Comparison of Fe-Ni based alloys prepared by ball milling and rapid solidification

Mechanical alloying (MA) and rapid solidification (RS) are two important routes to obtain amorphous alloys. An Fe-Ni based metal-metalloid alloy (Fe₅₀Ni₃₀P₁₄Si₆) prepared by these two different processing routes was studied by differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy with microanalysis, inductive coupled plasma, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy (TMS). The results were compared with that obtained from other Fe-Ni based alloys of similar compositions. The structural analyses show that the materials obtained by mechanical alloying are not completely disordered after 40 h of milling whereas fully amorphous alloys were obtained by rapid solidification. TMS analyses show that, independent of the composition, after milling for 40 h, about 7% of the Fe remains unreacted. Furthermore, the thermal stability of mechanically alloyed samples is lower than that of the analogous material prepared by rapid solidification. In the MA alloys, a broad exothermic process associated to structural relaxation begins at low temperature. XRD patterns of crystallized alloys indicate that the crystallization products are bcc(Fe,Ni), fcc(Ni,Fe), and (Fe,Ni)-phosphides and -silicides.     

Czech project in history of mathematics

The paper describes the Czech project in the history of mathematics which was initiated at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague at the end of the eighties of the 20th century. Its main aim is to map the development of mathematical research in the Czech lands in the second half of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. The main result of this project is the production of monographs. These chart out the life and work of some prominent Czech personalities-mathematicians who have had substantial influence on the development of Czech mathematics. The aim of the project, the structure of the monographs and the general method are discussed in the paper.     

Inverted surface hysteresis loops in heterogeneous (nanocrystalline/amorphous) Fe<Subscript>81</Subscript>Nb<Subscript>7</Subscript>B<Subscript>12</Subscript> alloys

Inverted hysteresis loops were observed for the first time in the near-surface layers of heterogeneous (nanocrystalline/amorphous) Fe₈₁Nb₇B₁₂ alloys. In particular, a negative residual magnetization is retained when a positive magnetic field applied in the sample plane is decreased to zero. The inverted hysteresis is qualitatively explained within the framework of a two-phase model, according to which the heterogeneous alloys contain two dissimilar phases exhibiting uniaxial magnetic anisotropy and featuring antiferromagnetic exchange interaction.     

Anomalous Excess Heat Capacities of Ethanol + Alkane Mixtures

A thermodynamic study at atmospheric pressure on the ethanol + n-dodecane and ethanol + n-tridecane binary systems near their liquid-liquid critical points has been carried out. To this end, densities and speeds of sound were determined in the temperature range from 288.15 to 308.15 K, whereas differential scanning calorimetry was used to obtain isobaric heat capacities per unit volume from 288.15 to 303.15 K as well as liquid-liquid equilibrium curves. All these results for the mentioned properties were obtained over the complete composition range. They were used to obtain molar volumes, isentropic compressibilities, isobaric thermal expansivities, isothermal compressibilities, isochoric heat capacities, and the excess quantities of all these properties. An untypical behavior of the excess heat capacities at the lowest measuring temperatures resulting from the critical behavior of the isobaric heat capacity is observed. No clear anomalies for the excess volumetric properties are detected.     

Assessing Reference Evapotranspiration by the Hargreaves Method in Southern Spain

The Hargreaves method enables reference crop evapotranspiration (ET0) estimation in areas where meteorological information is scarce, as, for example, southern Spain. However, this method is known to produce considerable bias in this region, especially during the dry, hot summer months. An evaluation of the method is made by comparing daily estimates with those made by the more commonly recommended Penman–Monteith method at 16 meteorological stations. Computed ET0 values at the coastal stations are, on average, 0.69 mm?d?1 smaller than the Penman–Monteith estimates whereas at inland stations a small average overestimation of 0.13 mm?d?1 is shown. The adjusted Hargreaves coefficient (AHC), obtained through regression analysis, increases at the coastal stations, on average, to 0.0029, and decreases at the inland stations to 0.0022. Adjustment with the Samani method does generally not produce more accurate estimates in this region. Finally a linear relationship between the AHC and the rate of the average temperature to the average daily temperature range is proposed for the regional adjustment of the Hargreaves coefficient.     

The Relationship Between Inhibition of Return and Saccade Trajectory Deviations.

After presentation of a peripheral cue, a subsequent saccade to the cued location is delayed (inhibition of return: IOR). Furthermore, saccades typically deviate away from the cued location. The present study examined the relationship between these inhibitory effects. IOR and saccade trajectory deviations were found after central (endogenous) and peripheral (exogenous) cuing of attention, and both effects were larger with an onset cue than with a color singleton cue. However, a dissociation in time course was found between IOR and saccade trajectory deviations. Saccade trajectory deviations occurred at short delays between the cue and the saccade, but IOR was found at longer delays. A model is proposed in which IOR is caused by inhibition applied to a preoculomotor attentional map, whereas saccade trajectory deviations are caused by inhibition applied to the saccade map, in which the final stage of oculomotor programming takes place. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Energy Partitions and Image Segmentation

We address the issue of low-level segmentation for real-valued images. The proposed approach relies on the formulation of the problem in terms of an energy partition of the image domain. In this framework, an energy is defined by measuring a pseudo-metric distance to a source point. Thus, the choice of an energy and a set of sources determines a tessellation of the domain. Each energy acts on the image at a different level of analysis; through the study of two types of energies, two stages of the segmentation process are addressed. The first energy considered, the path variation, belongs to the class of energies determined by minimal paths. Its application as a pre-segmentation method is proposed. In the second part, where the energy is induced by a ultrametric, the construction of hierarchical representations of the image is discussed.     

Application of Kernel-Based Feature Space Transformations and Learning Methods to Phoneme Classification

This paper examines the applicability of some learning techniques to the classification of phonemes. The methods tested were artificial neural nets (ANN), support vector machines (SVM) and Gaussian mixture modeling (GMM). We compare these methods with a traditional hidden Markov phoneme model (HMM), working with the linear prediction-based cepstral coefficient features (LPCC). We also tried to combine the learners with linear/nonlinear and unsupervised/supervised feature space transformation methods such as principal component analysis (PCA), independent component analysis (ICA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), springy discriminant analysis (SDA) and their nonlinear kernel-based counterparts. We found that the discriminative learners can attain the efficiency of HMM, and that after the transformations they can retain the same performance in spite of the severe dimension reduction. The kernel-based transformations brought only marginal improvements compared to their linear counterparts.     

A Suite of Tools for Debugging Distributed Autonomous Systems

This paper describes a set of tools that enables developers to log and analyze the run-time behavior of distributed control systems. A feature of the tools is that they can be applied to distributed systems. The logging tools enable developers to instrument C or C++ programs so that data indicating state changes can be logged automatically in a variety of formats. In particular, run-time data from distributed systems can be synchronized into a single relational database. Tools are also provided for visualizing the logged data. Analysis to verify correct program behavior is done using a new interval logic that is described in this paper. The logic enables system engineers to express temporal specifications for the autonomous control program that are then checked against the logged data. The data logging, visualization, and interval logic analysis tools are all fully implemented. Results are given from a NASA distributed autonomous control system application.