International Centre for Advanced Materials (United Kingdom)

PurposeEpidemiological research of stuttering has frequently focused on children, with a relative paucity of population level data specific to adults. Prevalence data for adults are reassessed here, including a breakdown of whether stuttering is overt or covert, and whether onset was in childhood or adulthood. The engagement of adults who stutter with stuttering communities is also estimated. MethodsPrevalence calculations were based on data from studies having the strongest designs, following the systematic review of Gattie, Lieven & Kluk (2024, this issue). Original data for engagement with stuttering communities were gathered from English language internet stuttering support groups, a national stuttering charity in the UK and a regional stuttering support group in Manchester, UK. ResultsAdult stuttering prevalence was estimated at 0.96% (95% CI 0.65, 1.44). This can be broken down to 0.63% overt stuttering (95% CI 0.46, 0.79) comprising 0.53% childhood onset and 0.10% adult onset; and 0.33% covert stuttering (95% CI 0.19, 0.58) comprising 0.28% childhood onset and 0.05% adult onset. Covert stuttering will have been overestimated, and may often be very mild. Engagement with stuttering communities was estimated at 0.99% internationally, 0.63% nationally and 1.01% regionally. Actual engagement will have been lower due to attrition and overcounting. ConclusionThe adult stuttering prevalence estimate of 0.96% is consistent with the widely-cited all ages stuttering prevalence estimate of 1%. Of adults who stutter, fewer than 1% engage with stuttering communities.

This work reports the surface modification of sawdust particles with silane-modified alumina nanoparticles and polydimethylsiloxane to create smart micron-sized adsorbents for separation of surfactant-stabilized emulsions. A very fine polysiloxane network (<12 nm) was created on the surface of alumina nanoparticles which were then uniformly coated on the surface of sawdust particles to create a hierarchical film with thickness < 500 nm. The composite particles were then coated with polydimethylsiloxane to create a stable superhydrophobic absorbent with water contact angle > 150° and thermal stability up to 200 °C. The adsorbent is wet by oil and can be used to separate surfactant-stabilized emulsions under mechanical agitation. The adsorbent was able to remove most of the oil content from the emulsions; the optical transmittance of emulations increased from 0 to ca. 90% after separation, and optical microscopy images showed very low traces of oil in the filtrate.

This study investigated the hydrogen embrittlement sensitivity of the precipitation hardened (PH) alloy 945X in three different metallurgical states. The three variants examined (obtained by different heat treatments) were the standard oil and gas industry condition, and two alternative microstructures with variations in fraction and morphology of γ′, γ″ and δ phases. For each metallurgical state, mechanical tests were carried out on both uncharged and hydrogen pre-charged specimens in order to evaluate the deleterious influence of hydrogen on mechanical properties. Material characterisation and post-test fractography was performed to understand the link between microstructural features, fracture behaviour, and susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement. Fractographic analysis showed that, in the presence of hydrogen, intergranular fracture occurred for all the heat treatments, regardless the presence of δ-phase at grain boundaries. There was no simple correlation between the volume fraction of δ-phase and susceptibility to hydrogen assisted embrittlement. Rather, it was demonstrated that the morphology and distribution of δ-phase along grain boundaries plays a key role and the other precipitate phases also have an influence through their influence on the ease of strain localization.

Abstract Abstractauthoren Nickel thin films were deposited on Ti6Al4V and surface treated with nanosecond pulse ultraviolet laser in ambient conditions using a fluence of 3.68 J cm−2. A twofold to threefold increase in contact angle was observed for water, ethylene glycol, and diiodomethane following laser treatment, with recorded contact angles for water in excess of 130°. No additional treatment was used to hydrophobize the surface. Three different micro‐ and nanometric levels of roughness were generated on the thin film surface, which can be related to the rastering parameters of the laser and to the increase in apparent contact angle. Melt droplets were identified as a main contribution to the nanometric roughness level, indicating that melting and melt ejection play an important role in surface nanostructuring.Micro‐ and nanopatterning obtained after UV laser treatment of nickel thin films, highlighting the different scales of the generated features.

This study experimentally assesses a capability of a network, comprised of several small tripartite infrasound arrays, to locate accurately surface explosion sources at distances of several tens of kilometres. The location procedure, we developed, utilises first arrival phase delays and includes two main stages. Firstly a preliminary source location is obtained as intersection point of back‐azimuths estimated for each individual array. Then using jointly time delays from different arrays, a refined location is found via non‐linear grid‐search optimization technique. The procedure features are: independency from a source‐station travel time model, reduced influence of the outliers, optional adaptation to the varying multi‐channel noise. High location accuracy (a few hundred meters) was achieved for field experimental on‐surface explosions in Sayarim valley, Israel, recorded by special tripartite infrasound arrays.

The onset of dissipation in the I-V characteristics of granular YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/ shows clear evidence for a finite critical current. At currents above critical, dissipation in the weak links is only slightly field and temperature dependent. This self-similarity of the characteristics implies strongly that there is a true critical current, despite the random network nature of these materials. Also, it indicates that the dissipative behavior of the grain boundary weak links is almost field and temperature independent.

"Simple Inexpensive Process Produces Tough Ceramics." Materials and Processing Report, 5(8), pp. 3–4