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Ambitious Project (ambitious + project)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences50%

Selected Abstracts

Processing of short-fiber reinforced polypropylene.

POLYMER ENGINEERING & SCIENCE, Issue 1 2000

An experimental investigation of the processing of glass fiber reinforced polypropylene is presented. Final fiber orientation distribution, fiber distribution in filament sections, rheological properties, final fiber length distribution and surface morphology were analyzed. This analysis was done taking into account the quantity of fibers and their interactions and flow conditions. The final fiber orientation increased when shear rate increased and fiber concentration decreased. Moreover, inhomogeneities in fiber distribution increased as the concentration of fibers decreased. The density profile showed a significant variation with fiber concentration, but it was not dependent on the shear rate applied. The viscosity showed a linear dependence with shear rate. The average fiber length and the breadth of this distribution decreased with the increasing fiber concentration and extrusion rate. The extruded filament surface showed minor roughness when the shear rate increased or when the fiber concentration decreased. The results of this experimental characterization give useful information to determine the influence of the processing variables on the final properties of short-fiber reinforced polypropylene and constitutes the first part of a more ambitious project that also includes the development of a modeling strategy of the processing behavior for short-fiber composites. [source]

Better Government with Older Citizens: A Test of Democracy

THE POLITICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2010
BRIAN GROOMBRIDGE
Better Government for Older People: this ambitious project to involve older citizens in the improvement of policies affecting them, celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2008. Then the Government decided to close it down, setting up an Advisory Forum as an alternative. BGOP's considerable achievements were widely recognised (and acknowledged in the DWP review by John Elbourne) but there were real shortcomings. BGOP's previous history is summarised, with special reference to its work with the Older People's Advisory Group. Some activists and observers believe BGOP's weaknesses could and should have been remedied, but the Government decided to start again. There are strongly opposed interpretations of why this happened. Former BGOP staff and OPAG members have since set up ChangeAGEnts, a Co-operative charity, to continue their work. The specific issue is intrinsically and demographically important, but it also throws light on consultation in many other policy areas. [source]

A Window into the Recent Past in Chiapas: Federal Education and Indigenismo in the Highlands, 1921-1940

JOURNAL OF LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2001
Stephen E. LewisArticle first published online: 28 JUN 200
In the 1920s and 1930s Mexico's Ministry of Public Education (SEP) launched ambitious projects aimed at modernizing and "civilizing' the highlands of Chiapas "incorporating' its indigenous populations into the national mestizo mainstream, and imposing federal laws and instiaitions in the state. SEP teachers met fierce resistance from ladino alcohol mercliants, debt-labor contractors, planters and politicians and from the Tzotzil and Tzeltal Maya themselves. By the time President Lázaro Cárdenas managed to impose his reform agenda on the state in late 1936, die SEP's battle had largely been lost, kind and labor reforms merely provided local ladinos with new ways to control the highland Maya. By 1940, indigenous communities were tied politically to state and national party machines. Only now might tills system of domination lie breaking down, as the PRI reels from its recent losses at the national and state levels. [source]

Diffraction cartography: applying microbeams to macromolecular crystallography sample evaluation and data collection

ACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION D, Issue 8 2010
Matthew W. Bowler
Crystals of biological macromolecules often exhibit considerable inter-crystal and intra-crystal variation in diffraction quality. This requires the evaluation of many samples prior to data collection, a practice that is already widespread in macromolecular crystallography. As structural biologists move towards tackling ever more ambitious projects, new automated methods of sample evaluation will become crucial to the success of many projects, as will the availability of synchrotron-based facilities optimized for high-throughput evaluation of the diffraction characteristics of samples. Here, two examples of the types of advanced sample evaluation that will be required are presented: searching within a sample-containing loop for microcrystals using an X-ray beam of 5,µm diameter and selecting the most ordered regions of relatively large crystals using X-ray beams of 5,50,µm in diameter. A graphical user interface developed to assist with these screening methods is also presented. For the case in which the diffraction quality of a relatively large crystal is probed using a microbeam, the usefulness and implications of mapping diffraction-quality heterogeneity (diffraction cartography) are discussed. The implementation of these techniques in the context of planned upgrades to the ESRF's structural biology beamlines is also presented. [source]