Design guidelines for titania-silica-alumina ceramics with tuned anatase to rutile transformation

Titania-based ceramics with adjustable anatase-rutile fractions were obtained by milling of anatase, quartz and corundum precursors, uniaxial pressing and firing at 1100?°C. The influence of silica and alumina, combined with milling time and compaction pressure, was studied by design of experiments. The L9 orthogonal array with a three-level noise factor was employed. Firing of pure titania at 1100?°C yielded complete anatase to rutile transformation (ART), whereas stabilized samples show that an optimum amount of 9% silica and 33% alumina reduces phase transformation to only about 5?wt% rutile. An extended correlation matrix combined with analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to assess the combined effects of quartz, alumina, milling time and uniaxial compressing pressure on relative density, and anatase to rutile transformation. Results show absence of ART after milling, and controlled partial conversion of anatase to rutile after firing. Very good fitting was obtained by multivariate analysis on considering first and second order terms for dependence on silica contents and interactions between silica and each of the remaining factors, including milling time. This empirical dependence could be interpreted on a sound physicochemical basis, allowing the prediction of suitable compositions and processing conditions to obtain rutile-free samples by conventional ceramic processing, and to design ceramic samples with controlled fractions of anatase and rutile.     

A self‐scalable load injection service

Load testing of applications is an important and costly activity for software provider companies. Classical solutions are very difficult to set up statically, and their cost is prohibitive in terms of both human and hardware resources. Virtualized cloud computing platforms provide new opportunities for stressing an application's scalability, by providing a large range of flexible and less expensive (pay‐per‐use model) computation units. On the basis of these advantages, load testing solutions could be provided on demand in the cloud. This paper describes a Benchmark‐as‐a‐Service solution that automatically scales the load injection platform and facilitates its setup according to load profiles. Our approach is based on: (i) virtualization of the benchmarking platform to create self‐scaling injectors; (ii) online calibration to characterize the injector's capacity and impact on the benched application; and (iii) a provisioning solution to appropriately scale the load injection platform ahead of time. We also report experiments on a benchmark illustrating the benefits of this system in terms of cost and resource reductions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Milk from cows fed a diet with a high forage:concentrate ratio improves inflammatory state,oxidative stress,and mitochondrial function in rats

Excessive energy intake may evoke complex biochemical processes characterized by inflammation, oxidative stress, and impairment of mitochondrial function that represent the main factors underlying noncommunicable diseases. Because cow milk is widely used for human nutrition and in food industry processing, the nutritional quality of milk is of special interest with respect to human health. In our study, we analyzed milk produced by dairy cows fed a diet characterized by a high forage:concentrate ratio (high forage milk, HFM). In view of the low n-6:n-3 ratio and high content of conjugated linoleic acid of HFM, we studied the effects of this milk on lipid metabolism, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress in a rat model. To this end, we supplemented for 4 wk the diet of male Wistar rats with HFM and with an isocaloric amount (82 kJ, 22 mL/d) of milk obtained from cows fed a diet with low forage:concentrate ratio, and analyzed the metabolic parameters of the animals. Our results indicate that HFM may positively affect lipid metabolism, leptin:adiponectin ratio, inflammation, mitochondrial function, and oxidative stress, providing the first evidence of the beneficial effects of HFM on rat metabolism.     

Mixed-Metal MOF-74 Templated Catalysts for Efficient Carbon Dioxide Capture and Methanation

The vast chemical and structural tunability of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are beginning to be harnessed as functional supports for catalytic nanoparticles spanning a range of applications. However, a lack of straightforward methods for producing nanoparticle-encapsulated MOFs as efficient heterogeneous catalysts limits their usage. Herein, a mixed-metal MOF, NiMg-MOF-74, is utilized as a template to disperse small Ni nanoclusters throughout the parent MOF. By exploiting the difference in Ni O and Mg O coordination bond strength, Ni²⁺ is selectively reduced to form highly dispersed Ni nanoclusters constrained by the parent MOF pore diameter, while Mg²⁺ remains coordinated in the framework. By varying the ratio of Ni to Mg in the parent MOF, accessible surface area and crystallinity can be tuned upon thermal treatment, influencing CO₂ adsorption capacity and hydrogenation selectivity. The resulting Ni nanoclusters prove to be an active catalyst for CO₂ methanation and are examined using extended X-ray absorption fine structure and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. By preserving a segment of the Mg²⁺-containing MOF framework, the composite system retains a portion of its CO₂ adsorption capacity while continuing to deliver catalytic activity. The approach is thus critical for designing materials that can bridge the gap between carbon capture and CO₂ utilization.     

Low power and high speed design issues of CMOS Hamming code generation and error detection circuit at 22 nm and 16 nm channel length of MOS transistor

Microsystem Technologies - This paper represents low power and high speed design issues of Hamming code generation and error detection circuit using complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)...     

On the issue of trend and noise in the estimation of extreme rainfall properties.

Up until today extreme rainfall properties are frequently applied in sewer design guidelines. Uncertainty in the estimation of such properties will hence directly influence the dimensions of sewers, structures and pumps. In this paper the issue of potential trend and noise in the estimation is investigated for 6 rain series ranging from 19 to 55 years in duration. Different to recent research that predicts a climate induced-increase in heavy precipitation no clear indication for such trend was found in the investigated historical rain series. Another important aspect is the length of the rain series that is required for the estimation of extreme rainfall properties and the associated uncertainty. The analysis indicates that at least a period of 10 years should be used for the estimation. But even so the possible deviation expressed in terms of the 90 percentile is in the order of 5 to 10% of the 'true value', defined as the value derived when the whole given series is used for the estimation.