Calorimetric investigations on As-Te-Se and Ge-As-Se glasses

Results of calorimetric investigations performed on two groups of glasses, viz. As-Te-Se and Ge-As-Se, are described. The glass transition temperatureT _g and specific heat at constant pressureC _p of these two families of glasses have been determined using a differential scanning calorimeter. The composition dependence of glass transition temperature and variation of heat capacity during transition are discussed.     

REENGINEERING DONE RIGHT Intermediate Solutions That Are Cost-Effective

Effective systems development techniques attract a lot of attention, but little has been done to effectively address systems maintenance. This article describes an effective, proven approach to resurrecting existing systems and Increasing their useful life, using a system that employs both software tools and a rigorous methodology.     

Reliability and validity of the measurement of position sense in women with osteoarthritis of the knee

OBJECTIVE: We examined the test-retest reliability and the construct validity of the measurement of knee position sense for describing the functional weightbearing performance of women with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. METHODS: For the purpose of this study, position sense was defined as the error occurring when subjects attempted to reproduce a criterion angle in standing with visual cues eliminated. Five such tests were recorded photographically on 3 different occasions. On each occasion the 10 subjects also completed a self-paced walking test over a 13 m indoor walkway. RESULTS: The photographic measurements were reproducible (r = 0.90) and there was no change in positioning accuracy across sessions. There was a significant (p < 0.05) inverse correlation of 0.70 between the standard deviation of the mean individual measurements of position sense (precision of the test) and those of walking speed. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrates good measurement reliability and a comparable mean angular error with repeated tests. It also suggests the amplitude of the variability of this error is a strong determinant of an individual OA patient's functional performance in walking.     

The effects of pressure on the isothermal fluid behavior of bituminous coals

An investigation into the effects of pressure (helium gas) on the isothermal fluid behavior includes: (1) the effect of pressure on the rate of melting and coking as evidenced by the rate constants k(melt) and k(coke); (2) the effect of pressure on the energies of activation of melting and coking; (3) the effects of pressure on the characteristic times; (4) the effects of pressure on the maximum isothermal fluidity. Results from the effects of pressure on k(melt) revealed that it was generally the high total sulfur, low nitrogen, low reactives/mineral matter ratio, medium rank coals which show the greatest increase in k(melt), whereas the highest rank coals show the least decrease in k(coke). The energies of activation of melting and coking were not significantly affected by pressure. The investigation also reveals increases or decreases in the respective times of softening, maximum fluidity, resolidification and total time of fluid behavior under isothermal pressurized conditions. There appears the possibility that these shifts may be rank dependent. Additionally, the lower rank coals show the largest relative increase in their fluidities when subjected to pressure. Empirical relationships were derived in order to quantitatively predict the maximum isothermal fluidity for most (fluid) coals at a given pressure.     

Business climate attitudes and company relocation decisions.

A total of 438 manufacturing firms reported their business relocation activity, their overall attitude toward the business climate in Michigan, and their assessment of 34 business climate dimensions. Using a lens model paradigm, we explored reasons for a lack of relation between actual relocation decisions and overall business climate attitudes. Location decisions were most highly correlated with distance and labor considerations, whereas overall business climate was most highly correlated with tax considerations, and secondarily correlated with labor problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The need for style systems in ODA

Many advanced document systems provide a formatting mechanism called ‘style sheets’ Style sheets provide a great deal of flexibility in describing a document's format, and allow easy maintenance of different house styles for a collection of documents. In this paper, we describe the basics of general style sheet systems, argue that successful document interchange must include the exchange of style sheet information, and evaluate ODA's style mechanism against this requirement.     

Short contact time dissolution of vitrinite and inertinite concentrates

The short contact time dissolution of vitrinite and inertinite concentrates of an Australian bituminous coal was studied under isothermal conditions with tetralin as solvent. The reactivity of the two maceral types and the yields and nature of the products were determined for a range of reaction temperatures (400, 420 and 440 °C) and reaction times (2–20 min). The dissolution of vitrinite proceeded at a significantly greater rate than for inertinite and was associated with greater selectivity to soluble non-gaseous products. At very short reaction times (2 min), the vitrinite underwent solubilizing reactions to yield products of higher molecular weight and greater oxygen functionality than was the case for inertinite, for which changes in the chemical nature of the products were negligible over the range of conditions studied. At longer reaction times (5 min), the composition of the vitrinite-derived products was similar to that of the inertinite-derived products.     

The development and application of a multiple wavelength illumination technique for the vision-based process monitoring of aero-structure riveting

Airframe riveting is a critical process that requires high levels of process monitoring and quality assurance due to the very high risk associated with the failure of such joints. This paper describes the development of the enabling technology developed for a machine vision-based process monitoring system. One of the key factors affecting the performance of a machine vision system is the quality of the lighting. In the application described in this paper the available lighting was severely limited by the confined space in which the system had to operate. The problem was also compounded by the reflective nature of the objects to be examined. The initial images obtained were not suitable for further processing due to the presence of significant shadows and specular reflections. A novel solution to this problem based on multiple wavelength illumination and signal processing is presented along with results from experimental trials of the approach.     

Wave dynamics on a thin-liquid film falling down a heated wall

The dynamics of a thin liquid film falling down a uniformly heated wall is studied. The model introduced by Kalliadasis et al. [J. Fluid Mech. 475 (2003) 377] for the same problem is revisited and its deficiencies, namely the prediction of a critical Reynolds number with 20% error, cured. For the energy equation a high-order Galerkin projection in terms of polynomial test functions is developed. It is shown that not only does this more refined formulation correct the critical Reynolds number, but it also gives, with an appropriate expansion close to criticality, the long-wave theory. Bifurcation diagrams for permanent solitary waves are constructed and compared with the solution branches obtained from different models. It is shown that, in all cases, the long-wave theory exhibits limit points and branch multiplicity, while the other models predict the continuing existence of solitary waves. Time-dependent computations show that the free surface and interfacial temperature approach a train of coherent structures that resemble the infinite-domain stationary solitary pulses.