Binary and ternary blends of poly(lactic acid) (PLA), polystyrene (PS) and acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) were prepared using a one-step extrusion process. Rheological and mechanical properties of the prepared blends were determined. Rheological properties were studied using a capillary rheometer, shear rate, shear stress, non-Newtonian index, shear viscosity and flow activation energy w...

This paper uses the econometrics of endogenous structural breaks to examine changes in energy intensity for OECD countries over 1960-2009. Nearly all OECD countries currently have significant negatively trending energy-GDP ratios; but for several countries those negative trends are recent, and two countries have recent significant positive trends. For several countries, energy intensity had a s...

An understanding of the limit on potential predictability is crucial for developing appropriate tools for extended-range prediction of active/break spells of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM). The global low-frequency changes in climate modulate the annual cycle of the ISM and can influence the intrinsic predictability limit of the ISM intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs). Using 104-year (1901–2004)...

Experimental and theoretical models are used to explore the break of a moraine dam by catastrophic erosional incision initiated by overtopping with a displacement wave. The experiments are conducted in a rectangular tank with an erodible barrier made from sand and grit. Theory combines shallow-water hydrodynamics with an empirical model of erosion. The models confirm that dams can be broken by ...

Generation of wave break is a characteristic feature of cardiac fibrillation. In this study, we investigated how dynamic factors and fixed electrophysiological heterogeneity interact to promote wave break in simulated two-dimensional cardiac tissue, by using the Luo-Rudy (LR1) ventricular action potential model. The degree of dynamic instability of the action potential model was controlled by v...

The timing of the seasonal freeze-thaw cycle of arctic lakes affects ecological processes and land-atmosphere energy fluxes. We carried out detailed ice-phenology mapping of arctic lakes, based on daily surface-reflectance time series for 2000-2013 from MODIS at 250 m spatial resolution. We used over 13,300 lakes, area >1 km2, in five study areas distributed evenly across the circumpolar Arctic...

A multi-break rearrangement generalizes most of genome rearrangements, such as block-interchanges, transpositions and reversals. A k-break cuts k adjacencies over a permutation, and forms k new adjacencies by joining the extremities according to an arbitrary matching. Block-interchange distance is a polynomial problem, but the transposition and the reversal distances are both NP-hard problems. ...

Mucus is an integral part of the tear film with functions including the anchoring of the aqueous components and stabilising their contact with the cornea by rendering structural support to the microplicae, having potential involvement in apoptotic and cell mediating activity as well as combatting pathogens and foreign bodies.1 Ocular mucus helps maintain the wettability of the ocular surface an...