Red-backed salamanders were observed to see how they colonized the forest edges of northern forests. By quantifying the surrounding abiotic factors, we predicted favorable abiotic factors. We set up 27 artificial habitats in a cedar swamp, mature hardwood forest, and a plot that was burned in 1936 at the forest edge, middle and interior. Soil and air temperature, light intensity, humidity, soil...

Noncontact transportation of small particles around a circular trajectory was investigated. A circular aluminum plate with a piezoelectric ring was employed as a vibrating plate. On the basis of finite element analysis (FEA) calculations, the electrodes of the piezoelectric ring were divided into 24 pieces to generate a flexural vibration mode with one nodal circle and four nodal lines at the r...

A vision-based approach to the motion control of pneumatic group actuators is presented. Sensing of plate locations consisting of the pneumatic group actuator is essential to cope with the variation of elastic tubes of the actuator. Plate locations are measured by a vision system and the motion of the actuator is controlled using a roughly identified relationship between air pressure imposed on...

The results of NDE and material characterization with mode conversion of air-coupled ultrasound into plate and surface waves in solids are reported. Singleand both-sided configurations of efficient slanted wave conversion are developed and tested for various materials. An alternative option is based on the excitation of cylindrical plate and surface waves by a focused air-coupled beam incident ...

SUMMARY The linear spatial stability of a mixing layer between two parallel streams is considered, and a comparison is made between the stability of flows with and without a stationary splitter plate separating them upstream. The assumed velocity profile satisfies the condition of no slip on the splitter plate, but in other respects the flow is treated as inviscid. Account is taken of the jet s...

BACKGROUND Solid organ transplantation patients are at high risk for opportunistic air-borne fungal infections due to using the potent immunosuppressive agents. OBJECTIVES The current study aimed to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the fungal flora present in the air of Kidney transplant unit of Baqiyatallah hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this prospective study, air samples fro...

In this paper, the experimental vibration analysis of a single cylinder air compressor based on a hypocycloid straight line mechanism (HSM) is investigated. The HSM mechanism uses planetary gears to convert rotational motion to purely linear motion. In the conventional air compressor, the slider- crank mechanism is replaced by the HSM mechanism with appropriate counterweights. The constructed s...

A simple theoretical model is presented for the distribution of air speeds in a modified horizontal elutriator consisting of groups of plates with different lengths. Equations are presented for calculating the particle penetration both in channels of shortended plate lengths, as downstream the end of a shortended plate.

We demonstrate the possibility of selectively imaging the features of a barely visible impact damage in a laminated composite plate by using an air-coupled time reversal mirror. The mirror consists of a number of piezoelectric transducers affixed to wedges of power law profiles, which act as unconventional matching layers. The transducers are enclosed in a hollow reverberant cavity with an open...