Effect of Heat Treatment on Mechanical Properties and Corrosion Performance of Cold-Sprayed Tantalum Coatings

The cold-spray technique is of significant interest to deposit refractory metals with relatively high melting point for a variety of demanding applications. In the present study, mechanical properties of cold-sprayed tantalum coatings heat treated at different temperatures were investigated using microtensile testing, scratch testing, and nanoindentation. The corrosion performance of heat-treated coatings was also evaluated in 1 M KOH solution, and potentiodynamic polarization as well as impedance spectroscopy studies were carried out. Assessment of structure–property correlations was attempted based on microstructure, porosity, and intersplat bonding state, together with mechanical and corrosion properties of the heat-treated cold-sprayed tantalum coatings. Coatings annealed at 1500 °C, which is very close to the recrystallization temperature of tantalum, were found to perform almost as bulk tantalum, with exciting implications for various applications.     

Effects of Clinorotation on Growth and Chlorophyll Content of Rice Seeds

Microgravity, as a different environment, has been shown to affect plant growth and development (Sievers et al. 1996; Sack 1997). In the present study, effects of slow clinorotation (2 rpm) on growth and chlorophyll content in rice (variety: PRH-10) seedlings were investigated. Rice seeds were clinorotated continuously for 3, 5 and 7 days under ambient conditions. Root and shoot lengths and weights of rice seedlings were measured on the third, fifth and seventh day. Chlorophyll was extracted using N, N-Dimethylformamide (DMF). Absorption and fluorescence spectra of chlorophyll were recorded. Chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll contents were calculated from absorption spectra using Arnon’s method. Results showed an increase in root and shoot lengths in clinorotated samples. Similar results were obtained for root and shoot weights. Absorption spectra of chlorophyll showed no shift in the absorption peaks. Chlorophyll content was increased in clinorotated samples as compared to the controls. Interestingly, the difference between chlorophyll content in control and clinorotated samples decreased as the number of days of clinorotation increased. Chlorophyll a/b ratio was lowered in clinorotated samples as compared to the controls. These results suggest that slow clinorotation (2 rpm) affects plant growth and chlorophyll content in rice seedlings.     

Design of multivariable feedback systems with infinite gain margin and decoupling

This letter discusses the problem of designing a feedback compensator that attains the infinite gain margin under the uncertainties of feedback gains. A sufficient condition is given for the existence of compensators and then it is shown that the condition becomes necessary subject to the requirement that the feedback system is decoupled. The nonlinear case is also discussed.     

A note on the genericity of simultaneous stabilizability and pole assignability

In this paper we study the genericity of simultaneous stabilizability, simultaneous strong stabilizability, and simultaneous pole assignability, in linear multivariable systems. The main results of the paper had been previously established by Ghosh and Byrnes using state-space methods. In contrast, the proofs in the present paper are based on input-output arguments, and are much simpler to follow, especially in the case of simultaneous and simultaneous strong stabilizability. Moreover, the input-output methods used here suggest computationally reliable algorithms for solving these two types of problems. In addition to the main results, we also prove some lemmas on generic greatest common divisors which are of independent interest.This work was supported in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada under Grant Number A-1240.This work was supported in part by The Army Research Office under Grant Number BAAG29-84-K-0005.This work was partially supported by the Department of Electronics, Government of India.     

Evaluation of the antineoplastic activity of guduchi (Tinospora cordifolia) in cultured HeLa cells

The transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) (in both humans and animals) have been reviewed with the principal focus on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), its recent outbreak amongst cattle in the UK ('mad cow disease') and its sequelae. The possible reasons for this outbreak are discussed as well as a number of hypotheses reviewed for TSEs (e.g. prions, organophosphates, etc.) and current measures attendant with food safety and surveillance taken in the European Union. It is generally accepted that the combined weight of all the evidence to date supports the conclusion that the new rare but lethal variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease (vCJD) is the human counterpart of the aetiological agent BSE and that eating meat from the infected animals is probably to blame for 24 deaths (23 in the UK and one in France) to date from vCJD. Considerable evidence from biochemical, immunologic, pathologic and genetic studies strongly suggests that PrpSC is the major component of the transmissible prion particle responsible for the rare fatal brain TSE diseases.     

Learning decision rules for pattern classification under a familyof probability measures

In this paper, uniformly consistent estimation (learnability) of decision rules for pattern classification under a family of probability measures is investigated. In particular, it is shown that uniform boundedness of the metric entropy of the class of decision rules is both necessary and sufficient for learnability under each of two conditions: (i) the family of probability measures is totally bounded, with respect to the total variation metric, and (ii) the family of probability measures contains an interior point, when equipped with the same metric. In particular, this shows that insofar as uniform consistency is concerned, when the family of distributions contains a total variation neighborhood, nothing is gained by this knowledge about the distribution. Then two sufficient conditions for learnability are presented. Specifically, it is shown that learnability with respect to each of a finite collection of families of probability measures implies learnability with respect to their union; also, learnability with respect to each of a finite number of measures implies learnability with respect to the convex hull of the corresponding families of uniformly absolutely continuous probability measures     

Convergence of higher-order two-state neural networks with modified updating

The Hopfield network is a standard tool for maximizing aquadratic objective function over the discrete set {− 1,1} ⁿ . It is well-known that if a Hopfield network is operated in anasynchronous mode, then the state vector of the network converges to a local maximum of the objective function; if the network is operated in asynchronous mode, then the state vector either converges to a local maximum, or else goes into a limit cycle of length two. In this paper, we examine the behaviour ofhigher-order neural networks, that is, networks used for maximizing objective functions that are not necessarily quadratic. It is shown that one can assume, without loss of generality, that the objective function to be maximized ismultilinear. Three methods are given for updating the state vector of the neural network, called the asynchronous, the best neighbour and the gradient rules, respectively. For Hopfield networks with a quadratic objective function, the asynchronous rule proposed here reduces to the standard asynchronous updating, while the gradient rule reduces to synchronous updating; the best neighbour rule does not appear to have been considered previously. It is shown that both the asynchronous updating rule and the best neighbour rule converge to a local maximum of the objective function within a finite number of time steps. Moreover, under certain conditions, under the best neighbour rule, each global maximum has a nonzero radius of direct attraction; in general, this may not be true of the asynchronous rule. However, the behaviour of the gradient updating rule is not well-understood. For this purpose, amodified gradient updating rule is presented, that incorporates bothtemporal as well as spatial correlations among the neurons. For the modified updating rule, it is shown that, after a finite number of time steps, the network state vector goes into a limit cycle of lengthm, wherem is the degree of the objective function. Ifm = 2, i.e., for quadratic objective functions, the modified updating rule reduces to the synchronous updating rule for Hopfield networks. Hence the results presented here are “true” generalizations of previously known results.     

A controllability criterion for linear systems with unbounded operators

A method is presented for 1) determining whether a given linear system with an unbounded system operator is controllable, and 2) determining the set of reachable states in systems which are not controllable.     

Effect of ice storage on the functional properties of pink perch and oil sardine meat

Ice storage of dressed pink perch (Nemipterus japonicus) and Indian oil sardine (Sardinella longiceps) for 16 and 20 days, respectively, resulted in a decrease in emulsifying capacity (EC), protein solubility (PS), relative viscosity (RV) of salt‐soluble proteins (SSP) and water‐soluble proteins (WSP), water binding capacity (WBC) in terms of absorbed moisture in water (AM_w), absorbed moisture in brine lpar;AM_b), retained moisture in water (RM_w) and retained moisture in brine (RM_b), WSP and SSP, and increase in cook loss (CL). Decrease in protein solubility influenced the EC, RV, CL and WBC in both the species of fish. Significant (P<0.05) correlations existed among various functional properties analysed, in both the fishes during the ice storage. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry     

Solid-state synthesis and effect of temperature on optical properties of Cu-ZnO, Cu-CdO and CuO nanoparticles

Controlling novel morphologies and developing effective doping strategies are two important tasks for advancing ZnO and CdO based nanomaterials. Modulation of band energies through size control offers new ways to control photoresponse and photoconversion efficiencies of the solar cell. The P-type semiconductors of copper oxide and zinc oxide are an important functional material used for photovoltaic cells. CuO is attractive as a selective solar absorber since it has high solar absorbance and a low thermal emittance. This work describes the synthesis and characterization of semiconducting nanoparticles (ZnO, CuO, CdO, Cu-ZnO, Cu-CdO) via one-step, solid-state reaction in the presence of polyethylene glycol 400.Solid-state mechanochemical processing—which is not only a physical size reduction process in conventional grinding but also a chemical reaction that is mechanically activated at the nanoscale during grinding. The present method is a simple and efficient method for the preparation of nanoparticles with high yield at low cost. The structural and chemical composition of the nanoparticles were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectrometer (FESEM/EDAX). Optical properties and band gap were studied by UV-vis absorption spectra. XRD data has been concluded that the Cu doping induced the lattice constants to change to some extent. These results have showed that the band gap energy decreases with increase in annealing temperature, which can be attributed to the improvement in crystallinity of the samples. The band gap of the Cu-ZnO and Cu-CdO crystals can be tuned in the range of 3.34-3.28 eV and 2.80-2.21 eV respectively, by the use of dopants.