Formation of delta ferrite in 9 wt.% Cr steel investigated by in-situ X-ray diffraction using synchrotron radiation

In-situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements using high energy synchrotron radiation were performed to monitor in real time the formation of delta ferrite in a martensitic 9 wt pct chromium steel under simulated weld thermal cycles. Volume fractions of martensite, austenite, and delta ferrite were measured as a function of temperature at a 10 K/s heating rate to 1573 K (1300 °C) and subsequent cooling. At the peak temperature, the delta ferrite concentration rose to 19 pct, of which 17 pct transformed back to austenite on subsequent cooling.Max Kade Foundation, Inc.Austrian Academy of SciencesUnited States. Dept. of Energy (Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, Office of Science, and Office of Basic Energy Sciences

SIFT: Sonification integrable flexible toolkit

Presented at the 11th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2005)This paper describes work-in-progress on a platformindependent toolkit for sonification of scientific data. The data being displayed and the sonification control information can be provided in real-time and distributed over a wide area via Ethernet. The toolkit allows the designer to process, scale, and map data to a wide variety of sonification parameters and methods. Sonification processing and control commands are stored in standard XML syntax files and can be applied or modified in real-time. The toolkit described here is easily added to existing visualization applications and can be quickly expanded to use new data formats and sonification modalities. Early results of interactive auditory and visual analysis of an example domain are described, and extensive user tests are being planned

An experimental study of the effects of dressing parameters on the topography of grinding wheels during roller dressing

Vitreous-bonded grinding wheels are widely used for machining features on aerospace components achieving high material removal rates under high pressure coolant. Dressing is a vital stage in the grinding process to ensure a consistent wheel topography and performance. However, the effects of roller dressing on functional performance of vitreous grinding wheels as well as its influence on different abrasive grit morphologies have not been fully characterised. This paper studies the influence of dressing parameters on the topography, morphology and characteristics of the surface of different vitrified abrasive wheels in order to better understand the process and therefore optimise the preparation of grinding wheels for industrial machining. Alumina grinding wheels with conventional and engineered grit shapes were dressed at two different infeed rates over a range of seven different speed ratios (from −0.8 to +1). An experimental methodology has been developed incorporating a range of known techniques to define the abrasive wheel condition including measured power consumption and ground graphite coupons as well as using optical microscopes to measure grain fracture flats, peak density and abrasive grain shape. It has been found that power consumption of the grinding wheel spindle increases at higher infeed rates and speed ratios. This leads to increased fracturing of the grains and whole-grain pull out. According to the results the infeed rate has a more substantial effect on wheel topography than speed ratio and the response of engineered grit morphologies to dressing is dependent on grit orientation

Size-dependent wet removal of black carbon in Canadian biomass burning plumes

Wet deposition is the dominant mechanism for removing black carbon (BC) from the atmosphere and is key in determining its atmospheric lifetime, vertical gradient and global transport. Despite the importance of BC in the climate system, especially in terms of its ability to modulate the radiative energy budget, there are few quantitative case studies of wet removal in ambient environments. We present a case study of BC wet removal by examining aerosol size distributions and BC coating properties sampled in three Canadian boreal biomass burning plumes, one of which passed through a precipitating cloud. This depleted the majority of the plume’s BC mass, and the largest and most coated BCcontaining particles were found to be preferentially removed, suggesting that nucleation scavenging was likely the dominant mechanism. Calculated single-scattering albedo (SSA) showed little variation, as a large number of non-BC particles were also present in the precipitation-affected plume. The remaining BC cores were smaller than those observed in previous studies of BC in post-precipitation outflow over Asia, possibly due to the thick coating by hydrophilic compounds associated with the Canadian biomass burning particles. This study provides measurements of BC size, mixing state and removal efficiency to constrain model parameterisations of BC wet removal in biomass burning regions, which will help to reduce uncertainty in radiative forcing calculations

Exploring morphological correlations among H2CO, 12CO, MSX and continuum mappings

There are relatively few H2CO mappings of large-area giant molecular cloud (GMCs). H2CO absorption lines are good tracers for low-temperature molecular clouds towards star formation regions. Thus, the aim of the study was to identify H2CO distributions in ambient molecular clouds. We investigated morphologic relations among 6-cm continuum brightness temperature (CBT) data and H2CO (111-110; Nanshan 25-m radio telescope), 12CO (1--0; 1.2-m CfA telescope) and midcourse space experiment (MSX) data, and considered the impact of background components on foreground clouds. We report simultaneous 6-cm H2CO absorption lines and H110\alpha radio recombination line observations and give several large-area mappings at 4.8 GHz toward W49 (50'\times50'), W3 (70'\times90'), DR21/W75 (60'\times90') and NGC2024/NGC2023 (50'\times100') GMCs. By superimposing H2CO and 12CO contours onto the MSX color map, we can compare correlations. The resolution for H2CO, 12CO and MSX data was about 10', 8' and 18.3", respectively. Comparison of H2CO and 12CO contours, 8.28-\mu m MSX colorscale and CBT data revealed great morphological correlation in the large area, although there are some discrepancies between 12CO and H2CO peaks in small areas. The NGC2024/NGC2023 GMC is a large area of HII regions with a high CBT, but a H2CO cloud to the north is possible against the cosmic microwave background. A statistical diagram shows that 85.21% of H2CO absorption lines are distributed in the intensity range from -1.0 to 0 Jy and the \Delta V range from 1.206 to 5 km/s.Comment: 18 pages, 22 figures, 5 tables. Accepted to be published in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Height and risk of death among men and women: aetiological implications of associations with cardiorespiratory disease and cancer mortality

OBJECTIVES: Height is inversely associated with cardiovascular disease mortality risk and has shown variable associations with cancer incidence and mortality. The interpretation of findings from previous studies has been constrained by data limitations. Associations between height and specific causes of death were investigated in a large general population cohort of men and women from the West of Scotland. DESIGN: Prospective observational study. SETTING: Renfrew and Paisley, in the West of Scotland. SUBJECTS: 7052 men and 8354 women aged 45-64 were recruited into a study in Renfrew and Paisley, in the West of Scotland, between 1972 and 1976. Detailed assessments of cardiovascular disease risk factors, morbidity and socioeconomic circumstances were made at baseline. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Deaths during 20 years of follow up classified into specific causes. RESULTS: Over the follow up period 3347 men and 2638 women died. Height is inversely associated with all cause, coronary heart disease, stroke, and respiratory disease mortality among men and women. Adjustment for socioeconomic position and cardiovascular risk factors had little influence on these associations. Height is strongly associated with forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and adjustment for FEV1 considerably attenuated the association between height and cardiorespiratory mortality. Smoking related cancer mortality is not associated with height. The risk of deaths from cancer unrelated to smoking tended to increase with height, particularly for haematopoietic, colorectal and prostate cancers. Stomach cancer mortality was inversely associated with height. Adjustment for socioeconomic position had little influence on these associations. CONCLUSION: Height serves partly as an indicator of socioeconomic circumstances and nutritional status in childhood and this may underlie the inverse associations between height and adulthood cardiorespiratory mortality. Much of the association between height and cardiorespiratory mortality was accounted for by lung function, which is also partly determined by exposures acting in childhood. The inverse association between height and stomach cancer mortality probably reflects Helicobacter pylori infection in childhood resulting inor being associated withshorter height. The positive associations between height and several cancers unrelated to smoking could reflect the influence of calorie intake during childhood on the risk of these cancers

Tomato: a crop species amenable to improvement by cellular and molecular methods

Tomato is a crop plant with a relatively small DNA content per haploid genome and a well developed genetics. Plant regeneration from explants and protoplasts is feasable which led to the development of efficient transformation procedures. In view of the current data, the isolation of useful mutants at the cellular level probably will be of limited value in the genetic improvement of tomato. Protoplast fusion may lead to novel combinations of organelle and nuclear DNA (cybrids), whereas this technique also provides a means of introducing genetic information from alien species into tomato. Important developments have come from molecular approaches. Following the construction of an RFLP map, these RFLP markers can be used in tomato to tag quantitative traits bred in from related species. Both RFLP's and transposons are in the process of being used to clone desired genes for which no gene products are known. Cloned genes can be introduced and potentially improve specific properties of tomato especially those controlled by single genes. Recent results suggest that, in principle, phenotypic mutants can be created for cloned and characterized genes and will prove their value in further improving the cultivated tomato.

Direct Observations of Sigma Phase Formation in Duplex Stainless Steels using In Situ Synchrotron X-Ray Diffraction

The formation and growth of sigma phase in 2205 duplex stainless steel was observed and measured in real time using synchrotron radiation during 10 hr isothermal heat treatments at temperatures between 700 C and 850 C. Sigma formed in near-equilibrium quantities during the isothermal holds, starting from a microstructure which contained a balanced mixture of metastable ferrite and austenite. In situ synchrotron diffraction continuously monitored the transformation, and these results were compared to those predicted by thermodynamic calculations. Differences between the calculated and measured amounts of sigma, ferrite and austenite suggest that the thermodynamic calculations underpredict the sigma dissolution temperature by approximately 50 C. The data were further analyzed using a modified Johnson-Mehl-Avrami (JMA) approach to determine kinetic parameters for sigma formation over this temperature range. The initial JMA exponent, n, at low fractions of sigma was found to be approximately 7.0, however, towards the end of the transformation, n decreased to values of approximately 0.75. The change in the JMA exponent was attributed to a change in the transformation mechanism from discontinuous precipitation with increasing nucleation rate, to growth of the existing sigma phase after nucleation site saturation occurred. Because of this change in mechanism, it was not possible to determine reliable values for the activation energy and pre-exponential terms for the JMA equation. While cooling back to room temperature, the partial transformation of austenite resulted in a substantial increase in the ferrite content, but sigma retained its high temperature value to room temperature