Explore the vast range of titles available.

Almanacis a collection of lyrical and narrative poems that celebrate, and mourn the passing of, the world of the small family farm. But while the poems are all involved in some way with the rural Midwest, particularly with the people and land of the northwestern Illinois dairy farm where Austin Smith was born and raised, they are anything but merely regional. As the poems reflect on farm life, they open out to speak about childhood and death, the loss of tradition, the destruction of the natural world, and the severing of connections between people and the land. This collection also reflects on a long poetic apprenticeship. Smith's father is a poet himself, andAlmanacis in part a meditation about the responsibility of the poet, especially the young poet, when it falls to him to speak for what is vanishing. To quote another Illinois poet, Thomas James, Smith has attempted in this book to write poems \"clear as the glass of wine / on [his] father's table every Christmas Eve.\" By turns exhilarating and disquieting, this is a remarkable debut from a distinctive new voice in American poetry.______ FromAlmanac:THE MUMMY IN THE FREEPORT ART MUSEUMAustin Smith Amongst the masterpieces of the small-townPicassos and Van Goghs and photographsof the rural poor and busts of dead Greeksor the molds of busts donated by the ArtInstitute of Chicago to this dyingtown's little museum, there was a mummy,a real mummy, laid out in a dim-litroom by himself. I used to goto the museum just to visit him, a pharaohwho, expecting an afterlifeof beautiful virgins and infinite foodand all the riches and jewelshe'd enjoyed in earthly life,must have wondered how the hellhe'd ended up in Freeport, Illinois.And I used to go alone into that roomand stand beside his sarcophagus and say,\"My friend, I've asked myself the same thing.\"

Simulation computations represent a very effective tool for investigating operational characteristics and behaviours of vehicles without having a real product. The rail vehicles sector is typical, in that simulation computations including multibody modelling of individual vehicles (i.e., wagons) as well as entire trainsets are widely used. In the case of designing rail vehicles, running safety and ride comfort are two of the most important assessment areas. The presented work is focused on the research of the dynamical effects of a rail vehicle while running on a railway track created in a commercial multibody model. There is a lot of research focused on the investigation of dynamic performances while a rail vehicle is running on a flexible railway track. The real operation of a rail vehicle meets problems on track, where the stiffness-damping parameters of a railway track vary in transient sections (e.g., the exit of a tunnel). This work brings a contribution to research related to the assessment of the dynamic response of a rail vehicle on a chosen track section. A passenger railway vehicle is chosen as a reference multibody model. Simulation computations were performed for three different railway track models, i.e., for a rigid track model and for a flexible track model defined in two different manners. The stiffness-damping parameters of the rail vehicle are defined symmetrically in relation to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, e.g., they are the same values for the left and right side. The centre of gravity is not located symmetrically, but it is partially shifted in the lateral direction. This can be observed in the results of wheel forces and their waveforms. There are evaluated values and waveforms of the vertical wheel forces, the lateral wheel forces and the derailment quotient. The obtained results have revealed the influence of the railway track formulation in the model on the output parameters.

To increase the efficiency of combined transportation, the supporting structure of flat wagon has been created. A feature of the wagon is that the sections have a low center of gravity. This solution allows for the transportation of oversized cargo on a flat wagon within the established dimensions. The design of this flat wagon can be used for the carriage of goods not only by main lines, but also in rail and water traffic when transported by rail ferries. To ensure the safety of transportation of a flat wagon with containers on a railway ferry, their dynamic loading was determined. It is taken into account that a large-capacity container of 1AA standard size is placed on each section. The solution of the mathematical model was carried out in the MathCad software package. The resulting accelerations, as components of the dynamic load, were taken into account when determining the stability of a container on a flat wagon during transportation by a rail ferry. It was found that the stability of the container is ensured at tilt angles up to 25°. A computer simulation of the dynamic loading of the supporting structure of an articulated flat wagon with containers during transportation by a railway ferry has been carried out. The calculation is implemented in the CosmosWorks software package using the finite element method. The fields of distribution of accelerations relative to the supporting structure of the flat wagon and containers are determined. The maximum percentage of discrepancy between the results of mathematical and computer simulation does not exceed 11 %. The research carried out will contribute to the creation of innovative designs of flat wagons, as well as to increase the efficiency of the operation of combined transport in international traffic

The paper aims to analyse the remediation of soils contaminated by black coal tar and other contaminants in relation to risk limits in the different geological environments. The research was implemented as a case study in one of the most expensive remediation projects of contaminated soils in alluvial sediments, in the locality of a former coking plant Karolina in an industrial city of Ostrava in north-east of the Czech Republic. Based on the level of risk, three contaminated geological environments (layers) were selected, which were examined for chemical limits that must be complied with after remediation using ex situ thermal desorption. Around 1.5 million tons (10,720 wagons of 72 m3 and 14 m) of contaminated soils were dug out, which were subsequently treated ex situ by means of thermal desorption. In total, 12,200 t of contaminants were removed, among which non-polar extractable substances (NPES) amounted to 67.94% (8289 t), benzene to 12.25% (1494 t), naphthalene to 11.27% (1375 t), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) to 6.43% (784 t), benzo(a)pyrene to 1.11% (135 t), phenol to 0.82% (99 t), arsenic to 0.16% (20 t) and mercury to 0.02% (3 t). The most hazardous in terms of contact with humans was the top layer of quaternary alluvial fine-grained soils (3664 t of removed contaminants, 30% of all contamination—layer I). However, the most contaminated layer was the lowest, permeable layer of quaternary alluvial gravel sediments (7479 t of removed contaminants, 61% of all contamination—layer III). The contamination penetrated into the highly permeable layer due to gravity and could not migrate further due to the abundance of impermeable Miocene grey–blue clay.

The article presents the study results of the dynamic loading of a flat wagon with a lower gravity center.The authors built a mathematical model that takes into account displacements of a flat wagon loaded with an anti-aircraft installation firing in motion. The solution of the differential equations of motion is carried out by using the Runge-Kutta method. The maximum vertical acceleration was about 5 m/sec2 and almost independent of the fire angle. The horizontal acceleration was about 37 m/sec2. The acceleration values obtained did not exceed the normative ones. The study defined the natural oscillation frequencies for the frame of a flat wagon with lower gravity center. It was established that the critical oscillation frequencies were within the admissible values. The results of the work will contribute to the creation of recommendations on the transportation of military equipment on wagons and the possibility of conducting military operations from them.

Steel coil carrying trailers and wagons usually have a well in the floor to assist with safe stowage and to lower the centre of gravity. But the standards achieved by producers and required by the users have risen over the past few years. Much steel is now sold in pre-coated rolls and even without coating, a higher standard of finish is required by the users, with no marking or bruising on the material. The Carter Group has produced a 6m long demountable coil carrier. It has standard ISO fixings, and can be carried by truck, train or ship.

Many parameter values are needed for mathematical models which describe the dynamic motions of a vehicle on the road. These include mass and inertia parameters, suspension geometry factors, suspension compliances, damping properties, and tire properties. This paper is based on many suspension parameter, inertia parameter, directional response and tire tests. It defines the ranges of these parameters that are encountered in production vehicles. It briefly discusses some of the combinations of these factors that are designed into production vehicles. Some general rules for estimating certain of these parameters are stated.