Compressive properties of pristine and SiC-Te-added MgB2 powders,green compacts and spark-plasma-sintered bulks

Pristine and (SiC+Te)-added MgB₂ powders, green and spark plasma sintered (SPS) compacts were investigated from the viewpoint of quasi-static and dynamic (Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar, SHPB) compressive mechanical properties The amount of the additive (SiC+Te) was selected to be the optimum one for maximization of the superconducting functional parameters. Pristine and added MgB₂ show very similar compressive parameters (tan δ, fracture strength, Vickers hardness, others) and fragment size in the SHPB test. However, for the bulk SPSed samples the ratio of intergranular to transgranular fracturing changes, the first one being stronger in the added sample. This is reflected in the quasi-static K_IC that is higher for the added sample. Despite this result, sintered samples are brittle and have roughly similar fragmentation behavior as for brittle engineering ceramics. In the fragmentation process, the composite nature of our samples should be considered with a special focus on MgB₂ blocks (colonies) that show the major contribution to fracturing. The Glenn-Chudnovsky model of fracturing under dynamic load provides the closest values to our experimental fragment size data.     

Metallic Nanoparticles in Heterogeneous Catalysis

Catalysis Letters - Heterogeneous catalysis is a chemical process achieved at solid–gas or solid–liquid interfaces. Many factors including the particle size, shape and metal-support...     

The role of adsorbate overlayers in thiophene hydrodesulfurization over molybdenum and rhenium single crystals

Thiophene hydrodesulfurization (HDS) has been investigated over model single crystal catalysts of molybdenum and rhenium. Thiophene HDS is a structure sensitive reaction over rhenium and a structure insensitive reaction over molybdenum. Adsorbed sulfur decreases the activity of both Re(0001) and Mo(100) surfaces while adsorbed carbon has distinctly different effects on the catalytic properties of the two metals. Carbon overlayers deactivate the Re(0001) surface but have no effect on the HDS activity of the Mo(100) surface. Radiotracer³⁵S and¹⁴C studies indicate that HDS occurs on an adsorbate overlayer on molybdenum comprised primarily of carbon. HDS over rhenium, on the other hand, occurs on the bare metal surface. This appears to be responsible for the observed differences in the influence of surface structure on HDS activity.     

Relationship between Creativity, Imitation, and Cultural Diversity

There are both benefits and drawbacks to cultural diversity. It can lead to friction and exacerbate differences. However, as with biological diversity, cultural diversity is valuable in times of upheaval; if a previously effective solution no longer works, it is good to have alternatives available. What factors give rise to cultural diversity? This paper describes a preliminary investigation of this question using a computational model of cultural evolution. The model is composed of neural network based agents that evolve fitter ideas for actions by (1) inventing new ideas through modification of existing ones, and (2) imitating neighbors'' ideas. Numerical simulations indicate that the diversity of ideas in a population is positively correlated with both the proportion of creators to imitators in the population, and the rate at which creators create. This is the case for both minimum and peak diversity of actions over the duration of a run.     

Settling velocities of particles in bubbly gas-liquid mixtures

The axial dispersion-sedimentation model is commonly used to describe the axial concentrations of solids in three phase bubble columns at low liquid velocities. When the two parameters of this model, the particle settling velocity and the solids axial dispersion coefficient, are uncoupled by the use of various assumptions, physically unrealistic values of these parameters often result. Direct experimental measurements of solids settling rates in bubbly gas-liquid mixtures were carried out. The measured mean settling velocities decreased slightly with gas flow rate and were equal to or slightly less than the single particle free settling velocity in the liquid alone. Solids axial dispersion coefficients were also obtained from the solids settling rate distribution data, and gave values considerably less than the experimental liquid axial dispersion coefficient.     

3-D route-planning support for navigation in a complex indoor environment

Three-dimensional (3-D) route-planning support offers a promising solution to overcome problems with wayfinding in complex indoor environments. An experiment was conducted to test the effect of 3-D route-planning support in a realistic setting, a large hospital building, during normal operation. Forty participants performed navigation tasks either with (n?=?20) or without (n?=?20) 3-D route-planning support. Support resulted in faster navigation, more use of artwork specifically installed to aid wayfinding, fewer navigation errors, less disorientation and less anxiety. In addition, participants used different strategies for wayfinding: without navigation support they used signs and route colour, but with navigation support they used not only the artwork, but also the existing furniture and other landmarks. The acceptance of 3-D route-planning support was high. Overall, the results support the value of 3-D route-planning support.     

The first measurement of an absolute surface concentration of reaction intermediates in ethylene hydrogenation

The first measurement of a turnover rate with respect to surface intermediate concentration in a high pressure heterogeneous catalytic reaction is reported. By using infrared-visible sum frequency generation to study the hydrogenation of ethylene on Pt(111), it was found that the surface concentration of -bonded ethylene, the key reaction intermediate, represented approximately 4% of a monolayer. Thus the absolute turnover rate per surface adsorbed ethylene molecule is 25 times faster than the rate measured per platinum atom. To explain these results, we propose a model of weakly adsorbed ethylene intermediates reacting on atop sites.     

Jordan surfaces in simply connected digital spaces

Certain tasks in multidimensional digital image analysis, in particular surface detection and volume estimation, lead us to the study of surfaces in the digital environment. It is desirable that these surfaces should have a Jordan property analogous to that of simple closed curves in two dimensions-namely, that they should partition the underlying space into an inside and an outside which are disconnected from each other. A version of this property, called near-Jordanness, has been previously defined and has been shown to be useful within a general theory of surfaces in digital spaces. The definition of a near-Jordan surface is global: it demands that all paths from the interior to the exterior cross the surface. This makes it difficult in many practical applications to check whether surfaces are near-Jordan. The work reported in this paper is motivated by the desire for a local condition, such that if a surface satisfies this condition at each of its elements, then it is guaranteed to be near-Jordan. In the search for such a condition, we were led to a concept of simple connectedness of a digital space, which resembles simple connectedness in ordinary topological spaces. We were then able to formulate the desired local condition for simply connected digital spaces. Many digital spaces, in particular those based on the commonly-studied tessellations of n-dimensional Euclidean space, are shown to be simply connected and thus our theory yields general sufficient conditions for boundaries in binary pictures to be near-Jordan.