Strengthening mechanisms in nanostructured high-purity aluminium deformed to high strain and annealed

Samples of pure aluminium (99.99%) have been produced by accumulative roll-bonding to a large strain followed by a heat treatment, where a two-step annealing process has been used to produce samples with large variations in structural parameters such as boundary spacing, misorientation angle and dislocation density. These parameters have been quantified by a structural analysis applying transmission electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction, and the mechanical properties have been determined by tensile testing at room temperature. Strength–structure relationships have been analysed based on the operation of two strengthening mechanisms—grain boundary and dislocation strengthening—and good agreement with experiments has been found for the deformed sample. However, for samples where the density of dislocation sources has been reduced significantly by annealing, an additional strengthening mechanism, so-called dislocation source-limited hardening, may operate as a higher stress is required to activate alternative dislocation sources.     

Cold rolling and recrystallization textures of a Ni–5 at.% W alloy

The formation of recrystallization texture has been studied in a sintered Ni–5 at.% W alloy after heavy cold rolling (～95%) and annealing. Although the cold-rolled texture is a typical pure metal or Cu-type deformation texture on a global scale, variations in microstructure and microtexture are found in the deformed material between locally sheared regions and away those from these regions. The primary recrystallization texture consists of the cube ({1 0 0}〈0 0 1〉), a RD-rotated cube ({0 1 3}〈1 0 0〉) and twin-related orientations of these two components. The presence of both cube and the RD-rotated orientations are identified in thin bands of materials in the deformed matrix. However, predominantly cube-oriented grains nucleate and grow in regions away from the locally sheared regions. In contrast, the nucleation and growth of non-cube grains are observed in the vicinity of locally sheared regions. The formation of cube texture in Ni–5 at.% W alloy appears to occur primarily via the oriented nucleation of cube grains owing to the special properties of the cube bands.     

Application of FDTD Method to the Analysis and Design of Leaky-Wave Antennas at Microwaves and Millimeter Waves

The Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method, though rather heavy from the computational point of view, allows a complete characterization of a radiating structure, permitting also the accuracy evaluation of the other available solutions. Numerical results have been derived for a broad class of leaky-wave antennas proposed in the literature, always revealing a very good agreement with the methods previously employed. By the FDTD technique it is possible to easily determine the propagation and radiation characteristics of such structures, to obtain the radiation pattern in the far field, and to simulate the longitudinal tapering, necessary to satisfy the design requirements usually imposed to reduce sidelobes in the radiation diagram.     

New device structure using array transistors and flexible U-grooves suitable for 18-V, high-performance SOI complementary bipolar LSIs

We have developed a new device structure suitable for high-performance and high-power mixed signal large scale integrations (LSIs) using 0.35-/spl mu/m SOI complementary bipolar transistors. The new structure is composed of array transistors for various operating currents and flexible U-groove (trench) layout for high-power transistors. Thermal simulation results showed that the thermal resistance could be reduced by 40% by using the flexible U-groove layout. Test structure measurements showed that the maximum operating currents of a double polysilicon self-aligned NPN transistor were improved by 2 and 3.5 times by using ballasting resistors and ballasting resistors with flexible U-groove layout, respectively. The effects of the transistor structure on the thermal resistance and the maximum operating current were discussed.     

Effects of long-term feeding of marine oils with different positional distribution of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids on lipid metabolism, eicosanoid production, and platelet aggregation in hypercholesterolemic rats

To clarify the clinical features of nosocomial pneumonia during mechanical ventilation (ventilator-associated pneumonia) and to select the appropriate antibiotic therapy for patients, we performed a clinical analysis of 19 patients (26 episodes) with this condition. The following results were obtained. 1, The average age of the patients was 68 years old (male 16, female 3). 2, VAP occurred three times in 2 cases, twice in 3 cases, and once in 14 cases. 3, The duration of mechanical ventilation was from 7 days to 11 years and 5 months (the average was 2.1 years). 4, The microorganism isolated from the aspiration sputum of the VAP patients was Pseudomonas aeruginosa frequently, but it was difficult to determine whether this microorganism was the causative microorganism. Ten strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA seven strains and MSSA three strains) were newly isolated at the same time as VAP and especially in the cases in which these were thought to be causative microrganisms, all the patients died within a short time. 5, Antibiotics were clinically effective for 53.8% of all the VAP patients and carbapenem antibiotics (for example, IPM/CS) were also used for the effective group. 6, Regarding the risk factors for VAP, factors such as the duration of mechanical ventilation, the existence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a hyponutritional state, prior antibiotics, aspiration of gastric contents, histamine-type-2 receptor antagonist, and multiple organ failure showed significant differences and were suspected to be associated with the appearance of VAP.     

Home blood pressure measurement has a stronger predictive power for mortality than does screening blood pressure measurement: a population-based observation in Ohasama, Japan

OBJECTIVE: To compare the predictive powers of self-measurement of blood pressure at home (home blood pressure measurement) and casual (screening) blood pressure measurement for mortality. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We obtained home and screening blood pressure measurements for 1789 subjects aged > or = 40 years who were followed up for a mean of 6.6 years. The prognostic significance of blood pressure for mortality was determined by the Cox proportional hazards regression model adjusted for age, sex, smoking status, past history of cardiovascular disease, and the use of antihypertensive medication. RESULTS: When the home blood pressure values and the screening blood pressure values were simultaneously incorporated into the Cox model as continuous variables, only the average of multiple (taken more than three times) home systolic blood pressure values was significantly and strongly related to the cardiovascular mortality risk. The average of the two initial home blood pressure values was also better related to the mortality risk than were the screening blood pressure values. CONCLUSIONS: Home blood pressure measurement had a stronger predictive power for mortality than did screening blood pressure measurement for a general population. This appears to be the first study in which the prognostic significances of home and screening blood pressure measurements have been compared.     

Coordinated stabilizing control for large-scale interconnected power systems,by superconducting magnetic energy storage unit and power system stabilizers

The purpose of large-scale power system interconnection is to achieve extremely economical and reliable power generation and transmission. It has established the present power systems of high quality. On the other hand, in the large power systems with complex configuration, an undamped power swing with low frequency caused by the synchronous power between interconnected systems tends to occur as well as an undamped power swing caused by the synchronous power of specific generators. Several coordinated stabilizing control schemes for the power systems by sets of power system stabilizers (PSSs) have been investigated so far. PSS is very effective for the stabilization of power swing among a few specific generators because the function of PSS is achieved by the voltage control using the generator field winding circuit. However, it seems that PSSs do not have sufficient ability to stabilize the power swings between interconnected systems. In this paper, the superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) which is significantly effective for the power swings between interconnected systems is introduced and a coordinated power system stabilizing control by SMES and PSSs is proposed. The advantages of the proposed control scheme are: 1) high efficiency of the controller by the distribution of functions; 2) independency of the control design for PSS and SMES; and 3) robustness of the controller, and so on.     

InAIGaAs selective MOVPE growth with bandgap energy shift

We studied the bandgap energy shift by varying the SiO₂ mask width in selective MOVPE growth of InAIGaAs with almost no polycrystals on the masks. We found that the photoluminescence (PL) peak shifts toward the longer wavelength with wider mask width and narrower mesa width, where the In content is enhanced, and observed a maximum PL peak wavelength shift of 170 nm.