Analysis of Grain Boundary Character in a Fine-Grained Nickel-Based Superalloy 718

In the current work, sheets of superalloy 718 were processed via thermomechanical route by hot and cold rolling, followed by annealing below the δ phase solvus temperature and precipitation hardening to optimum strength. Grain boundary character distribution throughout the processing was mapped via EBSD and its evolution discussed. The results show that it is possible to process the alloy to a fine grain size obtaining concomitantly a considerably high proportion of special boundaries Σ3, Σ9, and Σ27. The precipitation of δ phase presented a strong grain refining role, without significantly impairing the twinning mechanism and, consequently, the Σ3, Σ9, and Σ27 boundary formations.     

Raising chickens for increased egg consumption in a rural highland Bolivian population

In highland Bolivia a three-year nutrition-sensitive agricultural intervention was carried out with rural families in which chicken rearing was promoted in order to increase egg consumption. Here we report on the impact of the intervention on participants’ diets. The non-randomized intervention took place in 21 rural communities in the province of Tapacarí in the department of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Intervention communities had staggered start times, with two communities starting in 2013, three communities starting in 2014 and sixteen communities starting in 2015. Twenty-four hour dietary recall data were collected from all individuals in 22 households in two communities in February/March 2013, 33 households in three communities in February/March 2014, and 66 households in fourteen communities in February/March 2015. We tested for changes from 2013 to 2014 to 2015 in consumption of 10 food groups in children under 6 years, adult men and adult women. By endline, egg production was established in ~80% of the intervention households. From baseline to endline egg consumption increased to approximately one-half egg/person/day: in children from 7 to 33 g/day, in women from 6 to 33 g/day, and in men from 6 to 39 g/day. Despite the increased intake in eggs, intake of most nutrients did not change. Higher egg consumption would be required to produce observable average increases in nutrient intake.     

Adaptive Boolean Logic Using Ferroelectrics Capacitors as Basic Units of Artificial Neurons and Its Implementation in FPGA

In this work we propose the implementation of boolean logic through artificial neurons with Ferroelectric Capacitor (FeCapacitor) as its basic unit on a reconfigurable hardware platform. Two neurons were implemented: the Perceptron and the Spiking Neuron model. Both neurons use the phenomenon of the hysteresis loop as an activation function and were embedded on a Field Gate Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) hardware platform. The implementations were carried out by Simulink models and hardware synthesizable blocks from DSP Builder software and the results are shown in the form of the models and the boolean functions implemented by them.     

Tubular dentin sealer penetration after different final irrigation protocols: A confocal laser scanning microscopy study

The aim of this study was to evaluate tubular dentin sealer penetration, comparing different final irrigation protocols using a conventional needle (CONV), EndoActivator system (EAS), EndoVac system (EVS), and ultrasound (PUI). Initially, fifty‐two first maxillary molars with a single canal in the palatal root, without abrupt curvatures, resorptive processes, or previous endodontic treatment were selected for this study. Then, the crowns were sectioned to obtain palatal roots 15 mm in length. The root canals were prepared with the ProTaper Universal System and irrigated with 5% NaOCl. Afterwards, the specimens were divided into four groups (n. 13), according to the final irrigation protocol: CONV, EAS, EVS, and PUI. After filling, slices at 3 mm and 5 mm from the apex were obtained for analysis by confocal laser scanning microscopy. Two‐way comparisons between the groups and the levels were performed with Games Howell's test (p < .05). Tubular dentin sealer penetration was higher at 5 mm compared with 3 mm from the apex (p < .05). The EAS group showed a higher percentage of tubular dentin sealer penetration, compared with the CONV group, at both levels. At 3 mm, there was no statistically significant difference among EAS, EVS, and PUI; however, these groups showed better performance, compared with the CONV group. At 5 mm, there was no statistically significant difference between the EAS and EVS groups, but both showed higher sealer penetration than the PUI group (p < .05). The EAS and EVS groups achieved better degrees of tubular dentin sealer penetration, compared with the other groups.     

Unbound DHA causes a high blank value in β‐oxidation assay: a concern for in vitro studies

The information on binding capacity of different fatty acids (FAs) to albumin is incomplete, however, in the majority of in vitro experiments, FAs and albumin were simply mixed and their affinity believed to be complete. In this study, seven [1‐¹⁴C] FAs were mixed with albumin and assayed for β‐oxidation in rat liver homogenates. In the process of identifying the radioactive background of control assay by LCMS/MS, the results indicated different binding capacity of FAs to albumin. The percentage of unbound FAs recovered in clarified acidic solution was lower than 2% with 16:0 and 18:1n‐9, nearly 5% with EPA, 7% with 18:2n‐6, 18:3n‐3 and 20:4n‐6, and surprisingly high to 41% with DHA. Various FA/albumin molar ratios as well as different types of albumin only marginally affected these data. Thus, the big mass of unbound free DHA led to a high blank value, which is 60 times higher than the real value in the procedure of β‐oxidation measurement in vitro. In the design of future FA research in vitro, the binding capacity of FA to albumin or other proteins must be considered, especially for DHA research.     

Single-step creation of localized Delaunay triangulations

A localized Delaunay triangulation owns the following interesting properties for sensor and wireless ad hoc networks: it can be built with localized information, the communication cost imposed by control information is limited, and it supports geographical routing algorithms that offer guaranteed convergence. This paper presents two localized algorithms, fast localized Delaunay triangulation 1 (FLDT1) and fast localized Delaunay triangulation 2 (FLDT2), that build a graph called planar localized Delaunay triangulation, PLDel, known to be a good spanner of the Unit Disk Graph, UDG. Our algorithms improve previous algorithms with similar theoretical bounds in the following aspects: unlike previous work, FLDT1 and FLDT2 build PLDel in a single communication step, maintaining a communication cost of O(n log n), which is within a constant of the optimal. Additionally, we show that FLDT1 is more robust than previous triangulation algorithms, because it does not require the strict UDG connectivity model to work. The small signaling cost of our algorithms allows us to improve routing performance, by efficiently using the PLDel graph instead of sparser graphs, like the Gabriel or the Relative Neighborhood graphs.     

Dimensional Effects on Magnetic Properties of Fe–Si Steels Due to Laser and Mechanical Cutting

Microstructural deterioration near the cut line and presence of residual stresses both affect the magnetic properties of cut parts. In this paper, the differences between microstructural deterioration resulting from mechanical and laser cutting as well as the sample size effects observed upon hysteresis will be discussed. It will be shown that the underlying mechanism for changes in magnetic properties due to mechanical cutting is distinct from that of laser cutting.      

Development of an Educational Environment for Simulating Multistatic UWB Radars for Locating an Intruder Inside Indoor Environment

This work describes a educational tool developed in Java language for simulating a multi-static radar. This radar is used to identify the presence of an intruder inside a residence. In order to obtain high resolution, the radar operates with ultra-wideband pulses (Gaussian monocycle), which have maximum spectral amplitude at 1 GHz and half power bandwidth of approximately 1 GHz. For the estimation of the intruder's position, the optimization technique particle swarm optimization (PSO) is employed. The simulator allows that the users define the parameters to be used by the radar and obtain the estimation of the intruder's position. Besides that, the software automatically generates animations of the wave propagation inside the residence, graphics of the signal at the receiving points and a final report with all the information related to the simulations.     

Anticoagulant, Antioxidant and Antitumor Activities of Heterofucans from the Seaweed Dictyopteris delicatula

In the present study, six families of sulfated polysaccharides were obtained from seaweed Dictyopteris delicatula by proteolytic digestion, followed by acetone fractionation and molecular sieving on Sephadex G-100. Chemical analyses demonstrated that all polysaccharides contain heterofucans composed mainly of fucose, xylose, glucose, galactose, uronic acid, and sulfate. The fucans F0.5v and F0.7v at 1.0 mg/mL showed high ferric chelating activity (～45%), whereas fucans F1.3v (0.5 mg/mL) showed considerable reducing power, about 53.2% of the activity of vitamin C. The fucan F1.5v presented the most prominent anticoagulant activity. The best antiproliferative activity was found with fucans F1.3v and F0.7v. However, F1.3v activity was much higher than F0.7v inhibiting almost 100% of HeLa cell proliferation. These fucans have been selected for further studies on structural characterization as well as in vivo experiments, which are already in progress.