Crystallographic Analysis of Isothermally Transformed Bainite in 0.2C-2.0Mn-1.55Si-0.6Cr Steel Using EBSD

The crystallography of bainite,transformed isothermally at 450℃in 0.2C-2.0Mn-1.5Si-0.6Cr steel,was investigated by electron backscatter diffraction(EBSD) analysis.The orientation relationship(OR) was found to be closer to Ntshiyama-Wassermann(N-W) than Kurdjumov—Sachs orientation relationship.Bainite microstructure consisted of parallel laths forming a morphological packet structure.Typically,there were three different lath orientations in a morphological packet.These orientations were dictated by a three specific N—W OR variants sharing the same {111} austenite plane.A packet of bainite laths with common {111} austenite plane was termed as crystallographic packet.Generally,the crystallographic packet size corresponded to the morphological packet size.Locally,crystallographic packets with only two dominant orientations were observed.This indicates strong local variant selection during isothermal bainite transformation.The relative orientation between the variants in crystallographic packets was found to be near 60°/<110>.This appears to explain the strong peak observed in the grain boundary misorientation distribution near 60°.Bainite also contained pronounced fraction of boundaries with their misorientation in the range of 2.5°—8°with quite widely dispersed rotation angles.Spatially these boundaries were found to locate inside the bainite laths,forming lath-like sub-grains.     

Defoliation-induced responses in peroxidases,phenolics, and polyamines in scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) needles

Effects of artificial defoliation on defensive needle chemistry in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) were evaluated with particular emphasis on peroxidases, phenolic compounds, soluble sugars, polyamines, and foliar nitrogen levels. The study was carried out on a nutrient-poor Scots pine stand with 8- to 25-year-old trees. Defoliation treatment consisted of repeated defoliation in two successive years with respective control trees. Defoliation was done before needle flushing by removing all mature needles. Guaiacol peroxidase activity increased in the needles after the first defoliation. The difference between treatments diminished towards autumn, and disappeared before the second defoliation in the next summer. After the second defoliation, the activities showed a similar trend. Apparently, peroxidases are involved in inducible chemical changes and recovery reactions that occur in the intact needles shortly after defoliation. After the second defoliation, total nitrogen concentration in the current year needles was about 20% lower, and free putrescine (a polyamine) concentration was 40% lower in the defoliated trees than in control needles. These changes indicate a loss of nitrogen due to defoliation. Specific phenolic compounds such as quercitrin, (+)-catechin, and two catechin derivatives increased in current year needles in response to defoliation. Accumulation of starch and sucrose in the current year needles of repeatedly defoliated trees may imply decreased assimilate transport. The results are indicative that changes in needle phytochemistry in response to defoliation accompany changes in needle nitrogen metabolism.     

Effect of Boron on the Strength and Toughness of Direct-Quenched Low-Carbon Niobium Bearing Ultra-High-Strength Martensitic Steel

The effect of boron on the microstructures and mechanical properties of laboratory-control-rolled and direct-quenched 6-mm-thick steels containing 0.08 wt pct C and 0.02 wt pct Nb were studied. The boron contents were 24 ppm and a residual amount of 4 ppm. Two different finish rolling temperatures (FRTs) of 1093 K and 1193 K (820 °C and 920 °C) were used in the hot rolling trials to obtain different levels of pancaked austenite prior to DQ. Continuous cooling transformation (CCT) diagrams were constructed to reveal the effect of boron on the transformation behavior of these steels. Microstructural characterization was carried out using various microscopy techniques, such as light optical microscopy (LOM) and scanning electron microscopy-electron backscatter diffraction (SEM-EBSD). The resultant microstructures after hot rolling were mixtures of autotempered martensite and lower bainite (LB), having yield strengths in the range 918 to 1067 MPa with total elongations to fracture higher than 10 pct. The lower FRT of 1093 K (820 °C) produced better combinations of strength and toughness as a consequence of a higher degree of pancaking in the austenite. Removal of boron lowered the 34 J/cm² Charpy-V impact toughness transition temperature from 206 K to 158 K (?67 °C to ?115 °C) when the finishing rolling temperature of 1093 K (820 °C) was used without any loss in the strength values compared to the boron-bearing steel. This was due to the finer and more uniform grain structure in the boron-free steel. Contrary to expectations, the difference was not caused by the formation of borocarbide precipitates, as verified by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations, but through the grain coarsening effect of boron.     

Isomerisation of α-Pinene Oxide to Campholenic Aldehyde Over Supported Ionic Liquid Catalysts (SILCAs)

The isomerisation of α-pinene oxide to campholenic aldehyde, an expensive ingredient utilized by e.g. flavor industry, was studied over Supported Ionic Liquid Catalysts (SILCAs) consisting of catalytically active species residing in ionic liquid. The ionic liquid, in turn, was immobilized on a solid support material. SILCAs were demonstrated as efficient catalysts for the transformation of α-pinene oxide into campholenic aldehyde, with the product distribution and activity being dependent on the nature of the ionic liquid.     

Damage observed in silicon diodes after low energy pion irradiation

We present results of irradiation tests performed in the pion beam of the Paul Scherrer Institute. Our results confirm the prediction, that the Δ-resonance is reflected as an enhancement of the damage caused by low energy pions. At the peak of the Δ-resonance we measure a damage constant 1.5 times higher than generally adopted for neutrons and high energy protons. This result means that the lifetime of silicon detectors close to the vertex at LHC experiments will be limited by the pion background. We predict type inversion of high resistivity detectors to occur after two months of full luminosity and the depletion voltage to reach 200 V within the first four years, even if the detectors are operated at 0°C.     

Parallel Implementation of Self-Organizing Map on the Partial Tree Shape Neurocomputer

A parallel mapping of self-organizing map (SOM) algorithm is presented for a partial tree shape neurocomputer (PARNEU). PARNEU is a general purpose parallel neurocomputer that is designed for soft computing applications. Practical scalability and a reconfigurable partial tree network are the main architectural features. The presented neuron parallel mapping of SOM with on-line learning illustrates a parallel winner neuron search and a coordinate transfer that are performed in the partial tree network. Phase times are measured to analyse speedup and scalability of the mapping. The performance of the learning phase in SOM with a four processor PARNEU configuration is about 26 MCUPS and the recall phase performs 30 MCPS. Compared to other mappings done for general purpose neurocomputers, PARNEU's performance is very good.     

Comparison of clustering methods: A case study of text-independent speaker modeling

Clustering is needed in various applications such as biometric person authentication, speech coding and recognition, image compression and information retrieval. Hundreds of clustering methods have been proposed for the task in various fields but, surprisingly, there are few extensive studies actually comparing them. An important question is how much the choice of a clustering method matters for the final pattern recognition application. Our goal is to provide a thorough experimental comparison of clustering methods for text-independent speaker verification. We consider parametric Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and non-parametric vector quantization (VQ) model using the best known clustering algorithms including iterative (K-means, random swap, expectation-maximization), hierarchical (pairwise nearest neighbor, split, split-and-merge), evolutionary (genetic algorithm), neural (self-organizing map) and fuzzy (fuzzy C-means) approaches. We study recognition accuracy, processing time, clustering validity, and correlation of clustering quality and recognition accuracy. Experiments from these complementary observations indicate clustering is not a critical task in speaker recognition and the choice of the algorithm should be based on computational complexity and simplicity of the implementation. This is mainly because of three reasons: the data is not clustered, large models are used and only the best algorithms are considered. For low-order models, choice of the algorithm, however, can have a significant effect.