Characterization of radial bending properties of cork

The behaviour of cork under three point bending stress in the radial direction was evaluated in relation to porosity (range 2.0?C15.4%) and density (range 0.160?C0.220?g?cm^?3). The study was made using water-boiled cork planks of two commercial quality classes (good and poor quality) collected at an industrial mill. Cork samples were cut with the largest dimension in two directions, axial and tangential, and with the load zone in the inner part and the outer part of the plank. The stress-strain curves obtained in bending were similar for the different test specimens and similar to those observed for tensile tests in cork but the mechanical resistance of cork in bending was higher than in tension and lower than in compression. The direction of the internal stress in samples submitted to bending was a highly significant factor of variation. The curves showed an initial linear elastic region with a mean Young??s modulus of 14?MPa for the tangential direction and 21?MPa for the axial direction, followed by a region of a gradual cork yielding up to a peak load, and failure at an average stress of 1.2?MPa and a strain of 14%. There was significant difference in the bending properties of cork samples obtained from cork planks of different quality classes. Density and porosity were not individually well correlated with the mechanical parameters. It was however possible to model Young??s modulus by combining porosity and density.     

Evolutionary Interactions Between Visual and Chemical Signals: Chemosignals Compensate for the Loss of a Visual Signal in Male <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sceloporus</Emphasis> Lizards

Animals rely on multimodal signals to obtain information from conspecifics through alternative sensory systems, and the evolutionary loss of a signal in one modality may lead to compensation through increased use of signals in an alternative modality. We investigated associations between chemical signaling and evolutionary loss of abdominal color patches in males of four species (two plain-bellied and two colorful-bellied) of Sceloporus lizards. We conducted field trials to compare behavioral responses of male lizards to swabs with femoral gland (FG) secretions from conspecific males and control swabs (clean paper). We also analyzed the volatile organic compound (VOC) composition of male FG secretions by stir bar extraction and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to test the hypothesis that loss of the visual signal is associated with elaboration of the chemical signal. Males of plain-bellied, but not colorful-bellied species exhibited different rates of visual displays when exposed to swabs of conspecific FG secretions relative to control swabs. The VOC composition of male Sceloporus FG secretions was similar across all four species, and no clear association between relative abundances of VOCs and evolutionary loss of abdominal color patches was observed. The emerging pattern is that behavioral responses to conspecific chemical signals are species- and context-specific in male Sceloporus, and compensatory changes in receivers, but not signalers may be involved in mediating increased responsiveness to chemical signals in males of plain-bellied species.     

A reconstruction method for gappy and noisy arterial flow data

Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), Kriging interpolation, and smoothing are applied to reconstruct gappy and noisy data of blood flow in a carotid artery. While we have applied these techniques to clinical data, in this paper in order to rigorously evaluate their effectiveness we rely on data obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Specifically, gappy data sets are generated by removing nodal values from high-resolution 3-D CFD data (at random or in a fixed area) while noisy data sets are formed by superimposing speckle noise on the CFD results. A combined POD-Kriging procedure is applied to planar data sets mimicking coarse resolution "ultrasound-like" blood flow images. A method for locating the vessel wall boundary and for calculating the wall shear stress (WSS) is also proposed. The results show good agreement with the original CFD data. The combined POD-Kriging method, enhanced by proper smoothing if needed, holds great potential in dealing effectively with gappy and noisy data reconstruction of in vivo velocity measurements based on color Doppler ultrasound (CDUS) imaging or magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).     

The role of item strength in retrieval-induced forgetting.

In 3 experiments, the role of item strength in the retrieval-induced forgetting paradigm was tested. According to the inhibition theory of forgetting proposed by M. C. Anderson, R. A. Bjork, and E. L. Bjork (1994), retrieval-induced forgetting should be larger for items that are more strongly associated with the category cue. In the present experiments, the authors varied item strength on the study list by manipulating the position of an item within its category (Experiments 1 and 2) and by the number of presentations in the study phase (Experiment 3). Contrary to the predictions from inhibition theory, in all 3 experiments, stronger items did not show more retrieval-induced forgetting than weaker items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of the annealing temperature on the IR properties of SiO2 films grown from SiH4 + O2

Dispersion analysis was performed on low pressure chemically vapor deposited (LPCVD) SiO₂ films grown from SiH₄ + O₂ at 425 °C. The transmission spectra were analyzed using four Lorentz oscillators within the range 900–1400 cm⁻¹. It was found that the distribution of the SiOSi angles is a superposition of two Gaussians; one corresponding to bridges located in the bulk of the film and one corresponding to bridges located close to the boundaries of the film namely the interfaces of the films and the grain boundaries. The ratio between the bulk like SiOSi bridges over the boundary bridges was found equal to 0.61:1 indicating that films grown from SiH₄ + O₂ contain a higher number of boundary SiOSi bridges relative to those located in the bulk of the film. After annealing for 30 min at temperatures in the range from 550 to 950 °C, films were found to have a lower thickness. The calculated ratio of the two distributions after annealing have shown a clear reduction in the concentration of the boundary bridges as the temperature of annealing increases, in advance of the bridges located in the bulk of the film. For the film annealed at 950 °C for 30 min the ratio was found equal to 4.0:1 which is the same to that of thermally grown films at the same temperature.     

Modeling bamboo as a functionally graded material: lessons for the analysis of affordable materials

Natural fibers are promising for engineering applications due to their low cost. They are abundantly available in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, and they can be employed as construction materials. Among natural fibers, bamboo has been widely used for housing construction around the world. Bamboo is an optimized composite that exploits the concept of Functionally Graded Material (FGM). Biological structures such as bamboo have complicated microstructural shapes and material distribution, and thus the use of numerical methods such as the finite element method, and multiscale methods such as homogenization, can help to further understanding of the mechanical behavior of these materials. The objective of this work is to explore techniques such as the finite element method and homogenization to investigate the structural behavior of bamboo. The finite element formulation uses graded finite elements to capture the varying material distribution through the bamboo wall. To observe bamboo behavior under applied loads, simulations are conducted under multiple considerations such as a spatially varying Young’s modulus, an averaged Young’s modulus, and orthotropic constitutive properties obtained from homogenization theory. The homogenization procedure uses effective, axisymmetric properties estimated from the spatially varying bamboo composite. Three-dimensional models of bamboo cells were built and simulated under tension, torsion, and bending load cases.     

Selecting the Numerical Flux in Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Diffusion Problems

In this paper we present numerical investigations of four different formulations of the discontinuous Galerkin method for diffusion problems. Our focus is to determine, through numerical experimentation, practical guidelines as to which numerical flux choice should be used when applying discontinuous Galerkin methods to such problems. We examine first an inconsistent and weakly unstable scheme analyzed in Zhang and Shu, Math. Models Meth. Appl. Sci. (M ³ AS) 13, 395–413 (2003), and then proceed to examine three consistent and stable schemes: the Bassi–Rebay scheme (J. Comput. Phys. 131, 267 (1997)), the local discontinuous Galerkin scheme (SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 35, 2440–2463 (1998)) and the Baumann–Oden scheme (Comput. Math. Appl. Mech. Eng. 175, 311–341 (1999)). For an one-dimensional model problem, we examine the stencil width, h-convergence properties, p-convergence properties, eigenspectra and system conditioning when different flux choices are applied. We also examine the ramifications of adding stabilization to these schemes. We conclude by providing the pros and cons of the different flux choices based upon our numerical experiments.This revised version was published online in July 2005 with corrected volume and issue numbers.     

Fabrication and photocatalytic activity of Ag<Subscript>3</Subscript>PO<Subscript>4</Subscript>-TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> heterostructural nanotube arrays

To extend the absorption capability of TiO₂ into visible light region and inhibit the recombination of photogenerated electrons and holes, we put forward an effective strategy of the coupling of TiO₂ with a suitable semiconductor that possesses a narrow band gap. Meanwhile, Ag₃PO₄-TiO₂ heterostructural nanotube arrays were prepared by the two-step anodic oxidation to obtain the TiO₂ nanotube arrays and then by a deposition-precipitation method to load Ag₃PO₄. The samples were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-vis DRS). The experimental results showed that Ag₃PO₄ nanoparticles were uniformly dispersed on the highly ordered TiO₂ nanotube arrays, which increased the visible-light absorption of TiO₂ photocatalyst. The photocurrent density and photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange indicated that the performance of Ag₃PO₄-TiO₂ heterostructural nanotube arrays was better than that of the TiO₂ nanotube arrays, which could be attributed to the effective electron-hole separation and the improved utilization of visible light.