Preparation of WC-SiC Whisker Composites by Hot Pressing and Their Mechanical Properties

Composites of WC and SiC whisker (0-30 vol% SiC) were prepared at 1550 to 1800 C by using a resistance-heated hot pressing technique called spark plasma sintering. The composites obtained were examined for reaction products and microstructure, and were characterized for mechanical properties. The addition of small amounts of SiC induced the marked grain growth of WC, and drove the densification of WC. Above 10 vol% SiC, dispersed SiC phases impeded the grain growth of WC. Increasing sintering temperature made SiC whiskers thick and lowered the aspect ratio of whiskers. The hardness of composites decreased with increasing average grain size of WC. The Young's modulus of dense composites was decreased with the SiC content. The addition of 3 to 5 vol % SiC greatly increased the fracture toughness of WC

A novel one-dimensional electronic state at IrTe2 Surface

Highly one-dimensional (1D) Fermi sheets are realized at the surface of a layered Ir telluride IrTe2 which exhibits a stripe-type charge and orbital order below ∼280 K. The 1D Fermi sheets appear in the low temperature range where the stripe order is well established. The 1D Fermi sheets are truncated by the bulk Fermi surfaces, and the spectral weight suppression at the Fermi level deviates from the typical Tomonaga–Luttinger behavior. The 1D band runs along the stripe and is accompanied by several branches which can be derived from the quantization in the perpendicular direction

Modeling Low Muscle Mass Screening in Hemodialysis Patients

Introduction: Computed tomography (CT) can accurately measure muscle mass, which is necessary for diagnosing sarcopenia, even in dialysis patients. However, CT-based screening for such patients is challenging, especially considering the availability of equipment within dialysis facilities. We therefore aimed to develop a bedside prediction model for low muscle mass, defined by the psoas muscle mass index (PMI) from CT measurement. Methods: Hemodialysis patients (n = 619) who had undergone abdominal CT screening were divided into the development (n = 441) and validation (n = 178) groups. PMI was manually measured using abdominal CT images to diagnose low muscle mass by two independent investigators. The development group’s data were used to create a logistic regression model using 42 items extracted from clinical information as predictive variables; variables were selected using the stepwise method. External validity was examined using the validation group’s data, and the area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity were calculated. Results: Of all subjects, 226 (37%) were diagnosed with low muscle mass using PMI. A predictive model for low muscle mass was calculated using ten variables: each grip strength, sex, height, dry weight, primary cause of end-stage renal disease, diastolic blood pressure at start of session, pre-dialysis potassium and albumin level, and dialysis water removal in a session. The development group’s adjusted AUC, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.81, 60%, and 87%, respectively. The validation group’s adjusted AUC, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.73, 64%, and 82%, respectively. Discussion/Conclusion: Our results facilitate skeletal muscle screening in hemodialysis patients, assisting in sarcopenia prophylaxis and intervention decisions

Effect of Cu on oxidation behaviour of FCC Fe-Ni-Cr-Al and Ni-Cr-Al based alloys

The high-temperature oxidation behaviour of Fe-Ni-Cr-Al and Ni-Cr-Al alloys with and without Cu addition was investigated at 1000 degrees C in air to determine the effect of Cu on the critical Al content necessary for forming an external Al2O3 scale. The oxidation mass gain of Fe-17Ni-17Cr-7.7Al-Cu and Ni-17Cr-10Al alloys was found to decrease with increased Cu content. An external Al2O3 scale developed when 5at%Cu and more and 10at%Cu and more was added to Fe-17Ni-17Cr-7.7Al and Ni-17Cr-10Al alloys, respectively. The beneficial effect of Cu is inferred to be due to decreased oxygen concentration at the alloy surface and enhanced Al outward diffusion

MPEG-7 Meta-Data Enhanced Encoder System for Embedded Systems

We describe a MPEG-7 Meta-Data enhanced Audio-Visual Encoder system that targets DVD recorders. We extract features in the compressed domain with both video and audio, which allows us to add the meta-data extraction without altering the hardware architecture of the encoder core. Our feature extraction algorithms are simple, and thus implementable through a simple combination of software and hardware on the integrated DVD chip. The primary application of the meta-data is video summarization, which enables rapid browsing of stored video by the end user. The simplicity of our summarization and feature extraction algorithms enables incorporation of the powerful functionality of smart content navigation through content summarization, into the DVD recorder at a low cost. This work may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part for any commercial purpose. Permission to copy in whole or in part without payment of fee is granted for nonprofit educational and research purposes provided that all such whole or partial copies include the following: a notice that such copying is by permission of Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.; an acknowledgment of the authors and individual contributions to the work; and all applicable portions of the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction, or republishing for any other purpose shall require a license with payment of fee to Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright c # Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc., 2004 201 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Publication History: 1. First printing, TR-2004-009, March 2004 MPEG-7 meta-data enhanced encoder system for embedded systems Kohtaro Asai , Hirofumi Nishikawa , Daiki Kudo , Ajay Divakaran Mitsubishi Electric -- Info..

Fast Synthesis of Hydroxymethylfurfural from Levoglucosenone by Mixing with Sulphuric Acid and Heating in a Microtube Reactor

Hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) is a promising platform chemical in future bio-based chemical industry for synthesis of a variety of furan derivatives. Studies on the HMF synthesis have focused mainly on saccharides as the feedstock. Recently, levoglucosenone (LGO), anhydrosugar available from cellulose pyrolysis, has been identified as an alternative feedstock, which can be converted to HMF under milder conditions only with acid and water as catalyst and solvent, respectively. To further explore the potential of this reaction, in this study, we demonstrated the HMF synthesis below 100°C within a few minutes at high yields. The employment of microtube reactor and high concentration sulfuric acid as catalyst was effective, leading to the highest HMF yield of 61.5%-C with the reaction selectivity over 80%. Kinetic analysis revealed that rapid heating after mixing LGO with the catalytic aqueous solution was essential to supress side reaction that generates degradation products from LGO. The reaction with glucose or fructose as feedstock under same conditions resulted in poor HMF yield