Sintering techniques for microstructure control in ceramics

Sintering techniques can be manipulated to enhance densification in difficult to sinter materials and to produce property enhancing microstructures. However, the interplay between materials, sintering techniques, and end properties is not fully understood in many material systems, and some fundamental aspects of sintering such as the nature of the effects of electric fields remains unknown. The processing property relationships were examined in two classes of materials; zirconium diboride ultra high temperature ceramic composites, and all solid lithium-ion battery phosphate materials. ^ Investigation of zirconium diboride ceramics focused on the effects of zirconium carbide as a secondary or tertiary phase in ZrB2 and ZrB2 – SiC. Addition of zirconium carbide was observed to increase flexural strength of composites up to 590MPa at 50wt% ZrC, significantly higher than the flexural strength of 380MPa observed in similarly prepared ZrB2 – SiC. This difference was attributed to the absence of CTE mismatch induced residual stresses in the ZrB2 – ZrC composites. A high temperature reaction between ZrB2 and TiC producing Zr1-xTixB2 – ZrC composites was discovered and found to enhance densification while reducing the average grain size to as small as 1.4μm, lower than the starting powder size of 1.8μm. While a high flexural strength of 670MPa was observed, a strength dependence on the ZrC grain size indicative of CTE mismatch residual stresses was also seen. Finally, the oxidation and ablation resistance of ZrB2– ZrC – SiC composites as a function of ZrC fraction and ZrC:SiC ratio was investigated. Above 5vol% ZrC, the oxidation and ablation resistance of the composites was significantly reduced due to ZrC oxidation, regardless of SiC content. While ZrC can significantly enhance the mechanical properties of the composite, the volume fraction must be kept low to avoid an undesirable reduction in the oxidation resistance. ^ The influence of applied electrical fields during sintering on microstructure and electronic properties of lithium aluminum titanium phosphate (LATP) electrolyte material was investigated by sintering LATP pellets under DC voltages of 0V, 2V, 10V, and 20V. Application of a DC voltage increased relative density from 86% to a maximum of 95.5%. However, unlike reports on other material systems such as zirconia, a high DC voltage induced, rather than restrained, abnormal grain growth. Conductivity decreased with applied voltage from 4.8*10 -4 S/cm at 0V to 1.3*10-4 S/cm at 20V, which was attributed to the high faceting and poor grain-to-grain contact of the grains sintered under 10V and 20V. This indicates that field-assisted sintering techniques may actually be detrimental to solid state battery materials, and that the field effects are significantly different from those observed in other systems in the literature

Analysis of whispering-gallery microcavity-enhanced chemical absorption sensors,”

Abstract: A theoretical analysis of the operation of a chemical sensor based on cavity-enhanced optical absorption is given for a system in which the cavity is a dielectric whispering-gallery microresonator. Continuouswave input is assumed, and the detection sensitivity is characterized in terms of an effective absorption path length. In the case of tunable singlefrequency input, it is shown that monitoring analyte-induced changes in the throughput dip depth enables detection with relative sensitivity greater than that of frequency-shift and cavity-ringdown methods. In addition, for the case of broadband input and drop-port output, an analysis applicable to microcavity-enhanced absorbance spectroscopy experiments is given

Significant association of a M129V independent polymorphism in the 5\prime UTR of the PRNP gene with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a large German case-control study

Background: A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the coding region of the prion protein gene (PRNP) at codon 129 has been repeatedly shown to be an associated factor to sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), but additional major predisposing DNA variants for sCJD are still unknown. Several previous studies focused on the characterisation of polymorphisms in PRNP and the prion-like doppel gene (PRND), generating contradictory results on relatively small sample sets. Thus, extensive studies are required for validation of the polymorphisms in PRNP and PRND.Methods: We evaluated a set of nine SNPs of PRNP and one SNP of PRND in 593 German sCJD patients and 748 German healthy controls. Genotyping was performed using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.Results: In addition to PRNP 129, we detected a significant association between sCJD and allele frequencies of six further PRNP SNPs. No significant association of PRND T174M with sCJD was shown. We observed strong linkage disequilibrium within eight adjacent PRNP SNPs, including PRNP 129. However, the association of sCJD with PRNP 1368 and PRNP 34296 appeared to be independent on the genotype of PRNP 129. We additionally identified the most common haplotypes of PRNP to be over-represented or under-represented in our cohort of patients with sCJD.Conclusion: Our study evaluated previous findings of the association of SNPs in the PRNP and PRND genes in the largest cohorts for association study in sCJD to date, and extends previous findings by defining for the first time the haplotypes associated with sCJD in a large population of the German CJD surveillance study

Nurses\u27 Alumnae Association Bulletin - Volume 2 Number 3

The Jefferson Nurse Letter from the President Delegates to Biennial Convention Attention Blood Transfusion - Plasma Unit Life in the Army Nurse Corps Secretary\u27s Report Elected to New Office 1892-1942 Progress or Alumnae Association 1892-1942 Report of the School of Nursing Staff News Please Change My Address Air Cooled Red Cross Report Fingerprinting Graduates in the U.S. Army and Navy Degrees Received Promotions Jubilee Report Engagements Marriages Births New Positions - 1941-1942 New Positions on the Nursing Staff of the Hospita

Public Benefits of Undeveloped Lands on Urban Outskirts: Non-Market Valuation Studies and their Role in Land Use Plans

Over the past three decades, the economics profession has developed methods for estimating the public benefits of green spaces, providing an opportunity to incorporate such information into land-use planning. While federal regulations routinely require such estimates for major regulations, the extent to which they are used in local land use plans is not clear. This paper reviews the literature on public values for lands on urban outskirts, not just to survey their methods or empirical findings, but to evaluate the role they have played--or have the potential to play-- in actual land use plans. Based on interviews with authors and representatives of funding agencies and local land trusts, it appears that academic work has had a mixed reception in the policy world. Reasons for this include a lack of interest in making academic work accessible to policy makers, emphasizing revealed preference methods which are inconsistent with policy priorities related to nonuse values, and emphasis on benefit-cost analyses. Nevertheless, there are examples of success stories that illustrate how such information can play a vital role in the design of conservation policies. Working Paper 07-2

Stacking-Dependent Optical Properties in Bilayer WSe2

The twist angle between the monolayers in van der Waals heterostructures provides a new degree of freedom in tuning material properties. We compare the optical properties of WSe2 homobilayers with 2H and 3R stacking using photoluminescence, Raman spectroscopy, and reflectance contrast measurements under ambient and cryogenic temperatures. Clear stacking- dependent differences are evident for all temperatures, with both photoluminescence and reflectance contrast spectra exhibiting a blue shift in spectral features in 2H compared to 3R bilayers. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations elucidate the source of the variations and the fundamental differences between 2H and 3R stackings. DFT finds larger energies for both A and B excitonic features in 2H than in 3R, consistent with experimental results. In both stacking geometries, the intensity of the dominant A1g Raman mode exhibits significant changes as a function of laser excitation wavelength. These variations in intensity are intimately linked to the stacking- and temperature-dependent optical absorption through resonant enhancement effects. The strongest enhancement is achieved when the laser excitation coincides with the C excitonic feature, leading to the largest Raman intensity under 514 nm excitation in 2H stacking and at 520 nm in 3R stacked WSe2 bilayers

Математическое моделирование гидрогазодинамики и тепломассопереноса в сдвиговых течениях реологически сложных вязких сред: идеи, результаты, перспективы прогноза процессов

В настоящей работе представлен критический анализ проблем, результатов и перспектив исследований течений сложных по структуре/реологии вязких сред в трубопроводных системах (узлах оборудования нефтегазовой, химико-технологической и тепло-энергетической промышленности), испытывающих на себе влияние неизотермичности, нестационарности, переменности тепло- и реофизических свойств, внешних полей от действия инерционных и гравитационных сил, особенностей формы поперечного сечения проточной части. Особое внимание уделяется: технологиям моделирования углеводородов (тяжелых нефтей, масел) при их транспортировке на участках труб/каналов с интенсивным тепломассообменом; определению мер повышения энергоэффективности и стабильности функционирования оборудования, изучению опыта анализа проблем коррозии энергонапряженных элементов, а также их очистки от загрязнений