Thermodynamic analysis and assessment of the Ce–Ni system

An optimised set of thermodynamic parameters for the Ce–Ni system has been obtained using the CALPHAD approach. A thorough thermodynamic analysis of the system has been carried out using different calorimetric techniques and the data have been used in the assessment. The free energy of the liquid phase has been described as a function of temperature and composition using a Redlich–Kister polynomial. Solid compounds have been considered as stoichiometric with the exception of the Laves phases. The phase diagram and thermodynamic quantities calculated from assessed parameters agree well with experimental data.     

Surface tension measurements of Al-Ni based alloys from ground-based and parabolic flight experiments: Results from the thermolab project

Surface tension measurements of different alloys of the Al-Ni system, performed both under reduced gravity conditions in parabolic flights and on ground by conventional techniques, are presented. The alloys compositions were selected on the basis of the intrinsic compound forming tendency with the aim to allow a sensitive test of model predictions.     

Undercooling and demixing of copper-based alloys

Since the beginning of materials science research under microgravity conditions immiscible alloys have been an interesting subject. New possibilities to investigate such systems are offered by containerless processing techniques. Of particular interest is the ternary system Cu-Fe-Co, and its limiting binaries, Cu-Co and Cu-Fe. They all show a metastable miscibility gap in the regime of the undercooled melt. Within the ESA-MAP project “CoolCop”, different aspects of this alloy have been investigated; results obtained so far are reported here.     

On the Cooling Rate-Microstructure Relationship in Molten Metal Gas Atomization

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - Gas atomization is the most used powder production technique since it provides good control on particles shape, surface oxidation and dimension. It is a...     

Liquid-liquid phase separation and remixing in the Cu-Co system

This article deals with the metastable liquid-liquid separation in the Cu-Co system. Several samples with different compositions were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry. High undercooling with respect to the liquidus was reached by means of the glass fluxing technique. The alloys were cycled with several heating and cooling runs in order to determine the temperature of the liquid-liquid separation and of the remixing. For each composition, demixing and remixing temperatures were found to be equal. Nucleation rate calculations of the liquid phase separation were carried out to explain the experimental results. The liquid-liquid separation in the Cu-Co system was found to be a nucleation process occurring with no detectable undercooling below the binodal line.     

First data from the EGLE experiment onboard the ISS

EGLE is a wide frequency band search- coil magnetometer designed and built at the Roma Tre University. It has been installed onboard the ISS by the Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori on April 25, 2005 within the LAZIO- EGLE experiment carried out during the ENEIDE Soyuz mission. The scope of the experiment is to test EGLE in space and to investigate geomagnetic field variations. The main applications of EGLE are the study of electromagnetic environment inside the ISS, the correlation of magnetic field data with particle fluxes detected by LAZIO particle detector, and the monitoring of ionospheric perturbations possibly caused by Earth seismic activity. Since continuous electromagnetic field measurements on board the ISS are important for diverse space applications, a magnetometer with a suitable design is requested. Appropriate solutions for these applications, which have been adopted by EGLE, are in particular the use of 1- Wire technology and the possibility to detect by means of a search- coil magnetometer a large portion of the ULF frequency band, usually measured by flux- gate probes. To investigate the topside ionosphere electromagnetic environment and stability of Van Allen radiation belts in relation with seismic and anthropogenic electromagnetic emissions, a specific satellite mission (the ESPERIA project) has been designed for the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and up to now a few instruments of its payload have been built and tested in space. One of them is exactly the EGLE search- coil magnetometer. The first magnetic observations performed by this instrument reveal to be promising and demand for a further and deeper analysis based on a longer time series of data.     

The importance of landscape in wine quality perception: An integrated approach using choice-based conjoint analysis and combination-based permutation tests

This work’s aim is to evaluate the importance of landscape in wine quality perception using a novel integrated approach based on two statistical techniques, i.e. choice-based conjoint analysis (Gustafsson et al., 2001) and combination-based permutation tests (Corain and Salmaso, 2004, Pesarin and Salmaso, 2009a). To this end we developed a preference choice experiment which was submitted to a sample of respondents during blind wine tasting meetings. The obtained results allow us to weigh up and emphasise the importance of an attractive landscape to the perception of a finer quality of wine. Indeed, we noticed that associating wine to an image of greater visual impact, i.e. an evocative landscape, induces a significantly higher preference for the tasted wine. Moreover, the integrated application of choice-based conjoint analysis and combination-based permutation tests allows us to identify the specific relationship each market segment has with landscape, price and wine quality.     

The synthesis and structural study of two benzothiazolyl azo dyes: X-ray crystallographic and computational study of azo–hydrazone tautomerism

The synthesis, FT-IR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR characterisation, as well as crystal and molecular structure determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction data, of two azo dyes derived from 6-aminobenzothiazole: 6-[(4-N,N-dimethylaminophenyl)diazenyl]benzothiazole and 6-[(2-hydroxy-1-naphthyl)diazenyl]benzothiazole are reported. Both dyes are essentially planar with the exclusion of methyl groups in 6-[(4-N,N-dimethylaminophenyl)diazenyl]benzothiazole, which exibits 100% E-configuration in terms of orientation of the substituents about the central azo linkage. Single-crystal X-ray study of 6-[(2-hydroxy-1-naphthyl)diazenyl]benzothiazole was undertaken to established whether the hydrazone or azo tautomer was present in the solid state as well as any potential shift in tautomeric equilibrium imparted by temperature variation (296 and 100 K). Density functional theory calculations revealed that the hydrazone tautomer was more stable than the azo tautomer and that the tautomeric equilibrium was shifted towards the hydrazone form at lower temperature.     

Proton nuclear magnetic resonance rapid and structure-specific determination ofω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in fish lipids

Based on proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR) spectroscopy, a rapid and structure-specific method for the determination of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in fish lipids is presented. The different chemical shift observed for the methyl resonance of ω-3 PUFAs (δ=0.95 ppm) with respect to the methyl resonance of all other fatty acids (δ=0.86 ppm) has provided the possibility of proposing a new and rapid method for the determination of ω-3 PUFA content. Twenty-four fish lipid samples (raw, cooked and canned albacore tuna) produced results that showed good agreement between¹H-NMR analysis and gas chromatographic determination. Raw and cooked samples showed significantly higher levels of ω-3 PUFA than canned tuna.