Structure and surface properties of diaminocyclohexane plasma polymer films

Plasma polymers of three isomers of diaminocyclohexane (DACH) were deposited on polyethylene, SiO₂, and mica at 20°C. The deposition rate was measured as a function of plasma density and power; a maximum was observed in the latter function. The deposition rate was highest for the monomer with the highest flow rate. The film refractive index was observed to increase with both power density and the degree of fragmentation in the plasma. Film composition was measured by elementary analysis, and was found to be almost identical for each of the three isomers; a mechanism for the polymerization reaction is proposed. The percentage of primary amino groups decreased with increasing power density and with film thickness. Surface force measurements of the thickness and refractive index agreed well with the corresponding ellipsometry values in dry air, and am adhesive force, independent of power density, was measured. When the film was exposed to water vapor, it swelled considerably and the adhesion was determined by capillary forces. Associated with swelling, at high power, was an extremely regular 2-ply rope pattern of protruding material. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons. Inc.     

Interdiffusion behavior of Hg in HgTe/CdTe superlattices grown on Cd0.96Zn0.04 Te (211)B substrates by molecular beam epitaxy

Double-crystal x-ray rocking curve (DCRC) and secondary-ion mass-spectroscopy (SIMS) measurements have been performed to investigate the effect of rapid thermal annealing on the interdiffusion behavior of Hg in HgTe/CdTe superlattices grown on Cd_0.96Zn_0.04Te (211)B substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. The sharp satellite peaks of the DCRC measurements on a 100-period HgTe/CdTe (100Å/100Å) superlattice show a periodic arrangement of the superlattice with high-quality interfaces. The negative direction of the entropy change obtained from the diffusion coefficients as a function of the reciprocal of the temperature after RTA indicates that the Hg diffusion for the annealed HgTe/CdTe superlattice is caused by an interstitial mechanism. The Cd and the Hg concentration profiles near the annealed HgTe/CdTe superlattice interfaces, as measured by SIMS, show a nonlinear behavior for Hg, originating from the interstitial diffusion mechanism of the Hg composition. These results indicate that a nonlinear interdiffusion behavior is dominant for HgTe/CdTe superlattices annealed at 190°C and that the rectangular shape of HgTe/CdTe superlattices may change to a parabolic shape because of the intermixing of Hg and Cd due to the thermal treatment.     

The crystal structure of an Fe-superoxide dismutase from the hyperthermophile Aquifex pyrophilus at 1.9 A resolution: structural basis for thermostability

The incidence of stress fractures is increasing among competitive and recreational athletes as well as among children and the elderly. By understanding the continuum of bone's response to stress and maintaining an appropriate index of suspicion, the health care provider can diagnose these injuries appropriately. An accurate history and examination is essential and will differentiate stress fractures from other stress reactions. The more common stress fractures are discussed.     

Effects of a Nd—Fe—B magnetic filler on the crystallization of poly(phenylene sulfide)

The crystallization of poly(phenylene sulfide) (PPS) in a polymer–magnetic Nd—Fe—B powder suspension was studied. Isothermal crystallization behavior was analyzed by way of differential scanning calorimetry, and the kinetics were described via the Avrami equation. The Avrami parameters and the crystallization times were strongly affected by both the particle size and the presence of a coupling agent coated on the filler particles. The small Nd—Fe—B particles exhibited long induction and half‐times, whereas the large particles tended to have short crystallization times. Particles ranging from 38 to 150 μ appeared to have similar crystallization times and to have no significant change in the value of Avrami index with melt crystallization temperature. As a result of these analyses, the dynamic mechanical properties were determined to correlate the fundamental polymer crystallization characteristics and the physical properties of the PPS binder. The enhancement of the wetting of the filler to the binder was promoted through the coupling agent, as confirmed by dynamic mechanical testing performed on the samples. The storage modulus typically decreased because of the presence of the uncoated small particles. Conversely, the loss modulus was enhanced because of the presence of the coated small particles in the PPS binder. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 83: 1091–1102, 2002     

Laser scanning path generation considering photopolymer solidification in micro-stereolithography

It is essential to automate the scanning path generation process to effectively implement the micro-stereolithography. However, a scanning path that is generated based only on a 3D CAD model introduces dimensional inaccuracies. In micro-stereolithography, the photopolymer solidification is affected by fabrication conditions, such as the optical properties (laser power, laser scanning speed, laser scanning pitch focusing condition, etc.) and material properties of the photopolymer. Thus, the photopolymer solidification phenomena must be considered when generating a laser scanning path. In this paper, a scanning path generation algorithm that uses 3D CAD data and considers the photopolymer solidification phenomena is proposed to improve the dimensional accuracy in micro-stereolithography. Multi-line photopolymer solidification experiments were performed for various laser scanning conditions to examine the photopolymer solidification phenomena. From these experiments, linear relations between the solidification length (width) and scanning length (width) were acquired and stored in a database. Subsequently, these data were utilized to compensate the scanning path of the laser beam. In addition, experiments for determining the layer thickness in the z-direction were performed and these results were also used in the scanning path generation algorithm.This research was supported by the Highly Advanced National Project (http://www.most.go.kr), which performs some of the National R&D Program, and sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology under the contract project code M10214000116-02B1500-02010.     

Application of condition-based HRA method for a manual actuation of the safety features in a nuclear power Plant

A practical approach to develop a more realistic fault-tree model with a consideration of various conditions endured by a human operator is proposed. In safety-critical systems, the generation failure of an actuation signal is caused by the concurrent failures of the automated systems and an operator action. These two sources of safety signals are complicatedly correlated. The failures of sensors or automated systems will cause a lack of necessary information for a human operator and result in error-forcing contexts such as the loss of corresponding alarms and indications. It is well known that the error-forcing contexts largely affect the operator's performance. An automated system which consists of multiple processing channels and complex components is also affected by the availability of the sensors. This paper proposes a condition-based human reliability assessment (CBHRA) method in order to address these complicated conditions in a practical way. We apply the CBHRA method to the manual actuation of the safety features such as a reactor trip and auxiliary feedwater actuation in Korean Standard Nuclear Power Plants. Even the human error probability of each given condition is simply assumed, the application results prove that the CBHRA effectively accommodates the complicated error-forcing contexts into the fault trees.     

Design,Implementation, and Validation of KOMPSAT‐2 Software Simulator

In this paper, we present design features, implementation, and validation of a satellite simulator subsystem for the Korea Multi‐Purpose Satellite‐2 (KOMPSAT‐2). The satellite simulator subsystem is implemented on a personal computer to minimize costs and trouble on embedding onboard flight software into the simulator. An object‐oriented design methodology is employed to maximize software reusability. Also, instead of a high‐cost commercial database, XML is used for the manipulation of spacecraft characteristics data, telecommand, telemetry, and simulation data. The KOMPSAT‐2 satellite simulator subsystem is validated by various simulations for autonomous onboard launch and early orbit phase operations, anomaly operation, and science fine mode operation. It is also officially verified by successfully passing various tests such as the satellite simulator subsystem test, mission control element system integration test, interface test, site installation test, and acceptance test.     

Reliability-based failure cause assessment of collapsed bridge during construction

Until now, in many forensic reports, the failure cause assessments are usually carried out by a deterministic approach so far. However, it may be possible for the forensic investigation to lead to unreasonable results far from the real collapse scenario, because the deterministic approach does not systematically take into account any information on the uncertainties involved in the failures of structures.Reliability-based failure cause assessment (reliability-based forensic engineering) methodology is developed which can incorporate the uncertainties involved in structural failures and structures, and to apply them to the collapsed bridge in order to identify the most critical failure scenario and find the cause that triggered the bridge collapse. Moreover, to save the time and cost of evaluation, an algorithm of automated event tree analysis (ETA) is proposed and possible to automatically calculate the failure probabilities of the failure events and the occurrence probabilities of failure scenarios. Also, for reliability analysis, uncertainties are estimated more reasonably by using the Bayesian approach based on the experimental laboratory testing data in the forensic report. For the applicability, the proposed approach is applied to the Hang-ju Grand Bridge, which collapsed during construction, and compared with deterministic approach.     

Guest Editors' Introduction: Social Media and Search

The past few years have seen a rapid rise in social media Web sites. As user content becomes the dominant content form on the Web, various questions arise about the most effective approach to processing it.     

A study on the degree of deliberation and meditation of cyber poll respondents for nuclear-related decision making

Public participation is essential in each step of the nuclear-related decision-making process. Recently, the electronic systems using the Internet have become quite popular, and have emerged as a good medium for communicating with the public. In this study, a comprehensive utilization of electronic public participation was used to analyze public opinion on a given nuclear-related decision-making process. The degree of deliberation and meditation of the public participating in an electronic poll survey was evaluated, and the decision-making factors representing the personal characteristics of the poll respondents such as age, income, education, residence, degree of knowledge and concern were carefully incorporated when preparing the poll-survey questionnaire for its evaluation. Fuzzy analysis was used to assess and aggregate the responses to each decision-making factor. As a case study, this procedure was used to analyzing public opinion on the location of a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility on the campus of Seoul National University. The results show that there is a tendency of respondents who are on the negative side of the argument to be more deliberate and meditative in their decision-making process than those on the positive side. Knowledge and residence were found to be important decision-making factors.