Sample records for radiation hardness study

  1. Studying radiation hardness of a cadmium tungstate crystal based radiation detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shtein, M. M.; Smekalin, L. F.; Stepanov, S. A.; Zatonov, I. A.; Tkacheva, T. V.; Usachev, E. Yu

    2016-06-01

    The given article considers radiation hardness of an X-ray detector used in production of non-destructive testing instruments and inspection systems. In the course of research, experiments were carried out to estimate radiation hardness of a detector based on cadmium tungstate crystal and its structural components individually. The article describes a layout of an experimental facility that was used for measurements of radiation hardness. The radiation dose dependence of the photodiode current is presented, when it is excited by a light flux of a scintillator or by an external light source. Experiments were carried out to estimate radiation hardness of two types of optical glue used in detector production; they are based on silicon rubber and epoxy. With the help of a spectrophotometer and cobalt gun, each of the glue samples was measured for a relative light transmission factor with different wavelengths, depending on the radiation dose. The obtained data are presented in a comprehensive analysis of the results. It was determined, which of the glue samples is most suitable for production of detectors working under exposure to strong radiation.

  2. Radiation Hardness Assurance for Space Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Poivey, Christian; Day, John H. (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    The space radiation environment can lead to extremely harsh operating conditions for on-board electronic box and systems. The characteristics of the radiation environment are highly dependent on the type of mission (date, duration and orbit). Radiation accelerates the aging of the electronic parts and material and can lead to a degradation of electrical performance; it can also create transient phenomena on parts. Such damage at the part level can induce damage or functional failure at electronic box, subsystem, and system levels. A rigorous methodology is needed to ensure that the radiation environment does not compromise the functionality and performance of the electronics during the system life. This methodology is called hardness assurance. It consists of those activities undertaken to ensure that the electronic piece parts placed in the space system perform to their design specifications after exposure to the space environment. It deals with system requirements, environmental definitions, part selection, part testing, shielding and radiation tolerant design. All these elements should play together in order to produce a system tolerant to.the radiation environment. An overview of the different steps of a space system hardness assurance program is given in section 2. In order to define the mission radiation specifications and compare these requirements to radiation test data, a detailed knowledge of the space environment and the corresponding electronic device failure mechanisms is required. The presentation by J. Mazur deals with the Earth space radiation environment as well as the internal environment of a spacecraft. The presentation by J. Schwank deals with ionization effects, and the presentation by T. Weatherford deals with Single particle Event Phenomena (SEP) in semiconductor devices and microcircuits. These three presentations provide more detailed background to complement the sections 3 and 4. Part selection and categorization are discussed in section

  3. Study of runaway electrons using dosimetry of hard x-ray radiations in Damavand tokamak

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rasouli, C.; Pourshahab, B.; Hosseini Pooya, S. M.; Orouji, T.; Rasouli, H.

    2014-05-01

    In this work several studies have been conducted on hard x-ray emissions of Damavand tokamak based on radiation dosimetry using the Thermoluminescence method. The goal was to understand interactions of runaway electrons with plasma particles, vessel wall, and plasma facing components. Total of 354 GR-200 (LiF:Mg,Cu,P) thermoluminescence dosimeter (TLD) crystals have been placed on 118 points - three TLDs per point - to map hard x-ray radiation doses on the exterior of the vacuum vessel. Results show two distinctive levels of x-ray radiations doses on the exterior of the vessel. The low-dose area on which measured dose is about 0.5 mSv/shot. In the low-dose area there is no particular component inside the vessel. On the contrary, on high-dose area of the vessel, x-ray radiations dose exceeds 30 mSv/shot. The high-dose area coincides with the position of limiters, magnetic probe ducts, and vacuum vessel intersections. Among the high-dose areas, the highest level of dose is measured in the position of the limiter, which could be due to its direct contact with the plasma column and with runaway electrons. Direct collisions of runaway electrons with the vessel wall and plasma facing components make a major contribution for production of hard x-ray photons in Damavand tokamak.

  4. Study of runaway electrons using dosimetry of hard x-ray radiations in Damavand tokamak.

    PubMed

    Rasouli, C; Pourshahab, B; Hosseini Pooya, S M; Orouji, T; Rasouli, H

    2014-05-01

    In this work several studies have been conducted on hard x-ray emissions of Damavand tokamak based on radiation dosimetry using the Thermoluminescence method. The goal was to understand interactions of runaway electrons with plasma particles, vessel wall, and plasma facing components. Total of 354 GR-200 (LiF:Mg,Cu,P) thermoluminescence dosimeter (TLD) crystals have been placed on 118 points--three TLDs per point--to map hard x-ray radiation doses on the exterior of the vacuum vessel. Results show two distinctive levels of x-ray radiations doses on the exterior of the vessel. The low-dose area on which measured dose is about 0.5 mSv/shot. In the low-dose area there is no particular component inside the vessel. On the contrary, on high-dose area of the vessel, x-ray radiations dose exceeds 30 mSv/shot. The high-dose area coincides with the position of limiters, magnetic probe ducts, and vacuum vessel intersections. Among the high-dose areas, the highest level of dose is measured in the position of the limiter, which could be due to its direct contact with the plasma column and with runaway electrons. Direct collisions of runaway electrons with the vessel wall and plasma facing components make a major contribution for production of hard x-ray photons in Damavand tokamak.

  5. Process dependency of radiation hardness of rapid thermal reoxidized nitrided gate oxides

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Weishin Lu; Kuanchin Lin; Jenngwo Hwu

    The radiation hardness of MOS capacitors with various reoxidized nitrided oxide (RNO) structures is studied by changing the durations of rapid thermal processes during sample preparation and by applying irradiation-then-anneal (ITA) treatments on samples after preparation. It is found that the initial flatband voltage and midgap interface trap density of MOS capacitors exhibit turnaround'' dependency on the total time of nitridation and reoxidation processes. For samples with nitrided oxide (NO) structures, the radiation-induced variations of above parameters are also turnaround''-dependent on nitridation time. However, when the reoxidation process is performed, the radiation hardness for all samples will be gradually improvedmore » with increasing reoxidation time no matter what the nitridation time is. The most radiation-hard process for RNO structures is suggested. Finally, it is found that when ITA treatments are applied on samples after preparation, their radiation hardness is much improved.« less

  6. Radiation and Temperature Hard Multi-Pixel Avalanche Photodiodes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bensaoula, Abdelhak (Inventor); Starikov, David (Inventor); Pillai, Rajeev (Inventor)

    2017-01-01

    The structure and method of fabricating a radiation and temperature hard avalanche photodiode with integrated radiation and temperature hard readout circuit, comprising a substrate, an avalanche region, an absorption region, and a plurality of Ohmic contacts are presented. The present disclosure provides for tuning of spectral sensitivity and high device efficiency, resulting in photon counting capability with decreased crosstalk and reduced dark current.

  7. Radiation hardness of lead glasses TF1 and TF101

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kobayashi, Masaaki; Prokoshkin, Yuri; Singovsky, Alexandre; Takamatsu, Kunio

    1994-06-01

    We have measured the radiation hardness of two types of lead glasses, TF1 and TF101, for low energy γ-rays from 60Co. TF101 containing cerium is a few tens times radiation harder than TF1 which contains no cerium. The radiation hardness, or the tolerable accumulated dose, of TF101 is 2 × 10 3 rad when the degradation of the transmittance is required to be less than 1% for the unit radiation length X0 = 2.8 cm. When the present result is compared with the work of Inyakin et al., the radiation hardness of TF101 glass should be similar for both γ-rays and for high energy hadrons.

  8. Experimental study of hard photon radiation processes at HERA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ahmed, T.; Aid, S.; Andreev, V.; Andrieu, B.; Appuhn, R.-D.; Arpagaus, M.; Babaev, A.; Baehr, J.; Bán, J.; Baranov, P.; Barrelet, E.; Bartel, W.; Barth, M.; Bassler, U.; Beck, H. P.; Behrend, H.-J.; Belousov, A.; Berger, Ch.; Bergstein, H.; Bernardi, G.; Bernet, R.; Bertrand-Coremans, G.; Besançon, M.; Beyer, R.; Biddulph, P.; Bizot, J. C.; Blobel, V.; Borras, K.; Botterweck, F.; Boudry, V.; Braemer, A.; Brasse, F.; Braunschweig, W.; Brisson, V.; Bruncko, D.; Brune, C.; Buchholz, R.; Büngener, L.; Bürger, J.; Büsser, F. W.; Buniatian, A.; Burke, S.; Buschhorn, G.; Campbell, A. J.; Carli, T.; Charles, F.; Clarke, D.; Clegg, A. B.; Clerbaux, B.; Colombo, M.; Contreras, J. G.; Cormack, C.; Coughlan, J. A.; Courau, A.; Coutures, Ch.; Cozzika, G.; Criegee, L.; Cussans, D. G.; Cvach, J.; Dagoret, S.; Dainton, J. B.; Danilov, M.; Dau, W. D.; Daum, K.; David, M.; Deffur, E.; Delcourt, B.; Del Buono, L.; de Roeck, A.; de Wolf, E. A.; di Nezza, P.; Dollfus, C.; Dowell, J. D.; Dreis, H. B.; Droutskoi, A.; Duboc, J.; Düllmann, D.; Dünger, O.; Duhm, H.; Ebert, J.; Ebert, T. R.; Eckerlin, G.; Efremenko, V.; Egli, S.; Ehrlichmann, H.; Eichenberger, S.; Eichler, R.; Eisele, F.; Eisenhandler, E.; Ellison, R. J.; Elsen, E.; Erdmann, M.; Erdmann, W.; Evrard, E.; Favart, L.; Fedotov, A.; Feeken, D.; Felst, R.; Feltesse, J.; Ferencei, J.; Ferrarotto, F.; Flamm, K.; Fleischer, M.; Flieser, M.; Flügge, G.; Fomenko, A.; Fominykh, B.; Forbush, M.; Formánek, J.; Foster, J. M.; Franke, G.; Fretwurst, E.; Gabathuler, E.; Gabathuler, K.; Gamerdinger, K.; Garvey, J.; Gayler, J.; Gebauer, M.; Gellrich, A.; Genzel, H.; Gerhards, R.; Goerlach, U.; Goerlich, L.; Gogitidze, N.; Goldberg, M.; Goldner, D.; Gonzalez-Pineiro, B.; Gorelov, I.; Goritchev, P.; Grab, C.; Grässler, H.; Grässler, R.; Greenshaw, T.; Grindhammer, G.; Gruber, A.; Gruber, C.; Haack, J.; Haidt, D.; Hajduk, L.; Hamon, O.; Hampel, M.; Hanlon, E. M.; Hapke, M.; Haynes, W. J.; Heatherington, J.; Heinzelmann, G.; Henderson, R. C. W.; Henschel, H.; Herma, R.; Herynek, I.; Hess, M. F.; Hildesheim, W.; Hill, P.; Hiller, K. H.; Hilton, C. D.; Hladký, J.; Hoeger, K. C.; Höppner, M.; Horisberger, R.; Hudgson, V. L.; Huet, Ph.; Hütte, M.; Hufnagel, H.; Ibbotson, M.; Itterbeck, H.; Jabiol, M.-A.; Jacholkowska, A.; Jacobsson, C.; Jaffre, M.; Janoth, J.; Jansen, T.; Jönsson, L.; Johannsen, K.; Johnson, D. P.; Johnson, L.; Jung, H.; Kalmus, P. I. P.; Kant, D.; Kaschowitz, R.; Kasselmann, P.; Kathage, U.; Katzy, J.; Kaufmann, H. H.; Kazarian, S.; Kenyon, I. R.; Kermiche, S.; Keuker, C.; Kiesling, C.; Klein, M.; Kleinwort, C.; Knies, G.; Ko, W.; Köhler, T.; Köhne, J.; Kolanoski, H.; Kole, F.; Kolya, S. D.; Korbel, V.; Korn, M.; Kostka, P.; Kotelnikov, S. K.; Krämerkämper, T.; Krasny, M. W.; Krehbiel, H.; Krücker, D.; Krüger, U.; Krüner-Marquis, U.; Kubenka, J. P.; Küster, H.; Kuhlen, M.; Kurča, T.; Kurzhöfer, J.; Kuznik, B.; Lacour, D.; Lamarche, F.; Lander, R.; Landon, M. P. J.; Lange, W.; Lanius, P.; Laporte, J.-F.; Lebedev, A.; Leverenz, C.; Levonian, S.; Ley, Ch.; Lindner, A.; Lindström, G.; Linsel, F.; Lipinski, J.; List, B.; Loch, P.; Lohmander, H.; Lopez, G. C.; Lubimov, V.; Lüke, D.; Magnussen, N.; Malinovski, E.; Mani, S.; Maraček, R.; Marage, P.; Marks, J.; Marshall, R.; Martens, J.; Martin, R.; Martyn, H.-U.; Martyniak, J.; Masson, S.; Mavroidis, T.; Maxfield, S. J.; McMahon, S. J.; Mehta, A.; Meier, K.; Mercer, D.; Merz, T.; Meyer, C. A.; Meyer, H.; Meyer, J.; Mikocki, S.; Milstead, D.; Moreau, F.; Morris, J. V.; Mroczko, E.; Müller, G.; Müller, K.; Murín, P.; Nagovizin, V.; Nahnhauer, R.; Naroska, B.; Naumann, Th.; Newman, P. R.; Newton, D.; Neyret, D.; Nguyen, H. K.; Nicholls, T. C.; Niebergall, F.; Niebuhr, C.; Nisius, R.; Nowak, G.; Noyes, G. W.; Nyberg-Werther, M.; Oakden, M.; Oberlack, H.; Obrock, U.; Olsson, J. E.; Ozerov, D.; Panaro, E.; Panitch, A.; Pascaud, C.; Patel, G. D.; Peppel, E.; Perez, E.; Phillips, J. P.; Pichler, Ch.; Pitzl, D.; Pope, G.; Prell, S.; Prosi, R.; Rädel, G.; Raupach, F.; Reimer, P.; Reinshagen, S.; Ribarics, P.; Rick, H.; Riech, V.; Riedlberger, J.; Riess, S.; Rietz, M.; Rizvi, E.; Robertson, S. M.; Robmann, P.; Roloff, H. E.; Roosen, R.; Rosenbauer, K.; Rostovtsev, A.; Rouse, F.; Royon, C.; Rüter, K.; Rusakov, S.; Rybicki, K.; Rylko, R.; Sahlmann, N.; Sanchez, E.; Sankey, D. P. C.; Savitsky, M.; Schacht, P.; Schiek, S.; Schleper, P.; von Schlippe, W.; Schmidt, C.; Schmidt, D.; Schmidt, G.; Schöning, A.; Schröder, V.; Schuhmann, E.; Schwab, B.; Schwind, A.; Seehausen, U.; Sefkow, F.; Seidel, M.; Sell, R.; Semenov, A.; Shekelyan, V.; Sheviakov, I.; Shooshtari, H.; Shtarkov, L. N.; Siegmon, G.; Siewert, U.; Sirois, Y.; Skillicorn, I. O.; Smirnov, P.; Smith, J. R.; Solochenko, V.; Soloviev, Y.; Spiekermann, J.; Spitzer, H.; Starosta, R.; Steenbock, M.; Steffen, P.; Steinberg, R.; Stella, B.; Stephens, K.; Stier, J.; Stiewe, J.; Stösslein, U.; Stolze, K.; Strachota, J.; Straumann, U.; Struczinski, W.; Sutton, J. P.; Tapprogge, S.; Taylor, R. E.; Tchernyshov, V.; Thiebaux, C.; Thompson, G.; Truöl, P.; Turnau, J.; Tutas, J.; Uelkes, P.; Usik, A.; Valkár, S.; Valkárová, A.; Vallée, C.; van Esch, P.; van Mechelen, P.; Vartapetian, A.; Vazdik, Y.; Vecko, M.; Verrecchia, P.; Villet, G.; Wacker, K.; Wagener, A.; Wagener, M.; Walker, I. W.; Walther, A.; Weber, G.; Weber, M.; Wegener, D.; Wegner, A.; Wellisch, H. P.; West, L. R.; Willard, S.; Winde, M.; Winter, G.-G.; Wright, A. E.; Wünsch, E.; Wulff, N.; Yiou, T. P.; Žáček, J.; Zarbock, D.; Zhang, Z.; Zhokin, A.; Zimmer, M.; Zimmermann, W.; Zomer, F.; Zuber, K.

    1995-12-01

    We present an experimental study of the ep→ eγ+ p and ep→ eγ+ X processes using data recorded by the H1 detector in 1993 at the electron-proton collider HERA. These processes are employed to measure the luminosity with an accuracy of 4.5 %. A subsample of the ep→ eγ+ X events in which the hard photon is detected at angles θ{γ/'} ≤ 0.45 mrad with respect to the incident electron direction is used to verify experimentally the size of radiative corrections to the ep→ eX inclusive cross section and to investigate the structure of the proton in the Q 2 domain down to 2 GeV2, lower than previously attained at HERA.

  9. Radiation Hard 0.13 Micron CMOS Library at IHP

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jagdhold, U.

    2013-08-01

    To support space applications we have developed an 0.13 micron CMOS library which should be radiation hard up to 200 krad. The article describes the concept to come to a radiation hard digital circuit and was introduces in 2010 [1]. By introducing new radiation hard design rules we will minimize IC-level leakage and single event latch-up (SEL). To reduce single event upset (SEU) we add two p-MOS transistors to all flip flops. For reliability reasons we use double contacts in all library elements. The additional rules and the library elements are integrated in our Cadence mixed signal design kit, “Virtuoso” IC6.1 [2]. A test chip is produced with our in house 0.13 micron BiCMOS technology, see Ref. [3]. As next step we will doing radiation tests according the european space agency (ESA) specifications, see Ref. [4], [5].

  10. The ESA RADGLASS activity: a radiation study of non rad-hard glasses

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Manolis, Ilias; Bézy, Jean-Loup; Costantino, Alessandra; Vink, Ramon; Deep, Atul; Ahmad, Munadi; Amorim, Emmanuel; Miranda, Micael D.; Meynart, Roland

    2015-10-01

    Only a small set of radiation hardened optical glasses are currently offered in the market, thus drastically limiting the optical design choices available to the engineers at the early phases of an instrument development. Furthermore, availability of those glasses cannot be easily guaranteed for the long term horizon of future space instrument developments. Radiation tests on conventional glasses on the other hand have shown significant sensitivity to high radiation levels but such levels are not necessarily representative of typical low Earth (LEO) orbits. We have conducted irradiation campaigns on several different types of conventional, non-radiation hard glasses, selected from the wider pool of the Schott "new" arsenic and lead free series (N-*) and characterized their spectral transmission properties before and after ionizing dose deposition. We report our first findings here.

  11. Radiation Hard Active Media R&D for CMS Hadron Endcap Calorimetry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tiras, Emrah; CMS-HCAL Collaboration

    2015-04-01

    The High Luminosity LHC era imposes unprecedented radiation conditions on the CMS detectors targeting a factor of 5-10 higher than the LHC design luminosity. The CMS detectors will need to be upgraded in order to withstand these conditions yet maintain/improve the physics measurement capabilities. One of the upgrade options is reconstructing the CMS Endcap Calorimeters with a shashlik design electromagnetic section and replacing active media of the hadronic section with radiation-hard scintillation materials. In this context, we have studied various radiation-hard materials such as Polyethylene Naphthalate (PEN), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), HEM and quartz plates coated with various organic materials such as p-Terphenyl (pTp), Gallium doped Zinc Oxide (ZnO:Ga) and Anthracene. Here we discuss the related test beam activities, laboratory measurements and recent developments.

  12. Extreme Radiation Hardness and Space Qualification of AlGaN Optoelectronic Devices

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sun, Ke-Xun; Balakrishnan, Kathik; Hultgren, Eric

    2010-09-21

    Unprecedented radiation hardness and environment robustness are required in the new generation of high energy density physics (HEDP) experiments and deep space exploration. National Ignition Facility (NIF) break-even shots will have a neutron yield of 1015 or higher. The Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) mission instruments will be irradiated with a total fluence of 1012 protons/cm2 during the space journey. In addition, large temperature variations and mechanical shocks are expected in these applications under extreme conditions. Hefty radiation and thermal shields are required for Si and GaAs based electronics and optoelectronics devices. However, for direct illumination and imaging applications, shieldingmore » is not a viable option. It is an urgent task to search for new semiconductor technologies and to develop radiation hard and environmentally robust optoelectronic devices. We will report on our latest systematic experimental studies on radiation hardness and space qualifications of AlGaN optoelectronic devices: Deep UV Light Emitting Diodes (DUV LEDs) and solarblind UV Photodiodes (PDs). For custom designed AlGaN DUV LEDs with a central emission wavelength of 255 nm, we have demonstrated its extreme radiation hardness up to 2x1012 protons/cm2 with 63.9 MeV proton beams. We have demonstrated an operation lifetime of over 26,000 hours in a nitrogen rich environment, and 23,000 hours of operation in vacuum without significant power drop and spectral shift. The DUV LEDs with multiple packaging styles have passed stringent space qualifications with 14 g random vibrations, and 21 cycles of 100K temperature cycles. The driving voltage, current, emission spectra and optical power (V-I-P) operation characteristics exhibited no significant changes after the space environmental tests. The DUV LEDs will be used for photoelectric charge management in space flights. For custom designed AlGaN UV photodiodes with a central response wavelength of 255 nm, we have

  13. EFFECTS OF LASER RADIATION ON MATTER. LASER PLASMA: Low-threshold generation of harmonics and hard x radiation in a laser plasma. 2. Multipeak generation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Apollonov, V. V.; Derzhavin, S. I.; Kazakov, K. Kh

    1993-02-01

    The conditions for the generation of hard x radiation with a multipeak structure in a plasma pumped by a long pulse from a free-running CO2 laser at a low intensity (q≲10 GW/cm2) have been studied. This x-ray generation had been observed in a previous study by the present authors. It is shown that this generation of hard x radiation with a multipeak structure leads to a more than tenfold increase in the yield of hard x radiation per laser pulse, under optimum conditions. This increase results from the additional peaks in the x-ray signal. An explanation of this effect is proposed.

  14. Statistical Modeling for Radiation Hardness Assurance: Toward Bigger Data

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ladbury, R.; Campola, M. J.

    2015-01-01

    New approaches to statistical modeling in radiation hardness assurance are discussed. These approaches yield quantitative bounds on flight-part radiation performance even in the absence of conventional data sources. This allows the analyst to bound radiation risk at all stages and for all decisions in the RHA process. It also allows optimization of RHA procedures for the project's risk tolerance.

  15. Influence of design variables on radiation hardness of silicon MINP solar cells

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Anderson, W. A.; Solaun, S.; Rao, B. B.; Banerjee, S.

    1985-01-01

    Metal-insulator-N/P silicon (MINP) solar cells were fabricated using different substrate resistivity values, different N-layer designs, and different I-layer designs. A shallow junction into an 0.3 ohm-cm substrate gave best efficiency whereas a deeper junction into a 1 to 4 ohm-cm substrate gave improved radiation hardness. I-layer design variation did little to influence radiation hardness.

  16. Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) Guideline

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Campola, Michael J.

    2016-01-01

    Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) consists of all activities undertaken to ensure that the electronics and materials of a space system perform to their design specifications after exposure to the mission space environment. The subset of interests for NEPP and the REAG, are EEE parts. It is important to register that all of these undertakings are in a feedback loop and require constant iteration and updating throughout the mission life. More detail can be found in the reference materials on applicable test data for usage on parts.

  17. Development of a radiation-hard CMOS process

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Power, W. L.

    1983-01-01

    It is recommended that various techniques be investigated which appear to have the potential for improving the radiation hardness of CMOS devices for prolonged space flight mission. The three key recommended processing techniques are: (1) making the gate oxide thin. It has been shown that radiation degradation is proportional to the cube of oxide thickness so that a relatively small reduction in thickness can greatly improve radiation resistance; (2) cleanliness and contamination control; and (3) to investigate different oxide growth (low temperature dry, TCE and HCL). All three produce high quality clean oxides, which are more radiation tolerant. Technique 2 addresses the reduction of metallic contamination. Technique 3 will produce a higher quality oxide by using slow growth rate conditions, and will minimize the effects of any residual sodium contamination through the introduction of hydrogen and chlorine into the oxide during growth.

  18. Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) for Space Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Poivey, Christian; Buchner, Stephen

    2007-01-01

    This presentation discusses radiation hardness assurance (RHA) for space systems, providing both the programmatic aspects of RHA and the RHA procedure. RHA consists of all activities undertaken to ensure that the electronics and materials of a space system perform to their design specifications after exposure to the space radiation environment. RHA also pertains to environment definition, part selection, part testing, spacecraft layout, radiation tolerant design, and mission/system/subsystems requirements. RHA procedure consists of establishing mission requirements, defining and evaluating the radiation hazard, selecting and categorizing the appropriate parts, and evaluating circuit response to hazard. The RHA approach is based on risk management and is confined only to parts, it includes spacecraft layout, system/subsystem/circuit design, and system requirements and system operations. RHA should be taken into account in the early phases of a program including the proposal and feasibility analysis phases.

  19. National Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) Planning For NASA Missions: Updated Guidance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    LaBel, Kenneth A.; Pellish, Jonathan Allen

    2014-01-01

    Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) is the process of ensuring space system performance in the presence of a space radiation environment. Herein, we present an updated NASA methodology for RHA focusing on content, deliverables and timeframes.

  20. Notional Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) Planning For NASA Missions: Updated Guidance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    LaBel, Kenneth A.; Pellish, Jonathan A.

    2014-01-01

    Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) is the process of ensuring space system performance in the presence of a space radiation environment. Herein, we present an updated NASA methodology for RHA focusing on content, deliverables and timeframes.

  1. A novel radiation hard pixel design for space applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aurora, A. M.; Marochkin, V. V.; Tuuva, T.

    2017-11-01

    We have developed a novel radiation hard photon detector concept based on Modified Internal Gate Field Effect Transistor (MIGFET) wherein a buried Modified Internal Gate (MIG) is implanted underneath a channel of a FET. In between the MIG and the channel of the FET there is depleted semiconductor material forming a potential barrier between charges in the channel and similar type signal charges located in the MIG. The signal charges in the MIG have a measurable effect on the conductance of the channel. In this paper a radiation hard double MIGFET pixel is investigated comprising two MIGFETs. By transferring the signal charges between the two MIGs Non-Destructive Correlated Double Sampling Readout (NDCDSR) is enabled. The radiation hardness of the proposed double MIGFET structure stems from the fact that interface related issues can be considerably mitigated. The reason for this is, first of all, that interface generated dark noise can be completely avoided and secondly, that interface generated 1/f noise can be considerably reduced due to a deep buried channel readout configuration. Electrical parameters of the double MIGFET pixel have been evaluated by 3D TCAD simulation study. Simulation results show the absence of interface generated dark noise, significantly reduced interface generated 1/f noise, well performing NDCDSR operation, and blooming protection due to an inherent vertical anti-blooming structure. In addition, the backside illuminated thick fully depleted pixel design results in low crosstalk due to lack of diffusion and good quantum efficiency from visible to Near Infra-Red (NIR) light. These facts result in excellent Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and very low crosstalk enabling thus excellent image quality. The simulation demonstrates the charge to current conversion gain for source current read-out to be 1.4 nA/e.

  2. Radiation hardness of Ce-doped sol-gel silica fibers for high energy physics applications.

    PubMed

    Cova, Francesca; Moretti, Federico; Fasoli, Mauro; Chiodini, Norberto; Pauwels, Kristof; Auffray, Etiennette; Lucchini, Marco Toliman; Baccaro, Stefania; Cemmi, Alessia; Bártová, Hana; Vedda, Anna

    2018-02-15

    The results of irradiation tests on Ce-doped sol-gel silica using x- and γ-rays up to 10 kGy are reported in order to investigate the radiation hardness of this material for high-energy physics applications. Sol-gel silica fibers with Ce concentrations of 0.0125 and 0.05 mol. % are characterized by means of optical absorption and attenuation length measurements before and after irradiation. The two different techniques give comparable results, evidencing the formation of a main broad radiation-induced absorption band, peaking at about 2.2 eV, related to radiation-induced color centers. The results are compared with those obtained on bulk silica. This study reveals that an improvement of the radiation hardness of Ce-doped silica fibers can be achieved by reducing Ce content inside the fiber core, paving the way for further material development.

  3. Influence of the distribution of PWO crystal radiation hardness on electromagnetic calorimeter performance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Drobychev, Gleb Yu.; Borisevich, Andrei E.; Korjik, Mikhail V.; Lecoq, Paul; Moroz, Valeri I.; Peigneux, Jean-Pierre

    2002-06-01

    The distribution of about 5000 mass-produced PWO crystals by their light yield and radiation hardness is analysed. The correlation between results of radiation hardness measurements at low and saturating dose rates is refined. A method for the evaluation of the energy resolution of the electromagnetic calorimeter accounting for a distribution of individual PWO crystal characteristics is proposed. A preliminary analysis of the PWO crystal recovery kinetics is also performed.

  4. Room Temperature Hard Radiation Detectors Based on Solid State Compound Semiconductors: An Overview

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mirzaei, Ali; Huh, Jeung-Soo; Kim, Sang Sub; Kim, Hyoun Woo

    2018-05-01

    Si and Ge single crystals are the most common semiconductor radiation detectors. However, they need to work at cryogenic temperatures to decrease their noise levels. In contrast, compound semiconductors can be operated at room temperature due to their ability to grow compound materials with tunable densities, band gaps and atomic numbers. Highly efficient room temperature hard radiation detectors can be utilized in biomedical diagnostics, nuclear safety and homeland security applications. In this review, we discuss room temperature compound semiconductors. Since the field of radiation detection is broad and a discussion of all compound materials for radiation sensing is impossible, we discuss the most important materials for the detection of hard radiation with a focus on binary heavy metal semiconductors and ternary and quaternary chalcogenide compounds.

  5. Effect of radiation light characteristics on surface hardness of paint-on resin for shade modification.

    PubMed

    Arikawa, Hiroyuki; Kanie, Takahito; Fujii, Koichi; Ban, Seiji

    2005-12-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of radiation light characteristics--of different types of clinical light-curing unit--on polymerization efficiency, as determined by the surface hardness of light-cured paint-on resins. Four shades of paint-on resin for shade modification of restorative resins were used. Materials were cured using one laboratory and three clinical light-curing units with different light sources, namely tungsten-halogen, LED, plasma arc, and xenon flash lamps. Knoop hardness measurements were taken at both the top and bottom surfaces of the specimens to assess the mechanical properties and degree of polymerization. Both LED and plasma arc light units caused significantly poorer surface hardness than the halogen and laboratory xenon lights. In addition, the transparent shade was more sensitive to surface hardness than other chromatic shades. Our results indicated that the polymerization efficiency of paint-on resin was significantly influenced by the radiation light characteristics of clinical light-curing units.

  6. GaN-Based High Temperature and Radiation-Hard Electronics for Harsh Environments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Son, Kyung-ah; Liao, Anna; Lung, Gerald; Gallegos, Manuel; Hatakeh, Toshiro; Harris, Richard D.; Scheick, Leif Z.; Smythe, William D.

    2010-01-01

    We develop novel GaN-based high temperature and radiation-hard electronics to realize data acquisition electronics and transmitters suitable for operations in harsh planetary environments. In this paper, we discuss our research on metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors that are targeted for 500 (sup o)C operation and >2 Mrad radiation hardness. For the target device performance, we develop Schottky-free AlGaN/GaN MOS transistors, where a gate electrode is processed in a MOS layout using an Al2O3 gate dielectric layer....

  7. Creation of a Radiation Hard 0.13 Micron CMOS Library at IHP

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jagdhold, U.

    2010-08-01

    To support space applications we will develop an 0.13 micron CMOS library which should be radiation hard up to 200 krad. By introducing new radiation hard design rules we will minimize IC-level leakage and single event latchup (SEL). To reduce single event upset (SEU) we will add two p-MOS transistors to all flip flops. For reliability reasons we will use double contacts in all library elements. The additional rules and the library elements will then be integrated in our Cadence mixed signal designkit, Virtuoso IC6.1 [1]. A test chip will be produced with our in house 0.13 micron BiCMOS technology, see Ref. [2].Thereafter we will doing radiation tests according the ESA specifications, see Ref. [3], [4].

  8. Fault-Tolerant, Radiation-Hard DSP

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Czajkowski, David

    2011-01-01

    Commercial digital signal processors (DSPs) for use in high-speed satellite computers are challenged by the damaging effects of space radiation, mainly single event upsets (SEUs) and single event functional interrupts (SEFIs). Innovations have been developed for mitigating the effects of SEUs and SEFIs, enabling the use of very-highspeed commercial DSPs with improved SEU tolerances. Time-triple modular redundancy (TTMR) is a method of applying traditional triple modular redundancy on a single processor, exploiting the VLIW (very long instruction word) class of parallel processors. TTMR improves SEU rates substantially. SEFIs are solved by a SEFI-hardened core circuit, external to the microprocessor. It monitors the health of the processor, and if a SEFI occurs, forces the processor to return to performance through a series of escalating events. TTMR and hardened-core solutions were developed for both DSPs and reconfigurable field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). This includes advancement of TTMR algorithms for DSPs and reconfigurable FPGAs, plus a rad-hard, hardened-core integrated circuit that services both the DSP and FPGA. Additionally, a combined DSP and FPGA board architecture was fully developed into a rad-hard engineering product. This technology enables use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) DSPs in computers for satellite and other space applications, allowing rapid deployment at a much lower cost. Traditional rad-hard space computers are very expensive and typically have long lead times. These computers are either based on traditional rad-hard processors, which have extremely low computational performance, or triple modular redundant (TMR) FPGA arrays, which suffer from power and complexity issues. Even more frustrating is that the TMR arrays of FPGAs require a fixed, external rad-hard voting element, thereby causing them to lose much of their reconfiguration capability and in some cases significant speed reduction. The benefits of COTS high

  9. Inclusion of Radiation Environment Variability in Total Dose Hardness Assurance Methodology

    PubMed Central

    Xapsos, M.A.; Stauffer, C.; Phan, A.; McClure, S.S.; Ladbury, R.L.; Pellish, J.A.; Campola, M.J.; LaBel, K.A.

    2017-01-01

    Variability of the space radiation environment is investigated with regard to parts categorization for total dose hardness assurance methods. It is shown that it can have a significant impact. A modified approach is developed that uses current environment models more consistently and replaces the radiation design margin concept with one of failure probability during a mission. PMID:28804156

  10. Inclusion of Radiation Environment Variability in Total Dose Hardness Assurance Methodology

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Xapsos, M. A.; Stauffer, C.; Phan, A.; McClure, S. S.; Ladbury, R. L.; Pellish, J. A.; Campola, M. J.; LaBel, K. A.

    2016-01-01

    Variability of the space radiation environment is investigated with regard to parts categorization for total dose hardness assurance methods. It is shown that it can have a significant impact. A modified approach is developed that uses current environment models more consistently and replaces the radiation design margin concept with one of failure probability during a mission.

  11. Low-Dimensional Nanomaterials and Molecular Dielectrics for Radiation-Hard Electronics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McMorrow, Julian

    memory (SRAM) cells, an accomplishment that illustrates the technological relevance of this work by implementing a highly utilized component of modern day computing. Next, these SRAM devices demonstrate functionality as true random number generators (TRNGs), which are critical components in cryptography and encryption. The randomness of these SWCNT TRNGs is verified by a suite of statistical tests. This achievement has implications for securing data and communication in future solution-processed, large-area, flexible electronics. The unprecedented integration achieved by the underlying SWCNT doping and encapsulation motivates the study of this technology in a radiation environment. Doing so results in an understanding of the fundamental charge trapping mechanisms responsible for the radiation response in this system. The integrated nature of these devices enables, for the first time, the observation of system-level effects in a SWCNT integrated circuit technology. This technology is found to be total ionizing dose-hard, a promising result for the adoption of SWCNTs in future space-bound applications. Compared to SWCNTs, the field of MoS2 electronics is relatively nascent. As a result, studies of radiation effects in MoS2 devices focus on the fundamental mechanisms at play in the materials system. Here, we reveal the critical role of atmospheric adsorbates in the radiation effects of MoS2 transistors by measuring their response to vacuum ultraviolet radiation. These results highlight the importance of controlling the atmosphere of MoS2 devices during irradiation. Furthermore, we make recommendations for radiation-hard MoS2-based devices in the future as the technology continues to mature. One such recommendation is the incorporation of specialized dielectrics with proven radiation hardness. To this end, we address the materials integration challenge of incorporating SAND gate dielectrics on arbitrary substrates. We explore a novel approach for preparing metal substrates

  12. EFFECTS OF LASER RADIATION ON MATTER. LASER PLASMA: Low-threshold generation of harmonics and hard x radiation in a laser plasma. 1. Single-peak generation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Apollonov, V. V.; Derzhavin, S. I.; Kazakov, K. Kh

    1993-02-01

    A source of hard x radiation based on a laser plasma has been studied under conditions such that parametric instabilities are driven in the plasma at low intensities of the pump radiation (below 10 GW/cm2). A qualitative interpretation of the observed effects is offered.

  13. Model-Based Assurance Case+ (MBAC+): Tutorial on Modeling Radiation Hardness Assurance Activities

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Austin, Rebekah; Label, Ken A.; Sampson, Mike J.; Evans, John; Witulski, Art; Sierawski, Brian; Karsai, Gabor; Mahadevan, Nag; Schrimpf, Ron; Reed, Robert A.

    2017-01-01

    This presentation will cover why modeling is useful for radiation hardness assurance cases, and also provide information on Model-Based Assurance Case+ (MBAC+), NASAs Reliability Maintainability Template, and Fault Propagation Modeling.

  14. Radiation hardness studies of CdTe thin films for clinical high-energy photon beam detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shvydka, Diana; Parsai, E. I.; Kang, J.

    2008-02-01

    In radiation oncology applications, the need for higher-quality images has been driven by recent advances in radiation delivery systems that require online imaging. The existing electronic imaging devices commonly used to acquire portal images implement amorphous silicon (a-Si) detector, which exhibits poor image quality. Efforts for improvement have mostly been in the areas of noise and scatter reduction through software. This has not been successful due to inherent shortcomings of a-Si material. Cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor has long been recognized as highly suitable for use in X-ray detectors in both spectroscopic and imaging applications. Development of such systems has mostly concentrated on single crystal CdTe. Recent advances in thin-film deposition technology suggest replacement of crystalline material with its polycrystalline counterpart, offering ease of large-area device fabrication and achievement of higher resolution as well as a favorable cost difference. While bulk CdTe material was found to have superior radiation hardness, thin films have not been evaluated from that prospective, in particular under high-energy photon beam typical of radiation treatment applications. We assess the performance of thin-film CdTe devices utilizing 6 MeV photon beam and find no consistent trend for material degradation under doses far exceeding the typical radiation therapy detector lifetime dose.

  15. Impact of Radiation Hardness and Operating Temperatures of Silicon Carbide Electronics on Space Power System Mass

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Juhasz, Albert J.; Tew, Roy C.; Schwarze, Gene E.

    1998-01-01

    The effect of silicon carbide (SiC) electronics operating temperatures on Power Management and Distribution (PMAD), or Power Conditioning (PC), subsystem radiator size and mass requirements was evaluated for three power output levels (100 kW(e) , 1 MW(e), and 10 MW(e)) for near term technology ( i.e. 1500 K turbine inlet temperature) Closed Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) power systems with a High Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR) heat source. The study was conducted for assumed PC radiator temperatures ranging from 370 to 845 K and for three scenarios of electrical energy to heat conversion levels which needed to be rejected to space by means of the PC radiator. In addition, during part of the study the radiation hardness of the PC electronics was varied at a fixed separation distance to estimate its effect on the mass of the instrument rated reactor shadow shield. With both the PC radiator and the conical shadow shield representing major components of the overall power system the influence of the above on total power system mass was also determined. As expected, results show that the greatest actual mass savings achieved by the use of SiC electronics occur with high capacity power systems. Moreover, raising the PC radiator temperature above 600 K yields only small additional system mass savings. The effect of increased radiation hardness on total system mass is to reduce system mass by virtue of lowering the shield mass.

  16. The influence of parotid gland sparing on radiation damages of dental hard tissues.

    PubMed

    Hey, Jeremias; Seidel, Johannes; Schweyen, Ramona; Paelecke-Habermann, Yvonne; Vordermark, Dirk; Gernhardt, Christian; Kuhnt, Thomas

    2013-07-01

    The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether radiation damage on dental hard tissue depends on the mean irradiation dose the spared parotid gland is subjected to or on stimulated whole salivary flow rate. Between June 2002 and October 2008, 70 patients with neck and cancer curatively irradiated were included in this study. All patients underwent dental treatment referring to the guidelines and recommendations of the German Society of Dental, Oral and Craniomandibular Sciences prior, during, and after radiotherapy (RT). During the follow-up period of 24 months, damages on dental hard tissues were classified according to the RTOG/EORTC guidelines. The mean doses (D(mean)) during spared parotid gland RT were determined. Stimulated whole saliva secretion flow rates (SFR) were measured before RT and 1, 6, 12, 24 months after RT. Thirty patients showed no carious lesions (group A), 18 patients developed sporadic carious lesions (group B), and 22 patients developed general carious lesions (group C). Group A patients received a D mean of 21.2 ± 11.04 Gy. Group B patients received a D(mean) of 26.5 ± 11.59 Gy and group C patients received a D(mean) of 33.9 ± 9.93 Gy, respectively. The D(mean) of group A was significantly lower than the D(mean) of group C (p < 0.001). Additionally, the mean SFR 6 months after RT of group A was significantly higher than the mean SFR of group C (p < 0.01). Irradiation damage on dental hard tissue correlates with increased mean irradiation doses as well as decreased salivary flow rates. Parotid gland sparing resulting in a dose below 20 Gy reduces radiation damage on dental hard tissues, and therefore, the dose may act as a predictor for the damage to be expected.

  17. Radiation-Hard Complementary Integrated Circuits Based on Semiconducting Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes.

    PubMed

    McMorrow, Julian J; Cress, Cory D; Gaviria Rojas, William A; Geier, Michael L; Marks, Tobin J; Hersam, Mark C

    2017-03-28

    Increasingly complex demonstrations of integrated circuit elements based on semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) mark the maturation of this technology for use in next-generation electronics. In particular, organic materials have recently been leveraged as dopant and encapsulation layers to enable stable SWCNT-based rail-to-rail, low-power complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) logic circuits. To explore the limits of this technology in extreme environments, here we study total ionizing dose (TID) effects in enhancement-mode SWCNT-CMOS inverters that employ organic doping and encapsulation layers. Details of the evolution of the device transport properties are revealed by in situ and in operando measurements, identifying n-type transistors as the more TID-sensitive component of the CMOS system with over an order of magnitude larger degradation of the static power dissipation. To further improve device stability, radiation-hardening approaches are explored, resulting in the observation that SWNCT-CMOS circuits are TID-hard under dynamic bias operation. Overall, this work reveals conditions under which SWCNTs can be employed for radiation-hard integrated circuits, thus presenting significant potential for next-generation satellite and space applications.

  18. Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA): Challenges and New Considerations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Campola, Michael J.

    2017-01-01

    Use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and emerging technologies often require space flight missions to accept elevated risk. The Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) flow includes environment definition, hazard evaluation, requirements definition, evaluation of design, and design trades to accommodate and mitigate the risk a project or program takes. Depending on the mission profile and environment, different missions may not necessarily benefit from the same risk reduction efforts or cost reduction attempts. While this poses challenges for the radiation engineer, it also presents opportunities to tailor the RHA flow to minimize risk based on the environment or design criticality while remaining within budget. This presentation will focus on an approach to RHA amidst the present challenges, using the same RHA flow as in the past, with examples from recent radiation test results. The current challenges and the types of risk will be identified. How these risks drive requirements development and realization will be explained with examples of device results and data for single event effects (SEE) and in one case total ionizing dose (TID).

  19. Radiation-hard electrical coil and method for its fabrication

    DOEpatents

    Grieggs, R.J.; Blake, R.D.; Gac, F.D.

    1982-06-29

    A radiation-hard insulated electrical coil and method for making the same are disclosed. In accordance with the method, a conductor, preferably copper, is wrapped with an aluminum strip and then tightly wound into a coil. The aluminum-wrapped coil is then annealed to relax the conductor in the coiled configuration. The annealed coil is then immersed in an alkaline solution to dissolve the aluminum strip, leaving the bare conductor in a coiled configuration with all of the windings closely packed yet uniformly spaced from one another. The coil is then insulated with a refractory insulating material. In the preferred embodiment, the coil is insulated by coating it with a vitreous enamel and subsequently potting the enamelled coil in a castable ceramic concrete. The resulting coil is substantially insensitive to radiation and may be operated continuously in high radiation environments for long periods of time.

  20. Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA): Challenges and New Considerations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Campola, Michael J.

    2017-01-01

    Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) challenges associated with the use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and emerging technologies are cause for risk acceptance in space flight missions. The RHA flow includes environment definition, hazard evaluation, requirements definition, evaluation of design, and design trades to accommodate the risk a project or program takes. The varied missions profiles and environments don't necessarily benefit from the same risk reduction efforts or cost reduction attempts. The level of effort within the RHA flow can be tailored to minimize risk based on the environment or design criticality.

  1. Radiation hardness of Ga0.5In0.5 P/GaAs tandem solar cells

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kurtz, Sarah R.; Olson, J. M.; Bertness, K. A.; Friedman, D. J.; Kibbler, A.; Cavicchi, B. T.; Krut, D. D.

    1991-01-01

    The radiation hardness of a two-junction monolithic Ga sub 0.5 In sub 0.5 P/GaAs cell with tunnel junction interconnect was investigated. Related single junction cells were also studied to identify the origins of the radiation losses. The optimal design of the cell is discussed. The air mass efficiency of an optimized tandem cell after irradiation with 10(exp 15) cm (-2) 1 MeV electrons is estimated to be 20 percent using currently available technology.

  2. Inclusion of Radiation Environment Variability in Total Dose Hardness Assurance Methodology

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Xapsos, M. A.; Stauffer, C.; Phan, A.; McClure, S. S.; Ladbury, R. L.; Pellish, J. A.; Campola, M. J.; LaBel, K. A.

    2015-01-01

    Variability of the space radiation environment is investigated with regard to parts categorization for total dose hardness assurance methods. It is shown that it can have a significant impact. A modified approach is developed that uses current environment models more consistently and replaces the design margin concept with one of failure probability.

  3. Radiation hardness of β-Ga2O3 metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors against gamma-ray irradiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wong, Man Hoi; Takeyama, Akinori; Makino, Takahiro; Ohshima, Takeshi; Sasaki, Kohei; Kuramata, Akito; Yamakoshi, Shigenobu; Higashiwaki, Masataka

    2018-01-01

    The effects of ionizing radiation on β-Ga2O3 metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) were investigated. A gamma-ray tolerance as high as 1.6 MGy(SiO2) was demonstrated for the bulk Ga2O3 channel by virtue of weak radiation effects on the MOSFETs' output current and threshold voltage. The MOSFETs remained functional with insignificant hysteresis in their transfer characteristics after exposure to the maximum cumulative dose. Despite the intrinsic radiation hardness of Ga2O3, radiation-induced gate leakage and drain current dispersion ascribed respectively to dielectric damage and interface charge trapping were found to limit the overall radiation hardness of these devices.

  4. Monitoring system for testing the radiation hardness of a KINTEX-7 FPGA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cojocariu, L. N.; Placinta, V. M.; Dumitru, L.

    2016-03-01

    A much more efficient Ring Imaging Cherenkov sub-detector system will be rebuilt in the second long shutdown of Large Hadron Collider for the LHCb experiment. Radiation-hard electronic components together with Commercial Off-The-Shelf ones will be used in the new Cherenkov photon detection system architecture. An irradiation program was foreseen to determine the radiation tolerance for the new electronic devices, including a Field Programmable Gate Array from KINTEX-7 family of XILINX. An automated test bench for online monitoring of the XC7K70T KINTEX-7 device operation in radiation conditions was designed and implemented by the LHCb Romanian group.

  5. Microprocessing of human hard tooth tissues surface by mid-infrared erbium lasers radiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Belikov, Andrey V.; Shatilova, Ksenia V.; Skrypnik, Alexei V.

    2015-03-01

    A new method of hard tooth tissues laser treatment is described. The method consists in formation of regular microdefects on tissue surface by mid-infrared erbium laser radiation with propagation ratio M2<2 (Er-laser microprocessing). Proposed method was used for preparation of hard tooth tissues surface before filling for improvement of bond strength between tissues surface and restorative materials, microleakage reduction between tissues surface and restorative materials, and for caries prevention as a result of increasing microhardness and acid resistance of tooth enamel.

  6. Hard tooth tissue removal by short and long Er:YAG or Er,Cr:YSGG mid-infrared laser radiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jelínková, H.; Dostálová, T.; Remeš, M.; Šulc, J.; Němec, M.; Fibrich, M.

    2017-02-01

    Hard dental tissue removal by laser radiation is an alternative treatment to conventional dental-drilling procedures. The advantages of this therapy are fast and localized treatment of hard dental tissue and painlessness. The most effective systems for those purposes are Er-lasers generating radiation at wavelengths of around 3 μm. The aim of this study was qualitative and quantitative examination of human dentin and ivory tissue removal by pulsed free-running (FR) and Q-switched (QSW) Er:YAG and Er,Cr:YSGG laser radiations. From the obtained results it follows that generally Er:YAG laser has lower threshold for the tissue removal in both FR and QSW regimes. Furthermore, the FR Er:YAG and Er,Cr:YSGG radiation can be effective for both dentin and ivory ablation and can prepare smooth cavities without side effects. The QSW regime is useful preferably for precise ablation of a starting tooth defect and for the part of the tooth very close to the gum. This regime is excellent for micro-preparation or for tooth treatment of children.

  7. The Spectra of Hard Radiation from Radio Pulsars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malov, I. F.; Machabeli, G. Z.

    2002-08-01

    The kinetic equation for the distribution function of relativistic electrons is solved taking into account quasi-linear interactions with waves and radiative processes. Mean values of the pitch angles ψ are calculated. If the particles of the primary beam with Lorentz factors γb˜106 are resonant, then the condition γbψb≲1 is satisfied, the particle distribution is described by the function f ‖(γ) ∝ γ-4, and the synchrotron radiation spectrum is characterized by the spectral index α=3/2. On the other hand, if a cyclotron resonance is associated with particles of the high-energy tail of the secondary plasma (γt˜105), then γtψt≫1, and the distribution function has two parts—f ‖(γ) ∝ γ and f ‖(γ) ∝ γ-2—which correspond to the spectral indices α1=+1 and α2=-0.5. This behavior is similar to that observed for the pulsar B0656+14. The predicted frequency of the maximum νm=7.5×1016 Hz coincides with the peak frequency for this pulsar. The model estimate for the total synchrotron luminosity of a typical radio pulsar with hard radiation L s =3×1033 erg/s is in agreement with observed values.

  8. Final Technical Report- Radiation Hard Tight Pitch GaInP SPAD Arrays for High Energy Physics

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Harmon, Eric S.

    The specialized photodetectors used in high energy physics experiments often need to remain extremely sensitive for years despite radiation induced damage caused by the constant bombardment of high energy particles. To solve this problem, LightSpin Technologies, Inc. in collaboration with Prof. Bradley Cox and the University of Virginia is developing radiation-hard GaInP photodetectors which are projected to be extraordinarily radiation hard, theoretically capable of withstanding a 100,000-fold higher radiation dose than silicon. In this Phase I SBIR project, LightSpin investigated the performance and radiation hardness of fifth generation GaInP SPAD arrays. These fifth generation devices used a new planar processingmore » approach that enables very tight pitch arrays to be produced. High performance devices with SPAD pitches of 11, 15, and 25 μm were successfully demonstrated, which greatly increased the dynamic range and maximum count rate of the devices. High maximum count rates are critical when considering radiation hardness, since radiation damage causes a proportional increase in the dark count rate, causing SPAD arrays with low maximum count rates (large SPAD pitches) to fail. These GaInP SPAD array Photomultiplier Chips™ were irradiated with protons, electrons, and neutrons. Initial irradiation results were disappointing, with the post-irradiation devices exhibiting excessively high dark currents. The degradation was traced to surface leakage currents that were largely eliminated through the use of trenches etched around the exterior of the Photomultiplier Chip™ (not between SPAD elements). A second round of irradiations on Photomultiplier Chips™ with trenches proved substantially more successful, with post-irradiation dark currents remaining relatively low, though dark count rates were observed to increase at the highest doses. Preliminary analysis of the post-irradiation devices is promising … many of the irradiated Photomultiplier Chips

  9. EFFECTS OF LASER RADIATION ON MATTER. LASER PLASMA: Effect of compression of a laser plasma on the generation of harmonics and hard x radiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Apollonov, V. V.; Derzhavin, S. I.; Kazakov, K. Kh

    1993-02-01

    A compression of a plasma produced at a conical target by a low-intensity beam (q≲10 GW/cm2) from a CO2 laser has been studied. The effect of this compression on the onset of the parametric instability responsible for the generation of harmonics and of hard x radiation has also been studied. A qualitative interpretation of the results is offered.

  10. Proposal to Produce Novel, Transparent Radiation Hard Low Refractive Index

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1994-02-09

    or ainy nht.at NX ftU 1.AECY USE a EP....3RFPfT TYP’E AND DATES~ COV-ERED-- 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE . . FjUNDING NUMBERS PROPOSAL TO PRODUCE NOVEL...cladding use . our research resulted in identifying a radiation hard, low refractive index polymer, poly (heptafluorobutyl methacrylate), P(MFBM) as the best...candidate for a novel ~. cladding material. P(HFB) has a refractive index of 1.387. When used to clada styrene core, the theoretical light propagation

  11. Radiation hardness study of semi-insulating GaAs detectors against 5 MeV electrons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Šagátová, A.; Zaťko, B.; Nečas, V.; Sedlačková, K.; Boháček, P.; Fülöp, M.; Pavlovič, M.

    2018-01-01

    A radiation hardness study of Semi-Insulating (SI) GaAs detectors against 5 MeV electrons is described in this paper. The influence of two parameters, the accumulative absorbed dose (from 1 to 200 kGy) and the applied dose rate (20, 40 or 80 kGy/h), on detector spectrometric properties were studied. The accumulative dose has influenced all evaluated spectrometric properties and also negatively affected the detector CCE (Charge Collection Efficiency). We have observed its systematic reduction from an initial 79% before irradiation down to about 51% at maximum dose of 200 kGy. Relative energy resolution was also influenced by electron irradiation. Its degradation was obvious in the range of doses from 24 up to a maximum dose of 200 kGy, where an increase from 19% up to 31% at 200 V reverse voltage was noticed. On the other hand, a global increase of detection efficiency with accumulative absorbed dose was observed for all samples. Concerning the actual detector degradation we can assume that the tested SI GaAs detectors will be able to operate up to a dose of 300 kGy at least, when irradiated by 5 MeV electrons. The second investigated parameter of irradiation, the dose rate of chosen ranges, did not greatly alter the spectrometric properties of studied detectors.

  12. Implementing QML for radiation hardness assurance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Winokur, P. S.; Sexton, F. W.; Fleetwood, D. M.; Terry, M. D.; Shaneyfelt, M. R.

    1990-12-01

    The US government has proposed a qualified manufacturers list (QML) methodology to qualify integrated circuits for high reliability and radiation hardness. An approach to implementing QML for single-event upset (SEU) immunity on 16k SRAMs that involves relating values of feedback resistance to system error rates is demonstrated. It is seen that the process capability indices, Cp and Cpk, for the manufacture of 400-k-ohm feedback resistors required to provide SEU tolerance do not conform to 6 sigma quality standards. For total-dose, interface trap charge, Delta Vit, shifts measured on transistors are correlated with circuit response in the space environment. Statistical process control (SPC) is illustrated for Delta Vit, and violations of SPC rules are interpreted in terms of continuous improvement. Design validation for SEU and quality conformance inspections for total-dose are identified as major obstacles to cost-effective QML implementation. Techniques and tools that will help QML provide real cost savings are identified as physical models, 3-D device-plus-circuit codes, and improved design simulators.

  13. The role of radiation hard solar cells in minimizing the costs of global satellite communication systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Summers, Geoffrey P.; Walters, Robert J.; Messenger, Scott R.; Burke, Edward A.

    1996-01-01

    An analysis embodied in a PC computer program is presented, which quantitatively demonstrates how the availability of radiation hard solar cells can help minimize the cost of a global satellite communications system. An important distinction between the currently proposed systems, such as Iridium, Odyssey and Ellipsat, is the number of satellites employed and their operating altitudes. Analysis of the major costs associated with implementing these systems shows that operation at orbital altitudes within the earth's radiation belts (10(exp 3) to 10(exp 4)km) can reduce the total cost of a system by several hundred percent, so long as radiation hard components including solar cells can be used. A detailed evaluation of the predicted performance of photovoltaic arrays using several different planar solar cell technologies is given, including commercially available Si and GaAs/Ge, and InP/Si which is currently under development. Several examples of applying the program are given, which show that the end of life (EOL) power density of different technologies can vary by a factor of ten for certain missions. Therefore, although a relatively radiation-soft technology can usually provide the required EOL power by simply increasing the size of the array, the impact upon the total system budget could be unacceptable, due to increased launch and hardware costs. In aggregate, these factors can account for more than a 10% increase in the total system cost. Since the estimated total costs of proposed global-coverage systems range from $1B to $9B, the availability of radiation-hard solar cells could make a decisive difference in the selection of a particular constellation architecture.

  14. Strategies for Radiation Hardness Testing of Power Semiconductor Devices

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Soltis, James V. (Technical Monitor); Patton, Martin O.; Harris, Richard D.; Rohal, Robert G.; Blue, Thomas E.; Kauffman, Andrew C.; Frasca, Albert J.

    2005-01-01

    Plans on the drawing board for future space missions call for much larger power systems than have been flown in the past. These systems would employ much higher voltages and currents to enable more powerful electric propulsion engines and other improvements on what will also be much larger spacecraft. Long term human outposts on the moon and planets would also require high voltage, high current and long life power sources. Only hundreds of watts are produced and controlled on a typical robotic exploration spacecraft today. Megawatt systems are required for tomorrow. Semiconductor devices used to control and convert electrical energy in large space power systems will be exposed to electromagnetic and particle radiation of many types, depending on the trajectory and duration of the mission and on the power source. It is necessary to understand the often very different effects of the radiations on the control and conversion systems. Power semiconductor test strategies that we have developed and employed will be presented, along with selected results. The early results that we have obtained in testing large power semiconductor devices give a good indication of the degradation in electrical performance that can be expected in response to a given dose. We are also able to highlight differences in radiation hardness that may be device or material specific.

  15. Radiation hardness and timing studies of a monolithic TowerJazz pixel design for the new ATLAS Inner Tracker

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Riegel, C.; Backhaus, M.; Van Hoorne, J. W.; Kugathasan, T.; Musa, L.; Pernegger, H.; Riedler, P.; Schaefer, D.; Snoeys, W.; Wagner, W.

    2017-01-01

    A part of the upcoming HL-LHC upgrade of the ATLAS Detector is the construction of a new Inner Tracker. This upgrade opens new possibilities, but also presents challenges in terms of occupancy and radiation tolerance. For the pixel detector inside the inner tracker, hybrid modules containing passive silicon sensors and connected readout chips are presently used, but require expensive assembly techniques like fine-pitch bump bonding. Silicon devices fabricated in standard commercial CMOS technologies, which include part or all of the readout chain, are also investigated offering a reduced cost as they are cheaper per unit area than traditional silicon detectors. If they contain the full readout chain, as for a fully monolithic approach, there is no need for the expensive flip-chip assembly, resulting in a further cost reduction and material savings. In the outer pixel layers of the ATLAS Inner Tracker, the pixel sensors must withstand non-ionising energy losses of up to 1015 n/cm2 and offer a timing resolution of 25 ns or less. This paper presents test results obtained on a monolithic test chip, the TowerJazz 180nm Investigator, towards these specifications. The presented program of radiation hardness and timing studies has been launched to investigate this technology's potential for the new ATLAS Inner Tracker.

  16. AlGaN UV LED and Photodiodes Radiation Hardness and Space Qualifications and Their Applications in Space Science and High Energy Density Physics

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sun, K. X.

    2011-05-31

    This presentation provides an overview of robust, radiation hard AlGaN optoelectronic devices and their applications in space exploration & high energy density physics. Particularly, deep UV LED and deep UV photodiodes are discussed with regard to their applications, radiation hardness and space qualification. AC charge management of UV LED satellite payload instruments, which were to be launched in late 2012, is covered.

  17. Radiation damage study of thin YAG:Ce scintillator using low-energy protons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Novotný, P.; Linhart, V.

    2017-07-01

    Radiation hardness of a 50 μ m thin YAG:Ce scintillator in a form of dependence of a signal efficiency on 3.1 MeV proton fluence was measured and analysed using X-ray beam. The signal efficiency is a ratio of signals given by a CCD chip after and before radiation damage. The CCD chip was placed outside the primary beam because of its protection from damage which could be caused by radiation. Using simplified assumptions, the 3.1 MeV proton fluences were recalculated to: ṡ 150 MeV proton fluences with intention to estimate radiation damage of this sample under conditions at proton therapy centres during medical treatment, ṡ 150 MeV proton doses with intention to give a chance to compare radiation hardness of the studied sample with radiation hardness of other detectors used in medical physics, ṡ 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluences with intention to compare radiation hardness of the studied sample with properties of position sensitive silicon and diamond detectors used in nuclear and particle physics. The following results of our research were obtained. The signal efficiency of the studied sample varies slightly (± 3%) up to 3.1 MeV proton fluence of c. (4 - 8) × 1014 cm-2. This limit is equivalent to 150 MeV proton fluence of (5 - 9) × 1016 cm-2, 150 MeV proton dose of (350 - 600) kGy and 1 MeV neutron fluence of (1 - 2) × 1016 cm-2. Beyond the limit, the signal efficiency goes gradually down. Fifty percent decrease in the signal efficiency is reached around 3.1 MeV fluence of (1 - 2) × 1016 cm-2 which is equivalent to 150 MeV proton fluence of around 2 × 1018 cm-2, 150 MeV proton dose of around 15 MGy and 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence of (4 - 8) × 1017 cm-2. In contrast with position sensitive silicon and diamond radiation detectors, the studied sample has at least two order of magnitude greater radiation resistance. Therefore, YAG:Ce scintillator is a suitable material for monitoring of primary beams of particles of ionizing radiation.

  18. Radiation-damage-induced transitions in zircon: Percolation theory applied to hardness and elastic moduli as a function of density

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beirau, Tobias; Nix, William D.; Ewing, Rodney C.; Pöllmann, Herbert; Salje, Ekhard K. H.

    2018-05-01

    Two in literature predicted percolation transitions in radiation-damaged zircon (ZrSiO4) were observed experimentally by measurement of the indentation hardness as a function of density and their correlation with the elastic moduli. Percolations occur near 30% and 70% amorphous fractions, where hardness deviates from its linear correlation with the elastic modulus (E), the shear modulus (G) and the bulk modulus (K). The first percolation point pc1 generates a cusp in the hardness versus density evolution, while the second percolation point is seen as a change of slope.

  19. Readout and Data Acquisition for a Liquid Radiator Radiation Exposure Test

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lantz, Chad

    2017-09-01

    The ATLAS Zero Degree Calorimeter (ZDC) prototype is a tungsten-sampling, oil/quartz radiating calorimeter placed on each side of the interaction point. The ZDC is used in heavy ion runs for centrality measurements. The UIUC group develops a ZDC that is significantly more radiation hard than the currently employed detector. The current ZDC uses scintillating quartz rods placed directly in the beamline whose optical transmission is known to degrade as a function of radiation dosage. Our prototype uses organic wavelength shifters (WLS) dissolved in oil in two stages to take Cherenkov light produced in the oil by the particle shower and guide it to a photodetector. This design allows the quartz rods be located away from the beam center to experience a lower radiation dose, and the oil containing WLS can be replaced periodically to negate radiation damage. Quantum dots are studied as a more radiation hard alternative to WLS. This increase in radiation hardness will allow ATLAS to operate the ZDC after the luminosity upgrades planned for the LHC. A test setup has been developed for the study of radiation hardness of liquid Cherenkov radiators and wavelength shifters. The setup will be described in this presentation with a focus on the readout electronics and data acquisition.

  20. Studies in useful hard x-ray induced chemistry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pravica, Michael; Bai, Ligang; Sneed, Daniel; Park, Changyong

    2013-06-01

    The observed rapid decomposition of potassium chlorate (via 2KClO3 + h ν --> 2KCl +3O2) via synchrotron hard x-ray irradiation (>10 keV) has enabled experiments that are developing novel and useful hard x-ray chemistry. We have observed a number of radiation-induced in situ decomposition reactions in various substances which release O2, H2, N2, NH3, and H2O in a diamond anvil cell (DAC) at ambient and high pressures. These novel acatalytic and isothermal reactions represent a highly controllable, penetrating, and focused method to initiate chemistry (including x-ray induced combustion) in sealed and/or isolated chambers which maintain matter under extreme conditions. During our studies, we have typically observed a slowing of decomposition with pressure including phase dependent decomposition of KClO3. Energy dependent studies have observed an apparent resonance near 15 keV at which the decomposition rate is maximized. This may enable use of much lower flux and portable x-ray sources (e.g. x-ray tubes) in larger scale experiments. These developments support novel means to load DACs and control chemical reactions providing novel routes of synthesis of novel materials under extreme conditions.

  1. Radiation Hardness of dSiPM Sensors in a Proton Therapy Radiation Environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Diblen, Faruk; Buitenhuis, Tom; Solf, Torsten; Rodrigues, Pedro; van der Graaf, Emiel; van Goethem, Marc-Jan; Brandenburg, Sytze; Dendooven, Peter

    2017-07-01

    In vivo verification of dose delivery in proton therapy by means of positron emission tomography (PET) or prompt gamma imaging is mostly based on fast scintillation detectors. The digital silicon photomultiplier (dSiPM) allows excellent scintillation detector timing properties and is thus being considered for such verification methods. We present here the results of the first investigation of radiation damage to dSiPM sensors in a proton therapy radiation environment. Radiation hardness experiments were performed at the AGOR cyclotron facility at the KVI-Center for Advanced Radiation Technology, University of Groningen. A 150-MeV proton beam was fully stopped in a water target. In the first experiment, bare dSiPM sensors were placed at 25 cm from the Bragg peak, perpendicular to the beam direction, a geometry typical for an in situ implementation of a PET or prompt gamma imaging device. In the second experiment, dSiPM-based PET detectors containing lutetium yttrium orthosilicate scintillator crystal arrays were placed at 2 and 4 m from the Bragg peak, perpendicular to the beam direction; resembling an in-room PET implementation. Furthermore, the experimental setup was simulated with a Geant4-based Monte Carlo code in order to determine the angular and energy distributions of the neutrons and to determine the 1-MeV equivalent neutron fluences delivered to the dSiPM sensors. A noticeable increase in dark count rate (DCR) after an irradiation with about 108 1-MeV equivalent neutrons/cm2 agrees with observations by others for analog SiPMs, indicating that the radiation damage occurs in the single photon avalanche diodes and not in the electronics integrated on the sensor chip. It was found that in the in situ location, the DCR becomes too large for successful operation after the equivalent of a few weeks of use in a proton therapy treatment room (about 5 × 1013 protons). For PET detectors in an in-room setup, detector performance was unchanged even after an

  2. The role of radiation hard solar cells in minimizing the costs of global satellite communications systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Summers, Geoffrey P.; Walters, Robert J.; Messenger, Scott R.; Burke, Edward A.

    1995-01-01

    An analysis embodied in a PC computer program is presented which quantitatively demonstrates how the availability of radiation hard solar cells can minimize the cost of a global satellite communication system. The chief distinction between the currently proposed systems, such as Iridium Odyssey and Ellipsat, is the number of satellites employed and their operating altitudes. Analysis of the major costs associated with implementing these systems shows that operation within the earth's radiation belts can reduce the total system cost by as much as a factor of two, so long as radiation hard components including solar cells, can be used. A detailed evaluation of several types of planar solar cells is given, including commercially available Si and GaAs/Ge cells, and InP/Si cells which are under development. The computer program calculates the end of life (EOL) power density of solar arrays taking into account the cell geometry, coverglass thickness, support frame, electrical interconnects, etc. The EOL power density can be determined for any altitude from low earth orbit (LEO) to geosynchronous (GEO) and for equatorial to polar planes of inclination. The mission duration can be varied over the entire range planned for the proposed satellite systems. An algorithm is included in the program for determining the degradation of cell efficiency for different cell technologies due to proton and electron irradiation. The program can be used to determine the optimum configuration for any cell technology for a particular orbit and for a specified mission life. Several examples of applying the program are presented, in which it is shown that the EOL power density of different technologies can vary by an order of magnitude for certain missions. Therefore, although a relatively radiation soft technology can be made to provide the required EOL power by simply increasing the size of the array, the impact on the total system budget could be unacceptable, due to increased launch and

  3. Effects of gamma radiation on hard dental tissues of albino rats: investigation by light microscopy.

    PubMed

    El-Faramawy, Nabil; Ameen, Reham; El-Haddad, Khaled; El-Zainy, Medhat

    2013-08-01

    The present work aims at studying the effect of gamma radiation on the hard dental tissues. Eighty adult male albino rats with weights of about 250 g were used. The rats were irradiated at 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0 Gy whole-body gamma doses. The effects on hard dental tissue samples were investigated after 48 h in histological and ground sections using light microscopy. Areas of acid phosphatase activity were detected using tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) stains. Observation of histological sections revealed disturbance in predentin thickness and odontoblastic layer as the irradiation dose increased. In cementum, widened cementocytes lacunae were occasionally detected even with low irradiated doses. On the other hand, relatively homogenous enamel was detected with darkened areas in enamel surface at doses over than 0.5 Gy. TRAP-positive cells were detected on the surface of the dentin of irradiated groups as well as cementum surface. Minimal detectable changes were observed in ground sections.

  4. Radiation hardness assessment of the charge-integrating hybrid pixel detector JUNGFRAU 1.0 for photon science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jungmann-Smith, J. H.; Bergamaschi, A.; Brückner, M.; Cartier, S.; Dinapoli, R.; Greiffenberg, D.; Jaggi, A.; Maliakal, D.; Mayilyan, D.; Medjoubi, K.; Mezza, D.; Mozzanica, A.; Ramilli, M.; Ruder, Ch.; Schädler, L.; Schmitt, B.; Shi, X.; Tinti, G.

    2015-12-01

    JUNGFRAU (adJUstiNg Gain detector FoR the Aramis User station) is a two-dimensional hybrid pixel detector for photon science applications in free electron lasers, particularly SwissFEL, and synchrotron light sources. JUNGFRAU is an automatic gain switching, charge-integrating detector which covers a dynamic range of more than 104 photons of an energy of 12 keV with a good linearity, uniformity of response, and spatial resolving power. The JUNGFRAU 1.0 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) features a 256 × 256 pixel matrix of 75 × 75 μm2 pixels and is bump-bonded to a 320 μm thick Si sensor. Modules of 2 × 4 chips cover an area of about 4 × 8 cm2. Readout rates in excess of 2 kHz enable linear count rate capabilities of 20 MHz (at 12 keV) and 50 MHz (at 5 keV). The tolerance of JUNGFRAU to radiation is a key issue to guarantee several years of operation at free electron lasers and synchrotrons. The radiation hardness of JUNGFRAU 1.0 is tested with synchrotron radiation up to 10 MGy of delivered dose. The effect of radiation-induced changes on the noise, baseline, gain, and gain switching is evaluated post-irradiation for both the ASIC and the hybridized assembly. The bare JUNGFRAU 1.0 chip can withstand doses as high as 10 MGy with minor changes to its noise and a reduction in the preamplifier gain. The hybridized assembly, in particular the sensor, is affected by the photon irradiation which mainly shows as an increase in the leakage current. Self-healing of the system is investigated during a period of 11 weeks after the delivery of the radiation dose. Annealing radiation-induced changes by bake-out at 100 °C is investigated. It is concluded that the JUNGFRAU 1.0 pixel is sufficiently radiation-hard for its envisioned applications at SwissFEL and synchrotron beam lines.

  5. Radiation Hardness tests with neutron flux on different Silicon photomultiplier devices

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cattaneo, P. W.; Cervi, T.; Menegolli, A.; Oddone, M.; Prata, M.; Prata, M. C.; Rossella, M.

    2017-07-01

    Radiation hardness is an important requirement for solid state readout devices operating in high radiation environments common in particle physics experiments. The MEG II experiment, at PSI, Switzerland, investigates the forbidden decay μ+ → e+ γ. Exploiting the most intense muon beam of the world. A significant flux of non-thermal neutrons (kinetic energy Ek>= 0.5 MeV) is present in the experimental hall produced along the beam-line and in the hall itself. We present the effects of neutron fluxes comparable to the MEG II expected doses on several Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPMs). The tested models are: AdvanSiD ASD-NUV3S-P50 (used in MEG II experiment), AdvanSiD ASD-NUV3S-P40, AdvanSiD ASD-RGB3S-P40, Hamamatsu and Excelitas C30742-33-050-X. The neutron source is the thermal Sub-critical Multiplication complex (SM1) moderated with water, located at the University of Pavia (Italy). We report the change of SiPMs most important electric parameters: dark current, dark pulse frequency, gain, direct bias resistance, as a function of the integrated neutron fluency.

  6. Photodiode radiation hardness, lyman-alpha emitting galaxies and photon detection in liquid argon neutrino detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baptista, Brian

    2013-12-01

    My dissertation is comprised of three projects: 1) studies of Lyman-alpha Emitting galaxies (LAEs), 2) radiation hardness studies of InGaAs photodiodes (PDs), and 3) scintillation photon detection in liquid argon (LAr) neutrino detectors. I began work on the project that has now become WFIRST, developing a science case that would use WFIRST after launch for the observation of LAEs. The radiation hardness of PDs was as an effort to support the WFIRST calibration team. When WFIRST was significantly delayed, I joined an R&D effort that applied my skills to work on photon detection in LAr neutrino detectors. I report results on a broadband selection method developed to detect high equivalent width (EW) LAEs. Using photometry from the CFHT-Legacy Survey Deep 2 and 3 fields, I have spectroscopically confirmed 63 z=2.5-3.5 LAEs using the WIYN/Hydra spectrograph. Using UV continuum-fitting techniques I computed properties such as EWs, internal reddening and star formation rates. 62 of my LAEs show evidence to be normal dust-free LAEs. Second, I present an investigation into the effects of ionizing proton radiation on commercial off-the-shelf InGaAs PDs. I developed a monochromator-based test apparatus that utilized NIST-calibrated reference PDs. I tested the PDs for changes to their dark current, relative responsivity as a function of wavelength, and absolute responsivity. I irradiated the test PDs using 30, 52, and 98 MeV protons at the IU Cyclotron Facility. I found the InGaAs PDs showed increased dark current as the fluence increased with no evidence of broadband response degradation at the fluences expected at an L2 orbit and a 10-year mission lifetime. Finally, I detail my efforts on technology development of both optical detector technologies and waveshifting light guide construction for LAr vacuum UV scintillation light. Cryogenic neutrino detectors use photon detection for both accelerator based science and for SNe neutrino detection and proton decay. I have

  7. High-resolution single-shot spectral monitoring of hard x-ray free-electron laser radiation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Makita, M.; Karvinen, P.; Zhu, D.

    We have developed an on-line spectrometer for hard x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) radiation based on a nanostructured diamond diffraction grating and a bent crystal analyzer. Our method provides high spectral resolution, interferes negligibly with the XFEL beam, and can withstand the intense hard x-ray pulses at high repetition rates of >100 Hz. The spectrometer is capable of providing shot-to-shot spectral information for the normalization of data obtained in scientific experiments and optimization of the accelerator operation parameters. We have demonstrated these capabilities of the setup at the Linac Coherent Light Source, in self-amplified spontaneous emission mode at full energy ofmore » >1 mJ with a 120 Hz repetition rate, obtaining a resolving power of Ε/δΕ > 3 × 10 4. In conclusion, the device was also used to monitor the effects of pulse duration down to 8 fs by analysis of the spectral spike width.« less

  8. High-resolution single-shot spectral monitoring of hard x-ray free-electron laser radiation

    DOE PAGES

    Makita, M.; Karvinen, P.; Zhu, D.; ...

    2015-10-16

    We have developed an on-line spectrometer for hard x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) radiation based on a nanostructured diamond diffraction grating and a bent crystal analyzer. Our method provides high spectral resolution, interferes negligibly with the XFEL beam, and can withstand the intense hard x-ray pulses at high repetition rates of >100 Hz. The spectrometer is capable of providing shot-to-shot spectral information for the normalization of data obtained in scientific experiments and optimization of the accelerator operation parameters. We have demonstrated these capabilities of the setup at the Linac Coherent Light Source, in self-amplified spontaneous emission mode at full energy ofmore » >1 mJ with a 120 Hz repetition rate, obtaining a resolving power of Ε/δΕ > 3 × 10 4. In conclusion, the device was also used to monitor the effects of pulse duration down to 8 fs by analysis of the spectral spike width.« less

  9. Cryogenic and radiation-hard asic for interfacing large format NIR/SWIR detector arrays

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Peng; Dupont, Benoit; Dierickx, Bart; Müller, Eric; Verbruggen, Geert; Gielis, Stijn; Valvekens, Ramses

    2017-11-01

    For scientific and earth observation space missions, weight and power consumption is usually a critical factor. In order to obtain better vehicle integration, efficiency and controllability for large format NIR/SWIR detector arrays, a prototype ASIC is designed. It performs multiple detector array interfacing, power regulation and data acquisition operations inside the cryogenic chambers. Both operation commands and imaging data are communicated via the SpaceWire interface which will significantly reduce the number of wire goes in and out the cryogenic chamber. This "ASIC" prototype is realized in 0.18um CMOS technology and is designed for radiation hardness.

  10. Rad-Hard/HI-REL FPGA

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wang, Jih-Jong; Cronquist, Brian E.; McGowan, John E.; Katz, Richard B.

    1997-01-01

    The goals for a radiation hardened (RAD-HARD) and high reliability (HI-REL) field programmable gate array (FPGA) are described. The first qualified manufacturer list (QML) radiation hardened RH1280 and RH1020 were developed. The total radiation dose and single event effects observed on the antifuse FPGA RH1280 are reported on. Tradeoffs and the limitations in the single event upset hardening are discussed.

  11. Radiation-Hard SpaceWire/Gigabit Ethernet-Compatible Transponder

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Katzman, Vladimir

    2012-01-01

    A radiation-hard transponder was developed utilizing submicron/nanotechnology from IBM. The device consumes low power and has a low fabrication cost. This device utilizes a Plug-and-Play concept, and can be integrated into intra-satellite networks, supporting SpaceWire and Gigabit Ethernet I/O. A space-qualified, 100-pin package also was developed, allowing space-qualified (class K) transponders to be delivered within a six-month time frame. The novel, optical, radiation-tolerant transponder was implemented as a standalone board, containing the transponder ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) and optical module, with an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) friendly parallel interface. It features improved radiation tolerance; high-data-rate, low-power consumption; and advanced functionality. The transponder utilizes a patented current mode logic library of radiation-hardened-by-architecture cells. The transponder was developed, fabricated, and radhard tested up to 1 MRad. It was fabricated using 90-nm CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) 9 SF process from IBM, and incorporates full BIT circuitry, allowing a loop back test. The low-speed parallel LVCMOS (lowvoltage complementary metal oxide semiconductor) bus is compatible with Actel FPGA. The output LVDS (low-voltage differential signaling) interface operates up to 1.5 Gb/s. Built-in CDR (clock-data recovery) circuitry provides robust synchronization and incorporates two alarm signals such as synch loss and signal loss. The ultra-linear peak detector scheme allows on-line control of the amplitude of the input signal. Power consumption is less than 300 mW. The developed transponder with a 1.25 Gb/s serial data rate incorporates a 10-to-1 serializer with an internal clock multiplication unit and a 10-1 deserializer with internal clock and data recovery block, which can operate with 8B10B encoded signals. Three loop-back test modes are provided to facilitate the built-in-test functionality. The

  12. Fault tolerant, radiation hard, high performance digital signal processor

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Holmann, Edgar; Linscott, Ivan R.; Maurer, Michael J.; Tyler, G. L.; Libby, Vibeke

    1990-01-01

    An architecture has been developed for a high-performance VLSI digital signal processor that is highly reliable, fault-tolerant, and radiation-hard. The signal processor, part of a spacecraft receiver designed to support uplink radio science experiments at the outer planets, organizes the connections between redundant arithmetic resources, register files, and memory through a shuffle exchange communication network. The configuration of the network and the state of the processor resources are all under microprogram control, which both maps the resources according to algorithmic needs and reconfigures the processing should a failure occur. In addition, the microprogram is reloadable through the uplink to accommodate changes in the science objectives throughout the course of the mission. The processor will be implemented with silicon compiler tools, and its design will be verified through silicon compilation simulation at all levels from the resources to full functionality. By blending reconfiguration with redundancy the processor implementation is fault-tolerant and reliable, and possesses the long expected lifetime needed for a spacecraft mission to the outer planets.

  13. Effects of gamma radiation on hard dental tissues of albino rats using scanning electron microscope - Part 1

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    El-Faramawy, Nabil; Ameen, Reham; El-Haddad, Khaled; Maghraby, Ahmed; El-Zainy, Medhat

    2011-12-01

    In the present study, 40 adult male albino rats were used to study the effect of gamma radiation on the hard dental tissues (enamel surface, dentinal tubules and the cementum surface). The rats were irradiated at 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0 Gy gamma doses. The effects of irradiated hard dental tissues samples were investigated using a scanning electron microscope. For doses up to 0.5 Gy, there was no evidence of the existence of cracks on the enamel surface. With 1 Gy irradiation dose, cracks were clearly observed with localized erosive areas. At 2 Gy irradiation dose, the enamel showed morphological alterations as disturbed prismatic and interprismatic areas. An increase in dentinal tubules diameter and a contemporary inter-tubular dentine volume decrease were observed with higher irradiation dose. Concerning cementum, low doses,<0.5 Gy, showed surface irregularities and with increase in the irradiation dose to≥1 Gy, noticeable surface irregularities and erosive areas with decrease in Sharpey's fiber sites were observed. These observations could shed light on the hazardous effects of irradiation fields to the functioning of the human teeth.

  14. The Hadronic Origin of the Hard Gamma-Ray Spectrum from Blazar 1ES 1101-232

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cao, Gang; Wang, Jiancheng

    2014-03-01

    The very hard γ-ray spectrum from distant blazars challenges the traditional synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model, which may indicate that there is a contribution from an additional high-energy component beyond the SSC emission. In this paper, we study the possible origin of the hard γ-ray spectrum from distant blazars. We develop a model to explain the hard γ-ray spectrum from blazar 1ES 1101-232. In the model, the optical and X-ray radiation would come from the synchrotron radiation of primary electrons and secondary pairs and the GeV emission would be produced by the SSC process, however, the hard γ-ray spectrum would originate from the decay of neutral pion produced through proton-photon interactions with the synchrotron radiation photons within the jet. Our model can explain the observed spectral energy distribution of 1ES 1101-232 well, especially the very hard γ-ray spectrum. However, our model requires a very large proton power to efficiently produce the γ-ray through proton-photon interactions.

  15. Single-Event Gate Rupture in Power MOSFETs: A New Radiation Hardness Assurance Approach

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lauenstein, Jean-Marie

    2011-01-01

    Almost every space mission uses vertical power metal-semiconductor-oxide field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) in its power-supply circuitry. These devices can fail catastrophically due to single-event gate rupture (SEGR) when exposed to energetic heavy ions. To reduce SEGR failure risk, the off-state operating voltages of the devices are derated based upon radiation tests at heavy-ion accelerator facilities. Testing is very expensive. Even so, data from these tests provide only a limited guide to on-orbit performance. In this work, a device simulation-based method is developed to measure the response to strikes from heavy ions unavailable at accelerator facilities but posing potential risk on orbit. This work is the first to show that the present derating factor, which was established from non-radiation reliability concerns, is appropriate to reduce on-orbit SEGR failure risk when applied to data acquired from ions with appropriate penetration range. A second important outcome of this study is the demonstration of the capability and usefulness of this simulation technique for augmenting SEGR data from accelerator beam facilities. The mechanisms of SEGR are two-fold: the gate oxide is weakened by the passage of the ion through it, and the charge ionized along the ion track in the silicon transiently increases the oxide electric field. Most hardness assurance methodologies consider the latter mechanism only. This work demonstrates through experiment and simulation that the gate oxide response should not be neglected. In addition, the premise that the temporary weakening of the oxide due to the ion interaction with it, as opposed to due to the transient oxide field generated from within the silicon, is validated. Based upon these findings, a new approach to radiation hardness assurance for SEGR in power MOSFETs is defined to reduce SEGR risk in space flight projects. Finally, the potential impact of accumulated dose over the course of a space mission on SEGR

  16. The differential absorption hard x-ray spectrometer at the Z facility

    DOE PAGES

    Bell, Kate S.; Coverdale, Christine A.; Ampleford, David J.; ...

    2017-08-03

    The Differential Absorption Hard X-ray (DAHX) spectrometer is a diagnostic developed to measure time-resolved radiation between 60 keV and 2 MeV at the Z Facility. It consists of an array of 7 Si PIN diodes in a tungsten housing that provides collimation and coarse spectral resolution through differential filters. DAHX is a revitalization of the Hard X-Ray Spectrometer (HXRS) that was fielded on Z prior to refurbishment in 2006. DAHX has been tailored to the present radiation environment in Z to provide information on the power, spectral shape, and time profile of the hard emission by plasma radiation sources drivenmore » by the Z Machine.« less

  17. AN ONLINE, RADIATION HARD PROTON ENERGY-RESOLVING SCINTILLATOR STACK FOR LASER-DRIVEN PROTON BUNCHES.

    PubMed

    Englbrecht, Franz Siegfried; Würl, Matthias; Olivari, Francesco; Ficorella, Andrea; Kreuzer, Christian; Lindner, Florian H; Palma, Matteo Dalla; Pancheri, Lucio; Betta, Gian-Franco Dalla; Schreiber, Jörg; Quaranta, Alberto; Parodi, Katia

    2018-02-03

    We report on a scintillator-based online detection system for the spectral characterization of polychromatic proton bunches. Using up to nine stacked layers of radiation hard polysiloxane scintillators, coupled to and readout edge-on by a large area pixelated CMOS detector, impinging polychromatic proton bunches were characterized. The energy spectra were reconstructed using calibration data and simulated using Monte-Carlo simulations. Despite the scintillator stack showed some problems like thickness inhomogeneities and unequal layer coupling, the prototype allows to obtain a first estimate of the energy spectrum of proton beams. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  18. Radiation-Hardened Solid-State Drive

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sheldon, Douglas J.

    2010-01-01

    A method is provided for a radiationhardened (rad-hard) solid-state drive for space mission memory applications by combining rad-hard and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) non-volatile memories (NVMs) into a hybrid architecture. The architecture is controlled by a rad-hard ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) or a FPGA (field programmable gate array). Specific error handling and data management protocols are developed for use in a rad-hard environment. The rad-hard memories are smaller in overall memory density, but are used to control and manage radiation-induced errors in the main, and much larger density, non-rad-hard COTS memory devices. Small amounts of rad-hard memory are used as error buffers and temporary caches for radiation-induced errors in the large COTS memories. The rad-hard ASIC/FPGA implements a variety of error-handling protocols to manage these radiation-induced errors. The large COTS memory is triplicated for protection, and CRC-based counters are calculated for sub-areas in each COTS NVM array. These counters are stored in the rad-hard non-volatile memory. Through monitoring, rewriting, regeneration, triplication, and long-term storage, radiation-induced errors in the large NV memory are managed. The rad-hard ASIC/FPGA also interfaces with the external computer buses.

  19. Sustainably Sourced, Thermally Resistant, Radiation Hard Biopolymer

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pugel, Diane

    2011-01-01

    This material represents a breakthrough in the production, manufacturing, and application of thermal protection system (TPS) materials and radiation shielding, as this represents the first effort to develop a non-metallic, non-ceramic, biomaterial-based, sustainable TPS with the capability to also act as radiation shielding. Until now, the standing philosophy for radiation shielding involved carrying the shielding at liftoff or utilizing onboard water sources. This shielding material could be grown onboard and applied as needed prior to different radiation landscapes (commonly seen during missions involving gravitational assists). The material is a bioplastic material. Bioplastics are any combination of a biopolymer and a plasticizer. In this case, the biopolymer is a starch-based material and a commonly accessible plasticizer. Starch molecules are composed of two major polymers: amylase and amylopectin. The biopolymer phenolic compounds are common to the ablative thermal protection system family of materials. With similar constituents come similar chemical ablation processes, with the potential to have comparable, if not better, ablation characteristics. It can also be used as a flame-resistant barrier for commercial applications in buildings, homes, cars, and heater firewall material. The biopolymer is observed to undergo chemical transformations (oxidative and structural degradation) at radiation doses that are 1,000 times the maximum dose of an unmanned mission (10-25 Mrad), indicating that it would be a viable candidate for robust radiation shielding. As a comparison, the total integrated radiation dose for a three-year manned mission to Mars is 0.1 krad, far below the radiation limit at which starch molecules degrade. For electron radiation, the biopolymer starches show minimal deterioration when exposed to energies greater than 180 keV. This flame-resistant, thermal-insulating material is non-hazardous and may be sustainably sourced. It poses no hazardous

  20. The study of pinch regimes based on radiation-enhanced compression and anomalous resistivity phenomena and their effects on hard x-ray emission in a Mather type dense plasma focus device (SABALAN2)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Piriaei, D.; Mahabadi, T. D.; Javadi, S.; Ghoranneviss, M.; Saw, S. H.; Lee, S.

    2015-12-01

    In this study, by using argon and nitrogen as the filling gases in a Mather type dense plasma focus device at different values of pressure and charging voltage, two different kinds of pinch regimes were observed for each of the gases. The physics of the pinch regimes could be explained by using the two versions of the Lee's computational model which predicted each of the scenarios and clarified their differences between the two gases according to the radiation-enhanced compression and, additionally, predicted the pinch regimes through the anomalous resistivity effect during the pinch time. This was accomplished through the fitting process (simulation) on the current signal. Moreover, the characteristic amplitude and time scales of the anomalous resistances were obtained. The correlations between the features of the plasma current dip and the emitted hard x-ray pulses were observed. The starting time, intensity, duration, and the multiple or single feature of the emitted hard x-ray strongly correlated to the same respective features of the current dip.

  1. Improvement of hot-carrier and radiation hardnesses in metal-oxide-nitride-oxide semiconductor devices by irradiation-then-anneal treatments

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chang-Liao, K.S.; Hwu, J.G.

    The hardnesses of hot-carrier and radiation of metal-oxide nitride-oxide semiconductor (MONOS) devices can be improved by the irradiation-then-anneal (ITA) treatments. Each treatment includes an irradiation of Co-60 with a total dose of 1M rads(SiO[sub 2]) and an anneal in N[sub 2] at 400 C for 10 min successively. This improvement can be explained by the release of SiO[sub 2]/Si interfacial strain.

  2. Studying Hardness Meter Spring Strength to Understand Hardness Distribution on Body Surfaces.

    PubMed

    Arima, Yoshitaka

    2017-10-01

    For developing a hardness multipoint measurement system for understanding hardness distribution on biological body surfaces, we investigated the spring strength of the contact portion main axis of a biological tissue hardness meter (product name: PEK). We measured the hardness of three-layered sheets of six types of gel sheets (90 mm × 60 mm × 6 mm) constituting the acupuncture practice pads, with PEK measurements of 1.96 N, 2.94 N, 3.92 N, 4.90 N, 5.88 N, 6.86 N, 7.84 N, 8.82 N, and 9.81 N of the main axis spring strength. We obtained measurements 10 times for the gel sheets and simultaneously measured the load using a digital scale. We measured the hardness distribution of induration embedded and breast cancer palpation models, with a main axis with 1.96 N, 4.90 N, and 9.81 N spring strengths, to create a two-dimensional Contour Fill Chart. Using 4.90 N spring strength, we could obtain measurement loads of ≤3.0 N, and the mean hardness was 5.14 mm. This was close to the median of the total measurement range 0.0-10.0 mm, making the measurement range the largest for this spring strength. We could image the induration of the induration-embedded model regardless of the spring strength. Overall, 4.90 N spring strength was best suited for imaging cancer in the breast cancer palpation model. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  3. The variation in surface morphology and hardness of human deciduous teeth samples after laser irradiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khalid, Arooj; Bashir, Shazia; Akram, Mahreen; Salman Ahmed, Qazi

    2017-11-01

    The variation in surface morphology and hardness of human deciduous teeth samples has been investigated after laser irradiation at different wavelengths and energies. Nd:YAG was employed as a source of irradiation for IR (1064 nm) and visible (532 nm) radiation, whereas an excimer laser was used as the source of UV (248 nm) radiation. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis was carried out to reveal the surface morphological evolution of teeth samples. Vickers microhardness tester was employed to investigate the modifications in the hardness of the laser-treated samples. It is observed from SEM analysis that IR wavelength is responsible for ablation of collagen matrix and intertubular dentine. For visible radiation, the ablation of collagen along with hydroxypatite is observed. With UV radiation, the ablation of peritubular dentine is dominant and is responsible for the sealing of tubules. The decrease in hardness at lower energy for both wavelengths is due to the evaporation of carbon content. With increasing energy, evaporation of water along with carbon content, and resolidification and re-organization of inorganic content causes the increase in hardness of the treated dentine. SEM as well as microhardness analyses reveal that laser wavelengths and energy of laser radiation significantly influence the surface morphology and hardness of samples.

  4. RAD hard PROM design study

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1981-01-01

    The results of a preliminary study on the design of a radiation hardened fusible link programmable read-only memory (PROM) are presented. Various fuse technologies and the effects of radiation on MOS integrated circuits are surveyed. A set of design rules allowing the fabrication of a radiation hardened PROM using a Si-gate CMOS process is defined. A preliminary cell layout was completed and the programming concept defined. A block diagram is used to describe the circuit components required for a 4 K design. A design goal data sheet giving target values for the AC, DC, and radiation parameters of the circuit is presented.

  5. Radiation Hard Bandpass Filters for Mid- to Far-IR Planetary Instruments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Brown, Ari D.; Aslam, Shahid; Chervenack, James A.; Huang, Wei-Chung; Merrell, Willie C.; Quijada, Manuel; Steptoe-Jackson, Rosalind; Wollack, Edward J.

    2012-01-01

    We present a novel method to fabricate compact metal mesh bandpass filters for use in mid- to far-infrared planetary instruments operating in the 20-600 micron wavelength spectral regime. Our target applications include thermal mapping instruments on ESA's JUICE as well as on a de-scoped JEO. These filters are novel because they are compact, customizable, free-standing copper mesh resonant bandpass filters with micromachined silicon support frames. The filters are well suited for thermal mapping mission to the outer planets and their moons because the filter material is radiation hard. Furthermore, the silicon support frame allows for effective hybridization with sensors made on silicon substrates. Using a Fourier Transform Spectrometer, we have demonstrated high transmittance within the passband as well as good out-of-band rejection [1]. In addition, we have developed a unique method of filter stacking in order to increase the bandwidth and sharpen the roll-off of the filters. This method allows one to reliably control the spacing between filters to within 2 microns. Furthermore, our method allows for reliable control over the relative position and orienta-tion between the shared faces of the filters.

  6. Comparative study of microwave radiation-induced magnetoresistive oscillations induced by circularly- and linearly- polarized photo-excitation

    PubMed Central

    Ye, Tianyu; Liu, Han-Chun; Wang, Zhuo; Wegscheider, W.; Mani, Ramesh G.

    2015-01-01

    A comparative study of the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in the high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure two dimensional electron system (2DES) under linearly- and circularly- polarized microwave excitation indicates a profound difference in the response observed upon rotating the microwave launcher for the two cases, although circularly polarized microwave radiation induced magnetoresistance oscillations observed at low magnetic fields are similar to the oscillations observed with linearly polarized radiation. For the linearly polarized radiation, the magnetoresistive response is a strong sinusoidal function of the launcher rotation (or linear polarization) angle, θ. For circularly polarized radiation, the oscillatory magnetoresistive response is hardly sensitive to θ. PMID:26450679

  7. Comparative study of microwave radiation-induced magnetoresistive oscillations induced by circularly- and linearly- polarized photo-excitation.

    PubMed

    Ye, Tianyu; Liu, Han-Chun; Wang, Zhuo; Wegscheider, W; Mani, Ramesh G

    2015-10-09

    A comparative study of the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in the high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure two dimensional electron system (2DES) under linearly- and circularly- polarized microwave excitation indicates a profound difference in the response observed upon rotating the microwave launcher for the two cases, although circularly polarized microwave radiation induced magnetoresistance oscillations observed at low magnetic fields are similar to the oscillations observed with linearly polarized radiation. For the linearly polarized radiation, the magnetoresistive response is a strong sinusoidal function of the launcher rotation (or linear polarization) angle, θ. For circularly polarized radiation, the oscillatory magnetoresistive response is hardly sensitive to θ.

  8. The study of pinch regimes based on radiation-enhanced compression and anomalous resistivity phenomena and their effects on hard x-ray emission in a Mather type dense plasma focus device (SABALAN2)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Piriaei, D.; Javadi, S.; Ghoranneviss, M.

    In this study, by using argon and nitrogen as the filling gases in a Mather type dense plasma focus device at different values of pressure and charging voltage, two different kinds of pinch regimes were observed for each of the gases. The physics of the pinch regimes could be explained by using the two versions of the Lee's computational model which predicted each of the scenarios and clarified their differences between the two gases according to the radiation-enhanced compression and, additionally, predicted the pinch regimes through the anomalous resistivity effect during the pinch time. This was accomplished through the fittingmore » process (simulation) on the current signal. Moreover, the characteristic amplitude and time scales of the anomalous resistances were obtained. The correlations between the features of the plasma current dip and the emitted hard x-ray pulses were observed. The starting time, intensity, duration, and the multiple or single feature of the emitted hard x-ray strongly correlated to the same respective features of the current dip.« less

  9. Radiation hardness of Efratom M-100 rubidium frequency standard

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    English, T. C.; Vorwerk, H.; Rudie, N. J.

    1983-01-01

    The effects of nuclear radiation on rubidium gas cell frequency standards and components are presented, including the results of recent tests where a continuously operating rubidium frequency standard (Effratom, Model M-100) was subjected to simultaneous neutron/gamma radiation. At the highest neutron fluence 7.5 10 to the 12th power n/sq cm and total dose 11 krad(Si) tested, the unit operated satisfactorily; the total frequency change over the 2 1/2 hour test period due to all causes, including repeated retraction from and insertion into the reactor, was less than 1 x 10 to the -10th power. The effects of combined neutron/gamma radiation on rubidium frequency standard physics package components were also studied, and the results are presented.

  10. Design of high-efficiency, radiation-hard, GaInP/GaAs solar cells

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kurtz, Sarah R.; Bertness, K. A.; Kibbler, A. E.; Kramer, C.; Olson, J. M.

    1994-01-01

    In recently years, Ga(0.5)In((0.5)P/GaAs cells have drawn increased attention both because of their high efficiencies and because they are well suited for space applications. They can be grown and processed as two-junction devices with roughly twice the voltage and half the current of GaAs cells. They have low temperature coefficients, and have good potential for radiation hardness. We have previously reported the effects of electron irradiation on test cells which were not optimally designed for space. From those results we estimated that an optimally designed cell could achieve 20 percent after irradiation with 10(exp 15) cm(exp -2) 1 MeV electrons. Modeling studies predicted that slightly higher efficiencies may be achievable. Record efficiencies for EOL performance of other types of cells are significantly lower. Even the best Si and InP cells have BOL efficiencies lower than the EOL efficiency we report here. Good GaAs cells have an EOL efficiency of 16 percent. The InP/Ga(0.5)In(0.5)As two-junction, two-terminal device has a BOL efficiency as high as 22.2 percent, but radiation results for these cells were limited. In this study we use the previous modeling and irradiation results to design a set of Ga(0.5)In(0.5)P/GaAs cells that will demonstrate the importance of the design parameters and result in high-efficiency devices. We report record AMO efficiencies: a BOL efficiency of 25.7 percent for a device optimized for BOL performance and two of different designs with EOL efficiencies of 19.6 percent (at 10(exp 15) cm(exp -2) 1MeV electrons). We vary the bottom-cell base doping and the top-cell thickness to show the effects of these two important design parameters. We get an unexpected result indicating that the dopant added to the bottom-cell base also increases the degradation of the top cell.

  11. A study on hardness behavior of geopolymer paste in different condition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zainal, Farah Farhana; Hussin, Kamarudin; Rahmat, Azmi; Abdullah, Mohd Mustafa Al Bakri; Shamsudin, Shaiful Rizam

    2016-07-01

    This study has been conducted to understand the hardness behavior of geopolymer paste in different conditions; with and without being immersed in water. Geopolymer paste has been used nowadays as an alternative way to reduce global warming pollution by carbon dioxide (CO2) released to the air caused from the production of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). Geopolymer has many advantages such as high compressive strength, lower water absorption and lower porosity. Geopolymer paste in this study was made from a mixture of fly ash and alkaline activators. The alkaline activators that have been used were sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution and sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) solution. Then the mixture was allowed to harden for 24hrs at ambient temperature and then placed in the oven for 24hrs with 60°C for the curing process. The hardness testing was conducted after a few months when the samples already achieved the optimum design. The samples were divided to two conditions; without immersion which was placed at ambient temperature (S1) and immersed in water for one week (S2). The samples then are divided into two at the center and testing was conducted into 4 parts which are part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. Various methods of non-destructively testing concrete and mortar have been in use for many years such as Vickers hardness test, Rockwell hardness test, Brinell hardness test and many more. The Rockwell hardness test method as defined in ASTM E-18 is the most commonly used hardness test method which is also used in this study. From the results, S1 has higher hardness value than S2 for all parts with the maximum value of S1 is 118.6 and the minimum value is 71.8. The maximum value of S2 is 114.4 and the minimum value is 0. The central part of the geopolymer paste also showed greater hardness values than the edge area of the samples.

  12. Recent results on CVD diamond radiation sensors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Weilhammer, P.; Adam, W.; Bauer, C.; Berdermann, E.; Bogani, F.; Borchi, E.; Bruzzi, M.; Colledani, C.; Conway, J.; Dabrowski, W.; Delpierre, P.; Deneuville, A.; Dulinski, W.; v. d. Eijk, R.; van Eijk, B.; Fallou, A.; Fish, D.; Fried, M.; Gan, K. K.; Gheeraert, E.; Grigoriev, E.; Hallewell, G.; Hall-Wilton, R.; Han, S.; Hartjes, F.; Hrubec, J.; Husson, D.; Kagan, H.; Kania, D.; Kaplon, J.; Kass, R.; Knopfle, K. T.; Krammer, M.; Manfredi, P. F.; Meier, D.; LeNormand; Pan, L. S.; Pernegger, H.; Pernicka, M.; Plano, R.; Re, V.; Riester, J. L.; Roe, S.; Roff; Rudge, A.; Schieber, M.; Schnetzer, S.; Sciortino, S.; Speziali, V.; Stelzer, H.; Stone, R.; Tapper, R. J.; Tesarek, R.; Thomson, G. B.; Trawick, M.; Trischuk, W.; Turchetta, R.; RD 42 Collaboration

    1998-02-01

    CVD diamond radiation sensors are being developed for possible use in trackers in the LHC experiments. The diamond promises to be radiation hard well beyond particle fluences that can be tolerated by Si sensors. Recent results from the RD 42 collaboration on charge collection distance and on radiation hardness of CVD diamond samples will be reported. Measurements with diamond tracking devices, both strip detectors and pixel detectors, will be discussed. Results from beam tests using a diamond strip detector which was read out with fast, 25 ns shaping time, radiation-hard pipeline electronics will be presented.

  13. Radiation in the workplace-a review of studies of the risks of occupational exposure to ionising radiation.

    PubMed

    Wakeford, Richard

    2009-06-01

    Many individuals are, or have been, exposed to ionising radiation in the course of their work and the epidemiological study of occupationally irradiated groups offers an important opportunity to complement the estimates of risks to health resulting from exposure to radiation that are obtained from other populations, such as the Japanese survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Moreover, workplace exposure to radiation usually involves irradiation conditions that are of direct relevance to the principal concern of radiological protection: protracted exposure to low level radiation. Further, some workers have been exposed to radioactive material that has been inadvertently taken into the body, and the study of these groups leads to risk estimates derived directly from the experience of those irradiated by these 'internal emitters', intakes of alpha-particle-emitters being of particular interest. Workforces that have been the subject of epidemiological study include medical staff, aircrews, radium dial luminisers, underground hard-rock miners, Chernobyl clean-up workers, nuclear weapons test participants and nuclear industry workers. The first solid epidemiological evidence of the stochastic effects of irradiation came from a study of occupational exposure to medical x-rays that was reported in 1944, which demonstrated a large excess risk of leukaemia among US radiologists; but the general lack of dose records for early medical staff who tended to experience the highest exposures hampers the derivation of risks per unit dose received by medical workers. The instrument dial luminisers who inadvertently ingested large amounts of radium-based paint and underground hard-rock miners who inhaled large quantities of radon and its decay products suffered markedly raised excess risks of, respectively, bone and lung cancers; the miner studies have provided standard risk estimates for radon-induced lung cancer. The large numbers of nuclear industry

  14. A double exposed portal image comparison between electronic portal imaging hard copies and port films in radiation therapy treatment setup confirmation to determine its clinical application in a radiotherapy center.

    PubMed

    Hatherly, K E; Smylie, J C; Rodger, A; Dally, M J; Davis, S R; Millar, J L

    2001-01-01

    At the William Buckland Radiotherapy Center (WBRC), field-only electronic portal image (EPI) hard copies are used for radiation treatment field verification for whole brain, breast, chest, spine, and large pelvic fields, as determined by a previous study. A subsequent research project, addressing the quality of double exposed EPI hard copies for sites where field only EPI was not considered adequate to determine field placement, has been undertaken. The double exposed EPI hard copies were compared to conventional double exposed port films for small pelvic, partial brain, and head and neck fields and for a miscellaneous group. All double exposed EPIs were captured during routine clinical procedures using liquid ion chamber cassettes. EPI hard copies were generated using a Visiplex multi-format camera. In sites where port film remained the preferred verification format, the port films were generated as per department protocol. In addition EPIs were collected specifically for this project. Four radiation oncologists performed the evaluation of EPI and port film images independently with a questionnaire completed at each stage of the evaluation process to assess the following: Adequacy of information in the image to assess field placement. Adequacy of information for determining field placement correction. Clinician's preferred choice of imaging for field placement assessment The results indicate that double exposed EPI hard copies generally do containsufficient information to permit evaluation of field placement and can replace conventionaldouble exposed port films in a significant number of sites. These include the following:pelvis fields < 12 X 12 cm, partial brain fields, and a miscellaneous group. However forradical head and neck fields, the preferred verification image format remained port film dueto the image hard copy size and improved contrast for this media. Thus in this departmenthard copy EPI is the preferred modality of field verification for all sites

  15. Hard X-ray emission from the solar corona

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krucker, S.; Battaglia, M.; Cargill, P. J.; Fletcher, L.; Hudson, H. S.; MacKinnon, A. L.; Masuda, S.; Sui, L.; Tomczak, M.; Veronig, A. L.; Vlahos, L.; White, S. M.

    2008-10-01

    This review surveys hard X-ray emissions of non-thermal electrons in the solar corona. These electrons originate in flares and flare-related processes. Hard X-ray emission is the most direct diagnostic of electron presence in the corona, and such observations provide quantitative determinations of the total energy in the non-thermal electrons. The most intense flare emissions are generally observed from the chromosphere at footpoints of magnetic loops. Over the years, however, many observations of hard X-ray and even γ-ray emission directly from the corona have also been reported. These coronal sources are of particular interest as they occur closest to where the electron acceleration is thought to occur. Prior to the actual direct imaging observations, disk occultation was usually required to study coronal sources, resulting in limited physical information. Now RHESSI has given us a systematic view of coronal sources that combines high spatial and spectral resolution with broad energy coverage and high sensitivity. Despite the low density and hence low bremsstrahlung efficiency of the corona, we now detect coronal hard X-ray emissions from sources in all phases of solar flares. Because the physical conditions in such sources may differ substantially from those of the usual “footpoint” emission regions, we take the opportunity to revisit the physics of hard X-radiation and relevant theories of particle acceleration.

  16. Towards radiation hard converter material for SiC-based fast neutron detectors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tripathi, S.; Upadhyay, C.; Nagaraj, C. P.; Venkatesan, A.; Devan, K.

    2018-05-01

    In the present work, Geant4 Monte-Carlo simulations have been carried out to study the neutron detection efficiency of the various neutron to other charge particle (recoil proton) converter materials. The converter material is placed over Silicon Carbide (SiC) in Fast Neutron detectors (FNDs) to achieve higher neutron detection efficiency as compared to bare SiC FNDs. Hydrogenous converter material such as High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is preferred over other converter materials due to the virtue of its high elastic scattering reaction cross-section for fast neutron detection at room temperature. Upon interaction with fast neutrons, hydrogenous converter material generates recoil protons which liberate e-hole pairs in the active region of SiC detector to provide a detector signal. The neutron detection efficiency offered by HDPE converter is compared with several other hydrogenous materials viz., 1) Lithium Hydride (LiH), 2) Perylene, 3) PTCDA . It is found that, HDPE, though providing highest efficiency among various studied materials, cannot withstand high temperature and harsh radiation environment. On the other hand, perylene and PTCDA can sustain harsh environments, but yields low efficiency. The analysis carried out reveals that LiH is a better material for neutron to other charge particle conversion with competent efficiency and desired radiation hardness. Further, the thickness of LiH has also been optimized for various mono-energetic neutron beams and Am-Be neutron source generating a neutron fluence of 109 neutrons/cm2. The optimized thickness of LiH converter for fast neutron detection is found to be ~ 500 μm. However, the estimated efficiency for fast neutron detection is only 0.1%, which is deemed to be inadequate for reliable detection of neutrons. A sensitivity study has also been done investigating the gamma background effect on the neutron detection efficiency for various energy threshold of Low-Level Discriminator (LLD). The detection

  17. Comparative study of microwave radiation-induced magnetoresistive oscillations induced by circularly- and linearly- polarized photo-excitation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ye, Tianyu; Liu, Han -Chun; Wang, Zhuo

    A comparative study of the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in the high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure two dimensional electron system (2DES) under linearly- and circularly- polarized microwave excitation indicates a profound difference in the response observed upon rotating the microwave launcher for the two cases, although circularly polarized microwave radiation induced magnetoresistance oscillations observed at low magnetic fields are similar to the oscillations observed with linearly polarized radiation. For the linearly polarized radiation, the magnetoresistive response is a strong sinusoidal function of the launcher rotation (or linear polarization) angle, θ. As a result, for circularly polarized radiation, the oscillatory magnetoresistive response ismore » hardly sensitive to θ.« less

  18. Comparative study of microwave radiation-induced magnetoresistive oscillations induced by circularly- and linearly- polarized photo-excitation

    DOE PAGES

    Ye, Tianyu; Liu, Han -Chun; Wang, Zhuo; ...

    2015-10-09

    A comparative study of the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in the high mobility GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure two dimensional electron system (2DES) under linearly- and circularly- polarized microwave excitation indicates a profound difference in the response observed upon rotating the microwave launcher for the two cases, although circularly polarized microwave radiation induced magnetoresistance oscillations observed at low magnetic fields are similar to the oscillations observed with linearly polarized radiation. For the linearly polarized radiation, the magnetoresistive response is a strong sinusoidal function of the launcher rotation (or linear polarization) angle, θ. As a result, for circularly polarized radiation, the oscillatory magnetoresistive response ismore » hardly sensitive to θ.« less

  19. Evaluation of optical changes of three types of lenses: hard PMMA, hydrogel, and heparin surface modified hard lenses effected by silicone oil, used clinically as a substitute of the vitreous body.

    PubMed

    Prokopowicz, Magdalena; Czarnobaj, Katarzyna; Raczyńska, Krystyna; Łukasiak, Jerzy; Przyjazny, Andrzej

    2002-01-01

    The objective of these investigations was an in vitro evaluation whether silicone oil OXANE of viscosity 5700 cSt clinically used in eye surgery as a substitute of the vitreous body, being in contact with an artificial polymer lens used as an implant of human lens, causes the changes in its optical properties. The paper presents the results of spectral analysis of transmission of visible (VIS) radiation of three types of artificial lenses: hard PMMA, hydrogel, heparin surface modified (HSM) hard PMMA, and the same lenses damaged by YAG laser radiation with an energy increasing from 1.7 mJ to 3.7 mJ, exposed to clinically applied silicone oil. The studies were carried out, in two-week intervals, over a period of 20 weeks. Hard PMMA and HSM lenses were found not to have changed their optical properties after 20 weeks of exposure to silicone oil. The measured transmittance values were within the range of instrumental error (+/- 1%). Optical properties of hydrogel lenses exposed to silicone oils deteriorated with exposure and after 20-week exposure to silicone oil the average transmittance value decreased by about 18%, reaching its final value of 67.08 +/- 2.37% (RSD = 5.56%). A minimal decrease of the initial transmittance values was observed only for the lenses exposed to laser radiation of highest energy (3.7 mJ). After completed exposure to silicone oil, two kinds of lenses were found to have a slightly improved transmittance: hard PMMA lenses by about 4% and HSM lenses by about 2%. On the other hand, in case of hydrogel lenses the deterioration of optical properties to the extent comparable to that of hydrogel lenses not damaged by laser radiation was observed.

  20. Enhanced Low Dose Rate Effects in Bipolar Circuits: A New Hardness Assurance Problem for NASA

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Johnston, A.; Barnes, C.

    1995-01-01

    Many bipolar integrated circuits are much more susceptible to ionizing radiation at low dose rates than they are at high dose rates typically used for radiation parts testing. Since the low dose rate is equivalent to that seen in space, the standard lab test no longer can be considered conservative and has caused the Air Force to issue an alert. Although a reliable radiation hardness assurance test has not yet been designed, possible mechanisms for low dose rate enhancement and hardness assurance tests are discussed.

  1. Radiation Effects and Hardening Techniques for Spacecraft Microelectronics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gambles, J. W.; Maki, G. K.

    2002-01-01

    The natural radiation from the Van Allen belts, solar flares, and cosmic rays found outside of the protection of the earth's atmosphere can produce deleterious effects on microelectronics used in space systems. Historically civil space agencies and the commercial satellite industry have been able to utilize components produced in special radiation hardened fabrication process foundries that were developed during the 1970s and 1980s under sponsorship of the Departments of Defense (DoD) and Energy (DoE). In the post--cold war world the DoD and DoE push to advance the rad--hard processes has waned. Today the available rad--hard components lag two-plus technology node generations behind state- of-the-art commercial technologies. As a result space craft designers face a large performance gap when trying to utilize available rad--hard components. Compounding the performance gap problems, rad--hard components are becoming increasingly harder to get. Faced with the economic pitfalls associated with low demand versus the ever increasing investment required for integrated circuit manufacturing equipment most sources of rad--hard parts have simply exited this market in recent years, leaving only two domestic US suppliers of digital rad--hard components. This paper summarizes the radiation induced mechanisms that can cause digital microelectronics to fail in space, techniques that can be applied to mitigate these failure mechanisms, and ground based testing used to validate radiation hardness/tolerance. The radiation hardening techniques can be broken down into two classes, Hardness By Process (HBP) and Hardness By Design (HBD). Fortunately many HBD techniques can be applied to commercial fabrication processes providing space craft designer with radiation tolerant Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that can bridge the performance gap between the special HBP foundries and the commercial state-of-the-art performance.

  2. The damage equivalence of electrons, protons, alphas and gamma rays in rad-hard MOS devices

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stassinopoulos, E. G.; Van Gunten, O.; Brucker, G. J.; Knudson, A. R.; Jordan, T. M.

    1983-01-01

    This paper reports on a study of damage equivalence in rad-hard MOS devices with 100,000 rads (SiO2) capability. Damage sensitivities for electrons of 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 MeV, protons of 1, 3, 7, 22, and 40 MeV, 3.4-MeV alphas, and Co-60 gammas were measured and compared. Results indicated that qualitatively the same charge recombination effects occurred in hard oxide devices for doses of 100,000 rads (SiO2) as in soft oxide parts for doses of 1 to 4 krads (SiO2). Consequently, damage equivalency or non-equivalency depended on radiation type and energy. However, recovery effects, both during and after irradiation, controlled relative damage sensitivity and its dependency on total dose, dose rate, supply bias, gate bias, radiation type, and energy. Correction factors can be derived from these data or from similar tests of other hard oxide type, so as to properly evaluate the combined effects of the total space environment.

  3. Improving the radiation hardness of graphene field effect transistors

    DOE PAGES

    Alexandrou, Konstantinos; Masurkar, Amrita; Edrees, Hassan; ...

    2016-10-11

    Ionizing radiation poses a significant challenge to the operation and reliability of conventional silicon-based devices. In this paper, we report the effects of gamma radiation on graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs), along with a method to mitigate those effects by developing a radiation-hardened version of our back-gated GFETs. We demonstrate that activated atmospheric oxygen from the gamma ray interaction with air damages the semiconductor device, and damage to the substrate contributes additional threshold voltage instability. Our radiation-hardened devices, which have protection against these two effects, exhibit minimal performance degradation, improved stability, and significantly reduced hysteresis after prolonged gamma radiation exposure. Finally,more » we believe this work provides an insight into graphene's interactions with ionizing radiation that could enable future graphene-based electronic devices to be used for space, military, and other radiation-sensitive applications.« less

  4. Improving the radiation hardness of graphene field effect transistors

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Alexandrou, Konstantinos; Masurkar, Amrita; Edrees, Hassan

    Ionizing radiation poses a significant challenge to the operation and reliability of conventional silicon-based devices. In this paper, we report the effects of gamma radiation on graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs), along with a method to mitigate those effects by developing a radiation-hardened version of our back-gated GFETs. We demonstrate that activated atmospheric oxygen from the gamma ray interaction with air damages the semiconductor device, and damage to the substrate contributes additional threshold voltage instability. Our radiation-hardened devices, which have protection against these two effects, exhibit minimal performance degradation, improved stability, and significantly reduced hysteresis after prolonged gamma radiation exposure. Finally,more » we believe this work provides an insight into graphene's interactions with ionizing radiation that could enable future graphene-based electronic devices to be used for space, military, and other radiation-sensitive applications.« less

  5. Interaction of slow highly charged ions with hard dental tissue: studies of fluoride uptake and reminalization efficacy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Daskalova, A.; Kasperski, G.; Rousseau, P.; Domaracka, A.; Lawicki, A.

    2014-05-01

    TOF-SIMS mass spectroscopy data are presented on ion irradiation of hard dental tissue using a beam of 129Xe20+ (15 kV) ions delivered in the ARIBE facility by an ECR source. The investigation was focused on the mass distribution of the fragment ions. A comparison is made between the mass spectra from hard dental tissue treated by olaflur-(C27H60F2N2O3) and untreated hard dental tissue obtained under irradiation by low-energy highly-charged ions (HCIs). We found significant differences between the mass spectra of enamel after introducing amine fluoride (olaflur) and the mass spectra of pure untreated enamel. Further, we separated out the effects caused by radiation induced in the tooth enamel from those induced in dentin, which has not been performed before. In order to conduct a further detailed analysis, it is necessary to extend the research scope to include the influence of fluorine compounds on enamel and dentin.

  6. Comparison of hardness variation of ion irradiated borosilicate glasses with different projected ranges

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sun, M. L.; Peng, H. B.; Duan, B. H.; Liu, F. F.; Du, X.; Yuan, W.; Zhang, B. T.; Zhang, X. Y.; Wang, T. S.

    2018-03-01

    Borosilicate glass has potential application for vitrification of high-level radioactive waste, which attracts extensive interest in studying its radiation durability. In this study, sodium borosilicate glass samples were irradiated with 4 MeV Kr17+ ion, 5 MeV Xe26+ ion and 0.3 MeV P+ ion, respectively. The hardness of irradiated borosilicate glass samples was measured with nanoindentation in continuous stiffness mode and quasi continuous stiffness mode, separately. Extrapolation method, mean value method, squared extrapolation method and selected point method are used to obtain hardness of irradiated glass and a comparison among these four methods is conducted. The extrapolation method is suggested to analyze the hardness of ion irradiated glass. With increasing irradiation dose, the values of hardness for samples irradiated with Kr, Xe and P ions dropped and then saturated at 0.02 dpa. Besides, both the maximum variations and decay constants for three kinds of ions with different energies are similar indicates the similarity behind the hardness variation in glasses after irradiation. Furthermore, the hardness variation of low energy P ion irradiated samples whose range is much smaller than those of high energy Kr and Xe ions, has the same trend as that of Kr and Xe ions. It suggested that electronic energy loss did not play a significant role in hardness decrease for irradiation of low energy ions.

  7. The NuSTAR view on Hard-TeV BL Lacs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Costamante, L.; Bonnoli, G.; Tavecchio, F.; Ghisellini, G.; Tagliaferri, G.; Khangulyan, D.

    2018-05-01

    Hard-TeV BL Lacs are a new type of blazars characterized by a hard intrinsic TeV spectrum, locating the peak of their gamma-ray emission in the spectral energy distribution (SED) above 2-10 TeV. Such high energies are problematic for the Compton emission, using a standard one-zone leptonic model. We study six examples of this new type of BL Lacs in the hard X-ray band with NuSTAR. Together with simultaneous observations with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, we fully constrain the peak of the synchrotron emission in their SED, and test the leptonic synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model. We confirm the extreme nature of 5 objects also in the synchrotron emission. We do not find evidence of additional emission components in the hard X-ray band. We find that a one-zone SSC model can in principle reproduce the extreme properties of both peaks in the SED, from X-ray up to TeV energies, but at the cost of i) extreme electron energies with very low radiative efficiency, ii) conditions heavily out of equipartition (by 3 to 5 orders of magnitude), and iii) not accounting for the simultaneous UV data, which then should belong to a different emission component, possibly the same as the far-IR (WISE) data. We find evidence of this separation of the UV and X-ray emission in at least two objects. In any case, the TeV electrons must not "see" the UV or lower-energy photons, even if coming from different zones/populations, or the increased radiative cooling would steepen the VHE spectrum.

  8. The NuSTAR view on hard-TeV BL Lacs

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Costamante, L.; Bonnoli, G.; Tavecchio, F.; Ghisellini, G.; Tagliaferri, G.; Khangulyan, D.

    2018-07-01

    Hard-TeV BL Lacs are a new type of blazars characterized by a hard intrinsic TeV spectrum, locating the peak of their gamma-ray emission in the spectral energy distribution (SED) above 2-10 TeV. Such high energies are problematic for the Compton emission, using a standard one-zone leptonic model. We study six examples of this new type of BL Lacs in the hard X-ray band with NuSTAR. Together with simultaneous observations with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, we fully constrain the peak of the synchrotron emission in their SED, and test the leptonic synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model. We confirm the extreme nature of five objects also in the synchrotron emission. We do not find evidence of additional emission components in the hard X-ray band. We find that a one-zone SSC model can in principle reproduce the extreme properties of both peaks in the SED, from X-ray up to TeV energies, but at the cost of (i) extreme electron energies with very low radiative efficiency, (ii) conditions heavily out of equipartition (by three to five orders of magnitude), and (iii) not accounting for the simultaneous UV data, which then should belong to a different emission component, possibly the same as the far-IR (WISE) data. We find evidence of this separation of the UV and X-ray emission in at least two objects. In any case, the TeV electrons must not `see' the UV or lower energy photons, even if coming from different zones/populations, or the increased radiative cooling would steepen the very high energies spectrum.

  9. Mercury Chalcohalide Semiconductor Hg 3Se 2Br 2 for Hard Radiation Detection

    DOE PAGES

    Li, Hao; Meng, Fang; Malliakas, Christos D.; ...

    2016-09-28

    We present Hg 3Se 2Br 2 that has a wide band gap semiconductor (2.22 eV) with high density (7.598 g/cm 3) and crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/m with cell parameters of a = 17.496 (4) Å, b = 9.3991 (19) Å, c = 9.776(2) Å, β = 90.46(3)°, V = 1607.6(6) Å 3. It melts congruently at a low temperature, 566°C, which allows for an easy single crystal growth directly from the stoichiometric melt. Single crystals of Hg 3Se 2Br 2 up to 1 cm long have been grown using the Bridgman method. Hg 3Se 2Br 2 singlemore » crystals exhibit a strong photocurrent response when exposed to Ag X-ray and blue diode laser. The resistivity of Hg 3Se 2Br 2 measured by the two probe method is on the order of 10 11 Ω·cm, and the mobility-lifetime product (μτ) of the electron and hole carriers estimated from the energy spectroscopy under Ag X-ray radiation are (μτ) e ≈ 1.4 × 10 –4cm 2/V and (μτ) h ≈ 9.2 × 10 –5cm 2/V. Electronic structure calculations at the density functional theory level indicate a direct band gap and a relatively small effective mass for carriers. Lastly, on the basis of the photoconductivity and hard X-ray spectrum, Hg 3Se 2Br 2 is a promising candidate for X-ray and γ-ray radiation detection at room temperature.« less

  10. A seven-crystal Johann-type hard x-ray spectrometer at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sokaras, D.; Weng, T.-C.; Nordlund, D.

    2013-05-15

    We present a multicrystal Johann-type hard x-ray spectrometer ({approx}5-18 keV) recently developed, installed, and operated at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource. The instrument is set at the wiggler beamline 6-2 equipped with two liquid nitrogen cooled monochromators - Si(111) and Si(311) - as well as collimating and focusing optics. The spectrometer consists of seven spherically bent crystal analyzers placed on intersecting vertical Rowland circles of 1 m of diameter. The spectrometer is scanned vertically capturing an extended backscattering Bragg angular range (88 Degree-Sign -74 Degree-Sign ) while maintaining all crystals on the Rowland circle trace. The instrument operates in atmosphericmore » pressure by means of a helium bag and when all the seven crystals are used (100 mm of projected diameter each), has a solid angle of about 0.45% of 4{pi} sr. The typical resolving power is in the order of (E/{Delta}E){approx}10 000. The spectrometer's high detection efficiency combined with the beamline 6-2 characteristics permits routine studies of x-ray emission, high energy resolution fluorescence detected x-ray absorption and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering of very diluted samples as well as implementation of demanding in situ environments.« less

  11. Hard X-ray quiescent emission in magnetars via resonant Compton upscattering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baring, M. G.; Wadiasingh, Z.; Gonthier, P. L.; Harding, A. K.

    2017-12-01

    Non-thermal quiescent X-ray emission extending between 10 keV and around 150 keV has been seen in about 10 magnetars by RXTE, INTEGRAL, Suzaku, NuSTAR and Fermi-GBM. For inner magnetospheric models of such hard X-ray signals, inverse Compton scattering is anticipated to be the most efficient process for generating the continuum radiation, because the scattering cross section is resonant at the cyclotron frequency. We present hard X-ray upscattering spectra for uncooled monoenergetic relativistic electrons injected in inner regions of pulsar magnetospheres. These model spectra are integrated over bundles of closed field lines and obtained for different observing perspectives. The spectral turnover energies are critically dependent on the observer viewing angles and electron Lorentz factor. We find that electrons with energies less than around 15 MeV will emit most of their radiation below 250 keV, consistent with the turnovers inferred in magnetar hard X-ray tails. Electrons of higher energy still emit most of the radiation below around 1 MeV, except for quasi-equatorial emission locales for select pulse phases. Our spectral computations use a new state-of-the-art, spin-dependent formalism for the QED Compton scattering cross section in strong magnetic fields.

  12. Radiation damage studies of soft magnetic metallic glasses irradiated with high-energy heavy ions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pavlovič, Márius; Miglierini, Marcel; Mustafin, Edil; Ensinger, Wolfgang; Šagátová, Andrea; Šoka, Martin

    2015-01-01

    Some soft magnetic metallic glasses are considered for use in magnetic cores of accelerator radio frequency cavities. Due to losses of the circulating ion beam, they may be exposed to irradiation by different ions at different energies. This paper presents data and review results of irradiation experiments concerning the influence of high-energy heavy ions on magnetic susceptibility of VITROPERM®-type metallic glasses. Samples of the VITROPERM® magnetic ribbons were irradiated by Au, Xe and U ions at 11.1 MeV/A (per nucleon) and 5.9 MeV/A, respectively. Irradiation fluences from 1 × 1011 up to 1 × 1013 ions/cm2 were applied. In case of the Au and U ions, the total fluence was accumulated in one beamtime, whereas two separate beamtimes were used to accumulate the final fluence in case of the Xe ions. Relative change in the samples' magnetic susceptibility after and before irradiation was evaluated as a function of the irradiation fluence. The irradiation experiments were performed with the UNILAC accelerator at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH. They were simulated in SRIM2010 in order to obtain ionization densities (electronic stopping, dE/dx) and dpa (displacements per atom) caused by the ion beams in the sample material. This paper focuses mainly on the results collected in experiments with the Xe ions and compares them with data obtained in earlier experiments using Au and U ions. Radiation hardness of VITROPERM® is compared with radiation hardness of VITROVAC® that was studied in previous experiments. The VITROPERM® samples showed less drop in magnetic susceptibility in comparison with the VITROVAC® ones, and this drop occurred at higher fluences. This indicates higher radiation hardness of VITROPERM® compared with VITROVAC®. In addition, heavier ions cause bigger change in magnetic susceptibility than the lighter ones. The effect can be roughly scaled with electronic stopping, which suggests that the main mechanism of radiation

  13. Study of the radiation damage effect on Titanium metastable beta alloy by high intensity proton beam

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ishida, Taku; Wakai, E.; Hagiwara, M.

    Here, a foil of a metastable β Titanium alloy Ti-15V-3Cr-3Sn-3Al was irradiated at the J-PARC neutrino experimental facility with 1.4 × 10 20 30 GeV protons at low temperature (100–130°C at most), and microstructural characterization and hardness testing were conducted as an initial study on the radiation damage effects of Titanium alloy by the high energy proton beam exposure. Expected radiation damage at the beam center is about 0.06–0.12 displacement per atom. A high density (> 10 23 m –3) of a nanometer-sized precipitate was observed by TEM studies, which would be identified as martensite α-phase and athermal ω-phase formedmore » during the solution-treatment process to fabricate metastable β alloy. They did not appear to change substantially after irradiation with protons. In the irradiated specimen, we could not identify an obvious signature of radiation damage distributed along the proton beam profile. Very small, nanometer-scale black dots were present at a low density in the most highly irradiated region, and may be small dislocation loops formed during irradiation. The micro-indentation test indicated that the radiation exposure led to tiny increase in Vickers micro-hardness of ΔH V= 20 at beam center. Atom probe tomography reveals compositional fluctuations that reach a maximum amplitude of 10 at% Ti within a space of < 5 nm both before and after irradiation, which may also indicate presence of rich precipitates. These experimental results suggest this specific β alloy may exhibit radiation damage resistance due to the existence of a high density of nano-scale precipitates, but further studies with higher exposure are required to explore this possibility.« less

  14. Study of the radiation damage effect on Titanium metastable beta alloy by high intensity proton beam

    DOE PAGES

    Ishida, Taku; Wakai, E.; Hagiwara, M.; ...

    2018-04-26

    Here, a foil of a metastable β Titanium alloy Ti-15V-3Cr-3Sn-3Al was irradiated at the J-PARC neutrino experimental facility with 1.4 × 10 20 30 GeV protons at low temperature (100–130°C at most), and microstructural characterization and hardness testing were conducted as an initial study on the radiation damage effects of Titanium alloy by the high energy proton beam exposure. Expected radiation damage at the beam center is about 0.06–0.12 displacement per atom. A high density (> 10 23 m –3) of a nanometer-sized precipitate was observed by TEM studies, which would be identified as martensite α-phase and athermal ω-phase formedmore » during the solution-treatment process to fabricate metastable β alloy. They did not appear to change substantially after irradiation with protons. In the irradiated specimen, we could not identify an obvious signature of radiation damage distributed along the proton beam profile. Very small, nanometer-scale black dots were present at a low density in the most highly irradiated region, and may be small dislocation loops formed during irradiation. The micro-indentation test indicated that the radiation exposure led to tiny increase in Vickers micro-hardness of ΔH V= 20 at beam center. Atom probe tomography reveals compositional fluctuations that reach a maximum amplitude of 10 at% Ti within a space of < 5 nm both before and after irradiation, which may also indicate presence of rich precipitates. These experimental results suggest this specific β alloy may exhibit radiation damage resistance due to the existence of a high density of nano-scale precipitates, but further studies with higher exposure are required to explore this possibility.« less

  15. Study on the application of Raman spectroscopy on detecting water hardness.

    PubMed

    Yang, Chang-Hu; Shi, Xiang-Hua; Yuan, Jian-Hui

    2014-05-01

    Laser Raman spectrum method was used to study the hardness index of four water samples. The ratio of bending vibration peak intensity to stretching vibration peak intensity of these water samples was measured. The results showed that as the total hardness of water decreases, so does the ratio. This offers a possible new approach to water quality analysis that is both simple and effective.

  16. Hard X-ray Emission and Efficient Particle Acceleration by Supernova Remnants

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vink, Jacco

    2009-05-01

    I discuss the non-thermal X-ray emission from young supernova remnants. Over the last decade it has become clear from both X-ray and γ-ray observations that young supernovae accelerate particles up to 100 TeV. In soft X-rays the accelerated >10 TeV electrons produce synchrotron radiation, coming from narrow filaments located at the shock fronts. The width of these filaments shows that the magnetic fields are relatively high, thus providing evidence for magnetic field amplification. The synchrotron radiation of several remnants is known to extend into the hard X-ray regime. In particular Cas A, has a spectrum that appears as a power law up to almost 100 TeV. This is very surprising, as a steepening is expected going from the soft to the hard X-ray band. The spectrum is likely a result of many superimposed individual spectra, each steepening at different energies. This implies considerable spatial variation in hard X-rays, an obvious target for Simbol-X. The variations will be important to infer local shock acceleration properties, but also magnetic field fluctuations may cause spatial and temporal variations. Finally, I draw the attention to super bubbles and supernovae as sources of cosmic rays. As such they may be sources of hard X-ray emission. In particular, supernovae exploding inside the dense red supergiants winds of their progenitors ares promising candidates for hard X-ray emission.

  17. Hard X-ray Emission and Efficient Particle Acceleration by Supernova Remnants

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Vink, Jacco

    I discuss the non-thermal X-ray emission from young supernova remnants. Over the last decade it has become clear from both X-ray and {gamma}-ray observations that young supernovae accelerate particles up to 100 TeV. In soft X-rays the accelerated >10 TeV electrons produce synchrotron radiation, coming from narrow filaments located at the shock fronts. The width of these filaments shows that the magnetic fields are relatively high, thus providing evidence for magnetic field amplification.The synchrotron radiation of several remnants is known to extend into the hard X-ray regime. In particular Cas A, has a spectrum that appears as a power lawmore » up to almost 100 TeV. This is very surprising, as a steepening is expected going from the soft to the hard X-ray band. The spectrum is likely a result of many superimposed individual spectra, each steepening at different energies. This implies considerable spatial variation in hard X-rays, an obvious target for Simbol-X. The variations will be important to infer local shock acceleration properties, but also magnetic field fluctuations may cause spatial and temporal variations.Finally, I draw the attention to super bubbles and supernovae as sources of cosmic rays. As such they may be sources of hard X-ray emission. In particular, supernovae exploding inside the dense red supergiants winds of their progenitors ares promising candidates for hard X-ray emission.« less

  18. Remember Hard But Think Softly: Metaphorical Effects of Hardness/Softness on Cognitive Functions.

    PubMed

    Xie, Jiushu; Lu, Zhi; Wang, Ruiming; Cai, Zhenguang G

    2016-01-01

    Previous studies have found that bodily stimulation, such as hardness biases social judgment and evaluation via metaphorical association; however, it remains unclear whether bodily stimulation also affects cognitive functions, such as memory and creativity. The current study used metaphorical associations between "hard" and "rigid" and between "soft" and "flexible" in Chinese, to investigate whether the experience of hardness affects cognitive functions whose performance depends prospectively on rigidity (memory) and flexibility (creativity). In Experiment 1, we found that Chinese-speaking participants performed better at recalling previously memorized words while sitting on a hard-surface stool (the hard condition) than a cushioned one (the soft condition). In Experiment 2, participants sitting on a cushioned stool outperformed those sitting on a hard-surface stool on a Chinese riddle task, which required creative/flexible thinking, but not on an analogical reasoning task, which required both rigid and flexible thinking. The results suggest the hardness experience affects cognitive functions that are metaphorically associated with rigidity or flexibility. They support the embodiment proposition that cognitive functions and representations can be grounded in bodily states via metaphorical associations.

  19. Radiation-hard analog-to-digital converters for space and strategic applications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gauthier, M. K.; Dantas, A. R. V.

    1985-01-01

    During the course of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's program to study radiation-hardened analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), numerous milestones have been reached in manufacturers' awareness and technology development and transfer, as well as in user awareness of these developments. The testing of ADCs has also continued with twenty different ADCs from seven manufacturers, all tested for total radiation dose and three tested for neutron effects. Results from these tests are reported.

  20. Temperature Insensitive and Radiation Hard Photonics

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2014-03-19

    M. COOK , Lt Col, USAF Deputy Chief, Spacecraft Technology Division Space Vehicles Directorate This report is published in the interest of...Approved for Public Release; distribution is unlimited. ii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. OTDM Pulse Multiplexer for Increasing the Output Repetition Rate...QDMLL) for use in extreme environments where ionizing radiation is a substantial threat. Mode-Locked lasers generate a train of optical pulses that have

  1. Review of epidemiological studies on drinking water hardness and cardiovascular diseases.

    PubMed

    Monarca, Silvano; Donato, Francesco; Zerbini, Ilaria; Calderon, Rebecca L; Craun, Gunther F

    2006-08-01

    Major risk factors do not entirely explain the worldwide variability of morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular disease. Environmental exposures, including drinking water minerals may affect cardiovascular disease risks. We conducted a qualitative review of the epidemiological studies of cardiovascular disease and drinking water hardness and calcium and magnesium levels. Many but not all ecological studies found an inverse (i.e., protective) association between cardiovascular disease mortality and water hardness, calcium, or magnesium levels; but results are not consistent. Some case-control studies and one cohort study found either a reduced cardiovascular disease mortality risk with increased drinking water magnesium levels or an increased risk with low magnesium levels. However, the analytical studies provide little evidence that cardiovascular risks are associated with drinking water hardness or calcium levels. Information from epidemiological and other studies supports the hypothesis that a low intake of magnesium may increase the risk of dying from, and possibly developing, cardiovascular disease or stroke. Thus, not removing magnesium from drinking water, or in certain situations increasing the magnesium intake from water, may be beneficial, especially for populations with an insufficient dietary intake of the mineral.

  2. CdTe Timepix detectors for single-photon spectroscopy and linear polarimetry of high-flux hard x-ray radiation.

    PubMed

    Hahn, C; Weber, G; Märtin, R; Höfer, S; Kämpfer, T; Stöhlker, Th

    2016-04-01

    Single-photon spectroscopy of pulsed, high-intensity sources of hard X-rays - such as laser-generated plasmas - is often hampered by the pileup of several photons absorbed by the unsegmented, large-volume sensors routinely used for the detection of high-energy radiation. Detectors based on the Timepix chip, with a segmentation pitch of 55 μm and the possibility to be equipped with high-Z sensor chips, constitute an attractive alternative to commonly used passive solutions such as image plates. In this report, we present energy calibration and characterization measurements of such devices. The achievable energy resolution is comparable to that of scintillators for γ spectroscopy. Moreover, we also introduce a simple two-detector Compton polarimeter setup with a polarimeter quality of (98 ± 1)%. Finally, a proof-of-principle polarimetry experiment is discussed, where we studied the linear polarization of bremsstrahlung emitted by a laser-driven plasma and found an indication of the X-ray polarization direction depending on the polarization state of the incident laser pulse.

  3. CdTe Timepix detectors for single-photon spectroscopy and linear polarimetry of high-flux hard x-ray radiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hahn, C.; Weber, G.; Märtin, R.; Höfer, S.; Kämpfer, T.; Stöhlker, Th.

    2016-04-01

    Single-photon spectroscopy of pulsed, high-intensity sources of hard X-rays — such as laser-generated plasmas — is often hampered by the pileup of several photons absorbed by the unsegmented, large-volume sensors routinely used for the detection of high-energy radiation. Detectors based on the Timepix chip, with a segmentation pitch of 55 μm and the possibility to be equipped with high-Z sensor chips, constitute an attractive alternative to commonly used passive solutions such as image plates. In this report, we present energy calibration and characterization measurements of such devices. The achievable energy resolution is comparable to that of scintillators for γ spectroscopy. Moreover, we also introduce a simple two-detector Compton polarimeter setup with a polarimeter quality of (98 ± 1)%. Finally, a proof-of-principle polarimetry experiment is discussed, where we studied the linear polarization of bremsstrahlung emitted by a laser-driven plasma and found an indication of the X-ray polarization direction depending on the polarization state of the incident laser pulse.

  4. CdTe Timepix detectors for single-photon spectroscopy and linear polarimetry of high-flux hard x-ray radiation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hahn, C., E-mail: christoph.hahn@uni-jena.de; Höfer, S.; Kämpfer, T.

    Single-photon spectroscopy of pulsed, high-intensity sources of hard X-rays — such as laser-generated plasmas — is often hampered by the pileup of several photons absorbed by the unsegmented, large-volume sensors routinely used for the detection of high-energy radiation. Detectors based on the Timepix chip, with a segmentation pitch of 55 μm and the possibility to be equipped with high-Z sensor chips, constitute an attractive alternative to commonly used passive solutions such as image plates. In this report, we present energy calibration and characterization measurements of such devices. The achievable energy resolution is comparable to that of scintillators for γ spectroscopy.more » Moreover, we also introduce a simple two-detector Compton polarimeter setup with a polarimeter quality of (98 ± 1)%. Finally, a proof-of-principle polarimetry experiment is discussed, where we studied the linear polarization of bremsstrahlung emitted by a laser-driven plasma and found an indication of the X-ray polarization direction depending on the polarization state of the incident laser pulse.« less

  5. The interpretation of hard X-ray polarization measurements in solar flares

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Leach, J.; Emslie, A. G.; Petrosian, V.

    1983-01-01

    Observations of polarization of moderately hard X-rays in solar flares are reviewed and compared with the predictions of recent detailed modeling of hard X-ray bremsstrahlung production by non-thermal electrons. The recent advances in the complexity of the modeling lead to substantially lower predicted polarizations than in earlier models and more fully highlight how various parameters play a role in determining the polarization of the radiation field. The new predicted polarizations are comparable to those predicted by thermal modeling of solar flare hard X-ray production, and both are in agreement with the observations. In the light of these results, new polarization observations with current generation instruments are proposed which could be used to discriminate between non-thermal and thermal models of hard X-ray production in solar flares.

  6. Statistical Model Selection for TID Hardness Assurance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ladbury, R.; Gorelick, J. L.; McClure, S.

    2010-01-01

    Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) methodologies against Total Ionizing Dose (TID) degradation impose rigorous statistical treatments for data from a part's Radiation Lot Acceptance Test (RLAT) and/or its historical performance. However, no similar methods exist for using "similarity" data - that is, data for similar parts fabricated in the same process as the part under qualification. This is despite the greater difficulty and potential risk in interpreting of similarity data. In this work, we develop methods to disentangle part-to-part, lot-to-lot and part-type-to-part-type variation. The methods we develop apply not just for qualification decisions, but also for quality control and detection of process changes and other "out-of-family" behavior. We begin by discussing the data used in ·the study and the challenges of developing a statistic providing a meaningful measure of degradation across multiple part types, each with its own performance specifications. We then develop analysis techniques and apply them to the different data sets.

  7. LDQ10: a compact ultra low-power radiation-hard 4 × 10 Gb/s driver array

    DOE PAGES

    Zeng, Z.; Zhang, T.; Wang, G.; ...

    2017-02-28

    Here, a High-speed and low-power VCSEL driver is an important component of the Versatile Link for the high-luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) experiments. A compact low-power radiation-hard 4 × 10 Gb/s VCSEL driver array (LDQ10) has been developed in 65 nm CMOS technology. Each channel in LDQ10 can provide a modulation current up to 8 mA and bias current up to 12 mA. Edge pre-emphasis is employed to compensate for the bandwidth limitations due to parasitic and the turn-on delay of VCSEL devices. LDQ10 occupies a chip area of 1900 μm × 1700 μm and consumes 130 mW power for typical currentmore » settings. The modulation amplitude degrades less than 5% after 300 Mrad total ionizing dose. LDQ10 can be directly wire-bonded to the VCSEL array and it is a suitable candidate for the Versatile Link.« less

  8. An approach for addressing hard-to-detect hot spots.

    PubMed

    Abelquist, Eric W; King, David A; Miller, Laurence F; Viars, James A

    2013-05-01

    The Multi-Agency Radiation Survey and Site Investigation Manual (MARSSIM) survey approach is comprised of systematic random sampling coupled with radiation scanning to assess acceptability of potential hot spots. Hot spot identification for some radionuclides may not be possible due to the very weak gamma or x-ray radiation they emit-these hard-to-detect nuclides are unlikely to be identified by field scans. Similarly, scanning technology is not yet available for chemical contamination. For both hard-to-detect nuclides and chemical contamination, hot spots are only identified via volumetric sampling. The remedial investigation and cleanup of sites under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act typically includes the collection of samples over relatively large exposure units, and concentration limits are applied assuming the contamination is more or less uniformly distributed. However, data collected from contaminated sites demonstrate contamination is often highly localized. These highly localized areas, or hot spots, will only be identified if sample densities are high or if the environmental characterization program happens to sample directly from the hot spot footprint. This paper describes a Bayesian approach for addressing hard-to-detect nuclides and chemical hot spots. The approach begins using available data (e.g., as collected using the standard approach) to predict the probability that an unacceptable hot spot is present somewhere in the exposure unit. This Bayesian approach may even be coupled with the graded sampling approach to optimize hot spot characterization. Once the investigator concludes that the presence of hot spots is likely, then the surveyor should use the data quality objectives process to generate an appropriate sample campaign that optimizes the identification of risk-relevant hot spots.

  9. Resonant Compton Upscattering Models of Magnetar Hard X-ray Emission and Polarization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baring, Matthew G.; Wadiasingh, Zorawar; Gonthier, Peter L.; Kust Harding, Alice

    2017-08-01

    Non-thermal quiescent X-ray emission extending between 10 keV and around 150 keV has been seen in about 10 magnetars by RXTE, INTEGRAL, Suzaku and Fermi-GBM. For inner magnetospheric models of such hard X-ray signals, resonant Compton upscattering is anticipated to be the most efficient process for generating the continuum radiation. This is because the scattering becomes resonant at the cyclotron frequency, and the effective cross section exceeds the classical Thomson value by over two orders of magnitude. We present angle-dependent hard X-ray upscattering model spectra for uncooled monoenergetic relativistic electrons injected in inner regions of pulsar magnetospheres. These spectra are integrated over closed field lines and obtained for different observing perspectives. The spectral cut-off energies are critically dependent on the observer viewing angles and electron Lorentz factor. We find that electrons with energies less than around 15 MeV will emit most of their radiation below 250 keV, consistent with the observed turnovers in magnetar hard X-ray tails. Moreover, electrons of higher energy still emit most of the radiation below around 1 MeV, except for quasi-equatorial emission locales for select pulses phases. In such cases, attenuation mechanisms such as pair creation will be prolific, thereby making it difficult to observe signals extending into the Fermi-LAT band. Our spectral computations use new state-of-the-art, spin-dependent formalism for the QED Compton scattering cross section in strong magnetic fields. The emission exhibits strong polarization above around 30 keV that is anticipated to be dependent on pulse phase, thereby defining science agendas for future hard X-ray polarimeters.

  10. Calibration of a time-resolved hard-x-ray detector using radioactive sources

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Stoeckl, C., E-mail: csto@lle.rochester.edu; Theobald, W.; Regan, S. P.

    A four-channel, time-resolved, hard x-ray detector (HXRD) has been operating at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics for more than a decade. The slope temperature of the hot-electron population in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion experiments is inferred by recording the hard x-ray radiation generated in the interaction of the electrons with the target. Measuring the energy deposited by hot electrons requires an absolute calibration of the hard x-ray detector. A novel method to obtain an absolute calibration of the HXRD using single photons from radioactive sources was developed, which uses a thermoelectrically cooled, low-noise, charge-sensitive amplifier.

  11. Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) for Small Missions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Campola, Michael J.

    2016-01-01

    Varied mission life and complexity is growing for small spacecraft. Small missions benefit from detailed hazard definition and evaluation as done in the past. Requirements need to flow from the system down to the parts level and aid system level radiation tolerance. RHA is highlighted with increasing COTS usage.

  12. Hardness Assurance Techniques for New Generation COTS Devices

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lee, C. I.; Rax, B. G.; Johnston, A. H.

    1996-01-01

    Hardness Assurance (HA) techniques and total dose radiation characterization data for new generation linear and COTS devices from various manufacturers are presented. A bipolar op amp showed significant degradation at HDR, not at low dose rate environment. New generation low-power op amps showed more degradation at low voltage applications. HA test techniques for COTS devices are presented in this paper.

  13. Hard X-ray Sources for the Mexican Synchrotron Project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reyes-Herrera, Juan

    2016-10-01

    One of the principal tasks for the design of the Mexican synchrotron was to define the storage ring energy. The main criteria for choosing the energy come from studying the electromagnetic spectrum that can be obtained from the synchrotron, because the energy range of the spectrum that can be obtained will determine the applications available to the users of the future light source. Since there is a public demand of hard X-rays for the experiments in the synchrotron community users from Mexico, in this work we studied the emission spectra from some hard X-ray sources which could be the best options for the parameters of the present Mexican synchrotron design. The calculations of the flux and the brightness for one Bending Magnet and four Insertion Devices are presented; specifically, for a Superconducting Bending Magnet (SBM), a Superconducting Wiggler (SCW), an In Vacuum Short Period Undulator (IV-SPU), a Superconducting Undulator (SCU) and for a Cryogenic Permanent Magnet Undulator (CPMU). Two commonly available synchrotron radiation programs were used for the computation (XOP and SRW). From the results, it can be concluded that the particle beam energy from the current design is enough to have one or more sources of hard X-rays. Furthermore, a wide range of hard X-ray region can be covered by the analyzed sources, and the choice of each type should be based on the specific characteristics of the X-ray beam to perform the experiments at the involved beamline. This work was done within the project Fomix Conacyt-Morelos ”Plan Estrategico para la construccion y operación de un Sincrotron en Morelos” (224392).

  14. Production of hard X rays in a plasma focus

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Newman, C. E.; Petrosian, V.

    1975-01-01

    A model of a plasma focus is examined wherein large axial electric fields are produced by an imploding current sheet during the final nanoseconds of the collapse phase and where the fields provide a mechanism for creating a beam of electrons of highly suprathermal energies. The expected bremsstrahlung radiation above 100 keV is calculated for such a beam, which has a power-law spectrum, both from electron-deuteron collisions in the focused plasma and when the beam reaches the wall of the device. It is concluded that, since the experimental results indicate little or no radiation above 100 keV originating in the walls, that the electrons in the beam must be decelerated after leaving the plasma and before reaching the wall. Comparisons with the results and the total energy of the device yield qualitative agreement with the expected angular distribution of hard X-rays and reasonable agreement with the total energy in accelerated electrons required to produce the observed total energy in hard X-rays by this mechanism.

  15. World Health Organization, radiofrequency radiation and health - a hard nut to crack (Review)

    PubMed Central

    Hardell, Lennart

    2017-01-01

    In May 2011 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) evaluated cancer risks from radiofrequency (RF) radiation. Human epidemiological studies gave evidence of increased risk for glioma and acoustic neuroma. RF radiation was classified as Group 2B, a possible human carcinogen. Further epidemiological, animal and mechanistic studies have strengthened the association. In spite of this, in most countries little or nothing has been done to reduce exposure and educate people on health hazards from RF radiation. On the contrary ambient levels have increased. In 2014 the WHO launched a draft of a Monograph on RF fields and health for public comments. It turned out that five of the six members of the Core Group in charge of the draft are affiliated with International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), an industry loyal NGO, and thus have a serious conflict of interest. Just as by ICNIRP, evaluation of non-thermal biological effects from RF radiation are dismissed as scientific evidence of adverse health effects in the Monograph. This has provoked many comments sent to the WHO. However, at a meeting on March 3, 2017 at the WHO Geneva office it was stated that the WHO has no intention to change the Core Group. PMID:28656257

  16. Handheld Tissue Hardness Meters for Assessing the Mechanical Properties of Skeletal Muscle: A Feasibility Study.

    PubMed

    Chino, Kentaro; Takahashi, Hideyuki

    2016-09-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine the feasibility of using handheld tissue hardness meters to assess the mechanical properties of skeletal muscle. This observational study included 33 healthy men (age, 22.4 ± 4.4 years) and 33 healthy women (age, 23.7 ± 4.2 years). Participants were placed in a supine position, and tissue hardness overlying the rectus femoris and the shear modulus of the muscle were measured on the right side of the body at 50% thigh length. In the same position, subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness and muscle thickness were measured using B-mode ultrasonography. To examine the associations of subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness, muscle thickness, and muscle shear modulus with tissue hardness, linear regression using a stepwise bidirectional elimination approach was performed. Stepwise linear regression revealed that subcutaneous adipose tissue thickness (r = -0.38, P = .002) and muscle shear modulus (r = 0.27, P = .03) were significantly associated with tissue hardness. Significant associations among adipose tissue thickness, muscle shear modulus, and tissue hardness show the limitations and feasibility of handheld tissue hardness meters for assessing the mechanical properties of skeletal muscles. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  17. Demixing, surface nematization, and competing adsorption in binary mixtures of hard rods and hard spheres under confinement

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Liang; Malijevský, Alexandr; Avendaño, Carlos; Müller, Erich A.; Jackson, George

    2018-04-01

    A molecular simulation study of binary mixtures of hard spherocylinders (HSCs) and hard spheres (HSs) confined between two structureless hard walls is presented. The principal aim of the work is to understand the effect of the presence of hard spheres on the entropically driven surface nematization of hard rod-like particles at surfaces. The mixtures are studied using a constant normal-pressure Monte Carlo algorithm. The surface adsorption at different compositions is examined in detail. At moderate hard-sphere concentrations, preferential adsorption of the spheres at the wall is found. However, at moderate to high pressure (density), we observe a crossover in the adsorption behavior with nematic layers of the rods forming at the walls leading to local demixing of the system. The presence of the spherical particles is seen to destabilize the surface nematization of the rods, and the degree of demixing increases on increasing the hard-sphere concentration.

  18. Demixing, surface nematization, and competing adsorption in binary mixtures of hard rods and hard spheres under confinement.

    PubMed

    Wu, Liang; Malijevský, Alexandr; Avendaño, Carlos; Müller, Erich A; Jackson, George

    2018-04-28

    A molecular simulation study of binary mixtures of hard spherocylinders (HSCs) and hard spheres (HSs) confined between two structureless hard walls is presented. The principal aim of the work is to understand the effect of the presence of hard spheres on the entropically driven surface nematization of hard rod-like particles at surfaces. The mixtures are studied using a constant normal-pressure Monte Carlo algorithm. The surface adsorption at different compositions is examined in detail. At moderate hard-sphere concentrations, preferential adsorption of the spheres at the wall is found. However, at moderate to high pressure (density), we observe a crossover in the adsorption behavior with nematic layers of the rods forming at the walls leading to local demixing of the system. The presence of the spherical particles is seen to destabilize the surface nematization of the rods, and the degree of demixing increases on increasing the hard-sphere concentration.

  19. First tests of a novel radiation hard CMOS sensor process for Depleted Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pernegger, H.; Bates, R.; Buttar, C.; Dalla, M.; van Hoorne, J. W.; Kugathasan, T.; Maneuski, D.; Musa, L.; Riedler, P.; Riegel, C.; Sbarra, C.; Schaefer, D.; Schioppa, E. J.; Snoeys, W.

    2017-06-01

    The upgrade of the ATLAS [1] tracking detector for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN requires novel radiation hard silicon sensor technologies. Significant effort has been put into the development of monolithic CMOS sensors but it has been a challenge to combine a low capacitance of the sensing node with full depletion of the sensitive layer. Low capacitance brings low analog power. Depletion of the sensitive layer causes the signal charge to be collected by drift sufficiently fast to separate hits from consecutive bunch crossings (25 ns at the LHC) and to avoid losing the charge by trapping. This paper focuses on the characterization of charge collection properties and detection efficiency of prototype sensors originally designed in the framework of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS) upgrade [2]. The prototypes are fabricated both in the standard TowerJazz 180nm CMOS imager process [3] and in an innovative modification of this process developed in collaboration with the foundry, aimed to fully deplete the sensitive epitaxial layer and enhance the tolerance to non-ionizing energy loss. Sensors fabricated in standard and modified process variants were characterized using radioactive sources, focused X-ray beam and test beams before and after irradiation. Contrary to sensors manufactured in the standard process, sensors from the modified process remain fully functional even after a dose of 1015neq/cm2, which is the the expected NIEL radiation fluence for the outer pixel layers in the future ATLAS Inner Tracker (ITk) [4].

  20. Polarization effects on hard target calibration of lidar systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kavaya, Michael J.

    1987-01-01

    The theory of hard target calibration of lidar backscatter data, including laboratory measurements of the pertinent target reflectance parameters, is extended to include the effects of polarization of the transmitted and received laser radiation. The bidirectional reflectance-distribution function model of reflectance is expanded to a 4 x 4 matrix allowing Mueller matrix and Stokes vector calculus to be employed. Target reflectance parameters for calibration of lidar backscatter data are derived for various lidar system polarization configurations from integrating sphere and monostatic reflectometer measurements. It is found that correct modeling of polarization effects is mandatory for accurate calibration of hard target reflectance parameters and, therefore, for accurate calibration of lidar backscatter data.

  1. An experimental investigation of sound radiation from a duct with a circumferentially varying liner

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fuller, C. R.; Silcox, R. J.

    1983-01-01

    The radiation of sound from an asymmetrically lined duct is experimentally studied for various hard-walled standing mode sources. Measurements were made of the directivity of the radiated field and amplitude reflection coefficients in the hard-walled source section. These measurements are compared with baseline hardwall and uniformly lined duct data. The dependence of these characteristics on mode number and angular location of the source is investigated. A comparison between previous theoretical calculations and the experimentally measured results is made and in general good agreement is obtained. For the several cases presented an asymmetry in the liner impedance distribution was found to produce related asymmetries in the radiated acoustic field.

  2. Selecting Optimal Random Forest Predictive Models: A Case Study on Predicting the Spatial Distribution of Seabed Hardness

    PubMed Central

    Li, Jin; Tran, Maggie; Siwabessy, Justy

    2016-01-01

    Spatially continuous predictions of seabed hardness are important baseline environmental information for sustainable management of Australia’s marine jurisdiction. Seabed hardness is often inferred from multibeam backscatter data with unknown accuracy and can be inferred from underwater video footage at limited locations. In this study, we classified the seabed into four classes based on two new seabed hardness classification schemes (i.e., hard90 and hard70). We developed optimal predictive models to predict seabed hardness using random forest (RF) based on the point data of hardness classes and spatially continuous multibeam data. Five feature selection (FS) methods that are variable importance (VI), averaged variable importance (AVI), knowledge informed AVI (KIAVI), Boruta and regularized RF (RRF) were tested based on predictive accuracy. Effects of highly correlated, important and unimportant predictors on the accuracy of RF predictive models were examined. Finally, spatial predictions generated using the most accurate models were visually examined and analysed. This study confirmed that: 1) hard90 and hard70 are effective seabed hardness classification schemes; 2) seabed hardness of four classes can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy; 3) the typical approach used to pre-select predictive variables by excluding highly correlated variables needs to be re-examined; 4) the identification of the important and unimportant predictors provides useful guidelines for further improving predictive models; 5) FS methods select the most accurate predictive model(s) instead of the most parsimonious ones, and AVI and Boruta are recommended for future studies; and 6) RF is an effective modelling method with high predictive accuracy for multi-level categorical data and can be applied to ‘small p and large n’ problems in environmental sciences. Additionally, automated computational programs for AVI need to be developed to increase its computational efficiency and

  3. Selecting Optimal Random Forest Predictive Models: A Case Study on Predicting the Spatial Distribution of Seabed Hardness.

    PubMed

    Li, Jin; Tran, Maggie; Siwabessy, Justy

    2016-01-01

    Spatially continuous predictions of seabed hardness are important baseline environmental information for sustainable management of Australia's marine jurisdiction. Seabed hardness is often inferred from multibeam backscatter data with unknown accuracy and can be inferred from underwater video footage at limited locations. In this study, we classified the seabed into four classes based on two new seabed hardness classification schemes (i.e., hard90 and hard70). We developed optimal predictive models to predict seabed hardness using random forest (RF) based on the point data of hardness classes and spatially continuous multibeam data. Five feature selection (FS) methods that are variable importance (VI), averaged variable importance (AVI), knowledge informed AVI (KIAVI), Boruta and regularized RF (RRF) were tested based on predictive accuracy. Effects of highly correlated, important and unimportant predictors on the accuracy of RF predictive models were examined. Finally, spatial predictions generated using the most accurate models were visually examined and analysed. This study confirmed that: 1) hard90 and hard70 are effective seabed hardness classification schemes; 2) seabed hardness of four classes can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy; 3) the typical approach used to pre-select predictive variables by excluding highly correlated variables needs to be re-examined; 4) the identification of the important and unimportant predictors provides useful guidelines for further improving predictive models; 5) FS methods select the most accurate predictive model(s) instead of the most parsimonious ones, and AVI and Boruta are recommended for future studies; and 6) RF is an effective modelling method with high predictive accuracy for multi-level categorical data and can be applied to 'small p and large n' problems in environmental sciences. Additionally, automated computational programs for AVI need to be developed to increase its computational efficiency and

  4. Radiation effect on rocket engine performance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chiu, Huei-Huang; Kross, K. W.; Krebsbach, A. N.

    1990-01-01

    Critical problem areas involving the effect of radiation on the combustion of bipropellants are addressed by formulating a universal scaling law in combination with a radiation-enhanced vaporization combustion model. Numerical algorithms are developed and data pertaining to the Variable Thrust Engine (VTE) and the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) are used to conduct parametric sensitivity studies to predict the principal intercoupling effects of radiation. The analysis reveals that low-enthalpy engines, such as the VTE, are vulnerable to a substantial performance setback due to radiative loss, whereas the performance of high-enthalpy engines such as the SSME are hardly affected over a broad range of engine operation. Combustion enhancement by radiative heating of the propellant has a significant impact on propellants with high absorptivity.

  5. Radiation Hard Silicon Particle Detectors for Phase-II LHC Trackers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oblakowska-Mucha, A.

    2017-02-01

    The major LHC upgrade is planned after ten years of accelerator operation. It is foreseen to significantly increase the luminosity of the current machine up to 1035 cm-2s-1 and operate as the upcoming High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) . The major detectors upgrade, called the Phase-II Upgrade, is also planned, a main reason being the aging processes caused by severe particle radiation. Within the RD50 Collaboration, a large Research and Development program has been underway to develop silicon sensors with sufficient radiation tolerance for HL-LHC trackers. In this summary, several results obtained during the testing of the devices after irradiation to HL-LHC levels are presented. Among the studied structures, one can find advanced sensors types like 3D silicon detectors, High-Voltage CMOS technologies, or sensors with intrinsic gain (LGAD). Based on these results, the RD50 Collaboration gives recommendation for the silicon detectors to be used in the detector upgrade.

  6. Development of a compact radiation-hardened low-noise front-end readout ASIC for CZT-based hard X-ray imager

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, W.; Gan, B.; Li, X.; Wei, T.; Gao, D.; Hu, Y.

    2015-04-01

    In this paper, we present the development and performances of a radiation-hardened front-end readout application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) dedicated to CZT detectors for a hard X-ray imager in space applications. The readout channel consists of a charge sensitive amplifier (CSA), a CR-RC shaper, a fast shaper, a discriminator and a driving buffer. With the additional digital filtering, the readout channel can achieve very low noise performances and low power dissipation. An eight-channel prototype ASIC is designed and fabricated in 0.35 μm CMOS process. The energy range of the detected X-rays is evaluated as 1.45 keV to 281 keV. The gain is larger than 100 mV/fC. The equivalent noise charge (ENC) of the ASIC is 53 e- at zero farad plus 10 e- per picofarad. The power dissipation is less than 4.4 mW/channel. Through the measurement with a CZT detector, the energy resolution is less than 3.45 keV (FWHM) under the irradiation of the radioactive source 241Am. The radiation effect experiments indicate that the proposed ASIC can resist the total ionization dose (TID) irradiation of higher than 200 krad (Si).

  7. Further links between the maximum hardness principle and the hard/soft acid/base principle: insights from hard/soft exchange reactions.

    PubMed

    Chattaraj, Pratim K; Ayers, Paul W; Melin, Junia

    2007-08-07

    Ayers, Parr, and Pearson recently showed that insight into the hard/soft acid/base (HSAB) principle could be obtained by analyzing the energy of reactions in hard/soft exchange reactions, i.e., reactions in which a soft acid replaces a hard acid or a soft base replaces a hard base [J. Chem. Phys., 2006, 124, 194107]. We show, in accord with the maximum hardness principle, that the hardness increases for favorable hard/soft exchange reactions and decreases when the HSAB principle indicates that hard/soft exchange reactions are unfavorable. This extends the previous work of the authors, which treated only the "double hard/soft exchange" reaction [P. K. Chattaraj and P. W. Ayers, J. Chem. Phys., 2005, 123, 086101]. We also discuss two different approaches to computing the hardness of molecules from the hardness of the composing fragments, and explain how the results differ. In the present context, it seems that the arithmetic mean of fragment softnesses is the preferable definition.

  8. Radiation Effects in Advanced Microelectonic Technologies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Johnston, A. H.

    1997-01-01

    Several new radiation phenomena have been observed in laboratory testing of advanced microelectonics that are not yet of sufficient importance for typical space applications, but provide insight into the likely effects of scaling and device design on radiation hardness.

  9. Determining the Effect of Material Hardness During the Hard Turning of AISI4340 Steel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kambagowni, Venkatasubbaiah; Chitla, Raju; Challa, Suresh

    2018-05-01

    In the present manufacturing industries hardened steels are most widely used in the applications like tool design and mould design. It enhances the application range of hard turning of hardened steels in manufacturing industries. This study discusses the impact of workpiece hardness, feed and depth of cut on Arithmetic mean roughness (Ra), root mean square roughness (Rq), mean depth of roughness (Rz) and total roughness (Rt) during the hard turning. Experiments have been planned according to the Box-Behnken design and conducted on hardened AISI4340 steel at 45, 50 and 55 HRC with wiper ceramic cutting inserts. Cutting speed is kept constant during this study. The analysis of variance was used to determine the effects of the machining parameters. 3-D response surface plots drawn based on RSM were utilized to set up the input-output relationships. The results indicated that the feed rate has the most significant parameter for Ra, Rq and Rz and hardness has the most critical parameter for the Rt. Further, hardness shows its influence over all the surface roughness characteristics.

  10. Design and development of a hard tube flexible radiator system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hixon, C. W.

    1980-01-01

    The construction and operational characteristics of an extended life flexible radiator panel is described. The radiator panel consists of a flexible fin laminate and stainless steel flow tubes designed for a 90 percent probability of surviving 5 years in an Earth orbit micrometeoroid environment. The radiator panel rejects 1.1 kW sub t of heat into an environmental sink temperature of 0 F. Total area is 170 square feet and the panel extends 25 feet in the fully deployed position. When retracted the panel rolls onto a 11.5 inch diameter by 52 inch long storage drum, for a final stored diameter of 22 inches.

  11. Annihilation radiation in cosmic gamma-ray bursts

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Aptekar, R. L.; Golenetskii, S. V.; Guryan, Y. A.; Ilyinskii, V. N.; Mazets, E. P.

    1985-01-01

    The pair annihilation radiation in gamma-ray bursts is seen as broad lines with extended hard wings. This radiation is suggested to escape in a collimated beam from magnetic polar regions of neutron stars.

  12. Analytic studies of the hard dumbell fluid

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morriss, G. P.; Cummings, P. T.

    A closed form analytic theory for the structure of the hard dumbell fluid is introduced and evaluated. It is found to be comparable in accuracy to the reference interaction site approximation (RISA) of Chandler and Andersen.

  13. P-stop isolation study of irradiated n-in-p type silicon strip sensors for harsh radiation environments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Printz, Martin; CMS Tracker Collaboration

    2016-09-01

    In order to determine the most radiation hard silicon sensors for the CMS Experiment after the Phase II Upgrade in 2023 a comprehensive study of silicon sensors after a fluence of up to 1.5 ×1015neq /cm2 corresponding to 3000fb-1 after the HL-LHC era has been carried out. The results led to the decision that the future Outer Tracker (20 cm < R < 110 cm) of CMS will consist of n-in-p type sensors. This technology is more radiation hard but also the manufacturing is more challenging compared to p-in-n type sensors due to additional process steps in order to suppress the accumulation of electrons between the readout strips. One possible isolation technique of adjacent strips is the p-stop structure which is a p-type material implantation with a certain pattern for each individual strip. However, electrical breakdown and charge collection studies indicate that the process parameters of the p-stop structure have to be carefully calibrated in order to achieve a sufficient strip isolation but simultaneously high breakdown voltages. Therefore a study of the isolation characteristics with four different silicon sensor manufacturers has been executed in order to determine the most suitable p-stop parameters for the harsh radiation environment during HL-LHC. Several p-stop doping concentrations, doping depths and different p-stop pattern have been realized and experiments before and after irradiation with protons and neutrons have been performed and compared to T-CAD simulation studies with Synopsys Sentaurus. The measurements combine the electrical characteristics measured with a semi-automatic probestation with Sr90 signal measurements and analogue readout. Furthermore, some samples have been investigated with the help of a cosmic telescope with high resolution allowing charge collection studies of MIPs penetrating the sensor between two strips.

  14. Metric Analysis of the Hard Palate in Children with Down Syndrome--A Comparative Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bhagyalakshmi, Gopalan; Renukarya, Annappa Jai; Rajangam, Sayee

    2007-01-01

    The hard palate is viewed as playing an important role in the passive articulation of speech. Its probable role in the defective articulation of speech in individuals with Down syndrome has been examined in the present study. In individuals with Down syndrome, the hard palate is highly arched, constricted, and narrow and stair type with malformed…

  15. He implantation induced microstructure- and hardness-modification of the intermetallic γ-TiAl

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pouchon, Manuel A.; Chen, Jiachao; Hoffelner, Wolfgang

    2009-05-01

    TiAl is a well known high temperature material with good creep properties. It is investigated as a potential structural material for Generation IV high temperature gas cooled nuclear reactors. The tests are performed with the ABB-2 (Ti-rich TiAl with 2 at.% W) developed by ASEA Brown Boveri Ltd. (ABB). Thin samples are irradiated throughout with 24 MeV 4He2+ ions; the irradiated material is then investigated towards its microstructure and its hardness. The microstructure is studied by transmission electron microscopy and the hardness is investigated using a micro-hardness tester and a nano-indenter. Different effects can be identified. From room to moderate irradiation temperatures, the radiation induced hardening of the material slowly vanishes until the material completely recovers at about 943 K. Beyond this temperature, He-bubble formation seems to harden the material again, until beyond 1200 K a steep increase in hardening is detected. This effect can be correlated with bubbles being identified in the micrographs. The results are consistent and give strong indications to a microstructural development as a function of temperature.

  16. Performance of ASTRO-H Hard X-Ray Telescope (HXT)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Awaki, Hisamitsu; Kunieda, Hideyo; Ishida, Manabu; Matsumoto, Hironori; Furuzawa, Akihiro; Haba, Yohsito; Hayashi, Takayuki; Iizuka, Ryo; Ishibashi, Kazunori; Itoh, Masayuki; hide

    2016-01-01

    The Japanese X-ray Astronomy Satellite, Hitomi (ASTRO-H) carries hard X-ray imaging system, covering the energy band from 5 keV to 80 keV. The hard X-ray imaging system consists of two hard X-ray telescopes (HXT) and two hard X-ray imagers (HXI). The HXT employs tightly-nested, conically-approximated thin foil Wolter-I optics. The mirror surfaces of HXT were coated with PtC depth-graded multilayers. We carried out ground calibrations of HXTs at the synchrotron radiation facility SPring-8 BL20B2 in Japan, and found that total effective area of two HXTs was about 350 sq cm at 30 keV, and the half power diameter of HXT was about 1.9. After the launch of Hitomi, Hitomi observed several targets during the initial functional verification of the onboard instruments. The Hitomi software and calibration team (SCT) provided the Hitomis data of G21.5-0.9, a pulsar wind nebula, to the hardware team for the purpose of the instrument calibration. Through the analysis of the in-flight data, we have confirmed that the X-ray performance of HXTs in orbit was consistent with that estimated by the ground calibrations.

  17. Laser-plasma-based Space Radiation Reproduction in the Laboratory

    PubMed Central

    Hidding, B.; Karger, O.; Königstein, T.; Pretzler, G.; Manahan, G. G.; McKenna, P.; Gray, R.; Wilson, R.; Wiggins, S. M.; Welsh, G. H.; Beaton, A.; Delinikolas, P.; Jaroszynski, D. A.; Rosenzweig, J. B.; Karmakar, A.; Ferlet-Cavrois, V.; Costantino, A.; Muschitiello, M.; Daly, E.

    2017-01-01

    Space radiation is a great danger to electronics and astronauts onboard space vessels. The spectral flux of space electrons, protons and ions for example in the radiation belts is inherently broadband, but this is a feature hard to mimic with conventional radiation sources. Using laser-plasma-accelerators, we reproduced relativistic, broadband radiation belt flux in the laboratory, and used this man-made space radiation to test the radiation hardness of space electronics. Such close mimicking of space radiation in the lab builds on the inherent ability of laser-plasma-accelerators to directly produce broadband Maxwellian-type particle flux, akin to conditions in space. In combination with the established sources, utilisation of the growing number of ever more potent laser-plasma-accelerator facilities worldwide as complementary space radiation sources can help alleviate the shortage of available beamtime and may allow for development of advanced test procedures, paving the way towards higher reliability of space missions. PMID:28176862

  18. Low-intensity lasers, modern filling materials, and bonding systems influence on mineral metabolism of hard dental tissues

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kunin, Anatoly A.; Yesaulenko, I. E.; Zoibelmann, M.; Pankova, Svetlana N.; Ippolitov, Yu. A.; Oleinik, Olga I.; Popova, T. A.; Koretskaya, I. V.; Shumilovitch, Bogdan R.; Podolskaya, Elana E.

    2001-10-01

    One of the main reasons of low quality filling is breaking Ca-P balance in hard tissues. Our research was done with the purpose of studying the influence of low intensity lasers, diodic radiation, the newest filling and bonding systems on the processes of mineral metabolism in hard dental tissues while filling a tooth. 250 patients having caries and its compli-cations were examined and treated. Our complex research included: visual and instrumental examination, finding out the level of oral cavity hygiene, acid enamel biopsy, scanning electronic microscopy and X-ray spectrum microanalysis. Filling processes may produce a negative effect on mineral metabolism of hard dental tissues the latter is less pronounced when applying fluoride-containing filling materials with bonding systems. It has also been found that bonding dentin and enamel systems are designed for both a better filling adhesion (i.e. mechanical adhesion) and migration of useful microelements present in them by their sinking into hard dental tissues (i.e. chemical adhesion). Our research showed a positive influence of low intensity laser and diodic beams accompanying the use of modern filling and bonding systems on mineral metabolism of hard dental tissues.

  19. Radiation Failures in Intel 14nm Microprocessors

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bossev, Dobrin P.; Duncan, Adam R.; Gadlage, Matthew J.; Roach, Austin H.; Kay, Matthew J.; Szabo, Carl; Berger, Tammy J.; York, Darin A.; Williams, Aaron; LaBel, K.; hide

    2016-01-01

    In this study the 14 nm Intel Broadwell 5th generation core series 5005U-i3 and 5200U-i5 was mounted on Dell Inspiron laptops, MSI Cubi and Gigabyte Brix barebones and tested with Windows 8 and CentOS7 at idle. Heavy-ion-induced hard- and catastrophic failures do not appear to be related to the Intel 14nm Tri-Gate FinFET process. They originate from a small (9 m 140 m) area on the 32nm planar PCH die (not the CPU) as initially speculated. The hard failures seem to be due to a SEE but the exact physical mechanism has yet to be identified. Some possibilities include latch-ups, charge ion trapping or implantation, ion channels, or a combination of those (in biased conditions). The mechanism of the catastrophic failures seems related to the presence of electric power (1.05V core voltage). The 1064 nm laser mimics ionization radiation and induces soft- and hard failures as a direct result of electron-hole pair production, not heat. The 14nm FinFET processes continue to look promising for space radiation environments.

  20. Microcircuit radiation effects databank

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1983-01-01

    Radiation test data submitted by many testers is collated to serve as a reference for engineers who are concerned with and have some knowledge of the effects of the natural radiation environment on microcircuits. Total dose damage information and single event upset cross sections, i.e., the probability of a soft error (bit flip) or of a hard error (latchup) are presented.

  1. WIYN OPEN CLUSTER STUDY. XLVIII. THE HARD-BINARY POPULATION OF NGC 188

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Geller, Aaron M.; Mathieu, Robert D., E-mail: a-geller@northwestern.edu, E-mail: mathieu@astro.wisc.edu

    2012-08-15

    We present an in-depth study of the hard-binary population of the old (7 Gyr) open cluster NGC 188. Utilizing 85 spectroscopic binary orbits out of a complete sample of 129 detected binary members, we study the cluster binary frequency and the distributions of binary orbital elements among the main-sequence (MS), giant, and blue straggler (BS) populations. The results are derived from our ongoing radial velocity survey of the cluster, which spans in magnitude from the brightest stars in the cluster to V = 16.5 (about 1.1-0.9 M{sub Sun} ), and extends to a projected radius of 17 pc ({approx}13 coremore » radii). Our detectable binaries have periods ranging from a few days to of order 10{sup 4} days, and thus are hard binaries that dynamically power the cluster. The MS solar-type hard binaries in NGC 188 are nearly indistinguishable from similar binaries in the Galactic field. We observe a global solar-type MS hard-binary frequency in NGC 188 of 23% {+-} 2%, which when corrected for incompleteness results in a frequency of 29% {+-} 3% for binaries with periods less than 10{sup 4} days. For MS hard binaries in the cluster, we observe a log-period distribution that rises toward our detection limit, a roughly Gaussian eccentricity distribution centered on e = 0.35 (for binaries with periods longer than the circularization period), and a secondary-mass distribution that rises toward lower-mass companions. Importantly, the NGC 188 BS binaries show significantly different characteristics than the solar-type MS binaries in NGC 188. We observe a BS hard-binary frequency of 76% {+-} 19%, three times that of the MS. The excess of this binary frequency over the normal MS binary frequency is valid at the >99% confidence level. Furthermore, the BS binary eccentricity-log-period distribution is distinct from that of the MS at the 99% confidence level, with the majority of the BS binaries having periods of order 1000 days and lower eccentricities. The secondary-mass distribution

  2. The Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) for the ASTRO-H Mission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sato, Goro; Kokubun, Motohide; Nakazawa, Kazuhiro; Enoto, Teruaki; Fukazawa, Yasushi; Harayama, Atsushi; Hayashi, Katsuhiro; Kataoka, Jun; Katsuta, Junichiro; Kawaharada, Madoka; Laurent, Philippe; Lebrun, François; Limousin, Olivier; Makishima, Kazuo; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Mori, Kunishiro; Nakamori, Takeshi; Noda, Hirofumi; Odaka, Hirokazu; Ohno, Masanori; Ohta, Masayuki; Saito, Shinya; Sato, Rie; Tajima, Hiroyasu; Takahashi, Hiromitsu; Takahashi, Tadayuki; Takeda, Shinichiro; Terada, Yukikatsu; Uchiyama, Hideki; Uchiyama, Yasunobu; Watanabe, Shin; Yamaoka, Kazutaka; Yatsu, Yoichi; Yuasa, Takayuki

    2014-07-01

    The 6th Japanese X-ray satellite, ASTRO-H, is scheduled for launch in 2015. The hard X-ray focusing imaging system will observe astronomical objects with the sensitivity for detecting point sources with a brightness of 1/100,000 times fainter than the Crab nebula at > 10 keV. The Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) is a focal plane detector 12 m below the hard X-ray telescope (HXT) covering the energy range from 5 to 80 keV. The HXI is composed of a stacked Si/CdTe semiconductor detector module and surrounding BGO scintillators. The latter work as active shields for efficient reduction of background events caused by cosmic-ray particles, cosmic X-ray background, and in-orbit radiation activation. In this paper, we describe the detector system, and present current status of flight model development, and performance of HXI using an engineering model of HXI.

  3. Radiation Assurance for the Space Environment

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Barth, Janet L.; LaBel, Kenneth A.; Poivey, Christian

    2004-01-01

    The space radiation environment can lead to extremely harsh operating conditions for spacecraft electronic systems. A hardness assurance methodology must be followed to assure that the space radiation environment does not compromise the functionality and performance of space-based systems during the mission lifetime. The methodology includes a definition of the radiation environment, assessment of the radiation sensitivity of parts, worst-case analysis of the impact of radiation effects, and part acceptance decisions which are likely to include mitigation measures.

  4. RHOBOT: Radiation hardened robotics

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bennett, P.C.; Posey, L.D.

    1997-10-01

    A survey of robotic applications in radioactive environments has been conducted, and analysis of robotic system components and their response to the varying types and strengths of radiation has been completed. Two specific robotic systems for accident recovery and nuclear fuel movement have been analyzed in detail for radiation hardness. Finally, a general design approach for radiation-hardened robotics systems has been developed and is presented. This report completes this project which was funded under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

  5. A Reliability Simulator for Radiation-Hard Microelectronics Development

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1991-07-01

    1 3.0 PHASE II WORK PLANS ................................................................ 2... plan . The correlation experimental details including the devices utilized, the hot-carrier stressing and the wafer-level radiation correlation procedure...channel devices, and a new lifetime extrapolation method is demonstrated for p-channel devices. 3.0 PHASE II WORK PLANS The Phase 1I program consisted of

  6. Comparison of solar hard X-ray and UV line and continuum bursts with high time resolution

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Orwig, L. E.; Woodgate, B. E.

    1986-01-01

    A comparison of data sets from the UV Spectrometer and Polarimeter and Hard X-ray Burst Spectrometer instruments on SMM has established the close relationship of the impulsive phase hard X-ray and UV continuum and OV line emissions, lending support to the notion that they have a similar origin low in the solar atmosphere. These results severely constrain models that attempt to explain impulsive phase hard X-rays and UV emission; alternative processes of impulsive-phase UV continuum production should accordingly be considered. Attention is given to an electron beam 'hole boring' mechanism and a photoionization radiation transport mechanism.

  7. Correlating particle hardness with powder compaction performance.

    PubMed

    Cao, Xiaoping; Morganti, Mikayla; Hancock, Bruno C; Masterson, Victoria M

    2010-10-01

    Assessing particle mechanical properties of pharmaceutical materials quickly and with little material can be very important to early stages of pharmaceutical research. In this study, a wide range of pharmaceutical materials were studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM) nanoindentation. A significant amount of particle hardness and elastic modulus data were provided. Moreover, powder compact mechanical properties of these materials were investigated in order to build correlation between the particle hardness and powder compaction performance. It was found that the materials with very low or high particle hardness most likely exhibit poor compaction performance while the materials with medium particle hardness usually have good compaction behavior. Additionally, the results from this study enriched Hiestand's special case concept on particle hardness and powder compaction performance. This study suggests that the use of AFM nanoindentation can help to screen mechanical properties of pharmaceutical materials at early development stages of pharmaceutical research.

  8. Data Fitting to Study Ablated Hard Dental Tissues by Nanosecond Laser Irradiation.

    PubMed

    Al-Hadeethi, Y; Al-Jedani, S; Razvi, M A N; Saeed, A; Abdel-Daiem, A M; Ansari, M Shahnawaze; Babkair, Saeed S; Salah, Numan A; Al-Mujtaba, A

    2016-01-01

    Laser ablation of dental hard tissues is one of the most important laser applications in dentistry. Many works have reported the interaction of laser radiations with tooth material to optimize laser parameters such as wavelength, energy density, etc. This work has focused on determining the relationship between energy density and ablation thresholds using pulsed, 5 nanosecond, neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet; Nd:Y3Al5O12 (Nd:YAG) laser at 1064 nanometer. For enamel and dentin tissues, the ablations have been performed using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique. The ablation thresholds and relationship between energy densities and peak areas of calcium lines, which appeared in LIBS, were determined using data fitting. Furthermore, the morphological changes were studied using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Moreover, the chemical stability of the tooth material after ablation has been studied using Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX). The differences between carbon atomic % of non-irradiated and irradiated samples were tested using statistical t-test. Results revealed that the best fitting between energy densities and peak areas of calcium lines were exponential and linear for enamel and dentin, respectively. In addition, the ablation threshold of Nd:YAG lasers in enamel was higher than that of dentin. The morphology of the surrounded ablated region of enamel showed thermal damages. For enamel, the EDX quantitative analysis showed that the atomic % of carbon increased significantly when laser energy density increased.

  9. Data Fitting to Study Ablated Hard Dental Tissues by Nanosecond Laser Irradiation

    PubMed Central

    Abdel-Daiem, A. M.; Ansari, M. Shahnawaze; Babkair, Saeed S.; Salah, Numan A.; Al-Mujtaba, A.

    2016-01-01

    Laser ablation of dental hard tissues is one of the most important laser applications in dentistry. Many works have reported the interaction of laser radiations with tooth material to optimize laser parameters such as wavelength, energy density, etc. This work has focused on determining the relationship between energy density and ablation thresholds using pulsed, 5 nanosecond, neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet; Nd:Y3Al5O12 (Nd:YAG) laser at 1064 nanometer. For enamel and dentin tissues, the ablations have been performed using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique. The ablation thresholds and relationship between energy densities and peak areas of calcium lines, which appeared in LIBS, were determined using data fitting. Furthermore, the morphological changes were studied using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Moreover, the chemical stability of the tooth material after ablation has been studied using Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX). The differences between carbon atomic % of non-irradiated and irradiated samples were tested using statistical t-test. Results revealed that the best fitting between energy densities and peak areas of calcium lines were exponential and linear for enamel and dentin, respectively. In addition, the ablation threshold of Nd:YAG lasers in enamel was higher than that of dentin. The morphology of the surrounded ablated region of enamel showed thermal damages. For enamel, the EDX quantitative analysis showed that the atomic % of carbon increased significantly when laser energy density increased. PMID:27228169

  10. Numerical study of radiative heat transfer and effects of thermal boundary conditions on CLC fuel reactor

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ben-Mansour, R.; Li, H.; Habib, M. A.; Hossain, M. M.

    2018-02-01

    Global warming has become a worldwide concern due to its severe impacts and consequences on the climate system and ecosystem. As a promising technology proving good carbon capture ability with low-efficiency penalty, Chemical Looping Combustion technology has risen much interest. However, the radiative heat transfer was hardly studied, nor its effects were clearly declared. The present work provides a mathematical model for radiative heat transfer within fuel reactor of chemical looping combustion systems and conducts a numerical research on the effects of boundary conditions, solid particles reflectivity, particles size, and the operating temperature. The results indicate that radiative heat transfer has very limited impacts on the flow pattern. Meanwhile, the temperature variations in the static bed region (where solid particles are dense) brought by radiation are also insignificant. However, the effects of radiation on temperature profiles within free bed region (where solid particles are very sparse) are obvious, especially when convective-radiative (mixed) boundary condition is applied on fuel reactor walls. Smaller oxygen carrier particle size results in larger absorption & scattering coefficients. The consideration of radiative heat transfer within fuel reactor increases the temperature gradient within free bed region. On the other hand, the conversion performance of fuel is nearly not affected by radiation heat transfer within fuel reactor. However, the consideration of radiative heat transfer enhances the heat transfer between the gas phase and solid phase, especially when the operating temperature is low.

  11. Use of radiation in biomaterials science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Benson, Roberto S.

    2002-05-01

    Radiation is widely used in the biomaterials science for surface modification, sterilization and to improve bulk properties. Radiation is also used to design of biochips, and in situ photopolymerizable of bioadhesives. The energy sources most commonly used in the irradiation of biomaterials are high-energy electrons, gamma radiation, ultraviolet (UV) and visible light. Surface modification involves placement of selective chemical moieties on the surface of a material by chemical reactions to improve biointeraction for cell adhesion and proliferation, hemocompatibility and water absorption. The exposure of a polymer to radiation, especially ionizing radiation, can lead to chain scission or crosslinking with changes in bulk and surface properties. Sterilization by irradiation is designed to inactivate most pathogens from the surface of biomedical devices. An overview of the use of gamma and UV radiation to improve surface tissue compatibility, bulk properties and surface properties for wear resistance, formation of hydrogels and curing dental sealants and bone adhesives is presented. Gamma and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) irradiated ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) exhibit improvement in surface modulus and hardness. The surface modulus and hardness of UHMWPE showed a dependence on type of radiation, dosage and processing. VUV surface modified e-PTFE vascular grafts exhibit increases in hydrophilicity and improvement towards adhesion of fibrin glue.

  12. In Vitro Comparative Study of Two Different Bleaching Agents on Micro-hardness Dental Enamel.

    PubMed

    Fatima, Nazish; Ali Abidi, Syed Yawar; Meo, Ashraf Ali

    2016-02-01

    To evaluate the effect of home-use bleaching agent containing 16% Carbamide Peroxide (CP) and in-office bleaching agent containing 38% Hydrogen Peroxide (HP) on enamel micro-hardness. An in vitroexperimental study. Department of Operative Dentistry and Science of Dental Materials at Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan Institute of Oral Health Sciences, Dow University of Health Sciences and Material Engineering Department of NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, from July to December 2014. Atotal of 90 enamel slabs from 45 sound human 3rd molar were randomly divided into 3 groups. Each group contained 30 specimens (n=30). Group 1 was kept in artificial saliva at 37°C in incubator during the whole experiment. However, Groups 2 and 3 were treated with power whitening gel and tooth whitening pen respectively. After bleaching session, specimens were thoroughly rinsed with deionized water again for 10 seconds and then stored in artificial saliva at 37°C in incubator. Artificial saliva was changed after every 2 days. The Vickers hardness tester (Wolpert 402 MVD, Germany) was adjusted to a load of 0.1 kg (100 gm) and dwell time of 5 seconds. Three Vickers were performed on each specimen using a hardness tester according to the ISO 6507-3:1998 specification. Micro-hardness measurements were performed before and after bleaching at day 1, 7 and 14. In the control group, the baseline micro-hardness was 181.1 ±9.3 which was reduced after the storage on day 1, 7 and 14 (p = 0.104). In Group 2, baseline micro-hardness was 180.4 ±10.1 which was reduced to 179.79 ±10.0 units after day 1. Whereas, on day 7 and 14, the values of micro-hardness were 179.8 ±10 and 179.7 ±10.29, respectively (p=0.091). Furthermore, the baseline micro-hardness in Group 3 was 174.0 ±22.9 units which was reduced to 173 ±23 on day 1, 170 ±30 on day 7 and 173 ±23 on day 14 (p = 0.256). The statistically insignificant difference was found

  13. Microcircuit radiation effects databank

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1983-01-01

    This databank is the collation of radiation test data submitted by many testers and serves as a reference for engineers who are concerned with and have some knowledge of the effects of the natural radiation environment on microcircuits. It contains radiation sensitivity results from ground tests and is divided into two sections. Section A lists total dose damage information, and section B lists single event upset cross sections, I.E., the probability of a soft error (bit flip) or of a hard error (latchup).

  14. A study on leakage radiation dose at ELV-4 electron accelerator bunker

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chulan, Mohd Rizal Md; Yahaya, Redzuwan; Ghazali, Abu BakarMhd

    2014-09-01

    Shielding is an important aspect in the safety of an accelerator and the most important aspects of a bunker shielding is the door. The bunker's door should be designed properly to minimize the leakage radiation and shall not exceed the permitted limit of 2.5μSv/hr. In determining the leakage radiation dose that passed through the door and gaps between the door and the wall, 2-dimensional manual calculations are often used. This method is hard to perform because visual 2-dimensional is limited and is also very difficult in the real situation. Therefore estimation values are normally performed. In doing so, the construction cost would be higher because of overestimate or underestimate which require costly modification to the bunker. Therefore in this study, two methods are introduced to overcome the problem such as simulation using MCNPX Version 2.6.0 software and manual calculation using 3-dimensional model from Autodesk Inventor 2010 software. The values from the two methods were eventually compared to the real values from direct measurements using Ludlum Model 3 with Model 44-9 probe survey meter.

  15. Short-term hot hardness characteristics of rolling-element steels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chevalier, J. L.; Dietrich, M. W.; Zaretsky, E. V.

    1972-01-01

    Short-term hot hardness studies were performed with five vacuum-melted steels at temperatures from 294 to 887 K (70 to 1140 F). Based upon a minimum Rockwell C hardness of 58, the temperature limitation on all materials studied was dependent on the initial room temperature hardness and the tempering temperature of each material. For the same room temperature hardness, the short-term hot hardness characteristics were identical and independent of material composition. An equation was developed to predict the short-term hardness at temperature as a function of initial room temperature hardness for AISI 52100, as well as the high-speed tool steels.

  16. Evaluation of HardSys/HardDraw, An Expert System for Electromagnetic Interactions Modelling

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1993-05-01

    interactions ir complex systems. This report gives a description of HardSys/HardDraw and reviews the main concepts used in its design. Various aspects of its ...HardDraw, an expert system for the modelling of electromagnetic interactions in complex systems. It consists of two main components: HardSys and HardDraw...HardSys is the advisor part of the expert system. It is knowledge-based, that is it contains a database of models and properties for various types of

  17. Non-destructive phase contrast hard x-ray imaging to reveal the three-dimensional microstructure of soft and hard tissues

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khimchenko, Anna; Schulz, Georg; Deyhle, Hans; Hieber, Simone E.; Hasan, Samiul; Bikis, Christos; Schulz, Joachim; Costeur, Loïc.; Müller, Bert

    2016-04-01

    X-ray imaging in the absorption contrast mode is an established method of visualising calcified tissues such as bone and teeth. Physically soft tissues such as brain or muscle are often imaged using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, the spatial resolution of MRI is insufficient for identifying individual biological cells within three-dimensional tissue. X-ray grating interferometry (XGI) has advantages for the investigation of soft tissues or the simultaneous three-dimensional visualisation of soft and hard tissues. Since laboratory microtomography (μCT) systems have better accessibility than tomography set-ups at synchrotron radiation facilities, a great deal of effort has been invested in optimising XGI set-ups for conventional μCT systems. In this conference proceeding, we present how a two-grating interferometer is incorporated into a commercially available nanotom m (GE Sensing and Inspection Technologies GmbH) μCT system to extend its capabilities toward phase contrast. We intend to demonstrate superior contrast in spiders (Hogna radiata (Fam. Lycosidae) and Xysticus erraticus (Fam. Thomisidae)), as well as the simultaneous visualisation of hard and soft tissues. XGI is an imaging modality that provides quantitative data, and visualisation is an important part of biomimetics; consequently, hard X-ray imaging provides a sound basis for bioinspiration, bioreplication and biomimetics and allows for the quantitative comparison of biofabricated products with their natural counterparts.

  18. Carpet vs. Hard Surface Floors: Studies Compare Health Effects of Each.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Schmidt, Edward A.

    1994-01-01

    This article, third in a three-part series of articles that discuss indoor air quality (IAQ) issues affecting schools, looks at studies that compare the health effect of carpet and hard surface floors. Concludes that carpet is appropriate for use in schools when it is properly maintained. (MLF)

  19. Radiation Effects: Overview for Space Environment Specialists

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ladbury, Ray

    2017-01-01

    Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) methodologies need to evolve to capitalize on the increased flexibility introduced by new models of space radiation environments. This presentation examines the characteristics of various radiation threats, the sources of error that RHA methodologies seek to control and the contributions of environment models to those errors. The influence of trends in microelectronic device technology is also considered.

  20. Radiation Hardened Electronics for Extreme Environments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Keys, Andrew S.; Watson, Michael D.

    2007-01-01

    The Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE) project consists of a series of tasks designed to develop and mature a broad spectrum of radiation hardened and low temperature electronics technologies. Three approaches are being taken to address radiation hardening: improved material hardness, design techniques to improve radiation tolerance, and software methods to improve radiation tolerance. Within these approaches various technology products are being addressed including Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAA), MEMS Serial Processors, Reconfigurable Processors, and Parallel Processors. In addition to radiation hardening, low temperature extremes are addressed with a focus on material and design approaches.

  1. Relativistically strong electromagnetic radiation in a plasma

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Bulanov, S. V., E-mail: svbulanov@gmail.com, E-mail: bulanov.sergei@jaea.go.jp; Esirkepov, T. Zh.; Kando, M.

    Physical processes in a plasma under the action of relativistically strong electromagnetic waves generated by high-power lasers have been briefly reviewed. These processes are of interest in view of the development of new methods for acceleration of charged particles, creation of sources of bright hard electromagnetic radiation, and investigation of macroscopic quantum-electrodynamical processes. Attention is focused on nonlinear waves in a laser plasma for the creation of compact electron accelerators. The acceleration of plasma bunches by the radiation pressure of light is the most efficient regime of ion acceleration. Coherent hard electromagnetic radiation in the relativistic plasma is generated inmore » the form of higher harmonics and/or electromagnetic pulses, which are compressed and intensified after reflection from relativistic mirrors created by nonlinear waves. In the limit of extremely strong electromagnetic waves, radiation friction, which accompanies the conversion of radiation from the optical range to the gamma range, fundamentally changes the behavior of the plasma. This process is accompanied by the production of electron–positron pairs, which is described within quantum electrodynamics theory.« less

  2. Silicon-on-insulator field effect transistor with improved body ties for rad-hard applications

    DOEpatents

    Schwank, James R.; Shaneyfelt, Marty R.; Draper, Bruce L.; Dodd, Paul E.

    2001-01-01

    A silicon-on-insulator (SOI) field-effect transistor (FET) and a method for making the same are disclosed. The SOI FET is characterized by a source which extends only partially (e.g. about half-way) through the active layer wherein the transistor is formed. Additionally, a minimal-area body tie contact is provided with a short-circuit electrical connection to the source for reducing floating body effects. The body tie contact improves the electrical characteristics of the transistor and also provides an improved single-event-upset (SEU) radiation hardness of the device for terrestrial and space applications. The SOI FET also provides an improvement in total-dose radiation hardness as compared to conventional SOI transistors fabricated without a specially prepared hardened buried oxide layer. Complementary n-channel and p-channel SOI FETs can be fabricated according to the present invention to form integrated circuits (ICs) for commercial and military applications.

  3. Theoretical motivation for high spatial resolution, hard X-ray observations during solar flares

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Emslie, A. G.

    1986-01-01

    The important role played by hard X-ray radiation as a diagnostic of impulsive phase energy transport mechanism is reviewed. It is argued that the sub-arc second resolution offered by an instrument such as the Pinhole/Occulter Facility (P/OF) can greatly increase our understanding of such mechanisms.

  4. Bond-orientational analysis of hard-disk and hard-sphere structures.

    PubMed

    Senthil Kumar, V; Kumaran, V

    2006-05-28

    We report the bond-orientational analysis results for the thermodynamic, random, and homogeneously sheared inelastic structures of hard-disks and hard-spheres. The thermodynamic structures show a sharp rise in the order across the freezing transition. The random structures show the absence of crystallization. The homogeneously sheared structures get ordered at a packing fraction higher than the thermodynamic freezing packing fraction, due to the suppression of crystal nucleation. On shear ordering, strings of close-packed hard-disks in two dimensions and close-packed layers of hard-spheres in three dimensions, oriented along the velocity direction, slide past each other. Such a flow creates a considerable amount of fourfold order in two dimensions and body-centered-tetragonal (bct) structure in three dimensions. These transitions are the flow analogs of the martensitic transformations occurring in metals due to the stresses induced by a rapid quench. In hard-disk structures, using the bond-orientational analysis we show the presence of fourfold order. In sheared inelastic hard-sphere structures, even though the global bond-orientational analysis shows that the system is highly ordered, a third-order rotational invariant analysis shows that only about 40% of the spheres have face-centered-cubic (fcc) order, even in the dense and near-elastic limits, clearly indicating the coexistence of multiple crystalline orders. When layers of close-packed spheres slide past each other, in addition to the bct structure, the hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) structure is formed due to the random stacking faults. Using the Honeycutt-Andersen pair analysis and an analysis based on the 14-faceted polyhedra having six quadrilateral and eight hexagonal faces, we show the presence of bct and hcp signatures in shear ordered inelastic hard-spheres. Thus, our analysis shows that the dense sheared inelastic hard-spheres have a mixture of fcc, bct, and hcp structures.

  5. Review of the development of diamond radiation sensors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Adam, W.; Bauer, C.; Berdermann, E.; Bergonzo, P.; Bogani, F.; Borchi, E.; Brambilla, A.; Bruzzi, M.; Colledani, C.; Conway, J.; Dabrowski, W.; Delpierre, P.; Deneuville, A.; Dulinski, W.; van Eijk, B.; Fallou, A.; Fizzotti, F.; Foulon, F.; Friedl, M.; Gan, K. K.; Gheeraert, E.; Grigoriev, E.; Hallewell, G.; Hall-Wilton, R.; Han, S.; Hartjes, F.; Hrubec, J.; Husson, D.; Kagan, H.; Kania, D.; Kaplon, J.; Karl, C.; Kass, R.; Knöpfle, K. T.; Krammer, M.; Logiudice, A.; Lu, R.; Manfredi, P. F.; Manfredotti, C.; Marshall, R. D.; Meier, D.; Mishina, M.; Oh, A.; Pan, L. S.; Palmieri, V. G.; Pernicka, M.; Peitz, A.; Pirollo, S.; Polesello, P.; Pretzl, K.; Re, V.; Riester, J. L.; Roe, S.; Roff, D.; Rudge, A.; Schnetzer, S.; Sciortino, S.; Speziali, V.; Stelzer, H.; Stone, R.; Tapper, R. J.; Tesarek, R.; Thomson, G. B.; Trawick, M.; Trischuk, W.; Vittone, E.; Walsh, A. M.; Wedenig, R.; Weilhammer, P.; Ziock, H.; Zoeller, M.; RD42 Collaboration

    1999-09-01

    Diamond radiation sensors produced by chemical vapour deposition are studied for the application as tracking detectors in high luminosity experiments. Sensors with a charge collection distance up to 250 μm have been manufactured. Their radiation hardness has been studied with pions, proton and neutrons up to fluences of 1.9×10 15 π cm -2, 5×10 15 p cm -2 and 1.35×10 15 n cm -2, respectively. Diamond micro-strip detectors with 50 μm pitch have been exposed in a high-energy test beam in order to investigate their charge collection properties. The measured spatial resolution using a centre-of-gravity position finding algorithm corresponds to the digital resolution for this strip pitch. First results from a strip tracker with a 2×4 cm 2 surface area are reported as well as the performance of a diamond tracker read out by radiation-hard electronics with 25 ns shaping time. Diamond pixel sensors have been prepared to match the geometries of the recently available read-out chip prototypes for ATLAS and CMS. Beam test results are shown from a diamond detector bump-bonded to an ATLAS prototype read-out. They demonstrate a 98% bump-bonding efficiency and a digital resolution in both dimensions.

  6. DETECTION OF VERY HARD γ -RAY SPECTRUM FROM THE TEV BLAZAR MRK 501

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Shukla, A.; Chitnis, V. R.; Acharya, B. S.

    2016-12-01

    The occasional hardening of the GeV-to-TeV spectrum observed from the blazar Mrk 501 has reopened the debate on the physical origin of radiation and particle acceleration processes in TeV blazars. We have used the ∼7 years of Fermi -LAT data to search for the time intervals with unusually hard spectra from the nearby TeV blazar Mrk 501. We detected hard spectral components above 10 GeV with photon index <1.5 at a significance level of more than 5 sigma on 17 occasions, each with 30 day integration time. The photon index of the hardest component reached a value of 0.89 ± 0.29. We interpretmore » these hard spectra as signatures of intermittent injection of sharply peaked and localized particle distributions from the base of the jet.« less

  7. Development of high temperature, high radiation resistant silicon semiconductors

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Whorl, C. A.; Evans, A. W.

    1972-01-01

    The development of a hardened silicon power transistor for operation in severe nuclear radiation environments at high temperature was studied. Device hardness and diffusion techniques are discussed along with the geometries of hardened power transistor chips. Engineering drawings of 100 amp and 5 amp silicon devices are included.

  8. THE GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE HARD EXCESS. II. ANALYSIS OF THE LOCAL POPULATION OF RADIO-QUIET AGNs

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tatum, M. M.; Turner, T. J.; Reeves, J. N.

    2016-02-10

    Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) show evidence for reprocessing gas, outflowing from the accreting black hole. The combined effects of absorption and scattering from the circumnuclear material likely explain the “hard excess” of X-ray emission above 20 keV, compared with the extrapolation of spectra from lower X-ray energies. In a recent Suzaku study, we established that the ubiquitous hard excess in hard, X-ray-selected, radio-quiet type 1 AGNs is consistent with a reprocessing of the X-ray continuum in an ensemble of clouds, located tens to hundreds of gravitational radii from the nuclear black hole. Here we add hard X-ray-selected, type 2 AGNsmore » to extend our original study and show that the gross X-ray spectral properties of the entire local population of radio-quiet AGNs may be described by a simple unified scheme. We find a broad, continuous distribution of spectral hardness ratio and Fe Kα equivalent width across all AGN types, which can be reproduced by varying the observer's sightline through a single, simple model cloud ensemble, provided that the radiative transfer through the model cloud distribution includes not only photoelectric absorption but also three-dimensional (3D) Compton scattering. Variation in other parameters of the cloud distribution, such as column density or ionization, should be expected between AGNs, but such variation is not required to explain the gross X-ray spectral properties.« less

  9. Radiation signatures from a locally energized flaring loop

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Emslie, A. G.; Vlahos, L.

    1980-01-01

    The radiation signatures from a locally energized solar flare loop based on the physical properties of the energy release mechanisms were consistent with hard X-ray, microwave, and EUV observations for plausible source parameters. It was found that a suprathermal tail of high energy electrons is produced by the primary energy release, and that the number of energetic charged particles ejected into the interplanetary medium in the model is consistent with observations. The radiation signature model predicts that the intrinsic polarization of the hard X-ray burst should increase over the photon energy range of 20 to 100 keV.

  10. 'Reaching the hard to reach' - lessons learned from the VCS (voluntary and community Sector). A qualitative study

    PubMed Central

    2010-01-01

    Background The notion 'hard to reach' is a contested and ambiguous term that is commonly used within the spheres of social care and health, especially in discourse around health and social inequalities. There is a need to address health inequalities and to engage in services the marginalized and socially excluded sectors of society. Methods This paper describes a pilot study involving interviews with representatives from eight Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations. The purpose of the study was to explore the notion of 'hard to reach' and perceptions of the barriers and facilitators to accessing services for 'hard to reach' groups from a voluntary and community sector perspective. Results The 'hard to reach' may include drug users, people living with HIV, people from sexual minority communities, asylum seekers, refugees, people from black and ethnic minority communities, and homeless people although defining the notion of the 'hard to reach' is not straight forward. It may be that certain groups resist engaging in treatment services and are deemed hard to reach by a particular service or from a societal stance. There are a number of potential barriers for people who may try and access services, including people having bad experiences in the past; location and opening times of services and how services are funded and managed. A number of areas of commonality are found in terms of how access to services for 'hard to reach' individuals and groups could be improved including: respectful treatment of service users, establishing trust with service users, offering service flexibility, partnership working with other organisations and harnessing service user involvement. Conclusions If health services are to engage with groups that are deemed 'hard to reach' and marginalised from mainstream health services, the experiences and practices for engagement from within the VCS may serve as useful lessons for service improvement for statutory health services. PMID

  11. Sildenafil improves erectile hardness in Chinese men with erectile dysfunction: a real-life study analyzed on age stratification.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Kai; Xu, Ben; Liu, Defeng; Wang, Xiaofeng; Zhu, Jichuan; Deng, Chunhua; Jin, Jie; Jiang, Hui

    2014-04-01

    To evaluate the clinical efficacy of sildenafil for the improvement of penile erection hardness in erectile dysfunction (ED) patients and to determine the relationship between this improvement in erection hardness and social and psychological functioning. From 2007 to 2008, a total of 4507 men diagnosed with ED were enrolled from 46 centers in China; 4039 of these patients were treated with sildenafil and asked to complete the Erectile Function domain of the International Index of Erectile Function, Erection Hardness Score, and Quality of Erection Questionnaire. The patients were divided into 5 groups on the basis of their age (group A: 20-30 years; group B: 31-40 years; group C: 41-50 years; group D: 51-60 years; and group E: >60 years). A total of 3837 (95.0%) patients completed the entire study. After sildenafil treatment, the vast majority (96.3%) of the men were able to achieve grade 3-4 erection hardness. Patients with a better baseline erection hardness were more able to achieve grade 4 hardness after treatment (P <.001). Comparisons of the Erection Hardness Score improvement before and after treatment between the age-categorized groups also showed that the erection hardness improvement was much greater in men older than 50 years. Sildenafil can help the vast majority of Chinese ED patients achieve grade 3-4 erection hardness. Grade 4 hardness can improve the patients' sexual life to a greater extent than grade 3 hardness. A marked improvement in erection hardness can be achieved in patients older than 50 years. Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Removing ring artefacts from synchrotron radiation-based hard x-ray tomography data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Thalmann, Peter; Bikis, Christos; Schulz, Georg; Paleo, Pierre; Mirone, Alessandro; Rack, Alexander; Siegrist, Stefan; Cörek, Emre; Huwyler, Jörg; Müller, Bert

    2017-09-01

    In hard X-ray microtomography, ring artefacts regularly originate from incorrectly functioning pixel elements on the detector or from particles and scratches on the scintillator. We show that due to the high sensitivity of contemporary beamline setups further causes inducing inhomogeneities in the impinging wavefronts have to be considered. We propose in this study a method to correct the thereby induced failure of simple flatfield approaches. The main steps of the pipeline are (i) registration of the reference images with the radiographs (projections), (ii) integration of the flat-field corrected projection over the acquisition angle, (iii) high-pass filtering of the integrated projection, (iv) subtraction of filtered data from the flat-field corrected projections. The performance of the protocol is tested on data sets acquired at the beamline ID19 at ESRF using single distance phase tomography.

  13. Hard X-ray imaging from Explorer

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Grindlay, J. E.; Murray, S. S.

    1981-01-01

    Coded aperture X-ray detectors were applied to obtain large increases in sensitivity as well as angular resolution. A hard X-ray coded aperture detector concept is described which enables very high sensitivity studies persistent hard X-ray sources and gamma ray bursts. Coded aperture imaging is employed so that approx. 2 min source locations can be derived within a 3 deg field of view. Gamma bursts were located initially to within approx. 2 deg and X-ray/hard X-ray spectra and timing, as well as precise locations, derived for possible burst afterglow emission. It is suggested that hard X-ray imaging should be conducted from an Explorer mission where long exposure times are possible.

  14. The Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) for the ASTRO-H mission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kokubun, Motohide; Nakazawa, Kazuhiro; Enoto, Teruaki; Fukazawa, Yasushi; Kataoka, Jun; Kawaharada, Madoka; Laurent, Philippe; Lebrun, François; Limousin, Olivier; Makishima, Kazuo; Mizuno, Tsunefumi; Mori, Kunishiro; Nakamori, Takeshi; Odaka, Hirokazu; Ohno, Masanori; Ohta, Masayuki; Sato, Goro; Sato, Rie; Tajima, Hiroyasu; Takahashi, Hiromitsu; Takahashi, Tadayuki; Tanaka, Takaaki; Terada, Yukikatsu; Uchiyama, Hideki; Uchiyama, Yasunobu; Watanabe, Shin; Yatsu, Yoichi; Yuasa, Takayuki

    2012-09-01

    The Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) is one of the four detectors on board the ASTRO-H mission (6th Japanese X-ray satellite), which is scheduled to be launched in 2014. Using the hybrid structure composed of double-sided silicon strip detectors and a cadmium telluride double-sided strip detector, both with a high spatial resolution of 250 μm. Combined with the hard X-ray telescope (HXT), it consists a hard X-ray imaging spectroscopic instrument covering the energy range from 5 to 80 keV with an effective area of <300 cm2 in total at 30 keV. An energy resolution of 1-2 keV (FWHM) and lower threshold of 5 keV are both achieved with using a low noise front-end ASICs. In addition, the thick BGO active shields surrounding the main detector package is a heritage of the successful performance of the Hard X-ray Detector on board the Suzaku satellite. This feature enables the instrument to achieve an extremely good reduction of background caused by cosmic-ray particles, cosmic X-ray background, and in-orbit radiation activation. In this paper, we present the detector concept, design, latest results of the detector development, and the current status of the hardware.

  15. Comparative NEXAFS study of the selected icefish hard tissues and hydroxyapatite

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petrova, O. V.; Nekipelov, S. V.; Sivkov, D. V.; Mingaleva, A. E.; Nikolaev, A.; Frank-Kamenetskaya, O. V.; Bazhenov, V. V.; Vyalikh, D. V.; Molodtsov, S. L.; Sivkov, V. N.; Ehrlich, H.

    2017-11-01

    The structure of native Champsocephalus gunnari icefish otoliths, scales, teeth, bones and pristine hydroxyapatite (HA) were examined using Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. NEXAFS Cls-absorption spectra of the selected icefish hard tissues indicate that otoliths contain anion [CO3]2-. NEXAFS P2p-spectra clearly indicate the absence of phosphorus atoms only within otoliths and scales samples. However, the icefish teeth and bones P2p-spectra demonstrate identical spectral feature typical for the HA. NEXAFS Ca2p-spectra of the icefish hard tissues studied also shows features, which are in good correspondence with HA spectra. Interestingly, there is a red shift ≈ 0.1 eV of the 2p1/2,3/2 → 3d transition energies in NEXAFS Ca2p-spectra of teethes and bones of the C. gunnari in comparison to HA.

  16. RADECS Short Course Section 4 Radiation Hardness Assurance (RHA) for Space Systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Poivey, Christian

    2003-01-01

    Contents include the following: Introduction. Programmatic aspects of RHA. RHA componens: requirements and specifications; mission radiation environment; and parts selection and radiation tolerance. Analysis at the function/subsystem/system level: TID/DD; SEE. Conclusion.

  17. Observational Aspects of Hard X-ray Polarimetry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chattopadhyay, Tanmoy

    2016-04-01

    Sensitive polarization measurements in X-ray may address a wealth of astrophysical phenomena, which so far remain beyond our understanding through available X-ray spectroscopic, imaging, and timing studies. Though scientific potential of X-ray polarimetry was realized long ago, there has not been any significant advancement in this field for the last four decades since the birth of X-ray astronomy. The only successful polarization measurement in X-rays dates back to 1976, when a Bragg polarimeter onboard OSO-8 measured polarization of Crab nebula. Primary reason behind the lack in progress is its extreme photon hungry nature, which results in poor sensitivity of the polarimeters. Recently, in the last decade or so, with the advancement in detection technology, X-ray polarimetry may see a significant progress in near future, especially in soft X-rays with the invention of photoelectron tracking polarimeters. Though photoelectric polarimeters are expected to provide sensitive polarization measurements of celestial X-ray sources, they are sensitive only in soft X-rays, where the radiation from the sources is dominated by thermal radiation and therefore expected to be less polarized. On the other hand, in hard X-rays, sources are ex-pected to be highly polarized due to the dominance of nonthermal emission over its thermal counterpart. Moreover, polarization measurements in hard X-rays promises to address few interesting scientific issues regarding geometry of corona for black hole sources, emission mechanism responsible for the higher energy peak in the blazars, accretion geometry close to the magnetic poles in accreting neutron star systems and acceleration mechanism in solar flares. Compton polarimeters provide better sensitivity than photoelectric polarimeters in hard X-rays with a broad energy band of operation. Recently, with the development of hard X-ray focusing optics e.g. NuSTAR, Astro-H, it is now possible to conceive Compton polarimeters at the focal plane

  18. Hard water softening effect of a baby cleanser

    PubMed Central

    Walters, Russel M; Anim-Danso, Emmanuel; Amato, Stephanie M; Capone, Kimberly A; Mack, M Catherine; Telofski, Lorena S; Mays, David A

    2016-01-01

    Background Hard water is associated with atopic dermatitis (eczema). We wanted to determine if a baby cleanser and its individual components altered free ionized calcium (Ca2+) in a simulated hard water baby bath. For these studies, an in vitro determination of free Ca2+ in a simulated hard water baby bath, and an in vivo exploratory study of free Ca2+ absorption into skin from hard water were performed. Methods Free Ca2+ was measured with an ion-sensitive electrode in vitro in hard water (100–500 ppm, Ca2+) before and after addition of the cleanser and/or its components. In an exploratory study, absorption of Ca2+ into skin from hard water was determined in three female participants (aged 21–29 years). Results At an in-use dilution of 1%, the test cleanser reduced free Ca2+ from ~500 ppm to <200 ppm; a 10% in-use dilution bound virtually all free Ca2+. The anionic surfactant component contributed the most to this effect. In the exploratory in vivo study, we measured a reduction of ~15% in free Ca2+ from simulated hard water over 10 minutes. Conclusion Baby cleansers can bind free Ca2+ and reduce the effective water hardness of bath water. Reducing the amount of free Ca2+ in the water will reduce the availability of the ion for binding to the skin. Altering or reducing free Ca2+ concentrations in bath water may be an important parameter in creating the ideal baby bath. PMID:27789967

  19. Self-disinfecting Alginate vs Conventional Alginate: Effect on Surface Hardness of Gypsum Cast-An in vitro Study.

    PubMed

    Madhavan, Ranjith; George, Navia; Thummala, Niharika R; Ravi, S V; Nagpal, Ajay

    2017-11-01

    For the construction of any dental prosthesis, accurate impressions are necessary. Hence, we undertook the present study to evaluate and compare the surface hardness of gypsum casts poured from impressions made using conventional alginate and self-disinfecting alginate. A total of 30 impressions of stainless steel die were made, out of which 15 impressions were made with conventional alginate and 15 were made with self-disinfecting alginate and poured using Type III dental stone. Thirty stone specimens were subjected for hardness testing. Data were analyzed using independent samples t-test to compare the mean surface hardness. Difference in surface hardness was statistically insignificant (p > 0.05). Surface hardness of gypsum casts poured using impressions made from self-disinfecting alginate and conventional alginates were comparable. Self-disinfecting alginates may be employed in clinical practice as safe and effective materials to overcome the infection control issues without compromising on the properties of the material.

  20. Macroindentation hardness measurement-Modernization and applications.

    PubMed

    Patel, Sarsvat; Sun, Changquan Calvin

    2016-06-15

    In this study, we first developed a modernized indentation technique for measuring tablet hardness. This technique is featured by rapid digital image capture, using a calibrated light microscope, and precise area-determination. We then systematically studied effects of key experimental parameters, including indentation force, speed, and holding time, on measured hardness of a very soft material, hydroxypropyl cellulose, and a very hard material, dibasic calcium phosphate, to cover a wide range of material properties. Based on the results, a holding period of 3min at the peak indentation load is recommended to minimize the effect of testing speed on H. Using this method, we show that an exponential decay function well describes the relationship between tablet hardness and porosity for seven commonly used pharmaceutical powders investigated in this work. We propose that H and H at zero porosity may be used to quantify the tablet deformability and powder plasticity, respectively. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  1. Gross Morphometric Studies on the Tongue, Buccal Cavity and Hard Palate of the Fruit Bat (Eidolon helvum).

    PubMed

    Igado, O O; Omobowale, T O; Ajadi, R A; Nottidge, H O

    2015-08-01

    This study was designed to assess the gross morphometric studies of the tongue, hard palate and buccal cavity of the fruit bat (Eidolon helvum). Sixty bats of both sexes were used for this study. The tongue was excised, and the weight and various linear measurements were determined. Linear measurements were also determined on the hard palate. The gross distribution of the lingual papillae was observed to be the same in both sexes; values obtained for the weight and length of the tongue were higher in the females, although no statistically significant differences were observed (P > 0.05). The number of ridges on the hard palate displayed sexual dimorphism. Results obtained from this study may find application in the field of comparative and clinical anatomy of wildlife and also in feeding physiology. © 2014 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.

  2. A STUDY OF THE HARDNESS OF SEVERAL USMC INCONEL TUBE WELDS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Owczarski, W.A.

    1960-01-01

    An investigation was conducted to determine if spontaneous hardening took place in a series of welded tube joints made with INCO-weld A wire causing failure in bend tests. Summaries of bend test data are given along with results of metallographic examination and hardness surveys. It was concluded that the failures of bend specimens were due to excessive fissuring not associated with hardness. (J.R.D.)

  3. A Radiation-Hard Silicon Drift Detector Array for Extraterrestrial Element Mapping

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gaskin, Jessica; Chen, Wei; De Geronimo, Gianluigi; Keister, Jeff; Li, Shaouri; Li, Zhen; Siddons, David P.; Smith, Graham

    2011-01-01

    Measurement of x-rays from the surface of objects can tell us about the chemical composition Absorption of radiation causes characteristic fluorescence from material being irradiated. By measuring the spectrum of the radiation and identifying lines in the spectrum, the emitting element (s) can be identified. This technique works for any object that has no absorbing atmosphere and significant surface irradiation : Our Moon, the icy moons of Jupiter, the moons of Mars, the planet Mercury, Asteroids and Comets

  4. Fast temporal correlation between hard X-ray and ultraviolet continuum brightenings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Machado, Marcos E.; Mauas, Pablo J.

    1986-01-01

    Recent Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) observations have shown fast and simultaneous increases in hard X-rays (HXR, E25 keV) and ultraviolet continuum (UVC, lambda lambda approx. equals 1600 and 1388 A) radiation. A simple and natural explanation is given for this phenomenon to happen, which does not involve extreme conditions for energy transport processes, and confirms earlier results on the effect of XUV photoionization in the solar atmosphere.

  5. Perceived pros and cons of smoking and quitting in hard-core smokers: a focus group study

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background In the last decade, so-called hard-core smokers have received increasing interest in research literature. For smokers in general, the study of perceived costs and benefits (or ‘pros and cons’) of smoking and quitting is of particular importance in predicting motivation to quit and actual quitting attempts. Therefore, this study aims to gain insight into the perceived pros and cons of smoking and quitting in hard-core smokers. Methods We conducted 11 focus group interviews among current hard-core smokers (n = 32) and former hard-core smokers (n = 31) in the Netherlands. Subsequently, each participant listed his or her main pros and cons in a questionnaire. We used a structural procedure to analyse the data obtained from the group interviews and from the questionnaires. Results Using the qualitative data of both the questionnaires and the transcripts, the perceived pros and cons of smoking and smoking cessation were grouped into 6 main categories: Finance, Health, Intrapersonal Processes, Social Environment, Physical Environment and Food and Weight. Conclusions Although the perceived pros and cons of smoking in hard-core smokers largely mirror the perceived pros and cons of quitting, there are some major differences with respect to weight, social integration, health of children and stress reduction, that should be taken into account in clinical settings and when developing interventions. Based on these findings we propose the ‘Distorted Mirror Hypothesis’. PMID:24548463

  6. Hard X-ray mirrors for Nuclear Security

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Descalle, M. A.; Brejnholt, N.; Hill, R.

    Research performed under this LDRD aimed to demonstrate the ability to detect and measure hard X-ray emissions using multilayer X-ray reflective optics above 400 keV, to enable the development of inexpensive and high-accuracy mirror substrates, and to investigate applications of hard X-ray mirrors of interest to the nuclear security community. Experiments conducted at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility demonstrated hard X-ray mirror reflectivity up to 650 keV for the first time. Hard X-ray optics substrates must have surface roughness under 3 to 4 Angstrom rms, and three materials were evaluated as potential substrates: polycarbonates, thin Schott glass and a newmore » type of flexible glass called Willow Glass®. Chemical smoothing and thermal heating of the surface of polycarbonate samples, which are inexpensive but have poor intrinsic surface characteristics, did not yield acceptable surface roughness. D263 Schott glass was used for the focusing optics of the NASA NuSTAR telescope. The required specialized hardware and process were costly and motivated experiments with a modified non-contact slumping technique. The surface roughness of the glass was preserved and the process yielded cylindrical shells with good net shape pointing to the potential advantage of this technique. Finally, measured surface roughness of 200 and 130 μm thick Willow Glass sheets was between 2 and 2.5 A rms. Additional results of flexibility tests and multilayer deposition campaigns indicated it is a promising substrate for hard X-ray optics. The detection of U and Pu characteristics X-ray lines and gamma emission lines in a high background environment was identified as an area for which X-ray mirrors could have an impact and where focusing optics could help reduce signal to noise ratio by focusing signal onto a smaller detector. Hence the first one twelvetant of a Wolter I focusing optics for the 90 to 140 keV energy range based on aperiodic multilayer coating was designed

  7. Shear-wave sonoelastography for assessing masseter muscle hardness in comparison with strain sonoelastography: study with phantoms and healthy volunteers.

    PubMed

    Ariji, Yoshiko; Nakayama, Miwa; Nishiyama, Wataru; Nozawa, Michihito; Ariji, Eiichiro

    2016-01-01

    Objectives Shear-wave sonoelastography is expected to facilitate low operator dependency, high reproducibility and quantitative evaluation, whereas there are few reports on available normative values of in vivo tissue in head and neck fields. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliabilities on measuring hardness using shear-wave sonoelastography and to clarify normal values of masseter muscle hardness in healthy volunteers. Methods Phantoms with known hardness ranging from 20 to 140 kPa were scanned with shear-wave sonoelastography, and inter- and intraoperator reliabilities were examined compared with strain sonoelastography. The relationships between the actual and measured hardness were analyzed. The masseter muscle hardness in 30 healthy volunteers was measured using shear-wave sonoelastography. The inter- and intraoperator intraclass correlation coefficients were almost perfect. Strong correlations were seen between the actual and measured hardness. The mean hardness of the masseter muscles in healthy volunteers was 42.82 ± 5.56 kPa at rest and 53.36 ± 8.46 kPa during jaw clenching. The hardness measured with shear-wave sonoelastography showed high-level reliability. Shear-wave sonoelastography may be suitable for evaluation of the masseter muscles.

  8. Deducing Electron Properties from Hard X-Ray Observations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kontar, E. P.; Brown, J. C.; Emslie, A. G.; Hajdas, W.; Holman, G. D.; Hurford, G. J.; Kasparova, J.; Mallik, P. C. V.; Massone, A. M.; McConnell, M. L.; hide

    2011-01-01

    X-radiation from energetic electrons is the prime diagnostic of flare-accelerated electrons. The observed X-ray flux (and polarization state) is fundamentally a convolution of the cross-section for the hard X-ray emission process(es) in question with the electron distribution function, which is in turn a function of energy, direction, spatial location and time. To address the problems of particle propagation and acceleration one needs to infer as much information as possible on this electron distribution function, through a deconvolution of this fundamental relationship. This review presents recent progress toward this goal using spectroscopic, imaging and polarization measurements, primarily from the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI). Previous conclusions regarding the energy, angular (pitch angle) and spatial distributions of energetic electrons in solar flares are critically reviewed. We discuss the role and the observational evidence of several radiation processes: free-free electron-ion, free-free electron-electron, free-bound electron-ion, photoelectric absorption and Compton backscatter (albedo), using both spectroscopic and imaging techniques. This unprecedented quality of data allows for the first time inference of the angular distributions of the X-ray-emitting electrons and improved model-independent inference of electron energy spectra and emission measures of thermal plasma. Moreover, imaging spectroscopy has revealed hitherto unknown details of solar flare morphology and detailed spectroscopy of coronal, footpoint and extended sources in flaring regions. Additional attempts to measure hard X-ray polarization were not sufficient to put constraints on the degree of anisotropy of electrons, but point to the importance of obtaining good quality polarization data in the future.

  9. JPIC-Rad-Hard JPEG2000 Image Compression ASIC

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zervas, Nikos; Ginosar, Ran; Broyde, Amitai; Alon, Dov

    2010-08-01

    JPIC is a rad-hard high-performance image compression ASIC for the aerospace market. JPIC implements tier 1 of the ISO/IEC 15444-1 JPEG2000 (a.k.a. J2K) image compression standard [1] as well as the post compression rate-distortion algorithm, which is part of tier 2 coding. A modular architecture enables employing a single JPIC or multiple coordinated JPIC units. JPIC is designed to support wide data sources of imager in optical, panchromatic and multi-spectral space and airborne sensors. JPIC has been developed as a collaboration of Alma Technologies S.A. (Greece), MBT/IAI Ltd (Israel) and Ramon Chips Ltd (Israel). MBT IAI defined the system architecture requirements and interfaces, The JPEG2K-E IP core from Alma implements the compression algorithm [2]. Ramon Chips adds SERDES interfaces and host interfaces and integrates the ASIC. MBT has demonstrated the full chip on an FPGA board and created system boards employing multiple JPIC units. The ASIC implementation, based on Ramon Chips' 180nm CMOS RadSafe[TM] RH cell library enables superior radiation hardness.

  10. Radiation Hardening of Digital Color CMOS Camera-on-a-Chip Building Blocks for Multi-MGy Total Ionizing Dose Environments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Goiffon, Vincent; Rolando, Sébastien; Corbière, Franck; Rizzolo, Serena; Chabane, Aziouz; Girard, Sylvain; Baer, Jérémy; Estribeau, Magali; Magnan, Pierre; Paillet, Philippe; Van Uffelen, Marco; Mont Casellas, Laura; Scott, Robin; Gaillardin, Marc; Marcandella, Claude; Marcelot, Olivier; Allanche, Timothé

    2017-01-01

    The Total Ionizing Dose (TID) hardness of digital color Camera-on-a-Chip (CoC) building blocks is explored in the Multi-MGy range using 60Co gamma-ray irradiations. The performances of the following CoC subcomponents are studied: radiation hardened (RH) pixel and photodiode designs, RH readout chain, Color Filter Arrays (CFA) and column RH Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC). Several radiation hardness improvements are reported (on the readout chain and on dark current). CFAs and ADCs degradations appear to be very weak at the maximum TID of 6 MGy(SiO2), 600 Mrad. In the end, this study demonstrates the feasibility of a MGy rad-hard CMOS color digital camera-on-a-chip, illustrated by a color image captured after 6 MGy(SiO2) with no obvious degradation. An original dark current reduction mechanism in irradiated CMOS Image Sensors is also reported and discussed.

  11. Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, 18th, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, July 21-24, 1981, Proceedings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tasca, D. M.

    1981-01-01

    Single event upset phenomena are discussed, taking into account cosmic ray induced errors in IIL microprocessors and logic devices, single event upsets in NMOS microprocessors, a prediction model for bipolar RAMs in a high energy ion/proton environment, the search for neutron-induced hard errors in VLSI structures, soft errors due to protons in the radiation belt, and the use of an ion microbeam to study single event upsets in microcircuits. Basic mechanisms in materials and devices are examined, giving attention to gamma induced noise in CCD's, the annealing of MOS capacitors, an analysis of photobleaching techniques for the radiation hardening of fiber optic data links, a hardened field insulator, the simulation of radiation damage in solids, and the manufacturing of radiation resistant optical fibers. Energy deposition and dosimetry is considered along with SGEMP/IEMP, radiation effects in devices, space radiation effects and spacecraft charging, EMP/SREMP, and aspects of fabrication, testing, and hardness assurance.

  12. The study of hard x-ray emission and electron beam generation in wire array Z-pinch and X-pinch plasmas at university-scale generators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shrestha, Ishor Kumar

    The studies of hard x-ray (HXR) emission and electron beam generation in Z-pinch plasmas are very important for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) research and HXR emission application for sources of K-shell and L-shell radiation. Energetic electron beams from Z-pinch plasmas are potentially a problem in the development of ICF. The electron beams and the accompanying HXR emission can preheat the fuel of a thermonuclear target, thereby preventing the fuel compression from reaching densities required for the ignition of a fusion reaction. The photons above 3-4 keV radiated from a Z pinch can provide detailed information about the high energy density plasmas produced at stagnation. Hence, the investigation of characteristics of hard x-rays and electron beams produced during implosions of wire array loads on university scale-generators may provide important data for future ICF, sources of K-shell and L-shell radiations and basic plasma research. This dissertation presents the results of experimental studies of HXR and electron beam generation in wire-array and X-pinch on the 1.7 MA, 100-ns current rise time Zebra generator at University of Nevada, Reno and 1-MA 100-ns current rise-time Cornell Beam Research Accelerator (COBRA) at Cornell University. The experimental study of characteristics of HXR produced by multi-planar wire arrays, compact cylindrical wire array (CCWA) and nested cylindrical wire array (NCWA) made from Al, Cu, Mo, Ag, W and Au were analyzed. The dependence of the HXR yield and power on geometry of the load, the wire material, and load mass was observed. The presence of aluminum wires in the load with the main material such as stainless steel, Cu, Mo, Ag, W or Au in combined wire array decreases HXR yield. The comparison of emission characteristics of HXR and generation of electron beams in CCWA and NCWA on both the high impedance Zebra generator and low impedance COBRA generator were investigated. Some of the "cold" K- shell spectral lines (0.7-2.3

  13. Radiation effect on rocket engine performance

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chiu, Huei-Huang

    1988-01-01

    The effects of radiation on the performance of modern rocket propulsion systems operating at high pressure and temperature were recognized as a key issue in the design and operation of various liquid rocket engines of the current and future generations. Critical problem areas of radiation coupled with combustion of bipropellants are assessed and accounted for in the formulation of a universal scaling law incorporated with a radiation-enhanced vaporization combustion model. Numerical algorithms are developed and the pertaining data of the Variable Thrust Engine (VTE) and Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) are used to conduct parametric sensitivity studies to predict the principal intercoupling effects of radiation. The analysis reveals that low enthalpy engines, such as the VTE, are vulnerable to a substantial performance set back by the radiative loss, whereas the performance of high enthalpy engines such as the SSME, are hardly affected over a broad range of engine operation. Additionally, combustion enhancement by the radiative heating of the propellant has a significant impact in those propellants with high absorptivity. Finally, the areas of research related with radiation phenomena in bipropellant engines are identified.

  14. Hard X-ray astrophysics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rothschild, R. E.

    1981-01-01

    Past hard X-ray and lower energy satellite instruments are reviewed and it is shown that observation above 20 keV and up to hundreds of keV can provide much valuable information on the astrophysics of cosmic sources. To calculate possible sensitivities of future arrays, the efficiencies of a one-atmosphere inch gas counter (the HEAO-1 A-2 xenon filled HED3) and a 3 mm phoswich scintillator (the HEAO-1 A-4 Na1 LED1) were compared. Above 15 keV, the scintillator was more efficient. In a similar comparison, the sensitivity of germanium detectors did not differ much from that of the scintillators, except at high energies where the sensitivity would remain flat and not rise with loss of efficiency. Questions to be addressed concerning the physics of active galaxies and the diffuse radiation background, black holes, radio pulsars, X-ray pulsars, and galactic clusters are examined.

  15. CMOS Ultra Low Power Radiation Tolerant (CULPRiT) Microelectronics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yeh, Penshu; Maki, Gary

    2007-01-01

    Space Electronics needs Radiation Tolerance or hardness to withstand the harsh space environment: high-energy particles can change the state of the electronics or puncture transistors making them disfunctional. This viewgraph document reviews the use of CMOS Ultra Low Power Radiation Tolerant circuits for NASA's electronic requirements.

  16. Radiator Study for Stationary Lunar Landers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    OConnor, Brian; Abel, Elisabeth

    2010-01-01

    This paper provides an overview of a study to identify, select and evaluate potential heat rejection radiators for application to small, low power, stationary lunar landers. While this study supported risk mitigation activities related to the International Lunar Network project, the radiator concepts and performance assessments are applicable to a wide range of lunar lander applications. The radiator concepts identified and evaluated in this study were aimed at providing reliable heat rejection for landers that might be subjected to hot lunar noon conditions at the equator. As a part of the study, a literature search of lunar radiators was performed from which many radiator designs were developed. These designs were compared in a trade study and two of the most promising were used to develop six concepts. These six radiator concepts went through a more detailed thermal analysis using Thermal Desktop. The analysis considered heat rejection capability, and sensitivity to many factors such as dust deposition, latitude, life, and topographical features like landing on a hill, on a rock, or in a hole/crater. From the result of the analysis, two radiator concepts were selected for recommendation: a flat horizontal plate with a dust cover and a stacked vertical radiator with parabolic reflectors and a one degree tilting mechanism.

  17. Experimental Study on the Relationship between Hardness and Principal Strain in Tube Hydroforming Process

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, G. D.; Chan, L. C.

    2009-11-01

    In order to find a feasible method to evaluate the deformation of tubes during the Tube Hydroforming (THF) process, the hardness and the strain in two selected deformation areas of hydro formed copper tubes (C11000) were measured and tested, and an instinct relationship was found between the hardness and the principal strains of the tubes. The major strain of the surface of tubes had the strongest linear relationship with hardness. A regression formula was used to describe the relationship between hardness and the sensitive strain which is defined in the present work as a dependent variable of major strain and thickness strain.

  18. Shear-wave sonoelastography for assessing masseter muscle hardness in comparison with strain sonoelastography: study with phantoms and healthy volunteers

    PubMed Central

    Nakayama, Miwa; Nishiyama, Wataru; Nozawa, Michihito

    2016-01-01

    Objectives Shear-wave sonoelastography is expected to facilitate low operator dependency, high reproducibility and quantitative evaluation, whereas there are few reports on available normative values of in vivo tissue in head and neck fields. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliabilities on measuring hardness using shear-wave sonoelastography and to clarify normal values of masseter muscle hardness in healthy volunteers. Methods Phantoms with known hardness ranging from 20 to 140 kPa were scanned with shear-wave sonoelastography, and inter- and intraoperator reliabilities were examined compared with strain sonoelastography. The relationships between the actual and measured hardness were analyzed. The masseter muscle hardness in 30 healthy volunteers was measured using shear-wave sonoelastography. Results: The inter- and intraoperator intraclass correlation coefficients were almost perfect. Strong correlations were seen between the actual and measured hardness. The mean hardness of the masseter muscles in healthy volunteers was 42.82 ± 5.56 kPa at rest and 53.36 ± 8.46 kPa during jaw clenching. Conclusions: The hardness measured with shear-wave sonoelastography showed high-level reliability. Shear-wave sonoelastography may be suitable for evaluation of the masseter muscles. PMID:26624000

  19. Effect of repeated cycles of chemical disinfection on the roughness and hardness of hard reline acrylic resins.

    PubMed

    Pinto, Luciana de Rezende; Acosta, Emílio José T Rodríguez; Távora, Flora Freitas Fernandes; da Silva, Paulo Maurício Batista; Porto, Vinícius Carvalho

    2010-06-01

    The aim of this study was to assess the effect of repeated cycles of five chemical disinfectant solutions on the roughness and hardness of three hard chairside reliners. A total of 180 circular specimens (30 mm x 6 mm) were fabricated using three hard chairside reliners (Jet; n = 60, Kooliner; n = 60, Tokuyama Rebase II Fast; n = 60), which were immersed in deionised water (control), and five disinfectant solutions (1%, 2%, 5.25% sodium hypochlorite; 2% glutaraldehyde; 4% chlorhexidine gluconate). They were tested for Knoop hardness (KHN) and surface roughness (microm), before and after 30 simulated disinfecting cycles. Data was analysed by the factorial scheme (6 x 2), two-way analysis of variance (anova), followed by Tukey's test. For Jet (from 18.74 to 13.86 KHN), Kooliner (from 14.09 to 8.72 KHN), Tokuyama (from 12.57 to 8.28 KHN) a significant decrease in hardness was observed irrespective of the solution used on all materials. For Jet (from 0.09 to 0.11 microm) there was a statistically significant increase in roughness. Kooliner (from 0.36 to 0.26 microm) presented a statistically significant decrease in roughness and Tokuyama (from 0.15 to 0.11 microm) presented no statistically significant difference after 30 days. This study showed that all disinfectant solutions promoted a statistically significant decrease in hardness, whereas with roughness, the materials tested showed a statistically significant increase, except for Tokuyama. Although statistically significant values were registered, these results could not be considered clinically significant.

  20. 30 CFR 75.1720-1 - Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps... STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Miscellaneous § 75.1720-1 Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced miners. Hard hats or hard caps distinctively different in color...

  1. 30 CFR 75.1720-1 - Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps... STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Miscellaneous § 75.1720-1 Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced miners. Hard hats or hard caps distinctively different in color...

  2. 30 CFR 75.1720-1 - Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps... STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Miscellaneous § 75.1720-1 Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced miners. Hard hats or hard caps distinctively different in color...

  3. 30 CFR 75.1720-1 - Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps... STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Miscellaneous § 75.1720-1 Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced miners. Hard hats or hard caps distinctively different in color...

  4. 30 CFR 75.1720-1 - Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps... STANDARDS-UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Miscellaneous § 75.1720-1 Distinctively colored hard hats, or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced miners. Hard hats or hard caps distinctively different in color...

  5. Injury risk associated with ground hardness in junior cricket.

    PubMed

    Twomey, Dara M; White, Peta E; Finch, Caroline F

    2012-03-01

    To establish if there is an association between ground hardness and injury risk in junior cricket. Nested case-series of players who played matches on specific grounds with objective ground hardness measures, within a prospective cohort study of junior community club cricket players. Monitoring of injuries and playing exposure occurred during 434 matches over the 2007/2008 playing season. Objective assessment of the hardness of 38 grounds was undertaken using a Clegg hammer at 13 sites on 19 different junior cricket grounds on the match eve across the season. Hardness readings were classified from unacceptably low (<30 g) to unacceptably high (>120 g) and two independent raters assessed the likelihood of each injury being related to ground hardness. Injuries sustained on tested grounds were related to the ground hardness measures. Overall, 31 match injuries were reported; 6.5% were rated as likely to be related to ground hardness, 16.1% as possibly related and 74.2% as unlikely to be related and 3.2% unknown. The two injuries likely to be related to ground hardness were sustained whilst diving to catch a ball resulting, in a graze/laceration from contact with hard ground. Overall, 31/38 (82%) ground assessments were rated as having 'unacceptably high' hardness and all others as 'high/normal' hardness. Only one injury occurred on an objectively tested ground. It remains unclear if ground hardness is a contributing factor to the most common injury mechanism of being struck by the ball, and needs to be confirmed in future larger-scale studies. Copyright © 2011 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. A study on the radiation damage and recovery of neutron irradiated vessel steel using magnetic Barkhausen noise

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Park, Duck-Gun; Jeong, Hee-Tae; Hong, Jun-Hwa

    1999-04-01

    The radiation damage and thermal recovery characteristic of neutron irradiated SA508-3 reactor pressure vessel steel specimens have been investigated. Two recovery stages were identified from the results of hardness measurements during isochronal annealing and the mechanism responsible for the two stages was explained by using the results of Barkhausen noise measurement on the basis of the interaction between radiation induced defects and the magnetic domain wall. The coercivity was not changed by neutron irradiation, whereas the maximum magnetic induction increased. Barkhausen noise parameters associated with the domain wall motion were decreased by neutron irradiation and recovered with subsequent heat treatments.

  7. 30 CFR 77.1710-1 - Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps... Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced miners. Hard hats or hard caps distinctively different in color from those worn by experienced miners shall be worn at...

  8. 30 CFR 77.1710-1 - Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps... Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced miners. Hard hats or hard caps distinctively different in color from those worn by experienced miners shall be worn at...

  9. 30 CFR 77.1710-1 - Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps... Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced miners. Hard hats or hard caps distinctively different in color from those worn by experienced miners shall be worn at...

  10. 30 CFR 77.1710-1 - Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps... Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced miners. Hard hats or hard caps distinctively different in color from those worn by experienced miners shall be worn at...

  11. 30 CFR 77.1710-1 - Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced...

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps... Distinctively colored hard hats or hard caps; identification for newly employed, inexperienced miners. Hard hats or hard caps distinctively different in color from those worn by experienced miners shall be worn at...

  12. The cancer epidemiology of radiation.

    PubMed

    Wakeford, Richard

    2004-08-23

    Ionizing radiation has been the subject of intense epidemiological investigation. Studies have demonstrated that exposure to moderate-to-high levels can cause most forms of cancer, leukaemia and cancers of the breast, lung and thyroid being particularly sensitive to induction by radiation, especially at young ages at exposure. Predominant among these studies is the Life Span Study of the cohort of survivors of the atomic bombings of Japan in 1945, but substantial evidence is derived from groups exposed for medical reasons, occupationally or environmentally. Notable among these other groups are underground hard rock miners who inhaled radioactive radon gas and its decay products, large numbers of patients irradiated therapeutically and workers who received high doses in the nuclear weapons programme of the former USSR. The degree of carcinogenic risk arising from low levels of exposure is more contentious, but the available evidence points to an increased risk that is approximately proportional to the dose received. Epidemiological investigations of nonionizing radiation have established ultraviolet radiation as a cause of skin cancer. However, the evidence for a carcinogenic effect of other forms of nonionizing radiation, such as those associated with mobile telephones or electricity transmission lines, is not convincing, although the possibility of a link between childhood leukaemia and extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields cannot be dismissed entirely.

  13. The role of fluoride and chlorhexidine in preserving hardness and mineralization of enamel and cementum after gamma irradiation.

    PubMed

    Abdalla, Rowida; Niazy, Maha A; Jamil, Wael E; Hazzaa, Hala A; Elbatouti, Amal A

    2017-05-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of 0.05% sodium fluoride and 0.12% chlorhexidine mouthwashes on the micro-hardness of tooth enamel and cementum that was exposed to therapeutic doses of gamma radiation. Sixty extracted human teeth were divided into two groups, one was irradiated, the other was not irradiated. The two groups were further subdivided into three subgroups, which were each treated either with 0.05% sodium fluoride or with 0.12% chlorhexidine; the third subgroup served as a control. After demineralization-remineralization cycling, teeth from the irradiated groups showed a significantly lower micro-hardness when compared to those from the non-irradiated groups. Both in the irradiated and non-irradiated groups, teeth from the control subgroups showed a significantly lower micro-hardness, as compared to teeth treated with sodium fluoride and chlorhexidine. For non-irradiated enamel samples, those treated with chlorhexidine showed a significantly less micro-hardness compared to those treated with sodium fluoride. In contrast, irradiated enamel showed no significant difference in micro-hardness, whatever treatment (chlorhexidine or sodium fluoride) was applied. For cementum, treatment with chlorhexidine resulted in a significantly lower micro-hardness compared to sodium fluoride, both for the irradiated and non-irradiated groups. It is concluded that gamma irradiation with therapeutic doses typically used for head and neck carcinoma treatment has a direct effect in reducing micro-hardness of tooth enamel and cementum. Mouthwash protocols including, for example, application of 0.05% sodium fluoride or 0.12% chlorhexidine three times per day for 6 weeks, can protect enamel and cementum against the reduction in hardness and demineralization caused by gamma irradiation. Sodium fluoride offers more protection compared to chlorhexidine.

  14. Xylem monoterpenes of some hard pines of Western North America: three studies

    Treesearch

    Richard H. Smith

    1982-01-01

    Monoterpene composition was studied in a number of hard pine species and results were compared with earlier work. (1) Intratree measurements showed strong constancy of composition in both single-stemmed and forked trees of ponderosa, Jeffrey, Coulter, and Jeffrey x ponderosa pines. In grafts of these and other pines, the scion influenced the root stock, but not the...

  15. Flexible radiator thermal vacuum test report

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Oren, J. A.; Hixon, C. W.

    1982-01-01

    Two flexible, deployable/retraction radiators were designed and fabricated. The two radiator panels are distinguishable by their mission life design. One panel is designed with a 90 percent probability of withstanding the micrometeoroid environment of a low earth orbit for 30 days. This panel is designated the soft tube radiator after the PFA Teflon tubes which distribute the transport fluid over the panel. The second panel is designed with armored flow tubes to withstand the same micrometeoroid environment for 5 years. It is designated the hard tube radiator after its stainless steel flow tubes. The thermal performance of the radiators was tested under anticipated environmental conditions. The two deployment systems of the radiators were evaluated in a thermal vacuum environment.

  16. Monte Carlo Simulations of Radiative and Neutrino Transport under Astrophysical Conditions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krivosheyev, Yu. M.; Bisnovatyi-Kogan, G. S.

    2018-05-01

    Monte Carlo simulations are utilized to model radiative and neutrino transfer in astrophysics. An algorithm that can be used to study radiative transport in astrophysical plasma based on simulations of photon trajectories in a medium is described. Formation of the hard X-ray spectrum of the Galactic microquasar SS 433 is considered in detail as an example. Specific requirements for applying such simulations to neutrino transport in a densemedium and algorithmic differences compared to its application to photon transport are discussed.

  17. Signatures of Synchrotron: Low-cutoff X-ray emission and the hard X-ray spectrum of Cas A

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stage, Michael D.; Fedor, Emily Elizabeth; Martina-Hood, Hyourin

    2018-06-01

    In soft X-rays, bright, young Galactic remnants (Cas A, Kepler, Tycho, etc.) present thermal line emission and bremsstrahlung from ejecta, and synchrotron radiation from the shocks. Their hard X-ray spectra tend to be dominated by power-law sources. However, it can be non-trivial to discriminate between contributions from processes such as synchrotron and bremsstrahlung from nonthermally accelerated electrons, even though the energies of the electrons producing this radiation may be very different. Spatially-resolved spectroscopic analysis of 0.5-10 keV observations with, e.g., Chandracan provide leverage in identifying the processes and their locations. Previously, Stage & Allen (2006), Allen & Stage (2007) and Stage & Allen (2011) identified regions characterized by high-cutoff synchrotron radiation. Extrapolating synchrotron model fits to the emission in the Chandra band, they estimated the synchrotron contribution to the hard X-ray spectrum at about one-third the observed flux, fitting the balance with nonthermal bremsstrahlung emission produced by nonthermal electrons in the ejecta. Although it is unlikely this analysis missed regions of the highest-cutoff synchrotron emission, which supplies the bulk of the synchrotron above 15 keV, it may have missed regions of lower-cutoff emission, especially if they are near bright ejecta and the reverse shock. These regions cannot explain the emission at the highest energies (~50 keV), but may make significant contributions to the hard spectrum at lower energies (~10 keV). Using the technique described in Fedor, Martina-Hood & Stage (this meeting), we revisit the analysis to include regions that may be dominated by low-cutoff synchrotron, located in the interior of the remnant, and/or correlated with the reverse shock. Identifying X-ray emission from accelerated electrons associated with the reverse-shock would have important implications for synchrotron and non-thermal bremsstrahlung radiation above the 10 keV.

  18. GRB 060313: A New Paradigm for Short-Hard Bursts?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Roming, Peter W. A.; Vanden Berk, Daniel; Pal'shin, Valentin; Pagani, Claudio; Norris, Jay; Kumar, Pawan; Krimm, Hans; Holland, Stephen T.; Gronwall, Caryl; Blustin, Alex J.; Zhang, Bing; Schady, Patricia; Sakamoto, Takanori; Osborne, Julian P.; Nousek, John A.; Marshall, Frank E.; Mészáros, Peter; Golenetskii, Sergey V.; Gehrels, Neil; Frederiks, Dmitry D.; Campana, Sergio; Burrows, David N.; Boyd, Patricia T.; Barthelmy, Scott; Aptekar, R. L.

    2006-11-01

    We report the simultaneous observations of the prompt emission in the gamma-ray and hard X-ray bands by the Swift BAT and the Konus-Wind instruments of the short-hard burst, GRB 060313. The observations reveal multiple peaks in both the gamma-ray and hard X-ray bands suggesting a highly variable outflow from the central explosion. We also describe the early-time observations of the X-ray and UV/optical afterglows by the Swift XRT and UVOT instruments. The combination of the X-ray and UV/optical observations provides the most comprehensive light curves to date of a short-hard burst at such an early epoch. The afterglows exhibit complex structure with different decay indices and flaring. This behavior can be explained by the combination of a structured jet, radiative loss of energy, and decreasing microphysics parameters occurring in a circumburst medium with densities varying by a factor of approximately two on a length scale of 1017 cm. These density variations are normally associated with the environment of a massive star and inhomogeneities in its windy medium. However, the mean density of the observed medium (n~10-4 cm3) is much less than that expected for a massive star. Although the collapse of a massive star as the origin of GRB 060313 is unlikely, the merger of a compact binary also poses problems for explaining the behavior of this burst. Two possible suggestions for explaining this scenario are that some short bursts may arise from a mechanism that does not invoke the conventional compact binary model, or that soft late-time central engine activity is producing UV/optical but no X-ray flaring.

  19. Residual stress control and design of next-generation ultra-hard gear steels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Qian, Yana

    In high power density transmission systems, Ni-Co secondary hardening steels have shown great potential for next-generation gear applications due to their excellent strength, toughness and superior fatigue performance. Study of residual stress generation and evolution in Ferrium C61 and C67 gear steels revealed that shot peening and laser peening processes effectively produce desired beneficial residual stress in the steels for enhanced fatigue performance. Surface residual stress levels of -1.4GPa and -1.5GPa were achieved in shot peened C61 and laser peened C67, respectively, without introducing large surface roughness or defects. Higher compressive residual stress is expected in C67 according to a demonstrated correlation between attainable residual stress and material hardness. Due to the lack of appropriate shot media, dual laser peening is proposed for future peening optimization in C67. A novel non-destructive synchrotron radiation technique was implemented and applied for the first time for residual stress distribution analysis in gear steels with large composition and property gradients. Observed substantial residual stress redistribution and material microstructure change during the rolling contact fatigue screening test with extremely high 5.4GPa load indicates the unsuitability of the test as a fatigue life predictor. To exploit benefits of higher case hardness and associated residual stress, a new material and process (CryoForm70) aiming at 70Rc surface hardness was designed utilizing the systems approach based on thermodynamics and secondary hardening mechanisms. The composition design was first validated by the excellent agreement between experimental and theoretical core martensite start temperature in the prototype. A novel cryogenic deformation process was concurrently designed to increase the case martensite volume fraction from 76% to 92% for enhanced strengthening efficiency and surface hardness. High temperature vacuum carburizing was

  20. Hard X-ray submicrometer tomography of human brain tissue at Diamond Light Source

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Khimchenko, A.; Bikis, C.; Schulz, G.; Zdora, M.-C.; Zanette, I.; Vila-Comamala, J.; Schweighauser, G.; Hench, J.; Hieber, S. E.; Deyhle, H.; Thalmann, P.; Müller, B.

    2017-06-01

    There is a lack of the necessary methodology for three-dimensional (3D) investigation of soft tissues with cellular resolution without staining or tissue transformation. Synchrotron radiation based hard X-ray in-line phase contrast tomography using single-distance phase reconstruction (SDPR) provides high spatial resolution and density contrast for the visualization of individual cells using a standard specimen preparation and data reconstruction. In this study, we demonstrate the 3D characterization of a formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) human cerebellum specimen by SDPR at the Diamond-Manchester Imaging Branchline I13-2 (Diamond Light Source, UK) at pixel sizes down to 0.45 μm. The approach enables visualization of cerebellar layers (Stratum moleculare and Stratum granulosum), the 3D characterization of individual cells (Purkinje, stellate and granule cells) and can even resolve some subcellular structures (nucleus and nucleolus of Purkinje cells). The tomographic results are qualitatively compared to hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained histological sections. We demonstrate the potential benefits of hard X-ray microtomography for the investigations of biological tissues in comparison to conventional histology.

  1. Double hard scattering without double counting

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Diehl, Markus; Gaunt, Jonathan R.; Schönwald, Kay

    2017-06-01

    Double parton scattering in proton-proton collisions includes kinematic regions in which two partons inside a proton originate from the perturbative splitting of a single parton. This leads to a double counting problem between single and double hard scattering. We present a solution to this problem, which allows for the definition of double parton distributions as operator matrix elements in a proton, and which can be used at higher orders in perturbation theory. We show how the evaluation of double hard scattering in this framework can provide a rough estimate for the size of the higher-order contributions to single hard scattering that are affected by double counting. In a numeric study, we identify situations in which these higher-order contributions must be explicitly calculated and included if one wants to attain an accuracy at which double hard scattering becomes relevant, and other situations where such contributions may be neglected.

  2. Hard and soft acids and bases: structure and process.

    PubMed

    Reed, James L

    2012-07-05

    Under investigation is the structure and process that gives rise to hard-soft behavior in simple anionic atomic bases. That for simple atomic bases the chemical hardness is expected to be the only extrinsic component of acid-base strength, has been substantiated in the current study. A thermochemically based operational scale of chemical hardness was used to identify the structure within anionic atomic bases that is responsible for chemical hardness. The base's responding electrons have been identified as the structure, and the relaxation that occurs during charge transfer has been identified as the process giving rise to hard-soft behavior. This is in contrast the commonly accepted explanations that attribute hard-soft behavior to varying degrees of electrostatic and covalent contributions to the acid-base interaction. The ability of the atomic ion's responding electrons to cause hard-soft behavior has been assessed by examining the correlation of the estimated relaxation energies of the responding electrons with the operational chemical hardness. It has been demonstrated that the responding electrons are able to give rise to hard-soft behavior in simple anionic bases.

  3. An assessment of the hardness of miniature vacuum tubes to high-voltage transients

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Orvis, W.J.

    1990-03-01

    Miniature vacuum tubes are vacuum switching and control devices fabricated on a silicon wafer, using the same technology as is used to make integrated circuits. They operate in much the same manner as conventional vacuum tubes, but with two important differences: they are micron sized devices, and they employ field emission instead of thermionic emission as the electron source. As these devices have a vacuum as their active region, they will be extremely hard to nuclear radiation and relatively insensitive to temperature effects, they are also expected to be extremely fast devices. We have estimated here that their hardness tomore » high-voltage transients will be at least as good as existing semiconductor devices and possibly better. 5 figs.« less

  4. Radiation-Tolerant DC-DC Converters

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Skutt, Glenn; Sable, Dan; Leslie, Leonard; Graham, Shawn

    2012-01-01

    A document discusses power converters suitable for space use that meet the DSCC MIL-PRF-38534 Appendix G radiation hardness level P classification. A method for qualifying commercially produced electronic parts for DC-DC converters per the Defense Supply Center Columbus (DSCC) radiation hardened assurance requirements was developed. Development and compliance testing of standard hybrid converters suitable for space use were completed for missions with total dose radiation requirements of up to 30 kRad. This innovation provides the same overall performance as standard hybrid converters, but includes assurance of radiation- tolerant design through components and design compliance testing. This availability of design-certified radiation-tolerant converters can significantly reduce total cost and delivery time for power converters for space applications that fit the appropriate DSCC classification (30 kRad).

  5. Hard drinking water does not protect against cardiovascular disease: new evidence from the British Regional Heart Study.

    PubMed

    Morris, Richard W; Walker, Mary; Lennon, Lucy T; Shaper, A Gerald; Whincup, Peter H

    2008-04-01

    It has been previously suggested that hard drinking water in general, and in particular high calcium and magnesium intake from drinking water, protect against cardiovascular disease. Prospective study of men from 24 British towns, with widely differing levels of hardness in drinking water. A total of 7,735 men aged 40-59 years were recruited during 1978-1980. Estimates of town-level water hardness were available and tap water samples, taken from 947 participants who also answered a questionnaire about water consumption, were used to calculate individual calcium and magnesium intakes. Men were followed for incident of major coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke, and CHD mortality for 25 years. Water hardness varied from 0.27 to 5.28 mmol/l in the 24 towns. A weak inverse association was found between water hardness and incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) [hazard ratio (HR), 0.96 per two-fold increase, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.91-1.01, P=0.08 after adjustment for age and seven established coronary risk factors]. No association was observed with CHD incidence (adjusted HR, 0.99, 95% CI, 0.94-1.04, P=0.62) or mortality (adjusted HR, 0.96, 95% CI, 0.90-1.02, P=0.18). Individual magnesium intake showed a positive, rather than an inverse, association with CHD incidence (adjusted HR, 1.10 per two-fold increase, 95% CI, 1.01-1.20, P=0.045); individual calcium intake was unrelated to CHD or CVD end points. This study suggests that neither high water hardness, nor high calcium or magnesium intake appreciably protect against CHD or CVD. Initiatives to add calcium and magnesium to desalinated water cannot be justified by these findings.

  6. Dynamic hardness of metals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liang, Xuecheng

    Dynamic hardness (Pd) of 22 different pure metals and alloys having a wide range of elastic modulus, static hardness, and crystal structure were measured in a gas pulse system. The indentation contact diameter with an indenting sphere and the radius (r2) of curvature of the indentation were determined by the curve fitting of the indentation profile data. r 2 measured by the profilometer was compared with that calculated from Hertz equation in both dynamic and static conditions. The results indicated that the curvature change due to elastic recovery after unloading is approximately proportional to the parameters predicted by Hertz equation. However, r 2 is less than the radius of indenting sphere in many cases which is contradictory to Hertz analysis. This discrepancy is believed due to the difference between Hertzian and actual stress distributions underneath the indentation. Factors which influence indentation elastic recovery were also discussed. It was found that Tabor dynamic hardness formula always gives a lower value than that directly from dynamic hardness definition DeltaE/V because of errors mainly from Tabor's rebound equation and the assumption that dynamic hardness at the beginning of rebound process (Pr) is equal to kinetic energy change of an impact sphere over the formed crater volume (Pd) in the derivation process for Tabor's dynamic hardness formula. Experimental results also suggested that dynamic to static hardness ratio of a material is primarily determined by its crystal structure and static hardness. The effects of strain rate and temperature rise on this ratio were discussed. A vacuum rotating arm apparatus was built to measure Pd at 70, 127, and 381 mum sphere sizes, these results exhibited that Pd is highly depended on the sphere size due to the strain rate effects. P d was also used to substitute for static hardness to correlate with abrasion and erosion resistance of metals and alloys. The particle size effects observed in erosion were

  7. Hard-on-hard lubrication in the artificial hip under dynamic loading conditions.

    PubMed

    Sonntag, Robert; Reinders, Jörn; Rieger, Johannes S; Heitzmann, Daniel W W; Kretzer, J Philippe

    2013-01-01

    The tribological performance of an artificial hip joint has a particularly strong influence on its success. The principle causes for failure are adverse short- and long-term reactions to wear debris and high frictional torque in the case of poor lubrication that may cause loosening of the implant. Therefore, using experimental and theoretical approaches models have been developed to evaluate lubrication under standardized conditions. A steady-state numerical model has been extended with dynamic experimental data for hard-on-hard bearings used in total hip replacements to verify the tribological relevance of the ISO 14242-1 gait cycle in comparison to experimental data from the Orthoload database and instrumented gait analysis for three additional loading conditions: normal walking, climbing stairs and descending stairs. Ceramic-on-ceramic bearing partners show superior lubrication potential compared to hard-on-hard bearings that work with at least one articulating metal component. Lubrication regimes during the investigated activities are shown to strongly depend on the kinematics and loading conditions. The outcome from the ISO gait is not fully confirmed by the normal walking data and more challenging conditions show evidence of inferior lubrication. These findings may help to explain the differences between the in vitro predictions using the ISO gait cycle and the clinical outcome of some hard-on-hard bearings, e.g., using metal-on-metal.

  8. Hard-on-Hard Lubrication in the Artificial Hip under Dynamic Loading Conditions

    PubMed Central

    Sonntag, Robert; Reinders, Jörn; Rieger, Johannes S.; Heitzmann, Daniel W. W.; Kretzer, J. Philippe

    2013-01-01

    The tribological performance of an artificial hip joint has a particularly strong influence on its success. The principle causes for failure are adverse short- and long-term reactions to wear debris and high frictional torque in the case of poor lubrication that may cause loosening of the implant. Therefore, using experimental and theoretical approaches models have been developed to evaluate lubrication under standardized conditions. A steady-state numerical model has been extended with dynamic experimental data for hard-on-hard bearings used in total hip replacements to verify the tribological relevance of the ISO 14242-1 gait cycle in comparison to experimental data from the Orthoload database and instrumented gait analysis for three additional loading conditions: normal walking, climbing stairs and descending stairs. Ceramic-on-ceramic bearing partners show superior lubrication potential compared to hard-on-hard bearings that work with at least one articulating metal component. Lubrication regimes during the investigated activities are shown to strongly depend on the kinematics and loading conditions. The outcome from the ISO gait is not fully confirmed by the normal walking data and more challenging conditions show evidence of inferior lubrication. These findings may help to explain the differences between the in vitro predictions using the ISO gait cycle and the clinical outcome of some hard-on-hard bearings, e.g., using metal-on-metal. PMID:23940772

  9. XPS studies of structure-induced radiation effects at the Si/SiO2 interface. [X ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Grunthaner, F. J.; Lewis, B. F.; Zamini, N.; Maserjian, J.; Madhukar, A.

    1980-01-01

    The interfacial structures of radiation hard and soft oxides grown by dry and wet processes on silicon substrates have been examined by high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is found that the primary difference in the local atomic structure at the Si/SiO2 interface is the significantly higher concentration of strained 120 deg SiO2 bonds and SiO interfacial species in soft samples. Results of in situ radiation damage experiments using low energy electrons (0-20 eV) are reported which correlate with the presence of a strained layer of SiO2 (20 A) at the interface. The results are interpreted in terms of a structural model for hole and electron trap generation by ionizing radiation.

  10. Imaging of cochlear tissue with a grating interferometer and hard X-rays

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Richter, Claus-Peter; Shintani-Smith, Stephanie; Fishman, Andrew

    This article addresses an important current development in medical and biological imaging: the possibility of imaging soft tissue at resolutions in the micron range using hard X-rays. Challenging environments, including the cochlea, require the imaging of soft tissue structure surrounded by bone. We demonstrate that cochlear soft tissue structures can be imaged with hard X-ray phase contrast. Furthermore, we show that only a thin slice of the tissue is required to introduce a large phase shift. It is likely that the phase contrast image of the soft tissue structures is sufficient to image the structures even if surrounded by bone.more » For the present set of experiments, structures with low-absorption contrast have been visualized using in-line phase contrast imaging and a grating interferometer. The experiments have been performed at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratories, a third generation source of synchrotron radiation. The source provides highly coherent X-ray radiation with high-photon flux (>10{sup 12} photons/s) at high-photon energies (5-70 keV). Radiographic and light microscopy images of the gerbil cochlear slice samples were compared. It has been determined that a 20-{micro}m thick tissue slice induces a phase shift between 1/3{pi} and 2/3{pi}.« less

  11. Degradation Mechanisms and Mechanical Property Variation of Epdm Rubbers for Automotive Radiator Hosess

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kwak, Eung-Bum; Choi, Nak-Sam

    The degradation behaviors of EPDM (ethylene-propylene diene monomer) rubbers used for automotive radiator hoses subjected to thermo-oxidative and electrochemical stresses were studied. As a result of the thermo-oxidative aging tests, the IRHD (international rubber hardness degrees) hardness of the rubber specimens increased, while their elongation at break decreased much. A slight increase in crosslink density indicated that changes in the properties were caused by the concentration of carbonyl groups in the skin layer. For the electrochemical degradation (ECD), the weight of rubber specimens increased whereas their elongation and hardness much decreased because water solution penetrated into the skin part. There was little change in crosslink density. Formation of many chain scissions and thus microvoid networks in the skin layer induced the swelling behavior leading to a linear reduction of hardness versus the weight increase.

  12. High-energy Emission from Nonrelativistic Radiative Shocks: Application to Gamma-Ray Novae

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vurm, Indrek; Metzger, Brian D.

    2018-01-01

    The observation of GeV gamma-rays from novae by Fermi/LAT demonstrates that the nonrelativistic radiative shocks in these systems can accelerate particles to energies of at least ∼10 GeV. The low-energy extension of the same nonthermal particle distribution inevitably gives rise to emission in the hard X-ray band. Above ≳ 10 {keV}, this radiation can escape the system without significant absorption/attenuation, and can potentially be detected by NuSTAR. We present theoretical models for hard X-ray and gamma-ray emission from radiative shocks in both leptonic and hadronic scenarios, accounting for the rapid evolution of the downstream properties due to the fast cooling of thermal plasma. We find that due to strong Coulomb losses, only a fraction of {10}-4{--}{10}-3 of the gamma-ray luminosity is radiated in the NuSTAR band; nevertheless, this emission could be detectable simultaneously with the LAT emission in bright gamma-ray novae with a ∼50 ks exposure. The spectral slope in hard X-rays is α ≈ 0 for typical nova parameters, thus serving as a testable prediction of the model. Our work demonstrates how combined hard X-ray and gamma-ray observations can be used to constrain properties of the nova outflow (velocity, density, and mass outflow rate) and particle acceleration at the shock. A very low X-ray to gamma-ray luminosity ratio ({L}{{X}}/{L}γ ≲ 5× {10}-4) would disfavor leptonic models for the gamma-ray emission. Our model can also be applied to other astrophysical environments with radiative shocks, including SNe IIn and colliding winds in massive star binaries.

  13. Anisotropic mechanical properties of zircon and the effect of radiation damage

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Beirau, Tobias; Nix, William D.; Bismayer, Ulrich

    2016-06-02

    Our study provides new insights into the relationship between radiation-dose-dependent structural damage, due to natural U and Th impurities, and the anisotropic mechanical properties (Poisson s ratio, elastic modulus and hardness) of zircon. Natural zircon samples from Sri Lanka (see Muarakami et al. 1991) and synthetic samples, covering a dose range of zero up to 6.8 x 10 18 -decays/g, have been studied by nanoindentation. Measurements along the [100] crystallographic direction and calculations, based on elastic stiffness constants determined by zkan (1976), revealed a general radiation-induced decrease in stiffness (~ 54 %) and hardness (~ 48 %) and an increasemore » of the Poisson s ratio (~ 54 %) with increasing dose. Additional indentations on selected samples along the [001] allowed one to follow the amorphization process to the point that the mechanical properties are isotropic. This work shows that the radiation-dose-dependent changes of the mechanical properties of zircon can be directly correlated with the amorphous fraction as determined by previous investigations with local and global probes (Rios et al. 2000a; Farnan and Salje 2001; Zhang and Salje 2001). This agreement, revealed by the different methods, indicates a huge influence of structural and even local phenomena on the macroscopic mechanical properties.« less

  14. Monte Carlo study of four dimensional binary hard hypersphere mixtures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bishop, Marvin; Whitlock, Paula A.

    2012-01-01

    A multithreaded Monte Carlo code was used to study the properties of binary mixtures of hard hyperspheres in four dimensions. The ratios of the diameters of the hyperspheres examined were 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, and 0.8. Many total densities of the binary mixtures were investigated. The pair correlation functions and the equations of state were determined and compared with other simulation results and theoretical predictions. At lower diameter ratios the pair correlation functions of the mixture agree with the pair correlation function of a one component fluid at an appropriately scaled density. The theoretical results for the equation of state compare well to the Monte Carlo calculations for all but the highest densities studied.

  15. CVD diamond detectors for ionizing radiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Friedl, M.; Adam, W.; Bauer, C.; Berdermann, E.; Bergonzo, P.; Bogani, F.; Borchi, E.; Brambilla, A.; Bruzzi, M.; Colledani, C.; Conway, J.; Dabrowski, W.; Delpierre, P.; Deneuville, A.; Dulinski, W.; van Eijk, B.; Fallou, A.; Fizzotti, F.; Foulon, F.; Gan, K. K.; Gheeraert, E.; Grigoriev, E.; Hallewell, G.; Hall-Wilton, R.; Han, S.; Hartjes, F.; Hrubec, J.; Husson, D.; Kagan, H.; Kania, D.; Kaplon, J.; Karl, C.; Kass, R.; Knöpfle, K. T.; Krammer, M.; Logiudice, A.; Lu, R.; Manfredi, P. F.; Manfredotti, C.; Marshall, R. D.; Meier, D.; Mishina, M.; Oh, A.; Pan, L. S.; Palmieri, V. G.; Pernegger, H.; Pernicka, M.; Peitz, A.; Pirollo, S.; Polesello, P.; Pretzl, K.; Re, V.; Riester, J. L.; Roe, S.; Roff, D.; Rudge, A.; Schnetzer, S.; Sciortino, S.; Speziali, V.; Stelzer, H.; Stone, R.; Tapper, R. J.; Tesarek, R.; Thomson, G. B.; Trawick, M.; Trischuk, W.; Vittone, E.; Walsh, A. M.; Wedenig, R.; Weilhammer, P.; Ziock, H.; Zoeller, M.; RD42 Collaboration

    1999-10-01

    In future HEP accelerators, such as the LHC (CERN), detectors and electronics in the vertex region of the experiments will suffer from extreme radiation. Thus radiation hardness is required for both detectors and electronics to survive in this harsh environment. CVD diamond, which is investigated by the RD42 Collaboration at CERN, can meet these requirements. Samples of up to 2×4 cm2 have been grown and refined for better charge collection properties, which are measured with a β source or in a testbeam. A large number of diamond samples has been irradiated with hadrons to fluences of up to 5×10 15 cm-2 to study the effects of radiation. Both strip and pixel detectors were prepared in various geometries. Samples with strip metallization have been tested with both slow and fast readout electronics, and the first diamond pixel detector proved fully functional with LHC electronics.

  16. Research in the Hard Sciences, and in Very Hard "Softer" Domains

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Phillips, D. C.

    2014-01-01

    The author of this commentary argues that physical scientists are attempting to advance knowledge in the so-called hard sciences, whereas education researchers are laboring to increase knowledge and understanding in an "extremely hard" but softer domain. Drawing on the work of Popper and Dewey, this commentary highlights the relative…

  17. Radiation tolerance of boron doped dendritic web silicon solar cells

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rohatgi, A.

    1980-01-01

    The potential of dendritic web silicon for giving radiation hard solar cells is compared with the float zone silicon material. Solar cells with n(+)-p-P(+) structure and approximately 15% (AMl) efficiency were subjected to 1 MeV electron irradiation. Radiation tolerance of web cell efficiency was found to be at least as good as that of the float zone silicon cell. A study of the annealing behavior of radiation-induced defects via deep level transient spectroscopy revealed that E sub v + 0.31 eV defect, attributed to boron-oxygen-vacancy complex, is responsible for the reverse annealing of the irradiated cells in the temperature range of 150 to 350 C.

  18. Boreal earliest Triassic biotas elucidate globally depauperate hard substrate communities after the end-Permian mass extinction.

    PubMed

    Zatoń, Michał; Niedźwiedzki, Grzegorz; Blom, Henning; Kear, Benjamin P

    2016-11-08

    The end-Permian mass extinction constituted the most devastating biotic crisis of the Phanerozoic. Its aftermath was characterized by harsh marine conditions incorporating volcanically induced oceanic warming, widespread anoxia and acidification. Bio-productivity accordingly experienced marked fluctuations. In particular, low palaeolatitude hard substrate communities from shallow seas fringing Western Pangaea and the Tethyan Realm were extremely impoverished, being dominated by monogeneric colonies of filter-feeding microconchid tubeworms. Here we present the first equivalent field data for Boreal hard substrate assemblages from the earliest Triassic (Induan) of East Greenland. This region bordered a discrete bio-realm situated at mid-high palaeolatitude (>30°N). Nevertheless, hard substrate biotas were compositionally identical to those from elsewhere, with microconchids encrusting Claraia bivalves and algal buildups on the sea floor. Biostratigraphical correlation further shows that Boreal microconchids underwent progressive tube modification and unique taxic diversification concordant with changing habitats over time. We interpret this as a post-extinction recovery and adaptive radiation sequence that mirrored coeval subequatorial faunas, and thus confirms hard substrate ecosystem depletion as a hallmark of the earliest Triassic interval globally.

  19. Boreal earliest Triassic biotas elucidate globally depauperate hard substrate communities after the end-Permian mass extinction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zatoń, Michał; Niedźwiedzki, Grzegorz; Blom, Henning; Kear, Benjamin P.

    2016-11-01

    The end-Permian mass extinction constituted the most devastating biotic crisis of the Phanerozoic. Its aftermath was characterized by harsh marine conditions incorporating volcanically induced oceanic warming, widespread anoxia and acidification. Bio-productivity accordingly experienced marked fluctuations. In particular, low palaeolatitude hard substrate communities from shallow seas fringing Western Pangaea and the Tethyan Realm were extremely impoverished, being dominated by monogeneric colonies of filter-feeding microconchid tubeworms. Here we present the first equivalent field data for Boreal hard substrate assemblages from the earliest Triassic (Induan) of East Greenland. This region bordered a discrete bio-realm situated at mid-high palaeolatitude (>30°N). Nevertheless, hard substrate biotas were compositionally identical to those from elsewhere, with microconchids encrusting Claraia bivalves and algal buildups on the sea floor. Biostratigraphical correlation further shows that Boreal microconchids underwent progressive tube modification and unique taxic diversification concordant with changing habitats over time. We interpret this as a post-extinction recovery and adaptive radiation sequence that mirrored coeval subequatorial faunas, and thus confirms hard substrate ecosystem depletion as a hallmark of the earliest Triassic interval globally.

  20. Aerothermodynamic radiation studies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Donohue, K.; Reinecke, W. G.; Rossi, D.; Marinelli, W. J.; Krech, R. H.; Caledonia, G. E.

    1991-01-01

    We have built and made operational a 6 in. electric arc driven shock tube which alloys us to study the non-equilibrium radiation and kinetics of low pressure (0.1 to 1 torr) gases processed by 6 to 12 km/s shock waves. The diagnostic system allows simultaneous monitoring of shock radiation temporal histories by a bank of up to six radiometers, and spectral histories with two optical multi-channel analyzers. A data set of eight shots was assembled, comprising shocks in N2 and air at pressures between 0.1 and 1 torr and velocities of 6 to 12 km/s. Spectrally resolved data was taken in both the non-equilibrium and equilibrium shock regions on all shots. The present data appear to be the first spectrally resolved shock radiation measurements in N2 performed at 12 km/s. The data base was partially analyzed with salient features identified.

  1. Experimental study on internal cooling system in hard turning of HCWCI using CBN tools

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ravi, A. M.; Murigendrappa, S. M.

    2018-04-01

    In recent times, hard turning became most emerging technique in manufacturing processes, especially to cut high hard materials like high chrome white cast iron (HCWCI). Use of Cubic boron nitride (CBN), pCBN and Carbide tools are most appropriate to shear the metals but are uneconomical. Since hard turning carried out in dry condition, lowering the tool wear by minimizing tool temperature is the only solution. Study reveals, no effective cooling systems are available so for in order to enhance the tool life of the cutting tools and to improve machinability characteristics. The detrimental effect of cutting parameters on cutting temperature is generally controlled by proper selections. The objective of this paper is to develop a new cooling system to control tool tip temperature, thereby minimizing the cutting forces and the tool wear rates. The materials chosen for this work was HCWCI and cutting tools are CBN inserts. Intricate cavities were made on the periphery of the tool holder for easy flow of cold water. Taguchi techniques were adopted to carry out the experimentations. The experimental results confirm considerable reduction in the cutting forces and tool wear rates.

  2. Must "Hard Problems" Be Hard?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kolata, Gina

    1985-01-01

    To determine how hard it is for computers to solve problems, researchers have classified groups of problems (polynomial hierarchy) according to how much time they seem to require for their solutions. A difficult and complex proof is offered which shows that a combinatorial approach (using Boolean circuits) may resolve the problem. (JN)

  3. The analogy in the formation of hardness salts and gallstones according to the EPR study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pichugina, Alina; Tsyro, Larisa; Unger, Felix

    2017-11-01

    The article shows that the hardness salts contain the same crystalline phases as the bile stone pigment. The identity of EPR spectra of hardness salts and pigment of gallstones containing calcium carbonate was established. An analogy between the processes of formation of hardness salts and gallstones is played, in which particles with open spin-orbitals (fermions) play a decisive role.

  4. Efficacy of massage treatment technique in masseter muscle hardness: robotic experimental approach.

    PubMed

    Hiraiwa, Yuichiro; Ariji, Yoshiko; Kise, Yoshitaka; Sakuma, Shigemitsu; Kurita, Kenichi; Ariji, Eiichiro

    2013-10-01

    The study aimed to clarify the masseter muscle hardness in patients with myofascial pain, to examine their changes after massage, and to analyze whether the hardness can be an index for massage treatment. Sixteen patients with myofascial pain (12 with unilateral and 4 with bilateral masseter muscle pain) and 24 healthy volunteers were enrolled in this study. The masseter hardness between patients and the healthy volunteers was compared. The changes in the hardness in patients after massage were examined. The relation of the hardness with massage regimens and efficacies was analyzed. There was a significant right-and-left difference of the hardness in patients, although there was no difference in the healthy volunteers. The hardness decreased after massage. The pretreatment asymmetry index of the hardness showed a significant correlation with the massage pressure. It was concluded that there was a significant difference between the right and left masseter hardness in patients with myofascial pain. After massage treatment, the masseter hardness and right-and-left difference decreased. The hardness may be an index for determining the massage pressure.

  5. An Exploratory Study of Psychosocial Risk Behaviors of Adolescents Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Comparisons and Recommendations

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Coll, Kenneth M.; Cutler, Martin M.; Thobro, Patti; Haas, Robin; Powell, Stephanie

    2009-01-01

    The study compared psychosocial risk behaviors of adolescents who were deaf or hard of hearing with those of their hearing peers in a residential treatment facility. Statistically significant differences emerged between groups. The adolescents who were deaf or hard of hearing demonstrated clinically higher scores than those of their hearing peers…

  6. Anisotropic mechanical properties of zircon and the effect of radiation damage

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Beirau, Tobias; Nix, William D.; Bismayer, Ulrich; Boatner, Lynn A.; Isaacson, Scott G.; Ewing, Rodney C.

    2016-10-01

    This study provides new insights into the relationship between radiation-dose-dependent structural damage due to natural U and Th impurities and the anisotropic mechanical properties (Poisson's ratio, elastic modulus and hardness) of zircon. Natural zircon samples from Sri Lanka (see Muarakami et al. in Am Mineral 76:1510-1532, 1991) and synthetic samples, covering a dose range of zero up to 6.8 × 1018 α-decays/g, have been studied by nanoindentation. Measurements along the [100] crystallographic direction and calculations, based on elastic stiffness constants determined by Özkan (J Appl Phys 47:4772-4779, 1976), revealed a general radiation-induced decrease in stiffness (~54 %) and hardness (~48 %) and an increase in the Poisson's ratio (~54 %) with increasing dose. Additional indentations on selected samples along the [001] allowed one to follow the amorphization process to the point that the mechanical properties are isotropic. This work shows that the radiation-dose-dependent changes of the mechanical properties of zircon can be directly correlated with the amorphous fraction as determined by previous investigations with local and global probes (Ríos et al. in J Phys Condens Matter 12:2401-2412, 2000a; Farnan and Salje in J Appl Phys 89:2084-2090, 2001; Zhang and Salje in J Phys Condens Matter 13:3057-3071, 2001). The excellent agreement, revealed by the different methods, indicates a large influence of structural and even local phenomena on the macroscopic mechanical properties. Therefore, this study indicates the importance of acquiring better knowledge about the mechanical long-term stability of radiation-damaged materials.

  7. A study of water hardness and the prevalence of hypomagnesaemia and hypocalcaemia in healthy subjects of Surat district (Gujarat).

    PubMed

    Kanadhia, Kirti C; Ramavataram, Divvi Venkata Subrahmanya Shri; Nilakhe, Shreeyas Prasad Dhanpal; Patel, Swati

    2014-01-01

    Various sources of drinking water, with varying levels of total hardness, and calcium and magnesium concentrations, are used by populations in different regions. The use of water purifiers can compound the problem of maintaining the desired levels of hardness. An inverse relationship between various conditions, including cardiovascular disease, and hard water has been reported. Until this study, investigation of the hardness of drinking water from different sources, and serum magnesium and calcium in normal subjects from the Surat district, had not been undertaken. This study was performed to assess the concentrations of calcium and magnesium, and total hardness in filtered and non-filtered water and the relationship with serum magnesium and calcium levels in normal subjects consuming such water. Three water samples were collected, at 15-day intervals, from 12 urban and rural areas of Surat; and also 10 different brands of bottled water. Samples were analyzed for total hardness and calcium by complexometric and EDTA methods respectively. Magnesium concentrations were obtained by subtraction of the calcium concentration from total hardness. Serum samples from healthy individuals were analyzed for magnesium and calcium using calmagite and arsenazo methods respectively. The independent t-test was used to establish significance at a level of 95%. A p-value <0.05 was considered significant. Mean total hardness, and calcium and magnesium concentrations in non-filtered, rural tube-well water were much higher than in filtered water from the same area, and the magnesium concentrations were significantly higher (p = 0.038). Filtered urban municipal had lower hardness and concentrations of calcium and magnesium (p = 0.01) compared to corresponding non-filtered water. Significantly lower levels were observed in bottled water compared to rural and urban sources of water. Serum magnesium was significantly lower in the population who were consuming filtered water compared to

  8. Statistical study of the correlation of hard X-ray and type 3 radio bursts in solar flares

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hamilton, Russell J.; Petrosian, Vahe

    1989-01-01

    A large number of hard X-ray events which were recorded by the Hard X-Ray Burst Spectrometer (HXRBS) on the Solar Maximum Mission (SMM) during the maximum of the 21st solar cycle (circa 1980) are analyzed in order to study their statistical correlation with type 3 bursts. The earlier finding by Kane (1981) are confirmed qualitatively that flares with stronger hard X-ray emission, especially those with harder spectra, are more likely to produce a type 3 burst. The observed distribution of hard X-ray and type 3 events and their correlations are shown to be satisfactorily described by a bivariate distribution consistent with the assumption of statistical linear dependence of X-ray and radio burst intensities. From this analysis it was determined that the distribution of the ratio of X-ray intensity (in counts/s) to type 3 intensity (in solar flux units) which has a wide range and a typical value for this ratio of about 10. The implications of the results for impulsive phase models are discussed.

  9. A study of sound balances for the hard of hearing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mathers, C. D.

    Over a period of years, complaints have been received from television viewers, especially those who are hard of hearing, that background sound (e.g., audience laughter, crowd noise, mood music) is often transmitted at too high a level with respect to speech, so that information essential to the understanding of the program is lost. To consider possible solutions to the problem, a working party was set up representing both broadcasters and organizations for the hard of hearing. At early meetings, it was resolved that a series of subjective tests should be carried out to determine what reduction of background levels would be needed to provide a significant improvement in the intelligibility of television speech for viewers with hearing difficulties. The preparation of test tapes and the analysis of results are given.

  10. Hard X-Rays can BE Used to Visualize Cochlear Soft Tissue Displacements in a Closed Cochlea

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Richter, C.-P.; Fishman, A.; Fan, L.; Shintani, S.; Rau, C.

    2009-02-01

    Experiments were made at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory. The APS is a synchrotron radiation source of the third generation, for which the particular characteristic is the highly coherent X-ray radiation. X-rays are generated with an undulator, inserted in a straight section of the storage ring. Images taken with hard X-rays at full field. A video flow algorithm by Lucas and Kanade was used to determine and quantify cochlear soft tissue displacements. The results show that displacements as low as 100 nm could be visualized.

  11. A study to evaluate cephalometric hard tissue profile of Tamil population for orthognathic surgery

    PubMed Central

    Nachiappan, S.; Tharanikumar, S.; Chandran, Ajay; Anusudha, P.; Nandini, G. D.; Balasubramaniam, Murali

    2015-01-01

    The primary aim of this study is to compare, the cephalometric hard tissue profile values and analysis between Tamil and Caucasian population. The study also aims to create a better understanding in the facial proportions of Tamil Nadu population and to have better diagnosis and treatment planning for orthognathic surgery for Tamil population in Tamil Nadu. PMID:26538943

  12. A study to evaluate cephalometric hard tissue profile of Tamil population for orthognathic surgery.

    PubMed

    Nachiappan, S; Tharanikumar, S; Chandran, Ajay; Anusudha, P; Nandini, G D; Balasubramaniam, Murali

    2015-08-01

    The primary aim of this study is to compare, the cephalometric hard tissue profile values and analysis between Tamil and Caucasian population. The study also aims to create a better understanding in the facial proportions of Tamil Nadu population and to have better diagnosis and treatment planning for orthognathic surgery for Tamil population in Tamil Nadu.

  13. Performance of optical fibers in space radiation environment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alam, M.; Abramczyk, J.; Manyam, U.; Farroni, J.; Guertin, D.

    2017-11-01

    The use of optical fibers in low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites is a source of concern due to the radiation environment in which these satellites operate and the reliability of devices based on these fibers. Although radiation induced damage in optical fibers cannot be avoided, it can certainly be minimized by intelligent engineering. Qualifying fibers for use in space is both time consuming and expensive, and manufacturers of satellites and their payloads have started to ask for radiation performance data from optical fiber vendors. Over time, Nufern has developed fiber designs, compositions and processes to make radiation hard fibers. Radiation performance data of a variety of fibers that find application in space radiation environment are presented.

  14. Inhomogeneous hard homonuclear molecules

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Quintana, Jacqueline

    A review is given of some features of theories for inhomogeneous fluids of nonspherical molecules that take as input the direct correlation function of the corresponding homogeneous system. Two different methods are described for defining the structure of hard homonuclear molecules close to a hard planar wall. A spherical harmonics expanison (SHE) within the integral equation (IE) method is presented and, for comparison, a version of density functional theory for orientable hard bodies. In both cases the Pynn-Lado model is employed and a comparison is made with Monte Carlo data. The results indicate that for hard molecules the IE approach does not always capture the effects of orientation due to the characteristics of the SHE for the step function. This disadvantage is particularly true in the case of the orientationally averaged density profile.

  15. Energetics and timing of the hard and soft X-ray emissions in white light flares

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Neidig, Donald F.; Kane, Sharad R.

    1993-01-01

    By comparing the light curves in optical, hard X-ray, and soft X-ray wavelengths for eight well-observed flares, we confirm previous results indicating that the white light flare (WLF) is associated with the flare impulsive phase. The WLF emission peaks within seconds after the associated hard X-ray peak, and nearly two minutes before the 1-8 A soft X-ray peak. It is further shown that the peak power in nonthermal electrons above 50 keV is typically an order of magnitude larger, and the power in 1-8 A soft X-rays radiated over 2pi sr, at the time of the WLF peak, is an order of magnitude smaller than the peak WLF power.

  16. Hard X-ray Emission from Galaxy Clusters Observed with INTEGRAL and Prospects for Simbol-X

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eckert, D.; Paltani, S.; Courvoisier, T. J.-L.

    2009-05-01

    Some galaxy clusters are known to contain a large population of relativistic electrons, which produce radio emission through synchrotron radiation. Therefore, it is expected that inverse-Compton scattering of the relativistic electrons with the CMB produce non-thermal emission which should be observable in the hard X-ray domain. Here we focus on the recent results by INTEGRAL, which shed a new light on the non-thermal emission thanks to its angular resolution and sensitivity in the hard X-ray range. We also present the exciting prospects in this field for Simbol-X, which will allow us to detect the non-thermal emission in a number of clusters and map the magnetic field throughout the intra-cluster medium.

  17. Hardness and Microstructure of Binary and Ternary Nitinol Compounds

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stanford, Malcolm K.

    2016-01-01

    The hardness and microstructure of twenty-six binary and ternary Nitinol (nickel titanium, nickel titanium hafnium, nickel titanium zirconium and nickel titanium tantalum) compounds were studied. A small (50g) ingot of each compound was produced by vacuum arc remelting. Each ingot was homogenized in vacuum for 48 hr followed by furnace cooling. Specimens from the ingots were then heat treated at 800, 900, 1000 or 1100 degree C for 2 hr followed by water quenching. The hardness and microstructure of each specimen was compared to the baseline material (55-Nitinol, 55 at.% nickel - 45 at.% titanium, after heat treatment at 900 degC). The results show that eleven of the studied compounds had higher hardness values than the baseline material. Moreover, twelve of the studied compounds had measured hardness values greater 600HV at heat treatments from 800 to 900 degree C.

  18. THE HOT HARDNESS OF TITANIUM AND TITANIUM ALLOYS

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Larson, F.R.

    1958-07-01

    The hot hardness of 27 different heats of titanium and titunium alloys was studied. Tests were conducted on a modified Rockwell machine in an argon atmosphere. Results indicate that low alloy heats lose their hardnesses at a fairly high even rate. On thc other hand, high alloy heats hold their hardnesses well up to about 1100 d F, and then the hardness drops off very sharply with increasing temperature. The influence of alloying elements in promoting resistance to softening was evaluated at 900 d F. Iron was found to be the most effective with the other elements being arranged inmore » order of decreasing effect, as follows: manganese, (auth)« less

  19. Mucocele of the hard palate in children.

    PubMed

    Abdel-Aziz, Mosaad; Khalifa, Badawy; Nassar, Ahmed; Kamel, Ahmed; Naguib, Nader; El-Tahan, Abdel-Rahman

    2016-06-01

    Mucus retention cyst of the hard palate may result from obstruction of the ducts of the minor salivary glands, and it was defined as a mucocele. Although, the disease is not common in the hard palate, it was previously reported by many authors in the soft palate. The aim of our study was to present pediatric patients who were diagnosed to have mucocele of the hard palate, and to evaluate the outcome of the surgical excision of this lesion. This is a case series study included 8 pediatric patients who presented with cystic lesions on the hard palate which were removed surgically, and were diagnosed as mucoceles. Preoperative data, surgical procedures, and postoperative outcome were presented. Follow up of patients was performed for at least one year. The swelling was detected as a single isolated lesion, on the side of the hard palate, covered with healthy mucosa, not tender, oval or round in shape, and measuring 0.4 to 1.7cm in its greatest dimension. Computed tomography showed a well defined cavity which was not invading the bone, and not disrupting the muscles of the palate. Histopathological examination confirmed that the lesion was a cavity that is lined with an epithelial layer with pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia. No patients developed intraoperative or postoperative complications, and no recurrence was detected in any patient. Oral mucoceles can develop on the hard palate of the children, the lesions are mucus retention cysts. Complete surgical removal of the lesions with their cystic wall is a good treatment options, it carries no risk of recurrence. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Applications of Hard X-ray Full-Field Transmission X-ray Microscopy at SSRL

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Y.; Andrews, J. C.; Meirer, F.; Mehta, A.; Gil, S. Carrasco; Sciau, P.; Mester, Z.; Pianetta, P.

    2011-09-01

    State-of-the-art hard x-ray full-field transmission x-ray microscopy (TXM) at beamline 6-2C of Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource has been applied to various research fields including biological, environmental, and material studies. With the capability of imaging a 32-micron field-of-view at 30-nm resolution using both absorption mode and Zernike phase contrast, the 3D morphology of yeast cells grown in gold-rich media was investigated. Quantitative evaluation of the absorption coefficient was performed for mercury nanoparticles in alfalfa roots exposed to mercury. Combining XANES and TXM, we also performed XANES-imaging on an ancient pottery sample from the Roman pottery workshop at LaGraufesenque (Aveyron).

  1. Generation of radicals in hard biological tissues under the action of laser radiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sviridov, Alexander P.; Bagratashvili, Victor N.; Sobol, Emil N.; Omelchenko, Alexander I.; Lunina, Elena V.; Zhitnev, Yurii N.; Markaryan, Galina L.; Lunin, Valerii V.

    2002-07-01

    The formation of radicals upon UV and IR laser irradiation of some biological tissues and their components was studied by the EPR technique. The radical decay kinetics in body tissue specimens after their irradiation with UV light were described by various models. By the spin trapping technique, it was shown that radicals were not produced during IR laser irradiation of cartilaginous tissue. A change in optical absorption spectra and the dynamics of optical density of cartilaginous tissue, fish scale, and a collagen film under exposure to laser radiation in an air, oxygen, and nitrogen atmosphere was studied.

  2. Hard Water and Soft Soap: Dependence of Soap Performance on Water Hardness

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Osorio, Viktoria K. L.; de Oliveira, Wanda; El Seoud, Omar A.; Cotton, Wyatt; Easdon, Jerry

    2005-01-01

    The demonstration of the performance of soap in different aqueous solutions, which is due to water hardness and soap formulation, is described. The demonstrations use safe, inexpensive reagents and simple glassware and equipment, introduce important everyday topics, stimulates the students to consider the wider consequences of water hardness and…

  3. Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, Gatlinburg, TN, July 18-21, 1983, Proceedings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1983-01-01

    Topics discussed include radiation effects in devices; the basic mechanisms of radiation effects in structures and materials; radiation effects in integrated circuits; spacecraft charging and space radiation effects; hardness assurance for devices and systems; and radiation transport, energy deposition and charge collection. Papers are presented on the mechanisms of small instabilities in irradiated MOS transistors, on the radiation effects on oxynitride gate dielectrics, on the discharge characteristics of a simulated solar cell array, and on latchup in CMOS devices from heavy ions. Attention is also given to proton upsets in orbit, to the modeling of single-event upset in bipolar integrated circuits, to high-resolution studies of the electrical breakdown of soil, and to a finite-difference solution of Maxwell's equations in generalized nonorthogonal coordinates.

  4. Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, 19th, Las Vegas, NV, July 20-22, 1982, Proceedings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Long, D. M.

    1982-01-01

    The results of research concerning the effects of nuclear and space radiation are presented. Topics discussed include the basic mechanisms of nuclear and space radiation effects, radiation effects in devices, and radiation effects in microcircuits, including studies of radiation-induced paramagnetic defects in MOS structures, silicon solar cell damage from electrical overstress, radiation-induced charge dynamics in dielectrics, and the enhanced radiation effects on submicron narrow-channel NMOS. Also examined are topics in SGEMP/IEMP phenomena, hardness assurance and testing, energy deposition, desometry, and radiation transport, and single event phenomena. Among others, studies are presented concerning the limits to hardening electronic boxes to IEMP coupling, transient radiation screening of silicon devices using backside laser irradiation, the damage equivalence of electrons, protons, and gamma rays in MOS devices, and the single event upset sensitivity of low power Schottky devices.

  5. Methodological problems with gamma-ray burst hardness/intensity correlations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schaefer, Bradley E.

    1993-01-01

    The hardness and intensity are easily measured quantities for all gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and so, many past and current studies have sought correlations between them. This Letter presents many serious methodological problems with the practical definitions for both hardness and intensity. These difficulties are such that significant correlations can be easily introduced as artifacts of the reduction procedure. In particular, cosmological models of GRBs cannot be tested with hardness/intensity correlations with current instrumentation and the time evolution of the hardness in a given burst may be correlated with intensity for reasons that are unrelated to intrinsic change in the spectral shape.

  6. STUDYING FAINT ULTRA-HARD X-RAY EMISSION FROM AGN IN GOALS LIRGS WITH SWIFT/BAT

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Koss, Michael; Casey, Caitlin M.; Mushotzky, Richard

    2013-03-10

    We present the first analysis of the all-sky Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) ultra-hard X-ray (14-195 keV) data for a targeted list of objects. We find that the BAT data can be studied at three-times-fainter limits than in previous blind detection catalogs based on prior knowledge of source positions and using smaller energy ranges for source detection. We determine the active galactic nucleus (AGN) fraction in 134 nearby (z < 0.05) luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) from the GOALS sample. We find that LIRGs have a higher detection frequency than galaxies matched in stellar mass and redshift at 14-195 keV andmore » 24-35 keV. In agreement with work at other wavelengths, the AGN detection fraction increases strongly at high IR luminosity with half of the high-luminosity LIRGs (50%, 6/12, log L{sub IR}/L{sub Sun} > 11.8) detected. The BAT AGN classification shows 97% (37/38) agreement with Chandra and XMM-Newton AGN classification using hardness ratios or detection of an iron K{alpha} line. This confirms our statistical analysis and supports the use of the Swift/BAT all-sky survey to study fainter populations of any category of sources in the ultra-hard X-ray band. BAT AGNs in LIRGs tend to show higher column densities with 40% {+-} 9% showing 14-195 keV/2-10 keV hardness flux ratios suggestive of high or Compton-thick column densities (log N{sub H} > 24 cm{sup -2}), compared to only 12% {+-} 5% of non-LIRG BAT AGNs. We also find that using specific energy ranges of the BAT detector can yield additional sources over total band detections with 24% (5/21) of detections in LIRGs at 24-35 keV not detected at 14-195 keV.« less

  7. Haptic Search for Hard and Soft Spheres

    PubMed Central

    van Polanen, Vonne; Bergmann Tiest, Wouter M.; Kappers, Astrid M. L.

    2012-01-01

    In this study the saliency of hardness and softness were investigated in an active haptic search task. Two experiments were performed to explore these properties in different contexts. In Experiment 1, blindfolded participants had to grasp a bundle of spheres and determine the presence of a hard target among soft distractors or vice versa. If the difference in compliance between target and distractors was small, reaction times increased with the number of items for both features; a serial strategy was found to be used. When the difference in compliance was large, the reaction times were independent of the number of items, indicating a parallel strategy. In Experiment 2, blindfolded participants pressed their hand on a display filled with hard and soft items. In the search for a soft target, increasing reaction times with the number of items were found, but the location of target and distractors appeared to have a large influence on the search difficulty. In the search for a hard target, reaction times did not depend on the number of items. In sum, this showed that both hardness and softness are salient features. PMID:23056197

  8. Haptic search for hard and soft spheres.

    PubMed

    van Polanen, Vonne; Bergmann Tiest, Wouter M; Kappers, Astrid M L

    2012-01-01

    In this study the saliency of hardness and softness were investigated in an active haptic search task. Two experiments were performed to explore these properties in different contexts. In Experiment 1, blindfolded participants had to grasp a bundle of spheres and determine the presence of a hard target among soft distractors or vice versa. If the difference in compliance between target and distractors was small, reaction times increased with the number of items for both features; a serial strategy was found to be used. When the difference in compliance was large, the reaction times were independent of the number of items, indicating a parallel strategy. In Experiment 2, blindfolded participants pressed their hand on a display filled with hard and soft items. In the search for a soft target, increasing reaction times with the number of items were found, but the location of target and distractors appeared to have a large influence on the search difficulty. In the search for a hard target, reaction times did not depend on the number of items. In sum, this showed that both hardness and softness are salient features.

  9. Radiation microscope for SEE testing using GeV ions.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Doyle, Barney Lee; Knapp, James Arthur; Rossi, Paolo

    2009-09-01

    Radiation Effects Microscopy is an extremely useful technique in failure analysis of electronic parts used in radiation environment. It also provides much needed support for development of radiation hard components used in spacecraft and nuclear weapons. As the IC manufacturing technology progresses, more and more overlayers are used; therefore, the sensitive region of the part is getting farther and farther from the surface. The thickness of these overlayers is so large today that the traditional microbeams, which are used for REM are unable to reach the sensitive regions. As a result, higher ion beam energies have to be used (>more » GeV), which are available only at cyclotrons. Since it is extremely complicated to focus these GeV ion beams, a new method has to be developed to perform REM at cyclotrons. We developed a new technique, Ion Photon Emission Microscopy, where instead of focusing the ion beam we use secondary photons emitted from a fluorescence layer on top of the devices being tested to determine the position of the ion hit. By recording this position information in coincidence with an SEE signal we will be able to indentify radiation sensitive regions of modern electronic parts, which will increase the efficiency of radiation hard circuits.« less

  10. Novel platens to measure the hardness of a pentagonal shaped tablet.

    PubMed

    Malladi, Jaya; Sidik, Kurex; Wu, Sutan; McCann, Ryan; Dougherty, Jeffrey; Parab, Prakash; Carragher, Thomas

    2017-03-01

    Tablet hardness, a measure of the breaking force of a tablet, is based on numerous factors. These include the shape of the tablet and the mode of the application of force. For instance, when a pentagonal-shaped tablet was tested with a traditional hardness tester with flat platens, there was a large variation in hardness measurements. This was due to the propensity of vertices of the tablet to crush, referred to as an "improper break". This article describes a novel approach to measure the hardness of pentagonal-shaped tablets using modified platens. The modified platens have more uniform loading than flat platens. This is because they reduce loading on the vertex of the pentagon and apply forces on tablet edges to generate reproducible tablet fracture. The robustness of modified platens was assessed using a series of studies, which included feasibility and Gauge Repeatability & Reproducibility (R&R) studies. A key finding was that improper breaks, generated frequently with a traditional hardness tester using flat platens, were eliminated. The Gauge R&R study revealed that the tablets tested with novel platens generated consistent values in hardness measurements, independent of batch, hardness level, and day of testing, operator and tablet dosage strength.

  11. Prevalence of atopic dermatitis in infants by domestic water hardness and season of birth: Cohort study.

    PubMed

    Engebretsen, Kristiane A; Bager, Peter; Wohlfahrt, Jan; Skov, Lone; Zachariae, Claus; Nybo Andersen, Anne-Marie; Melbye, Mads; Thyssen, Jacob P

    2017-05-01

    Atopic dermatitis (AD) appears to be more common in regions with hard domestic water and in children with a fall/winter birth. However, it is unknown whether a synergistic effect exists. We sought to evaluate the association between domestic water hardness and season of birth, respectively, with onset of AD within the first 18 months of life in a large Danish birth cohort. Of children from the Danish National Birth Cohort, 52,950 were included. History of physician-diagnosed AD and population characteristics were obtained from interviews. Birth data were obtained from the Civil Registration System, and domestic water hardness data were obtained from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. The relative prevalence (RP) of AD was calculated by using log-linear binomial regression. The prevalence of AD was 15.0% (7,942/52,950). The RP of AD was 5% (RP trend , 1.05; 95% CI, 1.03-1.07) higher for each 5° increase in domestic water hardness (range, 6.60-35.90 German degrees of hardness [118-641 mg/L]). Although the RP of AD was higher in children with a fall (RP, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.17-1.31) or winter (RP, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.11-1.25) birth, no significant interaction was observed with domestic water hardness. The population attributable risk of hard domestic water on AD was 2%. We observed that early exposure to hard domestic water and a fall/winter birth was associated with an increase in the relative prevalence of AD within the first 18 months of life. Although the 2 exposures did not interact synergistically, a dose-response relationship was observed between domestic water hardness and AD. Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Effect of water hardness on cardiovascular mortality: an ecological time series approach.

    PubMed

    Lake, I R; Swift, L; Catling, L A; Abubakar, I; Sabel, C E; Hunter, P R

    2010-12-01

    Numerous studies have suggested an inverse relationship between drinking water hardness and cardiovascular disease. However, the weight of evidence is insufficient for the WHO to implement a health-based guideline for water hardness. This study followed WHO recommendations to assess the feasibility of using ecological time series data from areas exposed to step changes in water hardness to investigate this issue. Monthly time series of cardiovascular mortality data, subdivided by age and sex, were systematically collected from areas reported to have undergone step changes in water hardness, calcium and magnesium in England and Wales between 1981 and 2005. Time series methods were used to investigate the effect of water hardness changes on mortality. No evidence was found of an association between step changes in drinking water hardness or drinking water calcium and cardiovascular mortality. The lack of areas with large populations and a reasonable change in magnesium levels precludes a definitive conclusion about the impact of this cation. We use our results on the variability of the series to consider the data requirements (size of population, time of water hardness change) for such a study to have sufficient power. Only data from areas with large populations (>500,000) are likely to be able to detect a change of the size suggested by previous studies (rate ratio of 1.06). Ecological time series studies of populations exposed to changes in drinking water hardness may not be able to provide conclusive evidence on the links between water hardness and cardiovascular mortality unless very large populations are studied. Investigations of individuals may be more informative.

  13. Soils: man-caused radioactivity and radiation forecast

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gablin, Vassily

    2007-07-01

    Available in abstract form only. Full text of publication follows: One of the main tasks of the radiation safety guarantee is non-admission of the excess over critical radiation levels. In Russia they are man-caused radiation levels. Meanwhile any radiation measurement represents total radioactivity. That is why it is hard to assess natural and man-caused contributions to total radioactivity. It is shown that soil radioactivity depends on natural factors including radioactivity of rocks and cosmic radiation as well as man-caused factors including nuclear and non-nuclear technologies. Whole totality of these factors includes unpredictable (non-deterministic) factors - nuclear explosions and radiation accidents,more » and predictable ones (deterministic) - all the rest. Deterministic factors represent background radioactivity whose trends is the base of the radiation forecast. Non-deterministic factors represent man-caused radiation treatment contribution which is to be controlled. This contribution is equal to the difference in measured radioactivity and radiation background. The way of calculation of background radioactivity is proposed. Contemporary soils are complicated technologically influenced systems with multi-leveled spatial and temporary inhomogeneity of radionuclides distribution. Generally analysis area can be characterized by any set of factors of soil radioactivity including natural and man-caused factors. Natural factors are cosmic radiation and radioactivity of rocks. Man-caused factors are shown on Fig. 1. It is obvious that man-caused radioactivity is due to both artificial and natural emitters. Any result of radiation measurement represents total radioactivity i.e. the sum of activities resulting from natural and man-caused emitters. There is no gauge which could separately measure natural and man-caused radioactivity. That is why it is so hard to assess natural and man-caused contributions to soil radioactivity. It would have been possible if

  14. Does hard insertion and space improve shock absorption ability of mouthguard?

    PubMed

    Takeda, Tomotaka; Ishigami, Keiichi; Handa, Jun; Naitoh, Kaoru; Kurokawa, Katsuhide; Shibusawa, Mami; Nakajima, Kazunori; Kawamura, Shintaro

    2006-04-01

    Mouthguards are expected to reduce sports-related orofacial injuries. Numerous studies have been conduced to improve the shock absorption ability of mouthguards using air cells, sorbothane, metal wire, or hard material insertion. Most of these were shown to be effective; however, the result of each study has not been applied to clinical use. The aim of this study was to develop mouthguards that have sufficient prevention ability and ease of clinical application with focus on a hard insertion and space. Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) mouthguard blank used was Drufosoft and the acrylic resin was Biolon (Dreve-Dentamid GMBH, Unna, Germany). Three types of mouthguard samples tested were constructed by means of a Dreve Drufomat (Type SO, Dreve-Dentamid) air pressure machine: the first was a conventional laminated type of EVA mouthguard material; the second was a three layer type with acrylic resin inner layer (hard-insertion); the third was the same as the second but with space that does not come into contact with tooth surfaces (hard + space). As a control, without any mouthguard condition (NOMG) was measured. A pendulum type impact testing machine with interchangeable impact object (steel ball and baseball) and dental study model (D17FE-NC.7PS, Nissin, Tokyo, Japan) with the strain gages (KFG-1-120-D171-11N30C2: Kyowa, Tokyo, Japan) applied to teeth and the accelerometer to the dentition (AS-A YG-2768 100G, Kyowa) were used to measure transmitted forces. Statistical analysis (anova, P < 0.01) showed significant differences among four conditions of NOMG and three different mouthguards in both objects and sensor. About acceleration: in a steel ball which was a harder impact object, shock absorption ability of about 40% was shown with conventional EVA and hard-insertion and about 50% with hard + space. In a baseball that was softer compared with steel ball, a decrease rate is smaller, reduction (EVA = approximately 4%, hard-insertion = approximately 12%, hard + space

  15. A new technique to prepare hard fruits and seeds for anatomical studies1

    PubMed Central

    Benedict, John C.

    2015-01-01

    Premise of the study: A novel preparation technique was developed to examine fruits and seeds of plants with exceptionally hard or brittle tissues that are very difficult to prepare using standard histological techniques. Methods and Results: The method introduced here was modified from a technique employed on fossil material and has been adapted for use on fruits and seeds of extant plants. A variety of fruits and seeds have been prepared with great success, and the technique will be useful for any excessively hard fruits or seeds that are not able to be prepared using traditional embedding or sectioning methods. Conclusions: When compared to existing techniques for obtaining anatomical features of fruits and seeds, the protocol described here has the potential to create high-quality thin sections of materials that are not able to be sectioned using traditional histological techniques, which can be produced quickly and without the need for harmful chemicals. PMID:26504684

  16. Femtosecond response of polyatomic molecules to ultra-intense hard X-rays.

    PubMed

    Rudenko, A; Inhester, L; Hanasaki, K; Li, X; Robatjazi, S J; Erk, B; Boll, R; Toyota, K; Hao, Y; Vendrell, O; Bomme, C; Savelyev, E; Rudek, B; Foucar, L; Southworth, S H; Lehmann, C S; Kraessig, B; Marchenko, T; Simon, M; Ueda, K; Ferguson, K R; Bucher, M; Gorkhover, T; Carron, S; Alonso-Mori, R; Koglin, J E; Correa, J; Williams, G J; Boutet, S; Young, L; Bostedt, C; Son, S-K; Santra, R; Rolles, D

    2017-06-01

    X-ray free-electron lasers enable the investigation of the structure and dynamics of diverse systems, including atoms, molecules, nanocrystals and single bioparticles, under extreme conditions. Many imaging applications that target biological systems and complex materials use hard X-ray pulses with extremely high peak intensities (exceeding 10 20 watts per square centimetre). However, fundamental investigations have focused mainly on the individual response of atoms and small molecules using soft X-rays with much lower intensities. Studies with intense X-ray pulses have shown that irradiated atoms reach a very high degree of ionization, owing to multiphoton absorption, which in a heteronuclear molecular system occurs predominantly locally on a heavy atom (provided that the absorption cross-section of the heavy atom is considerably larger than those of its neighbours) and is followed by efficient redistribution of the induced charge. In serial femtosecond crystallography of biological objects-an application of X-ray free-electron lasers that greatly enhances our ability to determine protein structure-the ionization of heavy atoms increases the local radiation damage that is seen in the diffraction patterns of these objects and has been suggested as a way of phasing the diffraction data. On the basis of experiments using either soft or less-intense hard X-rays, it is thought that the induced charge and associated radiation damage of atoms in polyatomic molecules can be inferred from the charge that is induced in an isolated atom under otherwise comparable irradiation conditions. Here we show that the femtosecond response of small polyatomic molecules that contain one heavy atom to ultra-intense (with intensities approaching 10 20 watts per square centimetre), hard (with photon energies of 8.3 kiloelectronvolts) X-ray pulses is qualitatively different: our experimental and modelling results establish that, under these conditions, the ionization of a molecule is

  17. Femtosecond response of polyatomic molecules to ultra-intense hard X-rays

    DOE PAGES

    Rudenko, A.; Inhester, L.; Hanasaki, K.; ...

    2017-05-31

    We report x-ray free-electron lasers enable the investigation of the structure and dynamics of diverse systems, including atoms, molecules, nanocrystals and single bioparticles, under extreme conditions. Many imaging applications that target biological systems and complex materials use hard X-ray pulses with extremely high peak intensities (exceeding 10 20 watts per square centimetre). However, fundamental investigations have focused mainly on the individual response of atoms and small molecules using soft X-rays with much lower intensities. Studies with intense X-ray pulses have shown that irradiated atoms reach a very high degree of ionization, owing to multiphoton absorption, which in a heteronuclear molecularmore » system occurs predominantly locally on a heavy atom (provided that the absorption cross-section of the heavy atom is considerably larger than those of its neighbours) and is followed by efficient redistribution of the induced charge. In serial femtosecond crystallography of biological objects—an application of X-ray free-electron lasers that greatly enhances our ability to determine protein structure—the ionization of heavy atoms increases the local radiation damage that is seen in the diffraction patterns of these objects and has been suggested as a way of phasing the diffraction data. On the basis of experiments using either soft or less-intense hard X-rays, it is thought that the induced charge and associated radiation damage of atoms in polyatomic molecules can be inferred from the charge that is induced in an isolated atom under otherwise comparable irradiation conditions. Here we show that the femtosecond response of small polyatomic molecules that contain one heavy atom to ultra-intense (with intensities approaching 10 20 watts per square centimetre), hard (with photon energies of 8.3 kiloelectronvolts) X-ray pulses is qualitatively different: our experimental and modelling results establish that, under these conditions, the ionization

  18. Femtosecond response of polyatomic molecules to ultra-intense hard X-rays

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Rudenko, A.; Inhester, L.; Hanasaki, K.

    We report x-ray free-electron lasers enable the investigation of the structure and dynamics of diverse systems, including atoms, molecules, nanocrystals and single bioparticles, under extreme conditions. Many imaging applications that target biological systems and complex materials use hard X-ray pulses with extremely high peak intensities (exceeding 10 20 watts per square centimetre). However, fundamental investigations have focused mainly on the individual response of atoms and small molecules using soft X-rays with much lower intensities. Studies with intense X-ray pulses have shown that irradiated atoms reach a very high degree of ionization, owing to multiphoton absorption, which in a heteronuclear molecularmore » system occurs predominantly locally on a heavy atom (provided that the absorption cross-section of the heavy atom is considerably larger than those of its neighbours) and is followed by efficient redistribution of the induced charge. In serial femtosecond crystallography of biological objects—an application of X-ray free-electron lasers that greatly enhances our ability to determine protein structure—the ionization of heavy atoms increases the local radiation damage that is seen in the diffraction patterns of these objects and has been suggested as a way of phasing the diffraction data. On the basis of experiments using either soft or less-intense hard X-rays, it is thought that the induced charge and associated radiation damage of atoms in polyatomic molecules can be inferred from the charge that is induced in an isolated atom under otherwise comparable irradiation conditions. Here we show that the femtosecond response of small polyatomic molecules that contain one heavy atom to ultra-intense (with intensities approaching 10 20 watts per square centimetre), hard (with photon energies of 8.3 kiloelectronvolts) X-ray pulses is qualitatively different: our experimental and modelling results establish that, under these conditions, the ionization

  19. Evaluation of human muscle hardness after dynamic exercise with ultrasound real-time tissue elastography: a feasibility study.

    PubMed

    Yanagisawa, O; Niitsu, M; Kurihara, T; Fukubayashi, T

    2011-09-01

    To assess the feasibility of ultrasound real-time tissue elastography (RTE) for measuring exercise-induced changes in muscle hardness and to compare the findings of RTE with those of a tissue hardness meter for semi-quantitative assessment of the hardness of exercised muscles. Nine male participants performed an arm-curl exercise. RTE measurements were performed by manually applying repetitive compression with the transducer on the scan position before exercise, immediately after exercise, and at 30 min after exercise; strain ratios between muscle and a reference material (hydrogel) were calculated (muscle strain/material strain). A tissue hardness meter was also used to evaluate muscle hardness. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for the three repeated measurements at each measurement time were calculated to evaluate the intra-observer reproducibility of each technique. Immediately after exercise, the strain ratio and the value obtained using the tissue hardness meter significantly decreased (from 1.65 to 1.35) and increased (from 51.8 to 54.3), respectively. Both parameters returned to their pre-exercise value 30 min after exercise. The ICCs of the RTE (and the ICCs of the muscle hardness meter) were 0.971 (0.816) before exercise, 0.939 (0.776) immediately after exercise, and 0.959 (0.882) at 30 min after exercise. Similar to the muscle hardness meter, RTE revealed the exercise-induced changes of muscle hardness semi-quantitatively. The intra-observer reproducibility of RTE was very high at each measurement time. These findings suggest that RTE is a clinically useful technique for assessing hardness of specific exercised muscles. Copyright © 2011 The Royal College of Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Dietary hardness, loading behavior, and the evolution of skull form in bats.

    PubMed

    Santana, Sharlene E; Grosse, Ian R; Dumont, Elizabeth R

    2012-08-01

    The morphology and biomechanics of the vertebrate skull reflect the physical properties of diet and behaviors used in food acquisition and processing. We use phyllostomid bats, the most diverse mammalian dietary radiation, to investigate if and how changes in dietary hardness and loading behaviors during feeding shaped the evolution of skull morphology and biomechanics. When selective regimes of food hardness are modeled, we found that species consuming harder foods have evolved skull shapes that allow for more efficient bite force production. These species have shorter skulls and a greater reliance on the temporalis muscle, both of which contribute to a higher mechanical advantage at an intermediate gape angle. The evolution of cranial morphology and biomechanics also appears to be related to loading behaviors. Evolutionary changes in skull shape and the relative role of the temporalis and masseter in generating bite force are correlated with changes in the use of torsional and bending loading behaviors. Functional equivalence appears to have evolved independently among three lineages of species that feed on liquids and are not obviously morphologically similar. These trends in cranial morphology and biomechanics provide insights into behavioral and ecological factors shaping the skull of a trophically diverse clade of mammals. © 2012 The Author(s). Evolution© 2012 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

  1. Technology Developments in Radiation-Hardened Electronics for Space Environments

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Keys, Andrew S.; Howell, Joe T.

    2008-01-01

    The Radiation Hardened Electronics for Space Environments (RHESE) project consists of a series of tasks designed to develop and mature a broad spectrum of radiation hardened and low temperature electronics technologies. Three approaches are being taken to address radiation hardening: improved material hardness, design techniques to improve radiation tolerance, and software methods to improve radiation tolerance. Within these approaches various technology products are being addressed including Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAA), MEMS, Serial Processors, Reconfigurable Processors, and Parallel Processors. In addition to radiation hardening, low temperature extremes are addressed with a focus on material and design approaches. System level applications for the RHESE technology products are discussed.

  2. Janka hardness using nonstandard specimens

    Treesearch

    David W. Green; Marshall Begel; William Nelson

    2006-01-01

    Janka hardness determined on 1.5- by 3.5-in. specimens (2×4s) was found to be equivalent to that determined using the 2- by 2-in. specimen specified in ASTM D 143. Data are presented on the relationship between Janka hardness and the strength of clear wood. Analysis of historical data determined using standard specimens indicated no difference between side hardness...

  3. Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, 14th, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va., July 12-15, 1977, Proceedings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stahl, R. H.

    1977-01-01

    Topics related to processing and hardness assurance are considered, taking into account the radiation hardening of CMOS technologies, technological advances in the manufacture of radiation-hardened CMOS integrated circuits, CMOS hardness assurance through process controls and optimized design procedures, the application of operational amplifiers to hardened systems, a hard off-the-shelf SG1524 pulse width modulator, and the gamma-induced voltage breakdown anomaly in a Schottky diode. Basic mechanisms are examined, giving attention to chemical and structural aspects of the irradiation behavior of SiO2 films on silicon, experimental observations of the chemistry of the SiO2/Si interface, leakage current phenomena in irradiated SOS devices, the avalanche injection of holes into SiO2, the low-temperature radiation response of Al2O3 gate insulators, and neutron damage mechanisms in silicon at 10 K. Other subjects discussed are related to radiation effects in devices and circuits, space radiation effects, and aspects of simulation, energy deposition, and dosimetry.

  4. Rad-Hard, Miniaturized, Scalable, High-Voltage Switching Module for Power Applications Rad-Hard, Miniaturized

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Adell, Philippe C.; Mojarradi, Mohammad; DelCastillo, Linda Y.; Vo, Tuan A.

    2011-01-01

    A paper discusses the successful development of a miniaturized radiation hardened high-voltage switching module operating at 2.5 kV suitable for space application. The high-voltage architecture was designed, fabricated, and tested using a commercial process that uses a unique combination of 0.25 micrometer CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) transistors and high-voltage lateral DMOS (diffusion metal oxide semiconductor) device with high breakdown voltage (greater than 650 V). The high-voltage requirements are achieved by stacking a number of DMOS devices within one module, while two modules can be placed in series to achieve higher voltages. Besides the high-voltage requirements, a second generation prototype is currently being developed to provide improved switching capabilities (rise time and fall time for full range of target voltages and currents), the ability to scale the output voltage to a desired value with good accuracy (few percent) up to 10 kV, to cover a wide range of high-voltage applications. In addition, to ensure miniaturization, long life, and high reliability, the assemblies will require intensive high-voltage electrostatic modeling (optimized E-field distribution throughout the module) to complete the proposed packaging approach and test the applicability of using advanced materials in a space-like environment (temperature and pressure) to help prevent potential arcing and corona due to high field regions. Finally, a single-event effect evaluation would have to be performed and single-event mitigation methods implemented at the design and system level or developed to ensure complete radiation hardness of the module.

  5. A HARD X-RAY POWER-LAW SPECTRAL CUTOFF IN CENTAURUS X-4

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chakrabarty, Deepto; Nowak, Michael A.; Tomsick, John A.

    2014-12-20

    The low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) Cen X-4 is the brightest and closest (<1.2 kpc) quiescent neutron star transient. Previous 0.5-10 keV X-ray observations of Cen X-4 in quiescence identified two spectral components: soft thermal emission from the neutron star atmosphere and a hard power-law tail of unknown origin. We report here on a simultaneous observation of Cen X-4 with NuSTAR (3-79 keV) and XMM-Newton (0.3-10 keV) in 2013 January, providing the first sensitive hard X-ray spectrum of a quiescent neutron star transient. The 0.3-79 keV luminosity was 1.1×10{sup 33} D{sub kpc}{sup 2} erg s{sup –1}, with ≅60% in the thermalmore » component. We clearly detect a cutoff of the hard spectral tail above 10 keV, the first time such a feature has been detected in this source class. We show that thermal Comptonization and synchrotron shock origins for the hard X-ray emission are ruled out on physical grounds. However, the hard X-ray spectrum is well fit by a thermal bremsstrahlung model with kT{sub e} = 18 keV, which can be understood as arising either in a hot layer above the neutron star atmosphere or in a radiatively inefficient accretion flow. The power-law cutoff energy may be set by the degree of Compton cooling of the bremsstrahlung electrons by thermal seed photons from the neutron star surface. Lower thermal luminosities should lead to higher (possibly undetectable) cutoff energies. We compare Cen X-4's behavior with PSR J1023+0038, IGR J18245–2452, and XSS J12270–4859, which have shown transitions between LMXB and radio pulsar modes at a similar X-ray luminosity.« less

  6. A study on friability, hardness and fiber content analysis of fiber enriched milk tablet

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suzihaque, M. U. H.; Irfan, M. H.; Ibrahim, U. K.

    2017-06-01

    This study was performed to analyze the friability, hardness and fiber content of fiber enriched milk tablet derived from five different local fiber sources such as carrot, spinach, dragon fruit, mango and watermelon. Cow milk was mixed to complement with the tablet as a protein source. The powder were spray dried at 100°C, 120°C and 140°C and freeze dried at -60°C. The mixture of fruits and milk were made into equal ratio with the addition of 15 maltodextrin as a carrier. Tablets formed were used for friability and hardness test while dried powder were used for fiber content analysis. Dragon fruit tablet dried at 140°C have the highest friability with 11. 42 of weight loss. The second highest friability was spinach tablet dried at 100°C and 120°C drying temp erature with 9.30 and 9.28 respectively. The lowest friability was exhibited by carrot, mango and watermelon tablet at 100°C and dragon fruit at 120°C while carrot and spinach at 140°C. In contras t, none of the freeze dried tablets showed any weight loss hence they are not friable. For hardness test, all of the freeze dried showed to have higher tensile strength than spray dried, where carrot showed to be the highest at 2.27 Newton and the lowest were spray dried mango at 0.16 Newton. In fiber content analysis, freeze dried mango have the highest fiber content followed by freeze dried carrot and 140°C s pray dried carrot. It can be concluded that the higher the spray dry temperature, the more friable is the tablet. While, high friability leads to lower hardness of tablets. In terms of fiber content, the higher the spray dry temperature, the lower the fiber content found.

  7. Hard X-ray imaging facility for space shuttle: A scientific and conceptual engineering study

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Peterson, L. E.; Hudson, H. S.; Hurford, G.; Schneible, D.

    1976-01-01

    A shuttle-accommodated instrument for imaging hard X-rays in the study of nonthermal particles and high temperature particles in various solar and cosmic phenomena was defined and its feasibility demonstrated. The imaging system configuration is described as well as the electronics, aspect systems, mechanical and thermal properties and the ground support equipment.

  8. Characterization of Radiation Hardened Bipolar Linear Devices for High Total Dose Missions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    McClure, Steven S.; Harris, Richard D.; Rax, Bernard G.; Thorbourn, Dennis O.

    2012-01-01

    Radiation hardened linear devices are characterized for performance in combined total dose and displacement damage environments for a mission scenario with a high radiation level. Performance at low and high dose rate for both biased and unbiased conditions is compared and the impact to hardness assurance methodology is discussed.

  9. Long-Term Variability of AGN at Hard X-Rays

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Soldi, S.; Beckmann, V.; Baumgartner W. H.; Ponti, G.; Shrader, C. R.; Lubinski, P.; Krimm, H. A.; Mattana, F.; Tueller, J.

    2013-01-01

    Variability at all observed wavelengths is a distinctive property of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Hard X-rays provide us with a view of the innermost regions of AGN, mostly unbiased by absorption along the line of sight. Characterizing the intrinsic hard X-ray variability of a large AGN sample and comparing it to the results obtained at lower X-ray energies can significantly contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the high-energy radiation. Methods. Swift/BAT provides us with the unique opportunity to follow, on time scales of days to years and with a regular sampling, the 14-195 keV emission of the largest AGN sample available up to date for this kind of investigation. As a continuation of an early work on the first 9 months of BAT data, we study the amplitude of the variations, and their dependence on sub-class and on energy, for a sample of 110 radio quiet and radio loud AGN selected from the BAT 58-month survey. About 80 of the AGN in the sample are found to exhibit significant variability on months to years time scales, radio loud sources being the most variable. The amplitude of the variations and their energy dependence are incompatible with variability being driven at hard X-rays by changes of the absorption column density. In general, the variations in the 14-24 and 35-100 keV bands are well correlated, suggesting a common origin of the variability across the BAT energy band. However, radio quiet AGN display on average 10 larger variations at 14-24 keV than at 35-100 keV and a softer-when-brighter behavior for most of the Seyfert galaxies with detectable spectral variability on month time scale. In addition, sources with harder spectra are found to be more variable than softer ones. These properties are generally consistent with a variable power law continuum, in flux and shape, pivoting at energies 50 keV, to which a constant reflection component is superposed. When the same time scales are considered, the timing properties of AGN at

  10. Systematic Development of Hard Real-Time Software: A Comparative Study of Three Methods

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1992-04-01

    AD-A252 784 NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL Monterey, California JUL 141992 SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT OF HARD REAL-TIME SOFTWARE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THREE... School Monterey, California 93943 92-18424 NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL Monterey, California REAR ADMIRAL R. W. WEST, JR. HARRISON SHULL Superintendent...Provost This report was prepared for and funded by the Naval Postgraduate School . This report was prepared by: / YUH-JENG LEE Assistant Professor of

  11. 1986 Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, 23rd, Providence, RI, July 21-23, 1986, Proceedings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ellis, Thomas D. (Editor)

    1986-01-01

    The present conference on the effects of nuclear and space radiation on electronic hardware gives attention to topics in the basic mechanisms of radiation effects, dosimetry and energy-dependent effects, electronic device radiation hardness assurance, SOI/SOS radiation effects, spacecraft charging and space radiation, IC radiation effects and hardening, single-event upset (SEU) phenomena and hardening, and EMP/SGEMP/IEMP phenomena. Specific treatments encompass the generation of interface states by ionizing radiation in very thin MOS oxides, the microdosimetry of meson energy deposited on 1-micron sites in Si, total dose radiation and engineering studies, plasma interactions with biased concentrator solar cells, the transient imprint memory effect in MOS memories, mechanisms leading to SEU, and the vaporization and breakdown of thin columns of water.

  12. Solar Hard X-ray Observations with NuSTAR

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marsh, Andrew; Smith, D. M.; Krucker, S.; Hudson, H. S.; Hurford, G. J.; White, S. M.; Mewaldt, R. A.; Harrison, F. A.; Grefenstette, B. W.; Stern, D.

    2012-05-01

    High-sensitivity imaging of coronal hard X-rays allows detection of freshly accelerated nonthermal electrons at the acceleration site. A few such observations have been made with Yohkoh and RHESSI, but a leap in sensitivity could help pin down the time, place, and manner of reconnection. Around the time of this meeting, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope ARray (NuSTAR), a NASA Small Explorer for high energy astrophysics that uses grazing-incidence optics to focus X-rays up to 80 keV, will be launched. Three weeks will be dedicated to solar observing during the baseline two-year mission. NuSTAR will be 200 times more sensitive than RHESSI in the hard X-ray band. This will allow the following new observations, among others: 1) Extrapolation of the micro/nanoflare distribution by two orders of magnitude down in flux; 2) Search for hard X-rays from network nanoflares (soft X-ray bright points) and evaluation of their role in coronal heating; 3) Discovery of hard X-ray bremsstrahlung from the electron beams driving type III radio bursts, and measurement of their electron spectrum; 4) Hard X-ray studies of polar soft X-ray jets and impulsive solar energetic particle events at the edge of coronal holes; 5) Study of coronal bremsstrahlung from particles accelerated by coronal mass ejections as they are first launched; 6) Study of particles at the coronal reconnection site when flare footpoints and loops are occulted; 7) Search for weak high-temperature coronal plasmas in active regions that are not flaring; and 8) Search for hypothetical axion particles created in the solar core via the hard X-ray signal from their conversion to X-rays in the coronal magnetic field. NuSTAR will also serve as a pathfinder for a future dedicated space mission with enhanced capabilities, such as a satellite version of the FOXSI sounding rocket.

  13. Thin-film-based scintillators for hard x-ray microimaging detectors: the ScinTAX Project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rack, A.; Cecilia, A.; Douissard, P.-A.; Dupré, K.; Wesemann, V.; Baumbach, T.; Couchaud, M.; Rochet, X.; Riesemeier, H.; Radtke, M.; Martin, T.

    2014-09-01

    The project ScinTAX developed novel thin scintillating films for the application in high performance X-ray imaging and subsequent introduced new X-ray detectors to the market. To achieve this aim lutetium orthosilicate (LSO) scintillators doped with different activators were grown successfully by liquid phase epitaxy. The high density of LSO (7.4 g/cm3), the effective atomic number (65.2) and the high light yield make this scintillator highly applicable for indirect X-ray detection in which the ionizing radiation is converted into visible light and then registered by a digital detector. A modular indirect detection system has been developed to fully exploit the potential of this thin film scintillator for radiographic and tomographic imaging. The system is compatible for high-resolution imaging with moderate dose as well as adaptable to intense high-dose applications where radiation hard microimaging detectors are required. This proceedings article shall review the achieved performances and technical details on this high-resolution detector system which is now available. A selected example application demonstrates the great potential of the optimized detector system for hard X-ray microimaging, i.e. either to improve image contrast due to the availability of efficient thin crystal films or to reduce the dose to the sample.

  14. Study on micro-hardness of electroless composite plating of Ni-P with SiC Nano-particles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sun, Yong; Zhang, Zhaoguo; Li, Jiamin; Xu, Donghui

    2007-07-01

    In this paper, a Ni-P electroless composite coating containing nano SiC particles was produced. The wearability of the composite coating was studied. Temperature, PH of the plating liquid and the concentration of SiC nanoparticles in the plating liquid were taken as parameters and the experiment with three factors and five levels was designed through the method of quadratic orthogonal rotation combination. SiC nanoparticles were dispersed by ultrasonic. The influence of the testing parameters on the hardness of the coating was studied intensively. The optimal parameters were obtained when the temperature is 86+/-1°C, PH is 6+/-0.5 and the concentration of SiC nanoparticles is 6g/L. The maximal hardness of the coating is over 1700HV after heat treatment.

  15. Radiation Tests of Single Photon Avalanche Diode for Space Applications

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Moscatelli, Francesco; Marisaldi, Martino; MacCagnani, Piera; Labanti, Claudio; Fuschino, Fabio; Prest, Michela; Berra, Alessandro; Bolognini, Davide; Ghioni, Massimo; Rech, Ivan; hide

    2013-01-01

    Single photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) have been recently studied as photodetectors for applications in space missions. In this presentation we report the results of radiation hardness test on large area SPAD (actual results refer to SPADs having 500 micron diameter). Dark counts rate as low as few kHz at -10 degC has been obtained for the 500 micron devices, before irradiation. We performed bulk damage and total dose radiation tests with protons and gamma-rays in order to evaluate their radiation hardness properties and their suitability for application in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space mission. With this aim SPAD devices have been irradiated using up to 20 krad total dose with gamma-rays and 5 krad with protons. The test performed show that large area SPADs are very sensitive to proton doses as low as 2×10(exp 8) (1 MeV eq) n/cm2 with a significant increase in dark counts rate (DCR) as well as in the manifestation of the "random telegraph signal" effect. Annealing studies at room temperature (RT) and at 80 degC have been carried out, showing a high decrease of DCR after 24-48 h at RT. Lower protons doses in the range 1-10×10(exp 7) (1 MeV eq) n/cm(exp 2) result in a lower increase of DCR suggesting that the large-area SPADs tested in this study are well suitable for application in low-inclination LEO, particularly useful for gamma-ray astrophysics.

  16. On the hardness of high carbon ferrous martensite

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mola, J.; Ren, M.

    2018-06-01

    Due to the presence of retained austenite in martensitic steels, especially steels with high carbon concentrations, it is difficult to estimate the hardness of martensite independent of the hardness of the coexisting austenite. In the present work, the hardness of ferrous martensite with carbon concentrations in the range 0.23-1.46 mass-% was estimated by the regression analysis of hardnesses for hardened martensitic-austenitic steels containing various martensite fractions. For a given carbon concentration, the hardness of martensitic-austenitic steels was found to increase exponentially with an increase in the fraction of the martensitic constituent. The hardness of the martensitic constituent was subsequently estimated by the exponential extrapolation of the hardness of phase mixtures to 100 vol.% martensite. For martensite containing 1.46 mass-% carbon, the hardness was estimated to be 1791 HV. This estimate of martensite hardness is significantly higher than the experimental hardness of 822 HV for a phase mixture of 68 vol.% martensite and 32 vol.% austenite. The hardness obtained by exponential extrapolation is also much higher than the hardness of 1104 HV based on the rule of mixtures. The underestimated hardness of high carbon martensite in the presence of austenite is due to the non-linear dependence of hardness on the martensite fraction. The latter is also a common observation in composite materials with a soft matrix and hard reinforcing particles.

  17. Effect Of Fluorine Doping On Radiation Hardness Of Graded Index Optical Fibers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wei, T.; Singh, M. P.; Miniscalco, W. J.; Onorato, P. I. K.; Wall, J. A.

    1987-01-01

    We report an experimental and theoretical investigation of the effects of doping and processing on precursor defects in graded index multimode fibers. Fabrication parameters that significantly influence radiation sensitivity have been identified. In particular, we examined the role of fluorine doping in defect formation and its relationship to radiation sensitivity. The experimental effort included fiber fabrication and radiation-induced loss measurements on graded index, Ge-doped core fibers. Fluorine was added to the core and/or the cladding of test fibers. Two critical parameters, barrier layer thickness and core dopants, have been identified and correlate with induced loss. In addition, the reproducibility of both fiber fabrication and measurement with respect to induced loss has been tested and found to be excellent. Induced loss was found to be proportional to Ge concentration in the core; however, the trend with fluorine doping was less clear. The experimental results are consistent with molecular dynamics simulations which indicate the types and numbers of structural defects in the glasses. The simulations revealed significant differences in defect types and concentrations among glass corn-positions that included pure silica, Ge-doped silica, and Ge/F-codoped silica. Fluorine codoping decreases the number of germanium-related defects but increases the number of defects associated with silicon.

  18. Effect of conventional and sugar free pediatric syrup formulations on primary tooth enamel hardness: An in vitro study.

    PubMed

    Mali, Gaurao Vasant; Dodamani, Arun Suresh; Karibasappa, Gundabaktha Nagappa; Kumar, Prashanth Vishwakarma; Jain, Vardhaman Mulchand

    2015-01-01

    To assess and compare the effect of conventional and sugar free pediatric syrup formulations on primary tooth enamel hardness over a period of 14 days. An in vitro study was done on 40 noncarious deciduous teeth. 10 teeth in each group were dipped in 4 pediatric medicinal syrups (1 sugarfree and 3 conventional) for 1 min thrice daily for 14 days and the enamel surface micro hardness was checked at baseline, 7 th day and 14 th day by Vickers hardness testing machine. The pH, titratable acidity and buffering capacity of the syrups were assessed. The pH of syrups were above critical pH for demineralization of the tooth but tiratable acidity and buffering capacity differed. ANOVA test indicated that the reduction in mean micro hardness was maximum in Group D (Conventional Analgesic syrup) and least in Group A (Sugarfree cough syrup) on 7 th and 14 th day. On intergroup comparison there was no difference (P > 0.05) in micro hardness between Group B (Conventional Cough syrup) and Group C (Conventional Antibiotic). However, highly significant (P < 0.01) difference between the either pair of Group B with Group D, and Group C with Group D on 14 th day. The percentage reduction in micro hardness on 14 th day was maximum for Group D (24.4 ± 2.2) and minimum for Group A (14.0 ± 1.3) which was statistically significant (P < 0.01). Sugar free pediatric medicines can be effective in reducing dental erosion and efforts should be made to incorporate sugar substitutes in formulation of pediatric medicines.

  19. Hard Photodisintegration of 3He

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Granados, Carlos

    2011-02-01

    Large angle photodisintegration of two nucleons from the 3He nucleus is studied within the framework of the hard rescattering model (HRM). In the HRM the incoming photon is absorbed by one nucleon's valence quark that then undergoes a hard rescattering reaction with a valence quark from the second nucleon producing two nucleons emerging at large transverse momentum . Parameter free cross sections for pp and pn break up channels are calculated through the input of experimental cross sections on pp and pn elastic scattering. The calculated cross section for pp breakup and its predicted energy dependency are in good agreement with recent experimental data. Predictions on spectator momentum distributions and helicity transfer are also presented.

  20. Magnetic hyperthermia with hard-magnetic nanoparticles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kashevsky, Bronislav E.; Kashevsky, Sergey B.; Korenkov, Victor S.; Istomin, Yuri P.; Terpinskaya, Tatyana I.; Ulashchik, Vladimir S.

    2015-04-01

    Recent clinical trials of magnetic hyperthermia have proved, and even hardened, the Ankinson-Brezovich restriction as upon magnetic field conditions applicable to any site of human body. Subject to this restriction, which is harshly violated in numerous laboratory and small animal studies, magnetic hyperthermia can relay on rather moderate heat source, so that optimization of the whole hyperthermia system remains, after all, the basic problem predetermining its clinical perspectives. We present short account of our complex (theoretical, laboratory and small animal) studies to demonstrate that such perspectives should be related with the hyperthermia system based on hard-magnetic (Stoner-Wohlfarth type) nanoparticles and strong low-frequency fields rather than with superparamagnetic (Brownian or Neél) nanoparticles and weak high-frequency fields. This conclusion is backed by an analytical evaluation of the maximum absorption rates possible under the field restriction in the ideal hard-magnetic (Stoner-Wohlarth) and the ideal superparamagnetic (single relaxation time) systems, by theoretical and experimental studies of the dynamic magnetic hysteresis in suspensions of movable hard-magnetic particles, by producing nanoparticles with adjusted coercivity and suspensions of such particles capable of effective energy absorption and intratumoral penetration, and finally, by successful treatment of a mice model tumor under field conditions acceptable for whole human body.

  1. STATISTICAL STUDY of HARD X-RAY SPECTRAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SOLAR FLARES

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Alaoui, M.; Krucker, S.; Saint-Hilaire, P.; Lin, R. P.

    2009-12-01

    We investigate the spectral characteristics of 75 solar flares at the hard X-ray peak time observed by RHESSI (Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) in the energy range 12-150keV. At energies above 40keV, the Hard X-ray emission is mostly produced by bremsstrahlung of suprathermal electrons as they interact with the ambient plasma in the chromosphere. The observed photon spectra therefore provide diagnostics of electron acceleration processes in Solar flares. We will present statistical results of spectral fitting using two models: a broken power law plus a thermal component which is a direct fit of the photon spectrum and a thick target model plus a thermal component which is a fit of the photon spectra with assumptions on the electrons emitting bremsstrahlung in the thick target approximation.

  2. Spaceflight Ka-Band High-Rate Radiation-Hard Modulator

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Jaso, Jeffery M.

    2011-01-01

    A document discusses the creation of a Ka-band modulator developed specifically for the NASA/GSFC Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). This flight design consists of a high-bandwidth, Quadriphase Shift Keying (QPSK) vector modulator with radiation-hardened, high-rate driver circuitry that receives I and Q channel data. The radiationhard design enables SDO fs Ka-band communications downlink system to transmit 130 Mbps (300 Msps after data encoding) of science instrument data to the ground system continuously throughout the mission fs minimum life of five years. The low error vector magnitude (EVM) of the modulator lowers the implementation loss of the transmitter in which it is used, thereby increasing the overall communication system link margin. The modulator comprises a component within the SDO transmitter, and meets the following specifications over a 0 to 40 C operational temperature range: QPSK/OQPSK modulator, 300-Msps symbol rate, 26.5-GHz center frequency, error vector magnitude less than or equal to 10 percent rms, and compliance with the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) spectral mask.

  3. Hard-Core Unemployment: A Selected, Annotated Bibliography.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Cameron, Colin, Comp.; Menon, Anila Bhatt, Comp.

    This annotated bibliography contains references to various films, articles, and books on the subject of hard-core unemployment, and is divided into the following sections: (1) The Sociology of the Hard-Core Milieu, (2) Training Programs, (3) Business and the Hard-Core, (4) Citations of Miscellaneous References on Hard-Core Unemployment, (5)…

  4. How to estimate hardness of crystals on a pocket calculator

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Šimůnek, Antonín

    2007-05-01

    A generalization of the semiempirical microscopic model of hardness is presented and applied to currently studied borides, carbides, and nitrides of heavy transition metals. The hardness of OsB, OsC, OsN, PtN, RuC, RuB2 , ReB2 , OsB2 , IrN2 , PtN2 , and OsN2 crystals in various structural phases is predicted. It is found that none of the transition metal crystals is superhard, i.e., with hardness greater than 40GPa . The presented method provides materials researchers with a practical tool in the search for new hard materials.

  5. Study on electroplating technology of diamond tools for machining hard and brittle materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cui, Ying; Chen, Jian Hua; Sun, Li Peng; Wang, Yue

    2016-10-01

    With the development of the high speed cutting, the ultra-precision machining and ultrasonic vibration technique in processing hard and brittle material , the requirement of cutting tools is becoming higher and higher. As electroplated diamond tools have distinct advantages, such as high adaptability, high durability, long service life and good dimensional stability, the cutting tools are effective and extensive used in grinding hard and brittle materials. In this paper, the coating structure of electroplating diamond tool is described. The electroplating process flow is presented, and the influence of pretreatment on the machining quality is analyzed. Through the experimental research and summary, the reasonable formula of the electrolyte, the electroplating technologic parameters and the suitable sanding method were determined. Meanwhile, the drilling experiment on glass-ceramic shows that the electroplating process can effectively improve the cutting performance of diamond tools. It has laid a good foundation for further improving the quality and efficiency of the machining of hard and brittle materials.

  6. Physics of Hard Sphere Experiment: Scattering, Rheology and Microscopy Study of Colloidal Particles

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cheng, Z.-D.; Zhu, J.; Phan, S.-E.; Russel, W. B.; Chaikin, P. M.; Meyer, W. V.

    2002-01-01

    The Physics of Hard Sphere Experiment has two incarnations: the first as a scattering and rheology experiment on STS-83 and STS-94 and the second as a microscopy experiment to be performed in the future on LMM on the space station. Here we describe some of the quantitative and qualitative results from previous flights on the dynamics of crystallization in microgravity and especially the observed interaction of growing crystallites in the coexistance regime. To clarify rheological measurements we also present ground based experiments on the low shear rate viscosity and diffusion coefficient of several hard sphere experiments at high volume fraction. We also show how these experiments will be performed with confocal microscopy and laser tweezers in our lab and as preparation for the phAse II experiments on LMM. One of the main aims of the microscopy study will be the control of colloidal samples using an array of applied fields with an eye toward colloidal architectures. Temperature gradients, electric field gradients, laser tweezers and a variety of switchable imposed surface patterns are used toward this control.

  7. Qualitative Assessment of Wear Resistance and Surface Hardness of Different Commercially Available Dental Porcelain: An in vitro Study.

    PubMed

    Singh, Abhishek; Nagpal, Abhishek; Pawah, Salil; Pathak, Chetan; Issar, Gaurav; Sharma, Pankaj

    2016-09-01

    In an attempt to minimize wear damage to the enamel of antagonist teeth, new low and medium fusing ceramic materials have been developed. Manufacturers usually claim that these ceramics are wear-friendly because of their lower hardness, lower concentrations of crystal phase, and smaller crystal sizes. This study aimed to quantitatively analyze the wear strength of various commercially available dental porcelain with tooth enamel as well as the surface hardness of these dental porcelain. The basic model was designed as a pin on plate arrangement. The tooth specimens were mounted on the stylus which was centered on the ceramic specimen in a wear testing machine. The dental ceramic specimen was centered in the metal die. A load of 40 N was applied at a rate of 80 cycles/minute for 15 minutes. In the current study, mean wear depth (Ra) value, volumetric loss, and surface hardness were obtained by standard quantification method and were statistically evaluated. Ceramco-3 was reported to be most abrasive for enamel; however, Duceram love significantly more abraded itself than the other two, Ceramco-3 and Vita Alpha, and generated the lowest loss of enamel. Also, same abrasive type of wear was revealed for all three variants of tested ceramics. Ceramco-3 was the most abrasive for enamel, while surface roughness (mean wear depth) of Duceram love was maximum and for Ceramco-3 it was minimum. The value of surface roughness for Vita Alpha was in between Duceram love and Ceramco-3. Nonetheless, the mean surface hardness of Duceram love was found to be least and maximum for Vita Alpha. In situations of dental wear and wasting tooth disease (Attrition/Abrasion), Duceram can be applied in lieu of Ceramco-3 so as to prevent worsening of existing dentition. However, in younger patients Vita Alpha would offer maximum durability due to its greater surface hardness.

  8. Energetic electrons, hard x-ray emission and MHD activity studies in the IR-T1 tokamak.

    PubMed

    Agah, K Mikaili; Ghoranneviss, M; Elahi, A Salar

    2015-01-01

    Determinations of plasma parameters as well as the Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) activity, energetic electrons energy and energy confinement time are essential for future fusion reactors experiments and optimized operation. Also some of the plasma information can be deduced from these parameters, such as plasma equilibrium, stability, and MHD instabilities. In this contribution we investigated the relation between energetic electrons, hard x-ray emission and MHD activity in the IR-T1 Tokamak. For this purpose we used the magnetic diagnostics and a hard x-ray spectroscopy in IR-T1 tokamak. A hard x-ray emission is produced by collision of the runaway electrons with the plasma particles or limiters. The mean energy was calculated from the slope of the energy spectrum of hard x-ray photons.

  9. Hard and soft X-ray microscopy and tomography in catalysis: bridging the different time and length scales.

    PubMed

    Grunwaldt, Jan-Dierk; Schroer, Christian G

    2010-12-01

    X-ray microscopic techniques are excellent and presently emerging techniques for chemical imaging of heterogeneous catalysts. Spatially resolved studies in heterogeneous catalysis require the understanding of both the macro and the microstructure, since both have decisive influence on the final performance of the industrially applied catalysts. A particularly important aspect is the study of the catalysts during their preparation, activation and under operating conditions, where X-rays have an inherent advantage due to their good penetration length especially in the hard X-ray regime. Whereas reaction cell design for hard X-rays is straightforward, recently smart in situ cells have also been reported for the soft X-ray regime. In the first part of the tutorial review, the constraints from a catalysis view are outlined, then the scanning and full-field X-ray microscopy as well as coherent X-ray diffraction imaging techniques are described together with the challenging design of suitable environmental cells. Selected examples demonstrate the application of X-ray microscopy and tomography to monitor structural gradients in catalytic reactors and catalyst preparation with micrometre resolution but also the possibility to follow structural changes in the sub-100 nm regime. Moreover, the potential of the new synchrotron radiation sources with higher brilliance, recent milestones in focusing of hard X-rays as well as spatiotemporal studies are highlighted. The tutorial review concludes with a view on future developments in the field of X-ray microscopy that will have strong impact on the understanding of catalysts in the future and should be combined with in situ electron microscopic studies on the nanoscale and other spectroscopic studies like microRaman, microIR and microUV-vis on the macroscale.

  10. Human Performance on Hard Non-Euclidean Graph Problems: Vertex Cover

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Carruthers, Sarah; Masson, Michael E. J.; Stege, Ulrike

    2012-01-01

    Recent studies on a computationally hard visual optimization problem, the Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP), indicate that humans are capable of finding close to optimal solutions in near-linear time. The current study is a preliminary step in investigating human performance on another hard problem, the Minimum Vertex Cover Problem, in which…

  11. Laser speckle technology in stomatology. diagnostics of stresses and strains of hard biotissues and orthodontic and orthopedic structures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Denisova, Yu. L.; Bazylev, N. B.; Rubnikovich, S. P.; Fomin, N. A.

    2013-07-01

    We have investigated the formation and dynamics of speckle biofi elds formed by hard biotissues of the oral cavity irradiated with low-intensity radiation. We present experimental methods for diagnosing the stressed-strained state of the maxillodental system and orthodontic and orthopedic structures based on speckle technologies and crosscorrelation analysis of speckle biofi elds.

  12. Short-term hot-hardness characteristics of five case hardened steels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Anderson, N. E.; Zaretsky, E. V.

    1975-01-01

    Short-term hot-hardness studies were performed with carburized and hardened AISI 8620, CBS 1000, CBS 1000M, CBS 600, and Vasco X-2 steels. Case and core hardness measurements were made at temperatures from 294 to 811 K (70 to 1000 F). The data were compared with data for high-speed tool steels and AISI 52100. The materials tested can be ranked as follows in order of decreasing hot-hardness retention: (1) Vasco X-2; equivalent to through-hardened tool steels up to 644 K (700 F) above which Vasco X-2 is inferior; (2) CBS 1000, (3) CBS 1000M; (4) CBS 6000; better hardness retention at elevated temperatures than through-hardened AISI 52100; and (5) AISI 8620. For the carburized steels, the change in hardness with temperature of the case and core are similar for a given material. The short-term hot hardness of these materials can be predicted with + or - 1 point Rockwell C.

  13. 1987 Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, Snowmass Village, CO, July 28-31, 1987, Proceedings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    1987-01-01

    Various papers on nuclear and space radiation effects are presented. The general topics addressed include: basic mechanisms of radiation effects, single-event phenomena, temperature and field effects, modeling and characterization of radiation effects, IC radiation effects and hardening, and EMP/SGEMP/IEMP phenomena. Also considered are: dosimetry/energy-dependent effects, sensors in and for radiation environments, spacecraft charging and space radiation effects, radiation effects and devices, radiation effects on isolation technologies, and hardness assurance and testing techniques.

  14. Swift heavy ion-induced radiation damage in isotropic graphite studied by micro-indentation and in-situ electrical resistivity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hubert, Christian; Voss, Kay Obbe; Bender, Markus; Kupka, Katharina; Romanenko, Anton; Severin, Daniel; Trautmann, Christina; Tomut, Marilena

    2015-12-01

    Due to its excellent thermo-physical properties and radiation hardness, isotropic graphite is presently the most promising material candidate for new high-power ion accelerators which will provide highest beam intensities and energies. Under these extreme conditions, specific accelerator components including production targets and beam protection modules are facing the risk of degradation due to radiation damage. Ion-beam induced damage effects were tested by irradiating polycrystalline, isotropic graphite samples at the UNILAC (GSI, Darmstadt) with 4.8 MeV per nucleon 132Xe, 150Sm, 197Au, and 238U ions applying fluences between 1 × 1011 and 1 × 1014 ions/cm2. The overall damage accumulation and its dependence on energy loss of the ions were studied by in situ 4-point resistivity measurements. With increasing fluence, the electric resistivity increases due to disordering of the graphitic structure. Irradiated samples were also analyzed off-line by means of micro-indentation in order to characterize mesoscale effects such as beam-induced hardening and stress fields within the specimen. With increasing fluence and energy loss, hardening becomes more pronounced.

  15. 30 CFR 56.15002 - Hard hats.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Hard hats. 56.15002 Section 56.15002 Mineral... HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Personal Protection § 56.15002 Hard hats. All persons shall wear suitable hard hats when in or around a mine or plant where falling objects...

  16. 30 CFR 56.15002 - Hard hats.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Hard hats. 56.15002 Section 56.15002 Mineral... HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Personal Protection § 56.15002 Hard hats. All persons shall wear suitable hard hats when in or around a mine or plant where falling objects...

  17. 30 CFR 57.15002 - Hard hats.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Hard hats. 57.15002 Section 57.15002 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE SAFETY AND... Underground § 57.15002 Hard hats. All persons shall wear suitable hard hats when in or around a mine or plant...

  18. 30 CFR 57.15002 - Hard hats.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Hard hats. 57.15002 Section 57.15002 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE SAFETY AND... Underground § 57.15002 Hard hats. All persons shall wear suitable hard hats when in or around a mine or plant...

  19. 30 CFR 56.15002 - Hard hats.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Hard hats. 56.15002 Section 56.15002 Mineral... HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Personal Protection § 56.15002 Hard hats. All persons shall wear suitable hard hats when in or around a mine or plant where falling objects...

  20. 30 CFR 56.15002 - Hard hats.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Hard hats. 56.15002 Section 56.15002 Mineral... HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Personal Protection § 56.15002 Hard hats. All persons shall wear suitable hard hats when in or around a mine or plant where falling objects...

  1. 30 CFR 56.15002 - Hard hats.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Hard hats. 56.15002 Section 56.15002 Mineral... HEALTH SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS-SURFACE METAL AND NONMETAL MINES Personal Protection § 56.15002 Hard hats. All persons shall wear suitable hard hats when in or around a mine or plant where falling objects...

  2. 30 CFR 57.15002 - Hard hats.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Hard hats. 57.15002 Section 57.15002 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE SAFETY AND... Underground § 57.15002 Hard hats. All persons shall wear suitable hard hats when in or around a mine or plant...

  3. 30 CFR 57.15002 - Hard hats.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Hard hats. 57.15002 Section 57.15002 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE SAFETY AND... Underground § 57.15002 Hard hats. All persons shall wear suitable hard hats when in or around a mine or plant...

  4. 30 CFR 57.15002 - Hard hats.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-07-01

    ... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Hard hats. 57.15002 Section 57.15002 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE SAFETY AND... Underground § 57.15002 Hard hats. All persons shall wear suitable hard hats when in or around a mine or plant...

  5. Solving the Mystery of the Short-Hard Gamma-Ray Bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fox, Derek

    2004-07-01

    Seven years after the afterglow detections that revolutionized studies of the long-soft gamma-ray bursts, not even one afterglow of a short-hard GRB has been seen, and the nature of these events has become one of the most important problems in GRB research. The forthcoming Swift satellite will report few-arcsecond localizations for short-hard bursts in minutes, however, enabling prompt, deep optical afterglow searches for the first time. Discovery and observation of the first short-hard optical afterglows will answer most of the critical questions about these events: What are their distances and energies? Do they occur in distant galaxies, and if so, in which regions of those galaxies? Are they the result of collimated or quasi-spherical explosions? In combination with an extensive rapid-response ground-based campaign, we propose to make the critical high-sensitivity HST TOO observations that will allow us to answer these questions. If theorists are correct in attributing the short-hard bursts to binary neutron star coalescence events, then the short-hard bursts are signposts to the primary targeted source population for ground-based gravitational-wave detectors, and short-hard burst studies will have a vital role to play in guiding their observations.

  6. Frequency-independent radiation modes of interior sound radiation: An analytical study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hesse, C.; Vivar Perez, J. M.; Sinapius, M.

    2017-03-01

    Global active control methods of sound radiation into acoustic cavities necessitate the formulation of the interior sound field in terms of the surrounding structural velocity. This paper proposes an efficient approach to do this by presenting an analytical method to describe the radiation modes of interior sound radiation. The method requires no knowledge of the structural modal properties, which are often difficult to obtain in control applications. The procedure is exemplified for two generic systems of fluid-structure interaction, namely a rectangular plate coupled to a cuboid cavity and a hollow cylinder with the fluid in its enclosed cavity. The radiation modes are described as a subset of the acoustic eigenvectors on the structural-acoustic interface. For the two studied systems, they are therefore independent of frequency.

  7. Hardness of enamel exposed to Coca-Cola and artificial saliva.

    PubMed

    Devlin, H; Bassiouny, M A; Boston, D

    2006-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of change in indentation hardness of enamel in permanent teeth exposed to Coca-Cola. In a further experiment, the ability of a commercially available artificial saliva to remineralize enamel treated with Coca-Cola was tested. Ten enamel specimens were randomly chosen to be treated with Coca-Cola (experimental groups) and seven with water (control group). The fluids were applied for 1, 2, 3 h and overnight (15 h), washed off with a few drops of water and the moist enamel indentation hardness tested after each interval. With Coca-Cola treatment, the mean enamel hardness was 92.6% (s.d. = 7.9) of the original baseline hardness after 1 h, 93.25% (s.d. = 10.15) after 2 h, 85.7% (s.d. = 12.03) after 3 h and 80.3% after 15 h. The mean indentation hardness of control specimens treated with water was 108.7% (s.d. = 16.09) of the original hardness after 1 h, 99.09% (s.d. = 18.98) after 2 h, 98.97% (s.d. =11.24) after 3 h and 98.42% (s.d. = 22.78) after 15 h. In a separate experiment, the hardness of 9 enamel specimens was tested, as previously described, before and after treatment with Coca-Cola overnight and again after application of artificial saliva for 3 min. Coca-Cola reduced the mean indentation hardness of enamel in the teeth, but the hardness was partially restored with artificial saliva (Salivart) and increased by 18% from the demineralized enamel hardness.

  8. Warren G. Harding and the Press.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Whitaker, W. Richard

    There are many parallels between the Richard M. Nixon administration and Warren G. Harding's term: both Republicans, both touched by scandal, and both having a unique relationship with the press. But in Harding's case the relationship was a positive one. One of Harding's first official acts as president was to restore the regular White House news…

  9. Radiation hard programmable delay line for LHCb calorimeter upgrade

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mauricio, J.; Gascón, D.; Vilasís, X.; Picatoste, E.; Machefert, F.; Lefrancois, J.; Duarte, O.; Beigbeder, C.

    2014-01-01

    This paper describes the implementation of a SPI-programmable clock delay chip based on a Delay Locked Loop (DLL) in order to shift the phase of the LHC clock (25 ns) in steps of 1ns, with less than 5 ps jitter and 23 ps of DNL. The delay lines will be integrated into ICECAL, the LHCb calorimeter front-end analog signal processing ASIC in the near future. The stringent noise requirements on the ASIC imply minimizing the noise contribution of digital components. This is accomplished by implementing the DLL in differential mode. To achieve the required radiation tolerance several techniques are applied: double guard rings between PMOS and NMOS transistors as well as glitch suppressors and TMR Registers. This 5.7 mm2 chip has been implemented in CMOS 0.35 μm technology.

  10. Military Handbook: Management and Design Guidance Electromagnetic Radiation Hardness for Air Launched Ordnance Systems

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1981-01-15

    system is attacted to the delivery aircraft until it Impacto a target, it is exposed to electromagnetic radiation from emitters aboard the delivery...homogeneous, isotropic, ambient medium may be a lossy dielectric. Antenna computations include cur- rent distribution, input impedance, radiation...permissible ambient interference level in the system, and when determining the expected signal-to-inter- ference ratio of the signal transmission circuits

  11. Optical Studies of 15 Hard X-Ray Selected Cataclysmic Binaries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Halpern, Jules P.; Thorstensen, John R.; Cho, Patricia; Collver, Gabriel; Motsoaledi, Mokhine; Breytenbach, Hannes; Buckley, David A. H.; Woudt, Patrick A.

    2018-06-01

    We conducted time-resolved optical spectroscopy and/or time-series photometry of 15 cataclysmic binaries that were discovered in hard X-ray surveys by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope and the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, with the goal of measuring their orbital periods and searching for spin periods. Four of the objects in this study are new optical identifications: Swift J0535.2+2830, Swift J2006.4+3645, IGR J21095+4322, and Swift J2116.5+5336. Coherent pulsations are detected from three objects for the first time, Swift J0535.2+2830 (1523 s), 2PBC J1911.4+1412 (747 s), and 1SWXRT J230642.7+550817 (464 s), indicating that they are intermediate polars (IPs). We find two new eclipsing systems in time-series photometry: 2PBC J0658.0‑1746, a polar with a period of 2.38 hr, and Swift J2116.5+5336, a disk system that has an eclipse period of 6.56 hr. Exact or approximate spectroscopic orbital periods are found for six additional targets. Of note is the long 4.637-day orbit for Swift J0623.9‑0939, which is revealed by the radial velocities of the photospheric absorption lines of the secondary star. We also discover a 12.76 hr orbital period for RX J2015.6+3711, which confirms that the previously detected 2.00 hr X-ray period from this star is the spin period of an IP, as inferred by Coti Zelati et al. These results support the conclusion that hard X-ray selection favors magnetic CVs, with IPs outnumbering polars.

  12. Solar Hard X-ray Observations with NuSTAR

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smith, David M.; Krucker, S.; Hudson, H. S.; Hurford, G. J.; White, S. M.; Mewaldt, R. A.; Stern, D.; Grefenstette, B. W.; Harrison, F. A.

    2011-05-01

    High-sensitivity imaging of coronal hard X-rays allows detection of freshly accelerated nonthermal electrons at the acceleration site. A few such observations have been made with Yohkoh and RHESSI, but a leap in sensitivity could help pin down the time, place, and manner of reconnection. In 2012, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), a NASA Small Explorer for high energy astrophysics that uses grazing-incidence optics to focus X-rays up to 80 keV, will be launched. NuSTAR is capable of solar pointing, and three weeks will be dedicated to solar observing during the baseline two-year mission. NuSTAR will be 200 times more sensitive than RHESSI in the hard X-ray band. This will allow the following new observations, among others: 1) Extrapolation of the micro/nanoflare distribution by two orders of magnitude down in flux 2) Search for hard X-rays from network nanoflares (soft X-ray bright points) and evaluation of their role in coronal heating 3) Discovery of hard X-ray bremsstrahlung from the electron beams driving type III radio bursts, and measurement of their electron spectrum 4) Hard X-ray studies of polar soft X-ray jets and impulsive solar energetic particle events at the edge of coronal holes, and comparison of these events with observations of 3He and other particles in interplanetary space 5) Study of coronal bremsstrahlung from particles accelerated by coronal mass ejections as they are first launched 6) Study of particles at the coronal reconnection site when flare footpoints are occulted; and 7) Search for hypothetical axion particles created in the solar core via the hard X-ray signal from their conversion to X-rays in the coronal magnetic field. NuSTAR will also serve as a pathfinder for a future dedicated space mission with enhanced capabilities, such as a satellite version of the FOXSI sounding rocket.

  13. Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, 17th, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., July 15-18, 1980, Proceedings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mcgarrity, J. M.

    1980-01-01

    The conference covered the radiation effects on devices, circuits, and systems, physics and basic radiation effects in materials, dosimetry and radiation transport, spacecraft charging, and space radiation effects. Other subjects included single particle upset phenomena, systems-generated electromagnetic pulse phenomena, fabrication of hardened components, testing techniques, and hardness assurance.

  14. Peer Support for the Hardly Reached: A Systematic Review.

    PubMed

    Sokol, Rebeccah; Fisher, Edwin

    2016-07-01

    Health disparities are aggravated when prevention and care initiatives fail to reach those they are intended to help. Groups can be classified as hardly reached according to a variety of circumstances that fall into 3 domains: individual (e.g., psychological factors), demographic (e.g., socioeconomic status), and cultural-environmental (e.g., social network). Several reports have indicated that peer support is an effective means of reaching hardly reached individuals. However, no review has explored peer support effectiveness in relation to the circumstances associated with being hardly reached or across diverse health problems. To conduct a systematic review assessing the reach and effectiveness of peer support among hardly reached individuals, as well as peer support strategies used. Three systematic searches conducted in PubMed identified studies that evaluated peer support programs among hardly reached individuals. In aggregate, the searches covered articles published from 2000 to 2015. Eligible interventions provided ongoing support for complex health behaviors, including prioritization of hardly reached populations, assistance in applying behavior change plans, and social-emotional support directed toward disease management or quality of life. Studies were excluded if they addressed temporally isolated behaviors, were limited to protocol group classes, included peer support as the dependent variable, did not include statistical tests of significance, or incorporated comparison conditions that provided appreciable social support. We abstracted data regarding the primary health topic, categorizations of hardly reached groups, program reach, outcomes, and strategies employed. We conducted a 2-sample t test to determine whether reported strategies were related to reach. Forty-seven studies met our inclusion criteria, and these studies represented each of the 3 domains of circumstances assessed (individual, demographic, and cultural-environmental). Interventions

  15. Influence of Gene Expression on Hardness in Wheat

    PubMed Central

    Nirmal, Ravi C.; Wrigley, Colin

    2016-01-01

    Puroindoline (Pina and Pinb) genes control grain texture or hardness in wheat. Wild-type/soft alleles lead to softer grain while a mutation in one or both of these genes results in a hard grain. Variation in hardness in genotypes with identical Pin alleles (wild-type or mutant) is known but the molecular basis of this is not known. We now report the identification of wheat genotypes with hard grain texture and wild-type/soft Pin alleles indicating that hardness in wheat may be controlled by factors other than mutations in the coding region of the Pin genes. RNA-Seq analysis was used to determine the variation in the transcriptome of developing grains of thirty three diverse wheat genotypes including hard (mutant Pin) and soft (wild type) and those that were hard without having Pin mutations. This defined the role of pin gene expression and identified other candidate genes associated with hardness. Pina was not expressed in hard wheat with a mutation in the Pina gene. The ratio of Pina to Pinb expression was generally lower in the hard non mutant genotypes. Hardness may be associated with differences in Pin expression and other factors and is not simply associated with mutations in the PIN protein coding sequences. PMID:27741295

  16. Influence of Gene Expression on Hardness in Wheat.

    PubMed

    Nirmal, Ravi C; Furtado, Agnelo; Wrigley, Colin; Henry, Robert J

    2016-01-01

    Puroindoline (Pina and Pinb) genes control grain texture or hardness in wheat. Wild-type/soft alleles lead to softer grain while a mutation in one or both of these genes results in a hard grain. Variation in hardness in genotypes with identical Pin alleles (wild-type or mutant) is known but the molecular basis of this is not known. We now report the identification of wheat genotypes with hard grain texture and wild-type/soft Pin alleles indicating that hardness in wheat may be controlled by factors other than mutations in the coding region of the Pin genes. RNA-Seq analysis was used to determine the variation in the transcriptome of developing grains of thirty three diverse wheat genotypes including hard (mutant Pin) and soft (wild type) and those that were hard without having Pin mutations. This defined the role of pin gene expression and identified other candidate genes associated with hardness. Pina was not expressed in hard wheat with a mutation in the Pina gene. The ratio of Pina to Pinb expression was generally lower in the hard non mutant genotypes. Hardness may be associated with differences in Pin expression and other factors and is not simply associated with mutations in the PIN protein coding sequences.

  17. Association of ground hardness with injuries in rugby union

    PubMed Central

    Takemura, Masahiro; Schneiders, Anthony G; Bell, Melanie L; Milburn, Peter D

    2007-01-01

    Background Ground hardness is considered one of the possible risk factors associated with rugby injuries. Objectives To examine the contribution of ground hardness, rainfall and evapotranspiration to the incidence of injury, and to investigate seasonal injury bias throughout one full season of rugby union. Methods A prospective epidemiological study of rugby injuries was performed on 271 players from rugby union teams involved in the premier grade rugby competition in Dunedin, New Zealand. Ground hardness was measured before each match over 20 rounds with an industrial penetrometer, and local weather information was collected through the National Institute of Weather and Atmospheric Research and the Otago Regional Council. Poisson mixed models were used to describe injury incidence as a function of ground hardness throughout the season. Results The overall injury incidence during the season was 52 injuries per 1000 match player‐hours (95% CI 42 to 65). Although injury incidence decreased gradually by round with a rate ratio of 0.98 (95% CI 0.96 to 0.99) (p = 0.036), and the hardness of match grounds decreased significantly over the season (0.16 MPa/round, 95% CI 0.12 to 0.21, p<0.001), a non‐significant association was demonstrated between injury incidence and ground hardness. Injury incidence was not associated with a combination of ground hardness, rainfall and evapotranspiration on the day of the match or cumulative rainfall and evapotranspiration before each match. Conclusions Seasonal change in ground hardness and an early‐season bias of injuries was demonstrated. Although the contribution of ground hardness to injury incidence was not statistically significant, match round and injury incidence were highly correlated, confirming a seasonal bias, which may confound the relationship of injury to ground condition. PMID:17504786

  18. Space radiation studies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gregory, J. C.

    1986-01-01

    Instrument design and data analysis expertise was provided in support of several space radiation monitoring programs. The Verification of Flight Instrumentation (VFI) program at NASA included both the Active Radiation Detector (ARD) and the Nuclear Radiation Monitor (NRM). Design, partial fabrication, calibration and partial data analysis capability to the ARD program was provided, as well as detector head design and fabrication, software development and partial data analysis capability to the NRM program. The ARD flew on Spacelab-1 in 1983, performed flawlessly and was returned to MSFC after flight with unchanged calibration factors. The NRM, flown on Spacelab-2 in 1985, also performed without fault, not only recording the ambient gamma ray background on the Spacelab, but also recording radiation events of astrophysical significance.

  19. In situ/Operando studies of electrocatalysts using hard X-ray spectroscopy

    DOE PAGES

    Lassalle-Kaiser, Benedikt; Gul, Sheraz; Kern, Jan; ...

    2017-05-02

    This review focuses on the use of X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy techniques using hard X-rays to study electrocatalysts under in situ/operando conditions. The importance and the versatility of methods in the study of electrodes in contact with the electrolytes are described, when they are being cycled through the catalytic potentials during the progress of the oxygen-evolution, oxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution reactions. The catalytic oxygen evolution reaction is illustrated with examples using three oxides, Co, Ni and Mn, and two sulfides, Mo and Co. These are used as examples for the hydrogen evolution reaction. A bimetallic, bifunctional oxygen evolvingmore » and oxygen reducing Ni/Mn oxide is also presented. The various advantages and constraints in the use of these techniques and the future outlook are discussed.« less

  20. Influence of therapeutic radiation on polycaprolactone and polyurethane biomaterials.

    PubMed

    Cooke, Shelley L; Whittington, Abby R

    2016-03-01

    Biomedical polymers are exposed in vivo to ionizing radiation as implants, coatings and bystander materials. High levels of ionizing radiation (e.g. X-ray and gamma) have been reported to cause degradation and/or cross-linking in many polymers. This pilot study sought to determine causes of failure, by investigating how therapeutic radiation affects two different porous polymeric scaffolds: polycaprolactone (PCL) and polyurethane (PU). PCL is a bioresorbable material used in biomedical devices (e.g., dentistry, internal fixation devices and targeted drug delivery capsules). PU is commonly used in medical applications (e.g., coatings for pacemakers, tissue expanders, catheter tubing and wound dressings). PU was specifically fabricated to be a non-degradable polymer in this study. Porous scaffolds, fabricated using solvent casting and/or salt leeching techniques, were placed in phosphate buffered saline (PBS, pH=7.4) and exposed to typical cancer radiotherapy. A total dose of 50 Gy was broken into 25 doses over an eleven-week period. Collected PBS was tested for polymer leachants and degradation products using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS), results revealed no analyzable leachants from either polymer. Scaffolds were characterized using Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy, Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). No gross visual changes were observed in either polymer, however PU exhibited microstructure changes after irradiation. Increased number average molecular weight and weight average molecular weight in PCL and PU were observed after irradiation, indicating crosslinking. PU displayed an increase in intrinsic viscosity that further confirms increased crosslinking. PCL and PU showed decreases in crystallinity after irradiation, and PU crystallinity shifted from long-range-order hard segments to short-range-order hard segments after irradiation. Results

  1. Grain characterization and milling behaviour of near-isogenic lines differing by hardness.

    PubMed

    Greffeuille, V; Abecassis, J; Rousset, M; Oury, F-X; Faye, A; L'Helgouac'h, C Bar; Lullien-Pellerin, V

    2006-12-01

    Wheat grain hardness is a major factor affecting the milling behaviour and end-product quality although its exact structural and biochemical basis is still not understood. This study describes the development of new near-isogenic lines selected on hardness. Hard and soft sister lines were characterised by near infrared reflectance (NIR) and particle size index (PSI) hardness index, grain protein content, thousand kernel weight and vitreousness. The milling behaviour of these wheat lines was evaluated on an instrumented micromill which also measures the grinding energy and flour particle size distribution was investigated by laser diffraction. Endosperm mechanical properties were measured using compression tests. Results pointed out the respective effect of hardness and vitreousness on those characteristics. Hardness was shown to influence both the mode of fracture and the mechanical properties of the whole grain and endosperm. Thus, this parameter also acts on milling behaviour. On the other hand, vitreousness was found to mainly play a role on the energy required to break the grain. This study allows us to distinguish between consequences of hardness and vitreousness. Hardness is suggested to influence the adhesion forces between starch granules and protein matrix whereas vitreousness would rather be related to the endosperm microstructure.

  2. Synchrotron Radiation Workshop (SRW)

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Chubar, O.; Elleaume, P.

    2013-03-01

    "Synchrotron Radiation Workshop" (SRW) is a physical optics computer code for calculation of detailed characteristics of Synchrotron Radiation (SR) generated by relativistic electrons in magnetic fields of arbitrary configuration and for simulation of the radiation wavefront propagation through optical systems of beamlines. Frequency-domain near-field methods are used for the SR calculation, and the Fourier-optics based approach is generally used for the wavefront propagation simulation. The code enables both fully- and partially-coherent radiation propagation simulations in steady-state and in frequency-/time-dependent regimes. With these features, the code has already proven its utility for a large number of applications in infrared, UV, softmore » and hard X-ray spectral range, in such important areas as analysis of spectral performances of new synchrotron radiation sources, optimization of user beamlines, development of new optical elements, source and beamline diagnostics, and even complete simulation of SR based experiments. Besides the SR applications, the code can be efficiently used for various simulations involving conventional lasers and other sources. SRW versions interfaced to Python and to IGOR Pro (WaveMetrics), as well as cross-platform library with C API, are available.« less

  3. Hard alpha-keratin degradation inside a tissue under high flux X-ray synchrotron micro-beam: a multi-scale time-resolved study.

    PubMed

    Leccia, Emilie; Gourrier, Aurélien; Doucet, Jean; Briki, Fatma

    2010-04-01

    X-rays interact strongly with biological organisms. Synchrotron radiation sources deliver very intense X-ray photon fluxes within micro- or submicro cross-section beams, resulting in doses larger than the MGy. The relevance of synchrotron radiation analyses of biological materials is therefore questionable since such doses, million times higher than the ones used in radiotherapy, can cause huge damages in tissues, with regard to not only DNA, but also proteic and lipid organizations. Very few data concerning the effect of very high X-ray doses in tissues are available in the literature. We present here an analysis of the structural phenomena which occur when the model tissue of human hair is irradiated by a synchrotron X-ray micro-beam. The choice of hair is supported by its hierarchical and partially ordered keratin structure which can be analysed inside the tissue by X-ray diffraction. To assess the damages caused by hard X-ray micro-beams (1 microm(2) cross-section), short exposure time scattering SAXS/WAXS patterns have been recorded at beamline ID13 (ESRF) after various irradiation times. Various modifications of the scattering patterns are observed, they provide fine insight of the radiation damages at various hierarchical levels and also unexpectedly provide information about the stability of the various hierarchical structural levels. It appears that the molecular level, i.e. the alpha helices which are stabilized by hydrogen bonds and the alpha-helical coiled coils which are stabilized by hydrophobic interactions, is more sensitive to radiation than the supramolecular architecture of the keratin filament and the filament packing within the keratin associated proteins matrix, which is stabilized by disulphide bonds. (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Long-term hot-hardness characteristics of five through-hardened bearing steels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Anderson, N. E.

    1978-01-01

    Five vacuum-melted bearing steels tempered to various room temperature hardnesses: AISI 52100 and the tool steels AISI M-1, AISI M-50, Halmo, and WB-49 were studied. Hardness measurements were taken on AISI 52100 at room temperature and at elevated temperatures after soaking it at temperatures to 478 K (400 F) for as long as 1000 hours. Hardness measurements were also taken on the tool steels after soaking them at temperatures to 700 K (800 F) for as long at 1000 hours. None of the tool steel tempered during soaking and AISI 52100 did not temper when soaked at 366 K (200 F) for 1000 hours. However, AISI 52100 that was initially hardened to room temperature hardness of 62.5 or 64.5 lost hardness during the first 500 hours of the 1000-hour soak tests at temperatures greater than 394 K (250 F), but it maintained its hardness during the final 500 hours of soaking. Similarly, AISI 52100 initially hardened to room temperature hardness of 60.5 lost hardness during the first 500 hours of the 1000-hour soaking at temperatures greater than 422 K (300 F), but it maintained its hardness during the final 500 hours of soaking.

  5. Temporal correlations between impulsive ultraviolet and hard X-ray bursts in solar flares observed with high time resolution

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Cheng, Chung-Chieh; Vanderveen, K.; Orwig, L. E.; Tandberg-Hanssen, E.

    1988-01-01

    The impulsive phase of solar flares has been simultaneously observed in the ultraviolet O V line, the UV continuum, and hard X-rays with a time resolution of 0.128 s by the SMM satellite. A close time correspondence between the three impulsive components is found, with the best correlation being at the peak of the impulsive phase. Individual bursts or fast features in the O V and the UV continuum are shown to lag behind the corresponding hard X-ray features. None of the considered energy transport mechanisms (thermal conduction, a nonthermal electron beam, electron hole boring, UV radiation, and Alfven waves) are able to consistently account for the observed temporal correlations.

  6. Kinetic and radiative power from optically thin accretion flows

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sądowski, Aleksander; Gaspari, Massimo

    2017-06-01

    We perform a set of general relativistic, radiative, magneto-hydrodynamical simulations (GR-RMHD) to study the transition from radiatively inefficient to efficient state of accretion on a non-rotating black hole. We study ion to electron temperature ratios ranging from TI/Te = 10 to 100, and simulate flows corresponding to accretion rates as low as 10^{-6}\\dot{M}_Edd, and as high as 10^{-2}\\dot{M}_Edd. We have found that the radiative output of accretion flows increases with accretion rate, and that the transition occurs earlier for hotter electrons (lower TI/Te ratio). At the same time, the mechanical efficiency hardly changes and accounts to ≈3 per cent of the accreted rest mass energy flux, even at the highest simulated accretion rates. This is particularly important for the mechanical active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback regulating massive galaxies, groups and clusters. Comparison with recent observations of radiative and mechanical AGN luminosities suggests that the ion to electron temperature ratio in the inner, collisionless accretion flow should fall within 10 < TI/Te < 30, I.e. the electron temperature should be several percent of the ion temperature.

  7. Characterization and modeling of radiation effects NASA/MSFC semiconductor devices

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kerns, D. V., Jr.; Cook, K. B., Jr.

    1978-01-01

    A literature review of the near-Earth trapped radiation of the Van Allen Belts, the radiation within the solar system resulting from the solar wind, and the cosmic radiation levels of deep space showed that a reasonable simulation of space radiation, particularly the Earth orbital environment, could be simulated in the laboratory by proton bombardment. A 3 MeV proton accelerator was used to irradiate CMOS integrated circuits fabricated from three different processes. The drain current and output voltage for three inverters was recorded as the input voltage was swept from zero to ten volts after each successive irradiation. Device parameters were extracted. Possible damage mechanisms are discussed and recommendations for improved radiation hardness are suggested.

  8. Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, 21st, Colorado Springs, CO, July 23-25, 1984, Proceedings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Winokur, P. S. (Editor)

    1984-01-01

    Radiation effects on electronic systems and devices (particularly spacecraft systems) are examined with attention given to such topics as radiation transport, energy deposition, and charge collection; single-event phenomena; basic mechanisms of radiation effects in structures and materials; and EMP phenomena. Also considered are radiation effects in integrated circuits, spacecraft charging and space radiation effects, hardness assurance for devices and systems, and SGEMP/IEMP phenomena.

  9. Energy spectrum of multi-radiation of X-rays in a low energy Mather-type plasma focus device

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Farzin, M. Aghamir; Reza, A. Behbahani

    2014-06-01

    The multi-radiation of X-rays was investigated with special attention to their energy spectrum in a Mather-type plasma focus device (operated with argon gas). The analysis is based on the effect of anomalous resistances. To study the energy spectrum, a four-channel diode X-ray spectrometer was used along with a special set of filters. The filters were suitable for detection of medium range X-rays as well as hard X-rays with energy exceeding 30 keV. The results indicate that the anomalous resistivity effect during the post pinch phase may cause multi-radiation of X-rays with a total duration of 300 ± 50 ns. The significant contribution of Cu—Kα was due to the medium range X-rays, nonetheless, hard X-rays with energies greater than 15 keV also participate in the process. The total emitted X-ray energy in the forms of Cu—Kα and Cu—Kβ was around 0.14 ± 0.02 (J/Sr) and 0.04 ± 0.01 (J/Sr), respectively. The total energy of the emitted hard X-ray (> 15 keV) was around 0.12 ± 0.02 (J/Sr).

  10. Co-electrodeposition of hard Ni-W/diamond nanocomposite coatings

    PubMed Central

    Zhang, Xinyu; Qin, Jiaqian; Das, Malay Kumar; Hao, Ruru; Zhong, Hua; Thueploy, Adisak; Limpanart, Sarintorn; Boonyongmaneerat, Yuttanant; Ma, Mingzhen; Liu, Riping

    2016-01-01

    Electroplated hard chrome coating is widely used as a wear resistant coating to prolong the life of mechanical components. However, the electroplating process generates hexavalent chromium ion which is known carcinogen. Hence, there is a major effort throughout the electroplating industry to replace hard chrome coating. Composite coating has been identified as suitable materials for replacement of hard chrome coating, while deposition coating prepared using traditional co-deposition techniques have relatively low particles content, but the content of particles incorporated into a coating may fundamentally affect its properties. In the present work, Ni-W/diamond composite coatings were prepared by sediment co-electrodeposition from Ni-W plating bath, containing suspended diamond particles. This study indicates that higher diamond contents could be successfully co-deposited and uniformly distributed in the Ni-W alloy matrix. The maximum hardness of Ni-W/diamond composite coatings is found to be 2249 ± 23 Hv due to the highest diamond content of 64 wt.%. The hardness could be further enhanced up to 2647 ± 25 Hv with heat treatment at 873 K for 1 h in Ar gas, which is comparable to hard chrome coatings. Moreover, the addition of diamond particles could significantly enhance the wear resistance of the coatings. PMID:26924136

  11. Co-electrodeposition of hard Ni-W/diamond nanocomposite coatings.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Xinyu; Qin, Jiaqian; Das, Malay Kumar; Hao, Ruru; Zhong, Hua; Thueploy, Adisak; Limpanart, Sarintorn; Boonyongmaneerat, Yuttanant; Ma, Mingzhen; Liu, Riping

    2016-02-29

    Electroplated hard chrome coating is widely used as a wear resistant coating to prolong the life of mechanical components. However, the electroplating process generates hexavalent chromium ion which is known carcinogen. Hence, there is a major effort throughout the electroplating industry to replace hard chrome coating. Composite coating has been identified as suitable materials for replacement of hard chrome coating, while deposition coating prepared using traditional co-deposition techniques have relatively low particles content, but the content of particles incorporated into a coating may fundamentally affect its properties. In the present work, Ni-W/diamond composite coatings were prepared by sediment co-electrodeposition from Ni-W plating bath, containing suspended diamond particles. This study indicates that higher diamond contents could be successfully co-deposited and uniformly distributed in the Ni-W alloy matrix. The maximum hardness of Ni-W/diamond composite coatings is found to be 2249 ± 23 Hv due to the highest diamond content of 64 wt.%. The hardness could be further enhanced up to 2647 ± 25 Hv with heat treatment at 873 K for 1 h in Ar gas, which is comparable to hard chrome coatings. Moreover, the addition of diamond particles could significantly enhance the wear resistance of the coatings.

  12. Co-electrodeposition of hard Ni-W/diamond nanocomposite coatings

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Xinyu; Qin, Jiaqian; Das, Malay Kumar; Hao, Ruru; Zhong, Hua; Thueploy, Adisak; Limpanart, Sarintorn; Boonyongmaneerat, Yuttanant; Ma, Mingzhen; Liu, Riping

    2016-02-01

    Electroplated hard chrome coating is widely used as a wear resistant coating to prolong the life of mechanical components. However, the electroplating process generates hexavalent chromium ion which is known carcinogen. Hence, there is a major effort throughout the electroplating industry to replace hard chrome coating. Composite coating has been identified as suitable materials for replacement of hard chrome coating, while deposition coating prepared using traditional co-deposition techniques have relatively low particles content, but the content of particles incorporated into a coating may fundamentally affect its properties. In the present work, Ni-W/diamond composite coatings were prepared by sediment co-electrodeposition from Ni-W plating bath, containing suspended diamond particles. This study indicates that higher diamond contents could be successfully co-deposited and uniformly distributed in the Ni-W alloy matrix. The maximum hardness of Ni-W/diamond composite coatings is found to be 2249 ± 23 Hv due to the highest diamond content of 64 wt.%. The hardness could be further enhanced up to 2647 ± 25 Hv with heat treatment at 873 K for 1 h in Ar gas, which is comparable to hard chrome coatings. Moreover, the addition of diamond particles could significantly enhance the wear resistance of the coatings.

  13. Radiative corrections to elastic proton-electron scattering measured in coincidence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gakh, G. I.; Konchatnij, M. I.; Merenkov, N. P.; Tomasi-Gustafsson, E.

    2017-05-01

    The differential cross section for elastic scattering of protons on electrons at rest is calculated, taking into account the QED radiative corrections to the leptonic part of interaction. These model-independent radiative corrections arise due to emission of the virtual and real soft and hard photons as well as to vacuum polarization. We analyze an experimental setup when both the final particles are recorded in coincidence and their energies are determined within some uncertainties. The kinematics, the cross section, and the radiative corrections are calculated and numerical results are presented.

  14. Multimodal hard x-ray imaging with resolution approaching 10 nm for studies in material science

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yan, Hanfei; Bouet, Nathalie; Zhou, Juan; Huang, Xiaojing; Nazaretski, Evgeny; Xu, Weihe; Cocco, Alex P.; Chiu, Wilson K. S.; Brinkman, Kyle S.; Chu, Yong S.

    2018-03-01

    We report multimodal scanning hard x-ray imaging with spatial resolution approaching 10 nm and its application to contemporary studies in the field of material science. The high spatial resolution is achieved by focusing hard x-rays with two crossed multilayer Laue lenses and raster-scanning a sample with respect to the nanofocusing optics. Various techniques are used to characterize and verify the achieved focus size and imaging resolution. The multimodal imaging is realized by utilizing simultaneously absorption-, phase-, and fluorescence-contrast mechanisms. The combination of high spatial resolution and multimodal imaging enables a comprehensive study of a sample on a very fine length scale. In this work, the unique multimodal imaging capability was used to investigate a mixed ionic-electronic conducting ceramic-based membrane material employed in solid oxide fuel cells and membrane separations (compound of Ce0.8Gd0.2O2‑x and CoFe2O4) which revealed the existence of an emergent material phase and quantified the chemical complexity at the nanoscale.

  15. Theoretical model of hardness anisotropy in brittle materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Faming

    2012-07-01

    Anisotropy is prominent in the hardness test of single crystals. However, the anisotropic nature is not demonstrated quantitatively in previous hardness model. In this work, it is found that the electron transition energy per unit volume in the glide region and the orientation of glide region play critical roles in determining hardness value and hardness anisotropy for a single crystal material. We express the mathematical definition of hardness anisotropy through simple algebraic relations. The calculated Knoop hardnesses of the single crystals are in good agreement with observations. This theory, extended to polycrystalline materials by including hall-petch effect and quantum size effect, predicts that the polycrystalline diamond with low angle grain boundaries can be harder than single-crystal bulk diamond. Combining first-principles technique and the formula of hardness anisotropy the hardness of monoclinic M-carbon, orthorhombic W-carbon, Z-carbon, and T-carbon are predicted.

  16. Design of a diamond-crystal monochromator for the LCLS hard x-ray self-seeding project

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shu, D.; Shvyd'ko, Y.; Amann, J.; Emma, P.; Stoupin, S.; Quintana, J.

    2013-03-01

    As the result of collaborations between the Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory, and the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, we have designed and constructed a diamond crystal monochromator for the LCLS hard x-ray self-seeding project. The novel monochromator is ultrahigh-vacuum compatible to meet the LCLS linear accelerator vacuum environmental requirement. A special graphite holder was designed for strain-free mount of the 110-μm thin synthetic diamond crystal plate provided by Technological Institute for Super-hard and Novel Carbon Materials of Russia (TISNCM). An in-vacuum multi-axis precision positioning mechanism is designed to manipulate the thin-film diamond holder with resolutions and stabilities required by the hard x-ray self-seeding physics. Optical encoders, limit switches, and hardware stops are established in the mechanism to ensure system reliability and to meet the accelerator personal and equipment safety interlock requirements. Molybdenum shields are installed in the monochromator to protect the encoders and associated electronics from radiation damage. Mechanical specifications, designs, and preliminary test results of the diamond monochromator are presented in this paper.

  17. Predicted levels of human radiation tolerance extrapolated from clinical studies of radiation effects

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Lushbaugh, C. C.

    1972-01-01

    Results of clinical studies of radiation effects on man are used to evaluate space radiation hazards encountered during manned space travel. Considered are effects of photons as well as of mixed fission neutrons and gamma irradiations in establishing body radiosensitivity and tolerance levels. Upper and lower dose-response-time relations for acute radiation syndromes in patients indicate that man is more than sufficiently radioresistant to make the risks of an early radiation effect during one short space mission intangibly small in relation to the other nonradiation risks involved.

  18. Hard-hard coupling assisted anomalous magnetoresistance effect in amine-ended single-molecule magnetic junction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tang, Y.-H.; Lin, C.-J.; Chiang, K.-R.

    2017-06-01

    We proposed a single-molecule magnetic junction (SMMJ), composed of a dissociated amine-ended benzene sandwiched between two Co tip-like nanowires. To better simulate the break junction technique for real SMMJs, the first-principles calculation associated with the hard-hard coupling between a amine-linker and Co tip-atom is carried out for SMMJs with mechanical strain and under an external bias. We predict an anomalous magnetoresistance (MR) effect, including strain-induced sign reversal and bias-induced enhancement of the MR value, which is in sharp contrast to the normal MR effect in conventional magnetic tunnel junctions. The underlying mechanism is the interplay between four spin-polarized currents in parallel and anti-parallel magnetic configurations, originated from the pronounced spin-up transmission feature in the parallel case and spiky transmission peaks in other three spin-polarized channels. These intriguing findings may open a new arena in which magnetotransport and hard-hard coupling are closely coupled in SMMJs and can be dually controlled either via mechanical strain or by an external bias.

  19. A new, bright and hard aluminum surface produced by anodization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hou, Fengyan; Hu, Bo; Tay, See Leng; Wang, Yuxin; Xiong, Chao; Gao, Wei

    2017-07-01

    Anodized aluminum (Al) and Al alloys have a wide range of applications. However, certain anodized finishings have relatively low hardness, dull appearance and/or poor corrosion resistance, which limited their applications. In this research, Al was first electropolished in a phosphoric acid-based solution, then anodized in a sulfuric acid-based solution under controlled processing parameters. The anodized specimen was then sealed by two-step sealing method. A systematic study including microstructure, surface morphology, hardness and corrosion resistance of these anodized films has been conducted. Results show that the hardness of this new anodized film was increased by a factor of 10 compared with the pure Al metal. Salt spray corrosion testing also demonstrated the greatly improved corrosion resistance. Unlike the traditional hard anodized Al which presents a dull-colored surface, this newly developed anodized Al alloy possesses a very bright and shiny surface with good hardness and corrosion resistance.

  20. Electron trapping in rad-hard RCA IC's irradiated with electrons and gamma rays

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Danchenko, V.; Brashears, S. S.; Fang, P. H.

    1984-01-01

    Enhanced electron trapping has been observed in n-channels of rad-hard CMOS devices due to electron and gamma-ray irradiation. Room-temperature annealing results in a positive shift in the threshold potential far beyond its initial value. The slope of the annealing curve immediately after irradiation was found to depend strongly on the gate bias applied during irradiation. Some dependence was also observed on the electron dose rate. No clear dependence on energy and shielding over a delidded device was observed. The threshold shift is probably due to electron trapping at the radiation-induced interface states and tunneling of electrons through the oxide-silicon energy barrier to fill the radiation-induced electron traps. A mathematical analysis, based on two parallel annealing kinetics, hole annealing and electron trapping, is applied to the data for various electron dose rates.

  1. Evaluation of erbium:YAG and holmium:YAG laser radiation and dental hard tissue

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Attrill, David Cameron

    Lasers have become increasingly established in medicine as effective alternatives or adjuncts to conventional techniques. In dentistry, several clinical laser systems have been developed and marketed, but their applications have been limited to soft tissue surgery. To date, no laser has been capable of effectively cutting or modifying the highly mineralised dental tissues of enamel and dentine. The aim of this study was to evaluate two new laser systems for use in dentistry through a series of in vitro experiments. Both generic erbium and holmium lasers have theoretically superior operating characteristics over currently established lasers for applications with dental hard tissues. The two lasers investigated in this study were pulsed Er:YAG (lambda=2.94) a.m. and Cr-Tm-Ho:YAG (lambda=2.1mu.m). Both operated with a macropulse duration of approximately 200lambdas, at pulse repetition rates of 2-8Hz and mean pulse energies up to 230mJ. Radiation was focused using CaF[2] lenses (f=50-120mm). The lasers could be operated with or without the addition of a surface water film at the interaction site. Tissue removal efficiency was expressed as a latent heat of ablation (LHA, kJ/cm[3]) using a modification of the technique described by Charlton et al. (1990). The mean LHA's for the Er:YAG laser were 6.24kJ/cm[3] and 22.99kJ/cm[3] with dentine and enamel respectively without water, and 10.07kJ/cm[3] and 18.73kJ/cm[3] for dentine and enamel with water. The Cr-Tm-Ho:YAG laser was unable to effectively remove enamel at the fluences and pulse energies available; the mean LHA's for the Cr-Tm- Ho:YAG laser with dentine were 82.79kJ/cm3 and 57.57kJ/cm3 with and without water respectively. The Cr-Tm-Ho;YAG was approximately 8-9 times less efficient for tissue removal than the Er:YAG system. Er:YAG tissue removal with water was characterised by clean "surgical" cuts, comparable in histological appearance to those obtained using conventional instrumentation. Some thermal disruption

  2. Study on the Effect of Heavy metals toxicity according to changing Hardness concentration using D.magna

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chun Sang, H.

    2016-12-01

    n order to determine and prevent the number of ecological effects of heavy metals in the materials, we have to accurately measure the heavy metals present in the water-based protection ecosystems and may determine the effects to humans. Heavy metals occurred in the industrial effluent which is a state in which the monitor, based on the emission standards are made by the Ministry of Environment and managed and waste water contained Copper, Zinc, lead, etc. These heavy metals are able to express the toxic effects only when present in the free-ions in the aqueous condition, which appears differently affected by the degree to hardness change in accordance with the season, precipitation. Generally changing hardness concentration can not precisely evaluate toxic effects of heavy metals in the water system. Anderson announced a study on bioassay for heavy metals from industrial waste water using Daphnia magna(Anderson, 1944, 1948). Breukelman published study the resitivity difference for the mercury Chloride(HgCl2). Braudouin(1974) compared the zooplankton(Daphnia sp.) acute toxicity of the different heavy metals and confirmed the sensitivity. Shcherban(1979) presented for toxicity evaluation results for the heavy metal of the Daphnia magna according to different temperature conditions. In the United States Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) established a standard test method for water fleas, managed and supervised water ecosystems, and announced the adoption of a bioassay standard method. This study was performed to evaluate acute inhibition using the Daphnia magna for the biological effect of heavy metal ions in water-based toxicity in the hardness change. Evaluation methods were conducted in EPA Water Quality process test criteria. TU(Toxic Unit), NOEC (No Observable Effect Concentration), LOEC (Lowest Observable Effect Concentration), EC50 (Median Effective Concentration) was calculated by Toxcalc 5.0 Program. Keywords : D. magna, Hardness, Toxic Unit, Heavy metal

  3. Ground hardness and injury in community level Australian football.

    PubMed

    Twomey, Dara M; Finch, Caroline F; Lloyd, David G; Elliott, Bruce C; Doyle, Tim L A

    2012-07-01

    To describe the risk and details of injuries associated with ground hardness in community level Australian football (AF). Prospective injury surveillance with periodic objective ground hardness measurement. 112 ground hardness assessments were undertaken using a Clegg hammer at nine locations across 20 grounds, over the 2007 and 2008 AF seasons. Details of 352 injuries sustained by community level players on those grounds were prospectively collected as part of a large randomised controlled trial. The ground location of the injury was matched to the nearest corresponding ground hardness Clegg hammer readings, in gravities (g), which were classified from unacceptably low (<30 g) to unacceptably high hardness (>120 g). Clegg hammer readings ranged from 25 to 301 g. Clegg hammer hardness categories from low/normal to high/normal were associated with the majority of injuries, with only 3.7% (13 injuries) on unacceptably high hardness and 0.3% (1 injury) on the unacceptably low hardness locations. Relative to the preferred range of hardness, the risk of sustaining an injury on low/normal hardness locations was 1.31 (95%CI: 1.06-1.62) times higher and 1.82 (95%CI: 1.17-2.85) times higher on locations with unacceptably high hardness. The more severe injuries occurred with low/normal ground hardness. Despite the low number of injuries, the risk of sustaining an injury on low/normal and unacceptably hard grounds was significantly greater than on the preferred range of hardness. Notably, the severity of the injuries sustained on unacceptably hard grounds was lower than for other categories of hardness. Copyright © 2012 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Formation and dynamics of a plasma in superstrong laser fields including radiative and quantum electrodynamics effects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Artemenko, I. I.; Golovanov, A. A.; Kostyukov, I. Yu.; Kukushkina, T. M.; Lebedev, V. S.; Nerush, E. N.; Samsonov, A. S.; Serebryakov, D. A.

    2016-12-01

    Studies of phenomena accompanying the interaction of superstrong electromagnetic fields with matter, in particular, the generation of an electron-positron plasma, acceleration of electrons and ions, and the generation of hard electromagnetic radiation are briefly reviewed. The possibility of using thin films to initiate quantum electrodynamics cascades in the field of converging laser pulses is analyzed. A model is developed to describe the formation of a plasma cavity behind a laser pulse in the transversely inhomogeneous plasma and the generation of betatron radiation by electrons accelerated in this cavity. Features of the generation of gamma radiation, as well as the effect of quantum electrodynamics effects on the acceleration of ions, at the interaction of intense laser pulses with solid targets are studied.

  5. Does water hardness have preventive effect on cardiovascular disease?

    PubMed

    Momeni, Mitra; Gharedaghi, Zahra; Amin, Mohammad Mehadi; Poursafa, Parinaz; Mansourian, Marjan

    2014-02-01

    The aim of this study is to investigate the association of calcium and magnesium concentration of drinking water with cardiovascular disease (CVDs) in urban and rural areas of a city in Iran. This case-control study was conducted in 2012 in Khansar County in Isfahan province, Iran. We used the official data of the Provincial health center regarding the chemical analysis data of urban and rural areas including the hardness, calcium and magnesium content of drinking water. Data of patients hospitalized for CVD in the only specialty hospital of the city was gathered for the years of 2010 and 2011. In 2010, water calcium content above 72 mg/L was associated with reduced number of CVDs in 1000 population; whereas in 2011 this decrease in CVDs was observed for calcium levels of more than 75 mg/L. In 2010, the level of water Mg content ranged from 23 to 57 mg/L. By increasing Mg hardness level above 31 mg/L in 2010 and above 26 mg/L in 2011 were associated with decreased number of CVDs in 1000 people. decrease. Our study suggests favorable protective effects of water hardness, mainly water magnesium content, on CVDs. Water hardness, as well as calcium and magnesium content of drinking water may have a protective role against CVDs. Further experimental studies are necessary to determine the underlying mechanisms and longitudinal studies are required to study the clinical impacts of the current findings.

  6. Some comments on space flight and radiation limits

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Thornton, W E

    Setting limits on human exposure to space-related radiation involves two very different processes - the appropriate hard science, and certain emotional aspects and expectations of the groups involved. These groups include the general public and their elected politicians, the astronauts and flight crews, and NASA managers, each group with different expectations and concerns. Public and political views of human space flight and human radiation exposures are often poorly informed and are often based on emotional reactions to current events which may be distorted by {open_quotes}experts{close_quotes} and the media. Career astronauts` and cosmonauts` views are much more realistic about the risksmore » involved and there is a willingness on their part to accept increased necessary risks. However, there is a concern on their part about career-threatening dose limits, the potential for overexposures, and the health effects from all sources of radiation. There is special concern over radiation from medical studies. This last concern continues to raise the question of {open_quotes}voluntary{close_quotes} participation in studies involving radiation exposure. There is greatly diversity in spaceflight crews and their expectations; and {open_quotes}official{close_quotes} Astronaut Office positions will reflect strong management direction. NASA management has its own priorities and concerns and this fact will be reflected in their crucial influence on radiation limits. NASA, and especially spaceflight crews, might be best served by exposure limits which address all sources of spaceflight radiation and all potential effects from such exposure.« less

  7. Parameterisation of radiation effects on CVD diamond for proton irradiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hartjes, F.; Adam, W.; Bauer, C.; Berdermann, E.; Bergonzo, P.; Bogani, F.; Borchi, E.; Brambilla, A.; Bruzzi, M.; Colledani, C.; Conway, J.; Dabrowski, W.; Delpierre, P.; Deneuville, A.; Dulinski, W.; van Eijk, B.; Fallou, A.; Fizzotti, F.; Foulon, F.; Friedl, M.; Gan, K. K.; Gheeraert, E.; Grigoriev, E.; Hallewell, G.; Hall-Wilton, R.; Han, S.; Hrubec, J.; Husson, D.; Kagan, H.; Kania, D.; Kaplon, J.; Karl, C.; Kass, R.; Knöpfle, K. T.; Krammer, M.; Logiudice, A.; Lu, R.; Manfredi, P. F.; Manfredotti, C.; Marshall, R. D.; Meier, D.; Mishina, M.; Oh, A.; Pan, L. S.; Palmieri, V. G.; Pernicka, M.; Peitz, A.; Pirollo, S.; Polesello, P.; Pretzl, K.; Procario, M.; Re, V.; Riester, J. L.; Roe, S.; Roff, D.; Rudge, A.; Runolfsson, O.; Russ, J.; Schnetzer, S.; Sciortino, S.; Speziali, V.; Stelzer, H.; Stone, R.; Suter, B.; Tapper, R. J.; Tesarek, R.; Trawick, M.; Trischuk, W.; Vittone, E.; Wagner, A.; Walsh, A. M.; Wedenig, R.; Weilhammer, P.; White, C.; Zeuner, W.; Ziock, H.; Zoeller, M.; RD42 Collaboration

    1999-08-01

    The paper reviews measurements of the radiation hardness of CVD diamond for 24 GeV/c proton irradiation at fluences up to 5 ∗10 15 protons/cm 2. The results not only show radiation damage but also an annealing effect that is dominant at levels around 10 15 protons/cm 2. A model describing both effects is introduced, enabling a prediction of the distribution curve of the charge signal for other levels.

  8. Study of surface properties of ATLAS12 strip sensors and their radiation resistance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mikestikova, M.; Allport, P. P.; Baca, M.; Broughton, J.; Chisholm, A.; Nikolopoulos, K.; Pyatt, S.; Thomas, J. P.; Wilson, J. A.; Kierstead, J.; Kuczewski, P.; Lynn, D.; Hommels, L. B. A.; Ullan, M.; Bloch, I.; Gregor, I. M.; Tackmann, K.; Hauser, M.; Jakobs, K.; Kuehn, S.; Mahboubi, K.; Mori, R.; Parzefall, U.; Clark, A.; Ferrere, D.; Sevilla, S. Gonzalez; Ashby, J.; Blue, A.; Bates, R.; Buttar, C.; Doherty, F.; McMullen, T.; McEwan, F.; O'Shea, V.; Kamada, S.; Yamamura, K.; Ikegami, Y.; Nakamura, K.; Takubo, Y.; Unno, Y.; Takashima, R.; Chilingarov, A.; Fox, H.; Affolder, A. A.; Casse, G.; Dervan, P.; Forshaw, D.; Greenall, A.; Wonsak, S.; Wormald, M.; Cindro, V.; Kramberger, G.; Mandić, I.; Mikuž, M.; Gorelov, I.; Hoeferkamp, M.; Palni, P.; Seidel, S.; Taylor, A.; Toms, K.; Wang, R.; Hessey, N. P.; Valencic, N.; Hanagaki, K.; Dolezal, Z.; Kodys, P.; Bohm, J.; Stastny, J.; Bevan, A.; Beck, G.; Milke, C.; Domingo, M.; Fadeyev, V.; Galloway, Z.; Hibbard-Lubow, D.; Liang, Z.; Sadrozinski, H. F.-W.; Seiden, A.; To, K.; French, R.; Hodgson, P.; Marin-Reyes, H.; Parker, K.; Jinnouchi, O.; Hara, K.; Sato, K.; Hagihara, M.; Iwabuchi, S.; Bernabeu, J.; Civera, J. V.; Garcia, C.; Lacasta, C.; Marti i Garcia, S.; Rodriguez, D.; Santoyo, D.; Solaz, C.; Soldevila, U.

    2016-09-01

    A radiation hard n+-in-p micro-strip sensor for the use in the Upgrade of the strip tracker of the ATLAS experiment at the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) has been developed by the "ATLAS ITk Strip Sensor collaboration" and produced by Hamamatsu Photonics. Surface properties of different types of end-cap and barrel miniature sensors of the latest sensor design ATLAS12 have been studied before and after irradiation. The tested barrel sensors vary in "punch-through protection" (PTP) structure, and the end-cap sensors, whose stereo-strips differ in fan geometry, in strip pitch and in edge strip ganging options. Sensors have been irradiated with proton fluences of up to 1×1016 neq/cm2, by reactor neutron fluence of 1×1015 neq/cm2 and by gamma rays from 60Co up to dose of 1 MGy. The main goal of the present study is to characterize the leakage current for micro-discharge breakdown voltage estimation, the inter-strip resistance and capacitance, the bias resistance and the effectiveness of PTP structures as a function of bias voltage and fluence. It has been verified that the ATLAS12 sensors have high breakdown voltage well above the operational voltage which implies that different geometries of sensors do not influence their stability. The inter-strip isolation is a strong function of irradiation fluence, however the sensor performance is acceptable in the expected range for HL-LHC. New gated PTP structure exhibits low PTP onset voltage and sharp cut-off of effective resistance even at the highest tested radiation fluence. The inter-strip capacitance complies with the technical specification required before irradiation and no radiation-induced degradation was observed. A summary of ATLAS12 sensors tests is presented including a comparison of results from different irradiation sites. The measured characteristics are compared with the previous prototype of the sensor design, ATLAS07.

  9. Thermodynamic properties of a hard/soft-magnetic bilayer model

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Taaev, T. A., E-mail: taaev89@mail.ru; Khizriev, K. Sh.; Murtazaev, A. K.

    2016-05-15

    A model for describing the thermodynamic properties of a hard/soft-magnetic bilayer is proposed and thoroughly studied using the Monte Carlo method. Temperature dependences of the heat capacity, total magnetization, magnetizations of the hard- and soft-magnetic layers, total magnetic susceptibility, and susceptibilities of the hard- and soft-magnetic layers have been calculated by this method in the framework of the proposed model. The obtained temperature dependences of the heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility display double maxima that result from the two phase transitions that take place in the system. The influence of system dimensions on the thermodynamic properties of the model hasmore » been considered.« less

  10. Research on Short Duration Pulsed Radiation Sources.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    correlate soft X-ray spots with the hard radiation in a 1 kJ plasma focus showed that field structures leading to the appearance of soft X-ray spots...are always present in this plasma focus . These field structures represent m = 0 plasma instabilities and do have a direct influence upon the observed neutron emission. (Author)

  11. Hard x-ray characterization of a HEFT single-reflection prototype

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Christensen, Finn E.; Craig, William W.; Hailey, Charles J.; Jimenez-Garate, Mario A.; Windt, David L.; Harrison, Fiona A.; Mao, Peter H.; Ziegler, Eric; Honkimaki, Veijo; Sanchez del Rio, Manuel; Freund, Andreas K.; Ohler, M.

    2000-07-01

    We have measured the hard X-ray reflectivity and imaging performance from depth graded W/Si multilayer coated mirror segments mounted in a single reflection cylindrical prototype for the hard X-ray telescopes to be flown on the High Energy Focusing Telescope (HEFT) balloon mission. Data have been obtained in the energy range from 18 - 170 keV at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and at the Danish Space Research Institute at 8 keV. The modeling of the reflectivity data demonstrate that the multilayer structure can be well described by the intended power law distribution of the bilayer thicknesses optimized for the telescope performance and we find that all the data is consistent with an interfacial width of 4.5 angstroms. We have also demonstrated that the required 5% uniformity of the coatings is obtained over the mirror surface and we have shown that it is feasible to use similar W/Si coatings for much higher energies than the nominal energy range of HEFT leading the way for designing Gamma-ray telescopes for future astronomical applications. Finally we have demonstrate 35 arcsecond Half Power Diameter imaging performance of the one bounce prototype throughout the energy range of the HEFT telescopes.

  12. The New Hard X-ray Mission

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pareschi, Giovanni; Tagliaferri, Gianpiero; Argan, Andrea; Bellazzini, Ronaldo; Catalano, Osvaldo; Costa, Enrico; Cusumano, Giancarlo; Fiore, Fabrizio; Fiorini, Carlo; Malaguti, Giuseppe; Matt, Giorgio; Mereghetti, Sandro; Micela, Giuseppina; Perola, Giuseppe Cesare; Villa, Gabriele

    2010-07-01

    The Italian New Hard X-ray Mission (NHXM) is an evolution of the HEXIT-Sat concept, extending up to 80 keV the fine imaging capability today available only at E<10 keV, with the further addition of photoelectric imaging polarimetry. NHXM consists of four identical mirrors, with a 10 m focal length, achieved after launch by means of a deployable structure. Three of the four telescopes will have at their focus three identical spectro-imaging cameras, while a X-ray imaging polarimeter will be placed at the focus of the fourth. In order to ensure a low and stable background, NHXM will be place on a low Earth equatorial orbit. NHXM will provide a real breakthrough on a number of hot astrophysical issues, broadly falling under two main topics: i) censing the black holes in the Universe and probing the physics of accretion in the most diverse conditions; ii) investigating the particle acceleration mechanisms at work in different contexts, and the effects of radiative transfer in highly magnetized plasmas and strong gravitational fields.

  13. Traceability in hardness measurements: from the definition to industry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Germak, Alessandro; Herrmann, Konrad; Low, Samuel

    2010-04-01

    The measurement of hardness has been and continues to be of significant importance to many of the world's manufacturing industries. Conventional hardness testing is the most commonly used method for acceptance testing and production quality control of metals and metallic products. Instrumented indentation is one of the few techniques available for obtaining various property values for coatings and electronic products in the micrometre and nanometre dimensional scales. For these industries to be successful, it is critical that measurements made by suppliers and customers agree within some practical limits. To help assure this measurement agreement, a traceability chain for hardness measurement traceability from the hardness definition to industry has developed and evolved over the past 100 years, but its development has been complicated. A hardness measurement value not only requires traceability of force, length and time measurements but also requires traceability of the hardness values measured by the hardness machine. These multiple traceability paths are needed because a hardness measurement is affected by other influence parameters that are often difficult to identify, quantify and correct. This paper describes the current situation of hardness measurement traceability that exists for the conventional hardness methods (i.e. Rockwell, Brinell, Vickers and Knoop hardness) and for special-application hardness and indentation methods (i.e. elastomer, dynamic, portables and instrumented indentation).

  14. Extended hard-X-ray emission in the inner few parsecs of the Galaxy.

    PubMed

    Perez, Kerstin; Hailey, Charles J; Bauer, Franz E; Krivonos, Roman A; Mori, Kaya; Baganoff, Frederick K; Barrière, Nicolas M; Boggs, Steven E; Christensen, Finn E; Craig, William W; Grefenstette, Brian W; Grindlay, Jonathan E; Harrison, Fiona A; Hong, Jaesub; Madsen, Kristin K; Nynka, Melania; Stern, Daniel; Tomsick, John A; Wik, Daniel R; Zhang, Shuo; Zhang, William W; Zoglauer, Andreas

    2015-04-30

    The Galactic Centre hosts a puzzling stellar population in its inner few parsecs, with a high abundance of surprisingly young, relatively massive stars bound within the deep potential well of the central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A* (ref. 1). Previous studies suggest that the population of objects emitting soft X-rays (less than 10 kiloelectronvolts) within the surrounding hundreds of parsecs, as well as the population responsible for unresolved X-ray emission extending along the Galactic plane, is dominated by accreting white dwarf systems. Observations of diffuse hard-X-ray (more than 10 kiloelectronvolts) emission in the inner 10 parsecs, however, have been hampered by the limited spatial resolution of previous instruments. Here we report the presence of a distinct hard-X-ray component within the central 4 × 8 parsecs, as revealed by subarcminute-resolution images in the 20-40 kiloelectronvolt range. This emission is more sharply peaked towards the Galactic Centre than is the surface brightness of the soft-X-ray population. This could indicate a significantly more massive population of accreting white dwarfs, large populations of low-mass X-ray binaries or millisecond pulsars, or particle outflows interacting with the surrounding radiation field, dense molecular material or magnetic fields. However, all these interpretations pose significant challenges to our understanding of stellar evolution, binary formation, and cosmic-ray production in the Galactic Centre.

  15. Charpy Impact Energy and Microindentation Hardness of 60-NITINOL

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Stanford, Malcolm K.

    2012-01-01

    60-NITINOL (60 wt.% Ni 40 wt.% Ti) is being studied as a material for advanced aerospace components. The Charpy impact energy and microindentation hardness has been studied for this material, fabricated by vacuum induction skull melting (casting) and by hot isostatic pressing. Test specimens were prepared in various hardened and annealed heat treatment conditions. The average impact energy ranged from 0.33 to 0.49J for the hardened specimens while the annealed specimens had impact energies ranging from 0.89 to 1.18J. The average hardness values of the hardened specimens ranged from 590 to 676 HV while that of the annealed specimens ranged from 298 to 366 HV, suggesting an inverse relationship between impact energy and hardness. These results are expected to provide guidance in the selection of heat treatment processes for the design of mechanical components.

  16. Solving the Mystery of the Short-Hard Gamma-Ray Bursts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fox, Derek

    2005-07-01

    Eight years after the afterglow detections that revolutionized studies of the long-soft gamma-ray bursts, not even one afterglow of a short-hard GRB has been seen, and the nature of these events has become one of the most important problems in GRB research. The Swift satellite, expected to be in full operation throughout Cycle 14, will report few-arcsecond localizations for short-hard bursts in minutes, enabling prompt, deep optical afterglow searches for the first time. Discovery and observation of the first short-hard optical afterglows will answer most of the critical questions about these events: What are their distances and energies? Do they occur in distant galaxies, and if so, in which regions of those galaxies? Are they the result of collimated or quasi-spherical explosions? In combination with an extensive rapid-response ground-based campaign, we propose to make the critical high-sensitivity HST TOO observations that will allow us to answer these questions. If theorists are correct in attributing the short-hard bursts to binary neutron star coalescence events, then they will serve as signposts to the primary targeted source population for ground-based gravitational-wave detectors, and short-hard burst studies will have a vital role to play in guiding those observations.

  17. 1989 IEEE Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, 26th, Marco Island, FL, July 25-29, 1989, Proceedings. Part 1

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ochoa, Agustin, Jr. (Editor)

    1989-01-01

    Various papers on nuclear science are presented. The general topics addressed include: basic mechanics of radiation effects, dosimetry and energy-dependent effects, hardness assurance and testing techniques, spacecraft charging and space radiation effects, EMP/SGEMP/IEMP phenomena, device radiation effects and hardening, radiation effects on isolation technologies, IC radiation effects and hardening, and single-event phenomena.

  18. Genetic analysis of kernel texture (grain hardness) in a hard red spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) bi-parental population

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Grain hardness is a very important trait in determining wheat market class and also influences milling and baking traits. At the grain Hardness (Ha) locus on chromosome 5DS, there are two primary mutations responsible for conveying a harder kernel texture among U.S. hard red spring wheats: (1) the P...

  19. Measuring the Hardness of Minerals

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Bushby, Jessica

    2005-01-01

    The author discusses Moh's hardness scale, a comparative scale for minerals, whereby the softest mineral (talc) is placed at 1 and the hardest mineral (diamond) is placed at 10, with all other minerals ordered in between, according to their hardness. Development history of the scale is outlined, as well as a description of how the scale is used…

  20. Career Barriers Perceived by Hard-of-Hearing Adolescents: Implications for Practice From a Mixed-Methods Study

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Punch, Renee; Creed, Peter A.; Hyde, Merv B.

    2006-01-01

    This study incorporated both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the perception of career barriers by hard-of-hearing high school students being educated in regular classes with itinerant teacher support. Sixty-five students in Years 10, 11, and 12 completed a questionnaire about potential general and hearing-related barriers, and 12…

  1. Optical Properties of the DIRC Fused Silica Radiator

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Convery, Mark R

    2003-04-15

    The DIRC detector is successfully operating as the hadronic particle identification system for the BaBar experiment at SLAC. The production of its Cherenkov radiator required much effort in practice, both in manufacture and conception, which in turn required a large number of R&D measurements. One of the major outcomes of this R&D work was an understanding of methods to select radiation hard and optically uniform fused silica material. Others included measurement of the wavelength dependency of the internal reflection coefficient, and its sensitivity to the surface pollution, selection of the radiator support, selection of good optical glue, etc. This notemore » summarizes the optical R&D test results.« less

  2. The material co-construction of hard science fiction and physics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hasse, Cathrine

    2015-12-01

    This article explores the relationship between hard science fiction and physics and a gendered culture of science. Empirical studies indicate that science fiction references might spur some students' interest in physics and help develop this interest throughout school, into a university education and even further later inspire the practice of doing science. There are many kinds of fiction within the science fiction genre. In the presented empirical exploration physics students seem particularly fond of what is called `hard science fiction': a particular type of science fiction dealing with technological developments (Hartwell and Cramer in The hard SF renaissance, Orb/TOR, New York, 2002). Especially hard science fiction as a motivating fantasy may, however, also come with a gender bias. The locally materialized techno-fantasies spurring dreams of the terraforming of planets like Mars and travels in time and space may not be shared by all physics students. Especially female students express a need for other concerns in science. The entanglement of physics with hard science fiction may thus help develop some students' interest in learning school physics and help create an interest for studying physics at university level. But research indicates that especially female students are not captured by the hard techno-fantasies to the same extent as some of their male colleagues. Other visions (e.g. inspired by soft science fiction) are not materialized as a resource in the local educational culture. It calls for an argument of how teaching science is also teaching cultural values, ethics and concerns, which may be gendered. Teaching materials, like the use of hard science fiction in education, may not just be (yet another) gender bias in science education but also carrier of particular visions for scientific endeavours.

  3. "We Can Get Everything We Want if We Try Hard": Young People, Celebrity, Hard Work

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Mendick, Heather; Allen, Kim; Harvey, Laura

    2015-01-01

    Drawing on 24 group interviews on celebrity with 148 students aged 14-17 across six schools, we show that "hard work" is valued by young people in England. We argue that we should not simply celebrate this investment in hard work. While it opens up successful subjectivities to previously excluded groups, it reproduces neoliberal…

  4. 36 CFR 13.1308 - Harding Icefield Trail.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-07-01

    ... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Harding Icefield Trail. 13... Provisions § 13.1308 Harding Icefield Trail. The Harding Icefield Trail from the junction with the main paved trail near Exit Glacier to the emergency hut near the terminus is closed to— (a) Camping within 1/8 mile...

  5. Design Issues for Using Magnetic Materials in Radiation Environments at Elevated Temperature

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bowman, Cheryl L.

    2013-01-01

    One of the challenges of designing motors and alternators for use in nuclear powered space missions is accounting for the effects of radiation. Terrestrial reactor power plants use distance and shielding to minimize radiation damage but space missions must economize volume and mass. Past studies have shown that sufficiently high radiation levels can affect the magnetic response of hard and soft magnetic materials. Theoretical models explaining the radiation-induced degradation have been proposed but not verified. This paper reviews the literature and explains the cumulative effects of temperature, magnetic-load, and radiation-level on the magnetic properties of component materials. Magnetic property degradation is very specific to alloy choice and processing history, since magnetic properties are very much entwined with specific chemistry and microstructural features. However, there is basic theoretical as well as supportive experimental evidence that the negative impact to magnetic properties will be minimal if the bulk temperature of the material is less than fifty percent of the Curie temperature, the radiation flux is low, and the demagnetization field is small. Keywords: Magnets, Permanent Magnets, Power Converters, Nuclear Electric Power Generation, Radiation Tolerance.

  6. Experimental and simulation studies of hard contact in force reflecting teleoperation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hannaford, Blake; Anderson, Robert

    1988-01-01

    Experiments and simulations of a single-axis force-reflecting teleoperation system have been conducted to investigate the problem of contacting a hard environment and maintaining a controlled force in teleoperation in which position is fed forward from the hand controller (master) to the manipulator (slave), and force is fed back to the human operator through motors in the master. The simulations, using an electrical circuit model, reproduce the behavior of the real system, including effects of human operator biomechanics. It is shown that human operator properties, which vary as a result of different types of grasp of the handle, affect the stability of the system in the hard-contact task. The effect of a heavier grasp on the handle is equivalent to increased hand-controller velocity damping in terms of the systems stability in the contact task, but control system damping sufficient to guarantee stable contact results in perceptible sluggishness of the control handle's response in free motion. These results suggest that human operator biomechanics must be taken into account to guarantee stable and ergonomic performance of advanced teleoperators.

  7. The Relationship Between Solar Radio and Hard X-Ray Emission

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    White, S. M.; Benz, A. O.; Christe, S.; Farnik, F.; Kundu, M. R.; Mann, G.; Ning, Z.; Raulin, J.-P.; Silva-Valio, A. V. R.; Saint-Hilaire, P.; hide

    2011-01-01

    This review discusses the complementary relationship between radio and hard Xray observations of the Sun using primarily results from the era of the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager satellite. A primary focus of joint radio and hard X-ray studies of solar flares uses observations of nonthermal gyrosynchrotron emission at radio wavelengths and bremsstrahlung hard X-rays to study the properties of electrons accelerated in the main flare site, since it is well established that these two emissions show very similar temporal behavior. A quantitative prescription is given for comparing the electron energy distributions derived separately from the two wavelength ranges: this is an important application with the potential for measuring the magnetic field strength in the flaring region, and reveals significant differences between the electrons in different energy ranges. Examples of the use of simultaneous data from the two wavelength ranges to derive physical conditions are then discussed, including the case of microflares, and the comparison of images at radio and hard X-ray wavelengths is presented. There have been puzzling results obtained from observations of solar flares at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, and the comparison of these results with corresponding hard X-ray data is presented. Finally, the review discusses the association of hard X-ray releases with radio emission at decimeter and meter wavelengths, which is dominated by plasma emission (at lower frequencies) and electron cyclotron maser emission (at higher frequencies), both coherent emission mechanisms that require small numbers of energetic electrons. These comparisons show broad general associations but detailed correspondence remains more elusive.

  8. A REVIEW OF EPIDEMIOOGICAL STUDIES ON DRINKING WATER HARDNESS AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES

    EPA Science Inventory

    Major risk factors do not entirely explain the worldwide variability of morbidity and mortality due to

    cardiovascular disease. Several environmental factors, including the hardness of drinking water may

    affect cardiovascular disease risks. We conducted a qualitative...

  9. 1988 IEEE Annual Conference on Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects, 25th, Portland, OR, July 12-15, 1988, Proceedings

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Coakley, Peter G. (Editor)

    1988-01-01

    The effects of nuclear and space radiation on the performance of electronic devices are discussed in reviews and reports of recent investigations. Topics addressed include the basic mechanisms of radiation effects, dosimetry and energy-dependent effects, sensors in and for radiation environments, EMP/SGEMP/IEMP phenomena, radiation effects on isolation technologies, and spacecraft charging and space radiation effects. Consideration is given to device radiation effects and hardening, hardness assurance and testing techniques, IC radiation effects and hardening, and single-event phenomena.

  10. Hard and soft acids and bases: atoms and atomic ions.

    PubMed

    Reed, James L

    2008-07-07

    The structural origin of hard-soft behavior in atomic acids and bases has been explored using a simple orbital model. The Pearson principle of hard and soft acids and bases has been taken to be the defining statement about hard-soft behavior and as a definition of chemical hardness. There are a number of conditions that are imposed on any candidate structure and associated property by the Pearson principle, which have been exploited. The Pearson principle itself has been used to generate a thermodynamically based scale of relative hardness and softness for acids and bases (operational chemical hardness), and a modified Slater model has been used to discern the electronic origin of hard-soft behavior. Whereas chemical hardness is a chemical property of an acid or base and the operational chemical hardness is an experimental measure of it, the absolute hardness is a physical property of an atom or molecule. A critical examination of chemical hardness, which has been based on a more rigorous application of the Pearson principle and the availability of quantitative measures of chemical hardness, suggests that the origin of hard-soft behavior for both acids and bases resides in the relaxation of the electrons not undergoing transfer during the acid-base interaction. Furthermore, the results suggest that the absolute hardness should not be taken as synonymous with chemical hardness but that the relationship is somewhat more complex. Finally, this work provides additional groundwork for a better understanding of chemical hardness that will inform the understanding of hardness in molecules.

  11. Hard Copy Market Overview

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Testan, Peter R.

    1987-04-01

    A number of Color Hard Copy (CHC) market drivers are currently indicating strong growth in the use of CHC technologies for the business graphics marketplace. These market drivers relate to product, software, color monitors and color copiers. The use of color in business graphics allows more information to be relayed than is normally the case in a monochrome format. The communicative powers of full-color computer generated output in the business graphics application area will continue to induce end users to desire and require color in their future applications. A number of color hard copy technologies will be utilized in the presentation graphics arena. Thermal transfer, ink jet, photographic and electrophotographic technologies are all expected to be utilized in the business graphics presentation application area in the future. Since the end of 1984, the availability of color application software packages has grown significantly. Sales revenue generated by business graphics software is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of just over 40 percent to 1990. Increased availability of packages to allow the integration of text and graphics is expected. Currently, the latest versions of page description languages such as Postscript, Interpress and DDL all support color output. The use of color monitors will also drive the demand for color hard copy in the business graphics market place. The availability of higher resolution screens is allowing color monitors to be easily used for both text and graphics applications in the office environment. During 1987, the sales of color monitors are expected to surpass the sales of monochrome monitors. Another major color hard copy market driver will be the color copier. In order to take advantage of the communications power of computer generated color output, multiple copies are required for distribution. Product introductions of a new generation of color copiers is now underway with additional introductions expected

  12. Nanoplasma Formation by High Intensity Hard X-rays

    PubMed Central

    Tachibana, T.; Jurek, Z.; Fukuzawa, H.; Motomura, K.; Nagaya, K.; Wada, S.; Johnsson, P.; Siano, M.; Mondal, S.; Ito, Y.; Kimura, M.; Sakai, T.; Matsunami, K.; Hayashita, H.; Kajikawa, J.; Liu, X.-J.; Robert, E.; Miron, C.; Feifel, R.; Marangos, J. P.; Tono, K.; Inubushi, Y.; Yabashi, M.; Son, S.-K.; Ziaja, B.; Yao, M.; Santra, R.; Ueda, K.

    2015-01-01

    Using electron spectroscopy, we have investigated nanoplasma formation from noble gas clusters exposed to high-intensity hard-x-ray pulses at ~5 keV. Our experiment was carried out at the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser (SACLA) facility in Japan. Dedicated theoretical simulations were performed with the molecular dynamics tool XMDYN. We found that in this unprecedented wavelength regime nanoplasma formation is a highly indirect process. In the argon clusters investigated, nanoplasma is mainly formed through secondary electron cascading initiated by slow Auger electrons. Energy is distributed within the sample entirely through Auger processes and secondary electron cascading following photoabsorption, as in the hard x-ray regime there is no direct energy transfer from the field to the plasma. This plasma formation mechanism is specific to the hard-x-ray regime and may, thus, also be important for XFEL-based molecular imaging studies. In xenon clusters, photo- and Auger electrons contribute more significantly to the nanoplasma formation. Good agreement between experiment and simulations validates our modelling approach. This has wide-ranging implications for our ability to quantitatively predict the behavior of complex molecular systems irradiated by high-intensity hard x-rays. PMID:26077863

  13. Measured reflectance of graded multilayer mirrors designed for astronomical hard X-ray telescopes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Christensen, F. E.; Craig, W. W.; Windt, D. L.; Jimenez-Garate, M. A.; Hailey, C. J.; Harrison, F. A.; Mao, P. H.; Chakan, J. M.; Ziegler, E.; Honkimaki, V.

    2000-09-01

    Future astronomical X-ray telescopes, including the balloon-borne High-Energy Focusing Telescope (HEFT) and the Constellation-X Hard X-ray Telescope (Con-X HXT) plan to incorporate depth-graded multilayer coatings in order to extend sensitivity into the hard X-ray (10<~E<~80keV) band. In this paper, we present measurements of the reflectance in the 18-170 keV energy range of a cylindrical prototype nested optic taken at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). The mirror segments, mounted in a single bounce stack, are coated with depth-graded W/Si multilayers optimized for broadband performance up to 69.5 keV (WK-edge). These designs are ideal for both the HEFT and Con-X HXT applications. We compare the measurements to model calculations to demonstrate that the reflectivity can be well described by the intended power law distribution of the bilayer thicknesses, and that the coatings are uniform at the 5% level over the mirror surface. Finally, we apply the measurements to predict effective areas achievable for HEFT and Con-X HXT using these W/Si designs.

  14. Analysis of dental hard tissues exposed to high temperatures for forensic applications: An in vitro study

    PubMed Central

    Shekhawat, Kuldeep Singh; Chauhan, Arunima

    2016-01-01

    Aim: The aim of this study was to observe and record the macroscopic, radiographic, and microscopic findings obtained after subjecting the teeth to high temperatures. Materials and Methods: An in vitro study was conducted to observe macroscopic, radiographic, and microscopic changes in dental hard tissues in 60 unrestored non carious extracted human teeth. The teeth were grouped based on age: Below 30 years, 30–40 years, and above 40 years The teeth from each age group were further divided into five subgroups, and each subgroup was subjected to a particular temperature: 200°C, 400°C, 600°C, 800°C, and 1000°C. [C = Celsius]. Results: Various degrees of changes in relation to temperature were observed macroscopically, radiographically, and microscopically. The histological examination was limited for teeth exposed to 200°C. Conclusion: This investigation was carried out to study the gross changes, radiographic changes and histological changes in dental hard tissues exposed to high temperatures, which is an important part of forensic science. The aforementioned alterations caused by heat may provide useful information about temperature ranges and duration of exposure to high temperatures. PMID:27555725

  15. Unified Research on Network-Based Hard/Soft Information Fusion

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2016-02-02

    types). There are a number of search tree run parameters which must be set depending on the experimental setting. A pilot study was run to identify...Unlimited Final Report: Unified Research on Network-Based Hard/Soft Information Fusion The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report...Final Report: Unified Research on Network-Based Hard/Soft Information Fusion Report Title The University at Buffalo (UB) Center for Multisource

  16. Electroerosion micro- and nanopowders for the production of hard alloys

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Latypov, R. A.; Ageeva, E. V.; Kruglyakov, O. V.; Latypova, G. R.

    2016-06-01

    The shape and the surface morphology of the powder particles fabricated by the electroerosion dispersion of tungsten-containing wastes in illuminating oil are studied. The hard alloy fabricated from these powder particles is analyzed by electron-probe microanalysis. The powder synthesized by the electroerosion dispersion of the wastes of sintered hard alloys is found to consist of particles of a spherical or elliptical shape, an irregular shape (conglomerates), and a fragment shape. It is shown that W, Ti, and Co are the main elements in the hard alloy fabricated from the powder synthesized by electroerosion dispersion in illuminating oil.

  17. Single-Grid-Pair Fourier Telescope for Imaging in Hard-X Rays and gamma Rays

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Campbell, Jonathan

    2008-01-01

    This instrument, a proposed Fourier telescope for imaging in hard-x rays and gamma rays, would contain only one pair of grids made of an appropriate radiation-absorpting/ scattering material, in contradistinction to multiple pairs of such as grids in prior Fourier x- and gamma-ray telescopes. This instrument would also include a relatively coarse gridlike image detector appropriate to the radiant flux to be imaged. Notwithstanding the smaller number of grids and the relative coarseness of the imaging detector, the images produced by the proposed instrument would be of higher quality.

  18. The Emerging Population of Pulsar Wind Nebulae in Hard X-rays

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mattana, F.; Götz, D.; Terrier, R.; Renaud, M.; Falanga, M.

    2009-05-01

    The hard X-ray synchrotron emission from Pulsar Wind Nebulae probes energetic particles, closely related to the pulsar injection power at the present time. INTEGRAL has disclosed the yet poorly known population of hard X-ray pulsar/PWN systems. We summarize the properties of the class, with emphasys on the first hard X-ray bow-shock (CTB 80 powered by PSR B1951+32), and highlight some prospects for the study of Pulsar Wind Nebulae with the Simbol-X mission.

  19. Hard X-ray irradiation of cosmic silicate analogs: structural evolution and astrophysical implications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gavilan, L.; Jäger, C.; Simionovici, A.; Lemaire, J. L.; Sabri, T.; Foy, E.; Yagoubi, S.; Henning, T.; Salomon, D.; Martinez-Criado, G.

    2016-03-01

    Context. Protoplanetary disks, interstellar clouds, and active galactic nuclei contain X-ray-dominated regions. X-rays interact with the dust and gas present in such environments. While a few laboratory X-ray irradiation experiments have been performed on ices, X-ray irradiation experiments on bare cosmic dust analogs have been scarce up to now. Aims: Our goal is to study the effects of hard X-rays on cosmic dust analogs via in situ X-ray diffraction. By using a hard X-ray synchrotron nanobeam, we seek to simulate cumulative X-ray exposure on dust grains during their lifetime in these astrophysical environments and provide an upper limit on the effect of hard X-rays on dust grain structure. Methods: We prepared enstatite (MgSiO3) nanograins, which are analogs to cosmic silicates, via the melting-quenching technique. These amorphous grains were then annealed to obtain polycrystalline grains. These were characterized via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) before irradiation. Powder samples were prepared in X-ray transparent substrates and were irradiated with hard X-rays nanobeams (29.4 keV) provided by beamline ID16B of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grenoble). X-ray diffraction images were recorded in transmission mode, and the ensuing diffractograms were analyzed as a function of the total X-ray exposure time. Results: We detected the amorphization of polycrystalline silicates embedded in an organic matrix after an accumulated X-ray exposure of 6.4 × 1027 eV cm-2. Pure crystalline silicate grains (without resin) do not exhibit amorphization. None of the amorphous silicate samples (pure and embedded in resin) underwent crystallization. We analyze the evolution of the polycrystalline sample embedded in an organic matrix as a function of X-ray exposure. Conclusions: Loss of diffraction peak intensity, peak broadening, and the disappearance of discrete spots and arcs reveal the amorphization

  20. High-efficiency, radiation-resistant GaAs space cells

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bertness, K. A.; Ristow, M. Ladle; Grounner, M.; Kuryla, M. S.; Werthen, J. G.

    1991-01-01

    Although many GaAs solar cells are intended for space applicatons, few measurements of cell degradation after radiation are available, particularly for cells with efficiencies exceeding 20 percent (one-sun, AMO). Often the cell performance is optimized for the highest beginning-of-life (BOL) efficiency, despite the unknown effect of such design on end-of-life (EOL) efficiencies. The results of a study of the radiation effects on p-n GaAs cells are presented. The EOL efficiency of GaAs space cell can be increased by adjusting materials growth parameters, resulting in a demonstration of 16 percent EOL efficiency at one-sun, AMO. Reducing base doping levels to below 3 x 10(exp 17)/cu m and decreasing emitter thickness to 0.3 to 0.5 micron for p-n cells led to significant improvements in radiation hardness as measured by EOL/BOL efficiency ratios for irradiation of 10(exp -15)/sq cm electrons at 1 MeV. BOL efficiency was not affected by changes in emitter thickness but did improve with lower base doping.

  1. Radiation-induced dental caries, prevention and treatment - A systematic review

    PubMed Central

    Gupta, Nishtha; Pal, Manoj; Rawat, Sheh; Grewal, Mandeep S.; Garg, Himani; Chauhan, Deepika; Ahlawat, Parveen; Tandon, Sarthak; Khurana, Ruparna; Pahuja, Anjali K.; Mayank, Mayur; Devnani, Bharti

    2015-01-01

    Treatment of head and neck cancers (HNCs) involves radiotherapy. Patients undergoing radiotherapy for HNCs are prone to dental complications. Radiotherapy to the head and neck region causes xerostomia and salivary gland dysfunction which dramatically increases the risk of dental caries and its sequelae. Radiation therapy (RT) also affects the dental hard tissues increasing their susceptibility to demineralization following RT. Postradiation caries is a rapidly progressing and highly destructive type of dental caries. Radiation-related caries and other dental hard tissue changes can appear within the first 3 months following RT. Hence, every effort should be focused on prevention to manage patients with severe caries. This can be accomplished through good preoperative dental treatment, frequent dental evaluation and treatment after RT (with the exception of extractions), and consistent home care that includes self-applied fluoride. Restorative management of radiation caries can be challenging. The restorative dentist must consider the altered dental substrate and a hostile oral environment when selecting restorative materials. Radiation-induced changes in enamel and dentine may compromise bonding of adhesive materials. Consequently, glass ionomer cements have proved to be a better alternative to composite resins in irradiated patients. Counseling of patients before and after radiotherapy can be done to make them aware of the complications of radiotherapy and thus can help in preventing them. PMID:27390489

  2. Radiation-induced dental caries, prevention and treatment - A systematic review.

    PubMed

    Gupta, Nishtha; Pal, Manoj; Rawat, Sheh; Grewal, Mandeep S; Garg, Himani; Chauhan, Deepika; Ahlawat, Parveen; Tandon, Sarthak; Khurana, Ruparna; Pahuja, Anjali K; Mayank, Mayur; Devnani, Bharti

    2015-01-01

    Treatment of head and neck cancers (HNCs) involves radiotherapy. Patients undergoing radiotherapy for HNCs are prone to dental complications. Radiotherapy to the head and neck region causes xerostomia and salivary gland dysfunction which dramatically increases the risk of dental caries and its sequelae. Radiation therapy (RT) also affects the dental hard tissues increasing their susceptibility to demineralization following RT. Postradiation caries is a rapidly progressing and highly destructive type of dental caries. Radiation-related caries and other dental hard tissue changes can appear within the first 3 months following RT. Hence, every effort should be focused on prevention to manage patients with severe caries. This can be accomplished through good preoperative dental treatment, frequent dental evaluation and treatment after RT (with the exception of extractions), and consistent home care that includes self-applied fluoride. Restorative management of radiation caries can be challenging. The restorative dentist must consider the altered dental substrate and a hostile oral environment when selecting restorative materials. Radiation-induced changes in enamel and dentine may compromise bonding of adhesive materials. Consequently, glass ionomer cements have proved to be a better alternative to composite resins in irradiated patients. Counseling of patients before and after radiotherapy can be done to make them aware of the complications of radiotherapy and thus can help in preventing them.

  3. Study of runaway electrons with Hard X-ray spectrometry of tokamak plasmas

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Shevelev, A.; Chugunov, I.; Khilkevitch, E.

    2014-08-21

    Hard-X-ray spectrometry is a tool widely used for diagnostic of runaway electrons in existing tokamaks. In future machines, ITER and DEMO, HXR spectrometry will be useful providing information on runaway electron energy, runaway beam current and its profile during disruption.

  4. FATIGUE OF BIOMATERIALS: HARD TISSUES

    PubMed Central

    Arola, D.; Bajaj, D.; Ivancik, J.; Majd, H.; Zhang, D.

    2009-01-01

    The fatigue and fracture behavior of hard tissues are topics of considerable interest today. This special group of organic materials comprises the highly mineralized and load-bearing tissues of the human body, and includes bone, cementum, dentin and enamel. An understanding of their fatigue behavior and the influence of loading conditions and physiological factors (e.g. aging and disease) on the mechanisms of degradation are essential for achieving lifelong health. But there is much more to this topic than the immediate medical issues. There are many challenges to characterizing the fatigue behavior of hard tissues, much of which is attributed to size constraints and the complexity of their microstructure. The relative importance of the constituents on the type and distribution of defects, rate of coalescence, and their contributions to the initiation and growth of cracks, are formidable topics that have not reached maturity. Hard tissues also provide a medium for learning and a source of inspiration in the design of new microstructures for engineering materials. This article briefly reviews fatigue of hard tissues with shared emphasis on current understanding, the challenges and the unanswered questions. PMID:20563239

  5. Bite force measurements with hard and soft bite surfaces.

    PubMed

    Serra, C M; Manns, A E

    2013-08-01

    Bite force has been measured by different methods and over a wide variety of designs. In several instruments, the fact that bite surface has been manufactured with stiff materials might interfere in obtaining reliable data, by a more prompt activation of inhibitory reflex mechanisms. The purpose of this study was to compare the maximum voluntary bite force measured by a digital occlusal force gauge (GM10 Nagano Keiki, Japan) between different opponent teeth, employing semi-hard or soft bite surfaces. A sample of 34 young adults with complete natural dentition was studied. The original semi-hard bite surface was exchanged by a soft one, made of leather and rubber. Maximum voluntary bite force recordings were made for each tooth group and for both bite surfaces. Statistical analyses (Student's t-test) revealed significant differences, with higher scores while using the soft surface across sexes and tooth groups (P < 0·05). Differential activation of periodontal mechanoreceptors of a specific tooth group is mainly conditioned by the hardness of the bite surface; a soft surface induces greater activation of elevator musculature, while a hard one induces inhibition more promptly. Thus, soft bite surfaces are recommended for higher reliability in maximum voluntary bite force recordings. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  6. Biphasic and triphasic dose responses in zebrafish embryos to low-dose 150 kV X-rays with different levels of hardness.

    PubMed

    Kong, Eva Yi; Cheng, Shuk Han; Yu, Kwan Ngok

    2016-07-01

    The in vivo low-dose responses of zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos to 150 kV X-rays with different levels of hardness were examined through the number of apoptotic events revealed at 24 h post fertilization by vital dye acridine orange staining. Our results suggested that a triphasic dose response was likely a common phenomenon in living organisms irradiated by X-rays, which comprised an ultra-low-dose inhibition, low-dose stimulation and high-dose inhibition. Our results also suggested that the hormetic zone (or the stimulation zone) was shifted towards lower doses with application of filters. The non-detection of a triphasic dose response in previous experiments could likely be attributed to the use of hard X-rays, which shifted the hormetic zone into an unmonitored ultra-low-dose region. In such cases where the subhormetic zone was missed, a biphasic dose response would be reported instead. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japan Radiation Research Society and Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology.

  7. Study of the hard-disk system at high densities: the fluid-hexatic phase transition.

    PubMed

    Mier-Y-Terán, Luis; Machorro-Martínez, Brian Ignacio; Chapela, Gustavo A; Del Río, Fernando

    2018-06-21

    Integral equations of uniform fluids have been considered unable to predict any characteristic feature of the fluid-solid phase transition, including the shoulder that arises in the second peak of the fluid-phase radial distribution function, RDF, of hard-core systems obtained by computer simulations, at fluid densities very close to the structural two-step phase transition. This reasoning is based on the results of traditional integral approximations, like Percus-Yevick, PY, which does not show such a shoulder in hard-core systems, neither in two nor three dimensions. In this work, we present results of three Ansätze, based on the PY theory, that were proposed to remedy the lack of PY analytical solutions in two dimensions. This comparative study shows that one of those Ansätze does develop a shoulder in the second peak of the RDF at densities very close to the phase transition, qualitatively describing this feature. Since the shoulder grows into a peak at still higher densities, this integral equation approach predicts the appearance of an orientational order characteristic of the hexatic phase in a continuous fluid-hexatic phase transition.

  8. Modeling hard clinical end-point data in economic analyses.

    PubMed

    Kansal, Anuraag R; Zheng, Ying; Palencia, Roberto; Ruffolo, Antonio; Hass, Bastian; Sorensen, Sonja V

    2013-11-01

    The availability of hard clinical end-point data, such as that on cardiovascular (CV) events among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, is increasing, and as a result there is growing interest in using hard end-point data of this type in economic analyses. This study investigated published approaches for modeling hard end-points from clinical trials and evaluated their applicability in health economic models with different disease features. A review of cost-effectiveness models of interventions in clinically significant therapeutic areas (CV diseases, cancer, and chronic lower respiratory diseases) was conducted in PubMed and Embase using a defined search strategy. Only studies integrating hard end-point data from randomized clinical trials were considered. For each study included, clinical input characteristics and modeling approach were summarized and evaluated. A total of 33 articles (23 CV, eight cancer, two respiratory) were accepted for detailed analysis. Decision trees, Markov models, discrete event simulations, and hybrids were used. Event rates were incorporated either as constant rates, time-dependent risks, or risk equations based on patient characteristics. Risks dependent on time and/or patient characteristics were used where major event rates were >1%/year in models with fewer health states (<7). Models of infrequent events or with numerous health states generally preferred constant event rates. The detailed modeling information and terminology varied, sometimes requiring interpretation. Key considerations for cost-effectiveness models incorporating hard end-point data include the frequency and characteristics of the relevant clinical events and how the trial data is reported. When event risk is low, simplification of both the model structure and event rate modeling is recommended. When event risk is common, such as in high risk populations, more detailed modeling approaches, including individual simulations or explicitly time-dependent event rates

  9. Modelling single shot damage thresholds of multilayer optics for high-intensity short-wavelength radiation sources.

    PubMed

    Loch, R A; Sobierajski, R; Louis, E; Bosgra, J; Bijkerk, F

    2012-12-17

    The single shot damage thresholds of multilayer optics for high-intensity short-wavelength radiation sources are theoretically investigated, using a model developed on the basis of experimental data obtained at the FLASH and LCLS free electron lasers. We compare the radiation hardness of commonly used multilayer optics and propose new material combinations selected for a high damage threshold. Our study demonstrates that the damage thresholds of multilayer optics can vary over a large range of incidence fluences and can be as high as several hundreds of mJ/cm(2). This strongly suggests that multilayer mirrors are serious candidates for damage resistant optics. Especially, multilayer optics based on Li(2)O spacers are very promising for use in current and future short-wavelength radiation sources.

  10. Applications of synchrotron radiation to materials science: Diffraction imaging (topography) and microradiography

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kuriyama, Masao

    1988-01-01

    Synchrotron radiation sources are now available throughout the world. The use of hard X-ray radiation from these sources for materials science is described with emphasis on diffraction imaging for material characterization. With the availability of synchrotron radiation, real-time in situ measurements of dynamic microstructural phenomena have been started. This is a new area where traditional application of X-rays has been superseded. Examples are chosen from limited areas and are by no means exhaustive. The new emerging information will, no doubt, have great impact on materials science and engineering.

  11. Simulation study of enhancing laser-driven multi-keV line-radiation through application of external magnetic fields

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kemp, G. Elijah; Colvin, J. D.; Fournier, K. B.; May, M. J.; Barrios, M. A.; Patel, M. V.; Koning, J. M.; Scott, H. A.; Marinak, M. M.

    2015-11-01

    Laser-driven, spectrally tailored, high-flux x-ray sources have been developed over the past decade for testing the radiation hardness of materials used in various civilian, space and military applications. The optimal electron temperatures for these x-ray sources occur around twice the desired photon energy. At the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser, the available energy can produce plasmas with ~ 10keV electron temperatures which result in highly-efficient ~ 5keV radiation but less than optimal emission from the > 10keV sources. In this work, we present a possible venue for enhancing multi-keV x-ray emission on existing laser platforms through the application of an external magnetic field. Preliminary radiation-hydrodynamics calculations with Hydra suggest as much as 2 - 14 × increases in laser-to-x-ray conversion efficiency for 22 - 68keV K-shell sources are possible on the NIF laser - without any changes in laser-drive conditions - through the application of an external axial 50 T field. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.

  12. Effective hard x-ray spectrum of a tabletop Mather-type plasma focus optimized for flash radiography of metallic objects

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Raspa, V.; Moreno, C.; Sigaut, L.

    The effective spectrum of the hard x-ray output of a Mather-type tabletop plasma focus device was determined from attenuation data on metallic samples using commercial radiographic film coupled to a Gd{sub 2}O{sub 2}S:Tb phosphor intensifier screen. It was found that the radiation has relevant spectral components in the 40-150 keV range, with a single maximum around 60-80 keV. The radiation output allows for 50 ns resolution, good contrast, and introspective imaging of metallic objects even through metallic walls. A numerical estimation of the induced voltage on the focus during the compressional stage is briefly discussed.

  13. Analysis of Hard Thin Film Coating

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Shen, Dashen

    1998-01-01

    Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is interested in developing hard thin film coating for bearings. The wearing of the bearing is an important problem for space flight engine. Hard thin film coating can drastically improve the surface of the bearing and improve the wear-endurance of the bearing. However, many fundamental problems in surface physics, plasma deposition, etc, need further research. The approach is using Electron Cyclotron Resonance Chemical Vapor Deposition (ECRCVD) to deposit hard thin film on stainless steel bearing. The thin films in consideration include SiC, SiN and other materials. An ECRCVD deposition system is being assembled at MSFC.

  14. Analysis of Hard Thin Film Coating

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Shen, Dashen

    1998-01-01

    MSFC is interested in developing hard thin film coating for bearings. The wearing of the bearing is an important problem for space flight engine. Hard thin film coating can drastically improve the surface of the bearing and improve the wear-endurance of the bearing. However, many fundamental problems in surface physics, plasma deposition, etc, need further research. The approach is using electron cyclotron resonance chemical vapor deposition (ECRCVD) to deposit hard thin film an stainless steel bearing. The thin films in consideration include SiC, SiN and other materials. An ECRCVD deposition system is being assembled at MSFC.

  15. Effect of sintering atmosphere on the hardness of ThO2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baena, Angela; Cardinaels, Thomas; Van Eyken, Jelle; Puzzolante, Jean Louis; Binnemans, Koen; Verwerft, Marc

    2016-08-01

    The hardness and toughness of ThO2 sintered under reducing and oxidizing conditions has been investigated and, quite unexpectedly, a significant difference in hardness was observed for the entire range of porosities studied. Reducing conditions systematically yielded higher hardness values than oxidizing conditions. Extrapolated to zero porosity, the hardness for ThO2 is H0 = 10.5 ± 0.3 GPa for oxidizing conditions and H0 = 12.4 ± 0.7 GPa for reducing conditions. Toughness values have been derived from Vickers indentations; differences in toughness were insignificant and only a single value is proposed: KIC = 0.97 ± 0.12 MPa √m. The difference in hardness is attributed to the presence of point defects, also acting as color centers and causing grey coloration of ThO2 sintered under reducing conditions. Furthermore, and of interest for nuclear fuel production, is the finding that ThO2 sintered under reducing conditions is significantly easier to grind compared to material sintered under oxidizing conditions.

  16. Reduced tissue hardness of trabecular bone is associated with severe osteoarthritis.

    PubMed

    Dall'Ara, Enrico; Ohman, Caroline; Baleani, Massimiliano; Viceconti, Marco

    2011-05-17

    This study investigated whether changes in hardness of human trabecular bone are associated with osteoarthritis. Twenty femoral heads extracted from subjects without musculoskeletal diseases (subject age: 49-83 years) and twenty femoral heads extracted from osteoarthritic subjects (subject age: 42-85 years) were tested. Sixty indentations were performed along the main trabecular direction of each sample at a fixed relative distance. Two microstructures were found on the indenting locations: packs of parallel-lamellae (PL) and secondary osteons (SO). A 25gf load was applied for 15s and the Vickers Hardness (HV) was assessed. Trabecular tissue extracted from osteoarthritic subjects was found to be about 13% less hard compared to tissue extracted from non-pathologic subjects. However, tissue hardness was not significantly affected by gender or age. The SO was 10% less hard than the PL for both pathologic and non-pathologic tissues. A hardness of 34.1HV for PL and 30.8HV for SO was found for the non-pathologic tissue. For osteoarthritic tissue, the hardness was 30.2HV for PL and 27.1HV for SO. In the bone tissue extracted from osteoarthritic subjects the occurrence of indenting a SO (28%) was higher than that observed in the non-pathological tissue (15%). Osteoarthritis is associated with reduced tissue hardness and alterations in microstructure of the trabecular bone tissue. Gender does not significantly affect trabecular bone hardness either in non-pathological or osteoarthritic subjects. A similar conclusion can be drawn for age, although a larger donor sample size would be necessary to definitively exclude the existence of a slight effect. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  17. Modeling Flare Hard X-ray Emission from Electrons in Contracting Magnetic Islands

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guidoni, Silvina E.; Allred, Joel C.; Alaoui, Meriem; Holman, Gordon D.; DeVore, C. Richard; Karpen, Judith T.

    2016-05-01

    The mechanism that accelerates particles to the energies required to produce the observed impulsive hard X-ray emission in solar flares is not well understood. It is generally accepted that this emission is produced by a non-thermal beam of electrons that collides with the ambient ions as the beam propagates from the top of a flare loop to its footpoints. Most current models that investigate this transport assume an injected beam with an initial energy spectrum inferred from observed hard X-ray spectra, usually a power law with a low-energy cutoff. In our previous work (Guidoni et al. 2016), we proposed an analytical method to estimate particle energy gain in contracting, large-scale, 2.5-dimensional magnetic islands, based on a kinetic model by Drake et al. (2010). We applied this method to sunward-moving islands formed high in the corona during fast reconnection in a simulated eruptive flare. The overarching purpose of the present work is to test this proposed acceleration model by estimating the hard X-ray flux resulting from its predicted accelerated-particle distribution functions. To do so, we have coupled our model to a unified computational framework that simulates the propagation of an injected beam as it deposits energy and momentum along its way (Allred et al. 2015). This framework includes the effects of radiative transfer and return currents, necessary to estimate flare emission that can be compared directly to observations. We will present preliminary results of the coupling between these models.

  18. NIST/ISAC standardization study: variability in assignment of intensity values to fluorescence standard beads and in cross calibration of standard beads to hard dyed beads.

    PubMed

    Hoffman, Robert A; Wang, Lili; Bigos, Martin; Nolan, John P

    2012-09-01

    Results from a standardization study cosponsored by the International Society for Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are reported. The study evaluated the variability of assigning intensity values to fluorophore standard beads by bead manufacturers and the variability of cross calibrating the standard beads to stained polymer beads (hard-dyed beads) using different flow cytometers. Hard dyed beads are generally not spectrally matched to the fluorophores used to stain cells, and spectral response varies among flow cytometers. Thus if hard dyed beads are used as fluorescence calibrators, one expects calibration for specific fluorophores (e.g., FITC or PE) to vary among different instruments. Using standard beads surface-stained with specific fluorophores (FITC, PE, APC, and Pacific Blue™), the study compared the measured intensity of fluorophore standard beads to that of hard dyed beads through cross calibration on 133 different flow cytometers. Using robust CV as a measure of variability, the variation of cross calibrated values was typically 20% or more for a particular hard dyed bead in a specific detection channel. The variation across different instrument models was often greater than the variation within a particular instrument model. As a separate part of the study, NIST and four bead manufacturers used a NIST supplied protocol and calibrated fluorophore solution standards to assign intensity values to the fluorophore beads. Values assigned to the reference beads by different groups varied by orders of magnitude in most cases, reflecting differences in instrumentation used to perform the calibration. The study concluded that the use of any spectrally unmatched hard dyed bead as a general fluorescence calibrator must be verified and characterized for every particular instrument model. Close interaction between bead manufacturers and NIST is recommended to have reliable and uniformly assigned

  19. Microstructure and hardness of bovine enamel in roselle extract solution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dame, M. T.; Noerdin, A.; Indrani, D. J.

    2017-08-01

    The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of roselle extract solution on the microstructure and hardness of bovine enamel. Ten bovine teeth and a 5% concentration of roselle extract solution were prepared. Immersions of each bovine tooth in roselle extract solution were conducted up to 60 minutes. The bovine enamel surface was characterized in hardness and microscopy. It was apparent that the initial hardness was 328 KHN, and after immersion in 15 and 60 min, the values decrease to 57.4 KHN and 11 KHN, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed changes in enamel rods after immersion in the roselle extract solution.

  20. Effect of intravitreal bevacizumab on diabetic macular edema with hard exudates

    PubMed Central

    Jeon, Sohee; Lee, Won Ki

    2014-01-01

    Background We evaluated the efficacy of intravitreal bevacizumab on diabetic macular edema with subfoveal and perifoveal hard exudates. Materials and methods Eleven eyes (11 patients) exhibiting diabetic macular edema with subfoveal and perifoveal hard exudates were included in this prospective, nonrandomized interventional pilot study. All patients were treated with monthly scheduled intravitreal bevacizumab injections for 6 months. Changes in the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study best corrected visual acuity, amount of hard exudates on fundus photography, and macular edema detected by central subfield thickness on spectral domain optical coherence tomography after six serial injections, were assessed. The amount of hard exudates at each visit was evaluated as pixels in fundus photography, using an Adobe Photoshop program. Results Ten of 11 patients completed follow-up. The mean Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study best corrected visual acuity was 59.9±5.7 letters (Snellen equivalent, 20/63) at baseline evaluation. The best corrected visual acuity exhibited no significant difference at month 6 compared with at baseline (57.9±6.0 letters or 20/70 at month 6; P=0.085). At month 6, mean central subfield thickness decreased from 370.4±56.5 to 334.6±65.0 μm (P=0.009). The mean amount of hard exudates increased from 4467.1±2736.1 to 6592.4±2498.3 pixels at month 6 (P=0.022). No serious adverse events occurred. Conclusion Continuous intravitreal bevacizumab was found to have no benefit in visual acuity and amount of hard exudates, despite the improvement of macular edema at 6 months. PMID:25143708

  1. Comptomization and radiation spectra of X-ray sources. Calculation of the Monte Carlo method

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pozdnyakov, L. A.; Sobol, I. M.; Sonyayev, R. A.

    1980-01-01

    The results of computations of the Comptomization of low frequency radiation in weakly relativistic plasma are presented. The influence of photoabsorption by iron ions on a hard X-ray spectrum is considered.

  2. Structure and effective interactions in three-component hard sphere liquids.

    PubMed

    König, A; Ashcroft, N W

    2001-04-01

    Complete and simple analytical expressions for the partial structure factors of the ternary hard sphere mixture are obtained within the Percus-Yevick approximation and presented as functions of relative packing fractions and relative hard sphere diameters. These solutions follow from the Laplace transform method as applied to multicomponent systems by Lebowitz [Phys. Rev. 133, A895 (1964)]. As an important application, we examine effective interactions in hard sphere liquid mixtures using the microscopic information contained in their partial structure factors. Thus the ensuring pair potential for an effective one-component system is obtained from the correlation functions by using an approximate inversion, and examples of effective potentials for three-component hard sphere mixtures are given. These mixtures may be of particular interest for the study of the packing aspects of melts that form glasses or quasicrystals, since noncrystalline solids often emerge from melts with at least three atomic constituents.

  3. Assembly of hard spheres in a cylinder: a computational and experimental study.

    PubMed

    Fu, Lin; Bian, Ce; Shields, C Wyatt; Cruz, Daniela F; López, Gabriel P; Charbonneau, Patrick

    2017-05-14

    Hard spheres are an important benchmark of our understanding of natural and synthetic systems. In this work, colloidal experiments and Monte Carlo simulations examine the equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium assembly of hard spheres of diameter σ within cylinders of diameter σ≤D≤ 2.82σ. Although phase transitions formally do not exist in such systems, marked structural crossovers can nonetheless be observed. Over this range of D, we find in simulations that structural crossovers echo the structural changes in the sequence of densest packings. We also observe that the out-of-equilibrium self-assembly depends on the compression rate. Slow compression approximates equilibrium results, while fast compression can skip intermediate structures. Crossovers for which no continuous line-slip exists are found to be dynamically unfavorable, which is the main source of this difference. Results from colloidal sedimentation experiments at low diffusion rate are found to be consistent with the results of fast compressions, as long as appropriate boundary conditions are used.

  4. Training and Jobs Programs in Action: Case Studies in Private-Sector Initiatives for the Hard-to-Employ.

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Robison, David

    This book contains fifty-three case studies covering a wide variety of private-sector activities and public-private partnerships designed to increase training and employment opportunities for the hard-to-employ and speed the transition of the unemployed from government support and subsidized jobs to permanent private employment. Compiled from a…

  5. Virial series expansion and Monte Carlo studies of equation of state for hard spheres in narrow cylindrical pores

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mon, K. K.

    2018-05-01

    In this paper, the virial series expansion and constant pressure Monte Carlo method are used to study the longitudinal pressure equation of state for hard spheres in narrow cylindrical pores. We invoke dimensional reduction and map the model into an effective one-dimensional fluid model with interacting internal degrees of freedom. The one-dimensional model is extensive. The Euler relation holds, and longitudinal pressure can be probed with the standard virial series expansion method. Virial coefficients B2 and B3 were obtained analytically, and numerical quadrature was used for B4. A range of narrow pore widths (2 Rp) , Rp<(√{3 }+2 ) /4 =0.9330 ... (in units of the hard sphere diameter) was used, corresponding to fluids in the important single-file formations. We have also computed the virial pressure series coefficients B2', B3', and B4' to compare a truncated virial pressure series equation of state with accurate constant pressure Monte Carlo data. We find very good agreement for a wide range of pressures for narrow pores. These results contribute toward increasing the rather limited understanding of virial coefficients and the equation of state of hard sphere fluids in narrow cylindrical pores.

  6. Discovery of Diffuse Hard X-ray Emission associated with Jupiter

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ezoe, Y.; Miyoshi, Y.; Ishikawa, K.; Ohashi, T.; Terada, N.; Uchiyama, Y.; Negoro, H.

    2009-12-01

    Our discovery of diffuse hard (1-5 keV) X-ray emission around Jupiter is reported. Recent Chandra and XMM-Newton observations revealed several types of X-rays in the vicinity of Jupiter such as auroral and disk emission from Jupiter and faint diffuse X-rays from the Io Plasma Torus (see Bhardwaj et al. 2007 for review). To investigate possible diffuse hard X-ray emission around Jupiter with the highest sensitivity, we conducted data analysis of Suzaku XIS observations of Jupiter on Feb 2006. After removing satellite and planetary orbital motions, we detected a significant diffuse X-ray emission extending to ~6 x 3 arcmin with the 1-5 keV X-ray luminosity of ~3e15 erg/s. The emitting region very well coincided with the Jupiter's radiation belts. The 1-5 keV X-ray spectrum was represented by a simple power law model with a photon index of 1.4. Such a flat continuum strongly suggests non-thermal origin. Although such an emission can be originated from multiple background point sources, its possibility is quite low. We hence examined three mechanisms, assuming that the emission is truly diffuse: bremsstrahlung by keV electrons, synchrotron emission by TeV electrons, and inverse Compton scattering of solar photons by MeV electrons. The former two can be rejected because of the X-ray spectral shape and implausible existence of TeV electrons around Jupiter, respectively. The last possibility was found to be possible because tens MeV electrons, which have been confirmed in inner radiation belts (Bolton et al. 2002), can kick solar photons to the keV energy range and provide a simple power-law continuum. We estimated an average electron density from the X-ray luminosity assuming the oblate spheroid shaped emitting region with 8 x 8 x 4 Jovian radii. The necessary density was 0.02 1/cm3 for 50 MeV electrons. Hence, our results may suggest a new particle acceleration phenomenon around Jupiter.

  7. Hardness and microstructure analysis of damaged gear caused by adhesive wear

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mahendra, Rizky Budi; Nugroho, Sri; Ismail, Rifky

    2018-03-01

    This study was a result from research on repairing project of damaged elevator gear box. The objective of this research is to analyze the failure part on elevator gearbox at flourmill factory. The equipment was damaged after one year installed and running on factory. Severe wear was occurred on high speed helical gear. These helical gear was one of main part of elevator gearbox in flour mill manufacture. Visually, plastic deformation didn't occurred and not visible on the failure helical gear shaft. Some test would be performed to check the chemical composition, microstructure and hardness of failure helical gear. The material of failure helical gear shaft was a medium carbon steel alloy. The microstructure was showed a martensitic phase formed on the surface to the center area of gear shaft. Otherwise, the depth of hardness layer slight formed on surface and lack depth of hardness layer was a main trigger of severe wear. It was not enough to resist wear due to friction caused by rolling and sliding on surface between high speed gear and low speed gear. Enhancement of hardness layer on surface and depth of hardness layer will make the component has more long life time. Furthermore, to perform next research is needed to analyze the reliability of enhanced hardness on layer and depth of hardness layer on helical gear shaft.

  8. Infrared and colorimetric characterization of discolored kiln-dried hard maple lumber

    Treesearch

    Benjamin E. Dawson-Andoh; Michael Wiemann; Laurent Matuana; John Baumgras

    2004-01-01

    Discoloration of hard maple lumber commonly occurs during kiln-drying. In this study, discolored andnondiscolored kiln-dried hard maple lumber boards were characterized using a colorimetric method and Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Colorimetric measurements (L*, a*, b*) were found to be in good agreement with visual...

  9. Hard sphere packings within cylinders.

    PubMed

    Fu, Lin; Steinhardt, William; Zhao, Hao; Socolar, Joshua E S; Charbonneau, Patrick

    2016-03-07

    Arrangements of identical hard spheres confined to a cylinder with hard walls have been used to model experimental systems, such as fullerenes in nanotubes and colloidal wire assembly. Finding the densest configurations, called close packings, of hard spheres of diameter σ in a cylinder of diameter D is a purely geometric problem that grows increasingly complex as D/σ increases, and little is thus known about the regime for D > 2.873σ. In this work, we extend the identification of close packings up to D = 4.00σ by adapting Torquato-Jiao's adaptive-shrinking-cell formulation and sequential-linear-programming (SLP) technique. We identify 17 new structures, almost all of them chiral. Beyond D ≈ 2.85σ, most of the structures consist of an outer shell and an inner core that compete for being close packed. In some cases, the shell adopts its own maximum density configuration, and the stacking of core spheres within it is quasiperiodic. In other cases, an interplay between the two components is observed, which may result in simple periodic structures. In yet other cases, the very distinction between the core and shell vanishes, resulting in more exotic packing geometries, including some that are three-dimensional extensions of structures obtained from packing hard disks in a circle.

  10. Seismic signals hard clipping overcoming

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Olszowa, Paula; Sokolowski, Jakub

    2018-01-01

    In signal processing the clipping is understand as the phenomenon of limiting the signal beyond certain threshold. It is often related to overloading of a sensor. Two particular types of clipping are being recognized: soft and hard. Beyond the limiting value soft clipping reduces the signal real gain while the hard clipping stiffly sets the signal values at the limit. In both cases certain amount of signal information is lost. Obviously if one possess the model which describes the considered signal and the threshold value (which might be slightly more difficult to obtain in the soft clipping case), the attempt of restoring the signal can be made. Commonly it is assumed that the seismic signals take form of an impulse response of some specific system. This may lead to belief that the sine wave may be the most appropriate to fit in the clipping period. However, this should be tested. In this paper the possibility of overcoming the hard clipping in seismic signals originating from a geoseismic station belonging to an underground mine is considered. A set of raw signals will be hard-clipped manually and then couple different functions will be fitted and compared in terms of least squares. The results will be then analysed.

  11. Nanopatterned ferroelectrics for ultrahigh density rad-hard nonvolatile memories.

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Brennecka, Geoffrey L.; Stevens, Jeffrey; Scrymgeour, David

    2010-09-01

    Radiation hard nonvolatile random access memory (NVRAM) is a crucial component for DOE and DOD surveillance and defense applications. NVRAMs based upon ferroelectric materials (also known as FERAMs) are proven to work in radiation-rich environments and inherently require less power than many other NVRAM technologies. However, fabrication and integration challenges have led to state-of-the-art FERAMs still being fabricated using a 130nm process while competing phase-change memory (PRAM) has been demonstrated with a 20nm process. Use of block copolymer lithography is a promising approach to patterning at the sub-32nm scale, but is currently limited to self-assembly directly on Si or SiO{submore » 2} layers. Successful integration of ferroelectrics with discrete and addressable features of {approx}15-20nm would represent a 100-fold improvement in areal memory density and would enable more highly integrated electronic devices required for systems advances. Towards this end, we have developed a technique that allows us to carry out block copolymer self-assembly directly on a huge variety of different materials and have investigated the fabrication, integration, and characterization of electroceramic materials - primarily focused on solution-derived ferroelectrics - with discrete features of {approx}20nm and below. Significant challenges remain before such techniques will be capable of fabricating fully integrated NVRAM devices, but the tools developed for this effort are already finding broader use. This report introduces the nanopatterned NVRAM device concept as a mechanism for motivating the subsequent studies, but the bulk of the document will focus on the platform and technology development.« less

  12. A systematic review of analytical observational studies investigating the association between cardiovascular disease and drinking water hardness.

    PubMed

    Catling, Louise A; Abubakar, Ibrahim; Lake, Iain R; Swift, Louise; Hunter, Paul R

    2008-12-01

    The aim of this study is to systematically review and critically assess analytical observational epidemiology studies investigating the association between levels of drinking water hardness and cardiovascular disease. We searched electronic databases and used standardised forms to extract data and assess study quality. Of 2,906 papers identified, 14 met the inclusion criteria (nine case control and five cohort studies). Of the nine case control studies, seven examined both drinking water magnesium and calcium and risk of death from cardiovascular disease. A pooled odds ratio showed a statistically significant inverse association between magnesium and cardiovascular mortality (OR 0.75 (95%CI 0.68, 0.82), p < 0.001). Only two studies reported a statistically significant effect for calcium. Substantial heterogeneity between studies made calculation of a summary estimate for drinking water calcium inappropriate. Of three cohort studies reviewed, two were of good quality. A weak suggestion that soft water was harmful in females and possibly associated with a slightly greater risk of sudden death was reported, but there was no association between water hardness and mortality from stroke or cardiovascular disease. This study found significant evidence of an inverse association between magnesium levels in drinking water and cardiovascular mortality following a meta-analysis of case control studies. Evidence for calcium remains unclear. Copyright IWA Publishing 2008.

  13. A hard-to-read font reduces the framing effect in a large sample.

    PubMed

    Korn, Christoph W; Ries, Juliane; Schalk, Lennart; Oganian, Yulia; Saalbach, Henrik

    2018-04-01

    How can apparent decision biases, such as the framing effect, be reduced? Intriguing findings within recent years indicate that foreign language settings reduce framing effects, which has been explained in terms of deeper cognitive processing. Because hard-to-read fonts have been argued to trigger deeper cognitive processing, so-called cognitive disfluency, we tested whether hard-to-read fonts reduce framing effects. We found no reliable evidence for an effect of hard-to-read fonts on four framing scenarios in a laboratory (final N = 158) and an online study (N = 271). However, in a preregistered online study with a rather large sample (N = 732), a hard-to-read font reduced the framing effect in the classic "Asian disease" scenario (in a one-sided test). This suggests that hard-read-fonts can modulate decision biases-albeit with rather small effect sizes. Overall, our findings stress the importance of large samples for the reliability and replicability of modulations of decision biases.

  14. Sustaining Transformation: "Resiliency in Hard Times"

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Guarasci, Richard; Lieberman, Devorah

    2009-01-01

    The strategic, systemic, and encompassing evolution of a college or university spans a number of years, and the vagaries of economic cycles inevitably catch transforming institutions in mid-voyage. "Sustaining Transformation: Resiliency in Hard Times" presents a study of Wagner College as it moves into its second decade of purposeful…

  15. Rotation of hard particles in a soft matrix

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, Weizhu; Liu, Qingchang; Yue, Zhufeng; Li, Xiaodong; Xu, Baoxing

    Soft-hard materials integration is ubiquitous in biological materials and structures in nature and has also attracted growing attention in the bio-inspired design of advanced functional materials, structures and devices. Due to the distinct difference in their mechanical properties, the rotation of hard phases in soft matrixes upon deformation has been acknowledged, yet is lack of theory in mechanics. In this work, we propose a theoretical mechanics framework that can describe the rotation of hard particles in a soft matrix. The rotation of multiple arbitrarily shaped, located and oriented particles with perfectly bonded interfaces in an elastic soft matrix subjected to a far-field tensile loading is established and analytical solutions are derived by using complex potentials and conformal mapping methods. Strong couplings and competitions of the rotation of hard particles among each other are discussed by investigating numbers, relative locations and orientations of particles in the matrix at different loading directions. Extensive finite element analyses are performed to validate theoretical solutions and good agreement of both rotation and stress field between them are achieved. Possible extensions of the present theory to non-rigid particles, viscoelastic matrix and imperfect bonding are also discussed. Finally, by taking advantage of the rotation of hard particles, we exemplify an application in a conceptual design of soft-hard material integrated phononic crystal and demonstrate that phononic band gaps can be successfully tuned with a high accuracy through the mechanical tension-induced rotation of hard particles. The present theory established herein is expected to be of immediate interests to the design of soft-hard materials integration based functional materials, structures and devices with tunable performance via mechanical rotation of hard phases.

  16. Mental health and self-image among deaf and hard of hearing children.

    PubMed

    Mejstad, Lena; Heiling, Kerstin; Svedin, Carl Göran

    2009-01-01

    Mental health and self-image among deaf and hard of hearing children (ages 11-18 years) in southern Sweden was investigated. The children (N = 111) attended special schools for the deaf (n = 28), special schools for the hard of hearing (n = 23), and regular schools where hard of hearing children were mainstreamed (n = 60). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997) was used to screen mental health and the "I Think I Am" questionnaire Ouvinen-Birgerstam (1982, 1984) to measure self-esteem. The study shows that hard of hearing children seem to do as well, as a group, as other children in Swedish society. Mean SDQ and ITIA scores indicated that the mainstreamed students and the students in special schools for the hard of hearing had higher levels of rated mental health and self-image than the students in schools for the deaf.

  17. Hard X-ray Wiggler Front End Filter Design

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Schulte-Schrepping, Horst; Hahn, Ulrich

    2007-01-19

    The front end filter design and implementation for the new HARWI-II hard X-ray wiggler at DORIS-III at HASYLAB/DESY is presented. The device emits a total power of 30 kW at 150mA storage ring current. The beam has a horizontal width of 3.8mrad and a central power density of 54 W/mm2 at 26m distance to the source. The filter section located in the ring tunnel has been introduced to tailor the thermal loads at the downstream optical components. The high power density and the high total power at the filter section are handled with a layered design. Glassy carbon filters convertmore » the absorbed power into thermal radiation to lower the heat load to an acceptable level for water cooled copper filters. The requirements in beam size and filtering are addressed by separating the filter functions in three units which are switched individually into the beam.« less

  18. STUDYING THE POLARIZATION OF HARD X-RAY SOLAR FLARES WITH THE GAMMA RAY POLARIMETER EXPERIMENT (GRAPE)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ertley, Camden

    2014-01-01

    The degree of linear polarization of hard X-rays (50-500 keV) can provide a better understanding of the particle acceleration mechanisms and the emission of radiation during solar flares. Difficulties in measuring the linear polarization has limited the ability of past experiments to place constraints on solar flare models. The Gamma RAy Polarimeter Experiment (GRAPE) is a balloon-borne Compton polarimeter designed to measure polarization in the 50 - 500 keV energy range. This energy range minimizes the thermal contamination that can potentially affect measurements at lower energies. This research focuses on the analysis of data acquired during the first high altitude balloon flight of the GRAPE payload in 2011. During this 26 hour balloon flight two M-class flares were observed. The analysis effort includes the development of a Monte Carlo simulation of the full instrument payload with the GEANT4 toolkit. The simulations were used in understanding the background environment, creating a response matrix for the deconvolution of the energy loss spectra, and determining the modulation factor for a 100% linearly polarized source. We report on the results from the polarization analysis of the solar flare data. The polarization and spectral data can be used to further our understanding of particle acceleration in the context of current solar flare models.

  19. Laser-induced autofluorescence of oral cavity hard tissues

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Borisova, E. G.; Uzunov, Tz. T.; Avramov, L. A.

    2007-03-01

    In current study oral cavity hard tissues autofluorescence was investigated to obtain more complete picture of their optical properties. As an excitation source nitrogen laser with parameters - 337,1 nm, 14 μJ, 10 Hz (ILGI-503, Russia) was used. In vitro spectra from enamel, dentine, cartilage, spongiosa and cortical part of the periodontal bones were registered using a fiber-optic microspectrometer (PC2000, "Ocean Optics" Inc., USA). Gingival fluorescence was also obtained for comparison of its spectral properties with that of hard oral tissues. Samples are characterized with significant differences of fluorescence properties one to another. It is clearly observed signal from different collagen types and collagen-cross links with maxima at 385, 430 and 480-490 nm. In dentine are observed only two maxima at 440 and 480 nm, related also to collagen structures. In samples of gingival and spongiosa were observed traces of hemoglobin - by its re-absorption at 545 and 575 nm, which distort the fluorescence spectra detected from these anatomic sites. Results, obtained in this study are foreseen to be used for development of algorithms for diagnosis and differentiation of teeth lesions and other problems of oral cavity hard tissues as periodontitis and gingivitis.

  20. Defect evolution in ZnO and its effect on radiation tolerance.

    PubMed

    Lv, Jinpeng; Li, Xingji

    2018-05-03

    The origin of ZnO radiation resistance is fascinating but still unclear. Herein, we found that radiation tolerance of ZnO can be tuned by engineering intrinsic defects into the ZnO. The role played by native defects in the radiation tolerance of ZnO was systematically explored by carrying out N+ implantation on a set of home-grown ZnO nanocrystals with various lattice defect types and concentrations. Interestingly, decreasing the VO and Zni concentration significantly aggravated N+ radiation damage, indicating the presence of O-deficient defects to be the potential cause of the radiation hardness of ZnO. A similar phenomenon was also observed for H+-implanted ZnO. This work offers a new way to manipulate ZnO and endow it with desired physicochemical properties, and is expected to pave the way for its application in radiative environments.

  1. Group electronegativity for prediction of materials hardness.

    PubMed

    Li, Keyan; Yang, Peng; Niu, Lingxiao; Xue, Dongfeng

    2012-06-28

    We have developed a method to predict the hardness of materials containing ultrastrong anionic polyhedra, dense atomic clusters, and layers stacked through van der Waals bonds on the basis of group electronegativity. By considering these polyhedra, clusters, and layers as groups that behave as rigid unities like superatoms bonding to other atoms or groups, the hardness values of materials such as oxysalts, T-carbon, and graphite were quantitatively calculated, and the results are consistent with the available experiments. We found that the hardness of materials containing these artificial groups is determined by the bonds between the groups and other atoms or groups, rather than by the weakest bonds. This work sheds light on the nature of materials hardness and the design of novel inorganic crystal materials.

  2. Novel hard compositions and methods of preparation

    DOEpatents

    Sheinberg, H.

    1981-02-03

    Novel very hard compositions of matter are prepared by using in all embodiments only a minor amount of a particular carbide (or materials which can form the carbide in situ when subjected to heat and pressure); and no strategic cobalt is needed. Under a particular range of conditions, densified compositions of matter of the invention are prepared having hardnesses on the Rockwell A test substantially equal to the hardness of pure tungsten carbide and to two of the hardest commercial cobalt-bonded tungsten carbides. Alternately, other compositions of the invention which have slightly lower hardnesses than those described above in one embodiment also possess the advantage of requiring no tungsten and in another embodiment possess the advantage of having a good fracture toughness value.

  3. Radiation Effects on the Electrical Properties of MOS Device Materials.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1978-02-01

    3 Under Contract e ~i8 DAAG39~~ C.0O88 tJTtj~ J b This work _ sponsored by di. Ds~nse Nuclear Aisocy undur Nuclear ~ ffiupons Effucta flussarch...numb •r) Si02, MOS , CMOS Vacuum Ultraviolet Radiation Radiation Hardness Interfac e States Capture Cross Sections 2 ’ ~~’*~~ TRACT (Continu e on...When 0 t e Entered ) Results show that unannealed dry oxides have the lowest interface— state density after irrad iation, making them more desirable

  4. 21 CFR 133.150 - Hard cheeses.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 2 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Hard cheeses. 133.150 Section 133.150 Food and... CONSUMPTION CHEESES AND RELATED CHEESE PRODUCTS Requirements for Specific Standardized Cheese and Related Products § 133.150 Hard cheeses. (a) The cheeses for which definitions and standards of identity are...

  5. 7 CFR 201.30 - Hard seed.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

    2011-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 3 2011-01-01 2011-01-01 false Hard seed. 201.30 Section 201.30 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) FEDERAL SEED ACT FEDERAL SEED ACT REGULATIONS Labeling Vegetable Seeds § 201.30 Hard...

  6. 7 CFR 201.30 - Hard seed.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

    2014-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 3 2014-01-01 2014-01-01 false Hard seed. 201.30 Section 201.30 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) FEDERAL SEED ACT FEDERAL SEED ACT REGULATIONS Labeling Vegetable Seeds § 201.30 Hard...

  7. 7 CFR 201.30 - Hard seed.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

    2010-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Hard seed. 201.30 Section 201.30 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) FEDERAL SEED ACT FEDERAL SEED ACT REGULATIONS Labeling Vegetable Seeds § 201.30 Hard...

  8. 7 CFR 201.30 - Hard seed.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

    2013-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 3 2013-01-01 2013-01-01 false Hard seed. 201.30 Section 201.30 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) FEDERAL SEED ACT FEDERAL SEED ACT REGULATIONS Labeling Vegetable Seeds § 201.30 Hard...

  9. 7 CFR 201.30 - Hard seed.

    Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

    2012-01-01

    ... 7 Agriculture 3 2012-01-01 2012-01-01 false Hard seed. 201.30 Section 201.30 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (Standards, Inspections, Marketing Practices), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (CONTINUED) FEDERAL SEED ACT FEDERAL SEED ACT REGULATIONS Labeling Vegetable Seeds § 201.30 Hard...

  10. High Radiation Resistance IMM Solar Cell

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Pan, Noren

    2015-01-01

    Due to high launch costs, weight reduction is a key driver for the development of new solar cell technologies suitable for space applications. This project is developing a unique triple-junction inverted metamorphic multijunction (IMM) technology that enables the manufacture of very lightweight, low-cost InGaAsP-based multijunction solar cells. This IMM technology consists of indium (In) and phosphorous (P) solar cell active materials, which are designed to improve the radiation-resistant properties of the triple-junction solar cell while maintaining high efficiency. The intrinsic radiation hardness of InP materials makes them of great interest for building solar cells suitable for deployment in harsh radiation environments, such as medium Earth orbit and missions to the outer planets. NASA Glenn's recently developed epitaxial lift-off (ELO) process also will be applied to this new structure, which will enable the fabrication of the IMM structure without the substrate.

  11. Studying hardness, workability and minimum bending radius in selectively laser-sintered Ti–6Al–4V alloy samples

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galkina, N. V.; Nosova, Y. A.; Balyakin, A. V.

    2018-03-01

    This research is relevant as it tries to improve the mechanical and service performance of the Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy obtained by selective laser sintering. For that purpose, sintered samples were annealed at 750 and 850°C for an hour. Sintered and annealed samples were tested for hardness, workability and microstructure. It was found that incomplete annealing of selectively laser-sintered Ti–6Al–4V samples results in an insignificant reduction in hardness and ductility. Sintered and incompletely annealed samples had a hardness of 32..33 HRC, which is lower than the value of annealed parts specified in standards. Complete annealing at temperature 850°C reduces the hardness to 25 HRC and ductility by 15...20%. Incomplete annealing lowers the ductility factor from 0.08 to 0.06. Complete annealing lowers that value to 0.025. Complete annealing probably results in the embrittlement of sintered samples, perhaps due to their oxidation and hydrogenation in the air. Optical metallography showed lateral fractures in both sintered and annealed samples, which might be the reason why they had lower hardness and ductility.

  12. Stepwise Inquiry into Hard Water in a High School Chemistry Laboratory

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Kakisako, Mami; Nishikawa, Kazuyuki; Nakano, Masayoshi; Harada, Kana S.; Tatsuoka, Tomoyuki; Koga, Nobuyoshi

    2016-01-01

    This study focuses on the design of a learning program to introduce complexometric titration as a method for determining water hardness in a high school chemistry laboratory. Students are introduced to the different properties and reactions of hard water in a stepwise manner so that they gain the necessary chemical knowledge and conceptual…

  13. Parameterized Algorithmics for Finding Exact Solutions of NP-Hard Biological Problems.

    PubMed

    Hüffner, Falk; Komusiewicz, Christian; Niedermeier, Rolf; Wernicke, Sebastian

    2017-01-01

    Fixed-parameter algorithms are designed to efficiently find optimal solutions to some computationally hard (NP-hard) problems by identifying and exploiting "small" problem-specific parameters. We survey practical techniques to develop such algorithms. Each technique is introduced and supported by case studies of applications to biological problems, with additional pointers to experimental results.

  14. Theory of hard diffraction and rapidity gaps

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Del Duca, V.

    1996-02-01

    In this talk we review the models describing the hard diffractive production of jets or more generally high-mass states in presence of rapidity gaps in hadron-hadron and lepton-hadron collisions. By rapidity gaps we mean regions on the lego plot in (pseudo)-rapidity and azimuthal angle where no hadrons are produced, between the jet(s) and an elastically scattered hadron (single hard diffraction) or between two jets (double hard diffraction). {copyright} {ital 1996 American Institute of Physics.}

  15. Results of endocapsular phacofracture debulking of hard cataracts

    PubMed Central

    Davison, James A

    2015-01-01

    Purpose/aim of the study To present a phacoemulsification technique for hard cataracts and compare postoperative results using two different ultrasonic tip motions during quadrant removal. Materials and methods A phacoemulsification technique which employs in situ fracture and endocapsular debulking for hard cataracts is presented. The prospective study included 56 consecutive cases of hard cataract (LOCS III NC [Lens Opacification Classification System III, nuclear color], average 4.26), which were operated using the Infiniti machine and the Partial Kelman tip. Longitudinal tip movement was used for sculpting for all cases which were randomized to receive longitudinal or torsional/interjected longitudinal (Intelligent Phaco [IP]) strategies for quadrant removal. Measurements included cumulative dissipated energy (CDE), 3 months postoperative surgically induced astigmatism (SIA), and corneal endothelial cell density (ECD) losses. Results No complications were recorded in any of the cases. Respective overall and longitudinal vs IP means were as follows: CDE, 51.6±15.6 and 55.7±15.5 vs 48.6±15.1; SIA, 0.36±0.2 D and 0.4±0.2 D vs 0.3±0.2 D; and mean ECD loss, 4.1%±10.8% and 5.9%±13.4% vs 2.7%±7.8%. The differences between longitudinal and IP were not significant for any of the three categories. Conclusion The endocapsular phacofracture debulking technique is safe and effective for phacoemulsification of hard cataracts using longitudinal or torsional IP strategies for quadrant removal with the Infiniti machine and Partial Kelman tip. PMID:26203213

  16. Runaway electron studies with hard x-ray and microwave diagnostics in the FT-2 lower hybrid current drive discharges

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shevelev, A. E.; Khilkevitch, E. M.; Lashkul, S. I.; Rozhdestvensky, V. V.; Pandya, S. P.; Plyusnin, V. V.; Altukhov, A. B.; Kouprienko, D. V.; Chugunov, I. N.; Doinikov, D. N.; Esipov, L. A.; Gin, D. B.; Iliasova, M. V.; Naidenov, V. O.; Polunovsky, I. A.; Sidorov, A. V.; Kiptily, V. G.

    2018-01-01

    Studies of the super-thermal and runaway electron behavior in ohmic and lower hybrid current drive FT-2 tokamak plasmas have been carried out using information obtained from measurements of hard x-ray spectra and non-thermal microwave radiation intensity at the frequency of 10 GHz and in the range of (53 ÷ 78) GHz. A gamma-ray spectrometer based on a scintillation detector with a LaBr3(Ce) crystal was used, which provides measurements at counting rates up to 107 s-1. Reconstruction of the energy distribution of RE interacting with the poloidal limiter of the tokamak chamber was made with application of the DeGaSum code. Super-thermal electrons accelerated up to 2 MeV by the LH waves at the high-frequency pumping of the plasma with low density ≤ft< {{n}e} \\right> ~ 2  ×  1013 cm-3 and then up to 7 MeV by vortex electric field have been found. Experimental analysis of the runaway electron beam generation and evolution of their energy distribution in the FT-2 plasmas is presented in the article and compared with the numerical calculation of the maximum energy gained by runaway electrons for given plasma parameters. In addition, possible mechanisms for limiting the maximum energy gained by the runaway electrons are also calculated and described for a FT-2 plasma discharge.

  17. Comparison of time-dependent changes in the surface hardness of different composite resins

    PubMed Central

    Ozcan, Suat; Yikilgan, Ihsan; Uctasli, Mine Betul; Bala, Oya; Kurklu, Zeliha Gonca Bek

    2013-01-01

    Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the change in surface hardness of silorane-based composite resin (Filtek Silorane) in time and compare the results with the surface hardness of two methacrylate-based resins (Filtek Supreme and Majesty Posterior). Materials and Methods: From each composite material, 18 wheel-shaped samples (5-mm diameter and 2-mm depth) were prepared. Top and bottom surface hardness of these samples was measured using a Vicker's hardness tester. The samples were then stored at 37°C and 100% humidity. After 24 h and 7, 30 and 90 days, the top and bottom surface hardness of the samples was measured. In each measurement, the rate between the hardness of the top and bottom surfaces were recorded as the hardness rate. Statistical analysis was performed by one-way analysis of variance, multiple comparisons by Tukey's test and binary comparisons by t-test with a significance level of P = 0.05. Results: The highest hardness values were obtained from each two surfaces of Majesty Posterior and the lowest from Filtek Silorane. Both the top and bottom surface hardness of the methacrylate based composite resins was high and there was a statistically significant difference between the top and bottom hardness values of only the silorane-based composite, Filtek Silorane (P < 0.05). The lowest was obtained with Filtek Silorane. The hardness values of all test groups increased after 24 h (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Although silorane-based composite resin Filtek Silorane showed adequate hardness ratio, the use of incremental technic during application is more important than methacrylate based composites. PMID:24966724

  18. Chemistry of MOS-LSI radiation hardening

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Grunthaner, P.

    1985-01-01

    The objective of this task was to obtain chemical information on MOS test samples. Toward this end, high resolution X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) has been the primary techniques used to characterize the chemistry and structure of the SiO2/Si interface for a variety of MOS structures with differing degrees of susceptibility to damage by ionizing radiation. The major accomplishments of this program are: (1) the identification of a structurally distinct region of SiO2 in the near-interfacial region of thermal SiO2 on Si; (2) the identification in the near-interfacial region of SiO2 structural differences between radiation hard and soft gate oxides; (3) the direct observation of radiation-induced damage sites in thermal SiO2 with XPS using in situ electron stress; (4) the correlation of suboxide state distributions at the SiO2/Si interface with processing parameters and radiation susceptibility; (5) the development of a chemical mechanism for radiation-induced interface state generation in SiO2/Si structures; and (6) the development benign chemical profiling techniques which permit the investigation of oxide/semiconductor structures using surface sensitive electron spectroscopic techniques.

  19. Longitudinal changes in gray matter regions after cranial radiation and comparative analysis with whole body radiation: a DTI study.

    PubMed

    Watve, Apurva; Gupta, Mamta; Khushu, Subash; Rana, Poonam

    2018-06-01

    Radiation-induced white matter changes are well known and vastly studied. However, radiation-induced gray matter alterations are still a research question. In the present study, these changes were assessed in a longitudinal manner using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and further compared for cranial and whole body radiation exposure. Male mice (C57BL/6) were irradiated with cranial or whole body radiation followed by DTI study at 7T animal MRI system during predose, subacute and early delayed phases of radiation sickness. Fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) values were obtained from brain's gray matter regions. Decreased FA with increased MD was observed prominently in animals exposed to cranial radiation showing most changes at 8 months post irradiation. However, whole body radiation induced FA changes were mostly observed at 1 month post irradiation as compared to controls. The differential response after whole body and cranial irradiation observed in the study depicts that radiation exposure of 5 Gy could induce permanent alterations in gray matter regions prominently as observed in Caudoputamen region at all the time points. Thus, our study has bolstered the role of DTI to probe microstructural changes in gray matter regions of brain after radiation exposure.

  20. Health benefits of hard martial arts in adults: a systematic review.

    PubMed

    Origua Rios, Sandra; Marks, Jennifer; Estevan, Isaac; Barnett, Lisa M

    2018-07-01

    Participation in organized sports is promoted as a means of increasing physical activity levels and reducing chronic disease risk in adults. Hard martial arts practice (i.e. using body contact techniques), has gained in popularity over time. This review explores the evidence for health benefits of "hard" martial arts practice within the adult population. A systematic electronic database search was conducted, and quality assessments applied the Effective Public Health Practice Project tool. Twenty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria, examining balance, cognitive function, muscular skeletal status, psychological, cardiovascular fitness, and metabolic effects. The majority of studies reported positive effects resulting from hard martial arts practice, showing some improvement and maintenance of balance, cognitive function and psychological health. Benefits may be obtained regardless of the age of practice commencement. However, quality of the evidence is affected by methodological weaknesses across the studies. "Hard" martial arts seem to have potential to improve balance and cognitive functions that decline with age, which can lead to poorer health outcomes among the elderly (e.g. cognitive decline, falls and fractures). Benefits should be further investigated with improved intervention studies, representative samples and longer follow-up periods in order to establish associations with morbidity and mortality in the long term.

  1. Gamma radiation in ceramic capacitors: a study for space missions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    dos Santos Ferreira, Eduardo; Sarango Souza, Juliana

    2017-10-01

    We studied the real time effects of the gamma radiation in ceramic capacitors, in order to evaluate the effects of cosmic radiation on these devices. Space missions have electronic circuits with various types of devices, many studies have been done on semiconductor devices exposed to gamma radiation, but almost no studies for passive components, in particular ceramic capacitors. Commercially sold ceramic capacitors were exposed to gamma radiation, and the capacitance was measured before and after exposure. The results clearly show that the capacitance decreases with exposure to gamma radiation. We confirmed this observation in a real time capacitance measurement, obtained using a data logging system developed by us using the open source Arduino platform.

  2. Radiation damage in charge-coupled devices.

    PubMed

    Bassler, Niels

    2010-08-01

    Due to their high sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio, charge-coupled devices (CCDs) have been the preferred optical photon detectors of astronomers for several decades. CCDs are flown in space as the main detection instrument on several well-known missions, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, XMM-Newton or the Cassini Probe. Also, CCDs are frequently used in satellite star trackers which provide attitude information to the satellite orientation system. However, one major drawback is their extreme vulnerability to radiation, which is readily abundant in space. Here, we shall give a brief overview of the radiation effects on CCDs, and mention ways how to mitigate the effects in other ways than merely increase shielding, such as cooling and annealing. As an example, we have investigated the radiation hardness of a particular CCD, the so-called CCD47-20 from Marconi Applied Technologies (now E2V), by exposing it to radiation fields representing the radiation environment found in a highly elliptic orbit crossing the Van-Allen radiation belts. Two engineering-grade CCDs were irradiated with proton beams and photons, and effects of increased bulk dark current, surface dark current and inversion threshold voltage shifts were observed and are quantified.

  3. Study Regarding Electromagnetic Radiation Exposure Generated By Mobile Phone

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marica, Lucia; Moraru, Luminita

    2011-12-01

    Number of mobile phone users reached to 5 billion subscribers in 2010 [ABI Research, 2010]. A large number of studies illustrated the public concern about adverse effects of mobile phone radiation and possible health hazards. Position of mobile phone use in close proximity to the head leads the main radiation between the hand and the head. Many investigations studying the possible effects of mobile phone exposure, founded no measurable effects of short-term mobile phone radiation, and there was no evidence for the ability to perceive mobile phone EMF in the general population. In this study, field radiation measurements were performed on different brand and different models of mobile phones in active mode, using an EMF RF Radiation Field Strength Power Meter 1 MHz-8 GHz. The study was effectuated on both the 2G and 3G generations phones connected to the providers operating in the frequency range 450 MHz-1800 MHz. There were recorded values in outgoing call and SMS mode, incoming call and SMS mode. Results were compared with ICNIRP guidelines for exposure to general public.

  4. Effect of cow and soy milk on enamel hardness of immersed teeth

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Widanti, H. A.; Herda, E.; Damiyanti, M.

    2017-08-01

    Cow milk and soy milk have different mineral contents and this can affect the tooth remineralization process. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of cow and soy milk on immersed teeth after demineralization. Twenty-one specimens, of human maxillary premolars, were measured for enamel hardness before immersion and demineralization in orange juice. The teeth were divided into three groups (n = 7) with each group immersed in either distilled water, cow milk, or soy milk. There was a significant increase in enamel hardness in all groups (p < 0.05). Cow milk provided the highest increase in enamel hardness, of all the three groups, but was not able to restore the initial enamel hardness.

  5. Gamma radiation effects on physical properties of parchment documents: Assessment of Dmax

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nunes, Inês; Mesquita, Nuno; Cabo Verde, Sandra; João Trigo, Maria; Ferreira, Armando; Manuela Carolino, Maria; Portugal, António; Luísa Botelho, Maria

    2012-12-01

    Parchments are important documents that give testimony for History; therefore these materials should be respected and preserved. Considering incremental biodeterioration problems that have to be faced daily, the Archive of the University of Coimbra (AUC) is involved in different scientific projects in order to evaluate and determine new methods for document decontamination and preservation. The aim of this study was to evaluate gamma radiation effects on the colour and texture of the AUC parchment documents. The assessment of these effects was used to estimate the maximum gamma radiation dose (Dmax) that could guarantee parchment documents' decontamination treatment, without significant alteration of their physical properties. Parchment samples were exposed to gamma radiation doses ranging from 10 to 30 kGy. The texture and colour of samples were assessed before and after the irradiation procedure, using a texture analyser and an electronic colorimeter. Hardness and springiness were determined based on texture spectra. Lightness (L*), Chroma (C), greenness vs. redness (a*) and yellowness vs. blueness (b*) values were obtained from colorimetric measures. Results indicate no significant effects of gamma radiation on the texture and colour of parchment for the studied doses.

  6. Assessing degradation of composite resin cements during artificial aging by Martens hardness.

    PubMed

    Bürgin, Stefan; Rohr, Nadja; Fischer, Jens

    2017-05-19

    Aim of the study was to verify the efficiency of Martens hardness measurements in detecting the degradation of composite resin cements during artificial aging. Four cements were used: Variolink II (VL2), RelyX Unicem 2 Automix (RUN), PermaFlo DC (PDC), and DuoCem (DCM). Specimens for Martens hardness measurements were light-cured and stored in water at 37 °C for 1 day to allow complete polymerization (baseline). Subsequently the specimens were artificially aged by water storage at 37 °C or thermal cycling (n = 6). Hardness was measured at baseline as well as after 1, 4, 9 and 16 days of aging. Specimens for indirect tensile strength measurements were produced in a similar manner. Indirect tensile strength was measured at baseline and after 16 days of aging (n = 10). The results were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA (α = 0.05). After water storage for 16 days hardness was significantly reduced for VL2, RUN and DCM while hardness of PDC as well as indirect tensile strength of all cements were not significantly affected. Thermal cycling significantly reduced both, hardness and indirect tensile strength for all cements. No general correlation was found between Martens hardness and indirect tensile strength. However, when each material was analyzed separately, relative change of hardness and of indirect tensile strength revealed a strong linear correlation. Martens hardness is a sensible test method to assess aging of resin composite cements during thermal cycling that is easy to perform.

  7. Metallographic structure and hardness of titanium orthodontic brackets.

    PubMed

    Zinelis, Spiros; Annousaki, Olga; Eliades, Theodore; Makou, Margarita

    2003-11-01

    To determine the elemental composition, microstructure, and hardness of two different brands of titanium (Ti) orthodontic brackets. Four specimens of each brand were embedded in epoxy resin and, after metallographic grinding and polishing, were studied under a metallographic microscope. The bonding base morphology of each bracket was studied in as-received brackets by scanning electron microscopy. Energy dispersive x-ray microanalysis (EDS) was used on polished specimens to assess the elemental composition of base and wing bracket components, and the brackets were subjected to metallographic etching to reveal the metallurgical structure. The same specimen surfaces were used for assessment of the Vickers hardness. The results were statistically analyzed by two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the bracket brand and bracket region (base, wing) serving as discriminating variables, whilst further group differences were investigated with Tukey's multiple comparison test at the alpha = 0.05 level of significance. Metallographic imaging revealed that the Orthos2 brackets (Ormco, Glendora, CA, USA) consist of two parts joined together by laser welding, with large gaps along the base wing interface, whereas Rematitan brackets (Dentaurum, Ispringen, Germany) are single-piece appliances. Ti was the only element identified in Rematitan and Orthos2 base materials, while aluminium (Al) and vanadium (V) were also found in the Orthos2 wing component. Metallographic analysis showed the presence of a + b phase for Orthos2 and plate-like grains for Rematitan. The results of the Vickers hardness testing were: Orthos2 (wing): 371 +/- 22, Rematitan (wing): 272 +/- 4, Rematitan (base): 271 +/- 16, Orthos2 (base): 165 +/- 2. The findings of the present study suggest that there are significant differences in composition, microstructure and hardness between the two commercial types of Ti brackets tested; the clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

  8. The study of efficiency of endogenous and exogenous preventive methods of tooth enamel remineralisation by FTIR microscopy using synchrotron radiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Goloshchapov, D. L.; Kashkarov, V. M.; Seredin, P. V.; Ippolitov, Y. A.; Plotnikova, Y. A.; Bambery, K.

    2016-08-01

    The efficiency carious preventive methods was detected with the use of equipment for IR-spectromicroscopy and high-intensive synchrotron radiation. The results of the experiment are indicative of the use of exogenous caries prevention alone (use of a toothpaste) being inadequate in saturating hard dental tissues by mineral groups and, thus, keeping teeth healthy, as this method is only short-lived. The use of endogenous methods (mineral tablets based on calcium glycerophosphate) in combination with exogenous prevention enhances prevention as part of remineralisation of dental tissues.

  9. A Study on Effect of Graphite Particles on Tensile, Hardness and Machinability of Aluminium 8011 Matrix Material

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Latha Shankar, B.; Anil, K. C.; Karabasappagol, Prasann J.

    2016-09-01

    Industrial application point of view, metal matrix composites in general and Aluminium alloy matrix composites in particular are ideal candidates because of their favourable engineering properties. Being lightweight Aluminium matrix composites are widely used in aircraft, defence and automotive industries. In this work Aluminium 8011 metal matrix was reinforced with fine Graphite particles of 50 μm. developed by two-step Stir casting method. Graphite weight %was varied in the range 2, 4, 6 and 8%. Uniform dispersion of graphite particle is examined under optical microscope. Tensile test coupons were prepared as per standard to determine % of elongation and tensile strength for various % of graphite particle. Hardness of developed composite for various % of graphite particle and Machinability parameters were also studied for effect on surface finish. It was observed that with increase of weight percentage of Graphite particles up to 8% in Aluminium 8011 alloy matrix there was increase in tensile strength, decrease in % of elongation with increase in hardness. Machinability study revealed that, there was decrease in surface roughness with increase in Graphite content.

  10. Outdoor weathering of facial prosthetic elastomers differing in Durometer hardness.

    PubMed

    Willett, Emily S; Beatty, Mark W

    2015-03-01

    Facial prosthetic elastomers with wide ranges in hardness are available, yet material weatherability is unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess color, Durometer hardness, and tensile property changes after 3000 hours of outdoor weathering. Unpigmented elastomers with Durometer hardness 5, 30, 50, 70, and A-2186 were polymerized into dumbbells (ASTM D412) and disks, 34 mm in diameter by 6 mm thick. Materials were subjected to outdoor or time passage environments for 3000 hours. CIELab color (n=5), Durometer hardness (n=5), and tensile mechanical properties (n=10) were measured at 0 and 3000 hours, and group differences were assessed by material and weathering condition (ANOVA/Tukey, α=.05). Except for A-2186, the mean Durometer changes for all materials were 1 unit or less, with no significant differences observed between time passage and weathered groups (P≥.05). Three-thousand-hour tensile mechanical property results demonstrated nonsignificant differences between time passage and weathered materials but significantly changed properties from immediately tested materials (P<.001). Outdoor weathering induced perceptible but acceptable color changes (1.7≤ΔE*≤2.6) for elastomers with Durometer hardness 5 and 30 and A-2186. With a few exceptions, outdoor weathering produced relatively small changes in color, Durometer hardness, or tensile properties compared with time passage. Copyright © 2015 Editorial Council for the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. Professional concerns of beginning teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students.

    PubMed

    Guteng, Simon I

    2005-01-01

    The professional concerns of beginning teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing were examined. Five first-year teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students served as participants. Two of the participants were itinerant teachers; three taught in self-contained classrooms. Participants were selected from programs serving deaf and hard of hearing students in rural and urban areas of the midwestern and southwestern United States. To interview the study participants, the researcher used an in-depth phenomenological method employing semi-structured questions and guided by a constructivist paradigm. Data were analyzed using qualitative analysis strategies (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992; Miles & Huberman, 1994). Results showed that concerns of beginning teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students are specific to service delivery models and geography. Participants provided specific recommendations for addressing the concerns of beginning teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students.

  12. Geant4 calculations for space radiation shielding material Al2O3

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Capali, Veli; Acar Yesil, Tolga; Kaya, Gokhan; Kaplan, Abdullah; Yavuz, Mustafa; Tilki, Tahir

    2015-07-01

    Aluminium Oxide, Al2O3 is the most widely used material in the engineering applications. It is significant aluminium metal, because of its hardness and as a refractory material owing to its high melting point. This material has several engineering applications in diverse fields such as, ballistic armour systems, wear components, electrical and electronic substrates, automotive parts, components for electric industry and aero-engine. As well, it is used as a dosimeter for radiation protection and therapy applications for its optically stimulated luminescence properties. In this study, stopping powers and penetrating distances have been calculated for the alpha, proton, electron and gamma particles in space radiation shielding material Al2O3 for incident energies 1 keV - 1 GeV using GEANT4 calculation code.

  13. Titanium orthodontic brackets: structure, composition, hardness and ionic release.

    PubMed

    Gioka, Christiana; Bourauel, Christoph; Zinelis, Spiros; Eliades, Theodore; Silikas, Nikolaos; Eliades, George

    2004-09-01

    The aim of the present study was to investigate the composition, morphology, bulk structure and ionic release of two brands of titanium orthodontic brackets: Orthos2 (Ormco, USA) and Rematitan (Dentaurum, Germany). Five specimens of each group were examined with computerized X-ray microtomography, to reveal the morphology and structure of brackets, whilst resin-embedded and metallographically polished specimens were subjected to SEM/EDS analysis and Vickers microhardness measurements. Brackets were also maintained in 0.9% saline for 2 months and the ionic release in the immersion medium was determined with Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy. The results of the hardness and ionic release measurements were statistically analyzed with two-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (alpha = 0.05). Orthos2 brackets consisted of two parts, the base (commercially pure Ti grade II) and the wing (Ti-6Al-4V alloy), joined together by laser welding, producing large gaps along the base-wing interface. The base was of lower hardness (Hv = 145), than the wing (Hv = 392) and incorporated a standard foil base-mesh pad. Rematitan brackets consisted of commercially pure Ti grade IV, with a single-piece manufacturing pattern of virtually identical hardness (p > 0.05) at the base and wings, featuring a laser-etched base-mesh pad. The hardness of the Rematitan brackets was significantly lower than the hardness of the Orthos2 wings, but double the hardness of the Orthos2 base. Released Ti levels were below the threshold level (1 ng/ml) of analysis for both materials, whilst traces of Al (3 ppm) and V (2 ppm) were found in the immersion media for Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The structural and hardness differences found may influence the torque transfer characteristics from activated archwires to the brackets and the crevice corrosion potential at the base-wing interface (Orthos2). The detection of Al and V in the immersion medium (Orthos2) may imply a different biological response from the two

  14. A Study of Surface Temperatures, Clouds and Net Radiation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dhuria, Harbans

    1996-01-01

    This study focused on the seasonal relationships and interactions of climate parameters such as the surface temperatures, net radiation, long wave flux, short wave flux, and clouds on a global basis. Five years of observations (December 1984 to November 1989) from the Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) and the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Program (ISCCP) were used to study both seasonal variations and interannual variations by use of a basic radiation budget equation. In addition, the study was extended to include an analysis of the cloud forcing due El-Nino's impact on the ERBE parameters.

  15. MODELING THE HARD TeV SPECTRA OF BLAZARS 1ES 0229+200 AND 3C 66A WITH AN INTERNAL ABSORPTION SCENARIO

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zacharopoulou, O.; Aharonian, F. A.; Khangulyan, D.

    2011-09-10

    We study the applicability of the idea of internal absorption of {gamma}-rays produced through synchrotron radiation of ultrarelativistic protons in highly magnetized blobs to 1ES 0229+200 and 3C 66A, the two TeV blazars which show unusually hard intrinsic {gamma}-ray spectra after being corrected for the intergalactic absorption. We show that for certain combinations of reasonable model parameters, even with quite modest energy requirements, the scenario allows a self-consistent explanation of the non-thermal emission of these objects in the keV, GeV, and TeV energy bands.

  16. [Drinking water hardness and chronic degenerative diseases. II. Cardiovascular diseases].

    PubMed

    Monarca, S; Zerbini, I; Simonati, C; Gelatti, U

    2003-01-01

    Since the 1950s a causal relation between water hardness and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in humans has been hypothesized. In order to evaluate the influence of calcium and magnesium, the minerals responsible for the hardness of drinking water, on human health, a review of all the articles published on the subject from 1980 up to today has been carried out. Many but not all geographic correlation studies showed an inverse association between water hardness and mortality for CVD. Most case-control and one cohort studies showed an inverse relation, statistically significant, between mortality from CVD and water levels of magnesium, but not calcium. Consumption of water containing high concentrations of magnesium seems to reduce of about 30-35% the mortality for CVD, but not the incidence. This inverse association is supported by clinical and experimental findings and is biologically plausible and in line with Hill's criteria for a cause-effect relationship.

  17. Potential Health Impacts of Hard Water

    PubMed Central

    Sengupta, Pallav

    2013-01-01

    In the past five decades or so evidence has been accumulating about an environmental factor, which appears to be influencing mortality, in particular, cardiovascular mortality, and this is the hardness of the drinking water. In addition, several epidemiological investigations have demonstrated the relation between risk for cardiovascular disease, growth retardation, reproductive failure, and other health problems and hardness of drinking water or its content of magnesium and calcium. In addition, the acidity of the water influences the reabsorption of calcium and magnesium in the renal tubule. Not only, calcium and magnesium, but other constituents also affect different health aspects. Thus, the present review attempts to explore the health effects of hard water and its constituents. PMID:24049611

  18. Potential health impacts of hard water.

    PubMed

    Sengupta, Pallav

    2013-08-01

    In the past five decades or so evidence has been accumulating about an environmental factor, which appears to be influencing mortality, in particular, cardiovascular mortality, and this is the hardness of the drinking water. In addition, several epidemiological investigations have demonstrated the relation between risk for cardiovascular disease, growth retardation, reproductive failure, and other health problems and hardness of drinking water or its content of magnesium and calcium. In addition, the acidity of the water influences the reabsorption of calcium and magnesium in the renal tubule. Not only, calcium and magnesium, but other constituents also affect different health aspects. Thus, the present review attempts to explore the health effects of hard water and its constituents.

  19. Impact of Environmentally Based Chemical Hardness on Uranium Speciation and Toxicity in Six Aquatic Species

    PubMed Central

    Goulet, Richard R; Thompson, Patsy A; Serben, Kerrie C; Eickhoff, Curtis V

    2015-01-01

    Treated effluent discharge from uranium (U) mines and mills elevates the concentrations of U, calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfate (SO42–) above natural levels in receiving waters. Many investigations on the effect of hardness on U toxicity have been experiments on the combined effects of changes in hardness, pH, and alkalinity, which do not represent water chemistry downstream of U mines and mills. Therefore, more toxicity studies with water chemistry encountered downstream of U mines and mills are necessary to support predictive assessments of impacts of U discharge to the environment. Acute and chronic U toxicity laboratory bioassays were realized with 6 freshwater species in waters of low alkalinity, circumneutral pH, and a range of chemical hardness as found in field samples collected downstream of U mines and mills. In laboratory-tested waters, speciation calculations suggested that free uranyl ion concentrations remained constant despite increasing chemical hardness. When hardness increased while pH remained circumneutral and alkalinity low, U toxicity decreased only to Hyalella azteca and Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata. Also, Ca and Mg did not compete with U for the same uptake sites. The present study confirms that the majority of studies concluding that hardness affected U toxicity were in fact studies in which alkalinity and pH were the stronger influence. The results thus confirm that studies predicting impacts of U downstream of mines and mills should not consider chemical hardness. PMID:25475484

  20. Refractive Optics for Hard X-ray Transmission Microscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Simon, M.; Ahrens, G.; Last, A.; Mohr, J.; Nazmov, V.; Reznikova, E.; Voigt, A.

    2011-09-01

    For hard x-ray transmission microscopy at photon energies higher than 15 keV we design refractive condenser and imaging elements to be used with synchrotron light sources as well as with x-ray tube sources. The condenser lenses are optimized for low x-ray attenuation—resulting in apertures greater than 1 mm—and homogeneous intensity distribution on the detector plane, whereas the imaging enables high-resolution (<100 nm) full-field imaging. To obtain high image quality at reasonable exposure times, custom-tailored matched pairs of condenser and imaging lenses are being developed. The imaging lenses (compound refractive lenses, CRLs) are made of SU-8 negative resist by deep x-ray lithography. SU-8 shows high radiation stability. The fabrication technique enables high-quality lens structures regarding surface roughness and arrangement precision with arbitrary 2D geometry. To provide point foci, crossed pairs of lenses are used. Condenser lenses have been made utilizing deep x-ray lithographic patterning of thick SU-8 layers, too, whereas in this case, the aperture is limited due to process restrictions. Thus, in terms of large apertures, condenser lenses made of structured and rolled polyimide film are more attractive. Both condenser types, x-ray mosaic lenses and rolled x-ray prism lenses (RXPLs), are considered to be implemented into a microscope setup. The x-ray optical elements mentioned above are characterized with synchrotron radiation and x-ray laboratory sources, respectively.