Mechanical properties of sisal fibre-reinforced polymer composites: a review

There has been a growing interest in the utilization of sisal fibres as reinforcement in the production of polymeric composite materials. Natural fibres have gained recognition as reinforcements in fibre polymer–matrix composites because of their mechanical properties and environmental friendliness. The mechanical properties of sisal fibre-reinforced polymer composites have been studied by many researchers and a few of them are discussed in this article. Various fibre treatments, which are carried out in order to improve adhesion, leading to improved mechanical properties, are also discussed in this review paper. This review also focuses on the influence of fibre content and fabrication methods, which can significantly affect the mechanical properties of sisal fibre-reinforced polymer composites.     

Three-dimensional blow-up solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations

In this paper we extend the plane blow-up results of Grundy& McLaughlin (1997) to the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations.Using a solution structure originally due to Lin we first providenumerical evidence for the existence of blow-up solutions on- < x, z < , 0 y 1 with boundary conditions on y = 0and y = 1 involving derivatives of the velocity components.The formulation enables us to consider plane and radial flowas special cases. Various features of the computations are isolatedand are used to construct a formal asymptotic solution closeto blow-up. We show that the numerical and asymptotic analysesprovide a mutually consistent global picture which supportsthe conclusion that, for the family of problems we considerhere, blow-up in fact can take place in three dimensions butat an inverse linear rate rather than the faster inverse squareof the plane case.     

Long-term retention of ice-nucleating active Pseudomonas fluorescens by overwintering colorado potato beetles

Ice nucleating-active Pseudomonas fluorescens F264C was fed to Colorado potato beetles to determine bacterial retentioin in the beetle gut and its effect on the cold hardiness of this insect pest. The bacrterium was present in beetles recovered after overwintering in the field, seven months after their exposure to P. fluorescens. Retention was evident not only in the detection of the P. fluorescens ice nucleating gene, inaW, in bacterial cultures from beetle guts but also in the elevated supercooling points of some treated beetles.     

On the elastodynamics of stiffened plates

Summary A method of determining the response of a stiffened elastic plate to a dynamic excitation is presented here. Green's function for such a combined system has been systematically derived based on the eigenfunctions of the system obtained through the application of Galerkin's method. With that Green's function a wide range of dynamic forcing functions can be considered.

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Zur elastodynamik versteifter platten

Übersicht Vorgestellt wird eine Methode zur Ermittlung der Antwort versteifter Platten auf dynamische Erregungen. Mit Hilfe der Eigenfunktionen des Systems, die durch Anwendung der Galerkin-Methode gewonnen werden, wird die Greensche Funktion solcher kombinierten Tragwerke systematisch hergeleitet. Damit kann ein weiter Bereich dynamischer Anregungsfunktionen behandelt werden.

     

Modeling of Lone Star Ticks with Deer Migration to Canada

Due to climate change and an increase of favourable habitat, ticks and tick-borne diseases are reported to expand to northern areas in north America. One main factor for lone star ticks to be established in Canada is due to the migration of white-tailed deers from US. In this work, we formulate a compartmental model to study the dynamics of lone star ticks and white-tailed deers, with a focus on migration effect of white-tailed deers. The tickhost interaction and the effect of deer migration are explored analytically and numerically. The positivity of the populations in the model is proved, and the unique positive equilibrium is proved to be asymptotically stable. We conduct sensitivity analysis on a set of parameters, revealing the correlation between the parameters and equilibrium populations. Numerical results show that migration rate of white-tailed deer is one crucial parameter that increases the populations of (infected) ticks and (infected) hosts.     

Low-lying (K π = 0+) states of gadolinium isotopes

The sd-interacting boson approximation (sd-IBA) and the df-interacting boson approximation (df-IBA) can be related to each other and the states of the interacting boson approximation model can be identified with the fully symmetric states in the sdf interacting boson approximation model. A systematic study of the sdf-IBA model showed that the constructed Hamiltonian can successfully describe the strong octupole correlations in the deformed nuclei. We showed that the interacting boson approximation may account for many of these K ^π ?=?0⁺ states. It was found that the calculated energy spectra of the gadolinium isotopes agree quite well with the experimental data. The observed B(E2) values were also calculated and compared with the experimental data.     

PHOTOREACTIVITY OF 5-GERANOXYPSORALEN AND LACK OF PHOTOREACTION WITH DNA

5-Geranoxypsoralen, commonly called bergamottin, a major furocoumarin contained in bergamot oil, is reported in vitro as a highly photoreactive psoralen. In ethanol, it exhibits quite a high triplet state quantum yield (approximately 0.37). The triplet state is involved in subsequent photochemistry which depends on the initial concentration and on the presence of oxygen. In contrast to most psoralens, absorption and fluorescence data suggest that 5-geranoxypsoralen does not interact with DNA in the dark. No UVA-induced interstrand cross-links in DNA were shown.     

Differential non-destructive image current detection in a fourier transform quadrupole ion trap

Dual-detector differential non-destructive Fourier transform detection in a quadrupole ion trap is shown to improve signal intensity and reduce noise compared with spectra recorded using a single detector. A larger area detector in each end-cap electrode is machined to fit its hyperbolic shape and so minimize field imperfections on the z-axis. Argon, acetophenone and bromobenzene spectra were recorded to allow a comparison between single- and dual-detector (differential) modes of detection and to demonstrate the improvement achieved with differential detection. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MULTIDIMENSIONAL UPWIND RESIDUAL DISTRIBUTION SCHEMES FOR THE CONVECTION–DIFFUSION EQUATION

Multidimensional residual distribution schemes for the convection–diffusion equation are described. Compact upwind cell vertex schemes are used for the discretization of the convective term. For the diffusive term, two approaches are compared: the classical finite element Galerkin formulation, which preserves the compactness of the stencil used for the convective part, and various residual-based approaches in which the diffusive term, evaluated after a reconstruction step, is upwinded along with the convective term.