Quantification of microsegregation during rapid solidification of Al-Cu powders

A new technique is introduced to quantify microsegregation during rapid solidification. The quantification involves calculation of the average solute solubility in the primary phase during solidification of an Al-Cu binary alloy. The calculation is based on using volume percent eutectic and weight percent of second phase (in the eutectic), which were obtained experimentally. Neutron diffraction experiments and stereology calculation on scanning electron microscope images were done on impulse atomized Al-Cu alloys of three compositions (nominal), 5 wt pct Cu, 10 wt pct Cu, and 17 wt pct Cu, atomized under N₂ and He gas. Neutron diffraction experiments yielded weight percent CuAl₂ data and stereology yielded volume percent eutectic data. These two data were first used to determine the weight percent eutectic. Using the weight percent eutectic and weight percent CuAl₂ in mass and volume balance equations, the average solute solubility in the primary phase could be calculated. The experimental results of the amount of eutectic, tomography results from previous work, and results from the calculations suggest that the atomized droplets are in metastable state during the nucleation undercooling of the primary phase, and the effect of metastability propagates through to the eutectic formation stage. The metastable effect is more pronounced in alloys with higher solute composition.     

Selective retension of active cells employing low centrifugal force at the medium change during suspension culture of Chinese hamster ovary cells producing tPA

The effect of centrifugal force applied for cell separation at the medium change on the growth, metabolism and tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) productivity of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells suspension culture was investigated. The viability of the precipitated cells increased exponentially as the centrifugal force decreased. However, the cell recovery was lower than 91% when centrifugal forces applied for 5 min was less than 67 x g. In cultures incubated for 474 h with 7 medium changes employing centrifugal forces ranging from 67 to 364 x g, a centrifugal force lower than 119 x g resulted in higher specific rates of growth, glucose consumption, and lactate and tPA production during the whole culture period. On the other hand, daily centrifugation at 67 to 537 x g without discarding the supernatant had no effect on the specific rates. The cultures inoculated with cells precipitated at a centrifugal force of 67 x g showed apparently higher specific rates of metabolism compared to those inoculated with cells in the supernatant. The cells in the supernatant and the precipitate obtained following centrifugation at 67 x g have average diameters of 15.5 and 17.4 microm, respectively. The intracellular contents of amino acids, especially nonessential amino acids, of the precipitated cells were markedly higher than those of the cells in the supernatant. These results indicate that large cells with high amino acid content and metabolic activity were selectively retained in the culture by means of centrifugation at low forces such as 67 x g. Consequently, application of a low centrifugal force is recommended for medium change in order to maintain higher specific productivity of suspended mammalian cells in perfusion culture.     

Simple techniques for incorporating institutional-preference information in programming transportation investments

Urban transportation decisions usually involve a multiplicity of public and private institutions and actors. This paper addresses the problem of incorporating institutional preference information in a systematic manner within the methodology for evaluating transportation alternatives. An approach developed in conjunction with a procedure for programming major urban transportation network improvements in Cairo, Egypt is described. It relies on a measure of relative political desirability of alternative project combinations. Different possible types of preference information are compared as to information content and ease of implementation. Alternative analytical models of individual and group preferences towards project combinations under different preferential assumptions are specified and discussed. Finally, specifications are provided for their operational use in the application context for which they were intended.     

Compact high-pulse-energy ultraviolet laser source for ozone lidar measurements

An all solid-state Ti:sapphire laser differential absorption lidar transmitter was developed. This all-solid-state laser provides a compact, robust, and highly reliable laser transmitter for potential application in differential absorption lidar measurements of atmospheric ozone. Two compact, high-energy-pulsed, and injection-seeded Ti:sapphire lasers operating at a pulse repetition frequency of 30 Hz and wavelengths of 867 and 900 nm, with M2 of 1.3, have been experimentally demonstrated and their properties compared with model results. The output pulse energy was 115 mJ at 867 nm and 105 mJ at 900 nm, with a slope efficiency of 40% and 32%, respectively. At these energies, the beam quality was good enough so that we were able to achieve 30 mJ of ultraviolet laser output at 289 and 300 nm after frequency tripling with two lithium triborate nonlinear crystals.     

Intelligent association selection of embedded agents in intelligent inhabited environments

Recent advances in technology and manufacturing have resulted in more powerful and smaller processors to be embedded in the various artefacts within smart environments. Most of these artefacts are network enabled and thanks to pervasive networking such artefacts can communicate and collaborate together to support our daily lives. Furthermore, these artefacts can also be equipped with embedded agents to provide intelligent reasoning, planning and learning capabilities. However, the multitude of interconnected devices and artefacts can result in major network and processing delays as well as creating inherent complexities in programming and configuring smart environments to personalise themselves to suit the individual needs. Hence, a major challenge to the design and use of smart environments involves finding the best set of device associations and interconnections that are most suitable to the environment and user needs. In this paper, we will present a novel intelligent method for reducing the number of associations and interconnections between the various devices and artefacts within smart environments to minimise the network and processing overheads while reducing the cognitive load associated with configuring and programming smart environments.     

Fly ash-based geopolymer for Pb removal from aqueous solution

The aim of this work was to synthesis highly amorphous geopolymer from waste coal fly ash, to be used as an adsorbent for lead Pb(II) removal from aqueous wastewater. The effect of various parameters including geopolymer dosage, initial concentration, contact time, pH and temperature on lead adsorption were investigated. The major components of the used ash in the current study were SiO(2), Al(2)O(3) and Fe(2)O(3) representing 91.53 wt% of its mass. It was found that the synthesized geopolymer has higher removal capacity for lead ions when compared with that of raw coal fly ash. The removal efficiency increases with increasing geopolymer dosage, contact time, temperature, and the decrease of Pb(2+) initial concentration. The optimum removal efficiency was obtained at pH 5. Adsorption isotherm study indicated that Langmuir isotherm model is the best fit for the experimental data than Freundlich model. It was found also that the adsorption process is endothermic and more favorable at higher temperatures.     

Phase noise analysis in CMOS differential Armstrong oscillator topology

This paper reports a phase noise analysis in a differential Armstrong oscillator circuit topology in CMOS technology. The analytical expressions of phase noise due to flicker and thermal noise sources are derived and validated by the results obtained through SpectreRF simulations for oscillation frequencies of 1, 10, and 100 GHz. The analysis captures well the phase noise of the oscillator topology and shows the impact of flicker noise contribution as the major effect leading to phase noise degradation in nano‐scale CMOS LC oscillators. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Robust Analytical Model of Mobile IP Handoff with Multiple Traffic Profiles

Mobile IP has been developed to provide the continuous information network access to mobile users. The performance of Mobile IP mobility management scheme is dependent on traffic characteristics and user mobility. Consequently, it is important to assess this performance in-depth through these factors. This paper introduces a novel analytical model of handoff management in mobile IP networks. The proposed model focuses on the effect the traffic types and their frame error rates on the handoff latency. It is derived based on general distribution of both successful transmission attempts and the residence time to be applicable in all cases of traffic characteristics and user mobility. The impact of the behavior of wireless connection, cell residence time, probability distribution of transmission time and the handoff time is investigated. Numerical results are obtained and presented for both TCP and UDP traffics. As expected, the reliability of TCP leads to higher handoff latency than UDP traffic. It is shown that, higher values of FER increase the probability of erroneous packet transfer across the link layer. A short retransmission time leads to end the connection most likely in the existing FA; however a long retransmission time leads to a large delivery time. The proposed model is robust in the sense that it covers the impact of all the effective parameters and can be easily extended to any distribution.     

A parametric investigation on seat/occupant contact forces and their relationship with initially perceived discomfort using a configurable seat

The present work investigates the contact forces between sitters and seat as well as their correlations with perceived discomfort. Twelve different economy class aeroplane seat configurations were simulated using a multi-adjustable experimental seat by varying seat pan and backrest angles, as well as seat pan compressed surface. Eighteen males and 18 females, selected by their body mass index and stature, tested these configurations for two sitting postures. Perceived discomfort was significantly affected by seat parameters and posture and correlated both with normal force distribution on the seat-pan surface and with normal forces at the lumbar and head supports. Lower discomfort ratings were obtained for more evenly distributed normal forces on the seat pan. Shear force at the seat pan surface was at its lowest when sitters were allowed to self-select their seat-pan angle, supporting that a shear force should be reduced but not zeroed to improve seating comfort.

Practitioner Summary: The effects of seat-pan and backrest angle, anthropometric dimensions and sitting posture on contact forces and perceived discomfort were investigated using a multi-adjustable experimental seat. In addition to preferred seat profile parameters, the present work provides quantitative guidelines on contact force requirement for improving seating comfort.