Effects of SiC content on the densification,microstructure, and mechanical properties of HfB2–SiC composites

To investigate the effects of SiC on microstructure, hardness, and fracture toughness, 0, 10, 20, and 30 vol% SiC were added to HfB₂ and sintered by SPS. Upon adding SiC to 30 vol%, relative density increased about 4%; but HfB₂ grain growth had a minimum at 20 vol% SiC. This may be due to grain boundary silicate glass, responsible for surface oxide wash out, enriched in SiO₂ with higher fraction of SiC. By SiO₂ enrichment, the glass viscosity increased and higher HfO₂ remained unsolved which subsequently lead to higher grain growth. Hardness has increased from about 13 to 15 GPa by SiC introduction with no sensible variation with SiC increase. Residual stress measurements by Rietveld method indicated high levels of tensile residual stresses in the HfB₂ Matrix. Despite the peak residual stress value at 20 vol% SiC, fracture toughness of this sample was the highest (6.43 MPa m^0.5) which implied that fracture toughness is mainly a grain size function. Tracking crack trajectory showed a mainly trans-granular fracture, but grain boundaries imposed a partial deflection on the crack pathway. SiC had a higher percentage in fracture surface images than the cross-section which implied a weak crack deflection.     

Al2O3 Colloidal Nanocrystals with Strong UV Emission

A facile sol–gel procedure has been developed for the synthesis of colloidal alumina nanocrystals. For the first time, optical characterization procedures were employed to study the quantum confinement effects in optical properties of the prepared Al₂O₃ sol. Accordingly, the hyperbolic band model was used to determine the optical band gap of colloidal alumina nanocrystals. X‐Ray diffraction pattern was used to study the crystallographic phase of the dried gel. Morphological characterization was performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) emission spectroscopy was used to determination purity of the Al₂O₃ powder. High‐resolution TEM showed that the diameter of colloidal nanocrystals is about 10 nm. Photoluminescence spectroscopy demonstrated that quantum yields for colloidal nanocrystals are 68% with 300 nm excitation wavelength. The experimental observations confirm that highly stable alumina sol with strong UV emission was synthesized. The mentioned optical properties have not been reported before.     

Duodenal erosions and ulcers in patients with pancreatobiliary obstruction

The authors compared in a controlled clinical study two groups of patients after a first renal transplantation treated by triple drug immunosuppressive therapy. In a group of 31 patients the triple combination comprised Sandimmune Neoral. In the control group there were 30 patients who received Sandimmune. No differences were found between the two groups as regards the effectiveness of this treatment and the authors did not confirm a lower incidence of rejections described in patients treated with Sandimmune Neoral. They confirmed, however, a lower interindividual variability of Cy-A levels assessed specifically in patients treated with Sandimmune Neoral.     

Iodo-2'-deoxyuridine (IUdR) and 125IUdR loaded biodegradable microspheres for controlled delivery to the brain

The aim of this work was to develop sustained local release systems for radioiodinated iodo-2'-deoxyuridine (125IUdR) from biodegradable polymeric microspheres to facilitate the controlled delivery of 125IUdR to brain tumours. The selective uptake of IUdR into the cell nucleus results in cell disruption over the short range of the low energy Auger electrons. The biodegradable microspheres can be precisely implanted in the brain by stereotactic techniques and the IUdR within the microspheres is protected from degradation and thus a sustained source of radiolabelled IUdR is available in the vicinity of the residual tumour cells. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), PLGA (85:15), microspheres containing cold IUdR and the Auger-electron emitter 125I, as 125IUdR were prepared using the O/W, O/O and W/O/W emulsion-solvent evaporation methods. The W/O/W emulsion method was most effective in achieving good drug loading with the use of bovine plasma in the internal water phase. Also effective in improving the drug loading was the use of 20% acetone in the dichloromethane and the presence of Span 40 in the organic phase. Electrolytes (NaCl and IUdR) in the external aqueous phase also improved drug loading. After an initial rapid release from the microspheres, a sustained release was observed over 15 days for the 'cold' IUdR. The sustained release portions of the release curves showed Higuchi (t1/2), diffusion controlled release kinetics. The radiolabelled IUdR microspheres showed a burst release effect of 30-40% followed by a sustained release over 35 days.     

Preparation and properties of novel polyurethane insulating coatings based on glycerin‐terminated urethane prepolymers and blocked isocyanate

Novel polyurethane insulating coatings were prepared from the reaction of glycerin‐terminated polyurethane prepolymers (GPUPs) and a blocked isocyanate curing agent (BIC). The GPUPs were prepared from the reaction of one equivalent of polycaprolactone polyol (CAPA 210) with an excess amount of 4,4′‐methylene bis(phenyl isocyanate) (MDI) and subsequent reaction of the NCO‐terminated polyurethane with glycerin. The BIC was prepared from the reaction of trimethylol propane (TMP), toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and N‐methylaniline (NMA). The polyols and curing agent were characterized by conventional methods while the curing condition was optimized via gel content measurements. The curing kinetics of the polyurethane coating were investigated and the kinetic parameters derived. The crosslink densities of the samples were determined via the equilibrium swelling method, using the Flory–Rehner equation. The relationships between the crosslink density and the electrical, physical, mechanical and dynamic mechanical properties of the coatings were also studied. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Rotation-invariant multiresolution texture analysis using radon and wavelet transforms.

A new rotation-invariant texture-analysis technique using Radon and wavelet transforms is proposed. This technique utilizes the Radon transform to convert the rotation to translation and then applies a translation-invariant wavelet transform to the result to extract texture features. A kappa-nearest neighbors classifier is employed to classify texture patterns. A method to find the optimal number of projections for the Radon transform is proposed. It is shown that the extracted features generate an efficient orthogonal feature space. It is also shown that the proposed features extract both of the local and directional information of the texture patterns. The proposed method is robust to additive white noise as a result of summing pixel values to generate projections in the Radon transform step. To test and evaluate the method, we employed several sets of textures along with different wavelet bases. Experimental results show the superiority of the proposed method and its robustness to additive white noise in comparison with some recent texture-analysis methods.     

Determination of vitality from a non-invasive biomedical measurement for use in fingerprint scanners

Fingerprints are the oldest and most widely used biometrics for personal identification. Unfortunately, it is usually possible to deceive automatic fingerprint identification systems by presenting a well-duplicated synthetic or dismembered finger. This paper introduces one method to provide fingerprint vitality authentication in order to solve this problem. Detection of a perspiration pattern over the fingertip skin identifies the vitality of a fingerprint. Mapping the two-dimensional fingerprint images into one-dimensional signals, two ensembles of measures, namely static and dynamic measures, are derived for classification. Static patterns as well as temporal changes in dielectric mosaic structure of the skin, caused by perspiration, demonstrate themselves in these signals. Using these measures, this algorithm quantifies the sweating pattern and makes a final decision about vitality of the fingerprint by a neural network trained by examples.     

Computerized facility layout design

The paper describes a computerized facility layout designer, COMLAD II, for plant layout development. Besides developing an efficient layout, COMLAD II has useful features which allow fixing the departments, changing the shape of the departments and changing the length and width dimensions of the overall layout.     

An automated coding and classification system with supporting database for effective design of manufacturing systems

The philosophy of group technology (GT) is an important concept in the design of flexible manufacturing systems and manufacturing cells. Group technology is a manufacturing philosophy that identifies similar parts and groups them into families. Beside assigning unique codes to these parts, group technology developers intend to take advantage of part similarities during design and manufacturing processes. GT is not the answer to all manufacturing problems, but it is a good management technique with which to standardize efforts and eliminate duplication. Group technology classifies parts by assigning them to different families based on their similarities in: (1) design attributes (physical shape and size), and/or (2) manufacturing attributes (processing sequence). The manufacturing industry today is process focused; departments and sub units are no longer independent but are interdependent. If the product development process is to be optimized, engineering and manufacturing cannot remain independent any more: they must be coordinated. Each sub-system is a critical component within an integrated manufacturing framework. The coding and classification system is the basis of CAPP and the functioning and reliability of CAPP depends on the robustness of the coding system. The proposed coding system is considered superior to the previously proposed coding systems, in that it has the capability to migrate into multiple manufacturing environments. This article presents the design of a coding and classification system and the supporting database for manufacturing processes based on both design and manufacturing attributes of parts. An interface with the spreadsheet will calculate the machine operation costs for various processes. This menu-driven interactive package is implemented using dBASE-IV. Part Family formation is achieved using a KAMCELL package developed in TURBO Pascal.