Search

This study proposes a novel technique for increasing the limiting drawing ratio (LDR) in the deep drawing process. This work uses "triple-action forming (TAF)" as a new technique to enhance LDR, achieving an LDR of 2.40 for stainless steel JIS and SUS304. The TAF consists of three sequential steps with a constant blank holder force of 3 kN. The first step involves deep drawing with a punch diameter of 30 mm. In the second step, we used a smaller punch diameter of 25 mm. The third step is going deep down with a punch diameter of 30 mm until the end of the die cavity. TAF reduces the intensity of material flow during deep drawing, which results in a delay in cup wall stretching and fracturing as a result of the reduced friction. The TAF approach offers a notable edge over alternative deep drawing techniques, such as multi-step deep drawing and temperature-based forming, due to its ability to effectively enhance the LDR. These process parameters are determined before experimentation through precise finite element simulation. Validation is shown through deep drawing experiments on JIS and SUS304, conducted using FE simulations with the Y-U model and Yoshida 6th yield function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of Ultra Dense Networks (UDNs) stands out as one of the most promising approaches to meet the escalating capacity requirements and elevate user experience. When it comes to fulfilling the exceptionally high capacity density needs of 5G networks, UDN proves to be one of the most effective solutions. For 5G of cellular networks, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) techniques have drawn a lot of attention lately. The main justification for implementing NOMA in 5G is its capacity to accommodate numerous users concurrently while utilizing the same frequency and time resources. In this environment, handover (HO) management is a real challenge given the high network density, small coverage areas, increased user mobility and increasingly stringent QoS requirements. To address these issues, we conduct a study that combines between load balancing and HO decision-making algorithms. The object of our research project is the design of a new HO management solution for 5G ultra-dense networks (UDNs) based on the NOMA technique. A load-balancing and multi-attribute decision-making algorithm are developed to balance the load between cells, minimize the numbers of HOs and choose the best HO condition and the best target cell to maintain satisfactory quality of service. The NOMA technique was employed to orchestrate the channels designated for the backhaul links and the Macro Base Station (MBS) link to the Mobile User Equipments (MUEs) within the MBS User Equipment (UE) set. The devised Handover (HO) decision-making algorithm operates on an event-triggered basis, specifically for HO operations between cellular networks. The conducted simulations demonstrate the resilience of the proposed approach, as evidenced by its low HO failure rate, minimal HO delay, and reduced end-to-end packet delay for traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around 1526, Emperor Charles V decided to build a new Renaissance palace in addition to the Nasrid palaces in the Alhambra of Granada, a monumental site currently included in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage List. In that period, a large floor plan, which is preserved today at the Library of the Royal Palace of Madrid, was drawn to represent the building and its surroundings. Although this anonymous drawing has attracted considerable historiographic interest, a study of the graphical aspects analysed here, namely, paper assemblage, drawing technique, representation system, metrology, graphical scale, dimensioning, and labelling, is lacking. To accomplish this analysis, the original document was carefully examined and digitalised with high definition. This process allowed a comprehensive graphic analysis, utilising other drawings from the same period as a comparative reference and studying for the first time the major characteristics of one of the most relevant architectural drawings of the 16th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquid crystal polymers (LCP) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) were in situ fibrillated to produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/LCP/PTFE composites using a simple and scalable extrusion drawing techniques. The PET/LCP/PTFE composites included high-aspect-ratio PTFE fibrils and rod-like LCP fibrils. The simultaneous in situ fibrillation of LCP and PTFE exerted synergistic effects on crystalline behaviour and viscosity of PET, especially for mechanical properties of PET and its foam. The tensile strength of PET/LCP/PTFE composites and impact strength representing improvements of 34% and 62% over those of PET. The improved mechanical properties can be attributed to the simultaneous abundance of orienting rod-like rigid LCP fibrils and tangling flexible PTFE fibrils in the PET matrix, which contributed to stress transfer from matrix to fibrils. A simultaneously in situ fibrillated PET/LCP/PTFE composite foam was fabricated using a batch foaming system with supercritical CO2 as blowing agent. The cell diameter of this foam decreased by 23% over that of standard PET foam, while its cell density increased twofold. The smaller cell diameter of PET/LCP/PTFE foam and superior mechanical properties of PET matrix collectively led to the good mechanical properties of PET/LCP/PTFE foam. Specifically, the compressive strength of the PET/LCP/PTFE foam represents a 35% increase over that of PET foam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can religious devotion make you happier and satisfied? It is a question that has plagued economists for a long time and despite that religion could add a significant meaning to individuals' lives, such as by giving hope through thick and thin. This study aims to present the analysis by using the latest data of wave 7 from World Value Survey while determining if happiness, the ultimate desire and goal, are an outcome of religiosity. By using SEM Maximum likelihood technique we draw the conclusion that religiosity has a positive and significant role in fostering happiness of individuals. Along with religiosity, other social variables including financial situation, victim of crime, health status and living as a couple were also added. All these variables have a positive and significant role in increasing level of happiness except whether the person is a victim of crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on techniques more commonly used to study changes within families over time, this paper highlights how holistic life course methods can help scholars conceptualize the dynamic nature of local built environments and measure impacts for families and communities. I use a novel dataset on the historical availability of banks, credit unions, and alternative financial services (AFS) between 2003 and 2015 to classify neighborhoods by their financial service trajectories using sequence and cluster analyses. I identify six distinct trajectories of financial service availability over the 13-year period; neighborhoods in these trajectories differ in terms of their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Descriptive multivariate analyses confirm that trajectories are linked to community outcomes at the end of the period; tracts exposed to AFS at some point over the 13 years are associated with higher predicted end-of-period poverty rates compared to both tracts that are only exposed to banks and credit unions and tracts that are chronic financial service deserts. Extensions of this approach to other aspects of the built environment are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passive Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) imaging techniques have drawn increasing attention for their ability to recover hidden objects that are not visible in observed images. These methods only rely on indirect reflections from the scene surface without the need for expensive measurement equipment or complex measurement processes, in contrast to active NLOS imaging techniques. In this paper, we propose a novel unrolling network based on matrix factorization, which can jointly recover hidden video and light transport matrix. The network has multiple stages, each stage is equivalent to an optimized iteration of matrix factorization. We adopt spatial-variant convolution and neural representation of the light transport matrix in the network, resulting in higher efficiency. To evaluate the proposed method, we compare it with the state-of-the-art hidden video recovery methods on three public datasets. Both qualitative and quantitative comparisons show that our network outperforms the compared method in terms of robustness and accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of three state-of-the-art MRI sequences for the detection of extramural venous invasion (EMVI) in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) patients after preoperative chemoradiotherapy (pCRT). Methods: This retrospective study included 103 patients (median age 66 years old [43–84]) surgically treated with pCRT for LARC and submitted to preoperative contrast-enhanced pelvic MRI after pCRT. T2-weighted, DWI, and contrast-enhanced sequences were evaluated by two radiologists with expertise in abdominal imaging, blinded to clinical and histopathological data. Patients were scored according to the probability of EMVI presence on each sequence using a grading score ranging from 0 (no evidence of EMVI) to 4 (strong evidence of EMVI). Results from 0 to 2 were ranked as EMVI negative and from 3 to 4 as EMVI positive. ROC curves were drawn for each technique, using histopathological results as reference standard. Results: T2-weighted, DWI, and contrast-enhanced sequences demonstrated an area under the ROC curve (AUC) respectively of 0.610 (95% CI: 0.509–0.704), 0.729 (95% CI: 0.633–0.812), and 0.624 (95% CI: 0.523–0.718). The AUC of DWI sequence was significantly higher than that of T2-weighted (p = 0.0494) and contrast-enhanced (p = 0.0315) sequences. Conclusions: DWI is more accurate than T2-weighted and contrast-enhanced sequences for the identification of EMVI following pCRT in LARC patients. Clinical relevance statement: MRI protocol for restaging locally advanced rectal cancer after preoperative chemoradiotherapy should routinely include DWI due to its higher accuracy for the diagnosis of extramural venous invasion compared to high-resolution T2-weighted and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted sequences. Key Points: • MRI has a moderately high accuracy for the diagnosis of extramural venous invasion in locally advanced rectal cancer after preoperative chemoradiotherapy. • DWI is more accurate than T2-weighted and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted sequences in the detection of extramural venous invasion after preoperative chemoradiotherapy of locally advanced rectal cancer. • DWI should be routinely included in the MRI protocol for restaging locally advanced rectal cancer after preoperative chemoradiotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the demand of structural integrity in manufacturing industries is increasing, the ultrasonic array technique has drawn more attention thanks to its inspection flexibility and versatility. By taking advantage of the possibility of individual triggering of each array element, full matrix capture (FMC) data acquisition strategy has been developed that contains the entire information of an inspection scenario. Total focusing method (TFM) as one of the ultrasonic imaging algorithms, is preferably applied to FMC dataset since it uses all information in FMC to synthetically focus the sound energy at every image pixel in the region of interest. Half-skip TFM (HSTFM) is proposed in multi-mode TFM imaging that involves a backwall reflection wave path, so that the defect profile could be reconstructed for accurate defect characterization. In this paper, a method involving Snell's law-based wave mode conversion is proposed to account for more reasonable wave propagation time when wave mode conversion happens at backwall reflection in HSTFM. A series of model based simulations (in software simSUNDT) are performed for parametric studies, with the intention of investigating the capability of defect characterization using HSTFM with varying tilt angle and relative position of surface-breaking notch to array probe. The results show that certain TFM modes could help with defect characterization, but the effectiveness is limited with varying defect features. It is inappropriate to address a certain mode for all characterization perspectives but rather a combination, i.e., multi-mode TFM, should be adopted for possible interpretation and characterization of defect features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conjugated polymer (CP) aggregates have been the focus of considerable research, as these mesoscopic entities, compared with single CP chains, provide environments more analogous to those present in polymer-based optoelectronics in terms of the complexity of morphology and chain interactions; thereby, such aggregates hold the potential to provide insights into structure–function relationships highly relevant to optoelectronic device efficiency and stability. This review article highlights single-aggregate spectroscopy studies of CP aggregates based on a combination of solvent vapor annealing and single-molecule fluorescence techniques and draws mesoscopic connections between morphology, electronic coupling, and photophysics in CPs. This molecular-level understanding will pave the way for the bottom-up control of optoelectronic properties from the molecular to the device-length scale. This review highlights single-aggregate spectroscopy studies of conjugated polymer aggregates based on a combination of solvent vapor annealing and single-molecule fluorescence techniques and draws mesoscopic connections between morphology, electronic coupling, and photophysics in conjugated polymers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The various essential morphological land features are represented in a scale-governed map called a topographic sheet. One of the crucial features presented in the topographic sheet often used in Geographical Information System (GIS) based applications is contour lines. Contour lines are non-intersecting lines formed after joining points which are at the same elevation from a given reference point. To elaborate on contour lines, these lines may be of different types, dictated by various geographical landforms such as enclosures (such as lakes, glaciers, etc.), linear features (such as drainage networks, geomorphological landscape. Etc.), islands, eyes and many more. A suitable purpose-specific digitization process is to be implemented for extracting the identified features for use in geographical applications. It can be achieved either through a traditional manual digitization approach or a computer-aided semi-automatic or fully-automatic digitization process may be conceived leveraging advancement in technological support. The manual approach demands considerable effort, execution time, digitization capabilities and attention making it relatively ineffective and inefficient. On the contrary, automatic digitization calls for greater reliance on color segmentation techniques which if implemented incorrectly or imprecisely, the quality of the result will be tremendously compromised. One of the pertinent problems often observed in the segmented image is the loss of continuity in contour lines. This may be circumstantially due to overlapping features, improper segmentation, incomplete information content, incomplete information extraction and the presence of additional details like elevation values. The solution to the identified problem should be motivated toward designing an integrity-preserving reconnection mechanism that is apt, computationally simple and effective. Therefore, this research initiative is motivated towards the conception and implementation of a technique for reconnection of broken contour lines to facilitate continuity of contour lines relying on concepts such as the Sign of Gradient (SG), Euclidean Distance (ED) and modified Bezier Curve (BC) drawing technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly sensitive D-shaped plasmonic photonic crystal fiber (PCF) sensor is proposed, analyzed and fabricated for refractive index (RI) sensing. The reported sensor relies on the coupling between the core guided mode and the surface plasmon mode at the metallic/dielectric interface. The resonance frequency is a function of the analyte RI within a range of 1.33–1.354. Therefore, the reported D-shaped PCF holds great potential as a highly sensitive RI sensor to detect an unknown analyte refractive index within the tested RI range. The geometrical parameters are studied to maximize the sensor sensitivity by using full vectorial finite element method. Then, the optimum design is fabricated by using stack and draw technique. The fabricated PCF sensor achieves high sensitivity of 294.11 nm/RIU with a resolution of 3.4 × 10 - 4 RIU . The reported RI sensor can be used for glucose concentration detection where the analyte refractive index changes with the glucose concentration within the studied RI range. Hence, this design will play a significant role in the biomedical sensor industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphic-rich texts are common in posters. In a movie poster, information, such as movie title, tag lines, and names of the actors, director, and production house, is available. Graphic-rich texts in movie titles represent not only sentiments but also their genre. Understanding the poster requires graphic-rich text recognition. Prior to that, one requires text localization, so background and foreground graffiti can be well segmented. In this paper, we propose a transfer learning-based approach for graphic-rich text localization, which was tuned by introducing reverse augmentation and rotated/inclined rectangle drawing technique. A convolution neural network-based model is then applied to identify their corresponding scripts. In our experiments, on a newly developed dataset (available upon request) that is composed of movie posters with multiple scripts of 1154 images, we achieved an average accuracy of 99.30%. Our results outperformed previously developed tools that are relying on handcrafted features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extremely large specific surface area (~ 2400 m2/g) of modified activated nanocarbon (MANC) particles were prepared from bamboo activated carbon particles. The UHMWPE/MANC fibers gelated with scCO2-assistance were drawn to a remarkably large achievable draw ratio, orientation factor and ultimate tensile tenacity by applying a 5-stage drawing technique. The ultimate tensile tenacity acquired for 5-stage drawn scCO2UHMWPE/MANC fiber approached 164 g/d, which is ~ 370%, ~ 60% and ~ 30% higher than those of the proper one-stage drawn UHMWPE, UHMWPE/MANC and scCO2UHMWPE/MANC fibers, respectively. Considerably reduced dynamic transition temperature and lamellar thickness values were evaluated for the scCO2UHMWPE/MANC fibers compared with the equivalent UHMWPE and UHMWPE/MANC as-spun fibers gelated in nitrogen atmosphere, respectively. Probable reasons accounting for these considerably improved ultimate tensile tenacities of 5-stage drawn scCO2UHMWPE/MANC fibers and lower dynamic transition temperatures of their as-spun fibers are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wound management is essential to provide an appropriate environment for healing or avoiding wound or postsurgery contamination, which remains a serious clinical issue. In this study, we developed a novel wound dressing by using the electrospinning technique to draw continuous polymeric fibers from either a polymer solution or polymer melt to fabricate wound dressings with good medicinal properties. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a biomaterial with good properties that was utilized in this work to produce PCL electrospun mats. Given their hydrophobic properties, however, PCL electrospun mats were hydrolyzed by alkali hydrolysis to permit antibacterial agent attachment. To confer antibacterial properties, pexiganan, an antimicrobial peptide (AMP), was employed as the active agent at various concentrations. The results indicate that PCL electrospun mats treated with pexiganan exhibited efficient bacterial inhibition of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. To assess in vitro cytotoxicity, the viability of human dermal fibroblast (HDF) cells following application of the treated mats was measured and found to be significantly decreased at 1 day depending on the amount of deposited agent; nevertheless, the PCL electrospun mats were validated according to ISO 10993–5:2009. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author offers an initial formulation of what an approach integrating common factors and the processes of change would look like. The dodo-verdict has been extant in the psychology literature for almost 100 years, and it is time to acknowledge the veracity of the dodo-bird verdict as we move toward therapeutic approaches focusing on factors the empirical approaches have in common. Although we now have hundreds of different theoretical models, no one model appears to be superior to any other. However, certain presenting conditions may be more suited to certain interventions. The MAGIC approach introduced here incorporates client motivation, the therapeutic alliance, goal-setting, implementation, and commitment. This gives us a basic structure of commonalities around which we will be able to build comprehensive psychotherapeutic strategies drawing on intervention techniques from many different models. After a brief consideration of historical factors, I will present one idea for an integrated approach followed by a discussion of some assumptive processes which are at work in the therapeutic cadre as well as a consideration of cultural diversities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The computation of correct features is an essential phase for efficient data representation and benchmarked accuracy in text recognition systems. The offline text lacks dynamic information regarding the writing order or nature of trajectories of stroke. Recovery of drawing order technique helps to retrieve trajectory of a stroke. This information aids in computing dynamic feature vector based on chain codes or trajectory points for text recognition. The present work proposes a dynamic feature extraction approach based on recovery of drawing order to understand scene text in Indic script Gurmukhi. An inhouse dataset of strokes was obtained from 820 real time Gurmukhi signboard images. Stroke recognition was performed using Conv1D, SVM and HMM classifiers. Best recognition results were achieved using SVM and Conv1D as 82.88% and 84.67%. The major objective of present study is to propose dynamic features based recognition scheme for Indic scripts signboard images suitable for real-life applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creating micro/nanostructures on fibers is beneficial for extending the application range of fiber-based devices. To achieve this using thermal fiber drawing is particularly important for the mass production of longitudinally uniform fibers up to tens of kilometers. However, the current thermal fiber drawing technique can only fabricate one-directional micro/nano-grooves longitudinally due to structure elongation and polymer reflow. Here, we develop a direct imprinting thermal drawing (DITD) technique to achieve arbitrarily designed surface patterns on entire fiber surfaces with high resolution in all directions. Such a thermal imprinting process is simulated and confirmed experimentally. Key process parameters are further examined, showing a process feature size as small as tens of nanometers. Furthermore, nanopatterns are fabricated on fibers as plasmonic metasurfaces, and double-sided patterned fibers are produced to construct self-powered wearable touch sensing fabric, revealing the bright future of the DITD technology in multifunctional fiber-based devices, wearable electronics, and smart textiles. Creating micro/nanostructures on fibers is beneficial to many fiber-based devices, which remains a challenge in large-scale fabrication due to elongation and reflow. Here, the authors demonstrate a method for generating high-resolution, arbitrarily designed surface patterns on fiber during the thermal drawing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes an algorithm by using bead sequences and drawing techniques for multi-pass V-groove welding. Several points were prepared to form the weld bead shape. Then, a spline method called piecewise cubic Hermite interpolation was applied to describe the smooth curve shape of the multi-pass weld beads in Cartesian coordinates. This study simply considers the physical behavior of weld pool, such as surface tension, to describe the bead shapes differently along the layer position bead sequence. These techniques are useful to improve the welding procedure specification and thus reduce the time consumed in drawing the bead shapes to 1 s for thick-plate welding process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spin models are widely studied in the natural sciences, from investigating magnetic materials in condensed matter physics to studying neural networks. Previous work has demonstrated that there exist simple classical spin models that are universal: they can replicate—in a precise and rigorous sense—the complete physics of any other classical spin model, to any desired accuracy. However, all previously known universal models break translational invariance. In this paper we show that there exist translationally invariant universal models. Our main result is an explicit construction of a translationally invariant, 2D, nearest-neighbour, universal classical Hamiltonian with a single free parameter. The proof draws on techniques from theoretical computer science, in particular recent complexity theoretic results on tiling problems. Our results imply that there exists a single Hamiltonian which encompasses all classical spin physics, just by tuning a single parameter and varying the size of the lattice. We also prove that our construction is optimal in terms of the number of parameters in the Hamiltonian; there cannot exist a translationally invariant universal Hamiltonian with only the lattice size as a parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Greater tuberosity fractures are challenging lesions concerning decision-making. In order to improve our treatment algorithm, we developed a new method, which allows predicting a possible subacromial conflict on standard anteroposterior radiographs, considering not only the displacement of the fragment but also the width of the subacromial space.Methods: The measurement technique consisted of drawing three concentric circles on true anteroposterior radiographs. The inner circle (radius Rh) perfectly matched the humeral head surface. The medial circle (radius Rt) was tangent to the greater tuberosity, and the outer circle (radius Ra) touched the undersurface of the acromion. The ratio Rt/Rh, which describes how much the greater tuberosity projects above the articular surface, and the relationship (Rt-Rh)/(Ra-Rh), which quantifies the space occupied by the greater tuberosity under the acromion, were calculated and called Greater Tuberosity Index and Impingement Index, respectively. Five dry humeri were used to assess the influence of rotation and abduction on the Greater Tuberosity Index. The radiographs of 80 shoulders without any osseous pathology were analyzed to obtain reference values for both indices. Finally, greater tuberosity fractures with different displacements were created in five cadaver specimens, and subacromial impingement was correlated with these parameters.Results: On anteroposterior radiographs, the greater tuberosity was most prominent in neutral rotation, regardless of abduction. In shoulders without osseous pathology, the Greater Tuberosity Index and the Impingement Index averaged 1.15 (range 1.06-1.28) and 0.46 (range 0.21-0.67). In the biomechanical experiments, the Impingement Index was a better discriminator for subacromial impingement than the Greater Tuberosity Index. A fracture with a displacement corresponding to an Impingement Index of 0.71 or greater was associated with subacromial impingement.Conclusions: Reduction of a displaced greater tuberosity fragment should be considered if the Impingement Index is 0.7 or greater. The measurement method is simple and reliable and has the potential to be used for the assessment of subacromial impingement in other conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data about wildlife crime in Croatia. The data were gathered from qualitative interviews and personal communications with individuals involved in wildlife crime-related research, and/or prevention and detection work or recreation. The results show that poaching is a recognized problem. There is a variety of commonly poached mammals, fish and bird species. We conclude that evidence about wildlife crime should be collated drawing on forensic techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile devices have become a commodity in nowadays allowing people to get connected and perform several tasks for work. The usefulness of mobile is mobility leading people to solve their problems remotely, facilitating an everyday life. Based on these premises we propose a social interactive whiteboard system using finger-tracking for mobile devices. The application is a drawing tool, allowing users to create a virtual whiteboard and draw different kinds of lines, erase lines, zoom etc. from mobile devices that are featured with built-in projectors. Beyond the end-user application, this study investigates the problematic of tracking a finger using the build-in camera and how images are properly projected as a whiteboard from a mobile device. We present a thorough analysis of the various techniques that can be used to track a finger and depict our proposal to build the mobile-based interactive whiteboard application. The experimental evaluation analysed the performance, reliability and usability of the application taking into account valuable feedback for endusers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigated how students used a drawing tool to visualize their ideas of chemical reaction processes. We interviewed 30 students using thinking-aloud and retrospective methods and provided them with a drawing tool. We identified four types of connections the students made as they used the tool: drawing on existing knowledge, incorporating dynamic aspects of chemical processes, linking a visualization to the associated chemical phenomenon, and connecting between the visualization and chemistry concepts. We also compared students who were able to create dynamic visualizations with those who only created static visualizations. The results indicated a relationship between students constructing a dynamic view of chemical reaction processes and their understanding of chemical reactions. This study provides insights into the use of visualizations to support instruction and assessment to facilitate students' integrated understanding of chemical reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the graphical methods employed in the stonecutting treatises from that of De l'Orme, published during the sixteenth century, to De La Rue's Traité de la coupe des pierres, published in 1728. We will deal with the graphical means that made possible an epistemological shift between treatises of the sixteenth century, written for practising stonecutting masons in a period where the subject was covered by a veil of secrecy, which in some specific cases included a very intuitive form of representation, 'protoaxonometries', and eighteenth-century treatises, which show a clear scientific and pedagogical approach to the geometrical problems posed by stonecutting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The visualization of conveyor systems in the sense of a connected graph is a challenging problem. Starting from communication data provided by the IT system, graph drawing techniques are applied to generate an appealing layout of the conveyor system. From a mathematical point of view, the key idea is to use the concept of stress majorization to minimize a stress function over the positions of the nodes in the graph. Different to the already existing literature, we have to take care of special features inspired by the real-world problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, owns twenty-five works on paper by the 18th-century English artist Thomas Gainsborough. Scholarly publications over the past 20 years, as well as Gainsborough's own writings, have highlighted his proclivity toward innovative methods and experimentation. In particular, a letter that the artist wrote in 1773 reveals details of his secret recipe for making oils on paper, such as his recommended use of lead white and the unorthodox practice of dipping his works in skim milk, possibly to prevent the pigments from discoloring. About a dozen of Gainsborough's creations were included in a 2018 exhibition at The Morgan entitled Thomas Gainsborough: Experiments in Drawing. On this occasion, an in-depth scientific study aimed to explore the artist's work as a draftsman, with a special focus on his mastery of materials, his technical innovations, and his development of an original approach to drawing. Initially, a selection of artworks was examined using magnification along with transmitted and raking light to improve surface visualization and to investigate the structure of each piece. Further photographic documentation with ultraviolet and infrared light was performed to gather preliminary information on the variety of white pigments employed, on the wet and dry chalk techniques used in certain works, as well as on the possible presence of coatings and underdrawings. Subsequently, scientific analysis by means of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Raman spectroscopies aimed at characterizing the white pigments present in The Morgan's drawings, which mostly consisted of calcite and lead white. Moreover, a combination of advanced micro-sampling tools, i.e. polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-free erasers and fine polishing films, ad-hoc sample preparation methods, highly sensitive proteomics analysis via nano-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (nano-LC/MS), and sophisticated bioinformatics data processing was employed to assess Gainsborough's use of skim milk as a "secret fixative" on some of his works. Results have revealed the presence of specifically bovine milk in all of the samples evaluated to date. Notably, only through the combined use of such advanced technical resources can the interrogation of all milk proteins retrieved from the samples provide evidence for the presence of a milk fixative and open the discussion about milk processing methods in the 18th century. In addition to granting conservators and art historians a deeper understanding of the complexity of Gainsborough's drawing techniques, this study paves the way for further investigations to probe the use of casein-based fixatives by other artists working on paper such as Degas and Van Gogh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]