The Coarse-Grained/Fine-Grained Logic Interface in FPGAs with Embedded Floating-Point Arithmetic Units

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chi Wai Yu

2008-01-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the interface between fine-grained and coarse-grained programmable logic in FPGAs. Specifically, it presents an empirical study that covers the location, pin arrangement, and interconnect between embedded floating point units (FPUs and the fine-grained logic fabric in FPGAs. It also studies this interface in FPGAs which contain both FPUs and embedded memories. The results show that (1 FPUs should have a square aspect ratio; (2 they should be positioned near the center of the FPGA; (3 their I/O pins should be arranged around all four sides of the FPU; (4 embedded memory should be located between the FPUs; and (5 connecting higher I/O density coarse-grained blocks increases the demand for routing resources. The hybrid FPGAs with embedded memory required 12% wider channels than the case where embedded memory is not used.

METHODS OF RECEIVING OF FINE-GRAINED STRUCTURE OF CASTINGS AT CRYSTALLIZATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. K. Tolochko

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with methods for fine-grained structure of ingots during crystallization depending on the used foundry technologies. It is shown that by using modern scientific and technological advances may improve the traditional and the development of new casting processes, providing production of cast parts with over fine-grained structure and enhanced properties.

Generation and emplacement of fine-grained ejecta in planetary impacts

Science.gov (United States)

Ghent, R.R.; Gupta, V.; Campbell, B.A.; Ferguson, S.A.; Brown, J.C.W.; Fergason, R.L.; Carter, L.M.

2010-01-01

We report here on a survey of distal fine-grained ejecta deposits on the Moon, Mars, and Venus. On all three planets, fine-grained ejecta form circular haloes that extend beyond the continuous ejecta and other types of distal deposits such as run-out lobes or ramparts. Using Earth-based radar images, we find that lunar fine-grained ejecta haloes represent meters-thick deposits with abrupt margins, and are depleted in rocks 1cm in diameter. Martian haloes show low nighttime thermal IR temperatures and thermal inertia, indicating the presence of fine particles estimated to range from ???10??m to 10mm. Using the large sample sizes afforded by global datasets for Venus and Mars, and a complete nearside radar map for the Moon, we establish statistically robust scaling relationships between crater radius R and fine-grained ejecta run-out r for all three planets. On the Moon, ???R-0.18 for craters 5-640km in diameter. For Venus, radar-dark haloes are larger than those on the Moon, but scale as ???R-0.49, consistent with ejecta entrainment in Venus' dense atmosphere. On Mars, fine-ejecta haloes are larger than lunar haloes for a given crater size, indicating entrainment of ejecta by the atmosphere or vaporized subsurface volatiles, but scale as R-0.13, similar to the ballistic lunar scaling. Ejecta suspension in vortices generated by passage of the ejecta curtain is predicted to result in ejecta run-out that scales with crater size as R1/2, and the wind speeds so generated may be insufficient to transport particles at the larger end of the calculated range. The observed scaling and morphology of the low-temperature haloes leads us rather to favor winds generated by early-stage vapor plume expansion as the emplacement mechanism for low-temperature halo materials. ?? 2010 Elsevier Inc.

Bake hardening of ultra-fine grained low carbon steel produced by constrained groove pressing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alihosseini, H.; Dehghani, K.

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► BH of UFG low carbon steel sheets was studied. ► Three passes of CGP are used for producing of UFG sheets. ► Maximum BH was achieved to the UFG specimen pre-strained 8% by baking at 250 °C. - Abstract: In the present work, the bake hardening of ultra-fine grained low carbon steel was compared with that of its coarse-grain counterpart. The ultra-fine grained sheets were produced by applying three passes of constrained groove pressing resulting the grains of 260–270 nm. The microstructure of ultra-fine grain specimens were characterized using electron back-scatter diffraction technique. Then, the bake hardenability of ultra-fine grain and coarse-grain samples were compared by pre-straining to 4, 6 and 8% followed by baking at 150 °C and 250 °C for 20 min. The results show that in case of baking at 250 °C, there was an increase about 108%, 93%, and 72% in the bake hardening for 4%, 6% and 8% pre-strain, respectively. As for baking at 150 °C, these values were 170%, 168%, and 100%, respectively for 4%, 6% and 8% pre-strain. The maximum in bake hardenability (103 MPa) and final yield stress (563 MPa) were pertaining to the ultra-fine grain specimen pre-strained 8% followed by baking at 250 °C.

Scintillating optical fibers for fine-grained hodoscopes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borenstein, S.R.; Strand, R.C.

1981-01-01

Fast detectors with fine spatial resolution will be needed to exploit high event rates at ISABELLE. Scintillating optical fibers for fine grained hodoscopes have been developed by the authors. A commercial manufacturer of optical fibers has drawn and clad PVT scintillator. Detection efficiencies greater than 99% have been achieved for a 1 mm fiber with a PMT over lengths up to 60 cm. Small diameter PMT's and avalanche photodiodes have been tested with the fibers. Further improvements are sought for the fiber and for the APD's sensitivity and coupling efficiency with the fiber

Fine-grained information extraction from German transthoracic echocardiography reports.

Science.gov (United States)

Toepfer, Martin; Corovic, Hamo; Fette, Georg; Klügl, Peter; Störk, Stefan; Puppe, Frank

2015-11-12

Information extraction techniques that get structured representations out of unstructured data make a large amount of clinically relevant information about patients accessible for semantic applications. These methods typically rely on standardized terminologies that guide this process. Many languages and clinical domains, however, lack appropriate resources and tools, as well as evaluations of their applications, especially if detailed conceptualizations of the domain are required. For instance, German transthoracic echocardiography reports have not been targeted sufficiently before, despite of their importance for clinical trials. This work therefore aimed at development and evaluation of an information extraction component with a fine-grained terminology that enables to recognize almost all relevant information stated in German transthoracic echocardiography reports at the University Hospital of Würzburg. A domain expert validated and iteratively refined an automatically inferred base terminology. The terminology was used by an ontology-driven information extraction system that outputs attribute value pairs. The final component has been mapped to the central elements of a standardized terminology, and it has been evaluated according to documents with different layouts. The final system achieved state-of-the-art precision (micro average.996) and recall (micro average.961) on 100 test documents that represent more than 90 % of all reports. In particular, principal aspects as defined in a standardized external terminology were recognized with f 1=.989 (micro average) and f 1=.963 (macro average). As a result of keyword matching and restraint concept extraction, the system obtained high precision also on unstructured or exceptionally short documents, and documents with uncommon layout. The developed terminology and the proposed information extraction system allow to extract fine-grained information from German semi-structured transthoracic echocardiography reports

Fine grained nuclear emulsion for higher resolution tracking detector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Naka, T., E-mail: naka@flab.phys.nagoya-u.ac.jp [Institute of Advanced Research, Nagoya University, Nagoya (Japan); Asada, T.; Katsuragawa, T.; Hakamata, K.; Yoshimoto, M.; Kuwabara, K.; Nakamura, M.; Sato, O.; Nakano, T. [Graduated School of Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya (Japan); Tawara, Y. [Division of Energy Science, EcoTopia Science Institute, Nagoya University, Nagoya (Japan); De Lellis, G. [INFN Sezione di Napoli, Napoli (Italy); Sirignano, C. [INFN Sezione di Padova, Padova (Italy); D' Ambrossio, N. [INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi (L' Aquila) (Italy)

2013-08-01

Fine grained nuclear emulsion with several 10 nm silver halide crystals can detect submicron tracks. This detector is expected to be worked as dark matter detector with directional sensitive. Now, nuclear emulsion became possible to be produced at Nagoya University, and extreme fine grained nuclear emulsion with 20 nm diameter was produced. Using this emulsion and new reading out technique with expansion technique, for optical selection and X-ray microscopy, recoiled tracks induced by dark matter can be detected automatically. Then, readout efficiency is larger than 80% at 120 nm, and angular resolution for final confirmation with X-ray microscopy is 20°. In addition, we started to construct the R and D underground facility in Gran Sasso.

Visual classification of very fine-grained sediments: Evaluation through univariate and multivariate statistics

Science.gov (United States)

Hohn, M. Ed; Nuhfer, E.B.; Vinopal, R.J.; Klanderman, D.S.

1980-01-01

Classifying very fine-grained rocks through fabric elements provides information about depositional environments, but is subject to the biases of visual taxonomy. To evaluate the statistical significance of an empirical classification of very fine-grained rocks, samples from Devonian shales in four cored wells in West Virginia and Virginia were measured for 15 variables: quartz, illite, pyrite and expandable clays determined by X-ray diffraction; total sulfur, organic content, inorganic carbon, matrix density, bulk density, porosity, silt, as well as density, sonic travel time, resistivity, and ??-ray response measured from well logs. The four lithologic types comprised: (1) sharply banded shale, (2) thinly laminated shale, (3) lenticularly laminated shale, and (4) nonbanded shale. Univariate and multivariate analyses of variance showed that the lithologic classification reflects significant differences for the variables measured, difference that can be detected independently of stratigraphic effects. Little-known statistical methods found useful in this work included: the multivariate analysis of variance with more than one effect, simultaneous plotting of samples and variables on canonical variates, and the use of parametric ANOVA and MANOVA on ranked data. ?? 1980 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

Penetrating performance and “self-sharpening” behavior of fine-grained tungsten heavy alloy rod penetrators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Luo, Rongmei, E-mail: luorm_1999@126.com [School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, Jiangsu (China); College of Equipment Engineering, Shenyang Ligong University, Shenyang 110159, Liaoning (China); Huang, Dewu; Yang, Mingchuan; Tang, Enling; Wang, Meng; He, Liping [College of Equipment Engineering, Shenyang Ligong University, Shenyang 110159, Liaoning (China)

2016-10-15

Rod penetrators with 95W–3.75Ni–1.25Fe fine-grained tungsten heavy alloy (fine-grained 95W) and conventional tungsten heavy alloy rod penetrators with the same chemical composition (conventional 95W) were subjected to ballistic impact to compare their penetration performance. “Self-sharpening” behavior and an average 10.5% increase in penetration depth compared to conventional 95W penetrators. An acute head remained on the fine-grained 95W rod with SEM results revealing many micro-cracks and small debris on surface layer of the rod head. The stress-strain curves collected in the Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar (SHPB) experiment showed that critical failure strain values of the fine-grained 95W were 0.12 and 0.39 at strain rate of 2×10{sup 3} s{sup −1} and 3.9×10{sup 3} s{sup −1}, respectively, approximately 40% and 10% lower than those of the conventional 95W. The dynamic strength values of fine-grained 95W were 2100 MPa and 2520 MPa, respectively, which were 500 MPa and 520 MPa higher than those of the conventional 95W. The relationship among microstructure, mechanical property and “self-sharpening” behavior of fine-grained 95W is discussed in this work.

Exploiting fine-grain parallelism in recursive LU factorization

KAUST Repository

Dongarra, Jack; Faverge, Mathieu; Ltaief, Hatem; Luszczek, Piotr R.

2012-01-01

is the panel factorization due to its memory-bound characteristic and the atomicity of selecting the appropriate pivots. We remedy this in our new approach to LU factorization of (narrow and tall) panel submatrices. We use a parallel fine-grained recursive

Tensile properties and fracture of (α+γ) two phase stainless steel with fine grained microstructure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ogiyama, Hiroyuki; Tsukuda, Hitoshi; Soyama, Yoshiro

1989-01-01

The tensile properties and fracture of the (α+γ) two phase stainless steel with very fine γ grains were investigated. Two different microstructures with very fine γ grains can be obtianed by the thermomechanical treatments; One has both very fine γ and α grains, and the other has very fine γ and large α grains. The specimens were prepared in quenched and aged (475degC) conditions. The results obtained are as follows. The 0.2 % proof stress and tensile strength increase with the aging at 475degC for all specimens. The refinement of the γ grains plays an important role for the increase of strength in both quenched and aged conditions, and also for the ductility in the quenched condition. The refinement of α grains, however, contributes to the increase of the ductility in the aged condition. Accordingly, it is found that very good combinations of tensile strength and ductility can be achieved by the aging and the refinement of the γ and α grains (micro duplex structure). (author)

Scratch-induced deformation in fine- and ultrafine-grained bulk alumina

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Lin; Zhang, Zhihui; Zhao, Yonghao; Yao, Wenlong; Mukherjee, Amiya K.; Schoenung, Julie M.

2010-01-01

The nanoscratch behavior of two bulk α-alumina samples with 1.3 μm and 290 nm average grain sizes, respectively, was investigated using a nanoindenter in scratch mode, in combination with atomic force and scanning electron microscopy. A ductile to brittle transition was observed in the fine-grained sample, while the ultrafine-grained sample exhibited predominantly ductile deformation with a fish-bone feature indicative of a stick-slip mechanism. These findings suggest that grain refinement can increase the potential for plastic deformation in ceramics.

Grain-boundary sliding in a TiAl alloy with fine-grained duplex microstructure during 750 deg. C creep

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peter, D. [Ruhr University Bochum, Institute for Materials, D-44780 Bochum (Germany); Viswanathan, G.B., E-mail: Viswanathan.11@osu.edu [Ruhr University Bochum, Institute for Materials, D-44780 Bochum (Germany) and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States); Wagner, M.F.-X.; Eggeler, G. [Ruhr University Bochum, Institute for Materials, D-44780 Bochum (Germany)

2009-06-15

Constant-load creep experiments at a temperature of 750 deg. C and a nominal stress of 300 MPa were conducted on a fine-grained Ti-45Al-5Nb-0.2B-0.2C (in at.%) alloy with a duplex microstructure. Microstructures before and after creep (accumulated strain: 9.6%) were analyzed using scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). TEM analysis after creep indicates that the individual microstructural constituents of the fine duplex microstructure, namely, the equiaxed {gamma} and the lamellar {alpha}{sub 2}/{gamma} colonies, undergo varying degrees of deformation and develop various substructures. Lamellar grains deform by dislocation creep. They show clear evidence for dislocation and twin activity. In contrast, only few dislocations are found in the equiaxed grains. We show that the regions with small equiaxed {gamma} grains, representing 65-75 vol.% of the microstructure, deform by grain-boundary sliding.

Grain-boundary sliding in a TiAl alloy with fine-grained duplex microstructure during 750 deg. C creep

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peter, D.; Viswanathan, G.B.; Wagner, M.F.-X.; Eggeler, G.

2009-01-01

Constant-load creep experiments at a temperature of 750 deg. C and a nominal stress of 300 MPa were conducted on a fine-grained Ti-45Al-5Nb-0.2B-0.2C (in at.%) alloy with a duplex microstructure. Microstructures before and after creep (accumulated strain: 9.6%) were analyzed using scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). TEM analysis after creep indicates that the individual microstructural constituents of the fine duplex microstructure, namely, the equiaxed γ and the lamellar α 2 /γ colonies, undergo varying degrees of deformation and develop various substructures. Lamellar grains deform by dislocation creep. They show clear evidence for dislocation and twin activity. In contrast, only few dislocations are found in the equiaxed grains. We show that the regions with small equiaxed γ grains, representing 65-75 vol.% of the microstructure, deform by grain-boundary sliding.

Interplane redistribution of oxygen in fine-grained HTSC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Makarov, E.F. [Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Kosygina 4, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation); Mamsurova, L.G. [Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Kosygina 4, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation)]. E-mail: mamsurova@chph.ras.ru; Permyakov, Yu.V. [National Institute for Physical, Radio and Technical Measurements (VNIIFTRI), Mendeleevo, Moscow Region 141570 (Russian Federation); Pigalskiy, K.S. [Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Kosygina 4, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation); Vishnev, A.A. [Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Kosygina 4, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation)

2004-10-01

Moessbauer spectra (T = 78 and 293 K) and X-ray (T = 293 K) studies of fine-grained high-temperature superconductors (HTSC) YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 2.985}{sup 57}Fe{sub 0.015}O{sub y} (y = 6.92-6.93, T{sub c} = 91-91.5 K) with the average grain sizes equal to 0.4, 1, and 2 {mu}m are carried out. The redistribution in the intensities of Moessbauer spectra components with the decrease in the average grain size is found. The latter evidences the oxygen content to increase in (CuO{sub {delta}}) basal planes at the expense of its decrease in (CuO{sub 2}) and (BaO) planes. The redistribution of the oxygen between the different planes of the unit cell is accompanied by the decrease in the lattice parameter c. These effects are caused likely by nonequilibrium conditions which are commonly used in preparation of fine-grained HTSC. The assumption about the existence of partial disorder between Y{sup 3+} and Ba{sup 2+} sites in the samples explains the observed changes in the values of {delta} and c parameters. An efficiency of Moessbauer spectra studies for the compounds of YBaCuO type in the case of the enhanced oxygen parameter {delta} and the possibility of its quantitative estimation from the analysis of the intensities of Moessbauer spectrum components is demonstrated.

Normal and abnormal grain growth in fine-grained Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets prepared from He jet milled powders

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bittner, F., E-mail: f.bittner@ifw-dresden.de [IFW Dresden, Institute for Metallic Materials, PO Box 270116, 01171 Dresden (Germany); Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Materials Science, 01062 Dresden (Germany); Woodcock, T.G. [IFW Dresden, Institute for Metallic Materials, PO Box 270116, 01171 Dresden (Germany); Schultz, L. [IFW Dresden, Institute for Metallic Materials, PO Box 270116, 01171 Dresden (Germany); Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Materials Science, 01062 Dresden (Germany); Schwöbel, C. [Technische Universität Darmstadt, Materialwissenschaft, Alarich-Weiß-Str. 16, 64287 Darmstadt (Germany); Gutfleisch, O. [Technische Universität Darmstadt, Materialwissenschaft, Alarich-Weiß-Str. 16, 64287 Darmstadt (Germany); Fraunhofer ISC, Projektgruppe für Werkstoffkreisläufe und Ressourcenstrategie IWKS, Rodenbacher Chaussee 4, 63457 Hanau (Germany); Zickler, G.A.; Fidler, J. [Technische Universität Wien, Institute of Solid State Physics, Wiedner Hauptstr. 8-10, 1040 Wien (Austria); Üstüner, K.; Katter, M. [Vacuumschmelze GmbH & Co. KG, 63412 Hanau (Germany)

2017-03-15

Fine-grained, heavy rare earth free Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets were prepared from He jet milled powders with an average particle size of 1.5 µm by low temperature sintering at 920 °C or 980 °C. A coercivity of >1600 kA/m was achieved for an average grain size of 1.68 µm. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the distribution and composition of intergranular and grain boundary junction phases was similar to that in conventionally processed magnets. Microstructural analysis on different length scales revealed the occurrence of abnormal grain growth, which is unexpected for sintering temperatures below 1000 °C. A larger area fraction of abnormal grains was observed in the sample sintered at 920 °C compared to that sintered at 980 °C. Microtexture investigation showed a better crystallographic alignment of the abnormal grains compared to the fine-grained matrix, which is explained by a size dependent alignment of the powder particles during magnetic field alignment prior to sintering. Slightly larger particles in the initial powder show a better alignment and will act as nucleation sites for abnormal grain growth. Magneto-optical Kerr investigations confirmed the lower switching field of the abnormal grains compared to the fine-grained matrix. The demagnetisation curve of the sample sintered at 920 °C showed reduced rectangularity and this was attributed to a cooperative effect of the larger fraction of abnormal grains with low switching field and, as a minor effect, a reduced degree of crystallographic texture in this sample compared to the material sintered at 980 °C, which did not show the reduced rectangularity of the demagnetisation curve. - Highlights: • He Jet milling to reduce Nd-Fe-B grain size and to enhance coercivity. • Normal and abnormal grain growth observed for low temperature sintering. • Well oriented abnormal grown grains explained by size dependent field alignment. • Poor rectangularity is caused by low nucleation field of

Normal and abnormal grain growth in fine-grained Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets prepared from He jet milled powders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bittner, F.; Woodcock, T.G.; Schultz, L.; Schwöbel, C.; Gutfleisch, O.; Zickler, G.A.; Fidler, J.; Üstüner, K.; Katter, M.

2017-01-01

Fine-grained, heavy rare earth free Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets were prepared from He jet milled powders with an average particle size of 1.5 µm by low temperature sintering at 920 °C or 980 °C. A coercivity of >1600 kA/m was achieved for an average grain size of 1.68 µm. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the distribution and composition of intergranular and grain boundary junction phases was similar to that in conventionally processed magnets. Microstructural analysis on different length scales revealed the occurrence of abnormal grain growth, which is unexpected for sintering temperatures below 1000 °C. A larger area fraction of abnormal grains was observed in the sample sintered at 920 °C compared to that sintered at 980 °C. Microtexture investigation showed a better crystallographic alignment of the abnormal grains compared to the fine-grained matrix, which is explained by a size dependent alignment of the powder particles during magnetic field alignment prior to sintering. Slightly larger particles in the initial powder show a better alignment and will act as nucleation sites for abnormal grain growth. Magneto-optical Kerr investigations confirmed the lower switching field of the abnormal grains compared to the fine-grained matrix. The demagnetisation curve of the sample sintered at 920 °C showed reduced rectangularity and this was attributed to a cooperative effect of the larger fraction of abnormal grains with low switching field and, as a minor effect, a reduced degree of crystallographic texture in this sample compared to the material sintered at 980 °C, which did not show the reduced rectangularity of the demagnetisation curve. - Highlights: • He Jet milling to reduce Nd-Fe-B grain size and to enhance coercivity. • Normal and abnormal grain growth observed for low temperature sintering. • Well oriented abnormal grown grains explained by size dependent field alignment. • Poor rectangularity is caused by low nucleation field of

UTLEON3 Exploring Fine-Grain Multi-Threading in FPGAs

CERN Document Server

Daněk, Martin; Kohout, Lukáš; Sýkora, Jaroslav; Bartosinski, Roman

2013-01-01

This book describes a specification, microarchitecture, VHDL implementation and evaluation of a SPARC v8 CPU with fine-grain multi-threading, called micro-threading. The CPU, named UTLEON3, is an alternative platform for exploring CPU multi-threading that is compatible with the industry-standard GRLIB package. The processor microarchitecture was designed to map in an efficient way the data-flow scheme on a classical von Neumann pipelined processing used in common processors, while retaining full binary compatibility with existing legacy programs.  Describes and documents a working SPARC v8, with fine-grain multithreading and fast context switch; Provides VHDL sources for the described processor; Describes a latency-tolerant framework for coupling hardware accelerators to microthreaded processor pipelines; Includes programming by example in the micro-threaded assembly language.    

Fine-grained recognition of plants from images.

Science.gov (United States)

Šulc, Milan; Matas, Jiří

2017-01-01

Fine-grained recognition of plants from images is a challenging computer vision task, due to the diverse appearance and complex structure of plants, high intra-class variability and small inter-class differences. We review the state-of-the-art and discuss plant recognition tasks, from identification of plants from specific plant organs to general plant recognition "in the wild". We propose texture analysis and deep learning methods for different plant recognition tasks. The methods are evaluated and compared them to the state-of-the-art. Texture analysis is only applied to images with unambiguous segmentation (bark and leaf recognition), whereas CNNs are only applied when sufficiently large datasets are available. The results provide an insight in the complexity of different plant recognition tasks. The proposed methods outperform the state-of-the-art in leaf and bark classification and achieve very competitive results in plant recognition "in the wild". The results suggest that recognition of segmented leaves is practically a solved problem, when high volumes of training data are available. The generality and higher capacity of state-of-the-art CNNs makes them suitable for plant recognition "in the wild" where the views on plant organs or plants vary significantly and the difficulty is increased by occlusions and background clutter.

Development of ultra-fine grained W-TiC and their mechanical properties for fusion applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurishita, H. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan)]. E-mail: kurishi@imr.tohoku.ac.jp; Amano, Y. [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ehime University, Matsuyama 790-8577 (Japan); Kobayashi, S. [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ehime University, Matsuyama 790-8577 (Japan); Nakai, K. [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ehime University, Matsuyama 790-8577 (Japan); Arakawa, H. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan); Hiraoka, Y. [Okayama University of Science, 1-1 Ridai-cho, Okayama 700-0005 (Japan); Takida, T. [A.L.M.T. Corp., 2 Iwase-koshi-machi, Toyama 931-8371 (Japan); Takebe, K. [A.L.M.T. Corp., 2 Iwase-koshi-machi, Toyama 931-8371 (Japan); Matsui, H. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan)

2007-08-01

Effects of neutron irradiation on microstructural evolution and radiation hardening were examined for fine-grained W-0.3 wt%TiC (grain size of 0.9 {mu}m) and commercially available pure W (20 {mu}m). Both materials were neutron irradiated at 563 K to 9 x 10{sup 23} n/m{sup 2} (E > 1 MeV) in the Japan Materials Testing Reactor (JMTR). Post-irradiation examinations showed that the microstructural changes and the degree of hardening due to irradiation were significantly reduced for fine-grained W-0.3TiC compared with pure W, demonstrating the significance of grain refinement to improve radiation resistance. In order to develop ultra-fine grained W-TiC compacts with nearly full densification, the fabrication process was modified, so that W-(0.3-0.7)%TiC with 0.06-0.2 {mu}m grain size and 99% of relative density was fabricated. The achievable grain refinement depended on TiC content and milling atmosphere. The three-point bending fracture strength at room temperature for ultra-fine grained W-TiC compacts of powder milled in H{sub 2} reached approximately 1.6-2 GPa for composition near 0.5%TiC.

Learning Category-Specific Dictionary and Shared Dictionary for Fine-Grained Image Categorization.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Shenghua; Tsang, Ivor Wai-Hung; Ma, Yi

2014-02-01

This paper targets fine-grained image categorization by learning a category-specific dictionary for each category and a shared dictionary for all the categories. Such category-specific dictionaries encode subtle visual differences among different categories, while the shared dictionary encodes common visual patterns among all the categories. To this end, we impose incoherence constraints among the different dictionaries in the objective of feature coding. In addition, to make the learnt dictionary stable, we also impose the constraint that each dictionary should be self-incoherent. Our proposed dictionary learning formulation not only applies to fine-grained classification, but also improves conventional basic-level object categorization and other tasks such as event recognition. Experimental results on five data sets show that our method can outperform the state-of-the-art fine-grained image categorization frameworks as well as sparse coding based dictionary learning frameworks. All these results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.

Enhanced ionic transport in fine-grained scandia-stabilized zirconia ceramics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Abdala, Paula M.; Lamas, Diego G. [CINSO (Centro de Investigaciones en Solidos), CONICET-CITEFA, J.B. de La Salle 4397 (B1603ALO) Villa Martelli, Pcia. de Buenos Aires (Argentina); Custo, Graciela S. [Gerencia de Area Seguridad Nuclear y Ambiente, Gerencia Quimica, Departamento Quimica Analitica, Centro Atomico Constituyentes, Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Av. Constituyentes 1499 (B1650KNA) San Martin, Pcia. de Buenos Aires (Argentina)

2010-06-01

In this work, the transport properties of fine-grained scandia-stabilized zirconia ceramics with low Si content have been investigated. These materials were prepared from ZrO{sub 2}-6 mol% Sc{sub 2}O{sub 3} nanopowders synthesized by a nitrate-lysine gel-combustion route. High relative densities and excellent electrical properties were obtained, even for sintering temperatures as low as 1350 C. Our electrochemical impedance spectroscopy study showed that both the volume fraction of grain boundaries and the specific grain-boundary conductivity are significantly enhanced with decreasing grain size, resulting in a higher total ionic conductivity. (author)

Fine-grain reconfigurable platform: FPGA hardware design and software toolset development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pappas, I; Kalenteridis, V; Vassiliadis, N; Pournara, H; Siozios, K; Koutroumpezis, G; Tatas, K; Nikolaidis, S; Siskos, S; Soudris, D J; Thanailakis, A

2005-01-01

A complete system for the implementation of digital logic in a fine-grain reconfigurable platform is introduced. The system is composed of two parts. The fine-grain reconfigurable hardware platform (FPGA) on which the logic is implemented and the set of CAD tools for mapping logic to the FPGA platform. A novel energy-efficient FPGA architecture is presented (CLB, interconnect network, configuration hardware) and simulated in STM 0.18 μm CMOS technology. Concerning the tool flow, each tool can operate as a standalone program as well as part of a complete design framework, composed by existing and new tools

Fine-grain reconfigurable platform: FPGA hardware design and software toolset development

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pappas, I [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Kalenteridis, V [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Vassiliadis, N [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Pournara, H [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Siozios, K [VLSI Design and Testing Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi (Greece); Koutroumpezis, G [VLSI Design and Testing Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi (Greece); Tatas, K [VLSI Design and Testing Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi (Greece); Nikolaidis, S [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Siskos, S [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece); Soudris, D J [VLSI Design and Testing Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 67100 Xanthi (Greece); Thanailakis, A [Electronics and Computers Div., Department of Physics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki (Greece)

2005-01-01

A complete system for the implementation of digital logic in a fine-grain reconfigurable platform is introduced. The system is composed of two parts. The fine-grain reconfigurable hardware platform (FPGA) on which the logic is implemented and the set of CAD tools for mapping logic to the FPGA platform. A novel energy-efficient FPGA architecture is presented (CLB, interconnect network, configuration hardware) and simulated in STM 0.18 {mu}m CMOS technology. Concerning the tool flow, each tool can operate as a standalone program as well as part of a complete design framework, composed by existing and new tools.

Ultra fine grained Ti prepared by severe plastic deformation

Science.gov (United States)

Lukáč, F.; Čížek, J.; Knapp, J.; Procházka, I.; Zháňal, P.; Islamgaliev, R. K.

2016-01-01

The positron annihilation spectroscopy was employed for characterisation of defects in pure Ti with ultra fine grained (UFG) structure. UFG Ti samples were prepared by two techniques based on severe plastic deformation (SPD): (i) high pressure torsion (HPT) and (ii) equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). Although HPT is the most efficient technique for grain refinement, the size of HPT-deformed specimens is limited. On the other hand, ECAP is less efficient in grain refinement but enables to produce larger samples more suitable for industrial applications. Characterisation of defects by positron annihilation spectroscopy was accompanied by hardness testing in order to monitor the development of mechanical properties of UFG Ti.

Fine-Grained Forward-Secure Signature Schemes without Random Oracles

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Camenisch, Jan; Koprowski, Maciej

2006-01-01

We propose the concept of fine-grained forward-secure signature schemes. Such signature schemes not only provide nonrepudiation w.r.t. past time periods the way ordinary forward-secure signature schemes do but, in addition, allow the signer to specify which signatures of the current time period...... remain valid when revoking the public key. This is an important advantage if the signer produces many signatures per time period as otherwise the signer would have to re-issue those signatures (and possibly re-negotiate the respective messages) with a new key.Apart from a formal model for fine......-grained forward-secure signature schemes, we present practical schemes and prove them secure under the strong RSA assumption only, i.e., we do not resort to the random oracle model to prove security. As a side-result, we provide an ordinary forward-secure scheme whose key-update time is significantly smaller than...

FINE-GRAINED THE FIBER CONCRETE WITH APPLICATION VOLCANIC ASH, REINFORCED BY THE BASALT FIBRES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. A. Dzugulov

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The compositions of fine-grained concrete with the application of volcanic ash are developed. Are investigated compositions and properties of fine-grained fiber concrete with the volcanic ash with the application of methods of the mathematical planning of experiment. It is revealed, that the reinforcement of finegrained concrete by basaltic fibers substantially increases their strength with the bend. 

Studies of dust grain properties in infrared reflection nebulae.

Science.gov (United States)

Pendleton, Y J; Tielens, A G; Werner, M W

1990-01-20

We have developed a model for reflection nebulae around luminous infrared sources embedded in dense dust clouds. The aim of this study is to determine the sizes of the scattering grains. In our analysis, we have adopted an MRN-like power-law size distribution (Mathis, Rumpl, and Nordsieck) of graphite and silicate grains, but other current dust models would give results which were substantially the same. In the optically thin limit, the intensity of the scattered light is proportional to the dust column density, while in the optically thick limit, it reflects the grain albedo. The results show that the shape of the infrared spectrum is the result of a combination of the scattering properties of the dust, the spectrum of the illuminating source, and foreground extinction, while geometry plays a minor role. Comparison of our model results with infrared observations of the reflection nebula surrounding OMC-2/IRS 1 shows that either a grain size distribution like that found in the diffuse interstellar medium, or one consisting of larger grains, can explain the observed shape of the spectrum. However, the absolute intensity level of the scattered light, as well as the observed polarization, requires large grains (approximately 5000 angstroms). By adding water ice mantles to the silicate and graphite cores, we have modeled the 3.08 micrometers ice band feature, which has been observed in the spectra of several infrared reflection nebulae. We show that this ice band arises naturally in optically thick reflection nebulae containing ice-coated grains. We show that the shape of the ice band is diagnostic of the presence of large grains, as previously suggested by Knacke and McCorkle. Comparison with observations of the BN/KL reflection nebula in the OMC-1 cloud shows that large ice grains (approximately 5000 angstroms) contribute substantially to the scattered light.

Authentic Attributes with Fine-Grained Anonymity Protection

Science.gov (United States)

2000-01-01

registrations and ecommerce trans- Preprint - 2 Stuart G. Stubblebine, and Paul F. Syverson. Authentic Attributes with Fine-Grained Anonymity Protection...driver’s license and birth certi cate. When the registration process is complete, certi cates could be on a smart card that the customer is carrying. The...proof. At least initially, it might not be electronic, e.g., possession of a passport, of a driver’s license and birth certi cate, etc. Anonymous

Studying of influence of fiber reinforcing at fine-grained concrete applying in transport construction

Science.gov (United States)

Begunov, Oleg; Alexandrova, Olga; Solovyov, Vadim

2017-10-01

We observed causes of using fiber in nowadays construction industry and its influence on a final product properties, where the fine-grained concrete basing of repairing dry construction mix was used as a base. However, in Russia we do not have such experience. If we’re talking about changes occurring in the fine-grained concrete all of its are known about it, either in concrete, but in dry-construction mixes changes may have another purpose. Advantages and disadvantages of using fiber were oblieved also in that article. The main subject of this research is the influence of fiber on a mechanical properties of fine-grained concrete. The most attention is paid to estimate the influence of a concrete’s properties by metal fibers: casting time (initial and final), workability and strength (tensile strength and compressive strength) in this article. The most popular different type of metal fiber compares for its length and width and the optimum quantity of metal component chooses, which will indicate the maximum possible affirmative result of its using. Dependences comparing properties of fine-grained properties with fiber’s type, measurements and quantity which show the evident result of researching are discussed.

Processing of fine-grained W materials without detrimental phases and their mechanical properties at 200-432 K

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ishijima, Y.; Kannari, S. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan); Kurishita, H. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan)], E-mail: kurishi@imr.tohoku.ac.jp; Hasegawa, M. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan); Hiraoka, Y. [Department of Applied Physics, Okayama University of Science, 1-1 Ridai-cho, Okayama, Okayama 700-0005 (Japan); Takida, T.; Takebe, K. [A.L.M.T. TECH Inc., 2 Iwasekoshi-machi, Toyama, Toyama 931-8543 (Japan)

2008-01-25

Low-temperature ductility improvements of tungsten (W) materials with microstructures of fine grains and fine transition metal-carbide dispersoids require sufficient reductions for consolidates that are free from detrimental dispersoids of the W{sub 2}C phase. In this paper the cause of the occurrence of the detrimental W{sub 2}C phase is studied and an appropriate processing method for its prevention and nearly full densification of mechanically alloyed powder is shown. By applying the method W-0.3 wt%Ti-0.006 wt%C (W-0.3TiC-0.006C) specimens with a negligible amount of the W{sub 2}C phase and reductions up to 78% were prepared. It is found that W-0.3TiC-0.006C exhibits an appreciable ductility even at room temperature by three-point bend impact tests and static tensile tests, with the ductile-to-brittle transition temperature of around 260 K. The observed ductility is likely due to elongated, very thin grain structures of the material. For further ductility improvements, control of oxygen impurities to suppress decarburization during sintering and assure appropriate amounts of (Ti,W)C dispersoids is required.

Defects in fine-grained and porous materials characterized by positron annihilation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Staab, T.E.M.; Krause-Rehberg, R.; Kieback, B.

2003-01-01

We investigate the annihilation parameters (lifetimes and intensities) for positrons becoming trapped at grain boundaries and at inner surfaces (pores), examining fine-grained nickel powder compacts (effective powder particle size 1 - 10 μm with grains in or even below the micron size). Furthermore, we can monitor grain growth and sintering (volume shrinkage) during successive heat treatment of powder compacts. To reach this aim, we correlate the annihilation parameters with results of a Monte-Carlo simulation and analytical solutions of the positron diffusion. We find that it is possible to determine an effective average powder particle size as well as grain sizes by positron lifetime spectroscopy. (author)

Rheological analysis of fine-grained natural debris-flow material

Science.gov (United States)

Major, Jon J.; Pierson, Thomas C.; ,

1990-01-01

Experiments were conducted on large samples of fine-grained material (???2mm) from a natural debris flow using a wide-gap concentric-cylinder viscometer. The rheological behavior of this material is compatible with a Bingham model at shear rates in excess of 5 sec. At lesser shear rates, rheological behavior of the material deviates from the Bingham model, and when sand concentration of the slurry exceeds 20 percent by volume, particle interaction between sand grains dominates the mechanical behavior. Yield strength and plastic viscosity are extremely sensitive to sediment concentration.

Fine-grained pitch processing of music and speech in congenital amusia.

Science.gov (United States)

Tillmann, Barbara; Rusconi, Elena; Traube, Caroline; Butterworth, Brian; Umiltà, Carlo; Peretz, Isabelle

2011-12-01

Congenital amusia is a lifelong disorder of music processing that has been ascribed to impaired pitch perception and memory. The present study tested a large group of amusics (n=17) and provided evidence that their pitch deficit affects pitch processing in speech to a lesser extent: Fine-grained pitch discrimination was better in spoken syllables than in acoustically matched tones. Unlike amusics, control participants performed fine-grained pitch discrimination better for musical material than for verbal material. These findings suggest that pitch extraction can be influenced by the nature of the material (music vs speech), and that amusics' pitch deficit is not restricted to musical material, but extends to segmented speech events. © 2011 Acoustical Society of America

Facilitating Fine Grained Data Provenance using Temporal Data Model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huq, M.R.; Wombacher, Andreas; Apers, Peter M.G.

2010-01-01

E-science applications use fine grained data provenance to maintain the reproducibility of scientific results, i.e., for each processed data tuple, the source data used to process the tuple as well as the used approach is documented. Since most of the e-science applications perform on-line

Inverse Relationship of Marine Aerosol and Dust in Antarctic Ice with Fine-Grained Sediment in the South Atlantic Ocean: Implications for Sea-Ice Coverage and Wind Strength

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sharon L. Kanfoush

2012-03-01

Full Text Available This research seeks to test the hypothesis that natural gamma radiation (NGR from Ocean Drilling Program Site 1094, which displays variability over the last glacial-interglacial cycle similar to dust in the Vostok ice core, reflects fine-grained terrigenous sediment delivered by eolian processes. Grain size was measured on 400 samples spanning 0–20 m in a composite core. Accumulation of the <63μ size fraction at Site 1094 and dust in Vostok exhibit a negative correlation, suggesting the fine sediments are not dominantly eolian. However the technique used for grain size measurements cannot distinguish between terrigenous and biogenous materials; therefore it is possible much fine-grained material is diatoms. An inverse correlation between fine sediments and NGR supports this interpretation, and implies terrigenous materials were at times diluted by microfossils from high biological productivity. Fine marine sediments correlate positively with temperature and negatively with marine aerosol Na+ in Vostok. One plausible explanation is extensive sea-ice of cold intervals steepened ocean-continent temperature gradients, intensified winds, and led to increased transport of dust and marine aerosol to Antarctica yet also reduced biological productivity at Site 1094. Such a reduction despite increases in NGR, potentially representing Fe-rich dust influx, would require light limitation or stratification associated with sea-ice.

Formation of ultra-fine grained SUS316L steels by ball-milling and their mechanical properties after neutron irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng, Y.J.; Yamasaki, T.; Fukami, T.; Terasawa, M.; Mitamura, T.

2003-01-01

In order to overcome the irradiation embrittlement in austenitic stainless steels, ultra-fine grained SUS316L steels with very fine TiC particles have been developed. The SUS316L-TiC nanocomposite powders having 1.0 to 2.0 mass% TiC were prepared by ball-milling SUS316L-TiC powder mixtures for 125 h in an argon gas atmosphere. The milled powders were consolidated by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) under a pressure of 200 MPa at temperatures between 700 and 1000 C, and the bulk materials with grain sizes between 100 and 400 nm have been produced. The possibility of using fine-grained TiC particles to pin grain boundaries and thereby maintain the ultra-fine grained structures has been discussed. In order to clarify the effects of the neutron irradiation on mechanical properties of the ultra-fine grained SUS316L steels, Vickers microhardness measurements were performed before and after the irradiation of 1.14 x 10 23 n/m 2 and 1.14 x 10 24 n/m 2 . The hardness increased with increasing the dose of the irradiation. However, these increasing rates of the ultra-fine grained steels were much smaller than those of the coarse-grained SUS316L steels having grain sizes between 13 and 50 μm. (orig.)

Tape cast isotropic, fine-grained tungsten for thermo-cyclic loading applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sommerer, Mathias, E-mail: Mathias.Sommerer@tum.de [Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffkunde und Werkstoffmechanik, Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748 Garching (Germany); Li, Muyuan [Max-Planck-Institut für Plasma Physik, Boltzmannstraße 2, 85748 Garching (Germany); Werner, Ewald [Lehrstuhl für Werkstoffkunde und Werkstoffmechanik, Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstr. 15, 85748 Garching (Germany); Dewitz, Hubertus von; Walter, Steffen; Lampenscherf, Stefan [Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, Otto-Hahn-Ring 6, 81730 München (Germany); Arnold, Thomas [Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Henkestr. 127, 91052 Erlangen (Germany)

2016-04-15

Highlights: • The tape casting process for tungsten is described. • A set-up of a HHF test facility for standing anodes is presented. • The thermo-cyclic behavior of tape cast tungsten and a reference is investigated. • The evolution of crack patterns is described in dependency of HHF-loadings. • The surface roughness of X-ray anodes is related to the microstructural evolution. - Abstract: This paper introduces tape casting as a new route for the production of isotropic and fine-grained tungsten components. Microstructural and thermal properties of tape cast tungsten samples are determined. Thermal shock behavior according to the thermo-cyclic loading of standing X-ray anodes is investigated and compared to the behavior of a rolled tungsten grade. The development of surface roughness during the thermal shock loading is discussed in relation to the development of the grain structure and crack pattern. The fine-grained and stable microstructure of the tape cast material exhibits less roughening under such test conditions.

Thermal infrared spectral analysis of compacted fine-grained mineral mixtures: implications for spectral interpretation of lithified sedimentary materials on Mars

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, C.; Rogers, D.

2012-12-01

Characterizing the thermal infrared (TIR) spectral mixing behavior of compacted fine-grained mineral assemblages is necessary for facilitating quantitative mineralogy of sedimentary surfaces from spectral measurements. Previous researchers have demonstrated that TIR spectra from igneous and metamorphic rocks as well as coarse-grained (>63 micron) sand mixtures combine in proportion to their volume abundance. However, the spectral mixing behavior of compacted, fine-grained mineral mixtures that would be characteristic of sedimentary depositional environments has received little attention. Here we characterize the spectral properties of pressed pellet samples of pestle and centrifuged to obtain less than 10 micron size. Pure phases and mixtures of two, three and four components were made in varying proportions by volume. All of the samples were pressed into pellets at 15000PSI to minimize volume scattering. Thermal infrared spectra of pellets were measured in the Vibrational Spectroscopy Laboratory at Stony Brook University with a Thermo Fisher Nicolet 6700 Fourier transform infrared Michelson interferometer from ~225 to 2000 cm-1. Our preliminary results indicate that some pelletized samples have contributions from volume scattering, which leads to non-linear spectral combinations. It is not clear if the transparency features (which arise from multiple surface reflections of incident photons) are due to minor clinging fines on an otherwise specular pellet surface or to partially transmitted energy through optically thin grains in the compacted mixture. Inclusion of loose powder (analysis of TES and Mini-TES data of lithified sedimentary deposits.

Predictive coarse-graining

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schöberl, Markus, E-mail: m.schoeberl@tum.de [Continuum Mechanics Group, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching (Germany); Zabaras, Nicholas [Institute for Advanced Study, Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstraße 2a, 85748 Garching (Germany); Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, 365 Fitzpatrick Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States); Koutsourelakis, Phaedon-Stelios [Continuum Mechanics Group, Technical University of Munich, Boltzmannstraße 15, 85748 Garching (Germany)

2017-03-15

We propose a data-driven, coarse-graining formulation in the context of equilibrium statistical mechanics. In contrast to existing techniques which are based on a fine-to-coarse map, we adopt the opposite strategy by prescribing a probabilistic coarse-to-fine map. This corresponds to a directed probabilistic model where the coarse variables play the role of latent generators of the fine scale (all-atom) data. From an information-theoretic perspective, the framework proposed provides an improvement upon the relative entropy method and is capable of quantifying the uncertainty due to the information loss that unavoidably takes place during the coarse-graining process. Furthermore, it can be readily extended to a fully Bayesian model where various sources of uncertainties are reflected in the posterior of the model parameters. The latter can be used to produce not only point estimates of fine-scale reconstructions or macroscopic observables, but more importantly, predictive posterior distributions on these quantities. Predictive posterior distributions reflect the confidence of the model as a function of the amount of data and the level of coarse-graining. The issues of model complexity and model selection are seamlessly addressed by employing a hierarchical prior that favors the discovery of sparse solutions, revealing the most prominent features in the coarse-grained model. A flexible and parallelizable Monte Carlo – Expectation–Maximization (MC-EM) scheme is proposed for carrying out inference and learning tasks. A comparative assessment of the proposed methodology is presented for a lattice spin system and the SPC/E water model.

The influence of grain size, grain color, and suspended-sediment concentration on light attenuation: why fine-grained terrestrial sediment is bad for coral reef ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

Storlazzi, Curt; Norris, Benjamin; Rosenberger, Kurt

2015-01-01

Sediment has been shown to be a major stressor to coral reefs globally. Although many researchers have tested the impact of sedimentation on coral reef ecosystems in both the laboratory and the field and some have measured the impact of suspended sediment on the photosynthetic response of corals, there has yet to be a detailed investigation on how properties of the sediment itself can affect light availability for photosynthesis. We show that finer-grained and darker-colored sediment at higher suspended-sediment concentrations attenuates photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) significantly more than coarser, lighter-colored sediment at lower concentrations and provide PAR attenuation coefficients for various grain sizes, colors, and suspended-sediment concentrations that are needed for biophysical modeling. Because finer-grained sediment particles settle more slowly and are more susceptible to resuspension, they remain in the water column longer, thus causing greater net impact by reducing light essential for photosynthesis over a greater duration. This indicates that coral reef monitoring studies investigating sediment impacts should concentrate on measuring fine-grained lateritic and volcanic soils, as opposed to coarser-grained siliceous and carbonate sediment. Similarly, coastal restoration efforts and engineering solutions addressing long-term coral reef ecosystem health should focus on preferentially retaining those fine-grained soils rather than coarse silt and sand particles.

A comparative study of the luminescence characteristics of polymineral fine grains and coarse-grained K-, and Na-rich feldspars

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tsukamoto, Sumiko; Jain, Mayank; Murray, Andrew S.

2012-01-01

for K-feldspar samples, when a preheat temperature of 250 °C for 60 s is used. After preheating to a higher temperature (320 °C for 60 s) all samples show a TL reduction around 410 °C in the blue detection window. Pulse annealing experiments for IRSL and pIRIR signals for preheats between 320 °C and 500...... °C indicate that the signal stabilities are similar among the different feldspar types, when a higher preheat temperature (>320 °C) is used. Thermal activation energies for IRSL and pIRIR signals are largest in K-feldspar and smallest in polymineral fine grains, in both blue and UV detection windows...... for both fast time-resolved (TR) and continuous wave (CW) signals. These results suggest that IRSL and pIRIR signals in polymineral fine grains originate mainly from Na-feldspar grains; these signals are less thermally stable than those from K-feldspar, but a more stable signal (presumably from K...

Deep learning-based fine-grained car make/model classification for visual surveillance

Science.gov (United States)

Gundogdu, Erhan; Parıldı, Enes Sinan; Solmaz, Berkan; Yücesoy, Veysel; Koç, Aykut

2017-10-01

Fine-grained object recognition is a potential computer vision problem that has been recently addressed by utilizing deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). Nevertheless, the main disadvantage of classification methods relying on deep CNN models is the need for considerably large amount of data. In addition, there exists relatively less amount of annotated data for a real world application, such as the recognition of car models in a traffic surveillance system. To this end, we mainly concentrate on the classification of fine-grained car make and/or models for visual scenarios by the help of two different domains. First, a large-scale dataset including approximately 900K images is constructed from a website which includes fine-grained car models. According to their labels, a state-of-the-art CNN model is trained on the constructed dataset. The second domain that is dealt with is the set of images collected from a camera integrated to a traffic surveillance system. These images, which are over 260K, are gathered by a special license plate detection method on top of a motion detection algorithm. An appropriately selected size of the image is cropped from the region of interest provided by the detected license plate location. These sets of images and their provided labels for more than 30 classes are employed to fine-tune the CNN model which is already trained on the large scale dataset described above. To fine-tune the network, the last two fully-connected layers are randomly initialized and the remaining layers are fine-tuned in the second dataset. In this work, the transfer of a learned model on a large dataset to a smaller one has been successfully performed by utilizing both the limited annotated data of the traffic field and a large scale dataset with available annotations. Our experimental results both in the validation dataset and the real field show that the proposed methodology performs favorably against the training of the CNN model from scratch.

Access Control Mechanism for Blog Posts with Fine-Grained Ability Using Simple Operations

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Yi-Hui Chen; Chi-Shiang Chan; Yuan-Yu Tsai

2017-01-01

Access control enables the owners to assign different users different permissions to see different views. The current blog system does not support fine-grained authorization. That is, the bloggers disallow to just assign partial contents of the blog posts (i.e., a paragraph or several paragraphs) to readers. The management cost is no doubt to be significantly increased while handling the authorizations on the huge amount of blog articles. In this paper, we propose a scheme for supporting a fine-grained access control mechanism on blog articles. The advantage is that bloggers are able to authorize partial contents of blog posts to different users or groups of users.

Process for the preparation of fine grain metal carbide powders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gortsema, F.P.

1976-01-01

Fine grain metal carbide powders are conveniently prepared from the corresponding metal oxide by heating in an atmosphere of methane in hydrogen. Sintered articles having a density approaching the theoretical density of the metal carbide itself can be fabricated from the powders by cold pressing, hot pressing or other techniques. 8 claims, no drawings

Clay, Water, and Salt: Controls on the Permeability of Fine-Grained Sedimentary Rocks.

Science.gov (United States)

Bourg, Ian C; Ajo-Franklin, Jonathan B

2017-09-19

The ability to predict the permeability of fine-grained soils, sediments, and sedimentary rocks is a fundamental challenge in the geosciences with potentially transformative implications in subsurface hydrology. In particular, fine-grained sedimentary rocks (shale, mudstone) constitute about two-thirds of the sedimentary rock mass and play important roles in three energy technologies: petroleum geology, geologic carbon sequestration, and radioactive waste management. The problem is a challenging one that requires understanding the properties of complex natural porous media on several length scales. One inherent length scale, referred to hereafter as the mesoscale, is associated with the assemblages of large grains of quartz, feldspar, and carbonates over distances of tens of micrometers. Its importance is highlighted by the existence of a threshold in the core scale mechanical properties and regional scale energy uses of shale formations at a clay content X clay ≈ 1/3, as predicted by an ideal packing model where a fine-grained clay matrix fills the gaps between the larger grains. A second important length scale, referred to hereafter as the nanoscale, is associated with the aggregation and swelling of clay particles (in particular, smectite clay minerals) over distances of tens of nanometers. Mesoscale phenomena that influence permeability are primarily mechanical and include, for example, the ability of contacts between large grains to prevent the compaction of the clay matrix. Nanoscale phenomena that influence permeability tend to be chemomechanical in nature, because they involve strong impacts of aqueous chemistry on clay swelling. The second length scale remains much less well characterized than the first, because of the inherent challenges associated with the study of strongly coupled nanoscale phenomena. Advanced models of the nanoscale properties of fine-grained media rely predominantly on the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory, a mean field

Elevated temperature mechanical properties of novel ultra-fine grained Cu–Nb composites

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Primorac, Mladen-Mateo [Department of Materials Physics, Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria); Abad, Manuel David; Hosemann, Peter [Department of Nuclear Engineering, University of California, Berkeley (United States); Kreuzeder, Marius [Department of Materials Physics, Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria); Maier, Verena [Department of Materials Physics, Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria); Erich-Schmid Institute for Materials Science, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Leoben (Austria); Kiener, Daniel, E-mail: daniel.kiener@unileoben.ac.at [Department of Materials Physics, Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria)

2015-02-11

Ultra-fine grained materials exhibit outstanding properties and are therefore favorable for prospective applications. One of these promising systems is the composite assembled by the body centered cubic niobium and the face centered cubic copper. Cu–Nb composites show a high hardness and good thermal stability, as well as a high radiation damage tolerance. These properties make the material interesting for use in nuclear reactors. The aim of this work was to create a polycrystalline ultra-fine grained composite for high temperature applications. The samples were manufactured via a powder metallurgical route using high pressure torsion, exhibiting a randomly distributed oriented grain size between 100 and 200 nm. The mechanical properties and the governing plastic deformation behavior as a function of temperature were determined by high temperature nanoindentation up to 500 °C. It was found that in the lower temperature regions up to 300 °C the plastic deformation is mainly governed by dislocation interactions, such as dislocation glide and the nucleation of kink pairs. For higher temperatures, thermally activated processes at grain boundaries are proposed to be the main mechanism governing plastic deformation. This mechanistic view is supported by temperature dependent changes in hardness, strain rate sensitivity, activation volume, and activation energy.

Fine-grained hodoscopes based on scintillating optical fibers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borenstein, S.R.; Strand, R.C.

1981-01-01

In order to exploit the high event rates at ISABELLE, it will be necessary to have fast detection with fine spatial resolution. The authors are currently constructing a prototype fine-grained hodoscope, the elements of which are scintillating optical fibers. The fibers have been drawn from commercially available plastic scintillator which has been clad with a thin layer of silicone. So far it has been demonstrated with one mm diameter fibers, that with a photodetector at each end, the fibers are more than 99% efficient for lengths of about 60 cm. The readout will be accomplished either with small diameter photomultiplier tubes or avalanche photodiodes used either in the linear or Geiger mode. The program of fiber development and evaluation is described. The status of the APD as a readout element is discussed, and an optical encoding readout scheme is described for events of low multiplicity

Recognition of diamond grains on surface of fine diamond grinding wheel

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Fengwei HUO; Zhuji JIN; Renke KANG; Dongming GUO; Chun YANG

2008-01-01

The accurate evaluation of grinding wheel sur-face topography, which is necessary for the investigation of the grinding principle, optimism, modeling, and simu-lation of a grinding process, significantly depends on the accurate recognition of abrasive grains from the measured wheel surface. A detailed analysis of the grain size distri-bution characteristics and grain profile wavelength of the fine diamond grinding wheel used for ultra-precision grinding is presented. The requirements of the spatial sampling interval and sampling area for instruments to measure the surface topography of a diamond grinding wheel are discussed. To recognize diamond grains, digital filtering is used to eliminate the high frequency disturb-ance from the measured 3D digital surface of the grinding wheel, the geometric features of diamond grains are then extracted from the filtered 3D digital surface, and a method based on the grain profile frequency characteris-tics, diamond grain curvature, and distance between two adjacent diamond grains is proposed. A 3D surface pro-filer based on scanning white light interferometry is used to measure the 3D surface topography of a #3000 mesh resin bonded diamond grinding wheel, and the diamond grains are then recognized from the 3D digital surface. The experimental result shows that the proposed method is reasonable and effective.

Formation of ultra-fine grained TiC-dispersed SUS316L by ball-milling and their consolidation by hot isostatic pressing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng, Yongjia; Yamasaki, Tohru; Fukami, Takeshi; Mitamura, Tohru; Terasawa, Mititaka

2003-01-01

In order to overcome the irradiation embrittlement in austenitic stainless steels, ultra-fine grained SUS316L steels with very fine TiC particles have been developed. The SUS316-TiC nanocomposite powders having 1.0 to 2.0 mass%TiC were prepared by ball-milling SUS316-TiC powder mixtures for 125h in an argon gas atmosphere. The milled powders were consolidated by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) under a pressure of 200 MPa at temperature between 700-1000degC, and the bulk materials with crystallite size ranging between 100-400 nm have been produced. The possibility of using fine-grained TiC particles for pinning grain boundaries and thereby to maintain the ultra-fine grained structures has been discussed. (author)

Effect of diagenesis on pore pressures in fine-grained rocks in the Egersund Basin, Central North Sea

OpenAIRE

Kalani, Mohsen; Zadeh, Mohammad Koochak; Jahren, Jens; Mondol, Nazmul Haque; Faleide, Jan Inge

2015-01-01

- Pore pressure in fine-grained rocks is important with respect to drilling problems such as kicks, blowouts, borehole instability, stuck pipe and lost circulation. In this study, a succession of overpressured, fine-grained, sedimentary rocks located in the Egersund Basin, Central North Sea, was analysed with respect to mineralogical composition, source-rock maturation and log-derived petrophysical properties to highlight the effect of diagenetic processes on the pore pressure. Pe...

Extraction of Homogeneous Fine-Grained Texture Segments in Visual Images

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Golcev, A.; Gritsenko, V.; Húsek, Dušan

2017-01-01

Roč. 27, č. 5 (2017), s. 447-477 ISSN 1210-0552 Institutional support: RVO:67985807 Keywords : texture feature * texture window * homogeneous fine-grained texture segment * extraction of texture segment * texture segmentation * ”float” coding method Subject RIV: IN - Informatics, Computer Science OBOR OECD: Computer sciences, information science, bioinformathics (hardware development to be 2.2, social aspect to be 5.8) Impact factor: 0.394, year: 2016

The exceptional sediment load of fine-grained dispersal systems: Example of the Yellow River, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Hongbo; Nittrouer, Jeffrey A; Naito, Kensuke; Fu, Xudong; Zhang, Yuanfeng; Moodie, Andrew J; Wang, Yuanjian; Wu, Baosheng; Parker, Gary

2017-05-01

Sedimentary dispersal systems with fine-grained beds are common, yet the physics of sediment movement within them remains poorly constrained. We analyze sediment transport data for the best-documented, fine-grained river worldwide, the Huanghe (Yellow River) of China, where sediment flux is underpredicted by an order of magnitude according to well-accepted sediment transport relations. Our theoretical framework, bolstered by field observations, demonstrates that the Huanghe tends toward upper-stage plane bed, yielding minimal form drag, thus markedly enhancing sediment transport efficiency. We present a sediment transport formulation applicable to all river systems with silt to coarse-sand beds. This formulation demonstrates a remarkably sensitive dependence on grain size within a certain narrow range and therefore has special relevance to silt-sand fluvial systems, particularly those affected by dams.

The exceptional sediment load of fine-grained dispersal systems: Example of the Yellow River, China

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Hongbo; Nittrouer, Jeffrey A.; Naito, Kensuke; Fu, Xudong; Zhang, Yuanfeng; Moodie, Andrew J.; Wang, Yuanjian; Wu, Baosheng; Parker, Gary

2017-01-01

Sedimentary dispersal systems with fine-grained beds are common, yet the physics of sediment movement within them remains poorly constrained. We analyze sediment transport data for the best-documented, fine-grained river worldwide, the Huanghe (Yellow River) of China, where sediment flux is underpredicted by an order of magnitude according to well-accepted sediment transport relations. Our theoretical framework, bolstered by field observations, demonstrates that the Huanghe tends toward upper-stage plane bed, yielding minimal form drag, thus markedly enhancing sediment transport efficiency. We present a sediment transport formulation applicable to all river systems with silt to coarse-sand beds. This formulation demonstrates a remarkably sensitive dependence on grain size within a certain narrow range and therefore has special relevance to silt-sand fluvial systems, particularly those affected by dams. PMID:28508078

Stable lead geochronology of fine-grained sediments in Southern Lake Michigan

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robbins, J.A.; Edgington, D.N.

1974-01-01

In a previous article, it was shown that the vertical distribution of stable lead in the fine-grained sediments of Lake Michigan reflects the history of cultural lead inputs. It was found that the lead distributions in dated cores are quantitatively described by a universal time-dependent loading or source function which is a linear combination of estimated annual inputs of atmospheric lead derived from the combustion of leaded gasoline and the burning of coal in and around Chicago since about 1800. The existence of such a source function for lead implies that stable lead itself may be used to date sediment cores. Mercury depth profiles in western Lake Erie sediments have shown several horizons which correspond to the development of local industrial use of mercury over the past forty years or so. The construction of the lead source function for Lake Michigan sediments was based on only four lead-210 dated cores. To establish the validity of the source function concept, it is applied to the distribution of lead determined in many cores previously obtained from southern Lake Michigan

Emission characteristics of dispenser cathodes with a fine-grained tungsten top layer

Science.gov (United States)

Kimura, S.; Higuchi, T.; Ouchi, Y.; Uda, E.; Nakamura, O.; Sudo, T.; Koyama, K.

1997-02-01

In order to improve the emission stability of the Ir-coated dispenser cathode under ion bombardment, a fine-grained tungsten top layer was applied on the substrate porous tungsten plug before Ir coating. The emission characteristics were studied after being assembled in a CRT gun. Cathode current was measured under pulse operation in a range of 0.1-9% duty. Remarkable anti-ion bombardment characteristics were observed over the range of 1-6% duty. The improved cathode showed 1.5 times higher emission current than that of a conventional Ir-coated dispenser cathode at 4% duty. AES analysis showed that the recovering rates of surface Ba and O atoms after ion bombardment were 2.5 times higher. From these results it is confirmed that the Ir coated cathode with a fine-grained tungsten top layer is provided with a good tolerance against the ion bombardment.

Fabrication of fine-grain tantalum diffusion barrier tube for Nb3Sn conductors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hartwig, K. T.; Balachandran, S.; Mezyenski, R.; Seymour, N.; Robinson, J.; Barber, R. E.

2014-01-01

Diffusion barriers used in Nb 3 Sn wire are often fabricated by wrapping Ta sheet into a tube with an overlap seam. A common result of such practice is non-uniform deformation in the Ta sheet as it thins by wire drawing because of non-uniform grain size and texture in the original Ta sheet. Seamless Ta tube with a fine-grain and uniform microstructure would be much better for the diffusion barrier application, but such material is expensive and difficult to manufacture. This report presents results on a new fabrication strategy for Ta tube that shows promise for manufacture of less costly tube with an improved microstructure. The fabrication method begins with seam-welded tube but gives a fine-grain uniform microstructure with little difference between the longitudinal seam weld region and the parent metal after post-weld processing. Severe plastic deformation processing (SPD) applied by area reduction extrusion and tube equal channel angular extrusion (tECAE) are used to refine and homogenize the microstructure. Microstructure and mechanical property results are presented for Ta tubes fabricated by this new processing strategy

Fabrication of fine-grain tantalum diffusion barrier tube for Nb3Sn conductors

Science.gov (United States)

Hartwig, K. T.; Balachandran, S.; Mezyenski, R.; Seymour, N.; Robinson, J.; Barber, R. E.

2014-01-01

Diffusion barriers used in Nb3Sn wire are often fabricated by wrapping Ta sheet into a tube with an overlap seam. A common result of such practice is non-uniform deformation in the Ta sheet as it thins by wire drawing because of non-uniform grain size and texture in the original Ta sheet. Seamless Ta tube with a fine-grain and uniform microstructure would be much better for the diffusion barrier application, but such material is expensive and difficult to manufacture. This report presents results on a new fabrication strategy for Ta tube that shows promise for manufacture of less costly tube with an improved microstructure. The fabrication method begins with seam-welded tube but gives a fine-grain uniform microstructure with little difference between the longitudinal seam weld region and the parent metal after post-weld processing. Severe plastic deformation processing (SPD) applied by area reduction extrusion and tube equal channel angular extrusion (tECAE) are used to refine and homogenize the microstructure. Microstructure and mechanical property results are presented for Ta tubes fabricated by this new processing strategy.

Fine-grained leukocyte classification with deep residual learning for microscopic images.

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Feiwei; Gao, Nannan; Peng, Yong; Wu, Zizhao; Shen, Shuying; Grudtsin, Artur

2018-08-01

Leukocyte classification and cytometry have wide applications in medical domain, previous researches usually exploit machine learning techniques to classify leukocytes automatically. However, constrained by the past development of machine learning techniques, for example, extracting distinctive features from raw microscopic images are difficult, the widely used SVM classifier only has relative few parameters to tune, these methods cannot efficiently handle fine-grained classification cases when the white blood cells have up to 40 categories. Based on deep learning theory, a systematic study is conducted on finer leukocyte classification in this paper. A deep residual neural network based leukocyte classifier is constructed at first, which can imitate the domain expert's cell recognition process, and extract salient features robustly and automatically. Then the deep neural network classifier's topology is adjusted according to the prior knowledge of white blood cell test. After that the microscopic image dataset with almost one hundred thousand labeled leukocytes belonging to 40 categories is built, and combined training strategies are adopted to make the designed classifier has good generalization ability. The proposed deep residual neural network based classifier was tested on microscopic image dataset with 40 leukocyte categories. It achieves top-1 accuracy of 77.80%, top-5 accuracy of 98.75% during the training procedure. The average accuracy on the test set is nearly 76.84%. This paper presents a fine-grained leukocyte classification method for microscopic images, based on deep residual learning theory and medical domain knowledge. Experimental results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach. Extended experiments support that the fine-grained leukocyte classifier could be used in real medical applications, assist doctors in diagnosing diseases, reduce human power significantly. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High-strength bolt-forming of fine-grained aluminum alloy 6061 with a continuous hybrid process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Ji Hun; Hwang, Sun Kwang; Im, Yong-Taek; Son, Il-Heon; Bae, Chul Min

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Fine-grained AA6061-O was produced by a continuous hybrid process. ► It consists of rolling, ECAP, and drawing. ► High-strength bolt was manufactured with the fine-grained AA6061-O. ► The UTS and micro-hardness of the bolt was increased by 50%. ► The route C was better in making a uniform micro-hardness distribution in the bolt. - Abstract: It is well known that the development of a continuous manufacturing process to apply severe plastic deformation (SPD) is a major challenge for industrial usages to improve the mechanical properties of the material through grain refinement. In this study, fine-grained AA6061-O wire was manufactured by a two-pass hybrid process consisting of drawing, equal channel angular pressing and rolling in a continuous manner to investigate the effects of processing routes for two different routes, A and C, on the variation of ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and micro-hardness distribution. The UTS value (185 MPa) of the specimen processed by the two-pass hybrid process with route A was higher than that of 171 MPa obtained from the two-pass wire-drawing process and was equivalent to the level of 184 MPa processed by the three-pass wire-drawing process. The average micro-hardness value (Hv 58.0) obtained from the two-pass hybrid process through route C was the highest among all the cases. According to transmission electron microscopy, the original grain was subdivided and elongated owing to deformation during the processes. The specimen processed by the two-pass hybrid process through route C showed smaller deformation bands and had potentially higher angle grain boundaries compared to the specimen processed by the two-pass wire-drawing process. Finally, the high-strength bolt was manufactured using the fine-grained AA6061-O wire prepared by the continuous hybrid process to check its formability. A ductile fracture at the first thread right above the jaw was observed in the bolt tension test of the manufactured bolt

Webly-Supervised Fine-Grained Visual Categorization via Deep Domain Adaptation.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Zhe; Huang, Shaoli; Zhang, Ya; Tao, Dacheng

2018-05-01

Learning visual representations from web data has recently attracted attention for object recognition. Previous studies have mainly focused on overcoming label noise and data bias and have shown promising results by learning directly from web data. However, we argue that it might be better to transfer knowledge from existing human labeling resources to improve performance at nearly no additional cost. In this paper, we propose a new semi-supervised method for learning via web data. Our method has the unique design of exploiting strong supervision, i.e., in addition to standard image-level labels, our method also utilizes detailed annotations including object bounding boxes and part landmarks. By transferring as much knowledge as possible from existing strongly supervised datasets to weakly supervised web images, our method can benefit from sophisticated object recognition algorithms and overcome several typical problems found in webly-supervised learning. We consider the problem of fine-grained visual categorization, in which existing training resources are scarce, as our main research objective. Comprehensive experimentation and extensive analysis demonstrate encouraging performance of the proposed approach, which, at the same time, delivers a new pipeline for fine-grained visual categorization that is likely to be highly effective for real-world applications.

Provenance of Fine-grained Sediments in the Inner Shelf of the Korea Strait (South Sea), Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Um, In kwon; Choi, Man Sik; Bae, Sung Ho; Song, Yunho; Kong, Gee Soo

2018-03-01

Major metals (Al, Fe, Mg, and Ti), trace metals (Li, Cs, Sc, and Rb), and rare earth elements (REEs) in the fine-grained sediments (South Sea mud (CSSM) were analyzed to determine the sediment provenance. The spatial distribution of the analyzed elements showed a clear separation between the western (W-CSSM) and eastern (E-CSSM) regions of the CSSM. Concentrations of Fe, Ti, Mg, Sc, and REEs were higher in the WCSSM, whereas concentrations of Al, Cs, Li, and Rb were higher in the E-CSSM. Unlike the ratios of trace metals ((Cs+Sc)/Li and Rb/Li), REEs could not be used to track the provenance of fine-grained sediments because of a grain size effect. The mixing relationships of the provenance indicators showed that the fine-grained sediments of the CSSM comprise a mixture of the sediments discharged from the Seomjin River (SRS) and sediments eroded and transported from the Heuksan mud belt (HMBS) area by the Korean Coastal Current. Sediments originating from the HMB were deposited mostly in the W-CSSM, whereas those from the Seomjin River were deposited mostly in the E-CSSM. This study indicated that sediments from Chinese rivers as well as the Geum River are important even in the inner shelf of the South Sea of Korea.

Annealing behavior of a cast Mg-Gd-Y-Zr alloy with necklace fine grains developed under hot deformation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, Yi [Educational Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Materials Science and Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083 (China); Yang, Xuyue, E-mail: yangxuyue@mail.csu.edu.cn [Educational Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Materials Science and Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083 (China); Nonferrous Metal Oriented Advanced Structural Materials and Manufacturing Cooperative Innovation Center, Central South University, Changsha 410083 (China); Xiao, Zhenyu; Zhang, Duxiu [Educational Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Materials Science and Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083 (China); Wang, Jun [Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3216 (Australia); Sakai, Taku [UEC Tokyo (The University of Electro-Communications), Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585 (Japan)

2017-03-14

The microstructure and texture development of a cast Mg-Gd-Y-Zr alloy during hot deformation and subsequent annealing were investigated by optical microscopy (OM) and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) technology. Initial microstructures with partially and fully developed new fine grains (NFGs), separately attended by continuous or interrupted hot forging, were various mixed grain structures composed of NFGs in necklace and retained coarse grains. It is shown that, during annealing, the development of grain size can be divided into three stages: i.e. an incubation of grain growth, a rapid coarsening and a normal grain growth. After a long time annealing of over 10{sup 4} ks at 693 K, the average grain size for samples continuous compressed to ε=1.2 and those interrupted compressed to ε=1.6 were close. Moreover, orientations of such strain-induced fine grains were relatively randomly distributed, leading to a weakened basal texture, while the basal plane of retained coarse grains were perpendicular to the forging direction. Such texture even became weaker during subsequent annealing. The results show that the development of necklace NFGs during hot deformation can be effective for homogeneous grain refinement under subsequent annealing.

The Laboratory Study of Shear Strength of the Overconsolidated and Quasi - Overconsolidated Fine - Grained Soil

Science.gov (United States)

Strozyk, Joanna

2017-12-01

The paper presents results of laboratory shear strength test conducted on fine-grained soil samples with different grain size distribution and with different geological age and stress history. The Triaxial Isotopic Consolidation Undrained Tests (TXCIU) were performed under different consolidation stress in normal and overconsolidadion stress state on the samples with natural structure. Soil samples were selected from soil series of different age and geological origins: overconsolidated sensu stricto Miopliocene silty clay (siCl) and quasi overconsolidated Pleistocene clayey silt (clSi). Paper pointed out that overconsolidated sensu stricto and quasi overconsolidated fine-grained soil in same stress and environmental condition could show almost similar behaviour, and in other condition could behave significantly different. The correct evaluation of geotechnical parameters, the possibility of predicting their time-correct ability is only possible with appropriately recognized geological past and past processes that accompanied the soil formation.

Fine-Grained Energy Modeling for the Source Code of a Mobile Application

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Xueliang; Gallagher, John Patrick

2016-01-01

The goal of an energy model for source code is to lay a foundation for the application of energy-aware programming techniques. State of the art solutions are based on source-line energy information. In this paper, we present an approach to constructing a fine-grained energy model which is able...

Thermal and microstructural properties of fine-grained material at the Viking Lander 1 site

Science.gov (United States)

Paton, M. D.; Harri, A.-M.; Savijärvi, H.; Mäkinen, T.; Hagermann, A.; Kemppinen, O.; Johnston, A.

2016-06-01

As Viking Lander 1 touched down on Mars one of its footpads fully penetrated a patch of loose fine-grained drift material. The surrounding landing site, as observed by VL-1, was found to exhibit a complex terrain consisting of a crusted surface with an assortment of rocks, large dune-like drifts and smaller patches of drift material. We use a temperature sensor attached to the buried footpad and covered in fine-grained material to determine the thermal properties of drift material at the VL-1 site. The thermal properties are used to investigate the microstructure of the drift material and understand its relevance to surface-atmosphere interactions. We obtained a thermal inertia value of 103 ± 22 tiu. This value is in the upper range of previous thermal inertia estimates of martian dust as measured from orbit and is significantly lower than the regional thermal inertia of the VL-1 site, of around 283 tiu, obtained from orbit. We estimate a thermal inertia of around 263 ± 29 tiu for the duricrust at the VL-1 site. It was noted the patch of fine-grained regolith around the footpad was about 20-30 K warmer compared to similar material beyond the thermal influence of the lander. An effective diameter of 8 ± 5 μm was calculated for the particles in the drift material. This is larger than atmospheric dust and large compared to previous estimates of the drift material particle diameter. We interpret our results as the presence of a range of particle sizes, <8 μm, in the drift material with the thermal properties being controlled by a small amount of large particles (∼8 μm) and its cohesion being controlled by a large amount of smaller particles. The bulk of the particles in the drift material are therefore likely comparable in size to that of atmospheric dust. The possibility of larger particles being locked into a fine-grained material has implications for understanding the mobilisation of wind blown materials on Mars.

Fatigue properties of ultra-fine grain Cu–Cr alloy processed by equal-channel angular pressing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Q.J.; Du, Z.Z.; Luo, L.; Wang, W.

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► The UFG Cu–Cr alloys processed by ECAP possess high strength and sufficient ductility. ► The ECAPed sample with UFG under strain controlled fatigue exhibited cyclic softening and lower fatigue limit compared to the unECAPed one. ► That cyclic softening of UFG Cu–Cr alloy is associated with some dislocation annihilation and the substructure recovery. ► Shear bands, microcracks and final fracture of UFG Cu–Cr fatigue samples occur predominantly along the shear plane corresponding to the last ECAP. - Abstract: A precipitation-hardening copper based alloy (Cu–0.6 wt.% Cr) was selected and the ultra-fine grain (UFG) microstructure was obtained by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). The alloys tensile behaviors and fatigue properties were investigated experimentally, the results indicated that the Cu–Cr alloy processed by ECAP possessed high strength and sufficient ductility and the 12-passes ECAPed sample with UFG under strain controlled fatigue exhibited cyclic softening and lower fatigue limit compared to the unECAPed one. Moreover, the shear bands on the surface of cycled samples were also studied by scanning electron microscopy, the results showed that the oriented distribution of defects along the shear plane in the last ECAP processing was one of the major mechanisms of SBs formation.

Domain structure and texture in fine grained symplectite from garnet breakdown in peridotite xenoliths (Zinst, Bavaria, Bohemian Massif)

Science.gov (United States)

Habler, G.; Špaček, P.; Abart, R.

2012-04-01

Lherzolite xenoliths entrained in Oligocene basanite at the locality of Zinst (Bavaria, western Bohemian Massif) contain rare fine-grained symplectites forming about 5 millimeter sized patches comprising several microstructurally and chemically distinct concentric zones. The symplectites reflect a complex reaction history of lherzolite during decompression and interaction with melt. Here we focus on ultra-fine grained symplectite with an integrated bulk composition expressed in terms of garnet end-member component percentages as Prp(69-71)Alm(11-13)Grs(2.5-5)And(7.5-10)Uvr(4). According to the composition and the microstructural occurrence in lherzolite the ultra-fine grained symplectite is interpreted as a product of isochemical garnet breakdown, although the precursor phase is not preserved. Under cross polarized light patches with similar extinction show a domain microstructure in symplectite. BSE images reveal an intimate intergrowth of orthopyroxene, spinel and plagioclase. All phases have a shape preferred orientation within distinct domains, whereas discontinuous SPO changes occur at microstructural domain boundaries. Three types of symplectite were microstructurally discerned: The most pristine type A occurs in a 10-30 micrometers wide zone along the symplectite margin. Spinel forms several tens of nanometers wide rods or lamellae within Opx, whereas Pl and Opx represent the symplectite matrix. All phases show a strong SPO with the maximum elongation perpendicular to the symplectite boundary. At edges of this interface, the SPO of the symplectite phases changes accordingly. Discontinuities in SPO may coincide with changes in crystallographic orientation. EBSD data showed that symplectite phases have strict crystallographic orientation relations with Opx(100)//Spl(111) and Opx(010)//Spl(110). Whereas the initial lattice orientation is controlled by adjacent phases at the symplectite boundary, the crystallographic orientation within symplectite domains

A Method to Reveal Fine-Grained and Diverse Conceptual Progressions during Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Lombard, François; Merminod, Marie; Widmer, Vincent; Schneider, Daniel K.

2018-01-01

Empirical data on learners' conceptual progression is required to design curricula and guide students. In this paper, we present the Reference Map Change Coding (RMCC) method for revealing students' progression at a fine-grained level. The method has been developed and tested through the analysis of successive versions of the productions of eight…

Deep Learning versus Professional Healthcare Equipment: A Fine-Grained Breathing Rate Monitoring Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bang Liu

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In mHealth field, accurate breathing rate monitoring technique has benefited a broad array of healthcare-related applications. Many approaches try to use smartphone or wearable device with fine-grained monitoring algorithm to accomplish the task, which can only be done by professional medical equipment before. However, such schemes usually result in bad performance in comparison to professional medical equipment. In this paper, we propose DeepFilter, a deep learning-based fine-grained breathing rate monitoring algorithm that works on smartphone and achieves professional-level accuracy. DeepFilter is a bidirectional recurrent neural network (RNN stacked with convolutional layers and speeded up by batch normalization. Moreover, we collect 16.17 GB breathing sound recording data of 248 hours from 109 and another 10 volunteers to train and test our model, respectively. The results show a reasonably good accuracy of breathing rate monitoring.

Fine-Grained Rate Shaping for Video Streaming over Wireless Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chen Tsuhan

2004-01-01

Full Text Available Video streaming over wireless networks faces challenges of time-varying packet loss rate and fluctuating bandwidth. In this paper, we focus on streaming precoded video that is both source and channel coded. Dynamic rate shaping has been proposed to “shape” the precompressed video to adapt to the fluctuating bandwidth. In our earlier work, rate shaping was extended to shape the channel coded precompressed video, and to take into account the time-varying packet loss rate as well as the fluctuating bandwidth of the wireless networks. However, prior work on rate shaping can only adjust the rate oarsely. In this paper, we propose “fine-grained rate shaping (FGRS” to allow for bandwidth adaptation over a wide range of bandwidth and packet loss rate in fine granularities. The video is precoded with fine granularity scalability (FGS followed by channel coding. Utilizing the fine granularity property of FGS and channel coding, FGRS selectively drops part of the precoded video and still yields decodable bit-stream at the decoder. Moreover, FGRS optimizes video streaming rather than achieves heuristic objectives as conventional methods. A two-stage rate-distortion (RD optimization algorithm is proposed for FGRS. Promising results of FGRS are shown.

An Analysis of the Joints’ Properties of Fine-Grained Steel Welded by the MAG and SAW Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krawczyk R.

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The article presents an analysis of properties of welded joints of fine-grained steel of P460NH type used more and more often in the modern constructions. A process of examining a technology of welding has been carried out on the thick-walled butt joints of sheet metal by two methods of welding namely MAG – 135 and SAW – 121. The article deals with a topic of optimizing a process of welding thick-walled welded joints of fine-grained steel due to their mechanicalproperties and efficiency.

Non-destructive XRF analyses of fine-grained basalts from Eiao, Marquesas Islands

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Charleux, M.; McAlister, A.; Mills, P.R.; Lundblad, S.P.

2014-01-01

The Marquesan island of Eiao was an important source of fine-grained basalt in Central East Polynesia, with examples being identified in archaeological assemblages throughout the region. However, compared to many other large-scale Polynesian basalt sources, little has been published about the physical extent and geochemical variability of tool-quality basalt on Eiao; prior to our study, only a single site with evidence of stone extraction had been identified and geochemical information was limited to less than two dozen samples. In this paper we report geochemical data for 225 additional basalt specimens collected on Eiao. Our analyses were conducted non-destructively using three EDXRF instruments: one lab-based unit and two portable analysers. The majority of our sample, identified here as Group 1, possesses geochemical and physical characteristics similar to those reported in previous studies. Group 1 samples were collected from various locations on Eiao suggesting that, rather than being limited to a single quarry site, fine-grained basalt was extracted from multiple sources throughout the island. In addition, we identified a second group (Group 2), which possesses a distinct geochemistry, a coarser grain and often an unusual reddish colour. Evidence from Eiao indicates that Group 2 stone was regularly utilised and our analysis of an adze collected on Hiva Oa Island suggests that this material was distributed at least as far as the southern Marquesas. (author)

Enhancing of chemical compound and drug name recognition using representative tag scheme and fine-grained tokenization.

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Hong-Jie; Lai, Po-Ting; Chang, Yung-Chun; Tsai, Richard Tzong-Han

2015-01-01

The functions of chemical compounds and drugs that affect biological processes and their particular effect on the onset and treatment of diseases have attracted increasing interest with the advancement of research in the life sciences. To extract knowledge from the extensive literatures on such compounds and drugs, the organizers of BioCreative IV administered the CHEMical Compound and Drug Named Entity Recognition (CHEMDNER) task to establish a standard dataset for evaluating state-of-the-art chemical entity recognition methods. This study introduces the approach of our CHEMDNER system. Instead of emphasizing the development of novel feature sets for machine learning, this study investigates the effect of various tag schemes on the recognition of the names of chemicals and drugs by using conditional random fields. Experiments were conducted using combinations of different tokenization strategies and tag schemes to investigate the effects of tag set selection and tokenization method on the CHEMDNER task. This study presents the performance of CHEMDNER of three more representative tag schemes-IOBE, IOBES, and IOB12E-when applied to a widely utilized IOB tag set and combined with the coarse-/fine-grained tokenization methods. The experimental results thus reveal that the fine-grained tokenization strategy performance best in terms of precision, recall and F-scores when the IOBES tag set was utilized. The IOBES model with fine-grained tokenization yielded the best-F-scores in the six chemical entity categories other than the "Multiple" entity category. Nonetheless, no significant improvement was observed when a more representative tag schemes was used with the coarse or fine-grained tokenization rules. The best F-scores that were achieved using the developed system on the test dataset of the CHEMDNER task were 0.833 and 0.815 for the chemical documents indexing and the chemical entity mention recognition tasks, respectively. The results herein highlight the importance

Electrosmotic conductivity in fine grained soils; Permeabilita' elettroosmotica in terreni a grana fine

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fava, G.; Giaco' , A.; Pasqualini, E.; Sani, D. [Ancona Univ., Ancona (Italy). Dipt. di Scienze dei Materiali e della Terra

1999-10-01

In this work, aspects relating to the process of mass and energy flows in fine grained soil under an electrical field are considered. A suitable apparatus for the study of electrokinetic phenomena and the measure of electrosmotic conductivity coefficients is projected and constructed. The obtained results are reliable and in accord with the common literature data. The values of the electrosmotic conductivity obtained depend on the cation exchange capacity of utilised soils and on the effective porosity of investigated samples. [Italian] Nel presente lavoro sono presi in esame gli aspetti generali relativi ai processi che regolano i flussi di materia e di energia nei terreni a grana fine in presenza di un campo elettrico. Vengono presentati i risultati di una sperimentazione su di un dispositivo appositamente progettato e realizzato per la misura della permeabilita' elettroosmotica e lo studio del trasporto elettrocinetico. I dati ottenuti sono risultati ripetibili e confrontabili con valori di letteratura consolidati. E' stato riscontrato che i coefficienti di permeabilita' elettroosmotica dipendono dalla capacita' di scambio cationico del terreno selezionato e dalla porosita' efficace dei campioni.

Fine structure of Tibetan kefir grains and their yeast distribution, diversity, and shift.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Man Lu

Full Text Available Tibetan kefir grains (TKGs, a kind of natural starter for fermented milk in Tibet, China, host various microorganisms of lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, and occasionally acetic acid bacteria in a polysaccharide/protein matrix. In the present study, the fine structure of TKGs was studied to shed light on this unusual symbiosis with stereomicroscopy and thin sections. The results reveal that TKGs consist of numerous small grain units, which are characterized by a hollow globular structure with a diameter between 2.0 and 9.0 mm and a wall thickness of approximately 200 µm. A polyhedron-like net structure, formed mainly by the bacteria, was observed in the wall of the grain units, which has not been reported previously to our knowledge. Towards the inside of the grain unit, the polyhedron-like net structures became gradually larger in diameter and fewer in number. Such fine structures may play a crucial role in the stability of the grains. Subsequently, the distribution, diversity, and shift of yeasts in TKGs were investigated based on thin section, scanning electron microscopy, cloning and sequencing of D1/D2 of the 26S rRNA gene, real-time quantitative PCR, and in situ hybridization with specific fluorescence-labeled oligonucleotide probes. These show that (i yeasts appear to localize on the outer surface of the grains and grow normally together to form colonies embedded in the bacterial community; (ii the diversity of yeasts is relatively low on genus level with three dominant species--Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Kluyveromyces marxianus, and Yarrowia lipolytica; (iii S. cerevisiae is the stable predominant yeast species, while the composition of Kluyveromyces and Yarrowia are subject to change over time. Our results indicate that TKGs are relatively stable in structure, and culture conditions to some extent shape the microbial community and interaction in kefir grains. These findings pave the way for further study of the specific symbiotic

Fine Structure of Tibetan Kefir Grains and Their Yeast Distribution, Diversity, and Shift

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Man; Wang, Xingxing; Sun, Guowei; Qin, Bing; Xiao, Jinzhou; Yan, Shuling; Pan, Yingjie; Wang, Yongjie

2014-01-01

Tibetan kefir grains (TKGs), a kind of natural starter for fermented milk in Tibet, China, host various microorganisms of lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, and occasionally acetic acid bacteria in a polysaccharide/protein matrix. In the present study, the fine structure of TKGs was studied to shed light on this unusual symbiosis with stereomicroscopy and thin sections. The results reveal that TKGs consist of numerous small grain units, which are characterized by a hollow globular structure with a diameter between 2.0 and 9.0 mm and a wall thickness of approximately 200 µm. A polyhedron-like net structure, formed mainly by the bacteria, was observed in the wall of the grain units, which has not been reported previously to our knowledge. Towards the inside of the grain unit, the polyhedron-like net structures became gradually larger in diameter and fewer in number. Such fine structures may play a crucial role in the stability of the grains. Subsequently, the distribution, diversity, and shift of yeasts in TKGs were investigated based on thin section, scanning electron microscopy, cloning and sequencing of D1/D2 of the 26S rRNA gene, real-time quantitative PCR, and in situ hybridization with specific fluorescence-labeled oligonucleotide probes. These show that (i) yeasts appear to localize on the outer surface of the grains and grow normally together to form colonies embedded in the bacterial community; (ii) the diversity of yeasts is relatively low on genus level with three dominant species – Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Kluyveromyces marxianus, and Yarrowia lipolytica; (iii) S. cerevisiae is the stable predominant yeast species, while the composition of Kluyveromyces and Yarrowia are subject to change over time. Our results indicate that TKGs are relatively stable in structure, and culture conditions to some extent shape the microbial community and interaction in kefir grains. These findings pave the way for further study of the specific symbiotic associations between S

Fine structural dependence of ultraviolet reflections in the King Penguin beak horn.

Science.gov (United States)

Dresp, Birgitta; Langley, Keith

2006-03-01

The visual perception of many birds extends into the near-ultraviolet (UV) spectrum and ultraviolet is used by some to communicate. The beak horn of the King Penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) intensely reflects in the ultraviolet and this appears to be implicated in partner choice. In a preliminary study, we recently demonstrated that this ultraviolet reflectance has a structural basis, resulting from crystal-like photonic structures, capable of reflecting in the near-UV. The present study attempted to define the origin of the photonic elements that produce the UV reflectance and to better understand how the UV signal is optimized by their fine structure. Using light and electron microscopic analysis combined with new spectrophotometric data, we describe here in detail the fine structure of the entire King Penguin beak horn in addition to that of its photonic crystals. The data obtained reveal a one-dimensional structural periodicity within this tissue and demonstrate a direct relationship between its fine structure and its function. In addition, they suggest how the photonic structures are produced and how they are stabilized. The measured lattice dimensions of the photonic crystals, together with morphological data on its composition, permit predictions of the wavelength of reflected light. These correlate well with experimentally observed values. The way the UV signal is optimized by the fine structure of the beak tissue is discussed with regard to its putative biological role.

Dependence on Solar Phase Angle and Grain Size of the Spectral Reflectance of the Railroad Valley Playa for GOSAT/GOSAT-2 Vicarious Calibration

Science.gov (United States)

Arai, T.; Matsunaga, T.

2017-12-01

GOSAT and the next generation GOSAT-2 satellites estimate the concentration of greenhouse gasses, and distribution of aerosol and cloud to observe solar light reflection and radiation from surface and atmosphere of the Earth. Precise information of the surface and the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) are required for the estimation because the surface reflectance of solar light varies with the observation geometry and the surface condition. The purpose of this study is to search an appropriate BRDF model of the GOSAT calibration site (Railroad Valley playa). In 2017, JAXA, NIES, and NASA/OCO-2 teams collaboratively performed 9th vicarious experiments by the simultaneous observation with GOSAT, OCO-2, and ground-based equipment (Kuze et al., 2014) at the Railroad Valley from June 25 to 30. We performed the BRDF measurement to observe solar light reflection by varying with observed angles using a spectroradiometer (FieldSpec4, ASD Inc.) mounted on a one-axis goniometer. The surface sand was shifted to several sizes of grain (75, 125, 250, 500, and 1000 μm), which was measured for the limited area of 5mm diameter with a collimating lens (74-UV, OceanOptics). The BRDF parameters for the observed reflectance were determined by the least squares fitting with the free parameters of a single scattering albedo and an asymmetric factor (Hapke, 2012) for the ultraviolet to near infrared wavelength bands of GOSAT. The resulting value of the single scattering albedo increased with decreasing the grain size of the sands. The observed reflectance of the fine grain sands (below 250 μm) is not varied with observed phase angles (solar incident light - surface sand - detector) as a Lambertian reflectance, but the spectra of coarse grain sands (above 500 μm) are varied with the observation angles. Therefore, a priori information of the target surface such as grain size is required for the determination of the precise reflectance of the target.

Fine-grained Information Flow for Concurrent Computation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, Ximeng

and reference monitors, have been proposed in the context of programming languages and process calculi, to enforce such properties. The most widely used definitions of information flow security are noninterference-like properties. For concurrent systems where processes communicate with each other to accomplish...... computational tasks, fine-grained security policies can be formulated by distinguishing between whether communication can happen, and what is communicated. As the first contribution of this PhD thesis, we formulate a noninterference-like property that takes all combinations of sensitivity levels for “whether...... to a classical one when the two dimensions are intentionally blurred. As the second contribution, we focus on the “what” dimension and further allow the flow policy to vary under different contents stored and communicated. This is the area of content-dependent (or conditional) information flow, which has...

Dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of contaminated fine-grained soils and barrier materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaya, A.; Fang, H.Y.; Inyang, H.I.

1997-01-01

Characterization of contaminated fine-grained soils and tracking of contaminant migration within barriers have been challenging because current methods and/or procedures are labor and time-intensive, and destructive. To demonstrate the effective use of both dielectric constant and electrical conductivity in the characterization of contaminated fine-grained soils, pore fluids were prepared at different ionic strengths, and were used as permeates for kaolinite, bentonite and a local soil. Then, both dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of the soils were measured by means of a capacitor over a wide range of frequencies and moisture content. It was observed that although each soil has its unique dielectric constant and electrical conductivity at a given moisture content, increases in ionic strength cause a decrease in the dielectric constant of the system at very high frequencies (MHZ), whereas the dielectric constant increases at low frequencies (kHz). Electrical conductivity of a soil-water system is independent of frequency. However, it is a function of ionic strength of the pore fluid. It is clearly demonstrated that dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of soils are functions of both moisture content and ionic strength, and can be used to characterize the spatial and temporal levels of contamination. This method/procedure can be used in estimating the level of contamination as well as the direction of contaminant movement in the subsurface without the use of extensive laboratory testing. Based on obtained results, it was concluded that the proposed method/procedure is promising because it is non-destructive and provides a quick means of assessing the spatial distribution of contaminants in fine-grained soils and barriers

Lime Stabilization of Fine-Grained Greenlandic Sediments in Relation to Construction Projects

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Anders Stuhr; Ingeman-Nielsen, Thomas; Nielsen, Hans Rasmus

2010-01-01

to the cold climate, and it is therefore of great interest to study possible methods to improve the stability of the fine-grained sediments. This presentation will include results of laboratory studies of lime stabilization on a clay soil from Kangerlussuaq, western Greenland. The result includes tests...... of the optimum lime mixture in relation to both reaction time and temperature influence....

Large, high-intensity fire events in Southern California shrublands: Debunking the fine-grain age patch model

Science.gov (United States)

Keeley, J.E.; Zedler, P.H.

2009-01-01

We evaluate the fine-grain age patch model of fire regimes in southern California shrublands. Proponents contend that the historical condition was characterized by frequent small to moderate size, slow-moving smoldering fires, and that this regime has been disrupted by fire suppression activities that have caused unnatural fuel accumulation and anomalously large and catastrophic wildfires. A review of more than 100 19th-century newspaper reports reveals that large, high-intensity wildfires predate modern fire suppression policy, and extensive newspaper coverage plus first-hand accounts support the conclusion that the 1889 Santiago Canyon Fire was the largest fire in California history. Proponents of the fine-grain age patch model contend that even the very earliest 20th-century fires were the result of fire suppression disrupting natural fuel structure. We tested that hypothesis and found that, within the fire perimeters of two of the largest early fire events in 1919 and 1932, prior fire suppression activities were insufficient to have altered the natural fuel structure. Over the last 130 years there has been no significant change in the incidence of large fires greater than 10000 ha, consistent with the conclusion that fire suppression activities are not the cause of these fire events. Eight megafires (???50 000 ha) are recorded for the region, and half have occurred in the last five years. These burned through a mosaic of age classes, which raises doubts that accumulation of old age classes explains these events. Extreme drought is a plausible explanation for this recent rash of such events, and it is hypothesized that these are due to droughts that led to increased dead fine fuels that promoted the incidence of firebrands and spot fires. A major shortcoming of the fine-grain age patch model is that it requires age-dependent flammability of shrubland fuels, but seral stage chaparral is dominated by short-lived species that create a dense surface layer of fine

Presolar silicates in the matrix and fine-grained rims around chondrules in primitive CO3.0 chondrites: Evidence for pre-accretionary aqueous alteration of the rims in the solar nebula

Science.gov (United States)

Haenecour, Pierre; Floss, Christine; Zega, Thomas J.; Croat, Thomas K.; Wang, Alian; Jolliff, Bradley L.; Carpenter, Paul

2018-01-01

To investigate the origin of fine-grained rims around chondrules (FGRs), we compared presolar grain abundances, elemental compositions and mineralogies in fine-grained interstitial matrix material and individual FGRs in the primitive CO3.0 chondrites Allan Hills A77307, LaPaz Icefield 031117 and Dominion Range 08006. The observation of similar overall O-anomalous (∼155 ppm) and C-anomalous grain abundances (∼40 ppm) in all three CO3.0 chondrites suggests that they all accreted from a nebular reservoir with similar presolar grain abundances. The presence of presolar silicate grains in FGRs combined with the observation of similar estimated porosity between interstitial matrix regions and FGRs in LAP 031117 and ALHA77307, as well as the identification of a composite FGR (a small rimmed chondrule within a larger chondrule rim) in ALHA77307, all provide evidence for a formation of FGRs by accretion of dust grains onto freely-floating chondrules in the solar nebula before their aggregation into their parent body asteroids. Our study also shows systematically lower abundances of presolar silicate grains in the FGRs than in the matrix regions of CO3 chondrites, while the abundances of SiC grains are the same in all areas, within errors. This trend differs from CR2 chondrites in which the presolar silicate abundances are higher in the FGRs than in the matrix, but similar to each other within 2σ errors. This observation combined with the identification of localized (micrometer-scaled) aqueous alteration in a FGR of LAP 031117 suggests that the lower abundance of presolar silicates in FGRs reflects pre-accretionary aqueous alteration of the fine-grained material in the FGRs. This pre-accretionary alteration could be due to either hydration and heating of freely floating rimmed chondrules in icy regions of the solar nebula or melted water ice associated with 26Al-related heating inside precursor planetesimals, followed by aggregation of FGRs into the CO chondrite parent-body.

OSL dating of fine-grained quartz from Holocene Yangtze delta sediments

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sugisaki, Saiko; Buylaert, Jan-Pieter; Murray, Andrew

2015-01-01

Holocene flood events in the Yangtze River are associated with variations in East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) precipitation, and so Yangtze delta sediments may preserve information about the frequency and magnitude of EASM precipitation. These flood/drought cycles of the EASM directly affect...... the living standards of East Asian population. However, despite its importance, little chronological control is available for the Yangtze Delta sediments; because biogenic carbonate only occurs sporadically, it has proved the difficulty to discuss sedimentation mechanisms and rates in any detail. In 2013 two...... sediment cores (YD13-G3 and H1) were taken from the Yangtze subaqueous delta to investigate precipitation history. In this study, we investigate the potential of quartz OSL dating of the fine silt fraction (fine-grained quartz; 4-11 μm) from these cores to estimate the depositional age of the sediments. We...

Fine grained event processing on HPCs with the ATLAS Yoda system

CERN Document Server

Calafiura, Paolo; The ATLAS collaboration; Guan, Wen; Maeno, Tadashi; Nilsson, Paul; Oleynik, Danila; Panitkin, Sergey; Tsulaia, Vakhtang; van Gemmeren, Peter; Wenaus, Torre

2015-01-01

High performance computing facilities present unique challenges and opportunities for HENP event processing. The massive scale of many HPC systems means that fractionally small utilizations can yield large returns in processing throughput. Parallel applications which can dynamically and efficiently fill any scheduling opportunities the resource presents benefit both the facility (maximal utilization) and the (compute-limited) science. The ATLAS Yoda system provides this capability to HENP-like event processing applications by implementing event-level processing in an MPI-based master-client model that integrates seamlessly with the more broadly scoped ATLAS Event Service. Fine grained, event level work assignments are intelligently dispatched to parallel workers to sustain full utilization on all cores, with outputs streamed off to destination object stores in near real time with similarly fine granularity, such that processing can proceed until termination with full utilization. The system offers the efficie...

Model of the fine-grain component of martian soil based on Viking lander data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nussinov, M.D.; Chernyak, Y.B.; Ettinger, J.L.

1978-01-01

A model of the fine-grain component of the Martian soil is proposed. The model is based on well-known physical phenomena, and enables an explanation of the evolution of the gases released in the GEX (gas exchange experiments) and GCMS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometer experiments) of the Viking landers. (author)

A triple-scale crystal plasticity modeling and simulation on size effect due to fine-graining

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kurosawa, Eisuke; Aoyagi, Yoshiteru; Tadano, Yuichi; Shizawa, Kazuyuki

2010-01-01

In this paper, a triple-scale crystal plasticity model bridging three hierarchical material structures, i.e., dislocation structure, grain aggregate and practical macroscopic structure is developed. Geometrically necessary (GN) dislocation density and GN incompatibility are employed so as to describe isolated dislocations and dislocation pairs in a grain, respectively. Then the homogenization method is introduced into the GN dislocation-crystal plasticity model for derivation of the governing equation of macroscopic structure with the mathematical and physical consistencies. Using the present model, a triple-scale FE simulation bridging the above three hierarchical structures is carried out for f.c.c. polycrystals with different mean grain size. It is shown that the present model can qualitatively reproduce size effects of macroscopic specimen with ultrafine-grain, i.e., the increase of initial yield stress, the decrease of hardening ratio after reaching tensile strength and the reduction of tensile ductility with decrease of its grain size. Moreover, the relationship between macroscopic yielding of specimen and microscopic grain yielding is discussed and the mechanism of the poor tensile ductility due to fine-graining is clarified. (author)

Fine Grained Chaos in AdS_{2} Gravity.

Science.gov (United States)

Haehl, Felix M; Rozali, Moshe

2018-03-23

Quantum chaos can be characterized by an exponential growth of the thermal out-of-time-order four-point function up to a scrambling time u[over ^]_{*}. We discuss generalizations of this statement for certain higher-point correlation functions. For concreteness, we study the Schwarzian theory of a one-dimensional time reparametrization mode, which describes two-dimensional anti-de Sitter space (AdS_{2}) gravity and the low-energy dynamics of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. We identify a particular set of 2k-point functions, characterized as being both "maximally braided" and "k-out of time order," which exhibit exponential growth until progressively longer time scales u[over ^]_{*}^{(k)}∼(k-1)u[over ^]_{*}. We suggest an interpretation as scrambling of increasingly fine grained measures of quantum information, which correspondingly take progressively longer time to reach their thermal values.

Fine Grained Chaos in AdS2 Gravity

Science.gov (United States)

Haehl, Felix M.; Rozali, Moshe

2018-03-01

Quantum chaos can be characterized by an exponential growth of the thermal out-of-time-order four-point function up to a scrambling time u^*. We discuss generalizations of this statement for certain higher-point correlation functions. For concreteness, we study the Schwarzian theory of a one-dimensional time reparametrization mode, which describes two-dimensional anti-de Sitter space (AdS2 ) gravity and the low-energy dynamics of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. We identify a particular set of 2 k -point functions, characterized as being both "maximally braided" and "k -out of time order," which exhibit exponential growth until progressively longer time scales u^*(k)˜(k -1 )u^*. We suggest an interpretation as scrambling of increasingly fine grained measures of quantum information, which correspondingly take progressively longer time to reach their thermal values.

Toolbox for Research and Exploration (TREX): Investigations of Fine-Grained Materials on Small Bodies

Science.gov (United States)

Domingue, D. L.; Allain, J.-P.; Banks, M.; Christoffersen, R.; Cintala, M.; Clark, R.; Cloutis, E.; Graps, A.; Hendrix, A. R.; Hsieh, H.;

Constitutive modelling of the undrained shear strength of fine grained soils containing gas

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Grozic, J.L.H. [Calgary Univ., AB (Canada); Nadim, F.; Kvalstad, T.J. [Norwegian Geotechnical Inst., Oslo (Norway)

2002-07-01

The behaviour of fine grained gassy soils was studied in order to develop a technique to quantitatively evaluate geohazards. Gas can occur in seabeds either in solution in pore water, undissolved in the form of gas filled voids, or as gas hydrates. In offshore soils, the degree of saturation is generally greater than 90 per cent, resulting in a soil structure with a continuous water phase and a discontinuous gas phase. The presence of methane gas will impact the strength of the soil, which alters its resistance to submarine sliding. This paper presents a constitutive model for determining the undrained shear strength of fine-grained gassy soils to assess the stability of deep water marine slopes for offshore developments. Methane gas is shown to have a beneficial effect on the soil strength in compressive loading, but the peak strength is achieved at larger deformations. The increased strength is a result of compression and solution gas which cause partial drainage and reduced pore pressures. The undrained shear strength of gassy soils was shown to increase with increasing initial consolidation stress, increasing volumetric coefficient of solubility, and increasing initial void ratio. 9 refs., 3 tabs., 6 figs.

Determination of the effects of fine-grained sediment and other limiting variables on trout habitat for selected streams in Wisconsin

Science.gov (United States)

Scudder, Barbara C.; Selbig, J.W.; Waschbusch, R.J.

2000-01-01

Two Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) models, developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, were used to evaluate the effects of fine-grained (less than 2 millimeters) sediment on brook trout (Salvelinusfontinalis, Mitchill) and brown trout (Salmo trutta, Linnaeus) in 11 streams in west-central and southwestern Wisconsin. Our results indicated that fine-grained sediment limited brook trout habitat in 8 of 11 streams and brown trout habitat in only one stream. Lack of winter and escape cover for fry was the primary limiting variable for brown trout at 61 percent of the sites, and this factor also limited brook trout at several stations. Pool area or quality, in stream cover, streambank vegetation for erosion control, minimum flow, thalweg depth maximum, water temperature, spawning substrate, riffle dominant substrate, and dissolved oxygen also were limiting to trout in the study streams. Brook trout appeared to be more sensitive to the effects of fine-grained sediment than brown trout. The models for brook trout and brown trout appeared to be useful and objective screening tools for identifying variables limiting trout habitat in these streams. The models predicted that reduction in the amount of fine-grained sediment would improve brook trout habitat. These models may be valuable for establishing instream sediment-reduction goals; however, the decrease in sediment delivery needed to meet these goals cannot be estimated without quantitative data on land use practices and their effects on sediment delivery and retention by streams.

Congenital amusia: a disorder of fine-grained pitch discrimination.

Science.gov (United States)

Peretz, Isabelle; Ayotte, Julie; Zatorre, Robert J; Mehler, Jacques; Ahad, Pierre; Penhune, Virginia B; Jutras, Benoît

2002-01-17

We report the first documented case of congenital amusia. This disorder refers to a musical disability that cannot be explained by prior brain lesion, hearing loss, cognitive deficits, socioaffective disturbance, or lack of environmental stimulation. This musical impairment is diagnosed in a middle-aged woman, hereafter referred to as Monica, who lacks most basic musical abilities, including melodic discrimination and recognition, despite normal audiometry and above-average intellectual, memory, and language skills. The results of psychophysical tests show that Monica has severe difficulties with detecting pitch changes. The data suggest that music-processing difficulties may result from problems in fine-grained discrimination of pitch, much in the same way as many language-processing difficulties arise from deficiencies in auditory temporal resolution.

A Fine-Grained and Privacy-Preserving Query Scheme for Fog Computing-Enhanced Location-Based Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Xue; Yin, Fan; Tang, Xiaohu

2017-07-11

Location-based services (LBS), as one of the most popular location-awareness applications, has been further developed to achieve low-latency with the assistance of fog computing. However, privacy issues remain a research challenge in the context of fog computing. Therefore, in this paper, we present a fine-grained and privacy-preserving query scheme for fog computing-enhanced location-based services, hereafter referred to as FGPQ. In particular, mobile users can obtain the fine-grained searching result satisfying not only the given spatial range but also the searching content. Detailed privacy analysis shows that our proposed scheme indeed achieves the privacy preservation for the LBS provider and mobile users. In addition, extensive performance analyses and experiments demonstrate that the FGPQ scheme can significantly reduce computational and communication overheads and ensure the low-latency, which outperforms existing state-of-the art schemes. Hence, our proposed scheme is more suitable for real-time LBS searching.

A novel allele of TaGW2-A1 is located in a finely mapped QTL that increases grain weight but decreases grain number in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

Science.gov (United States)

Zhai, Huijie; Feng, Zhiyu; Du, Xiaofen; Song, Yane; Liu, Xinye; Qi, Zhongqi; Song, Long; Li, Jiang; Li, Linghong; Peng, Huiru; Hu, Zhaorong; Yao, Yingyin; Xin, Mingming; Xiao, Shihe; Sun, Qixin; Ni, Zhongfu

2018-03-01

A novel TaGW2-A1 allele was identified from a stable, robust QTL region, which is pleiotropic for thousand grain weight, grain number per spike, and grain morphometric parameters in wheat. Thousand grain weight (TGW) and grain number per spike (GNS) are two crucial determinants of wheat spike yield, and genetic dissection of their relationships can help to fine-tune these two components and maximize grain yield. By evaluating 191 recombinant inbred lines in 11 field trials, we identified five genomic regions on chromosomes 1B, 3A, 3B, 5B, or 7A that solely influenced either TGW or GNS, and a further region on chromosome 6A that concurrently affected TGW and GNS. The QTL of interest on chromosome 6A, which was flanked by wsnp_BE490604A_Ta_2_1 and wsnp_RFL_Contig1340_448996 and designated as QTgw/Gns.cau-6A, was finely mapped to a genetic interval shorter than 0.538 cM using near isogenic lines (NILs). The elite NILs of QTgw/Gns.cau-6A increased TGW by 8.33%, but decreased GNS by 3.05% in six field trials. Grain Weight 2 (TaGW2-A1), a well-characterized gene that negatively regulates TGW and grain width in wheat, was located within the finely mapped interval of QTgw/Gns.cau-6A. A novel and rare TaGW2-A1 allele with a 114-bp deletion in the 5' flanking region was identified in the parent with higher TGW, and it reduced TaGW2-A1 promoter activity and expression. In conclusion, these results expand our knowledge of the genetic and molecular basis of TGW-GNS trade-offs in wheat. The QTLs and the novel TaGW2-A1 allele are likely useful for the development of cultivars with higher TGW and/or higher GNS.

The T2K fine-grained detectors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Amaudruz, P.-A. [TRIUMF, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada); Barbi, M. [University of Regina, Physics Department, Regina, Saskatchewan (Canada); Bishop, D. [TRIUMF, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada); Braam, N. [University of Victoria, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Victoria, British Columbia (Canada); Brook-Roberge, D.G. [University of British Columbia, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada); Giffin, S. [University of Regina, Physics Department, Regina, Saskatchewan (Canada); Gomi, S. [Kyoto University, Department of Physics, Kyoto (Japan); Gumplinger, P.; Hamano, K. [TRIUMF, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada); Hastings, N.C. [University of Regina, Physics Department, Regina, Saskatchewan (Canada); Hastings, S. [University of British Columbia, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada); Helmer, R.L., E-mail: helmer@triumf.ca [TRIUMF, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada); Henderson, R. [TRIUMF, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada); Ieki, K. [Kyoto University, Department of Physics, Kyoto (Japan); Jamieson, B. [University of British Columbia, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada); Kato, I.; Khan, N. [TRIUMF, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada); Kim, J.; Kirby, B. [University of British Columbia, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada); Kitching, P. [University of Alberta, Centre for Particle Physics, Department of Physics, Edmonton, Alberta (Canada); and others

2012-12-22

T2K is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment searching for {nu}{sub e} appearance in a {nu}{sub {mu}} beam. The beam is produced at the J-PARC accelerator complex in Tokai, Japan, and the neutrinos are detected by the Super-Kamiokande detector located 295 km away in Kamioka. A suite of near detectors (ND280) located 280 m downstream of the production target is used to characterize the components of the beam before they have had a chance to oscillate and to better understand various neutrino interactions on several nuclei. This paper describes the design and construction of two massive fine-grained detectors (FGDs) that serve as active targets in the ND280 tracker. One FGD is composed solely of scintillator bars while the other is partly scintillator and partly water. Each element of the FGDs is described, including the wavelength shifting fiber and Multi-Pixel Photon Counter used to collect the light signals, the readout electronics, and the calibration system. Initial tests and in situ results of the FGDs' performance are also presented.

Evolution of Fine-Grained Channel Margin Deposits behind Large Woody Debris in an Experimental Gravel-Bed Flume

Science.gov (United States)

ONeill, B.; Marks, S.; Skalak, K.; Puleo, J. A.; Wilcock, P. R.; Pizzuto, J. E.

2014-12-01

Fine grained channel margin (FGCM) deposits of the South River, Virginia sequester a substantial volume of fine-grained sediment behind large woody debris (LWD). FGCM deposits were created in a laboratory setting meant to simulate the South River environment using a recirculating flume (15m long by 0.6m wide) with a fixed gravel bed and adjustable slope (set to 0.0067) to determine how fine sediment is transported and deposited behind LWD. Two model LWD structures were placed 3.7 m apart on opposite sides of the flume. A wire mesh screen with attached wooden dowels simulated LWD with an upstream facing rootwad. Six experiments with three different discharge rates, each with low and high sediment concentrations, were run. Suspended sediment was very fine grained (median grain size of 3 phi) and well sorted (0.45 phi) sand. Upstream of the wood, water depths averaged about 0.08m, velocities averaged about 0.3 m/s, and Froude numbers averaged around 0.3. Downstream of the first LWD structure, velocities were reduced tenfold. Small amounts of sediment passed through the rootwad and fell out of suspension in the area of reduced flow behind LWD, but most of the sediment was carried around the LWD by the main flow and then behind the LWD by a recirculating eddy current. Upstream migrating dunes formed behind LWD due to recirculating flow, similar to reattachment bars documented in bedrock canyon rivers partially obstructed by debouching debris fans. These upstream migrating dunes began at the reattachment point and merged with deposits formed from sediment transported through the rootwad. Downstream migrating dunes formed along the channel margin behind the LWD, downstream of the reattachment point. FGCM deposits were about 3 m long, with average widths of about 0.8 m. Greater sediment concentration created thicker FGCM deposits, and higher flows eroded the sides of the deposits, reducing their widths.

Spinodal decomposition in fine grained materials

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Unknown

ηηi has a value of unity inside the ith grain, decreases smoothly through the grain boundary region to zero out- side the grain. For a symmetric alloy of composition, c = 0⋅⋅5, our results show that microstructural evolution depends largely on the difference in the grain boundary energies, γγgb, of A-rich (αα) and B-rich (ββ) ...

Sol-gel synthesis and characterization of fine-grained ceramics in the alumina-titania system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Otterstein, E. [Institute of Physics, University of Rostock, August-Bebel-Strasse 55, 18055 Rostock (Germany)], E-mail: otterstein@physik1.uni-rostock.de; Karapetyan, G. [Institute of Chemistry, University of Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 3a, 18059 Rostock (Germany); Nicula, R. [Institute of Physics, University of Rostock, August-Bebel-Strasse 55, 18055 Rostock (Germany); Stir, M. [Institute of Physics, University of Rostock, August-Bebel-Strasse 55, 18055 Rostock (Germany); National Institute for Materials Physics, 105b Atomistilor Strasse, P.O.B. MG7, 077125 Bucharest-Magurele (Romania); Schick, C. [Institute of Physics, University of Rostock, Universitaetsplatz 3, 18051 Rostock (Germany); Burkel, E. [Institute of Physics, University of Rostock, August-Bebel-Strasse 55, 18055 Rostock (Germany)

2008-02-05

Fine-grained ceramics of the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-TiO{sub 2} system were synthesised by reactive sintering of sol-gel precursors (Al- and Ti-alkoxides). The thermal behaviour of the as-prepared xerogels was examined by thermal analysis and X-ray powder diffraction. Preliminary results concerning powder consolidation into bulk ceramic parts using spark plasma sintering (SPS) are discussed.

Application of pulsed OSL to polymineral fine-grained samples

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Feathers, James K.; Casson, M. Aksel; Schmidt, Amanda Henck; Chithambo, Makaiko L.

2012-01-01

Pulsed OSL is applied to nine fine-grained sediment samples from Sichuan province, China, using stimulating pulses of 10 μs on and 240 μs off, with an infrared exposure prior to each OSL measurement. Comparison of fading rates between pulsed and non-pulsed signals, the latter also obtained with a preceding IR exposure, shows that fading is significant for mainly the non-pulsed signals. Presence of a pulsed IRSL and the magnitudes of b-value to correct for lower alpha efficiency suggest that pulsing does not fully remove a significant feldspar signal, only a fading component. Comparison with ages of quartz extracts shows that pulsed OSL ages are consistent, while CW-OSL ages are slightly older and CW-IRSL ages are much older. The older ages suggest a less well-bleached feldspar component.

Impact of chemical leaching on permeability and cadmium removal from fine-grained soils.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Zhongbing; Zhang, Renduo; Huang, Shuang; Wang, Kang

2017-08-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of chemical leaching on permeability and Cd removal from fine-grained polluted soils. Column leaching experiments were conducted using two types of soils (i.e., artificially Cd-polluted loam and historically polluted silty loam). Chemical agents of CaCl 2 , FeCl 3 , citric acid, EDTA, rhamnolipid, and deionized water were used to leach Cd from the soils. Results showed that organic agents reduced permeability of both soils, and FeCl 3 reduced permeability of loam soil, compared with inorganic agents and deionized water. Entrapment and deposition of colloids generated from the organic agents and FeCl 3 treatments reduced the soil permeability. The peak Cd effluence from the artificially polluted loam columns was retarded. For the artificially polluted soils treated with EDTA and the historically polluted soils with FeCl 3 , Cd precipitates were observed at the bottom after chemical leaching. When Cd was associated with large colloid particles, the reduction of soil permeability caused Cd accumulation in deeper soil. In addition, the slow process of disintegration of soil clay during chemical leaching might result in the retardation of peak Cd effluence. These results suggest the need for caution when using chemical-leaching agents for Cd removal in fine-grained soils.

In vitro and in vivo studies of biodegradable fine grained AZ31 magnesium alloy produced by equal channel angular pressing.

Science.gov (United States)

Ratna Sunil, B; Sampath Kumar, T S; Chakkingal, Uday; Nandakumar, V; Doble, Mukesh; Devi Prasad, V; Raghunath, M

2016-02-01

The objective of the present work is to investigate the role of different grain sizes produced by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) on the degradation behavior of magnesium alloy using in vitro and in vivo studies. Commercially available AZ31 magnesium alloy was selected and processed by ECAP at 300°C for up to four passes using route Bc. Grain refinement from a starting size of 46μm to a grain size distribution of 1-5μm was successfully achieved after the 4th pass. Wettability of ECAPed samples assessed by contact angle measurements was found to increase due to the fine grain structure. In vitro degradation and bioactivity of the samples studied by immersing in super saturated simulated body fluid (SBF 5×) showed rapid mineralization within 24h due to the increased wettability in fine grained AZ31 Mg alloy. Corrosion behavior of the samples assessed by weight loss and electrochemical tests conducted in SBF 5× clearly showed the prominent role of enhanced mineral deposition on ECAPed AZ31 Mg in controlling the abnormal degradation. Cytotoxicity studies by MTT colorimetric assay showed that all the samples are viable. Additionally, cell adhesion was excellent for ECAPed samples particularly for the 3rd and 4th pass samples. In vivo experiments conducted using New Zealand White rabbits clearly showed lower degradation rate for ECAPed sample compared with annealed AZ31 Mg alloy and all the samples showed biocompatibility and no health abnormalities were noticed in the animals after 60days of in vivo studies. These results suggest that the grain size plays an important role in degradation management of magnesium alloys and ECAP technique can be adopted to achieve fine grain structures for developing degradable magnesium alloys for biomedical applications. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Electroosmotic transport in fine grained sediments with respect to pore throats

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Krauss, H.; Zorn, R.; Haus, R.; Czurda, K. [Dept. of Applied Geology, Univ. Karlsruhe (Germany)

2001-07-01

Electroosmotic experiments were performed with two different fine grained soils, which were consolidated in different ways. The electroosmotic permeability was calculated using the transported volume of water under a dc electric field. In addition to the pH-values prior and after the experiments near the anode and cathode the dominating pore throat-diameters of the samples were analysed by mercury porosimetry. The electroosmotic permeability can be correlated with the dominating pore throat-diameter. Not only chemical parameters like zeta-potential or ion-concentration but also the kind and structure of the soil particles characterize electroosmotic transport. (orig.)

Uranium resources in fine-grained carbonaceous rocks of the Great Divide Basin, south-central Wyoming. National Uranium Resource Evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Burger, J.A.; Roe, L.M. II; Hacke, C.M.; Mosher, M.M.

1982-11-01

The uranium resources of the fine-grained carbonaceous rocks of the Great Divide Basin in southern Wyoming were assessed. The assessment was based primarily on data from some 600 boreholes. The data included information from geophysical logs, lithologic logs and cores, and drill cuttings. The cores and cuttings were analyzed for chemical U 3 O 8 , radiometric U, Th and trace elements. Selected samples were examined by thin section, sieve analysis, x-ray, SEM, ion probe, and alpha track methods. The uranium is associated with fine-grained carbonaceous shales, siltstones, mudstones, and coals in radioactive zones 5 to 50 ft thick that are continuous over broad areas. These rocks have a limited stratigraphic range between the Red Desert tongue of the Wasatch Formation and the lower part of the Tipton tongue of the Green River Formation. Most of this uranium is syngenetic in origin, in part from the chelation of the uranium by organic material in lake-side swamps and in part as uranium in very fine detrital heavy minerals. The uraniferous fine-grained carbonaceous rocks that exceed a cutoff grade of 100 ppM eU 3 O 8 extend over an area of 542 mi 2 and locally to a depth of approximately 2000 ft. The uraniferous area is roughly ellipical and embraces the zone of change between the piedmont and alluvial-fan facies and the lacustrine facies of the intertonguing Battle Spring, Wasatch, and Green River Formations. About 1.05 x 10 6 tons U 3 O 8 , based on gross-gamma logs not corrected for thorium, are assigned to the area in the first 500 ft; an estimated 3.49 x 10 6 tons are assigned to a depth of 1000 ft. These units also contain a substantial thorium resource that is also associated with fine-grained rocks. The thorium-to-uranium ratio generally ranges between 1 and 4. A thorium resource of 3.43 x 10 6 tons to a depth of 500 ft is estimated for the assessment area. 5 figures, 3 tables

High temperature tensile properties and their application to toughness enhancement in ultra-fine grained W-(0-1.5)wt% TiC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurishita, H. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan)], E-mail: kurishi@imr.tohoku.ac.jp; Matsuo, S.; Arakawa, H.; Narui, M.; Yamazaki, M. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan); Sakamoto, T.; Kobayashi, S.; Nakai, K. [Department of Materials Science and Biotechnology, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Ehime 790-8577 (Japan); Takida, T.; Takebe, K. [A.L.M.T. Corp., 2 Iwase-koshi-machi, Toyama, Toyama 931-8543 (Japan); Kawai, M. [Institute of Material Structure Science, KEK, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801 (Japan); Yoshida, N. [Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka 816-8580 (Japan)

2009-04-30

Ultra-fine grained (UFG) W-TiC consolidates are very promising for use as divertors in fusion reactors, however, the assurance of room-temperature ductility of UFG W-TiC remains unsettled. The assurance requires a sufficient degree of plastic working for the consolidates and thus overcoming of poor plastic workability in UFG W-TiC by applying superplasticity. Therefore, the magnitudes of elongation to fracture and flow stress which are important measures for plastic working were examined for UFG W-(0-1.5)%TiC (in wt%) at 1673-1973 K where superplasticity occurs without appreciable grain growth. It is shown that the elongation and flow stress are strongly dependent on TiC addition and atmosphere (Ar, H{sub 2}) during mechanical alloying (MA). As the TiC addition increases, the elongation significantly increases without appreciable increase in the flow stress level. W-TiC fabricated with MA in H{sub 2} exhibits larger elongation and larger strain rate sensitivity of flow stress than W-TiC with MA in Ar. These results were applied to perform plastic working and the room-temperature bend test results for plastic worked W-1.0%TiC are shown.

Parallel reduction to condensed forms for symmetric eigenvalue problems using aggregated fine-grained and memory-aware kernels

KAUST Repository

Haidar, Azzam; Ltaief, Hatem; Dongarra, Jack

2011-01-01

of aggregating fine-grained and memory-aware computational tasks during both stages, while sustaining the application's overall high performance. A dynamic runtime environment system then schedules the different tasks in an out-of-order fashion. The performance

Twin pattern evolution in a fine-grained Mg alloy subjected to indentation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Zhe; Xin, Renlong; Yu, Hongni; Guo, Changfa; Liu, Qing

2016-01-01

A Vickers diamond pyramid indenter was impressed on a fine-grained polycrystalline Mg–3Al–1Zn alloy. Serial polishing in combination with quasi-in-situ electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) examinations revealed the presence and the 3D spatial distributions of {10–12} extension twins around the indent. Twin chains and completely twinned areas were found in some regions close to the indent. A model of twin pattern evolution around the indent was proposed based on the experimental observations and local strain accommodation analysis.

Transmission and Andreev reflection in one-dimensional chain with randomly doped superconducting grains

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu Dongsheng; Xiong Shijie

2002-01-01

We investigate the transport properties and Andreev reflection in one-dimensional (1D) systems with randomly doped superconducting grains. The superconducting grains are described by the Bogoliubov-de Gene Hamiltonian and the conductance is calculated by using the transfer matrix method and Landauer-Buettiker formula. It is found that although the quasiparticle states are localized due to the randomness and the low dimensionality, the conductance is still kept finite in the thermodynamical limit due to the Andreev reflection. We also investigate the effect of correlation of disorder in such systems and the results show the delocalization of quasiparticle states and suppression of Andreev reflection in a wide energy window

Fine-grained suspended sediment source identification for the Kharaa River basin, northern Mongolia

Science.gov (United States)

Rode, Michael; Theuring, Philipp; Collins, Adrian L.

2015-04-01

Fine sediment inputs into river systems can be a major source of nutrients and heavy metals and have a strong impact on the water quality and ecosystem functions of rivers and lakes, including those in semiarid regions. However, little is known to date about the spatial distribution of sediment sources in most large scale river basins in Central Asia. Accordingly, a sediment source fingerprinting technique was used to assess the spatial sources of fine-grained (source discrimination with geochemical composite fingerprints based on a new Genetic Algorithm (GA)-driven Discriminant Function Analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis H-test and Principal Component Analysis. The composite fingerprints were subsequently used for numerical mass balance modelling with uncertainty analysis. The contributions of the individual sub-catchment spatial sediment sources varied from 6.4% (the headwater sub-catchment of Sugnugur Gol) to 36.2% (the Kharaa II sub-catchment in the middle reaches of the study basin) with the pattern generally showing higher contributions from the sub-catchments in the middle, rather than the upstream, portions of the study area. The importance of riverbank erosion was shown to increase from upstream to midstream tributaries. The source tracing procedure provides results in reasonable accordance with previous findings in the study region and demonstrates the general applicability and associated uncertainties of an approach for fine-grained sediment source investigation in large scale semi-arid catchments. The combined application of source fingerprinting and catchment modelling approaches can be used to assess whether tracing estimates are credible and in combination such approaches provide a basis for making sediment source apportionment more compelling to catchment stakeholders and managers.

Effects of grain size on high temperature creep of fine grained, solution and dispersion hardened V-1.6Y-8W-0.8TiC

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Furuno, T. [Ehime Univerisity, 3 Bunkyo-cho, Matsuyama 790-8577 (Japan); Kurishita, H., E-mail: kurishi@imr.tohoku.ac.jp [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan); Nagasaka, T.; Nishimura, A.; Muroga, T. [Fusion Engineering Research Center, National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), Oroshi-cho 322-6, Tok, Gifu 292 (Japan); Sakamoto, T.; Kobayashi, S.; Nakai, K. [Department of Materials Science and Biotechnology, Ehime Univerisity, 3 Bunkyo-cho, Matsuyama 790-8577 (Japan); Matsuo, S.; Arakawa, H. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan)

2011-10-01

Creep resistance is the major concern of vanadium and its alloys for fusion reactor structural applications. In order to elucidate the effects of grain size on the creep behavior of solution and dispersion strengthened vanadium alloys, V-1.6Y-8W-0.8TiC specimens with fine grain sizes from 0.58 to 1.45 {mu}m were prepared by mechanical alloying and HIP without any plastic working and tested at 1073 K and 250 MPa in vacuum. It is shown that the creep resistance of V-1.6Y-8W-0.8TiC depends strongly on grain size and increases with increasing grain size: The creep life for the grain size of 1.45 {mu}m is almost one order longer than that of 0.58 {mu}m, and about two orders longer than that of V-4Cr-4Ti (NIFS-Heat 2) although the grain size of V-4Cr-4Ti is as large as 17.8 {mu}m. The observed creep behavior is discussed in terms of grain size effects on dislocation glide and grain boundary sliding.

Cross-Layer Framework for Fine-Grained Channel Access in Next Generation High-Density WiFi Networks

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHAO Haitao; ZHANG Shaojie; Emiliano Garcia-Palacios

2016-01-01

Densely deployed WiFi networks will play a crucial role in providing the capacity for next generation mobile internet.However,due to increasing interference,overlapped channels in WiFi networks and throughput efficiency degradation,densely deployed WiFi networks is not a guarantee to obtain higher throughput.An emergent challenge is how to efficiently utilize scarce spectrum resources,by matching physical layer resources to traffic demand.In this aspect,access control allocation strategies play a pivotal role but remain too coarse-grained.As a solution,this research proposes a flexible framework for fine-grained channel width adaptation and multi-channel access in WiFi networks.This approach,named SFCA (Subcarrier Fine-grained Channel Access),adopts DOFDM (Discontinuous Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) at the PHY layer.It allocates the frequency resource with a subcarrier granularity,which facilitates the channel width adaptation for multi-channel access and thus brings more flexibility and higher frequency efficiency.The MAC layer uses a frequencytime domain backoff scheme,which combines the popular time-domain BEB scheme with a frequency-domain backoff to decrease access collision,resulting in higher access probability for the contending nodes.SFCA is compared with FICA (an established access scheme) showing significant outperformance.Finally we present results for next generation 802.11 ac WiFi networks.

Prediction of the existence or fine-grained granite dykes in the Simpevarp area; Prediktering av foerekomst av finkorniga granitgaangar i Simpevarpsomraadet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mattsson, Haakan; Triumf, Carl-Axel [GeoVista AB, Luleaa (Sweden); Wahlgren, Carl-Henric [Geological Survey of Sweden, Uppsala (Sweden)

2002-11-01

Fine-grained granite dykes associated with a high fracture frequency occur in the bedrock of the Simpevarp region. In order to avoid problems in a future storage for nuclear waste it is important to find methods to detect areas where the dykes occur frequently. The aim of this project is to test the possibility to use airborne gamma ray spectrometry in the Simpevarp region to distinguish between different areas of the bedrock containing a varying frequency of fine-grained granite dykes. Investigations were also made to test if and how plastic deformation and a thin cover of moss affect the radiometric signature of the rocks. Ground measurements with a gamma ray spectrometer were performed on the islands of Aespoe, Aevroe and at the Simpevarp peninsula on different kinds of Smaaland granite with varying frequencies of fine-grained granite dykes. Reference measurements were performed on rocks without granite dykes. The bedrock at the measurement sites was geologically characterized in connection to the measurements. Air borne radiometric data (uranium, potassium and thorium) measured by the Geological Survey of Sweden in 1986 (flight altitude 30 m, point distance 40 m, line spacing 200 m) was compared to the existing bedrock map of the area and also to existing observation sites of fine-grained granite dykes. The ground measurements with gamma ray spectrometer clearly indicate that the fine-grained granite dykes have a specific radiometric signature compared to the granite-granodiorite at Aevroe and the quartzmonzodiorite-granodiorite at Aespoe. The main difference between the dykes and the other investigated rocks is seen in the thorium content, which is typically 3-5 times greater in the fine grained granite dykes. A thin cover of moss does not seem to significantly affect the radiometric signal of the bedrock, and neither does plastic deformation. However, the number of measurements on deformed and on covered rocks is low. The radiometric anomaly pattern shown in

New Experiences in Dike Construction with Soil-Ash Composites and Fine-Grained Dredged Materials

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duszyński Remigiusz

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The supporting structure inside a coastal dike is often made of dredged non-uniform sand with good compaction properties. Due to the shortage of natural construction material for both coastal and river dikes and the surplus of different processed materials, new experiments were made with sand-ash mixtures and fine-grained dredged materials to replace both dike core and dike cover materials resulting in economical, environmentally friendly and sustainable dikes. Ash from EC Gdańsk and dredged sand from the Vistula river were mixed to form an engineering material used for dike construction. The optimum sand-ash composites were applied at a field test site to build a large-scale research dike. Fine-grained dredged materials from Germany were chosen to be applied in a second full-scale research dike in Rostock. All materials were investigated according to the standards for soil mechanical analysis. This includes basic soil properties, mechanical characteristics, such as grain-size distribution, compaction parameters, compressibility, shear strength, and water permeability. In the field, the infiltration of water into the dike body as well as the erosion resistance of the cover material against overflowing water was determined. Results of both laboratory and field testing are discussed in this paper. In conclusion, the mixing of bottom ash with mineral soil, such as relatively uniform dredged sand, fairly improves the geotechnical parameters of the composite, compared to the constituents. Depending on the composite, the materials may be suitable to build a dike core or an erosion-resistant dike cover.

New Experiences in Dike Construction with Soil-Ash Composites and Fine-Grained Dredged Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Duszyński, Remigiusz; Duszyńska, Angelika; Cantré, Stefan

2017-12-01

The supporting structure inside a coastal dike is often made of dredged non-uniform sand with good compaction properties. Due to the shortage of natural construction material for both coastal and river dikes and the surplus of different processed materials, new experiments were made with sand-ash mixtures and fine-grained dredged materials to replace both dike core and dike cover materials resulting in economical, environmentally friendly and sustainable dikes. Ash from EC Gdańsk and dredged sand from the Vistula river were mixed to form an engineering material used for dike construction. The optimum sand-ash composites were applied at a field test site to build a large-scale research dike. Fine-grained dredged materials from Germany were chosen to be applied in a second full-scale research dike in Rostock. All materials were investigated according to the standards for soil mechanical analysis. This includes basic soil properties, mechanical characteristics, such as grain-size distribution, compaction parameters, compressibility, shear strength, and water permeability. In the field, the infiltration of water into the dike body as well as the erosion resistance of the cover material against overflowing water was determined. Results of both laboratory and field testing are discussed in this paper. In conclusion, the mixing of bottom ash with mineral soil, such as relatively uniform dredged sand, fairly improves the geotechnical parameters of the composite, compared to the constituents. Depending on the composite, the materials may be suitable to build a dike core or an erosion-resistant dike cover.

Temperature dependence of magnetic behaviour in very fine grained, spark plasma sintered NiCuZn ferrites

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahmadi, Behzad; Zehani, Karim; LoBue, Martino; Loyau, Vincent; Mazaleyrat, Frederic [SATIE, ENS Cachan, CNRS, UniverSud 61, avenue du President Wilson, F-94230 Cachan (France)

2012-04-01

Recently, using spark plasma sintering technique, a family of very fine grained, fully dense NiCuZn ferrites have been produced, which show constant permeability up to several 10 MHz. These ferrites can be used for filtering purposes in high frequency applications where a wide frequency band is required. In this paper, we study the magnetization processes taking place in these nano grained materials, in the frequency interval of 100 kHz to 5 MHz. Using a fluxmetric hysteresis graph, permeability, loss, and BH loops are measured at different temperatures, from -5 deg. C to 110 deg. C. Results are compared to the behavior of micrometric grain size ferrites, which are commonly used for power electronic and high frequency applications.

Temperature dependence of magnetic behaviour in very fine grained, spark plasma sintered NiCuZn ferrites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmadi, Behzad; Zehani, Karim; LoBue, Martino; Loyau, Vincent; Mazaleyrat, Frederic

2012-01-01

Recently, using spark plasma sintering technique, a family of very fine grained, fully dense NiCuZn ferrites have been produced, which show constant permeability up to several 10 MHz. These ferrites can be used for filtering purposes in high frequency applications where a wide frequency band is required. In this paper, we study the magnetization processes taking place in these nano grained materials, in the frequency interval of 100 kHz to 5 MHz. Using a fluxmetric hysteresis graph, permeability, loss, and BH loops are measured at different temperatures, from -5 deg. C to 110 deg. C. Results are compared to the behavior of micrometric grain size ferrites, which are commonly used for power electronic and high frequency applications.

Origin and depositional environment of fine-grained sediments since the last glacial maximum in the southeastern Yellow Sea: evidence from rare earth elements

Science.gov (United States)

Um, In Kwon; Choi, Man Sik; Lee, Gwang Soo; Chang, Tae Soo

2015-12-01

Despite the well-reconstructed seismic stratigraphy of the Holocene mud deposit in the southeastern Yellow Sea, known as the Heuksan mud belt (HMB), the provenances of these sediments and their depositional environments are unclear, especially for the fine-grained sediments. According to seismic data (extracted from another article in this special issue), the HMB comprises several sedimentary units deposited since the last glacial maximum. Based on analytical results on rare earth elements, fine-grained sediments in all sedimentary units can be interpreted as mixtures of sediments discharged from Chinese and Korean rivers. The proportions of fine-grained sediments from Chinese rivers (74.5 to 80.0%) were constant and higher than those from Korean rivers in all units. This fact demonstrates that all units have the same fine-grained sediment provenance: units III-b and III-a, located in the middle and northern parts of the HMB and directly deposited from Chinese rivers during the sea-level lowstand, could be the sediment source for units II-b and II-a. Unit I, while ambiguous, is of mixed origin combining reworked sediments from nearby mud deposits and Changjiang River-borne material with those of the Keum River. The results of this study indicate that at least 18.6% of bulk sediments in the HMB clearly originate from Chinese rivers, despite its location close to the southwestern coast of Korea.

Can Wet Rocky Granular Flows Become Debris Flows Due to Fine Sediment Production by Abrasion?

Science.gov (United States)

Arabnia, O.; Sklar, L. S.; Bianchi, G.; Mclaughlin, M. K.

2015-12-01

Debris flows are rapid mass movements in which elevated pore pressures are sustained by a viscous fluid matrix with high concentrations of fine sediments. Debris flows may form from coarse-grained wet granular flows as fine sediments are entrained from hillslope and channel material. Here we investigate whether abrasion of the rocks within a granular flow can produce sufficient fine sediments to create debris flows. To test this hypothesis experimentally, we used a set of 4 rotating drums ranging from 0.2 to 4.0 m diameter. Each drum has vanes along the boundary ensure shearing within the flow. Shear rate was varied by changing drum rotational velocity to maintain a constant Froude Number across drums. Initial runs used angular clasts of granodiorite with a tensile strength of 7.6 MPa, with well-sorted coarse particle size distributions linearly scaled with drum radius. The fluid was initially clear water, which rapidly acquired fine-grained wear products. After each 250 m tangential distance, we measured the particle size distributions, and then returned all water and sediment to the drums for subsequent runs. We calculate particle wear rates using statistics of size and mass distributions, and by fitting the Sternberg equation to the rate of mass loss from the size fraction > 2mm. Abundant fine sediments were produced in the experiments, but very little change in the median grain size was detected. This appears to be due to clast rounding, as evidenced by a decrease in the number of stable equilibrium resting points. We find that the growth in the fine sediment concentration in the fluid scales with unit drum power. This relationship can be used to estimate fine sediment production rates in the field. We explore this approach at Inyo Creek, a steep catchment in the Sierra Nevada, California. There, a significant debris flow occurred in July 2013, which originated as a coarse-grained wet granular flow. We use surveys to estimate flow depth and velocity where super

Fine grained hodoscopes based on scintillating optical fibres

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Borenstein, S.R.; Strand, R.C.

1985-01-01

This is a description of the development and testing of scintillating optical fibers for use in a fine grained hodoscope for experiments in High Energy Physics. After a brief discussion of the need for such a device in experiments in high rate environments, a description is given of the process of drawing and cladding plastic scintillator to form scintillating optical fibers. This is followed by a description of the test procedures used to evaluate the resultant fibers both in the laboratory and at the accelerator. A discussion of three possible readout schemes then follows. These are individual photomultiplier tubes, avalanche photo-diodes and microchannel plates with segmented anodes. The results of this study are then presented. The present status of the project is then summarized, in which it is pointed out that significant improvement in useful fiber length has been achieved as a result of this development program. The difficulty of quality control in fiber production remains a serious limitation, and a satisfactory readout scheme with good optical coupling between many hodoscope elements and photodetectors has yet to be achieved. (orig.)

Study of a Fine Grained Threaded Framework Design

CERN Document Server

Jones, Christopher

2012-01-01

Traditionally, HEP experiments exploit the multiple cores in a CPU by having each core process one event. However, future PC designs are expected to use CPUs which double the number of processing cores at the same rate as the cost of memory falls by a factor of two. This effectively means the amount of memory per processing core will remain constant. This is a major challenge for LHC processing frameworks since the LHC is expected to deliver more complex events (e.g. greater pileup events) in the coming years while the LHC experiment's frameworks are already memory constrained. Therefore in the not so distant future we may need to be able to efficiently use multiple cores to process one event. In this presentation we will discuss a design for an HEP processing framework which can allow very fine grained parallelization within one event as well as supporting processing multiple events simultaneously while minimizing the memory footprint of the job. The design is built around the libdispatch framework created ...

Dynamics of deposited fly-ash and fine grained magnetite in sandy material of different porosity (column experiments)

Science.gov (United States)

Kapicka, Ales; Kodesova, Radka; Petrovsky, Eduard; Grison, Hana

2010-05-01

Several studies confirm that soil magnetometry can serve as proxy of industrial immisions as well as heavy-metal contamination. The important assumption for magnetic mapping of contaminated soils is that atmospherically deposited particulate matter, including the ferrimagnetic phase, accumulates in the top soil horizons and remains there over long period. Only if this is true, large areas can be reliably mapped using soil magnetometry, and, moreover, this method can be used also for long-term monitoring. However, in soil types such as sandy soils with different porosity or soils with substantial variability of water regime, translocation of the deposited anthropogenic particles may result in biased (underestimated) values of the measured topsoil magnetic susceptibility. From the physical point of view, this process may be considered as colloid transport through porous medium. In our column experiments in laboratory we used three technical sands with different particle sizes (0,63 - 1.25mm, 0,315-0,80mm, 0,10-0,63mm). Sands in cylinders were contaminated on the surface by fly-ashes from coal-burning power plant (mean grain size 10μm) and fine grained Fe3O4 (grain size < 20 μm). Soil moisture sensors were used to monitor water regime within the sand columns after controlled rain simulation and temperature distribution in sand column was measured as well. Vertical migration of ferrimagnetic particles-tracers presented in the fly-ash was measured by SM 400 Kappameter. By means of magnetic susceptibility distribution we studied two parameters: gradual shift of peak concentration of contaminants (relative to surface layer) and maximum penetration depth. Results indicated that after rain simulation (pulls infiltration of defined water volume) the positions of peak values moved downwards compared to the initial state and gradual decrease of susceptibility peak values were detected in all studied sand formations. Fly-ash migrated more or less freely in coarse sand

What is this link doing here? Beginning a fine-grained process of identifying reasons for academic hyperlink creation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thelwall Mike

2003-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to begin a [fine-grained] process of differentiating between creation motivations for links in academic Web sites and citations in journals on the basis that they are very different phenomena.

Age, Gender, and Fine-Grained Ethnicity Prediction using Convolutional Neural Networks for the East Asian Face Dataset

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Srinivas, Nisha [ORNL; Rose, Derek C [ORNL; Bolme, David S [ORNL; Mahalingam, Gayathri [ORNL; Atwal, Harleen [ORNL; Ricanek, Karl [ORNL

2017-01-01

This paper examines the difficulty associated with performing machine-based automatic demographic prediction on a sub-population of Asian faces. We introduce the Wild East Asian Face dataset (WEAFD), a new and unique dataset to the research community. This dataset consists primarily of labeled face images of individuals from East Asian countries, including Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. East Asian turk annotators were uniquely used to judge the age and fine grain ethnicity attributes to reduce the impact of the other race effect and improve quality of annotations. We focus on predicting age, gender and fine-grained ethnicity of an individual by providing baseline results with a convolutional neural network (CNN). Finegrained ethnicity prediction refers to predicting ethnicity of an individual by country or sub-region (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) of the East Asian continent. Performance for two CNN architectures is presented, highlighting the difficulty of these tasks and showcasing potential design considerations that ease network optimization by promoting region based feature extraction.

Transputer networks for the on-line analysis of fine-grained electromagnetic calorimeter data

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Girotto, G.L.; Lanceri, L.; Scuri, F.; Zoppolato, E.

1994-01-01

Transputer networks, designed to perform parallel computations, are well suited for data acquisition, on-line analysis and second level trigger tasks in high energy physics experiments. Some simple algorithms for the analysis of fine-grained electromagnetic calorimeter data were implemented on two types of transputer networks and tested on real and simulated data from a silicon-tungsten calorimeter. Results are presented on the processing speed, measured in a test setup, and extrapolations to a full size detector and data acquisition system are discussed. ((orig.))

Frontiers in Sedimentary Geology: Microstructure of Fine-Grained Sediments from Mud to Shale

Science.gov (United States)

1990-01-01

impregnation of the resin, a small probe ( dental tool or bamboo delicate, fine-grain, high porosity, clayey sediments. It could stick) can be used to...two binary images shown in Figure 40.4a and b. 374 S.K. Bhatia and A. Soliman 150- 󈧔Somple’ OM 665 Voids 120- emin = 0.04 emax = 1.38 As’. >90-Av o...increase the mass perme- across the crown of many earthen dams. The author observed a ability (Williams and Farvolden. 1967: Stohr et al., 1988). Other

Electric dewatering and drying of fine-grained products; Elektrisk afvanding og toerring af finkornede produkter

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hansen, H.K.; Villumsen, A.

2001-07-01

The aim of the project was to elucidate four aspects related to using electric direct current to find an energy saving alternative to existing methods within dewatering of fine-grained products. The four aspects were a) electrophoresis forced sedimentation of chalk slurry, b) electro osmotic dewatering of chalk slurry, c) electro osmotic dewatering of agricultural chalk and d) electro osmotic dewatering of liquid organic wastes. (EHS)

Fine-grained visual marine vessel classification for coastal surveillance and defense applications

Science.gov (United States)

Solmaz, Berkan; Gundogdu, Erhan; Karaman, Kaan; Yücesoy, Veysel; Koç, Aykut

2017-10-01

The need for capabilities of automated visual content analysis has substantially increased due to presence of large number of images captured by surveillance cameras. With a focus on development of practical methods for extracting effective visual data representations, deep neural network based representations have received great attention due to their success in visual categorization of generic images. For fine-grained image categorization, a closely related yet a more challenging research problem compared to generic image categorization due to high visual similarities within subgroups, diverse applications were developed such as classifying images of vehicles, birds, food and plants. Here, we propose the use of deep neural network based representations for categorizing and identifying marine vessels for defense and security applications. First, we gather a large number of marine vessel images via online sources grouping them into four coarse categories; naval, civil, commercial and service vessels. Next, we subgroup naval vessels into fine categories such as corvettes, frigates and submarines. For distinguishing images, we extract state-of-the-art deep visual representations and train support-vector-machines. Furthermore, we fine tune deep representations for marine vessel images. Experiments address two scenarios, classification and verification of naval marine vessels. Classification experiment aims coarse categorization, as well as learning models of fine categories. Verification experiment embroils identification of specific naval vessels by revealing if a pair of images belongs to identical marine vessels by the help of learnt deep representations. Obtaining promising performance, we believe these presented capabilities would be essential components of future coastal and on-board surveillance systems.

Precipitation Processes during Non-Isothermal Ageing of Fine-Grained 2024 Alloy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kozieł J.

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Mechanical alloying and powder metallurgy procedures were used to manufacture very fine-grained bulk material made from chips of the 2024 aluminum alloy. Studies of solution treatment and precipitation hardening of as-received material were based on differential scanning calorimetry (DSC tests and TEM/STEM/EDX structural observations. Structural observations complemented by literature data lead to the conclusion that in the case of highly refined structure of commercial 2024 alloys prepared by severe plastic deformation, typical multi-step G-P-B →θ” →θ’ →θ precipitation mechanism accompanied with G-P-B →S” →S’ →S precipitation sequences result in skipping the formation of metastable phases and direct growth of the stable phases. Exothermic effects on DSC characteristics, which are reported for precipitation sequences in commercial materials, were found to be reduced with increased milling time. Moreover, prolonged milling of 2024 chips was found to shift the exothermic peak to lower temperature with respect to the material produced by means of common metallurgy methods. This effect was concluded to result from preferred heterogeneous nucleation of particles at subboundaries and grain boundaries, enhanced by the boundary diffusion in highly refined structures.

Influence of the Moisture Content on the Flowability of Fine-Grained Iron Ore Concentrate

OpenAIRE

C. Lanzerstorfer; M. Hinterberger

2017-01-01

The iron content of the ore used is crucial for the productivity and coke consumption rate in blast furnace pig iron production. Therefore, most iron ore deposits are processed in beneficiation plants to increase the iron content and remove impurities. In several comminution stages, the particle size of the ore is reduced to ensure that the iron oxides are physically liberated from the gangue. Subsequently, physical separation processes are applied to concentrate the iron ore. The fine-graine...

Visible light communication technology for fine-grained indoor localization

Science.gov (United States)

Vieira, M.; Vieira, M. A.; Louro, P.; Fantoni, A.; Vieira, P.

2018-02-01

This paper focuses on designing and analysing a visible light based communication and positioning system. The indoor positioning system uses trichromatic white Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), both for illumination purposes and as transmitters, and an optical processor, based on a-SiC:H technology, as mobile receiver. On-Off Keying (OOK) modulation scheme is used, proving a good trade-off between system performance and implementation complexity. In the following, the relationship between the transmitted data and the received output levels is decoded. LED bulbs work as transmitters, sending information together with different identifiers, IDs, related to their physical locations. Square and diamond topologies for the unit cell are analyzed, and a 2D localization design, demonstrated by a prototype implementation, is presented. Fine-grained indoor localization is tested. The received signal is used in coded multiplexing techniques for supporting communications and navigation concomitantly on the same channel. The location and motion information is found by mapping the position and estimating the location areas.

Synergistic Instance-Level Subspace Alignment for Fine-Grained Sketch-Based Image Retrieval.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ke; Pang, Kaiyue; Song, Yi-Zhe; Hospedales, Timothy M; Xiang, Tao; Zhang, Honggang

2017-08-25

We study the problem of fine-grained sketch-based image retrieval. By performing instance-level (rather than category-level) retrieval, it embodies a timely and practical application, particularly with the ubiquitous availability of touchscreens. Three factors contribute to the challenging nature of the problem: (i) free-hand sketches are inherently abstract and iconic, making visual comparisons with photos difficult, (ii) sketches and photos are in two different visual domains, i.e. black and white lines vs. color pixels, and (iii) fine-grained distinctions are especially challenging when executed across domain and abstraction-level. To address these challenges, we propose to bridge the image-sketch gap both at the high-level via parts and attributes, as well as at the low-level, via introducing a new domain alignment method. More specifically, (i) we contribute a dataset with 304 photos and 912 sketches, where each sketch and image is annotated with its semantic parts and associated part-level attributes. With the help of this dataset, we investigate (ii) how strongly-supervised deformable part-based models can be learned that subsequently enable automatic detection of part-level attributes, and provide pose-aligned sketch-image comparisons. To reduce the sketch-image gap when comparing low-level features, we also (iii) propose a novel method for instance-level domain-alignment, that exploits both subspace and instance-level cues to better align the domains. Finally (iv) these are combined in a matching framework integrating aligned low-level features, mid-level geometric structure and high-level semantic attributes. Extensive experiments conducted on our new dataset demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed method.

Mechanical and chemical compaction in fine-grained shallow-water limestones.

Science.gov (United States)

Shinn, E.A.; Robbin, D.M.

1983-01-01

Significant mechanical compaction resulted from pressures simulating less than 305 m of burial. Increasing loads to an equivalent of more than 3400 m did not significantly increase compaction or reduce sediment core length. Chemical compaction (pressure dissolution) was detected only in sediment cores compacted to pressures greater than 3400 m of burial. These short-term experiments suggest that chemical compaction would begin at much shallower depths given geologic time. Compaction experiments that caused chemical compaction lend support to the well-established hypothesis; that cement required to produce a low-porosity/low-permeability fine-grained limestone is derived internally. Dissolution, ion diffusion, and reprecipitation are considered the most likely processes for creating significant thicknesses of dense limestone in the geologic record. Continuation of chemical compaction after significant porosity reduction necessitates expulsion of connate fluids, possibly including hydrocarbons. -from Authors

Retrieval of snow albedo and grain size using reflectance measurements in Himalayan basin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. S. Negi

2011-03-01

Full Text Available In the present paper, spectral reflectance measurements of Himalayan seasonal snow were carried out and analysed to retrieve the snow albedo and effective grain size. The asymptotic radiative transfer (ART theory was applied to retrieve the plane and spherical albedo. The retrieved plane albedo was compared with the measured spectral albedo and a good agreement was observed with ±10% differences. Retrieved integrated albedo was found within ±6% difference with ground observed broadband albedo. The retrieved snow grain sizes using different models based on the ART theory were compared for various snow types and it was observed that the grain size model using two channel method (one in visible and another in NIR region can work well for the Himalayan seasonal snow and it was found consistent with temporal changes in grain size. This method can work very well for clean, dry snow as in the upper Himalaya, but sometimes, due to the low reflectances (<20% using wavelength 1.24 μm, the ART theory cannot be applied, which is common in lower and middle Himalayan old snow. This study is important for monitoring the Himalayan cryosphere using air-borne or space-borne sensors.

Benzene and MTBE Sorption in Fine Grain Sediments

Science.gov (United States)

Leal-Bautista, R. M.; Lenczewski, M. E.

2003-12-01

The practice of adding methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) to gasoline started in the late 1970s and increased dramatically in the 1990s. MTBE first was added as a substitute for tetra-ethyl lead then later as a fuel oxygenate. Although the use of MTBE has resulted in significant reduction in air pollution, it has become a significant groundwater contaminant due to its high solubility in water, high environmental mobility, and low potential for biodegradation. A recent report (1999-2001) by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in collaboration with United State Geological Survey and the Oregon Health and Science University found that MTBE was the second most frequent detected volatile organic compound in groundwater. In Illinois, MTBE has been found in 26 of the 1,800 public water supplies. MTBE has also been blended in Mexico into two types of gasoline sold in the country by the state oil company (PEMEX) but is not monitored in groundwater at this time. Early research on MTBE considered it unable to adsorb to soils and sediments, however, by increasing the organic matter and decreasing the size of the grains (silts or clays) this may increase sorption. The objective of this study is to determine if fine grained materials have the potential for sorption of MTBE due to its high specific surface area (10-700 m 2/g) and potentially high organic matter (0.5-3.8%). The experiment consisted of sorption isotherms to glacial tills from DeKalb, Illinois and lacustrine clays from Chalco, Mexico. Experiments were performed with various concentrations of MTBE and benzene (10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 ug/L) at 10° C and 25° C. Results showed a range of values for the distribution coefficient (Kd, linear model). At 10° C the Kd value for MTBE was 0.187 mL/g for lacustrine clay while the glacial loess had a value of 0.009 mL/g. The highest Kd values with MTBE were 0.2859 mL/g for organic rich lacustrine clays and 0.014 mL/g for glacial loess at 25° C. The highest

Simulating Hydrologic Flow and Reactive Transport with PFLOTRAN and PETSc on Emerging Fine-Grained Parallel Computer Architectures

Science.gov (United States)

Mills, R. T.; Rupp, K.; Smith, B. F.; Brown, J.; Knepley, M.; Zhang, H.; Adams, M.; Hammond, G. E.

2017-12-01

As the high-performance computing community pushes towards the exascale horizon, power and heat considerations have driven the increasing importance and prevalence of fine-grained parallelism in new computer architectures. High-performance computing centers have become increasingly reliant on GPGPU accelerators and "manycore" processors such as the Intel Xeon Phi line, and 512-bit SIMD registers have even been introduced in the latest generation of Intel's mainstream Xeon server processors. The high degree of fine-grained parallelism and more complicated memory hierarchy considerations of such "manycore" processors present several challenges to existing scientific software. Here, we consider how the massively parallel, open-source hydrologic flow and reactive transport code PFLOTRAN - and the underlying Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc) library on which it is built - can best take advantage of such architectures. We will discuss some key features of these novel architectures and our code optimizations and algorithmic developments targeted at them, and present experiences drawn from working with a wide range of PFLOTRAN benchmark problems on these architectures.

Deformation mechanisms in a fine-grained Udimet 720LI nickel-base superalloy with high volume fractions of γ′ phases

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Jiayu, E-mail: chenjiayu975@126.com; Dong, Jianxin; Zhang, Maicang; Yao, Zhihao

2016-09-15

Hot-deformation behaviors and mechanisms below γ′ solvus of U720LI with fine-grained microstructure and high volume fractions of γ′ phases were studied. MTS hot-compressed samples under hot-deformation parameters (Temperatures of 1040 °C, 1070 °C, 1100 °C, 1130 °C, strain rates of 0.01 s{sup −1}, 0.1 s{sup −1}, 0.5 s{sup −1} and strains of 0.11, 0.36, 0.69 and 1.2) were investigated by using multiple microstructural analysis methods, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electron channeling contrast image (ECCI), et al.. Rare recovery and recrystallization were observed indicating that other deformation mechanisms might be enhanced during the deformation process. Except for the pinning effect, deformation happened within γ′ phases and also γ′ phase promoted the deformation of the matrix. When the slipping was inhibited by γ′ phases, twinning acted as a deformation mechanism in fine-grained U720LI. Due to the retardation effect of γ′ phases in the early stage of the deformation process, local grain boundary migration took effect. Once grain boundaries crossed γ′ phases, it made recrystallization by strain induced boundary motion(SIBM) easier.

Modelling of interfacial transition zone effect on resistance to crack propagation in fine-grained cement-based composites

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Šimonová, H.; Vyhlídal, M.; Kucharczyková, B.; Bayer, P.; Keršner, Z.; Malíková, Lucie; Klusák, Jan

2017-01-01

Roč. 11, č. 41 (2017), s. 211-219 ISSN 1971-8993 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA16-18702S Institutional support: RVO:68081723 Keywords : Effective fracture toughness * Fine-grained concrete * Interfacial transition zone * Three-point bending fracture test * Scanning electron microscopy Subject RIV: JL - Materials Fatigue, Friction Mechanics OBOR OECD: Audio engineering, reliability analysis

Fabrication and thermoelectric properties of fine-grained TiNiSn compounds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zou Minmin; Li Jingfeng; Du Bing; Liu Dawei; Kita, Takuji

2009-01-01

Nearly single-phased TiNiSn half-Heusler compound thermoelectric materials were synthesized by combining mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) in order to reduce its thermal conductivity by refining the grain sizes. Although TiNiSn compound powders were not synthesized directly via MA, dense bulk samples of TiNiSn compound were obtained by the subsequent SPS treatment. It was found that an excessive Ti addition relative to the TiNiSn stoichiometry is effective in increasing the phase purity of TiNiSn half-Heusler phase in the bulk samples, by compensating for the Ti loss caused by the oxidation of Ti powders and MA processing. The maximum power factor value obtained in the Ti-compensated sample is 1720 μW m -1 K -2 at 685 K. A relatively high ZT value of 0.32 is achieved at 785 K for the present undoped TiNiSn compound polycrystals. - Graphical abstract: Nearly single-phased TiNiSn-based half-Heusler compound polycrystalline materials with fine grains were fabricated by combining mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). A high ZT value for undoped TiNiSn was obtained because of the reduced thermal conductivity.

Fine mapping and identification of a novel locus qGL12.2 control grain length in wild rice (Oryza rufipogon Griff.).

Science.gov (United States)

Qi, Lan; Ding, Yingbin; Zheng, Xiaoming; Xu, Rui; Zhang, Lizhen; Wang, Yanyan; Wang, Xiaoning; Zhang, Lifang; Cheng, Yunlian; Qiao, Weihua; Yang, Qingwen

2018-04-19

A wild rice QTL qGL12.2 for grain length was fine mapped to an 82-kb interval in chromosome 12 containing six candidate genes and none was reported previously. Grain length is an important trait for yield and commercial value in rice. Wild rice seeds have a very slender shape and have many desirable genes that have been lost in cultivated rice during domestication. In this study, we identified a quantitative trait locus, qGL12.2, which controls grain length in wild rice. First, a wild rice chromosome segment substitution line, CSSL41, was selected that has longer glume and grains than does the Oryza sativa indica cultivar, 9311. Next, an F 2 population was constructed from a cross between CSSL41 and 9311. Using the next-generation sequencing combined with bulked-segregant analysis and F 3 recombinants analysis, qGL12.2 was finally fine mapped to an 82-kb interval in chromosome 12. Six candidate genes were found, and no reported grain length genes were found in this interval. Using scanning electron microscopy, we found that CSSL41 cells are significantly longer than those of 9311, but there is no difference in cell widths. These data suggest that qGL12.2 is a novel gene that controls grain cell length in wild rice. Our study provides a new genetic resource for rice breeding and a starting point for functional characterization of the wild rice GL gene.

Demonstrating the Effect of Precipitation on the Mechanical Stability of Fine-Grained Austenite in Reversion-Treated 301LN Stainless Steel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antti Järvenpää

2017-09-01

Full Text Available According to recent investigations, a huge difference exists in the mechanical stability of austenite between the grain-refined structure states obtained in reversion annealing at 800–700 °C or at 900 °C, in a 301LN type austenitic stainless steel. Precipitation of chromium nitride occurring at these lower temperatures has been argued to be the factor reducing the stability. To prove this argument, a fine-grained, very stable austenitic structure was created at 900 °C in 1 s, and subsequently annealed at lower temperatures between 850 and 750 °C, up to 1000 s. It was found that the subsequent annealing at 750 and 800 °C resulted in prominent gradual decrease of the mechanical stability under tensile straining, detectable after 10 s annealing duration and continued until 1000 s. Only minimal grain growth occurred, which decreased the stability very marginally. The degree of the stability drop followed the predicted kinetics of the Cr2N precipitation with regards as its dependence on annealing duration and temperature. Further, the tensile yield strength of the fine-grained structure increased slightly due to the annealing. The presence of nano-sized Cr2N particles was verified after 1000 s holding at 750 °C. These observations and predictions yield firm evidence for the imperative contribution of precipitation to the highly reduced mechanical stability of grain-refined austenite in this steel.

A Hybrid Scheme for Fine-Grained Search and Access Authorization in Fog Computing Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Min; Zhou, Jing; Liu, Xuejiao; Jiang, Mingda

2017-01-01

In the fog computing environment, the encrypted sensitive data may be transferred to multiple fog nodes on the edge of a network for low latency; thus, fog nodes need to implement a search over encrypted data as a cloud server. Since the fog nodes tend to provide service for IoT applications often running on resource-constrained end devices, it is necessary to design lightweight solutions. At present, there is little research on this issue. In this paper, we propose a fine-grained owner-forced data search and access authorization scheme spanning user-fog-cloud for resource constrained end users. Compared to existing schemes only supporting either index encryption with search ability or data encryption with fine-grained access control ability, the proposed hybrid scheme supports both abilities simultaneously, and index ciphertext and data ciphertext are constructed based on a single ciphertext-policy attribute based encryption (CP-ABE) primitive and share the same key pair, thus the data access efficiency is significantly improved and the cost of key management is greatly reduced. Moreover, in the proposed scheme, the resource constrained end devices are allowed to rapidly assemble ciphertexts online and securely outsource most of decryption task to fog nodes, and mediated encryption mechanism is also adopted to achieve instantaneous user revocation instead of re-encrypting ciphertexts with many copies in many fog nodes. The security and the performance analysis show that our scheme is suitable for a fog computing environment. PMID:28629131

A Hybrid Scheme for Fine-Grained Search and Access Authorization in Fog Computing Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Min; Zhou, Jing; Liu, Xuejiao; Jiang, Mingda

2017-06-17

In the fog computing environment, the encrypted sensitive data may be transferred to multiple fog nodes on the edge of a network for low latency; thus, fog nodes need to implement a search over encrypted data as a cloud server. Since the fog nodes tend to provide service for IoT applications often running on resource-constrained end devices, it is necessary to design lightweight solutions. At present, there is little research on this issue. In this paper, we propose a fine-grained owner-forced data search and access authorization scheme spanning user-fog-cloud for resource constrained end users. Compared to existing schemes only supporting either index encryption with search ability or data encryption with fine-grained access control ability, the proposed hybrid scheme supports both abilities simultaneously, and index ciphertext and data ciphertext are constructed based on a single ciphertext-policy attribute based encryption (CP-ABE) primitive and share the same key pair, thus the data access efficiency is significantly improved and the cost of key management is greatly reduced. Moreover, in the proposed scheme, the resource constrained end devices are allowed to rapidly assemble ciphertexts online and securely outsource most of decryption task to fog nodes, and mediated encryption mechanism is also adopted to achieve instantaneous user revocation instead of re-encrypting ciphertexts with many copies in many fog nodes. The security and the performance analysis show that our scheme is suitable for a fog computing environment.

Development of Ultra-Fine-Grained Structure in AISI 321 Austenitic Stainless Steel

Science.gov (United States)

Tiamiyu, A. A.; Szpunar, J. A.; Odeshi, A. G.; Oguocha, I.; Eskandari, M.

2017-12-01

Ultra-fine-grained (UFG) structure was developed in AISI 321 austenitic stainless steel (ASS) using cryogenic rolling followed by annealing treatments at 923 K, 973 K, 1023 K, and 1073 K (650 °C, 700 °C, 750 °C, and 800 °C) for different lengths of time. The α'-martensite to γ-austenite reversion behavior and the associated texture development were analyzed in the cryo-rolled specimens after annealing. The activation energy, Q, required for the reversion of α'-martensite to γ-austenite in the steel was estimated to be 80 kJ mol-1. TiC precipitates and unreversed triple junction α'-martensite played major roles in the development of UFG structure through the Zener pinning of grain boundaries. The optimum annealing temperature and time for the development of UFG structure in the cryo-rolled AISI 321 steel are (a) 923 K (650 °C) for approximately 28800 seconds and (b) 1023 K (750 °C) for 600 seconds, with average grain sizes of 0.22 and 0.31 µm, respectively. Annealing at 1023 K (750 °C) is considered a better alternative since the volume fraction of precipitated carbides in specimens annealed at 1023 K (750 °C) are less than those annealed at 923 K (650 °C). More so, the energy consumption during prolonged annealing time to achieve an UFG structure at 923 K (650 °C) is higher due to low phase reversion rate. The hardness of the UFG specimens is 195 pct greater than that of the as-received steel. The higher volume fraction of TiC precipitates in the UFG structure may be an additional source of hardening. Micro and macrotexture analysis indicated {110}〈uvw〉 as the major texture component of the austenite grains in the UFG structure. Its intensity is stronger in the specimen annealed at low temperatures.

Fines Classification Based on Sensitivity to Pore-Fluid Chemistry

KAUST Repository

Jang, Junbong

2015-12-28

The 75-μm particle size is used to discriminate between fine and coarse grains. Further analysis of fine grains is typically based on the plasticity chart. Whereas pore-fluid-chemistry-dependent soil response is a salient and distinguishing characteristic of fine grains, pore-fluid chemistry is not addressed in current classification systems. Liquid limits obtained with electrically contrasting pore fluids (deionized water, 2-M NaCl brine, and kerosene) are combined to define the soil "electrical sensitivity." Liquid limit and electrical sensitivity can be effectively used to classify fine grains according to their fluid-soil response into no-, low-, intermediate-, or high-plasticity fine grains of low, intermediate, or high electrical sensitivity. The proposed methodology benefits from the accumulated experience with liquid limit in the field and addresses the needs of a broader range of geotechnical engineering problems. © ASCE.

Fines classification based on sensitivity to pore-fluid chemistry

Science.gov (United States)

Jang, Junbong; Santamarina, J. Carlos

2016-01-01

The 75-μm particle size is used to discriminate between fine and coarse grains. Further analysis of fine grains is typically based on the plasticity chart. Whereas pore-fluid-chemistry-dependent soil response is a salient and distinguishing characteristic of fine grains, pore-fluid chemistry is not addressed in current classification systems. Liquid limits obtained with electrically contrasting pore fluids (deionized water, 2-M NaCl brine, and kerosene) are combined to define the soil “electrical sensitivity.” Liquid limit and electrical sensitivity can be effectively used to classify fine grains according to their fluid-soil response into no-, low-, intermediate-, or high-plasticity fine grains of low, intermediate, or high electrical sensitivity. The proposed methodology benefits from the accumulated experience with liquid limit in the field and addresses the needs of a broader range of geotechnical engineering problems.

F2AC: A Lightweight, Fine-Grained, and Flexible Access Control Scheme for File Storage in Mobile Cloud Computing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Ren

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Current file storage service models for cloud servers assume that users either belong to single layer with different privileges or cannot authorize privileges iteratively. Thus, the access control is not fine-grained and flexible. Besides, most access control methods at cloud servers mainly rely on computationally intensive cryptographic algorithms and, especially, may not be able to support highly dynamic ad hoc groups with addition and removal of group members. In this paper, we propose a scheme called F2AC, which is a lightweight, fine-grained, and flexible access control scheme for file storage in mobile cloud computing. F2AC can not only achieve iterative authorization, authentication with tailored policies, and access control for dynamically changing accessing groups, but also provide access privilege transition and revocation. A new access control model called directed tree with linked leaf model is proposed for further implementations in data structures and algorithms. The extensive analysis is given for justifying the soundness and completeness of F2AC.

Fine-grained zirconium-base material

Science.gov (United States)

Van Houten, G.R.

1974-01-01

A method is described for making zirconium with inhibited grain growth characteristics, by the process of vacuum melting the zirconium, adding 0.3 to 0.5% carbon, stirring, homogenizing, and cooling. (Official Gazette)

Source identification of fine-grained suspended sediment in the Kharaa River basin, northern Mongolia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Theuring, Philipp [Department of Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis and Management — ASAM, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research — UFZ, Brückstrasse 3a, D-39114 Magdeburg (Germany); Collins, Adrian L. [Sustainable Soils and Grassland Systems Department, Rothamsted Research, North Wyke, Okehampton, Devon EX20 2SB (United Kingdom); Rode, Michael [Department of Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis and Management — ASAM, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research — UFZ, Brückstrasse 3a, D-39114 Magdeburg (Germany)

2015-09-01

Fine sediment inputs into river systems can be a major source of nutrients and heavy metals and have a strong impact on water quality and ecosystem functions of rivers and lakes, including those in semiarid regions. However, little is known to date about the spatial distribution of sediment sources in most large scale river basins in Central Asia. Accordingly, a sediment source fingerprinting technique was used to assess the spatial sources of fine-grained (< 10 μm) sediment in the 15 000 km{sup 2} Kharaa River basin in northern Mongolia. Variation in geochemical composition (e.g. in Ti, Sn, Mo, Mn, As, Sr, B, U, Ca and Sb) was used for sediment source discrimination with geochemical composite fingerprints based on Genetic Algorithm (GA)-driven Discriminant Function Analysis, the Kruskal–Wallis H-test and Principal Component Analysis. All composite fingerprints yielded a satisfactory GOF (> 0.97) and were subsequently used for numerical mass balance modelling with uncertainty analysis. The contributions of the individual sub-catchment spatial sediment sources varied from 6.4% (the headwater sub-catchment of Sugnugur Gol) to 36.2% (the Kharaa II sub-catchment in the middle reaches of the study basin), generally showing higher contributions from the sub-catchments in the middle, rather than the upstream, portions of the study area. The importance of river bank erosion is shown to increase from upstream to midstream tributaries. The source tracing procedure provides results in reasonable accordance with previous findings in the study region and demonstrates the applicability and associated uncertainties of the approach for fine-grained sediment source investigation in large scale semi-arid catchments. - Highlights: • Applied statistical approach for selecting composite fingerprints in Mongolia. • Geochemical fingerprinting for the definition of source areas in semiarid catchment. • Test of applicability of sediment sourcing in large scale semi-arid catchments

Autonomous Information Unit for Fine-Grain Data Access Control and Information Protection in a Net-Centric System

Science.gov (United States)

Chow, Edward T.; Woo, Simon S.; James, Mark; Paloulian, George K.

2012-01-01

As communication and networking technologies advance, networks will become highly complex and heterogeneous, interconnecting different network domains. There is a need to provide user authentication and data protection in order to further facilitate critical mission operations, especially in the tactical and mission-critical net-centric networking environment. The Autonomous Information Unit (AIU) technology was designed to provide the fine-grain data access and user control in a net-centric system-testing environment to meet these objectives. The AIU is a fundamental capability designed to enable fine-grain data access and user control in the cross-domain networking environments, where an AIU is composed of the mission data, metadata, and policy. An AIU provides a mechanism to establish trust among deployed AIUs based on recombining shared secrets, authentication and verify users with a username, X.509 certificate, enclave information, and classification level. AIU achieves data protection through (1) splitting data into multiple information pieces using the Shamir's secret sharing algorithm, (2) encrypting each individual information piece using military-grade AES-256 encryption, and (3) randomizing the position of the encrypted data based on the unbiased and memory efficient in-place Fisher-Yates shuffle method. Therefore, it becomes virtually impossible for attackers to compromise data since attackers need to obtain all distributed information as well as the encryption key and the random seeds to properly arrange the data. In addition, since policy can be associated with data in the AIU, different user access and data control strategies can be included. The AIU technology can greatly enhance information assurance and security management in the bandwidth-limited and ad hoc net-centric environments. In addition, AIU technology can be applicable to general complex network domains and applications where distributed user authentication and data protection are

Vertical migration of fine-grained sediments from interior to surface of seabed driven by seepage flows-`sub-bottom sediment pump action'

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Shaotong; Jia, Yonggang; Wen, Mingzheng; Wang, Zhenhao; Zhang, Yaqi; Zhu, Chaoqi; Li, Bowen; Liu, Xiaolei

2017-02-01

A scientific hypothesis is proposed and preliminarily verified in this paper: under the driving of seepage flows, there might be a vertical migration of fine-grained soil particles from interior to surface of seabed, which is defined as `sub-bottom sediment pump action' in this paper. Field experiments were performed twice on the intertidal flat of the Yellow River delta to study this process via both trapping the pumped materials and recording the pore pressures in the substrate. Experimental results are quite interesting as we did observe yellow slurry which is mainly composed of fine-grained soil particles appearing on the seabed surface; seepage gradients were also detected in the intertidal flat, under the action of tides and small wind waves. Preliminary conclusions are that `sediment pump' occurs when seepage force exceeds a certain threshold: firstly, it is big enough to disconnect the soil particles from the soil skeleton; secondly, the degree of seabed fluidization or bioturbation is big enough to provide preferred paths for the detached materials to migrate upwards. Then they would be firstly pumped from interior to the surface of seabed and then easily re-suspended into overlying water column. Influential factors of `sediment pump' are determined as hydrodynamics (wave energy), degree of consolidation, index of bioturbation (permeability) and content of fine-grained materials (sedimentary age). This new perspective of `sediment pump' may provide some implications for the mechanism interpretation of several unclear geological phenomena in the Yellow River delta area.

Quantification of Fine-grained Sediment Concentration in the Aquatic Environment Using Optical and Acoustic Sensors: Insight from Lab Experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, K.; Champagne, B. N.

2017-12-01

The transport of sediment in the coastal zone and continental shelf is highly impacted by fluvial and oceanographic dynamics. In Louisiana, the Mississippi River delivers a bulk of water, sediment, and nutrients to the coast. However, coastal land loss highlights the importance of the sediment deposited at the mouth of the river. Sediment is the foundation to build land and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) tracks the delivery, deposition, and erosion of sediment. On a more applicable scale, variables such as SSC can be used to calculate sediment transport flux, an important parameter for projects such as sediment diversions and barrier island restoration. In order to rely on suspended sediment concentration (SSC) as continuous data, lab experiments are needed to establish the relationship between turbidity and SSC. Factors such as sensor type (optical or acoustic) and grain size (coarse or fine) can greatly impact the estimated SSC. In this study, fine-grained sediment was collected from multiple sites in coastal Louisiana and used to calibrate both optical backscatter (OBS) and acoustic backscatter (ABS) sensors to establish the relationship between sensor type and accuracy of the SSC estimation. Multiple grain-size analyses using a Laser Diffraction Particle Size Analyzer helped determine the effects of sensor accuracy regarding grain size. The results of these experiments were combined in order to establish the calibration curves of SSC. Our results indicated that the OBS-3A sensor's turbidity data were more correlated with the SSC than the OBS-5+'s data. Possible explanations for this could be due to differences between the instruments' measuring ranges and their sensitivity to various grain sizes. This technology development has a broad impact to the studies of sediment delivery, transport, and deposition in multiple types of coastal protection and restoration projects.

Evaluation of Rock Powdering Methods to Obtain Fine-grained Samples for CHEMIN, a Combined XRD/XRF Instrument

Science.gov (United States)

Chipera, S. J.; Vaniman, D. T.; Bish, D. L.; Sarrazin, P.; Feldman, S.; Blake, D. F.; Bearman, G.; Bar-Cohen, Y.

2004-01-01

A miniature XRD/XRF (X-ray diffraction / X-ray fluorescence) instrument, CHEMIN, is currently being developed for definitive mineralogic analysis of soils and rocks on Mars. One of the technical issues that must be addressed to enable remote XRD analysis is how best to obtain a representative sample powder for analysis. For powder XRD analyses, it is beneficial to have a fine-grained sample to reduce preferred orientation effects and to provide a statistically significant number of crystallites to the X-ray beam. Although a two-dimensional detector as used in the CHEMIN instrument will produce good results even with poorly prepared powder, the quality of the data will improve and the time required for data collection will be reduced if the sample is fine-grained and randomly oriented. A variety of methods have been proposed for XRD sample preparation. Chipera et al. presented grain size distributions and XRD results from powders generated with an Ultrasonic/Sonic Driller/Corer (USDC) currently being developed at JPL. The USDC was shown to be an effective instrument for sampling rock to produce powder suitable for XRD. In this paper, we compare powder prepared using the USDC with powder obtained with a miniaturized rock crusher developed at JPL and with powder obtained with a rotary tungsten carbide bit to powders obtained from a laboratory bench-scale Retsch mill (provides benchmark mineralogical data). These comparisons will allow assessment of the suitability of these methods for analysis by an XRD/XRF instrument such as CHEMIN.

Fine-Grained Access Control for Electronic Health Record Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Hue, Pham Thi Bach; Wohlgemuth, Sven; Echizen, Isao; Thuy, Dong Thi Bich; Thuc, Nguyen Dinh

There needs to be a strategy for securing the privacy of patients when exchanging health records between various entities over the Internet. Despite the fact that health care providers such as Google Health and Microsoft Corp.'s Health Vault comply with the U.S Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the privacy of patients is still at risk. Several encryption schemes and access control mechanisms have been suggested to protect the disclosure of a patient's health record especially from unauthorized entities. However, by implementing these approaches, data owners are not capable of controlling and protecting the disclosure of the individual sensitive attributes of their health records. This raises the need to adopt a secure mechanism to protect personal information against unauthorized disclosure. Therefore, we propose a new Fine-grained Access Control (FGAC) mechanism that is based on subkeys, which would allow a data owner to further control the access to his data at the column-level. We also propose a new mechanism to efficiently reduce the number of keys maintained by a data owner in cases when the users have different access privileges to different columns of the data being shared.

Two-stage agglomeration of fine-grained herbal nettle waste

Science.gov (United States)

Obidziński, Sławomir; Joka, Magdalena; Fijoł, Olga

2017-10-01

This paper compares the densification work necessary for the pressure agglomeration of fine-grained dusty nettle waste, with the densification work involved in two-stage agglomeration of the same material. In the first stage, the material was pre-densified through coating with a binder material in the form of a 5% potato starch solution, and then subjected to pressure agglomeration. A number of tests were conducted to determine the effect of the moisture content in the nettle waste (15, 18 and 21%), as well as the process temperature (50, 70, 90°C) on the values of densification work and the density of the obtained pellets. For pre-densified pellets from a mixture of nettle waste and a starch solution, the conducted tests determined the effect of pellet particle size (1, 2, and 3 mm) and the process temperature (50, 70, 90°C) on the same values. On the basis of the tests, we concluded that the introduction of a binder material and the use of two-stage agglomeration in nettle waste densification resulted in increased densification work (as compared to the densification of nettle waste alone) and increased pellet density.

Fine-grained, local maps and coarse, global representations support human spatial working memory.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Zia Ul Haq Katshu

Full Text Available While sensory processes are tuned to particular features, such as an object's specific location, color or orientation, visual working memory (vWM is assumed to store information using representations, which generalize over a feature dimension. Additionally, current vWM models presume that different features or objects are stored independently. On the other hand, configurational effects, when observed, are supposed to mainly reflect encoding strategies. We show that the location of the target, relative to the display center and boundaries, and overall memory load influenced recall precision, indicating that, like sensory processes, capacity limited vWM resources are spatially tuned. When recalling one of three memory items the target distance from the display center was overestimated, similar to the error when only one item was memorized, but its distance from the memory items' average position was underestimated, showing that not only individual memory items' position, but also the global configuration of the memory array may be stored. Finally, presenting the non-target items at recall, consequently providing landmarks and configurational information, improved precision and accuracy of target recall. Similarly, when the non-target items were translated at recall, relative to their position in the initial display, a parallel displacement of the recalled target was observed. These findings suggest that fine-grained spatial information in vWM is represented in local maps whose resolution varies with distance from landmarks, such as the display center, while coarse representations are used to store the memory array configuration. Both these representations are updated at the time of recall.

Fine-Grained, Local Maps and Coarse, Global Representations Support Human Spatial Working Memory

Science.gov (United States)

Katshu, Mohammad Zia Ul Haq; d'Avossa, Giovanni

2014-01-01

While sensory processes are tuned to particular features, such as an object's specific location, color or orientation, visual working memory (vWM) is assumed to store information using representations, which generalize over a feature dimension. Additionally, current vWM models presume that different features or objects are stored independently. On the other hand, configurational effects, when observed, are supposed to mainly reflect encoding strategies. We show that the location of the target, relative to the display center and boundaries, and overall memory load influenced recall precision, indicating that, like sensory processes, capacity limited vWM resources are spatially tuned. When recalling one of three memory items the target distance from the display center was overestimated, similar to the error when only one item was memorized, but its distance from the memory items' average position was underestimated, showing that not only individual memory items' position, but also the global configuration of the memory array may be stored. Finally, presenting the non-target items at recall, consequently providing landmarks and configurational information, improved precision and accuracy of target recall. Similarly, when the non-target items were translated at recall, relative to their position in the initial display, a parallel displacement of the recalled target was observed. These findings suggest that fine-grained spatial information in vWM is represented in local maps whose resolution varies with distance from landmarks, such as the display center, while coarse representations are used to store the memory array configuration. Both these representations are updated at the time of recall. PMID:25259601

H2O grain size and the amount of dust in Mars' residual North polar cap

Science.gov (United States)

Kieffer, H.H.

1990-01-01

In Mars' north polar cap the probable composition of material residual from the annual condensation cycle is a mixture of fine dust and H2O grains of comparable size and abundance. However, metamorphism of such material will gradually lower its albedo by increasing the size of the H2O grains only. If the cap is undergoing net annual sublimation (as inferred from water vapor observations), late summer observations should be of old ice with H2O grain sizes of 100 ??m or more. Ice of this granularity containing 30% fine dust has a reflectivity similar to that of dust alone; the observed albedo and computed ice grain size imply dust concentrations of 1 part per 1000 or less. The brightness of the icy areas conflicts with what would be expected for a residual cap deposited by an annual cycle similar to that observed by Viking and aged for thousands of years. The residual cap surface cannot be "old dirty' ice. It could be old, coarse, and clean; or it could be young, fine, and dirty. This brings into question both the source of the late summer water vapor and the formation rate of laminated terrain. -Author

Elastocaloric effects in ultra-fine grained NiTi microwires processed by cold-drawing

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xuexi Zhang

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Efficient elastocaloric cooling in shape memory alloys requires a stable superelastic behavior in which high yield strength is needed. Here Ni50.4Ti49.6 microwires with diameter 130 μm and ultra-fine grains ∼30 nm were prepared by multi-step cold-drawing and low-temperature annealing. Enhanced cyclic stability of the elastocaloric effects induced by the superelastic training was demonstrated. The pre-trained microwire showed a stable ΔSe 43 J/(kg K with a broad working temperature range ΔT ∼ 70 K. The superelastic trained microwire, with giant and stable ΔSe over a wide working temperature window, may act as a promising elastocaloric cooling material for minor-sized devices.

Quicklime (CaO) Stabilization of fine-grained marine sediments in low temperature areas

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skels, Peteris; Ingeman-Nielsen, Thomas; Jørgensen, Anders Stuhr

2011-01-01

This study presents laboratory testing on quicklime (CaO) stabilization of fine-grained marine sediments in low temperature areas. The soil was sampled on the Fossil Plain in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, and analyzed in the laboratory at Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The optimum CaO content...... curing temperatures, comparing stabilization effectiveness between low and normal soil temperature conditions....... in a soil-CaO mixture was determined using a number of laboratory methods, such as pH test, consistency limit analysis, degree of compaction, and short term California Bearing Ratio (CBR) values. The study also numerically demonstrates a long term strength development of the soil-CaO mixture at 1°C and 10°C...

Exploiting fine-grain parallelism in recursive LU factorization

KAUST Repository

Dongarra, Jack

2012-01-01

The LU factorization is an important numerical algorithm for solving system of linear equations. This paper proposes a novel approach for computing the LU factorization in parallel on multicore architectures. It improves the overall performance and also achieves the numerical quality of the standard LU factorization with partial pivoting. While the update of the trailing submatrix is computationally intensive and highly parallel, the inherently problematic portion of the LU factorization is the panel factorization due to its memory-bound characteristic and the atomicity of selecting the appropriate pivots. We remedy this in our new approach to LU factorization of (narrow and tall) panel submatrices. We use a parallel fine-grained recursive formulation of the factorization. It is based on conflict-free partitioning of the data and lock-less synchronization mechanisms. Our implementation lets the overall computation naturally flow with limited contention. Our recursive panel factorization provides the necessary performance increase for the inherently problematic portion of the LU factorization of square matrices. A large panel width results in larger Amdahl\\'s fraction as our experiments have revealed which is consistent with related efforts. The performance results of our implementation reveal superlinear speedup and far exceed what can be achieved with equivalent MKL and/or LAPACK routines. © 2012 The authors and IOS Press. All rights reserved.

Strip-drains for in situ clean up of contaminated fine-grained soils

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bowders, J.J.; Gabr, M.A.

1995-01-01

Methods for in situ remediation of contaminated soils, such as bioremediation, vacuum/air stripping and soil flushing have been found to be less effective under fine-grained soil conditions. To enhance the performance of these techniques, it was proposed that strip-drains or wick drains also known as prefabricated vertical (PV) drains be used. The research objective was to determine the feasibility of using PV drains to enhance the soil flushing process. Bench top and intermediate-scale laboratory experiments were conducted. An overview of the work, results and future considerations were presented. Results indicated that the technology is feasible. A preliminary model for the technology to be used in any field situation was developed. The model is currently being tested with data from physical experiments on both intermediate and field tests. 5 figs

Surface modifications on toughened, fine-grained, recrystallized tungsten with repetitive ELM-like pulsed plasma irradiation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kikuchi, Y., E-mail: ykikuchi@eng.u-hyogo.ac.jp [Graduate School of Engineering, University of Hyogo, 2167 Shosha, Himeji, 671-2280 Hyogo (Japan); Sakuma, I.; Kitagawa, Y.; Asai, Y.; Onishi, K.; Fukumoto, N.; Nagata, M. [Graduate School of Engineering, University of Hyogo, 2167 Shosha, Himeji, 671-2280 Hyogo (Japan); Ueda, Y. [Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan); Kurishita, H. [Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan)

2015-08-15

Surface modifications of toughened, fine-grained, recrystallized tungsten (TFGR W) materials with 1.1 wt.% TiC and 3.3 wt.% TaC dispersoids due to repetitive ELM-like pulsed (∼0.15 ms) helium plasma irradiation have been investigated by using a magnetized coaxial plasma gun. No surface cracking at the center part of the TFGR W samples exposed to 20 plasma pulses of ∼0.3 MJ m{sup −2} was observed. The suppression of surface crack formation due to the increase of the grain boundary strength by addition of TiC and TaC dispersoids was confirmed in comparison with a pure W material. On the other hand, surface cracks and small pits appeared at the edge part of the TFGR W sample after the pulsed plasma irradiation. Erosion of the TiC and TaC dispersoids due to the pulsed plasma irradiation could cause the small pits on the surface, resulting in the surface crack formation.

Surface modifications on toughened, fine-grained, recrystallized tungsten with repetitive ELM-like pulsed plasma irradiation

Science.gov (United States)

Kikuchi, Y.; Sakuma, I.; Kitagawa, Y.; Asai, Y.; Onishi, K.; Fukumoto, N.; Nagata, M.; Ueda, Y.; Kurishita, H.

2015-08-01

Surface modifications of toughened, fine-grained, recrystallized tungsten (TFGR W) materials with 1.1 wt.% TiC and 3.3 wt.% TaC dispersoids due to repetitive ELM-like pulsed (∼0.15 ms) helium plasma irradiation have been investigated by using a magnetized coaxial plasma gun. No surface cracking at the center part of the TFGR W samples exposed to 20 plasma pulses of ∼0.3 MJ m-2 was observed. The suppression of surface crack formation due to the increase of the grain boundary strength by addition of TiC and TaC dispersoids was confirmed in comparison with a pure W material. On the other hand, surface cracks and small pits appeared at the edge part of the TFGR W sample after the pulsed plasma irradiation. Erosion of the TiC and TaC dispersoids due to the pulsed plasma irradiation could cause the small pits on the surface, resulting in the surface crack formation.

Isotopic study (Sr-Nd) of the origin of Holocene fine-grained deposits on the Atlantic littoral, SW France

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Parra, M.; Jouanneau, J.M.; Grousset, F.; Latouche, C.; Castaing, P.; Trouky, H.

1998-01-01

The fine-grained sediments of the West Gironde mud patch derive mainly from materials supplied via the Gironde estuary. Between 1500 and 1200/1300 years BP and 300/400 years BP and the present day, the Sr isotopic and chemical compositions of the estuarine silty clay inputs are the same. In contrast, these compositions were different during the period 1200/1300 to 300/400 years BP. These variation probably reflect anthropogenic activities including cultivation and agriculture, in the Garonne and Dordogne drainage basins during the medieval period. Modern silty clay sedimentation in the mud flats of the Marennes-Oleron basin and Perthuis Breton is characterised by the occurrence of important quantities (between 40 and 90 % of the total) of detritus that issues from the Gironde estuary. The autochthonous silty clays derived from outcrops of Jurassic green marls and Flandrian deposits are mixed with estuarine autochthonous clays delivered by coastal surface currents. In the Anse de l'Aiguillon, the muds are mainly composed of these autochthonous silty clays. The silty clay infilling of these mud flats has been highly influenced by the development of the oyster and shellfish aquaculture. (authors)

A Reflective Encounter with the Fine Sand Area in a Nursery School Setting

Science.gov (United States)

Barnett, Anthony

2016-01-01

This article draws on a model of reflection that involves creating meanings through repeated encounters with evocative objects. Responses to one such evocative object, a 20-second video clip of children playing in the fine sand area, illustrates the "turning toward" and then "turning away" from the object to engage with broader…

Liquefaction susceptibility of fine-grained soils: preliminary study report. Final report, September 1985-March 1986

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chang, N.Y.

1987-09-01

Soil liquefaction, a hazardous ground failure induced by strong motion earthquakes, can cause catastrophic damage to structures such as dams, bridges, power plants, and water-front structures and may involve great losses of life. Examples of liquefaction and resulting damage were observed during the Alaska (1964), Niigata, Japan (1964), and Tangshan, China (1976), earthquakes. Ground failure due to earthquake-induced soil liquefaction may manifest itself as excessive settlement, loss of bearing capacity, sand boiling, and flow slides. The liquefaction potential of clean sands has been studied extensively for the last two decades. However, case histories revealed that liquefied sands were seldom clean. They may contain various percentages of silt or clay or both. In fact, the Chinese observation in the Tansghan earthquake indicated that some cohesive soils may have liquefied. If this indeed had happened, then structures underlain by fine-grained soils, with a marginal safety factor based on the liquefaction criteria normally applied to sands, may actually be unsafe. Thus there is an urgent need for establishing new criteria for the liquefaction susceptibility of soils to include those identified as fine-grained. The author, Professor N.Y. Chang of the University of Colorado at Denver, visited several Chinese agencies and and universities in and near Beijing, China, in the summer of 1985 in an attempt to investigate and verify reported data on the liquefaction of cohesive soils during the Tangshan earthquake of 1976 and to negotiate cooperative research into the problem. This report presents the result of supportive literature review and the findings of the China trip.

Analysis of local microstructure after shear creep deformation of a fine-grained duplex {gamma}-TiAl alloy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peter, D., E-mail: dennis.peter@rub.de [Institute for Materials, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitaetsstrasse 150, 44801 Bochum (Germany); Viswanathan, G.B. [Institute for Materials, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitaetsstrasse 150, 44801 Bochum (Germany)] [Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433 (United States); Dlouhy, A. [Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 61662 Brno, Zizkova 22 (Czech Republic); Eggeler, G. [Institute for Materials, Ruhr University Bochum, Universitaetsstrasse 150, 44801 Bochum (Germany)

2010-11-15

The present work characterizes the microstructure of a hot-extruded Ti-45Al-5Nb-0.2B-0.2C (at.%) alloy with a fine-grained duplex microstructure after shear creep deformation (temperature 1023 K; shear stress 175 MPa; shear deformation 20%). Diffraction contrast transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was performed to identify ordinary dislocations, superdislocations and twins. The microstructure observed in TEM is interpreted taking into account the contribution of the applied stress and coherency stresses to the overall local stress state. Two specific locations in the lamellar part of the microstructure were analyzed, where either twins or superdislocations provided c-component deformation in the L1{sub 0} lattice of the {gamma} phase. Lamellar {gamma} grains can be in soft and hard orientations with respect to the resolved shear stress provided by the external load. The presence of twins can be rationalized by the superposition of the applied stress and local coherency stresses. The presence of superdislocations in hard {gamma} grains represents indirect evidence for additional contributions to the local stress state associated with stress redistribution during creep.

Thermoelectric property of fine-grained CoSb3 skutterudite compound fabricated by mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Weishu; Zhang Boping; Li Jingfeng; Zhao Lidong

2007-01-01

Skutterudite CoSb 3 polycrystalline materials were prepared using a combined process of mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering (SPS). The influence of SPS temperature on the thermoelectric properties was focused in this work with a special emphasis on the analysis of the size effects of grains. The average grain sizes decreased from 300 to 50 nm with decreasing SPS temperatures from 600 to 300 deg. C. The electrical resistivities of samples spark plasma sintered at 300-600 deg. C all decreased with increasing temperature, indicating a classic intrinsic conduction behaviour of semiconductors. The samples spark plasma sintered at 300-500 deg. C showed a positive Seebeck coefficient while the sample spark plasma sintered at 600 deg. C showed a negative Seebeck coefficient. The room-temperature thermal conductivities were reduced from 4.30 to 2.92 W m -1 K -1 as the grain sizes were decreased from 300 to 100 nm corresponding to SPS at 600 and 400 deg. C, respectively. The present work indicates that MA and SPS is a good combination for fabricating fine-grained CoSb 3 thermoelectric materials

Optimization of compositions of multicomponent fine-grained fiber concretes modified at different scale levels.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

NIZINA Tatyana Anatolevna,

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The paper deals with perspectives of modification of cement composites at different scale levels (nano-, micro-, macro-. Main types of micro- and nanomodifiers used in modern concrete technology are presented. Advantages of fullerene particles applied in nanomodification of cement concretes have been shown. Use of complex modifiers based on dispersed fibers, mineral additives and nanoparticles is proposed. These are the basic components of the fiber fine-grained concretes: cement of class CEM I 42,5R produced by JSC «Mordovcement», river sand of Novostepanovskogo quarry (Smolny settlement, Ichalkovsky district, Republic of Mordovia, densified condensed microsilica (DCM-85 produced by JSC «Kuznetskie Ferrosplavy» (Novokuznetsk, highly active metakaolin white produced by LLC «D-Meta» (Dneprodzerzhinsk, waterproofing additive in concrete mix «Penetron Admix» produced by LLC «Waterproofing materials plant «Penetron» (Ekaterinburg, polycarboxylate superplasticizer Melflux 1641 F (Construction Polymers BASF, Germany. Dispersed reinforcement of concretes was provided by injection of the fibers of three types: polypropylene multifilament fiber with cutting length of 12 mm, polyacrylonitrile synthetic fiber FibARM Fiber WВ with cutting length of 12 mm and basalt microfiber «Astroflex-MBM» modified by astralene with length about 100÷500 microns. Analysis of results of the study focused on saturated D-optimal plan was carried out by polynomial models «mixture I, mixture II, technology – properties» that considers the impact of six variable factors. Optimum fields of variation of fine-grained modified fiber concrete components have been identified by the method of experimental-statistical modeling. Polygons of distribution levels of factors of modified cement fiber concretes are constructed, that allowed tracing changes in fields of tensile in compressive strength and tensile strength in bending at age of 28 days depending on target

Fines Classification Based on Sensitivity to Pore-Fluid Chemistry

KAUST Repository

Jang, Junbong; Santamarina, Carlos

2015-01-01

The 75-μm particle size is used to discriminate between fine and coarse grains. Further analysis of fine grains is typically based on the plasticity chart. Whereas pore-fluid-chemistry-dependent soil response is a salient and distinguishing

Removal of tetrachloroethylene from fine-grained soils by electrokinetic processes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Steger, H.; Zorn, R.; Haus, R.; Czurda, K. [Dept. of Applied Geology, Karlsruhe Univ. (Germany)

2001-07-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the mobilization of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) by a bench scale experiment in a naturally contaminated, undisturbed soil core of a fine-grained valley deposit, which was taken on a factory site in Germany. In order to regard the physico-chemical properties of PCE the experiment was carried out in an especially developed laboratory cell. In the beginning of the bench scale test natural in situ temperature conditions of 9 C were simulated in the sample by using an external, infinitely variable cooling. After 6 days the cooling was switched off. During the cooling period the electroosmotic permeability was about 1.5-2 times lower than under laboratory conditions. After 3.5 displaced pore volumes almost all PCE was removed out of the soil. Furthermore, no significant degradation reaction of PCE to trichloroethylene (TCE), cis-1,2-dichloroethene, trans-1,2 dichloroethene and 1,1 dichloroethene took place. A variation in the mineralogical composition was determined, due to the production of hydronium ions and hydroxide ions by electrolyse reactions at the electrodes. At the anode region carbonate was dissolved and at the cathode region calcium and magnesium hydroxide precipitated. (orig.)

Comparative analysis of dose rates in bricks determined by neutron activation analysis, alpha counting and X-ray fluorescence analysis for the thermoluminescence fine grain dating method

Science.gov (United States)

Bártová, H.; Kučera, J.; Musílek, L.; Trojek, T.

2014-11-01

In order to evaluate the age from the equivalent dose and to obtain an optimized and efficient procedure for thermoluminescence (TL) dating, it is necessary to obtain the values of both the internal and the external dose rates from dated samples and from their environment. The measurements described and compared in this paper refer to bricks from historic buildings and a fine-grain dating method. The external doses are therefore negligible, if the samples are taken from a sufficient depth in the wall. However, both the alpha dose rate and the beta and gamma dose rates must be taken into account in the internal dose. The internal dose rate to fine-grain samples is caused by the concentrations of natural radionuclides 238U, 235U, 232Th and members of their decay chains, and by 40K concentrations. Various methods can be used for determining trace concentrations of these natural radionuclides and their contributions to the dose rate. The dose rate fraction from 238U and 232Th can be calculated, e.g., from the alpha count rate, or from the concentrations of 238U and 232Th, measured by neutron activation analysis (NAA). The dose rate fraction from 40K can be calculated from the concentration of potassium measured, e.g., by X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) or by NAA. Alpha counting and XRF are relatively simple and are accessible for an ordinary laboratory. NAA can be considered as a more accurate method, but it is more demanding regarding time and costs, since it needs a nuclear reactor as a neutron source. A comparison of these methods allows us to decide whether the time- and cost-saving simpler techniques introduce uncertainty that is still acceptable.

Quantum theory of multiscale coarse-graining.

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Yining; Jin, Jaehyeok; Wagner, Jacob W; Voth, Gregory A

2018-03-14

Coarse-grained (CG) models serve as a powerful tool to simulate molecular systems at much longer temporal and spatial scales. Previously, CG models and methods have been built upon classical statistical mechanics. The present paper develops a theory and numerical methodology for coarse-graining in quantum statistical mechanics, by generalizing the multiscale coarse-graining (MS-CG) method to quantum Boltzmann statistics. A rigorous derivation of the sufficient thermodynamic consistency condition is first presented via imaginary time Feynman path integrals. It identifies the optimal choice of CG action functional and effective quantum CG (qCG) force field to generate a quantum MS-CG (qMS-CG) description of the equilibrium system that is consistent with the quantum fine-grained model projected onto the CG variables. A variational principle then provides a class of algorithms for optimally approximating the qMS-CG force fields. Specifically, a variational method based on force matching, which was also adopted in the classical MS-CG theory, is generalized to quantum Boltzmann statistics. The qMS-CG numerical algorithms and practical issues in implementing this variational minimization procedure are also discussed. Then, two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the method. Finally, as an alternative strategy, a quasi-classical approximation for the thermal density matrix expressed in the CG variables is derived. This approach provides an interesting physical picture for coarse-graining in quantum Boltzmann statistical mechanics in which the consistency with the quantum particle delocalization is obviously manifest, and it opens up an avenue for using path integral centroid-based effective classical force fields in a coarse-graining methodology.

Quantum theory of multiscale coarse-graining

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Yining; Jin, Jaehyeok; Wagner, Jacob W.; Voth, Gregory A.

2018-03-01

Coarse-grained (CG) models serve as a powerful tool to simulate molecular systems at much longer temporal and spatial scales. Previously, CG models and methods have been built upon classical statistical mechanics. The present paper develops a theory and numerical methodology for coarse-graining in quantum statistical mechanics, by generalizing the multiscale coarse-graining (MS-CG) method to quantum Boltzmann statistics. A rigorous derivation of the sufficient thermodynamic consistency condition is first presented via imaginary time Feynman path integrals. It identifies the optimal choice of CG action functional and effective quantum CG (qCG) force field to generate a quantum MS-CG (qMS-CG) description of the equilibrium system that is consistent with the quantum fine-grained model projected onto the CG variables. A variational principle then provides a class of algorithms for optimally approximating the qMS-CG force fields. Specifically, a variational method based on force matching, which was also adopted in the classical MS-CG theory, is generalized to quantum Boltzmann statistics. The qMS-CG numerical algorithms and practical issues in implementing this variational minimization procedure are also discussed. Then, two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the method. Finally, as an alternative strategy, a quasi-classical approximation for the thermal density matrix expressed in the CG variables is derived. This approach provides an interesting physical picture for coarse-graining in quantum Boltzmann statistical mechanics in which the consistency with the quantum particle delocalization is obviously manifest, and it opens up an avenue for using path integral centroid-based effective classical force fields in a coarse-graining methodology.

Sediment transport processes in the Pearl River Estuary as revealed by grain-size end-member modeling and sediment trend analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Tao; Li, Tuan-Jie

2018-04-01

The analysis of grain-size distribution enables us to decipher sediment transport processes and understand the causal relations between dynamic processes and grain-size distributions. In the present study, grain sizes were measured from surface sediments collected in the Pearl River Estuary and its adjacent coastal areas. End-member modeling analysis attempts to unmix the grain sizes into geologically meaningful populations. Six grain-size end-members were identified. Their dominant modes are 0 Φ, 1.5 Φ, 2.75 Φ, 4.5 Φ, 7 Φ, and 8 Φ, corresponding to coarse sand, medium sand, fine sand, very coarse silt, silt, and clay, respectively. The spatial distributions of the six end-members are influenced by sediment transport and depositional processes. The two coarsest end-members (coarse sand and medium sand) may reflect relict sediments deposited during the last glacial period. The fine sand end-member would be difficult to transport under fair weather conditions, and likely indicates storm deposits. The three remaining fine-grained end-members (very coarse silt, silt, and clay) are recognized as suspended particles transported by saltwater intrusion via the flood tidal current, the Guangdong Coastal Current, and riverine outflow. The grain-size trend analysis shows distinct transport patterns for the three fine-grained end-members. The landward transport of the very coarse silt end-member occurs in the eastern part of the estuary, the seaward transport of the silt end-member occurs in the western part, and the east-west transport of the clay end-member occurs in the coastal areas. The results show that grain-size end-member modeling analysis in combination with sediment trend analysis help to better understand sediment transport patterns and the associated transport mechanisms.

A Fine Grain, High Mn Steel with Excellent Cryogenic Temperature Properties and Corresponding Constitutive Behaviour

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuhui Wang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available A Fe-34.5 wt % Mn-0.04 wt % C ultra-high Mn steel with a fully recrystallised fine-grained structure was produced by cold rolling and subsequent annealing. The steel exhibited excellent cryogenic temperature properties with enhanced work hardening rate, high tensile strength, and high uniform elongation. In order to capture the unique mechanical behaviour, a constitutive model within finite strain plasticity framework based on Hill-type yield function was established with standard Armstrong-Frederick type isotropic hardening. In particular, the evolution of isotropic hardening was determined by the content of martensite; thus, a relationship between model parameters and martensite content is built explicitly.

Grain growth in ultrafine titanium powders during sintering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Panigrahi, B.B.; Godkhindi, M.M.

2006-01-01

Grain growth behaviour of fine (∼3 μm) and attrition milled nanocrystalline (∼32 nm) titanium powers during sintering have been studied. The activation energies of grain growth (Q g ) in fine titanium were found to be 192.9 and 142.4 kJ/mol at lower and higher temperature ranges, respectively. The nanocrystalline titanium showed very low values of Q g (54.6 kJ/mol) at lower temperatures and it increased to 273.2 kJ/mol at higher temperatures. The constant (n) in nano Ti system was found to have unusually very high values of 6.5-8.2. The grain boundary rotation along with the diffusional processes could be the grain growth mechanism in nanocrystalline and in fine titanium powders

Bilinear Convolutional Neural Networks for Fine-grained Visual Recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Tsung-Yu; RoyChowdhury, Aruni; Maji, Subhransu

2017-07-04

We present a simple and effective architecture for fine-grained recognition called Bilinear Convolutional Neural Networks (B-CNNs). These networks represent an image as a pooled outer product of features derived from two CNNs and capture localized feature interactions in a translationally invariant manner. B-CNNs are related to orderless texture representations built on deep features but can be trained in an end-to-end manner. Our most accurate model obtains 84.1%, 79.4%, 84.5% and 91.3% per-image accuracy on the Caltech-UCSD birds [66], NABirds [63], FGVC aircraft [42], and Stanford cars [33] dataset respectively and runs at 30 frames-per-second on a NVIDIA Titan X GPU. We then present a systematic analysis of these networks and show that (1) the bilinear features are highly redundant and can be reduced by an order of magnitude in size without significant loss in accuracy, (2) are also effective for other image classification tasks such as texture and scene recognition, and (3) can be trained from scratch on the ImageNet dataset offering consistent improvements over the baseline architecture. Finally, we present visualizations of these models on various datasets using top activations of neural units and gradient-based inversion techniques. The source code for the complete system is available at http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/bcnn.

The structure of hydrate bearing fine grained marine sediments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Priest, J.; Kingston, E.; Clayton, C. [Southampton Univ., Highfield (United Kingdom). School of Civil Engineering and the Environment; Schultheiss, P.; Druce, M. [Geotek Ltd., Daventry (United Kingdom)

2008-07-01

This paper discussed the structure of naturally occurring methane gas hydrates in fine-grained sediments from core samples recovered using in situ pressures from the eastern margin of the Indian Ocean. High resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT) images were taken of gas hydrate cores. The hydrate structure was examined and comparisons were made between low resolution X-ray images obtained on the cores prior to sub-sectioning and depressurization procedures. The X-ray images showed the presence of high-angle, sub-parallel veins within the recovered sediments. The scans indicated that the hydrates occurred as fracture filing veins throughout the core. Fracture orientation was predominantly sub-vertical. Thick millimetric hydrate veins were composed of sub-millimetric veins with variations in fracture angle. The analysis indicated that hydrate formation was episodic in nature and subject to changes in the stress regime. Results of the study showed that depressurization and subsequent freezing alter the structure of the sediment even when the gas hydrate has not been altered. A large proportion of the hydrate survived when outside of its stability region. The self-preserving behaviour of the hydrate was attributed to the endothermic nature of gas hydrate dissociation. It was concluded that the accurate physical characterization of gas hydrates can only be conducted when the core section remains under in situ stress conditions. 13 refs., 9 figs.

Electrochemical corrosion studies of the TStE 355 fine-grained structural steel in sulfide containing brine

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Farvaque-Bera, A.M.; Berg, H. von.

1994-04-01

Previous corrosion studies have shown that the unalloyed fine-grained steel TStE 355 (Material No. 1.0566) is a promising material for the manufacturing of long-lived high-level waste (HLW) containers that could act as a barrier in a rock-salt repository. Considering this fact, further electrochemical corrosion tests were performed in order to determine the influence of sulfide ions (1 -200 ppm), present as salt impurities in disposal relevant NaCl-brine (T = 55 -90 C), on the corrosion behaviour of this steel grade. For comparison, tests were carried out in the sulfide-free brine, too. (orig.) [de

Fine-grained policy control in U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) multimodal signatures database

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, Kelly; Grueneberg, Keith; Wood, David; Calo, Seraphin

2014-06-01

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Multimodal Signatures Database (MMSDB) consists of a number of colocated relational databases representing a collection of data from various sensors. Role-based access to this data is granted to external organizations such as DoD contractors and other government agencies through a client Web portal. In the current MMSDB system, access control is only at the database and firewall level. In order to offer finer grained security, changes to existing user profile schemas and authentication mechanisms are usually needed. In this paper, we describe a software middleware architecture and implementation that allows fine-grained access control to the MMSDB at a dataset, table, and row level. Result sets from MMSDB queries issued in the client portal are filtered with the use of a policy enforcement proxy, with minimal changes to the existing client software and database. Before resulting data is returned to the client, policies are evaluated to determine if the user or role is authorized to access the data. Policies can be authored to filter data at the row, table or column level of a result set. The system uses various technologies developed in the International Technology Alliance in Network and Information Science (ITA) for policy-controlled information sharing and dissemination1. Use of the Policy Management Library provides a mechanism for the management and evaluation of policies to support finer grained access to the data in the MMSDB system. The GaianDB is a policy-enabled, federated database that acts as a proxy between the client application and the MMSDB system.

Fatigue behavior and damage characteristic of ultra-fine grain low-purity copper processed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Xu Changzheng; Wang Qingjuan [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049 (China); Zheng Maosheng [Institute of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials, Northwest University, Xian 710069 (China)], E-mail: mszhengnw@sohu.com; Li Jindou; Huang Meiquan; Jia Qingming; Zhu Jiewu [School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xian Jiaotong University, Xian 710049 (China); Kunz, Ludvik; Buksa, Michal [Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno 61662 (Czech Republic)

2008-02-25

The S-N and Coffin-Manson plot, cyclic stress-strain response, changes of microstructure, and the surface morphology of ultra-fine grain (UFG) low-purity copper processed by ECAP were tested and observed in present study. And the formation mechanism of shear bands was discussed in detail. The results show that the UFG Cu represents longer lifetime under stress-controlled fatigue, but lower fatigue resistance under strain-controlled fatigue when compared with the coarse grain counterpart. Cyclic stress-strain responses of UFG Cu under stress-controlled fatigue alter from cyclic softening to cyclic hardening as stress amplitude decreases. But the responses always show cyclic softening under strain-controlled fatigue in present testing. By electron back scattering diffraction and transmission electron microscope technique, the shear bands were discovered on the surface of all cycled samples and no grain coarsening was discovered near the shear bands, which indicated that there was no inevitable relationship between formation of SBs and cyclic softening/grain coarsening. The discovery should be related to impurities in copper. The oriented distribution of defects along the shear plane in the last ECAP processing is one of the major mechanisms of SBs formation.

Fatigue behavior and damage characteristic of ultra-fine grain low-purity copper processed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu Changzheng; Wang Qingjuan; Zheng Maosheng; Li Jindou; Huang Meiquan; Jia Qingming; Zhu Jiewu; Kunz, Ludvik; Buksa, Michal

2008-01-01

The S-N and Coffin-Manson plot, cyclic stress-strain response, changes of microstructure, and the surface morphology of ultra-fine grain (UFG) low-purity copper processed by ECAP were tested and observed in present study. And the formation mechanism of shear bands was discussed in detail. The results show that the UFG Cu represents longer lifetime under stress-controlled fatigue, but lower fatigue resistance under strain-controlled fatigue when compared with the coarse grain counterpart. Cyclic stress-strain responses of UFG Cu under stress-controlled fatigue alter from cyclic softening to cyclic hardening as stress amplitude decreases. But the responses always show cyclic softening under strain-controlled fatigue in present testing. By electron back scattering diffraction and transmission electron microscope technique, the shear bands were discovered on the surface of all cycled samples and no grain coarsening was discovered near the shear bands, which indicated that there was no inevitable relationship between formation of SBs and cyclic softening/grain coarsening. The discovery should be related to impurities in copper. The oriented distribution of defects along the shear plane in the last ECAP processing is one of the major mechanisms of SBs formation

Synthesis and Mechanical Characterisation of an Ultra-Fine Grained Ti-Mg Composite

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Markus Alfreider

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The importance of lightweight materials such as titanium and magnesium in various technical applications, for example aerospace, medical implants and lightweight construction is well appreciated. The present study is an attempt to combine and improve the mechanical properties of these two materials by forming an ultra-fine grained composite. The material, with a composition of 75 vol% (88.4 wt% Ti and 25 vol% (11.4 wt% Mg , was synthesized by powder compression and subsequently deformed by high-pressure torsion. Using focused ion beam machining, miniaturised compression samples were prepared and tested in-situ in a scanning electron microscope to gain insights into local deformation behaviour and mechanical properties of the nanocomposite. Results show outstanding yield strength of around 1250 MPa, which is roughly 200 to 500 MPa higher than literature reports of similar materials. The failure mode of the samples is accounted for by cracking along the phase boundaries.

The performance of fine-grained and coarse-grained elastic network models and its dependence on various factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Na, Hyuntae; Song, Guang

2015-07-01

In a recent work we developed a method for deriving accurate simplified models that capture the essentials of conventional all-atom NMA and identified two best simplified models: ssNMA and eANM, both of which have a significantly higher correlation with NMA in mean square fluctuation calculations than existing elastic network models such as ANM and ANMr2, a variant of ANM that uses the inverse of the squared separation distances as spring constants. Here, we examine closely how the performance of these elastic network models depends on various factors, namely, the presence of hydrogen atoms in the model, the quality of input structures, and the effect of crystal packing. The study reveals the strengths and limitations of these models. Our results indicate that ssNMA and eANM are the best fine-grained elastic network models but their performance is sensitive to the quality of input structures. When the quality of input structures is poor, ANMr2 is a good alternative for computing mean-square fluctuations while ANM model is a good alternative for obtaining normal modes. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Study of a Fine Grained Threaded Framework Design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, C D

2012-01-01

Traditionally, HEP experiments exploit the multiple cores in a CPU by having each core process one event. However, future PC designs are expected to use CPUs which double the number of processing cores at the same rate as the cost of memory falls by a factor of two. This effectively means the amount of memory per processing core will remain constant. This is a major challenge for LHC processing frameworks since the LHC is expected to deliver more complex events (e.g. greater pileup events) in the coming years while the LHC experiment's frameworks are already memory constrained. Therefore in the not so distant future we may need to be able to efficiently use multiple cores to process one event. In this presentation we will discuss a design for an HEP processing framework which can allow very fine grained parallelization within one event as well as supporting processing multiple events simultaneously while minimizing the memory footprint of the job. The design is built around the libdispatch framework created by Apple Inc. (a port for Linux is available) whose central concept is the use of task queues. This design also accommodates the reality that not all code will be thread safe and therefore allows one to easily mark modules or sub parts of modules as being thread unsafe. In addition, the design efficiently handles the requirement that events in one run must all be processed before starting to process events from a different run. After explaining the design we will provide measurements from simulating different processing scenarios where the processing times used for the simulation are drawn from processing times measured from actual CMS event processing.

Study of a Fine Grained Threaded Framework Design

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, C. D.

2012-12-01

Traditionally, HEP experiments exploit the multiple cores in a CPU by having each core process one event. However, future PC designs are expected to use CPUs which double the number of processing cores at the same rate as the cost of memory falls by a factor of two. This effectively means the amount of memory per processing core will remain constant. This is a major challenge for LHC processing frameworks since the LHC is expected to deliver more complex events (e.g. greater pileup events) in the coming years while the LHC experiment's frameworks are already memory constrained. Therefore in the not so distant future we may need to be able to efficiently use multiple cores to process one event. In this presentation we will discuss a design for an HEP processing framework which can allow very fine grained parallelization within one event as well as supporting processing multiple events simultaneously while minimizing the memory footprint of the job. The design is built around the libdispatch framework created by Apple Inc. (a port for Linux is available) whose central concept is the use of task queues. This design also accommodates the reality that not all code will be thread safe and therefore allows one to easily mark modules or sub parts of modules as being thread unsafe. In addition, the design efficiently handles the requirement that events in one run must all be processed before starting to process events from a different run. After explaining the design we will provide measurements from simulating different processing scenarios where the processing times used for the simulation are drawn from processing times measured from actual CMS event processing.

Grain refinement control in TIG arc welding

Science.gov (United States)

Iceland, W. F.; Whiffen, E. L. (Inventor)

1975-01-01

A method for controlling grain size and weld puddle agitation in a tungsten electrode inert gas welding system to produce fine, even grain size and distribution is disclosed. In the method the frequency of dc welding voltage pulses supplied to the welding electrode is varied over a preselected frequency range and the arc gas voltage is monitored. At some frequency in the preselected range the arc gas voltage will pass through a maximum. By maintaining the operating frequency of the system at this value, maximum weld puddle agitation and fine grain structure are produced.

A multi-scale homogenization model for fine-grained porous viscoplastic polycrystals: I - Finite-strain theory

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Dawei; Ponte Castañeda, P.

2018-06-01

We make use of the recently developed iterated second-order homogenization method to obtain finite-strain constitutive models for the macroscopic response of porous polycrystals consisting of large pores randomly distributed in a fine-grained polycrystalline matrix. The porous polycrystal is modeled as a three-scale composite, where the grains are described by single-crystal viscoplasticity and the pores are assumed to be large compared to the grain size. The method makes use of a linear comparison composite (LCC) with the same substructure as the actual nonlinear composite, but whose local properties are chosen optimally via a suitably designed variational statement. In turn, the effective properties of the resulting three-scale LCC are determined by means of a sequential homogenization procedure, utilizing the self-consistent estimates for the effective behavior of the polycrystalline matrix, and the Willis estimates for the effective behavior of the porous composite. The iterated homogenization procedure allows for a more accurate characterization of the properties of the matrix by means of a finer "discretization" of the properties of the LCC to obtain improved estimates, especially at low porosities, high nonlinearties and high triaxialities. In addition, consistent homogenization estimates for the average strain rate and spin fields in the pores and grains are used to develop evolution laws for the substructural variables, including the porosity, pore shape and orientation, as well as the "crystallographic" and "morphological" textures of the underlying matrix. In Part II of this work has appeared in Song and Ponte Castañeda (2018b), the model will be used to generate estimates for both the instantaneous effective response and the evolution of the microstructure for porous FCC and HCP polycrystals under various loading conditions.

The Pinning by Particles of Low and High Angle Grain Boundaries during Grain Growth

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tweed, C.J.; Ralph, B.; Hansen, Niels

1984-01-01

A study has been made using transmission electron microscopy of the pinning of grain boundaries in aluminium during grain growth by fine dispersions of alumina particles. The boundary parameters have been determined with precision and the pinning effects measured using an approach due to Ashby...

Memory for pitch in congenital amusia: beyond a fine-grained pitch discrimination problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Williamson, Victoria Jane; Stewart, Lauren

2010-08-01

Congenital amusia is a disorder that affects the perception and production of music. While amusia has been associated with deficits in pitch discrimination, several reports suggest that memory deficits also play a role. The present study investigated short-term memory span for pitch-based and verbal information in 14 individuals with amusia and matched controls. Analogous adaptive-tracking procedures were used to generate tone and digit spans using stimuli that exceeded psychophysically measured pitch perception thresholds. Individuals with amusia had significantly smaller tone spans, whereas their digits spans were a similar size to those of controls. An automated operation span task was used to determine working memory capacity. Working memory deficits were seen in only a small subgroup of individuals with amusia. These findings support the existence of a pitch-specific component within short-term memory and suggest that congenital amusia is more than a disorder of fine-grained pitch discrimination.

Feasibility Assessment of a Fine-Grained Access Control Model on Resource Constrained Sensors.

Science.gov (United States)

Uriarte Itzazelaia, Mikel; Astorga, Jasone; Jacob, Eduardo; Huarte, Maider; Romaña, Pedro

2018-02-13

Upcoming smart scenarios enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) envision smart objects that provide services that can adapt to user behavior or be managed to achieve greater productivity. In such environments, smart things are inexpensive and, therefore, constrained devices. However, they are also critical components because of the importance of the information that they provide. Given this, strong security is a requirement, but not all security mechanisms in general and access control models in particular are feasible. In this paper, we present the feasibility assessment of an access control model that utilizes a hybrid architecture and a policy language that provides dynamic fine-grained policy enforcement in the sensors, which requires an efficient message exchange protocol called Hidra. This experimental performance assessment includes a prototype implementation, a performance evaluation model, the measurements and related discussions, which demonstrate the feasibility and adequacy of the analyzed access control model.

Stability of fine-grained TT-OSL and post-IR IRSL signals from a c. 1 Ma sequence of aeolian and lacustrine deposits from the Nihewan Basin (northern China)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Jinfeng; Murray, Andrew Sean; Buylaert, Jan-Pieter

2016-01-01

We tested the suitability of the fine-grained quartz (4–11 μm) Optical Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and thermally-transferred OSL (TT-OSL), and the fine-grained polymineral (4–11 μm) post-infrared IRSL (post-IR IRSL or pIRIR) signals for dating samples from aeolian-lacustrine deposits from...... accurate ones; nevertheless, these ages provide the first long series absolute chronology for study of local palaeolithic and geomorphic evolution history aside from the  magnetostratigraphical results available before this research....

Fine-grained sediment spatial distribution on the basis of a geostatistical analysis: Example of the eastern Bay of the Seine (France)

Science.gov (United States)

Méar, Y.; Poizot, E.; Murat, A.; Lesueur, P.; Thomas, M.

2006-12-01

The eastern Bay of the Seine (English Channel) was the subject in 1991 of a sampling survey of superficial sediments. Geostatistic tools were used to examine the complexity of the spatial distribution of the fine-grained fraction (discussed. Within this sedimentary unit, the distribution of the fine fraction is very heterogeneous, with mud patches of less than 4000 m diameter; the boundary between these mud patches and their substratum is very sharp. The distribution of this fine fraction appears to be controlled by an anticyclonic eddy located off the Pays de Caux. Under the influence of this, the suspended material expelled from the Seine estuary moves along the coast and swings off Antifer harbour, towards the NW. It is trapped within this eddy because of the settling of suspended particulate matter. Both at a general scale and a local scale the morphology (whether inherited or due to modern processes) has a strong influence on the spatial distribution of the fine fraction. At the general scale, the basin-like shape of the area facilitates the silting, and the presence of the submarine dunes, called "Ridins d'Antifer", clearly determines the northern limit of the muddy zone. At a local scale, the same influence is obvious: paleovalleys trap the fine sediments, whereas isolated sand dunes and ripples limit the silting. This duality of role of the morphology is therefore one of the reasons why the muddy surface is extremely heterogeneous spatially. The presence of an important population of suspension feeding echinoderm, the brittle-star Ophiothrix fragilis Abildgaard, has led to a local increase in the silting, and to the modification of the physicochemical and sedimentological parameters. A complex relationship is shown to occur between the amount of fine fraction and the number of brittle-stars (ind. m -2). Classical statistical methods are not appropriate to study the spatial distribution of the mud fraction, because the spatial component of the percentage of

Production of Seamless Superconducting Radio Frequency Cavities from Ultra-fine Grained Niobium, Phase II Final Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roy Crooks, Ph.D., P.E.

2009-10-31

The positron and electron linacs of the International Linear Collider (ILC) will require over 14,000, nine-cell, one meter length, superconducting radio frequency (SRF) cavities [ILC Reference Design Report, 2007]. Manufacturing on this scale will benefit from more efficient fabrication methods. The current methods of fabricating SRF cavities involve deep drawing of the halves of each of the elliptical cells and joining them by high-vacuum, electron beam welding, with at least 19 circumferential welds per cavity. The welding is costly and has undesirable effects on the cavity surfaces, including grain-scale surface roughening at the weld seams. Hydroforming of seamless tubes avoids welding, but hydroforming of coarse-grained seamless tubes results in strain-induced surface roughening. Surface roughness limits accelerating fields, because asperities prematurely exceed the critical magnetic field and become normal conducting. This project explored the technical and economic feasibility of an improved processing method for seamless tubes for hydroforming. Severe deformation of bulk material was first used to produce a fine structure, followed by extrusion and flow-forming methods of tube making. Extrusion of the randomly oriented, fine-grained bulk material proceeded under largely steady-state conditions, and resulted in a uniform structure, which was found to be finer and more crystallographically random than standard (high purity) RRR niobium sheet metal. A 165 mm diameter billet of RRR grade niobium was processed into five, 150 mm I.D. tubes, each over 1.8 m in length, to meet the dimensions used by the DESY ILC hydroforming machine. Mechanical properties met specifications. Costs of prototype tube production were approximately twice the price of RRR niobium sheet, and are expected to be comparable with economies of scale. Hydroforming and superconducting testing will be pursued in subsequent collaborations with DESY and Fermilab. SRF Cavities are used to construct

Debris flow rheology: Experimental analysis of fine-grained slurries

Science.gov (United States)

Major, Jon J.; Pierson, Thomas C.

1992-01-01

The rheology of slurries consisting of ≤2-mm sediment from a natural debris flow deposit was measured using a wide-gap concentric-cylinder viscometer. The influence of sediment concentration and size and distribution of grains on the bulk rheological behavior of the slurries was evaluated at concentrations ranging from 0.44 to 0.66. The slurries exhibit diverse rheological behavior. At shear rates above 5 s−1 the behavior approaches that of a Bingham material; below 5 s−1, sand exerts more influence and slurry behavior deviates from the Bingham idealization. Sand grain interactions dominate the mechanical behavior when sand concentration exceeds 0.2; transient fluctuations in measured torque, time-dependent decay of torque, and hysteresis effects are observed. Grain rubbing, interlocking, and collision cause changes in packing density, particle distribution, grain orientation, and formation and destruction of grain clusters, which may explain the observed behavior. Yield strength and plastic viscosity exhibit order-of-magnitude variation when sediment concentration changes as little as 2–4%. Owing to these complexities, it is unlikely that debris flows can be characterized by a single rheological model.

An Evaluation of Coarse-Grained Locking for Multicore Microkernels

OpenAIRE

Elphinstone, Kevin; Zarrabi, Amirreza; Danis, Adrian; Shen, Yanyan; Heiser, Gernot

2016-01-01

The trade-off between coarse- and fine-grained locking is a well understood issue in operating systems. Coarse-grained locking provides lower overhead under low contention, fine-grained locking provides higher scalability under contention, though at the expense of implementation complexity and re- duced best-case performance. We revisit this trade-off in the context of microkernels and tightly-coupled cores with shared caches and low inter-core migration latencies. We evaluate performance on ...

Grain size effect on yield strength of titanium alloy implanted with aluminum ions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Popova, Natalya, E-mail: natalya-popova-44@mail.ru [Tomsk State University of Architecture and Building, 2, Solyanaya Sq., 634003, Tomsk (Russian Federation); Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science, SB RAS, 2/4, Akademicheskii Ave., 634021, Tomsk (Russian Federation); Nikonenko, Elena, E-mail: vilatomsk@mail.ru [Tomsk State University of Architecture and Building, 2, Solyanaya Sq., 634003, Tomsk (Russian Federation); National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University, 30, Lenin Str., 634050, Tomsk (Russian Federation); Yurev, Ivan, E-mail: yiywork@mail.ru [Tomsk State University of Architecture and Building, 2, Solyanaya Sq., 634003, Tomsk (Russian Federation); Kalashnikov, Mark, E-mail: kmp1980@mail.ru [Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science, SB RAS, 2/4, Akademicheskii Ave., 634021, Tomsk (Russian Federation); Kurzina, Irina, E-mail: kurzina99@mail.ru [National Research Tomsk State University, 36, Lenin Str., 634050, Tomsk (Russian Federation)

2016-01-15

The paper presents a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study of the microstructure and phase state of commercially pure titanium VT1-0 implanted by aluminum ions. This study has been carried out before and after the ion implantation for different grain size, i.e. 0.3 µm (ultra-fine grain condition), 1.5 µm (fine grain condition), and 17 µm (polycrystalline condition). This paper presents details of calculations and analysis of strength components of the yield stress. It is shown that the ion implantation results in a considerable hardening of the entire thickness of the implanted layer in the both grain types. The grain size has, however, a different effect on the yield stress. So, both before and after the ion implantation, the increase of the grain size leads to the decrease of the alloy hardening. Thus, hardening in ultra-fine and fine grain alloys increased by four times, while in polycrystalline alloy it increased by over six times.

Microstructural evolution by heating at 1673-2373 K in ultra-fine grained W-(0.25-1.5)%TiC consolidates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hidaka, M.; Sakamoto, T.; Kobayashi, S.; Nakai, K.; Kurishita, H.; Arakawa, H.

2007-01-01

Full text of publication follows: Ultra-fine grained (UFG) W-TiC consolidates with nearly full densification are expected to be very promising for their use as divertors and structural materials exposed to irradiation environments because they exhibit good resistance to irradiations with fast neutrons, helium-ions and hydrogen-ions. In view of exposure to high heat loading on divertors, it is necessary to examine microstructural evolution due to high temperature heating in UFG W-TiC consolidates, which is closely related to recrystallization embrittlement. The objective of this study is to clarify how the microstructures in UFG W-TiC consolidates change with annealing at 1673-2373 K, with emphasis on the effects of TiC additions and nano-sized Ar bubbles retained in UFG W-TiC consolidates fabricated by mechanical alloying (MA) in an Ar atmosphere. UFG W-(0.25, 0.5, 0.8, 1.1, 1.5)%TiC (in wt%) consolidates were fabricated by powder metallurgical methods utilizing MA with 3MPDA (three mutually perpendicular directions agitation) bail mill in an atmosphere of purified H 2 (MA-H 2 ) or Ar (MA-Ar), followed by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) at 1623 K. Thin foils for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations were prepared from each of the as-HIPed consolidates and subjected to annealing in vacuum at temperatures from 1673 to 2373 K for 3.6 ks by radio-frequency induction heating. TEM examinations and EDX analyses were made using a JEM-2000FX and JEM-4000FX operating at 200 and 400 kV, respectively. It is shown that the as-HIPed specimens exhibit equiaxed grain sizes of 40 to 200 nm which decrease with increasing TiC addition, but the grain size tends to saturate around 1 wt% TiC addition. The nano-sized Ar bubbles in W-TiC with MA-Ar are observed in approximately half of the grains and provide a significant grain refinement effect: The grain size in W-TiC with MA-Ar is approximately half of that with MA-H 2 . Such Ar bubbles are retained even after heating at

Development and evaluation of a geographic information retrieval system using fine grained toponyms

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Damien Palacio

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Geographic information retrieval (GIR is concerned with returning information in response to an information need, typically expressed in terms of a thematic and spatial component linked by a spatial relationship. However, evaluation initiatives have often failed to show significant differences between simple text baselines and more complex spatially enabled GIR approaches. We explore the effectiveness of three systems (a text baseline, spatial query expansion, and a full GIR system utilizing both text and spatial indexes at retrieving documents from a corpus describing mountaineering expeditions, centred around fine grained toponyms. To allow evaluation, we use user generated content (UGC in the form of metadata associated with individual articles to build a test collection of queries and judgments. The test collection allowed us to demonstrate that a GIR-based method significantly outperformed a text baseline for all but very specific queries associated with very small query radii. We argue that such approaches to test collection development have much to offer in the evaluation of GIR.

Sequence of structures in fine-grained turbidites: Comparison of recent deep-sea and ancient flysch sediments

Science.gov (United States)

Stow, Dorrik A. V.; Shanmugam, Ganapathy

1980-01-01

A comparative study of the sequence of sedimentary structures in ancient and modern fine-grained turbidites is made in three contrasting areas. They are (1) Holocene and Pleistocene deep-sea muds of the Nova Scotian Slope and Rise, (2) Middle Ordovician Sevier Shale of the Valley and Ridge Province of the Southern Appalachians, and (3) Cambro-Ordovician Halifax Slate of the Meguma Group in Nova Scotia. A standard sequence of structures is proposed for fine-grained turbidites. The complete sequence has nine sub-divisions that are here termed T 0 to T 8. "The lower subdivision (T 0) comprises a silt lamina which has a sharp, scoured and load-cast base, internal parallel-lamination and cross-lamination, and a sharp current-lineated or wavy surface with 'fading-ripples' (= Type C etc. …)." (= Type C ripple-drift cross-lamination, Jopling and Walker, 1968). The overlying sequence shows textural and compositional grading through alternating silt and mud laminae. A convolute-laminated sub-division (T 1) is overlain by low-amplitude climbing ripples (T 2), thin regular laminae (T 3), thin indistinct laminae (T 4), and thin wipsy or convolute laminae (T 5). The topmost three divisions, graded mud (T 6), ungraded mud (T 7) and bioturbated mud (T 8), do not have silt laminae but rare patchy silt lenses and silt pseudonodules and a thin zone of micro-burrowing near the upper surface. The proposed sequence is analogous to the Bouma (1962) structural scheme for sandy turbidites and is approximately equivalent to Bouma's (C)DE divisions. The repetition of partial sequences characterizes different parts of the slope/base-of-slope/basin plain environment, and represents deposition from different stages of evolution of a large, muddy, turbidity flow. Microstructural detail and sequence are well preserved in ancient and even slightly metamorphosed sediments. Their recognition is important for determining depositional processes and for palaeoenvironmental interpretation.

Grain boundary and grain interior conduction in γ'-Bi2MoO6

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vera, C.M.C.; Aragon, R.

2005-01-01

Impedance spectroscopy of fine grained ( 2 MoO 6 samples, in the frequency range of 0.1 Hz-250 kHz, relevant to sensor applications, up to 800 deg. C, has been used to characterize grain boundary and grain interior contributions to conduction. Above 500 deg. C, the grain boundary contribution is no longer rate limiting and conduction is dominated by the grain interior component. The corresponding activation energies are 0.98 eV for grain boundary and 0.73 eV for grain interior components. The weak dependence of conductivity on oxygen partial pressure below 500 deg. C can be attributed to electrode-electrolyte interface phenomena, whereas the robust response to ethanol is commensurate with changes in intrinsic ionic conductivity

Significance of Fines in Hot Mix Asphalt Synthesis

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Kalaitzaki Elvira

2017-07-01

Full Text Available According to their size, aggregates are classified in coarse grained, fine grained, and fines. The determination of fines content in aggregate materials is very simple and is performed through the aggregate washing during the sieving procedure to define the gradation curve. The very fine material consists of grains having a size lower than 63 μm. The presence of fines directly influences the composition and performance of concrete and asphalt mixtures (e.g. asphalt content, elasticity, fracture. The strength and load carrying capacity of hot mix asphalt (HMA results from the aggregate framework created through particle-particle contact and interlock. Fines or mineral filler have a role in HMA. The coarse aggregate framework is filled by the sand-sized material and finally by the mineral filler. At some point, the smallest particles lose contact becoming suspended in the binder not having the particle-particle contact that is created by the larger particles. The overall effect of mineral filler in hot mix asphalt specimens has been investigated through a series of laboratory tests. It is clear that a behaviour influenced by the adherence of fines to asphalt film has been developed. The optimum bitumen content requirement in case of stone filler is almost the same as that for fly ash. It has been found that the percentage of fly ash filler is crucial if it exceeds approximately a value of 4%.

Preparation of bimodal grain size 7075 aviation aluminum alloys and their corrosion properties

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Wenming TIAN

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The bimodal grain size metals show improved strength and ductility compared to traditional metals; however, their corrosion properties are unknown. In order to evaluate the corrosion properties of these metals, the bimodal grain size 7075 aviation aluminum alloys containing different ratios of coarse (100 μm in diameter and fine (10 μm in diameter grains were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS. The effects of grain size as well as the mixture degree of coarse and fine grains on general corrosion were estimated by immersion tests, electrochemical measurements and complementary techniques such as scanning electron microscope (SEM and transmission electron microscope-energy disperse spectroscopy (TEM-EDS. The results show that, compared to fine grains, the coarse grains have a faster dissolution rate in acidic NaCl solution due to the bigger size, higher alloying elements content and larger area fraction of second phases in them. In coarse grains, the hydrogen ions have a faster reduction rate on cathodic second phases, therefore promoting the corrosion propagation. The mixture of coarse and fine grains also increases the electrochemical heterogeneity of alloys in micro-scale, and thus the increased mixture degree of these grains in metal matrix accelerates the corrosion rate of alloys in acidic NaCl solution.

Multiple age components in individual molybdenite grains

Science.gov (United States)

Aleinikoff, John N.; Creaser, Robert A.; Lowers, Heather; Magee, Charles W.; Grauch, Richard I.

2012-01-01

Re–Os geochronology of fractions composed of unsized, coarse, and fine molybdenite from a pod of unusual monazite–xenotime gneiss within a granulite facies paragneiss, Hudson Highlands, NY, yielded dates of 950.5 ± 2.5, 953.8 ± 2.6, and 941.2 ± 2.6 Ma, respectively. These dates are not recorded by co-existing zircon, monazite, or xenotime. SEM–BSE imagery of thin sections and separated grains reveals that most molybdenite grains are composed of core and rim plates that are approximately perpendicular. Rim material invaded cores, forming irregular contacts, probably reflecting dissolution/reprecipitation. EPMA and LA-ICP-MS analyses show that cores and rims have different trace element concentrations (for example, cores are relatively enriched in W). On the basis of inclusions of zircon with metamorphic overgrowths, we conclude that molybdenite cores and rims formed after high-grade regional metamorphism. The discovery of cores and rims in individual molybdenite grains is analogous to multi-component U-Pb geochronometers such as zircon, monazite, and titanite; thus, molybdenite should be carefully examined before dating to ensure that the requirement of age homogeneity is fulfilled.

A Fine-Grained Data Access Control System in Wireless Sensor Network

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Boniface K. Alese

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The evolving realities of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN deployed to various terrain of life require serving multiple applications. As large amount of sensed data are distributed and stored in individual sensors nodes, the illegal access to these sensitive data can be devastating. Consequently, data insecurity becomes a big concern. This study, therefore, proposes a fine-grained access control system which only requires the right set of users to access a particular data, based on their access privileges in the sensor networks. It is designed using Priccess Protocol with Access policy formulation adopting the principle of Bell Lapadula model as well as Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE to control access to sensor data. The functionality of the proposed system is simulated using Netbeans. The performance analysis of the proposed system using execution time and size of the key show that the higher the key size, the harder it becomes for the attacker to hack the system. Additionally, the time taken for the proposed work is lesser which makes the work faster than the existing work. Consequently, a well secure interactive web-based application that could facilitates the field officers access to stored data in safe and secure manner is developed.

Luna 24 regolith breccias: A possible source of the fine size material of the Luna 24 regolith

Science.gov (United States)

Rode, O. D.; Lindstrom, M. M.

1994-01-01

The regolith breccias from the Luna 24 core were analyzed. The Luna 24 regolith is a mixture of fine and coarse grain materials. The comparable analysis of the grain size distributions, the modal and chemical compositions of the breccias, and the regolith from the same levels show that the friable slightly litificated breccia with a friable fine grain matrix may be a source of fine grain material of the Luna 24 present day regolith.

From bird to sparrow: Learning-induced modulations in fine-grained semantic discrimination.

Science.gov (United States)

De Meo, Rosanna; Bourquin, Nathalie M-P; Knebel, Jean-François; Murray, Micah M; Clarke, Stephanie

2015-09-01

Recognition of environmental sounds is believed to proceed through discrimination steps from broad to more narrow categories. Very little is known about the neural processes that underlie fine-grained discrimination within narrow categories or about their plasticity in relation to newly acquired expertise. We investigated how the cortical representation of birdsongs is modulated by brief training to recognize individual species. During a 60-minute session, participants learned to recognize a set of birdsongs; they improved significantly their performance for trained (T) but not control species (C), which were counterbalanced across participants. Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were recorded during pre- and post-training sessions. Pre vs. post changes in AEPs were significantly different between T and C i) at 206-232ms post stimulus onset within a cluster on the anterior part of the left superior temporal gyrus; ii) at 246-291ms in the left middle frontal gyrus; and iii) 512-545ms in the left middle temporal gyrus as well as bilaterally in the cingulate cortex. All effects were driven by weaker activity for T than C species. Thus, expertise in discriminating T species modulated early stages of semantic processing, during and immediately after the time window that sustains the discrimination between human vs. animal vocalizations. Moreover, the training-induced plasticity is reflected by the sharpening of a left lateralized semantic network, including the anterior part of the temporal convexity and the frontal cortex. Training to identify birdsongs influenced, however, also the processing of C species, but at a much later stage. Correct discrimination of untrained sounds seems to require an additional step which results from lower-level features analysis such as apperception. We therefore suggest that the access to objects within an auditory semantic category is different and depends on subject's level of expertise. More specifically, correct intra

Friction stir weld tools having fine grain structure

Science.gov (United States)

Grant, Glenn J.; Frye, John G.; Kim, Jin Yong; Lavender, Curt A.; Weil, Kenneth Scott

2016-03-15

Tools for friction stir welding can be made with fewer process steps, lower cost techniques, and/or lower cost ingredients than other state-of-the-art processes by utilizing improved compositions and processes of fabrication. Furthermore, the tools resulting from the improved compositions and processes of fabrication can exhibit better distribution and homogeneity of chemical constituents, greater strength, and/or increased durability. In one example, a friction stir weld tool includes tungsten and rhenium and is characterized by carbide and oxide dispersoids, by carbide particulates, and by grains that comprise a solid solution of the tungsten and rhenium. The grains do not exceed 10 micrometers in diameter.

Multiaxial creep of fine grained 0.5Cr-0.5Mo-0.25V and coarse grained 1Cr-0.5Mo steels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Browne, R.J.; Flewitt, P.E.J.; Lonsdale, D.

1991-01-01

To explore the multiaxial creep response of materials used for electrical power generating plant, two steels, a fine grained 0.5Cr-0.5Mo-0.25V steel in a normalised and tempered condition with high creep ductility and a coarse grained 1Cr-0.5Mo steel in a quenched and tempered condition with low uniaxial creep ductility, have been selected. A range of multiaxial stress testing techniques which span the stress states that would allow identification of any technique dependent variables has been used. The deformation and failure of the normalised and tempered 0.5Cr-0.5Mo-0.25V steel for a range of multiaxial test techniques and, therefore, stress states may be described by an equivalent stress criterion. The results from the multiaxial tests carried out on the fully bainitic 1Cr-0.5Mo steel show that the multiaxial stress rupture criterion (MSRC) varies with stress state; at high triaxiality (notch), it is controlled by the maximum principal stress, whereas at low triaxiality (shear) it is dependent on both maximum principal stress and equivalent stress. Furthermore, a simple description of stress state based on maximum principal and equivalent stress does not define this uniquely, since the MSRC derived from uniaxial and torsion testing does not describe the failure of notch, tube, or double shear tests. (author)

Sedimentary controls on modern sand grain coat formation

Science.gov (United States)

Dowey, Patrick J.; Worden, Richard H.; Utley, James; Hodgson, David M.

2017-05-01

Coated sand grains can influence reservoir quality evolution during sandstone diagenesis. Porosity can be reduced and fluid flow restricted where grain coats encroach into pore space. Conversely pore-lining grain coats can restrict the growth of pore-filling quartz cement in deeply buried sandstones, and thus can result in unusually high porosity in deeply buried sandstones. Being able to predict the distribution of coated sand grains within petroleum reservoirs is thus important to help find good reservoir quality. Here we report a modern analogue study of 12 sediment cores from the Anllóns Estuary, Galicia, NW Spain, collected from a range of sub-environments, to help develop an understanding of the occurrence and distribution of coated grains. The cores were described for grain size, bioturbation and sedimentary structures, and then sub-sampled for electron and light microscopy, laser granulometry, and X-ray diffraction analysis. The Anllóns Estuary is sand-dominated with intertidal sand flats and saltmarsh environments at the margins; there is a shallowing/fining-upwards trend in the estuary-fill succession. Grain coats are present in nearly every sample analysed; they are between 1 μm and 100 μm thick and typically lack internal organisation. The extent of grain coat coverage can exceed 25% in some samples with coverage highest in the top 20 cm of cores. Samples from muddy intertidal flat and the muddy saltmarsh environments, close to the margins of the estuary, have the highest coat coverage (mean coat coverage of 20.2% and 21.3%, respectively). The lowest mean coat coverage occurs in the sandy saltmarsh (10.4%), beyond the upper tidal limit and sandy intertidal flat environments (8.4%), close to the main estuary channel. Mean coat coverage correlates with the concentration of clay fraction. The primary controls on the distribution of fine-grained sediment, and therefore grain coat distribution, are primary sediment transport and deposition processes that

Current status of ultra-fine grained W-TiC development for use in irradiation environments

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kurishita, H [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai-machi, Ibaraki-ken 311-1313 (Japan); Kobayashi, S [Department of Materials Science and Biotechnology, Ehime University, Matsuyama-shi 790-8577 (Japan); Nakai, K [Department of Materials Science and Biotechnology, Ehime University, Matsuyama-shi 790-8577 (Japan); Arakawa, H [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai-machi, Ibaraki-ken 311-1313 (Japan); Matsuo, S [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials Research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai-machi, Ibaraki-ken 311-1313 (Japan); Takida, T [ALMT. Corp., 2 Iwase-koshi-machi, Toyama 931-8371 (Japan); Takebe, K [ALMT. Corp., 2 Iwase-koshi-machi, Toyama 931-8371 (Japan); Kawai, M [Institute of Material Structure Science, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken 305-0801 (Japan)

2007-03-15

Ultra-fine grained (UFG) W-TiC with a high purity matrix of low dislocation density is expected to exhibit improve resistance to irradiation with neutrons and helium ions and the room temperature mechanical properties. Aiming at such UFG W-TiC with the desired microstructure, powders of W with 0.25-0.8 wt% TiC additions were subjected to mechanical alloying (MA) and hot isostatic pressing (HIP), where purified H{sub 2} and Ar were used as the MA atmosphere. Microstructural observations and room- and high-temperature mechanical tests were performed for UFG W-TiC before and after neutron irradiation to a fluence of 2x10{sup 24} n m{sup -2} at 873 K. It is shown that the MA atmosphere significantly affects grain refinement, room-temperature strength and high-temperature tensile plasticity of UFG W-TiC. W-0.5TiC with H{sub 2} in MA (W-0.5TiC-H{sub 2}) shows a larger strain rate sensitivity of flow stress, m, of 0.5{approx}0.6 at temperatures from 1673 to 1973 K, which is a feature of superplastic materials. Whereas W-0.5TiC-Ar shows a smaller m value of approximately 0.2. No radiation hardening is recognized in UFG W-0.5TiC-H{sub 2} and W-0.5TiC-Ar.

Current status of ultra-fine grained W-TiC development for use in irradiation environments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kurishita, H; Kobayashi, S; Nakai, K; Arakawa, H; Matsuo, S; Takida, T; Takebe, K; Kawai, M

2007-01-01

Ultra-fine grained (UFG) W-TiC with a high purity matrix of low dislocation density is expected to exhibit improve resistance to irradiation with neutrons and helium ions and the room temperature mechanical properties. Aiming at such UFG W-TiC with the desired microstructure, powders of W with 0.25-0.8 wt% TiC additions were subjected to mechanical alloying (MA) and hot isostatic pressing (HIP), where purified H 2 and Ar were used as the MA atmosphere. Microstructural observations and room- and high-temperature mechanical tests were performed for UFG W-TiC before and after neutron irradiation to a fluence of 2x10 24 n m -2 at 873 K. It is shown that the MA atmosphere significantly affects grain refinement, room-temperature strength and high-temperature tensile plasticity of UFG W-TiC. W-0.5TiC with H 2 in MA (W-0.5TiC-H 2 ) shows a larger strain rate sensitivity of flow stress, m, of 0.5∼0.6 at temperatures from 1673 to 1973 K, which is a feature of superplastic materials. Whereas W-0.5TiC-Ar shows a smaller m value of approximately 0.2. No radiation hardening is recognized in UFG W-0.5TiC-H 2 and W-0.5TiC-Ar

Discrimination of fine-grained sediment provenance using geochemical elements on the inner shelf of the Korean Strait (South Sea), Korea

Science.gov (United States)

Um, I. K.; Choi, M. S.

2017-12-01

The central South Sea mud (CSSM) is located between the Heuksan mud belt (HMB) in the Yellow Sea and Korea Strait shelf mud (KSSM) in the East Sea and developed along the eastward transport pathway in the South Sea. Major elements (Al, Fe, Mg, and Ti), trace elements (Li, Cs, Sc, and Rb), and rare earth elements (REEs) in the fine-grained sediments (HMB were deposited mostly in the W-CSSM, whereas those from the Seomjin River were deposited mostly in the E-CSSM

Synthesis and thermoelectric properties of fine-grained FeVSb system half-Heusler compound polycrystals with high phase purity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zou Minmin; Li Jingfeng; Guo Peijun; Kita, Takuji

2010-01-01

Nearly single-phased FeVSb half-Heusler compound thermoelectric materials with fine grains of diameter 100-200 nm were prepared from their elemental powders by combining mechanical alloying (MA) and spark plasma sintering. The resultant bulk samples showed a relatively low room-temperature electrical resistivity on the order of 10 μΩm, and a moderate negative Seebeck coefficient with a maximum value of -175 μV K -1 at 300 0 C. It was found that proper excessive addition of V relative to the stoichiometric composition (FeVSb) during MA enhanced the phase purity and hence the power factor of the spark plasma sintered samples, resulting in a large power factor value of 2480 μW m -1 K -2 when the elemental powders were mixed with the composition FeV 1.15 Sb. Its thermal conductivity was significantly reduced mainly due to refined grain sizes, resulting in a high dimensionless figure of merit ZT of 0.31 at a low-to-mid temperature (300 0 C) as for undoped half-Heusler compounds.

Influence of Al sub 2 O sub 3 nanoparticles on the thermal stability of ultra-fine grained copper prepared by high pressure torsion

CERN Document Server

Cizek, J; Kuzel, R; Islamgaliev, R K

2002-01-01

Ultra-fine grained (UFG) Cu (grain size 80 nm) containing 0.5 wt.% Al sub 2 O sub 3 nanoparticles (size 20 nm) was prepared by high pressure torsion (HPT). Positron lifetime spectroscopy was employed to characterize the microstructure of this material, especially with respect to types and concentration of lattice defects. The evolution of microstructure with increasing temperature was studied by positron lifetime spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction measurements. The thermal stability of the Cu + 0.5 wt.% Al sub 2 O sub 3 nanocomposite was compared with that of pure UFG Cu prepared by the same technique. The processes taking place during thermal recovery of the initial nanoscale structure in both studied materials are described. (author)

Mechanism of secondary recrystallization of Goss grains in grain-oriented electrical steel

Science.gov (United States)

Hayakawa, Yasuyuki

2017-12-01

Since its invention by Goss in 1934, grain-oriented (GO) electrical steel has been widely used as a core material in transformers. GO exhibits a grain size of over several millimeters attained by secondary recrystallization during high-temperature final batch annealing. In addition to the unusually large grain size, the crystal direction in the rolling direction is aligned with , which is the easy magnetization axis of α-iron. Secondary recrystallization is the phenomenon in which a certain very small number of {110} (Goss) grains grow selectively (about one in 106 primary grains) at the expense of many other primary recrystallized grains. The question of why the Goss orientation is exclusively selected during secondary recrystallization has long been a main research subject in this field. The general criterion for secondary recrystallization is a small and uniform primary grain size, which is achieved through the inhibition of normal grain growth by fine precipitates called inhibitors. This paper describes several conceivable mechanisms of secondary recrystallization of Goss grains mainly based on the selective growth model.

Thermoelectric properties of fine-grained FeVSb half-Heusler alloys tuned to p-type by substituting vanadium with titanium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zou, Minmin; Li, Jing-Feng; Kita, Takuji

2013-01-01

Fine-grained Ti-doped FeVSb half-Heusler alloys were synthesized by combining mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering and their thermoelectric properties were investigated with an emphasis on the influences of Ti doping and phase purity. It was found that substituting V with Ti can change the electrical transport behavior from n-type to p-type due to one less valence electron of Ti than V, and the sample with nominal composition FeV 0.8 Ti 0.4 Sb exhibits the largest Seebeck coefficient and the maximum power factor. By optimizing the sintering temperature and applying annealing treatment, the power factor is significantly improved and the thermal conductivity is reduced simultaneously, resulting in a ZT value of 0.43 at 500 °C, which is relatively high as for p-type half-Heusler alloys containing earth-abundant elements. - Graphical abstract: Fine-grained Ti-doped FeVSb alloys were prepared by the MA-SPS method. The maximum ZT value reaches 0.43 at 500 °C, which is relatively high for p-type half-Heusler alloys. Highlights: ► Ti-doped FeVSb half-Heusler alloys were synthesized by combining MA and SPS. ► Substituting V with Ti changes the electrical behavior from n-type to p-type. ► Thermoelectric properties are improved by optimizing sintering temperature. ► Thermoelectric properties are further improved by applying annealing treatment. ► A high ZT value of 0.43 is obtained at 500 °C for p-type Ti-doped FeVSb alloys.

The grain-size lineup: A test of a novel eyewitness identification procedure.

Science.gov (United States)

Horry, Ruth; Brewer, Neil; Weber, Nathan

2016-04-01

When making a memorial judgment, respondents can regulate their accuracy by adjusting the precision, or grain size, of their responses. In many circumstances, coarse-grained responses are less informative, but more likely to be accurate, than fine-grained responses. This study describes a novel eyewitness identification procedure, the grain-size lineup, in which participants eliminated any number of individuals from the lineup, creating a choice set of variable size. A decision was considered to be fine-grained if no more than 1 individual was left in the choice set or coarse-grained if more than 1 individual was left in the choice set. Participants (N = 384) watched 2 high-quality or low-quality videotaped mock crimes and then completed 4 standard simultaneous lineups or 4 grain-size lineups (2 target-present and 2 target-absent). There was some evidence of strategic regulation of grain size, as the most difficult lineup was associated with a greater proportion of coarse-grained responses than the other lineups. However, the grain-size lineup did not outperform the standard simultaneous lineup. Fine-grained suspect identifications were no more diagnostic than suspect identifications from standard lineups, whereas coarse-grained suspect identifications carried little probative value. Participants were generally reluctant to provide coarse-grained responses, which may have hampered the utility of the procedure. For a grain-size approach to be useful, participants may need to be trained or instructed to use the coarse-grained option effectively. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Sintering of Fine Particles in Suspension Plasma Sprayed Coatings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leszek Latka

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Suspension plasma spraying is a process that enables the production of finely grained nanometric or submicrometric coatings. The suspensions are formulated with the use of fine powder particles in water or alcohol with some additives. Subsequently, the suspension is injected into plasma jet and the liquid additives evaporate. The remaining fine solids are molten and subsequently agglomerate or remain solid, depending on their trajectory in the plasma jet. The coating’s microstructure results from these two groups of particles arriving on a substrate or previously deposited coating. Previous experimental studies carried out for plasma sprayed titanium oxide and hydroxyapatite coatings enabled us to observe either a finely grained microstructure or, when a different suspension injection mode was used, to distinguish two zones in the microstructure. These two zones correspond to the dense zone formed from well molten particles, and the agglomerated zone formed from fine solid particles that arrive on the substrate in a solid state. The present paper focuses on the experimental and theoretical analysis of the formation process of the agglomerated zone. The experimental section establishes the heat flux supplied to the coating during deposition. In order to achieve this, calorimetric measurements were made by applying experimental conditions simulating the real coatings’ growth. The heat flux was measured to be in the range from 0.08 to 0.5 MW/m2,depending on the experimental conditions. The theoretical section analyzes the sintering during the coating’s growth, which concerns the fine particles arriving on the substrate in the solid state. The models of volume, grain boundary and surface diffusion were analyzed and adapted to the size and chemistry of the grains, temperature and time scales corresponding to the suspension plasma spraying conditions. The model of surface diffusion was found to best describe the sintering during suspension

Microstructure of warm rolling and pearlitic transformation of ultrafine-grained GCr15 steel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sun, Jun-Jie; Lian, Fu-Liang; Liu, Hong-Ji; Jiang, Tao; Guo, Sheng-Wu; Du, Lin-Xiu; Liu, Yong-Ning

2014-01-01

Pearlitic transformation mechanisms have been investigated in ultra-fine grained GCr15 steel. The ultrafine-grained steel, whose grain size was less than 1 μm, was prepared by thermo-mechanical treatment at 873 K and then annealing at 923 K for 2 h. Pearlitic transformation was conducted by reheating the ultra-fine grained samples at 1073 K and 1123 K for different periods of time and then cooling in air. Scanning electron microscope observation shows that normal lamellar pearlite, instead of granular cementite and ferrite, cannot be formed when the grain size is approximately less than 4(± 0.6) μm, which yields a critical grain size for normal lamellar pearlitic transformations in this chromium alloyed steel. The result confirms that grain size has a great influence on pearlitic transformation by increasing the diffusion rate of carbon atoms in the ultra-fine grained steel, and the addition of chromium element doesn't change this pearlitic phase transformation rule. Meanwhile, the grain growth rate is reduced by chromium alloying, which is beneficial to form fine grains during austenitizing, thus it facilitating pearlitic transformation by divorced eutectoid transformation. Moreover, chromium element can form a relatively high gradient in the frontier of the undissolved carbide, which promotes carbide formation in the frontier of the undissolved carbide, i.e., chromium promotes divorced eutectoid transformation. - Highlights: • Ultrafine-grained GCr15 steel was obtained by warm rolling and annealing technology. • Reduction of grain size makes pearlite morphology from lamellar to granular. • Adding Cr does not change normal pearlitic phase transformation rule in UFG steel. • Cr carbide resists grain growth and facilitates pearlitic transformation by DET

Multiscale pore structure and constitutive models of fine-grained rocks

Science.gov (United States)

Heath, J. E.; Dewers, T. A.; Shields, E. A.; Yoon, H.; Milliken, K. L.

2017-12-01

A foundational concept of continuum poromechanics is the representative elementary volume or REV: an amount of material large enough that pore- or grain-scale fluctuations in relevant properties are dissipated to a definable mean, but smaller than length scales of heterogeneity. We determine 2D-equivalent representative elementary areas (REAs) of pore areal fraction of three major types of mudrocks by applying multi-beam scanning electron microscopy (mSEM) to obtain terapixel image mosaics. Image analysis obtains pore areal fraction and pore size and shape as a function of progressively larger measurement areas. Using backscattering imaging and mSEM data, pores are identified by the components within which they occur, such as in organics or the clastic matrix. We correlate pore areal fraction with nano-indentation, micropillar compression, and axysimmetic testing at multiple length scales on a terrigenous-argillaceous mudrock sample. The combined data set is used to: investigate representative elementary volumes (and areas for the 2D images); determine if scale separation occurs; and determine if transport and mechanical properties at a given length scale can be statistically defined. Clear scale separation occurs between REAs and observable heterogeneity in two of the samples. A highly-laminated sample exhibits fine-scale heterogeneity and an overlapping in scales, in which case typical continuum assumptions on statistical variability may break down. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc. for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

Incorporation of Fine-Grained Sediment Erodibility Measurements into Sediment Transport Modeling, Capitol Lake, Washington

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, Andrew W.; Gelfenbaum, Guy; Elias, Edwin; Jones, Craig

2008-01-01

Capitol Lake was created in 1951 with the construction of a concrete dam and control gate that prevented salt-water intrusion into the newly formed lake and regulated flow of the Deschutes River into southern Puget Sound. Physical processes associated with the former tidally dominated estuary were altered, and the dam structure itself likely caused an increase in retention of sediment flowing into the lake from the Deschutes River. Several efforts to manage sediment accumulation in the lake, including dredging and the construction of sediment traps upriver, failed to stop the lake from filling with sediment. The Deschutes Estuary Feasibility Study (DEFS) was carried out to evaluate the possibility of removing the dam and restoring estuarine processes as an alternative ongoing lake management. An important component of DEFS was the creation of a hydrodynamic and sediment transport model of the restored Deschutes Estuary. Results from model simulations indicated that estuarine processes would be restored under each of four restoration alternatives, and that over time, the restored estuary would have morphological features similar to the predam estuary. The model also predicted that after dam-removal, a large portion of the sediment eroded from the lake bottom would be deposited near the Port of Olympia and a marina located in lower Budd Inlet seaward of the present dam. The volume of sediment transported downstream was a critical piece of information that managers needed to estimate the total cost of the proposed restoration project. However, the ability of the model to predict the magnitude of sediment transport in general and, in particular, the volume of sediment deposition in the port and marina was limited by a lack of information on the erodibility of fine-grained sediments in Capitol Lake. Cores at several sites throughout Capitol Lake were collected between October 31 and November 1, 2007. The erodibility of sediments in the cores was later determined in the

The effect of grain size and phosphorous-doping of polycrystalline 3C–SiC on infrared reflectance spectra

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rooyen, I.J. van; Engelbrecht, J.A.A.; Henry, A.; Janzén, E.; Neethling, J.H.; Rooyen, P.M. van

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► IR is investigated as a technique to measure grain size and P-doping of polycrystalline SiC. ► Infrared plasma minima can be used to determine doping levels in 3C–SiC for doping levels greater than 5 × 10 17 cm −3 . ► A linear relationship is found between FWHM and the inverse of grain size of 3C–SiC irrespective of P-doping level. ► It is further found that ω p is not influenced by the grain size. ► P-doping level has no significant effect on the linear relationship between grain size and surface roughness. - Abstract: The effect of P-doping and grain size of polycrystalline 3C–SiC on the infrared reflectance spectra is reported. The relationship between grain size and full width at half maximum (FWHM) suggest that the behavior of the 3C–SiC with the highest phosphorous doping level (of 1.2 × 10 19 at. cm −3 ) is different from those with lower doping levels ( 18 at. cm −3 ). It is also further demonstrated that the plasma resonance frequency (ω p ) is not influenced by the grain size.

On the functional vs. lexical nature of restructuring heads: evidence for a fine-grained classification of restructuring modals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Irene Balza

2012-05-01

Full Text Available This paper examines in detail the thematic and syntactic properties of a set of (non-restructuring structures in Germanic, Romance and Basque. Based on the comparison of these structures, I propose a fine-grained classification of (non-restructuring constructions that include Functional Restructuring, Semi-Lexical Restructuring, Lexical Restructuring and Non-Restructuring constructions. The four types involve complements of different underlying structures (VPs, vPs or even as large as NegP/TPs. The results of the analysis argue against Cinque’s (2005 hypothesis that all restructuring verbs are exclusively functional, and contradicts Wurmbrand’s (1999 claim that, within the mixed class of restructuring verbs, modals must be raising verbs.

Grain boundary and grain interior conduction in {gamma}'-Bi{sub 2}MoO{sub 6}

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vera, C.M.C. [Laboratorio de Peliculas Delgadas, Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paseo Colon 850, 1063 Buenos Aires (Argentina)]. E-mail: cvera@fi.uba.ar; Aragon, R. [Laboratorio de Peliculas Delgadas, Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paseo Colon 850, 1063 Buenos Aires (Argentina); CINSO, CONICET, CITEFA, Lasalle 4397, Villa Martelli, Buenos Aires (Argentina)

2005-07-25

Impedance spectroscopy of fine grained (<10 {mu}m) {gamma}'-Bi{sub 2}MoO{sub 6} samples, in the frequency range of 0.1 Hz-250 kHz, relevant to sensor applications, up to 800 deg. C, has been used to characterize grain boundary and grain interior contributions to conduction. Above 500 deg. C, the grain boundary contribution is no longer rate limiting and conduction is dominated by the grain interior component. The corresponding activation energies are 0.98 eV for grain boundary and 0.73 eV for grain interior components. The weak dependence of conductivity on oxygen partial pressure below 500 deg. C can be attributed to electrode-electrolyte interface phenomena, whereas the robust response to ethanol is commensurate with changes in intrinsic ionic conductivity.

Reproductive performance of reindeer fed all-grain and hay-grain rations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. M. Blanchard

1986-06-01

Full Text Available Reproductive performance of grain-fed reindeer {Rangifer tarandus was evaluated over a 2-year period. Groups of pregnant reindeer were fed one of three rations, (1 100% whole-grain barley, (2 98.9% whole-grain barley and 1.2% mineral and trace element supplement, and (3 70% whole-grain barley and 30% finely-chopped bluegrass hay. Reindeer fed unsupplemented whole-barley failed to produce a single live calf. The addition of mineral and trace element supplement to the ration did not result in any significant improvement in reproductive performance. Eighty-five percent of the reindeer consuming unsupplemented and supplemented all-barley rations became pregnant; however, 76% of the pregnancies resulted in stillborn calves. One-hundred percent of the cows maintained on the grain/hay ration produced live calves. We speculate that reproductive failure in reindeer cows maintained on all-grain rations is most likely a result of a diet induced disfunction in maternal rumen and/or carbohydrate metabolism rather than a micro-nutrient deficiency. More research is neeeded to determine which metabolic pathways are affected.

Influence of synthetic calcium silicates on the strength properties of fine-grained concrete

Science.gov (United States)

Yarusova, S. B.; Gordienko, P. S.; Kozin, A. V.; Zhevtun, I. G.; Perfilev, A. V.

2018-04-01

The effect of additives based on acicular calcium hydrosilicates (xonotlite and tobermorite) and wollastonite, obtained from boric acid production waste in autoclave synthesis at a temperature of 220 °C, on the strength of fine-grained concrete, has been studied in this paper. It was shown that when the calcium hydrosilicates and wollastonite are introduced, an increase in the strength characteristics of concrete is observed. After heat and moisture treatment, the maximum increase in strength is observed with the addition of 4% of mass content of calcium hydrosilicates and 6% of mass content of wollastonite. After 28 days of hardening under normal conditions, the maximum increase in strength of concrete is observed with the addition of 4% of mass content of both types of additives. It was shown that the water absorption of concrete decreases with a maximum when 4% of mass content is added, as in the case of the introduction of calcium hydrosilicates, and wollastonite. With a further increase in the number of additives, the amount of water absorption increases, but these values remain below the values for the control sample without additives.

The effect of grain size and phosphorous-doping of polycrystalline 3C-SiC on infrared reflectance spectra

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rooyen, I.J. van, E-mail: Isabella.vanRooyen@inl.gov [Fuel Performance and Design Department, Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83415-6188 (United States); Department of Physics, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth (South Africa); Engelbrecht, J.A.A. [Department of Physics, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth (South Africa); Henry, A.; Janzen, E. [Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Semiconductor Materials, Linkoeping University, Linkoeping 58183 (Sweden); Neethling, J.H. [Department of Physics, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth (South Africa); Rooyen, P.M. van [Philip M van Rooyen Network Consultants, Midlands Estates (South Africa)

2012-03-15

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer IR is investigated as a technique to measure grain size and P-doping of polycrystalline SiC. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Infrared plasma minima can be used to determine doping levels in 3C-SiC for doping levels greater than 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 17} cm{sup -3}. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer A linear relationship is found between FWHM and the inverse of grain size of 3C-SiC irrespective of P-doping level. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer It is further found that {omega}{sub p} is not influenced by the grain size. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer P-doping level has no significant effect on the linear relationship between grain size and surface roughness. - Abstract: The effect of P-doping and grain size of polycrystalline 3C-SiC on the infrared reflectance spectra is reported. The relationship between grain size and full width at half maximum (FWHM) suggest that the behavior of the 3C-SiC with the highest phosphorous doping level (of 1.2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 19} at. cm{sup -3}) is different from those with lower doping levels (<6.6 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 18} at. cm{sup -3}). It is also further demonstrated that the plasma resonance frequency ({omega}{sub p}) is not influenced by the grain size.

Hydrodynamics in Evaporate-Bearing Fine-Grained Successions Investigated through an Interdisciplinary Approach: A Test Study in Southern Italy—Hydrogeological Behaviour of Heterogeneous Low-Permeability Media

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Petrella

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Messinian evaporates are widely distributed in the Mediterranean Sea as outcropping sediments in small marginal basins and in marine cores. Progressive filling of subbasins led to the formation of complex aquifer systems in different regions where hypersaline and fresh water coexist and interact in different manner. It also generates a significant diversification of groundwater hydrochemical signature and different microbial communities. In the case study, the hydrogeology and hydrochemistry of the whole system are influenced by good hydraulic connection between the shallower pyroclastic horizon and the underlying evaporate-bearing fine-grained Messinian succession. This is demonstrated by the merge of hydrogeological, chemical, isotopic, and microbiological data. No mixing with deep ascending waters has been observed. As shown by geophysical, hydraulic, and microbiological investigations, the hydraulic heterogeneity of the Messinian bedrock, mainly due to karstified evaporitic interstrata/lenses, causes the hydraulic head to significantly vary with depth. Somewhere, the head increases with the depth’s increase and artesian flow conditions are locally observed. Moreover, the metagenomic investigations demonstrated the existence of a poor hydraulic connection within the evaporate-bearing fine-grained succession at metric and decametric scales, therefore leading to a patchwork of geochemical (and microbiological subenvironments.

Effects of salinity and particle concentration on sediment hydrodynamics and critical bed-shear-stress for erosion of fine grained sediments used in wetland restoration projects

Science.gov (United States)

Ghose-Hajra, M.; McCorquodale, A.; Mattson, G.; Jerolleman, D.; Filostrat, J.

2015-03-01

Sea-level rise, the increasing number and intensity of storms, oil and groundwater extraction, and coastal land subsidence are putting people and property at risk along Louisiana's coast, with major implications for human safety and economic health of coastal areas. A major goal towards re-establishing a healthy and sustainable coastal ecosystem has been to rebuild Louisiana's disappearing wetlands with fine grained sediments that are dredged or diverted from nearby rivers, channels and lakes to build land in open water areas. A thorough geo-hydrodynamic characterization of the deposited sediments is important in the correct design and a more realistic outcome assessment of the long-term performance measures for ongoing coastal restoration projects. This paper evaluates the effects of salinity and solid particle concentration on the re-suspension characteristics of fine-grained dredged sediments obtained from multiple geographic locations along the Gulf coast. The critical bed-shear-stress for erosion has been evaluated as a function of sedimentation time. The sediment hydrodynamic properties obtained from the laboratory testing were used in a numerical coastal sediment distribution model to aid in evaluating sediment diversions from the Mississippi River into Breton Sound and Barataria Bay.

Effects of salinity and particle concentration on sediment hydrodynamics and critical bed-shear-stress for erosion of fine grained sediments used in wetland restoration projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Ghose-Hajra

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Sea-level rise, the increasing number and intensity of storms, oil and groundwater extraction, and coastal land subsidence are putting people and property at risk along Louisiana’s coast, with major implications for human safety and economic health of coastal areas. A major goal towards re-establishing a healthy and sustainable coastal ecosystem has been to rebuild Louisiana’s disappearing wetlands with fine grained sediments that are dredged or diverted from nearby rivers, channels and lakes to build land in open water areas. A thorough geo-hydrodynamic characterization of the deposited sediments is important in the correct design and a more realistic outcome assessment of the long-term performance measures for ongoing coastal restoration projects. This paper evaluates the effects of salinity and solid particle concentration on the re-suspension characteristics of fine-grained dredged sediments obtained from multiple geographic locations along the Gulf coast. The critical bed-shear-stress for erosion has been evaluated as a function of sedimentation time. The sediment hydrodynamic properties obtained from the laboratory testing were used in a numerical coastal sediment distribution model to aid in evaluating sediment diversions from the Mississippi River into Breton Sound and Barataria Bay.

Grain size of fine-grained windblown sediment: a powerful proxy for process identification

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vandenberghe, J.

2013-01-01

Dust transport by the wind is not a uniform process but may occur in different modes according to source area conditions and transport height and distance. Subsequently, these differences are expressed in terms of grain-size and fluxes of the aeolian deposits. Transport distances may vary from

Transitional grain-size-sensitive flow of milky quartz aggregates

Science.gov (United States)

Fukuda, J. I.; Holyoke, C. W., III; Kronenberg, A. K.

2014-12-01

Fine-grained (~15 μm) milky quartz aggregates exhibit reversible flow strengths in triaxial compression experiments conducted at T = 800-900oC, Pc = 1.5 GPa when strain rates are sequentially decreased (typically from 10-3.5 to 10-4.5 and 10-5.5 s-1), and then returned to the original rate (10-3.5 s-1), while samples that experience grain growth at 1000oC (to 35 μm) over the same sequence of strain rates exhibit an irreversible increase in strength. Polycrystalline quartz aggregates have been synthesized from natural milky quartz powders (ground to 5 μm) by HIP methods at T = 1000oC, Pc = 1.5 GPa and t = 24 hours, resulting in dense, fine-grained aggregates of uniform water content of ~4000 ppm (H/106Si), as indicated by a broad OH absorption band at 3400 cm-1. In experiments performed at 800o and 900oC, grain sizes of the samples are essentially constant over the duration of each experiment, though grain shapes change significantly, and undulatory extinction and deformation lamellae indicate that much of the sample shortening (to 50%) is accomplished, over the four strain-rate steps, by dislocation creep. Differential stresses measured at T = 800oC decrease from 160 to 30 MPa as strain rate is reduced from 10-4.6 to 10-5.5 s-1, and a stress of 140 MPa is measured when strain rate is returned to 10-4.5 s-1. Samples deformed at 1000o and 1100oC experience normal grain growth, with grain boundary energy-driven grain-coarsening textures superposed by undulatory extinction and deformation lamellae. Differential stresses measured at 1000oC and strain rates of 10-3.6, 10-4.6, and 10-5.5 s-1 are 185, 80, and 80 MPa, respectively, while an increased flow stress of 260 MPa is measured (following ~28 hours of prior high temperature deformation and grain growth) when strain rate is returned to 10-3.6 s-1. While all samples exhibit lattice preferred orientations, the stress exponent n inferred for the fine-grained 800oC sample is 1.5 and the stress exponent of the coarse-grained

SEM and TEM Observation of the Surfaces of the Fine-Grained Particles Retrieved from the Muses-C Regio on the Asteroid 25413 Itokawa

Science.gov (United States)

Noguchi, T.; Nakamura, T.; Zolensky, Michael E.; Tanaka, M.; Hashimoto, T.; Konno, M.; Nakato, A.; Ogami, T.; Fujimura, A.; Abe, M.;

Flotation process diagnostics and modelling by coal grain analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ofori, P; O' Brien, G.; Firth, B.; Jenkins, B. [CSIRO Energy Technology, Brisbane, Qld. (Australia)

2006-05-15

In coal flotation, particles of different components of the coal such as maceral groups and mineral matter and their associations have different hydrophobicities and therefore different flotation responses. By using a new coal grain analysis method for characterising individual grains, more detailed flotation performance analysis and modelling approaches have been developed. The method involves the use of microscopic imaging techniques to obtain estimates of size, compositional and density information on individual grains of fine coal. The density and composition partitioning of coal processed through different flotation systems provides an avenue to pinpoint the actual cause of poor process performance so that corrective action may be initiated. The information on grain size, density and composition is being used as input data to develop more detailed flotation process models to provide better predictions of process performance for both mechanical and column flotation devices. A number of approaches may be taken to flotation modelling such as the probability approach and the kinetic model approach or a combination of the two. In the work reported here, a simple probability approach has been taken, which will be further refined in due course. The use of grain data to map the responses of different types of coal grains through various fine coal cleaning processes provided a more advanced diagnostic capability for fine coal cleaning circuits. This enabled flotation performance curves analogous to partition curves for density separators to be produced for flotation devices.

Austenite grain growth and microstructure control in simulated heat affected zones of microalloyed HSLA steel

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Lei [Department of Machine Tools and Factory Management, Technical University of Berlin, Pascalstraße 8 – 9, 10587, Berlin (Germany); Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Unter den Eichen 87, 12205, Berlin (Germany); Kannengiesser, Thomas [Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Unter den Eichen 87, 12205, Berlin (Germany); Institute of Materials and Joining Technology, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Universitetsplatz 2, 39106, Magdeburg (Germany)

2014-09-08

The roles of microalloying niobium, titanium and vanadium for controlling austenite grain growth, microstructure evolution and hardness were investigated at different simulated heat affected zones (HAZ) for high strength low alloy (HSLA) S690QL steel. High resolution FEG-SEM has been used to characterize fine bainitic ferrite, martensite and nanosized second phases at simulated coarse and fine grain HAZs. It was found that for Ti bearing steel (Ti/N ratio is 2) austenite grain had the slowest growth rate due to the presence of most stable TiN. The fine cuboidal particles promoted intragranular acicular ferrite (IGF) formation. Nb bearing steel exhibited relatively weaker grain growth retardation compared with titanium bearing steels and a mixed microstructure of bainite and martensite was present for all simulated HAZs. IGF existed at coarse grain HAZ of Ti+V bearing steel but it was totally replaced by bainite at fine grain HAZs. Hardness result was closely related to the morphology of bainitic ferrite, intragranular ferrite and second phases within ferrite. The microstructure and hardness results of different simulated HAZs were in good agreement with welded experimental results.

Geochemical imprint of depositional conditions on organic matter in laminated-Bioturbated interbeds from fine-grained marine sequences

Science.gov (United States)

Pratt, L.M.; Claypool, G.E.; King, J.D.

1986-01-01

Laminated organic-rich shales are interbedded at a scale of centimeters to a few meters with bioturbated organic-poor mudstones or limestones in some fine-grained marine sequences. We have analyzed the organic matter in pairs of laminated/bioturbated interbeds from Cretaceous and Devonian rocks deposited in epicontinental and oceanic settings for the purpose of studying the influence of depositional and early diagenetic environment on the organic geochemical properties of marine shales. Results of these analyses indicate that for rocks that are still in a diagenetic stage of thermal alteration, the relative abundance of biomarker compounds and specific biomarker indices can be useful indicators of depositional and early diagenetic conditions. Pristane/phytane ratios are generally highest for laminated rocks from epicontinental basins and appear to reflect the input of isoprenoid precursors more than oxygenated versus anoxic depositional conditions. The thermally immature laminated rocks are characterized by relatively high contents of 17??(H), 21??(H)-hopanes, hopenes, sterenes and diasterenes, and by strong predominance of the 22R over 22S homohopane isomers. Thermally immature bioturbated samples are characterized by absence of the ??,??-hopanes, by low contents of both saturated and unsaturated polycyclic hydrocarbons, and by slight or no predominance of the 22R over 22S homohopane isomers. There are less obvious compositional differences between the saturated hydrocarbons in the laminated and bioturbated units from the thermally mature sequences. For both the thermally mature and immature laminated samples, the degree of isomerization at the 22C position for hopanes and at the 20C position for steranes is generally consistent with the degree of thermal maturity interpreted from other properties of the organic matter. The bioturbated samples, however, exhibit inconsistent and anomalously high degrees of isomerization for the homohopanes, resulting either from

Iron and zinc complexation in wild-type and ferritin-expressing wheat grain: implications for mineral transport into developing grain

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Neal, Andrew L; Geraki, Kalotina; Borg, Søren

2013-01-01

of modified complexation of both metals in transgenic grain overexpressing wheat ferritin. For zinc, there is a consistent doubling of the number of complexing phosphorus atoms. Although there is some EXAFS evidence for iron phytate in ferritin-expressing grain, there is also evidence of a structure lacking......We have used synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence and absorption techniques to establish both metal distribution and complexation in mature wheat grains. In planta, extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy reveals iron phytate and zinc phytate structures in aleurone cells...... of ferritin-expressing grains is quite different from that in wild-type grain. This may explain why the raised levels of minerals transported to the developing grain accumulate within the crease region of the transgenic grain....

Investigating selective transport and abrasion on an alluvial fan using quantitative grain size and shape analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Litwin, K. L.; Jerolmack, D. J.

2011-12-01

Selective sorting and abrasion are the two major fluvial processes that are attributed to the downstream fining of sediments in rivers and alluvial fans. Selective transport is the process by which smaller grains are preferentially transported downstream while larger grains are deposited closer to the source. Abrasion is defined by the production of fine sediments and sand that occurs by saltation of gravel, where particle-to-particle collisions supply the energy required to break apart grains. We hypothesize that abrasion results in the gradual fining of large grains and the production of fine sands and silts, while sorting accounts for the differences in transport of these two grain-size fractions produced from abrasion, thereby creating the abrupt gravel-sand transition observed in many channel systems. In this research, we explore both selective transport and abrasion processes on the Dog Canyon alluvial fan near Alamogordo, New Mexico. We complete an extensive grain size analysis down the main channel of the fan employing an image-based technique that utilizes an autocorrelation process. We also characterize changes in grain shape using standard shape parameters, as well as Fourier analysis, which allows the study of contributions of grain roughness on a variety of length scales. Sorting appears to dominate the upper portion of the fan; the grain-size distribution narrows moving downstream until reaching a point of equal mobility, at which point sorting ceases. Abrasion exerts a subtle but persistent effect on grains during transport down the fan. Shape analysis reveals that particles become more rounded by the removal of small-scale textural features, a process that is expected to only modestly influence grain size of gravel, but should produce significant quantities of sand. This study provides a better understanding of the importance of grain abrasion and sorting on the downstream fining of channel grains in an alluvial fan, as well as an improved knowledge

AutoBD: Automated Bi-Level Description for Scalable Fine-Grained Visual Categorization.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Hantao; Zhang, Shiliang; Yan, Chenggang; Zhang, Yongdong; Li, Jintao; Tian, Qi

Compared with traditional image classification, fine-grained visual categorization is a more challenging task, because it targets to classify objects belonging to the same species, e.g. , classify hundreds of birds or cars. In the past several years, researchers have made many achievements on this topic. However, most of them are heavily dependent on the artificial annotations, e.g., bounding boxes, part annotations, and so on . The requirement of artificial annotations largely hinders the scalability and application. Motivated to release such dependence, this paper proposes a robust and discriminative visual description named Automated Bi-level Description (AutoBD). "Bi-level" denotes two complementary part-level and object-level visual descriptions, respectively. AutoBD is "automated," because it only requires the image-level labels of training images and does not need any annotations for testing images. Compared with the part annotations labeled by the human, the image-level labels can be easily acquired, which thus makes AutoBD suitable for large-scale visual categorization. Specifically, the part-level description is extracted by identifying the local region saliently representing the visual distinctiveness. The object-level description is extracted from object bounding boxes generated with a co-localization algorithm. Although only using the image-level labels, AutoBD outperforms the recent studies on two public benchmark, i.e. , classification accuracy achieves 81.6% on CUB-200-2011 and 88.9% on Car-196, respectively. On the large-scale Birdsnap data set, AutoBD achieves the accuracy of 68%, which is currently the best performance to the best of our knowledge.Compared with traditional image classification, fine-grained visual categorization is a more challenging task, because it targets to classify objects belonging to the same species, e.g. , classify hundreds of birds or cars. In the past several years, researchers have made many achievements on this topic

Concepts on Low Temperature Mechanical Grain Growth

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sharon, John Anthony [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Metallurgy and Materials Joining Dept.; Boyce, Brad Lee [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Metallurgy and Materials Joining Dept.

2013-11-01

In metals, as grain size is reduced below 100nm, conventional dislocation plasticity is suppressed resulting in improvements in strength, hardness, and wears resistance. Existing and emerging components use fine grained metals for these beneficial attributes. However, these benefits can be lost in service if the grains undergo growth during the component’s lifespan. While grain growth is traditionally viewed as a purely thermal process that requires elevated temperature exposure, recent evidence shows that some metals, especially those with nanocrystalline grain structure, can undergo grain growth even at room temperature or below due to mechanical loading. This report has been assembled to survey the key concepts regarding how mechanical loads can drive grain coarsening at room temperature and below. Topics outlined include the atomic level mechanisms that facilitate grain growth, grain boundary mobility, and the impact of boundary structure, loading scheme, and temperature.

Dense cermets containing fine grained ceramics and their manufacture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

King, H.L.

1986-01-01

This patent describes a method of producing a ceramic-metal composite (cermet) containing boride-oxide ceramic having components of a first metal boride and a second metal oxide, which ceramic is in mixture in the cermet with elemental metal of the second metal, wherein the cermet is produced by sintering a reaction mixture of the first metal oxide, boron oxide and the elemental second metal. The improvement consists of: combining for the reaction mixture; A. (a) first metal oxide; (b) boron oxide; (c) ceramic component in very finely divided form; and (d) elemental second metal in very finely divided form and in an amount of at least a 100 percent molar excess beyond that amount stoichiometrically required to produce the second metal oxide during sintering; and B. sintering the reaction mixture in inert gas atmosphere

MATH MODELING OF CAST FINE-GRAINED CONCRETE WITH INDUSTRIAL WASTES OF COPPER PRODUCTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tsybakin Sergey Valerievich

2017-10-01

concrete. The developed compositions of cast fine-grained concrete mixtures can be used in high-density reinforcement concrete structures with strict requirements for size of fillers and plasticity of mixture.

METHODS OF ANALYSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF THE COMPONENTS OF GRAIN MIXTURES BASED ON MEASURING THE REFLECTION AND TRANSMISSION SPECTRA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Artem O. Donskikh*

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The paper considers methods of classification of grain mixture components based on spectral analysis in visible and near-infrared wavelength ranges using various measurement approaches - reflection, transmission and combined spectrum methods. It also describes the experimental measuring units used and suggests the prototype of a multispectral grain mixture analyzer. The results of the spectral measurement were processed using neural network based classification algorithms. The probabilities of incorrect recognition for various numbers of spectral parts and combinations of spectral methods were estimated. The paper demonstrates that combined usage of two spectral analysis methods leads to higher classification accuracy and allows for reducing the number of the analyzed spectral parts. A detailed description of the proposed measurement device for high-performance real-time multispectral analysis of the components of grain mixtures is given.

Grain interaction mechanisms leading to intragranular orientation spread in tensile deformed bulk grains of interstitial-free steel

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Winther, Grethe; Wright, Jonathan P.; Schmidt, Søren

2017-01-01

environments representing the bulk texture, yet their deformation-induced rotations are very different. The ALAMEL model is employed to analyse the grain interaction mechanisms. Predictions of this model qualitatively agree with the directionality and magnitude of the experimental orientation spread. However......, quantitative agreement requires fine-tuning of the boundary conditions. The majority of the modelled slip is accounted for by four slip systems also predicted to be active by the classical Taylor model in uniaxial tension, and most of the orientation spread along the grain boundaries is caused by relative...... variations in the activities of these. Although limited to two grains, the findings prove that shear at the grain boundaries as accounted for by the ALAMEL model is a dominant grain interaction mechanism....

Radiation embrittlement behavior of fine-grained molybdenum alloy with 0.2 wt%TiC addition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kitsunai, Y. [Tohoku University (Japan); Kurishita, H. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan)]. E-mail: kurishi@imr.tohoku.ac.jp; Kuwabara, T. [Tohoku University (Japan); Narui, M. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan); Hasegawa, M. [International Research Center for Nuclear Materials Science, Institute for Materials research (IMR), Tohoku University, Oarai, Ibaraki 311-1313 (Japan); Takida, T. [A.L.M.T. TECH Inc., 2 Iwasekoshi-machi, Toyama 931-8543 (Japan); Takebe, K. [A.L.M.T. TECH Inc., 2 Iwasekoshi-machi, Toyama 931-8543 (Japan)

2005-11-15

In order to elucidate the effects of pre-irradiation microstructures and irradiation conditions on radiation embrittlement and radiation-induced ductilization (RIDU), fine-grained Mo-0.2 wt%TiC specimens with high and low reduction rates in plastic working, which are designated as MTC-02H and MTC-02L, respectively, were prepared by powder metallurgical methods. The specimens were neutron irradiated to 0.1-0.15 dpa with controlled 1-cycle and 4-cycle heating between 573 and 773 K, and 473 and 673 K, respectively, in JMTR. Vickers microhardness and three-point bending impact tests and TEM microstructural examinations were made. The degree of radiation embrittlement, assessed by DBTT shift due to irradiation, was strongly dependent on the reduction rate and cycle number. The 4-cycle irradiation suppressed the radiation embrittlement compared with the 1-cycle irradiation, and the suppression was much more significant in MTC-02L than in MTC-02H. The observed behavior is discussed in connection with RIDU and microstructural evolution caused by the 4-cycle irradiation.

Fine sand in motion: the influence of interstitial air

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Homan, T.A.M.

2013-01-01

Sand is a granular material, and therefore it consists of individual grains arranged in a packing. The pores in-between the grains are usually filled with a fluid, in this case air. Now, is this interstitial air able to influence the behavior of the sand bed as a whole? When a ball impacts on fine,

Calculation of the close packing of fine aggregate on the basis of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The high-density grain composition of aggregate for fine-grained concrete is obtained. The compositions of concrete mixtures have been designed. The volume ratio of aggregate and cement paste in the concrete mix, the average mass size of the aggregate grains in the mixture, the volume fractions of cement and water in ...

Downstream Fining of Polydispersed Gravity Currents Along a V-Shaped Valley.

Science.gov (United States)

Besson, C. K.; Meriaux, C. A. M. D.

2014-12-01

Turbidity currents belong to the class of currents transporting sediments, whose deposits exhibit downstream grain size fining. In this study, the objective was to better understand the relationship between downstream fining and grain sizes at the source. To this end, we performed four lock-exchange experiments of polydispersed and turbulent gravity currents flowing along a 5-m long V-shaped valley. The particle volumetric concentrations were typically 3%. The four currents were made of 1) Silicon Carbide (SiC), 2) Glass Beads (GBs), 3) a combined poorly sorted SiC/GBs, and 4) a moderately sorted combined SiC/GBs. We used the Morphologi G3 tool developed by Malvern Instruments Corporate (Malvern Instruments Ltd, UK) for the grain size analyses. We first established a criterion for identifying the appropriate number of grain size classes nbclassfor characterizing the grain size distributions. We considered the four statistical indicators that are the arithmetic mean size dmean, the standard deviation σd, the skewness Skd, and the kurtosis Kd, and show that the four indicators for the initial grain size distributions reach plateaux when nb_class≥ 20. Hence we chose nbclass=20 as being our appropriate bin width. These four indicators were then calculated for samples taken along the deposits to establish the grain size distributions along the deposits. The subsequent profiles of dmean, σd, Skd, and Kd with distance from the lock show highly variable behaviours between the different initial distributions. In particular, the distance over which the loss of the largest grains of the initial distribution occurs [dmean> dmean(initial)], can cover up to half the runout length. Curiously, the different rates of fining estimated from the curves (dmean/ dmean(initial)) as a function of downstream distance (x/x_runout) do not appear to be well correlated with the sedimentation velocities based on dmean(initial). This is currently being investigated.

Fine sediment erodibility in Lake Okeechobee, Florida

OpenAIRE

Mehta, Ashish J.; Hwang, Kyu-Nam

1989-01-01

The critical need to predict the turbidity in water due to fine-grained sediment suspension under wave action over mud deposits for sedimentation and erosion studies, as well as sorbed contaminant transport, is well known. Since fall velocities of fine sediment particles are very small, they can be easily transported by hydrodynamic flows such as waves and currents. The presence of these particles in the water column affects accoustic transmission, heat absorption and depth of ...

Characterization of ultra-fine grained aluminum produced by accumulative back extrusion (ABE)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alihosseini, H.; Faraji, G.; Dizaji, A.F.; Dehghani, K.

2012-01-01

In the present work, the microstructural evolutions and microhardness of AA1050 subjected to one, two and three passes of accumulative back extrusion (ABE) were investigated. The microstructural evolutions were characterized using transmission electron microscopy. The results revealed that applying three passes of accumulative back extrusion led to significant grain refinement. The initial grain size of 47 μm was refined to the grains of 500 nm after three passes of ABE. Increasing the number of passes resulted in more decrease in grain size, better microstructure homogeneity and increase in the microhardness. The cross-section of ABEed specimen consisted of two different zones: (i) shear deformation zone, and (ii) normal deformation zone. The microhardness measurements indicated that the hardness increased from the initial value of 31 Hv to 67 Hv, verifying the significant microstructural refinement via accumulative back extrusion. - Highlights: ► A significant grain refinement can be achieved in AA1050, Al alloy by applying ABE. ► Microstructural homogeneity of ABEed samples increased by increasing the number of ABE cycles. ► A substantial increase in the hardness, from 31 Hv to 67 Hv, was recorded.

XRD-based 40Ar/39Ar age correction for fine-grained illite, with application to folded carbonates in the Monterrey Salient (northern Mexico)

Science.gov (United States)

Fitz-Díaz, Elisa; Hall, Chris M.; van der Pluijm, Ben A.

2016-05-01

of retention capability, degassing spectra were modeled for site XCA averages and overall XCA average. Modeling shows that local site age average best match the measured spectra, instead of a global average age, indicating that illite growth reflects local deformation, and is not the result of regional metamorphism. Modeling also shows that Ar-degassing spectra are very sensitive to grain size, such that age interpretation based on Ar-plateaus is meaningless for most fine-grained clays.

Mechanical properties of ultra-fine grained structure formed in Al-Li alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adamczyk-Cieslak, B.; Lewandowska, M.; Mizera, J.; Kurzydlowski, K.J.

2004-01-01

This paper describes the mechanical properties (microhardness, yield stress) of two model Al-Li alloys by the Equal-Channel-Angular-Extrusion (ECAE) process. The applied ECAE process reduced the grain size from an initial value of ∼300 μm to a value of ∼0.7 μm leading to profound increase of plastic flow resistance. Such an increase is related to the grain size refinement and strengthening due to Li atoms in solid solution. Microhardness data confirm the Hall - Petch relation for grain sizes not available so far in Al-Li alloys. (author)

Usage of Crushed Concrete Fines in Decorative Concrete

Science.gov (United States)

Pilipenko, Anton; Bazhenova, Sofia

2017-10-01

The article is devoted to the questions of usage of crushed concrete fines from concrete scrap for the production of high-quality decorative composite materials based on mixed binder. The main problem in the application of crushed concrete in the manufacture of decorative concrete products is extremely low decorative properties of crushed concrete fines itself, as well as concrete products based on them. However, crushed concrete fines could have a positive impact on the structure of the concrete matrix and could improve the environmental and economic characteristics of the concrete products. Dust fraction of crushed concrete fines contains non-hydrated cement grains, which can be opened in screening process due to the low strength of the contact zone between the hydrated and non-hydrated cement. In addition, the screening process could increase activity of the crushed concrete fines, so it can be used as a fine aggregate and filler for concrete mixes. Previous studies have shown that the effect of the usage of the crushed concrete fines is small and does not allow to obtain concrete products with high strength. However, it is possible to improve the efficiency of the crushed concrete fines as a filler due to the complex of measures prior to mixing. Such measures may include a preliminary mechanochemical activation of the binder (cement binder, iron oxide pigment, silica fume and crushed concrete fines), as well as the usage of polycarboxylate superplasticizers. The development of specific surface area of activated crushed concrete fines ensures strong adhesion between grains of binder and filler during the formation of cement stone matrix. The particle size distribution of the crushed concrete fines could achieve the densest structure of cement stone matrix and improve its resistance to environmental effects. The authors examined the mechanisms of structure of concrete products with crushed concrete fines as a filler. The results of studies of the properties of

Development of Niobium Boron grain retainer for aluminium silicon alloys

OpenAIRE

Nowak, Magdalena

2011-01-01

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University Aluminium castings with a large grain structure have poor mechanical properties which are primarily due to casting defects as opposed to fine grain structure. The grain refinement practice using chemical addition is well established for wrought alloys, however in the case of casting alloys, the practice of adding grain refiners and the impact on castability is not well established. The additio...

Simulation of grain boundary effects on electronic transport in metals, and detailed causes of scattering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Feldman, Baruch [Process Technology Modeling, Design and Technology Solutions, Technology and Manufacturing Group, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA 95052 (United States); Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Park, Seongjun; Haverty, Michael; Shankar, Sadasivan [Process Technology Modeling, Design and Technology Solutions, Technology and Manufacturing Group, Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA 95052 (United States); Dunham, Scott T. [Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)

2010-07-15

We present first-principles simulations of single grain boundary reflectivity of electrons in noble metals, Cu and Ag. We examine twin and non-twin grain boundaries using non-equilibrium Green's function and first principles methods. We also investigate the determinants of reflectivity in grain boundaries by modeling atomic vacancies, disorder, and orientation and find that both the change in grain orientation and disorder in the boundary itself contribute significantly to reflectivity. We find that grain boundary reflectivity may vary widely depending on the grain boundary structure, consistent with published experimental results. Finally, we examine the reflectivity from multiple grain boundaries and find that grain boundary reflectivity may depend on neighboring grain boundaries. This study raises some potential limitations in the independent grain boundary assumptions of the Mayadas-Shatzkes (MS) model. (Abstract Copyright [2010], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Fine-grained parallelism accelerating for RNA secondary structure prediction with pseudoknots based on FPGA.

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Fei; Jin, Guoqing

2014-06-01

PKNOTS is a most famous benchmark program and has been widely used to predict RNA secondary structure including pseudoknots. It adopts the standard four-dimensional (4D) dynamic programming (DP) method and is the basis of many variants and improved algorithms. Unfortunately, the O(N(6)) computing requirements and complicated data dependency greatly limits the usefulness of PKNOTS package with the explosion in gene database size. In this paper, we present a fine-grained parallel PKNOTS package and prototype system for accelerating RNA folding application based on FPGA chip. We adopted a series of storage optimization strategies to resolve the "Memory Wall" problem. We aggressively exploit parallel computing strategies to improve computational efficiency. We also propose several methods that collectively reduce the storage requirements for FPGA on-chip memory. To the best of our knowledge, our design is the first FPGA implementation for accelerating 4D DP problem for RNA folding application including pseudoknots. The experimental results show a factor of more than 50x average speedup over the PKNOTS-1.08 software running on a PC platform with Intel Core2 Q9400 Quad CPU for input RNA sequences. However, the power consumption of our FPGA accelerator is only about 50% of the general-purpose micro-processors.

LABORATORY STRATEGIES FOR HYDRATE FORMATION IN FINE-GRAINED SEDIMENTS

KAUST Repository

Lei, L.; Santamarina, Carlos

2018-01-01

Fine‐grained sediments limit hydrate nucleation, shift the phase boundary and hinder gas supply. Laboratory experiments in this study explore different strategies to overcome these challenges, including the use of a more soluble guest molecule rather than methane, grain‐scale gas‐storage within porous diatoms, ice‐to‐hydrate transformation to grow lenses at predefined locations, forced gas injection into water saturated sediments, and long‐term guest molecule transport. Tomographic images, thermal and pressure data provide rich information on hydrate formation and morphology. Results show that hydrate formation is inherently displacive in fine‐grained sediments; lenses are thicker and closer to each other in compressible, high specific surface area sediments subjected to low effective stress. Temperature and pressure trajectories follow a shifted phase boundary that is consistent with capillary effects. Exo‐pore growth results in freshly formed hydrate with a striped and porous structure; this open structure becomes an effective pathway for gas transport to the growing hydrate front. Ice‐to‐hydrate transformation goes through a liquid stage at pre‐melt temperatures; then, capillarity and cryogenic suction compete, and some water becomes imbibed into the sediment faster than hydrate reformation. The geometry of hydrate lenses and the internal hydrate structure continue evolving long after the exothermal response to hydrate formation has completely decayed. Multiple time‐dependent processes occur during hydrate formation, including gas, water and heat transport, sediment compressibility, reaction rate and the stochastic nucleation process. Hydrate formation strategies conceived for this study highlight the inherent difficulties in emulating hydrate formation in fine‐grained sediments within the relatively short time‐scale available for laboratory experiments.

LABORATORY STRATEGIES FOR HYDRATE FORMATION IN FINE-GRAINED SEDIMENTS

KAUST Repository

Lei, L.

2018-04-02

Fine‐grained sediments limit hydrate nucleation, shift the phase boundary and hinder gas supply. Laboratory experiments in this study explore different strategies to overcome these challenges, including the use of a more soluble guest molecule rather than methane, grain‐scale gas‐storage within porous diatoms, ice‐to‐hydrate transformation to grow lenses at predefined locations, forced gas injection into water saturated sediments, and long‐term guest molecule transport. Tomographic images, thermal and pressure data provide rich information on hydrate formation and morphology. Results show that hydrate formation is inherently displacive in fine‐grained sediments; lenses are thicker and closer to each other in compressible, high specific surface area sediments subjected to low effective stress. Temperature and pressure trajectories follow a shifted phase boundary that is consistent with capillary effects. Exo‐pore growth results in freshly formed hydrate with a striped and porous structure; this open structure becomes an effective pathway for gas transport to the growing hydrate front. Ice‐to‐hydrate transformation goes through a liquid stage at pre‐melt temperatures; then, capillarity and cryogenic suction compete, and some water becomes imbibed into the sediment faster than hydrate reformation. The geometry of hydrate lenses and the internal hydrate structure continue evolving long after the exothermal response to hydrate formation has completely decayed. Multiple time‐dependent processes occur during hydrate formation, including gas, water and heat transport, sediment compressibility, reaction rate and the stochastic nucleation process. Hydrate formation strategies conceived for this study highlight the inherent difficulties in emulating hydrate formation in fine‐grained sediments within the relatively short time‐scale available for laboratory experiments.

Correlation between Bieniawski’s RMR index and Barton’s Q index in fine-grained sedimentary rock formations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. D. Fernández-Gutiérrez

2017-09-01

Full Text Available From the XX century, various rock mass classification systems have been proposed. Among them, the Bieniawski’s RMR system and Barton’s Q system have emerged as the most used rock mass classification worldwide. Correlations between both indices have been proposed, usually with a wide scattering of the data used in deriving the equations. However, it has been observed that correlations established for a specific geological unit fit better. The aim of this paper is to propose a correlation between RMR and Q indices for fine-grained sedimentary rock formations, normally found in the area of Bilbao (Spain, by means of the collected data during the excavation of the tunnel Etxebarri-Casco Viejo of the line 3 of the Metropolitan Railway of Bilbao. Obtained equation shows a high correlation coefficient and a unique relationship between the two classification systems has been proposed, not depending on the choice of the independent variable.

Numerical modeling of drying and consolidation of fine sediments and tailings

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van der Meulen, J.; Van Tol, A.F.; Van Paassen, L.A.; Heimovaara, T.J.

2012-01-01

The extraction and processing of many mineral ores result in the generation of large volumes of fine-grained residue or tailings. These fine sediments are deposited as a slurry with very high water contents and lose water after deposition due to self-weight consolidation. When the surface is exposed

Supercooled interfacial water in fine-grained soils probed by dielectric spectroscopy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Lorek

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Water substantially affects nearly all physical, chemical and biological processes on the Earth. Recent Mars observations as well as laboratory investigations suggest that water is a key factor of current physical and chemical processes on the Martian surface, e.g. rheological phenomena. Therefore it is of particular interest to get information about the liquid-like state of water on Martian analogue soils for temperatures below 0 °C. To this end, a parallel plate capacitor has been developed to obtain isothermal dielectric spectra of fine-grained soils in the frequency range from 10 Hz to 1.1 MHz at Martian-like temperatures down to −70 °C. Two Martian analogue soils have been investigated: a Ca-bentonite (specific surface of 237 m2 g−1, up to 9.4% w / w gravimetric water content and JSC Mars 1, a volcanic ash (specific surface of 146 m2 g−1, up to 7.4% w / w. Three soil-specific relaxation processes are observed in the investigated frequency–temperature range: two weak high-frequency processes (bound or hydrated water as well as ice and a strong low-frequency process due to counter-ion relaxation and the Maxwell–Wagner effect. To characterize the dielectric relaxation behaviour, a generalized fractional dielectric relaxation model was applied assuming three active relaxation processes with relaxation time of the ith process modelled with an Eyring equation. The real part of effective complex soil permittivity at 350 kHz was used to determine ice and liquid-like water content by means of the Birchak or CRIM equation. There are evidence that bentonite down to −70 °C has a liquid-like water content of 1.17 monolayers and JSC Mars 1 a liquid-like water content of 1.96 monolayers.

Towards 3D Face Recognition in the Real: A Registration-Free Approach Using Fine-Grained Matching of 3D Keypoint Descriptors

KAUST Repository

Li, Huibin

2014-11-12

Registration algorithms performed on point clouds or range images of face scans have been successfully used for automatic 3D face recognition under expression variations, but have rarely been investigated to solve pose changes and occlusions mainly since that the basic landmarks to initialize coarse alignment are not always available. Recently, local feature-based SIFT-like matching proves competent to handle all such variations without registration. In this paper, towards 3D face recognition for real-life biometric applications, we significantly extend the SIFT-like matching framework to mesh data and propose a novel approach using fine-grained matching of 3D keypoint descriptors. First, two principal curvature-based 3D keypoint detectors are provided, which can repeatedly identify complementary locations on a face scan where local curvatures are high. Then, a robust 3D local coordinate system is built at each keypoint, which allows extraction of pose-invariant features. Three keypoint descriptors, corresponding to three surface differential quantities, are designed, and their feature-level fusion is employed to comprehensively describe local shapes of detected keypoints. Finally, we propose a multi-task sparse representation based fine-grained matching algorithm, which accounts for the average reconstruction error of probe face descriptors sparsely represented by a large dictionary of gallery descriptors in identification. Our approach is evaluated on the Bosphorus database and achieves rank-one recognition rates of 96.56, 98.82, 91.14, and 99.21 % on the entire database, and the expression, pose, and occlusion subsets, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, these are the best results reported so far on this database. Additionally, good generalization ability is also exhibited by the experiments on the FRGC v2.0 database.

Statistical Theory of Normal Grain Growth Revisited

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gadomski, A.; Luczka, J.

2002-01-01

In this paper, we discuss three physically relevant problems concerning the normal grain growth process. These are: Infinite vs finite size of the system under study (a step towards more realistic modeling); conditions of fine-grained structure formation, with possible applications to thin films and biomembranes, and interesting relations to superplasticity of materials; approach to log-normality, an ubiquitous natural phenomenon, frequently reported in literature. It turns out that all three important points mentioned are possible to be included in a Mulheran-Harding type behavior of evolving grains-containing systems that we have studied previously. (author)

Potential Long-Term Records of Surface Albedo at Fine Spatiotemporal Resolution from Landsat/Sentinle-2A Surface Reflectance and MODIS/VIIRS BRDF

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Z.; Schaaf, C.; Shuai, Y.; Liu, Y.; Sun, Q.; Erb, A.; Wang, Z.

2016-12-01

The land surface albedo products at fine spatial resolutions are generated by coupling surface reflectance (SR) from Landsat (30 m) or Sentinel-2A (20 m) with concurrent surface anisotropy information (the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function - BRDF) at coarser spatial resolutions from sequential multi-angular observations by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) or its successor, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). We assess the comparability of four types of fine-resolution albedo products (black-sky and white-sky albedos over the shortwave broad band) generated by coupling, (1) Landsat-8 Optical Land Imager (OLI) SR with MODIS BRDF; (2) OLI SR with VIIRS BRDF; (3) Sentinel-2A MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) SR with MODIS BRDF; and (4) MSI SR with VIIRS BRDF. We evaluate the accuracy of these four types of fine-resolution albedo products using ground tower measurements of surface albedo over six SURFace RADiation Network (SURFRAD) sites in the United States. For comparison with the ground measurements, we estimate the actual (blue-sky) albedo values at the six sites by using the satellite-based retrievals of black-sky and white-sky albedos and taking into account the proportion of direct and diffuse solar radiation from the ground measurements at the sites. The coupling of the OLI and MSI SR with MODIS BRDF has already been shown to provide accurate fine-resolution albedo values. With demonstration of a high agreement in BRDF products from MODIS and VIIRS, we expect to see consistency between all four types of fine-resolution albedo products. This assurance of consistency between the couplings of both OLI and MSI with both MODIS and VIIRS guarantees the production of long-term records of surface albedo at fine spatial resolutions and an increased temporal resolution. Such products will be critical in studying land surface changes and associated surface energy balance over the dynamic and heterogeneous landscapes

Creep of quartz by dislocation and grain boundary processes

Science.gov (United States)

Fukuda, J. I.; Holyoke, C. W., III; Kronenberg, A. K.

2015-12-01

Wet polycrystalline quartz aggregates deformed at temperatures T of 600°-900°C and strain rates of 10-4-10-6 s-1 at a confining pressure Pc of 1.5 GPa exhibit plasticity at low T, governed by dislocation glide and limited recovery, and grain size-sensitive creep at high T, governed by diffusion and sliding at grain boundaries. Quartz aggregates were HIP-synthesized, subjecting natural milky quartz powder to T=900°C and Pc=1.5 GPa, and grain sizes (2 to 25 mm) were varied by annealing at these conditions for up to 10 days. Infrared absorption spectra exhibit a broad OH band at 3400 cm-1 due to molecular water inclusions with a calculated OH content (~4000 ppm, H/106Si) that is unchanged by deformation. Rate-stepping experiments reveal different stress-strain rate functions at different temperatures and grain sizes, which correspond to differing stress-temperature sensitivities. At 600-700°C and grain sizes of 5-10 mm, flow law parameters compare favorably with those for basal plasticity and dislocation creep of wet quartzites (effective stress exponents n of 3 to 6 and activation enthalpy H* ~150 kJ/mol). Deformed samples show undulatory extinction, limited recrystallization, and c-axis maxima parallel to the shortening direction. Similarly fine-grained samples deformed at 800°-900°C exhibit flow parameters n=1.3-2.0 and H*=135-200 kJ/mol corresponding to grain size-sensitive Newtonian creep. Deformed samples show some undulatory extinction and grain sizes change by recrystallization; however, grain boundary deformation processes are indicated by the low value of n. Our experimental results for grain size-sensitive creep can be compared with models of grain boundary diffusion and grain boundary sliding using measured rates of silicon grain boundary diffusion. While many quartz mylonites show microstructural and textural evidence for dislocation creep, results for grain size-sensitive creep may apply to very fine-grained (<10 mm) quartz mylonites.

Influence of spark plasma sintering conditions on the sintering and functional properties of an ultra-fine grained 316L stainless steel obtained from ball-milled powder

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Keller, C., E-mail: clement.keller@insa-rouen.fr [Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, CNRS-UMR 6634, Université de Rouen, INSA de Rouen, Avenue de l' Université, 76800 Saint-Etienne du Rouvray (France); Tabalaiev, K.; Marnier, G. [Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, CNRS-UMR 6634, Université de Rouen, INSA de Rouen, Avenue de l' Université, 76800 Saint-Etienne du Rouvray (France); Noudem, J. [Laboratoire de Cristallographie des Matériaux, CNRS-UMR 6508, Université de Caen, ENSICAEN, 7 bd du Maréchal Juin, 14050 Caen (France); Sauvage, X. [Groupe de Physique des Matériaux, CNRS-UMR 6634, Université de Rouen, INSA de Rouen, Avenue de l' Université, 76800 Saint-Etienne du Rouvray (France); Hug, E. [Laboratoire de Cristallographie des Matériaux, CNRS-UMR 6508, Université de Caen, ENSICAEN, 7 bd du Maréchal Juin, 14050 Caen (France)

2016-05-17

In this work, 316L samples with submicrometric grain size were sintered by spark plasma sintering. To this aim, 316L powder was first ball-milled with different conditions to obtain nanostructured powder. The process control agent quantity and milling time were varied to check their influence on the crystallite size of milled powder. Samples were then sintered by spark plasma sintering using different sets of sintering parameters (temperature, dwell time and pressure). For each sample, grain size and density were systematically measured in order to investigate the influence of the sintering process on these two key microstructure parameters. Results show that suitable ball-milling and subsequent sintering can be employed to obtain austenitic stainless steel samples with grain sizes in the nanometer range with porosity lower than 3%. However, ball-milling and subsequent sintering enhance chromium carbides formation at the sample surface in addition to intragranular and intergranular oxides in the sample as revealed by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. It has been shown that using Boron nitride together with graphite foils to protect the mold from powder welding prevent such carbide formation. For mechanical properties, results show that the grain size refinement strongly increases the hardness of the samples without deviation from Hall-Petch relationship despite the oxides formation. For corrosion resistance, grain sizes lower than a few micrometers involve a strong decrease in the pitting potential and a strong increase in passivation current. As a consequence, spark plasma sintering can be considered as a promising tool for ultra-fine grained austenitic stainless steel.

Whole-Grain Intake, Reflected by Dietary Records and Biomarkers, Is Inversely Associated with Circulating Insulin and Other Cardiometabolic Markers in 8- to 11-Year-Old Children

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Damsgaard, Camilla T.; Biltoft-Jensen, Anja Pia; Tetens, Inge

2017-01-01

.05) as well as insulin (P = 0.003), which also tended to be inversely associated with whole-grain rye intake (P = 0.11). Adjustment for fat mass index did not change the associations. The C17-to-C21 alkylresorcinol ratio, reflecting whole-grain rye to wheat intake, was inversely associated with insulin (P

Probing fine magnetic particles with neutron scattering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pynn, R.

1991-01-01

Because thermal neutrons are scattered both by nuclei and by unpaired electrons, they provide an ideal probe for studying the atomic and magnetic structures of fine-grained magnetic materials, including nanocrystalline solids, thin epitaxial layers, and colloidal suspensions of magnetic particles, known as ferrofluids. Diffraction, surface reflection, and small angle neutron scattering (SANS) are the techniques used. With the exception of surface reflection, these methods are described in this article. The combination of SANS with refractive-index matching and neutron polarisation analysis is particularly powerful because it allows the magnetic and atomic structures to be determined independently. This technique has been used to study both dilute and concentrated ferrofluid suspensions of relatively monodisperse cobalt particles, subjected to a series of applied magnetic fields. The size of the cobalt particle core and the surrounding surfactant layer were determined. The measured interparticle structure factor agrees well with a recent theory that allows correlations in binary mixtures of magnetic particles to be calculated in the case of complete magnetic alignment. When one of the species in such a binary mixture is a nonmagnetic, cyclindrical macromolecule, application of a magnetic field leads to some degree of alignment of the nonmagnetic species. This result has been demonstrated with tobacco mosaic virus suspended in a water-based ferrofluid

On the importance of grain size in luminescence dating using quartz

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Timar-Gabor, A.; Buylaert, Jan-Pieter; Guralnik, B.

2017-01-01

Chinese loess, thus pointing to a potential worldwide phenomenon. While age underestimation is often attributed to signal saturation problems, this is not the case for fine grain material, which saturates at higher doses than coarse grains, yet begins to underestimate true ages earlier. Here we examine...

Tsunami sediments and their grain size characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Sulastya Putra, Purna

2018-02-01

Characteristics of tsunami deposits are very complex as the deposition by tsunami is very complex processes. The grain size characteristics of tsunami deposits are simply generalized no matter the local condition in which the deposition took place. The general characteristics are fining upward and landward, poor sorting, and the grain size distribution is not unimodal. Here I review the grain size characteristics of tsunami deposit in various environments: swale, coastal marsh and lagoon/lake. Review results show that although there are similar characters in some environments and cases, but in detail the characteristics in each environment can be distinguished; therefore, the tsunami deposit in each environment has its own characteristic. The local geological and geomorphological condition of the environment may greatly affect the grain size characteristics.

Grain Structure Control of Additively Manufactured Metallic Materials

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fuyao Yan

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Grain structure control is challenging for metal additive manufacturing (AM. Grain structure optimization requires the control of grain morphology with grain size refinement, which can improve the mechanical properties of additive manufactured components. This work summarizes methods to promote fine equiaxed grains in both the additive manufacturing process and subsequent heat treatment. Influences of temperature gradient, solidification velocity and alloy composition on grain morphology are discussed. Equiaxed solidification is greatly promoted by introducing a high density of heterogeneous nucleation sites via powder rate control in the direct energy deposition (DED technique or powder surface treatment for powder-bed techniques. Grain growth/coarsening during post-processing heat treatment can be restricted by presence of nano-scale oxide particles formed in-situ during AM. Grain refinement of martensitic steels can also be achieved by cyclic austenitizing in post-processing heat treatment. Evidently, new alloy powder design is another sustainable method enhancing the capability of AM for high-performance components with desirable microstructures.

SmartFABER: Recognizing fine-grained abnormal behaviors for early detection of mild cognitive impairment.

Science.gov (United States)

Riboni, Daniele; Bettini, Claudio; Civitarese, Gabriele; Janjua, Zaffar Haider; Helaoui, Rim

2016-02-01

In an ageing world population more citizens are at risk of cognitive impairment, with negative consequences on their ability of independent living, quality of life and sustainability of healthcare systems. Cognitive neuroscience researchers have identified behavioral anomalies that are significant indicators of cognitive decline. A general goal is the design of innovative methods and tools for continuously monitoring the functional abilities of the seniors at risk and reporting the behavioral anomalies to the clinicians. SmartFABER is a pervasive system targeting this objective. A non-intrusive sensor network continuously acquires data about the interaction of the senior with the home environment during daily activities. A novel hybrid statistical and knowledge-based technique is used to analyses this data and detect the behavioral anomalies, whose history is presented through a dashboard to the clinicians. Differently from related works, SmartFABER can detect abnormal behaviors at a fine-grained level. We have fully implemented the system and evaluated it using real datasets, partly generated by performing activities in a smart home laboratory, and partly acquired during several months of monitoring of the instrumented home of a senior diagnosed with MCI. Experimental results, including comparisons with other activity recognition techniques, show the effectiveness of SmartFABER in terms of recognition rates. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Microbial colonization and degradation of polyethylene and biodegradable plastic bags in temperate fine-grained organic-rich marine sediments.

Science.gov (United States)

Nauendorf, Alice; Krause, Stefan; Bigalke, Nikolaus K; Gorb, Elena V; Gorb, Stanislav N; Haeckel, Matthias; Wahl, Martin; Treude, Tina

2016-02-15

To date, the longevity of plastic litter at the sea floor is poorly constrained. The present study compares colonization and biodegradation of plastic bags by aerobic and anaerobic benthic microbes in temperate fine-grained organic-rich marine sediments. Samples of polyethylene and biodegradable plastic carrier bags were incubated in natural oxic and anoxic sediments from Eckernförde Bay (Western Baltic Sea) for 98 days. Analyses included (1) microbial colonization rates on the bags, (2) examination of the surface structure, wettability, and chemistry, and (3) mass loss of the samples during incubation. On average, biodegradable plastic bags were colonized five times higher by aerobic and eight times higher by anaerobic microbes than polyethylene bags. Both types of bags showed no sign of biodegradation during this study. Therefore, marine sediment in temperate coastal zones may represent a long-term sink for plastic litter and also supposedly compostable material. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Producing laminated NiAl with bimodal distribution of grain size by solid–liquid reaction treatment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fan, G.H.; Wang, Q.W.; Du, Y.

2014-01-01

The prospect of combining laminated structure design and grain size tailoring to toughen brittle materials is examined. Laminated NiAl consisting of coarse-grained layers and fine-grained layers was fabricated by solid–liquid reaction treatment of stacking Ni and Al foils. The fracture toughness...

Parallel reduction to condensed forms for symmetric eigenvalue problems using aggregated fine-grained and memory-aware kernels

KAUST Repository

Haidar, Azzam

2011-01-01

This paper introduces a novel implementation in reducing a symmetric dense matrix to tridiagonal form, which is the preprocessing step toward solving symmetric eigenvalue problems. Based on tile algorithms, the reduction follows a two-stage approach, where the tile matrix is first reduced to symmetric band form prior to the final condensed structure. The challenging trade-off between algorithmic performance and task granularity has been tackled through a grouping technique, which consists of aggregating fine-grained and memory-aware computational tasks during both stages, while sustaining the application\\'s overall high performance. A dynamic runtime environment system then schedules the different tasks in an out-of-order fashion. The performance for the tridiagonal reduction reported in this paper is unprecedented. Our implementation results in up to 50-fold and 12-fold improvement (130 Gflop/s) compared to the equivalent routines from LAPACK V3.2 and Intel MKL V10.3, respectively, on an eight socket hexa-core AMD Opteron multicore shared-memory system with a matrix size of 24000×24000. Copyright 2011 ACM.

How Can Polarization States of Reflected Light from Snow Surfaces Inform Us on Surface Normals and Ultimately Snow Grain Size Measurements?

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, A. M.; Flanner, M.; Yang, P.; Yi, B.; Huang, X.; Feldman, D.

2016-12-01

The Snow Grain Size and Pollution (SGSP) algorithm is a method applied to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data to estimate snow grain size from space-borne measurements. Previous studies validate and quantify potential sources of error in this method, but because it assumes flat snow surfaces, however, large scale variations in surface normals can cause biases in its estimates due to its dependence on solar and observation zenith angles. To address these variations, we apply the Monte Carlo method for photon transport using data containing the single scattering properties of different ice crystals to calculate polarization states of reflected monochromatic light at 1500nm from modeled snow surfaces. We evaluate the dependence of these polarization states on solar and observation geometry at 1500nm because multiple scattering is generally a mechanism for depolarization and the ice crystals are relatively absorptive at this wavelength. Using 1500nm thus results in a higher number of reflected photons undergoing fewer scattering events, increasing the likelihood of reflected light having higher degrees of polarization. In evaluating the validity of the model, we find agreement with previous studies pertaining to near-infrared spectral directional hemispherical reflectance (i.e. black-sky albedo) and similarities in measured bidirectional reflectance factors, but few studies exist modeling polarization states of reflected light from snow surfaces. Here, we present novel results pertaining to calculated polarization states and compare dependences on solar and observation geometry for different idealized snow surfaces. If these dependencies are consistent across different ice particle shapes and sizes, then these findings could inform the SGSP algorithm by providing useful relationships between measurable physical quantities and solar and observation geometry to better understand variations in snow surface normals from remote sensing observations.

Krypton and xenon in lunar fines

Science.gov (United States)

Basford, J. R.; Dragon, J. C.; Pepin, R. O.; Coscio, M. R., Jr.; Murthy, V. R.

1973-01-01

Data from grain-size separates, stepwise-heated fractions, and bulk analyses of 20 samples of fines and breccias from five lunar sites are used to define three-isotope and ordinate intercept correlations in an attempt to resolve the lunar heavy rare gas system in a statistically valid approach. Tables of concentrations and isotope compositions are given.

Measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity in fine-grained glacial tills in Iowa: Comparison of in situ and laboratory methods

Science.gov (United States)

Bruner, D. Roger; Lutenegger, Alan J.

1994-01-01

Nested-standpipe and vibrating-wire piezometers were installed in Pre-Illinoian Wolf Creek and Albernett formations at the Eastern Iowa Till Hydrology Site located in Linn County, Iowa. These surficial deposits are composed of fine-grained glacial diamicton (till) with occasional discontinuous lenses of sand and silt. They overlie the Silurian (dolomite) aquifer which provides private, public, and municipal drinking water supplies in the region. The saturated hydraulic conductivity of the Wolf Creek Formation was investigated in a sub-area of the Eastern Iowa Till Hydrology Site. Calculations of saturated hydraulic conductivity were based on laboratoryflexible-wall permeameter tests, bailer tests, and pumping test data. Results show that bulk hydraulic conductivity increases by several orders of magnitude as the tested volume of till increases. Increasing values of saturated hydraulic conductivity at larger spatial scales conceptually support a double-porosity flow model for this till.

Fine-grained Database Field Search Using Attribute-Based Encryption for E-Healthcare Clouds.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Cheng; Zhuang, Ruhan; Jie, Yingmo; Ren, Yizhi; Wu, Ting; Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond

2016-11-01

An effectively designed e-healthcare system can significantly enhance the quality of access and experience of healthcare users, including facilitating medical and healthcare providers in ensuring a smooth delivery of services. Ensuring the security of patients' electronic health records (EHRs) in the e-healthcare system is an active research area. EHRs may be outsourced to a third-party, such as a community healthcare cloud service provider for storage due to cost-saving measures. Generally, encrypting the EHRs when they are stored in the system (i.e. data-at-rest) or prior to outsourcing the data is used to ensure data confidentiality. Searchable encryption (SE) scheme is a promising technique that can ensure the protection of private information without compromising on performance. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for controlling access to EHRs stored in semi-trusted cloud servers (e.g. a private cloud or a community cloud). To achieve fine-grained access control for EHRs, we leverage the ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) technique to encrypt tables published by hospitals, including patients' EHRs, and the table is stored in the database with the primary key being the patient's unique identity. Our framework can enable different users with different privileges to search on different database fields. Differ from previous attempts to secure outsourcing of data, we emphasize the control of the searches of the fields within the database. We demonstrate the utility of the scheme by evaluating the scheme using datasets from the University of California, Irvine.

Rapid Grain Size Reduction in the Upper Mantle at a Plate Boundary

Science.gov (United States)

Kidder, S. B.; Scott, J.; Prior, D. J.; Lubicich, E. J.

2017-12-01

A few spinel peridotite xenoliths found near the Alpine Fault, New Zealand, exhibit a mylonitic texture and, locally, an extremely fine 30 micron grain size. The harzburgite xenoliths were emplaced in a 200 km-long elongate dike zone interpreted as a gigantic tension fracture or Reidel shear associated with Alpine Fault initiation 25 Ma. The presence of thin ( 1 mm) ultramylonite zones with px-ol phase mixing and fine grain sizes, minimal crustal-scale strain associated with the dike swarm, and the absence of mylonites at four of the five xenolith localities associated with the dike swarm indicate that upper mantle deformation was highly localized. Strings of small, recrystallized grains (planes in 3D) are found in the interiors of olivine porphyroclasts. In some cases, bands 1-2 grains thick are traced from the edges of olivine grains and terminate in their interiors. Thicker zones of recrystallized grains are also observed crossing olivine porphyroclasts without apparent offset of the unrecrystallized remnants of the porphyroclasts. We suggest a brittle-plastic origin for these features since the traditional recrystallization mechanisms associated with dislocation creep require much more strain than occurred within these porphyroclasts. Analogous microstructures in quartz and feldspar in mid-crust deformation zones are attributed to brittle-plastic processes. We hypothesize that such fine-grained zones were the precursors of the observed, higher-strain ultramylonite zones. Given the size of the new grains preserved in the porphyroclasts ( 100 micron) and a moho temperature > 650°C, grain growth calculations indicate that the observed brittle-plastic deformation occurred <10,000 yrs. prior to eruption. It is likely then that either brittle-plastic deformation was coeval with the ductile shearing occurring in the ultramylonite bands, or possibly, if deformation can be separated into brittle-plastic (early) and ductile (later) phases, that the entire localization

Burst Testing and Analysis of Superalloy Disks With a Dual Grain Microstructure

Science.gov (United States)

Gayda, John; Kantzos, Pete

2006-01-01

Elastic-plastic finite element analyses of room temperature burst tests on four superalloy disks were conducted and reported in this paper. Two alloys, Rene 104 (General Electric Aircraft Engines) and Alloy 10 (Honeywell Engines & Systems), were studied. For both alloys an advanced dual microstructure disk, fine grain bore and coarse grain rim, were analyzed and compared with conventional disks with uniform microstructures, coarse grain for Rene 104 and fine grain for Alloy 10. The analysis and experimental data were in good agreement up to burst. At burst, the analysis underestimated the speed and growth of the Rene 104 disks, but overestimated the speed and growth of the Alloy 10 disks. Fractography revealed that the Alloy 10 disks displayed significant surface microcracking and coalescence in comparison to Rene 104 disks. This phenomenon may help explain the differences between the Alloy 10 disks and the Rene 104 disks, as well as the observed deviations between analytical and experimental data at burst.

A 2D Micromodel Study of Fines Migration and Clogging Behavior in Porous Media: Implications of Fines on Methane Extraction from Hydrate-Bearing Sediments

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, S. C.; Jang, J.; Waite, W. F.; Jafari, M.; Jung, J.

2017-12-01

Fine-grained sediment, or "fines," exist nearly ubiquitously in natural sediment, even in the predominantly coarse-grained sediments that host gas hydrates. Fines within these sandy sediments can play a crucial role during gas hydrate production activities. During methane extraction, several processes can alter the mobility and clogging potential of fines: 1) fluid flow as the formation is depressurized to release methane from hydrate; 2) pore-fluid chemistry shifts as pore-fluid brine freshens due to pure water released from dissociating hydrate; 3) the presence of a moving gas/water interface as gas evolves from dissociating hydrate and moves through the reservoir toward the production well. To evaluate fines migration and clogging behavior changes resulting from methane gas production and pore-water freshening during hydrate dissociation, 2D micromodel experiments have been conducted on a selection of pure fines, pore-fluids, and micromodel pore-throat sizes. Additionally, tests have been run with and without an invading gas phase (CO2) to test the significance of a moving meniscus on fines mobility and clogging. The endmember fine particles chosen for this research include silica silt, mica, calcium carbonate, diatoms, kaolinite, illite, and bentonite (primarily made of montmorillonite). The pore fluids include deionized water, sodium chloride brine (2M concentration), and kerosene. The microfluidic pore models, used as porous media analogs, were fabricated with pore-throat widths of 40, 60, and 100 µm. Results from this research show that in addition to the expected dependence of clogging on the ratio of particle-to-pore-throat size, pore-fluid chemistry is also a significant factor because the interaction between a particular type of fine and pore fluid influences that fine's capacity to cluster, clump together and effectively increase its particle "size" relative to the pore-throat width. The presence of a moving gas/fluid meniscus increases the clogging

From Google Maps to a fine-grained catalog of street trees

Science.gov (United States)

Branson, Steve; Wegner, Jan Dirk; Hall, David; Lang, Nico; Schindler, Konrad; Perona, Pietro

2018-01-01

Up-to-date catalogs of the urban tree population are of importance for municipalities to monitor and improve quality of life in cities. Despite much research on automation of tree mapping, mainly relying on dedicated airborne LiDAR or hyperspectral campaigns, tree detection and species recognition is still mostly done manually in practice. We present a fully automated tree detection and species recognition pipeline that can process thousands of trees within a few hours using publicly available aerial and street view images of Google MapsTM. These data provide rich information from different viewpoints and at different scales from global tree shapes to bark textures. Our work-flow is built around a supervised classification that automatically learns the most discriminative features from thousands of trees and corresponding, publicly available tree inventory data. In addition, we introduce a change tracker that recognizes changes of individual trees at city-scale, which is essential to keep an urban tree inventory up-to-date. The system takes street-level images of the same tree location at two different times and classifies the type of change (e.g., tree has been removed). Drawing on recent advances in computer vision and machine learning, we apply convolutional neural networks (CNN) for all classification tasks. We propose the following pipeline: download all available panoramas and overhead images of an area of interest, detect trees per image and combine multi-view detections in a probabilistic framework, adding prior knowledge; recognize fine-grained species of detected trees. In a later, separate module, track trees over time, detect significant changes and classify the type of change. We believe this is the first work to exploit publicly available image data for city-scale street tree detection, species recognition and change tracking, exhaustively over several square kilometers, respectively many thousands of trees. Experiments in the city of Pasadena

Increasing Sucrose Uptake Capacity of Wheat Grains Stimulates Storage Protein Synthesis1[W

Science.gov (United States)

Weichert, Nicola; Saalbach, Isolde; Weichert, Heiko; Kohl, Stefan; Erban, Alexander; Kopka, Joachim; Hause, Bettina; Varshney, Alok; Sreenivasulu, Nese; Strickert, Marc; Kumlehn, Jochen; Weschke, Winfriede; Weber, Hans

2010-01-01

Increasing grain sink strength by improving assimilate uptake capacity could be a promising approach toward getting higher yield. The barley (Hordeum vulgare) sucrose transporter HvSUT1 (SUT) was expressed under control of the endosperm-specific Hordein B1 promoter (HO). Compared with the wild type, transgenic HOSUT grains take up more sucrose (Suc) in vitro, showing that the transgene is functional. Grain Suc levels are not altered, indicating that Suc fluxes are influenced rather than steady-state levels. HOSUT grains have increased percentages of total nitrogen and prolamins, which is reflected in increased levels of phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, isoleucine, and leucine at late grain development. Transcript profiling indicates specific stimulation of prolamin gene expression at the onset of storage phase. Changes in gene expression and metabolite levels related to carbon metabolism and amino acid biosynthesis suggest deregulated carbon-nitrogen balance, which together indicate carbon sufficiency and relative depletion of nitrogen. Genes, deregulated together with prolamin genes, might represent candidates, which respond positively to assimilate supply and are related to sugar-starch metabolism, cytokinin and brassinosteroid functions, cell proliferation, and sugar/abscisic acid signaling. Genes showing inverse expression patterns represent potential negative regulators. It is concluded that HvSUT1 overexpression increases grain protein content but also deregulates the metabolic status of wheat (Triticum aestivum) grains, accompanied by up-regulated gene expression of positive and negative regulators related to sugar signaling and assimilate supply. In HOSUT grains, alternating stimulation of positive and negative regulators causes oscillatory patterns of gene expression and highlights the capacity and great flexibility to adjust wheat grain storage metabolism in response to metabolic alterations. PMID:20018590

Holocene marine transgression as interpreted from bathymetry and sand grain size parameters off Gopalpur

Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

Rao, K.M.; Rajamanickam, G.V.; Rao, T.C.S.

Grain size statistical parameters of the surface sediment samples collected from the innershelf off Gopalpur were calculated using graphic and moment methods. Fine-grained sand present up to 15 m water depth shows symmetrical skewness and good...

Spectral analysis in overmodulated holographic reflection gratings recorded with BB640 ultrafine grain emulsion

Science.gov (United States)

Mas-Abellán, P.; Madrigal, R.; Fimia, A.

2015-05-01

Silver halide emulsions have been considered one of the most energetic sensitive materials for holographic applications. Nonlinear recording effects on holographic reflection gratings recorded on silver halide emulsions have been studied by different authors obtaining excellent experimental results. In this communication specifically we focused our investigation on the effects of refractive index modulation, trying to get high levels of overmodulation. We studied the influence of the grating thickness on the overmodulation and its effects on the transmission spectra for a wide exposure range by use of two different thickness ultrafine grain emulsion BB640, thin films (6 μm) and thick films (9 μm), exposed to single collimated beams using a red He-Ne laser (wavelength 632.8 nm) with Denisyuk configuration obtaining a spatial frequency of 4990 l/mm recorded on the emulsion. The experimental results show that high overmodulation levels of refractive index could offer some benefits such as high diffraction efficiency (reaching 90 %), increase of grating bandwidth (close to 80 nm), making lighter holograms, or diffraction spectra deformation, transforming the spectrum from sinusoidal to approximation of square shape. Based on these results, we demonstrate that holographic reflection gratings spectra recorded with overmodulation of refractive index is formed by the combination of several non-linear components due to very high overmodulation. This study is the first step to develop a new easy multiplexing technique based on the use of high index modulation reflection gratings.

Effects of Grain Refinement by ECAP on the Deformation Resistance of\

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Blum, W.; Dvořák, Jiří; Král, Petr; Eisenlohr, P.; Sklenička, Václav

2016-01-01

Roč. 32, č. 12 (2016), s. 1309-1320 ISSN 1005-0302 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) ED1.1.00/02.0068 Institutional support: RVO:68081723 Keywords : Deformation * Grain boundaries * Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) * Creep * Dynamic recovery * Fine grained microstructure Subject RIV: JG - Metallurgy Impact factor: 2.764, year: 2016

Nanocrystalline and ultrafine grain copper obtained by mechanical attrition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodolfo Rodríguez Baracaldo

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This article presents a method for the sample preparation and characterisation of bulk copper having grain size lower than 1 μm (ultra-fine grain and lower than 100 nm grain size (nanocrystalline. Copper is initially manufactured by a milling/alloying me- chanical method thereby obtaining a powder having a nanocrystalline structure which is then consolidated through a process of warm compaction at high pressure. Microstructural characterisation of bulk copper samples showed the evolution of grain size during all stages involved in obtaining it. The results led to determining the necessary conditions for achieving a wide range of grain sizes. Mechanical characterisation indicated an increase in microhardness to values of around 3.40 GPa for unconsolida- ted nanocrystalline powder. Compressivee strength was increased by reducing the grain size, thereby obtaining an elastic limit of 650 MPa for consolidated copper having a ~ 62 nm grain size.

Niobium-base grain refiner for aluminium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Silva Pontes, P. da; Robert, M.H.; Cupini, N.L.

1980-01-01

A new chemical grain refiner for aluminium has been developed, using inoculation of a niobium-base compound. When a bath of molten aluminium is inoculated whith this refiner, an intermetallic aluminium-niobium compound is formed which acts as a powerful nucleant, producing extremely fine structure comparable to those obtained by means of the traditional grain refiner based on titanium and boron. It was found that the refinement of the structure depends upon the weight percentage of the new refiner inoculated as well as the time of holding the bath after inoculation and before pouring, but mainly on the inoculating temperature. (Author) [pt

Thermomagnetic Stability in Pseudo Single Domain Grains

Science.gov (United States)

Nagy, Lesleis; Williams, Wyn; Muxworthy, Adrian; Fabian, Karl; Conbhuí, Pádraig Ó.

2016-04-01

The reliability of paleomagnetic remanences are well understood for fine grains of magnetite that are single-domain (SD, uniformly magnetized). In particular Néel's theory [1] outlined the thermal energies required to block and unblock magnetic remanences. This lead to determination of thermal stability for magnetization in fine grains as outlined in Pullaiah et. al. [2] and a comprehensive understanding of SD paleomagnetic recordings. It has been known for some time that single domain magnetite is possible only in the grain size range 30 - 80nm, which may only account for a small fraction of the grain size distribution in any rock sample. Indeed rocks are often dominated by grains in the pseudo single domain (PSD) size range, at approximately 80 - 1000nm. Toward the top end of this range multi-domain features begin to dominate. In order to determine thermomagnetic stability in PSD grains we need to identify the energy barriers between all possible pairs of local energy minima (LEM) domain states as a function of both temperature and grain size. We have attempted to do this using the nudged elastic band (NEB) method [3] which searches for minimum energy paths between any given pair of LEM states. Using this technique we have determined, for the first time, complete thermomagnetic stability curves for PSD magnetite. The work presented is at a preliminary stage. However it can be shown that PSD grains of magnetite with simple geometries (e.g. cubes or cuboctahedra) have very few low energy transition paths and the stability is likely to be similar to that observed for SD grains (as expected form experimental observations). The results will provide a basis for a much more rigorous understanding of the fidelity of paleomagnetic signals in assemblages of PSD grains and their ability to retain ancient recordings of the geomagnetic field. References: [1] Néel, Louis. "Théorie du traînage magnétique des ferromagnétiques en grains fins avec applications aux terres

Assessment of Fine Aggregates from Different Sources in Ibadan ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

OLUWASOGO

shown in Table 2 ranges from 14% to 17%, which confirmed that the fine grained ..... Management, 6 (1): 12 – 22. BSI (British Standard ... (5th ed.),. Pearson Education Limited, England. Obla, K. H. (2011). Variation in Concrete Performance.

High temperature microplasticity of fine-grained Y-TZP zirconia studied by mechanical spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Donzel, L.; Schaller, R.

1997-01-01

Mechanical spectroscopy has been used to study the early stage of the plastic deformation, i.e. the microplasticity of Y-TZP ceramics. Measurements on samples with different grain sizes have shown that the mechanical loss is proportional to the inverse of the square root of the grain size. The existence of a threshold stress has been observed. (orig.)

Does species richness affect fine root biomass and production in young forest plantations?

Science.gov (United States)

Domisch, Timo; Finér, Leena; Dawud, Seid Muhie; Vesterdal, Lars; Raulund-Rasmussen, Karsten

2015-02-01

Tree species diversity has been reported to increase forest ecosystem above-ground biomass and productivity, but little is known about below-ground biomass and production in diverse mixed forests compared to single-species forests. For testing whether species richness increases below-ground biomass and production and thus complementarity between forest tree species in young stands, we determined fine root biomass and production of trees and ground vegetation in two experimental plantations representing gradients in tree species richness. Additionally, we measured tree fine root length and determined species composition from fine root biomass samples with the near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy method. We did not observe higher biomass or production in mixed stands compared to monocultures. Neither did we observe any differences in tree root length or fine root turnover. One reason for this could be that these stands were still young, and canopy closure had not always taken place, i.e. a situation where above- or below-ground competition did not yet exist. Another reason could be that the rooting traits of the tree species did not differ sufficiently to support niche differentiation. Our results suggested that functional group identity (i.e. conifers vs. broadleaved species) can be more important for below-ground biomass and production than the species richness itself, as conifers seemed to be more competitive in colonising the soil volume, compared to broadleaved species.

SHAPE ANALYSIS OF FINE AGGREGATES USED FOR CONCRETE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huan He

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Fine aggregate is one of the essential components in concrete and significantly influences the material properties. As parts of natures, physical characteristics of fine aggregate are highly relevant to its behaviors in concrete. The most of previous studies are mainly focused on the physical properties of coarse aggregate due to the equipment limitations. In this paper, two typical fine aggregates, i.e. river sand and crushed rock, are selected for shape characterization. The new developed digital image analysis systems are employed as the main approaches for the purpose. Some other technical methods, e.g. sieve test, laser diffraction method are also used for the comparable references. Shape characteristics of fine aggregates with different origins but in similar size ranges are revealed by this study. Compared with coarse aggregate, fine grains of different origins generally have similar shape differences. These differences are more significant in surface texture properties, which can be easily identified by an advanced shape parameter: bluntness. The new image analysis method is then approved to be efficient for the shape characterization of fine aggregate in concrete.

Towards gloss control in fine art reproduction

Science.gov (United States)

Baar, Teun; Brettel, Hans; Ortiz Segovia, Maria V.

2015-03-01

The studies regarding fine art reproduction mainly focus on the accuracy of colour and the recreation of surface texture properties. Since reflection properties other than colour are neglected, important details of the artwork are lost. For instance, gloss properties, often characteristic to painters and particular movements in the history of art, are not well reproduced. The inadequate reproduction of the different gloss levels of a piece of fine art leads to a specular reflection mismatch in printed copies with respect to the original works that affects the perceptual quality of the printout. We used different print parameters of a 3D high resolution printing setup to control the gloss level on a printout locally. Our method can be used to control gloss automatically and in crucial applications such as fine art reproduction.

Reflective and refractive optical materials for earth and space applications; Proceedings of the Meeting, Orlando, FL, Apr. 4, 5, 1991

Science.gov (United States)

Riedl, Max J.; Hale, Robert R.; Parsonage, Thomas B.

The present conference discusses beryllium mirror design and fabrication, production of aspheric beryllium optical surfaces by HIP consolidation, the control of thermally induced porosity for the fabrication of beryllium optics, fine-grained beryllium optical coatings, light-absorbing beryllium baffle materials, and advanced broadband baffle materials. Also discussed are radiation-resistant optical glasses, a catalog of IR and cryooptical properties of selected materials, durable metal-dielectric mirror coatings, the optical stability of diffuse reflectance materials, and optical filters for space applications.

A first-principles analysis of ballistic conductance, grain boundary scattering and vertical resistance in aluminum interconnects

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Tianji; Lanzillo, Nicholas A.; Bhosale, Prasad; Gall, Daniel; Quon, Roger

2018-05-01

We present an ab initio evaluation of electron scattering mechanisms in Al interconnects from a back-end-of-line (BEOL) perspective. We consider the ballistic conductance as a function of nanowire size, as well as the impact of surface oxidation on electron transport. We also consider several representative twin grain boundaries and calculate the specific resistivity and reflection coefficients for each case. Lastly, we calculate the vertical resistance across the Al/Ta(N)/Al and Cu/Ta(N)/Cu interfaces, which are representative of typical vertical interconnect structures with diffusion barriers. Despite a high ballistic conductance, the calculated specific resistivities at grain boundaries are 70-100% higher in Al than in Cu, and the vertical resistance across Ta(N) diffusion barriers are 60-100% larger for Al than for Cu. These results suggest that in addition to the well-known electromigration limitations in Al interconnects, electron scattering represents a major problem in achieving low interconnect line resistance at fine dimensions.

Fatigue behaviour of ultrafine-grained copper

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kunz, Ludvík; Lukáš, Petr; Svoboda, Milan; Bokůvka, O.

2005-01-01

Roč. 12, č. 3 (2005), s. 2-6 ISSN 1335-0803. [Degradácia konštrukčných materiálov 2005. Terchová - Biely Potok, 05.09.2005-07.09.2005] Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20410507 Keywords : Fatigue * Ultra fine grained metals * equal chanel angular pressing Subject RIV: JG - Metallurgy

Development of a new ultrafine grained dual phase steel and examination of the effect of grain size on tensile deformation behavior

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saeidi, N., E-mail: navidsae@gmail.com; Ashrafizadeh, F.; Niroumand, B.

2014-04-01

Ultrafine grained dual phase (DP) steels are among the newest grades of DP steels that incorporate the uniform distribution of fine martensite particles (in the order of 1–2 μm) within a ferrite matrix. These new grades of steels have been developed in response to the world's demand for decreasing the fuel consumption in automobiles by increasing the strength to weight ratio. In the present research, a new kind of ultrafine grained DP (UFG-DP) steel with an average grain size of about 2 μm as well as a coarse grained DP (CG-DP) steel with an average grain size of about 5.4 μm was produced by consecutive intercritical annealing and cold rolling of low carbon AISI 8620 steel. The martensite volume fraction for both microstructures was the same and about 50 percent. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) microstructural examination and room temperature tensile deformation analyses were performed on both UFG-DP and CG-DP steels and their deformation behavior in terms of strength, elongation and strain hardening was studied and compared. Room-temperature uniaxial tensile tests revealed that for a given martensite volume fraction, yield and tensile strengths were not very sensitive to martensite morphology. However, uniform and total elongation values were noticeably affected by refining martensite particles. The higher plasticity of fine martensite particles as well as the more uniform strain distribution within the UFG-DP microstructure resulted in higher strain hardenability and, finally, the higher ductility of the UFG-DP steel.

Evaluation of a Non-Nuclear Soil Density Gauge on Fine-Grained Soils

Science.gov (United States)

2013-05-01

U.S. STANDARD SIEVE NUMBERS HYDROMETER fY, in o/. in. 318 in #140 6 in. 3 in. 2 in. 1 in. ’A in #4 ’" #20 #30 #40 ឬ #100 #200 100 J I ’ I I I I I...1 3-20 31 C L-2 U.S. SIEVE OPENING IN INCHES U.S. STANDARD SIEVE NUMBERS HYDROMETER 1Y,in. ’/.in Un~/8 in #140 6 in 3 in. 2 in. 1in. " #4...Particle Size Distribution Reoort Fine PL 14 HYDROMETER %Fines Silt -------,---- PI Project Non-Nuclear Gau_ge Proiect 27 Area Boring No. 3 Date

Increased pericarp cell length underlies a major quantitative trait locus for grain weight in hexaploid wheat.

Science.gov (United States)

Brinton, Jemima; Simmonds, James; Minter, Francesca; Leverington-Waite, Michelle; Snape, John; Uauy, Cristobal

2017-08-01

Crop yields must increase to address food insecurity. Grain weight, determined by grain length and width, is an important yield component, but our understanding of the underlying genes and mechanisms is limited. We used genetic mapping and near isogenic lines (NILs) to identify, validate and fine-map a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) on wheat chromosome 5A associated with grain weight. Detailed phenotypic characterisation of developing and mature grains from the NILs was performed. We identified a stable and robust QTL associated with a 6.9% increase in grain weight. The positive interval leads to 4.0% longer grains, with differences first visible 12 d after fertilization. This grain length effect was fine-mapped to a 4.3 cM interval. The locus also has a pleiotropic effect on grain width (1.5%) during late grain development that determines the relative magnitude of the grain weight increase. Positive NILs have increased maternal pericarp cell length, an effect which is independent of absolute grain length. These results provide direct genetic evidence that pericarp cell length affects final grain size and weight in polyploid wheat. We propose that combining genes that control distinct biological mechanisms, such as cell expansion and proliferation, will enhance crop yields. © 2017 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust.

Effects of grain size and humidity on fretting wear in fine-grained alumina, Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/TiC, and zirconia

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Krell, A. [Fraunhofer Inst. for Ceramic Technologies and Sintered Materials, Dresden (Germany); Klaffke, D. [Federal Inst. for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin (Germany)

1996-05-01

Friction and wear of sintered alumina with grain sizes between 0.4 and 3 {micro}m were measured in comparison with Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/TiC composites and with tetragonal ZrO{sub 2} (3 mol% Y{sub 2}O{sub 3}). The dependence on the grain boundary toughness and residual microstresses is investigated, and a hierarchical order of influencing parameters is observed. In air, reduced alumina grain sizes improve the micromechanical stability of the grain boundaries and the hardness, and reduced wear is governed by microplastic deformation, with few pullout events. Humidity and water slightly reduce the friction of all of the investigated ceramics. In water, this effect reduces the wear of coarser alumina microstructures. The wear of aluminas and of the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/TiC composite is similar; it is lower than observed in zirconia, where extended surface cracking occurs at grain sizes as small as 0.3 {micro}m.

Performance of a fine-grained parallel model for multi-group nodal-transport calculations in three-dimensional pin-by-pin reactor geometry

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Masahiro, Tatsumi; Akio, Yamamoto

2003-01-01

A production code SCOPE2 was developed based on the fine-grained parallel algorithm by the red/black iterative method targeting parallel computing environments such as a PC-cluster. It can perform a depletion calculation in a few hours using a PC-cluster with the model based on a 9-group nodal-SP3 transport method in 3-dimensional pin-by-pin geometry for in-core fuel management of commercial PWRs. The present algorithm guarantees the identical convergence process as that in serial execution, which is very important from the viewpoint of quality management. The fine-mesh geometry is constructed by hierarchical decomposition with introduction of intermediate management layer as a block that is a quarter piece of a fuel assembly in radial direction. A combination of a mesh division scheme forcing even meshes on each edge and a latency-hidden communication algorithm provided simplicity and efficiency to message passing to enhance parallel performance. Inter-processor communication and parallel I/O access were realized using the MPI functions. Parallel performance was measured for depletion calculations by the 9-group nodal-SP3 transport method in 3-dimensional pin-by-pin geometry with 340 x 340 x 26 meshes for full core geometry and 170 x 170 x 26 for quarter core geometry. A PC cluster that consists of 24 Pentium-4 processors connected by the Fast Ethernet was used for the performance measurement. Calculations in full core geometry gave better speedups compared to those in quarter core geometry because of larger granularity. Fine-mesh sweep and feedback calculation parts gave almost perfect scalability since granularity is large enough, while 1-group coarse-mesh diffusion acceleration gave only around 80%. The speedup and parallel efficiency for total computation time were 22.6 and 94%, respectively, for the calculation in full core geometry with 24 processors. (authors)

Blue-green fluorescence and visible-infrared reflectance of corn (Zea mays L.) grain for in situ field detection of nitrogen supply

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McMurtrey, J.E. III; Chappelle, E.W.; Kim, M.S.; Corp, L.A.; Daughtry, C.S.T.

1996-01-01

The sensing of spectral attributes of corn (Zea mays L.) grain from site specific areas of the field during the harvest process may be useful in managing agronomic inputs and production practices on those areas of the field in subsequent growing seasons. Eight levels of nitrogen (N) fertilization were applied to field grown corn at Beltsville, Maryland. These N treatments produced a range of chlorophyll levels, biomass and physiological condition in the live plant canopies. After harvest, spectra were obtained in the laboratory on whole grain samples. Fluorescence emissions were acquired from 400 to 600 nm and percent reflectance were measured in the visible (VIS) near infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) regions from 400 nm to 2400 nm. A ultraviolet (UV) excitation band centered at 385 nm was the most effective in producing fluorescence emission differences in the blue-green region of the fluorescence spectrum with maxima centered from 430-470nm in the blue and with an intense shoulder centered at around 530-560 nm in the green region. Reflectance showed the most spectral differences in the NIR and MIR (970-2330 nm) regions

Microstructural investigation of grain stability in cryomilled inconel 625

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chung, K.H.; Lee, J.; Rodriguez, R.; Lavernia, E.J.; Shin, D.H.

2002-01-01

The grain growth behavior of nanocrystalline Inconel 625 powders prepared by cryomilling (mechanical milling under a liquid nitrogen environment) was investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The average grain size of powders after 8 hours cryomilling was 22 nm. Along with this fine structure, ultrafine NiO and Cr 2 O 3 oxide particles were distributed in the cryomilled material with average size of 3 nm. It was found that the grain size remain under 250 nm after 4 hours heat treatment at 800 C, which correspond to T/T m ∝0.65. The cryomilled Inconel 625 showed improved grain stability compared to that of conventional Inconel 625 and cryomilled pure-Ni, due to the particle pinning of grain boundary by the oxide particles in addition to solute drag. (orig.)

Evidence for accretion of fine-grained rims in a turbulent nebula for CM Murchison

Science.gov (United States)

Hanna, Romy D.; Ketcham, Richard A.

2018-01-01

We use X-ray computed tomography (XCT) to examine the 3D morphology and spatial relationship of fine-grained rims (FGRs) of Type I chondrules in the CM carbonaceous chondrite Murchison to investigate the formation setting (nebular vs. parent body) of the FGRs. We quantify the sizes, shapes, and orientations of the chondrules and FGRs and develop a new algorithm to examine the 3D variation of FGR thickness around each chondrule. We find that the average proportion of chondrule volume contained in the rim for Murchison chondrules is 35.9%. The FGR volume in relation to the interior chondrule radius is well described by a power law function as proposed for accretion of FGRs in a weakly turbulent nebula by Cuzzi (2004). The power law exponent indicates that the rimmed chondrules behaved as Stokes number Stη > 1 nebular particles in Kolmogorov η scale turbulence. FGR composition as inferred from XCT number appears essentially uniform across interior chondrule types and compositions, making formation by chondrule alteration unlikely. We determine that the FGRs were compressed by the impact event(s) that deformed Murchison (Hanna et al., 2015), resulting in rims that are thicker in the plane of foliation but that still preserve their nebular morphological signature. Finally, we propose that the irregular shape of some chondrules in Murchison is a primary feature resulting from chondrule formation and that chondrules with a high degree of surface roughness accreted a relatively larger amount of nebular dust compared to smoother chondrules.

Temporal and spatial variabilities in the surface moisture content of a fine-grained beach

Science.gov (United States)

Namikas, S. L.; Edwards, B. L.; Bitton, M. C. A.; Booth, J. L.; Zhu, Y.

2010-01-01

This study examined spatial and temporal variations in the surface moisture content of a fine-grained beach at Padre Island, Texas, USA. Surface moisture measurements were collected on a 27 × 24 m grid that extended from the dune toe to the upper foreshore. The grid was surveyed at 2 to 4 h intervals for two tidal cycles, generating 17 maps of the spatial distribution of surface moisture. Simultaneous measurements of air temperature and humidity, wind speed and direction, tidal elevation, and water table elevation were used to interpret observed changes in surface moisture. It was found that the spatial distribution of surface moisture was broadly characterized by a cross-shore gradient of high to low content moving landward from the swash zone. The distribution of surface moisture was conceptualized in terms of three zones: saturated (> 25%), intermediate or transitional (5-25%), and dry (< 5%). The position of the saturated zone corresponded to the uppermost swash zone and therefore shifted in accordance with tidal elevation. Moisture contents in the intermediate and dry zones were primarily related to variation in water table depth (which was in turn controlled by tidal elevation) and to a lesser extent by evaporation. Signals associated with atmospheric processes such as evaporation were muted by the minimal degree of variation in atmospheric parameters experienced during most of the study period, but were apparent for the last few hours. The observed spatial and temporal variations in moisture content correspond reasonably well with observations of key controlling processes, but more work is needed to fully characterize this process suite.

Production of Al-Ti-C grain refiners with the addition of elemental carbon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gezer, Berke Turgay; Toptan, Fatih; Daglilar, Sibel; Kerti, Isil

2010-01-01

Grain refining process used in aluminium alloys, has an important role for preventing columnar, coarse grains and encouraging fine, equiaxed grain formation. Al-Ti-B grain refiners are widely used as aluminium grain refiners despite the problems in application Al-Ti-C refiners have an increasing demand in recent years. In the present work, Al-Ti-C grain refiners with different Ti:C ratios were produced by insitu method with the addition of elemental carbon. Microstructures were characterised by optic microscope and scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive spectroscopy. The effects of temperature, holding time and Ti:C ratio on the grain refinement process were investigated and optimum conditions were determined.

Studies on fire and explosion hazards of zircaloy fines

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andriessen, H.; Kroebel, R.; Bereznai, T.; Wurtz, R.; Hattwig, M.; Hensel, W.; Osswald, R.

1987-01-01

To promote the safe handling of the Zry-fines arising in a reprocessing plant, an experimental program was conducted under which the fire and explosion hazards were assessed. In order to evaluate the effect of irradiation on the ignition and explosion properties, irradiated and unirradiated Zry-fines, generated with the same tool, were investigated and compared which each other. Irradiated Zry-fines exhibit a higher fire and explosion hazard than non-irradiated fines passing the same sieve. These differences are caused mainly by the irradiation induced embrittlement and hardening of the Zry-hulls. On account of these different physical properties the generated fines have got a finer grain size due to a more spherical shape resulting in a higher bulk density and a lower mean value. These secondary irradiation effects seem to determine the lower minimum ignition temperatures and the higher values for the maximum explosion pressure and rate of pressure rise

In situ TEM study of the effect of M/A films at grain boundaries on crack propagation in an ultra-fine acicular ferrite pipeline steel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhong Yong; Xiao Furen; Zhang Jingwu; Shan Yiyin; Wang Wei; Yang Ke

2006-01-01

Microstructural refinement of structural materials generally improves their tensile properties but deteriorates their fatigue properties. However, pipeline steels with ultra-fine acicular ferrite (UFAF) possess not only high strength and toughness, but also a low fatigue-crack-growth rate (FCGR) and long fatigue-propagation life. In this paper, the micro-fracture mechanisms of an UFAF pipeline steel are investigated by in situ tensile testing in a transmission electron microscope. The results indicate that a grain-boundary-film structure composed of martensite/austenite could significantly influence the crack propagating behavior in the UFAF steel, consequently lowering the FCGR by enhancing roughness-induced crack closure during cyclic loading

Estimating concentrations of fine-grained and total suspended sediment from close-range remote sensing imagery

Science.gov (United States)

Mosbrucker, Adam; Spicer, Kurt R.; Christianson, Tami; Uhrich, Mark A.

2015-01-01

data range among sensors. Of greatest interest to many programs is a hysteresis in the relationship between turbidity and SSC, attributed to temporal variation of particle size distribution (Landers and Sturm, 2013; Uhrich et al., 2014). This phenomenon causes increased uncertainty in regression-estimated values of SSC, due to changes in nephelometric reflectance off the varying grain sizes in suspension (Uhrich et al., 2014). Here, we assess the feasibility and application of close-range remote sensing to quantify SSC and particle size distribution of a disturbed, and highly-turbid, river system. We use a consumer-grade digital camera to acquire imagery of the river surface and a depth-integrating sampler to collect concurrent suspended-sediment samples. We then develop two empirical linear regression models to relate image spectral information to concentrations of fine sediment (clay to silt) and total suspended sediment. Before presenting our regression model development, we briefly summarize each data-acquisition method.

Grain size statistics and depositional pattern of the Ecca Group sandstones, Karoo Supergroup in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baiyegunhi Christopher

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Grain size analysis is a vital sedimentological tool used to unravel the hydrodynamic conditions, mode of transportation and deposition of detrital sediments. In this study, detailed grain-size analysis was carried out on thirty-five sandstone samples from the Ecca Group in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Grain-size statistical parameters, bivariate analysis, linear discriminate functions, Passega diagrams and log-probability curves were used to reveal the depositional processes, sedimentation mechanisms, hydrodynamic energy conditions and to discriminate different depositional environments. The grain-size parameters show that most of the sandstones are very fine to fine grained, moderately well sorted, mostly near-symmetrical and mesokurtic in nature. The abundance of very fine to fine grained sandstones indicate the dominance of low energy environment. The bivariate plots show that the samples are mostly grouped, except for the Prince Albert samples that show scattered trend, which is due to the either mixture of two modes in equal proportion in bimodal sediments or good sorting in unimodal sediments. The linear discriminant function analysis is dominantly indicative of turbidity current deposits under shallow marine environments for samples from the Prince Albert, Collingham and Ripon Formations, while those samples from the Fort Brown Formation are lacustrine or deltaic deposits. The C-M plots indicated that the sediments were deposited mainly by suspension and saltation, and graded suspension. Visher diagrams show that saltation is the major process of transportation, followed by suspension.

Grain size statistics and depositional pattern of the Ecca Group sandstones, Karoo Supergroup in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Science.gov (United States)

Baiyegunhi, Christopher; Liu, Kuiwu; Gwavava, Oswald

2017-11-01

Grain size analysis is a vital sedimentological tool used to unravel the hydrodynamic conditions, mode of transportation and deposition of detrital sediments. In this study, detailed grain-size analysis was carried out on thirty-five sandstone samples from the Ecca Group in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Grain-size statistical parameters, bivariate analysis, linear discriminate functions, Passega diagrams and log-probability curves were used to reveal the depositional processes, sedimentation mechanisms, hydrodynamic energy conditions and to discriminate different depositional environments. The grain-size parameters show that most of the sandstones are very fine to fine grained, moderately well sorted, mostly near-symmetrical and mesokurtic in nature. The abundance of very fine to fine grained sandstones indicate the dominance of low energy environment. The bivariate plots show that the samples are mostly grouped, except for the Prince Albert samples that show scattered trend, which is due to the either mixture of two modes in equal proportion in bimodal sediments or good sorting in unimodal sediments. The linear discriminant function analysis is dominantly indicative of turbidity current deposits under shallow marine environments for samples from the Prince Albert, Collingham and Ripon Formations, while those samples from the Fort Brown Formation are lacustrine or deltaic deposits. The C-M plots indicated that the sediments were deposited mainly by suspension and saltation, and graded suspension. Visher diagrams show that saltation is the major process of transportation, followed by suspension.

Modifying the properties of finely ground limestone by tumbling granulation

Science.gov (United States)

Macho, Oliver; Eckert, Maroš; Tomášová, Barbora; Peciar, Peter; Ščasný, Martin; Fekete, Roman; Peciar, Marián

2016-06-01

Calcium carbonate in the form of finely ground limestone is a material that has found its application in a wide range of industries, in the chemical, rubber, agricultural, and paper industries, is used for desulfurization of boilers and other. In civil engineering, ground limestone is used for the production of building materials, plaster and mortar mixtures, as a filler in concrete mixtures, in road construction, and as an essential component of mastic asphalt. This paper deals with examining the modification of the properties of finely ground limestone by the tumbling agglomeration method. It has been shown that the components of concrete with a round grain have a positive effect on the pumping of concrete in comparison with an elongated grain or the rough surface of crushed stone. The experiments will be carried out on a granulation plate using a variety of granulation liquid. The agglomerates and their properties were compared with untreated finely ground limestone, with a focus on detecting changes in compressibility, density and particle size. The output of this paper is a description and graphical representation of the changes in the properties of ground limestone before and after the agglomeration process.

Modifying the properties of finely ground limestone by tumbling granulation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Macho Oliver

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Calcium carbonate in the form of finely ground limestone is a material that has found its application in a wide range of industries, in the chemical, rubber, agricultural, and paper industries, is used for desulfurization of boilers and other. In civil engineering, ground limestone is used for the production of building materials, plaster and mortar mixtures, as a filler in concrete mixtures, in road construction, and as an essential component of mastic asphalt. This paper deals with examining the modification of the properties of finely ground limestone by the tumbling agglomeration method. It has been shown that the components of concrete with a round grain have a positive effect on the pumping of concrete in comparison with an elongated grain or the rough surface of crushed stone. The experiments will be carried out on a granulation plate using a variety of granulation liquid. The agglomerates and their properties were compared with untreated finely ground limestone, with a focus on detecting changes in compressibility, density and particle size. The output of this paper is a description and graphical representation of the changes in the properties of ground limestone before and after the agglomeration process.

Dating ice shelf edge marine sediments: A new approach using single-grain quartz luminescence

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Berger, G.W.; Murray, A.S.; Thomsen, Kristina Jørkov

2010-01-01

the Antarctic Peninsula, sediment-water-interface (“zero-age” analogs), silt-rich short cores were collected in 2001–2003, originally only for fine silt dating tests. Later access to suitable instrumentation also permitted testing the potential of single-grain quartz (SGQ) dating of sand grains from these cores...

Possible Gems and Ultra-Fine Grained Polyphase Units in Comet Wild 2.

Science.gov (United States)

Gainsforth, Z.; Butterworth, A. L.; Jilly-Rehak, C. E.; Westphal, A. J.; Brownlee, D. E.; Joswiak, D.; Ogliore, R. C.; Zolensky, M. E.; Bechtel, H. A.; Ebel, D. S.;

Super-fine rice-flour production by enzymatic treatment with high hydrostatic pressure processing

Science.gov (United States)

Kido, Miyuki; Kobayashi, Kaneto; Chino, Shuji; Nishiwaki, Toshikazu; Homma, Noriyuki; Hayashi, Mayumi; Yamamoto, Kazutaka; Shigematsu, Toru

2013-06-01

In response to the recent expansion of rice-flour use, we established a new rice-flour manufacturing process through the application of high hydrostatic pressure (HP) to the enzyme-treated milling method. HP improved both the activity of pectinase, which is used in the enzyme-treated milling method and the water absorption capacity of rice grains. These results indicate improved damage to the tissue structures of rice grains. In contrast, HP suppressed the increase in glucose, which may have led to less starch damage. The manufacturing process was optimized to HP treatment at 200 MPa (40°C) for 1 h and subsequent wet-pulverization at 11,000 rpm. Using this process, rice flour with an exclusively fine mean particle size less than 20 μm and starch damage less than 5% was obtained from rice grains soaked in an enzyme solution and distilled water. This super-fine rice flour is suitable for bread, pasta, noodles and Western-style sweets.

Privacy Protection in Participatory Sensing Applications Requiring Fine-Grained Locations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dong, Kai; Gu, Tao; Tao, Xianping

2010-01-01

The emerging participatory sensing applications have brought a privacy risk where users expose their location information. Most of the existing solutions preserve location privacy by generalizing a precise user location to a coarse-grained location, and hence they cannot be applied in those appli...... provider is an trustworthy entity, making our solution more feasible to practical applications. We present and analyze our security model, and evaluate the performance and scalability of our system....

Evolution of twinning in extruded AZ31 alloy with bimodal grain structure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Garcés, G., E-mail: ggarces@cenim.csic.es [Department of Physical Metallurgy, National Centre for Metallurgical Research CENIM-CSIC, Av. De Gregorio del Amo 8, 28040 Madrid (Spain); Oñorbe, E. [CIEMAT, Division of Structural Materials, Avenida Complutense, 40, 28040 Madrid (Spain); Gan, W. [German Engineering Materials Science Centre at MLZ, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Lichtebergstr. 1, D-85747 Garching (Germany); Máthis, K. [Department of Physics of Materials, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, KeKarlovu 5, 121 16 Praha 2 (Czech Republic); Tolnai, D. [Institute of Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Max-Planck-Str. 1, 21502 Geesthacht (Germany); Horváth, K. [Department of Physics of Materials, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, KeKarlovu 5, 121 16 Praha 2 (Czech Republic); Pérez, P.; Adeva, P. [Department of Physical Metallurgy, National Centre for Metallurgical Research CENIM-CSIC, Av. De Gregorio del Amo 8, 28040 Madrid (Spain)

2017-04-15

Twinning in extruded AZ31 alloy with a bimodal grain structure is studied under compression along the extrusion direction. This study has combined in-situ measurements during the compression tests by Synchrotron Radiation Diffraction and Acoustic Emission techniques and the evaluation of the microstructure and texture in post-mortem compression samples deformed at different strains. The microstructure of the alloy is characterized by the coexistence of large areas of fine dynamic recrystallized grains and coarse non-recrystallized grains elongated along extrusion direction. Twinning occurs initially in large elongated grains before the macroscopic yield stress which is controlled by the twinning in equiaxed dynamically recrystallized grains. - Highlights: • The AZ31 extruded at low temperature exhibits a bimodal grains structure. • Twinning takes place before macroscopic yielding in coarse non-DRXed grains. • DRXed grains controls the beginning of plasticity in magnesium alloys with bimodal grain structure.

Fine-grained sediment deposition on mussel beds in the Oosterschelde (The Netherlands), determined from echosoundings, radio-isotopes and biodeposition field experiments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brinke, W.B.M. ten; Augustinus, P.G.E.F.

1995-01-01

Sedimentation rates of 5-20 cm year -1 were calculated from 137 Cs + 134 Cs activity profiles and echosoundings in a mussel cultivation area in the western part of the Oosterschelde. Sedimentation rates based on 210 Pb activity profiles are far too low, mainly due to the deposition of 'aged' sediment, i.e. sediment eroded elsewhere inside the basin and not fully enriched with 210 Pb at the moment of deposition. Also, specific adsorption to the finest sediment components, mixing, winnowing, and mobilization of the caesium have affected the lead and caesium profiles. Field experiments on mussel plots showed that mussels deposit 5-10 cm of fine-grained sediment during the summer. This biodeposition about equals the settling from flocculation in the water column. Micro-fabric microscope studies revealed that pellets do not dominate the sediments, indicating that some of the pellets are broken down or resuspended. (author)

Grain boundary corrosion of copper canister material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fennell, P.A.H.; Graham, A.J.; Smart, N.R.; Sofield, C.J.

2001-03-01

The proposed design for a final repository for spent fuel and other long-lived residues in Sweden is based on the multi-barrier principle. The waste will be encapsulated in sealed cylindrical canisters, which will then be placed in granite bedrock and surrounded by compacted bentonite clay. The canister design is based on a thick cast inner container fitted inside a corrosion-resistant copper canister. During fabrication of the outer copper canisters there will be some unavoidable grain growth in the welded areas. As grains grow they will tend to concentrate impurities within the copper at the new grain boundaries. The work described in this report was undertaken to determine whether there is any possibility of enhanced corrosion at grain boundaries within the copper canister. The potential for grain boundary corrosion was investigated by exposing copper specimens, which had undergone different heat treatments and hence had different grain sizes, to aerated artificial bentonite-equilibrated groundwater with two concentrations of chloride, for increasing periods of time. The degree of grain boundary corrosion was determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical microscopy. AFM showed no increase in grain boundary 'ditching' for low chloride groundwater. In high chloride groundwater the surface was covered uniformly with a fine-grained oxide. No increases in oxide thickness were observed. No significant grain boundary attack was observed using optical microscopy either. The work suggests that in aerated artificial groundwaters containing chloride ions, grain boundary corrosion of copper is unlikely to adversely affect SKB's copper canisters

A method for automatic grain segmentation of multi-angle cross-polarized microscopic images of sandstone

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Feng; Gu, Qing; Hao, Huizhen; Li, Na; Wang, Bingqian; Hu, Xiumian

2018-06-01

Automatic grain segmentation of sandstone is to partition mineral grains into separate regions in the thin section, which is the first step for computer aided mineral identification and sandstone classification. The sandstone microscopic images contain a large number of mixed mineral grains where differences among adjacent grains, i.e., quartz, feldspar and lithic grains, are usually ambiguous, which make grain segmentation difficult. In this paper, we take advantage of multi-angle cross-polarized microscopic images and propose a method for grain segmentation with high accuracy. The method consists of two stages, in the first stage, we enhance the SLIC (Simple Linear Iterative Clustering) algorithm, named MSLIC, to make use of multi-angle images and segment the images as boundary adherent superpixels. In the second stage, we propose the region merging technique which combines the coarse merging and fine merging algorithms. The coarse merging merges the adjacent superpixels with less evident boundaries, and the fine merging merges the ambiguous superpixels using the spatial enhanced fuzzy clustering. Experiments are designed on 9 sets of multi-angle cross-polarized images taken from the three major types of sandstones. The results demonstrate both the effectiveness and potential of the proposed method, comparing to the available segmentation methods.

Effects of grain refinement on cast structure and tensile properties of superalloy K4169 at high pouring temperature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zi-qi Jie

2016-03-01

Full Text Available In order to improve the filling ability of large complex thin wall castings, the pouring temperature should be increased, but this will result in the grain coarsening. To overcome this problem, two kinds of grain refiners of Co-Fe-Nb and Cr-Fe-Nb ternary alloys, which contain high stability compound particles, were prepared. The effects of the refiners on the as-cast structures and tensile properties of the K4169 superalloy with different casting conditions were studied by analyzing specimens 110 mm long and 20 mm in diameter. Results showed that the mixture addition of the two refiners in the melt of K4169 can reduce the columnar grain region and decrease the equiaxed grain size greatly. After refinement, the amount of Laves phase decreases and its morphology changes from island to blocky structure. The carbides in the fine grain samples are fine and dispersive. Meanwhile, the porosity in specimens is decreased due to grain refinement. As a result, the yield strength, ultimate strength and the elongation of the specimens are increased. The grain refinement mechanisms are also discussed.

Thin-layer heap bioleaching of copper flotation tailings containing high levels of fine grains and microbial community succession analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Hao, Xiao-dong; Liang, Yi-li; Yin, Hua-qun; Liu, Hong-wei; Zeng, Wei-min; Liu, Xue-duan

2017-04-01

Thin-layer heap bioleaching of copper flotation tailings containing high levels of fine grains was carried out by mixed cultures on a small scale over a period of 210 d. Lump ores as a framework were loaded at the bottom of the ore heap. The overall copper leaching rates of tailings and lump ores were 57.10wt% and 65.52wt%, respectively. The dynamic shifts of microbial community structures about attached microorganisms were determined using the Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform based on 16S rRNA amplification strategy. The results indicated that chemolithotrophic genera Acidithiobacillus and Leptospirillum were always detected and dominated the microbial community in the initial and middle stages of the heap bioleaching process; both genera might be responsible for improving the copper extraction. However, Thermogymnomonas and Ferroplasma increased gradually in the final stage. Moreover, the effects of various physicochemical parameters and microbial community shifts on the leaching efficiency were further investigated and these associations provided some important clues for facilitating the effective application of bioleaching.

Refinement of grain structure in 20 MnNiMo (SA508C) steel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sheng Zhongqi; Xiao Hong; Peng Feng; Zou Min

1997-04-01

The size of prior austenite grains and bainitic colonies of 20 MnNiMo (SA508C) steel (a reactor pressure vessel steel) after normal heat treatment is measured and its controlling factors are discussed. Results show that low aluminium content can induce serious mixed structure with fine and coarse grains in prior austenite. Fast cooling rate can promote refinement of bainitic colonies. Further refinement of grains can be obtained by inter-critical quenching. (5 figs., 1 tab.)

Identification of magnetic minerals in the fine-grain sediment on the Bengawan Solo River

Science.gov (United States)

Purnama, B.; Kusuma, R.; Legowo, B.; Suharyana; Wijayanta, A. T.

2018-03-01

The magnetic mineral content in the fine sediment of Bengawan Solo River is discussed. The fine sediment is obtained on the upper part of the tributary of Bengawan Solo River. Magnetic minerals are separated using permanent magnets. Furthermore the magnetic minerals are overnight dried using oven at 100°C. FTIR characterization indicate that the magnetic minerals in the fine sediment of Bengawan Solo River have the same characteristics as minerals in Cilacap and Purwokerto areas. Magnetic minerals are estimated to form at wave number k = 569.03 cm-1. This hematite content increase to 70.67% after anealling treatment at 600°C for 4 hours in atmosphere condition. This result is interesting because the heating process increases the hematite content. Within results, the magnetic properties of the sample will change.

Two proofs of Fine's theorem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halliwell, J.J.

2014-01-01

Fine's theorem concerns the question of determining the conditions under which a certain set of probabilities for pairs of four bivalent quantities may be taken to be the marginals of an underlying probability distribution. The eight CHSH inequalities are well-known to be necessary conditions, but Fine's theorem is the striking result that they are also sufficient conditions. Here two transparent and self-contained proofs of Fine's theorem are presented. The first is a physically motivated proof using an explicit local hidden variables model. The second is an algebraic proof which uses a representation of the probabilities in terms of correlation functions. - Highlights: • A discussion of the various approaches to proving Fine's theorem. • A new physically-motivated proof using a local hidden variables model. • A new algebraic proof. • A new form of the CHSH inequalities

A multi-scale homogenization model for fine-grained porous viscoplastic polycrystals: II - Applications to FCC and HCP materials

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Dawei; Ponte Castañeda, P.

2018-06-01

In Part I of this work (Song and Ponte Castañeda, 2018a), a new homogenization model was developed for the macroscopic behavior of three-scale porous polycrystals consisting of random distributions of large pores in a fine-grained polycrystalline matrix. In this second part, the model is used to investigate both the instantaneous effective behavior and the finite-strain macroscopic response of porous FCC and HCP polycrystals for axisymmetric loading conditions. The stress triaxiality and Lode parameter are found to have significant effects on the evolution of the substructure, which in turn have important implications for the overall hardening/softening behavior of the porous polycrystal. The intrinsic effect of the texture evolution of the polycrystalline matrix is inferred by appropriate comparisons with corresponding results for porous isotropic materials, and found to be significant, especially at low triaxialities. In particular, the predictions of the model identify, for the first time, two disparate regimes for the macroscopic response of porous polycrystals: a porosity-controlled regime at high triaxialities, and a texture-controlled regime at low triaxialities. The transition between these two regimes is found to be quite sharp, taking place between triaxialities of 1 and 2.

Effect of bimodal grain size distribution on fatigue properties of Ti-6Al-4V alloy with harmonic structure under four-point bending

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kikuchi, Shoichi, E-mail: kikuchi@mech.kobe-u.ac.jp [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501 (Japan); Hayami, Yosuke; Ishiguri, Takayuki [Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Noji-higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577 (Japan); Guennec, Benjamin; Ueno, Akira; Ota, Mie; Ameyama, Kei [Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Noji-higashi, Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577 (Japan)

2017-02-27

Titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) with a bimodal harmonic structure, which is defined as a coarse-grained structure surrounded by a network structure of fine grains, was fabricated using powder metallurgy to improve both the strength and ductility. The microstructure of the sintered compacts was characterized using electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). The areal fraction of the fine-grained structure in the harmonic structure tended to increase with the milling time. Tensile tests and four-point bending fatigue tests at a stress ratio of 0.1 were performed in air at room temperature. The tensile strength, 0.2% proof stress and fatigue limit of Ti-6Al-4V alloy with harmonic structure tended to increase as the areal fraction of the fine-grained structure increased. In contrast, elongation decreased due to the formation of a high areal fraction of the fine-grained structure (79.0%), which resulted in a reduction of the fatigue life with a low cycle regime. Thus, titanium alloy with high strength, ductility and fatigue resistance can be formed by optimization of the milling conditions. Furthermore, the mechanism for fatigue fracture of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy with a harmonic structure is discussed with respect to fractography and crystallography. A fatigue crack was initiated from the α-facet of the coarse-grained structure in the harmonic structure.

MAGNETIC GRAIN TRAPPING AND THE HOT EXCESSES AROUND EARLY-TYPE STARS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rieke, G. H.; Gáspár, András; Ballering, N. P., E-mail: grieke@as.arizona.edu, E-mail: agaspar@as.arizona.edu, E-mail: ballerin@email.arizona.edu [Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)

2016-01-10

A significant fraction of main sequence stars observed interferometrically in the near-infrared have slightly extended components that have been attributed to very hot dust. To match the spectrum appears to require the presence of large numbers of very small (<200 nm in radius) dust grains. However, particularly for the hotter stars, it has been unclear how such grains can be retained close to the star against radiation pressure force. We find that the expected weak stellar magnetic fields are sufficient to trap nm-sized dust grains in epicyclic orbits for a few weeks or longer, sufficient to account for the hot excess emission. Our models provide a natural explanation for the requirement that the hot excess dust grains be smaller than 200 nm. They also suggest that magnetic trapping is more effective for rapidly rotating stars, consistent with the average vsini measurements of stars with hot excesses being larger (at ∼2σ) than those for stars without such excesses.

Fine-Scale Human Population Structure in Southern Africa Reflects Ecogeographic Boundaries.

Science.gov (United States)

Uren, Caitlin; Kim, Minju; Martin, Alicia R; Bobo, Dean; Gignoux, Christopher R; van Helden, Paul D; Möller, Marlo; Hoal, Eileen G; Henn, Brenna M

2016-09-01

Recent genetic studies have established that the KhoeSan populations of southern Africa are distinct from all other African populations and have remained largely isolated during human prehistory until ∼2000 years ago. Dozens of different KhoeSan groups exist, belonging to three different language families, but very little is known about their population history. We examine new genome-wide polymorphism data and whole mitochondrial genomes for >100 South Africans from the ≠Khomani San and Nama populations of the Northern Cape, analyzed in conjunction with 19 additional southern African populations. Our analyses reveal fine-scale population structure in and around the Kalahari Desert. Surprisingly, this structure does not always correspond to linguistic or subsistence categories as previously suggested, but rather reflects the role of geographic barriers and the ecology of the greater Kalahari Basin. Regardless of subsistence strategy, the indigenous Khoe-speaking Nama pastoralists and the N|u-speaking ≠Khomani (formerly hunter-gatherers) share ancestry with other Khoe-speaking forager populations that form a rim around the Kalahari Desert. We reconstruct earlier migration patterns and estimate that the southern Kalahari populations were among the last to experience gene flow from Bantu speakers, ∼14 generations ago. We conclude that local adoption of pastoralism, at least by the Nama, appears to have been primarily a cultural process with limited genetic impact from eastern Africa. Copyright © 2016 by the Genetics Society of America.

Research on fine management and visualization of ancient architectures based on integration of 2D and 3D GIS technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jun, Yan; Shaohua, Wang; Jiayuan, Li; Qingwu, Hu

2014-01-01

Aimed at ancient architectures which own the characteristics of huge data quantity, fine-grained and high-precise, a 3D fine management and visualization method for ancient architectures based on the integration of 2D and 3D GIS is proposed. Firstly, after analysing various data types and characters of digital ancient architectures, main problems and key technologies existing in the 2D and 3D data management are discussed. Secondly, data storage and indexing model of digital ancient architecture based on 2D and 3D GIS integration were designed and the integrative storage and management of 2D and 3D data were achieved. Then, through the study of data retrieval method based on the space-time indexing and hierarchical object model of ancient architecture, 2D and 3D interaction of fine-grained ancient architectures 3D models was achieved. Finally, take the fine database of Liangyi Temple belonging to Wudang Mountain as an example, fine management and visualization prototype of 2D and 3D integrative digital ancient buildings of Liangyi Temple was built and achieved. The integrated management and visual analysis of 10GB fine-grained model of the ancient architecture was realized and a new implementation method for the store, browse, reconstruction, and architectural art research of ancient architecture model was provided

The aggregation efficiency of very fine volcanic ash

Science.gov (United States)

Del Bello, E.; Taddeucci, J.; Scarlato, P.

2013-12-01

Explosive volcanic eruptions can discharge large amounts of very small sized pyroclasts (under 0.090 mm) into the atmosphere that may cause problems to people, infrastructures and environment. The transport and deposition of fine ash are ruled by aggregation that causes premature settling of fine ash and, as consequence, significantly reduces the concentration of airborne material over long distances. Parameterizing the aggregation potential of fine ash is then needed to provide accurate modelling of ash transport and deposition from volcanic plumes. Here we present the first results of laboratory experiments investigating the aggregation efficiency of very fine volcanic particles. Previous laboratory experiments have shown that collision kinetic and relative humidity provide the strongest effect on aggregation behaviour but were only limited to particles with size > 0.125 mm. In our work, we focus on natural volcanic ash at ambient humidity with particles size aggregation potential. Two types of ash were used in our experiments: fresh ash, collected during fall-out from a recent plume-forming eruption at Sakurajima (Japan -July 2013) and old ash, collected from fall-out tephra deposits at Campi Flegrei (Italy, ca. 10 ka), to account for the different chemical composition and morphoscopic effects of altered ash on aggregation efficiency. Total samples were hand sieved to obtain three classes with unimodal grain size distributions (sieved from the top of a transparent tank where a fan, placed at the bottom, allows turbulent dispersion of particles. Collision and sticking of particles on a vertical glass slide were filmed with a high speed cameras at 6000 fps. Our lenses arrangement provide high image resolution allowing to capture particles down to 0.005 mm in diameter. Video sequences of particles motion and collision were then processed with image analysis and particle tracking tools to determine i) the particle number density and ii) the grain size distribution

A UNIFIED MODEL OF GRAIN ALIGNMENT: RADIATIVE ALIGNMENT OF INTERSTELLAR GRAINS WITH MAGNETIC INCLUSIONS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoang, Thiem [Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8 (Canada); Lazarian, A. [Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison (United States)

2016-11-10

The radiative torque (RAT) alignment of interstellar grains with ordinary paramagnetic susceptibilities has been supported by earlier studies. The alignment of such grains depends on the so-called RAT parameter q {sup max}, which is determined by the grain shape. In this paper, we elaborate on our model of RAT alignment for grains with enhanced magnetic susceptibility due to iron inclusions, such that RAT alignment is magnetically enhanced, which we term the MRAT mechanism. Such grains can be aligned with high angular momentum at the so-called high- J attractor points, achieving a high degree of alignment. Using our analytical model of RATs, we derive the critical value of the magnetic relaxation parameter δ {sub m} to produce high- J attractor points as functions of q {sup max} and the anisotropic radiation angle relative to the magnetic field ψ . We find that if about 10% of the total iron abundance present in silicate grains is forming iron clusters, this is sufficient to produce high- J attractor points for all reasonable values of q {sup max}. To calculate the degree of grain alignment, we carry out numerical simulations of MRAT alignment by including stochastic excitations from gas collisions and magnetic fluctuations. We show that large grains can achieve perfect alignment when the high- J attractor point is present, regardless of the values of q {sup max}. Our obtained results pave the way for the physical modeling of polarized thermal dust emission as well as magnetic dipole emission. We also find that millimeter-sized grains in accretion disks may be aligned with the magnetic field if they are incorporated with iron nanoparticles.

The Influence of Abrasion on Martian Dust Grains: Evidence from a Study of Antigorite Grains

Science.gov (United States)

Bishop, Janice L.; Drief, Ahmed; Dyar, M. Darby

2003-01-01

Grinding was shown to greatly affect the structure and a number of properties of antigorite grains in a study by Drief and Nieto. Grinding is likely to influence the structure of most clay mineral grains and has been shown recently to influence the structure of kaolinite. The antigorite structure includes curved waves of layered silicate as shown by D dony et al.. Our study was performed in order to characterize in detail changes in the mineral grains resulting from grinding and to assess the influence of physical processes on clay minerals on the surface of Mars. This project includes a combination of SEM, reflectance spectroscopy and Moessbauer spectroscopy.

Thermal activation of OSL as a geothermometer for quartz grain heating during fault movements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rink, W.J.; Toyoda, S.; Rees-Jones, J.; Schwarcz, H.P.

1999-01-01

In discussions of ESR dating of fault movements, there has been much debate whether zeroing of ESR signals is a mechanical shearing effect or caused by frictional heating. The OSL (optically stimulated luminescence) sensitivity of quartz is known to increase after heating. This thermal activation of dose response of the OSL in quartz should be useful as a geothermometer to test whether quartz particles in fault gouge had been heated. We tested the OSL sensitivities of quartz from fault gouge, and from a control (quartz grains from sandstone) and were able to show heat-induced enhancement of OSL sensitivity to a test dose. We observed that relative enhancement of OSL dose response (ratio of heated to unheated single aliquots) is significantly less for the finest grains (45-75 and 100-150 μm) compared with coarser grains (150-250 μm). These data are consistent with a model of zeroing of the quartz grains during faulting, by frictional heating localized to the grain boundaries, which would be expected to affect smaller grains more than large ones. This argues against a zeroing model in which the entire fault gouge is heated by friction. Higher laboratory preheating of sandstone quartz reduces between-aliquot variability of OSL dose response in the unheated grains to nearly zero. Unheated coarsest fault gouge grains displayed virtually no among-aliquot variability, whereas fine grains showed much larger between-aliquot variability; as with the quartz sand, variability dropped to near zero after laboratory heating, suggesting that fine grains in fault gouge have experienced a wide range of natural thermal histories during faulting. This may present a problem for ESR dating of fault gouge using the plateau method

Effect of surface roughness on grain growth and sintering of alumina

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Administrator

Variation in surface roughness properties are also correlated with grain size. Rz ... ceramic product having accurate size and shape with per- fect flatness .... Figure 1. Variation in Ra with temperature: (a) fine, (b) intermediate and (c) coarse.

Mineralogy and Textural Characteristics of Fine-grained Rims in the Yamato 791198 CM2 Carbonaceous Chondrite: Constraints on the Location of Aqueous Alteration

Science.gov (United States)

Chizmadia, Lysa J.; Brearley, Adrian J.

2003-01-01

Carbonaceous chondrites provide important clues into the nature of physical and chemical processes in the early solar system. A question of key importance concerns the role of water in solar nebular and asteroidal processes. The effects of water on primary mineral assemblages have been widely recognized in chondritic meteorites, especially the CI and CM carbonaceous chondrites. These meteorites have undergone extensive aqueous alteration that occurred prior to their arrival on Earth. In the case of the CM chondrites, this alteration has resulted in the partial to complete replacement of the primary nebular phases with secondary alteration phases. Considerable controversy exists as to the exact location where the alteration of the CM chondrites occurred. Several textural lines of evidence have been cited in support of aqueous alteration prior to the accretion of the final parent asteroid. An important line of evidence to support this hypothesis is the dis-equilibrium nature of fine-grained rims and matrix materials. [2] also noted the juxtaposition of micron-sized Fe-Ni metal grains and apparently unaltered chondrule glass against hydrated rim silicates. Conversely, there is a large body of evidence in favor of parent body alteration such as the occurrence of undisturbed Fe-rich aureoles and the systematic redistribution of elemental components over millimeters, e.g., Mg(+2) into the matrix and Fe(+2) into chondrules etc.

Analysis of syntactic and semantic features for fine-grained event-spatial understanding in outbreak news reports

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chanlekha Hutchatai

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Previous studies have suggested that epidemiological reasoning needs a fine-grained modelling of events, especially their spatial and temporal attributes. While the temporal analysis of events has been intensively studied, far less attention has been paid to their spatial analysis. This article aims at filling the gap concerning automatic event-spatial attribute analysis in order to support health surveillance and epidemiological reasoning. Results In this work, we propose a methodology that provides a detailed analysis on each event reported in news articles to recover the most specific locations where it occurs. Various features for recognizing spatial attributes of the events were studied and incorporated into the models which were trained by several machine learning techniques. The best performance for spatial attribute recognition is very promising; 85.9% F-score (86.75% precision/85.1% recall. Conclusions We extended our work on event-spatial attribute recognition by focusing on machine learning techniques, which are CRF, SVM, and Decision tree. Our approach avoided the costly development of an external knowledge base by employing the feature sources that can be acquired locally from the analyzed document. The results showed that the CRF model performed the best. Our study indicated that the nearest location and previous event location are the most important features for the CRF and SVM model, while the location extracted from the verb's subject is the most important to the Decision tree model.

Experimental Investigation of Charging Properties of Interstellar Type Silica Dust Grains by Secondary Electron Emissions

Science.gov (United States)

Tankosic, D.; Abbas, M. M.

2013-01-01

The dust charging by electron impact is an important dust charging processes in astrophysical and planetary environments. Incident low energy electrons are reflected or stick to the grains charging the dust grains negatively. At sufficiently high energies electrons penetrate the grains, leading to excitation and emission of electrons referred to as secondary electron emission (SEE). Available classical theoretical models for calculations of SEE yields are generally applicable for neutral, planar, or bulk surfaces. These models, however, are not valid for calculations of the electron impact charging properties of electrostatically charged micron/submicron-size dust grains in astrophysical environments. Rigorous quantum mechanical models are not yet available, and the SEE yields have to be determined experimentally for development of more accurate models for charging of individual dust grains. At the present time, very limited experimental data are available for charging of individual micron-size dust grains, particularly for low energy electron impact. The experimental results on individual, positively charged, micron-size lunar dust grains levitated carried out by us in a unique facility at NASA-MSFC, based on an electrodynamic balance, indicate that the SEE by electron impact is a complex process. The electron impact may lead to charging or discharging of dust grains depending upon the grain size, surface potential, electron energy, electron flux, grain composition, and configuration (Abbas et al, 2010, 2012). In this paper, we discuss SEE charging properties of individual micron-size silica microspheres that are believed to be analogs of a class of interstellar dust grains. The measurements indicate charging of the 0.2m silica particles when exposed to 25 eV electron beams and discharging when exposed to higher energy electron beams. Relatively large size silica particles (5.2-6.82m) generally discharge to lower equilibrium potentials at both electron energies

Grain Refinement by Authigenic Inoculation Inherited from the Medium-Range Order Structure of Ni-Cr-W Superalloy

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Zhongtang; Hu, Rui; Guo, Wei; Zhang, Chuanwei

2018-05-01

The combination of liquidus casting and thermal control solidification furnace was applied to obtain a fine-grained ingot. A rapid quenching method and x-ray diffraction measurement were used to investigate the effect of authigenic inoculation on grain refinement. The structure factor S( Q) of liquid Ni -Cr-W superalloy at 1400 °C (Liquidus temperature) and bright-field image of the microstructures quenched from 1400 °C have been measured by the high-temperature x-ray diffractometer and the transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The results show that a pre-peak exists on a S( Q) curve at the liquidus temperature. The clusters of atom in rapidly quenched microstructures obtained by isothermal heat treatment at 1400 °C were studied using TEM. Meanwhile, the effect of isothermal different temperatures on rapidly quenched microstructures was studied. The results also show that there are only the globular, equiaxed grains distributed in the solidification structure. These particles are inherited from the medium-range order structure, which is beneficial for grain refinement. The normalized work-hardening rate-strain curve indicates the work-hardening rate of fine grain is higher than that of conventional grain at the same temperature and the same deformation.

Energy saving cement production by grain size optimisation of the raw meal

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Simons

Full Text Available The production of cement clinker is an energy consuming process. At about 50% of the energy is associated with grinding and milling of the raw meal, that normally is in the range 100% <200 μm with 90% <90 μm. Question: is it possible to use coarser components of the raw meal without reducing the clinker quality. With synthetic raw meals of various grain sizes the clinker formation was studied at static (1100 - 1450°C and dynamic conditions (heating microscope. A routine to adjust the grain size of the components for industrial raw meals is developed. The fine fraction <90 μm should mainly contain the siliceous and argileous components, whereas the calcitic component can be milled separately to a grain size between 200-500 μm, resulting in lower energy consumption for milling. Considering the technical and economical realizability the relation fine/coarse should be roughly 1:1. The energy for milling can be reduced significantly, that in addition leads to the preservation of natural energy resources.

Nucleation of recrystallization in fine-grained materials: an extension of the Bailey-Hirsch criterion

Science.gov (United States)

Favre, Julien; Fabrègue, Damien; Chiba, Akihiko; Bréchet, Yves

2013-11-01

A new criterion for nucleation in the case of dynamic recrystallization is proposed in order to include the contribution of the grain boundary energy stored in the microstructure in the energy balance. Due to the nucleation events, the total surface area of pre-existing grain boundaries decreases, leading to a nucleus size smaller than expected by conventional nucleation criteria. The new model provides a better prediction of the nucleus size during recrystallization of pure copper compared with the conventional nucleation criterion.

A national survey of rice ( Oryza sativa L.) grain quality in Sierra ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

As Sierra Leone approaches self-sufficiency in rice, against a backdrop of agricultural commercialization, the dynamics of the rice grain production and consumption will increasingly be driven by the quality of grains demanded by consumers to be produced by farmers and marketed by traders in the open market.

A primary assessment of a daybreak 2200 OSL reader using fine grain quartz and CaSO4:Tm TLD

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Keqi; Chen Jie; Lu Yanchou; Wang Changsheng; Yang Chuancheng

2007-01-01

Daybreak 2200 OSL readers are widely used for luminescence dating applications. As the sample irradiation and illumination may affect discs in adjacent positions, it is critical to confirm that these factors do not introduce significant systematic errors. Effects of cross-irradiation and cross-bleaching were examined and quantified using fine-grain quartz and highly sensitive CaSO 4 :Tm dosimeters, and the irradiation offset time was measured. The cross-bleaching effect on adjacent aliquots is non-linear with no more than 15% OSL signal reduction following 10ks illumination with the power of blue LED being at 95% maximum. But at positions other than the nearest neighboring sample, almost no effect of cross-bleaching was found. The cross-talk dose, even to the nearest samples, was about 0.02% of the applied dose, and it decreased with increasing distance from the source. Offset time of the built-in Beta source shutter is 0.22 s, which can be neglected in regular dating, and leak dose of the source can be ignored as well. Finally, measurement consistency at Position 0.5, 10, ..... and 55 of the sample tray is better than 3% in relative standard deviation. (authors)

Grain structure evolution in Inconel 718 during selective electron beam melting

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Helmer, H.; Bauereiß, A., E-mail: Andreas.Bauereiss@fau.de; Singer, R.F.; Körner, C.

2016-06-21

Selective electron beam melting (SEBM) is an additive manufacturing method where complex parts are built from metal powders in layers of typically 50 µm. An electron beam is used for heating (about 900 °C building temperature) and selective melting of the material. The grain structure evolution is a result of the complex thermal and hydrodynamic conditions in the melt pool. We show how different scanning strategies can be used to produce either a columnar grain structure with a high texture in building direction or an equiaxed fine grained structure. Numerical simulations of the selective melting process are applied to study the fundamental mechanisms responsible for differing grain structures. It is shown, that the direction of the thermal gradient during solidification can be altered by scanning strategies to acquire either epitaxial growth or stray grains. We show that it is possible to locally alter the grain structure of a part, thus allowing tailoring of the mechanical properties.

The Effect of Grain-refinement on Zn-10Al Alloy Damping Properties

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Piwowarski G.

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The paper is devoted to grain-refinement of the medium-aluminium zinc based alloys (MAl-Zn. The system examined was sand cast Zn- 10 wt. %. Al binary alloy (Zn-10Al doped with commercial Al-3 wt. % Ti - 0.15 wt. % C grain refiner (Al-3Ti-0.15C GR. Basing on the measured attenuation coefficient of ultrasonic wave it was stated that together with significantly increased structure fineness damping decreases only by about 10 - 20%. The following examinations should establish the influence of the mentioned grain-refinement on strength and ductility of MAl-Zn cast alloys.

Evolution of non-uniform grain structure during hot defornnation of a Nb-Ti microalloyed steel

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katajarinne, T.

2004-10-01

Full Text Available Recrystallisation and the evolution of the abnormally grown austenite grains were investigated for a continuously cast slab of a 0.13 C-1.41 Mn-0.027 Nb-0.012 Ti steel during reheating and after the subsequent deformation. The stability of the recrystallised structure and the uniformity of the final microstructure were also studied. The abnormally grown grains appear in a few minutes at reheating temperatures around 1200 °C. All grains in the bimodal grain structure recrystallised at 1100 °C for strains > 0.2 within about 40 s. The coarse grains are refined, while the fine grains become slightly larger. Some abnormal grain growth can occur again in the recrystallised structure within 10 min. After cooling at 1° C/s the coarse austenite grains transform into large areas of upper bainite, while the finer grains transform to fine ferrite and pearlite. The transformed microstructure in specimens cooled at l°C/s consists of large upper bainitic areas corresponding to the prior coarse austenite grains, surrounded by fine ferrite-pearlite grains.

Se ha estudiado la recristalización y la evolución del crecimiento anormal de grano, durante el recalentamiento y tras deformaciones sucesivas, en un acero 0,13 C-1,41 Mn-0,027 Nb- 0,012 Ti procedente de colada continua. Se ha estudiado, así mismo, la estabilidad de la estructura recristalizada y la uniformidad de la microestructura final. Para temperaturas de recalentamiento próximas a 1.200 °C, aparece crecimiento anormal de grano en unos pocos minutos. Todos los granos pertenecientes a la estructura bimodal resultante recristalizan durante, aproximadamente, 40 s, a 1.100 °C, para una deformación de 0,2. El tamaño de grano se afina en aquellas regiones con granos más gruesos de partida y crece, ligeramente, en las que tenían un grano m��s fino. En 10 min, se puede desencadenar, de nuevo, un cierto crecimiento anormal de grano en la estructura recristalizada. La microestructura final

A novel grain cluster-based homogenization scheme

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tjahjanto, D D; Eisenlohr, P; Roters, F

2010-01-01

An efficient homogenization scheme, termed the relaxed grain cluster (RGC), for elasto-plastic deformations of polycrystals is presented. The scheme is based on a generalization of the grain cluster concept. A volume element consisting of eight (= 2 × 2 × 2) hexahedral grains is considered. The kinematics of the RGC scheme is formulated within a finite deformation framework, where the relaxation of the local deformation gradient of each individual grain is connected to the overall deformation gradient by the, so-called, interface relaxation vectors. The set of relaxation vectors is determined by the minimization of the constitutive energy (or work) density of the overall cluster. An additional energy density associated with the mismatch at the grain boundaries due to relaxations is incorporated as a penalty term into the energy minimization formulation. Effectively, this penalty term represents the kinematical condition of deformation compatibility at the grain boundaries. Simulations have been performed for a dual-phase grain cluster loaded in uniaxial tension. The results of the simulations are presented and discussed in terms of the effective stress–strain response and the overall deformation anisotropy as functions of the penalty energy parameters. In addition, the prediction of the RGC scheme is compared with predictions using other averaging schemes, as well as to the result of direct finite element (FE) simulation. The comparison indicates that the present RGC scheme is able to approximate FE simulation results of relatively fine discretization at about three orders of magnitude lower computational cost

Observations of dusty plasmas with magnetized dust grains

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Q.-Z.; D'Angelo, N.

2000-11-01

We report a newly observed phenomenon in a dusty plasma device of the \\mbox{Q-machine} type. At low plasma densities the time required by the plasma to return to its no-dust conditions, after the dust dispenser is turned off, can be as long as many tens of seconds or longer. A tentative interpretation of this observation in terms of magnetized dust grains is advanced. It appears that an important loss mechanism of fine dust grains is by ion drag along the magnetic field lines. The effect of ion drag is somewhat counteracted by the -µ∇B force present when the magnetic field has a mirror geometry.

Effect of grain moisture content during milling on pasting profile and functional properties of amaranth fractions.

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, K Vishnuswamy Preetham; Dharmaraj, Usha; Sakhare, Suresh D; Inamdar, Aashitosh A

2016-05-01

Evaluation of functional properties of milled fractions of grain amaranth may be useful to decide the end uses of the grain. Hence, pasting profiles of amaranth fractions obtained by milling the grains at different moisture contents were studied in relation with their starch profile and also with their swelling power and solubility indices. It was observed that, for flour fraction, the viscosity parameters were lowest at 14-16 % moisture content. Swelling power and solubility indices of the samples varied as a function of grain moisture content. The middling fraction also showed similar pasting pattern with the variation of grain moisture content. The seed coat fractions showed higher gelatinization temperature compared to that of fine flour and middling fractions. However, starch content of the fine seed coat fraction was comparable with that of the flour and middling fractions. The coarse seed coat fraction showed lower viscosity parameters than the other samples. Viscosity parameters correlated well among themselves while, they did not show significant correlation with the starch content. However, the viscosity parameters showed negative correlation with the soluble amylose content. The study revealed that, the fractions obtained by milling the grains at different moisture content show differential pasting profiles and functional properties.

Study of thermal stability of ultrafine-grained copper by means of electron back scattering diffraction

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Man, O.; Pantělejev, L.; Kunz, Ludvík

2010-01-01

Roč. 51, č. 2 (2010), s. 209-213 ISSN 1345-9678 R&D Projects: GA AV ČR 1QS200410502 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z20410507 Keywords : ultra-fine grained copper * thermal stability of microstructure * electron back scattering diffraction * grain size * texture Subject RIV: JG - Metallurgy Impact factor: 0.779, year: 2010

Laboratory Measurements of Optical and Physical Properties of Individual Lunar Dust Grains

Science.gov (United States)

Abbas, M. M.; Tankosic, D.; Craven, P. D.; Hoover, R. B.

2006-01-01

The lunar surface is covered with a thick layer of sub-micron/micron size dust grains formed by meteoritic impact over billions of years. The fine dust grains are levitated and transported on the lunar surface, and transient dust clouds over the lunar horizon were observed by experiments during the Apollo 17 mission. Theoretical models suggest that the dust grains on the lunar surface are charged by the solar UV radiation as well as the solar wind. Even without any physical activity, the dust grains are levitated by electrostatic fields and transported away from the surface in the near vacuum environment of the Moon. The current dust charging and levitation models, however, do not fully explain the observed phenomena. Since the abundance of dust on the Moon's surface with its observed adhesive characteristics has the potential of severe impact on human habitat and operations and lifetime of a variety of equipment, it is necessary to investigate the charging properties and the lunar dust phenomena in order to develop appropriate mitigating strategies. Photoelectric emission induced by the solar UV radiation with photon energies higher than the work function of the grain materials is recognized to be the dominant process for charging of the lunar dust, and requires measurements of the photoelectric yields to determine the charging and equilibrium potentials of individual dust grains. In this paper, we present the first laboratory measurements of the photoelectric yields of individual sub-micron/micron size dust grains selected from sample returns of Apollo 17, and Luna 24 missions, as well as similar size dust grains from the JSC-1 simulants. The experimental results were obtained on a laboratory facility based on an electrodynamic balance that permits a variety of experiments to be conducted on individual sub-micron/micron size dust grains in simulated space environments. The photoelectric emission measurements indicate grain size dependence with the yield

Crystallographic investigation of grain selection during initial solidification

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Esaka, H; Shinozuka, K; Kataoka, Y

2016-01-01

Normally, macroscopic solidified structure consists of chill, columnar and equiaxed zones. In a chill zone, many fine grains nucleate on the mold surface and grow their own preferred growth direction. Only a few of them continue to grow because of grain selection. In order to understand the grain selection process, crystallographic investigation has been carried out in the zone of initial solidification in this study. 10 g of Al-6 wt%Si alloy was melted at 850 °C and poured on the thick copper plate. Longitudinal cross section of the solidified shell was observed by a SEM and analyzed by EBSD. The result of EBSD mapping reveals that crystallographic orientation was random in the range of initial solidification. Further, some grains are elongated along their <100> direction. Columnar grains, whose growth directions are almost parallel to the heat flow direction, develop via grain selection. Here, a dendrite whose growth direction is close to the heat flow direction overgrows the other dendrite whose growth direction is far from the heat flow direction. However, sometimes we observed that dendrite, whose zenith angle is large, overgrew the other dendrite. It can be deduced that the time of nucleation on the mold surface is not constant. (paper)

ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE USE OF GRAIN OAT FOR ENERGY PURPOSES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aleksandra Głowacka

2016-09-01

Full Text Available It is assumed that the biomass is one of the basic non-conventional energy sources in Poland. Among the cereals cultivated in Poland grain oats appears to be the most useful to be used for energy purposes, as it is less important for consumption and feed, cultivation technology is well known to farmers and the energy value of approx. 17 MJ kg-1. The aim of the study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and environmental impact of the use of oats for direct combustion, as compared with conventional fuel ie. the fine coal. In the economic part a simplified calculation of the cost of oats production was carried out and next it was compared with the cost of the purchase of oats and fine coal. The impact of oats to the environment was also analyzed and the natural emission of gases and dust during grain combustion. The results were compared with the impact on the environment taking into account the production of fine coal mining, transport and combustion of the fuel. It was found that the use of oats for energy purposes is cost-effective, especially if the grain is produced on their own farm using low-cost technology. It also provides environmental benefits, as it allows to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and reduce the emission of noxious gases and dust into the atmosphere

Critical current through grain boundary of metal oxide superconductors YBa2Cu3O7-δ

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ermolov, S.N.; Kislov, N.A.; Marchenko, V.A.

1989-01-01

Josephson junction with characteristics, corresponding to sandwich type structure is produced at 78 K at the link of large YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ crystallite with fine-grain structure. J c (H) dependence on the thermomagnetic prehistory is explained with regard to scattering fields of magnetic flux captured by grains

Identification of QTL for maize grain yield and kernel-related traits

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

[Yang C., Zhang L., Jia A. and Rong T. 2016 Identification of QTL for maize grain yield and kernel-related traits. ... 2010; Zhang et al. ...... in the structure and evolution of genetic systems. ... 2013 Fine mapping a major QTL for kernel number per.

Developing Fine-Grained Actigraphies for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients from a Single Accelerometer Using Machine Learning.

Science.gov (United States)

Andreu-Perez, Javier; Garcia-Gancedo, Luis; McKinnell, Jonathan; Van der Drift, Anniek; Powell, Adam; Hamy, Valentin; Keller, Thomas; Yang, Guang-Zhong

2017-09-14

In addition to routine clinical examination, unobtrusive and physical monitoring of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients provides an important source of information to enable understanding the impact of the disease on quality of life. Besides an increase in sedentary behaviour, pain in RA can negatively impact simple physical activities such as getting out of bed and standing up from a chair. The objective of this work is to develop a method that can generate fine-grained actigraphies to capture the impact of the disease on the daily activities of patients. A processing methodology is presented to automatically tag activity accelerometer data from a cohort of moderate-to-severe RA patients. A study of procesing methods based on machine learning and deep learning is provided. Thirty subjects, 10 RA patients and 20 healthy control subjects, were recruited in the study. A single tri-axial accelerometer was attached to the position of the fifth lumbar vertebra (L5) of each subject with a tag prediction granularity of 3 s. The proposed method is capable of handling unbalanced datasets from tagged data while accounting for long-duration activities such as sitting and lying, as well as short transitions such as sit-to-stand or lying-to-sit. The methodology also includes a novel mechanism for automatically applying a threshold to predictions by their confidence levels, in addition to a logical filter to correct for infeasible sequences of activities. Performance tests showed that the method was able to achieve around 95% accuracy and 81% F-score. The produced actigraphies can be helpful to generate objective RA disease-specific markers of patient mobility in-between clinical site visits.

Source and depositional processes of coarse-grained limestone event beds in Frasnian slope deposits (Kostomłoty-Mogiłki quarry, Holy Cross Mountains, Poland)

Science.gov (United States)

Vierek, Aleksandra

2010-10-01

The Kostomłoty-Mogiłki succession is situated in the Kostomłoty transitional zone between the shallow-water Kielce stromatoporoid-coral platform and the deeper Łysogóry basin. In the Kostomłoty-Mogiłki quarry, the upper part of the Szydłówek Beds and Kostomłoty Beds are exposed. The Middle-Upper Frasnian Kostomłoty Beds are composed of shales, micritic and nodular limestones with abundant intercalations of detrital limestones. The dark shales and the micritic and nodular limestones record background sedimentation. The interbedded laminated and detrital limestones reflect high-energy deposition (= event beds). These event beds comprise laminated calcisiltites, fine-grained calcarenites, coarse-grained grain-supported calcirudites fabrics, and matrix-supported calcirudites. The material of these event beds was supplied by both erosion of the carbonate-platform margin and cannibalistic erosion of penecontemporaneous detrital limestones building the slope of this platform. Storms and the tectonic activity were likely the main causes of erosion. Combined and gravity flows were the transporting mechanisms involved in the reworking and redeposition.

Grain Size Distribution in Mudstones: A Question of Nature vs. Nurture

Science.gov (United States)

Schieber, J.

2011-12-01

Grain size distribution in mudstones is affected by the composition of the source material, the processes of transport and deposition, and post-depositional diagenetic modification. With regard to source, it does make a difference whether for example a slate belt is eroded vs a stable craton. The former setting tends to provide a broad range of detrital quartz in the sub 62 micron size range in addition to clays and greenschist grade rock fragments, whereas the latter may be biased towards coarser quartz silt (30-60 microns), in addition to clays and mica flakes. In flume experiments, when fine grained materials are transported in turbulent flows at velocities that allow floccules to transfer to bedload, a systematic shift of grain size distribution towards an increasingly finer grained suspended load is observed as velocity is lowered. This implies that the bedload floccules are initially constructed of only the coarsest clay particles at high velocities, and that finer clay particles become incorporated into floccules as velocity is lowered. Implications for the rock record are that clay beds deposited from decelerating flows should show subtle internal grading of coarser clay particles; and that clay beds deposited from continuous fast flows should show a uniform distribution of coarse clays. Still water settled clays should show a well developed lower (coarser) and upper (finer) subdivision. A final complication arises when diagenetic processes, such as the dissolution of biogenic silica, give rise to diagenetic quartz grains in the silt to sand size range. This diagenetic silica precipitates in fossil cavities and pore spaces of uncompacted muds, and on casual inspection can be mistaken for detrital quartz. In distal mudstone successions close to 100 % of "apparent" quartz silt can be of that origin, and reworking by bottom currents can further enhance a detrital perception by producing rippled and laminated silt beds. Although understanding how size

The 1845 Hekla eruption: Grain-size characteristics of a tephra layer

Science.gov (United States)

Gudnason, Jonas; Thordarson, Thor; Houghton, Bruce F.; Larsen, Gudrun

2018-01-01

The 1845 eruption is commonly viewed as a typical Hekla eruption. It is a key event in the eruptive history of the volcano, as it is one of the best documented Hekla eruptions, in terms of contemporary accounts and observations. The eruption started on 2 September 1845 with an intense, hour long explosive Plinian phase that passed into effusive activity, ending on the 16 March 1846. The amount of tephra produced in the opening phase was 0.13 km3/7.5 × 1010 kg. The total grain-size distribution of the deposit is bimodal with a dominant coarse mode at - 2.5 φ (5.6 mm) and a broad finer mode at 3 to 4.5 φ (0.125 to 0.045 mm). At individual sites, the grain-size distribution of the tephra from the Plinian opening phase is also commonly (not always) bimodal. Deconvolved grain-size distributions exhibit distinctly different sedimentation patterns of the coarse and fine subpopulations. The lapilli-dominated subpopulation fines rapidly with transport, while the ash-dominated subpopulation shows less changes with distance, indicating premature sedimentation of fines by aggregation from the 1845 volcanic plume. Tephra deposition was to the ESE of the volcano from a 19 km (a.s.l.) high eruption plume. The plume front travelled at speeds of 16-19 m s- 1. Reports of ash deposition onto ships near the Faroe and Shetland Islands, 700 to 1100 km away from Hekla, demonstrate that even moderate-sized Hekla eruptions can affect very large parts of European air-space.

Procedure for the conversion of a metal oxide powder to a fine grained ceramic material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ferrell, L.J.

1978-01-01

A procedure for sintering metal oxides is described which gives a product with significantly smaller grain size and better grain size distribution than previous processes. The procedure is presented as applied to aluminium oxide, but it is also stated to be applicable to uranium dioxide. A pellet density of within 1/2 percent of the theoretical maximum can be obtained. No grinding or surface treatment of the pellets is necessary. (JIW)

Instabilities in vertically vibrated fluid-grain systems.

Science.gov (United States)

King, P J; Lopez-Alcaraz, P; Pacheco-Martinez, H A; Clement, C P; Smith, A J; Swift, M R

2007-03-01

When a bed of fluid-immersed fine grains is exposed to vertical vibration a wealth of phenomena may be observed. At low frequencies a horizontal bed geometry is generally unstable and the bed breaks spatial symmetry, acquiring a tilt. At the same time it undergoes asymmetric granular convection. Fine binary mixtures may separate completely into layers or patterns of stripes. The separated regions may exhibit instabilities in which they undergo wave-like motion or exhibit quasi-periodic oscillations. We briefly review these and a number of related behaviours, identifying the physical mechanisms behind each. Finally, we discuss the magneto-vibratory separation of binary mixtures which results from exposing each component to a different effective gravity and describe the influence of a background fluid on this process.

Fine and coarse components in surface sediments from Bikini Lagoon

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Noshkin, V. E., LLNL

1997-01-01

In 1979, 21 years after the moratorium on nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, surface sediment samples (to depths of 2 and 4 cm) were collected from 87 locations in the lagoon of Bikini Atoll, one of the two sites in the Marshall Islands used by the United States to test nuclear devices from 1946 through 1958. The main purpose for the collections was to map the distribution of long-lived man-made radionuclides associated with the bottom material. In addition the samples were processed to estimate the fraction of fine and coarse components to show, by comparison, what modifications occurred in the composition since the sediments were first described in samples collected before testing in 1946. Nuclear testing produced more finely divided material that is now found in the surface sediment layer over large areas of the lagoon and especially in regions of the lagoon and reef adjacent to test sites. The 5 cratering events alone at Bikini Atoll redistributed sufficient material to account for the higher inventory of fine material found over the surface 4 cm of the sediment of the lagoon. Although the fraction of fine material in the bottom sediments was altered by the nuclear events, the combined processes of formation, transport and deposition were not sufficiently dynamic to greatly change the general geographical features of the major sedimentary components over most of the lagoon floor.

Estimating the average grain size of metals - approved standard 1969

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1975-01-01

These methods cover procedures for estimating and rules for expressing the average grain size of all metals and consisting entirely, or principally, of a single phase. The methods may also be used for any structures having appearances similar to those of the metallic structures shown in the comparison charts. The three basic procedures for grain size estimation which are discussed are comparison procedure, intercept (or Heyn) procedure, and planimetric (or Jeffries) procedure. For specimens consisting of equiaxed grains, the method of comparing the specimen with a standard chart is most convenient and is sufficiently accurate for most commercial purposes. For high degrees of accuracy in estimating grain size, the intercept or planimetric procedures may be used

Accretion growth of water-ice grains in astrophysically-relevant dusty plasma experiment

Science.gov (United States)

Chai, Kil-Byoung; Marshall, Ryan; Bellan, Paul

2016-10-01

The grain growth process in the Caltech water-ice dusty plasma experiment has been studied using a high-speed camera equipped with a long-distance microscope lens. It is found that (i) the ice grain number density decreases four-fold as the average grain length increases from 20 to 80 um, (ii) the ice grain length has a log-normal distribution rather than a power-law dependence, and (iii) no collisions between ice grains are apparent. The grains have a large negative charge so the agglomeration growth is prevented by their strong mutual repulsion. It is concluded that direct accretion of water molecules is in good agreement with the observed ice grain growth. The volumetric packing factor of the ice grains must be less than 0.25 in order for the grain kinetic energy to be sufficiently small to prevent collisions between ice grains; this conclusion is consistent with ice grain images showing a fractal character.

Fine-grained quartz OSL dating chronology of loess sequence from southern Tajikistan: Implications for climate change in arid central Asia during MIS 2

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Leibin; Jia, Jia; Li, Guoqiang; Li, Zaijun; Wang, Xin; Chen, Fahu

2018-04-01

The desert and semi-desert region of arid central Asia is one of the most important areas of middle-latitude dust emission and deposition in the Northern Hemisphere. Marine isotope stage 2 (MIS 2) was the latest and one of the most representative intervals of dust emission from the region, and it is especially important for research into processes of dust transportation and deposition. Here, we report the results of an optically stimulated luminescence study of the Hoalin section in southern Tajikistan, which was deposited during MIS 2. The fine-grained quartz single aliquot regeneration (SAR) approach was used and its reliability was verified by internal checks. In addition, grain-size analyses, calculated dust accumulation rates (DARs) and mass accumulation rates (MARs) were used to reconstruct the pattern of climate change during MIS 2. The mean DAR for southern Tajikistan during MIS 2 was 0.43 m/ka, and the corresponding average MAR was 673 g/cm2/a for a non-river-terrace site, which is higher than the average MARs estimated for the central and southern Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). In contrast to previous suggestions, the high dust DARs and MARs during the LGM indicate a 'cold-dry' climatic pattern, rather than a 'cold-humid' pattern. Our results also confirm that the patterns of high dust emission and deposition during the LGM in the mid-latitude arid zone of Asia were synchronous.

Countermeasures for heat damage in rice grain quality under climate change

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Satoshi Morita

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Climate change has been an increasingly significant factor behind fluctuations in the yield and quality of rice (Oryza sativa L., particularly regarding chalky (white-back, basal-white, and milky-white grain, immature thin grain, and cracked grain. The development and use of heat-tolerant varieties is an effective way to reduce each type of grain damage based on the existence of each varietal difference. Cultivation methods that increase the available assimilate supply per grain, such as deep-flood irrigation, are effective for diminishing the occurrence of milky-white grains under high temperature and low solar radiation conditions. The application of sufficient nitrogen during the reproductive stage is important to reduce the occurrence of most heat damage with the exception of milky-white grain. In regard to developing measures for heat-induced poor palatability of cooked rice, a sensory parameter, the hardness/adhesion ratio may be useful as an indicator of palatability within a relatively wide air–temperature range during ripening. Methods for heat damage to rice can be classified as either avoidance or tolerance measures. The timing of the measures is further divided into preventive and prompt types. The use of heat-tolerant varieties and late transplanting are preventive measures, whereas the application of sufficient nitrogen as a top dressing and irrigation techniques during the reproductive stage are prompt types which may function to lower the canopy temperature by enhancing evapotranspiration. Trials combining the different types of techniques will contribute towards obtaining more efficient and steady countermeasures against heat damage under conditions of climate change.

Holographic Optical Elements Recorded in Silver Halide Sensitized Gelatin Emulsions. Part 2. Reflection Holographic Optical Elements

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jong Man; Choi, Byung So; Choi, Yoon Sun; Kim, Jong Min; Bjelkhagen, Hans I.; Phillips, Nicholas J.

2002-03-01

Silver halide sensitized gelatin (SHSG) holograms are similar to holograms recorded in dichromated gelatin (DCG), the main recording material for holographic optical elements (HOEs). The drawback of DCG is its low energetic sensitivity and limited spectral response. Silver halide materials can be processed in such a way that the final hologram will have properties like a DCG hologram. Recently this technique has become more interesting since the introduction of new ultra-fine-grain silver halide (AgHal) emulsions. In particular, high spatial-frequency fringes associated with HOEs of the reflection type are difficult to construct when SHSG processing methods are employed. Therefore an optimized processing technique for reflection HOEs recorded in the new AgHal materials is introduced. Diffraction efficiencies over 90% can be obtained repeatably for reflection diffraction gratings. Understanding the importance of a selective hardening process has made it possible to obtain results similar to conventional DCG processing. The main advantage of the SHSG process is that high-sensitivity recording can be performed with laser wavelengths anywhere within the visible spectrum. This simplifies the manufacturing of high-quality, large-format HOEs, also including high-quality display holograms of the reflection type in both monochrome and full color.

Mineralogical characterization of quarry fines from Tracuateua city, state of Para, Brazil

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Costa, J.H.B. da; Negrao, R.C.; Angelica, R.S.; Universidade Federal do Para

2011-01-01

The aim of this study was to characterize the mineralogy quarry fines samples for its reuse and thus contributing to mitigate the environmental impact caused by this waste. In order to achieve the results, samples were collected and prepared for assays and identification of the mineralogical phases present in the quarry fines from the samples. X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy techniques were used. The quarry of fines characterization was based on qualitatively identification the minerals present in the samples. It was detected the presence of quartz, muscovite and feldspar (albite and microclinite) by x-ray diffraction technique and microscopic and macroscopic observations. Moreover, the size distribution was determined, and the samples presented a medium to fine size (ranging from 9,5 mm to 0,075 mm) and the grains presented an irregular and angular shapes. (author)

Evidence of sealing and brine distribution at grain boundaries in natural fine-grained Halite (Qum Kuh salt fountain, Central Iran): implications for rheology of salt extrusions

Science.gov (United States)

Desbois, Guillaume; Urai, Janos L.; de Bresser, J. H. P.

2010-05-01

When grain boundary movement is stopped, surface energy related forces reassert themselves driving the system to its equilibrium conditions ([2], [6], [7], [8]). This could result in growth of islands and shrinking of channels and hence in healing the boundary by internal redistribution of fluid and solid in the contact region. Such islands are proposed to grow preferentially close to the contact rim and promote the healing of the grain-grain contact, which in turn prevents transport in or out the boundary region and thus traps the fluids in isolated inclusions. This contribution is focused on observation of grain boundary microstructures in natural mylonitic rocksalt collected from the distal part of Kum-Quh salt fountain (central Iran) in order to give unprecedented insight of grain boundary microstructures using argon-beam cross-sectioning to prepare high quality polished surfaces suitable for high-resolution SEM imaging. The possibility to use our SEM under cryogenic conditions allows also imaging the in-situ distribution of fluids. Results show that brine at grain boundaries occurs as thick layers (> µm in scale) corresponding to cross-sectioned wetted triple junction tubes, as filling at triple junction and as array of isolated fluids inclusions at grain-grain contacts. Close observations at islands contacts suggest the presence of a very thin fluid film (Journal of Structural Geology. [2] Ghoussoub J., and Leroy Y.M. (2001), Solid-fluid phase transformation within grain boundaries during compaction by pressure solution, J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 49, 737 2385-2430. 738 [3] Jackson, M.P.A., (1985). Natural strain in diapiric and glacial rock salt, with emphasis on Oakwood dome, East Texas, Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas. [4] Schléder Z. and Urai J.L. (2007). Deformation and recrystallization mechanisms in mylonitic shear zones in naturally deformed extrusive Eocene-Oligocene rock salt from Eyvanekey plateau and Garmsar

Application of carbon extraction replicas in grain-size measurements of high-strength steels using TEM

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Poorhaydari, Kioumars; Ivey, Douglas G.

2007-01-01

In this paper, the application of carbon extraction replicas in grain-size measurements is introduced and discussed. Modern high-strength microalloyed steels, used as structural or pipeline materials, have very small grains with substructures. Replicas used in transmission electron microscopes can resolve the grain boundaries and can be used for systematic measurement of grain size in cases where the small size of the grains pushes the resolution of conventional optical microscopes. The grain-size variations obtained from replicas are compared with those obtained from optical and scanning electron microscopy. An emphasis is placed on the importance of using the correct technique for imaging and the optimal magnification. Grain-size measurements are used for estimation of grain-boundary strengthening contribution to yield strength. The variation in grain size is also correlated with hardness in the base metal of several microalloyed steels, as well as the fine-grained heat-affected zone of a weld structure with several heat inputs

Portable ultrahigh-vacuum sample storage system for polarization-dependent total-reflection fluorescence x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Watanabe, Yoshihide, E-mail: e0827@mosk.tytlabs.co.jp; Nishimura, Yusaku F.; Suzuki, Ryo; Beniya, Atsushi; Isomura, Noritake [Toyota Central R& D Labs., Inc., Yokomichi 41-1, Nagakute, Aichi 480-1192 (Japan); Uehara, Hiromitsu; Asakura, Kiyotaka; Takakusagi, Satoru [Catalysis Research Center, Hokkaido University, Kita 21-10, Sapporo, Hokkaido 001-0021 (Japan); Nimura, Tomoyuki [AVC Co., Ltd., Inada 1450-6, Hitachinaka, Ibaraki 312-0061 (Japan)

2016-03-15

A portable ultrahigh-vacuum sample storage system was designed and built to investigate the detailed geometric structures of mass-selected metal clusters on oxide substrates by polarization-dependent total-reflection fluorescence x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (PTRF-XAFS). This ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) sample storage system provides the handover of samples between two different sample manipulating systems. The sample storage system is adaptable for public transportation, facilitating experiments using air-sensitive samples in synchrotron radiation or other quantum beam facilities. The samples were transferred by the developed portable UHV transfer system via a public transportation at a distance over 400 km. The performance of the transfer system was demonstrated by a successful PTRF-XAFS study of Pt{sub 4} clusters deposited on a TiO{sub 2}(110) surface.

Charging of Dust Grains in a Nuclear-Induced Plasma at High Pressures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pal’, A. F.; Starostin, A. N.; Filippov, A. V.

2001-01-01

The process of dust-grain charging in plasmas produced by radioactive decay products or spontaneous fission fragments in air and xenon at high pressures is studied numerically in the hydrodynamic approximation. It is shown that, at sufficiently high rates of gas ionization, the dust grains in air are charged by electrons rather than ions, so that the grain charge in air is comparable to that in electropositive gases. The results of numerical calculations based on a complete model agree well with the experimental data. The time evolution of the grain charge is investigated, and the characteristic time scales on which the grains acquire an electric charge are established. The validity of approximate theories of dust-grain charging in electropositive and electronegative gases at high pressures is examined

Preparation, microstructure and degradation performance of biomedical magnesium alloy fine wires

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Bai

2014-10-01

Full Text Available With the development of new biodegradable Mg alloy implant devices, the potential applications of biomedical Mg alloy fine wires are realized and explored gradually. In this study, we prepared three kinds of Mg alloy fine wires containing 4 wt% RE(Gd/Y/Nd and 0.4 wt% Zn with the diameter less than 0.4 μm through casting, hot extruding and multi-pass cold drawing combined with intermediated annealing process. Their microstructures, mechanical and degradation properties were investigated. In comparison with the corresponding as-extruded alloy, the final fine wire has significantly refined grain with an average size of 3–4 μm, and meanwhile shows higher yield strength but lower ductility at room temperature. The degradation tests results and surface morphologies observations indicate that Mg–4Gd–0.4Zn and Mg–4Nd–0.4Zn fine wires have similar good corrosion resistance and the uniform corrosion behavior in SBF solution. By contrast, Mg–4Y–0.4Zn fine wire shows a poor corrosion resistance and the pitting corrosion behavior.

HIGH-QUALITY ORNAMENTAL FINE CONCRETES MODIFIED BY NANOPARTICLES OF TITANIUM DIOXIDE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bazhenov Yuriy Mikhaylovich

2012-10-01

Full Text Available Ultrasonic method of generation of a stable suspension of nano-particles of titanium dioxide and the strengthening properties of the ornamental fine concrete that contains cement binders with a nano-dispersed additive constitute the subject of the research covered by the authors. Nanoparticles react with the basic chemical elements that compose the concrete and act as crystallization centres. Therefore, the concrete porosity is reduced, while physical and technology-related properties of the ornamental fine concrete are improved. The authors have proven that the application of the nano-dispersed additive that contains titanium dioxide influences the processes of the structure formation in respect of fine ornamental concretes and improves the strength, as well as the water and cold resistance of fine concretes. The improvement is attributed to the dense concrete structure and strong adhesion between cement grains and between the cement and the aggregate. This conclusion is based on the data obtained through the employment of an electronic microscope used to identify the porosity of fine concretes.

Subgroup report on grain boundary and interphase boundary structure and properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balluffi, R.W.; Cannon, R.M.; Clarke, D.R.; Heuer, A.H.; Ho, P.S.; Kear, B.H.; Vitek, V.; Weertman, J.R.; White, C.L.

1979-01-01

In many high temperature structural applications, the performance characteristics of a materials system are largely controlled by the properties of its grain and interphase boundaries. Failure in creep and fatigue frequently occurs by cavitation, or cracking along grain boundaries. In a few special cases, this failure problem has been overcome by directional alignment of grain and interphase boundaries by various types of metallurgical processing such as directional solidification and directional recrystallization. A good example is to be found in the application of directionally aligned structures in high performance gas-turbine airfoils. However, where fine, equiaxed grain structures are desirable, other methods of controlling grain boundary properties have been developed. Important among these has been the introduction of improvements in primary melting practices, designed to control important impurities. This is of decisive importance because even traces of certain impurity elements present in grain boundaries in high temperature materials can seriously affect properties. Impurities are deleterious and need to be removed. However, in certain cases, (e.g., creep fracture) controlled impurity additions can be beneficial and result in improved properties

The OsSPL16-GW7 regulatory module determines grain shape and simultaneously improves rice yield and grain quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Shaokui; Li, Shan; Liu, Qian; Wu, Kun; Zhang, Jianqing; Wang, Shuansuo; Wang, Yi; Chen, Xiangbin; Zhang, Yi; Gao, Caixia; Wang, Feng; Huang, Haixiang; Fu, Xiangdong

2015-08-01

The deployment of heterosis in the form of hybrid rice varieties has boosted grain yield, but grain quality improvement still remains a challenge. Here we show that a quantitative trait locus for rice grain quality, qGW7, reflects allelic variation of GW7, a gene encoding a TONNEAU1-recruiting motif protein with similarity to C-terminal motifs of the human centrosomal protein CAP350. Upregulation of GW7 expression was correlated with the production of more slender grains, as a result of increased cell division in the longitudinal direction and decreased cell division in the transverse direction. OsSPL16 (GW8), an SBP-domain transcription factor that regulates grain width, bound directly to the GW7 promoter and repressed its expression. The presence of a semidominant GW7(TFA) allele from tropical japonica rice was associated with higher grain quality without the yield penalty imposed by the Basmati gw8 allele. Manipulation of the OsSPL16-GW7 module thus represents a new strategy to simultaneously improve rice yield and grain quality.

Production of nano-crystalline zirconia powders and fabrication of high strength ultra-fine-grained ceramics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rajendran, S.

1993-01-01

Hydrous zirconia containing 2 and 2.5 mol% Y 2 O 3 was prepared by a hydroxide co-precipitation method and portions were dispersed in ethanol before drying(P2), milled in ethanol after drying (P3) or after calcination at 550 deg C (P4) or milled in iso-propanal after calcination at 1000 deg C (P5). The crystallisation behaviour and sintering characteristics of the materials were investigated. The calcined as dried powder (P1) has strongly bonded hard aggregates and the material reached a density of only about 80% of theoretical after sintering at 1500 deg C. Powder characteristics and the sinterability of the alcohol treated materials depended on the conditions of processing and heat treatment. The sinter-activity of the powders decreased from P2 to P5. Powder P3 was composed of relatively weakly bonded crystallites and could be sintered at 1400 deg C, while the powders P4 and P5 contained hard agglomerates and required a sintering temperature of 1450 and 1550 deg C respectively to achieve similar density. Powder (P2) had zirconium alkoxide species on the particle surface which decomposed at about 300 deg C. The calcined powder had very weak agglomerates composed of fine, uniform zirconia crystals and/or aggregates and sintered to high density at 1150 deg C. The final ceramic had a very uniform microstructure with an average grain size of about 150nm and exhibited fracture strength as high as 1700 MPa. A detailed account of the formation of aggregates of strongly bonded crystallites during calcination of hydrous zirconia, influence of alcohol in producing soft agglomerates and the sintering characteristics of the powders is reported. 46 refs., 2 tabs., 15 figs

Starch degradability of dry and ensiled high-moisture grains of corn hybrids with different textures at different grinding degrees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wagner dos Reis

2011-02-01

Full Text Available This research evaluated corn grains with flint and dent texture (ensiled high-moisture or dried, submitted to grinding degrees, using the in situ ruminal degradation technique. Three rumen canulated adult sheeps were used in a complete randomized design, using a factorial outline 2 x 2 x 3, with two corn hybrids (flint and dent texture, two conservation methods (ensiled high-moisture and dry and three grinding degress (whole, coarsely and finely ground, corresponding to the sieve of 12; 10 and 8 mm. Starch soluble fraction (A of the dent hybrid ensiled corn grains was greater comparing to the dry materials and in both conservation forms this fraction was reduced in the flint texture hybrid, while the insoluble fraction potentially degradable (B the opposite occurred. The degradation potential was higher in grains ensiled in two textures. The ensiled allowed more starch effective degradation in relation to dry grain in two textures and the grains dent texture hybrid also increased such degradation in both conservation methods. The dent texture and the ensiled high-moisture grains proved the best option considering the starch degradability. Regardless of the conservation forms, the grains of corn hybrid flint texture should be finely ground, for providing higher ruminal degradation, while for the dent texture hybrid, the coarsely and whole grinding are the most suitable for ensiled and dry grain, respectively.

Bimodal grain-size distribution of Chinese loess, and its palaeoclimatic implications

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sun, D.G.; Bloemendal, J.; Rea, D.K.; An, Z.S.; Vandenberghe, J.; Lu, H.; Su, R.; Liu, T.S.

2004-01-01

Grain-size analysis indicates that Chinese loess generally shows a bimodal distribution with a coarse and a fine component. The coarse component, comprising the main part of the loess, has pronounced kurtosis and is well sorted, which is interpreted to be the product of dust storms generated by

Organic acid enhanced electrodialytic extraction of lead from contaminated soil fines in suspension

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Pernille Erland; Ahring, Birgitte Kiær; Ottosen, Lisbeth M.

2007-01-01

for decontamination of the sludge was investigated. The ability of 11 organic acids to extract Pb from the fine fraction of contaminated soil (grains soil fines in suspension......The implementation of soil washing technology for the treatment of heavy metal contaminated soils is limited by the toxicity and unwieldiness of the remaining heavy metal contaminated sludge. In this work, the feasibility of combining electrodialytic remediation with heterotrophic leaching...... was tested. Five of the acids showed the ability to extract Ph from the soil fines in excess of the effect caused solely by pH changes. Addition of the acids, however, severely impeded EDR, hence promotion of EDR by combination with heterotrophic leaching was rejected. In contrast, enhancement of EDR...

A visual basic program to generate sediment grain-size statistics and to extrapolate particle distributions

Science.gov (United States)

Poppe, L.J.; Eliason, A.H.; Hastings, M.E.

2004-01-01

Measures that describe and summarize sediment grain-size distributions are important to geologists because of the large amount of information contained in textural data sets. Statistical methods are usually employed to simplify the necessary comparisons among samples and quantify the observed differences. The two statistical methods most commonly used by sedimentologists to describe particle distributions are mathematical moments (Krumbein and Pettijohn, 1938) and inclusive graphics (Folk, 1974). The choice of which of these statistical measures to use is typically governed by the amount of data available (Royse, 1970). If the entire distribution is known, the method of moments may be used; if the next to last accumulated percent is greater than 95, inclusive graphics statistics can be generated. Unfortunately, earlier programs designed to describe sediment grain-size distributions statistically do not run in a Windows environment, do not allow extrapolation of the distribution's tails, or do not generate both moment and graphic statistics (Kane and Hubert, 1963; Collias et al., 1963; Schlee and Webster, 1967; Poppe et al., 2000)1.Owing to analytical limitations, electro-resistance multichannel particle-size analyzers, such as Coulter Counters, commonly truncate the tails of the fine-fraction part of grain-size distributions. These devices do not detect fine clay in the 0.6–0.1 μm range (part of the 11-phi and all of the 12-phi and 13-phi fractions). Although size analyses performed down to 0.6 μm microns are adequate for most freshwater and near shore marine sediments, samples from many deeper water marine environments (e.g. rise and abyssal plain) may contain significant material in the fine clay fraction, and these analyses benefit from extrapolation.The program (GSSTAT) described herein generates statistics to characterize sediment grain-size distributions and can extrapolate the fine-grained end of the particle distribution. It is written in Microsoft

Fine Guidance Sensing for Coronagraphic Observatories

Science.gov (United States)

Brugarolas, Paul; Alexander, James W.; Trauger, John T.; Moody, Dwight C.

2011-01-01

Three options have been developed for Fine Guidance Sensing (FGS) for coronagraphic observatories using a Fine Guidance Camera within a coronagraphic instrument. Coronagraphic observatories require very fine precision pointing in order to image faint objects at very small distances from a target star. The Fine Guidance Camera measures the direction to the target star. The first option, referred to as Spot, was to collect all of the light reflected from a coronagraph occulter onto a focal plane, producing an Airy-type point spread function (PSF). This would allow almost all of the starlight from the central star to be used for centroiding. The second approach, referred to as Punctured Disk, collects the light that bypasses a central obscuration, producing a PSF with a punctured central disk. The final approach, referred to as Lyot, collects light after passing through the occulter at the Lyot stop. The study includes generation of representative images for each option by the science team, followed by an engineering evaluation of a centroiding or a photometric algorithm for each option. After the alignment of the coronagraph to the fine guidance system, a "nulling" point on the FGS focal point is determined by calibration. This alignment is implemented by a fine alignment mechanism that is part of the fine guidance camera selection mirror. If the star images meet the modeling assumptions, and the star "centroid" can be driven to that nulling point, the contrast for the coronagraph will be maximized.

Annealing Effects on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Ultrafine-Grained Al Composites Reinforced with Nano-Al2O3 by Rotary Swaging

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Cunguang; Wang, Wenwen; Guo, Zhimeng; Sun, Chunbao; Volinsky, Alex A.; Paley, Vladislav

2018-03-01

Microstructure evolution and variations in mechanical properties of Al-Al2O3 nanocomposite produced by powder metallurgy were investigated and compared with commercially pure aluminum (Al-1050) after furnace annealing. Fine gas-atomized Al powder compacts were first sintered in flowing nitrogen, subsequently consolidated into wires by rotary swaging and eventually annealed at 300 and 500 °C for 24 h each. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy was utilized to document the microstructure evolution. Rotary swaging was proven to lead to a marked decrease in grain size. After heavy swaging to true deformation degree of φ = 6 and annealing at 500 °C, obvious recrystallization was observed at Al-1050's existing grain boundaries and the crystals began to grow perpendicular to the flow direction. In the Al-Al2O3 nanocomposite, fabricated from d 50 = 6 μm Al powder, recrystallization partially occurred, while grains were still extremely fine. Due to the dual role of fine-grained Al2O3 dispersion strengthening, the nanocomposite showed improved mechanical performance in terms of tensile strength, approximately twice higher than Al-1050 after annealing at 500 °C.

Influence of the initial grain size of silicon on microstructure and mechanical properties of reaction-sintered silicon nitride

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Heinrich, J.

1977-01-01

The influence of the initial grain size of the silicon powder on the microstructure and the resulting mechanical properties are studied. The smaller the grain size of the silicon powders used, the higher will be the degree of reaction at the beginning of the nitridation reaction and the higher the amount of α-modification in the fully nitridated samples. Moreover, the nitrification time can be considerably shortened when fine-grained silicon powders ( [de

Study of the Effects of the Electric Field on Charging Measurements on Individual Micron-size Dust Grains by Secondary Electron Emissions

Science.gov (United States)

Tankosic, D.; Abbas, M. M.

2013-01-01

The dust charging by electron impact is an important dust charging process in Astrophysical, Planetary, and the Lunar environments. Low energy electrons are reflected or stick to the grains charging the dust grains negatively. At sufficiently high energies electrons penetrate the grain leading to excitation and emission of electrons referred to as secondary electron emission (SEE). Available theoretical models for the calculation of SEE yield applicable for neutral, planar or bulk surfaces are generally based on Sternglass Equation. However, viable models for charging of individual dust grains do not exist at the present time. Therefore, the SEE yields have to be obtained by some experimental methods at the present time. We have conducted experimental studies on charging of individual micron size dust grains in simulated space environments using an electrodynamic balance (EDB) facility at NASA-MSFC. The results of our extensive laboratory study of charging of individual micron-size dust grains by low energy electron impact indicate that the SEE by electron impact is a very complex process expected to be substantially different from the bulk materials. It was found that the incident electrons may lead to positive or negative charging of dust grains depending upon the grain size, surface potential, electron energy, electron flux, grain composition, and configuration. In this paper we give a more elaborate discussion about the possible effects of the AC field in the EDB on dust charging measurements by comparing the secondary electron emission time-period (tau (sub em) (s/e)) with the time-period (tau (sub ac) (ms)) of the AC field cycle in the EDB that we have briefly addressed in our previous publication.

Transport properties of olivine grain boundaries from electrical conductivity experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Pommier, Anne; Kohlstedt, David L.; Hansen, Lars N.; Mackwell, Stephen; Tasaka, Miki; Heidelbach, Florian; Leinenweber, Kurt

2018-05-01

Grain boundary processes contribute significantly to electronic and ionic transports in materials within Earth's interior. We report a novel experimental study of grain boundary conductivity in highly strained olivine aggregates that demonstrates the importance of misorientation angle between adjacent grains on aggregate transport properties. We performed electrical conductivity measurements of melt-free polycrystalline olivine (Fo90) samples that had been previously deformed at 1200 °C and 0.3 GPa to shear strains up to γ = 7.3. The electrical conductivity and anisotropy were measured at 2.8 GPa over the temperature range 700-1400 °C. We observed that (1) the electrical conductivity of samples with a small grain size (3-6 µm) and strong crystallographic preferred orientation produced by dynamic recrystallization during large-strain shear deformation is a factor of 10 or more larger than that measured on coarse-grained samples, (2) the sample deformed to the highest strain is the most conductive even though it does not have the smallest grain size, and (3) conductivity is up to a factor of 4 larger in the direction of shear than normal to the shear plane. Based on these results combined with electrical conductivity data for coarse-grained, polycrystalline olivine and for single crystals, we propose that the electrical conductivity of our fine-grained samples is dominated by grain boundary paths. In addition, the electrical anisotropy results from preferential alignment of higher-conductivity grain boundaries associated with the development of a strong crystallographic preferred orientation of the grains.

ACCURATE MODELING OF X-RAY EXTINCTION BY INTERSTELLAR GRAINS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hoffman, John; Draine, B. T.

2016-01-01

Interstellar abundance determinations from fits to X-ray absorption edges often rely on the incorrect assumption that scattering is insignificant and can be ignored. We show instead that scattering contributes significantly to the attenuation of X-rays for realistic dust grain size distributions and substantially modifies the spectrum near absorption edges of elements present in grains. The dust attenuation modules used in major X-ray spectral fitting programs do not take this into account. We show that the consequences of neglecting scattering on the determination of interstellar elemental abundances are modest; however, scattering (along with uncertainties in the grain size distribution) must be taken into account when near-edge extinction fine structure is used to infer dust mineralogy. We advertise the benefits and accuracy of anomalous diffraction theory for both X-ray halo analysis and near edge absorption studies. We present an open source Fortran suite, General Geometry Anomalous Diffraction Theory (GGADT), that calculates X-ray absorption, scattering, and differential scattering cross sections for grains of arbitrary geometry and composition

ACCURATE MODELING OF X-RAY EXTINCTION BY INTERSTELLAR GRAINS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hoffman, John; Draine, B. T., E-mail: jah5@astro.princeton.edu, E-mail: draine@astro.princeton.edu [Princeton University Observatory, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544-1001 (United States)

2016-02-01

Interstellar abundance determinations from fits to X-ray absorption edges often rely on the incorrect assumption that scattering is insignificant and can be ignored. We show instead that scattering contributes significantly to the attenuation of X-rays for realistic dust grain size distributions and substantially modifies the spectrum near absorption edges of elements present in grains. The dust attenuation modules used in major X-ray spectral fitting programs do not take this into account. We show that the consequences of neglecting scattering on the determination of interstellar elemental abundances are modest; however, scattering (along with uncertainties in the grain size distribution) must be taken into account when near-edge extinction fine structure is used to infer dust mineralogy. We advertise the benefits and accuracy of anomalous diffraction theory for both X-ray halo analysis and near edge absorption studies. We present an open source Fortran suite, General Geometry Anomalous Diffraction Theory (GGADT), that calculates X-ray absorption, scattering, and differential scattering cross sections for grains of arbitrary geometry and composition.

Effect of grain size upon the fatigue-crack propagation behavior of alloy 718 under hold-time cycling at elevated temperature

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

James, L A

1986-01-01

Fatigue-crack propagation tests were conducted in air at 538/sup 0/C on several specimens of Alloy 718 representing several different producers, melt practices and product forms. This variety resulted in a range of grain sizes from ASTM Size 5 to 11.5. Tests at low cyclic frequency employing a tensile hold-time revealed a relationship between crack growth rates and grain size: higher growth rates were associated with fine-grain material and lower rates with larger-grain material. The lowest crack growth rates were associated with a necklace microstructure, whereby large grains are associated with necklaces of very small grains.

Reduction in thermal conductivity of Bi–Te alloys through grain ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

and electrical conductivity of 0·85 × 105 ohm. −1 m. −1 which are in agreement with the literature values (Yang et al. 2006a, b). In this paper, we report preparation and experi- mental results on characterization of these materials, high- lighting the feature of low thermal conductivity in correlation with the fine grain structures.

On the preparation of fine V8C7-WC and V4C3-WC powders

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Osborne, C

1997-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this work was to produce V8C7-WC and V4C3-WC powders with grain size between 1 and 2mu-m, as a first stage of the preparation of fine grained WC-VC-Co hardmetal. V8C7-WC powder was produced via two routes: starting from preformed V8C7...

Dynamic grain growth in superplastic Y-TZP and Al2O3/YTZ

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nieh, T.G.; Tomasello, C.M.; Wadsworth, J.

1990-01-01

This paper reports that both static and dynamic grain growth have been studied during superplastic deformation of fine-grained yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia (Y-TZP) and alumina reinforced yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia (Al 2 O 3 /YTZ). Grain growth was observed in both materials at temperatures above 1350 degrees C. In the case of Y-TZP, both static and dynamic grain growth were found to obey a similar equation of the form: D 3 -D 0 3 = kt where D is the instantaneous grain size, D 0 is the initial grain size, t is the time, and k is a kinetic constant which depends primarily on temperature and grain boundary energy. The activation energies for Y-TZP were approximately 580 and 520 kJ/mol, for static and dynamic grain growth, respectively. In the case of Al 2 O 3 /YTZ, it was found that the grain growth rate for the Al 2 O 3 phase was slower than that for the ZrO 2 phase. The growth rate of the ZrO 2 phase in Al 2 O 3 /YTZ is, however, similar to that in monolithic ZrO 2 i.e., Y-TZP

The mechanism of formation of a fine duplex microstructure in Ti-48Al-2Mn-2Nb alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ramanujan, R.V.; Maziasz, P.J.

1996-01-01

The mechanism of formation of the fine duplex microstructure resulting from the α → γ transformation in water-quenched Ti-48Al-2Mn-2Nb alloys was studied using transmission and analytical electron microscopy. As-cast Ti-48Al-2Mn-2Nb alloys were heat treated in the α phase field and water quenched to room temperature. The resulting microstructure (referred to as a fine duplex microstructure) consisted of equiaxed grains and abutting lath colonies. Both the colonies and the grains were composed of the γ phase, twinned γ laths, and α 2 laths. It was found that the transformation from α to γ in the fine duplex microstructure took place through long range diffusional processes, and competitive growth between the equiaxed and lath morphology occurred. Nucleation of the γ phase from the α matrix can occur through nucleation on stacking faults, followed by growth through the sympathetic nucleation and growth of new γ laths on a substrate lath. The observed misorientations and the interfacial structures between the laths were found to be consistent with such a mechanism. Competition between such nucleation and growth mechanisms for the equiaxed and lath morphologies of γ leads to the formation of lath colonies (of γ and α 2 ) interspersed with equiaxed grains in these alloys

Monte carlo simulation of anisotropic grain growth in liquid phase sintering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Han, Yoon Soo; Kim, Do Kyung

2003-01-01

One of the key techniques in modern engineering ceramic system is microstructural control of anisotropic grain growth because grain orientation and shape proved to have an influence on mechanic, dielectric and electric behavior of ceramics. But until now, computer simulation for grain growth has not sufficiently addressed to this subject. The reason is that simulation algorithm was laborious because it has to contain mass transfer through liquid phase and especially anisotropic grain growth has to be considered based on interfacial properties in real system. The goal of present study is simulation of anisotropic grain growth in liquid phase by Q-states model. To give anisotropic inherency to grains, constraint on mobility to specific boundaries was applied. For comparison, we measured grain size distribution and deduced grain growth kinetics from relation ship between average grain size and time. As a result, the grain size distribution functions become broader and the peak height decreases as the anisotropy is increased. The growth exponent 0.67 and 0.47 found by linear fitting have slightly different values in comparison with work of Grest et al. but similar is trend to the decrease of exponent with anisotropy

Convolute laminations and load structures in turbidites as indicators of flow reflections and decelerations against bounding slopes. Examples from the Marnoso-arenacea Formation (northern Italy) and Annot Sandstones (south eastern France)

Science.gov (United States)

Tinterri, R.; Muzzi Magalhaes, P.; Tagliaferri, A.; Cunha, R. S.

2016-10-01

This work discusses the significance of particular types of soft-sediment deformations very common within turbidite deposits, namely convolute laminations and load structures. Detailed facies analyses of the foredeep turbidites in the Marnoso-arenacea Formation (northern Italy) and Annot Sandstones (south eastern France) show that these deformational structures tend to increase near morphological obstacles, concomitantly with contained-reflected beds. The lateral and vertical distribution of convolute laminae and load structures, as well as their geometry, has a well-defined depositional logic related to flow decelerations and reflections against bounding slopes. This evidence suggests an interaction between fine-grained sediment and the presence of morphologic relief, and impulsive and cyclic-wave loadings, which are produced by flow impacts or reflected bores and internal waves related to impinging bipartite turbidity currents.

Mechanical properties and microstructure of nano grain nickel alloy deposit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seo, Moo Hong; Kim, Jung Su; Kim, Seung Ho; Jung, Hyun Kyu; Wyi, Jung Il; Hwang, Woon Suk; Jang, Si Sung; Chun, Byung Sun

2003-01-01

In this study, Ni-P layers were electroplated on the surface of stainless steel in order to investigate the effects of an additive and agitation on their mechanical properties and microstructure. The concentration of the additive in the plating solution increased, the pores formed in the layer decreased, while the residual stress developed in the layers during electroplating increased. Agitation of the solution during electroplating was observed to force to increase local pores in the layer which lowers its tensile properties. Grain growth was suppressed due to very fine Ni 3 P precipitates formed at its grain boundaries during heat treatment at 343 .deg. C for 1 hr in air

On the strengthening behavior of ultrafine-grained nickel processed from nanopowders

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bui, Q.H.; Dirras, G.; Ramtani, S.; Gubicza, J.

2010-01-01

Bulk ultrafine-grained nickel specimens having grain sizes in the range of 0.25-5 μm were processed by a spark plasma sintering method. The resulting microstructures were characterized by electron backscattering diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. Compression tests were carried out at room temperature and at a strain rate of 1.6 x 10 -4 s -1 . It was found that the fine-grained microstructure and the presence of NiO phase were the main strengthening factors in the as-processed bulk materials. The contribution of the oxide phase to strengthening was even more pronounced for lower grain sizes. This contribution was calculated as the difference between the measured strength and the value obtained from a Hall-Petch plot of oxide-free samples, and this yielded a flow stress increment of about 635 MPa for the lowest grain size studied here. In addition, a transition from work-hardening to -softening occurred for materials having a mean grain size smaller than about 300 nm and having boundaries that could have been weakened by the presence of a high amount of NiO phase.

Rates and fluxes of centennial-scale carbon storage in the fine-grained sediments from the central South Yellow Sea and Min-Zhe belt, East China Sea

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jianghai; Xiao, Xi; Zhou, Qianzhi; Xu, Xiaoming; Zhang, Chenxi; Liu, Jinzhong; Yuan, Dongliang

2018-01-01

The global carbon cycle has played a key role in mitigating global warming and climate change. Long-term natural and anthropogenic processes influence the composition, sources, burial rates, and fluxes of carbon in sediments on the continental shelf of China. In this study, the rates, fluxes, and amounts of carbon storage at the centennial scale were estimated and demonstrated using the case study of three fine-grained sediment cores from the central South Yellow Sea area (SYSA) and Min-Zhe belt (MZB), East China Sea. Based on the high-resolution temporal sequences of total carbon (TC) and total organic carbon (TOC) contents, we reconstructed the annual variations of historical marine carbon storage, and explored the influence of terrestrial and marine sources on carbon burial at the centennial scale. The estimated TC storage over 100 years was 1.18×108 t in the SYSA and 1.45×109 t in the MZB. The corrected TOC storage fluxes at the centennial scale ranged from 17 to 28 t/(km2·a)in the SYSA and from 56 to 148 t/(km2·a) in the MZB. The decrease of terrestrial materials and the increase of marine primary production suggest that the TOC buried in the sediments in the SYSA and MZB was mainly derived from the marine autogenetic source. In the MZB, two depletion events occurred in TC and TOC storage from 1985 to 1987 and 2003 to 2006, which were coeval with the water impoundment in the Gezhouba and Three Gorges dams, respectively. The high-resolution records of the carbon storage rates and fluxes in the SYSA and MZB reflect the synchronous responses to human activities and provide an important reference for assessing the carbon sequestration capacity of the marginal seas of China.

The Shale Gas potential of Lower Carboniferous Sediments in Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Kerschke, D.; Mihailovic, A.; Schulz, H., -M.; Horsfield, B.

2012-04-01

Organic-rich Carboniferous sediments are proven source rocks for conventional gas systems in NW Europe and are likely gas shale candidates. Within the framework of GeoEnergie, an initiative to strengthen scientific excellence, funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the influence of palaeogeography and basin dynamics on sedimentology and diagenesis is being investigated. Our aim is to unravel the evolution of shale gas-relevant properties which control gas prospectivity and production parameters like porosity, brittleness, etc. for the Lower Carboniferous in Germany. Northern Germany is underlain by thick, mudstone-bearing Carboniferous successions with a wide range of thermal maturities. Some of these mudstone horizons are rich in organic carbon which is either of marine and/or terrigenous origin. During the Carboniferous deposition of fine-grained, TOC-rich basinal sediments changed into shallow marine to paralic siliciclastic sediments (carbonates during the Lower Carboniferous) in the north, and grade into coarse-grained sediments close to the uprising Variscan mountains in the south. As a result different architectural elements including TOC-rich fine-grained sediments like basinal shales, fine-grained parts of turbidites, and shallow marine mudstones occur in both the Lower and the Upper Carboniferous section. A high shale gas potential occurs in basinal shales of Namurian age with marine organic material and TOC contents of up to 8 % (Rhenish Alum Shales). Such sediments with thermal maturities between 1.3 to 3.0 % vitrinite reflectance and sufficient quartz contents occur in wide areas of present-day Central European Basins System (CEBS), and are at favourable depth for shale gas exploration predominantly along the southern CEBS margin.

Fine-grained Emotion Role Detection Based on Retweet Information

OpenAIRE

Yu, Zhiwen; Chen, Liming; Guo, Bin; Ma, Chao; Yi, Fei; Wang, Zhu

2018-01-01

User behaviors in online social networks convey not only literal information but also one’s emotion attitudes towards the information. To compute this attitude, we define the concept of emotion role as the concentrated reflection of a user’s online emotional characteristics. Emotion role detection aims to better understand the structure and sentiments of online social networks and support further analysis, e.g., revealing public opinions, providing personalized recommendations, and detecting ...

The effect of electron scattering from disordered grain boundaries on the resistivity of metallic nanostructures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arenas, Claudio; Henriquez, Ricardo; Moraga, Luis; Muñoz, Enrique; Munoz, Raul C.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Quantum theory of the resistivity arising from electron-grain boundary scattering in nanometric metallic structures. • The resistivity is controlled by the collective properties of the grain assembly, by the allowed Kronig-Penney (KP) bands and by the electron transmission probability across successive grains. • When the grain diameter d is larger than the electron mean free path l, the increase in resistivity arises mainly from a decrease of the number of states at the Fermi surface that are allowed KP bands. • When the grain diameter d is smaller than the electron mean free path l, the increase in resistivity arises primarily from Anderson localization caused by electron transmission across successive grains. - Abstract: We calculate the electrical resistivity of a metallic specimen, under the combined effects of electron scattering by impurities, grain boundaries, and rough surfaces limiting the film, using a quantum theory based upon the Kubo formalism. Grain boundaries are represented by a one-dimensional periodic array of Dirac delta functions separated by a distance “d” giving rise to a Kronig–Penney (KP) potential. We use the Green's function built from the wave functions that are solutions of this KP potential; disorder is included by incorporating into the theory the probability that an electron is transmitted through several successive grain boundaries. We apply this new theory to analyze the resistivity of samples S1, S2, S7 and S8 measured between 4 and 300 K reported in Appl. Surf. Science273, 315 (2013). Although both the classical and the quantum theories predict a resistivity that agrees with experimental data to within a few percent or better, the phenomena giving rise to the increase of resistivity over the bulk are remarkably different. Classically, each grain boundary contributes to the electrical resistance by reflecting a certain fraction of the incoming electrons. In the quantum description, there are states

The effect of electron scattering from disordered grain boundaries on the resistivity of metallic nanostructures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arenas, Claudio [Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Blanco Encalada 2008, Casilla 487-3, Santiago 8370449 (Chile); Synopsys Inc., Avenida Vitacura 5250, Oficina 708, Vitacura, Santiago (Chile); Henriquez, Ricardo [Departamento de Física, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Av. España 1680, Casilla 110-V, Valparaíso (Chile); Moraga, Luis [Universidad Central de Chile, Toesca 1783, Santiago (Chile); Muñoz, Enrique [Facultad de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306, Santiago 7820436 (Chile); Munoz, Raul C., E-mail: ramunoz@ing.uchile.cl [Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas, Universidad de Chile, Blanco Encalada 2008, Casilla 487-3, Santiago 8370449 (Chile)

2015-02-28

Highlights: • Quantum theory of the resistivity arising from electron-grain boundary scattering in nanometric metallic structures. • The resistivity is controlled by the collective properties of the grain assembly, by the allowed Kronig-Penney (KP) bands and by the electron transmission probability across successive grains. • When the grain diameter d is larger than the electron mean free path l, the increase in resistivity arises mainly from a decrease of the number of states at the Fermi surface that are allowed KP bands. • When the grain diameter d is smaller than the electron mean free path l, the increase in resistivity arises primarily from Anderson localization caused by electron transmission across successive grains. - Abstract: We calculate the electrical resistivity of a metallic specimen, under the combined effects of electron scattering by impurities, grain boundaries, and rough surfaces limiting the film, using a quantum theory based upon the Kubo formalism. Grain boundaries are represented by a one-dimensional periodic array of Dirac delta functions separated by a distance “d” giving rise to a Kronig–Penney (KP) potential. We use the Green's function built from the wave functions that are solutions of this KP potential; disorder is included by incorporating into the theory the probability that an electron is transmitted through several successive grain boundaries. We apply this new theory to analyze the resistivity of samples S1, S2, S7 and S8 measured between 4 and 300 K reported in Appl. Surf. Science273, 315 (2013). Although both the classical and the quantum theories predict a resistivity that agrees with experimental data to within a few percent or better, the phenomena giving rise to the increase of resistivity over the bulk are remarkably different. Classically, each grain boundary contributes to the electrical resistance by reflecting a certain fraction of the incoming electrons. In the quantum description, there are states

The influences of impurity content, tensile strength, and grain size on in-service temper embrittlement of CrMoV steels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cheruvu, N.S.; Seth, B.B.

1989-01-01

The influences of impurity levels, grain size, and tensile strength on in-service temper embrittlement of CrMoV steels have been investigated. The samples for this study were taken from steam turbine CrMoV rotors which had operated for 15 to 26 years. The effects of grain size and tensile strength on embrittlement susceptibility were separated by evaluating the embrittlement behavior of two rotor forgings made from the same ingot after an extended step-cooling treatment. Among the residual elements in the steels, only P produces a significant embrittlement. The variation of P and tensile strength has no effect on in-service temper embrittlement susceptibility, as measured by the shift in fracture appearance transition temperature (FATT). However, the prior austenite grain size plays a major role in service embrittlement. The fine grain steels with a grain size of ASTM No. 9 or higher are virtually immune to in-service embrittlement. In steels having duplex grain sizes, embrittlement susceptibility is controlled by the size of coarser grains. For a given steel chemistry, the coarse grain steel is more susceptible to in-service embrittlement, and a decrease in ASTM grain size number from 4 to 0/1 increases the shift in FATT by 61 degrees C (10/10 degrees F). It is demonstrated that long-term service embrittlement can be simulated, except in very coarse grain steels, by using the extended step-cooling treatment. The results of step-cooling studies show that the coarse grain rotor steels take longer time during service to reach a fully embrittled state than the fine grain rotor steels

A coarse-grained generalized second law for holographic conformal field theories

Science.gov (United States)

Bunting, William; Fu, Zicao; Marolf, Donald

2016-03-01

We consider the universal sector of a d\\gt 2 dimensional large-N strongly interacting holographic CFT on a black hole spacetime background B. When our CFT d is coupled to dynamical Einstein-Hilbert gravity with Newton constant G d , the combined system can be shown to satisfy a version of the thermodynamic generalized second law (GSL) at leading order in G d . The quantity {S}{CFT}+\\frac{A({H}B,{perturbed})}{4{G}d} is non-decreasing, where A({H}B,{perturbed}) is the (time-dependent) area of the new event horizon in the coupled theory. Our S CFT is the notion of (coarse-grained) CFT entropy outside the black hole given by causal holographic information—a quantity in turn defined in the AdS{}d+1 dual by the renormalized area {A}{ren}({H}{{bulk}}) of a corresponding bulk causal horizon. A corollary is that the fine-grained GSL must hold for finite processes taken as a whole, though local decreases of the fine-grained generalized entropy are not obviously forbidden. Another corollary, given by setting {G}d=0, states that no finite process taken as a whole can increase the renormalized free energy F={E}{out}-{{TS}}{CFT}-{{Ω }}J, with T,{{Ω }} constants set by {H}B. This latter corollary constitutes a 2nd law for appropriate non-compact AdS event horizons.

Two-step sintering of ultrafine-grained barium cerate proton conducting ceramics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Siwei; Zhang, Lei; Zhang, Lingling; Brinkman, Kyle; Chen, Fanglin

2013-01-01

Ultra-fine grained dense BaZr 0.1 Ce 0.7 Y 0.1 Yb 0.1 O 3−δ (BZCYYb) ceramics have been successfully prepared via a two-step sintering method. Co-precipitation method has been adopted to prepare nano-sized BZCYYb precursors with an average particle size of 30 nm. By controlling the sintering profile, an average grain size of 184 nm was obtained for dense BZCYYb ceramics via the two-step sintering method, compared to 445 nm for the conventional sintered samples. The two-step sintered BZCYYb samples showed less impurity and an enhanced electrical conductivity compared with the conventional sintered ones. Further, the two-step sintering method was applied to fabricate anode supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) using BZCYYb as the electrolyte, resulting in dense ultrafine-grained electrolyte membranes and porous anode substrates with fine particles. Due to the reduced ohmic as well as polarization resistances, the maximum power output of the cells fabricated from the two-step sintering method reached 349 mW m −2 at 700 °C, significantly improved from 172 mW cm −2 for the conventional sintered cells, suggesting that two-step sintering method is very promising for optimizing the microstructure and thus enhancing the electrochemical performances for barium cerate based proton-conducting SOFCs.

Processing, microstructure, and mechanical properties of large-grained zirconium diboride ceramics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Neuman, Eric W.; Hilmas, Gregory E., E-mail: ghilmas@mst.edu; Fahrenholtz, William G.

2016-07-18

Zirconium diboride ceramics produced using commercial ZrB{sub 2} powders, and milled with zirconium diboride grinding media, were fabricated by hot-pressing at temperatures of 2100–2200 °C with hold times of 30–120 min. This ZrB{sub 2} exhibits no additional impurities typically introduced by milling with grinding media of differing composition. Microstructure analysis revealed grain sizes ranging from ~25 to ~50 µm along with ~3 vol% porosity. Flexure strength ranged from 335 to 400 MPa, elastic modulus from 490 to 510 GPa, fracture toughness from 2.7 to 3.2 MPa m{sup ½}, and hardness from 13.0 to 14.4 GPa. Strength limiting flaws were identified as surface grain pullout induced by machining. Elastic modulus and hardness were found to increase with decreasing porosity. Compared to the fine grained ceramics typically reported, large grain zirconium diboride ceramics exhibit higher than expected room temperature strengths.

THE ROLE OF TINY GRAINS ON THE ACCRETION PROCESS IN PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bai Xuening

2011-01-01

Tiny grains such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been thought to dramatically reduce the coupling between the gas and magnetic fields in weakly ionized gas such as in protoplanetary disks (PPDs) because they provide a tremendous surface area to recombine free electrons. The presence of tiny grains in PPDs thus raises the question of whether the magnetorotational instability (MRI) is able to drive rapid accretion consistent with observations. Charged tiny grains have similar conduction properties as ions, whose presence leads to qualitatively new behaviors in the conductivity tensor, characterized by n-bar /n e >1, where n e and n-bar denote the number densities of free electrons and all other charged species, respectively. In particular, Ohmic conductivity becomes dominated by charged grains rather than by electrons when n-bar /n e exceeds about 10 3 , and Hall and ambipolar diffusion (AD) coefficients are reduced by a factor of ( n-bar /n e ) 2 in the AD-dominated regime relative to that in the Ohmic regime. Applying the methodology of Bai, we find that in PPDs, when PAHs are sufficiently abundant (∼> 10 -9 per H 2 molecule), there exists a transition radius r trans of about 10-20 AU, beyond which the MRI active layer extends to the disk midplane. At r trans , the optimistically predicted MRI-driven accretion rate M-dot is one to two orders of magnitude smaller than that in the grain-free case, which is too small compared with the observed rates, but is in general no smaller than the predicted M-dot with solar-abundance 0.1 μm grains. At r > r trans , we find that, remarkably, the predicted M-dot exceeds the grain-free case due to a net reduction of AD by charged tiny grains and reaches a few times 10 -8 M sun yr -1 . This is sufficient to account for the observed M-dot in transitional disks. Larger grains (∼> 0.1 μm) are too massive to reach such high abundance as tiny grains and to facilitate the accretion process.

Importance and role of grain size in free surface cracking prediction of heavy forgings

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wang, Zhenhua [State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004 (China); Key Laboratory of Advanced Forging & Stamping Technology and Science, Yanshan University, Ministry of Education of China, Qinhuangdao 066004 (China); Sun, Shuhua; Wang, Bo [State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004 (China); Shi, Zhongping [Key Laboratory of Advanced Forging & Stamping Technology and Science, Yanshan University, Ministry of Education of China, Qinhuangdao 066004 (China); Fu, Wantang, E-mail: wtfu@ysu.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004 (China)

2015-02-11

The importance and role of grain size in predicting surface cracking of heavy forgings were investigated. 18Mn18Cr0.5N steel specimens with four different grain sizes were tensioned between 900 and 1100 °C at a strain rate of 0.1 s{sup −1}. The nucleation sites and crack morphology were analyzed through electron backscatter diffraction analysis, and the fracture morphology was examined using scanning electron microscopy. The nucleation sites were independent of the grain size, and cracks primarily formed at grain boundaries and triple junctions between grains with high Taylor factors. Grains with lower Taylor factors inhibited crack propagation. Strain was found to mainly concentrate near the grain boundaries; thus, a material with a larger grain size cracks more easily because there are fewer grain boundaries. Fine grains can be easily rotated to a lower Taylor factor to further inhibit cracking. The fracture morphology transformed from a brittle to ductile type with a lowering of grain size. At lower temperature, small dimples on the fracture surfaces of specimens with smaller grain sizes were left by single parent grains and the dimple edge was the grain edge. At higher temperature, dimples formed through void coalescence and the dimple edge was the tearing edge. Finally, the relationship between the reduction in area, grain size, and deformation temperature was obtained.

Magnetic properties of different grain-sized particles of sediments from the Okinawa Trough and their relationships to sedimentary environment

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

LI Ping; LI Peiying; ZHANG Xiaolong; CAO Chengxiao; XU Xingyong; DU Jun; LIU Lejun

2005-01-01

Multiple magnetic parameters were measured for nine different grain-sized fractions separated from the sediment samples that are representatives of four different sedimentary environments of the Okinawa Trough. Based on the measured results, the contributions of different grain-sized particles to total magnetic susceptibility of bulk sediments, the magnetic mineral assemblage and magnetic domain state as well as their relationships to sedimentary environment were discussed. Our research shows that the magnetic mineral is dominated by magnetite with a small amount of hematite and is primarily in pseudo-single-domain state. That indicates that the different sedimentary environments in the Okinawa Trough have certain correlation in material provenance. The magnetic minerals enrich in different grain-sized particles in response to different sedimentary environments. The contribution of the grain sizes from coarse to fine to coarse and fine to the magnetic susceptibility from the west to the east is in accordance with terrigenous material transportation from continental shelf of the East China Sea to the Okinawa Trough. It also shows difference in magnetic properties as a result of some environmental factors.

Characterization and Separation Studies of a Fine Sedimentary Phosphate Ore Slime

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xin Liu

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Detailed characterization and recovery of apatite from a sedimentary phosphate ore slime of a gravity plant of Yichang, China, were investigated. The phosphate ore slime consisted mainly of apatite, quartz, dolomite, and clay. To start with, the ore slime was characterized in sufficient detail to reveal that it is extremely fine in distribution with a d50 of 65 μm. Other different characterizations, such as apatite grain size distribution, apatite liberation, particle density distribution, and theoretical grade recovery, were also analyzed by mineral liberation analyser (MLA. Based on the results, a new gravity-flotation process, which was comprised of spiral gravity and reverse flotation, was proposed to process the slime. In the new process, the apatite was firstly recovered by two-stage spiral gravity, avoiding direct flotation. The gravity concentrate was the feed for the reverse flotation. A phosphate concentrate of 30.51% P2O5 with a P2O5 recovery of 89.00% can be produced from the slime analyzing 24.25% P2O5. Compared to the conventional direct-reverse flotation process, it was found that the reagent cost of the new gravity-flotation process was lower a quarter than that of the direct-reverse flotation flowsheet.

Climate and the Soviet Grain Crisis of 1928

Science.gov (United States)

Welker, Jean Edward

1995-01-01

This dissertation tests the premise that peasant hoarding of surplus grain supplies and the refusal of the rural Soviet peasants to sell grain to state procurement apparatus during the late New Economic Policy period, caused the Grain Crisis of 1928. The peasants' reluctance to sell grain and claims of peasant hoarding could only occur if sufficient grain surpluses existed during this period. The existence of these assumed grain surpluses is shown to be highly improbable. First, the large but inconsistent body of 1920s grain statistics was evaluated per se and related to two periods of pre-WWI data, the Witte and Stolypin years, on a practical comparison whenever possible. For both these pre-World War I periods, intensive links between rapid industrialization and agriculture had been established similar to the conditions of the 1920s. The climatic conditions of the two imperial and one Soviet period in the 1920s, especially drought in 1927, was analyzed, and its impact on grain production estimated and interpreted. The conclusion was reached that the cause of drop in grain production in 1927 was due to a long-term and persistent trend of regional drought affecting spring wheat yields, especially in the areas of the Middle Volga and Kazakhstan. Second, the resultant conclusion was reached that there was insufficient bread grain on a national basis in 1927 to meet the essential needs of the rural peasants, much less the increasing demands of the government procurements. Third, the government's 1927 policy of monopolizing all available "surpluses" on the grain market under the false assumption that these surpluses were abundant, demonstrated either naivete and incompetence, or political expediency. This monopolization contributed to a breakdown in the marketing distribution of available grain, and generally exacerbated the poor procurement situation which was publically and incorrectly blamed on the peasants' hoarding.

Observation of simultaneous increase in strength and ductility by grain refinement in a Fe-34.5Mn-0.04C steel

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Y. H.; Kang, J. M.; Peng, Y.

2017-01-01

Fine grained Fe-34.5Mn-0.04C steel samples with fully recrystallized grain sizes of 3.8 to 2.0 mu m were prepared by cold rolling followed by annealing a temperatures of either 650 degrees C or 800 degrees C. It is found that a simultaneous increase in both strength and ductility can be obtained ...... by grain refinement, leading to an observation that the best combination of strength and ductility occurs in the sample with the finest recrystallized grain size....

The silicon isotopic composition of fine-grained river sediments and its relation to climate and lithology

Science.gov (United States)

Bayon, G.; Delvigne, C.; Ponzevera, E.; Borges, A. V.; Darchambeau, F.; De Deckker, P.; Lambert, T.; Monin, L.; Toucanne, S.; André, L.

2018-05-01

The δ30Si stable isotopic composition of silicon in soils and fine-grained sediments can provide insights into weathering processes on continents, with important implications on the Si budget of modern and past oceans. To further constrain the factors controlling the distribution of Si isotopes in sediments, we have analysed a large number (n = 50) of separate size-fractions of sediments and suspended particulate materials collected near the mouth of rivers worldwide. This includes some of the world's largest rivers (e.g. Amazon, Congo, Mackenzie, Mississippi, Murray-Darling, Nile, Yangtze) and rivers from the case study areas of the Congo River Basin and Northern Ireland. Silt-size fractions exhibit a mean Si isotopic composition (δ30Si = -0.21 ± 0.19‰; 2 s.d.) similar to that previously inferred for the upper continental crust. In contrast, clay-size fractions display a much larger range of δ30Si values from -0.11‰ to -2.16‰, which yield a global δ30Siclay of -0.57 ± 0.60‰ (2 s.d.) representative of the mean composition of the average weathered continental crust. Overall, these new data show that the Si isotopic signature transported by river clays is controlled by the degree of chemical weathering, as inferred from strong relationships with Al/Si ratios. At a global scale, the clay-bound Si isotopic composition of the world's largest river systems demonstrates a link with climate, defining a general correlation with mean annual temperature (MAT) in corresponding drainage basins. While the distribution of Si isotopes in river sediments also appears to be influenced by the tectonic setting, lithological effects and sediment recycling from former sedimentary cycles, our results pave the way for their use as paleo-weathering and paleo-climate proxies in the sedimentary record.

The effect of dispersoids on the grain refinement mechanisms during deformation of aluminium alloys to ultra-high strains

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Apps, P.J.; Berta, M.; Prangnell, P.B.

2005-01-01

The effect of fine dispersoids on the mechanisms and rate of grain refinement has been investigated during the severe deformation of a model aluminium alloy. A binary Al-0.2Sc alloy, containing coherent Al 3 Sc dispersoids, of ∼20 nm in diameter and ∼100 nm spacing, has been deformed by equal channel angular extrusion to an effective strain of ten. The resulting deformation structures were quantitatively analysed using high-resolution electron backscattered diffraction orientation mapping, and the results have been compared to those obtained from a single-phase Al-0.13Mg alloy, deformed under identical conditions. The presence of fine, non-shearable, dispersoids has been found to homogenise slip, retard the formation of a cellular substructure and inhibit the formation of microshear bands during deformation. These factors combine to reduce the rate of high-angle grain boundary generation at low to medium strains and, hence, retard the formation of a submicron grain structure to higher strains during severe deformation

Detection of low-contrast images in film-grain noise.

Science.gov (United States)

Naderi, F; Sawchuk, A A

1978-09-15

When low contrast photographic images are digitized by a very small aperture, extreme film-grain noise almost completely obliterates the image information. Using a large aperture to average out the noise destroys the fine details of the image. In these situations conventional statistical restoration techniques have little effect, and well chosen heuristic algorithms have yielded better results. In this paper we analyze the noisecheating algorithm of Zweig et al. [J. Opt. Soc. Am. 65, 1347 (1975)] and show that it can be justified by classical maximum-likelihood detection theory. A more general algorithm applicable to a broader class of images is then developed by considering the signal-dependent nature of film-grain noise. Finally, a Bayesian detection algorithm with improved performance is presented.

Comparison of the monotonic and cyclic mechanical properties of ultrafine-grained low carbon steels processed by continuous and conventional equal channel angular pressing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niendorf, T.; Böhner, A.; Höppel, H.W.; Göken, M.; Valiev, R.Z.; Maier, H.J.

2013-01-01

Highlights: ► UFG low-carbon steel was successfully processed by continuous ECAP-Conform. ► Continuously processed UFG steel shows high performance. ► High monotonic strength and good ductility. ► Microstructural stability under cyclic loading in the LCF regime. ► Established concepts can be used for predicting the properties. - Abstract: In the current study the mechanical properties of ultra-fine grained low carbon steel processed by conventional equal channel angular pressing and a continuous equal channel angular pressing-Conform process were investigated. Both monotonic and cyclic properties were determined for the steel in either condition and found to be very similar. Microstructural analyses employing electron backscatter diffraction were used for comparison of the low carbon steels processed by either technique. Both steels feature very similar grain sizes and misorientation angle distributions. With respect to fatigue life the low carbon steel investigated shows properties similar to ultra-fine grained interstitial-free steel processed by conventional equal channel angular pressing, and thus, the general fatigue behavior can be addressed following the same routines as proposed for interstitial-free steel. In conclusion, the continuously processed material exhibits very promising properties, and thus, equal channel angular pressing-Conform is a promising tool for production of ultra-fine grained steels in a large quantity

Single-grain OSL dating of Early Middle Palaeolithic deposits at Cuesta de la Bajada, Ebro Basin, Spain

Science.gov (United States)

Arnold, Lee; Demuro, Martina; Santonja, Manuel; Perez-Gonzalez, Alfredo; Pares, Josep

2013-04-01

The open-air site of Cuesta de la Bajada comprises a 2-2.5 m-thick sequence of fluvial-lacustrine sediments inset into the +50-60 m terrace deposits preserved along the south-eastern margins of the Alfambra river valley, Teruel, Spain. The main archaeological horizons lie ~20 m above the present-day river level and consists of an upward-fining sequence of massive fluvial silts and fine sands with dispersed gravels, detritic marls and shales that collectively overlie a series of planar bedded fluvial gravels. These units have yielded ~3000 lithic artefacts displaying reduction techniques characteristic of an early Middle Palaeolithic techno-complex, as well as a multitude of faunal remains indicative of a late Middle Pleistocene origin. The paucity of open-air Palaeolithic sites in the interior eastern sector of the Iberian Peninsula, and the relatively low number of documented early Middle Palaeolithic archives in this region, means that Cuesta de la Bajada is of key importance for understanding the coexistence/transition of Iberian Acheulean and Mousterian techno-complexes during the Middle Pleistocene period. Establishing reliable absolute chronologies at Cuesta de la Bajada remains essential for understanding the regional significance of this site. In an attempt to redress the existing chronological uncertainty we are undertaking an interdisciplinary dating study of the Middle Palaeolithic deposits using OSL dating, ESR/U-series dating of teeth and ESR dating of sedimentary quartz. Here we present results obtained using quartz single-grain OSL dating of 4 samples collected from a 7 m vertical profile bracketing the archaeological horizons. 2 samples were collected from the archaeology-bearing silt and fine sand horizons, while the remaining samples were obtained from well-bedded fine-sands and silts 3.5 m above and 3 m below the main excavation. The measured quartz grains are characterised by relatively bright OSL signals and typically display dose

Lead enrichment in different genotypes of rice grains.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Gang; Sun, Guo-rong; Liu, Ai-ping; Zhou, Wei-dong

2008-03-01

Using environmental scanning electron microscopy and X-ray electron probe microanalysis, the lead content was studied in inner and outer surface of rice glume, surface of caryopsis, center of caryopsis, near aleuronic layer and aleuronic layer in 21 genotypes of rice grains. The results showed that the lead content in different part of 21 genotypes of rice grains changed as inner surface of rice glume > aleuronic layer > near aleuronic layer > surface of caryopsis > outer surface of rice glume > center of caryopsis. There were genetic differences in lead enrichment in different genotypes of rice grains, which reflected as the differences of lead content in the same part and different part of rice grains. In different genotypes of rice grains, there were significant non-linear correlations between lead content in the inner surface of rice glume, center of caryopsis, aleuronic layer and that in the other parts of rice grain. The results also indicated that the lead enrichment in the center of caryopsis regulated by glume and aleuronic layer. In addition, in different genotypes of rice grains, there were differences in regulation of lead enrichment among different parts, which changed non-linearly.

Seismic reflection and vibracoring studies of the continental shelf offshore central and western Long Island, New York

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, W.M.; Albanese, J.R.; Coch, N.K.; Harsch, A.A.

1999-01-01

The ridge-and-swale topography on the continental shelf south of Fire Island, New York, is characterized by northeast-trending linear shoals that are shore attached and shore oblique on the inner shelf and isolated and shore parallel on the middle shelf. High-resolution seismic reflection profiles show that the ridges and swales occur independent of, and are not controlled by, the presence of internal structures (for example, filled tidal inlet channels, paleobarrier strata) or underlying structure (for example, high-relief Cretaceous unconformity). Grab samples of surficial sediments on the shelf south of Fire Island average 98% sand. Locally, benthic fauna increase silt and clay content through fecal pellet production or increase the content of gravel-size material by contribution of their fragmented shell remains. Surficial sand on the ridges is unimodal at 0.33 mm (medium sand, about 50 mesh), and surficial sand in troughs is bimodal at 0.33 mm and 0.15 mm (fine sand, about 100 mesh). In addition to seismic studies, 26 vibracores were recovered from the continental shelf in state and federal waters from south of Rockaway and Long Beaches, Long Island, New York. Stratigraphic and sedimentological data gleaned from these cores were used to outline the geologic framework in the study area. A variety of sedimentary features were noted in the cores, including burrow-mottled sections of sand in a finer silty-sand, rhythmic lamination of sand and silty-sand that reflect cyclic changes in sediment transport, layers of shell hash and shells that probably represent tempestites, and changes from dark color to light color in the sediments that probably represent changes in the oxidation-reduction conditions in the area with time. The stratigraphic units identified are an upper, generally oxidized, nearshore facies, an underlying fine- to medium-sand and silty-clay unit considered to be an estuarine facies, and a lower, coarse-grained deeply oxidized, cross-laminated pre

Microstructure and composition of electromagnetically-characterized YBa2Cu3O7-δ grain boundaries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Babcock, S.E.; Zhang, Na; Cai, Xue Yu; Larbalestier, D.C.; Gao, Yufei; Merkle, K.L.; Kaiser, D.L.

1991-01-01

The electrical character (flux-pinning, Josephson junction, or resistive) of the grain boundaries in approximately twenty flux-grown YBa 2 Cu 3 O 7-δ bicrystals was determined in previous studies. A selection of these same bicrystals now have been thinned for study by transmission and scanning transmission electron microscopy. High-spatial resolution imaging and analytical techniques reveal microstructural differences among these boundaries that are consistent with their diverse electrical characteristics. The observations offer preliminary insight into some of the feature that control the grain boundary superconducting properties and re-emphasize the very fine scale on which the grain boundary electrical character is determined. 11 refs., 6 figs

Computational Investigation of Effects of Grain Size on Ballistic Performance of Copper

Science.gov (United States)

He, Ge; Dou, Yangqing; Guo, Xiang; Liu, Yucheng

2018-01-01

Numerical simulations were conducted to compare ballistic performance and penetration mechanism of copper (Cu) with four representative grain sizes. Ballistic limit velocities for coarse-grained (CG) copper (grain size ≈ 90 µm), regular copper (grain size ≈ 30 µm), fine-grained (FG) copper (grain size ≈ 890 nm), and ultrafine-grained (UG) copper (grain size ≈ 200 nm) were determined for the first time through the simulations. It was found that the copper with reduced grain size would offer higher strength and better ductility, and therefore renders improved ballistic performance than the CG and regular copper. High speed impact and penetration behavior of the FG and UG copper was also compared with the CG coppers strengthened by nanotwinned (NT) regions. The comparison results showed the impact and penetration resistance of UG copper is comparable to the CG copper strengthened by NT regions with the minimum twin spacing. Therefore, besides the NT-strengthened copper, the single phase copper with nanoscale grain size could also be a strong candidate material for better ballistic protection. A computational modeling and simulation framework was proposed for this study, in which Johnson-Cook (JC) constitutive model is used to predict the plastic deformation of Cu; the JC damage model is to capture the penetration and fragmentation behavior of Cu; Bao-Wierzbicki (B-W) failure criterion defines the material's failure mechanisms; and temperature increase during this adiabatic penetration process is given by the Taylor-Quinney method.

Determination of lattice orientation in aluminium alloy grains by low energy gallium ion-channelling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Silk, Jonathan R. [Aerospace Metal Composites Ltd., RAE Road, Farnborough, GU14 6XE (United Kingdom); Dashwood, Richard J. [WMG, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL (United Kingdom); Chater, Richard J., E-mail: r.chater@imperial.ac.u [Department of Materials, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom)

2010-06-15

Polished sections of a fine-grained aluminium, silicon carbide metal matrix composite (MMC) alloy were prepared by sputtering using a low energy gallium ion source and column (FIB). The MMC had been processed by high temperature extrusion. Images of the polished surface were recorded using the ion-induced secondary electron emission. The metal matrix grains were distinguished by gallium ion-channelling contrast from the silicon carbide component. The variation of the contrast from the aluminium grains with tilt angle can be recorded and used to determine lattice orientation with the contrast from the silicon carbide (SiC) component as a reference. This method is rapid and suits site-specific investigations where classical methods of sample preparation fail.

Process for treating moisture laden coal fines

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Burl E.; Henry, Raymond M.; Trivett, Gordon S.; Albaugh, Edgar W.

1993-01-01

A process is provided for making a free flowing granular product from moisture laden caked coal fines, such as wet cake, by mixing a water immiscible substance, such as oil, with the caked coal, preferably under low shear forces for a period of time sufficient to produce a plurality of free flowing granules. Each granule is preferably comprised of a dry appearing admixture of one or more coal particle, 2-50% by weight water and the water immiscible substance.

SAP-like ultrafine-grained Al composites dispersion strengthened with nanometric AlN

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balog, M.; Krizik, P.; Yan, M.; Simancik, F.; Schaffer, G.B.; Qian, M.

2013-01-01

This paper reports the development of novel Sinter-Aluminum-Pulver (SAP)-like Al–AlN nanocomposites via replacing the native Al 2 O 3 thin films on fine Al powder with a large volume fraction of in situ formed nanometric AlN dispersoids. Fine gas-atomized Al powder (d 50 =1.3 µm) compacts were first partially nitrided at 590 °C in flowing nitrogen, controlled by a small addition of Sn (0.3–0.4 wt%), and subsequently consolidated by hot direct extrusion. The resulting Al–AlN composites consisted of submicrometric Al grains reinforced with nanometric AlN dispersoids together with some nanometric Al 2 O 3 dispersoids. An Al–13 vol% AlN nanocomposite fabricated this way achieved exceptional ultimate tensile strength of 227 MPa, yield strength of 195 MPa and Young's modulus of 66 GPa at 300 °C, superior to typical SAP materials and coarse grained Al–AlN composites. In addition, the Al–13 vol% AlN nanocomposite exhibited good thermal stability up to 500 °C. The strengthening mechanism is discussed

Abnormal grain growth in Eurofer-97 steel in the ferrite phase field

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oliveira, V.B. [Lorena School of Engineering, University of Sao Paulo, Lorena, SP, 12602-810 (Brazil); Sandim, H.R.Z., E-mail: hsandim@demar.eel.usp.br [Lorena School of Engineering, University of Sao Paulo, Lorena, SP, 12602-810 (Brazil); Raabe, D. [Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung, Düsseldorf, D-40237 (Germany)

2017-03-15

Reduced-activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) Eurofer-97 steel is a candidate material for structural applications in future fusion reactors. Depending on the amount of prior cold rolling strain and annealing temperature, important solid-state softening reactions such as recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth occur. Eurofer-97 steel was cold rolled up to 70, 80 and 90% reductions in thickness and annealed in the ferrite phase field (below ≈ 800 °C). Changes in microstructure, micro-, and mesotexture were followed by orientation mappings provided by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Eurofer-97 steel undergoes abnormal grain growth above 650 °C and this solid-state reaction seems to be closely related to the high mobility of a few special grain boundaries that overcome pinning effects caused by fine particles. This solid-state reaction promotes important changes in the microstructure and microtexture of this steel. Abnormal grain growth kinetics for each condition was determined by means of quantitative metallography. - Highlights: • Abnormal grain growth (AGG) occurs in Eurofer-97 steel deformed to several strains. • Kinetics of abnormal grain growth has been determined at 750 and 800 °C. • Significant changes in crystallographic texture take place during AGG. • Grain boundaries with misorientations above 45° may explain abnormal grain growth. • Local microstructural instabilities (coarsening of M23C6 carbides) also explain AGG.

Atom Probe Tomography of Phase and Grain Boundaries in Experimentally-Deformed and Hot-Pressed Wehrlite

Science.gov (United States)

Cukjati, J.; Parman, S. W.; Cooper, R. F.; Zhao, N.

2017-12-01

Atom probe tomography (APT) was used to characterize the chemistry of three grain boundaries: an olivine-olivine (ol-ol) and olivine-clinopyroxene (ol-cpx) boundary in fine-grained experimentally-deformed wehrlite and an ol-cpx boundary in a fine-grained, hot-pressed wehrlite. Grain boundaries were extracted and formed into APT tips using a focused ion beam (FIB). The tips were analyzed in a reflectron-equipped LEAP4000HR (Harvard University) at 1% or 0.5% detection rate, 5pJ laser energy and 100kHz pulse rate. Total ion counts are between 40 and 100 million per tip. Examination of grain and phase boundaries in wehrlite are of interest since slow-diffusing and olivine-incompatible cations present in cpx (e.g. Ca and Al) may control diffusion-accommodated grain boundary sliding and affect mantle rheology (Sundberg & Cooper, 2008). At steady state, ol-cpx aggregates are weaker than either ol or cpx end member, the results of which are not currently well-explained. We investigate grain boundary widths to understand the transport of olivine-incompatible elements. Widths of grain/phase boundary chemical segregation are between 3nm and 6nm for deformed ol-ol and ol-cpx samples; minimally-deformed (hot-pressed) samples having slightly wider chemical segregation widths. Chemical segregation widths were determined from profiles of Na, Al, P, Cl, K, Ca, or Ni, although not all listed elements can be used for all samples (e.g. Na, K segregation profiles can only be observed for ol-ol sample). These estimates are consistent with prior estimates of grain boundary segregation by atom probe tomography on ol-ol and opx-opx samples (Bachhav et al., 2015) and are less than ol-ol interface widths analyzed by STEM/EDX (Hiraga, Anderson, & Kohlstedt, 2007). STEM/EDX will be performed on deformed wehrlite to investigate chemical profile as a function of applied stress orientation and at length scales between those observable by APT and EPMA. Determination of phase boundary chemistry and

Can arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi improve grain yield, As uptake and tolerance of rice grown under aerobic conditions?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, H. [Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong (Hong Kong); Ye, Z.H. [State Key Laboratory for Bio-control, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006 (China); Chan, W.F.; Chen, X.W.; Wu, F.Y. [Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong (Hong Kong); Wu, S.C. [Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong (Hong Kong); School of Environment and Natural Resources, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Lin' an, Zhejiang 311300 (China); Wong, M.H., E-mail: mhwong@hkbu.edu.hk [Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong (Hong Kong); School of Environment and Natural Resources, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Lin' an, Zhejiang 311300 (China)

2011-10-15

The effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) -Glomus intraradices and G. geosporum on arsenic (As) and phosphorus (P) uptake by lowland (Guangyinzhan) and upland rice (Handao 502) were investigated in soil, spiked with and without 60 mg As kg{sup -1}. In As-contaminated soil, Guangyinzhan inoculated with G. intraradices or Handao 502 inoculated with G. geosporum enhanced As tolerance, grain P content, grain yield. However, Guangyinzhan inoculated with G. geosporum or Handao 502 inoculated with G. intraradices decreased grain P content, grain yield and the molar ratio of grain P/As content, and increased the As concentration and the ratio of grain/straw As concentration. These results show that rice/AMF combinations had significant (p < 0.05) effects on grain As concentration, grain yield and grain P uptake. The variation in the transfer and uptake of As and P reflected strong functional diversity in AM (arbuscular mycorrhizal) symbioses. - Highlights: > Rice/AMF combinations had significant effects on grain As concentration, grain yield and grain P uptake. > Rice colonized with suitable AMF can increase grain yield. > The variation in the transfer and uptake of As and P reflected strong functional diversity in AM symbioses. - Different rice/AMF combinations had very different effects on arsenic and phosphorus uptake.

Can arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi improve grain yield, As uptake and tolerance of rice grown under aerobic conditions?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, H.; Ye, Z.H.; Chan, W.F.; Chen, X.W.; Wu, F.Y.; Wu, S.C.; Wong, M.H.

2011-01-01

The effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) -Glomus intraradices and G. geosporum on arsenic (As) and phosphorus (P) uptake by lowland (Guangyinzhan) and upland rice (Handao 502) were investigated in soil, spiked with and without 60 mg As kg -1 . In As-contaminated soil, Guangyinzhan inoculated with G. intraradices or Handao 502 inoculated with G. geosporum enhanced As tolerance, grain P content, grain yield. However, Guangyinzhan inoculated with G. geosporum or Handao 502 inoculated with G. intraradices decreased grain P content, grain yield and the molar ratio of grain P/As content, and increased the As concentration and the ratio of grain/straw As concentration. These results show that rice/AMF combinations had significant (p < 0.05) effects on grain As concentration, grain yield and grain P uptake. The variation in the transfer and uptake of As and P reflected strong functional diversity in AM (arbuscular mycorrhizal) symbioses. - Highlights: → Rice/AMF combinations had significant effects on grain As concentration, grain yield and grain P uptake. → Rice colonized with suitable AMF can increase grain yield. → The variation in the transfer and uptake of As and P reflected strong functional diversity in AM symbioses. - Different rice/AMF combinations had very different effects on arsenic and phosphorus uptake.

The Optical Absorption Coefficient of Maize Grains Investigated by Photoacoustic Spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Rodríguez-Páez, C. L.; Carballo-Carballo, A.; Rico-Molina, R.; Hernández-Aguilar, C.; Domínguez-Pacheco, A.; Cruz-Orea, A.; Moreno-Martínez, E.

2017-01-01

In the maize and tortilla industry, it is important to characterize the color of maize ( Zea mays L.) grain, as it is one of the attributes that directly affect the quality of the tortillas consumed by the population. For this reason, the availability of alternative techniques for assessing and improving the quality of grain is valued. Photoacoustic spectroscopy has proven to be a useful tool for characterizing maize grain. So, the objective of the present study was to determine the optical absorption coefficient β of the maize grain used to make tortillas from two regions of Mexico: (a) Valles Altos, 2012-2013 production cycle and (b) Guasave, Sinaloa, 2013-2014 production cycle. Traditional reflectance measurements, physical characteristics of the grain and nutrient content were also calculated. The experimental results show different characteristics for maize grains.

Processing of fine grained AISI 304L austenitic stainless steel by cold rolling and high-temperature short-term annealing

Science.gov (United States)

Naghizadeh, Meysam; Mirzadeh, Hamed

2018-05-01

An advanced thermomechanical process based on the formation and reversion of deformation-induced martensite was used to refine the grain size and enhance the hardness of an AISI 304L austenitic stainless steel. Both low and high reversion annealing temperatures and also the repetition of the whole thermomechanical cycle were considered. While a microstructure with average austenite grain size of a few micrometers was achieved based on cold rolling and high-temperature short-term annealing, an extreme grain refinement up to submicrometer regime was obtained by cold rolling followed by low-temperature long-term annealing. However, the required annealing time was found to be much longer, which negates its appropriateness for industrial production. While a magnificent grain refinement was achieved by one pass of the high-temperature thermomechanical process, the reduction in grain size was negligible by the repetition of the whole cycle. It was found that the hardness of the thermomechanically processed material is much higher than that of the as-received material. The results of the present work were shown to be compatible with the general trend of grain size dependence of hardness for AISI 304L stainless steel based on the Hall-Petch relationship. The results were also discussed based on the X-ray evaluation of dislocation density by modified Williamson-Hall plots.

A grain boundary sliding model for cavitation, crack growth and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

A model is presented for cavity growth, crack propagation and fracture resulting from grain boundary sliding (GBS) during high temperature creep deformation. The theory of cavity growth by GBS was based on energy balance criteria on the assumption that the matrix is sufficiently plastic to accommodate misfit strains ...

Numerical simulation of temperature distribution using finite difference equations and estimation of the grain size during friction stir processing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arora, H.S.; Singh, H.; Dhindaw, B.K.

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► Magnesium alloy AE42 was friction stir processed under different cooling conditions. ► Heat flow model was developed using finite difference heat equations. ► Generalized MATLAB code was developed for solving heat flow model. ► Regression equation for estimation of grain size was developed. - Abstract: The present investigation is aimed at developing a heat flow model to simulate temperature history during friction stir processing (FSP). A new approach of developing implicit form of finite difference heat equations solved using MATLAB code was used. A magnesium based alloy AE42 was friction stir processed (FSPed) at different FSP parameters and cooling conditions. Temperature history was continuously recorded in the nugget zone during FSP using data acquisition system and k type thermocouples. The developed code was validated at different FSP parameters and cooling conditions during FSP experimentation. The temperature history at different locations in the nugget zone at different instants of time was further utilized for the estimation of grain growth rate and final average grain size of the FSPed specimen. A regression equation relating the final grain size, maximum temperature during FSP and the cooling rate was developed. The metallurgical characterization was done using optical microscopy, SEM, and FIB-SIM analysis. The simulated temperature profiles and final average grain size were found to be in good agreement with the experimental results. The presence of fine precipitate particles generated in situ in the investigated magnesium alloy also contributed in the evolution of fine grain structure through Zener pining effect at the grain boundaries.

Adiabatic motion of charged dust grains in rotating magnetospheres

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Northrop, T.G.; Hill, J.R.

1983-01-01

Dust grains in the ring systems and rapidly rotating magnetospheres of the outer planets such as Jupiter and Saturn may be sufficiently charged that the magnetic and electric forces on them are comparable with the gravitational force. The adiabatic theory of charged particle motion has previously been applied to electrons and atomic size particles. But it is also applicable to these charged dust grains in the micrometer and smaller size range. We derive here the guiding center equation of motion, drift velocity, and parallel equation of motion for these grains in a rotating magnetosphere. The effects of periodic grain charge-discharge have not been treated previously and have been included in this analysis. Grain charge is affected by the surrounding plasma properties and by the grain plasma velocity (among other factors), both of which may vary over the gyrocircle. The resulting charge-discharge process at the gyrofrequency destroys the invariance of the magnetic moment and causes a grain to move radially. The magnetic moment may increase or decrease, depending on the gyrophase of the charge variation. If it decreases, the motion is always toward synchronous radius for an equatorial grain. But the orbit becomes circular before the grain reaches synchronous radius, a conclusion that follows from an exact constant of the motion. This circularization can be viewed as a consequence of the gradual reduction in the magnetic moment. This circularization also suggests that dust grains leaving Io could not reach the region of the Jovian ring, but several effects could change that conclusion. Excellent qualitative and quantitative agreement is obtained between adiabatic theory and detailed numerical orbit integrations

Individual and cumulative effects of agriculture, forestry and metal mining activities on the metal and phosphorus content of fluvial fine-grained sediment; Quesnel River Basin, British Columbia, Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Tyler B; Owens, Philip N

2014-10-15

The impact of agriculture, forestry and metal mining on the quality of fine-grained sediment (sediment were collected monthly during the snow-free season in 2008 using time-integrated samplers at replicate sites representative of agriculture, forestry and mining activities in the basin (i.e. "impacted" sites). Samples were also collected from replicate reference sites and also from the main stem of the Quesnel River at the downstream confluence with the Fraser River. Generally, metal(loid) and phosphorus (P) concentrations for "impacted" sites were greater than for reference sites. Furthermore, concentrations of copper (forestry and mining sites), manganese (agriculture and forestry sites) and selenium (agriculture, forestry and mining sites) exceeded upper sediment quality guideline (SQG) thresholds. These results suggest that agriculture, forestry and metal mining activities are having an influence on the concentrations of sediment-associated metal(loid)s and P in the Quesnel basin. Metal(loid) and P concentrations of sediment collected from the downstream site were not significantly greater than values for the reference sites, and were typically lower than the values for the impacted sites. This suggests that the cumulative effects of agriculture, forestry and mining activities in the QRB are presently not having a measureable effect at the river basin-scale. The lack of a cumulative effect at the basin-scale is thought to reflect: (i) the relatively recent occurrence of land use disturbances in this basin; (ii) the dominance of sediment contributions from natural forest and agriculture; and (iii) the potential for storage of contaminants on floodplains and other storage elements between the locations of disturbance activities and the downstream sampling site, which may be attenuating the disturbance signal. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Investigation of the role of grain boundary on the mechanical properties of metals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kheradmand, Nousha; Barnoush, Afrooz; Vehoff, Horst

2010-01-01

Compression testing of micropillars was used to investigate the gain boundary effect on the strength of metals which is especially interesting in ultra fine grained and nanocrystalline metals. Single and bicrystal micropillars of different sizes and crystallographic orientations were fabricated using a focused ion beam system and the compression test was performed with a nanoindenter. A reduction of the pillar size as well as the introduction of a grain boundary results in an increase in the yield strength. The results show that the size and the orientation of different adjoining crystals in bicrystalline pillars have an obvious effect on dislocation nucleation and multiplication.

Bayesian calibration of coarse-grained forces: Efficiently addressing transferability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Patrone, Paul N.; Rosch, Thomas W.; Phelan, Frederick R.

2016-01-01

Generating and calibrating forces that are transferable across a range of state-points remains a challenging task in coarse-grained (CG) molecular dynamics. In this work, we present a coarse-graining workflow, inspired by ideas from uncertainty quantification and numerical analysis, to address this problem. The key idea behind our approach is to introduce a Bayesian correction algorithm that uses functional derivatives of CG simulations to rapidly and inexpensively recalibrate initial estimates f 0 of forces anchored by standard methods such as force-matching. Taking density-temperature relationships as a running example, we demonstrate that this algorithm, in concert with various interpolation schemes, can be used to efficiently compute physically reasonable force curves on a fine grid of state-points. Importantly, we show that our workflow is robust to several choices available to the modeler, including the interpolation schemes and tools used to construct f 0 . In a related vein, we also demonstrate that our approach can speed up coarse-graining by reducing the number of atomistic simulations needed as inputs to standard methods for generating CG forces.

Bayesian calibration of coarse-grained forces: Efficiently addressing transferability

Science.gov (United States)

Patrone, Paul N.; Rosch, Thomas W.; Phelan, Frederick R.

2016-04-01

Generating and calibrating forces that are transferable across a range of state-points remains a challenging task in coarse-grained (CG) molecular dynamics. In this work, we present a coarse-graining workflow, inspired by ideas from uncertainty quantification and numerical analysis, to address this problem. The key idea behind our approach is to introduce a Bayesian correction algorithm that uses functional derivatives of CG simulations to rapidly and inexpensively recalibrate initial estimates f0 of forces anchored by standard methods such as force-matching. Taking density-temperature relationships as a running example, we demonstrate that this algorithm, in concert with various interpolation schemes, can be used to efficiently compute physically reasonable force curves on a fine grid of state-points. Importantly, we show that our workflow is robust to several choices available to the modeler, including the interpolation schemes and tools used to construct f0. In a related vein, we also demonstrate that our approach can speed up coarse-graining by reducing the number of atomistic simulations needed as inputs to standard methods for generating CG forces.

Grain by grain study of the mechanisms of crack propagation during iodine SCC of Zry-4

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haddad Andalag, R.E.

1993-01-01

This paper describes the tests conducted to determine the conditions leading to cracking of a specified grain of metal, focussing on the crystallographic orientation of crack paths, the critical stress conditions and the significance of the fractographic features encountered. In order to get orientable cracking, a technique was developed to produce iodine SCC, by means of pressurizing tubes of a specially heat treated Zry-4 having very large grains, shaped as discs of a few millimeters in diameter and grown up to the wall thickness. Careful orientation of fractured grains, performed by means of a back-reflection Laue technique with a precision better than one degree, has proved that transgranular cracking occurs only along basal planes. The effect of anisotropy, plasticity, triaxiality and residual stresses originated in thermal contraction, has to be considered to account for the influence of the stress state . A grain by grain calculation led to the conclusion that transgranular cracking always occurs on those bearing the maximum resolved tensile stress on basal planes. There are clear indications of the need of a triaxial stress state for the process to occur. Fracture modes other than pseudo-cleavage have been encountered, including intergranular separation, ductile tearing produced by prismatic slip and propagation along twin boundaries. In each case the fractographic features have been identified, and associations have been made with fractographs obtained in normal fuel cladding. (Author)

NON-COHESIVE SOILS’ COMPRESSIBILITY AND UNEVEN GRAIN-SIZE DISTRIBUTION RELATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anatoliy Mirnyy

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the results of laboratory investigation of soil compression phases with consideration of various granulometric composition. Materials and Methods Experimental soil box with microscale video recording for compression phases studies is described. Photo and video materials showing the differences of microscale particle movements were obtained for non-cohesive soils with different grain-size distribution. Results The analysis of the compression tests results and elastic and plastic deformations separation allows identifying each compression phase. It is shown, that soil density is correlating with deformability parameters only for the same grain-size distribution. Basing on the test results the authors suggest that compaction ratio is not sufficient for deformability estimating without grain-size distribution taken into account. Discussion and Conclusions Considering grain-size distribution allows refining technological requirements for artificial soil structures, backfills, and sand beds. Further studies could be used for developing standard documents, SP45.13330.2012 in particular.

Elaboration of austenitic stainless steel samples with bimodal grain size distributions and investigation of their mechanical behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Flipon, B.; de la Cruz, L. Garcia; Hug, E.; Keller, C.; Barbe, F.

2017-10-01