Evaluation of mechanical and physicochemical properties of protection coatings obtained by sol-gel method

Thin coatings, obtained by the sol-gel method, could find potential applications in medical, chemical and food industry. To achieve this, coatings need to have proper physicochemical, mechanical and protective properties. Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and silicon dioxide (SiO₂) coatings have been applied onto the surface of a stainless steel (316L) by the solgel method using two techniques: dip-coating and painting. To determine the physicochemical composition of triple SiO₂ and TiO₂ coatings, samples were examined by Raman spectroscopy. Surface images obtained with the use of a scanning electron microscopy allow us to determine the surface morphology and continuity of the coatings. The surface morphology was examined before and after tensile tests. The static tensile tests and fatigue strength tests were conducted on a hydraulic testing machine MTS 810 with a measuring range of up to 100 kN. A preliminary research has confirmed that the coatings obtained by the sol-gel method have physicochemical, mechanical and protective properties that make it possible to use them as protective coatings.Тонкі покриви на основі SiO₂ та TiO₂, отримані золь-гель методом, застосовують у медицині, хімічній та харчовій промисловості. Для досягнення необхідних їх фізико-хімічних, механічних і захисних властивостей використано оптимальні режими золь-гель методу, щоб одержати покриви на основі диоксидів титану та кремнію на поверхні нержавної сталі типу 316L. Для оцінки властивостей покривів вжито методи раманівської спектроскопії, а поверхню досліджено за допомогою сканівного електронного мікроскопа. Морфологію поверхні вивчали до та після випробувань на розтяг на гідравлічній машині MTS 810 з навантаженнями до 100 kN. Встановлено, що покриви володіють необхідними фізико-хімічними та механічними властивостями, щоб їх застосовувати як захисні.Тонкие покрытия на основе SiO₂ и TiO₂, полученные золь-гель методом, применяют в медицине, химической и пищевой промышленности. Для достижения необходимых их физико-химических, механических и защитных свойств применены оптимальные режимы золь-гель метода для формирования покрытий на основе диоксидов титана и кремния на поверхности нержавеющей стали типа 316L. Для оценки свойств покрытий использованы методы рамановской спектроскопии, а поверхность исследована с помощью сканирующего электронного микроскопа. Морфологию поверхности изучали до и после испытаний на растяжение на гидравлической машине MTS 810 с нагрузками до 100 kN. Выявлено, что покрытия владеют необходимыми физико-химическими и механическими свойствами, чтобы их применять в качестве защитных

Local texture and percolative paths for long-range conduction in high critical current density TlBa₂Ca₂Cu₃O₈₊ₓ deposits

©1994 American Institute of Physics. The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://link.aip.org/link/?APPLAB/64/106/1DOI:10.1063/1.110908A possible microstructural origin of the high critical current densities which have been obtained in c-axis-aligned, polycrystalline TlBa₂Ca₂Cu₃O₈₊ₓdeposits has been identified. The results of x-ray diffraction determinations of basal plane texture of Tl-1223 deposits prepared by spray pyrolysis are observed to depend on the size of the x-ray beam. Furthermore, most grain boundaries were found from transmission electron microscopy to have small misorientation angles. It is concluded that although overall the basal plane orientations are nearly random, there is a high degree of local texture indicative of colonies of similarly oriented grains. The spread in a-axis orientation within a colony is ~10°–15°. Intercolony conduction, it is suggested, may be enhanced by a percolative network of small-angle grain boundaries at colony interfaces

Monitoring the CMS strip tracker readout system

The CMS Silicon Strip Tracker at the LHC comprises a sensitive area of approximately 200 m2 and 10 million readout channels. Its data acquisition system is based around a custom analogue front-end chip. Both the control and the readout of the front-end electronics are performed by off-detector VME boards in the counting room, which digitise the raw event data and perform zero-suppression and formatting. The data acquisition system uses the CMS online software framework to configure, control and monitor the hardware components and steer the data acquisition. The first data analysis is performed online within the official CMS reconstruction framework, which provides many services, such as distributed analysis, access to geometry and conditions data, and a Data Quality Monitoring tool based on the online physics reconstruction. The data acquisition monitoring of the Strip Tracker uses both the data acquisition and the reconstruction software frameworks in order to provide real-time feedback to shifters on the operational state of the detector, archiving for later analysis and possibly trigger automatic recovery actions in case of errors. Here we review the proposed architecture of the monitoring system and we describe its software components, which are already in place, the various monitoring streams available, and our experiences of operating and monitoring a large-scale system

Advanced microscopy analysis of the micro-nanoscale architecture of human menisci

The complex inhomogeneous architecture of the human meniscal tissue at the micro and nano scale in the absence of artefacts introduced by sample treatments has not yet been fully revealed. The knowledge of the internal structure organization is essential to understand the mechanical functionality of the meniscus and its relationship with the tissue’s complex structure. In this work, we investigated human meniscal tissue structure using up-to-date non-invasive imaging techniques, based on multiphoton fluorescence and quantitative second harmonic generation microscopy complemented with Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy measurements. Observations on 50 meniscal samples extracted from 6 human menisci (3 lateral and 3 medial) revealed fundamental features of structural morphology and allowed us to quantitatively describe the 3D organisation of elastin and collagen fibres bundles. 3D regular waves of collagen bundles are arranged in “honeycomb-like” cells that are comprised of pores surrounded by the collagen and elastin network at the micro-scale. This type of arrangement propagates from macro to the nanoscale

Data acquisition software for the CMS strip tracker

The CMS silicon strip tracker, providing a sensitive area of approximately 200 m2 and comprising 10 million readout channels, has recently been completed at the tracker integration facility at CERN. The strip tracker community is currently working to develop and integrate the online and offline software frameworks, known as XDAQ and CMSSW respectively, for the purposes of data acquisition and detector commissioning and monitoring. Recent developments have seen the integration of many new services and tools within the online data acquisition system, such as event building, online distributed analysis, an online monitoring framework, and data storage management. We review the various software components that comprise the strip tracker data acquisition system, the software architectures used for stand-alone and global data-taking modes. Our experiences in commissioning and operating one of the largest ever silicon micro-strip tracking systems are also reviewed

Highlights from the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Pierre Auger Observatory is the world's largest cosmic ray observatory. Our current exposure reaches nearly 40,000 km$^2$ str and provides us with an unprecedented quality data set. The performance and stability of the detectors and their enhancements are described. Data analyses have led to a number of major breakthroughs. Among these we discuss the energy spectrum and the searches for large-scale anisotropies. We present analyses of our X$_{max}$ data and show how it can be interpreted in terms of mass composition. We also describe some new analyses that extract mass sensitive parameters from the 100% duty cycle SD data. A coherent interpretation of all these recent results opens new directions. The consequences regarding the cosmic ray composition and the properties of UHECR sources are briefly discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, talk given at the 33rd International Cosmic Ray Conference, Rio de Janeiro 201

Inclusive Search for Anomalous Production of High-pT Like-Sign Lepton Pairs in Proton-Antiproton Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.8 TeV

We report on a search for anomalous production of events with at least two charged, isolated, like-sign leptons with pT > 11 GeV/c using a 107 pb^-1 sample of 1.8 TeV ppbar collisions collected by the CDF detector. We define a signal region containing low background from Standard Model processes. To avoid bias, we fix the final cuts before examining the event yield in the signal region using control regions to test the Monte Carlo predictions. We observe no events in the signal region, consistent with an expectation of 0.63^(+0.84)_(-0.07) events. We present 95% confidence level limits on new physics processes in both a signature-based context as well as within a representative minimal supergravity (tanbeta = 3) model.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. Minor textual changes, cosmetic improvements to figures and updated and expanded reference

The Pierre Auger Observatory III: Other Astrophysical Observations

Astrophysical observations of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays with the Pierre Auger ObservatoryComment: Contributions to the 32nd International Cosmic Ray Conference, Beijing, China, August 201