Monitoring delamination of plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coatings by reflectance-enhanced luminescence

Plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) present a challenge for optical diagnostic methods to monitor TBC delamination, because the strong scattering exhibited by plasma-sprayed TBCs severely attenuates light transmitted through the TBC. This paper presents a new approach that indicates delamination in plasma-sprayed TBCs by utilizing a luminescent sublayer that produces significantly greater luminescence intensity from delaminated regions of the TBC. Freestanding coatings were produced with either a Eu-doped or Er-doped yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) luminescent layer below a plasma-sprayed undoped YSZ layer. A NiCr backing layer was added to represent an attached substrate in some sections. For specimens with a Eu-doped YSZ luminescent sublayer, luminescence intensity maps showed excellent contrast between unbacked and NiCr-backed sections. Discernable contrast between unbacked and NiCr-backed sections was not observed for specimens with a Er-doped YSZ luminescent sublayer, because luminescence from Er impurities in the undoped YSZ layer overwhelmed luminescence originating from the Er-doped YSZ sublayer.     

非等间隔GM(1, 1, ????) 幂次时间项模型及其应用

GM(1, 1, ??^??) 幂次时间项模型是灰色GM(1, 1) 模型的推广. 在灰色GM(1, 1) 模型和等间隔GM(1, 1, ??^??) 幂次时间项模型的基础上提出非等间隔GM(1, 1, ??^??) 幂次时间项模型, 并对模型进行求解. 讨论了GM(1, 1, ????) 幂次时间项模型的曲线形状、发展系数以及幂指数间的关系, 研究了非等间隔GM(1, 1, ??^??) 幂次时间项模型的参数空间. 将平均相对误差看成幂指数的函数, 根据序列形状判断幂指数的范围, 并利用粒子群算法求解幂指数. 实际应用验证了所提出模型的有效性.

     

Emerging From the Cocoon? Revisiting the Tele‐Cocooning Hypothesis in the Smartphone Era

The tele‐cocooning hypothesis posits that mobile communication increases interaction with communication rich ties, while simultaneously weakening interaction with communication weak ties. In this study, we demonstrate how smartphones can be used to mitigate tele‐cocooning behavior by stimulating interaction with communication weak ties. Using a smartphone application to collect non‐identifying mobile communication log data, we conducted a field experiment with 193 Japanese participants. The treatment consisted of onscreen reminders designed to stimulate interaction with communication weak ties. The results indicate that the treatment promoted the activation of communication weak ties and the acquisition of information through those ties, suggesting that smartphones can be utilized to promote access to social capital.     

Rapid consolidation of powdered materials by induction hot pressing

A rapid hot press system in which the heat is supplied by RF induction to rapidly consolidate thermoelectric materials is described. Use of RF induction heating enables rapid heating and consolidation of powdered materials over a wide temperature range. Such rapid consolidation in nanomaterials is typically performed by spark plasma sintering (SPS) which can be much more expensive. Details of the system design, instrumentation, and performance using a thermoelectric material as an example are reported. The Seebeck coefficient, electrical resistivity, and thermal diffusivity of thermoelectric PbTe material pressed at an optimized temperature and time in this system are shown to agree with material consolidated under typical consolidation parameters.     

A high temperature apparatus for measurement of the Seebeck coefficient

A high temperature Seebeck coefficient measurement apparatus with various features to minimize typical sources of error is designed and built. Common sources of temperature and voltage measurement error are described and principles to overcome these are proposed. With these guiding principles, a high temperature Seebeck measurement apparatus with a uniaxial 4-point contact geometry is designed to operate from room temperature to over 1200 K. This instrument design is simple to operate, and suitable for bulk samples with a broad range of physical types and shapes.     

The Research Experience for Education Graduate Students: A Phenomenographic Study

This article presents the findings of an exploratory study of education graduate students’ information-seeking behavior and attitudes. Qualitative data included interviews with education students, focusing on their research habits, and analyzed from phenomenographic approach that focused on variations in individuals’ experiences. The quantitative analysis stemmed from participants’ responses to the survey of their information-seeking behavior. A comparison of interview participants and survey respondents’ search skills, research strategies, and attitudes toward previous library instruction illustrate the wide variation in students’ abilities and experiences between the groups. This suggests the need for further analysis of these students’ information seeking behaviors.     

ELCA evaluation for keyword search on probabilistic XML data

As probabilistic data management is becoming one of the main research focuses and keyword search is turning into a more popular query means, it is natural to think how to support keyword queries on probabilistic XML data. With regards to keyword query on deterministic XML documents, ELCA (Exclusive Lowest Common Ancestor) semantics allows more relevant fragments rooted at the ELCAs to appear as results and is more popular compared with other keyword query result semantics (such as SLCAs). In this paper, we investigate how to evaluate ELCA results for keyword queries on probabilistic XML documents. After defining probabilistic ELCA semantics in terms of possible world semantics, we propose an approach to compute ELCA probabilities without generating possible worlds. Then we develop an efficient stack-based algorithm that can find all probabilistic ELCA results and their ELCA probabilities for a given keyword query on a probabilistic XML document. Finally, we experimentally evaluate the proposed ELCA algorithm and compare it with its SLCA counterpart in aspects of result probability, time and space efficiency, and scalability.     

Template-based program verification and program synthesis

Program verification is the task of automatically generating proofs for a program’s compliance with a given specification. Program synthesis is the task of automatically generating a program that meets a given specification. Both program verification and program synthesis can be viewed as search problems, for proofs and programs, respectively. For these search problems, we present approaches based on user-provided insights in the form of templates. Templates are hints about the syntactic forms of the invariants and programs, and help guide the search for solutions. We show how to reduce the template-based search problem to satisfiability solving, which permits the use of off-the-shelf solvers to efficiently explore the search space. Template-based approaches have allowed us to verify and synthesize programs outside the abilities of previous verifiers and synthesizers. Our approach can verify and synthesize difficult algorithmic textbook programs (e.g., sorting and dynamic programming-based algorithms) and difficult arithmetic programs.     

Thiamine concentrations in lake whitefish eggs from the upper Great Lakes are related to maternal diet

Thiamine deficiency is responsible for reproductive impairment in several species of salmonines in the Great lakes, and is thought to be caused by the consumption of prey containing thiaminase, a thiamine-degrading enzyme. Because thiaminase levels are extremely high in dreissenid mussels, fish that prey on them may be susceptible to thiamine deficiency. We determined thiamine concentrations in lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis eggs from the upper Laurentian Great Lakes to assess the potential for thiamine deficiency and to determine if thiamine concentrations in lake whitefish eggs were related to maternal diet. Mean thiamine concentrations in lake whitefish eggs were highest in Lake Huron, intermediate in Lake Superior, and lowest in Lake Michigan. Some fish had thiamine concentrations below putative thresholds for lethal and sublethal effects in salmonines, suggesting that some larval lake whitefish may currently be at risk of at least sublethal effects of low thiamine concentrations, although thiamine thresholds are unknown for lake whitefish. Egg thiamine concentrations in lake whitefish eggs were statistically significantly related to isotopic carbon signatures, suggesting that egg thiamine levels were related to maternal diet, but low egg thiamine concentrations did not appear to be associated with a diet of dreissenids. Egg thiamine concentrations were not statistically significantly related to multifunction oxidase induction, suggesting that lower egg thiamine concentrations in lake whitefish were not related to contaminant exposure.     

Safety, domain independence and translation of complex value database queries

This paper considers the theory of database queries on the complex value data model with external functions. Motivated by concerns regarding query evaluation, we first identify recursive sets of formulas, called embedded allowed, which is a class with desirable properties of “reasonable” queries.We then show that all embedded allowed calculus (or fix-point) queries are domain independent and continuous. An algorithm for translating embedded allowed queries into equivalent algebraic expressions as a basis for evaluating safe queries in all calculus-based query classes has been developed.Finally we discuss the topic of “domain independent query programs”, compare the expressive power of the various complex value query languages and their embedded allowed versions, and discuss the relationship between safety, embedded allowed, and domain independence in the various calculus-based queries.