Combustion synthesis of AlN doped with carbon and oxygen

Carbon-and-oxygen-doped AlN specimens were prepared by combustion synthesis using Al, graphite, and AlN. Graphite addition changed the product color from white to blue. By XRD, the lattice constant increased slightly with increasing carbon content. Blue AlN powder was synthesized with a molar ratio of the diluent AlN of 0.2-0.5 with a fixed graphite content of 0.05. At an AlN molar ratio exceeding 0.6, carbon was not successfully incorporated due to the lower reaction temperature. Calcination at 800°C in air removed residual graphite without changing the crystal structure or product color. Oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon analyses revealed that blue AlN powders contained 0.45-0.54 mass% carbon and 1.4-1.6 mass% oxygen, while the undoped AlN contained 0.021 mass% carbon and 0.94 mass% oxygen. The origin of the white-to-blue color change was investigated via reflection measurements. Blue AlN exhibits an absorption peak at 634 nm (1.96 eV). From first-principles electronic structure calculations, the C-doped AlN and carbon-and-oxygen-doped AlN with a 1:1 ratio could be classified as p-type, whereas the O-doped AlN and 1:3 carbon-and-oxygen-doped AlN were n-type. One reason for the absorption peak at 634 nm may be a transition from the conduction band to an upper unoccupied state. These results suggest the possible control of optical and electronic properties of AlN via carbon-and-oxygen doping.     

Defocusing image to pattern contact holes using attenuated phase shift masks

The patterning of contact holes by selecting out-of-focus image plane (defocus) using attenuated phase shift masks (APSM) has been studied. Defocus is found to enhance the image modulation at low partial coherence for contact holes with negative local average of mask function. Semi-dense holes up to 130 nm in 8% APSM have been printed by 0.5 μm defocus at a partial coherence of 0.31 using KrF scanner with highest numerical aperture of 0.68. However, these holes were closed with in-focus imaging. Defocus is also found to be beneficial for patterning the pitches that have extensive side lobes with in-focus imaging.     

CD46 (membrane cofactor protein of complement, measles virus receptor): structural and functional divergence among species (review)

OBJECT: In this retrospective study, the authors analyzed the frequency, anatomical distribution, and appearance of traumatic brain lesions in 42 patients in a posttraumatic persistent vegetative state. METHODS: Cerebral magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was used to detect the number of lesions, which ranged from as few as five to as many as 19, with a mean of 11 lesions. In all 42 cases there was evidence on MR imaging of diffuse axonal injury, and injury to the corpus callosum was detected in all patients. The second most common area of diffuse axonal injury involved the dorsolateral aspect of the rostral brainstem (74% of patients). In addition, 65% of these patients exhibited white matter injury in the corona radiata and the frontal and temporal lobes. Lesions to the basal ganglia or thalamus were seen in 52% and 40% of patients, respectively. Magnetic resonance imaging showed some evidence of cortical contusion in 48% of patients in this study; the frontal and temporal lobes were most frequently involved. Injury to the parahippocampal gyrus was detected in 45% of patients; in this subgroup there was an 80% incidence of contralateral peduncular lesions in the midbrain. The most common pattern of injury (74% in this series) was the combination of focal lesions of the corpus callosum and the dorsolateral brainstem. In patients with no evidence of diffuse axonal injury in the upper brainstem (26% in this series), callosal lesions were most often associated with basal ganglia lesions. Lesions of the corona radiata and lobar white matter were equally distributed in patients with or without dorsolateral brainstem injury. Moreover, cortical contusions and thalamic, parahippocampal, and cerebral peduncular lesions were also similarly distributed in both groups. CONCLUSIONS: The data indicate that diffuse axonal injury may be the major form of primary brain damage in the posttraumatic persistent vegetative state. In addition, the authors demonstrated in this study that MR imaging, in conjunction with a precise clinical correlation, may provide useful supportive information for the accurate diagnosis of a persistent vegetative state after traumatic brain injury.     

Iodine-123-BMIPP myocardial washout and cardiac work during exercise in normal and ischemic hearts

Due to the changes in the frequency of penicillin-resistant strains of S. pneumoniae, it is necessary to perform surveillance studies of bacterial resistance. Isolates from the upper respiratory tract of asymptomatic children have been useful. There is no information about the difference between isolates from children with and without upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). The objective of the authors in this paper is to establish the prevalence of carrier-state, serotype and antimicrobial resistance of S. pneumoniae isolates from children with and without acute upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) in a rural area in Mexico. A cross-sectional comparative study was performed in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Children from one month 5 years of age were included. Nasopharyngeal swabs were obtained. Identification was done by international microbiology standards. Serotyping was done by the capsular Quellung test. The susceptibility testing was performed by the agar dilution method. Four-hundred and fifty patients were included. S. pneumoniae was isolated in 134 children (29.7%). Frequency of carriers was greater in patients with URTI (107/323) than without URTI (27/127) (33.1% vs. 21.1% p = 0.012, OR 1.84, IC 95% 1.1-3.08). The six most frequent serotypes were: 6B (16.4%); 19F (11.9%); 19A (6.7%); 14, 23F, and 35 (5.2% each), with no difference among the groups. Only 3% of the strains had high level resistance to penicillin, and 12.6% had intermediate resistance, and for ampicillin 4%, amoxicillin 4%, amoxicillin-clavulanate 4%, ceftriaxone 3%, cefotaxime 1.5%, erythromycin 6%, miocamycin 3%, chloramphenicol 4%, and vancomycin 0%. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole resistance was very high (42%). In conclusion, colonization is higher in children with URTI. Five of the most frequent serotypes identified in this study were the same as those identified in patients with S. pneumoniae invasive diseases in Mexico City. In Tlaxcala, Mexico, beta-lactams could be the drug of choice for the treatment of S. pneumoniae lower respiratory tract infections. It is necessary to perform clinical assays to evaluate the efficacy of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole due to the high resistance in vitro.     

用仿真工具优化车辆动力系统(一)

在本文的第一部分，介绍了一种理想的车辆动力系统的计算机辅助开发过程。它显示了现代仿真技术在产品持续发展过程中的作用，该技术采用硬件回路作非在线的仿真，并通过现代化的试验手段对车辆进行匹配。特别重要的是提供了将电控变速器和发动机控制单元综合的可能性。接着是在线仿真在诸如发动机和变速器模式方面的应用和发展，它是上述开发过程的基础。根据上述的方法论，本文论述了仿真技术已取得的成绩和将来的应用可能性。     

Adaptive motion control using neural network approximations

In this paper, we present a new adaptive technique for tracking control of mechanical systems in the presence of friction and periodic disturbances. Radial Basis Functions (RBFs) are used to compensate for the effects of nonlinearly occurring parameters in the friction and periodic disturbance model. Theoretical analysis, such as stability and transient performance, is provided. Furthermore, the performance of the adaptive RBF controller and its non-adaptive counterpart are compared.     

我国“十五“电力供需预测分析

分析“十五”期间我国电力需求预测和电力预测中的不确定因素,提出建议采取的措施。     

Topology preservation of template-based 6-subiteration reduction operations

Generally, a reduction operation (e.g., thinning and shrinking) on 3D binary images can be represented as a set of reduction templates where every object voxel of the image satisfying any template is turned to a background voxel. Generally, it is rather difficult, error-prone and time-consuming for verifying the topological soundness of a 3D parallel reduction operation. This paper proposes sufficient conditions of time complexity O(n) for verifying the topological soundness of 3D parallel 6-subiteration reduction operations of n templates where such a kind of 3D reduction operations is performed alternatively from the six orthogonal directions to turn object voxels to background voxels. By such sufficient conditions, the topology soundness of a 3D 6-subiteration parallel reduction operation can be verified by checking each and every of its templates.