The effect of thermo-mechanical treatment on The pitting corrosion of reinforcing carbon steel bars

Steel reinforcing rods with varying amounts of cold work and carbon concentrations (0.06 to 0.45% C) exposed in soil embankments has shown various degrees of pitting corrosion. To understand this pitting process, laboratory investigations on residual stresses, microstructures and potentiodynamic cyclic polarization were undertaken. Analysis of residual stresses in the steels indicated low value of compressive stresses in hot rolled steels and high value of tensile stresses in the cold worked counterparts. Hot rolled steels displayed a slightly better pitting corrosion resistance than cold worked samples which is consistent with the above internal stress pattern. No definite correlation was obtained between the percentage of carbon in the steels and pitting susceptibility. An attempt has been made to define the role of the complex steel-soil system for pitting corrosion behavior.     

Via hole studies on a monolithic 2-20 GHz distributed amplifier

The effect of source inductance on the performance of a distributed amplifier is investigated. A simple theoretical analysis shows that optimum performance is obtained with as low a source inductance as possible (as would be intuitively expected), and that the flattest gain and minimum gate line attenuation occur with the inductance common to the whole amplifier rather than parceled out to each FET individually, as would occur for a MIC distributed amplifier. A novel through-the-wafer via hole process has been developed for a low-inductance contact on monolithic circuits. A 2-20 GHz variable-gate-width monolithic distributed amplifier fabricated with this via-hole grounding technique has demonstrated a 2-dB gain improvement as well as a flatter gain profile compared to that without via grounding. Evidence is presented that indicates that MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) designs may not be as ideal as expected with regard to being typified by the common inductance case     

Hippocampal volumes in cognitively normal persons at genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease

Brain imaging techniques have the potential to characterize neurobiological changes that precede the onset of cognitive impairment in persons at risk for Alzheimer's disease. As previously described, positron emission tomography (PET) was used to compare 11 cognitively normal persons 50 to 62 years of age who were homozygous for the epsilon4 allele of apolipoprotein E and 22 persons without the epsilon4 allele with a reported family history of Alzheimer's dementia who were matched for sex, age, and level of education. The epsilon4 homozygotes had significantly reduced glucose metabolism in the same brain regions as patients with Alzheimer's dementia; the largest reduction was in the posterior cingulate cortex. As described here, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to compare hippocampal volumes in the same subject groups. The epsilon4 homozygotes showed nonsignificant trends for smaller left and right hippocampal volumes; overall, smaller hippocampal volumes were associated with reduced performance on a long-term memory test. Whereas PET measurements of cerebral glucose metabolism begin to decrease before the onset of memory decline, MRI measurements of hippocampal volume begin to decrease in conjunction with memory decline in cognitively normal persons at risk for Alzheimer's disease.     

Generalized linear least squares method for fast generation ofmyocardial blood flow parametric images with N-13 ammonia PET

In this paper, the authors developed and tested strategies for estimating myocardial blood flow (MBF) and generating MBF parametric images using positron emission tomography (PET), N-13 ammonia, and the generalized linear least square (GLLS) method. GLLS was generalized to the general linear compartment model, modified for the correction of spillover, validated using simulated N-13 ammonia data, and examined using PET data from several patient studies. In comparison to the standard model-fitting procedure, the GLLS method provided similar accuracy and superior computational speed     

Noninvasive quantification of the cerebral metabolic rate for glucose using positron emission tomography, 18F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose, the Patlak method, and an image-derived input function

Gas-phase deprotonation and hydrogen/deuterium (H/D) exchange reactions for ions from three model dodecapeptides were studied by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. Molecular dynamics calculations were employed to provide information on conformations and Coulomb energies. The peptides, (KGG)4, (K2G4)2, and K4G8, each contain four high basicity lysine residues and eight low basicity glycine residues; however, in the present work only three lysine residues were protonated. Proton transfer reactions with a series of reference amines revealed apparent gas-phase acidities in a narrow range of 207.3-209.6 kcal/mol, with deprotonation efficiencies following the order [K4G8 + 3H]3+ > [(KGG)4 + 3H]3+ > [(K2G4)2 + 3H]3+. The three ions also react similarly with d4-methanol: each exchanged a maximum of 23-25 of their 25 labile hydrogens, with the first 15-17 exchanges occurring at rate constants of (1.6-2.6) x 10(-11) cm3 molecule-1 s-1. The experimental results agree with molecular modeling findings of similar conformations and Coulomb energies for the three peptide ions. The [M + 3H]3+ data are compared to data obtained previously in our laboratory for the "fully" protonated [M + 4H]4+ (Zhang, X.; Ewing, N. P.; Cassady, C. J. Int. J. Mass Spectrom. Ion Phys., in press). For (KGG)4 and (K2G4)2, there is a marked difference in H/D exchange reactivity between 3+ ions and 4+ ions. The 4+ ions, which have diffuse conformations, slowly exchange only 14 hydrogens, whereas their more compact 3+ counterparts exchange 23-25 hydrogens at a 5-times greater rate. In contrast, the 3+ and 4+ ions of K4G8 have similar compact conformations and exchange reactivity. The results indicate that a multiply hydrogen-bonded intermediate between the deuterating reagent and the peptide ion is necessary for facile H/D exchange. The slower, incomplete H/D exchange of [(KGG)4 + 4H]4+ and [(K2G4)2 + 4H]4+ is attributed to the inability of their protonated lysine n-butylamino groups (which extend away from the peptide backbone) to form this intermediate.     

Particulates: A direct origin of oval defects in GaAs layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Based on micrographic as well as experimental analyses, we show that particulates which inadvertently adhere to the surface before the wafer is ready for growth are one of the most significant origins for the formation of oval defects on the GaAs layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. We show that the density of surface particulates is proportional to that of airborne particles surrounding the wafer under preparation, especially during the drying and transferring process. With reduction of airborne particles, we simultaneously reduce the density of oval defects from a few thousand to about 200 cm^-2 for 1-μm thick layers.