Study of the Mössbauer effect on rare-earth borided surface layers on pure iron

Journal of Materials Science Letters -     

V beta specificity of superantigen TSST-1 plus CD28 costimulation without APCs

Little has so far been known about the role of antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in the activation of T cells by superantigens. Recently several studies showed that superantigens could directly activate purified T cells in the presence of CD28 costimulation. Here we investigate V beta expression of T cells activated by the superantigen toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1), plus CD28 costimulation, in the absence of APCs. The aim of this study was to ask if TSST-1 activated purified T cells in the presence of CD28 costimulation with the same specificity as in the presence of APCs. We provide evidence that the specificity of TSST-1 to human V beta, in the presence of CD28 costimulation, is identical to that in the presence of APCs, with V beta 2 being significantly expanded. The results indicate that the main role of APCs in the superantigen-mediated T cell activation may be to provide T cells with CD28 costimulation.     

SiCf/O′-SiAlON composite: properties and oxidation retained properties

A composite of O′SiAlON (Si_2-xAl_xN_2-xO_1+x, with x 0.14) reinforced with 20 vol.% SiC monofilaments was fabricated by hot-pressing, at 1600°C, for 2 h under 34 MPa pressure. The mechanical and interfacial properties of the composites, as-fabricated as well as post-oxidized, were, investigated. The composite exhibited a significant improvement in ultimate flexure strength (640 MPa) and work of fracture (42 kJ m⁻²) compared with that (350 MPa and 1.8 kJ m⁻², respectively) of the monolithic material. These mechanical properties were slightly increased after the composite was heat treated for 24 h in air at 1200 and 1300°C. However, the composite exhibited a significant degradation in ultimate strength, while the work of fracture (WOF) remained unchanged after exposure in air at temperatures beyond 1400°C. The as-fabricated composite revealed a low interfacial shear strength (6.2 MPa) and a frictional sliding stress (3.2 MPa). After the composite was oxidized at elevated temperatures, the interfacial bonding and sliding stresses were reduced to noticeable extents, resulting from the degradation of the carbon coating layer of the SiC monofilaments.     

森林火情监测预报研究

对现行的森林火情监测方法进行了分析比较。根据实际存在的难题，提出了料为产用的实施方案及应采取的技术措施，进行了实地试验，取得较好的效果。     

Investigation on Ballistic Performance of Armor Ceramics against Long-Rod Penetration

A series of depth-of-penetration (DOF) tests are carried out to investigate the ballistic performance of armor ceramics. Based on the experimental results, an improved differential efficiency factor (DEF) is presented, which demonstrates that the general ballistic efficiency index is independent of the ceramic thickness. It is also shown that the density, internal friction, and compression strength of ceramics are crucial factors that affect the ballistic performance of ceramics significantly through the interaction between the long-rod projectiles and thick-tile armor. This article is based on a presentation made in the symposium entitled “Dynamic Behavior of Materials,” which occurred during the TMS Annual Meeting and Exhibition, February 25–March 1, 2007 in Orlando, Florida, under the auspices of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, TMS Structural Materials Division, and TMS/ASM Mechanical Behavior of Materials Committee.     

Representation and uniformization of algebraic transductions

This paper explores different means of representation for algebraic transductions, i.e., word relations realized by pushdown transducers. The relevance of this work lies more in its point of view rather than any particular result. We are aiming at giving specific techniques for obtaining, or perhaps explaining, decompositions of algebraic (and incidentally, rational) relations, relying solely on their “machine” definition rather than some complex algebraic apparatus. From this point of view, we are hoping to have demystified the heavy formalism employed in the present literature. Some of the novelties of our work are: the use of “stack languages” and “embeddings,” which eliminate the need of arbitrary context-free languages in our characterizations, the study of uniformizations for algebraic transductions and the use of the so-called stack transductions for exposing the anatomy of pushdown transducers.This work was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada grants R220259 and OGP0041630.     

Modellgetriebene,mustergestützte Sicherheit in serviceorientierten Architekturen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Distributed Context Retrieval and Consistency Control in Pervasive Computing

The challenge of saturating all phases of pervasive service provision with context-aware functionality lies in coping with the complexity of maintaining, retrieving and distributing context information. To efficiently represent and query context information a sophisticated modelling scheme should exist. To distribute and synchronise context knowledge in various context repositories across a multitude of administrative domains, streamlined mechanisms are needed. This paper elaborates on an innovative context management framework that has been designed to cope with free-text and location based context retrieval and efficient context consistency control. The proposed framework has been incorporated in a multi-functional pervasive services platform, while most of the mechanisms it employs have been empirically evaluated.     

Predictive current control with current-error correction for PM brushless AC drives

The performance of the conventional predictive current control (PCC) when applied to a permanent-magnet brushless ac (PM BLAC) drive is analyzed. A technique is proposed to reduce the current errors that arise due to the inaccuracies in the system parameters and the nonideal behavior of the inverter during a steady-state operation. In addition, a current-regulated delta modulator is employed to achieve a fast dynamic response during a transient operation. The performance of the proposed PCC, which is simple to implement on a low-cost fixed-point DSP, is demonstrated experimentally.