Oxidation behavior of TiAl coated with a fine-grain Co-30Cr-4Al film

The oxidation behavior of TiAl coupons coated with a fine-grain Co-30Cr-4Al (mass %) film of about 30-m thickness has been studied at 1100–1400 K in a flow of purified oxygen at atmospheric pressure for up to 500 ks. Three oxidation stages were recognized: initial transient, parabolic, and accelerated stages. However, at 1100 K a parabolic stage continues for more than 800 ks. The activation energy for parabolic oxidation agrees with reported values for the oxidation of alumina-former alloys, although the mass gains during the parabolic stages are relatively small at 1200 and 1300 K. Micropores developed mainly at the scale/coating and coating/substrate interfaces as oxidation proceeded. This is attributable to recrystallization of the coating during oxidation and a Kirkendall effect due to preferential diffusion of Co into the substrate. The accelerated oxidation can be explained in terms of the formation of rutile mounds on the scale.     

Micromachining of electroformed nickel mold using thick photoresist microstructure for imprint technology

In order to fabricate polymer-based microstructures with feature sizes on the order of micrometers, we have been developing a microimprint technology with a fine nickel (Ni) mold instead of a conventional photolithography technique. The Ni mold was successfully fabricated by electroforming using a positive thick photoresist microstructure patterned on a silicon substrate as a replication master. The photoresist microstructure with excellent edge quality can be obtained under irradiation with single wavelength (g line) selected from a high-pressure mercury lamp. In addition, its sidewall angle in the range of 65° to 84° can be controlled precisely by varying the distance between a photomask and a photoresist surface. On the structured photoresist master, Ni was electroplated up to a thickness of about 110 μm, and then removed from the master. In this process, two-step electroplating at different current densities was carried out in order to prevent deformation of the photoresist master due to stress generated in a Ni electrodeposit. With the Ni mold, fine patterns with a width of 10 or 30 μm and a depth of 24 μm were almost completely transferred to polymetric materials (PMMA). The geometrical dimensions of the fabricated PMMA microstructures were found to be only about 10% reduction against the Ni mold.     

Compact cryogenic system with mechanical cryocoolers for antihydrogen synthesis

We have developed a compact cryogenic system which cools a vacuum chamber housing multi-ring trap electrodes (MRTs) of an antihydrogen synthesis trap using mechanical cryocoolers to achieve background pressure less than 10(-12) Torr. The vacuum chamber and the cryocoolers are thermally connected by copper strips of 99.9999% in purity. All components are installed within a diametric gap between the MRT of phi108 mm and a magnet bore of phi160 mm. An adjusting mechanism is prepared to align the MRT axis to the magnet axis. The vacuum chamber was successfully cooled down to 4.0 K after 14 h of cooling with heat load of 0.8 W.     

Oral health assessment in dogs: study design and results

The authors have conducted a large number of canine dental studies during the past six years. Study methodologies have been driven by the need for statistical validation of results, requiring the participation of large numbers of animals in each study. For plaque, stain, and calculus evaluations, a "clean tooth" model was used, in which formation of these substrates was assessed days to weeks after an initial coronal cleaning. A primary goal of the studies described was to validate the study designs used--that is, to use accepted plaque-, calculus-, and stain-controlling agents to test whether the study methods could detect differences between treated and untreated groups. The results of clinical studies show that the methods described can be used to identify plaque, calculus, and stain control attributable to chemical agents, oral hygiene aids, and consumable products.     

Dynamic Transformation Mechanism for Producing Ultrafine Grained Steels

Ultrafine grained (UFG) steels with grain sizes around 1 micron exhibit an excellent strength‐ductility combination and have been extensively studied worldwide. Among the different grain refinement strategies, thermomechanical controlled processing (TMCP) employing dynamic transformation (DT), that is, ferrite transformation during deformation of austenite, is considered as the simplest and commercially exploitable approach to produce ultrafine ferrite (UFF) with grain size of a couple of microns or below. The present paper reviews the research history of DT and highlights the major aspects of continuous interest including the methods and evidences for identifying DT, thermodynamics and kinetics of DT, mechanism for UFF formation and the effects of some key thermomechanical parameters on DT (and UFF formation), together with an outlook for the future research, and new TMCP design for industrial application. This paper also discusses some areas remaining under debate such as the diffusional or displacive mechanism, thermodynamic modeling, and the mechanism for UFF formation, etc.

     

How evolution makes proteins fold quickly

Sequences of fast-folding model proteins (48 residues long on a cubic lattice) were generated by an evolution-like selection toward fast folding. We find that fast-folding proteins exhibit a specific folding mechanism in which all transition state conformations share a smaller subset of common contacts (folding nucleus). Acceleration of folding was accompanied by dramatic strengthening of interactions in the folding nucleus whereas average energy of nonnucleus interactions remained largely unchanged. Furthermore, the residues involved in the nucleus are the most conserved ones within families of evolved sequences. Our results imply that for each protein structure there is a small number of conserved positions that are key determinants of fast folding into that structure. This conjecture was tested on two protein superfamilies: the first having the classical monophosphate binding fold (CMBF; 98 families) and the second having type-III repeat fold (47 families). For each superfamily, we discovered a few positions that exhibit very strong and statistically significant "conservatism of conservatism"-amino acids in those positions are conserved within every family whereas the actual types of amino acids varied from family to family. Those amino acids are in spatial contact with each other. The experimental data of Serrano and coworkers [Lopez-Hernandez, E. & Serrano, L. (1996) Fold. Des. (London) 1, 43-55]. for one of the proteins of the CMBF superfamily (CheY) show that residues identified this way indeed belong to the folding nucleus. Further analysis revealed deep connections between nucleation in CMBF proteins and their function.     

High-temperature oxidation of Al-deposited stainless-steel foils

The oxidation resistance of Al-deposited Fe–Cr–Al foils containing small amounts of La and Ce was assessed by a cyclic oxidation test with temperature varying between room temperature and 1323 K to 1423 K in static air. (1) The Al content of Fe–Cr–Al–La, Ce foils can be increased by depositing an Al layer from the vapor phase. The deposition of a 1-m-thick Al layer on both sides of the 50-m-thick foil is equivalent to a 1.5 mass% increase in the Al content. The deposited Al diffuses into the foil during heat treatment. The uniform distribution of Al is obtained by heating at 1273 K for 18 ks. (2) After the initial transition stage the oxidation follows the parabolic law until breakaway sets in. The scale consists mainly of -Al₂O₃ during the parabolic period. (3) The increase in the Al content by more than 5 mass% by the Al-deposition remarkably improves high-temperature oxidation resistance (smaller parabolic rate constant and longer protection time). (4) The Al-deposited foils have better oxidation resistance than the conventional foils with the same contents of Al and rare-earth elements. This is attributable to the different nature of the initially formed oxide on the Al-deposited foil. (5) The so-called rare-earth element effect was also observed for the Al-deposited foils. Predominant diffusion of oxygen through the Al₂O₃ scale and vacancy-sink mechanism are applicable to the present results.     

Renal glomerular fibrosis in a cat

Renal glomerular fibrosis was observed in a 1-year-old spayed female Japanese domestic cat that showed clinically advanced renal failure. In the glomeruli, increased homogeneous materials were stained strongly with aniline blue by Masson's trichrome and positive for anti-type III collagen antibody by immunohistochemical staining, causing mesangial sclerosis and capillary collapse. By electron microscopy, randomly arranged fibrils were observed in the expanded subendothelial and mesangial areas, and the fibrils showed periodicity characteristic of collagen fibers in longitudinal sections. These findings of glomerular lesions closely resemble those of human "collagenofibrotic glomerulonephropathy," which has recently been described as a new type of glomerulonephropathy.     

Hernia survey of the Section on Surgery of the American Academy of Pediatrics

The members of the Section on Surgery of the American Academy of Pediatrics were surveyed to determine the practice of North American pediatric surgeons in infants with inguinal hernia (IH). Case-scenario multiple-choice-design questionnaires regarding hernias and hydroceles were sent to all members of the Surgical Section, and responses were received from 292 (50%). In healthy full-term infant boys with asymptomatic reducible IH, 82% of responders perform repair electively, no matter what the age or weight. In full-term girls with a reducible ovary, 59% perform surgery at the next available time; if the ovary is nonreducible but asymptomatic, 44% operate emergently or urgently and 42% at the next elective slot. In former preemies, the pattern of repair is as follows. (1) For those recently discharged after 2 months in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with reducible IH, 65% perform the repair when convenient. (2) A general anesthetic is used in 70%; 15% use spinal anesthesia, and 11% use caudal block with sedation. (3) If the repair is done in the hospital outpatient (same-day) unit, 36% wait until 50 weeks postconception (PC) and 33% wait until 60 weeks PC. (4) if the baby's weight is at least 1,000 g. 71% perform the repair before discharge. The pain control choice after childhood IH repair is Tylenol for 30%, local infiltration biquivacaine for 30%, caudal block for 22%, regional block for 11%, and Tylenol/codeine combined for 7%. In 6-week-old full-term infants with communicating hydroceles without definite "hernia," two thirds treat as an IH with elective repair as soon as possible. With respect to contralateral exploration in infants with unilateral IH, 65% perform it in males if they are < or = 2 years of age and 84% use it in females of up to 4 years of age. This approach is not influenced by presenting side, presence of hydrocele, or history of prematurity. Laparoscopic evaluation of the contralateral IH is performed by only 6% of responders, 40% of whom use the open ipsilateral sac for laparoscope introduction.     

Identification of a golf swing robot using soft computing approach

Golf swing robots have been recently developed in an attempt to simulate the ultra high-speed swing motions of golfers. Accurate identification of a golf swing robot is an important and challenging research topic, which has been regarded as a fundamental basis in the motion analysis and control of the robots. But there have been few studies conducted on the golf swing robot identification, and comparative analyses using different kinds of soft computing methodologies have not been found in the literature. This paper investigates the identification of a golf swing robot based on four kinds of soft computing methods, including feedforward neural networks (FFNN), dynamic recurrent neural networks (DRNN), fuzzy neural networks (FNN) and dynamic recurrent fuzzy neural networks (DRFNN). The performance comparison is evaluated based on three sets of swing trajectory data with different boundary conditions. The sensitivity of the results to the changes in system structure and learning rate is also investigated. The results suggest that both FNN and DRFNN can be used as a soft computing method to identify a golf robot more accurately than FFNN and DRNN, which can be used in the motion control of the robot.