Technological requirements for solutions in the conservation and protection of historic monuments and archaeological remains

Executive summary: This Study has discovered many achievements associated with European support for scientific and technological research for the protection and conservation of cultural heritage. The achievements to date are: 1. Creation of an active research community 2. A body of research of unparalleled and enviable international quality and character 3. Ongoing effectiveness of research beyond initial funding 4. Substantial rate of publication 5. Imaginative tools of dissemination and publication 6. Clear spin-offs and contribution to European competitiveness often going outside the European cultural heritage area 7. Contribution to emerging European legislation, for example, air quality management. The Study has also uncovered important research gaps associated with this field that have yet to begin to be investigated. It has also discovered the need for continuing fine scale advancement in areas where researchers have been active for a number of years. The overall picture is that European research in the field of cultural heritage protection must be put on a secure footing if it is to maintain its commanding lead over other regions of the world. This Study concludes that: 1. It would be invidious to attempt to separate basic and applied research in this area of research. Like any other scientific endeavour, this field needs to integrate basic and applied research if it is to continue to thrive. 2. Small, flexible, focused interdisciplinary teams responsive to European needs, must be sustained, promoted and celebrated as models of sustainability and that what is proposed under the European Research Area (ERA) for large and complex research projects, could inflict serious damage on this area of research. 3. Resources cannot be delegated to Member States because of the interdisciplinary nature of cultural heritage and the need for a co-ordinated pan-European perspective across this research that helps to define the essential character of European cultural heritage. National programmes only serve local needs, leading to loss of strategic output, lessening of competitiveness and risk of duplication. 4. A mechanism needs to be created to help researchers working in this field to communicate and exchange information with related sectors such as construction, urban regeneration, land reclamation and agriculture. 5. There is overwhelming agreement over the need for sustainable research funding for cultural heritage and for an iterative process of exchange among researchers, decision-makers and end-users in order to maximize benefits from project inception through to dissemination, audit and review. For all the reasons mentioned above, the most significant recommendation in this Report is the identification of the need for a European Panel on the Application of Science for Cultural Heritage (EPASCH)

Interannual sea-air CO2 flux variability from an observation-driven ocean mixed-layer scheme

Interannual anomalies in the sea–air carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange have been estimated from surface-ocean CO2 partial pressure measurements. Available data are sufficient to constrain these anomalies in large parts of the tropical and North Pacific and in the North Atlantic, in some areas covering the period from the mid 1980s to 2011. Global interannual variability is estimated as about 0.31 Pg Cyr−1 (temporal standard deviation 1993–2008). The tropical Pacific accounts for a large fraction of this global variability, closely tied to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Anomalies occur more than 6 months later in the east than in the west. The estimated amplitude and ENSO response are roughly consistent with independent information from atmospheric oxygen data. This both supports the variability estimated from surface-ocean carbon data and demonstrates the potential of the atmospheric oxygen signal to constrain ocean biogeochemical processes. The ocean variability estimated from surface-ocean carbon data can be used to improve land CO2 flux estimates from atmospheric inversions

Enabling lightweight, high load aero-bearings

Environmental and commercial considerations are strongly driving research into weight saving in aircraft. In this research, innovative manufacturing processes were developed to produce lightweight titanium alloy bearings capable of withstanding high bearing pressures. This will enable the replacement of heavier conventional bearing materials with titanium alloy bearings of the same size thereby saving weight. Plasma processing and PVD coating techniques were refined and combined and a sound scientific understanding of the resulting novel processes developed to assure high performance, reliability and repeatability. These techniques were applied to test discs and small bearing (bush) samples, which were tested under progressively greater loads (pressures). FEA was also used to evaluate pressure distribution in a bush test assembly. The novel treatment has potential applications for many bearings and bearing surfaces throughout aircraft.peer-reviewe

An investigation into the effect of Triode Plasma Oxidation (TPO) on the tribological properties of Ti6Al4V

The authors gratefully acknowledge the UK Technology Strategy Board for financial support under the collaborative project LIB-TEC, project No TP 22076.Improving the tribological properties of titanium alloys has been the subject of extensive research for many years. A number of thermochemical processes have been developed for that purpose. In this study, surface hardening of Ti6Al4V is achieved by Triode Plasma Oxidation (TPO) which differs from conventional diode plasma treatments through the use of a third electrode; a negatively biased tungsten filament to enhance the ionisation levels in the plasma. The resultant surface generally consists of a top oxide layer with an oxy- gen diffusion zone lying immediately underneath it. The effects of process parameters such as substrate tem- perature, current density and oxygen partial pressure have been investigated. Surface hardness measurements at various indentation loads were carried out to assess the changes in hardness with depth across the diffusion layer. The hardness profiles obtained confirmed the gradual decrease in hardness with treatment depth and provided an indication of the thickness of the hardened layer produced. Ball-on-plate reciprocating sliding wear data and glancing angle XRD analyses of the oxidised samples are also presented. The results indicate that a harder and deeper case is achieved at both high substrate temperature and high oxygen partial pressure. Furthermore, XRD data show that the substrate temperature strongly affects the structure of the oxide layer produced. All TPO-treated samples exhibit significantly better wear performance compared to the untreated material.peer-reviewe

Associations of Vitamin D with Inter- and Intra-Muscular Adipose Tissue and Insulin Resistance in Women with and without Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Low vitamin D and insulin resistance are common in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and associated with higher inter- and intra-muscular adipose tissue (IMAT). We investigated associations between vitamin D, IMAT and insulin resistance in a cross-sectional study of 40 women with PCOS and 30 women without PCOS, and pre- and post-exercise in a 12-week intervention in 16 overweight participants (10 with PCOS and six without PCOS). A non-classical body mass index (BMI) threshold was used to differentiate lean and overweight women (BMI ≥ 27 kg/m²). Measurements included plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), insulin resistance (glucose infusion rate (GIR; mg/m²/min), fasting glucose and insulin, and glycated haemoglobin), visceral fat, mid-thigh IMAT (computed tomography) and total body fat (dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry). Women with both PCOS and low 25OHD levels had the lowest GIR (all p < 0.05). Higher IMAT was associated with lower 25OHD (B = -3.95; 95% CI -6.86, -1.05) and GIR (B = -21.3; 95% CI -37.16, -5.44) in women with PCOS. Overweight women with pre-exercise 25OHD ≥30 nmol/L had significant increases in GIR, and decreases in total and visceral fat (all p < 0.044), but no associations were observed when stratified by PCOS status. Women with PCOS and low 25OHD levels have increased insulin resistance which may be partly explained by higher IMAT. Higher pre-training 25OHD levels may enhance exercise-induced changes in body composition and insulin resistance in overweight women

A foundation for runtime monitoring

Runtime Verification is a lightweight technique that complements other verification methods in an effort to ensure software correctness. The technique poses novel questions to software engineers: it is not easy to identify which specifications are amenable to runtime monitor-ing, nor is it clear which monitors effect the required runtime analysis correctly. This exposition targets a foundational understanding of these questions. Particularly, it considers an expressive specification logic (a syntactic variant of the modal μ-calculus) that is agnostic of the verification method used, together with an elemental framework providing an operational semantics for the runtime analysis performed by monitors. The correspondence between the property satisfactions in the logic on the one hand, and the verdicts reached by the monitors performing the analysis on the other, is a central theme of the study. Such a correspondence underpins the concept of monitorability, used to identify the subsets of the logic that can be adequately monitored for by RV. Another theme of the study is that of understanding what should be expected of a monitor in order for the verification process to be correct. We show how the monitor framework considered can constitute a basis whereby various notions of monitor correctness may be defined and investigated.peer-reviewe