Effect of CaO composition on oxidation and burning behaviors of AM50 Mg alloy

Oxidation and burning behaviors were studied for CaO added AM50 Mg composites which were manufactured by conventional melting and casting processes without SF₆ protective gas. CaO added AM50 Mg composites show the stable oxidation resistance, while AM50 Mg alloys show the poor oxidation resistance. The effects of CaO addition on the burning resistance under ambient, nitrogen and dry air atmospheres were examined for CaO added AM50 Mg composites. With increasing CaO addition, the burning temperature increases under ambient, nitrogen and dry air atmospheres. The burning temperatures of small test specimen under all conditions greatly increase even by 0.3% CaO (mass fraction) addition into AM50 Mg alloys.     

Breast disease: Etiology, prevention, and rehabilitation.

A theoretical model is presented that takes etiological factors into account in describing behavioral and constitutional factors associated with fibrocystic disease and breast cancer. The model identifies 5 variables: genetic background and familial history; life cycle events; dietary habits; use of exogenous estrogens; and psychological factors, including life stresses, anxiety or tension, and depression. Most of the variables are hypothesized to increase the risk of breast pathology by inducing physiological changes—specifically, by fostering endocrinopathy or immunosuppression. Supportive research is cited, and the relationship between fibrocystic disease and breast cancer is detailed. Implications for prevention and for rehabilitation of women with breast disease are described. (91 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Immersive Whiteboard Collaborative System

An immersive whiteboard system is presented where users at multiple locations can communicate with each other. The system features a virtual environment with vivid avatars, stroke compression and streaming technology to effectively deliver stroke data across meeting participants, friendly human interaction and navigation, virtual and physical whiteboard. The whiteboard is both a physical platform for our input/output interfaces and a virtual screen for sharing common multimedia. It is this whiteboard correspondence that allows the user to physically write on the virtual whiteboard. In addition to drawing on the shared virtual board, the immersive whiteboard in our setup permits users to control the application menus, insert multimedia objects into the world, and navigate around the virtual environment. By integrating multimedia objects and avatar representations into an immersive environment, we provide the users with a more transparent medium so that they feel as if they are communicating and interacting face-to-face. The whiteboard efficiently pulls all the collaboration technologies together. The goal of this collaborative system is to provide a convenient environment for participants to interact with each other and support collaborative applications such as instant messaging, distance learning and conferencing.     

Mg-Ca Alloys Produced by Reduction of CaO: Understanding of ECO-Mg Alloy Production

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - There have been long debates about the environment conscious (ECO) Mg technology which utilizes CaO to produce Ca-containing Mg alloys. Two key process...     

Evaluation of dynamic recrystallization behaviors in hot-extruded AA5083 through hot torsion tests

Hot torsion tests were carried out to evaluate the dynamic recrystallization (DRX) behaviors of hot-extruded AA5083 at various deformation conditions. Flow curves showed the peak followed by the flow softening to the steady-state or to the failure strain, indicating that the DRX occurred during deformation. The peak stress increased as the temperature decreased and the strain rate increased. Constitutive relationship and Zener-Hollomon (Z) parameter were used to evaluate the DRX characteristics. Peak and steady-state stresses were generalized by the dimensionless parameter, Z/A, to reveal the DRX mechanism. The empirical relationship of the DRXed grain size with the deformation conditions was established, and decreased with increasing Z parameter. The relationship for the fraction of DRXed grains was established as a function of the effective strain at given deformation conditions from the experimental data. The Avrami relationship based on micro-hardness measurement was used to describe the DRX kinetics, and was fitted well with the observed DRX fraction.     

A study of Internet instant messaging and chat protocols

Instant messaging (IM) and network chat communication have seen an enormous rise in popularity over the last several years. However, since many of these systems are proprietary, little has been described about the network technology behind them. This analysis helps bridge this gap by providing an overview of the available features, functions, system architectures, and protocol specifications of the three most popular network IM protocols: AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and Microsoft Messenger. We describe common features across these systems and highlight distinctions between them. Where possible, we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different technical approaches used in these systems to support different features and functions. We also briefly discuss ongoing efforts to standardize IM and chat-based protocols in IETF and other standards bodies.     

peerTalk: A Peer-to-Peer Multiparty Voice-over-IP System

Multiparty voice-over-IP (MVolP) services allow a group of people to freely communicate with each other via the Internet, which have many important applications such as online gaming and teleconferencing. In this paper, we present a peer-to-peer MVolP system called peerTalk. Compared to traditional approaches such as server-based mixing, peerTalk achieves better scalability and failure resilience by dynamically distributing the stream processing workload among different peers. Particularly, peerTalk decouples the MVolP service delivery into two phases: mixing phase and distribution phase. The decoupled model allows us to explore the asymmetric property of MVolP services (for example, distinct speaking/listening activities and unequal inbound/outbound bandwidths) so that the system can better adapt to distinct stream mixing and distribution requirements. To overcome arbitrary peer departures/ failures, peerTalk provides lightweight backup schemes to achieve fast failure recovery. We have implemented a prototype of the peerTalk system and evaluated its performance using both a large-scale simulation testbed and a real Internet environment. Our initial implementation demonstrates the feasibility of our approach and shows promising results: peerTalk can outperform existing approaches such as P2P overlay multicast and coupled distributed processing for providing MVolP services.     

Using a periodic square wave test signal to detect crosstalk faults

Built-in self test (BIST) scheme simplifies the detection of crosstalk faults in deep-submicron VLSI circuits in the boundary scan environment. The scheme tests for crosstalk faults with a periodic square wave test signal under applied random patterns generated by a linear feedback shift register (LFSR), which is transconfigured from the embedded circuit's boundary scan cells. The scheme simplifies test generation and test application while obviating the fault occurrence timing issue. Experimental results show that coverage for the induced-glitch type of crosstalk fault for large benchmark circuits can easily exceed 90%.     

Effect of Compositional Variation on the Microstructural Evolution and the Castability of Al–Mg–Si Ternary Alloys

This study examined the microstructural evolution and castability of Al–Mg–Si ternary alloys with varying Si contents. Al–6Mg–xSi alloys (where x = 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7; all compositions in mass pct) were examined, with Al–6 mass pct Mg as a base alloy. The results showed that in the ternary alloys with Si ≤ 3 pct, the solidification process ended with the formation of eutectic α-Al–Mg₂Si phases generated by a univariant reaction. However, in the case of ternary alloys with Si > 3 pct, solidification was completed with the formation of α-Al–Mg₂Si–Si ternary eutectic phases generated by a three-phase invariant reaction. In addition to the eutectic Mg₂Si phases, the primary Mg₂Si phases formed in each of the ternary alloys, and the size of both sets of phases increased with increasing Si content. The two-phase eutectic α-Al–Mg₂Si nucleated from the primary Mg₂Si phases. The inoculated Al–6Mg–1Si alloy had the smallest grain size. Moreover, the grain-refining efficacy of the Al–5Ti–B master alloy in the ternary alloys decreased with increasing Si content in the alloys. Despite the poisoning effect of Si on the potency of TiB₂ compounds in the inoculated Al–6Mg–1Si alloy, the grain size of the alloy was slightly smaller than that of the Al–6Mg binary alloy. This resulted from the increasing growth restriction factor (induced by Si addition) of the Al–6Mg–1Si alloy. In terms of the castability, the examined alloys showed different levels of susceptibility to hot tearing. Among the alloys, the ternary Al–6Mg–5Si alloy exhibited the highest susceptibility to hot tearing, whereas the Al–6Mg–7Si exhibited the lowest. The severity of hot tearing initiated by the unraveling of the bifilm was determined by the freezing range, grain size, and the amount of eutectic phases at the end of the solidification process.