The effects of low sulfated ash,phosphorus and sulfur oils on camshaft/tappet tribocouples with various diamond‐like‐carbon coated tappets in motored and fired engines

This work was conducted as part of an EU FP‐7 project ‘Tailoring of Tribological Interfaces for Clean and Energy‐Efficient Diesel and Gasoline Powertrains’. The primary goal of this work is to reduce fuel consumption in internal combustion engines by the use of bespoke surface coatings and lubricants. Earlier work within the project had defined a series of oils and coatings to be evaluated in the final stage of the project. The results reported in this paper have used the OM646LA engine to evaluate wear and a motored cylinder head manufactured from the same engine type to evaluate the friction performance of coating/oil combinations. The coatings were applied to the tappets in the valvetrain and tested against uncoated camshafts. It will be shown that diamond‐like‐carbons can offer frictional benefits over an all‐steel system and that the choice of lubricant can incrementally reduce friction further. It will also be shown that while some diamond‐like‐carbon coatings are durable enough to survive the fired engine test intact, others are completely removed; interestingly, in all cases, the wear on the counter‐surface, the cam lobes, was in the order of a magnitude lower than for the standard all‐steel system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Autonomic assessment of cardiovascular disease

Port wine stains (PWS) can lead to considerable emotional distress. The present study evaluated a) the coping with illness, the quality of life and the body image of patients with PWS and b) the effects of dye laser treatment on psychosocial parameters. Seventy PWS patients undergoing treatment with the flashlamp-pumped pulsed dye laser (FPDL) were assessed with questionnaires regarding coping with skin disease, quality of life and body image. Major clinical criterium was the lightening of PWS under treatment. PWS patients showed significant social phobia and avoidance similar to patient suffering from chronic skin diseases. The anxiety correlated with size and darkness of the PWS. In terms of helplessness and depressive mood, PWS patients were less affected than the comparison group. Also, PWS patients had reductions in quality of life and in body image. The coping strategies had a differential effect on the body image. Since there is a correlation between lightening of the PWS and reduction of emotional distress, FDPL therapy can be considered an effective treatment of PWS also in psychosocial terms.     

Finite Element Analysis of a Radioactive Tritium Patch and a Waste Heat Plume Observed Near the Pickering Nuclear Power Generating Station,Lake Ontario

Effluents from industrial outfalls often form a moving patch or a steady plume in the receiving water, depending on the duration of the release. Empirical studies of coastal diffusion have shown that the eddy diffusivity obeys a power law of the length scale of the patch or plume. By analyzing a moving patch of radioactive tritium concentration and a steady plume of waste heat, the one superimposing over the other as indicated by the observed data, it is found that the cross-flow eddy diffusivity for a given length scale of the patch is about twice as large as that of the plume. The analysis is based on a variable-grid finite element method, which is used to derive the flow field and also to simulate the transport and diffusion processes. The proposed method is found particularly suitable for domains with irregular coastal structures, such as water intakes and outfalls.     

Quality of life and productivity in nurses reporting migraine

Calcium phosphate bone cements (CPBCs) are osteotransductive, i.e. after implantation in bone they are transformed into new bone tissue. Furthermore, due to the fact that they are mouldable, their osteointegration is immediate. Their chemistry has been established previously. Some CPBCs contain amorphous calcium phosphate (ACP) and set by a sol-gel transition. The others are crystalline and can give as the reaction product dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD), calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite (CDHA), carbonated apatite (CA) or hydroxyapatite (HA). Mixed-type gypsum-DCPD cements are also described. In vivo rates of osteotransduction vary as follows: gypsum-DCPD > DCPD > CDHA approximately CA > HA. The osteotransduction of CDHA-type cements may be increased by adding dicalcium phosphate anhydrous (DCP) and/or CaCO3 to the cement powder. CPBCs can be used for healing of bone defects, bone augmentation and bone reconstruction. Incorporation of drugs like antibiotics and bone morphogenetic protein is envisaged. Load-bearing applications are allowed for CHDA-type, CA-type and HA-type CPBCs as they have a higher compressive strength than human trabecular bone (10 MPa).     

History of Lake Ontario Contamination from the Niagara River by Sediment Radiodating and Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Analysis

Contamination of Lake Ontario by persistent organic compounds began with the development of the chemical industry along the Niagara River. These compounds are discharged to the river where they are scavenged from the water column by sedimenting particulates which in turn settle out in depositional areas of Lake Ontario. We have determined ²¹⁰Pb, ¹³⁷Cs, and chlorinated hydrocarbon profiles of sediment cores taken about 3 km from the mouth of the Niagara River. Age profiles of the sediments were constructed from the radionuclide measurements and used to determine historic trends of chlorinated hydrocarbon input to Lake Ontario. The historical record found in the sediments for chlorobenzenes, chlorotoluenes, hexachlorobutadiene, octachlorostyrene, mirex, and PCBs is in good agreement with known production and usage patterns of the chemicals. Pollution of Lake Ontario with chlorinated hydrocarbons from the Niagara River is still occurring, but the worst contamination of the lake occurred in the 1960s.