and water temperature either promoted or reduced yellow perch settlement depending on the consumption rates and settlement size chosen in the growth model. Increased consumption increased the number of settled larvae and expanded the total area where larvae settled, whereas increased settlement size reduced the number of settled larvae and reduced the overall settlement area. Interannual variability in circulation patterns and water temperature also resulted in contrasting larval settlement rates, settlement locations, and size of settlement areas between years. Model predictions were most consistent with field observations of age-0 yellow perch from Illinois and Michigan waters when settlement was assumed to occur at 50 mm. Moreover, our model suggests that larvae originating from southwestern Lake Michigan can recruit anywhere within the southern basin and even in the northern basin. Future model improvement will require information on the relative contribution of various sectors to the larval pool, their distribution with reference to the hydrodynamic landscape, the feeding and growth of yellow perch during their pelagic phase, and the size at transition to demersal stage.     

Transport and energy in developing countries

The author examines the transport energy consumption of developing countries and compares it with that of developed countries. These figures are found to suggest considerable scope for transport energy savings. Given the need for improved energy efficiency, the author moves on to consider transport in the context of the wider economy. Four broad policy approaches which can affect transport energy consumption are identified — information and training programmes, subsidies; pricing and tax policies; and administrative regulations. The author's primary conclusion is that the energy price changes of the last decade do not hold revolutionary implications for the transport sector. There remains, however, a need to improve efficiency in this sector.     

Electrocortical desynchronization after microinfusion of kainic acid into the locus coeruleus in rats

CD-1, a genetically-engineered CHO cell line, was cultivated with a Biosilon microcarrier culture system. We successfully cultivated CD-1 cells to a very high density (over 1 x 10(7) cells/ml). Prourokinase was stably secreted at about 180 IU/10(6) cells/24 h. Experiments showed that CD-1 cells growing on Biosilon microcarriers were able to spontaneously release from the microcarriers, then reattach and proliferate on fresh microcarriers. This makes it very easy to scale up production. The microcarriers could be reused several times without affecting adhesion, proliferation and prourokinase secretion. With CM-PECC membrane radial flow chromatography and MPG chromatography, the prourokinase in conditioned medium could be purified to a specific activity of 1 x 10(5) IU/mg of protein. The purification factor was about 600 fold, and approximately 90% of the biological activity was recovered.     

Action semantics-directed prototyping

We present a methodology for compiler synthesis based on Mosses-Watt's action semantics. Each action in action semantics notation is assigned specific “analysis functions”, such as a typing function and a binding-time function. When a language is given an action semantics, the typing and binding-time functions for the individual actions compose into typing and binding-time analyses for the language; these are implemented as the type checker and static semantics processor, respectively, in the synthesized compiler. Other analyses can be similarly formalized and implemented. We show a sample language semantics and its synthesized compiler, and we describe the compiler synthesizer that we have developed.     

HihO: accelerating artificial intelligence interpretability for medical imaging in IoT applications using hierarchical occlusion

Neural Computing and Applications - In the medical imaging domain, nonlinear warping has enabled pixel-by-pixel mapping of one image dataset to a reference dataset. This co-registration of data...     

Optimal control and energy storage for DC electric train systems using evolutionary algorithms

Railway Engineering Science - Electrified railways are becoming a popular transport medium and these consume a large amount of electrical energy. Environmental concerns demand reduction in energy...