Cryo-transfer TEM study of vacancy cluster formation in thin films of aluminum and copper elongated at low temperature

Kiritani et al. encountered a large number of vacancy clusters in heavily deformed thin metal films at room temperature. In the present work, thin films of aluminum and copper were loaded to fracture in liquid nitrogen and transferred directly to the TEM without warming up (Cryo-transfer TEM). In thin films of Al and Cu deformed at 78 K, many defect clusters were observed at 120 K. In thin Al films, small defect clusters disappeared by the 120 keV electron irradiation. Upon isochronal annealing, some of the dislocation loops grew in their size, which is much larger than those observed at 120 K. However, in regions that were not exposed to electron irradiation at 120 K, only a large number of stacking fault tetrahedra were observed after room temperature annealing. In copper, the 200 keV electron beam did not significantly change the defect clusters observed at 120 K.     

A new shear technique: Semi Continuous Shear Flow (SCSF) in medium and ultra high molecular weight Polyhydroxybutyrate blends

In MMWT/UHMWT PHB blends (99.5/0.5), (99/1), (98/2) and (97/3) we demonstrate that by applying our new shear technique, “semi continuous shear flow”, copious fibre formation is guaranteed, irrespective of the ultra high molecular weight composition. The shishes formed via this technique are extremely stable being able to maintain their stability for at least 5–10 min. When this technique was applied to MMWT/UHMWT PHB blends of compositions (95/5), (90/10) and (85/15) disorientated fibres were observed in the flow direction. On increasing the UHMWT component, distinct unordered and intertwining of fibres resulted and with severe shearing orientation occurred, however shish formation was limited. We propose the optimum conditions for shish formation and the critical molecular weight necessary for entanglement.     

The Creep and Thermal Stability Characteristics of a Unidirectionally Solidified Al2O3/YAG Eutectic Composite

Compressive creep characteristics at 1773, 1873, and 1973 K, oxidation resistance over 1000 h at a temperature of 1973 K in ambient air, and the thermal stability characteristics at 1973 K in ambient air of a unidirectionally solidified Al2O3/YAG eutectic composite were evaluated. At a test temperature of 1873 K and a strain rate of 10–4/s, the compressive creep strength of a eutectic composite manufactured by the unidirectional solidification method is approximately 13 times higher than that of a sintered composite with the same chemical composition. The insite eutectic composite also showed greater thermal stability, with no change in mass after an exposure of 1000 hours at 1973 K in ambient air. The superior high-temperature characteristics are closely related to such factors as (1) the in-situ eutectic composite having a microstructure, in which single crystal Al2O3 and single crystal YAG are three-dimensionally and continuously connected and finely entangled without grain boundaries and (2) no amorphous phase is formed at the interface between the Al2O3 and the YAG phases.     

Parameter estimation of radiocardiogram using a minicomputer

Radiocardiography has been widely used as a method for the quantification of cardiac output by applying the principle of the dye dilution method. This paper deals with an automatic analyzing system of radiocardiograms and a parameter estimation procedure using a linear system made up of four compartments with two time delays as a model of transport process in the blood circulatory system. The parameter estimation procedure named the window method in frequency domain is very effective for shortening the computing time and can be easily performed using a minicomputer. Parameter sensitivity analysis is also applied to study behavior of parameters on the model. Some analyzed results of radiocardiograms are shown and it is verified that the procedure is sufficiently useful and efficient for routine clinical use.     

The crystallization and formation of cluster of ethylene ionomer during physical aging

The effect of the physical aging of ethylene ionomers was studied for the samples with the acid content of 5.4 mol%, and the degree of neutralization, 0%, 60% Na, 60% Zn, and 90% Zn. The information about the crystal and the cluster part of the physically aged ionomers was obtained by differential scanning calorimetry and by dynamic viscoelastic measurements, respectively. The degree of crystallinity and the dynamic modulus for the ionomers of the degree of neutralization 0%, 60% Na and 60% Zn increased gradually with the aging time; on the other hand, the crystallinity of 90% Zn remained constant and the modulus at 100°C increased to a certain value up to a period of 100 h, but thereafter the crystallinity increased remarkably and the modulus remained. These facts indicate that the crystallization of neutralized ethylene ionomer starts after clustering and the clustering would finish at early stage of the physical aging for intermediately neutralized ethylene ionomer. The physical aging effect of the ethylene ionomers was, thus, found to be important to material design.     

Study of static cushioning properties: Automated data input and reliability test of static cushioning properties

A computer-controlled compression testing machine is used to compile a database of the static cushioning properties of package cushioning materials. Through research into automated data input procedures, so far not developed, a direct transfer program (ZABCON) has been devised, which allows direct access to the disk in which compression test data are stored. Elimination of manual data input has led to simplified and easy construction of a database, and the applied laboratory tests, such as that for determining the relationship between static cushioning properties and compression rate, can be performed quite readily. Also in this report, the application of the static cushioning characteristics of foamed polystyrene in the cushioning package design of dummy goods and the evaluation of its reliability by drop testing are discussed.     

Anodic chlorination of aniline in N,N-dimethyl-formamide and N,N-dimethylacetamide

A pertinent electrochemical synthesis of 2,4,6-trichloroaniline (TCA) in anhydrous media was studied. The influence of the solvent, the chlorinating reagent, the electricity passed and the nature of the anode material, were investigated. TCA was produced in electrolytic solutions whose solvents were amides with strong nucleophilicity as N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and N,N-dimethylacetoamide (DMAc), and was obtained selectively by the controlled potential electrolysis of aniline in the solution containing LiCl. The definition of the experimental conditions corresponding to an optimum and selective electrolysis of TCA was described.     

On-line recognition of hand-written characters utilizing positional and stroke vector sequences

An on-line recognition method for hand-written characters utilizing stroke vector sequences and a positional vector sequence has been developed. The number of target characters is about 2000, and fairly good recognition scores have been attained. Our scheme uses the number of strokes as the primary parameter. We employ three types of recognition strategy depending on the number of strokes. The general stroke vector sequence method, devised to analyze the shape, can represent both skeleton and local characteristics by a small amount of information; and the restricted dynamic programming method is effective to determine the shape of a stroke. The similarity of two shapes and the complexity of a stroke have been introduced to reduce the dictionary size and the processing time, respectively.