Evaluation of precipitation hardening in TiC-reinforced Ti<Subscript>2</Subscript>AlNb-based alloys

Ti₂AlNb-based alloys with 0.0wt%, 0.6wt%, and 2.0wt% carbon nanotube (CNT) addition were fabricated from spherical Ti-22Al-25Nb powder by sintering in the B2 single-phase region. Phase identification and microstructural examination were performed to evaluate the effect of carbon addition on the hardness of the alloys. Carbon was either in a soluble state or in carbide form depending on its concentration. The acicular carbides formed around 1050℃ were identified as TiC and facilitated the transformation of α₂+B2 → O. The TiC was located within the acicular O phase. The surrounding O phase was distributed in certain orientations with angles of 65° or 90° O phase particles. The obtained alloy was composed of acicular O, Widmanstatten B2+O, and acicular TiC. As a result of the precipitation of carbides as well as the O phase, the hardness of the alloy with 2.0wt% CNT addition increased to HV 429±9.     

Highly Sensitive and Portable Gas Sensing System Based on Reduced Graphene Oxide

Graphene has been widely used in gas-sensing applications due to its large specific surface area and strong adsorption ability. Among different forms of graphene used as gas-sensing materials, reduced graphene oxide is one of the most convenient and economical materials to integrate with Si-based electronics, which is very important to graphene-based gas sensors. In addition, the stacking structure of graphene oxide flakes facilitates absorption and detection of gas molecules. Based on reduced graphene oxide, a highly sensitive and portable gas-sensing system was demonstrated here. Solution-based graphene oxide was cast on a chip like a TF memory card and then reduced thermally. A signal acquisition system was designed to monitor resistance variation as a sign of gas concentration. This miniature graphene-based gas sensor array demonstrates a new path for the use of graphene in gas-detection technologies. And the creation of a sensitive and portable graphene gas sensor also shows great potential in fields such as medicine and environmental science.     

Investigation on inductive heating of A356 alloy for thixo-forming

To meet the demands of continuous stream-line for component production in the thixo-forming industry, billet heating should be of high quality and in a controllable way. A 4-step inductive heating strategy for aluminum alloy A356 was performed. Thixotropic testing and microstructure analysis showed that a homogenous temperature distribution was achieved after temperature-power-time optimization. Theoretical analysis was given concerning the thermal conductivity and heat capacity of A356 between conventional and semisolid casting microstructures. The experimental results show that the optimized 4-step strategy could be the best strategy for billet heating during the thixo-forming of aluminum alloy A356.     

Effect of AlP master alloy on grain refinement of primary silicon in eutectic Al-Si alloys

To obtain the finer primary silicon crystals, the proprietary Al-P master alloy was adopted to modify the eutectic Al-Si alloys and the most suitable modification process was made in the experiments. The SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) and DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimeter) analysis indicate that the Al-P modifier has more advantages over Cu-P and Fe-P modifier in easily addition, no elemental alteration and less undercooling of primary silicon′s solidification, which suggests the Al-P master alloy is an effective modifier of eutectic Al-Si alloys.     

Microstructure and texture of electroformed copper liners of shaped charges

The microstructures of copper liners of shaped charges prepared by electroforming technique were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Meanwhile, the orientations distributing of thegrains in the electroformed copper liners of shaped charges was examined by the electron backscattering Kikuchi pattern (EBSP) technique. TEM observations have revealed that these electroformed copper liners of shaped charges have the grain size of about 1-3μm and the grains have a preferential orientation distribution along the growth direction.EBSP analysis has demonstrated that the as-formed copper liners of shaped charges exhibit a micro-texture, i.e. one type of fiber texture, and the preferred growth direction is normal to the surface of the liners.     

Synthesis, structure of iron(Ⅲ)-containing imidazolium salts and their catalytic activity in the alkylation of aryl Grignard reagents

A series of iron(III)-containing imidazolium salts of the general formula [DRim][FeX 4 ] (R=2,6-diisopropylphenyl, IPr, X=Cl, 1; R=IPr, X=Br, 2; R=tertbutyl, t Bu, X=Cl, 3; R=isopropyl, i Pr, X=Cl, 4; R=benzyl, Bn, X=Cl, 5; R=Bn, X=Br, 6) have been prepared in high yields via reactions of anhydrous ferric halides with equivalent of the corresponding N,N-dihydro- carby-limidazolium halides, where 2-6 are novel ones. All of the complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, Raman spectroscopy, electrospray ionization mass spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography for 1 and 2. All of them were non-hygroscopic and air-stable, with four of them existing as solids (1-4) and two as liquids (5 and 6) at room temperature. A preliminary catalytic study on the coupling of 4-tolylmagnesium bromide with cyclohexyl bromide revealed that 1 and 3 possessed the highest activity. In comparison, 2, 4 and 5 exhibited moderate activity and the least active complex was 6.     

Sleep quality alterations in healthy workers at high altitude in Yushu area

During Yushu earthquake and into the period of re-construction, a large number of sea-level or lowlands workers ascended to and worked at altitudes between 3 750 and 4 878 m such a hypoxic environment. To investigate the quality of sleep at that altitude we performed two full polysonomgraphies (PSG) in ten volunteers, they were healthy male workers, aged 31?6.6 years, born and living at sea level, without experience of pre-altitude exposure. The assessment of subjective sleep quality was performed twice in each volunteer. Investigations were first at sea level in Jinan city (PB 760 torr). The second studies were performed at an altitude of 3 750 m (PB 416 torr) of Yushu Jiegu county in same ten workers after they lived and worked at that altitude for 5 months. At sea level, workers presented a normal sleep structure and a higher oxygenation during sleep. However, as compared to sea-level sleep, at 3 750 m, workers had a shorter total sleep time (TST) (p<0.001), a longer stage 1 nREM sleep (p<0.05) and a shorter 3 4 nREM and REM sleep (p<0.05) with a severe sleep hypoxemia (p<0.01). Our data suggest that sea-level workers revealed a disturbed sleep and a bad sleep quality with a significant sleep hypoxemia at altitude of 3 750 m. Strengthen prevention and treatment are thereby sorely necessary.     

Discrimination of signal oscillations in the in vitro olfactory bulb with microelectrode array

The aim of the present study was to investigate the electrophysiological characteristics of the different layers of the olfactory bulb (OB). We used an in vitro OB slice coupled onto a microelectrode array (MEA) for simultaneous detection of spontaneous activities of OB neurons at different sites. Different frequency oscillations dominated the different layers of the OB slice, and the gamma frequency oscillations mainly appeared in the glomerular layer. The waves consisted of negative, positive, and bidirectional spikes, and were distributed at the different layers of the OB slice. Thus, combination of the OB slice with MEA is a useful technique for identifying signal oscillations by multi-site synchronous measurement, and will allow further studies on olfactory information coding and processing function.     

One-dimensional photonic bandgap structure in abalone shell

Photoic bandgap（PBG）materials are periodic composites of dielectric materials in which electromagnetic waves of certain frequency range cannot propagate in any or a special direction.Rccently.there has been great interest in synthetic PBG materials due to their ability in manipulation of photons.Since 500 million years ago.     

An Improved Grid Security Infrastructure by Trusted Computing

Current delegation mechanism of grid security infrastructure （GSI） can＇t satisfy the requirement of dynamic, distributed and practical security in grid virtual organization. To improve this situation, a TC-enabled GSI is discussed in this paper. With TC-enabled GSI, a practical delegation solution is proposed in this paper through enforcing fine granularity policy over distributed platforms with the emerging trusted computing technologies. Here trusted platform module is treated as a tamper-resistance module to improve grid security infrastructure. With the implement of Project Daonity, it is demonstrated that the solution could gain dynamic and distributed security in grid environment.