Highly oriented α-Al2O3 transparent ceramics shaped by shear force

Alumina platelets were arranged horizontally in submicron alumina particles by shear force in the flow of slurries during casting. The obtained alumina green bodies with platelets were pressureless-sintered in vacuum, producing ceramics with thoroughly oriented grains and high transmittance. The effects of sintering parameters on the densification, microstructure evolution, and orientation degree of alumina ceramics were investigated and discussed. The results showed that the densification, grain size, orientation degree, and in-line transmittance were increased with increasing sintering temperature. The enhancement of orientation degree was mainly coherent with grain growth. The grain-oriented samples exhibited a much higher in-line transmittance (at 600 nm) of 61 % than that of the grain random sample (29 %). Moreover, the transmission remained a high level in the ultraviolet range (<300 nm).     

Gelling behavior of MgAl2O4 slurries with a common dispersant

MgAl₂O₄ transparent ceramics were shaped by a commonly used polyacrylic acid (PAA), which acted as both dispersant and gelling agent. The spinel slurries were prepared by ball-milling MgAl₂O₄ powder, PAA, and water in an attrition mill. The gelling of slurries happened at room temperature in air atmosphere without any other organic additive. The gelling mechanism was the formation of chelates between Mg²⁺ and carboxyl groups (-COO⁻) of PAA. The frequency-based testing method was applied to investigate the gelling process of the as-prepared slurry. In addition, a novel in situ characterization method based on a modified indentation testing was invented to better understand the strengthening of the wet green body with time and to guide when demolding could be carried out. After sintering, transparent MgAl₂O₄ ceramics with high in-line transmittance were resulted.     

Investigation report of geotechnical disaster on river area due to typhoon landfall three times on Okhotsk region,Hokkaido, Japan

For one week from August 17 to 23, 2016, three consecutive typhoons made landfall in Hokkaido for the first time on record. These typhoons and the front they stimulated brought record-breaking torrential rain over the eastern part of Hokkaido. To investigate the damage to grounds and rivers resulting from this rainfall, the Japan Society of Civil Engineers (JSCE) and the Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS) formed a disaster research group to conduct an investigation. This report provides the results of the investigation into damage to the grounds of areas along the Tokoro River of the Okhotsk region, Hokkaido, that suffered from this tremendous and diverse disaster. Specifically, the report describes the situation of the levees which were broken and eroded by the overflowing water, the shape of the levee bodies, the levee body soil properties examined by observation of the sections, as well as the occurrence of sand boiling and air blows. The washout of road embankments as well as damage to road bridge mounting fills and abutment backfills were also investigated. The investigation has demonstrated the need to clarify the resistance of the abutment backfills and levee bodies to flowing water as well as the geotechnical predominant factors in order to clarify the mechanisms behind erosion and washout, the need to review new measures that allow for the scale of sand boiling and resultant changes in levee body stability, and the fact that the existing embankments were able to temporarily suppress the flooding water which had spilled over from the river. Furthermore, although it has been identified that the findings of a study on an embankment washout associated with a tsunami can be applied to measures taken against the overflowing water, it has also been found necessary to clarify the predominant geotechnical factors using model tests and to use a more sophisticated analytical approach to establish a geotechnical stability review as soon as possible in order to prevent the levees and embankments from being eroded and washed out due to overflowing water.     

区域烧结法制备高温气体清洁用大尺寸陶瓷过滤管

用区域烧结在1 d内可完成高温气体清洁用1.5 m陶瓷过滤管的制备过程,区域烧结的优势是缩短研究和开发周期.目前,经过认真设计,已经完成区域烧结设备.多孔陶瓷件比致密陶瓷件更容易烧结成型,原因是多孔陶瓷在区域烧结期间可免除其收缩和变形.     

Recognition of multiple configurations of objects with limited data

One of the main goals of image understanding and computer vision applications is to recognize an object from various images. A lot of studies on recognizing objects based on invariable shapes have been explored, however, in reality, there are many objects with multiple configurations, which are very difficult to be recognized. We call this kind of problem as the recognition of multiple configurations of objects (RMCO). To achieve RMCO, firstly we obtain a shortest path (the Geodesic distance path) between two feature vectors in pre-shape spaces; along this obtained path, we can generate a series of data which can be used to recognize the observed objects by using shape space theories. In other words, we may augment the database content with very limited data to recognize more objects.     

Smoking and small, dense low-density lipoprotein particles: cross-sectional study

All forms of tobacco cause cardiovascular disease, and tobacco-related disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. Smoking oxidizes low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles, and oxidized LDL particles are thought to play an early and critical role in atherosclerogenesis. Hyper-low-density lipoproteinemia is one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease, but small, dense LDL particles have been associated with an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Small, dense LDL correlates with some cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, hypertriglyceridemia, hypo-high-density lipoproteinemia, and hypertension. Although smoking is also a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the relationship between smoking and small, dense LDL particles has not been described previously. Our cross-sectional study examined this relationship in a population of 18 healthy young adult men (9 smokers and 9 never-smokers, aged 21-24 years) from the same college. Concentrations of blood lipids and the LDL migration index (LDL-MI) were examined. Although concentrations of blood lipids did not differ between smokers and never-smokers, the LDL-MI had a strong tendency to be lower in smokers. The LDL-MI is larger in the presence of a greater proportion of small, dense LDL particles. These results indicate that tobacco smoking is associated with a decrease in the proportion of small, dense LDL particles. Regardless of these surprising results, we do not recommend smoking, given that it is a major cause of cardiovascular disease.     

Expression of IFN-inducible protein-10 in chronic hepatitis

Chemokines such as IFN-inducible protein-10 (IP-10) and JE/monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) are induced in the murine liver in a tissue-specific manner. We examined whether IP-10 and MCP-1 are pathologically involved in chronic hepatitis. Whereas the serum levels of IP-10 and MCP-1 in patients with chronic persistent hepatitis C were elevated compared with those in normal volunteers, both chemokine levels were further significantly higher in patients with the active form (chronic active hepatitis (CAH)). The elevated IP-10 level was not a general phenomenon of inflammation, because it was not seen in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, whereas MCP-1 levels were elevated to the same extent in both patient groups. Better responsiveness to IFN therapy in CAH was related to lesser grades of necroinflammatory activity and was predicted by the lower IP-10 and higher MCP-1 levels. IP-10 levels in patients cured by IFN therapy decreased to the levels in normal volunteers, while the MCP-1 levels only slightly decreased. Serum levels of both chemokines in patients who were not cured remained unchanged after IFN therapy. In situ hybridization analysis of CAH revealed that IP-10 mRNA was expressed mainly in hepatocytes around intralobular focal and periportal piecemeal necrosis, while some MCP-1 mRNA was expressed in some sinusoidal cells. These results suggested that IP-10 plays a specific role in the intralobular accumulation of mononuclear cells and/or the death of hepatocytes in chronic hepatitis.     

Gelcasting and Pressureless Sintering of Translucent Alumina Ceramics

Gelcasting is a very useful technique for producing ceramic parts with complex shapes. In this work, gelcasting in air and pressureless sintering in hydrogen were applied to manufacture translucent alumina ceramics. A stable suspension with 75 wt% solids was prepared by ball milling. Trapped bubbles were removed completely before casting to obtain homogeneous green bodies. Final sintering was carried out in a hydrogen furnace at 1850°C for 3 h. Homogeneous microstructures of both calcined and sintered bodies were obtained. The in-line transmission of the sample with a thickness of 0.5 mm increased gently from 9% to 10% in the wavelength range of 190–1100 nm.     

Effects of Coarse Particles on the Gelcasting of Ceramic Foams

In order to study the effects of coarse particles on the gelcasting of ceramic foams, a coarse powder with a similar sintering ability as that of fine powder was designed. It was prepared by grinding the presintered foams manufactured using fine powder and by sieving with 200-mesh sieves. The resultant coarse powder was mixed with the fine powder to manufacture ceramic foams by direct foaming and the gelcasting method. The viscosities of suspensions with different fractions of coarse powder were close to each other at high shear rates. The flexural strength of the foams obtained by the mixed powders was about 10 MPa, which was about 25% lower than that obtained by the fine powder, while the permeability of the foams by mixed powders was about 30% higher than that without coarse powder. On the other hand, both the flexural strength and the permeability of the foams by the mixed powders had no clear relation with the fraction of coarse powder when it varied in the range of 5%–40%.     

High transmittance and grain-orientated alumina ceramics fabricated by adding fine template particles

Transparent Al₂O₃ ceramics with grains aligned to the c-axis were prepared by adding platelets with a low aspect ratio into fine equiaxed particles.The mixed powders were formed into green bodies using spontaneous coagulation casting and sintered by pressureless sintering and hot-isostatic pressure sintering.Zeta potentials and rheological behavior of the slurries,relative densities of green bodies,and orientation and optical properties of sintered bodies were investigated and discussed.The platelet with a high aspect ratio suppressed densification more seriously during sintering than the one with a low aspect ratio.An excellent oriented structure was obtained when 5 wt%platelets with a low aspect ratio were added,and transparent Al₂O₃ ceramics with grains aligned to c-axis were successfully prepared;the in-line transmittance was 78.4%at 600 nm,which is the highest one in the currently reported literature.