The effect of matrix microstructure on cyclic response and fatigue behavior of particle- reinforced 2219 aluminum: Part I. room temperature behavior

The low-cycle and high-cycle fatigue behavior and cyclic response of naturally aged and overaged 2219/TiC/15p and unreinforced 2219 Al were investigated using plastic strain-controlled and stress-controlled testing. In addition, the influence of grain size on the particle-reinforced materials was examined. In both reinforced and unreinforced materials, the naturally aged conditions were cyclically unstable, exhibiting an initial hardening behavior followed by an extended region of cyclic stability and ultimately a softening region. The overaged reinforced material was cyclically stable for the plastic strains examined, while the overaged unreinforced material exhibited cyclic hardening at plastic strains greater than 2.5 × 10⁻⁴. Decreasing grain size of particle-reinforced materials modestly increased the cyclic flow stress of both naturally aged and overaged materials. Reinforced and unreinforced materials exhibited similar fatigue life behaviors; however, the reinforced and unreinforced naturally aged materials had superior fatigue lives in comparison to the overaged materials. Grain size had no effect on the fatigue life behavior of the particle-reinforced materials. The fatigue lives were strongly influenced by the presence of clusters of TiC particles and exogenous Al₃Ti intermetallics. formerly Research Assistant with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 This article is based on a presentation made in the symposium entitled “Creep and Fatigue in Metal Matrix Composites” at the 1994 TMS/ASM Spring meeting, held February 28–March 3, 1994 in San Francisco, California, under the auspices of the Joint TMS-SMD/ASM-MSD Composite Materials Committee.     

Marrow transplantation from unrelated donors

The use of an HLA-compatible unrelated donor is an option for patients who require an allogeneic transplant but lack a family member match. Grafts from unrelated volunteer donors have provided long-term disease-free survival for a variable proportion of patients, depending on degree of HLA matching with the donor, patient's disease, disease stage, and age. The number of volunteers in marrow donor registries worldwide has increased to more than 2.5 million. The number of unrelated donor transplants facilitated by the US National Marrow Donor Program alone will exceed 900 this year. Progress in HLA-typing technology results in a more precise definition of donor and recipient matching and new assays have been developed with initial success to measure alloreactive T-cell precursors for selection of donors with less antihost reactivity. Prevention and treatment of graft failure, graft-versus-host disease, opportunistic infections, and Epstein-Barr virus-associated lymphoproliferative disease remain a challenge.     

Stimulatory effect of follicle-stimulating hormone on basal and luteinizing hormone-stimulated testosterone secretions by the fetal rat testis in vitro

The in vitro effect of FSH on testosterone secretion by the fetal rat testis was studied. Testes were cultured in the presence or absence of either commercial human (h) FSH (Metrodine; 200 mIU/ml) or recombinant hFSH (200 mIU/ml) for 3 days and with 100 ng/ml ovine LH during the last 4 h of culture. To avoid a stimulatory effect by the 0.4% LH that contaminates Metrodine, the cultures were performed in the presence of a monoclonal anti-hLH beta antibody and with a concentration of Metrodine that had no short term stimulatory effect on testosterone production by the fetal testes in vitro. Metrodine treatment had a positive long term effect on both basal and LH-stimulated testosterone secretion by fetal testes explanted on days 18.5, 20.5, and 22.5 postconception, which was abolished by the addition of a monoclonal anti-hFSH beta antibody. LH-free recombinant FSH also augmented basal and LH-stimulated testosterone secretion of testes explanted on days 13.5, 14.5, and 18.5 postconception. The positive effect of recombinant hFSH appeared during the second day of treatment with day 14.5 and 18.5 testes and on the third day of treatment with day 13.5 testes. As it is widely accepted that FSH receptors are exclusively localized on Sertoli cells, these results suggest that on or before day 15.5 of fetal life, 1) Sertoli cells are able to respond to FSH, 2) Sertoli cells can produce factors that are able to act on Leydig cell function, and 3) Leydig cells are sensitive to FSH-induced Sertoli cell factors. In conclusion, this study points out a potential paracrine control of fetal Leydig cell function and/or differentiation by fetal Sertoli cells as soon as fetal Leydig cells differentiate.     

Machine translation of non-literary texts: Some Canadian experiences

A survey was carried out of past and current Canadian experiences with machine-aided translation (MAT) systems of non-literary texts in one government institution and three industrial settings. Each organization requires a great deal of translation and had conducted several experiments in the use of MAT. The survey supports positive conclusions about the prospects for expanded use of computers in translation.The authors express their thanks to all those who helped in the preparation of this paper. We are particularly grateful to the staff of the translation departments of the organizations mentioned in the paper for their kind cooperation and their willingness to answer our questions: Chantal Delorme ofIBM Canada, Lorraine Desmarais and Mr. Plamondon of Bell Canada, Pierre Tellier of the Department of the Secretary of State, Maria Russo and Raymond Lapointe of the Xerox Corporation. Furthermore we thank Prof. Graeme Hirst for helpful discussion.     

Temperature-dependent resistivity measurements on polycrystalline SiO2-covered thin nickel films

The resistivity of thin nickel films is studied as a function of temperature from 4 to 320 K. Both as-deposited and heat-treated samples with thicknesses ranging from 10 to 80 nm are studied. The resistivity can be analysed taking only grain boundary scattering into account, using the theory of Mayadas and Shatzkes. The bulk residual resistivity of the as-deposited films appears to be dominated by grain boundary scattering. No clear evidence for surface scattering could be found.     

Simulation of sulfide buildup in wastewater and atmosphere of sewer networks.

A model concept for prediction of sulfide buildup in sewer networks is presented. The model concept is an extension to--and a further development of--the WATS model (Wastewater Aerobic-anaerobic Transformations in Sewers), which has been developed by Hvitved-Jacobsen and co-workers at Aalborg University. In addition to the sulfur cycle, the WATS model simulates changes in dissolved oxygen and carbon fractions of different biodegradability. The sulfur cycle was introduced via six processes: 1. sulfide production taking place in the biofilm covering the permanently wetted sewer walls; 2. biological sulfide oxidation in the permanently wetted biofilm; 3. chemical and biological sulfide oxidation in the water phase; 4. sulfide precipitation with metals present in the wastewater; 5. emission of hydrogen sulfide to the sewer atmosphere and 6. adsorption and oxidation of hydrogen sulfide on the moist sewer walls where concrete corrosion may take place.     

LSTSQ: a module for reliable constrained and unconstrained nonlinear regression

A software module for nonlinear regression analysis, based on the reliable Meyer-Roth algorithm (a modified damped least square algorithm), is presented. It allows both constrained and unconstrained optimization, and the use of a variety of weighting methods. Virtually any nonlinear function can be fitted, including those with several nondependent variables. The package has been thoroughly tested, and is available in several common computer languages (Pascal, Modula-2 and C). It is easy to use, and advanced knowledge of mathematics or computers is not essential. Standard test problems, and a fully working example of use on enzyme kinetics are included.     

On the design of multiple key hashing files for concurrent orthogonal range retrieval between two disks

This paper concerns the following problem: given a set of multi-attribute records, a fixed number of buckets and a two-disk system, arrange the records into the buckets and then store the buckets between the disks in such a way that, over all possible orthogonal range queries (ORQs), the disk access concurrency is maximized. We shall adopt the multiple key hashing (MKH) method for arranging records into buckets and use the disk modulo (DM) allocation method for storing buckets onto disks. Since the DM allocation method has been shown to be superior to any other allocation methods for allocating an MKH file onto a two-disk system for answering ORQs, the real issue is knowing how to determine an optimal way for organizing the records into buckets based upon the MKH concept.

A performance formula that can be used to evaluate the average response time, over all possible ORQs, of an MKH file in a two-disk system using the DM allocation method is first presented. Based upon this formula, it is shown that our design problem is related to a notoriously difficult problem, namely the Prime Number Problem. Then a performance lower bound and an efficient algorithm for designing optimal MKH files in certain cases are presented. It is pointed out that in some cases the optimal MKH file for ORQs in a two-disk system using the DM allocation method is identical to the optimal MKH file for ORQs in a single-disk system and the optimal average response time in a two-disk system is slightly greater than one half of that in a single-disk system.     

On the performance of the CREL system

This paper presents the performance results of a comprehensive approach to the parallel execution of rule systems. It describes the semantics of a Concurrent Rule Execution Language, CREL, and the architecture of the system that compiles and executes CREL programs. The system has been designed to avoid run-time overhead by performing extensive compile-time analysis and by parallelizing compilation. Static dependency analysis, based on serializability, coupled with a set of optimizing transforms, partitions the program into subsets, called clusters. Clusters execute independently of each other and communicate though asynchronous message passing. At run time two additional sources of parallelism are exploited—run-time consistency checking allowing multiple rules to fire, and match-level parallelism. The CREL system is implemented on a Sequent Symmetry shared-memory computer. This paper presents the results of a factorial experiment that isolates and evaluates each source of parallelism in the CREL system and each possible combination of those methods. The results suggest that multiple-rule firing is the single most important source of parallelism in CREL programs and that the use of static dependency analysis based on serializability is instrumental to effectively exploit parallelism.