Microstructural and mechanical properties analysis of extruded Sn–0.7Cu solder alloy

AbstractThe properties and performance of lead-free solder alloys such as fluidity and wettability are defined by the alloy composition and solidification microstructure. Rapid solidification of metallic alloys is known to result in refined microstructures with reduced microsegregation and improved mechanical properties of the final products as compared to normal castings. The rapidly solidified Sn-based solders by melt spinning were shown to be suitable for soldering with low temperature and short soldering duration. In the present study, rapidly solidified Sn–0.7wt.%Cu droplets generated by impulse atomization (IA) were achieved as well as directional solidification under transient conditions at lower cooling rate. This paper reports on a comparative study of the rapidly solidified and the directionally solidified samples. Different but complementary characterization techniques were used to fully analyze the solidification microstructures of the samples obtained under the two cooling regimes. These include X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In order to compare the tensile strength and elongation to fracture of the directionally solidified ingot and strip castings with the atomized droplet, compaction and extrusion of the latter were carried out. It was shown that more balanced and superior tensile mechanical properties are available for the hot extruded samples from compacted as-atomized Sn–0.7wt.%Cu droplets. Further, elongation-to-fracture was 2–3× higher than that obtained for the directionally solidified samples

Plan for promoting the demonstrated systems and technologies for further development – D6.4

This report is the output of the task 6.4 to approach a Plan for promoting the  demonstrated systems and technologies for further deployment. The goal of this task was divided into four specific objectives: 1. To assess the role of the demonstrated new or improved machinery for the sustainable and reliable supply of forest biomass to the facilities, with special focus on cost reduction and/or additional biomass supply that can be achieved by the demonstrated innovative technology; 2. To make proposals to promote the innovation and subsequent technology transfer and to present suggestions on how the inventions that have been developed in this project can overcome the obstacles encountered and reach commercialization; 3. To develop scenarios for the potential markets of lignocellulosic forestry residues for biorefineries and energy use; 4. To perform a risk assessment to estimate the side‐effects of not putting interesting inventions into practice. In the first part, there is a summary of the assessment of the machinery demonstrated in the framework of the INFRES project. Some of the main advantages of the innovations are the cost reduction in comparison with conventional systems, in addition to improved productivity and increased supply. Besides this, a couple of innovations showed fuel savings compared to previous supply chains. Moreover, other improvements have been observed, but without a quantitative assessment. Finally, as a conclusion, certain innovations are successful only when they are used in the conditions they were designed for. In the second part, a plan for overcoming the previously identified barriers was elaborated, and the plan was then submitted for assessment by several experts. The application of the most important measures to overcome the barriers that manufacturers face when developing an innovation is mainly in the hands of the manufacturers themselves, and partly in the hands of policy makers who may contribute through the development of appropriate financing instruments or compensations for high‐risk investments in SME’s. In the case of measures proposed to overcome the barriers that manufacturers face during the implementation or use phase, the application of the measures is in the hands of a balanced mix of the main stakeholders, including forest companies and manufacturers. It means that both have to work, sometimes together, to overcome the detected barriers. In the third part, any of the future scenarios anticipates an increase in woody biomass demand. The growth of the biorefinery sector will change the landscape of the forest biomass requirements by 2030. Indeed, feedstocks such as forest residues and stumps can be easily used by this sector. Besides this, the increase and improvement of the machinery used in the forest biomass supply chains, together with the optimization of the whole chains, take some time. As a consequence, it is a challenge for Europe to reach high enough competitiveness and innovation levels so as to cover the demand needs in the best way, with its own resources, seeking a positive impact on all EU regions and on European machinery manufacturers. Finally, the fourth part concludes that if technological and logistical innovations are not implemented in forest biomass supply chains, then energy and environmental targets in the EU will not be reached. Sustainability and cost efficiency gains in the biomass supply chains will not be achieved either. The introduction of innovative solutions as those presented by INFRES will be made possible by implementing the measures that were identified in the third part for overcoming the barriers in the development, implementation and use phases of the innovations.201

WHO European Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative: body mass index and level of overweight among 6-9-year-old children from school year 2007/2008 to school year 2009/2010.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe has established the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) to monitor changes in overweight in primary-school children. The aims of this paper are to present the anthropometric results of COSI Round 2 (2009/2010) and to explore changes in body mass index (BMI) and overweight among children within and across nine countries from school years 2007/2008 to 2009/2010. METHODS: Using cross-sectional nationally representative samples of 6-9-year-olds, BMI, anthropometric Z-scores and overweight prevalence were derived from measured weight and height. Significant changes between rounds were assessed using variance and t-tests analyses. RESULTS: At Round 2, the prevalence of overweight (including obesity; WHO definitions) ranged from 18% to 57% among boys and from 18% to 50% among girls; 6 - 31% of boys and 5 - 21% of girls were obese. Southern European countries had the highest overweight prevalence. Between rounds, the absolute change in mean BMI (range: from -0.4 to +0.3) and BMI-for-age Z-scores (range: from -0.21 to +0.14) varied statistically significantly across countries. The highest significant decrease in BMI-for-age Z-scores was found in countries with higher absolute BMI values and the highest significant increase in countries with lower BMI values. The highest significant decrease in overweight prevalence was observed in Italy, Portugal and Slovenia and the highest significant increase in Latvia and Norway. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in BMI and prevalence of overweight over a two-year period varied significantly among European countries. It may be that countries with higher prevalence of overweight in COSI Round 1 have implemented interventions to try to remedy this situation

Three-dimensional Noninvasive Monitoring Iodine-131 Uptake in the Thyroid Using a Modified Cerenkov Luminescence Tomography Approach

BACKGROUND: Cerenkov luminescence tomography (CLT) provides the three-dimensional (3D) radiopharmaceutical biodistribution in small living animals, which is vital to biomedical imaging. However, existing single-spectral and multispectral methods are not very efficient and effective at reconstructing the distribution of the radionuclide tracer. In this paper, we present a semi-quantitative Cerenkov radiation spectral characteristic-based source reconstruction method named the hybrid spectral CLT, to efficiently reconstruct the radionuclide tracer with both encouraging reconstruction results and less acquisition and image reconstruction time. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We constructed the implantation mouse model implanted with a 400 µCi Na(131)I radioactive source and the physiological mouse model received an intravenous tail injection of 400 µCi radiopharmaceutical Iodine-131 (I-131) to validate the performance of the hybrid spectral CLT and compared the reconstruction results, acquisition, and image reconstruction time with that of single-spectral and multispectral CLT. Furthermore, we performed 3D noninvasive monitoring of I-131 uptake in the thyroid and quantified I-131 uptake in vivo using hybrid spectral CLT. Results showed that the reconstruction based on the hybrid spectral CLT was more accurate in localization and quantification than using single-spectral CLT, and was more efficient in the in vivo experiment compared with multispectral CLT. Additionally, 3D visualization of longitudinal observations suggested that the reconstructed energy of I-131 uptake in the thyroid increased with acquisition time and there was a robust correlation between the reconstructed energy versus the gamma ray counts of I-131 (r(2) = 0.8240). The ex vivo biodistribution experiment further confirmed the I-131 uptake in the thyroid for hybrid spectral CLT. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Results indicated that hybrid spectral CLT could be potentially used for thyroid imaging to evaluate its function and monitor its treatment for thyroid cancer

Letter processing and font information during reading: beyond distinctiveness, where vision meets design

Letter identification is a critical front end of the reading process. In general, conceptualizations of the identification process have emphasized arbitrary sets of distinctive features. However, a richer view of letter processing incorporates principles from the field of type design, including an emphasis on uniformities across letters within a font. The importance of uniformities is supported by a small body of research indicating that consistency of font increases letter identification efficiency. We review design concepts and the relevant literature, with the goal of stimulating further thinking about letter processing during reading

Photon Management in Two-Dimensional Disordered Media

Elaborating reliable and versatile strategies for efficient light coupling between free space and thin films is of crucial importance for new technologies in energy efficiency. Nanostructured materials have opened unprecedented opportunities for light management, notably in thin-film solar cells. Efficient coherent light trapping has been accomplished through the careful design of plasmonic nanoparticles and gratings, resonant dielectric particles and photonic crystals. Alternative approaches have used randomly-textured surfaces as strong light diffusers to benefit from their broadband and wide-angle properties. Here, we propose a new strategy for photon management in thin films that combines both advantages of an efficient trapping due to coherent optical effects and broadband/wide-angle properties due to disorder. Our approach consists in the excitation of electromagnetic modes formed by multiple light scattering and wave interference in two-dimensional random media. We show, by numerical calculations, that the spectral and angular responses of thin films containing disordered photonic patterns are intimately related to the in-plane light transport process and can be tuned through structural correlations. Our findings, which are applicable to all waves, are particularly suited for improving the absorption efficiency of thin-film solar cells and can provide a novel approach for high-extraction efficiency light-emitting diodes

Tilted frames of reference have similar effects on perception of the gravitational vertical and the planning of vertical saccadic eye movements

We investigated the effects of a tilted reference frame (i.e., allocentric visual context) on perception of the gravitational vertical and saccadic eye movements along a planned egocentric vertical path. Participants (n=5) in a darkened room fixated a point in the center of a circle on an LCD display, and decided which of two sequentially presented dots was closer to the unmarked ‘6 o’clock’ position on that circle (i.e., straight down towards their feet). The slope of their perceptual psychometric functions showed that participants were able to locate which dot was nearer the vertical with a precision of 1-2°. For three of the participants, a square frame centered at fixation and tilted (in the roll direction) 5.6° from the vertical caused a strong perceptual bias, manifest as a shift in the psychometric function, in the direction of the traditional ‘rod and frame’ effect, without affecting precision. The other two participants showed negligible or no equivalent biases. The same subjects participated in the saccade version of the task, in which they were instructed to shift their gaze to the 6 o’clock position as soon as the central fixation point disappeared. The participants who showed perceptual biases showed biases of similar magnitude in their saccadic end points, with a strong correlation between perceptual and saccadic biases across all subjects. Tilting of the head 5.6° reduced both perceptual and saccadic biases in all but one observer, who developed a strong saccadic bias. Otherwise, the overall pattern and significant correlations between results remained the same. We conclude that our observers' saccades-to-the-vertical were dominated by perceptual input, which outweighed any gravitational or head-centered input

Silicon Mie Resonators for Highly Directional Light Emission from monolayer MoS2

Controlling light emission from quantum emitters has important applications ranging from solid-state lighting and displays to nanoscale single-photon sources. Optical antennas have emerged as promising tools to achieve such control right at the location of the emitter, without the need for bulky, external optics. Semiconductor nanoantennas are particularly practical for this purpose because simple geometries, such as wires and spheres, support multiple, degenerate optical resonances. Here, we start by modifying Mie scattering theory developed for plane wave illumination to describe scattering of dipole emission. We then use this theory and experiments to demonstrate several pathways to achieve control over the directionality, polarization state, and spectral emission that rely on a coherent coupling of an emitting dipole to optical resonances of a Si nanowire. A forward-to-backward ratio of 20 was demonstrated for the electric dipole emission at 680 nm from a monolayer MoS2 by optically coupling it to a Si nanowire