The effects of under-sleeper pads on sleeper-ballast interaction

Sleeper effects.

Early experience preserves and refines many capabilities that emerge prenatally. Here we describe another role that it plays -- establishing the neural substrate for capabilities that emerge at a much later point in development. The evidence comes from sleeper effects: permanent deficits when early experience was absent in capabilities that normally emerge long after birth. We provide evidence ...

The Behaviour of Under-Sleeper Pads at Switches and Crossings (S&C) - field measurements

Major growth in rail traffic in many parts of the world in recent years has brought railway networks close to capacity and restricted the time available for track access to carry out maintenance work without costly temporary route closures. There are, therefore, significant benefits in designing or modifying ballasted track systems to reduce maintenance and associated access requirements. Under...

In search of reliable persuasion effects: III. The sleeper effect is dead. Long live the sleeper effect.

The sleeper effect in persuasion is a delayed increase in the impact of a message that is accompanied by a discounting cue. Despite a long history, the sleeper effect has been notoriously difficult to obtain or to replicate, with the exception of a pair of studies by Gruder et al. (1978). We conducted a series of 16 computer-controlled experiments and a replication of the Gruder et al. study to...

Vibrations of partly supported concrete railway sleeper

Microtubule Disassembly: When a Sleeper Is Activated

Tubulin modifications are emerging as interesting mechanisms to regulate microtubule dynamics. A new study shows that phosphorylation of α-tubulin by the atypical kinase PHS1 leads to rapid disassembly of cortical microtubules in plant cells that are under hyperosmotic stresses.