Fabrication and tribology of composite coatings incorporating solid lubricant micro-reservoirs

The tribological behavior of composite coating incorporating solid lubricant reservoirs has been investigated in this study. A new method, termed microbeading was devised to create microscopic reservoirs on the surface of sputter-deposited hard coatings. Pin-on-disk tests were used to evaluate the lubricating performance of these newly devised composite coatings. Three sizes of the reservoirs were investigated: 1.5, 5 and 10 microm. The 10 microm-sized-reservoirs performed better in terms of reducing friction and extending wear life. These coatings were also evaluated with finite element models. It was found that during ball-coating surface interaction, the lowest stresses and calculated work done were obtained at a critical location at the bottom of hole on the coating with 10 microm holes. Further investigations were conducted using photolithography to fabricate the coatings, which allows a more controlled reservoir distribution on the surface. For these tests, silicon wafer substrates were used with masks prepared by photolithography. Reservoir diameter (4 and 9 microm) and area coverage (2% and 10%) were the primary variables, and it was found that the larger diameter reservoirs (9 microm) and higher area coverage values (10%) were more beneficial in providing lubricant storage and replenishment in the wear track. These results were correlated with observations of wear tracks after the tribological tests, particularly the aspects of microreservoir filling and spreading on the track. The microbeading coating method was also applied on machining tool inserts and their performance was investigated by lathe turning tests. Indium was chosen as the solid lubricant for this test, and hardened 4340 steel was used as the workpiece. All coatings with indium (with or without reservoirs) showed substantially better wear lives than TiN alone under wet cutting test conditions, and slightly higher wear life under dry cutting conditions. Further research was conducted with machining simulation tests and it was found that the frictional lubricity of the indium coating was lost at high temperatures (above 600°C). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was conducted on the surfaces of the tool inserts after dry cutting, and it was found that some indium was still present. Based on these results, indium has been demonstrated to be capable of providing increased lubricity when cutting under lubricated conditions

Identifying and Correcting an Edge-Fattened Area Generated by Stereo-Matching Techniques

This publication describes an image-boundary manager used in an image-capture device. The image-boundary manager uses a low-complexity algorithm to compute an edge-fattened area of a foreground object included in an image of a scene generated by the image-capture device. After computing the edge-fattened area of the foreground object, the image-capture manager assigns correct depth values to the edge-fattened area such that the image-capture device renders the foreground object, in a modified image of the scene, accurately and without the edge-fattened area

Off-Shell N=(1,0){\mathcal N}=(1,0) Linear Multiplets in Six Dimensions

We provide a tensor calculus for $n$-number of ${\mathcal N}=(1,0)$ linear multiplets in six dimensions. The coupling of linear multiplets is encoded in a function ${\mathcal F}_{IJ}$ that is subject to certain constraints. We provide various rigid and local supersymmetric models depending on the choice of the function ${\mathcal F}_{IJ}$ and provide an interesting off-diagonal superinvariant, which leads to an $R^2$ supergravity upon elimination of auxiliary fields.Comment: v2., typos fixed, reference added, version appeared in EPJC, 24 page

Externally-Imposed Institutions and Regional Growth Differences: Evidence from France and Germany

This paper provides a critical examination about the effect of externally-imposed French Revolution institutions on regional economic development variations in the 19th century by focusing on the experience of France where the Revolution originated. Acemoglu et al. (2011) take advantage of the “natural experiment” provided by the imposition of French institutions on a number of German states by the invading Napoleonic armies. The argument that the differences in the long-run economic performance of German states stem from the differences in externally-imposed French and domestic German institutions needs to be investigated further. In order to achieve this purpose, first the variation in historical urbanization rates across the French departments is examined statistically. Then a difference-in-difference estimation is used to identify a treatment effect causing growth differences between border and interior departments. The proposed treatment effect is the faster industrialization due to intensified minerals mining and railway construction in north and northeast France after 1850. It is shown that the border departments experienced higher economic growth primarily after 1850 even though the Revolution institutions and reforms were imposed uniformly across the French departments. Therefore, all the variation in economic development across German polities cannot be attributed to the externally-imposed French institutions and reforms

Molecular characterization of mulberry germplasm from Eastern Anatolia

Mulberry has an important quality for both horticultural production and sericulture in Turkey. Anatolia has an extensive potential for mulberry. On the other hand, these mullberry germplasm has not been adequately determined and relatedness among them has not been properly investigated. A total of 47 mullberry genotypes; 20, 14, 5, 4 and 4 from Erzincan, Elazý, Diyarbakýr, Malatya and Mardin provinces, respectively, were comparatively investigated in order to determine their relationships by 55 RAPD markers obtained from 6 primers (Operon OPA12, OPA13, OPAF04, OPF07, OPG02 and OPG03) and their relatedness were determined

A Novel Encryption Method for Dorsal Hand Vein Images on a Microcomputer

In this paper, a Lorenz-like chaotic system was developed to encrypt the dorsal hand patterns on a microcomputer. First, the dorsal hand vein images were taken from the subjects via an infrared camera. These were subjected to two different processes called contrast enhancement and segmentation of vein regions. Second, the pre- and post-processed images were encrypted with a new encryption algorithm in the microcomputer environment. For the encryption process, random numbers were generated by the chaotic system. These random numbers were subjected to NIST-800-22 test which is the most widely accepted statistical test suite. The speeded up robust feature (SURF) matching algorithm was utilized in the initial condition sensitivity analysis of the encrypted images. The results of the analysis have shown that the proposed encryption algorithm can be used in identification and verification systems. The encrypted images were analyzed with histogram, correlation, entropy, pixel change rate (NPCR), initial condition sensitivity, data loss, and noise attacks which are frequently used for security analyses in the literature. In addition, the images were analyzed after noise attacks by means of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), mean square error (MSE), and the structural similarity index (SSIM) tests. It has been shown that the dorsal hand vein images can be used in identification systems safely with the help of the proposed method on microcomputers.This work was supported by the Qatar National-LibraryScopu

Externally-Imposed Institutions and Regional Growth Differences: Evidence from France and Germany

This paper provides a critical examination about the effect of externally-imposed French Revolution institutions on regional economic development variations in the 19th century by focusing on the experience of France where the Revolution originated. Acemoglu et al. (2011) take advantage of the “natural experiment” provided by the imposition of French institutions on a number of German states by the invading Napoleonic armies. The argument that the differences in the long-run economic performance of German states stem from the differences in externally-imposed French and domestic German institutions needs to be investigated further. In order to achieve this purpose, first the variation in historical urbanization rates across the French departments is examined statistically. Then a difference-in-difference estimation is used to identify a treatment effect causing growth differences between border and interior departments. The proposed treatment effect is the faster industrialization due to intensified minerals mining and railway construction in north and northeast France after 1850. It is shown that the border departments experienced higher economic growth primarily after 1850 even though the Revolution institutions and reforms were imposed uniformly across the French departments. Therefore, all the variation in economic development across German polities cannot be attributed to the externally-imposed French institutions and reforms

Nutrient status in soil of Ski runs in the sub-alpine belt of Uludag mountain, Bursa, Turkey

Abstract: Large areas of land are disturbed in sensitive bio-diverse mountain environments by Ski runs. Restoration of vegetation on such disturbed mountain sites may be hampered by soil degradation but the severity and nature of the constraints is not well understood. This study was designed to compare the water holding and nutritional status of soil in three Ski runs which had different construction dates and disturbance levels, and the adjacent undisturbed site in the Abies bornmuelleriana forest community in the sub-alpine belt of Uludag Mountain (Bithynian Olympus). The values of soil parameters were depressed in proportion to the disturbance level. Water holding capacity (WHC), total nitrogen (N), organic carbon (C) and calcium (Ca 2+ ), magnesium (Mg 2+ ) and potassium (K + ) contents (mg kg -1 dry weight) of soils in the Ski run which had the highest disturbance level were lower than that of the undisturbed adjacent sites. However, the results indicated that the soil parameters were less degraded when secondary vegetation was growing on the disturbed areas

Radiological staging in neuroblastoma : computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging?

Purpose: To compare the effectiveness of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the staging of neuroblastomas according to the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group Staging System (INRGSS). Material and methods: In this single-centre retrospective study we identified a total of 20 patients under the age of 18 years, who were admitted to our hospital with neuroblastoma between January 2005 and May 2018, and who had both CT and MRI examination. The INRGSS stages of tumours were evaluated by CT scan and MRI. Then, stages of tumours were described according to the INRGSS for CT and MRI, separately. The Spearman rank correlation test was used for statistical analysis. The p-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The median age was 11 months, and the age range was one month to nine years. In our results; both MRI and CT were significant in the determination of radiological staging of NBL, p < 0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively. MRI was superior to CT in radiological staging. MRI was also superior for the detection of intraspinal extension, involvement of multiple body compartments, metastatic disease, and bone marrow infiltration. CT was more useful to consider the relationship between tumours and vascular structures. Conclusions: MRI and CT have high diagnostic accuracy rates in the staging of pre-treatment neuroblastomas. MRI is important in pre-treatment evaluation of neuroblastomas because of the higher detection of metastases as well as the lack of ionising radiation