Capsulation of moldings made from silicon ceramic material

Ceramic articles are potted for hot isostatic pressing by porous glass and/or ceramic coating which is sintered to a pressure-tight coating in vacuo. Thus, a powdered SiO2 glass mixture with saturated alcohol sterin is sprayed on a SI3N4 ceramic, dried, introduced into the press which is evacuated to less than 0.013 mbar and heated to approximately 1200 C to drive off the organic binder and leave a powdered glass coating on the ceramic. The coating is sintered by heating to approximately 1200 C for 0.5 to 2 hours and forms a tight gass-impermeable layer. The press is heated to approximately 1700 C at 1000-300 bar and isostatic pressing is performed in the conventional manner

Relativistically covariant state-dependent cloning of photons

The influence of the relativistic covariance requirement on the optimality of the symmetric state-dependent 1 -> 2 cloning machine is studied. Namely, given a photonic qubit whose basis is formed from the momentum-helicity eigenstates, the change to the optimal cloning fidelity is calculated taking into account the Lorentz covariance unitarily represented by Wigner's little group. To pinpoint some of the interesting results, we found states for which the optimal fidelity of the cloning process drops to 2/3 which corresponds to the fidelity of the optimal classical cloner. Also, an implication for the security of the BB84 protocol is analyzed.Comment: corrected, rewritten and accepted in PR

The Ge(001) (2 × 1) reconstruction: asymmetric dimers and multilayer relaxation observed by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction

Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction has been used to analyze in detail the atomic structure of the (2 × 1) reconstruction of the Ge(001) surface involving far reaching subsurface relaxations. Two kinds of disorder models, a statistical and a dynamical were taken into account for the data analysis, both indicating substantial disorder along the surface normal. This can only be correlated to asymmetric dimers. Considering a statistical disorder model assuming randomly oriented dimers the analysis of 13 symmetrically independent in-plane fractional order reflections and of four fractional order reciprocal lattice rods up to the maximum attainable momentum transfer qz = 3c* (c* = 1.77 × 10−1 Å−1) indicates the formation of asymmetric dimers characterized by R>D = 2.46(5) Å as compared to the bulk bonding length of R = 2.45 Å. The dimer height of Δ Z = 0.74(15) Å corresponds to a dimer buckling angle of 17(4)°. The data refinement using anisotropic thermal parameters leads to a bonding length of RD = 2.44(4) Å and to a large anisotropy of the root mean-square vibration amplitudes of the dimer atoms (u112) 1/2 = 0.25 Å, (u222)1/2 = 0.14 Å, (u332)1/2 = 0.50 Å). We have evidence for lateral and vertical disp tenth layer below the surface

Composition and functionality of the wild and cultivated common bean rhizosphere microbiome.

Abstract: Plants rely on their rhizosphere microbiome for specific functions, such as, nutrient acquisition and protection against diseases. The domestication and subsequent plant breeding neglected the important role of the rhizosphere microbiome on plant performance. Here, we tested the hypothesis that ancestor materials have higher ability to host beneficial microorganisms in the rhizosphere when compared to modern cultivars. For this, we assessed the composition and functionality of the rhizosphere microbiome associated with a wild (Wild Mex) and with a cultivated (IAC Alvorada) common bean grown in highly biodiverse soil (Amazonian Dark Earth). Antagonistic bacteria were isolated from common bean rhizosphere and total rhizosphere DNA was extracted for shotgun sequencing using Illumina MiSeq. Eleven out of 104 isolated bacteria showed antagonistic in vitro activity against soil borne pathogens Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. phaseoli. The bacterial isolates were identified belonging to Streptomyces, Kitasatospora, Alcaligenes, Achromobacter, Pseudomonas, Stenotrophomonas, Brevibacillus and Paenibacillus genus. The cultivation-independent approach revealed that microbial community composition in the Wild Mex bean rhizosphere was characterized by higher relative abundance of bacterial phyla Acidobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Gemmatimonadetes and fungal phylum Glomeromycota when compared with IAC Alvorada cultivated bean, which showed a higher relative abundance of bacterial phyla Firmicutes, Planctomycetes, Deinococcus-Thermus and fungal phylum Ascomycota. Wild Mex rhizosphere microbiome showed higher relative frequency of nitrogen-fixing, nitrifying, antagonists and plant growth promoting microorganisms. The wild bean also showed higher relative abundance of functions related to nitrogen fixation, siderophore and indole acetic acid (IAA) production, when compared with IAC Alvorada bean. Ordination analysis revealed that the wild genotype is more selective in recruiting microorganisms and functions in the rhizosphere when compared with modern cultivar. In conclusion, the results revealed that domestication and plant breeding potentially undermined rhizosphere microbiome composition and functions debilitating the host?s ability to select and support beneficial microbes

Assessing and Improving Library Technology with Service Blueprinting

Objective: The objective of this article is to illustrate the application of service blueprinting—a design tool that comes from the service design tradition—for assessing and improving library technology services. Setting: A mid-sized library at a public university in the western United States. Methods: A service blueprint was co-created by library and IT staff in a design workshop in order to map the operational flow of a data visualization display wall. Results: Guided by the service blueprint, the project team identified points of improvement for the service of the data visualization display wall, and developed recommendations to aid further applications of service blueprinting. Conclusions: Ultimately, service blueprinting was found to be a useful tool that can be applied to assess and improve library technology services

A unified evaluation of iterative projection algorithms for phase retrieval

Iterative projection algorithms are successfully being used as a substitute of lenses to recombine, numerically rather than optically, light scattered by illuminated objects. Images obtained computationally allow aberration-free diffraction-limited imaging and the possibility of using radiation for which no lenses exist. The challenge of this imaging technique is transfered from the lenses to the algorithms. We evaluate these new computational ``instruments'' developed for the phase retrieval problem, and discuss acceleration strategies.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, revte