STUDY ON DYNAMIC CURVING BEHAVIOR OF TILTING PASSENGER CARS

By using tilting carbodies, train can negotiate at a higher speed withoutreducing the passenger's ride quality. This is a good method to allow a significant increase inspeed at existing track to improve the railway transportation capability, and to enhance thecompetition ability of railways with other transportation systems. With the increase of the curvenegotiation speed, the wheel-rail lateral forces and wheel-rail wear of the tilting train willincrease. The self-steering radial bogie is an effective way to solve the problem. The dynamic modelof the tilting passenger car with self-steering bogies is established in detail, and the curvingperformance of the car is investigated.

Experimental study on the shear behavior of the interface between cushion materials and the concrete raft

Cushion is a layer of granular materials between the raft and the ground. The shear behavior of the interface between the cushion and the raft may influence the seismic performance of the superstructure. In order to quantify such influences, horizontal shear tests on the interfaces between different cushion materials and concrete raft under monotonic and cyclic loading were carried out. The vertical pressure P_v, material type and cushion thickness h_c were taken as variables. Conclusions include： 1） under monotonic loading, P_v is the most significant factor; the shear resistance P_（hmax） increases as P_v increases, but the normalized factor of resistance μ_n has an opposite tendency; 2） for the materials used in this study, μ_n varies from 0.40 to 0.70, the interface friction angle δ_s varies from 20° to 35°, while u_（max） varies from 3 mm to 15 mm; 3） under cyclic loading, the interface behavior can be abstracted as a ＂three-segment＂ back-bone curve, the main parameters include μ_n, the displacement u_1 and stiffness K_1 of the elastic stage, the displacement u_2 and stiffness K_2 of the plastic stage; 4） by observation and statistical analysis, the significance of different factors, together with values of K_1, K_2 and μ_n have been obtained.

Multiple magnetic transitions and magnetocaloric effect of Tb_(4)Coln alloy

We report on the magnetic,magnetocaloric,thermal,and electrical transport properties of Tb_(4)Coln alloy,which crystallizes in two phases,Tb_6Co_(2.1)In_(0.8)(space group Immm)and Tb_(2)In_(0.9)Co_(0.1)(space group P6_(3)/mmc),respectively.The alloy reveals three successive magnetic transitions around T_(1)(163 K),T_(2)(50 K),and T_(3)(29 K),respectively,associated with paramagnetic to ferromagnetic transition and two sequential antiferromagnetic transitions.The low-temperature transition T_(3) follows the first-order magnetic behavior and exhibits the field-induced magnetic transition.Meanwhile,T_(2) and T_(1) are found to be second-order in nature which opens a possibility for hysteresis-free magnetocaloric application.The magnetocaloric properties are determined using different magnetocaloric figures of merits such as-ΔS_(M),ΔT_(ad).RCP,and TEC(10).Additionally,the universal curve behavior in the isothermal entropy change unveils the variation in critical exponents around T_(1) and T_(2) due to the magnetic inhomogeneity in the alloy.Besides,the electrical transport properties of the metallic alloy denote the maximum magnetoresistance of-10%around T_(1).

Can rarefaction be used to estimate song repertoire size in birds？

Song repertoire size is the number of distinct syllables, phrases, or song types produced by an individual or population. Repertoire size estimation is particularly difficult for species that produce highly variable songs and those that produce many song types. Estimating repertoire size is important for ecological and evolutionary studies of speciation, studies of sexual selection, as well as studies of how species may adapt their songs to various acoustic environments. There are several methods to estimate repertoire size, however prior studies discovered that all but a full numerical count of song types might have substantial inaccuracies associated with them. We evaluated a somewhat novel approach to estimate repertoire size--rarefaction; a technique ecologists use to measure species diversity on individual and population levels. Using the syllables within American robins＇ Turdus migratorius repertoire, we compared the most commonly used techniques of estimating repertoires to the results of a rarefaction analysis. American robins have elaborate and unique songs with few syllables shared between individuals, and there is no evidence that robins mimic their neighbors. Thus, they are an ideal system in which to compare techniques. We found that the rarefaction technique results resembled that of the numerical count, and were better than two alternative methods （behavioral accumulation curves, and capture-recapture） to estimate syllable repertoire size. Future estimates of repertoire size, particularly in vocally complex species, may benefit from using rarefaction techniques when numerical counts are unable to be performed [Current Zoology 57 （3）： 300-306, 2011].