Our continuing study of the mechanism of flammability reduction of polymer−layered-silicate nanocomposites has yielded results for polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride and polystyrene−layered-silicate nanocomposites using montmorillonite and fluorohectorite. Cone calorimetry was used to measure the heat release rate and other flammability properties of the nanocomposites, under well-controlled combustion conditions. Both the polymer−layered-silicate nanocomposites and the combustion residues were studied by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. We have found evidence for a common mechanism of flammability reduction. We also found that the type of layered silicate, nanodispersion, and processing degradation have an influence on the flammability reduction.

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The ARIANNA hexagonal radio array (HRA) is an experiment in its pilot phase designed to detect cosmogenic neutrinos of energies above 10 16 eV. The most neutrino-like background stems from the radio emission of air showers. This article reports on dedicated efforts of simulating and detecting the signals of cosmic rays. A description of the fully radio self-triggered data-set, the properties of the detected air shower signals in the frequency range of 100-500 MHz and the consequences for neutrino detection are given. 38 air shower signals are identified by their distinct waveform characteristics, are in good agreement with simulations and their signals provide evidence that neutrino-induced radio signals will be distinguishable with high efficiency in ARIANNA. The cosmic ray flux at a mean energy of 6.5 +1.2 −1.0 × 10 17 eV is measured to be 1.1 +1.0 −0.7 × 10 −16 eV −1 km −2 sr −1 yr −1 and one five-fold coincident event is used to illustrate the capabilities of the ARIANNA detector to reconstruct arrival direction and energy of air showers.

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