Mechanical properties of sinter-forged Al2O3-ZrO2 ceramics

Two kinds of composites, Al₂O₃-25 wt% ZrO₂(2 mol% Y₂O₃) (Y-ZTA), Al₂O₃-25 wt% ZrO₂(8 mol% CeO₂) (Ce-ZTA) were produced by the sinter-forging process. The effect of presintering temperature on the mechanical properties of the composites was examined. The sinter-forging process increased the room-temperature bending strength in comparison with pressureless sintering, owing to the smaller grain size in sinter-forged bodies than in pressureless sintered ones. It was found necessary to keep the presintering temperature considerably lower than sinter-forging temperature in order to improve the room-temperature strength. The strength of sinter-forged Ce-ZTA was higher than that of sinter-forged Y-ZTA. The residual surface compressive stress induced by the phase transition during grinding in Ce-ZTA was found to be effective to further improve the strength and fracture toughness.     

Gross periostitis ossificans in mandibular osteomyelitis. Review of the English literature and radiographic variation

BACKGROUND: Although the airway epithelium participates in inflammation and repair, the circadian expression of epithelial cell markers involved in these processes has not been investigated. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine whether expression of CD51 (vitronectin and fibronectin receptor), CD54 (intercellular adhesion molecule-1), HLA-DR (activation marker), CD29 (beta1 integrin), CD49b (collagen receptor), and CD11b (complement receptor) exhibit a circadian rhythm in asthma. METHODS: Eleven patients with nocturnal asthma (NA), 9 subjects with nonnocturnal asthma (NNA), and 10 control subjects underwent bronchoscopy at 4 PM and 4 AM in a random order 1 week apart, with brushing of the proximal and distal airways. The percentage of cells staining for a particular marker was determined. RESULTS: At 4 PM, HLA-DR in the proximal airways and CD54 in the distal airways was significantly greater in control subjects as compared with asthmatic subjects (HLA-DR, control subjects: 10.0% [range, 5.0% to 21.0%]; NNA: 8.0% [range, 4.0% to 14.5%] NA: 3.5% [range, 2.0% to 6.0%], P = .01; CD54, control subjects: 17.0% [range, 8.0% to 25.0%], NNA: 8.0% [range, 5.3% to 11.5%], NA: 7.0% [range, 4.0% to 15.0%], P = .O;). At 4 AM, CD51 in the distal airways was significantly greater in patients with NA as compared with patients with NNA and control subjects (control subjects, 23.0% [range, 13.8% to 30.5%]; NNA, 32.0% [range, 13.0% to 35.0%]; NA, 40.0% [range, 23.0% to 50.0%], P = .05). Expression of CD51 in the distal airways correlated with the degree of airway obstruction (r = -0.57, P = .001). Control subjects exhibited significant circadian variation in the expression of HLA-DR in the proximal airways and CD54 in the distal airways. CONCLUSION: The increased CD51 at night in patients with NA may be related to increased airway inflammation and repair processes in response to injury. The circadian changes in CD54 and HLA-DR in control subjects require further study to determine their significance. (J Allergy Clin     

Replica Exchange Light Transport

We solve the light transport problem by introducing a novel unbiased Monte Carlo algorithm called replica exchange light transport, inspired by the replica exchange Monte Carlo method in the fields of computational physics and statistical information processing. The replica exchange Monte Carlo method is a sampling technique whose operation resembles simulated annealing in optimization algorithms using a set of sampling distributions. We apply it to the solution of light transport integration by extending the probability density function of an integrand of the integration to a set of distributions. That set of distributions is composed of combinations of the path densities of different path generation types: uniform distributions in the integral domain, explicit and implicit paths in light (particle/photon) tracing, indirect paths in bidirectional path tracing, explicit and implicit paths in path tracing, and implicit caustics paths seen through specular surfaces including the delta function in path tracing. The replica‐exchange light transport algorithm generates a sequence of path samples from each distribution and samples the simultaneous distribution of those distributions as a stationary distribution by using the Markov chain Monte Carlo method. Then the algorithm combines the obtained path samples from each distribution using multiple importance sampling. We compare the images generated with our algorithm to those generated with bidirectional path tracing and Metropolis light transport based on the primary sample space. Our proposing algorithm has better convergence property than bidirectional path tracing and the Metropolis light transport, and it is easy to implement by extending the Metropolis light transport.     

Learning type PID control system using input dependence reinforcement scheme

PID control has widely used in the field of process control and a lot of methods have been used to design PID parameters. When the characteristic values of a controlled object are changed due to a change over the years or disturbance, the skilled operators observe the feature of the controlled responses and adjust the PID parameters using their knowledge and know-how, and a lot of labors are required to do it. In this research, we design a learning type PID control system using the stochastic automaton with learning function, namely learning automaton, which can autonomously adjust the control parameters updating the state transition probability using relative amount of controlled error. We show the effectiveness of the proposed learning type PID control system by simulations. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008     

Synthesis of sulfonated organic–inorganic hybrids through the radical copolymerization of vinyl sulfonate esters and vinyl trialkoxysilanes

Novel organic–inorganic hybrids with sulfonic acid groups were prepared using random copolymers composed of vinyl sulfonate esters and vinyl trialkoxysilanes. Five vinyl sulfonate esters with different substituent groups were employed as protecting monomers for the production of the poly(vinyl sulfonic acid) component, and three vinyl trialkoxysilanes were used as cross-linkable monomers. Free radical and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) copolymerizations were performed for the production of random copolymers with two different functional groups. The selective deprotection of the sulfonate esters of the copolymers proceeded smoothly and resulted in the formation of copolymers with lithium vinyl sulfonate units and cross-linkable trialkoxysilane units. The co-condensation of the trialkoxysilane moieties in the deprotected copolymers with cross-linkers yielded transparent hybrid films that contained lithium sulfonate groups without aromatic rings or ester linkages.     

TEM/STEM Observation of ZrC Coating Layer for Advanced High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Fuel, Part II

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has started to study and develop zirconium carbide (ZrC)-coated fuel particles for advanced high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. The ZrC coating layer has been fabricated at JAEA by chemical vapor deposition using a pyrolytic reaction of zirconium bromide. The microstructures of the ZrC layers, whose nominal deposition temperatures could be measured and controlled during the deposition process, were characterized by means of TEM and STEM. In the present study, three batches were prepared and compared with each other as well as the previous batches. The crystallographic orientation of ZrC with regard to the growth direction in the ZrC layers deposited at a constant temperature of 1630 K was different from that deposited at varying temperatures in the 1493–1823 K range. A thin layer of turbostratic carbon was observed at the boundary between pyrolytic carbon and ZrC in particles deposited at the highest temperature among those used in this study (the nominal temperature was 1769 K); no such structure was found in a batch deposited at a lower temperature (the nominal temperature was 1632 K). Therefore, precise control of temperature is shown to be critical to the formation of good ZrC coatings.     

Mechanisms of reduction in hole concentration in Al-doped 4H-SiC by electron irradiation

From the temperature dependence of the hole concentration in unirradiated lightly Al-doped 4H-SiC epilayers, an Al acceptor with E_V + 0.2 eV, which is an Al atom (Al_Si) at a Si sublattice site, and an unknown deep acceptor with E_V + 0.35 eV are found, where E_V is the top of the valence band. Both the densities are similar. With irradiation of 0.2 MeV electrons the Al acceptor density is reduced, while the unknown deep acceptor density is increased. Judging from the minimum electron energy required to displace a substitutional C atom (C_s) or the Al_Si, the bond between the Al_Si and its nearest neighbor C_s is broken due to the displacement of the C_s by this irradiation. Moreover, the displacement of the C_s results in the creation of a complex (Al_Si-V_C) of Al_Si and a carbon vacancy (V_C), indicating that the possible origin of the deep acceptor with E_V + 0.35 eV is Al_Si-V_C.     

Frequency domain lifetime characterization

Time-based measurements are commonly used for lifetime characterization of semiconductors. We have developed the theory, verified by experiment, of frequency-based lifetime characterization as an alternative to time-based measurements for MOS devices biased in inversion. One consideration during lifetime/diffusion length measurements, is whether the near-surface space-charge region or the bulk or quasineutral region is characterized. To characterize the near-surface space-charge region of the device, one usually makes room temperature pulsed MOS capacitor or diode leakage current measurements. We show that room-temperature, frequency-domain capacitance, conductance, or resistance measurements characterize the quasineutral bulk, not the space charge region, in contrast to room-temperature pulsed MOS-C or diode leakage current measurements which characterize the space-charge region     

Synthesis and Thermal Characterization of Novel Poly(tetramethylsilanthrylenesiloxane) and Poly(tetramethylsilphenanthrylenesiloxane) Derivatives

Summary Novel poly(tetramethylsilarylenesiloxane) derivatives, i.e. poly(tetramethyl-2,6-silanthrylenesiloxane) (P1), poly(tetramethyl-9,10-silanthrylenesiloxane) (P2), and poly(tetramethyl-1,8-silphenanthrylenesiloxane) (P3), were synthesized by polycondensation of novel disilanol monomers, i.e. 2,6-bis(dimethylhydroxysilyl)-anthracene (M1), 9,10-bis(dimethylhydroxysilyl)anthracene (M2), and 1,8-bis(dimethylhydroxysilyl)phenanthrene (M3), respectively. P1 and P3 were soluble in common organic solvents, such as benzene, toluene, chloroform, dichloromethane, tetrahydrofuran, etc. whereas P2 was almost insoluble in common organic solvents. It was revealed that P1 and P3 were amorphous and that P2 exhibited the crystallinity, as deduced from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction measurements. The glass transition temperatures (T_g’s) of P1 (118 °C) and P3 (100 °C) were much higher than that of poly(tetramethyl-1,4-silphenylenesiloxane). The temperature at 5% weight loss (T_d5) of P3 was 500 °C, which was higher than those of P1 and P2, and comparable to that of poly(tetramethyl-1,4-silphenylenesiloxane). It would be speculated that the thermostability of the series of poly(tetramethyl-silarylenesiloxane) derivatives is dependent on the stability of arylene moieties incorporated.