To warrant high reliability of key components of systems, stand-by units are used. If such a component fails and at least one not failed stand-by unit remains, it operates instead of the key component. If this one fails, the second stand-by unit is used and so on until the last stand-by unit fails. We suppose that switching is instantaneous and there are no repairs. If the stand-by units are fu...

A non-destructive evaluation method for predicting the residual tensile strength of erosion damaged fiber-reinforced composites was developed based on monitoring the acoustic emission (AE) activity of the composite specimens during uniaxial tensile loading. The developed method was used for estimating the residual strength of E-glass/epoxy composite with ply sequence of [45 / 45 /0 /45 / 45 /0 ...

Previous research has demonstrated that adding a very small gamma-ray dose to a small alpha radiation dose can completely suppress lung cancer induction by alpha radiation (a gamma-ray hormetic effect). Here we investigated the possibility of gamma-ray hormesis during low-dose neutron irradiation, since a small contribution to the total radiation dose from neutrons involves gamma rays. Using bi...

Foreign-object damage associated with the ingestion of debris into aircraft turbine engines can lead to a marked degradation in the high-cycle fatigue (HCF) life of turbine components. This degradation is generally considered to be associated with the premature initiation of fatigue cracks at or near the damage sites; this is suspected to be due to, at least in part, the impact-induced residual...

Eight jack pine (Pinus banksiana) stands in northern lower Michigan were sampled to evaluate the potential of dendroecological methods for studying stand dynamics with young trees. At each stand, a minimum of 20 dominant and codominant trees were cored, and at two stands additional recruitment data were collected. The cores were all cross-dated and measured. The raw ring widths were used to ide...

Chemo- and radiotherapy cause multiple forms of DNA damage and lead to the death of cancer cells. Inhibitors of the DNA damage response are candidate drugs for use in combination therapies to increase the efficacy of such treatments. In this study, we show that curcumin, a plant polyphenol, sensitizes budding yeast to DNA damage by counteracting the DNA damage response. Following DNA damage, th...

Foreign object damage (FOD) occurs when hard, millimeter-sized objects such as gravel or sand and even the pieces of the engine components are ingested into aircraft jet engines. Particles impacting blades produce small indentation craters which can become sites for fatigue crack initiation, severely limiting the lifetime of the blade. In this study, the impact on the edge of a thin plate is in...