A perturbation analysis of rapid crack propagation in pressurised pipe

A steady state analysis is given which models rapid crack propagation in a pressurised pipe as a beam. The interaction of the gas escaping through the crack flares the pipe giving a greatly enhanced energy release rate G. The solution shows a clear maximum in G which is confirmed with numerical results. Experimental decompression times are also predicted by the model. Perturbations in the crack speed can be deduced from the steady state solution and these are shown to be harmonic and in good agreement with observations. It is also suggested that these speed oscillations could give rise to crack snaking. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Sign boundary and hand articulation feature recognition in Sign Language videos

Machine Translation - In this paper we present a recommendation system for (semi-)automatic annotation of sign language videos exploiting deep learning techniques, which handle handshape...     

Development of an algorithm for the calculation of the scattering properties of agglomerates

A new, improved, and more efficient algorithm for calculation of the scattering, extinction, and absorption characteristics of agglomerates consisting of Rayleigh-size primary particles is presented. The computer code is based on a new formulation of the light scattering for such agglomerates and is more than 10 times faster than the codes based on previous formulations. The computational times required by the old and the new algorithms, run on VAX 7000, IBM 3090, and UNIX RS6000 mainframe computers, are compared for different agglomerate configurations, such as straight chains, clusters, and randomly branched chains. A distributed-parallel-computing scheme was used to run the new algorithm on four UNIX RS6000 processors concurrently, resulting in computational times 47 times faster than required for the calculations. Furthermore, the robustness and convenience of the algorithm are assessed.     

Dynamic properties of cemented soils from Cyprus

The paper presents results from a laboratory investigation into the dynamic properties of natural cemented sandy and cohesive soils from Cyprus, as expressed by shear modulus and damping ratio. The influence of various soil parameters, such as strain level, confining stress, undrained shear strength, void ratio, plasticity index, cementation and organic matter content is discussed. The test results show that cementation increases the small-strain shear modulus, but does not affect the other dynamic properties, such as small-strain damping ratio and the variations of shear modulus and damping ratio with shear strain.     

A double-blind, placebo controlled, dose ranging study to evaluate the safety and biological efficacy of the lipid-DNA complex GR213487B in the nasal epithelium of adult patients with cystic fibrosis

Dramatic physiologic changes are part of normal human pregnancy. The physiologic alterations of pregnancy have the potential to affect chronic diseases, to unmask subclinical conditions, or to alter the presentation and course of newly acquired illnesses. An update in selected topics of obstetric medicine follows, focusing on clinical entities in which there have been significant advances in diagnosis or management. Additionally, reviews of selected medical disorders, such as HIV infection and asthma, that are rising in incidence in women of reproductive age are included.     

Atmospheric dispersion and individual exposure of hazardous materials

In this work a new approach for CFD RANS modelling of dispersion of airborne point source releases is presented. The key feature of this approach is the model capability to predict concentration time scales that are functions not only of the flow turbulence scales but also of the pollutant travel time. This approach has been implemented for the calculation of the concentration fluctuation dissipation time scale and the maximum individual exposure at short time intervals. For the estimation of travel time in the Eulerian grid the new 'radioactive tracer method' is introduced. The new approaches were incorporated in the CFD code ADREA. The capabilities of the new approaches are validated against the Mock Urban Setting Trial field experiment data under neutral conditions. The comparisons of model and observations gave quite satisfactory results.     

Overview of current and future energy storage technologies for electric power applications

In today's world, there is a continuous global need for more energy which, at the same time, has to be cleaner than the energy produced from the traditional generation technologies. This need has facilitated the increasing penetration of distributed generation (DG) technologies and primarily of renewable energy sources (RES). The extensive use of such energy sources in today's electricity networks can indisputably minimize the threat of global warming and climate change. However, the power output of these energy sources is not as reliable and as easy to adjust to changing demand cycles as the output from the traditional power sources. This disadvantage can only be effectively overcome by the storing of the excess power produced by DG-RES. Therefore, in order for these new sources to become completely reliable as primary sources of energy, energy storage is a crucial factor. In this work, an overview of the current and future energy storage technologies used for electric power applications is carried out. Most of the technologies are in use today while others are still under intensive research and development. A comparison between the various technologies is presented in terms of the most important technological characteristics of each technology. The comparison shows that each storage technology is different in terms of its ideal network application environment and energy storage scale. This means that in order to achieve optimum results, the unique network environment and the specifications of the storage device have to be studied thoroughly, before a decision for the ideal storage technology to be selected is taken.     

Educational resources and implementation of a Greek sign language synthesis architecture

In this paper, we present how creation and dynamic synthesis of linguistic resources of Greek Sign Language (GSL) may serve to support development and provide content to an educational multitask platform for the teaching of GSL in early elementary school classes. The presented system utilizes standard virtual character (VC) animation technologies for the synthesis of sign sequences/streams, exploiting digital linguistic resources of both lexicon and grammar of GSL. Input to the system is written Greek text, which is transformed into GSL and animated on screen. To achieve this, a syntactic parser decodes the structural patterns of written Greek and matches them into equivalent patterns of GSL, which are then signed by a VC. The adopted notation system for the representation of GSL phonology incorporated in the system’s lexical knowledge database, is Hamburg Notation System (HamNoSys). For the implementation of the virtual signer tool, the definition of the VC follows the h-anim standard and is implemented in a web browser using a standard VRML plug-in.