Crustal fault reactivation facilitating lithospheric folding/buckling in the central Indian Ocean

High-quality, normal-incidence seismic reflection data confirm that tectonic deformation in the central Indian Ocean occurs at two spatial scales: whole lithosphere folding with wavelengths varying between 100 and 300 km, and compressional reactivation of crustal faults with a characteristic spacing of c. 5 km. Faults penetrate through the crust and probably into the upper mantle. Both types of deformation are driven by regional large intraplate stresses originating from the Indo-Eurasian collision. Numerical modelling of the spatial and temporal relationships between these two modes of deformations shows that, in agreement with geophysical observations, crustal faults are reactivated first with stick-slip behaviour. Subsequent lithospheric folding does not start until horizontal loading has significantly reduced the mechanical strength of the lithosphere, as predicted by elasto-plastic buckling theory. Modelling suggests that lithospheric folding does not develop in the absence of fault reactivation. Crustal fault reactivation, therefore, appears to be a key facilitating mechanism for oceanic lithospheric buckling in the central Indian Ocean

The preservation of quartz grain surface textures following vehicle fire and their use in forensic enquiry

During a terrorist trial, dispute arose as to whether the temperature produced in a car fire was sufficient to destroy quartz grain surface textures. A series of seven sequential experiments showed that the temperature for quartz surface texture modification/destruction and the production of vugs, vesicles and glassy precipitation ('snowdrifting') occurred at 1200 degrees C under normal atmospheric conditions. By adding a number of man-made and natural substances, it was found that only the presence of salts depressed this modification temperature (to 900 degrees C). Experiments to determine the temperature of fire in a car indicated that the maximum temperature produced under natural conditions (810 degrees C) was insufficient to affect the quartz grain Surface textures. These results confirm the use of surface texture analysis of quartz grains recovered from the remains of cars Subjected to fire and their use as a forensic indicator. (C) 2008 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved

Current status of MCNP6 as a simulation tool useful for space and accelerator applications

For the past several years, a major effort has been undertaken at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to develop the transport code MCNP6, the latest LANL Monte-Carlo transport code representing a merger and improvement of MCNP5 and MCNPX. We emphasize a description of the latest developments of MCNP6 at higher energies to improve its reliability in calculating rare-isotope production, high-energy cumulative particle production, and a gamut of reactions important for space-radiation shielding, cosmic-ray propagation, and accelerator applications. We present several examples of validation and verification of MCNP6 compared to a wide variety of intermediate- and high-energy experimental data on reactions induced by photons, mesons, nucleons, and nuclei at energies from tens of MeV to about 1 TeV/nucleon, and compare to results from other modern simulation tools.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Proc. 11th Conference on the Intersections of Particle and Nuclear Physics (CIPANP 2012), St. Petersburg, FL, May 28 - June 3, 201

Material properties of the heel fat pad across strain rates

The complex structural and material behaviour of the human heel fat pad determines the transmission of plantar loading to the lower limb across a wide range of loading scenarios; from locomotion to injurious incidents. The aim of this study was to quantify the hyper-viscoelastic material properties of the human heel fat pad across strains and strain rates. An inverse finite element (FE) optimisation algorithm was developed and used, in conjunction with quasi-static and dynamic tests performed to five cadaveric heel specimens, to derive specimen-specific and mean hyper-viscoelastic material models able to predict accurately the response of the tissue at compressive loading of strain rates up to 150 s−1. The mean behaviour was expressed by the quasi-linear viscoelastic (QLV) material formulation, combining the Yeoh material model (C10=0.1MPa, C30=7MPa, K=2GPa) and Prony׳s terms (A1=0.06, A2=0.77, A3=0.02 for τ1=1ms, τ2=10ms, τ3=10s). These new data help to understand better the functional anatomy and pathophysiology of the foot and ankle, develop biomimetic materials for tissue reconstruction, design of shoe, insole, and foot and ankle orthoses, and improve the predictive ability of computational models of the foot and ankle used to simulate daily activities or predict injuries at high rate injurious incidents such as road traffic accidents and underbody blast

Reciprocal Recommender System for Learners in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

Massive open online courses (MOOC) describe platforms where users with completely different backgrounds subscribe to various courses on offer. MOOC forums and discussion boards offer learners a medium to communicate with each other and maximize their learning outcomes. However, oftentimes learners are hesitant to approach each other for different reasons (being shy, don't know the right match, etc.). In this paper, we propose a reciprocal recommender system which matches learners who are mutually interested in, and likely to communicate with each other based on their profile attributes like age, location, gender, qualification, interests, etc. We test our algorithm on data sampled using the publicly available MITx-Harvardx dataset and demonstrate that both attribute importance and reciprocity play an important role in forming the final recommendation list of learners. Our approach provides promising results for such a system to be implemented within an actual MOOC.Comment: 10 pages, accepted as full paper @ ICWL 201