Auftraglöten zum Verschleißschutz von Titanwerkstoffen

Wear Protection of Titanium using Surface Brazing Titanium and titanium alloys possess high specific strengths up to a temperature of about 600 °C in addition to an extraordinary corrosion resistance [1]. The low wear resistance constitutes a crucial impediment for a much broader use. Titanium materials are especially susceptible to friction fatigue and erosion. Coating techniques have to be developed in order to counteract this technical constraint. Surface brazing presents a promising approach. Hard metals mixed with brazing filler metals on a silver and titanium basis were brazed in a vacuum furnace and subsequently characterized. Wear resistance was quantified and optimized using ball on disc measurements.     

Thermal Diffusivity Determination of Protoporphyrin IX Solution Mixed with Gold Metallic Nanoparticles

Nanoparticles appear to be ideally suited for applications in targeted thermal effects in medical therapies and photothermally activated drug delivery; all depend critically on the thermal transport between the nanoparticles and the surrounding liquid. In this work thermal lens spectroscopy (TLS) was used to determine the thermal diffusivity of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) solutions mixed with gold metallic nanoparticles. PpIX disodium salt (DS) was used in a HCl solution at 25%. Fluids containing gold (Au) nanoparticles at different concentrations were prepared and added to the PpIX solutions. For each solution, UV–Vis spectroscopy was used to obtain the optical absorption spectrum, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to obtain the gold nanoparticle size. From the TLS signal intensity, it was possible to determine the characteristic time constant of the transient thermal by fitting the theoretical expression to the experimental data. From this characteristic time, the thermal diffusivity was obtained for each solution. The results show that the thermal diffusivity of PpIX mixed with gold nanoparticles increases with an increase of the nanoparticle metallic concentration.     

Strong Negation and Equivalence in the Safe Belief Semantics

The safe belief semantics uses intermediate logics to definean extension of answer sets to all propositional formulas, butonly considering one kind of negation. In this work we extendsafe beliefs adding the strong negation connective. The mainfeature of our extension is that strong negation can occur beforeany formula, and not only at the atomic level. We give resultsconcerning the relation between strong negation extensions ofintermediate logics and safe beliefs and consider the way inwhich strong negation can be eliminated from any formula whilepreserving its semantics. We also propose two new notions ofequivalence: substitution equivalence and contextualized equivalence.We prove that they are both more general than strong equivalenceand, for propositional formulas where strong negation may occurat the non-atomic level, substitution equivalence captures anotion of equivalence that cannot be captured by strong equivalencealone.     

High prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism and nodular thyroid disease in patients on hemodialysis

Chronic kidney disease has been known to affect thyroid hormone metabolism. Low serum levels of T3 and T4 are the most remarkable laboratorial findings. A high incidence of goiter and nodules on thyroid ultrasonography has been reported in patients with end‐stage renal disease (ESRD). Our objective is to evaluate the prevalence of laboratorial and morphologic alterations in the thyroid gland in a cohort of patients with ESRD on hemodialysis (HD). Sixty‐one patients with ESRD on HD were selected and compared with 43 healthy subjects matched by age, gender, and weight. Patients were submitted to thyroid ultrasonography. T3, free T4 (FT4), thyroid‐stimulating hormone, antithyroglobulin, and antithyroperoxidase antibodies were measured. The mean age of patients with ESRD was 47.4 ± 12.3 and 61% were women. ESRD was mainly caused by hypertensive nephrosclerosis and diabetic nephropathy. Mean thyroid volume, as determined by ultrasonography, was similar in both groups. Patients with ESRD had more hypoechoic nodules when compared with the control group (24.1% vs. 7.9%, P = 0.056). Mean serum FT4 and T3 levels were significantly lower in patients with ESRD, and subclinical hypothyroidism was more prevalent in patients with ESRD (21.82% vs. 7.14% control group, P = 0.04). Titers of antithyroid antibodies were similar in both groups. ESRD was associated with a higher prevalence of subclinical hypothyroidism and lower levels of T3 and FT4. Almost a quarter of patients showed thyroid nodules >10 mm. Periodic ultrasound evaluation and assessment of thyroid function are recommended in patients with ESRD on HD.     

State-based predictions with self-correction on Enterprise Desktop Grid environments

The abundant computing resources in current organizations provide new opportunities for executing parallel scientific applications and using resources. The Enterprise Desktop Grid Computing (EDGC) paradigm addresses the potential for harvesting the idle computing resources of an organization’s desktop PCs to support the execution of the company’s large-scale applications. In these environments, the accuracy of response-time predictions is essential for effective metascheduling that maximizes resource usage without harming the performance of the parallel and local applications. However, this accuracy is a major challenge due to the heterogeneity and non-dedicated nature of EDGC resources. In this paper, two new prediction techniques are presented based on the state of resources. A thorough analysis by linear regression demonstrated that the proposed techniques capture the real behavior of the parallel applications better than other common techniques in the literature. Moreover, it is possible to reduce deviations with a proper modeling of prediction errors, and thus, a Self-adjustable Correction method (SAC) for detecting and correcting the prediction deviations was proposed with the ability to adapt to the changes in load conditions. An extensive evaluation in a real environment was conducted to validate the SAC method. The results show that the use of SAC increases the accuracy of response-time predictions by 35%. The cost of predictions with self-correction and its accuracy in a real environment was analyzed using a combination of the proposed techniques. The results demonstrate that the cost of predictions is negligible and the combined use of the prediction techniques is preferable.     

Using the NDVI as auxiliary data for rapid quality assessment of rainfall estimates in Africa

Rainfall estimates derived from satellite imagery and global circulation models are frequently used for vegetation monitoring in many areas of Africa because of the shortage of observed rainfall data and the sparse network of meteorological stations. At the same time, this scarce density of rain gauge stations makes the calibration and validation of the modelled data nearly impossible. In this study we propose a methodology for a rapid quality assessment of rainfall estimates that is based on the well-known relationship between rainfall and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The results clearly confirm that the NDVI can be used as an indicator of the quality of rainfall estimates at the continental/regional scale and allow a rapid detection of major over- and underestimations of the two rainfall datasets examined for the African continent.     

Novel insights on the stabilising solution to the continuous-time algebraic Riccati equation

In the present paper we present a closed-form solution, as a function of the closed-loop poles, for the continuous-time algebraic Riccati equations (CAREs) related to single-input single-output systems with non-repeated poles. The proposed solution trades the standard numerical algorithm approach for one based on a spectral factorisation argument, offering potential insight into any control technique based on a CARE and its solution. As an example, we present the equivalence of two fairly recent control over network results. Furthermore we apply the proposed result to the formula for the optimal regulator gain matrix k (or equivalently the Luenberger's observer gain l) and present an example. Finally, we conclude by discussing the possible extension of the proposed closed-form solution to the repeated eigenvalues case and to the case when the CARE is related to multiple-input multiple-output systems.     

Acoustic Properties of Solid 4He in the Limit of Zero Impurity

We have studied the elasticity of solid ⁴He in relation with its possible supersolidity. For this we have measured acoustic resonance frequencies in a 1 cm³ cell filled either with polycrystals or with single crystals of ⁴He. We have observed a large stiffening at low temperature as first observed by Day and Beamish in polycrystals. The ³He impurity content has been varied from 300 ppb to 0.4 ppb. When kept in equilibrium with liquid helium, single crystals should be impurity free. In these crystals, a large stiffening is observed, which should not be the result of the pinning of dislocations by impurities.