Book reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
Travel Demand Management and Public Policy. Erik Ferguson.
Self-Organization and the City. Juval Portugali (in collaboration with A. Alafasi, I. Benenson, H. Haken, I. Omer). Foreword by Herman Haken.
Growth, Employment and Migration in Southeast Asia: Structural Change in the Greater Mekong Countries. Prema-chandra Athukorala, Chris Manning, Piyasiri Wickramasekara. Cheltenham, U.K.     

Quantile regression on the nonlinear relationship between land use and trip time

This study conceptually confirms and empirically tests the potential that the significance and magnitude of the compact land use–trip time relationship differ by the degree of compactness and trip time. Based on a quantile regression of about 25,000 commuters in Seoul, Korea, the empirical analysis suggests a significant level for each neighbourhood land use variable and a magnitude change within the level. Weekend trip and school densities are significant for shorter trip time commuters, population density is significant for longer trip time commuters, and pedestrian density is significant for all commuters. Wherever significant, the land use variables exert stronger effects as their values increase.     

Telephone administration of the SF-36 health survey: validation studies and population norms for adults in Queensland

The Rand Corporation medical outcomes short-form 36 health survey (SF-36) is a multidimensional measure of self-perceived general health status, which has been validated in adult populations in the United States and Great Britain, and, more recently, in an Australian population. The SF-36 is increasingly being used in health outcomes research internationally, mainly as a self-administered tool, and clearly has potential for use in Australia. This study aimed to assess the acceptability, reliability and validity of telephone administration of the instrument in the Queensland adult population, and to provide reliable population norms. We report the results of a telephone survey in which we interviewed 12,793 adults. It was the first large-scale, statewide application of the SF-36 in Australia. A response rate of 82 per cent was achieved, and the SF-36 satisfied psychometric criteria for reliability and construct validity. Population norms broken down by age and sex are provided. They will be important for the interpretation of future studies using the SF-36 in particular population or patient groups.     

Plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy of ZnO on in-situ grown GaN/4H-SiC buffer layers

Plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) was used to grow ZnO(0001) layers on GaN(0001)/4H-SiC buffer layers deposited in the same growth chamber equipped with both N- and O-plasma sources. The GaN buffer layers were grown immediately before initiating the growth of ZnO. Using a substrate temperature of 440°C–445°C and an O₂ flow rate of 2.0–2.5 sccm, we obtained ZnO layers with smooth surfaces having a root-mean-square roughness of 0.3 nm and a peak-to-valley distance of 3 nm shown by AFM. The FWHM for X-ray rocking curves recorded across the ZnO(0002) and ZnO(101ˉ5) reflections were 200 and 950 arcsec, respectively. These values showed that the mosaicity (tilt and twist) of the ZnO film was comparable to corresponding values of the underlying GaN buffer. It was found that a substrate temperature >450°C and a high Zn-flux always resulted in a rough ZnO surface morphology. Reciprocal space maps showed that the in-plane relaxation of the GaN and ZnO layers was 82.3% and 73.0%, respectively and the relaxation occurred abruptly during the growth. Room-temperature Hall-effect measurements showed that the layers were intrinsically n-type with an electron concentration of 10¹⁹ cm^–3 and a Hall mobility of 50 cm²·V^–1·s^–1.     

The Role of Aluminum in the Detonation and Post‐Detonation Expansion of Selected Cast HMX‐Based Explosives

In order to improve understanding of how aluminum contributes in non‐ideal explosive mixtures, cast‐cured formulations have been analyzed in a series of cylinder tests and plate‐pushing experiments. This study describes the contribution of 15 % aluminum (median size of 3.2 μm) vs. lithium fluoride (an inert substitute for aluminum; <5 μm) in cast‐cured HMX formulations in different temporal regimes. Small cylinder tests were performed to analyze the detonation and wall velocities (1–20 μs) for these formulations. Near‐field blast effects of 58 mm diameter spherical charges were measured at 152 mm and 254 mm using steel plate acceleration. Pressure measurements at 1.52 m gave information about free‐field pressure at several milliseconds. While the observed detonation velocities for all formulations were within uncertainty, significantly higher cylinder wall velocities, plate velocities, and pressures were observed for the aluminum formulations at ≥2 μs. Additionally, hydrocode calculations were performed to determine how non‐ideal behavior affected the plate test results. Collectively, this work gives a clearer picture of how aluminum contributes to detonation on timescales from 1 μs to about 2 ms, and how the post‐detonation energy release contributes to wall velocities and blast effects. The experiments indicate that significant aluminum reactions occur after the CJ plane, and continue to contribute to expansion at late times.     

The stability and unfolding of an IgG binding protein based upon the B domain of protein A from Staphylococcus aureus probed by tryptophan substitution and fluorescence spectroscopy

The stability and unfolding of an immunoglobulin (Ig) G bindingprotein based upon the B domain of protein A (SpAB) from Staphylococcusaureus were studied by substituting tryptophan residues at strategiclocations within each of the three a-helical regions (al-a3)of the domain. The role of the C-terminal helix, a3, was investigatedby generating two protein constructs, one corresponding to thecomplete SpAB, the other lacking a part of ct3; the Trp substitutionswere made in both one-and two-domain versions of each of theseconstructs. The fluorescence properties of each of the single-tryptophanmutants were studied in the native state and as a function ofguanidine-HCl-mediated unfolding, and their IgG binding activitieswere determined by a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbentassay. The free energies of folding and of binding to IgG foreach mutant were compared with those for the native domains.The effect of each substitution upon the overall structure andupon the IgG binding interface was modelled by molecular graphicsand energy minimization. These studies indicate that (i) 3 contributesto the overall stability of the domain and to the formationof the IgG binding site in l and 2, and (ii) al unfolds first,followed by 2 and 3 together.     

Use of artificial neural network to evaluate the vibration mitigation performance of geofoam-filled trenches

Development activities in a city often generate ground vibration that can cause discomfort to the occupants in nearby buildings, disturbances to the activities undertaken in the buildings and possible damage to nearby structures. This ground vibration is caused by construction activities such as pile driving, ground compaction etc., and road and rail traffic. The use of trenches has been an effective way to mitigate the adverse effects of such ground vibration. The effectiveness of the trench depends on many parameters including the properties of the vibration source, soil medium and trench in-fill material, trench dimensions and the requirements of the receiver. The process of selecting an effective trench for vibration mitigation can therefore become complex due to the influence of a number of parameters and their wide range of values. This paper investigates the use of artificial neural network (ANN) as a smart and efficient tool to predict the effectiveness of geofoam-filled trenches to mitigate ground vibration. Towards this end, a database is developed from an extensive study on the effects of the controlling parameters through numerical simulations with a validated finite element (FE) model. At a certain distance from the vibration source, a geofoam-filled trench is introduced to evaluate the efficiency of vibration mitigation with changes in key parameters such as excitation frequency, amplitude of load, trench configuration (i.e. depth and width), soil shear wave velocity, soil density and damping ratio. These were selected as the input parameters for the ANN while amplitude reduction ratio and peak particle velocity (PPV) were considered as outputs. A multilayer feed forward network was used and trained with the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm. Neural networks with different configurations were evaluated by comparing coefficient of determination (R²) and mean square error (MSE). The optimum architecture was then used to predict previous results, which revealed the accuracy and the effectiveness of the ANN approach. The findings of this study will provide useful information for vibration mitigation using geofoam-filed trenches.     

Crystallite sizes and lattice parameters of nano-biomagnetite particles

Average crystallite sizes of microbially synthesized pure, metal-, and lanthanide-substituted magnetite (bio-magnetite) were determined for a variety of incubation times and temperatures, substitutional elements and amounts, bacterial species, and precursor types. The intriguing difference between nanoparticle bio-magnetite and chemically synthesized magnetite (chem-magnetite) was that powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) data showed that the bio-magnetite exhibited slightly smaller lattice parameters, however, Raman Spectroscopy exhibited no difference in Fe-O bonding. These results indicate that bio-magnetite likely exhibits a more compact crystal structure with less uncoordinated iron on the surface suppressing negative pressure effects. The bio-magnetite with decreased lattice parameters could have potential technological advantages over current commercial chemically synthesized magnetites.     

Experimental investigation of adverse effect of frost formation on microchannel evaporators,part 1: Effect of fin geometry and environmental effects

This study experimentally investigated the frost growth on louvered folded fins in microchannel heat exchangers when used in outdoor air-source heat pump systems. The effects of surface temperature, fin geometries, and air environmental conditions were studied. The overall aim was to isolate and quantify the effect of geometry from surface temperature effects. Experimental data of frost weight, local frost thickness, air pressure drop across the coils, time of frost–defrost cycles and heat transfer rates were recorded. Data showed that the frosting time and the frost growth rates depended mainly on the local fin surface temperature. Lower fin density was beneficial because it delayed the blockage of the air flow. The fin length and fin depth had minor effects on frosting performance. The air humidity had a fairly significant effect on rate of frost formation while air velocity seemed to have a small effect on the frost growth rate.     

Incorporation of a Probabilistic Monotonic Strain Energy Analysis to a Lifting Method

The proposed work analyzes the possibility of improving the capabilities of an energy-based fatigue life prediction method. The improvement being addressed is regarding the variation of empirical monotonic strain energy density calculations and the effects on the energy-based fatigue life prediction capability. Since the prediction method was developed from the concept that the strain energy accumulated during both monotonic failure and an entire fatigue process are equal, meaning the strain energy accumulated during monotonic failure is a physical damage quantity, it was important to understand the variation of monotonic strain energy density. The process for incorporating this variation into the prediction method explores a probabilistic, Three-Sigma analysis that is applicable for all deterministic methods of measuring experimental monotonic strain energy density. The accuracy of the probabilistic energy-based lifing method was admirably assessed by comparison with experimental fatigue life results, between 10³ and 10⁵ cycles, conducted on Titanium 6Al–4V specimens at room temperature.