Friction and wear properties of rice husk ceramics under dry condition

The friction and wear behaviors of rice husk (RH) ceramics, prepared by carbonizing the mixture of rice husk and phenol resin at 900 °C in N₂ gas environment, sliding against high carbon chromium steel (JIS SUJ2), austenitic stainless steel (JIS SUS304), and Al₂O₃ under dry condition were investigated using a ball-on-disk tribometer. The test results show that the friction coefficient of RH ceramics takes very low values 0.05–0.08 and 0.06–0.11 sliding against SUJ2 and SUS304, respectively, and much higher values around 0.14–0.23 against Al₂O₃. It was also shown that SUJ2 provides the lowest specific wear rate values below 10⁻⁹ mm²/N, while, those of SUS304 and Al₂O₃ mostly stayed between 10⁻⁹ to 10⁻⁸ mm²/N range. The worn surfaces of counterparts were observed with optical microscopy and analyzed using cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron diffraction. It was suggested that the tribological behaviors of RH ceramics are closely related with the formation of a transferred film, consisted of amorphous silica and carbon particles, on a counterpart surface. The transferred film was formed readily on SUJ2 balls, whereas for SUS304 the presence of the film was subject of the sliding conditions. Moreover, formation of the transferred film could not be detected on Al₂O₃ counterparts.     

Preparation of calcium-doped boron nitride by pulsed laser deposition

Calcium-doped BN thin films Ca_xBN_y (x = 0.05–0.1, y = 0.7–0.9) were grown on α-Al₂O₃(0 0 1) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using h-BN and Ca₃N₂ disks as the targets under nitrogen radical irradiation. Infrared ATR spectra demonstrated the formation of short range ordered structure of BN hexagonal sheets, while X-ray diffraction gave no peak indicating the absence of long-range order structure in the films. It was notable that Ca-doped film had 5.45–5.55 eV of optical band gap, while the band gap of Ca-free films was 5.80–5.85 eV. This change in the band gap is ascribed to interaction of Ca with the BN sheets; first principle calculations on h-BN structure indicated that variation of inter-plane distance between the BN layers did not affect the band gap. This study highlights that PLD could prepare BN having short-range structure of h-BN sheets and being doped with electropositive cation which varies the optical band gap of the films.     

Design Study of Top Lid with Clamp Structure in JT-60SA Cryostat

JT-60SA is a fully superconducting coil tokamak upgraded from the JT-60U. This paper focused on the integrity of the top lid of cryostat in JT-60SA. The design requirement for the cryostat in normal operations is to achieve vacuum insulation of 10 3 Pa, and the top flange of the top lid is lightly welded onto its body flange. The weld is tensile-loaded by bending deformation of the top lid due to vacuum pressure of external 0.1 MPa. This weld integrity is evaluated with tensile-load reduction, which results in clamp reinforcement. The structural integrity of the top lid is validated.     

Improved rate-distortion optimized video coding using non-integer bit estimation and multiple Lambda search

Many modern video encoders use the Lagrangian rate-distortion optimization (RDO) algorithm for mode decisions during the compression procedure. For each encoding stage, this approach involves minimizing a cost, which is a function of rate, distortion and a multiplier called Lambda. This paper proposes to improve the RDO process by applying two modifications. The first modification is to increase the accuracy of rate estimation, which is achieved by computing a non-integer number of bits for arithmetic coding of the syntax elements. This leads to a more accurate cost computation and therefore a better mode decision. The second modification is to search and adjust the value of Lambda based on the characteristics of each coding stage. For the encoder used, this paper proposes to search multiple values of Lambda for the intra-4×4mode decision. Moreover, a simple shift in Lambda value is proposed for motion estimation. Each of these modifications offers a certain gain in RDO performance, and, when all are combined, an average bit-rate saving of up to 7.0% can be achieved for the H.264/AVC codec while the same concept is applicable to the H.265/HEVC codec as well. The extra added complexity is contained to a certain level, and is also adjustable according to the processing resources available.     

Electrospray Deposition of Photoresist: A Low Impact Method for the Fabrication of Multilayered Films

Electrospray deposition has been investigated as a substitute for photoresist spin coating. The morphology of Microposit S1813 photoresist films has been studied as a function of several spray conditions including resist concentration, substrate surface, and flow rate. Film morphology is controlled by three process parameters: the surface energy determines the equilibrium conditions of resist on the substrate; the viscosity and volume flux determine the relaxation time for the depositing resist solution after impact on the substrate. Electrosprayed photoresist films have been used for photolithographic patterning and it has been demonstrated that electrospray deposition is an effective method for deposition of photoresist on top of fragile, thin films, which can be used for multilayered thin film fabrication.

     

α-gel prepared in sodium methyl stearoyl taurate/behenyl alcohol/water system-characterization of structural changes with water concentration

In this study, the changes in the structural and physicochemical properties of an α-crystalline phase (often called an "α-gel") were assessed in a sodium methyl stearoyl taurate (SMT)/behenyl alcohol/water system. The α-gels were characterized focusing on the effects of the alcohol/surfactant ratio and water concentration. Water molecules solubilized in the interlayer of the α-crystalline phase resulting in expanded interlayer spacing. Beyond the solubilization limit of 85 %, water molecules were trapped in the matrix of the α-crystalline phase in non-equilibrium (i.e., two phases). Accordingly, different self-diffusion coefficients for the solubilized and trapped water molecules were measured using a Fourier transform pulsed gradient spin echo technique to monitor the 1H NMR spectra. It was concluded that the two self-diffusion coefficients correspond to the water solubilized in the interlayer, i.e., "slow water," and trapped in the matrix of the α-crystalline phase, i.e., "fast water."     

Spectrum sharing method for secondary systems using frequency priority table to reduce inter-secondary interference

Because of the rapid development of cognitive radio technologies, research on sharing frequency resources allocated to primary users with secondary users has attracted much attention. If a frequency band is unused by the primary users, multiple secondary users are expected to share the spectrum in a future wireless communication network. To efficiently share the spectrum among secondary systems, we propose a novel channel allocation method that uses a frequency priority table generated based on the location of the secondary system. By using this method, the interference with other systems is autonomously reduced by selecting channels. Moreover, a power control method is also proposed for protecting the secondary systems that are allocated to the channels with higher priority.