Korrosionsverhalten von Plasma- Heißdraht-Auftrag-Schweißungen. Teil I: Beständigkeit von auftraggeschweißten Nickelbasislegierungen gegen Loch- und interkristalline Korrosion

The corrosion properties of Plasma-Hot-Wire-Surfacing Part one: resistance of Nickel-base-alloy claddings against pitting and intergranular attack This paper describes measurements at claddings of nickel-based-alloys C 276, C 4 and C 22 on the St 52-3 steel substrat produced by Plasma-Hot-Wire-Surfacing (PHS). The correct heat control during the welding process is a crucial factor for the preparation of nearly precipitate-free claddings. For this reason it was necessary to optimize all the process data. The claddings itself as well as the rolled reference material (both of nearly the same chemical composition) were examined by means of metallografical and microanalytical techniques. Corrosion measurements show, that the composite materials exhibit high resistance both against pitting and intergranular corrosion and comparable to the properties of the rolled reference material. This was shown by determination of the critical pitting temperature in quinary salt solution, by electrochemical techniques in acidic chloride solution and by investigation in iron-(III)-sulfate-sulphuric acid solution.     

A GPU implementation of a hybrid evolutionary algorithm: GPuEGO

The high computation requirements of global optimization algorithms, when used to solve real optimization problems, have caused the appearance of different parallelization strategies using several parallel computing architectures. In this work, the Universal Evolutionary Global Optimizer is implemented in CUDA to be run on GPU architectures (GPuEGO). This parallelization of the referred evolutionary multimodal optimization algorithm is rather different from other previous parallel implementations designed to be executed into shared or distributed memory processors. In this case, due to the special characteristics of a GPU architecture, the original data structures are not valid and it has been necessary to redefine them and all the functions that operate with them. When this approach is applied the acceleration factors achieved by GPuEGO range from \({\times }\) 6.33 to \({\times }\) 23.20 depending on the test function.     

Treatment of wastewater from a school in a decentralized filtration system by percolation over organic packing media

Based on results obtained in the laboratory a WWTP composed of a septic tank and an aerated percolating filter packed with organic media was built for a school. The system can treat 18 m3 d(-1) and was operated with a hydraulic loading rate of 0.078 (m3 m(-2) d(-1). For 360 days different operational conditions including start-up; stabilization; operation with aeration and non aeration; effect of rainy season, breaks from activities due to holidays and restart; were monitored and described in the article. Once stabilized, the system was able to remove, without the need for mechanical aeration, 97% of BOD5, 71% of COD, 93% of TKN, 11% of PO(4-)-P, 95% of TSS, 96% of VSS, in addition to having a removal efficiency of 4 log units of Faecal Coliforms (FC) and 100% helminthes eggs (HE). With this quality, the treated wastewater can be chlorinated and reused to irrigate green areas and/or in toilets. Although sanitary wastewater has a high concentration of Total-N (250 mg L(-1)) and a C/N ratio of less than 1, the system removed 65% of Total-N. Finally it was observed that after non activity periods, there was neither system failure nor the need to re-stabilize the system.     

A model of cerebral cortex formation during fetal development using reaction-diffusion-convection equations with Turing space parameters

The cerebral cortex is a gray lamina formed by bodies of neurons covering the cerebral hemispheres, varying in thickness from 1.25 mm in the occipital lobe to 4 mm in the anterior lobe. The brain's surface is about 30 times greater that of the skull because of its many folds; such folds form the gyri, sulci and fissures and mark out areas having specific functions, divided into five lobes. Convolution formation may vary between individuals and is an important feature of brain formation; such patterns can be mathematically represented as Turing patterns. This article describes how a phenomenological model was developed by describing the formation pattern for the gyri occurring in the cerebral cortex by reaction diffusion equations with Turing space parameters. Numerical examples for simplified geometries of a brain were solved to study pattern formation. The finite element method was used for the numerical solution, in conjunction with the Newton–Raphson method. The numerical examples showed that the model can represent cerebral cortex fold formation and reproduce pathologies related to gyri formation, such as polymicrogyria and lissencephaly.     

Non-Reproducibility of Oral Rotenone as a Model for Parkinson’s Disease in Mice

Oral rotenone has been proposed as a model for Parkinson’s disease (PD) in mice. To establish the model in our lab and study complex behavior we followed a published treatment regimen. C57BL/6 mice received 30 mg/kg body weight of rotenone once daily via oral administration for 4 and 8 weeks. Motor functions were assessed by RotaRod running. Immunofluorescence studies were used to analyze the morphology of dopaminergic neurons, the expression of alpha-Synuclein (α-Syn), and inflammatory gliosis or infiltration in the substantia nigra. Rotenone-treated mice did not gain body weight during treatment compared with about 4 g in vehicle-treated mice, which was however the only robust manifestation of drug treatment and suggested local gut damage. Rotenone-treated mice had no deficits in motor behavior, no loss or sign of degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, no α-Syn accumulation, and only mild microgliosis, the latter likely an indirect remote effect of rotenone-evoked gut dysbiosis. Searching for explanations for the model failure, we analyzed rotenone plasma concentrations via LC-MS/MS 2 h after administration of the last dose to assess bioavailability. Rotenone was not detectable in plasma at a lower limit of quantification of 2 ng/mL (5 nM), showing that oral rotenone had insufficient bioavailability to achieve sustained systemic drug levels in mice. Hence, oral rotenone caused local gastrointestinal toxicity evident as lack of weight gain but failed to evoke behavioral or biological correlates of PD within 8 weeks.     

Über die IR-Spektren kurzkettiger aliphatischer Trimethylbetainamide. IR-spektroskopische Untersuchungen über β-Homobetainamid, γ-Butyrobetainamid und die Konglomeratbildung beim kristallinen razemischen Carnitinamid

The Infrared Spectra of Some Low-molecular Aliphatic Amides with Quaternary Nitrogen Infrared Spectroscopical Investigations of β-Homobetaine Amide, γ-Butyrobetaine Amide and the Conglomerate from D- and L-Carnitine Amide The infrared absorption spectra of β-homobetaine amide, γ-butyrobetaine amide D,L-, D- and L-carnitine amide in KBr-discs were recorded in the frequency range from 400 cm⁻¹ to 4000 cm⁻¹. Assignments of the characteristic group frequencies have been proposed. In crystallized state D,L-carnitine amide forms a conglomerate from D- and L-carnitine amide, but no chemical compound because of the identity of the infrared spectra obtained from the three optical isomeric carnitine amides.     

Oxidation of soybean oil during storage of starch-oil composites

The oxidative deterioration of dry starch-oil composites was investigated by chemical and sensory methods. The composites were stored at 37°C for 63 d, and changes in the hexanal content and odor attributes were monitored. Analysis of the extracted oil showed that the first run through the drum dryer presented higher hexanal concentrations than the subsequent runs. Starch-oil composites from the first run though the drum dryer showed higher metal concentrations and higher odor ratings during storage time than the subsequent runs. There was a significant correlation between odor attributes and hexanal concentration in the first run. Since both the oxidation and the metal content were higher in the first run and decreased in further runs, we concluded that oxidation might have been induced by the presence of metal in the drum dryer. It is likely that during drum drying, the metal drum and knife surfaces became coated with soy oil, reducing both abrasion and metal contact with the product. Since many applications of the starch-oil composite technology require drum drying, it will be necessary to take measures to minimize metal contamination of the product, perhaps by discarding the initial portion of product, which contains the most metal.     

Improving the energy efficiency of SMACOF for multidimensional scaling on modern architectures

The Journal of Supercomputing - The reduction of the dimensionality is of great interest in the context of big data processing. Multidimensional scaling methods (MDS) are techniques for...