Wear and cutting performance of diamond composite material-a comparison with tungsten carbide

A series of wear and rock cutting tests were undertaken to assess the wear and cutting performance of a thermally stable diamond composite (TSDC). The wear tests were conducted on a newly designed wear testing rig in which a rotating aluminium oxide grinding wheel is turned (also known as machined) by the testing tool element.The rock cutting tests were performed on a linear rock-cutting planer. The thrust and cutting forces acting on the tool were measured during these tests. A tungsten carbide element was also studied for comparative purposes. The wear coefficients of both materials were used to evaluate wear performance while cutting performance was assessed by tool wear and the rates of increase in forces with cutting distance.     

New integer linear programming approaches for course timetabling

The most complete form of academic timetabling problem is the population and course timetabling problem. In this problem, there may be multiple classes of each subject, and the decision on which students are to constitute each class is made in concert with the decision on the timetable for each class. In order to solve this problem, it is normally simplified or decomposed in some fashion. One simplification commonly used in practice is known as blocking: it is assumed that the classes can be partitioned into sets of classes (or blocks) that will be timetabled in parallel. This restricts clashing to occur only between classes in the same block, and essentially removes the timetabling aspect of the problem, which can be carried out once the blocks are constituted and the classes populated. The problem of constituting the blocks and populating the classes, known as the course blocking and population problem, is nevertheless a challenging problem, and provides the focus of this paper. We demonstrate, using data provided by a local high school, that integer linear programming approaches can solve the problem in a matter of seconds. Key features include remodelling to remove symmetry caused by students with identical subject selection, and the observation that in practice, only integrality of the block composition variables needs to be enforced; the class population aspects of the model have strong integrality properties.     

Free-living inferential modeling of blood glucose level using only noninvasive inputs

The goal of this work is to present a causation modeling methodology with the ability to accurately infer blood glucose levels using a large set of highly correlated noninvasive input variables over an extended period of time. These models can provide insight to improve glucose monitoring, and glucose regulation through advanced model-based control technologies. The efficacy of this approach is demonstrated using real data from a type 2 diabetic (T2D) subject collected under free-living conditions over a period of 25 consecutive days. The model was identified and tested using eleven variables that included three food variables as well as several activity and stress variables. The model was trained using 20 days of data and validated using 5 days of data. This gave a fitted correlation coefficient of 0.70 and an average absolute error (AAE) (i.e., the average of the absolute values for the measured glucose concentration minus modeled glucose concentration) of 13.3 mg/dL for the validation data. This AAE result was significantly better than the subject’s personal glucose meter AAE of 15.3 mg/dL for replicated measurements.     

BASF NanoSelect? Technology: Innovative Supported Pd- and Pt-based Catalysts for Selective Hydrogenation Reactions

An innovative BASF catalyst manufacturing technology (NanoSelect?) is introduced which allows production of heterogeneous catalysts with excellent control over metal crystallite sizes. NanoSelect? technology enabled the development of Pd catalysts which are lead-free Lindlar catalyst replacements in alkyne-to-cis-alkene hydrogenations. NanoSelect? Pt catalysts showed excellent chemoselectivity in substituted nitro-arene hydrogenation reactions without build-up of hydroxylamine intermediates. All NanoSelect? produced catalysts show markedly higher activity per gram of metal leading to ten-fold less use of precious metal.     

Neomycin Inhibition of (+)-7-Iso-Jasmonoyl-L-Isoleucine Accumulation and Signaling

The majority of plant defenses against insect herbivores are coordinated by jasmonate (jasmonic acid, JA; (+)-7-iso-jasmonoyl-L-isoleucine, JA-Ile)-dependent signaling cascades. Insect feeding and mimicking herbivory by application of oral secretions (OS) from the insect induced both cytosolic Ca²⁺ and jasmonate-phytohormone elevation in plants. Here it is shown that in Arabidopsis thaliana upon treatment with OS from lepidopteran Spodoptera littoralis larvae, the antibiotic neomycin selectively blocked the accumulation of OS-induced Ca²⁺ elevation and level of the bioactive JA-Ile, in contrast to JA level. Furthermore, neomycin treatment affected the downstream expression of JA-Ile-responsive genes, VSP2 and LOX2, in Arabidopsis. The neomycin-dependent reduced JA-Ile level is partially due to increased CYP94B3 expression and subsequent JA-Ile turn-over to12-hydroxy-JA-Ile. It is neither due to the inhibition of the enzymatic conjugation process nor to substrate availability. Thus, blocking Ca²⁺ elevation specifically controls JA-Ile accumulation and signaling, offering an insight into role of calcium in defense against insect herbivory.     

Effects of the sample preparation temperature on the nanostructure of compression moulded ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene

In this study, the effects of the sample sectioning temperature on the surface nanostructure and mechanical response of compression moulded ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) at a nanometer scale (nanomechanical properties) have been characterized. The primary focus of this work was to determine if the sample sectioning temperature significantly changed the nanostructure of UHMWPE, while the secondary focus was to characterize the effect on the mechanical response due to the changes in the sectioned surface nanostructure. The goals of this study were: (a) to investigate the potential possibility of creating surface artefacts by the sample preparation technique by sectioning at different temperatures relative to the published range of glass transition temperatures, Tg, for PE (-12, -80 and -25 degrees C); (b) to determine the possibility of molecular orientation induced by plastic deformation of the UHMWPE sample during the process of sample preparation; (c) to measure the relative difference in nanomechanical properties owing to evolution of different nanostructures as a function of sample sectioning temperature. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and nanoindentation were used to demonstrate that the sectioning temperature caused a change in nanostructure of the compression moulded UHMWPE sectioned surface, explaining the change in mechanical response to indentation at a nanoscale. In this study, it was demonstrated that significant plastic deformation occurs when a shear stress is applied between the glass or diamond blade and the UHMWPE during sample preparation under ambient conditions at a temperature of 22 degrees C. These results also suggest that an optimum sample sectioning temperature should definitely be below the measured Tg of the polymer.     

The incidental nonhyperfunctioning adrenal mass: an imaging algorithm for characterization

Nonhyperfunctioning adrenal lesions such as cysts, myelolipomas, adrenal haemorrhage, adenoma and metastases are described. Definitive imaging features that help characterize adrenal cysts, myelolipomas and adrenal haemorrhage are illustrated and the differentiation of benign from malignant adrenal lesions using an algorithmic approach based on lipid sensitive imaging is provided.     

Alterations of the Frank orthogonal scalar leads induced by anaphylactic shock in the rabbit

The anaphylactic shock of the rabbit is characterized by an acute right ventricular overload, accompanied by severe alterations of cardiac electrogenesis. During shock, the mean QRS vector, as measured from the algebraic sum of the Q, R, and S deflections on the three leads, shifts to the right, inferiorly and anteriorly. An injury current quickly appears. The TQ vector points away from the right ventricle. A progressive depolarization on the right ventricular wall is displayed by suction electrodes and the suppression of right ventricular hypertension by a cross circulation produces an almost immediate disappearance of the injury current. The geneses of these electrical alterations are briefly discussed. The possibility of an anaphylactic reaction at the level of the coronary arterial wall, previously mentioned in the literature, seems unlikely. The role of the haemodynamic changes and of the increased right ventricular blood pool is thought to be predominant.     

Airline planning benchmark problems—Part I:: Characterising networks and demand using limited data

This paper is the first of two papers entitled “Airline Planning Benchmark Problems”, aimed at developing benchmark data that can be used to stimulate innovation in airline planning, in particular, in flight schedule design and fleet assignment. While optimisation has made an enormous contribution to airline planning in general, the area suffers from a lack of standardised data and benchmark problems. Current research typically tackles problems unique to a given carrier, with associated specification and data unavailable to the broader research community. This limits direct comparison of alternative approaches, and creates barriers of entry for the research community. Furthermore, flight schedule design has, to date, been under-represented in the optimisation literature, due in part to the difficulty of obtaining data that adequately reflects passenger choice, and hence schedule revenue. This is Part I of two papers taking first steps to address these issues. It does so by providing a framework and methodology for generating realistic airline demand data, controlled by scalable parameters. First, a characterisation of flight network topologies and network capacity distributions is deduced, based on the analysis of airline data. Then a multi-objective optimisation model is proposed to solve the inverse problem of inferring OD-pair demands from passenger loads on arcs. These two elements are combined to yield a methodology for generating realistic flight network topologies and OD-pair demand data, according to specified parameters. This methodology is used to produce 33 benchmark instances exhibiting a range of characteristics. Part II extends this work by partitioning the demand in each market (OD pair) into market segments, each with its own utility function and set of preferences for alternative airline products. The resulting demand data will better reflect recent empirical research on passenger preference, and is expected to facilitate passenger choice modelling in flight schedule optimisation.     

A third-generation SPARC V9 64-b microprocessor

This quad-issue processor achieves 1-GHz operation through improved dynamic circuit techniques in critical paths and a more extensive on-chip memory system which scales in both bandwidth and latency. Critical logic paths use domino, delayed clocked domino, and logic embedded in dynamic flip-flops for minimum delay. A 64-KB sum-addressed memory data cache combines the address offset add with the cache decode, allowing the average memory latency to scale by more than the clock ratio. Memory bandwidth is improved by using wave pipelined SRAM designs for on-chip caches and a write cache for store traffic. Memory power is controlled without increased latency by use of delayed-reset logic decoders. The chip operates at 1000 MHz and dissipates less than 80 W from a 1.6-V supply. It contains 23 million transistors (12 million in RAM cells) on a 244 mm² die