The interaction of hydrogen with metal alloys

Hydrogen diffusion coefficients were measured for several alloys, and these were determined to be about the same at 25 C for all alloys investigated. The relation of structure, both metallurgical and crystallographic, to the observed hydrogen distribution on charging was investigated, as well as the role of hydride formation in the hydrogen resistance of metal alloys. An attempt was made to correlate the structures and compositions of metal alloys as well as other parameters with the ratios of their notched tensile strengths in hydrogen to that in helium, R(H2/He), which are believed to represent a measure of their hydrogen resistance. Evidence supports the belief that hydrogen permeability and hydrogen resistance are increased by smaller grain sizes for a given alloy composition

An experimental investigation on air quality inside WindJet aircraft

ABSTRACT In order to improve the passengers and crew comfort during the flight, the aim of the present paper is a study of the cabin air quality through experimental measures on randomly selected flight segments of an Italian airline company, WindJet. Carbon dioxide, ultrafine particles, temperature and relative humidity have been measured by using low cost high efficiency instrumental equipments. Exploring ways to improve aircraft cabin air quality, WindJet and University of Palermo are investigating equipment, filters and components of the ventilation system. In this paper, after description of both ventilation systems for aircrafts of WindJet and the instrumental equipments used to measure environmental characteristics on board, obtained results are shown

Effect of energy density and virginiamycin supplementation in diets on growth performance and digestive function of finishing steers.

ObjectiveThis study was determined the influence of virginiamycin supplementation on growth-performance and characteristics of digestion of cattle with decreasing dietary net energy value of the diet for maintenance (NEm) from 2.22 to 2.10 Mcal/kg.MethodsEighty crossbred beef steers (298.2±6.3 kg) were used in a 152-d performance evaluation consisting of a 28-d adaptation period followed by a 124-d growing-finishing period. During the 124-d period steers were fed either a lesser energy dense (LED, 2.10 Mcal/kg NEm) or higher energy dense (HED, 2.22 Mcal/kg NEm) diet. Diets were fed with or without 28 mg/kg (dry matter [DM] basis) virginiamycin in a 2×2 factorial arrangement. Four Holstein steers (170.4±5.6 kg) with cannulas in the rumen (3.8 cm internal diameter) and proximal duodenum were used in 4×4 Latin square experiment to study treatment effects on characteristics of digestion.ResultsNeither diet energy density nor virginiamycin affected average daily gain (p>0.10). As expected, dry matter intake and gain efficiency were greater (p<0.01) for LED- than for HED-fed steers. Virginiamycin did not affect estimated net energy value of the LED diet. Virginiamycin increased estimated NE of the HED diet. During daylight hours when the temperature humidity index averaged 81.3±2.7, virginiamycin decreased (p<0.05) ruminal temperature. Virginiamycin did not influence (p>0.10) ruminal or total tract digestion. Ruminal (p = 0.02) and total tract digestion (p<0.01) of organic matter, and digestible energy (p<0.01) were greater for HED vs LED. Ruminal microbial efficiency was lower (p<0.01) for HED vs LED diets.ConclusionThe positive effect of virginiamycin on growth performance of cattle is due to increased efficiency of energy utilization, as effects of virginiamycin on characteristics of digestion were not appreciable. Under conditions of high ambient temperature virginiamycin may reduce body temperature

Proof-Pattern Recognition and Lemma Discovery in ACL2

We present a novel technique for combining statistical machine learning for proof-pattern recognition with symbolic methods for lemma discovery. The resulting tool, ACL2(ml), gathers proof statistics and uses statistical pattern-recognition to pre-processes data from libraries, and then suggests auxiliary lemmas in new proofs by analogy with already seen examples. This paper presents the implementation of ACL2(ml) alongside theoretical descriptions of the proof-pattern recognition and lemma discovery methods involved in it

Hipster: Integrating Theory Exploration in a Proof Assistant

This paper describes Hipster, a system integrating theory exploration with the proof assistant Isabelle/HOL. Theory exploration is a technique for automatically discovering new interesting lemmas in a given theory development. Hipster can be used in two main modes. The first is exploratory mode, used for automatically generating basic lemmas about a given set of datatypes and functions in a new theory development. The second is proof mode, used in a particular proof attempt, trying to discover the missing lemmas which would allow the current goal to be proved. Hipster's proof mode complements and boosts existing proof automation techniques that rely on automatically selecting existing lemmas, by inventing new lemmas that need induction to be proved. We show example uses of both modes

Labor-associated gene expression in the human uterine fundus, lower segment, and cervix

Background Preterm labor, failure to progress, and postpartum hemorrhage are the common causes of maternal and neonatal mortality or morbidity. All result from defects in the complex mechanisms controlling labor, which coordinate changes in the uterine fundus, lower segment, and cervix. We aimed to assess labor-associated gene expression profiles in these functionally distinct areas of the human uterus by using microarrays. Methods and Findings Samples of uterine fundus, lower segment, and cervix were obtained from patients at term (mean +/- 6 SD = 39.1 +/- 0.5 wk) prior to the onset of labor (n = 6), or in active phase of labor with spontaneous onset (n = 7). Expression of 12,626 genes was evaluated using microarrays ( Human Genome U95A; Affymetrix) and compared between labor and non-labor samples. Genes with the largest labor-associated change and the lowest variability in expression are likely to be fundamental for parturition, so gene expression was ranked accordingly. From 500 genes with the highest rank we identified genes with similar expression profiles using two independent clustering techniques. Sets of genes with a probability of chance grouping by both techniques less than 0.01 represented 71.2%, 81.8%, and 79.8% of the 500 genes in the fundus, lower segment, and cervix, respectively. We identified 14, 14, and 12 those sets of genes in the fundus, lower segment, and cervix, respectively. This enabled networks of coregulated and co-expressed genes to be discovered. Many genes within the same cluster shared similar functions or had functions pertinent to the process of labor. Conclusions Our results provide support for many of the established processes of parturition and also describe novel-to-labor genes not previously associated with this process. The elucidation of these mechanisms likely to be fundamental for controlling labor is an important prerequisite to the development of effective treatments for major obstetric problems - including prematurity, with its long-term consequences to the health of mother and offspring

Pion parameters in nuclear medium from chiral perturbation theory and virial expansion

We consider two methods to find the effective parameters of the pion traversing a nuclear medium. One is the first order chiral perturbation theoretic evaluation of the pion pole contribution to the two-point function of the axial-vector current. The other is the exact, first order virial expansion of the pion self-energy. We find that, although the results of chiral perturbation theory are not valid at normal nuclear density, those from the virial expansion may be reliable at such density. The latter predicts both the mass-shift and the in-medium decay width of the pion to be small, of about a few MeV.Comment: 9 Pages RevTex, 3 eps figure

ESROCOS: a robotic operating system for space and terrestrial applications

ESROCOS (http://www.h2020-esrocos.eu) is a European Project in the frame of the PERASPERA SRC, (http://www.h2020-peraspera.eu/), targeting the design of a Robot Control Operating Software (RCOS) for space robotics applications. The goal of the ESROCOS project is to provide an open-source framework to assist in the development of flight software for space robots, providing adequate features and performance with space-grade Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS) properties. This paper presents the ESROCOS project and summarizes the approach and the current status