Nature of high reactivity of metal/solid oxidizer nanocomposites prepared by mechanoactivation: a review

In this review, the regularities of formation, structure and high reactivity of two types of energetic metal/solid oxidizer nanocomposites (Al(Mg)/X (X = MoO₃, (–C₂F₄–) _n )) prepared by mechanoactivation are examined. One reason for the high reactivity is an increase in contact surface between the components occurring after mechanoactivation. Two methods for determination of area of contact surface S _C between the components are used, and the values of S _C for all the systems are estimated. Considerable attention is paid to the role of highly reactive defects (grain sizes, dislocations and stacking faults, paramagnetic centers, “weakly bound” oxygen in MoO₃, etc.), formed in the components under mechanical stress. For the Me/MeO₃ systems, the formation of point defects in the oxide is an important factor. It was found that, after mechanoactivation, the evolution of O₂ from MoO₃ occurs at 230–450 °C. It is argued that this process is associated with the thermal destruction of “weak” Mo–O bonds in the “bridge” oxygen. It was suggested that the formation of defect structure in MoO₃ and increasing of the oxygen mobility under heating give rise to a low-temperature peak in DSC curves and initiated self-ignition on the fuel–air mixture. For composites Mg/MoO₃, self-ignition occurs at temperature 100 °C lower than that for Al/MoO₃: The decreasing of temperature can be connected with larger S _C in the first system. In the Mg/(–C₂F₄–) _n system, the reactions of magnesium defects with (–C₂F₄–) _n are accompanied by a weak heat evolution, too low to initiate ignition. In this case, the reaction is initiated by the thermal depolymerization of (–C₂F₄–) _n , while a high values of S _C provide a complete conversion. In the case of shock-wave initiation, defects in the components play only a minor role in the conversion, whereas the value of S _C remains to be highly important.     

Spatial distribution of doubly scattered polarized laser radiation in the focal plane of a lidar receiver

Depolarization lidars are widely used to study clouds and aerosols because of their ability to discriminate between spherical particles and particles of irregular shape. Depolarization of cloud backscattered radiation can be caused also by multiple scattering events. One of the ways to gain information about particle parameters in the presence of strong multiple scattering is the measurement of radial and azimuthal dependence of the polarization patterns in the focal plane of receiver. We present an algorithm for the calculation of corresponding polarized patterns in the frame of double scattering approximation. Computations are performed for various receiver field of views, for different parameters of the scattering geometry, e.g., cloud base and sounding depth, as well as for different values of cloud particle size and refractive index. As the spatial distribution of cross-polarized radiation is of cross shape and rotated at 45 degrees with respect to laser polarization, the use of a properly oriented cross-shaped mask in the receiver focal plane allows the removal of a significant portion of the depolarized component of the backscattered radiation produced by double scattering. This has been verified experimentally based on cloud depolarization measurements performed at different orientations of the cross-shaped mask. Results obtained from measurements are in agreement with model predictions.     

On the development of high-throughput and area-efficient multi-mode cryptographic hash designs in FPGAs

In this paper, area-efficient and high-throughput multi-mode architectures for the SHA-1 and SHA-2 hash families are proposed and implemented in several FPGA technologies. Additionally a systematic flow for designing multi-mode architectures (implementing more than one function) of these families is introduced. Compared to the corresponding architectures that are produced by a commercial synthesis tool, the proposed ones are better in terms of both area (at least 40%) and throughput/area (from 32% up to 175%). Finally, the proposed architectures outperform similar existing ones in terms of throughput and throughput/area, from 4.2× up to 279.4× and from 1.2× up to 5.5×, respectively.     

HyperTree: a structural approach to web authoring

The expansion of the World Wide Web (WWW) has created an increasing need for tools capable of supporting WWW authors in composing documents using the HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Currently, most web authors use tools which are basically ordinary text editors and have additional features to facilitate the easy and correct use of HTML tags. This approach places the burden on the web author to design and then create the entire web site in a top-down fashion, without any explicit support for the structural design of the site. In this paper we discuss an alternative structural approach to Web authoring, which is based on the use of the HyperTree hypermedia system as the central authoring tool. The advantages of using HyperTree are two-dimensional. Firstly, web authors can manage a web site as a single complete hypermedia database. For example, HyperTree provides facilities like the automatic creation of indices and the discovery of link inconsistencies. Additionally, it organizes the web pages in an easy to understand hierarchy without using any HTML directly. Secondly, web end-users can benefit from the use of HyperTree, since seeking information in structured web sites is generally less disorientating and develops fewer cognitive overheads. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multiscale modeling reveals poisoning mechanisms of MgO-supported Au clusters in CO oxidation

Catalyst deactivation mechanisms on MgO-supported Au(6) clusters are studied for the CO oxidation reaction via first-principle kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and shown to depend on support vacancies. In defect-poor MgO or in the presence of a Mg vacancy, O(2) does not bind to the clusters and the catalyst is poisoned by CO. On Au clusters interacting with O vacancies of the support, O(2) can be chemisorbed and transient activity is observed. In this case, an unexpected catalyst "breathing" mechanism (restructuring) leads to carbonate formation and catalyst deactivation, rationalizing several experimental observations. Our study underscores the importance of the cluster's charge state and dynamics on catalytic activity.     

On the Impact of Performance Faults in Modern Microprocessors

Modern microprocessors incorporate a variety of architectural features, such as branch prediction and speculative execution, which are not critical to the correctness of their operation yet are essential towards improving performance. Accordingly, while faults in the corresponding hardware may not necessarily affect functional correctness, they may, nevertheless, adversely impact performance. In this paper, we investigate quantitatively the performance impact of such faults using a superscalar, dynamically-scheduled, out-of-order, Alpha-like microprocessor, on which we execute SPEC2000 integer benchmarks. We provide extensive fault simulation-based experimental results that elucidate the various aspects of performance faults and we discuss how this information may guide the inclusion of additional hardware for performance loss recovery and yield enhancement.     

Criteria and methodology for the evaluation of conservation interventions on treated porous stone susceptible to salt decay

Susceptibility of stone to salt decay is directly related to its microstructural and mechanical characteristics. In the present work, a porous stone from a quarry in Cyprus was examined. Samples of this stone were consolidated and protected with certain conservation materials. The modification of microstructural characteristics of the stone was evaluated by mercury intrusion porosimetry, while its mechanical characteristics were measured by compressive and bending strength tests. From these data, the susceptibility of Cyprus stone to salt (NaCl) decay was estimated. The values of crystallization pressure of NaCl were calculated and compared to the experimentally measured compressive and tensile strength of the stone, in order to examine the probability of stone disruption due to salt crystallization. The development of the phenomenon after coarse pores’ filling with crystals, i.e. crystallization of salts in capillaries or mechanical failure of the stone, was determined by thermodynamic analysis. Additionally, artificial weathering tests of marine salt spray were performed for the evaluation of stone’s durability after the conservation. The treated stone proved to be resistant to salt decay, as it presented ameliorated microstructural and mechanical characteristics, concerning decay due to soluble salt crystallization. The most possible thermodynamic scenario was small pores repletion with crystals, avoiding mechanical failure of the stone.