Iron-ruthenium catalyst for the water-gas shift reaction

Iron-ruthenium catalysts prepared by impregnation of calcination products of -, , -and -iron oxide-hydroxides with either ruthenium chloride or ruthenium red were tested for the activity for the water-gas shift reaction. The effect of support, ruthenium containing impregnation agent and thermal treatment on catalyst performance was discussed.     

Quattor: Tools and Techniques for the Configuration,Installation and Management of Large-Scale Grid Computing Fabrics

This paper describes the quattor tool suite, a new system for the installation, configuration, and management of operating systems and application software for computing fabrics. At present Unix derivatives such as Linux and Solaris are supported. Quattor is a powerful, portable and modular open source solution that has been shown to scale to thousands of computing nodes and offers a significant reduction in management costs for large computing fabrics. The quattor tool suite includes innovations compared to existing solutions which make it very useful for computing fabrics integrated into grid environments. Evaluations of the tool suite in current large scale computing environments are presented.     

Concurrent analogue fault simulation,the equation formulation aspect

Fault simulation is an essential tool for developing test patterns for circuits. Because the potential number of faults in a circuit is potentially very large, computational efficiency is an important consideration. In the digital domain, concurrent fault simulation is well‐established as an efficient tool. For analogue circuits, fault simulation is often performed by repeated insertion of possible faults and resimulation of the circuit. Consequently, methods for efficient concurrent analogue fault simulation are attracting attention. A review of existing methods of concurrent analogue fault simulation shows that most are based on a similar fundamental perturbation of the original fault‐free circuit equations, although the methods differ in the procedure applied after the circuit equations are formulated. We develop here a comprehensive set of element stamps, describing faulty elements, enabling effective and routine equation formulation for faulty circuits. These may be used no matter what method of fault simulation is later applied. These stamps are used in a new technique for concurrent analogue fault simulation, based on modified nodal analysis. A significant improvement in efficiency, compared with other methods, is demonstrated. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Constraint Lingo: towards high‐level constraint programming

Logic programming requires that the programmer convert a problem into a set of constraints based on predicates. Choosing the predicates and introducing appropriate constraints can be intricate and error prone. If the problem domain is structured enough, we can let the programmer express the problem in terms of more abstract, higher‐level constraints. A compiler can then convert the higher‐level program into a logic‐programming formalism. The compiler writer can experiment with alternative low‐level representations of the higher‐level constraints in order to achieve a high‐quality translation. The programmer can then take advantage of both a reduction in complexity and an improvement in runtime speed for all problems within the domain. We apply this analysis to the domain of tabular constraint‐satisfaction problems. Examples of such problems include logic puzzles solvable on a hatch grid and combinatorial problems such as graph coloring and independent sets. The proper abstractions for these problems are rows, columns, entries, and their interactions. We present a higher‐level language, Constraint Lingo, dedicated to problems in this domain. We also describe how we translate programs from Constraint Lingo into lower‐level logic formalisms such as the logic of propositional schemata. These translations require that we choose among competing lower‐level representations in order to produce efficient results. The overall effectiveness of our approach depends on the appropriateness of Constraint Lingo, our ability to translate Constraint Lingo programs into high‐quality representations in logic formalisms, and the efficiency with which logic engines can compute answer sets. We comment on our computational experience with these tools in solving both graph problems and logic puzzles. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shape measurement of long microbores applying photon counting method

New technology, especially in the field of microelectronics and mechatronics, created the need for making, positioning and inspection techniques of long microbore-holes and gaps (defined by length/width to diameter ratio l/d > 10 for d < 200 μm). The technological aspect is, in principle, subdued but the metrological one is still unsolved.In Zosel et al. [Zosel J, Guth U, Thies A, Reents B. Flow measurements in micro holes with electrochemical and optical methods. Electrochim Acta 2003;48:3299–305] the properties (power loss and phase distortion) of focused laser microbeam penetrating extremely long through microbores is described; it was proved that the measurement information is distorted depending on the microbore geometry. The samples were prepared of glass–resin laminate with microbore diameter ranging from 35 to 200 μm.In present research an adjustable 100 μm microbore is used as a master. It is formed of mutually accurately adjusted 20 metal plates 100 μm thick set of coaxially in pile. Precise positioning of each plate enables creating free-shaped microbore.The photon batching device emitting 2.5 million photons per second is used as a generator of incident photon beam. The measured transmission efficiency is understood as a relation between outgoing and incoming light energy. The outgoing energy, for particular microbore, was determined by scanning linearly and angularly the bore with photon beam and integrating the results. Experiments were performed in dark room with background 2/5 photons per second (including dark current of photomultiplier).These changes describe the relationship between the shape of the microbore and the transmission energy and can be considered as a measure of microbore cylindricity deviation.     

Formulation of Presliding Domain Non-local Memory Hysteretic Loops Based Upon Modified Maxwell Slip Model

In this paper, we investigate formulation of non-local memory effect hysteretic loops in presliding domain of friction by examining the dynamic responses of a single-degree-of-freedom friction oscillator. We modify the Maxwell slip model introducing characteristic features of asperities and perform detailed examination of the system from two perspectives. The first one, termed by us as microscale, presents contribution of each individual asperity to the total friction force, whereas the second one, termed by us as macroscale, concerns friction force behaviour of the whole model treated as the unity, with a special emphasis on non-local memory effect hysteretic loops formulation, complemented by time responses.     

等离子体化学气相沉积硅外延

运用射频等离子体化学气相沉积在Ｓｉ（１００）Ｐ进行外延试验，并用四极质谱仪（ＱＭＳ）进行监测，得出了ＳｉＨ４浓度的变化规律。试验结果表明在６００℃，压力为３００ｍＴｏｒｒ时，外延生长率最高，为４５０／ｍｉｎ，膜中Ｈ含量也较低，为１．５％［ａｔ］。在压力为３０ｍＴｏｒｒ，７００℃时，外延生长率为５９．６／ｍｉｎ，膜中Ｈ含量降至２．７５％［ａｔ］。     

The effect of beta-carotene and vitamins A, D3 and E on some reproductive parameters in cows

Five groups of winter-housed cows (n = 10 per group) that calved in the winter were used to assess the effect of beta-carotene supplementation on postpartum reproductive performance. Near parturition and immediately after calving the beta-carotene concentrations of the blood plasma were decreased and no differences could be found between the control and the supplemented groups. The results obtained at postpartum day 60 suggest that supplementation of the daily winter ration with 300 mg of synthetic beta-carotene with or without vitamins A, D3 and E exerts the most favourable effect on reproduction, as judged not only from B-carotene and vitamin A contents of the blood plasma, colostrum and milk but also from the improved fertility indices. The number of inseminations per cow was reduced and the conception rate was significantly higher in cows supplied additionally with 300 mg of synthetic beta-carotene with or without vitamins A, D3 and E. It can be concluded that beta-carotene is an important factor in bovine reproduction and that its specific role cannot be taken over by vitamin A.     

Effect of the post-deposition annealing on electrical characteristics of MIS structures with HfO2/SiO2 gate dielectric stacks

In this work, we report on effects of post-deposition annealing on electrical characteristics of metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) structures with HfO₂/SiO₂ double gate dielectric stacks. Obtained results have shown the deterioration of electro-physical properties of MIS structures, e.g. higher interface traps density in the middle of silicon forbidden band (D_itmb), as well as non-uniform distribution and decrease of breakdown voltage (U_br) values, after annealing above 400 °C. Two potential hypothesis of such behavior were proposed: the formation of interfacial layer between hafnia and silicon dioxide and the increase of crystallinity of HfO₂ due to the high temperature treatment. Furthermore, the analysis of conduction mechanisms in investigated stacks revealed Poole–Frenkel (P–F) tunneling at broad range of electric field intensity.