Sample records for fine grain fraction

  1. Effect of grain moisture content during milling on pasting profile and functional properties of amaranth fractions.

    PubMed

    Kumar, K Vishnuswamy Preetham; Dharmaraj, Usha; Sakhare, Suresh D; Inamdar, Aashitosh A

    2016-05-01

    Evaluation of functional properties of milled fractions of grain amaranth may be useful to decide the end uses of the grain. Hence, pasting profiles of amaranth fractions obtained by milling the grains at different moisture contents were studied in relation with their starch profile and also with their swelling power and solubility indices. It was observed that, for flour fraction, the viscosity parameters were lowest at 14-16 % moisture content. Swelling power and solubility indices of the samples varied as a function of grain moisture content. The middling fraction also showed similar pasting pattern with the variation of grain moisture content. The seed coat fractions showed higher gelatinization temperature compared to that of fine flour and middling fractions. However, starch content of the fine seed coat fraction was comparable with that of the flour and middling fractions. The coarse seed coat fraction showed lower viscosity parameters than the other samples. Viscosity parameters correlated well among themselves while, they did not show significant correlation with the starch content. However, the viscosity parameters showed negative correlation with the soluble amylose content. The study revealed that, the fractions obtained by milling the grains at different moisture content show differential pasting profiles and functional properties.

  2. Ice rafting of fine-grained sediment, a sorting and transport mechanism, Beaufort Sea, Alaska.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Barnes, P.W.; Reimnitz, E.; Fox, D.

    1982-01-01

    The presence of turbid, sediment-rich fast ice in the Arctic is a major factor affecting transport of fine-grained sediment. Observers have documented the widespread, sporadic occurrence of sediment- rich fast ice in both the Beaufort and Bering Seas. The occurrence of sediment in only the upper part of the seasonal fast ice indicates that sediment-rich ice forms early during ice growth. The most likely mechanism requires resuspension of nearshore bottom sediment during storms, accompanied by formation of frazil ice and subsequent lateral advection before the fast ice is stabilized. We estimate that the sediment incorporated in the Beaufort ice canopy formed a significant proportion of the seasonal influx of terrigenous fine-grained sediment. The dominance of fine-grained sediment suggests that in the Arctic and sub-Arctic these size fractions may be ice rafted in greater volumes than the coarse fraction of traditionally recognized ice-rafted sediment. -from Authors

  3. Fine-grained sediment dispersal along the California coast

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Warrick, Jonathan A.; Storlazzi, Curt D.

    2013-01-01

    Fine-grained sediment (silt and clay) enters coastal waters from rivers, eroding coastal bluffs, resuspension of seabed sediment, and human activities such as dredging and beach nourishment. The amount of sediment in coastal waters is an important factor in ocean ecosystem health, but little information exists on both the natural and human-driven magnitudes of fine-grained sediment delivery to the coastal zone, its residence time there, and its transport out of the system—information upon which to base environmental assessments. To help fill these information gaps, the U.S. Geological Survey has partnered with Federal, State, and local agencies to monitor fine-grained sediment dispersal patterns and fate in the coastal regions of California. Results of these studies suggest that the waves and currents of many of the nearshore coastal settings of California are adequately energetic to transport fine-grained sediment quickly through coastal systems. These findings will help with the management and regulation of fine-grained sediment along the U.S. west coast.

  4. Shock fabrics in fine-grained micrometeorites

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suttle, M. D.; Genge, M. J.; Russell, S. S.

    2017-10-01

    The orientations of dehydration cracks and fracture networks in fine-grained, unmelted micrometeorites were analyzed using rose diagrams and entropy calculations. As cracks exploit pre-existing anisotropies, analysis of their orientation provides a mechanism with which to study the subtle petrofabrics preserved within fine-grained and amorphous materials. Both uniaxial and biaxial fabrics are discovered, often with a relatively wide spread in orientations (40°-60°). Brittle deformation cataclasis and rotated olivine grains are reported from a single micrometeorite. This paper provides the first evidence for impact-induced shock deformation in fine-grained micrometeorites. The presence of pervasive, low-grade shock features in CM chondrites and CM-like dust, anomalously low-density measurements for C-type asteroids, and impact experiments which suggest CM chondrites are highly prone to disruption all imply that CM parent bodies are unlikely to have remained intact and instead exist as a collection of loosely aggregated rubble-pile asteroids, composed of primitive shocked clasts.

  5. Survival of refractory presolar grain analogs during Stardust-like impact into Al foils: Implications for Wild 2 presolar grain abundances and study of the cometary fine fraction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Croat, T. K.; Floss, C.; Haas, B. A.; Burchell, M. J.; Kearsley, A. T.

    2015-08-01

    We present results of FIB-TEM studies of 12 Stardust analog Al foil craters which were created by firing refractory Si and Ti carbide and nitride grains into Al foils at 6.05 km s-1 with a light-gas gun to simulate capture of cometary grains by the Stardust mission. These foils were prepared primarily to understand the low presolar grain abundances (both SiC and silicates) measured by SIMS in Stardust Al foil samples. Our results demonstrate the intact survival of submicron SiC, TiC, TiN, and less-refractory Si3N4 grains. In small (<2 μm) craters that are formed by single grain impacts, the entire impacting crystalline grain is often preserved intact with minimal modification. While they also survive in crystalline form, grains at the bottom of larger craters (>5 μm) are typically fragmented and are somewhat flattened in the direction of impact due to partial melting and/or plastic deformation. The low presolar grain abundance estimates derived from SIMS measurements of large craters (mostly >50 μm) likely result from greater modification of these impactors (i.e., melting and isotopic dilution), due to higher peak temperatures/pressures in these crater impacts. The better survivability of grains in smaller craters suggests that more accurate presolar grain estimates may be achievable through measurement of such craters. It also suggests small craters can provide a complementary method of study of the Wild 2 fine fraction, especially for refractory CAI-like minerals.

  6. Anomalous permittivity in fine-grain barium titanate

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ostrander, Steven Paul

    Fine-grain barium titanate capacitors exhibit anomalously large permittivity. It is often observed that these materials will double or quadruple the room temperature permittivity of a coarse-grain counterpart. However, aside from a general consensus on this permittivity enhancement, the properties of the fine-grain material are poorly understood. This thesis examines the effect of grain size on dielectric properties of a self-consistent set of high density undoped barium titanate capacitors. This set included samples with grain sizes ranging from submicron to ˜20 microns, and with densities generally above 95% of the theoretical. A single batch of well characterized powder was milled, dry-pressed then isostatically-pressed. Compacts were fast-fired, but sintering temperature alone was used to control the grain size. With this approach, the extrinsic influences are minimized within the set of samples, but more importantly, they are normalized between samples. That is, with a single batch of powder and with identical green processing, uniform impurity concentration is expected. The fine-grain capacitors exhibited a room temperature permittivity of ˜5500 and dielectric losses of ˜2%. The Curie-temperature decreased by {˜}5sp°C from that of the coarse-grain material, and the two ferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition temperatures increased by {˜}10sp°C. The grain size induced permittivity enhancement was only active in the tetragonal and orthorhombic phases. Strong dielectric anomalies were observed in samples with grain size as small as {˜}0.4\\ mum. It is suggested that the strong first-order character observed in the present data is related to control of microstructure and stoichiometry. Grain size effects on conductivity losses, ferroelectric losses, ferroelectric dispersion, Maxwell-Wagner dispersion, and dielectric aging of permittivity and loss were observed. For the fine-grain material, these observations suggest the suppression of domain wall

  7. The origin of coercivity decrease in fine grained Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, W. F.; Ohkubo, T.; Hono, K.; Sagawa, M.

    2009-04-01

    Microstructures of fine grained Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets that were produced by the pressless process were investigated to understand the origin of the sudden coercivity decrease below a certain grain size. The intrinsic coercivity is inversely proportional to ln D2 with the highest coercivity of 17 kOe at D˜4.5 μm, below which the coercivity drops as the grain size decreases. We found that the degradation of the coercivity of the magnet with a grain size of 3 μm was mainly caused by the inhomogeneous distribution of fcc-Nd oxide whose volume fraction increased with respect to the dhcp Nd-rich phase.

  8. Selective Convolutional Descriptor Aggregation for Fine-Grained Image Retrieval.

    PubMed

    Wei, Xiu-Shen; Luo, Jian-Hao; Wu, Jianxin; Zhou, Zhi-Hua

    2017-06-01

    Deep convolutional neural network models pre-trained for the ImageNet classification task have been successfully adopted to tasks in other domains, such as texture description and object proposal generation, but these tasks require annotations for images in the new domain. In this paper, we focus on a novel and challenging task in the pure unsupervised setting: fine-grained image retrieval. Even with image labels, fine-grained images are difficult to classify, letting alone the unsupervised retrieval task. We propose the selective convolutional descriptor aggregation (SCDA) method. The SCDA first localizes the main object in fine-grained images, a step that discards the noisy background and keeps useful deep descriptors. The selected descriptors are then aggregated and the dimensionality is reduced into a short feature vector using the best practices we found. The SCDA is unsupervised, using no image label or bounding box annotation. Experiments on six fine-grained data sets confirm the effectiveness of the SCDA for fine-grained image retrieval. Besides, visualization of the SCDA features shows that they correspond to visual attributes (even subtle ones), which might explain SCDA's high-mean average precision in fine-grained retrieval. Moreover, on general image retrieval data sets, the SCDA achieves comparable retrieval results with the state-of-the-art general image retrieval approaches.

  9. Characterisation of Fine Ash Fractions from the AD 1314 Kaharoa Eruption

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Weaver, S. J.; Rust, A.; Carey, R. J.; Houghton, B. F.

    2012-12-01

    The AD 1314±12 yr Kaharoa eruption of Tarawera volcano, New Zealand, produced deposits exhibiting both plinian and subplinian characteristics (Nairn et al., 2001; 2004, Leonard et al., 2002, Hogg et al., 2003). Their widespread dispersal yielded volumes, column heights, and mass discharge rates of plinian magnitude and intensity (Sahetapy-Engel, 2002); however, vertical shifts in grain size suggest waxing and waning within single phases and time-breaks on the order of hours between phases. These grain size shifts were quantified using sieve, laser diffraction, and image analysis of the fine ash fractions (<1 mm in diameter) of some of the most explosive phases of the eruption. These analyses served two purposes: 1) to characterise the change in eruption intensity over time, and 2) to compare the three methods of grain size analysis. Additional analyses of the proportions of components and particle shape were also conducted to aid in the interpretation of the eruption and transport dynamics. 110 samples from a single location about 6 km from source were sieved at half phi intervals between -4φ to 4φ (16 mm - 63 μm). A single sample was then chosen to test the range of grain sizes to run through the Mastersizer 2000. Three aliquots were tested; the first consisted of each sieve size fraction ranging between 0φ (1000 μm) and <4φ (<63 μm, i.e. the pan). For example, 0, 0.5, 1, …, 4φ, and the pan were ran through the Mastersizer and then their results, weighted according to their sieve weight percents, were summed together to produce a total distribution. The second aliquot included 3 samples ranging between 0-2φ (1000-250 μm), 2.5-4φ (249-63 μm), and the pan. A single sample consisting of the total range of grain sizes between 0φ and the pan was used for the final aliquot. Their results were compared and it was determined that the single sample consisting of the broadest range of grain sizes yielded an accurate grain size distribution. This data was

  10. Making Pure Fine-Grained Inorganic Powder

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wood, C.

    1985-01-01

    Sustained arc plasma chemical reactor fabricates very-fine-grained inorganic solids having low thermal conductivity. Powder fabrication method, based on plasma tube technique produces pure solids without contamination commonly produced by grinding.

  11. Temporal and Fine-Grained Pedestrian Action Recognition on Driving Recorder Database

    PubMed Central

    Satoh, Yutaka; Aoki, Yoshimitsu; Oikawa, Shoko; Matsui, Yasuhiro

    2018-01-01

    The paper presents an emerging issue of fine-grained pedestrian action recognition that induces an advanced pre-crush safety to estimate a pedestrian intention in advance. The fine-grained pedestrian actions include visually slight differences (e.g., walking straight and crossing), which are difficult to distinguish from each other. It is believed that the fine-grained action recognition induces a pedestrian intention estimation for a helpful advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). The following difficulties have been studied to achieve a fine-grained and accurate pedestrian action recognition: (i) In order to analyze the fine-grained motion of a pedestrian appearance in the vehicle-mounted drive recorder, a method to describe subtle change of motion characteristics occurring in a short time is necessary; (ii) even when the background moves greatly due to the driving of the vehicle, it is necessary to detect changes in subtle motion of the pedestrian; (iii) the collection of large-scale fine-grained actions is very difficult, and therefore a relatively small database should be focused. We find out how to learn an effective recognition model with only a small-scale database. Here, we have thoroughly evaluated several types of configurations to explore an effective approach in fine-grained pedestrian action recognition without a large-scale database. Moreover, two different datasets have been collected in order to raise the issue. Finally, our proposal attained 91.01% on National Traffic Science and Environment Laboratory database (NTSEL) and 53.23% on the near-miss driving recorder database (NDRDB). The paper has improved +8.28% and +6.53% from baseline two-stream fusion convnets. PMID:29461473

  12. Development of High Sensitivity Nuclear Emulsion and Fine Grained Emulsion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kawahara, H.; Asada, T.; Naka, T.; Naganawa, N.; Kuwabara, K.; Nakamura, M.

    2014-08-01

    Nuclear emulsion is a particle detector having high spacial resolution and angular resolution. It became useful for large statistics experiment thanks to the development of automatic scanning system. In 2010, a facility for emulsion production was introduced and R&D of nuclear emulsion began at Nagoya university. In this paper, we present results of development of the high sensitivity emulsion and fine grained emulsion for dark matter search experiment. Improvement of sensitivity is achieved by raising density of silver halide crystals and doping well-adjusted amount of chemicals. Production of fine grained emulsion was difficult because of unexpected crystal condensation. By mixing polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to gelatin as a binder, we succeeded in making a stable fine grained emulsion.

  13. Provenance of KREEP and the exotic component - Elemental and isotopic studies of grain size fractions in lunar soils

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Evensen, N. M.; Murthy, V. R.; Coscio, M. R., Jr.

    1974-01-01

    Sieve fraction analyses of lunar soils reveal the presence of a fine-grained exotic component enriched in K, Rb, Sr, Ba, and in radiogenic Sr in all soils. The probable source of this exotic component is the areas of high-surficial radioactivity observed by orbital gamma ray spectrometry, such as those at Fra Mauro and Archimedes. If the exotic component is fine-grained KREEP, the origin and distribution of KREEP fragments in the soils are identified. It is suggested that the exotic component represents trace element enriched material located at some depth in the Imbrium area which was surficially deposited during Imbrium excavation.

  14. Permeability of Granite Including Macro-Fracture Naturally Filled with Fine-Grained Minerals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nara, Yoshitaka; Kato, Masaji; Niri, Ryuhei; Kohno, Masanori; Sato, Toshinori; Fukuda, Daisuke; Sato, Tsutomu; Takahashi, Manabu

    2018-03-01

    Information on the permeability of rock is essential for various geoengineering projects, such as geological disposal of radioactive wastes, hydrocarbon extraction, and natural hazard risk mitigation. It is especially important to investigate how fractures and pores influence the physical and transport properties of rock. Infiltration of groundwater through the damage zone fills fractures in granite with fine-grained minerals. However, the permeability of rock possessing a fracture naturally filled with fine-grained mineral grains has yet to be investigated. In this study, the permeabilities of granite samples, including a macro-fracture filled with clay and a mineral vein, are investigated. The permeability of granite with a fine-grained mineral vein agrees well with that of the intact sample, whereas the permeability of granite possessing a macro-fracture filled with clay is lower than that of the macro-fractured sample. The decrease in the permeability is due to the filling of fine-grained minerals and clay in the macro-fracture. It is concluded that the permeability of granite increases due to the existence of the fractures, but decreases upon filling them with fine-grained minerals.

  15. Con-Text: Text Detection for Fine-grained Object Classification.

    PubMed

    Karaoglu, Sezer; Tao, Ran; van Gemert, Jan C; Gevers, Theo

    2017-05-24

    This work focuses on fine-grained object classification using recognized scene text in natural images. While the state-of-the-art relies on visual cues only, this paper is the first work which proposes to combine textual and visual cues. Another novelty is the textual cue extraction. Unlike the state-of-the-art text detection methods, we focus more on the background instead of text regions. Once text regions are detected, they are further processed by two methods to perform text recognition i.e. ABBYY commercial OCR engine and a state-of-the-art character recognition algorithm. Then, to perform textual cue encoding, bi- and trigrams are formed between the recognized characters by considering the proposed spatial pairwise constraints. Finally, extracted visual and textual cues are combined for fine-grained classification. The proposed method is validated on four publicly available datasets: ICDAR03, ICDAR13, Con-Text and Flickr-logo. We improve the state-of-the-art end-to-end character recognition by a large margin of 15% on ICDAR03. We show that textual cues are useful in addition to visual cues for fine-grained classification. We show that textual cues are also useful for logo retrieval. Adding textual cues outperforms visual- and textual-only in fine-grained classification (70.7% to 60.3%) and logo retrieval (57.4% to 54.8%).

  16. Characterization of Martian Soil Fines Fraction in SNC Meteorites

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rao, M. N.; McKay, D. S.

    2003-01-01

    Some impact-melt glasses in shergottite meteorites contain large abundances of martian atmospheric noble gases with high (129)Xe/(132)Xe ratios, accompanied by varying (87)Sr/(86)Sr (initial) ratios. These glasses contain Martian Soil Fines (MSF) probably from young volcanic terrains such as Tharsis or Elysium Mons. The composition of the MSF bearing samples is different from the average bulk composition of the host rock. These samples show the following charecteristics: a) simultaeneous enrichment of the felsic component and depletion of the mafic component relative to the host phase and b) significant secondary sulfur/sulfate excesses over the host material. The degree of enrichment and associated depletion varies from one sample to another. Earlier, we found large enrichments of felsic (Al, Ca, Na and K) component and depletion of mafic (Fe, Mg, Mn and Ti) component in several impact melt glass veins and pods of samples ,77 ,78 , 18, and ,20A in EET79001 accompanied by large sulfur/sulfate excesses. Based on these results, we proposed a model where the comminution of basaltic rocks takes place by meteoroid bombardment on the martian surface, leading to the generation of fine-grained soil near the impact sites. This fine-grained soil material is subsequently mobilized by saltation and deflation processes on Mars surface due to pervasive aeolian activity. This movement results in mechanical fractionation leading to the felsic enrichment and mafic depletion in the martian dust. We report, here, new data on an impact-melt inclusion ,507 (PAPA) from EET79001, Lith B and ,506 (ALPHA) from EET79001, Lith A and compare the results with those obtained on Shergotty impact melt glass (DBS).

  17. Fine-Grained Turbidites: Facies, Attributes and Process Implications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stow, Dorrik; Omoniyi, Bayonle

    2016-04-01

    Within turbidite systems, fine-grained sediments are still the poor relation and sport several contrasting facies models linked to process of deposition. These are volumetrically the dominant facies in deepwater and, from a resource perspective, they form important marginal and tight reservoirs, and have great potential for unconventional shale gas, source rocks and seals. They are also significant hosts of metals and rare earth elements. Based on a large number of studies of modern, ancient and subsurface systems, including 1000s of metres of section logging, we define the principal genetic elements of fine-grained deepwater facies, present a new synthesis of facies models and their sedimentary attributes. The principal architectural elements include: non-channelised slope-aprons, channel-fill, channel levee and overbank, turbidite lobes, mass-transport deposits, contourite drifts, basin sheets and drapes. These comprise a variable intercalation of fine-grained facies - thin-bedded and very thin-bedded turbidites, contourites, hemipelagites and pelagites - and associated coarse-grained facies. Characteristic attributes used to discriminate between these different elements are: facies and facies associations; sand-shale ratio, sand and shale geometry and dimensions, sand connectivity; sediment texture and small-scale sedimentary structures; sediment fabric and microfabric; and small-scale vertical sequences of bed thickness. To some extent, we can relate facies and attribute characteristics to different depositional environments. We identify four distinct facies models: (a) silt-laminated mud turbidites, (b) siliciclastic mud turbidites, (c) carbonate mud turbidites, (d) disorganized silty-mud turbidites, and (e) hemiturbidites. Within the grainsize-velocity matrix turbidite plot, these all fall within the region of mean size < 0.063mm, maximum grainsize (one percentile) <0.2mm, and depositional velocity 0.1-0.5 m/s. Silt-laminated turbidites and many mud

  18. Formation of fine {gamma} grain structure through fine {alpha}{sub 2}/{gamma} lamellar structure in Ti-rich TiAl alloy

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

    Kumagai, T.; Abe, E.; Nakamura, M.

    1997-12-31

    Microstructural development of an extremely fine {alpha}{sub 2}-Ti{sub 32}Al/{gamma}-TiAl lamellar structure, which was formed by ice water quenching after solution-treatment in a high-temperature {alpha}-Ti phase field for a long period of time, was examined during isothermal treatment. In an as-quenched Ti-48at.%Al alloy, the massively transformed {gamma} ({gamma}{sub m}) and untransformed (meaning massively untransformed) fine {alpha}{sub 2}/{gamma} lamellar regions were observed. Fine {gamma} grains, which were similar to {gamma}{sub m}, were generated both within the fine {alpha}{sub 2}/{gamma} lamellae and at the boundary area between the {gamma}{sub m} and the fine {alpha}{sub 2}/{gamma} lamellar regions by aging at low-temperature (1,173 K)more » for a short time (180s). Further aging (1.8ks) caused the coarsening of these newly generated fine {gamma} grains. On the other hand, the coarsening of the {gamma} grains occurred by a high-temperature (1,323 K) aging treatment even for 180s. Fine {alpha}{sub 2} plates and particles, which were aligned to a particular direction, were observed in the {gamma} grain interiors, indicating that the newly generated {gamma} grains grew at the expense of the fine {alpha}{sub 2}/{gamma} lamellae. It can be considered that the {gamma} grain formation through the fine {alpha}{sub 2}/{gamma} lamellae is closely related to the {alpha}{sub 2}{yields}{gamma} reaction of the {alpha}{sub 2} plates sandwiched by the {gamma} plates, and needs the fast heating rate enough to overcome the {alpha}{sub 2}/{gamma}{yields}{gamma}/{gamma} lamellae reaction.« less

  19. Fine-grained linings of leveed channels facilitate runout of granular flows

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kokelaar, B. P.; Graham, R. L.; Gray, J. M. N. T.; Vallance, J. W.

    2014-01-01

    Catastrophic dense granular flows, such as occur in rock avalanches, debris flows and pyroclastic flows, move as fully shearing mixtures that have approximately 60 vol.% solids and tend to segregate to form coarse-grained fronts and leveed channels. Levees restrict spreading of unconfined flows and form as coarse particles that become concentrated in the top of the flow are transported to the front and then advect to the sides in the flow head. Channels from which most material has drained away down slope are commonly lined with fine-grained deposit, widely thought to remain from the tail of the waning flow. We show how segregation in experimental dense flows of carborundum or sand (300-425 μm) mixed with spherical fine ballotini (150-250 μm), on rough slopes of 27-29°, produces fine-grained channel linings that are deposited with the levees, into which they grade laterally. Maximum runout distance is attained with mixtures containing 30-40% sand, just sufficient to segregate and form levees that are adequately robust to restrict the spreading attributable to the low-friction fines. Resin impregnation and serial sectioning of deliberately arrested experimental flows shows how fines-lined levees form from the flow head; the flows create their own stable ‘conduit’ entirely from the front, which in a geophysical context can play an important mechanistic role in facilitating runout. The flow self-organization ensures that low-friction fines at the base of the segregated channel flow shear over fine-grained substrate in the channel, thus reducing frictional energy losses. We propose that in pyroclastic flows and debris flows, which have considerable mobility attributable to pore-fluid pressures, such fine-grained flow-contact zones form similarly and not only reduce frictional energy losses but also reduce flow-substrate permeability so as to enhance pore-fluid pressure retention. Thus the granular flow self-organization that produces fine-grained channel linings

  20. Fine-grained linings of leveed channels facilitate runout of granular flows

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kokelaar, B.P.; Graham, R. L.; Gray, J.M.N.T.; Vallance, James W.

    2014-01-01

    Catastrophic dense granular flows, such as occur in rock avalanches, debris flows and pyroclastic flows, move as fully shearing mixtures that have approximately 60 vol.% solids and tend to segregate to form coarse-grained fronts and leveed channels. Levees restrict spreading of unconfined flows and form as coarse particles that become concentrated in the top of the flow are transported to the front and then advect to the sides in the flow head. Channels from which most material has drained away down slope are commonly lined with fine-grained deposit, widely thought to remain from the tail of the waning flow. We show how segregation in experimental dense flows of carborundum or sand (300–425 μm) mixed with spherical fine ballotini (150–250 μm), on rough slopes of 27–29°, produces fine-grained channel linings that are deposited with the levees, into which they grade laterally. Maximum runout distance is attained with mixtures containing 30–40% sand, just sufficient to segregate and form levees that are adequately robust to restrict the spreading attributable to the low-friction fines. Resin impregnation and serial sectioning of deliberately arrested experimental flows shows how fines-lined levees form from the flow head; the flows create their own stable ‘conduit’ entirely from the front, which in a geophysical context can play an important mechanistic role in facilitating runout. The flow self-organization ensures that low-friction fines at the base of the segregated channel flow shear over fine-grained substrate in the channel, thus reducing frictional energy losses. We propose that in pyroclastic flows and debris flows, which have considerable mobility attributable to pore-fluid pressures, such fine-grained flow-contact zones form similarly and not only reduce frictional energy losses but also reduce flow–substrate permeability so as to enhance pore-fluid pressure retention. Thus the granular flow self-organization that produces fine-grained

  1. Fine grain separation for the production of biomass fuel from mixed municipal solid waste.

    PubMed

    Giani, H; Borchers, B; Kaufeld, S; Feil, A; Pretz, T

    2016-01-01

    The main goal of the project MARSS (Material Advanced Sustainable Systems) is to build a demonstration plant in order to recover a renewable biomass fuel suitable for the use in biomass power plants out of mixed municipal solid waste (MMSW). The demonstration plant was constructed in Mertesdorf (Germany), working alongside an existing mechanical-biological treatment plant, where the MMSW is biological dried under aerobe conditions in rotting boxes. The focus of the presented sorting campaign was set on the processing of fine grain particles minor than 11.5mm which have the highest mass content and biogenic energy potential of the utilized grain size fractions. The objective was to produce a biomass fuel with a high calorific value and a low content of fossil (plastic, synthetic) materials while maximizing the mass recovery. Therefore, the biogenic components of the dried MMSW are separated from inert and fossil components through various classification and sifting processes. In three experimental process setups of different processing depths, the grain size fraction 4-11.5mm was sifted by the use of air sifters and air tables. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Characterization of fine-grain piezoceramic stack actuators

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Davis, Christopher L.; Morris, Donald G.; Calkins, Frederick T.

    2001-07-01

    Samples of fine grain piezoelectric ceramics (less than or equal to 1 micrometers ) exhibit increased mechanical strength and improved machinability over conventional materials, which should result in actuators which have increased reliability with fewer rejected parts. The focus of the work presented here is to compare the properties of several fine grain and conventional actuators provided by TRS Ceramics. Specimens are constructed of TRS200 (a PZT-5A or DOD Type II equivalent material) and TRS600 (a PZT-5H or DOD Type VI equivalent material). All of the actuators consist of ceramic wafers bonded together with electrodes between them to form a stack. Several actuator overall dimensions and two wafer thicknesses (250 micrometers and 500 micrometers ) are investigated as well as material which has been subjected to hot isopress. The two main figures of merit in the stack actuator comparisons are free strain and blocked stress. Strain and stress loops are measured under a variety of field levels, including negative fields up to the coercive limit (full butterfly loops were not performed). Also compared are values of energy density and hysteresis in the strain, stress and electric displacement vs. field loops. Stack longevity is addressed through duration tests in which stacks are used to drive representative mechanical impedance for an extended period. Results show that fine grain stacks completed 109 continuous actuation cycles with no sign of performance degradation.

  3. Fractionation of surface sediment fines based on a coupled sieve-SPLITT (split flow thin cell) method.

    PubMed

    Coppola, Laurent; Gustafsson, Orjan; Andersson, Per; Axelsson, Pär

    2005-05-01

    In traditional sediment grain-size separation using sieve technique, the bulk of the organic matter passes through the smallest mesh size (generally 38 microm) and is not further fractionated. In this study, a common sieve separation has therefore been coupled with an extra high capacity split flow thin cell fractionation (EHC-SPLITT) instrument to separate the bulk surface sediment not only into size-based sieve fractions (> 100, 63-100, 38-63 and < 38 microm) but particularly to further fractionate hydrodynamically the fine fraction (< 38 microm) using the EHC-SPLITT. Compared to the few previous studies using a smaller high capacity (HC) SPLITT cell, the EHC-SPLITT evaluated in detail here has several advantages (e.g., 23 times higher throughput and allowance for large particle diameters). First, the EHC-SPLITT was calibrated with particle standards. Then, its ability to fractionate fine surface sediments hydrodynamically was demonstrated with material from biogeochemically distinct regimes using two cutoff velocities (1 and 6 m d(-1)). The results from particle standards indicated a good agreement between theory and experiment and a satisfactory mass recovery for the sieve-SPLITT method (80-97%) was observed for sediment samples. The mass distributions revealed that particles < 38 microm were predominant (70-90%), indicating the large need for a technique such as the EHC-SPLITT to further fractionate the fine particles. There were clearly different compositions in the EHC-SPLITT-mediated sub-fractions of the sediment fines as indicated by analyses of organic and inorganic parameters (POC, Si, Fe and Al). The EHC-SPLITT technique has the potential to provide information of great utility to studies of benthic boundary layer transport and off-shelf export and how such processes fractionate geochemical signals.

  4. I/O Router Placement and Fine-Grained Routing on Titan to Support Spider II

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

    Ezell, Matthew A; Dillow, David; Oral, H Sarp

    2014-01-01

    The Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) introduced the concept of Fine-Grained Routing in 2008 to improve I/O performance between the Jaguar supercomputer and Spider, OLCF s center-wide Lustre file system. Fine-grained routing organizes I/O paths to minimize congestion. Jaguar has since been upgraded to Titan, providing more than a ten-fold improvement in peak performance. To support the center s increased computational capacity and I/O demand, the Spider file system has been replaced with Spider II. Building on the lessons learned from Spider, an improved method for placing LNET routers was developed and implemented for Spider II. The fine-grained routingmore » scripts and configuration have been updated to provide additional optimizations and better match the system setup. This paper presents a brief history of fine-grained routing at OLCF, an introduction to the architectures of Titan and Spider II, methods for placing routers in Titan, and details about the fine-grained routing configuration.« less

  5. Generation and emplacement of fine-grained ejecta in planetary impacts

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Ghent, R.R.; Gupta, V.; Campbell, B.A.; Ferguson, S.A.; Brown, J.C.W.; Fergason, R.L.; Carter, L.M.

    2010-01-01

    We report here on a survey of distal fine-grained ejecta deposits on the Moon, Mars, and Venus. On all three planets, fine-grained ejecta form circular haloes that extend beyond the continuous ejecta and other types of distal deposits such as run-out lobes or ramparts. Using Earth-based radar images, we find that lunar fine-grained ejecta haloes represent meters-thick deposits with abrupt margins, and are depleted in rocks 1cm in diameter. Martian haloes show low nighttime thermal IR temperatures and thermal inertia, indicating the presence of fine particles estimated to range from ???10??m to 10mm. Using the large sample sizes afforded by global datasets for Venus and Mars, and a complete nearside radar map for the Moon, we establish statistically robust scaling relationships between crater radius R and fine-grained ejecta run-out r for all three planets. On the Moon, ???R-0.18 for craters 5-640km in diameter. For Venus, radar-dark haloes are larger than those on the Moon, but scale as ???R-0.49, consistent with ejecta entrainment in Venus' dense atmosphere. On Mars, fine-ejecta haloes are larger than lunar haloes for a given crater size, indicating entrainment of ejecta by the atmosphere or vaporized subsurface volatiles, but scale as R-0.13, similar to the ballistic lunar scaling. Ejecta suspension in vortices generated by passage of the ejecta curtain is predicted to result in ejecta run-out that scales with crater size as R1/2, and the wind speeds so generated may be insufficient to transport particles at the larger end of the calculated range. The observed scaling and morphology of the low-temperature haloes leads us rather to favor winds generated by early-stage vapor plume expansion as the emplacement mechanism for low-temperature halo materials. ?? 2010 Elsevier Inc.

  6. Measuring the fraction of pool volume filled with fine sediment

    Treesearch

    Sue Hilton; Thomas E. Lisle

    1993-01-01

    The fraction of pool volume filled with fine sediment (usually fine sand to medium gravel) can be a useful index of the sediment supply and substrate habitat of gravel-bed channels. It can be used to evaluate and monitor channel condition and to detect and evaluate sediment sources. This fraction (V*) is the ratio of fine-sediment volume to pool water volume plus fine-...

  7. Process for preparing fine grain silicon carbide powder

    DOEpatents

    Wei, G.C.

    Method of producing fine-grain silicon carbide powder comprises combining methyltrimethoxysilane with a solution of phenolic resin, acetone and water or sugar and water, gelling the resulting mixture, and then drying and heating the obtained gel.

  8. Friction and Wear of Ion-Beam-Deposited Diamondlike Carbon on Chemical-Vapor-Deposited, Fine-Grain Diamond

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Miyoshi, Kazuhisa; Wu, Richard L. C.; Lanter, William C.

    1996-01-01

    Friction and wear behavior of ion-beam-deposited diamondlike carbon (DLC) films coated on chemical-vapor-deposited (CVD), fine-grain diamond coatings were examined in ultrahigh vacuum, dry nitrogen, and humid air environments. The DLC films were produced by the direct impact of an ion beam (composed of a 3:17 mixture of Ar and CH4) at ion energies of 1500 and 700 eV and an RF power of 99 W. Sliding friction experiments were conducted with hemispherical CVD diamond pins sliding on four different carbon-base coating systems: DLC films on CVD diamond; DLC films on silicon; as-deposited, fine-grain CVD diamond; and carbon-ion-implanted, fine-grain CVD diamond on silicon. Results indicate that in ultrahigh vacuum the ion-beam-deposited DLC films on fine-grain CVD diamond (similar to the ion-implanted CVD diamond) greatly decrease both the friction and wear of fine-grain CVD diamond films and provide solid lubrication. In dry nitrogen and in humid air, ion-beam-deposited DLC films on fine-grain CVD diamond films also had a low steady-state coefficient of friction and a low wear rate. These tribological performance benefits, coupled with a wider range of coating thicknesses, led to longer endurance life and improved wear resistance for the DLC deposited on fine-grain CVD diamond in comparison to the ion-implanted diamond films. Thus, DLC deposited on fine-grain CVD diamond films can be an effective wear-resistant, lubricating coating regardless of environment.

  9. Fine grained event processing on HPCs with the ATLAS Yoda system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Calafiura, Paolo; De, Kaushik; Guan, Wen; Maeno, Tadashi; Nilsson, Paul; Oleynik, Danila; Panitkin, Sergey; Tsulaia, Vakhtang; Van Gemmeren, Peter; Wenaus, Torre

    2015-12-01

    High performance computing facilities present unique challenges and opportunities for HEP event processing. The massive scale of many HPC systems means that fractionally small utilization can yield large returns in processing throughput. Parallel applications which can dynamically and efficiently fill any scheduling opportunities the resource presents benefit both the facility (maximal utilization) and the (compute-limited) science. The ATLAS Yoda system provides this capability to HEP-like event processing applications by implementing event-level processing in an MPI-based master-client model that integrates seamlessly with the more broadly scoped ATLAS Event Service. Fine grained, event level work assignments are intelligently dispatched to parallel workers to sustain full utilization on all cores, with outputs streamed off to destination object stores in near real time with similarly fine granularity, such that processing can proceed until termination with full utilization. The system offers the efficiency and scheduling flexibility of preemption without requiring the application actually support or employ check-pointing. We will present the new Yoda system, its motivations, architecture, implementation, and applications in ATLAS data processing at several US HPC centers.

  10. Fabrication of ultra-fine grained aluminium tubes by RTES technique

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

    Jafarzadeh, H., E-mail: h.jafarzadeh@ut.ac.ir; Abrinia, K.

    Recently, repetitive tube expansion and shrinking have been exploited as a means for producing ultra-fine grained and nano-crystalline microstructures for magnesium alloy tubes. This method includes two different half-cycles and was based on pressing a tubular part through an angular channel die with two shear zones. Since the aluminium alloys are the most widely used materials in industries, in this study, repetitive tube expansion and shrinking as a new severe plastic deformation technique was applied to commercially pure aluminium for fabricating ultra-fine grained aluminium tubes for the first time and the ability of this process in significant grain refinement ismore » determined even after single cycle. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were used to evaluate the microstructure of the repetitive tube expansion and shrinking processed materials and the examinations showed ultra-fine grains with the average grain size of 320 nm after one cycle of repetitive tube expansion and shrinking. The yield strength, ultimate tensile strength increased notably by the factor of 2.17 and 1.27 respectively, after one cycle of repetitive tube expansion and shrinking, whereas the elongation to failure as well as the uniform elongation decreased. Furthermore, micro-hardness distribution through the part's section proposed the hardness increasing to ~ 55 HV from the initial value of ~ 28 HV after one cycle of repetitive tube expansion and shrinking. - Highlights: • RTES was introduced for fabricating the UFGed AA1050 tubes for the first time. • Nano-grained AA1050 tube was obtained by RTES process. • Grain size of ~ 320 nm was obtained after two half-cycles of RTES process. • Yield and ultimate strength increased by the factor of 2.17 and 1.27 respectively. • The microhardness increased to ~ 55 HV from the initial value of ~ 28 HV.« less

  11. Fine-grained sediment spatial distribution on the basis of a geostatistical analysis: Example of the eastern Bay of the Seine (France)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Méar, Y.; Poizot, E.; Murat, A.; Lesueur, P.; Thomas, M.

    2006-12-01

    The eastern Bay of the Seine (English Channel) was the subject in 1991 of a sampling survey of superficial sediments. Geostatistic tools were used to examine the complexity of the spatial distribution of the fine-grained fraction (<50 μm). A central depocentre of fine sediments (i.e. content up to 50%) oriented in a NW-SE direction in a muddy coastal strip, in a very high energy hydrodynamical situation due to storm swells and its megatidal setting, is for the first time recognised and discussed. Within this sedimentary unit, the distribution of the fine fraction is very heterogeneous, with mud patches of less than 4000 m diameter; the boundary between these mud patches and their substratum is very sharp. The distribution of this fine fraction appears to be controlled by an anticyclonic eddy located off the Pays de Caux. Under the influence of this, the suspended material expelled from the Seine estuary moves along the coast and swings off Antifer harbour, towards the NW. It is trapped within this eddy because of the settling of suspended particulate matter. Both at a general scale and a local scale the morphology (whether inherited or due to modern processes) has a strong influence on the spatial distribution of the fine fraction. At the general scale, the basin-like shape of the area facilitates the silting, and the presence of the submarine dunes, called "Ridins d'Antifer", clearly determines the northern limit of the muddy zone. At a local scale, the same influence is obvious: paleovalleys trap the fine sediments, whereas isolated sand dunes and ripples limit the silting. This duality of role of the morphology is therefore one of the reasons why the muddy surface is extremely heterogeneous spatially. The presence of an important population of suspension feeding echinoderm, the brittle-star Ophiothrix fragilis Abildgaard, has led to a local increase in the silting, and to the modification of the physicochemical and sedimentological parameters. A complex

  12. Nontoxic chemical process for in situ permeability enhancement and accelerated decontamination of fine-grain subsurface sediments

    DOEpatents

    Kansa, E.J.; Wijesinghe, A.M.; Viani, B.E.

    1997-01-14

    The remediation of heterogeneous subsurfaces is extremely time consuming and expensive with current and developing technologies. Although such technologies can adequately remove contaminants in the high hydraulic conductivity, coarse-grained sediments, they cannot access the contaminated low hydraulic conductivity fine-grained sediments. The slow bleed of contaminants from the fine-grained sediments is the primary reason why subsurface remediation is so time-consuming and expensive. This invention addresses the problem of remediating contaminated fine-grained sediments. It is intended that, in the future, a heterogeneous site be treated by a hybrid process that first remediates the high hydraulic conductivity, coarse-grained sediments, to be followed by the process, described in this invention, to treat the contaminated low hydraulic conductivity fine-grained sediments. The invention uses cationic flocculants and organic solvents to collapse the swelling negative double layer surrounding water saturated clay particles, causing a flocculated, cracked clay structure. The modification of the clay fabric in fine-grained sediments dramatically increases the hydraulic conductivity of previously very tight clays many orders of magnitude. 8 figs.

  13. Nontoxic chemical process for in situ permeability enhancement and accelerated decontamination of fine-grain subsurface sediments

    DOEpatents

    Kansa, Edward J.; Wijesinghe, Ananda M.; Viani, Brian E.

    1997-01-01

    The remediation of heterogeneous subsurfaces is extremely time consuming and expensive with current and developing technologies. Although such technologies can adequately remove contaminants in the high hydraulic conductivity, coarse-grained sediments, they cannot access the contaminated low hydraulic conductivity fine-grained sediments. The slow bleed of contaminants from the fine-grained sediments is the primary reason why subsurface remediation is so time-consuming and expensive. This invention addresses the problem of remediating contaminated fine-grained sediments. It is intended that, in the future, a heterogeneous site be treated by a hybrid process that first remediates the high hydraulic conductivity, coarse-grained sediments, to be followed by the process, described in this invention, to treat the contaminated low hydraulic conductivity fine-grained sediments. The invention uses cationic flocculents and organic solvents to collapse the swelling negative double layer surrounding water saturated clay particles, causing a flocculated, cracked clay structure. The modification of the clay fabric in fine-grained sediments dramatically increases the hydraulic conductivity of previously very tight clays many orders of magnitude.

  14. Mixing coarse-grained and fine-grained water in molecular dynamics simulations of a single system.

    PubMed

    Riniker, Sereina; van Gunsteren, Wilfred F

    2012-07-28

    The use of a supra-molecular coarse-grained (CG) model for liquid water as solvent in molecular dynamics simulations of biomolecules represented at the fine-grained (FG) atomic level of modelling may reduce the computational effort by one or two orders of magnitude. However, even if the pure FG model and the pure CG model represent the properties of the particular substance of interest rather well, their application in a hybrid FG/CG system containing varying ratios of FG versus CG particles is highly non-trivial, because it requires an appropriate balance between FG-FG, FG-CG, and CG-CG energies, and FG and CG entropies. Here, the properties of liquid water are used to calibrate the FG-CG interactions for the simple-point-charge water model at the FG level and a recently proposed supra-molecular water model at the CG level that represents five water molecules by one CG bead containing two interaction sites. Only two parameters are needed to reproduce different thermodynamic and dielectric properties of liquid water at physiological temperature and pressure for various mole fractions of CG water in FG water. The parametrisation strategy for the FG-CG interactions is simple and can be easily transferred to interactions between atomistic biomolecules and CG water.

  15. Development of Ultra-Fine-Grained Structure in AISI 321 Austenitic Stainless Steel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tiamiyu, A. A.; Szpunar, J. A.; Odeshi, A. G.; Oguocha, I.; Eskandari, M.

    2017-12-01

    Ultra-fine-grained (UFG) structure was developed in AISI 321 austenitic stainless steel (ASS) using cryogenic rolling followed by annealing treatments at 923 K, 973 K, 1023 K, and 1073 K (650 °C, 700 °C, 750 °C, and 800 °C) for different lengths of time. The α'-martensite to γ-austenite reversion behavior and the associated texture development were analyzed in the cryo-rolled specimens after annealing. The activation energy, Q, required for the reversion of α'-martensite to γ-austenite in the steel was estimated to be 80 kJ mol-1. TiC precipitates and unreversed triple junction α'-martensite played major roles in the development of UFG structure through the Zener pinning of grain boundaries. The optimum annealing temperature and time for the development of UFG structure in the cryo-rolled AISI 321 steel are (a) 923 K (650 °C) for approximately 28800 seconds and (b) 1023 K (750 °C) for 600 seconds, with average grain sizes of 0.22 and 0.31 µm, respectively. Annealing at 1023 K (750 °C) is considered a better alternative since the volume fraction of precipitated carbides in specimens annealed at 1023 K (750 °C) are less than those annealed at 923 K (650 °C). More so, the energy consumption during prolonged annealing time to achieve an UFG structure at 923 K (650 °C) is higher due to low phase reversion rate. The hardness of the UFG specimens is 195 pct greater than that of the as-received steel. The higher volume fraction of TiC precipitates in the UFG structure may be an additional source of hardening. Micro and macrotexture analysis indicated {110}〈uvw〉 as the major texture component of the austenite grains in the UFG structure. Its intensity is stronger in the specimen annealed at low temperatures.

  16. Process development for producing fine-grain casting in space

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gelles, S. H.; Malik, R. K.

    1975-01-01

    Assessment of grain growth kinetics at temperatures near the melting point and investigation into the use of potential nucleating agents in combination with the naturally occurring BeO led to the definition of critical low-g experiments which would help to determine whether one or both of these possibilities are valid and whether space processing would be able to yield fine grain ingot beryllium.

  17. Diffusive Fractionation of Lithium Isotopes in Olivine Grain Boundaries

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Homolova, V.; Watson, E. B.

    2012-12-01

    Diffusive fractionation of isotopes has been documented in silicate melts, aqueous fluids, and single crystals. In polycrystalline rocks, the meeting place of two grains, or grain boundaries, may also be a site of diffusive fractionation of isotopes. We have undertaken an experimental and modeling approach to investigate diffusive fractionation of lithium (Li) isotopes by grain boundary diffusion. The experimental procedure consists of packing a Ni metal capsule with predominantly ground San Carlos olivine and subjecting the capsule to 1100C and 1GPa for two days in a piston cylinder apparatus to create a nominally dry, 'dunite rock'. After this synthesis step, the capsule is sectioned and polished. One of the polished faces of the 'dunite rock' is then juxtaposed to a source material of spodumene and this diffusion couple is subject to the same experimental conditions as the synthesis step. Li abundances and isotopic profiles (ratios of count rates) were analyzed using LA-ICP-MS. Li concentrations linearly decrease away from the source from 550ppm to the average concentration of the starting olivine (2.5ppm). As a function of distance from the source, the 7Li/6Li ratio decreases to a minimum before increasing to the background ratio of the 'dunite rock'. The 7Li/6Li ratio minimum coincides with the lowest Li concentrations above average 'dunite rock' abundances. The initial decrease in the 7Li/6Li ratio is similar to that seen in other studies of diffusive fractionation of isotopes and is thought to be caused by the higher diffusivity (D) of the lighter isotope relative to the heavier isotope. The relationship between D and mass (m) is given by (D1/D2) =(m2/m1)^β, where β is an empirical fractionation factor; 1 and 2 denote the lighter and heavier isotope, respectively. A fit to the Li isotopic data reveals an effective DLi of ~1.2x10^-12 m/s^2 and a β of 0.1. Numerical modelling was utilized to elucidate the relationship between diffusive fractionation

  18. Space Weathering in the Fine Size Fractions of Lunar Soils: Soil Maturity Effects

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Keller, L. P.; Wentworth, S. J.; McKay, D. S.; Taylor, L. A.; Pieters, C.; Morris, R. V.

    1999-01-01

    The effects of space weathering on the optical properties of lunar materials have been well documented. These effects include a reddened continuum slope, lowered albedo, and attenuated absorption features in reflectance spectra of lunar soils as compared to finely comminuted rocks from the same Apollo sites. However, the regolith processes that cause these effects are not well known, nor is the petrographic setting of the products of these processes fully understood. A Lunar Soil Characterization Consortium has been formed with the purpose of systematically integrating chemical and mineralogical data with the optical properties of lunar soils. Understanding space-weathering effects is critical in order to fully integrate the lunar sample collection with remotely-sensed data from recent robotic missions (e.g., Lunar Prospector, Clementine, and Galileo) We have shown that depositional processes (condensation of impact-derived vapors, sputter deposits, accreted impact material, e.g., splash glass, spherules, etc.) are a major factor in the modification of the optical surfaces of lunar regolith materials. In mature soils, it is the size and distribution of the nanophase metal in the soil grains that has the major effect on optical properties. In this report, we compare and contrast the space-weathering effects in an immature and a mature soil with similar elemental compositions. For this study, we analyzed <10 micron sieve fractions of two Apollo 17 soils, 79221 (mature, Is/FeO = 81) and 71061 (immature, Is/FeO = 14). Details of the sieving procedures and allocation scheme are given else where. The results of other detailed chemical, mineralogical, and spectroscopic analyses of these soil samples are reported elsewhere. A representative sample of each soil was embedded in low-viscosity epoxy, and thin sections (about 70nm thick) were obtained through ultra microtomy. The thin sections used for these analyses typically contained cross sections of up to 500 individual

  19. Decoding the neural representation of fine-grained conceptual categories.

    PubMed

    Ghio, Marta; Vaghi, Matilde Maria Serena; Perani, Daniela; Tettamanti, Marco

    2016-05-15

    Neuroscientific research on conceptual knowledge based on the grounded cognition framework has shed light on the organization of concrete concepts into semantic categories that rely on different types of experiential information. Abstract concepts have traditionally been investigated as an undifferentiated whole, and have only recently been addressed in a grounded cognition perspective. The present fMRI study investigated the involvement of brain systems coding for experiential information in the conceptual processing of fine-grained semantic categories along the abstract-concrete continuum. These categories consisted of mental state-, emotion-, mathematics-, mouth action-, hand action-, and leg action-related meanings. Thirty-five sentences for each category were used as stimuli in a 1-back task performed by 36 healthy participants. A univariate analysis failed to reveal category-specific activations. Multivariate pattern analyses, in turn, revealed that fMRI data contained sufficient information to disentangle all six fine-grained semantic categories across participants. However, the category-specific activity patterns showed no overlap with the regions coding for experiential information. These findings demonstrate the possibility of detecting specific patterns of neural representation associated with the processing of fine-grained conceptual categories, crucially including abstract ones, though bearing no anatomical correspondence with regions coding for experiential information as predicted by the grounded cognition hypothesis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. K/Ar Dating of Fine Grained Sediments Near Prydz Bay, Antarctica: East Antarctic Ice Sheet Behavior During the Middle-Miocene Climate Transition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duchesne, A. E.; Pierce, E. L.; Williams, T.; Hemming, S. R.; Johnson, D. L.; May, T.; Gombiner, J.; Torfstein, A.

    2012-12-01

    ¶ The Middle Miocene Climate Transition (MMCT) (~14 Ma) represents a time of major East Antarctic Ice-Sheet (EAIS) expansion, with research suggesting major global sea level fall on the order of ~60 meters (John et al., 2011, EPSL). Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) core data from Site 1165B near Prydz Bay shows an influx of cobbles deposited ~13.8-13.5 Ma, representing a sudden burst of ice-rafted detritus (IRD) during the MMCT. Based on 40Ar/39Ar dating of hornblendes and/or biotite grains, 5 of 6 dated pebbles from a companion study show Wilkes Land origins, indicating transport from over 1500 kilometers away. However, samples throughout this time interval have an anomalously low abundance of sand, thus we seek to understand the sedimentary processes that led to the deposition of these isolated dropstones in a fine matrix through provenance studies of the core's terrigenous fine fraction. Geochemical provenance studies of the terrigenous fraction of marine sediments can aid in identifying past dynamic EAIS behavior; the few outcrops available on the continent provide specific rock characterizations and age constraints from which cored marine sediments can then be matched to using established radiogenic isotope techniques. Here we apply the K/Ar dating method as a provenance tool for identifying the source area(s) of fine-grained terrigenous sediments (<63 μm) deposited during the MMCT. ¶ After source area characterization, we find that the fine-grained sediments from the mid-Miocene show a mixture of both local Prydz Bay sourcing (~400 Ma signature) and Wilkes Land provenance (~900 Ma signature). While locally-derived Prydz Bay sediments are likely to have been delivered via meltwater from ice and deposited as hemipelagic sediments (with some possible bottom current modification, as this is a drift site), sediments sourced from Wilkes Land required transport via large icebergs. Future work will involve further provenance determination on both the fine-grained

  1. Controlling factors of stratigraphic occurrences of fine-grained turbidites: Examples from the Japanese waters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ikehara, K.

    2017-12-01

    Fine-grained turbidite has been used for subaqueous paleoseismology, and has been recognized from shallow- to deep-water environments around the Japanese islands. Stratigraphic occurrence of fine-grained turbidites in the deepest Beppu Bay, south Japan, with its water depth of 75 m suggest clear influence of sea-level changes. Turbidite frequency was high during the post glacial sea-level rising and last 2.7 ka, and was low during the Holocene maximum sea-level highstand (5.3-2.7 ka). Retreat and progress of coastal delta front of the nearby river might affect the sediment supply to the deepest basin. On the other hand, fine-grained turbidites found in the forearc basins ( 3500 and 4500 m in water depths) and trench floor ( 6000 m in water depth) along the southern Ryukyu arc have no clear relation with sea-level changes. Sediment and bathymetric characteristics suggest that origin of these fine-grained turbidites is Taiwan. Remarkable tectonic uplift of Taiwanese coast with small mountainous rivers and narrow shelf may produce the continuous supply of fine-grained turbidites in this area. The Japan Trench floor composes of a series of small basins reflecting subducting horst-graben structure of the Pacific Plate. Each small basin acts as a natural sediment trap receiving the earthquake-induced turbidity currents. Thick fine-grained turbidites are also occurred in the small basins in the Japan Trench floor ( 7500 m in water depth). These are most likely induced by huge earthquakes along the Japan Trench. Thus, their stratigraphic occurrences might have close relation with recurrence of huge earthquakes in the past.

  2. Learning Category-Specific Dictionary and Shared Dictionary for Fine-Grained Image Categorization.

    PubMed

    Gao, Shenghua; Tsang, Ivor Wai-Hung; Ma, Yi

    2014-02-01

    This paper targets fine-grained image categorization by learning a category-specific dictionary for each category and a shared dictionary for all the categories. Such category-specific dictionaries encode subtle visual differences among different categories, while the shared dictionary encodes common visual patterns among all the categories. To this end, we impose incoherence constraints among the different dictionaries in the objective of feature coding. In addition, to make the learnt dictionary stable, we also impose the constraint that each dictionary should be self-incoherent. Our proposed dictionary learning formulation not only applies to fine-grained classification, but also improves conventional basic-level object categorization and other tasks such as event recognition. Experimental results on five data sets show that our method can outperform the state-of-the-art fine-grained image categorization frameworks as well as sparse coding based dictionary learning frameworks. All these results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.

  3. Characterisation of excavated fine fraction and waste composition from a Swedish landfill.

    PubMed

    Jani, Yahya; Kaczala, Fabio; Marchand, Charlotte; Hogland, Marika; Kriipsalu, Mait; Hogland, William; Kihl, Anders

    2016-12-01

    The present research studies the characterisation and the physico-chemical properties of an excavated fine fraction (<10 mm) from a Swedish landfill, the Högbytorp. The results showed that the fine fraction represents 38% by mass of the total excavated wastes and it contains mainly soil-type materials and minerals. Higher concentrations of zinc, copper, barium and chromium were found with concentrations higher than the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for contaminated soil. The found moisture and organic contents of the fine fraction were 23.5% and 16.6%, respectively. The analysed calorific value (1.7 MJ kg -1 ), the potential of CH 4 (4.74 m 3  t -1 dry matter) and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) (5.6%) were low and offer low potential of energy. Sieving the fine fraction further showed that 80% was smaller than 2 mm. The fine represents a major fraction at any landfill (40%-70%), therefore, characterising the properties of this fraction is essential to find the potential of reusing/recycling or safely redisposing. © The Author(s) 2016.

  4. Ultra fine grained Ti prepared by severe plastic deformation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lukáč, F.; Čížek, J.; Knapp, J.; Procházka, I.; Zháňal, P.; Islamgaliev, R. K.

    2016-01-01

    The positron annihilation spectroscopy was employed for characterisation of defects in pure Ti with ultra fine grained (UFG) structure. UFG Ti samples were prepared by two techniques based on severe plastic deformation (SPD): (i) high pressure torsion (HPT) and (ii) equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). Although HPT is the most efficient technique for grain refinement, the size of HPT-deformed specimens is limited. On the other hand, ECAP is less efficient in grain refinement but enables to produce larger samples more suitable for industrial applications. Characterisation of defects by positron annihilation spectroscopy was accompanied by hardness testing in order to monitor the development of mechanical properties of UFG Ti.

  5. Pelagic Biocarbonates: Assessing the "Forgotten" Fine Fraction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brummer, G. J. A.

    2016-02-01

    Biocarbonates play an important role in the global carbon cycle and cover over half of the ocean floor. Biocarbonates in the open ocean are best known from planktonic foraminifera, which are relatively large (>150µm), heavy and few and coccoliths, which are very small (<32µm), light and abundant. Both of these components are relatively well studied. The size fraction in between adult foraminifera and coccoliths (32-150µm: the so-called fine fraction) consists of a large but poorly known mixture of particles, which is genarlly assumed to consist primarily of "juvenile" planktonic foraminifera, with minor amounts of calcareous dinoflagellates and various others less well-known microfossils. Abundance, diversity, mass and composition within the fine fraction are poorly constrained, as is the response to acidification/dissolution. This lack of knowledge primarily reflects the gap in size fraction studied by the different disciplinary approaches and techniques, which are not suited for identifying and quantifying these intermediate groups. Comparative ontogeny of planktonic foraminifera now shows that this fine fraction in sediments does not consist of "juveniles" as in the living plankton, but is dominated by mature specimens of small-sized species. First estimates indicate that these small species not only account for about one third of the number of species of planktonic foraminifera but also form about one third of their shell flux and global carbonate production in weight. Still, we hardly know anything on seasonality, depth habitat, shell composition (isotopes, trace metal incorporation), potential autotrophic symbionts, molecular genetics and geological range of these clearly very important species. Estimates from well-preserved sediments, show that the important role of these minute foraminiferal planktonic species may hold for much of the 180Ma long fossil record, opening a new research field pertaining to both modern and past pelagic ecosystems and the role

  6. Polychaete Tubes, Turbulence, and Erosion of Fine-Grained Sediment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kincke-Tootle, A.; Frank, D. P.; Briggs, K. B.; Calantoni, J.

    2016-02-01

    The role of polychaete tubes protruding through the benthic boundary layer in promoting or hindering erosion of fine-grained sediment was examined in laboratory experiments. Diver core samples of the top 10cm of sediment were collected west of Trinity Shoal off the Louisiana coast in 10-m depth. Diver cores were used in laboratory experiments conducted in a unidirectional flume. Tubes that were constructed by polychaetes, which comprised 70% of the species from the study area, were inserted into the core sediment surface. The sediment cores were then placed in the 2-m long test section of a small oscillatory flow tunnel and high-speed, stereo particle image velocimetry was used to determine the 2-dimensional, 3-component fluid velocity at high temporal (100 Hz) and spatial (< 1mm vector spacing) resolution. The tubes that protruded above the boundary layer allowed vortices to be initiated. Tubes are made up of shell fragments and fine-grained sediment, allowing for some rigidity and resistance to the flow. Rigidity determines the resistance causing small-scale eddies to form. The small-scale turbulence incited scour erosion, allowing fine-grained particles to be suspended into the water and in some cases coarser particles to be mobilized. Less-rigid tubes succumb to the shear stress, inhibit the formation of small-scale eddies, limit sediment erodibility, and increase the critical shear stress of the sediment. Discussion will focus on a modification to the critical Shields parameter to account for the effects of benthic biological activity.

  7. Studying of influence of fiber reinforcing at fine-grained concrete applying in transport construction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Begunov, Oleg; Alexandrova, Olga; Solovyov, Vadim

    2017-10-01

    We observed causes of using fiber in nowadays construction industry and its influence on a final product properties, where the fine-grained concrete basing of repairing dry construction mix was used as a base. However, in Russia we do not have such experience. If we’re talking about changes occurring in the fine-grained concrete all of its are known about it, either in concrete, but in dry-construction mixes changes may have another purpose. Advantages and disadvantages of using fiber were oblieved also in that article. The main subject of this research is the influence of fiber on a mechanical properties of fine-grained concrete. The most attention is paid to estimate the influence of a concrete’s properties by metal fibers: casting time (initial and final), workability and strength (tensile strength and compressive strength) in this article. The most popular different type of metal fiber compares for its length and width and the optimum quantity of metal component chooses, which will indicate the maximum possible affirmative result of its using. Dependences comparing properties of fine-grained properties with fiber’s type, measurements and quantity which show the evident result of researching are discussed.

  8. Determination of degradation rates of organic substances in the unsaturated soil zone depending on the grain size fractions of various soil types

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fichtner, Thomas; Stefan, Catalin; Goersmeyer, Nora

    2015-04-01

    Rate and extent of the biological degradation of organic substances during transport through the unsaturated soil zone is decisively influenced by the chemical and physical properties of the pollutants such as water solubility, toxicity and molecular structure. Furthermore microbial degradation processes are also influenced by soil-specific properties. An important parameter is the soil grain size distribution on which the pore volume and the pore size depends. Changes lead to changes in air and water circulation as well as preferred flow paths. Transport capacity of water inclusive nutrients is lower in existing bad-drainable fine pores in soils with small grain size fractions than in well-drainable coarse pores in a soil with bigger grain size fractions. Because fine pores are saturated with water for a longer time than the coarse pores and oxygen diffusion in water is ten thousand times slower than in air, oxygen is replenished much slower in soils with small grain size fractions. As a result life and growth conditions of the microorganisms are negatively affected. This leads to less biological activity, restricted degradation/mineralization of pollutants or altered microbial processes. The aim of conducted laboratory column experiments was to study the correlation between the grain size fractions respectively pore sizes, the oxygen content and the biodegradation rate of infiltrated organic substances. Therefore two columns (active + sterile control) were filled with different grain size fractions (0,063-0,125 mm, 0,2-0,63 mm and 1-2 mm) of soils. The sterile soil was inoculated with a defined amount of a special bacteria culture (sphingobium yanoikuae). A solution with organic substances glucose, oxalic acid, sinaphylic alcohol and nutrients was infiltrated from the top in intervals. The degradation of organic substances was controlled by the measurement of dissolved organic carbon in the in- and outflow of the column. The control of different pore volumes

  9. The dynamics of fine-grain sediment dredged from Santa Cruz Harbor

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Storlazzi, Curt D.; Conaway, Christopher H.; Presto, M. Katherine; Logan, Joshua B.; Cronin, Katherine; van Ormondt, Maarten; Lescinski, Jamie; Harden, E. Lynne; Lacy, Jessica R.; Tonnon, Pieter K.

    2011-01-01

    In the fall and early winter of 2009, a demonstration project was done at Santa Cruz Harbor, California, to determine if 450 m3/day of predominantly (71 percent) mud-sized sediment could be dredged from the inner portion of the harbor and discharged to the coastal ocean without significant impacts to the beach and inner shelf. During the project, more than 7600 m3 of sediment (~5400 m3 of fine-grain material) was dredged during 17 days and discharged approximately 60 m offshore of the harbor at a depth of 2 m on the inner shelf. The U.S. Geological Survey's Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center was funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Santa Cruz Port District to do an integrated mapping and process study to investigate the fate of the mud-sized sediment dredged from the inner portion of Santa Cruz Harbor and to determine if any of the fine-grain material settled out on the shoreline and/or inner shelf during the fall and early winter of 2009. This was done by collecting highresolution oceanographic and sediment geochemical measurements along the shoreline and on the continental shelf of northern Monterey Bay to monitor the fine-grain sediment dredged from Santa Cruz Harbor and discharged onto the inner shelf. These in place measurements, in conjunction with beach, water column, and seabed surveys, were used as boundary and calibration information for a three-dimensional numerical circulation and sediment dynamics model to better understand the fate of the fine-grain sediment dredged from Santa Cruz Harbor and the potential consequences of disposing this type of material on the beach and on the northern Monterey Bay continental shelf.

  10. Ceramic transactions - Materials processing and design: Grain-boundary-controlled properties of fine ceramics II. Volume 44

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

    Niihara, Koichi; Ishizaki, Kozo; Isotani, Mitsuo

    This volume contains selected papers presented at a workshop by the Japan Fine Ceramics Center, `Materials Processing and Design Through Better Control of Grain Boundaries: Emphasizing Fine Ceramics II,` which was held March 17-19, 1994, in Koda-cho, Aichi, Japan. The focus of the workshop was the application of grain boundary phenomena to materials processing and design. The topics covered included electronic materials, evaluation methods, structural materials, and interfaces. Also included is an illuminating overview of the current status of work on grain boundary assisted materials processing and design, particularly for fine ceramics. The volume`s chapter titles are: Electron Microscopy, Evaluation,more » Grain Boundary Control and Design, Functional Ceramics, Composite Materials, Synthesis and Sintering, and Mechanical Properties.« less

  11. Multiscale pore structure and constitutive models of fine-grained rocks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Heath, J. E.; Dewers, T. A.; Shields, E. A.; Yoon, H.; Milliken, K. L.

    2017-12-01

    A foundational concept of continuum poromechanics is the representative elementary volume or REV: an amount of material large enough that pore- or grain-scale fluctuations in relevant properties are dissipated to a definable mean, but smaller than length scales of heterogeneity. We determine 2D-equivalent representative elementary areas (REAs) of pore areal fraction of three major types of mudrocks by applying multi-beam scanning electron microscopy (mSEM) to obtain terapixel image mosaics. Image analysis obtains pore areal fraction and pore size and shape as a function of progressively larger measurement areas. Using backscattering imaging and mSEM data, pores are identified by the components within which they occur, such as in organics or the clastic matrix. We correlate pore areal fraction with nano-indentation, micropillar compression, and axysimmetic testing at multiple length scales on a terrigenous-argillaceous mudrock sample. The combined data set is used to: investigate representative elementary volumes (and areas for the 2D images); determine if scale separation occurs; and determine if transport and mechanical properties at a given length scale can be statistically defined. Clear scale separation occurs between REAs and observable heterogeneity in two of the samples. A highly-laminated sample exhibits fine-scale heterogeneity and an overlapping in scales, in which case typical continuum assumptions on statistical variability may break down. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc. for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

  12. Process for preparing fine-grain metal carbide powder

    DOEpatents

    Kennedy, C.R.; Jeffers, F.P.

    Fine-grain metal carbide powder suitable for use in the fabrication of heat resistant products is prepared by coating bituminous pitch on SiO/sub 2/ or Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ particles, heating the coated particles to convert the bituminous pitch to coke, and then heating the particles to a higher temperature to convert the particles to a carbide by reaction of said coke therewith.

  13. An action-based fine-grained access control mechanism for structured documents and its application.

    PubMed

    Su, Mang; Li, Fenghua; Tang, Zhi; Yu, Yinyan; Zhou, Bo

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents an action-based fine-grained access control mechanism for structured documents. Firstly, we define a describing model for structured documents and analyze the application scenarios. The describing model could support the permission management on chapters, pages, sections, words, and pictures of structured documents. Secondly, based on the action-based access control (ABAC) model, we propose a fine-grained control protocol for structured documents by introducing temporal state and environmental state. The protocol covering different stages from document creation, to permission specification and usage control are given by using the Z-notation. Finally, we give the implementation of our mechanism and make the comparisons between the existing methods and our mechanism. The result shows that our mechanism could provide the better solution of fine-grained access control for structured documents in complicated networks. Moreover, it is more flexible and practical.

  14. A TEM Investigation of the Fine-Grained Matrix of the Martian Basaltic Breccia NWA 7034

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Muttik, N.; Keller, L. P.; Agee, C. B.; McCubbin, F. M.; Santos, A. R.; Rahman, Z.

    2014-01-01

    The martian basaltic breccia NWA 7034 is characterized by fine-grained groundmass containing several different types of mineral grains and lithologic clasts. The matrix composition closely resembles Martian crustal rock and soil composition measured by recent rover and orbiter missions. The first results of NWA 7034 suggest that the brecciation of this martian meteorite may have formed due to eruptive volcanic processes; however, impact related brecciation processes have been proposed for paired meteorites NWA 7533 and NWA 7475]. Due to the very fine grain size of matrix, its textural details are difficult to resolve by optical and microprobe observations. In order to examine the potential nature of brecciation, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies combined with focused ion-beam technique (FIB) has been undertaken. Here we present the preliminary observations of fine-grained groundmass of NWA 7034 from different matrix areas by describing its textural and mineralogical variations and micro-structural characteristics.

  15. An Action-Based Fine-Grained Access Control Mechanism for Structured Documents and Its Application

    PubMed Central

    Su, Mang; Li, Fenghua; Tang, Zhi; Yu, Yinyan; Zhou, Bo

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents an action-based fine-grained access control mechanism for structured documents. Firstly, we define a describing model for structured documents and analyze the application scenarios. The describing model could support the permission management on chapters, pages, sections, words, and pictures of structured documents. Secondly, based on the action-based access control (ABAC) model, we propose a fine-grained control protocol for structured documents by introducing temporal state and environmental state. The protocol covering different stages from document creation, to permission specification and usage control are given by using the Z-notation. Finally, we give the implementation of our mechanism and make the comparisons between the existing methods and our mechanism. The result shows that our mechanism could provide the better solution of fine-grained access control for structured documents in complicated networks. Moreover, it is more flexible and practical. PMID:25136651

  16. The time dependent magnetization of fine-grained iron in lunar breccias

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gose, W. A.; Carnes, J. G.

    1973-01-01

    Lunar breccias of low metamorphic grade offer a unique opportunity to investigate the magnetic properties of dispersed fine-grained iron. These rocks exhibit a pronounced time-dependent magnetization whose acquisition and decay are well explained by Neel's single-domain theory. The effect is due to iron grains in the range from 120 to 150 A in diameter, which covers the transition from superparamagnetic to stable single-domain behavior.

  17. The influence of grain size, grain color, and suspended-sediment concentration on light attenuation: why fine-grained terrestrial sediment is bad for coral reef ecosystems

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Storlazzi, Curt; Norris, Benjamin; Rosenberger, Kurt

    2015-01-01

    Sediment has been shown to be a major stressor to coral reefs globally. Although many researchers have tested the impact of sedimentation on coral reef ecosystems in both the laboratory and the field and some have measured the impact of suspended sediment on the photosynthetic response of corals, there has yet to be a detailed investigation on how properties of the sediment itself can affect light availability for photosynthesis. We show that finer-grained and darker-colored sediment at higher suspended-sediment concentrations attenuates photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) significantly more than coarser, lighter-colored sediment at lower concentrations and provide PAR attenuation coefficients for various grain sizes, colors, and suspended-sediment concentrations that are needed for biophysical modeling. Because finer-grained sediment particles settle more slowly and are more susceptible to resuspension, they remain in the water column longer, thus causing greater net impact by reducing light essential for photosynthesis over a greater duration. This indicates that coral reef monitoring studies investigating sediment impacts should concentrate on measuring fine-grained lateritic and volcanic soils, as opposed to coarser-grained siliceous and carbonate sediment. Similarly, coastal restoration efforts and engineering solutions addressing long-term coral reef ecosystem health should focus on preferentially retaining those fine-grained soils rather than coarse silt and sand particles.

  18. An assessment of ultra fine grained 316L stainless steel for implant applications.

    PubMed

    Muley, Sachin Vijay; Vidvans, Amey N; Chaudhari, Gajanan P; Udainiya, Sumit

    2016-01-01

    Ultra fine-grained metals obtained by severe plastic deformation exhibit higher specific strength that is useful for many applications and show promise for use as body implants. This work studied the microstructural evolution, mechanical and sliding wear behavior and corrosion behavior of 316L stainless steel warm multi axially forged at 600°C. Microstructural evolution studied using electron backscatter diffraction technique and transmission electron microscopy confirmed the formation of ultra fine-grained structure. Average grain size reduced from 30μm to 0.86μm after nine strain steps. A combination of Hall-Petch strengthening and strain hardening increased the hardness. Improved sliding wear resistance is attributed to a transition from micro cutting to wedge-forming mode of abrasive wear. Load-bearing orthopedic implants often fail from pitting initiated corrosion fatigue. Potentiodynamic tests, cyclic polarization, and FeCl3 immersion tests revealed enhanced pitting resistance of forged steel that is confirmed by Mott-Schottky analysis. This is ascribed to an increase in the grain boundary volume, and homogenization of pit inducing impurities and non-metallic phases due to severe deformation, which influenced the passive film properties. These model studies on 316L steel demonstrate that severely deformed ultra fine-grained metals have potential to deliver improved implant performance. This model study on 316L steel demonstrates that severely deformed ultra fine-grained (UFG) metals have potential to deliver improved load-bearing implant performance. It is as interesting as is unclear as to how such severely deformed UFG material behaves electrochemically in the corrosive body fluids. This work is on studying the inter-relationship between structure, and mechanical, wear, and corrosion behavior of warm multiaxially forged (MAFed) UFG 316L stainless steel. Warm MAF is a bulk processing method capable of yielding large volume of UFG material and is an easily

  19. Critical Technology Assessment: Fine Grain, High Density Graphite

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2010-04-01

    Control Classification Number ( ECCN ) 1C107.a on the Commerce Control List (CCL). The parameters of 1C107.a stem from controls established by the Missile...Technology Control Regime (MTCR). In this assessment, BIS specifically examined: • The application of ECCN 1C107.a and related licensing...export licensing process for fine grain, high density graphite controlled by ECCN 1C107.a, especially to China, requires more license conditions and

  20. Spark plasma sintering of highly dense fine-grained mineral aggregates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Koizumi, S.; Suzuki, T. S.; Sakka, Y.; Hiraga, T.

    2017-12-01

    To obtain highly dense and fine-grained mineral aggregates, which are suitable for laboratory measurements of their physical and chemical properties, we applied spark plasma sintering (SPS) to synthetic mineral powders and powders originated from naturally derived crystals. SPS is an emerging consolidation technique which has been applied to various metals and ceramics and rarely to geomaterials (e.g., Guignard et al., 2011). The technique uses spark plasma created by a pulse direct current during heat treatment of powders in a graphite die. It has been found that the technique provides better densification with little grain growth during sintering compared to a conventional sintering technique in many materials. To obtain ideal highly dense fine-grained materials, it is essential to prepare starting powders suitable for the sintering and also to find appropriate sintering conditions of applied uniaxial pressures, pulsed current patterns and heating rates. We prepared synthetic mineral powers through solid state reaction of source powders at high temperature well developed by our group (Koizumi et al. 2010). We also used jet milling at wet condition and subsequent elutriation to prepare olivine powders with sub-micron particle size and equiaxed particle shape. At heating rate of ≦10°C/min and an achievement of highest temperature of 1150°C, Fe-free olivine aggregate with average grain size of 200 nm with porosity of 0.003% was obtained. We also could obtain olivine aggregate, which was sintered from powders of Horoman peridotite, with average grain size of 500 nm and porosity of 0.2%. We will show results of other minerals including major rock forming minerals of the Earth's crust.

  1. Grain boundary stability governs hardening and softening in extremely fine nanograined metals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, J.; Shi, Y. N.; Sauvage, X.; Sha, G.; Lu, K.

    2017-03-01

    Conventional metals become harder with decreasing grain sizes, following the classical Hall-Petch relationship. However, this relationship fails and softening occurs at some grain sizes in the nanometer regime for some alloys. In this study, we discovered that plastic deformation mechanism of extremely fine nanograined metals and their hardness are adjustable through tailoring grain boundary (GB) stability. The electrodeposited nanograined nickel-molybdenum (Ni-Mo) samples become softened for grain sizes below 10 nanometers because of GB-mediated processes. With GB stabilization through relaxation and Mo segregation, ultrahigh hardness is achieved in the nanograined samples with a plastic deformation mechanism dominated by generation of extended partial dislocations. Grain boundary stability provides an alternative dimension, in addition to grain size, for producing novel nanograined metals with extraordinary properties.

  2. Method of making fine-grained triaminotrinitrobenzene

    DOEpatents

    Benziger, T.M.

    1983-07-26

    A method is given for forming a fine-grained species of the insensitive high explosive sym-triaminotrinitrobenzene (TATB) without grinding. In accordance with the method, 1,3,5-trichloro-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TCTNB) is aminated by reaction with gaseous ammonia in an emulsion of toluene in water. The ratio of water to toluene in the emulsion is selected so that toluene is the dispersed phase in the emulsion. The size of the dispersed TCTNB-containing toluene droplets determines the particle size of the resulting TATB. The emulsion is preferably formed with an emulsifier such as ammonium oleate, which may be generated in situ from oleic acid, and stabilized with a protective colloid such as polyvinyl alcohol.

  3. Method of making fine-grained triaminotrinitrobenzene

    DOEpatents

    Benziger, Theodore M.

    1984-01-01

    A method of forming a fine-grained species of the insensitive high explosive sym-triaminotrinitrobenzene (TATB) without grinding. In accordance with the method, 1,3,5-trichloro-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TCTNB) is aminated by reaction with gaseous ammonia in an emulsion of toluene in water. The ratio of water to toluene in the emulsion is selected so that toluene is the dispersed phase in the emulsion. The size of the dispersed TCTNB-containing toluene droplets determines the particle size of the resulting TATB. The emulsion is preferably formed with an emulsifier such as ammonium oleate, which may be generated in situ from oleic acid, and stabilized with a protective colloid such as polyvinyl alcohol.

  4. Water-saving technologies affect the grain characteristics and recovery of fine-grain rice cultivars in semi-arid environment.

    PubMed

    Jabran, Khawar; Riaz, Muhammad; Hussain, Mubshar; Nasim, Wajid; Zaman, Umar; Fahad, Shah; Chauhan, Bhagirath Singh

    2017-05-01

    Growing rice with less water is direly needed due to declining water sources worldwide, but using methods that require less water inputs can have an impact on grain characteristics and recovery. A 2-year field study was conducted to evaluate the impact of conventionally sown flooded rice and low-water-input rice systems on the grain characteristics and recovery of fine rice. Three fine grain rice cultivars-Super Basmati, Basmati 2000, and Shaheen Basmati-were grown under conventional flooded transplanted rice (CFTR), alternate wetting and drying (AWD), and aerobic rice systems. Grain characteristics and rice recovery were significantly influenced by different water regimes (production systems). Poor milling, including the lowest percentage of brown (head) rice (65.3%) and polished (white) rice (64.2-66.9%) and the highest percentage of broken brown rice (10.2%), husk (24.5%-26.3%), polished broken rice (24.7%), and bran (11.0-12.5%), were recorded in the aerobic rice system sown with Shaheen Basmati. With a few exceptions, cultivars sown in CFTR were found to possess a higher percentage of brown (head) and polished (white) rice and they had incurred the least losses in the form of brown broken rice, husk, polished broken rice, and bran. In conclusion, better grain quality and recovery of rice can be attained by growing Super Basmati under the CFTR system. Growing Shaheen Basmati under low-water-input systems, the aerobic rice system in particular, resulted in poor grain characteristics tied with less rice recovery.

  5. Primitive Fine-Grained Matrix in the Unequilbrated Enstatite Chondrites

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Weisberg, M. K.; Zolensky, M. E.; Kimura, M.; Ebel, D. S.

    2014-01-01

    Enstatite chondrites (EC) have important implications for constraining conditions in the early solar system and for understanding the evolution of the Earth and other inner planets. They are among the most reduced solar system materials as reflected in their mineral compositions and assemblage. They are the only chondrites with oxygen as well as Cr, Ti, Ni and Zn stable isotope compositions similar to the earth and moon and most are completely dry, lacking any evidence of hydrous alteration; the only exception are EC clasts in the Kaidun breccia which have hydrous minerals. Thus, ECs likely formed within the snow line and are good candidates to be building blocks of the inner planets. Our goals are to provide a more detailed characterization the fine-grained matrix in E3 chondrites, understand its origin and relationship to chondrules, decipher the relationship between EH and EL chondrites and compare E3 matrix to matrices in C and O chondrites as well as other fine-grained solar system materials. Is E3 matrix the dust remaining from chondrule formation or a product of parent body processing or both?

  6. Deep learning-based fine-grained car make/model classification for visual surveillance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gundogdu, Erhan; Parıldı, Enes Sinan; Solmaz, Berkan; Yücesoy, Veysel; Koç, Aykut

    2017-10-01

    Fine-grained object recognition is a potential computer vision problem that has been recently addressed by utilizing deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). Nevertheless, the main disadvantage of classification methods relying on deep CNN models is the need for considerably large amount of data. In addition, there exists relatively less amount of annotated data for a real world application, such as the recognition of car models in a traffic surveillance system. To this end, we mainly concentrate on the classification of fine-grained car make and/or models for visual scenarios by the help of two different domains. First, a large-scale dataset including approximately 900K images is constructed from a website which includes fine-grained car models. According to their labels, a state-of-the-art CNN model is trained on the constructed dataset. The second domain that is dealt with is the set of images collected from a camera integrated to a traffic surveillance system. These images, which are over 260K, are gathered by a special license plate detection method on top of a motion detection algorithm. An appropriately selected size of the image is cropped from the region of interest provided by the detected license plate location. These sets of images and their provided labels for more than 30 classes are employed to fine-tune the CNN model which is already trained on the large scale dataset described above. To fine-tune the network, the last two fully-connected layers are randomly initialized and the remaining layers are fine-tuned in the second dataset. In this work, the transfer of a learned model on a large dataset to a smaller one has been successfully performed by utilizing both the limited annotated data of the traffic field and a large scale dataset with available annotations. Our experimental results both in the validation dataset and the real field show that the proposed methodology performs favorably against the training of the CNN model from scratch.

  7. Estimating suspended sediment using acoustics in a fine-grained riverine system, Kickapoo Creek at Bloomington, Illinois

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Manaster, Amanda D.; Domanski, Marian M.; Straub, Timothy D.; Boldt, Justin A.

    2016-08-18

    Acoustic technologies have the potential to be used as a surrogate for measuring suspended-sediment concentration (SSC). This potential was examined in a fine-grained (97-100 percent fines) riverine system in central Illinois by way of installation of an acoustic instrument. Acoustic data were collected continuously over the span of 5.5 years. Acoustic parameters were regressed against SSC data to determine the accuracy of using acoustic technology as a surrogate for measuring SSC in a fine-grained riverine system. The resulting regressions for SSC and sediment acoustic parameters had coefficients of determination ranging from 0.75 to 0.97 for various events and configurations. The overall Nash-Sutcliffe model-fit efficiency was 0.95 for the 132 observed and predicted SSC values determined using the sediment acoustic parameter regressions. The study of using acoustic technologies as a surrogate for measuring SSC in fine-grained riverine systems is ongoing. The results at this site are promising in the realm of surrogate technology.

  8. Resistance spot welding of ultra-fine grained steel sheets produced by constrained groove pressing: Optimization and characterization

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

    Khodabakhshi, F.; Kazeminezhad, M., E-mail: mkazemi@sharif.edu; Kokabi, A.H.

    2012-07-15

    Constrained groove pressing as a severe plastic deformation method is utilized to produce ultra-fine grained low carbon steel sheets. The ultra-fine grained sheets are joined via resistance spot welding process and the characteristics of spot welds are investigated. Resistance spot welding process is optimized for welding of the sheets with different severe deformations and their results are compared with those of as-received samples. The effects of failure mode and expulsion on the performance of ultra-fine grained sheet spot welds have been investigated in the present paper and the welding current and time of resistance spot welding process according to thesemore » subjects are optimized. Failure mode and failure load obtained in tensile-shear test, microhardness, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscope and scanning electron microscope images have been used to describe the performance of spot welds. The region between interfacial to pullout mode transition and expulsion limit is defined as the optimum welding condition. The results show that optimum welding parameters (welding current and welding time) for ultra-fine grained sheets are shifted to lower values with respect to those for as-received specimens. In ultra-fine grained sheets, one new region is formed named recrystallized zone in addition to fusion zone, heat affected zone and base metal. It is shown that microstructures of different zones in ultra-fine grained sheets are finer than those of as-received sheets. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Resistance spot welding process is optimized for joining of UFG steel sheets. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Optimum welding current and time are decreased with increasing the CGP pass number. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Microhardness at BM, HAZ, FZ and recrystallized zone is enhanced due to CGP.« less

  9. Clay, Water, and Salt: Controls on the Permeability of Fine-Grained Sedimentary Rocks.

    PubMed

    Bourg, Ian C; Ajo-Franklin, Jonathan B

    2017-09-19

    The ability to predict the permeability of fine-grained soils, sediments, and sedimentary rocks is a fundamental challenge in the geosciences with potentially transformative implications in subsurface hydrology. In particular, fine-grained sedimentary rocks (shale, mudstone) constitute about two-thirds of the sedimentary rock mass and play important roles in three energy technologies: petroleum geology, geologic carbon sequestration, and radioactive waste management. The problem is a challenging one that requires understanding the properties of complex natural porous media on several length scales. One inherent length scale, referred to hereafter as the mesoscale, is associated with the assemblages of large grains of quartz, feldspar, and carbonates over distances of tens of micrometers. Its importance is highlighted by the existence of a threshold in the core scale mechanical properties and regional scale energy uses of shale formations at a clay content X clay ≈ 1/3, as predicted by an ideal packing model where a fine-grained clay matrix fills the gaps between the larger grains. A second important length scale, referred to hereafter as the nanoscale, is associated with the aggregation and swelling of clay particles (in particular, smectite clay minerals) over distances of tens of nanometers. Mesoscale phenomena that influence permeability are primarily mechanical and include, for example, the ability of contacts between large grains to prevent the compaction of the clay matrix. Nanoscale phenomena that influence permeability tend to be chemomechanical in nature, because they involve strong impacts of aqueous chemistry on clay swelling. The second length scale remains much less well characterized than the first, because of the inherent challenges associated with the study of strongly coupled nanoscale phenomena. Advanced models of the nanoscale properties of fine-grained media rely predominantly on the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory, a mean field

  10. Size and modal analyses of fines and ultrafines from some Apollo 17 samples

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Greene, G. M.; King, D. T., Jr.; Banholzer, G. S., Jr.; King, E. A.

    1975-01-01

    Scanning electron and optical microscopy techniques have been used to determine the grain-size frequency distributions and morphology-based modal analyses of fine and ultrafine fractions of some Apollo 17 regolith samples. There are significant and large differences between the grain-size frequency distributions of the less than 10-micron size fraction of Apollo 17 samples, but there are no clear relations to the local geologic setting from which individual samples have been collected. This may be due to effective lateral mixing of regolith particles in this size range by micrometeoroid impacts. None of the properties of the frequency distributions support the idea of selective transport of any fine grain-size fraction, as has been proposed by other workers. All of the particle types found in the coarser size fractions also occur in the less than 10-micron particles. In the size range from 105 to 10 microns there is a strong tendency for the percentage of regularly shaped glass to increase as the graphic mean grain size of the less than 1-mm size fraction decreases, both probably being controlled by exposure age.

  11. Fine-grained channel margin (FGCM) deposits conditioned by Large Woody Debris (LWD) in a gravel-bed river

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Skalak, K. J.; Pizzuto, J. E.

    2006-12-01

    The purpose of this research is to examine the origin, occurrence, persistence, residence time and general significance of fine-grained channel margin storage in South River, a steep gravel-bedded stream in western Virginia. Fine-grained channel margin (FGCM) deposits in this study refers to specific in-channel deposits of mud and sand. These deposits occur primarily in the margins and near-banks regions of the channel. Fine- grained sediment storage in the near-bank regions is a result of reduced velocity caused by the bank obstructions. Nearly all of these obstructions consist of LWD accumulations in the channel. Storage occurs in four different geomorphic settings: 1) long pooled sections caused by bedrock or old mill dams, 2) the upstream ends of pools in channel margins with LWD accumulations, 3) bank obstructions usually caused by trees, 4) side channel backwaters where flow separates around islands. In approximately 38 km of river, there is 3000 m3 of fine-grained sediment stored in these features. The channel stores approximately 15 percent its total annual suspended load as fine-grained channel margin deposits. Consequently, these features represent a significant component of an annual sediment budget for this river. On average, the FGCM deposits are about 35 cm deep, 20 m long, and 4 m wide. They average 30 percent mud, 68 percent sand, and 2 percent gravel. These deposits have been cored and analyzed for Hg, grain size, loss-on-ignition, and bomb radiocarbon. Results from bomb radiocarbon analysis indicate that these features have an average age of 13 years. High Hg concentrations in fish tissue are an ongoing problem along South River, further motivating detailed study of these deposits.

  12. Nearshore disposal of fine-grained sediment in a high-energy environment: Santa Cruz Harbor case study

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Cronin, Katherine; van Ormondt, Maarten; Storlazzi, Curt D.; Presto, Katherine; Tonnon, Pieter K.; Rosati, Julie D.; Wang, Ping; Roberts, Tiffany M.

    2011-01-01

    Current regulations in California prohibit the disposal of more than 20% fine-grained sediment in the coastal zone; this threshold is currently being investigated to determine if this environmental regulation can be improved upon. A field monitoring and numerical modeling experiment took place late 2 009 to determine the fate of fine-grained dredge disposal material from Santa Cruz Harbor, California, U.S.A. A multi-nested, hydrodynamic-sediment transport modeling approach was used to simulate the direction and dispersal of the dredge plume. Result s show that the direction and dispersal of the plume was influenced by the wave  climate, a large proportion of which moved in a easterly direction during wave events. Therefore it is vitally important to accurately simulate the tides, waves, currents, temperature and salinity when modeling the dispersal of the fine-grained dredge plume. 

  13. Models of compacted fine-grained soils used as mineral liner for solid waste

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sivrikaya, Osman

    2008-02-01

    To prevent the leakage of pollutant liquids into groundwater and sublayers, the compacted fine-grained soils are commonly utilized as mineral liners or a sealing system constructed under municipal solid waste and other containment hazardous materials. This study presents the correlation equations of the compaction parameters required for construction of a mineral liner system. The determination of the characteristic compaction parameters, maximum dry unit weight ( γ dmax) and optimum water content ( w opt) requires considerable time and great effort. In this study, empirical models are described and examined to find which of the index properties correlate well with the compaction characteristics for estimating γ dmax and w opt of fine-grained soils at the standard compactive effort. The compaction data are correlated with different combinations of gravel content ( G), sand content ( S), fine-grained content (FC = clay + silt), plasticity index ( I p), liquid limit ( w L) and plastic limit ( w P) by performing multilinear regression (MLR) analyses. The obtained correlations with statistical parameters are presented and compared with the previous studies. It is found that the maximum dry unit weight and optimum water content have a considerably good correlation with plastic limit in comparison with liquid limit and plasticity index.

  14. A procedure for partitioning bulk sediments into distinct grain-size fractions for geochemical analysis

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Barbanti, A.; Bothner, Michael H.

    1993-01-01

    A method to separate sediments into discrete size fractions for geochemical analysis has been tested. The procedures were chosen to minimize the destruction or formation of aggregates and involved gentle sieving and settling of wet samples. Freeze-drying and sonication pretreatments, known to influence aggregates, were used for comparison. Freeze-drying was found to increase the silt/clay ratio by an average of 180 percent compared to analysis of a wet sample that had been wet sieved only. Sonication of a wet sample decreased the silt/clay ratio by 51 percent. The concentrations of metals and organic carbon in the separated fractions changed depending on the pretreatment procedures in a manner consistent with the hypothesis that aggregates consist of fine-grained organic- and metal-rich particles. The coarse silt fraction of a freeze-dried sample contained 20–44 percent higher concentrations of Zn, Cu, and organic carbon than the coarse silt fraction of the wet sample. Sonication resulted in concentrations of these analytes that were 18–33 percent lower in the coarse silt fraction than found in the wet sample. Sonication increased the concentration of lead in the clay fraction by an average of 40 percent compared to an unsonicated sample. Understanding the magnitude of change caused by different analysis protocols is an aid in designing future studies that seek to interpret the spatial distribution of contaminated sediments and their transport mechanisms.

  15. Periodic Viscous Shear Heating Instability in Fine-Grained Shear Zones: Mechanism for Intermediate Depth Earthquakes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Coon, E.; Kelemen, P.; Hirth, G.; Spiegelman, M.

    2005-12-01

    initial T of 600 to 850 C, this produced periodic viscous shear heating events with periods of 100's to 1000's of years. Strain rates during these events approach 1 per second as temperatures reach 1400. Cooling between events returns the shear zone almost to its initial temperature, though ultimately shear zone temperature between events exceeds 850 C resulting in stable viscous creep. Analysis shows that our system of equations jumps from one steady state to another, depending on a non-dimensional number relating the rate of shear heating to the rate of diffusive cooling. This year, Kelemen and Hirth show that the rate of stress drop during shear heating events is greater than the rate of elastic stress relaxation, so that shear heating events are a runaway instability. Rather than capping the temperature at 1400 C, we parameterize melt fraction as a function of T, and shear viscosity as a function of melt fraction. A problem with our 1D model is that predicted displacements are too large (1 to 20 m) during shear heating events, essentially because there is no resistance at shear zone ends. To address this, Coon and Spiegelman have embarked on a 3D model, incorporating a pre-existing fine-grained, tabular shear zone of finite extent, with a visco-elastic rheology for both shear zone and wall rocks. Preliminary 1D models using this approach show that the more complicated rheology yields the same result as the simpler model. We will present preliminary results, and determine the Maxwell time for this problem, since low strain rates could produce viscous relaxation in both shear zone and wall rocks with negligible shear heating.

  16. The protein fraction from wheat-based dried distiller's grain with solubles (DDGS): extraction and valorization

    PubMed Central

    Villegas-Torres, M.F.; Ward, J.M.; Lye, G.J.

    2015-01-01

    Nowadays there is worldwide interest in developing a sustainable economy where biobased chemicals are the lead actors. Various potential feedstocks are available including glycerol, rapeseed meal and municipal solid waste (MSW). For biorefinery applications the byproduct streams from distilleries and bioethanol plants, such as wheat-based dried distiller's grain with solubles (DDGS), are particularly attractive, as they do not compete for land use. Wheat DDGS is rich in polymeric sugars, proteins and oils, making it ideal as a current animal feed, but also a future substrate for the synthesis of fine and commodity chemicals. This review focuses on the extraction and valorization of the protein fraction of wheat DDGS as this has received comparatively little attention to date. Since wheat DDGS production is expected to increase greatly in the near future, as a consequence of expansion of the bioethanol industry in the UK, strategies to valorize the component fractions of DDGS are urgently needed. PMID:25644639

  17. Fine-grained bed patch response to near-bankfull flows in a step-pool channel

    Treesearch

    Daniel A. Marion; Frank Weirich

    1999-01-01

    Fine-grained bed patches were monitored in a representative step-pool channel in the Arkansas Ouachita Mountains to assess their response to near-bankfull streamflow events. These patches are small, relatively well-sorted bed areas predominantly composed of gravel-size and smaller grains. They occupy 5.2 and 4.1 percent of the active and bankfull channel areas,...

  18. The exceptional sediment load of fine-grained dispersal systems: Example of the Yellow River, China.

    PubMed

    Ma, Hongbo; Nittrouer, Jeffrey A; Naito, Kensuke; Fu, Xudong; Zhang, Yuanfeng; Moodie, Andrew J; Wang, Yuanjian; Wu, Baosheng; Parker, Gary

    2017-05-01

    Sedimentary dispersal systems with fine-grained beds are common, yet the physics of sediment movement within them remains poorly constrained. We analyze sediment transport data for the best-documented, fine-grained river worldwide, the Huanghe (Yellow River) of China, where sediment flux is underpredicted by an order of magnitude according to well-accepted sediment transport relations. Our theoretical framework, bolstered by field observations, demonstrates that the Huanghe tends toward upper-stage plane bed, yielding minimal form drag, thus markedly enhancing sediment transport efficiency. We present a sediment transport formulation applicable to all river systems with silt to coarse-sand beds. This formulation demonstrates a remarkably sensitive dependence on grain size within a certain narrow range and therefore has special relevance to silt-sand fluvial systems, particularly those affected by dams.

  19. The exceptional sediment load of fine-grained dispersal systems: Example of the Yellow River, China

    PubMed Central

    Ma, Hongbo; Nittrouer, Jeffrey A.; Naito, Kensuke; Fu, Xudong; Zhang, Yuanfeng; Moodie, Andrew J.; Wang, Yuanjian; Wu, Baosheng; Parker, Gary

    2017-01-01

    Sedimentary dispersal systems with fine-grained beds are common, yet the physics of sediment movement within them remains poorly constrained. We analyze sediment transport data for the best-documented, fine-grained river worldwide, the Huanghe (Yellow River) of China, where sediment flux is underpredicted by an order of magnitude according to well-accepted sediment transport relations. Our theoretical framework, bolstered by field observations, demonstrates that the Huanghe tends toward upper-stage plane bed, yielding minimal form drag, thus markedly enhancing sediment transport efficiency. We present a sediment transport formulation applicable to all river systems with silt to coarse-sand beds. This formulation demonstrates a remarkably sensitive dependence on grain size within a certain narrow range and therefore has special relevance to silt-sand fluvial systems, particularly those affected by dams. PMID:28508078

  20. Emission characteristics of dispenser cathodes with a fine-grained tungsten top layer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kimura, S.; Higuchi, T.; Ouchi, Y.; Uda, E.; Nakamura, O.; Sudo, T.; Koyama, K.

    1997-02-01

    In order to improve the emission stability of the Ir-coated dispenser cathode under ion bombardment, a fine-grained tungsten top layer was applied on the substrate porous tungsten plug before Ir coating. The emission characteristics were studied after being assembled in a CRT gun. Cathode current was measured under pulse operation in a range of 0.1-9% duty. Remarkable anti-ion bombardment characteristics were observed over the range of 1-6% duty. The improved cathode showed 1.5 times higher emission current than that of a conventional Ir-coated dispenser cathode at 4% duty. AES analysis showed that the recovering rates of surface Ba and O atoms after ion bombardment were 2.5 times higher. From these results it is confirmed that the Ir coated cathode with a fine-grained tungsten top layer is provided with a good tolerance against the ion bombardment.

  1. Fabrication of fine-grain tantalum diffusion barrier tube for Nb3Sn conductors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hartwig, K. T.; Balachandran, S.; Mezyenski, R.; Seymour, N.; Robinson, J.; Barber, R. E.

    2014-01-01

    Diffusion barriers used in Nb3Sn wire are often fabricated by wrapping Ta sheet into a tube with an overlap seam. A common result of such practice is non-uniform deformation in the Ta sheet as it thins by wire drawing because of non-uniform grain size and texture in the original Ta sheet. Seamless Ta tube with a fine-grain and uniform microstructure would be much better for the diffusion barrier application, but such material is expensive and difficult to manufacture. This report presents results on a new fabrication strategy for Ta tube that shows promise for manufacture of less costly tube with an improved microstructure. The fabrication method begins with seam-welded tube but gives a fine-grain uniform microstructure with little difference between the longitudinal seam weld region and the parent metal after post-weld processing. Severe plastic deformation processing (SPD) applied by area reduction extrusion and tube equal channel angular extrusion (tECAE) are used to refine and homogenize the microstructure. Microstructure and mechanical property results are presented for Ta tubes fabricated by this new processing strategy.

  2. Fine-grained leukocyte classification with deep residual learning for microscopic images.

    PubMed

    Qin, Feiwei; Gao, Nannan; Peng, Yong; Wu, Zizhao; Shen, Shuying; Grudtsin, Artur

    2018-08-01

    Leukocyte classification and cytometry have wide applications in medical domain, previous researches usually exploit machine learning techniques to classify leukocytes automatically. However, constrained by the past development of machine learning techniques, for example, extracting distinctive features from raw microscopic images are difficult, the widely used SVM classifier only has relative few parameters to tune, these methods cannot efficiently handle fine-grained classification cases when the white blood cells have up to 40 categories. Based on deep learning theory, a systematic study is conducted on finer leukocyte classification in this paper. A deep residual neural network based leukocyte classifier is constructed at first, which can imitate the domain expert's cell recognition process, and extract salient features robustly and automatically. Then the deep neural network classifier's topology is adjusted according to the prior knowledge of white blood cell test. After that the microscopic image dataset with almost one hundred thousand labeled leukocytes belonging to 40 categories is built, and combined training strategies are adopted to make the designed classifier has good generalization ability. The proposed deep residual neural network based classifier was tested on microscopic image dataset with 40 leukocyte categories. It achieves top-1 accuracy of 77.80%, top-5 accuracy of 98.75% during the training procedure. The average accuracy on the test set is nearly 76.84%. This paper presents a fine-grained leukocyte classification method for microscopic images, based on deep residual learning theory and medical domain knowledge. Experimental results validate the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach. Extended experiments support that the fine-grained leukocyte classifier could be used in real medical applications, assist doctors in diagnosing diseases, reduce human power significantly. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Keypoint Density-Based Region Proposal for Fine-Grained Object Detection and Classification Using Regions with Convolutional Neural Network Features

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2015-12-15

    Keypoint Density-based Region Proposal for Fine-Grained Object Detection and Classification using Regions with Convolutional Neural Network ... Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) enable them to outperform conventional techniques on standard object detection and classification tasks, their...detection accuracy and speed on the fine-grained Caltech UCSD bird dataset (Wah et al., 2011). Recently, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), a deep

  4. A fully-active fine-grained detector with three readout views

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Blondel, A.; Cadoux, F.; Fedotov, S.; Khabibullin, M.; Khotjantsev, A.; Korzenev, A.; Kostin, A.; Kudenko, Y.; Longhin, A.; Mefodiev, A.; Mermod, P.; Mineev, O.; Noah, E.; Sgalaberna, D.; Smirnov, A.; Yershov, N.

    2018-02-01

    This paper describes a novel idea of a fine-grained fully-active plastic scintillator detector made of many optically independent 1×1×1 cm3 cubes with readout on three orthogonal projections by wavelength shifting fibers. The original purpose of this detector is to serve as an active neutrino target for the detection, measurement and identification of the final state particles down to a few tenths MeV kinetic energies. The three readout views as well as the fine granularity ensure powerful localization and measurement of the deposited energy combined with good timing properties and isotropic acceptance. The possible application as a new active target for the T2K near detector, initial simulation studies and R&D test results are reported.

  5. Fractionation of Pb and Cu in the fine fraction (<10 mm) of waste excavated from a municipal landfill.

    PubMed

    Kaczala, Fabio; Orupõld, Kaja; Augustsson, Anna; Burlakovs, Juris; Hogland, Marika; Bhatnagar, Amit; Hogland, William

    2017-11-01

    The fractionation of metals in the fine fraction (<10 mm) of excavated waste from an Estonian landfill was carried out to evaluate the metal (Pb and Cu) contents and their potential towards not only mobility but also possibilities of recovery/extraction. The fractionation followed the BCR (Community Bureau of Reference) sequential extraction, and the exchangeable (F1), reducible (F2), oxidizable (F3) and residual fractions were determined. The results showed that Pb was highly associated with the reducible (F2) and oxidizable (F3) fractions, suggesting the potential mobility of this metal mainly when in contact with oxygen, despite the low association with the exchangeable fraction (F1). Cu has also shown the potential for mobility when in contact with oxygen, since high associations with the oxidizable fraction (F3) were observed. On the other hand, the mobility of metals in excavated waste can be seen as beneficial considering the circular economy and recovery of such valuables back into the economy. To conclude, not only the total concentration of metals but also a better understanding of fractionation and in which form metals are bound is very important to bring information on how to manage the fine fraction from excavated waste both in terms of environmental impacts and also recovery of such valuables in the economy.

  6. Webly-Supervised Fine-Grained Visual Categorization via Deep Domain Adaptation.

    PubMed

    Xu, Zhe; Huang, Shaoli; Zhang, Ya; Tao, Dacheng

    2018-05-01

    Learning visual representations from web data has recently attracted attention for object recognition. Previous studies have mainly focused on overcoming label noise and data bias and have shown promising results by learning directly from web data. However, we argue that it might be better to transfer knowledge from existing human labeling resources to improve performance at nearly no additional cost. In this paper, we propose a new semi-supervised method for learning via web data. Our method has the unique design of exploiting strong supervision, i.e., in addition to standard image-level labels, our method also utilizes detailed annotations including object bounding boxes and part landmarks. By transferring as much knowledge as possible from existing strongly supervised datasets to weakly supervised web images, our method can benefit from sophisticated object recognition algorithms and overcome several typical problems found in webly-supervised learning. We consider the problem of fine-grained visual categorization, in which existing training resources are scarce, as our main research objective. Comprehensive experimentation and extensive analysis demonstrate encouraging performance of the proposed approach, which, at the same time, delivers a new pipeline for fine-grained visual categorization that is likely to be highly effective for real-world applications.

  7. Sedimentary controls on modern sand grain coat formation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dowey, Patrick J.; Worden, Richard H.; Utley, James; Hodgson, David M.

    2017-05-01

    Coated sand grains can influence reservoir quality evolution during sandstone diagenesis. Porosity can be reduced and fluid flow restricted where grain coats encroach into pore space. Conversely pore-lining grain coats can restrict the growth of pore-filling quartz cement in deeply buried sandstones, and thus can result in unusually high porosity in deeply buried sandstones. Being able to predict the distribution of coated sand grains within petroleum reservoirs is thus important to help find good reservoir quality. Here we report a modern analogue study of 12 sediment cores from the Anllóns Estuary, Galicia, NW Spain, collected from a range of sub-environments, to help develop an understanding of the occurrence and distribution of coated grains. The cores were described for grain size, bioturbation and sedimentary structures, and then sub-sampled for electron and light microscopy, laser granulometry, and X-ray diffraction analysis. The Anllóns Estuary is sand-dominated with intertidal sand flats and saltmarsh environments at the margins; there is a shallowing/fining-upwards trend in the estuary-fill succession. Grain coats are present in nearly every sample analysed; they are between 1 μm and 100 μm thick and typically lack internal organisation. The extent of grain coat coverage can exceed 25% in some samples with coverage highest in the top 20 cm of cores. Samples from muddy intertidal flat and the muddy saltmarsh environments, close to the margins of the estuary, have the highest coat coverage (mean coat coverage of 20.2% and 21.3%, respectively). The lowest mean coat coverage occurs in the sandy saltmarsh (10.4%), beyond the upper tidal limit and sandy intertidal flat environments (8.4%), close to the main estuary channel. Mean coat coverage correlates with the concentration of clay fraction. The primary controls on the distribution of fine-grained sediment, and therefore grain coat distribution, are primary sediment transport and deposition processes that

  8. The Laboratory Study of Shear Strength of the Overconsolidated and Quasi - Overconsolidated Fine - Grained Soil

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Strozyk, Joanna

    2017-12-01

    The paper presents results of laboratory shear strength test conducted on fine-grained soil samples with different grain size distribution and with different geological age and stress history. The Triaxial Isotopic Consolidation Undrained Tests (TXCIU) were performed under different consolidation stress in normal and overconsolidadion stress state on the samples with natural structure. Soil samples were selected from soil series of different age and geological origins: overconsolidated sensu stricto Miopliocene silty clay (siCl) and quasi overconsolidated Pleistocene clayey silt (clSi). Paper pointed out that overconsolidated sensu stricto and quasi overconsolidated fine-grained soil in same stress and environmental condition could show almost similar behaviour, and in other condition could behave significantly different. The correct evaluation of geotechnical parameters, the possibility of predicting their time-correct ability is only possible with appropriately recognized geological past and past processes that accompanied the soil formation.

  9. Thermal and microstructural properties of fine-grained material at the Viking Lander 1 site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Paton, M. D.; Harri, A.-M.; Savijärvi, H.; Mäkinen, T.; Hagermann, A.; Kemppinen, O.; Johnston, A.

    2016-06-01

    As Viking Lander 1 touched down on Mars one of its footpads fully penetrated a patch of loose fine-grained drift material. The surrounding landing site, as observed by VL-1, was found to exhibit a complex terrain consisting of a crusted surface with an assortment of rocks, large dune-like drifts and smaller patches of drift material. We use a temperature sensor attached to the buried footpad and covered in fine-grained material to determine the thermal properties of drift material at the VL-1 site. The thermal properties are used to investigate the microstructure of the drift material and understand its relevance to surface-atmosphere interactions. We obtained a thermal inertia value of 103 ± 22 tiu. This value is in the upper range of previous thermal inertia estimates of martian dust as measured from orbit and is significantly lower than the regional thermal inertia of the VL-1 site, of around 283 tiu, obtained from orbit. We estimate a thermal inertia of around 263 ± 29 tiu for the duricrust at the VL-1 site. It was noted the patch of fine-grained regolith around the footpad was about 20-30 K warmer compared to similar material beyond the thermal influence of the lander. An effective diameter of 8 ± 5 μm was calculated for the particles in the drift material. This is larger than atmospheric dust and large compared to previous estimates of the drift material particle diameter. We interpret our results as the presence of a range of particle sizes, <8 μm, in the drift material with the thermal properties being controlled by a small amount of large particles (∼8 μm) and its cohesion being controlled by a large amount of smaller particles. The bulk of the particles in the drift material are therefore likely comparable in size to that of atmospheric dust. The possibility of larger particles being locked into a fine-grained material has implications for understanding the mobilisation of wind blown materials on Mars.

  10. A Method to Reveal Fine-Grained and Diverse Conceptual Progressions during Learning

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Lombard, François; Merminod, Marie; Widmer, Vincent; Schneider, Daniel K.

    2018-01-01

    Empirical data on learners' conceptual progression is required to design curricula and guide students. In this paper, we present the Reference Map Change Coding (RMCC) method for revealing students' progression at a fine-grained level. The method has been developed and tested through the analysis of successive versions of the productions of eight…

  11. A deployment of fine-grained sensor network and empirical analysis of urban temperature.

    PubMed

    Thepvilojanapong, Niwat; Ono, Takahiro; Tobe, Yoshito

    2010-01-01

    Temperature in an urban area exhibits a complicated pattern due to complexity of infrastructure. Despite geographical proximity, structures of a group of buildings and streets affect changes in temperature. To investigate the pattern of fine-grained distribution of temperature, we installed a densely distributed sensor network called UScan. In this paper, we describe the system architecture of UScan as well as experience learned from installing 200 sensors in downtown Tokyo. The field experiment of UScan system operated for two months to collect long-term urban temperature data. To analyze the collected data in an efficient manner, we propose a lightweight clustering methodology to study the correlation between the pattern of temperature and various environmental factors including the amount of sunshine, the width of streets, and the existence of trees. The analysis reveals meaningful results and asserts the necessity of fine-grained deployment of sensors in an urban area.

  12. Krypton and xenon in lunar fines

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Basford, J. R.; Dragon, J. C.; Pepin, R. O.; Coscio, M. R., Jr.; Murthy, V. R.

    1973-01-01

    Data from grain-size separates, stepwise-heated fractions, and bulk analyses of 20 samples of fines and breccias from five lunar sites are used to define three-isotope and ordinate intercept correlations in an attempt to resolve the lunar heavy rare gas system in a statistically valid approach. Tables of concentrations and isotope compositions are given.

  13. OSL dating of fine-grained quartz from Holocene Yangtze delta sediments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sugisaki, S.; Buylaert, J. P.; Murray, A. S.; Tada, R.; Zheng, H.; Ke, W.; Saito, K.; Irino, T.; Chao, L.; Shiyi, L.; Uchida, M.

    2014-12-01

    Flood events in the Yangtze River are associated with variation in East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) precipitation. Understanding the frequency and scale of the EASM precipitation during the Holocene is a key to understanding the mechanism and cyclicity of floods and droughts. Because about 70% of the annual discharge occurs during the flood season, the Yangtze delta sediments provide a good archive of EASM precipitation. In this study, we investigate the possibility of applying OSL dating to establishing high-resolution chronologies for the Yangtze delta sediment cores YD13-1H and G3. The objectives of this study are: (1) test whether fine grained quartz in present day suspended particle matter (SPM) is fully bleached or reset before deposition, (2) where possible, test quartz fine- and coarse-grain OSL dating against radiocarbon shell ages, (3) interpret the sediment transport processes through the differential bleaching of quartz and feldspar OSL signals. We show that the SPM collected from the surface water column of the Yangtze River during the flood season is well-bleached (offset ~60 years). Fine-grained pro-delta sediments are thus potentially a good dosimeter for OSL dating. OSL ages sediment cores indicate a pronounced change in sedimentation rate at ~6 ka and ~2ka. These events are consistent with what is known of the evolution of the Yangtze catchment and delta. The delta began to build at ~6 ka (Zhao et al., 1979), and human activities increased significantly in the catchment at ~2ka (Chen et al., 1985). It is however surprising that the entire top 9 m of sediment only records these two events. The question of whether significant deposition was limited to 2 ka and 6 ka, or whether the record has been disturbed by erosion/reworking remains. These issues are discussed in terms of the reliability of the quartz OSL ages, the degree of bleaching by comparison with polymineral OSL signals, and the relationship of the OSL ages to the sedimentary record.

  14. Provenance of fine-grained sediments in the inner shelf of the Korea Strait (South Sea), Korea

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Um, In kwon; Choi, Man Sik; Bae, Sung Ho; Song, Yunho; Kong, Gee Soo

    2017-12-01

    Major metals (Al, Fe, Mg, and Ti), trace metals (Li, Cs, Sc, and Rb), and rare earth elements (REEs) in the fine-grained sediments (< 15 μm) of the central South Sea mud (CSSM) were analyzed to determine the sediment provenance. The spatial distribution of the analyzed elements showed a clear separation between the western (W-CSSM) and eastern (E-CSSM) regions of the CSSM. Concentrations of Fe, Ti, Mg, Sc, and REEs were higher in the WCSSM, whereas concentrations of Al, Cs, Li, and Rb were higher in the E-CSSM. Unlike the ratios of trace metals ((Cs+Sc)/Li and Rb/Li), REEs could not be used to track the provenance of fine-grained sediments because of a grain size effect. The mixing relationships of the provenance indicators showed that the fine-grained sediments of the CSSM comprise a mixture of the sediments discharged from the Seomjin River (SRS) and sediments eroded and transported from the Heuksan mud belt (HMBS) area by the Korean Coastal Current. Sediments originating from the HMB were deposited mostly in the W-CSSM, whereas those from the Seomjin River were deposited mostly in the E-CSSM. This study indicated that sediments from Chinese rivers as well as the Geum River are important even in the inner shelf of the South Sea of Korea.

  15. Provenance of Fine-grained Sediments in the Inner Shelf of the Korea Strait (South Sea), Korea

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Um, In kwon; Choi, Man Sik; Bae, Sung Ho; Song, Yunho; Kong, Gee Soo

    2018-03-01

    Major metals (Al, Fe, Mg, and Ti), trace metals (Li, Cs, Sc, and Rb), and rare earth elements (REEs) in the fine-grained sediments (< 15 μm) of the central South Sea mud (CSSM) were analyzed to determine the sediment provenance. The spatial distribution of the analyzed elements showed a clear separation between the western (W-CSSM) and eastern (E-CSSM) regions of the CSSM. Concentrations of Fe, Ti, Mg, Sc, and REEs were higher in the WCSSM, whereas concentrations of Al, Cs, Li, and Rb were higher in the E-CSSM. Unlike the ratios of trace metals ((Cs+Sc)/Li and Rb/Li), REEs could not be used to track the provenance of fine-grained sediments because of a grain size effect. The mixing relationships of the provenance indicators showed that the fine-grained sediments of the CSSM comprise a mixture of the sediments discharged from the Seomjin River (SRS) and sediments eroded and transported from the Heuksan mud belt (HMBS) area by the Korean Coastal Current. Sediments originating from the HMB were deposited mostly in the W-CSSM, whereas those from the Seomjin River were deposited mostly in the E-CSSM. This study indicated that sediments from Chinese rivers as well as the Geum River are important even in the inner shelf of the South Sea of Korea.

  16. Enhancing of chemical compound and drug name recognition using representative tag scheme and fine-grained tokenization.

    PubMed

    Dai, Hong-Jie; Lai, Po-Ting; Chang, Yung-Chun; Tsai, Richard Tzong-Han

    2015-01-01

    The functions of chemical compounds and drugs that affect biological processes and their particular effect on the onset and treatment of diseases have attracted increasing interest with the advancement of research in the life sciences. To extract knowledge from the extensive literatures on such compounds and drugs, the organizers of BioCreative IV administered the CHEMical Compound and Drug Named Entity Recognition (CHEMDNER) task to establish a standard dataset for evaluating state-of-the-art chemical entity recognition methods. This study introduces the approach of our CHEMDNER system. Instead of emphasizing the development of novel feature sets for machine learning, this study investigates the effect of various tag schemes on the recognition of the names of chemicals and drugs by using conditional random fields. Experiments were conducted using combinations of different tokenization strategies and tag schemes to investigate the effects of tag set selection and tokenization method on the CHEMDNER task. This study presents the performance of CHEMDNER of three more representative tag schemes-IOBE, IOBES, and IOB12E-when applied to a widely utilized IOB tag set and combined with the coarse-/fine-grained tokenization methods. The experimental results thus reveal that the fine-grained tokenization strategy performance best in terms of precision, recall and F-scores when the IOBES tag set was utilized. The IOBES model with fine-grained tokenization yielded the best-F-scores in the six chemical entity categories other than the "Multiple" entity category. Nonetheless, no significant improvement was observed when a more representative tag schemes was used with the coarse or fine-grained tokenization rules. The best F-scores that were achieved using the developed system on the test dataset of the CHEMDNER task were 0.833 and 0.815 for the chemical documents indexing and the chemical entity mention recognition tasks, respectively. The results herein highlight the importance

  17. Correlative multi-scale characterization of a fine grained Nd-Fe-B sintered magnet.

    PubMed

    Sasaki, T T; Ohkubo, T; Hono, K; Une, Y; Sagawa, M

    2013-09-01

    The Nd-rich phases in pressless processed fine grained Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets have been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and three dimensional atom probe tomography (3DAP). The combination of the backscattered electron (BSE) and in-lens secondary electron (IL-SE) images in SEM led to an unambiguous identification of four types of Nd-rich phases, NdOx, Ia3 type phase, which is isostructural to Nd₂O₃, dhcp-Nd and Nd₁Fe₄B₄. In addition, the 3DAP analysis of thin Nd-rich grain boundary layer indicate that the coercivity has a close correlation with the chemistry of the grain boundary phase. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Object-Part Attention Model for Fine-Grained Image Classification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peng, Yuxin; He, Xiangteng; Zhao, Junjie

    2018-03-01

    Fine-grained image classification is to recognize hundreds of subcategories belonging to the same basic-level category, such as 200 subcategories belonging to the bird, which is highly challenging due to large variance in the same subcategory and small variance among different subcategories. Existing methods generally first locate the objects or parts and then discriminate which subcategory the image belongs to. However, they mainly have two limitations: (1) Relying on object or part annotations which are heavily labor consuming. (2) Ignoring the spatial relationships between the object and its parts as well as among these parts, both of which are significantly helpful for finding discriminative parts. Therefore, this paper proposes the object-part attention model (OPAM) for weakly supervised fine-grained image classification, and the main novelties are: (1) Object-part attention model integrates two level attentions: object-level attention localizes objects of images, and part-level attention selects discriminative parts of object. Both are jointly employed to learn multi-view and multi-scale features to enhance their mutual promotions. (2) Object-part spatial constraint model combines two spatial constraints: object spatial constraint ensures selected parts highly representative, and part spatial constraint eliminates redundancy and enhances discrimination of selected parts. Both are jointly employed to exploit the subtle and local differences for distinguishing the subcategories. Importantly, neither object nor part annotations are used in our proposed approach, which avoids the heavy labor consumption of labeling. Comparing with more than 10 state-of-the-art methods on 4 widely-used datasets, our OPAM approach achieves the best performance.

  19. Fine Structure of Tibetan Kefir Grains and Their Yeast Distribution, Diversity, and Shift

    PubMed Central

    Lu, Man; Wang, Xingxing; Sun, Guowei; Qin, Bing; Xiao, Jinzhou; Yan, Shuling; Pan, Yingjie; Wang, Yongjie

    2014-01-01

    Tibetan kefir grains (TKGs), a kind of natural starter for fermented milk in Tibet, China, host various microorganisms of lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, and occasionally acetic acid bacteria in a polysaccharide/protein matrix. In the present study, the fine structure of TKGs was studied to shed light on this unusual symbiosis with stereomicroscopy and thin sections. The results reveal that TKGs consist of numerous small grain units, which are characterized by a hollow globular structure with a diameter between 2.0 and 9.0 mm and a wall thickness of approximately 200 µm. A polyhedron-like net structure, formed mainly by the bacteria, was observed in the wall of the grain units, which has not been reported previously to our knowledge. Towards the inside of the grain unit, the polyhedron-like net structures became gradually larger in diameter and fewer in number. Such fine structures may play a crucial role in the stability of the grains. Subsequently, the distribution, diversity, and shift of yeasts in TKGs were investigated based on thin section, scanning electron microscopy, cloning and sequencing of D1/D2 of the 26S rRNA gene, real-time quantitative PCR, and in situ hybridization with specific fluorescence-labeled oligonucleotide probes. These show that (i) yeasts appear to localize on the outer surface of the grains and grow normally together to form colonies embedded in the bacterial community; (ii) the diversity of yeasts is relatively low on genus level with three dominant species – Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Kluyveromyces marxianus, and Yarrowia lipolytica; (iii) S. cerevisiae is the stable predominant yeast species, while the composition of Kluyveromyces and Yarrowia are subject to change over time. Our results indicate that TKGs are relatively stable in structure, and culture conditions to some extent shape the microbial community and interaction in kefir grains. These findings pave the way for further study of the specific symbiotic associations between S

  20. Seismic wave velocity of hydrate-bearing fine-grained sediments sampled from the Ulleung basin in East Sea, Korea

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, H.; Kwon, T.; Cho, G.

    2012-12-01

    Synthesizing gas hydrate in a fine-grained natural seabed sediment sample, mainly composed of silty-to-clayey soils, has been hardly attempted due to the low permeability. It has been known that hydrate loci in pore spaces and heterogeneity of hydrate growth in core-scale play a critical role in determining physical properties of hydrate-bearing sediments. In the presented study, we attempted to identify the effect of hydrate growth morphology on seismic velocities in natural fine-grained sediments sampled from the Ulleung Basin in East Sea. We synthesized CO2 hydrate in clayey silt sediments in an instrumented oedometric cell and measured seismic velocities during hydrate formation and loading processes. Herein, we present the experiment results on P-wave and S-wave velocities of gas hydrate-bearing fine-grained sediments. It is found that the geophysical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments are governed by hydrate saturation and effective stress as well as morphological feature of hydrate formation in sediments.

  1. Impact Melting of Ordinary Chondrite Regoliths and the Production of Fine-grained Fe(sup 0)

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hoerz, Friedrich; Cintala, Mark J.; See, Thomas H.

    2003-01-01

    The detailed study of individual lunar soil grains provides evidence that the major optical properties of the lunar surface are primarily related to the production of fine-grained (< 20 nm, super-paramagnetic) Fe-particles in agglutinitic impact melts and to iron-rich vapor deposits on the surfaces of individual grains. These Fe-rich materials are derived from oxidized species due to high post-shock temperatures in the presence of solar-wind derived H2; part of the Fe-rich grain surfaces may also be due to sputtering processes. Identical processes were recently suggested for the optical maturation of S-type asteroid surfaces, the parent objects of ordinary chondrites (OCs). OCs, however, do not contain impact-produced soil melts, and should thus also be devoid of impact-triggered vapor condensates. The seeming disparity can only be understood if all OCs resemble relatively immature impact debris, akin to numerous lunar highland breccias. It is possible to assess this scenario by evaluating experimentally whether impact velocities of 5- 6 km/s, typical for the present day asteroid belt, suffice to produce both impact melts and fine-grained metallic iron. We used 125-250 m powders of the L6 chondrite ALH85017. These powders were aliquots from fines that were produced by collisionally disrupting a single, large (461g) chunk of this meteorite during nine impacts and by subjecting the resulting rubble to an additional 50 impacts. As a consequence, the present shock-recovery experiments employ target materials of exceptional fidelity (i.e., a real chondrite that was impact pulverized). The target powders were packed into tungsten-alloy containers to allow for the potential investigation of freshly produced, fine-grained iron and impacted by stainless-steel and tungsten flyer plates; the packing density varied between 38 and 45% porosity. Peak pressures ranged from 14.5 to 67 GPa and were attained after multiple reverberations of the shock wave at the interface of the

  2. Fractionation of mineral species by electrophoresis

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dunning, J. D.; Herren, B. J.; Tipps, R. W.; Snyder, R. S.

    1982-01-01

    The fractionation of fine-grained aggregates into their major components is a problem in many scientific areas including earth and planetary science. Electrophoresis, the transport of electrically charged particles, immersed in a suspension medium, by a direct current field (Bier, 1959), was employed in this study as a means of separating simulated lunar soil into its constituent minerals. In these tests, conducted in a static analytical cylindrical microelectrophoresis apparatus, samples of simulated lunar soil and samples of pure mineral constituents were placed in the chamber; the electrophoretic mobilities of the lunar soil and the individual mineral constituents were measured. In most of the suspension buffers employed separability was indicated, on the basis of differences in mobility, for all the constituent mineral species except ilmenite and pyroxene, which were not efficiently separable in any of the buffers. Although only a few suspension media were employed, the success of this initial study suggests that electrophoresis may be an important mineral fractionation option in fine-grained aggregate processing.

  3. Activity of slip in amphibolite facies, fine-grained recrystallized quartz aggregates: high differential stress during high-T creep of quartz?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Viegas, G.; Menegon, L. M.; Archanjo, C. J.

    2016-12-01

    Quartz axis fabrics are a valuable tool to investigate strain partitioning/distribution in both naturally- and experimentally deformed quartz. Previous works have shown that slip dominates at high temperatures (> 600º C) and water-rich, commonly sub-magmatic conditions, typically associated with large grain sizes and grain boundary migration microstructures. In the Pernambuco shear zone, sheared quartz veins from a protomylonitic granitoid formed during the main amphibolite facies event constrained at mid-crustal conditions (550-600ºC, 5 kbar). The veins contain heterogeneously-deformed primary quartz grains, which typically form both flattened and elongated ribbons as well as more equant porphyroclasts surrounded by aggregates of fine-grained (ca. 20 µm) recrystallized aggregates. Recrystallized quartz with the same fine grain size may also occur in intracrystalline bands within the porphyroclasts. Chessboard extinction is widely observed in the porphyroclasts, and subgrain boundaries are either parallel or normal to the (0001) direction, suggesting slip on both basal and prismatic planes during recrystallization. Crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs) of porphyroclasts (≥ 100 µm) show maxima of (0001) axes subparallel to Z and X, suggesting coeval glide along both basal and prism planes during shearing. In the recrystallized aggregates, fabric strength tends to become weaker, but still records glide along and directions. These preliminary results suggest that naturally deformed quartz veins record coeval activity of and slip during dynamic recrystallization under amphibolite facies conditions. The microstructure suggests that the CPO of the fine-grained aggregates is host-controlled and results from dominant subgrain rotation recrystallization. To our knowledge, activity of slip in fine-grained recrystallized aggregates has never been reported before. Thus, these preliminary results call into question the general view that slip is expected to be

  4. Fine-grained rutile in the Gulf of Maine: Diagenetic origin, source rocks, and sedimentary environment of deposition

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Valentine, P.C.; Commeau, J.A.

    1990-01-01

    The Gulf of Maine, an embayment of the New England margin, is floored by shallow, glacially scoured basins that are partly filled with late Pleistocene and Holocene silt and clay containing 0.7 to 1.0 wt percent TiO2 chiefly in the form of silt-size rutile. Much of the rutile in the Gulf of Maine mud probably formed diagenetically in poorly cemented Carboniferous and Triassic coarse-grained sedimentary rocks of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick after the dissolution of titanium-rich detrital minerals (ilmenite, ilmenomagnetite). The diagenesis of rutile in coarse sedimentary rocks (especially arkose and graywacke) followed by erosion, segregation, and deposition (and including recycling of fine-grained rutile from shales) can serve as a model for predicting and prospecting for unconsolidated deposits of fine-grained TiO2. -from Authors

  5. Fractionation of Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) by Sieving and Winnowing

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Four commercial samples of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), were subjected to sieving and then winnowing. All sieved fractions except for the pan fraction, constituting about 90% of original mass, were subjected to winnowing with an air blast seed cleaner. Sieving was effective in pro...

  6. Matrix and fine-grained rims in the unequilibrated CO3 chondrite, ALHA77307 - Origins and evidence for diverse, primitive nebular dust components

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Brearley, Adrian J.

    1993-01-01

    SEM, TEM, and electron microprobe analysis were used to investigate in detail the mineralogical and chemical characteristics of dark matrix and fine-grained rims in the unequilibrated CO3 chondrite ALHA77307. Data obtained revealed that there was a remarkable diversity of distinct mineralogical components, which can be identified using their chemical and textural characteristics. The matrix and rim components in ALHA77307 formed by disequilibrium condensation process as fine-grained amorphous dust that is represented by the abundant amorphous component in the matrix. Subsequent thermal processing of this condensate material, in a variety of environments in the nebula, caused partial or complete recrystallization of the fine-grained dust.

  7. Homotypic and Heterotypic Continuity of Fine-Grained Temperament during Infancy, Toddlerhood, and Early Childhood

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Putnam, Samuel P.; Rothbart, Mary K.; Gartstein, Maria A.

    2008-01-01

    Longitudinal continuity was investigated for fine-grained and factor-level aspects of temperament measured with the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R), Early Childhood Behaviour Questionnaire (ECBQ), and Children's Behaviour Questionnaire (CBQ). Considerable homotypic continuity was found. Convergent and discriminant validity of the…

  8. Fine-Grained Parcellation of Brain Connectivity Improves Differentiation of States of Consciousness During Graded Propofol Sedation.

    PubMed

    Liu, Xiaolin; Lauer, Kathryn K; Ward, B Douglas; Roberts, Christopher J; Liu, Suyan; Gollapudy, Suneeta; Rohloff, Robert; Gross, William; Xu, Zhan; Chen, Guangyu; Binder, Jeffrey R; Li, Shi-Jiang; Hudetz, Anthony G

    2017-08-01

    Conscious perception relies on interactions between spatially and functionally distinct modules of the brain at various spatiotemporal scales. These interactions are altered by anesthesia, an intervention that leads to fading consciousness. Relatively little is known about brain functional connectivity and its anesthetic modulation at a fine spatial scale. Here, we used functional imaging to examine propofol-induced changes in functional connectivity in brain networks defined at a fine-grained parcellation based on a combination of anatomical and functional features. Fifteen healthy volunteers underwent resting-state functional imaging in wakeful baseline, mild sedation, deep sedation, and recovery of consciousness. Compared with wakeful baseline, propofol produced widespread, dose-dependent functional connectivity changes that scaled with the extent to which consciousness was altered. The dominant changes in connectivity were associated with the frontal lobes. By examining node pairs that demonstrated a trend of functional connectivity change between wakefulness and deep sedation, quadratic discriminant analysis differentiated the states of consciousness in individual participants more accurately at a fine-grained parcellation (e.g., 2000 nodes) than at a coarse-grained parcellation (e.g., 116 anatomical nodes). Our study suggests that defining brain networks at a high granularity may provide a superior imaging-based distinction of the graded effect of anesthesia on consciousness.

  9. Physical and chemical effects of grain aggregates on the Palos Verdes margin, southern California

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Drake, D.E.; Eganhouse, R.; McArthur, W.

    2002-01-01

    Large discharges of wastewater and particulate matter from the outfalls of the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts onto the Palos Verdes shelf since 1937 have produced an effluent-affected sediment deposit characterized by low bulk density, elevated organic matter content, and a high percentage of fine silt and clay particles relative to underlying native sands and sandy silts. Comparison of the results of grain-size analyses using a gentle wet-sieving technique that preserves certain grain aggregates to the results of standard size analyses of disaggregated particles shows that high percentages (up to 50%) of the silt and clay fractions of the effluent-affected mud are incorporated in aggregates having intermediate diameters in the fine-to-medium sand size range (63-500 ??m), Scanning electron microscope images of the aggregates show that they are predominantly oval fecal pellets or irregularly shaped fragments of pellets. Deposit-feeding polychaete worms such as Capitella sp. and Mediomastus sp., abundant in the mud-rich effluent-affected sediment on Palos Verdes shelf, are probably responsible for most of the grain aggregates through fecal pellet production. Particle settling rates and densities, and the concentrations of organic carbon and p,p???-DDE, a metabolite of the hydrophobic pesticide DDT, were determined for seven grain-size fractions in the effluent-affected sediment. Fecal pellet grain densities ranged from about 1.2 to 1.5 g/cc, and their average settling rates were reduced to the equivalent of about one phi size relative to spherical quartz grains of the same diameter. However, repackaging of fine silt and clay grains into the sand-sized fecal pellets causes an effective settling rate increase of up to 3 orders of magnitude for the smallest particles incorporated in the pellets. Moreover, organic carbon and p,p???-DDE exhibit a bimodal distribution with relatively high concentrations in the finest size fraction (0-20 ??m), as expected, and a

  10. Microstructure Characterization of Weakly Textured and Fine Grained AZ61 Sheet

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berman, T. D.; Donlon, W.; Hung, C. K.; Milligan, P.; Decker, R.; Pollock, T. M.; Jones, J. W.

    Formability in magnesium alloy sheet is strongly limited by a strong basal texture in the as-rolled material, which is difficulty to remove by thermal processing. We introduce a new process to the control of texture by combining Thixomolding and Thermomechanical Processing (TTMP). Plates of AZ61L with a divorced β-Mg17Al12 eutectic are produced by Thixomolding, resulting in a non-textured, fine grained (2.8 µm) precursor. Sheet produced from the plate by single pass warm-rolling exhibits a weaker texture, and more isotropic tensile deformation than generally observed in AZ-series alloy sheet. Recrystallization annealing produces a further reduction in texture and average grain size (2.3 µm) and results in nearly isotropic room temperature deformation, a yield strength of 220 MPa, and an elongation of 23%. Particle stimulated nucleation of new grains by the β-phase during both dynamic and static recrystallization, is critical for achieving the low levels of texture. The influence of β-phase distribution in microstructure development is discussed.

  11. The Strength-Grain Size Relationship in Ultrafine-Grained Metals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Balasubramanian, N.; Langdon, Terence G.

    2016-12-01

    Metals processed by severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques, such as equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) and high-pressure torsion (HPT), generally have submicrometer grain sizes. Consequently, they exhibit high strength as expected on the basis of the Hall-Petch (H-P) relationship. Examples of this behavior are discussed using experimental data for Ti, Al, and Ni. These materials typically have grain sizes greater than 50 nm where softening is not expected. An increase in strength is usually accompanied by a decrease in ductility. However, both high strength and high ductility may be achieved simultaneously by imposing high strain to obtain ultrafine-grain sizes and high fractions of high-angle grain boundaries. This facilitates grain boundary sliding, and an example is presented for a cast Al-7 pct Si alloy processed by HPT. In some materials, SPD may result in a weakening even with a very fine grain size, and this is due to microstructural changes during processing. Examples are presented for an Al-7034 alloy processed by ECAP and a Zn-22 pct Al alloy processed by HPT. In some SPD-processed materials, it is possible that grain boundary segregation and other features are present leading to higher strengths than predicted by the H-P relationship.

  12. Variations in Grain-Scale Sediment Structure in a Gravel-Bed Channel as a Function of Fine Sediment Content and Morphological Location

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Voepel, H.; Ahmed, S. I.; Hodge, R. A.; Leyland, J.; Sear, D. A.

    2016-12-01

    One of the major causes of uncertainty in estimates of bedload transport rates in gravel bed rivers is a lack of understanding of grain-scale sediment structure, and the impact that this structure has on bed stability. Furthermore, grain-scale structure varies throughout a channel and over time in ways that have not been fully quantified. Our research aims to quantify variations in sediment structure caused by two key variables; morphological location within a riffle-pool sequence (reflecting variation in hydraulic conditions), and the fine sediment content of the gravel bed (sand and clay). We report results from a series of flume experiments in which we water-worked a gravel bed with a riffle-pool morphology. The fine sediment content of the bed was incrementally increased over a series of runs from gravel only, to coarse sand, fine sand and two concentrations of clay. After each experimental run intact samples of the bed at different locations were extracted and the internal structure of the bed was measured using non-destructive, micro-focus X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging. The CT images were processed to measure the properties of individual grains, including volume, center of mass, dimension, and contact points. From these data we were able to quantify the sediment structure through metrics including measurement of grain pivot angles, grain exposure and protrusion, and vertical variation in bed porosity and fine sediment content. Metrics derived from the CT data were verified using data from grain counts and tilt-table measurements on co-located samples. Comparison of the metrics across different morphological locations and fine sediment content demonstrates how these factors affect the bed structure. These results have implications for the development of sediment entrainment models for gravel bed rivers.

  13. A method for the concentration of fine-grained rutile (TiO2) from sediment and sedimentary rocks by chemical leaching

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Commeau, Judith A.; Valentine, Page C.

    1991-01-01

    Most of the sample analyzed by the method described were marine muds collected from the Gulf of Maine (Valentine and Commeau, 1990). The silt and clay fraction (up to 99 wt% of the sediment) is composed of clay minerals (chiefly illite-mica and chlorite), silt-size quartz and feldspar, and small crystals (2-12 um) of rutile and hematite. The bulk sediment samples contained an average of 2 to 3 wt percent CaCO3. Tiher samples analyzed include red and gray Carboniferous and Triassic sandstones and siltstones exposed around the Bay of Fundy region and Paleozoic sandstones, siltstones, and shales from northern Maine and New Brunswick. These rocks are probable sources for the fine-grained rutile found in the Gulf of Maine.

  14. Fine-grained information extraction from German transthoracic echocardiography reports.

    PubMed

    Toepfer, Martin; Corovic, Hamo; Fette, Georg; Klügl, Peter; Störk, Stefan; Puppe, Frank

    2015-11-12

    Information extraction techniques that get structured representations out of unstructured data make a large amount of clinically relevant information about patients accessible for semantic applications. These methods typically rely on standardized terminologies that guide this process. Many languages and clinical domains, however, lack appropriate resources and tools, as well as evaluations of their applications, especially if detailed conceptualizations of the domain are required. For instance, German transthoracic echocardiography reports have not been targeted sufficiently before, despite of their importance for clinical trials. This work therefore aimed at development and evaluation of an information extraction component with a fine-grained terminology that enables to recognize almost all relevant information stated in German transthoracic echocardiography reports at the University Hospital of Würzburg. A domain expert validated and iteratively refined an automatically inferred base terminology. The terminology was used by an ontology-driven information extraction system that outputs attribute value pairs. The final component has been mapped to the central elements of a standardized terminology, and it has been evaluated according to documents with different layouts. The final system achieved state-of-the-art precision (micro average.996) and recall (micro average.961) on 100 test documents that represent more than 90 % of all reports. In particular, principal aspects as defined in a standardized external terminology were recognized with f 1=.989 (micro average) and f 1=.963 (macro average). As a result of keyword matching and restraint concept extraction, the system obtained high precision also on unstructured or exceptionally short documents, and documents with uncommon layout. The developed terminology and the proposed information extraction system allow to extract fine-grained information from German semi-structured transthoracic echocardiography reports

  15. Fine-grained semantic categorization across the abstract and concrete domains.

    PubMed

    Ghio, Marta; Vaghi, Matilde Maria Serena; Tettamanti, Marco

    2013-01-01

    A consolidated approach to the study of the mental representation of word meanings has consisted in contrasting different domains of knowledge, broadly reflecting the abstract-concrete dichotomy. More fine-grained semantic distinctions have emerged in neuropsychological and cognitive neuroscience work, reflecting semantic category specificity, but almost exclusively within the concrete domain. Theoretical advances, particularly within the area of embodied cognition, have more recently put forward the idea that distributed neural representations tied to the kinds of experience maintained with the concepts' referents might distinguish conceptual meanings with a high degree of specificity, including those within the abstract domain. Here we report the results of two psycholinguistic rating studies incorporating such theoretical advances with two main objectives: first, to provide empirical evidence of fine-grained distinctions within both the abstract and the concrete semantic domains with respect to relevant psycholinguistic dimensions; second, to develop a carefully controlled linguistic stimulus set that may be used for auditory as well as visual neuroimaging studies focusing on the parametrization of the semantic space beyond the abstract-concrete dichotomy. Ninety-six participants rated a set of 210 sentences across pre-selected concrete (mouth, hand, or leg action-related) and abstract (mental state-, emotion-, mathematics-related) categories, with respect either to different semantic domain-related scales (rating study 1), or to concreteness, familiarity, and context availability (rating study 2). Inferential statistics and correspondence analyses highlighted distinguishing semantic and psycholinguistic traits for each of the pre-selected categories, indicating that a simple abstract-concrete dichotomy is not sufficient to account for the entire semantic variability within either domains.

  16. Fine-Grained Semantic Categorization across the Abstract and Concrete Domains

    PubMed Central

    Tettamanti, Marco

    2013-01-01

    A consolidated approach to the study of the mental representation of word meanings has consisted in contrasting different domains of knowledge, broadly reflecting the abstract-concrete dichotomy. More fine-grained semantic distinctions have emerged in neuropsychological and cognitive neuroscience work, reflecting semantic category specificity, but almost exclusively within the concrete domain. Theoretical advances, particularly within the area of embodied cognition, have more recently put forward the idea that distributed neural representations tied to the kinds of experience maintained with the concepts' referents might distinguish conceptual meanings with a high degree of specificity, including those within the abstract domain. Here we report the results of two psycholinguistic rating studies incorporating such theoretical advances with two main objectives: first, to provide empirical evidence of fine-grained distinctions within both the abstract and the concrete semantic domains with respect to relevant psycholinguistic dimensions; second, to develop a carefully controlled linguistic stimulus set that may be used for auditory as well as visual neuroimaging studies focusing on the parametrization of the semantic space beyond the abstract-concrete dichotomy. Ninety-six participants rated a set of 210 sentences across pre-selected concrete (mouth, hand, or leg action-related) and abstract (mental state-, emotion-, mathematics-related) categories, with respect either to different semantic domain-related scales (rating study 1), or to concreteness, familiarity, and context availability (rating study 2). Inferential statistics and correspondence analyses highlighted distinguishing semantic and psycholinguistic traits for each of the pre-selected categories, indicating that a simple abstract-concrete dichotomy is not sufficient to account for the entire semantic variability within either domains. PMID:23825625

  17. Discrimination of fine-grained sediment provenance using geochemical elements on the inner shelf of the Korean Strait (South Sea), Korea

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Um, I. K.; Choi, M. S.

    2017-12-01

    The central South Sea mud (CSSM) is located between the Heuksan mud belt (HMB) in the Yellow Sea and Korea Strait shelf mud (KSSM) in the East Sea and developed along the eastward transport pathway in the South Sea. Major elements (Al, Fe, Mg, and Ti), trace elements (Li, Cs, Sc, and Rb), and rare earth elements (REEs) in the fine-grained sediments (<15 μm) of thirty-two surface sediment samples on the CSSM were analyzed to determine the fine-grained sediment provenance. The spatial distribution of the analyzed elements showed a clear separation of the western (W-CSSM) and eastern (E-CSSM) regions of the CSSM. Concentrations of Fe, Ti, Mg, Sc, and REEs were higher in the W-CSSM, whereas concentrations of Al, Cs, Li, and Rb were higher in the E-CSSM. The ratios of trace metals ((Cs+Sc)/Li and Rb/Li) can be successfully used as a provenance indicator in the study area but REEs compositions could not be used to track the provenance of fine-grained sediments because of a grain size effect. The mixing relationships of the provenance indicators showed that the fine-grained sediments of the CSSM comprise a mixture of the sediments discharged from the Seomjin River (SRS) and sediments eroded and transported from the Heuksan mud belt (HMBS) area by the Korean coastal current. Sediments originating from the HMB were deposited mostly in the W-CSSM, whereas those from the Seomjin River were deposited mostly in the E-CSSM

  18. Morphology and processes associated with the accumulation of the fine-grained sediment deposit on the southern New England shelf

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Twichell, David C.; McClennen, Charles E.; Butman, Bradford

    1981-01-01

    A 13,000 km2 area of the southern New England Continental Shelf which is covered by anomalously fine-grained sediment has been surveyed by means of high-resolution, seismic-reflection and side-scan sonar techniques to map its morphology and structure, and a near-bottom instrument system contributed to understanding present activity of the deposit. Seismic-reflection profiles show that the fine-grained deposit, which is as much as 13 m thick, has accumulated during the last transgression because it rests on a reflector that is geomorphically similar to and continuous with the Holocene transgressive sand sheet still exposed on the shelf to the west. The ridge and swale topography comprising the sand sheet on the shelf off New Jersey and Long Island are relict in origin as these same features are found buried under the fine sediment deposit. Southwestward migrating megaripples observed on the sonographs in the eastern part of the deposit are evidence that sediment is still actively accumulating in this area. In the western part of the deposit, where surface sediment is composed of silt plus clay, evidence of present sediment mobility consists of changes in the near-bottom, suspended-matter concentrations primarily associated with storms. Nantucket Shoals and Georges Bank are thought to be the sources for the fine-textured sediment. Storms and strong tidal currents in these shoal areas may still erode available fine-grained material, which then is transported westward by the mean drift to the southern New England Shelf, where a comparatively tranquil environment permits deposition of the fine material.

  19. Ultra-fine grained microstructure of metastable beta Ti-15Mo alloy and its effects on the phase transformations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Václavová, K.; Stráský, J.; Zháňal, P.; Veselý, J.; Polyakova, V.; Semenova, I.; Janeček, M.

    2017-05-01

    Processing of metastable titanium alloys by severe plastic deformation provides an opportunity to achieve exceptional grain refinement, to enhance the strength and to affect phase transformations occurring during thermal treatment. The main aim of this study is to investigate the microstructure of ultra-fine grained (UFG) material and effect of microstructural changes on phase transformations in metastable β-Ti alloy Ti-15Mo. Metastable β-Ti alloys are currently the most studied Ti-based materials with prospective use in medicine. Ti-15Mo alloy after solution treatment contains metastable β-phase. Metastable ω-phase and stable α-phase particles are formed upon annealing,. Solution treated Ti-15Mo alloy was deformed by high pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature. Severely deformed structure after HPT with grain size of ~200 nm was studied by transmission electron microscopy. In-situ electrical resistance measurements showed significant changes in undergoing phase transformations when compared to coarse-grained (CG) material. Scanning electron microscopy revealed heterogeneous precipitation of α-particles at grain boundaries (GB). Due to the high density of GBs in UFG structure, these precipitates are very fine and equiaxed. The study demonstrates that SPD is capable of enhancing mechanical properties due to grain refinement and via affecting precipitation processes in metastable β-Ti alloys.

  20. Fine-grained parallel RNAalifold algorithm for RNA secondary structure prediction on FPGA

    PubMed Central

    Xia, Fei; Dou, Yong; Zhou, Xingming; Yang, Xuejun; Xu, Jiaqing; Zhang, Yang

    2009-01-01

    Background In the field of RNA secondary structure prediction, the RNAalifold algorithm is one of the most popular methods using free energy minimization. However, general-purpose computers including parallel computers or multi-core computers exhibit parallel efficiency of no more than 50%. Field Programmable Gate-Array (FPGA) chips provide a new approach to accelerate RNAalifold by exploiting fine-grained custom design. Results RNAalifold shows complicated data dependences, in which the dependence distance is variable, and the dependence direction is also across two dimensions. We propose a systolic array structure including one master Processing Element (PE) and multiple slave PEs for fine grain hardware implementation on FPGA. We exploit data reuse schemes to reduce the need to load energy matrices from external memory. We also propose several methods to reduce energy table parameter size by 80%. Conclusion To our knowledge, our implementation with 16 PEs is the only FPGA accelerator implementing the complete RNAalifold algorithm. The experimental results show a factor of 12.2 speedup over the RNAalifold (ViennaPackage – 1.6.5) software for a group of aligned RNA sequences with 2981-residue running on a Personal Computer (PC) platform with Pentium 4 2.6 GHz CPU. PMID:19208138

  1. Testing the MODIS Satellite Retrieval of Aerosol Fine-Mode Fraction

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Anderson, Theodore L.; Wu, Yonghua; Chu, D. Allen; Schmid, Beat; Redemann, Jens; Dubovik, Oleg

    2005-01-01

    Satellite retrievals of the fine-mode fraction (FMF) of midvisible aerosol optical depth, tau, are potentially valuable for constraining chemical transport models and for assessing the global distribution of anthropogenic aerosols. Here we compare satellite retrievals of FMF from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to suborbital data on the submicrometer fraction (SMF) of tau. SMF is a closely related parameter that is directly measurable by in situ techniques. The primary suborbital method uses in situ profiling of SMF combined with airborne Sun photometry both to validate the in situ estimate of ambient extinction and to take into account the aerosol above the highest flight level. This method is independent of the satellite retrieval and has well-known accuracy but entails considerable logistical and technical difficulties. An alternate method uses Sun photometer measurements near the surface and an empirical relation between SMF and the Angstrom exponent, A, a measure of the wavelength dependence of optical depth or extinction. Eleven primary and fifteen alternate comparisons are examined involving varying mixtures of dust, sea salt, and pollution in the vicinity of Korea and Japan. MODIS ocean retrievals of FMF are shown to be systematically higher than suborbital estimates of SMF by about 0.2. The most significant cause of this discrepancy involves the relationship between 5 and fine-mode partitioning; in situ measurements indicate a systematically different relationship from what is assumed in the satellite retrievals. Based on these findings, we recommend: (1) satellite programs should concentrate on retrieving and validating since an excellent validation program is in place for doing this, and (2) suborbital measurements should be used to derive relationships between A and fine-mode partitioning to allow interpretation of the satellite data in terms of fine-mode aerosol optical depth.

  2. Microstructural stability of fine-grained fully lamellar XD TiAl alloys by step aging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhu, Hanliang; Maruyama, K.; Seo, D. Y.; Au, P.

    2005-05-01

    XD TiAl alloys (Ti-45 and 47Al-2Nb-2Mn+0.8 vol pct TiB2) (at. pct) were oil quenched to produce fine-grained fully lamellar (FGFL) structures, and aging treatments at different temperatures for different durations were carried out to stabilize the FGFL structures. Microstructural examinations show that the aging treatments cause phase transformation of α 2 to γ, resulting in stabilization of the lamellar structure, as indicated by a significant decrease in α 2 volume fraction. However, several degradation processes are also introduced. After aging, within lamellar colonies, the α 2 lamellae become finer due to dissolution, whereas most of the γ lamellae coarsen. The dissolution of α 2 involves longitudinal dissolution and lateral dissolution. In addition, at lamellar colony boundaries, lamellar termination migration, nucleation and growth of γ grains, and discontinuous coarsening occur. With the exception of longitudinal dissolution, all the other transformation modes are considered as degradation processes as they result in a reduction in α 2/ γ interfaces. Different phase transformation modes are present to varying degrees in the aged FGFL structures, depending on aging conditions and Al content. A multiple step aging reduces the drive force for phase transformation at high temperature by promoting phase transformation via longitudinal dissolution at low temperatures. As a result, this aging procedure effectively stabilizes the lamellar structure and suppresses other degradation processes. Therefore, the multiple step aging is suggested to be an optimal aging condition for stabilizing FGFL XD TiAl alloys.

  3. Fine Grained Chaos in AdS2 Gravity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Haehl, Felix M.; Rozali, Moshe

    2018-03-01

    Quantum chaos can be characterized by an exponential growth of the thermal out-of-time-order four-point function up to a scrambling time u^*. We discuss generalizations of this statement for certain higher-point correlation functions. For concreteness, we study the Schwarzian theory of a one-dimensional time reparametrization mode, which describes two-dimensional anti-de Sitter space (AdS2 ) gravity and the low-energy dynamics of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. We identify a particular set of 2 k -point functions, characterized as being both "maximally braided" and "k -out of time order," which exhibit exponential growth until progressively longer time scales u^*(k)˜(k -1 )u^*. We suggest an interpretation as scrambling of increasingly fine grained measures of quantum information, which correspondingly take progressively longer time to reach their thermal values.

  4. Fine Grained Chaos in AdS_{2} Gravity.

    PubMed

    Haehl, Felix M; Rozali, Moshe

    2018-03-23

    Quantum chaos can be characterized by an exponential growth of the thermal out-of-time-order four-point function up to a scrambling time u[over ^]_{*}. We discuss generalizations of this statement for certain higher-point correlation functions. For concreteness, we study the Schwarzian theory of a one-dimensional time reparametrization mode, which describes two-dimensional anti-de Sitter space (AdS_{2}) gravity and the low-energy dynamics of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. We identify a particular set of 2k-point functions, characterized as being both "maximally braided" and "k-out of time order," which exhibit exponential growth until progressively longer time scales u[over ^]_{*}^{(k)}∼(k-1)u[over ^]_{*}. We suggest an interpretation as scrambling of increasingly fine grained measures of quantum information, which correspondingly take progressively longer time to reach their thermal values.

  5. Fine-Grained Rims in the Allan Hills 81002 and Lewis Cliff 90500 CM2 Meteorites: Their Origin and Modification

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hua, X.; Wang, J.; Buseck, P. R.

    2002-01-01

    Antarctic CM meteorites Allan Hills (ALH) 8 1002 and Lewis Cliff (LEW) 90500 contain abundant fine-grained rims (FGRs) that surround a variety of coarse-grained objects. FGRs from both meteorites have similar compositions and petrographic features, independent of their enclosed objects. The FGRs are chemically homogeneous at the 10 m scale for major and minor elements and at the 25 m scale for trace elements. They display accretionary features and contain large amounts of volatiles, presumably water. They are depleted in Ca, Mn, and S but enriched in P. All FGRs show a slightly fractionated rare earth element (REE) pattern, with enrichments of Gd and Yb and depletion of Er. Gd is twice as abundant as Er. Our results indicate that those FGRs are not genetically related to their enclosed cores. They were sampled from a reservoir of homogeneously mixed dust, prior to accretion to their parent body. The rim materials subsequently experienced aqueous alteration under identical conditions. Based on their mineral, textural, and especially chemical similarities, we conclude that ALH 8 1002 and LEW 90500 likely have a similar or identical source.

  6. Quantification of skeletal fraction volume of a soil pit by means of photogrammetry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baruck, Jasmin; Zieher, Thomas; Bremer, Magnus; Rutzinger, Martin; Geitner, Clemens

    2015-04-01

    The grain size distribution of a soil is a key parameter determining soil water behaviour, soil fertility and land use potential. It plays an important role in soil classification and allows drawing conclusions on landscape development as well as soil formation processes. However, fine soil material (i.e. particle diameter ≤2 mm) is usually documented more thoroughly than the skeletal fraction (i.e. particle diameter >2 mm). While fine soil material is commonly analysed in the laboratory in order to determine the soil type, the skeletal fraction is typically estimated in the field at the profile. For a more precise determination of the skeletal fraction other methods can be applied and combined. These methods can be volume-related (sampling rings, percussion coring tubes) or non-volume-related (sieve of spade excavation). In this study we present a framework for the quantification of skeletal fraction volumes of a soil pit by means of photogrammetry. As a first step 3D point clouds of both soil pit and skeletal grains were generated. Therefore all skeletal grains of the pit were spread out onto a plane, clean plastic sheet in the field and numerous digital photos were taken using a reflex camera. With the help of the open source tool VisualSFM (structure from motion) two scaled 3D point clouds were derived. As a second step the skeletal fraction point cloud was segmented by radiometric attributes in order to determine volumes of single skeletal grains. The comparison of the total skeletal fraction volume with the volume of the pit (closed by spline interpolation) yields an estimate of the volumetric proportion of skeletal grains. The presented framework therefore provides an objective reference value of skeletal fraction for the support of qualitative field records.

  7. Visual classification of very fine-grained sediments: Evaluation through univariate and multivariate statistics

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Hohn, M. Ed; Nuhfer, E.B.; Vinopal, R.J.; Klanderman, D.S.

    1980-01-01

    Classifying very fine-grained rocks through fabric elements provides information about depositional environments, but is subject to the biases of visual taxonomy. To evaluate the statistical significance of an empirical classification of very fine-grained rocks, samples from Devonian shales in four cored wells in West Virginia and Virginia were measured for 15 variables: quartz, illite, pyrite and expandable clays determined by X-ray diffraction; total sulfur, organic content, inorganic carbon, matrix density, bulk density, porosity, silt, as well as density, sonic travel time, resistivity, and ??-ray response measured from well logs. The four lithologic types comprised: (1) sharply banded shale, (2) thinly laminated shale, (3) lenticularly laminated shale, and (4) nonbanded shale. Univariate and multivariate analyses of variance showed that the lithologic classification reflects significant differences for the variables measured, difference that can be detected independently of stratigraphic effects. Little-known statistical methods found useful in this work included: the multivariate analysis of variance with more than one effect, simultaneous plotting of samples and variables on canonical variates, and the use of parametric ANOVA and MANOVA on ranked data. ?? 1980 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

  8. The anterior hippocampus supports a coarse, global environmental representation and the posterior hippocampus supports fine-grained, local environmental representations.

    PubMed

    Evensmoen, Hallvard Røe; Lehn, Hanne; Xu, Jian; Witter, Menno P; Nadel, Lynn; Håberg, Asta K

    2013-11-01

    Representing an environment globally, in a coarse way, and locally, in a fine-grained way, are two fundamental aspects of how our brain interprets the world that surrounds us. The neural correlates of these representations have not been explicated in humans. In this study we used fMRI to investigate these correlates and to explore a possible functional segregation in the hippocampus and parietal cortex. We hypothesized that processing a coarse, global environmental representation engages anterior parts of these regions, whereas processing fine-grained, local environmental information engages posterior parts. Participants learned a virtual environment and then had to find their way during fMRI. After scanning, we assessed strategies used and representations stored. Activation in the hippocampal head (anterior) was related to the multiple distance and global direction judgments and to the use of a coarse, global environmental representation during navigation. Activation in the hippocampal tail (posterior) was related to both local and global direction judgments and to using strategies like number of turns. A structural shape analysis showed that the use of a coarse, global environmental representation was related to larger right hippocampal head volume and smaller right hippocampal tail volume. In the inferior parietal cortex, a similar functional segregation was observed, with global routes represented anteriorly and fine-grained route information such as number of turns represented posteriorly. In conclusion, moving from the anterior to the posterior hippocampus and inferior parietal cortex reflects a shift from processing coarse global environmental representations to processing fine-grained, local environmental representations.

  9. [Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and soluble organic fraction in fine particles from solid fraction of biodiesel exhaust fumes].

    PubMed

    Szewczyńska, Małgorzata; Pośniak, Małgorzata

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents the results of investigations into the distribution of fine particles in the biodiesel exhaust fumes (bio-DEP), as well as into the content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and soluble organic fraction (SOF) in the study fractions. Samples of biodiesel B20 and B40 exhaust combustion fumes were generated at the model station composed of a diesel engine from Diesel TDI 2007 Volkswagen. Sioutas personal cascade impactor (SPCI) with Teflon filters and low-pressure impactor ELIPI (Dekati Low Pressure Impactor) were used for sampling diesel exhaust fine particles. The analysis of PAHs adsorbed on particulate fractions was performed by high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC/FL). For the determination of dry residue soluble organic fraction of biodiesel exhaust particles the gravimetric method was used. The combustion exhaust fumes of 100% ON contained mainly naphthalene, acenaphthalene, fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo(a)anthracene and chrysene, whilst the exhaust of B40-single PAHs of 4 and 5 rings, such as chrysene, benzo(k)fluoranthene, dibenzo (ah)anthracene and benzo(ghi)perylene. The total content of PAHs in diesel exhaust particles averaged 910 ng/m3 for 100% ON and 340 ng/m3 for B40. The concentrations of benzo(a)antarcene were at the levels of 310 ng/m3 (100% ON) and 90 ng/m3 (B40). The investigations indicated that a fraction < 025 microm represents the main component of diesel exhaust particles, regardless of the used fuel. Bioester B 100 commonly added to diesel fuel (ON) causes a reduction of the total particulates emission and thus reduces the amount of toxic substances adsorbed on their surface.

  10. Identification of Highly Fractionated (18)O-Rich Silicate Grains in the Queen Alexandra Range 99177 CR3 Chondrite

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Nguyen, A. N.; Keller, L. P.; Messenger, S.; Rahman, Z.

    2015-01-01

    Carbonaceous chondrites contain a mixture of solar system condensates, presolar grains, and primitive organic matter. The CR3 chondrite QUE 99177 has undergone minimal al-teration [1], exemplified by abundant presolar silicates [2, 3] and anomalous organic matter [4]. Oxygen isotopic imaging studies of this meteorite have focused on finding submicrometer anomalous grains in fine-grained regions of thin sections. Here we present re-sults of an O isotopic survey of larger matrix grains.

  11. Determination of the effects of fine-grained sediment and other limiting variables on trout habitat for selected streams in Wisconsin

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Scudder, Barbara C.; Selbig, J.W.; Waschbusch, R.J.

    2000-01-01

    Two Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) models, developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, were used to evaluate the effects of fine-grained (less than 2 millimeters) sediment on brook trout (Salvelinusfontinalis, Mitchill) and brown trout (Salmo trutta, Linnaeus) in 11 streams in west-central and southwestern Wisconsin. Our results indicated that fine-grained sediment limited brook trout habitat in 8 of 11 streams and brown trout habitat in only one stream. Lack of winter and escape cover for fry was the primary limiting variable for brown trout at 61 percent of the sites, and this factor also limited brook trout at several stations. Pool area or quality, in stream cover, streambank vegetation for erosion control, minimum flow, thalweg depth maximum, water temperature, spawning substrate, riffle dominant substrate, and dissolved oxygen also were limiting to trout in the study streams. Brook trout appeared to be more sensitive to the effects of fine-grained sediment than brown trout. The models for brook trout and brown trout appeared to be useful and objective screening tools for identifying variables limiting trout habitat in these streams. The models predicted that reduction in the amount of fine-grained sediment would improve brook trout habitat. These models may be valuable for establishing instream sediment-reduction goals; however, the decrease in sediment delivery needed to meet these goals cannot be estimated without quantitative data on land use practices and their effects on sediment delivery and retention by streams.

  12. Near-Threshold Fatigue Crack Growth Behavior of Fine-Grain Nickel-Based Alloys

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Newman, John A.; Piascik, Robert S.

    2003-01-01

    Constant-Kmax fatigue crack growth tests were performed on two finegrain nickel-base alloys Inconel 718 (DA) and Ren 95 to determine if these alloys exhibit near-threshold time-dependent crack growth behavior observed for fine-grain aluminum alloys in room-temperature laboratory air. Test results showed that increases in K(sub max) values resulted in increased crack growth rates, but no evidence of time-dependent crack growth was observed for either nickel-base alloy at room temperature.

  13. A Fine-Grained and Privacy-Preserving Query Scheme for Fog Computing-Enhanced Location-Based Service.

    PubMed

    Yang, Xue; Yin, Fan; Tang, Xiaohu

    2017-07-11

    Location-based services (LBS), as one of the most popular location-awareness applications, has been further developed to achieve low-latency with the assistance of fog computing. However, privacy issues remain a research challenge in the context of fog computing. Therefore, in this paper, we present a fine-grained and privacy-preserving query scheme for fog computing-enhanced location-based services, hereafter referred to as FGPQ. In particular, mobile users can obtain the fine-grained searching result satisfying not only the given spatial range but also the searching content. Detailed privacy analysis shows that our proposed scheme indeed achieves the privacy preservation for the LBS provider and mobile users. In addition, extensive performance analyses and experiments demonstrate that the FGPQ scheme can significantly reduce computational and communication overheads and ensure the low-latency, which outperforms existing state-of-the art schemes. Hence, our proposed scheme is more suitable for real-time LBS searching.

  14. A Fine-Grained and Privacy-Preserving Query Scheme for Fog Computing-Enhanced Location-Based Service

    PubMed Central

    Yin, Fan; Tang, Xiaohu

    2017-01-01

    Location-based services (LBS), as one of the most popular location-awareness applications, has been further developed to achieve low-latency with the assistance of fog computing. However, privacy issues remain a research challenge in the context of fog computing. Therefore, in this paper, we present a fine-grained and privacy-preserving query scheme for fog computing-enhanced location-based services, hereafter referred to as FGPQ. In particular, mobile users can obtain the fine-grained searching result satisfying not only the given spatial range but also the searching content. Detailed privacy analysis shows that our proposed scheme indeed achieves the privacy preservation for the LBS provider and mobile users. In addition, extensive performance analyses and experiments demonstrate that the FGPQ scheme can significantly reduce computational and communication overheads and ensure the low-latency, which outperforms existing state-of-the art schemes. Hence, our proposed scheme is more suitable for real-time LBS searching. PMID:28696395

  15. [Polychlorinated biphenyls in fractions of wheat grains and in selected bakery products].

    PubMed

    Brandt, Elzbieta; Pietrzak-Fiećko, Renata; Smoczyński, S S

    2012-01-01

    between the examined fractions were not statistically significant. Similar tendencies were observed in Almari species. PCBs content in wheat bread was on lower level than in all of the examined species. It was confirmed that fraction 2,8 x 25 mm of all species of wheat grain had the highest PCBs content. The tendency to decrease of PCBs content with the decrease of the grain in size was observed. The relation between qualitative class of species and PCBs content was not confirmed. There were statistically significant differences in the PCBs concentrations between the wheat species within one size fraction. The results of PCBs content in wheat bread were lower than in all examined species of wheat. One can assume that for the production of bread collected for the study, the wheat originating from areas with low PCBs contamination was used. Somewhat higher PCBs content was observed in the wheat bread with bran added, probably due to higher PCBs accumulation in the bran, which contain higher fat and contribute therefore to the overall PCBs in the bran containing bread.

  16. A novel allele of TaGW2-A1 is located in a finely mapped QTL that increases grain weight but decreases grain number in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

    PubMed

    Zhai, Huijie; Feng, Zhiyu; Du, Xiaofen; Song, Yane; Liu, Xinye; Qi, Zhongqi; Song, Long; Li, Jiang; Li, Linghong; Peng, Huiru; Hu, Zhaorong; Yao, Yingyin; Xin, Mingming; Xiao, Shihe; Sun, Qixin; Ni, Zhongfu

    2018-03-01

    A novel TaGW2-A1 allele was identified from a stable, robust QTL region, which is pleiotropic for thousand grain weight, grain number per spike, and grain morphometric parameters in wheat. Thousand grain weight (TGW) and grain number per spike (GNS) are two crucial determinants of wheat spike yield, and genetic dissection of their relationships can help to fine-tune these two components and maximize grain yield. By evaluating 191 recombinant inbred lines in 11 field trials, we identified five genomic regions on chromosomes 1B, 3A, 3B, 5B, or 7A that solely influenced either TGW or GNS, and a further region on chromosome 6A that concurrently affected TGW and GNS. The QTL of interest on chromosome 6A, which was flanked by wsnp_BE490604A_Ta_2_1 and wsnp_RFL_Contig1340_448996 and designated as QTgw/Gns.cau-6A, was finely mapped to a genetic interval shorter than 0.538 cM using near isogenic lines (NILs). The elite NILs of QTgw/Gns.cau-6A increased TGW by 8.33%, but decreased GNS by 3.05% in six field trials. Grain Weight 2 (TaGW2-A1), a well-characterized gene that negatively regulates TGW and grain width in wheat, was located within the finely mapped interval of QTgw/Gns.cau-6A. A novel and rare TaGW2-A1 allele with a 114-bp deletion in the 5' flanking region was identified in the parent with higher TGW, and it reduced TaGW2-A1 promoter activity and expression. In conclusion, these results expand our knowledge of the genetic and molecular basis of TGW-GNS trade-offs in wheat. The QTLs and the novel TaGW2-A1 allele are likely useful for the development of cultivars with higher TGW and/or higher GNS.

  17. Evolution of Fine-Grained Channel Margin Deposits behind Large Woody Debris in an Experimental Gravel-Bed Flume

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    ONeill, B.; Marks, S.; Skalak, K.; Puleo, J. A.; Wilcock, P. R.; Pizzuto, J. E.

    2014-12-01

    Fine grained channel margin (FGCM) deposits of the South River, Virginia sequester a substantial volume of fine-grained sediment behind large woody debris (LWD). FGCM deposits were created in a laboratory setting meant to simulate the South River environment using a recirculating flume (15m long by 0.6m wide) with a fixed gravel bed and adjustable slope (set to 0.0067) to determine how fine sediment is transported and deposited behind LWD. Two model LWD structures were placed 3.7 m apart on opposite sides of the flume. A wire mesh screen with attached wooden dowels simulated LWD with an upstream facing rootwad. Six experiments with three different discharge rates, each with low and high sediment concentrations, were run. Suspended sediment was very fine grained (median grain size of 3 phi) and well sorted (0.45 phi) sand. Upstream of the wood, water depths averaged about 0.08m, velocities averaged about 0.3 m/s, and Froude numbers averaged around 0.3. Downstream of the first LWD structure, velocities were reduced tenfold. Small amounts of sediment passed through the rootwad and fell out of suspension in the area of reduced flow behind LWD, but most of the sediment was carried around the LWD by the main flow and then behind the LWD by a recirculating eddy current. Upstream migrating dunes formed behind LWD due to recirculating flow, similar to reattachment bars documented in bedrock canyon rivers partially obstructed by debouching debris fans. These upstream migrating dunes began at the reattachment point and merged with deposits formed from sediment transported through the rootwad. Downstream migrating dunes formed along the channel margin behind the LWD, downstream of the reattachment point. FGCM deposits were about 3 m long, with average widths of about 0.8 m. Greater sediment concentration created thicker FGCM deposits, and higher flows eroded the sides of the deposits, reducing their widths.

  18. Hot deformation behavior of uniform fine-grained GH4720Li alloy based on its processing map

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yu, Qiu-ying; Yao, Zhi-hao; Dong, Jian-xin

    2016-01-01

    The hot deformation behavior of uniform fine-grained GH4720Li alloy was studied in the temperature range from 1040 to 1130°C and the strain-rate range from 0.005 to 0.5 s-1 using hot compression testing. Processing maps were constructed on the basis of compression data and a dynamic materials model. Considerable flow softening associated with superplasticity was observed at strain rates of 0.01 s-1 or lower. According to the processing map and observations of the microstructure, the uniform fine-grained microstructure remains intact at 1100°C or lower because of easily activated dynamic recrystallization (DRX), whereas obvious grain growth is observed at 1130°C. Metallurgical instabilities in the form of non-uniform microstructures under higher and lower Zener-Hollomon parameters are induced by local plastic flow and primary γ' local faster dissolution, respectively. The optimum processing conditions at all of the investigated strains are proposed as 1090-1130°C with 0.08-0.5 s-1 and 0.005-0.008 s-1 and 1040-1085°C with 0.005-0.06 s-1.

  19. Heating during solar nebula formation and Mg isotopic fractionation in precursor grains of CAIs and chondrules

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sasaki, S.; Nagahara, H.; Kitagami, K.; Nakagawa, Y.

    1994-01-01

    In some Ca-Al-rich inclusion (CAI) grains, mass-dependent isotopic fractionations of Mg, Si, and O are observed and large Mg isotopic fractionation is interpreted to have been produced by cosmochemical processes such as evaporation and condensation. Mass-dependent Mg isotopic fractionation was found in olivine chondrules of Allende meteorites. Presented is an approximate formula for the temperature of the solar nebula that depends on heliocentric distance and the initial gas distribution. Shock heating during solar nebula formation can cause evaporative fractionation within interstellar grains involved in a gas at the inner zone (a less than 3 AU) of the disk. Alternatively collision of late-accreting gas blobs might cause similar heating if Sigma(sub s) and Sigma are large enough. Since the grain size is small, the solid/gas mass ratio is low and solar (low P(sub O2)), and the ambient gas pressure is low, this heating event could not produce chondrules themselves. Chondrule formation should proceed around the disk midplane after dust grains would grow and sediment to increase the solid/gas ratio there. The heating source there is uncertain, but transient rapid accretion through the disk could release a large amount of heat, which would be observed as FU Orionis events.

  20. A visual basic program to generate sediment grain-size statistics and to extrapolate particle distributions

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Poppe, L.J.; Eliason, A.H.; Hastings, M.E.

    2004-01-01

    Measures that describe and summarize sediment grain-size distributions are important to geologists because of the large amount of information contained in textural data sets. Statistical methods are usually employed to simplify the necessary comparisons among samples and quantify the observed differences. The two statistical methods most commonly used by sedimentologists to describe particle distributions are mathematical moments (Krumbein and Pettijohn, 1938) and inclusive graphics (Folk, 1974). The choice of which of these statistical measures to use is typically governed by the amount of data available (Royse, 1970). If the entire distribution is known, the method of moments may be used; if the next to last accumulated percent is greater than 95, inclusive graphics statistics can be generated. Unfortunately, earlier programs designed to describe sediment grain-size distributions statistically do not run in a Windows environment, do not allow extrapolation of the distribution's tails, or do not generate both moment and graphic statistics (Kane and Hubert, 1963; Collias et al., 1963; Schlee and Webster, 1967; Poppe et al., 2000)1.Owing to analytical limitations, electro-resistance multichannel particle-size analyzers, such as Coulter Counters, commonly truncate the tails of the fine-fraction part of grain-size distributions. These devices do not detect fine clay in the 0.6–0.1 μm range (part of the 11-phi and all of the 12-phi and 13-phi fractions). Although size analyses performed down to 0.6 μm microns are adequate for most freshwater and near shore marine sediments, samples from many deeper water marine environments (e.g. rise and abyssal plain) may contain significant material in the fine clay fraction, and these analyses benefit from extrapolation.The program (GSSTAT) described herein generates statistics to characterize sediment grain-size distributions and can extrapolate the fine-grained end of the particle distribution. It is written in Microsoft

  1. Grain size of loess and paleosol samples: what are we measuring?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Varga, György; Kovács, János; Szalai, Zoltán; Újvári, Gábor

    2017-04-01

    Particle size falling into a particularly narrow range is among the most important properties of windblown mineral dust deposits. Therefore, various aspects of aeolian sedimentation and post-depositional alterations can be reconstructed only from precise grain size data. Present study is aimed at (1) reviewing grain size data obtained from different measurements, (2) discussing the major reasons for disagreements between data obtained by frequently applied particle sizing techniques, and (3) assesses the importance of particle shape in particle sizing. Grain size data of terrestrial aeolian dust deposits (loess and paleosoil) were determined by laser scattering instruments (Fritsch Analysette 22 Microtec Plus, Horiba Partica La-950 v2 and Malvern Mastersizer 3000 with a Hydro Lv unit), while particles size and shape distributions were acquired by Malvern Morphologi G3-ID. Laser scattering results reveal that the optical parameter settings of the measurements have significant effects on the grain size distributions, especially for the fine-grained fractions (<5 µm). Significant differences between the Mie and Fraunhofer approaches were found for the finest grain size fractions, while only slight discrepancies were observed for the medium to coarse silt fractions. It should be noted that the different instruments provided different grain size distributions even with the exactly same optical settings. Image analysis-based grain size data indicated underestimation of clay and fine silt fractions compared to laser measurements. The measured circle-equivalent diameter of image analysis is calculated from the acquired two-dimensional image of the particle. It is assumed that the instantaneous pulse of compressed air disperse the sedimentary particles onto the glass slide with a consistent orientation with their largest area facing to the camera. However, this is only one outcome of infinite possible projections of a three-dimensional object and it cannot be regarded as a

  2. Impact of chemical leaching on permeability and cadmium removal from fine-grained soils.

    PubMed

    Lin, Zhongbing; Zhang, Renduo; Huang, Shuang; Wang, Kang

    2017-08-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of chemical leaching on permeability and Cd removal from fine-grained polluted soils. Column leaching experiments were conducted using two types of soils (i.e., artificially Cd-polluted loam and historically polluted silty loam). Chemical agents of CaCl 2 , FeCl 3 , citric acid, EDTA, rhamnolipid, and deionized water were used to leach Cd from the soils. Results showed that organic agents reduced permeability of both soils, and FeCl 3 reduced permeability of loam soil, compared with inorganic agents and deionized water. Entrapment and deposition of colloids generated from the organic agents and FeCl 3 treatments reduced the soil permeability. The peak Cd effluence from the artificially polluted loam columns was retarded. For the artificially polluted soils treated with EDTA and the historically polluted soils with FeCl 3 , Cd precipitates were observed at the bottom after chemical leaching. When Cd was associated with large colloid particles, the reduction of soil permeability caused Cd accumulation in deeper soil. In addition, the slow process of disintegration of soil clay during chemical leaching might result in the retardation of peak Cd effluence. These results suggest the need for caution when using chemical-leaching agents for Cd removal in fine-grained soils.

  3. In vitro and in vivo studies of biodegradable fine grained AZ31 magnesium alloy produced by equal channel angular pressing.

    PubMed

    Ratna Sunil, B; Sampath Kumar, T S; Chakkingal, Uday; Nandakumar, V; Doble, Mukesh; Devi Prasad, V; Raghunath, M

    2016-02-01

    The objective of the present work is to investigate the role of different grain sizes produced by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) on the degradation behavior of magnesium alloy using in vitro and in vivo studies. Commercially available AZ31 magnesium alloy was selected and processed by ECAP at 300°C for up to four passes using route Bc. Grain refinement from a starting size of 46μm to a grain size distribution of 1-5μm was successfully achieved after the 4th pass. Wettability of ECAPed samples assessed by contact angle measurements was found to increase due to the fine grain structure. In vitro degradation and bioactivity of the samples studied by immersing in super saturated simulated body fluid (SBF 5×) showed rapid mineralization within 24h due to the increased wettability in fine grained AZ31 Mg alloy. Corrosion behavior of the samples assessed by weight loss and electrochemical tests conducted in SBF 5× clearly showed the prominent role of enhanced mineral deposition on ECAPed AZ31 Mg in controlling the abnormal degradation. Cytotoxicity studies by MTT colorimetric assay showed that all the samples are viable. Additionally, cell adhesion was excellent for ECAPed samples particularly for the 3rd and 4th pass samples. In vivo experiments conducted using New Zealand White rabbits clearly showed lower degradation rate for ECAPed sample compared with annealed AZ31 Mg alloy and all the samples showed biocompatibility and no health abnormalities were noticed in the animals after 60days of in vivo studies. These results suggest that the grain size plays an important role in degradation management of magnesium alloys and ECAP technique can be adopted to achieve fine grain structures for developing degradable magnesium alloys for biomedical applications. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Direct soil contact values for ecological receptors exposed to weathered petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) fraction 2.

    PubMed

    Angell, Robin A; Kullman, Steve; Shrive, Emma; Stephenson, Gladys L; Tindal, Miles

    2012-11-01

    Ecological tier 1 Canada-wide standards (CWS) for petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) fraction 2 (F2; >nC10-C16) in soil were derived using ecotoxicological assessment endpoints (effective concentrations [ECs]/lethal concentrations [LCs]/inhibitory concentrations, 25% [IC25s]) with freshly spiked (fresh) fine- and coarse-grained soils. These soil standards might be needlessly conservative when applied to field samples with weathered hydrocarbons. The purpose of the present study was to assess the degradation and toxicity of weathered PHC F2 in a fine-grained soil and to derive direct soil contact values for ecological receptors. Fine-grained reference soils were spiked with distilled F2 and weathered for 183 d. Toxicity tests using plants and invertebrates were conducted with the weathered F2-spiked soils. Endpoint EC/IC25s were calculated and used to derive soil standards for weathered F2 in fine-grained soil protective of ecological receptors exposed via direct soil contact. The values derived for weathered F2 were less restrictive than current ecological tier 1 CWS for F2 in soil. Copyright © 2012 SETAC.

  5. Microstructure stability of ultra-fine grained magnesium alloy AZ31 processed by extrusion and equal-channel angular pressing (EX–ECAP)

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

    Stráská, Jitka, E-mail: straska.jitka@gmail.com; Janeček, Miloš, E-mail: janecek@met.mff.cuni.cz; Čížek, Jakub, E-mail: jcizek@mbox.troja.mff.cuni.cz

    Thermal stability of the ultra-fine grained (UFG) microstructure of magnesium AZ31 alloy was investigated. UFG microstructure was achieved by a combined two-step severe plastic deformation process: the extrusion (EX) and subsequent equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP). This combined process leads to refined microstructure and enhanced microhardness. Specimens with UFG microstructure were annealed isochronally at temperatures 150–500 °C for 1 h. The evolution of microstructure, mechanical properties and dislocation density was studied by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), microhardness measurements and positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS). The coarsening of the fine-grained structure at higher temperatures was accompanied by a gradual decrease of the microhardnessmore » and decrease of dislocation density. Mechanism of grain growth was studied by general equation for grain growth and Arrhenius equation. Activation energies for grain growth were calculated to be 115, 33 and 164 kJ/mol in temperature ranges of 170–210 °C, 210–400 °C and 400–500 °C (443–483 K, 483–673 K and 673–773 K), respectively. - Highlights: • Microhardness of UFG AZ31 alloy decreases with increasing annealing temperature. • This fact has two reasons: dislocation annihilations and/or grain growth. • The activation energies for grain growth were calculated for all temperature ranges.« less

  6. FINE GRAIN NUCLEAR EMULSION

    DOEpatents

    Oliver, A.J.

    1962-04-24

    A method of preparing nuclear track emulsions having mean grain sizes less than 0.1 microns is described. The method comprises adding silver nitrate to potassium bromide at a rate at which there is always a constant, critical excess of silver ions. For minimum size grains, the silver ion concentration is maintained at the critical level of about pAg 2.0 to 5.0 during prectpitation, pAg being defined as the negative logarithm of the silver ion concentration. It is preferred to eliminate the excess silver at the conclusion of the precipitation steps. The emulsion is processed by methods in all other respects generally similar to the methods of the prior art. (AEC)

  7. Cyclic Deformation of Ultra-Fine Grained Commercial Purity Aluminum Processed by Accumulative Roll-Bonding.

    PubMed

    Kwan, Charles C F; Wang, Zhirui

    2013-08-13

    Accumulative Roll-Bonding (ARB) is one of the more recently developed techniques capable of producing bulk ultra-fine grained (ufg) metals. There are still many aspects of the behavior of ufg metals that lacks an in-depth understanding, such as a generalized view of the factors that govern the cyclic deformation mechanism(s). This study aims to advance the understanding of the cyclic deformation behavior of ufg metals through the systematic investigation of ARB processed aluminum upon cyclic loading. It was found that the cyclic softening response often reported for ufg metals is largely influenced by the microstructure stability as the cyclic softening response is facilitated by grain coarsening which becomes inhibited with highly stable microstructure. On one hand, shear bands resembling braids of dislocations trespassing multiple grains have been observed to operate for the accommodation of the imposed cyclic strain in cases where grain coarsening is largely restricted. On the other hand, it was found that the microstructure stability can be overcome at higher applied cyclic plastic strain levels, leading to grain coarsening and thus a cyclic softening response. The findings in this study have further confirmed that the cyclic softening behavior found in many ufg metals, which may be detrimental in practical applications, can be inhibited by improvements in the microstructure stability.

  8. Swash mark and grain flow

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sallenger,, Asbury H.

    1981-01-01

    Swash marks composed entirely of coarse sand are commonly found on coarse-sand beaches. These swash marks are 10 to 30 centimeters in width and a few millimeters to one centimeter in height. Previous observations, mostly on finer-sand beaches, indicate swash marks are seldom over a few millimeters in height and are commonly composed of material readily floated by surface tension (e.g., mica flakes and shell fragments). Swash marks composed of coarse sand have both fining seaward and fining with depth trends in grain size. Apparently, the leading margin of a wave upwash drives a highly concentrated flow of grains in which both grain size and grain velocity decrease with depth. Therefore, large grains are transported at greater velocities than are smaller grains. Thus, at the maximum advance of an upwash, a swash mark is deposited which has the observed fining seaward and fining with depth trends in grain size.

  9. Fine-grained sediment storage conditioned by Large Woody Debris in a gravel-bed river

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Skalak, K. J.; Narinesingh, P.; Pizzuto, J. E.

    2006-05-01

    The purposes of this study are 1) to determine the quantity of mud and sand stored in the channel margins and near-bank regions of South River, a steep gravel-bedded stream in western Virginia, and 2) to understand the geomorphic and hydrologic processes that control the erosion and deposition of these fine-grained deposits. The volume of storage in these deposits is equivalent to about 5-10 percent of the river's annual suspended sediment load. Sediment storage in the near-bank regions is a result of reduced velocity caused by the bank obstructions. Storage occurs in four different geomorphic settings: 1) long pooled sections caused by bedrock or old mill dams, 2) regions downstream of riffles in channel margins with LWD accumulations, 3) bank obstructions usually caused by trees, 4) side channel backwaters where flow separates around islands. Most storage occurs in regions downstream of riffles (approximately 44 percent of the total). Long pooled sections account for roughly 37 percent of the total storage, bank obstructions account for 13 percent, and backwaters account for roughly 6 percent. In approximately 17 km of river, there are 38 separate fine-grained deposits (total volume more than 1600 m3). On average, these deposits are about 35 cm deep, 20 m long, and 4 m wide. They average 30 percent mud, 68 percent sand, and 2 percent gravel. These deposits have been cored and analyzed for Hg, grain size, loss-on-ignition, and bomb radiocarbon. High Hg concentrations in fish tissue are an ongoing problem along South River, further motivating detailed study of these deposits.

  10. New Experiences in Dike Construction with Soil-Ash Composites and Fine-Grained Dredged Materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Duszyński, Remigiusz; Duszyńska, Angelika; Cantré, Stefan

    2017-12-01

    The supporting structure inside a coastal dike is often made of dredged non-uniform sand with good compaction properties. Due to the shortage of natural construction material for both coastal and river dikes and the surplus of different processed materials, new experiments were made with sand-ash mixtures and fine-grained dredged materials to replace both dike core and dike cover materials resulting in economical, environmentally friendly and sustainable dikes. Ash from EC Gdańsk and dredged sand from the Vistula river were mixed to form an engineering material used for dike construction. The optimum sand-ash composites were applied at a field test site to build a large-scale research dike. Fine-grained dredged materials from Germany were chosen to be applied in a second full-scale research dike in Rostock. All materials were investigated according to the standards for soil mechanical analysis. This includes basic soil properties, mechanical characteristics, such as grain-size distribution, compaction parameters, compressibility, shear strength, and water permeability. In the field, the infiltration of water into the dike body as well as the erosion resistance of the cover material against overflowing water was determined. Results of both laboratory and field testing are discussed in this paper. In conclusion, the mixing of bottom ash with mineral soil, such as relatively uniform dredged sand, fairly improves the geotechnical parameters of the composite, compared to the constituents. Depending on the composite, the materials may be suitable to build a dike core or an erosion-resistant dike cover.

  11. Origin and depositional environment of fine-grained sediments since the last glacial maximum in the southeastern Yellow Sea: evidence from rare earth elements

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Um, In Kwon; Choi, Man Sik; Lee, Gwang Soo; Chang, Tae Soo

    2015-12-01

    Despite the well-reconstructed seismic stratigraphy of the Holocene mud deposit in the southeastern Yellow Sea, known as the Heuksan mud belt (HMB), the provenances of these sediments and their depositional environments are unclear, especially for the fine-grained sediments. According to seismic data (extracted from another article in this special issue), the HMB comprises several sedimentary units deposited since the last glacial maximum. Based on analytical results on rare earth elements, fine-grained sediments in all sedimentary units can be interpreted as mixtures of sediments discharged from Chinese and Korean rivers. The proportions of fine-grained sediments from Chinese rivers (74.5 to 80.0%) were constant and higher than those from Korean rivers in all units. This fact demonstrates that all units have the same fine-grained sediment provenance: units III-b and III-a, located in the middle and northern parts of the HMB and directly deposited from Chinese rivers during the sea-level lowstand, could be the sediment source for units II-b and II-a. Unit I, while ambiguous, is of mixed origin combining reworked sediments from nearby mud deposits and Changjiang River-borne material with those of the Keum River. The results of this study indicate that at least 18.6% of bulk sediments in the HMB clearly originate from Chinese rivers, despite its location close to the southwestern coast of Korea.

  12. Effects of grain size distribution on the packing fraction and shear strength of frictionless disk packings.

    PubMed

    Estrada, Nicolas

    2016-12-01

    Using discrete element methods, the effects of the grain size distribution on the density and the shear strength of frictionless disk packings are analyzed. Specifically, two recent findings on the relationship between the system's grain size distribution and its rheology are revisited, and their validity is tested across a broader range of distributions than what has been used in previous studies. First, the effects of the distribution on the solid fraction are explored. It is found that the distribution that produces the densest packing is not the uniform distribution by volume fractions as suggested in a recent publication. In fact, the maximal packing fraction is obtained when the grading curve follows a power law with an exponent close to 0.5 as suggested by Fuller and Thompson in 1907 and 1919 [Trans Am. Soc. Civ. Eng. 59, 1 (1907) and A Treatise on Concrete, Plain and Reinforced (1919), respectively] while studying mixtures of cement and stone aggregates. Second, the effects of the distribution on the shear strength are analyzed. It is confirmed that these systems exhibit a small shear strength, even if composed of frictionless particles as has been shown recently in several works. It is also found that this shear strength is independent of the grain size distribution. This counterintuitive result has previously been shown for the uniform distribution by volume fractions. In this paper, it is shown that this observation keeps true for different shapes of the grain size distribution.

  13. Modeling the formation of methane hydrate-bearing intervals in fine-grained sediments

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

    Malinverno, Alberto; Cook, Ann; Daigle, Hugh

    Sediment grain size exerts a fundamental control on how methane hydrates are distributed within the pore space. Fine-grained muds are the predominant sediments in continental margins, and hydrates in these sediments have often been observed in semi-vertical veins and fractures. In several instances, these hydrate veins/fractures are found in discrete depth intervals a few tens meters thick within the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ) surrounded by hydrate-free sediments above and below. As they are not obviously connected with free gas occurring beneath the base of the GHSZ, these isolated hydrate-bearing intervals have been interpreted as formed by microbial methane generatedmore » in situ. To investigate further the formation of these hydrate deposits, we applied a time-dependent advection-diffusion-reaction model that includes the effects of sedimentation, solute diffusion, and microbial methane generation. The microbial methane generation term depends on the amount of metabolizable organic carbon deposited at the seafloor, which is degraded at a prescribed rate resulting in methane formation beneath the sulfate reduction zone. In the model, methane hydrate precipitates once the dissolved methane concentration is greater than solubility, or hydrate dissolves if concentration goes below solubility. If the deposition of organic carbon at the seafloor is kept constant in time, we found that the predicted amounts of hydrate formed in discrete intervals within the GHSZ are much less than those estimated from observations. We then investigated the effect of temporal variations in the deposition of organic carbon. If greater amounts of organic carbon are deposited during some time interval, methane generation is enhanced during burial in the corresponding sediment interval. With variations in organic carbon deposition that are consistent with observations in continental margin sediments, we were able to reproduce the methane hydrate contents estimated in discrete

  14. Dynamics of deposited fly-ash and fine grained magnetite in sandy material of different porosity (column experiments)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kapicka, Ales; Kodesova, Radka; Petrovsky, Eduard; Grison, Hana

    2010-05-01

    Several studies confirm that soil magnetometry can serve as proxy of industrial immisions as well as heavy-metal contamination. The important assumption for magnetic mapping of contaminated soils is that atmospherically deposited particulate matter, including the ferrimagnetic phase, accumulates in the top soil horizons and remains there over long period. Only if this is true, large areas can be reliably mapped using soil magnetometry, and, moreover, this method can be used also for long-term monitoring. However, in soil types such as sandy soils with different porosity or soils with substantial variability of water regime, translocation of the deposited anthropogenic particles may result in biased (underestimated) values of the measured topsoil magnetic susceptibility. From the physical point of view, this process may be considered as colloid transport through porous medium. In our column experiments in laboratory we used three technical sands with different particle sizes (0,63 - 1.25mm, 0,315-0,80mm, 0,10-0,63mm). Sands in cylinders were contaminated on the surface by fly-ashes from coal-burning power plant (mean grain size 10μm) and fine grained Fe3O4 (grain size < 20 μm). Soil moisture sensors were used to monitor water regime within the sand columns after controlled rain simulation and temperature distribution in sand column was measured as well. Vertical migration of ferrimagnetic particles-tracers presented in the fly-ash was measured by SM 400 Kappameter. By means of magnetic susceptibility distribution we studied two parameters: gradual shift of peak concentration of contaminants (relative to surface layer) and maximum penetration depth. Results indicated that after rain simulation (pulls infiltration of defined water volume) the positions of peak values moved downwards compared to the initial state and gradual decrease of susceptibility peak values were detected in all studied sand formations. Fly-ash migrated more or less freely in coarse sand

  15. The silicon isotopic composition of fine-grained river sediments and its relation to climate and lithology

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bayon, G.; Delvigne, C.; Ponzevera, E.; Borges, A. V.; Darchambeau, F.; De Deckker, P.; Lambert, T.; Monin, L.; Toucanne, S.; André, L.

    2018-05-01

    The δ30Si stable isotopic composition of silicon in soils and fine-grained sediments can provide insights into weathering processes on continents, with important implications on the Si budget of modern and past oceans. To further constrain the factors controlling the distribution of Si isotopes in sediments, we have analysed a large number (n = 50) of separate size-fractions of sediments and suspended particulate materials collected near the mouth of rivers worldwide. This includes some of the world's largest rivers (e.g. Amazon, Congo, Mackenzie, Mississippi, Murray-Darling, Nile, Yangtze) and rivers from the case study areas of the Congo River Basin and Northern Ireland. Silt-size fractions exhibit a mean Si isotopic composition (δ30Si = -0.21 ± 0.19‰; 2 s.d.) similar to that previously inferred for the upper continental crust. In contrast, clay-size fractions display a much larger range of δ30Si values from -0.11‰ to -2.16‰, which yield a global δ30Siclay of -0.57 ± 0.60‰ (2 s.d.) representative of the mean composition of the average weathered continental crust. Overall, these new data show that the Si isotopic signature transported by river clays is controlled by the degree of chemical weathering, as inferred from strong relationships with Al/Si ratios. At a global scale, the clay-bound Si isotopic composition of the world's largest river systems demonstrates a link with climate, defining a general correlation with mean annual temperature (MAT) in corresponding drainage basins. While the distribution of Si isotopes in river sediments also appears to be influenced by the tectonic setting, lithological effects and sediment recycling from former sedimentary cycles, our results pave the way for their use as paleo-weathering and paleo-climate proxies in the sedimentary record.

  16. Cyclic Deformation of Ultra-Fine Grained Commercial Purity Aluminum Processed by Accumulative Roll-Bonding

    PubMed Central

    Kwan, Charles C.F.; Wang, Zhirui

    2013-01-01

    Accumulative Roll-Bonding (ARB) is one of the more recently developed techniques capable of producing bulk ultra-fine grained (ufg) metals. There are still many aspects of the behavior of ufg metals that lacks an in-depth understanding, such as a generalized view of the factors that govern the cyclic deformation mechanism(s). This study aims to advance the understanding of the cyclic deformation behavior of ufg metals through the systematic investigation of ARB processed aluminum upon cyclic loading. It was found that the cyclic softening response often reported for ufg metals is largely influenced by the microstructure stability as the cyclic softening response is facilitated by grain coarsening which becomes inhibited with highly stable microstructure. On one hand, shear bands resembling braids of dislocations trespassing multiple grains have been observed to operate for the accommodation of the imposed cyclic strain in cases where grain coarsening is largely restricted. On the other hand, it was found that the microstructure stability can be overcome at higher applied cyclic plastic strain levels, leading to grain coarsening and thus a cyclic softening response. The findings in this study have further confirmed that the cyclic softening behavior found in many ufg metals, which may be detrimental in practical applications, can be inhibited by improvements in the microstructure stability. PMID:28811446

  17. Investigating selective transport and abrasion on an alluvial fan using quantitative grain size and shape analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Litwin, K. L.; Jerolmack, D. J.

    2011-12-01

    Selective sorting and abrasion are the two major fluvial processes that are attributed to the downstream fining of sediments in rivers and alluvial fans. Selective transport is the process by which smaller grains are preferentially transported downstream while larger grains are deposited closer to the source. Abrasion is defined by the production of fine sediments and sand that occurs by saltation of gravel, where particle-to-particle collisions supply the energy required to break apart grains. We hypothesize that abrasion results in the gradual fining of large grains and the production of fine sands and silts, while sorting accounts for the differences in transport of these two grain-size fractions produced from abrasion, thereby creating the abrupt gravel-sand transition observed in many channel systems. In this research, we explore both selective transport and abrasion processes on the Dog Canyon alluvial fan near Alamogordo, New Mexico. We complete an extensive grain size analysis down the main channel of the fan employing an image-based technique that utilizes an autocorrelation process. We also characterize changes in grain shape using standard shape parameters, as well as Fourier analysis, which allows the study of contributions of grain roughness on a variety of length scales. Sorting appears to dominate the upper portion of the fan; the grain-size distribution narrows moving downstream until reaching a point of equal mobility, at which point sorting ceases. Abrasion exerts a subtle but persistent effect on grains during transport down the fan. Shape analysis reveals that particles become more rounded by the removal of small-scale textural features, a process that is expected to only modestly influence grain size of gravel, but should produce significant quantities of sand. This study provides a better understanding of the importance of grain abrasion and sorting on the downstream fining of channel grains in an alluvial fan, as well as an improved knowledge

  18. Fine-grained recognition of plants from images.

    PubMed

    Šulc, Milan; Matas, Jiří

    2017-01-01

    Fine-grained recognition of plants from images is a challenging computer vision task, due to the diverse appearance and complex structure of plants, high intra-class variability and small inter-class differences. We review the state-of-the-art and discuss plant recognition tasks, from identification of plants from specific plant organs to general plant recognition "in the wild". We propose texture analysis and deep learning methods for different plant recognition tasks. The methods are evaluated and compared them to the state-of-the-art. Texture analysis is only applied to images with unambiguous segmentation (bark and leaf recognition), whereas CNNs are only applied when sufficiently large datasets are available. The results provide an insight in the complexity of different plant recognition tasks. The proposed methods outperform the state-of-the-art in leaf and bark classification and achieve very competitive results in plant recognition "in the wild". The results suggest that recognition of segmented leaves is practically a solved problem, when high volumes of training data are available. The generality and higher capacity of state-of-the-art CNNs makes them suitable for plant recognition "in the wild" where the views on plant organs or plants vary significantly and the difficulty is increased by occlusions and background clutter.

  19. On the modified grain-size-distribution method to evaluate the dynamic recrystallisation fraction in AISI 304 stainless steel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hong, D. H.; Park, J. K.

    2018-04-01

    The purpose of the present work was to verify the grain size distribution (GSD) method, which was recently proposed by one of the present authors as a method for evaluating the fraction of dynamic recrystallisation (DRX) in a microalloyed medium carbon steel. To verify the GSD-method, we have selected a 304 stainless steel as a model system and have measured the evolution of the overall grain size distribution (including both the recrystallised and unrecrystallised grains) during hot compression at 1,000 °C in a Gleeble machine; the DRX fraction estimated using the GSD method is compared with the experimentally measured value via EBSD. The results show that the previous GSD method tends to overestimate the DRX fraction due to the utilisation of a plain lognormal distribution function (LDF). To overcome this shortcoming, we propose a modified GSD-method wherein an area-weighted LDF, in place of a plain LDF, is employed to model the evolution of GSD during hot deformation. Direct measurement of the DRX fraction using EBSD confirms that the modified GSD-method provides a reliable method for evaluating the DRX fraction from the experimentally measured GSDs. Reasonable agreement between the DRX fraction and softening fraction suggests that the Kocks-Mecking method utilising the Voce equation can be satisfactorily used to model the work hardening and dynamic recovery behaviour of steels during hot deformation.

  20. Fine-grained visual marine vessel classification for coastal surveillance and defense applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Solmaz, Berkan; Gundogdu, Erhan; Karaman, Kaan; Yücesoy, Veysel; Koç, Aykut

    2017-10-01

    The need for capabilities of automated visual content analysis has substantially increased due to presence of large number of images captured by surveillance cameras. With a focus on development of practical methods for extracting effective visual data representations, deep neural network based representations have received great attention due to their success in visual categorization of generic images. For fine-grained image categorization, a closely related yet a more challenging research problem compared to generic image categorization due to high visual similarities within subgroups, diverse applications were developed such as classifying images of vehicles, birds, food and plants. Here, we propose the use of deep neural network based representations for categorizing and identifying marine vessels for defense and security applications. First, we gather a large number of marine vessel images via online sources grouping them into four coarse categories; naval, civil, commercial and service vessels. Next, we subgroup naval vessels into fine categories such as corvettes, frigates and submarines. For distinguishing images, we extract state-of-the-art deep visual representations and train support-vector-machines. Furthermore, we fine tune deep representations for marine vessel images. Experiments address two scenarios, classification and verification of naval marine vessels. Classification experiment aims coarse categorization, as well as learning models of fine categories. Verification experiment embroils identification of specific naval vessels by revealing if a pair of images belongs to identical marine vessels by the help of learnt deep representations. Obtaining promising performance, we believe these presented capabilities would be essential components of future coastal and on-board surveillance systems.

  1. Comparative analysis of dose rates in bricks determined by neutron activation analysis, alpha counting and X-ray fluorescence analysis for the thermoluminescence fine grain dating method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bártová, H.; Kučera, J.; Musílek, L.; Trojek, T.

    2014-11-01

    In order to evaluate the age from the equivalent dose and to obtain an optimized and efficient procedure for thermoluminescence (TL) dating, it is necessary to obtain the values of both the internal and the external dose rates from dated samples and from their environment. The measurements described and compared in this paper refer to bricks from historic buildings and a fine-grain dating method. The external doses are therefore negligible, if the samples are taken from a sufficient depth in the wall. However, both the alpha dose rate and the beta and gamma dose rates must be taken into account in the internal dose. The internal dose rate to fine-grain samples is caused by the concentrations of natural radionuclides 238U, 235U, 232Th and members of their decay chains, and by 40K concentrations. Various methods can be used for determining trace concentrations of these natural radionuclides and their contributions to the dose rate. The dose rate fraction from 238U and 232Th can be calculated, e.g., from the alpha count rate, or from the concentrations of 238U and 232Th, measured by neutron activation analysis (NAA). The dose rate fraction from 40K can be calculated from the concentration of potassium measured, e.g., by X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF) or by NAA. Alpha counting and XRF are relatively simple and are accessible for an ordinary laboratory. NAA can be considered as a more accurate method, but it is more demanding regarding time and costs, since it needs a nuclear reactor as a neutron source. A comparison of these methods allows us to decide whether the time- and cost-saving simpler techniques introduce uncertainty that is still acceptable.

  2. Rotomagnetic coupling in fine-grained multiferroic BiFe O3 : Theory and experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Morozovska, Anna N.; Eliseev, Eugene A.; Glinchuk, Maya D.; Fesenko, Olena M.; Shvartsman, Vladimir V.; Gopalan, Venkatraman; Silibin, Maxim V.; Karpinsky, Dmitry V.

    2018-04-01

    Using Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire (LGD) theory for BiFe O3 dense fine-grained ceramics with quasispherical grains and nanosized intergrain spaces enriched by elastic defects, we calculated a surprisingly strong size-induced increase in the antiferromagnetic transition temperature caused by the joint action of rotomagnetic and magnetostrictive coupling. Notably, all parameters included in the LGD functional have been extracted from experiments, not assumed. Complementarily, we performed experiments for dense BiFe O3 ceramics, which revealed that the shift of the antiferromagnetic transition is to TN˜690 K instead of TN˜645 K for a single crystal. To explain the result theoretically, we consider the possibility of controlling the antiferromagnetic state of multiferroic BiFe O3 via biquadratic antiferrodistortive rotomagnetic, rotoelectric, magnetoelectric, and magnetostrictive couplings. According to our calculations, the highest contribution is the rotostriction contribution, while the magnetostrictive and electrostriction contributions appear smaller.

  3. Fractionation of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) by sieving and winnowing.

    PubMed

    Liu, KeShun

    2009-12-01

    Four commercial samples of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) were sieved. All sieved fractions except for the pan fraction, constituting about 90% of original mass, were then winnowed with an air blast seed cleaner. Sieving was effective in producing fractions with varying composition. As the particle size decreased, protein and ash contents increased, and total carbohydrate (CHO) decreased. Winnowing sieved fractions was also effective in shifting composition, particularly for larger particle classes. Heavy sub-fractions were enriched in protein, oil and ash, while light sub-fractions were enriched for CHO. For protein, the combination of the two procedures resulted in a maximum 56.4% reduction in a fraction and maximum 60.2% increase in another fraction. As airflow velocity increased, light sub-fraction mass increased, while the compositional difference between the heavy and light sub-fractions decreased. Winnowing three times at a lower velocity was as effective as winnowing one time at a medium velocity. Winnowing the whole DDGS was much less effective than winnowing sieved fractions in changing composition, but sieving winnowed fractions was more effective than sieving whole DDGS. The two combination sequences gave comparable overall effects but sieving followed by winnowing is recommended because it requires less time. Regardless of combinational sequence, the second procedure was more effective in shifting composition than the first procedure.

  4. Visible light communication technology for fine-grained indoor localization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vieira, M.; Vieira, M. A.; Louro, P.; Fantoni, A.; Vieira, P.

    2018-02-01

    This paper focuses on designing and analysing a visible light based communication and positioning system. The indoor positioning system uses trichromatic white Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), both for illumination purposes and as transmitters, and an optical processor, based on a-SiC:H technology, as mobile receiver. On-Off Keying (OOK) modulation scheme is used, proving a good trade-off between system performance and implementation complexity. In the following, the relationship between the transmitted data and the received output levels is decoded. LED bulbs work as transmitters, sending information together with different identifiers, IDs, related to their physical locations. Square and diamond topologies for the unit cell are analyzed, and a 2D localization design, demonstrated by a prototype implementation, is presented. Fine-grained indoor localization is tested. The received signal is used in coded multiplexing techniques for supporting communications and navigation concomitantly on the same channel. The location and motion information is found by mapping the position and estimating the location areas.

  5. Synergistic Instance-Level Subspace Alignment for Fine-Grained Sketch-Based Image Retrieval.

    PubMed

    Li, Ke; Pang, Kaiyue; Song, Yi-Zhe; Hospedales, Timothy M; Xiang, Tao; Zhang, Honggang

    2017-08-25

    We study the problem of fine-grained sketch-based image retrieval. By performing instance-level (rather than category-level) retrieval, it embodies a timely and practical application, particularly with the ubiquitous availability of touchscreens. Three factors contribute to the challenging nature of the problem: (i) free-hand sketches are inherently abstract and iconic, making visual comparisons with photos difficult, (ii) sketches and photos are in two different visual domains, i.e. black and white lines vs. color pixels, and (iii) fine-grained distinctions are especially challenging when executed across domain and abstraction-level. To address these challenges, we propose to bridge the image-sketch gap both at the high-level via parts and attributes, as well as at the low-level, via introducing a new domain alignment method. More specifically, (i) we contribute a dataset with 304 photos and 912 sketches, where each sketch and image is annotated with its semantic parts and associated part-level attributes. With the help of this dataset, we investigate (ii) how strongly-supervised deformable part-based models can be learned that subsequently enable automatic detection of part-level attributes, and provide pose-aligned sketch-image comparisons. To reduce the sketch-image gap when comparing low-level features, we also (iii) propose a novel method for instance-level domain-alignment, that exploits both subspace and instance-level cues to better align the domains. Finally (iv) these are combined in a matching framework integrating aligned low-level features, mid-level geometric structure and high-level semantic attributes. Extensive experiments conducted on our new dataset demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed method.

  6. Strength of Rocks Affected by Deformation Enhanced Grain Growth

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kellermann Slotemaker, A.; de Bresser, H.; Spiers, C.

    2005-12-01

    modeling package ELLE. Synthetic olivine samples that were heat treated without straining showed only minor grain growth. Presumably, the second phase (enstatite) and/or porosity remaining in the starting material after densification slowed down or inhibited SED-GBM in the static situation. In contrast, samples heat treated and deformed for time durations similar to those of the static tests demonstrated, at identical temperature, an increase in grain size with increasing strain up to a value twice that of the static counterpart. This grain coarsening was associated with continuous hardening of the material, witnessed by the stress-strain curves. A random lattice preferred orientation combined with a low stress sensitivity (n~2) suggested dominant GSS creep controlled by grain boundary sliding. A dynamic grain growth model involving an increase in the fraction of non-hexagonal grains, related to grain neighbor switching, appears applicable to the observed grain growth that is held responsible for the hardening. The ELLE numerical modeling demonstrated that a combination of SED-GBM and geometrical deformation of a 2D grain aggregate can indeed result in enhanced grain growth compared to static grain growth tests. The fraction of non-hexagonal grains was found to remain more or less constant during static grain growth but increased during deformation. We suggest that the application of the dynamic grain growth model to the long-term microstructural evolution of fine-grained lithospheric shear zones can further improve our understanding of the transient or permanent character of strain localizations and related rheological behavior.

  7. Mechanical and chemical compaction in fine-grained shallow-water limestones.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Shinn, E.A.; Robbin, D.M.

    1983-01-01

    Significant mechanical compaction resulted from pressures simulating less than 305 m of burial. Increasing loads to an equivalent of more than 3400 m did not significantly increase compaction or reduce sediment core length. Chemical compaction (pressure dissolution) was detected only in sediment cores compacted to pressures greater than 3400 m of burial. These short-term experiments suggest that chemical compaction would begin at much shallower depths given geologic time. Compaction experiments that caused chemical compaction lend support to the well-established hypothesis; that cement required to produce a low-porosity/low-permeability fine-grained limestone is derived internally. Dissolution, ion diffusion, and reprecipitation are considered the most likely processes for creating significant thicknesses of dense limestone in the geologic record. Continuation of chemical compaction after significant porosity reduction necessitates expulsion of connate fluids, possibly including hydrocarbons. -from Authors

  8. Coordination of Fractional Quantities: Cueing of Resources, Constraints, and Effect of Numeric Structure

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Ramful, Ajay; Nenduradu, Rajeev

    2013-01-01

    While previous work in the domain of proportional reasoning has primarily focused on the coordination of integer quantities, this study investigates how students coordinate fractional quantities. Fine-grained analysis of two seventh graders' responses to a set of systematically designed proportional tasks, shows how their knowledge of…

  9. Benzene and MTBE Sorption in Fine Grain Sediments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Leal-Bautista, R. M.; Lenczewski, M. E.

    2003-12-01

    The practice of adding methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) to gasoline started in the late 1970s and increased dramatically in the 1990s. MTBE first was added as a substitute for tetra-ethyl lead then later as a fuel oxygenate. Although the use of MTBE has resulted in significant reduction in air pollution, it has become a significant groundwater contaminant due to its high solubility in water, high environmental mobility, and low potential for biodegradation. A recent report (1999-2001) by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in collaboration with United State Geological Survey and the Oregon Health and Science University found that MTBE was the second most frequent detected volatile organic compound in groundwater. In Illinois, MTBE has been found in 26 of the 1,800 public water supplies. MTBE has also been blended in Mexico into two types of gasoline sold in the country by the state oil company (PEMEX) but is not monitored in groundwater at this time. Early research on MTBE considered it unable to adsorb to soils and sediments, however, by increasing the organic matter and decreasing the size of the grains (silts or clays) this may increase sorption. The objective of this study is to determine if fine grained materials have the potential for sorption of MTBE due to its high specific surface area (10-700 m 2/g) and potentially high organic matter (0.5-3.8%). The experiment consisted of sorption isotherms to glacial tills from DeKalb, Illinois and lacustrine clays from Chalco, Mexico. Experiments were performed with various concentrations of MTBE and benzene (10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 ug/L) at 10° C and 25° C. Results showed a range of values for the distribution coefficient (Kd, linear model). At 10° C the Kd value for MTBE was 0.187 mL/g for lacustrine clay while the glacial loess had a value of 0.009 mL/g. The highest Kd values with MTBE were 0.2859 mL/g for organic rich lacustrine clays and 0.014 mL/g for glacial loess at 25° C. The highest

  10. Fine-grained suspended sediment source identification for the Kharaa River basin, northern Mongolia

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rode, Michael; Theuring, Philipp; Collins, Adrian L.

    2015-04-01

    Fine sediment inputs into river systems can be a major source of nutrients and heavy metals and have a strong impact on the water quality and ecosystem functions of rivers and lakes, including those in semiarid regions. However, little is known to date about the spatial distribution of sediment sources in most large scale river basins in Central Asia. Accordingly, a sediment source fingerprinting technique was used to assess the spatial sources of fine-grained (<10 microns) sediment in the 15 000 km2 Kharaa River basin in northern Mongolia. Five field sampling campaigns in late summer 2009, and spring and late summer in both 2010 and 2011, were conducted directly after high water flows, to collect an overall total of 900 sediment samples. The work used a statistical approach for sediment source discrimination with geochemical composite fingerprints based on a new Genetic Algorithm (GA)-driven Discriminant Function Analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis H-test and Principal Component Analysis. The composite fingerprints were subsequently used for numerical mass balance modelling with uncertainty analysis. The contributions of the individual sub-catchment spatial sediment sources varied from 6.4% (the headwater sub-catchment of Sugnugur Gol) to 36.2% (the Kharaa II sub-catchment in the middle reaches of the study basin) with the pattern generally showing higher contributions from the sub-catchments in the middle, rather than the upstream, portions of the study area. The importance of riverbank erosion was shown to increase from upstream to midstream tributaries. The source tracing procedure provides results in reasonable accordance with previous findings in the study region and demonstrates the general applicability and associated uncertainties of an approach for fine-grained sediment source investigation in large scale semi-arid catchments. The combined application of source fingerprinting and catchment modelling approaches can be used to assess whether tracing estimates are

  11. Coarse-grained Mineral Dust Deposition in Alpine Lake Sediments: Implications for Regional Drought Patterns and Land-use Changes in the Southwest USA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pedraza, A.; Kingsley, C.; Marchitto, T. M., Jr.; Lora, J. M.; Pollen, A.; Vollmer, T.; Leithold, E. L.; Mitchell, J.; Tripati, A. K.; Bhattacharya, A.

    2017-12-01

    Mineral dust accumulation is often causally associated with aridity. However, the relation might not be as straightforward. Consideration of grain sizes and geochemical fingerprinting of the coarse grain fraction will clearly have an impact on how we interpret the sedimentary record of mineral dust in depositional environments e.g. coarse grain fractions of mineral dust would most certainly be transported over relatively short distances and as such in depositional environments, the depositional rate of coarse grains must be determined in order to reliably understand erosional patterns associated with meteorological events (such as frequency of intense wind events such as tornadoes), climatological phenomenon (such as regional droughts) as well as more recently land-use changes. In this study we separate the two size fractions of mineral dust accumulation- fine fraction (typically <4 microns) and coarse fraction (typically >25 microns using grain size analysis from well-studied cores collected from several lake sites distributed across the western southwestern and the Great Plain regions; furthermore we use trace element analysis in each size fraction to identify contributing source regions. We find evidence that the coarser-grain size fraction in the studied lake cores could be of regional origin (and not just local in orgin);. the coarser fraction also appears to be related to intense meteorological events (i.e., the occurrence of cyclones). Analysis is underway to understand the impact of land-use changes on coarse grain fraction

  12. Simulating Hydrologic Flow and Reactive Transport with PFLOTRAN and PETSc on Emerging Fine-Grained Parallel Computer Architectures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mills, R. T.; Rupp, K.; Smith, B. F.; Brown, J.; Knepley, M.; Zhang, H.; Adams, M.; Hammond, G. E.

    2017-12-01

    As the high-performance computing community pushes towards the exascale horizon, power and heat considerations have driven the increasing importance and prevalence of fine-grained parallelism in new computer architectures. High-performance computing centers have become increasingly reliant on GPGPU accelerators and "manycore" processors such as the Intel Xeon Phi line, and 512-bit SIMD registers have even been introduced in the latest generation of Intel's mainstream Xeon server processors. The high degree of fine-grained parallelism and more complicated memory hierarchy considerations of such "manycore" processors present several challenges to existing scientific software. Here, we consider how the massively parallel, open-source hydrologic flow and reactive transport code PFLOTRAN - and the underlying Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc) library on which it is built - can best take advantage of such architectures. We will discuss some key features of these novel architectures and our code optimizations and algorithmic developments targeted at them, and present experiences drawn from working with a wide range of PFLOTRAN benchmark problems on these architectures.

  13. Age, Gender, and Fine-Grained Ethnicity Prediction using Convolutional Neural Networks for the East Asian Face Dataset

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

    Srinivas, Nisha; Rose, Derek C; Bolme, David S

    This paper examines the difficulty associated with performing machine-based automatic demographic prediction on a sub-population of Asian faces. We introduce the Wild East Asian Face dataset (WEAFD), a new and unique dataset to the research community. This dataset consists primarily of labeled face images of individuals from East Asian countries, including Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia. East Asian turk annotators were uniquely used to judge the age and fine grain ethnicity attributes to reduce the impact of the other race effect and improve quality of annotations. We focus on predicting age, gender and fine-grained ethnicity ofmore » an individual by providing baseline results with a convolutional neural network (CNN). Finegrained ethnicity prediction refers to predicting ethnicity of an individual by country or sub-region (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.) of the East Asian continent. Performance for two CNN architectures is presented, highlighting the difficulty of these tasks and showcasing potential design considerations that ease network optimization by promoting region based feature extraction.« less

  14. Only pick the right grains: Modelling the bias due to subjective grain-size interval selection for chronometric and fingerprinting approaches.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dietze, Michael; Fuchs, Margret; Kreutzer, Sebastian

    2016-04-01

    Many modern approaches of radiometric dating or geochemical fingerprinting rely on sampling sedimentary deposits. A key assumption of most concepts is that the extracted grain-size fraction of the sampled sediment adequately represents the actual process to be dated or the source area to be fingerprinted. However, these assumptions are not always well constrained. Rather, they have to align with arbitrary, method-determined size intervals, such as "coarse grain" or "fine grain" with partly even different definitions. Such arbitrary intervals violate principal process-based concepts of sediment transport and can thus introduce significant bias to the analysis outcome (i.e., a deviation of the measured from the true value). We present a flexible numerical framework (numOlum) for the statistical programming language R that allows quantifying the bias due to any given analysis size interval for different types of sediment deposits. This framework is applied to synthetic samples from the realms of luminescence dating and geochemical fingerprinting, i.e. a virtual reworked loess section. We show independent validation data from artificially dosed and subsequently mixed grain-size proportions and we present a statistical approach (end-member modelling analysis, EMMA) that allows accounting for the effect of measuring the compound dosimetric history or geochemical composition of a sample. EMMA separates polymodal grain-size distributions into the underlying transport process-related distributions and their contribution to each sample. These underlying distributions can then be used to adjust grain-size preparation intervals to minimise the incorporation of "undesired" grain-size fractions.

  15. Effects of coarse grain size distribution and fine particle content on pore fluid pressure and shear behavior in experimental debris flows

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kaitna, Roland; Palucis, Marisa C.; Yohannes, Bereket; Hill, Kimberly M.; Dietrich, William E.

    2016-02-01

    Debris flows are typically a saturated mixture of poorly sorted particles and interstitial fluid, whose density and flow properties depend strongly on the presence of suspended fine sediment. Recent research suggests that grain size distribution (GSD) influences excess pore pressures (i.e., pressure in excess of predicted hydrostatic pressure), which in turn plays a governing role in debris flow behaviors. We report a series of controlled laboratory experiments in a 4 m diameter vertically rotating drum where the coarse particle size distribution and the content of fine particles were varied independently. We measured basal pore fluid pressures, pore fluid pressure profiles (using novel sensor probes), velocity profiles, and longitudinal profiles of the flow height. Excess pore fluid pressure was significant for mixtures with high fines fraction. Such flows exhibited lower values for their bulk flow resistance (as measured by surface slope of the flow), had damped fluctuations of normalized fluid pressure and normal stress, and had velocity profiles where the shear was concentrated at the base of the flow. These effects were most pronounced in flows with a wide coarse GSD distribution. Sustained excess fluid pressure occurred during flow and after cessation of motion. Various mechanisms may cause dilation and contraction of the flows, and we propose that the sustained excess fluid pressures during flow and once the flow has stopped may arise from hindered particle settling and yield strength of the fluid, resulting in transfer of particle weight to the fluid. Thus, debris flow behavior may be strongly influenced by sustained excess fluid pressures controlled by particle settling rates.

  16. Explanation of Europa's Unusual Polarization Properties: The Regolith is Sub-micron, Fine-Grained, High Porosity Material

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nelson, R. M.; Boryta, M. D.; Hapke, B. W.; Manatt, K. S.; Nebedum, A.; Kroner, D. O.; Shkuratov, Y.; Psarev, V.; Vanderoort, K.; Smythe, W. D.

    2015-12-01

    For several decades, unusual reflectance and polarization phase curves have been reported on Europa by experienced ground based astronomers (Rosenbush et al., 1997, 2015). The observed reflectance phase curve is consistent with the phase curves reported in the laboratory in fine grained particulate media (Nelson et al., 2000, 2002, Shkuratov et al., 2002). Shkuratov et al. (2002) also measured polarization properties of fine grained media showing that they relate to the coherent backscatter enhancement phenomenon and are consistent with the astronomical data. We have reconfigured a goniometric photopolarimeter (GPP) (Nelson et al., 2000, 2002) to measure in the laboratory the polarization phase curves of highly reflective particulate materials that simulate the Europa's predominately water ice regolith. We apply the Helmholtz Reciprocity Principle - we present our samples with linearly polarized light and measure the change in the intensity of the reflected component with phase angle from 0.05 to 15 degrees. This is physically equivalent to the astronomical polarization measurements. We report here the polarization phase curves for a suite of high albedo particulates of size 0.1fine grained and with very high porosity, perhaps with void space exceeding 90%. If a reflectance phase curve and a polarization phase curve of solar system object can be obtained (even at a very small range of phase angles), it will soon be possible to determine (or at least constrain) important regolith properties. Future missions to the Jovian

  17. Fine mapping and identification of a novel locus qGL12.2 control grain length in wild rice (Oryza rufipogon Griff.).

    PubMed

    Qi, Lan; Ding, Yingbin; Zheng, Xiaoming; Xu, Rui; Zhang, Lizhen; Wang, Yanyan; Wang, Xiaoning; Zhang, Lifang; Cheng, Yunlian; Qiao, Weihua; Yang, Qingwen

    2018-04-19

    A wild rice QTL qGL12.2 for grain length was fine mapped to an 82-kb interval in chromosome 12 containing six candidate genes and none was reported previously. Grain length is an important trait for yield and commercial value in rice. Wild rice seeds have a very slender shape and have many desirable genes that have been lost in cultivated rice during domestication. In this study, we identified a quantitative trait locus, qGL12.2, which controls grain length in wild rice. First, a wild rice chromosome segment substitution line, CSSL41, was selected that has longer glume and grains than does the Oryza sativa indica cultivar, 9311. Next, an F 2 population was constructed from a cross between CSSL41 and 9311. Using the next-generation sequencing combined with bulked-segregant analysis and F 3 recombinants analysis, qGL12.2 was finally fine mapped to an 82-kb interval in chromosome 12. Six candidate genes were found, and no reported grain length genes were found in this interval. Using scanning electron microscopy, we found that CSSL41 cells are significantly longer than those of 9311, but there is no difference in cell widths. These data suggest that qGL12.2 is a novel gene that controls grain cell length in wild rice. Our study provides a new genetic resource for rice breeding and a starting point for functional characterization of the wild rice GL gene.

  18. Microstructure, Chemistry, and Origin of Grain Rims on ilmenite from the Lunar Soil Finest Fraction

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Christoffersen, Roy; Keller, Lindsay P.; McKay, David S.

    1996-01-01

    Analytical transmission electron microscope (TEM) observations reveal that ilmenite grains sampled from the sub-10 micron size fraction of Apollo 11 (10084) and Apollo 16 (61221, 67701) soils have rims 10-300 nm thick that are chemically and microstructurally distinct from the host ilmenite. The rims have a thin outer sublayer 10-50 nm thick that contains the ilmenite-incompatible elements Si, Al, Ca and S. This overlies a relatively thicker (50-250 nm) inner sublayer of nanocrystalline Ti-oxide precipitates in a matrix of single-crystal ilmenite that is structurally continuous with the underlying host grain. Microstructural information, as well as data from x-ray spectrometry (EDS) and electron energy loss spectrometry (EELS) analysis of the inner sublayer, suggest that both the inner and outer sublayer assemblages are reduced and that the inner layer is depleted in Fe relative to the underlying ilmenite. The chemistry of the outer sublayer suggests that it is a surface deposit of sputtered or impact-vaporized components from the bulk lunar soil. The inner sublayer is part of the original host grain that has been physically and chemically processed, but not amorphized, by solar ion irradiation and possibly some subsolidus heating. The fact that the deposited outer sublayer is consistently much thinner than the radiation-altered inner sublayer indicates that only a minor fraction of the total rim volume is a product of vapor or sputter deposition. This finding is in contrast to recent descriptions of thick deposited layers on one-third of regolith silicate grains and indicates that ilmenite and silicate rims as a group are different in the fraction of deposited material that they contain.

  19. Fine grained recognition of masonry walls for built heritage assessment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Oses, N.; Dornaika, F.; Moujahid, A.

    2015-01-01

    This paper presents the ground work carried out to achieve automatic fine grained recognition of stone masonry. This is a necessary first step in the development of the analysis tool. The built heritage that will be assessed consists of stone masonry constructions and many of the features analysed can be characterized according to the geometry and arrangement of the stones. Much of the assessment is carried out through visual inspection. Thus, we apply image processing on digital images of the elements under inspection. The main contribution of the paper is the performance evaluation of the automatic categorization of masonry walls from a set of extracted straight line segments. The element chosen to perform this evaluation is the stone arrangement of masonry walls. The validity of the proposed framework is assessed on real images of masonry walls using machine learning paradigms. These include classifiers as well as automatic feature selection.

  20. The thermal decomposition of fine-grained micrometeorites, observations from mid-IR spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suttle, Martin David; Genge, Matthew J.; Folco, Luigi; Russell, Sara S.

    2017-06-01

    We analysed 44 fine-grained and scoriaceous micrometeorites. A bulk mid-IR spectrum (8-13 μm) for each grain was collected and the entire micrometeorite population classified into 5 spectral groups, based on the positions of their absorption bands. Corresponding carbonaceous Raman spectra, textural observations from SEM-BSE and bulk geochemical data via EMPA were collected to aid in the interpretation of mid-IR spectra. The 5 spectral groups identified correspond to progressive thermal decomposition. Unheated hydrated chondritic matrix, composed predominantly of phyllosilicates, exhibit smooth, asymmetric spectra with a peak at ∼10 μm. Thermal decomposition of sheet silicates evolves through dehydration, dehydroxylation, annealing and finally by the onset of partial melting. Both CI-like and CM-like micrometeorites are shown to pass through the same decomposition stages and produce similar mid-IR spectra. Using known temperature thresholds for each decomposition stage it is possible to assign a peak temperature range to a given micrometeorite. Since the temperature thresholds for decomposition reactions are defined by the phyllosilicate species and the cation composition and that these variables are markedly different between CM and CI classes, atmospheric entry should bias the dust flux to favour the survival of CI-like grains, whilst preferentially melting most CM-like dust. However, this hypothesis is inconsistent with empirical observations and instead requires that the source ratio of CI:CM dust is heavily skewed in favour of CM material. In addition, a small population of anomalous grains are identified whose carbonaceous and petrographic characteristics suggest in-space heating and dehydroxylation have occurred. These grains may therefore represent regolith micrometeorites derived from the surface of C-type asteroids. Since the spectroscopic signatures of dehydroxylates are distinctive, i.e. characterised by a reflectance peak at 9.0-9.5 μm, and since

  1. A Hybrid Scheme for Fine-Grained Search and Access Authorization in Fog Computing Environment

    PubMed Central

    Xiao, Min; Zhou, Jing; Liu, Xuejiao; Jiang, Mingda

    2017-01-01

    In the fog computing environment, the encrypted sensitive data may be transferred to multiple fog nodes on the edge of a network for low latency; thus, fog nodes need to implement a search over encrypted data as a cloud server. Since the fog nodes tend to provide service for IoT applications often running on resource-constrained end devices, it is necessary to design lightweight solutions. At present, there is little research on this issue. In this paper, we propose a fine-grained owner-forced data search and access authorization scheme spanning user-fog-cloud for resource constrained end users. Compared to existing schemes only supporting either index encryption with search ability or data encryption with fine-grained access control ability, the proposed hybrid scheme supports both abilities simultaneously, and index ciphertext and data ciphertext are constructed based on a single ciphertext-policy attribute based encryption (CP-ABE) primitive and share the same key pair, thus the data access efficiency is significantly improved and the cost of key management is greatly reduced. Moreover, in the proposed scheme, the resource constrained end devices are allowed to rapidly assemble ciphertexts online and securely outsource most of decryption task to fog nodes, and mediated encryption mechanism is also adopted to achieve instantaneous user revocation instead of re-encrypting ciphertexts with many copies in many fog nodes. The security and the performance analysis show that our scheme is suitable for a fog computing environment. PMID:28629131

  2. A Hybrid Scheme for Fine-Grained Search and Access Authorization in Fog Computing Environment.

    PubMed

    Xiao, Min; Zhou, Jing; Liu, Xuejiao; Jiang, Mingda

    2017-06-17

    In the fog computing environment, the encrypted sensitive data may be transferred to multiple fog nodes on the edge of a network for low latency; thus, fog nodes need to implement a search over encrypted data as a cloud server. Since the fog nodes tend to provide service for IoT applications often running on resource-constrained end devices, it is necessary to design lightweight solutions. At present, there is little research on this issue. In this paper, we propose a fine-grained owner-forced data search and access authorization scheme spanning user-fog-cloud for resource constrained end users. Compared to existing schemes only supporting either index encryption with search ability or data encryption with fine-grained access control ability, the proposed hybrid scheme supports both abilities simultaneously, and index ciphertext and data ciphertext are constructed based on a single ciphertext-policy attribute based encryption (CP-ABE) primitive and share the same key pair, thus the data access efficiency is significantly improved and the cost of key management is greatly reduced. Moreover, in the proposed scheme, the resource constrained end devices are allowed to rapidly assemble ciphertexts online and securely outsource most of decryption task to fog nodes, and mediated encryption mechanism is also adopted to achieve instantaneous user revocation instead of re-encrypting ciphertexts with many copies in many fog nodes. The security and the performance analysis show that our scheme is suitable for a fog computing environment.

  3. Usage of Crushed Concrete Fines in Decorative Concrete

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pilipenko, Anton; Bazhenova, Sofia

    2017-10-01

    The article is devoted to the questions of usage of crushed concrete fines from concrete scrap for the production of high-quality decorative composite materials based on mixed binder. The main problem in the application of crushed concrete in the manufacture of decorative concrete products is extremely low decorative properties of crushed concrete fines itself, as well as concrete products based on them. However, crushed concrete fines could have a positive impact on the structure of the concrete matrix and could improve the environmental and economic characteristics of the concrete products. Dust fraction of crushed concrete fines contains non-hydrated cement grains, which can be opened in screening process due to the low strength of the contact zone between the hydrated and non-hydrated cement. In addition, the screening process could increase activity of the crushed concrete fines, so it can be used as a fine aggregate and filler for concrete mixes. Previous studies have shown that the effect of the usage of the crushed concrete fines is small and does not allow to obtain concrete products with high strength. However, it is possible to improve the efficiency of the crushed concrete fines as a filler due to the complex of measures prior to mixing. Such measures may include a preliminary mechanochemical activation of the binder (cement binder, iron oxide pigment, silica fume and crushed concrete fines), as well as the usage of polycarboxylate superplasticizers. The development of specific surface area of activated crushed concrete fines ensures strong adhesion between grains of binder and filler during the formation of cement stone matrix. The particle size distribution of the crushed concrete fines could achieve the densest structure of cement stone matrix and improve its resistance to environmental effects. The authors examined the mechanisms of structure of concrete products with crushed concrete fines as a filler. The results of studies of the properties of

  4. A Bi-Modal Distribution of ALHA77307 Matrix Olivine: Evidence for Fine-Grained Mixing from Multiple Reservoirs in the CO Formation Zone

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Frank, D.; Zolensky, Michael E.; Brearley, A.; Le, L.

    2011-01-01

    The CO 3.0 chondrite ALHA77307 is thought to be the least metamorphosed of all the CO chondrites [1]. As such, the fine-grained (<30 m) olivine found in its matrix is a valuable resource for investigating the CO formation environment since its compositions should be primary. In the CO matrix, we indeed find a wide range of major element compositions (Fa(0.5-71)). However, more importantly, we find that the olivines make up two compositionally distinct populations (Fa(0.5-5) and Fa(21-71)). Grains from both populations are found within an extremely close proximity and we see no obvious evidence of two distinct lithologies within our samples. Therefore, we conclude that the olivine grains found in the ALHA77307 matrix must have crystallized within two unique formation conditions and were later mixed at a very fine scale during the accretion epoch. Here, we propose a possible explanation based on Cr and Mn concentrations in the olivine.

  5. The clay mineral and Sr-Nd isotopic composition for fine-grained fraction of sediments from northwestern South China Sea: implications for sediment provenance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cai, G.

    2013-12-01

    *Guanqiang Cai caiguanqiang@sina.com Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, Guangzhou, 510760, P.R. China As the largest marginal sea in the western pacific, the South China Sea (SCS) receives large amount of terrigenous material annually through numerous rivers from surrounding continents and islands, which make it as the good place for the study of source to sink process. Yet few studies put emphasis on the northwestern continental shelf and slope in the SCS, even though most of the detrital materials derived from the Red River and Hainan Island are deposited in this area, and northwestern shelf plays a significant role in directly linking the South China, the Indochina and the South China Sea and thus controlling the source to sink process of terrestrial sediment. We presented the clay mineral and Sr-Nd isotopic composition of fine-grained fraction for sediments from northwestern SCS, in order to identify sediment source and transportation. The results show that the clay mineral of northwestern SCS sediments are mainly illite (30%~59%), smectite (20%~40%) and kaolinite (8%~35%), with minor chlorite. The illite chemical index varies between 0.19 and 0.75 with an average of 0.49, indicating an intensive hydrolysis in the source region. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios of sediments range from 0.716288 to 0.734416 (average of 0.724659), and ɛ Nd(0) values range from -10.31 to -11.62 (average of -10.93), which suggest that the source rocks of these sediments are derived from continental crust. The Hainan Island is an important source for sediments deposited in the nearshore and western shelf, especially for illite, kaolinite and smectite clay minerals. Furthermore, the relatively high contents of kaolinite and smectite in sediments from eastern shelf and southern slope of Hainan Island are also controlled by the supply of terrigenous materials from Hainan, which cannot be resulted from sedimentary differentiation of the Pearl and Red river sediments. And the correlation analysis

  6. Fines classification based on sensitivity to pore-fluid chemistry

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Jang, Junbong; Santamarina, J. Carlos

    2016-01-01

    The 75-μm particle size is used to discriminate between fine and coarse grains. Further analysis of fine grains is typically based on the plasticity chart. Whereas pore-fluid-chemistry-dependent soil response is a salient and distinguishing characteristic of fine grains, pore-fluid chemistry is not addressed in current classification systems. Liquid limits obtained with electrically contrasting pore fluids (deionized water, 2-M NaCl brine, and kerosene) are combined to define the soil “electrical sensitivity.” Liquid limit and electrical sensitivity can be effectively used to classify fine grains according to their fluid-soil response into no-, low-, intermediate-, or high-plasticity fine grains of low, intermediate, or high electrical sensitivity. The proposed methodology benefits from the accumulated experience with liquid limit in the field and addresses the needs of a broader range of geotechnical engineering problems.

  7. Kaempferol Identified by Zebrafish Assay and Fine Fractionations Strategy from Dysosma versipellis Inhibits Angiogenesis through VEGF and FGF Pathways.

    PubMed

    Liang, Fang; Han, Yuxiang; Gao, Hao; Xin, Shengchang; Chen, Shaodan; Wang, Nan; Qin, Wei; Zhong, Hanbing; Lin, Shuo; Yao, Xinsheng; Li, Song

    2015-10-08

    Natural products are a rich resource for the discovery of therapeutic substances. By directly using 504 fine fractions from isolated traditional Chinese medicine plants, we performed a transgenic zebrafish based screen for anti-angiogenesis substances. One fraction, DYVE-D3, was found to inhibit the growth of intersegmental vessels in the zebrafish vasculature. Bioassay-guided isolation of DYVE-D3 indicates that the flavonoid kaempferol was the active substance. Kaempferol also inhibited the proliferation and migration of HUVECs in vitro. Furthermore, we found that kaempferol suppressed angiogenesis through inhibiting VEGFR2 expression, which can be enhanced by FGF inhibition. In summary, this study shows that the construction of fine fraction libraries allows efficient identification of active substances from natural products.

  8. Kaempferol Identified by Zebrafish Assay and Fine Fractionations Strategy from Dysosma versipellis Inhibits Angiogenesis through VEGF and FGF Pathways

    PubMed Central

    Liang, Fang; Han, Yuxiang; Gao, Hao; Xin, Shengchang; Chen, Shaodan; Wang, Nan; Qin, Wei; Zhong, Hanbing; Lin, Shuo; Yao, Xinsheng; Li, Song

    2015-01-01

    Natural products are a rich resource for the discovery of therapeutic substances. By directly using 504 fine fractions from isolated traditional Chinese medicine plants, we performed a transgenic zebrafish based screen for anti-angiogenesis substances. One fraction, DYVE-D3, was found to inhibit the growth of intersegmental vessels in the zebrafish vasculature. Bioassay-guided isolation of DYVE-D3 indicates that the flavonoid kaempferol was the active substance. Kaempferol also inhibited the proliferation and migration of HUVECs in vitro. Furthermore, we found that kaempferol suppressed angiogenesis through inhibiting VEGFR2 expression, which can be enhanced by FGF inhibition. In summary, this study shows that the construction of fine fraction libraries allows efficient identification of active substances from natural products. PMID:26446489

  9. New Technology/Old Technology: Comparing Lunar Grain Size Distribution Data and Methods

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Fruland, R. M.; Cooper, Bonnie L.; Gonzalexz, C. P.; McKay, David S.

    2011-01-01

    Laser diffraction technology generates reproducible grain size distributions and reveals new structures not apparent in old sieve data. The comparison of specific sieve fractions with the Microtrac distribution curve generated for those specific fractions shows a reasonable match for the mean of each fraction between the two techniques, giving us confidence that the large existing body of sieve data can be cross-correlated with new data based on laser diffraction. It is well-suited for lunar soils, which have as much as 25% of the material in the less than 20 micrometer fraction. The fines in this range are of particular interest because they may contain a record of important space weathering processes.

  10. Fine-grained zirconium-base material

    DOEpatents

    Van Houten, G.R.

    1974-01-01

    A method is described for making zirconium with inhibited grain growth characteristics, by the process of vacuum melting the zirconium, adding 0.3 to 0.5% carbon, stirring, homogenizing, and cooling. (Official Gazette)

  11. Sorption of organic carbon compounds to the fine fraction of surface and Subsurface Soils

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

    Jagadamma, Sindhu; Mayes, Melanie; Zinn, Yuri

    2014-01-01

    Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) transported from the soil surface is stabilized in deeper soil profiles by physicochemical sorption processes. However, it is unclear how different forms of organic carbon (OC) compounds common in soil organic matter interact with soil minerals in the surface (A) and subsurface (B) horizons. We added four compounds (glucose, starch, cinnamic acid and stearic acid) to the silt- and clay-sized fraction (fine fraction) of A and B horizons of eight soils from varying climates (3 temperate, 3 tropical, 1 arctic and 1 sub-arctic). Equilibriumbatch experiments were conducted using 0 to 100 mg C L 1 ofmore » 14C-labeled compounds for 8 h. Sorption parameters (maximum sorption capacity, Qmax and binding coefficient, k) calculated by fitting sorption data to the Langmuir equation showed that Qmax of A and B horizons was very similar for all compounds. Both Qmax and k values were related to sorbate properties, with Qmax being lowest for glucose (20 500 mg kg 1), highest for stearic acid (20,000 200,000 mg kg 1), and intermediate for both cinnamic acid (200 4000 mg kg 1) and starch (400 6000 mg kg 1). Simple linear regression analysis revealed that physicochemical properties of the sorbents influenced the Qmax of cinnamic acid and stearic acid, but not glucose and starch. The sorbent properties did not show predictive ability for binding coefficient k. By using the fine fraction as sorbent, we found that the mineral fractions of A horizons are equally reactive as the B horizons irrespective of soil organic carbon content.« less

  12. Warm Temperature Deformation Behavior and Processing Maps of 5182 and 7075 Aluminum Alloy Sheets with Fine Grains

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jang, D. H.; Kim, W. J.

    2018-05-01

    The tensile deformation behavior and processing maps of commercial 5182 and 7075 aluminum alloy sheets with similarly fine grain sizes (about 8 μm) were examined and compared over the temperature range of 423-723 K. The 5182 aluminum alloy with equiaxed grains exhibited larger strain rate sensitivity exponent ( m) values than the 7075 aluminum alloy with elongated grains under most of the testing conditions. The fracture strain behaviors of the two alloys as a function of strain rate and temperature followed the trend in their m values. In the processing maps, the power dissipation parameter values of the 5182 aluminum alloy were larger than those of the 7075 aluminum alloy and the instability domains of the 5182 aluminum alloy were smaller compared to that of the 7075 aluminum alloy, implying that the 5182 aluminum alloy had a better hot workability than the 7075 aluminum alloy.

  13. Geochemistry of Fine-grained Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sageman, B. B.; Lyons, T. W.

    2003-12-01

    paleosalinity). Authors of a single chapter can hope, at best, to present a cursory glance at the many biogeochemical proxies currently used and under development in sedimentary studies. Our goal, instead, is to focus on a selected suite of tools of particular value in the reconstruction of paleo-environments preserved in fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks.Fine-grained, mixed siliciclastic-biogenic sedimentary facies - commonly termed hemipelagic (mainly calcareous or siliceous mudrocks containing preserved organic matter (OM)) - are ideal for unraveling the geological past and are thus the focus of this chapter. These strata accumulate in predominantly low-energy basinal environments where the magnitude (and frequency) of lacunae is diminished, resulting in relatively continuous, though generally condensed sequences. Fortunately, condensation tends to benefit geochemical analysis as it helps to amplify some subtle environmental signals. Because hemipelagic facies include contributions from both terrigenous detrital and pelagic biogenic systems, as well as from authigenic components reflecting the burial environment (Figure 1), they are rich archives of geochemical information. In this chapter we present a conceptual model linking the major processes of detrital, biogenic, and authigenic accumulation in fine-grained hemipelagic settings. This model is intended to be a fresh synthesis of decades of prior research on the geochemistry of modern and ancient mudrocks, including our own work.

  14. Quantitative analysis and reduction of the eco-toxicity risk of heavy metals for the fine fraction of automobile shredder residue (ASR) using H2O2.

    PubMed

    Singh, Jiwan; Yang, Jae-Kyu; Chang, Yoon-Young

    2016-02-01

    Automobile shredder residue (ASR) fraction (size <0.25mm) can be considered as hazardous due to presence of high concentrations of heavy metals. Hydrogen peroxide combined with nitric acid has been used for the recovery of heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe, Ni, Pb, Cd and Cr) from the fine fraction of ASR. A sequential extraction procedure has also been used to determine the heavy metal speciation in the fine fraction of ASR before and after treatment. A risk analysis of the fine fraction of ASR before and after treatment was conducted to assess the bioavailability and eco-toxicity of heavy metals. These results showed that the recovery of heavy metals from ASR increased with an increase in the hydrogen peroxide concentration. A high concentration of heavy metals was found to be present in Cbio fractions (the sum of the exchangeable and carbonate fractions) in the fine fraction of ASR, indicating high toxicity risk. The Cbio rate of all selected heavy metals was found to range from 8.6% to 33.4% of the total metal content in the fine fraction of ASR. After treatment, Cbio was reduced to 0.3-3.3% of total metal upon a treatment with 2.0% hydrogen peroxide. On the basis of the risk assessment code (RAC), the environmental risk values for heavy metals in the fine fraction of ASR reflect high risk/medium risk. However, after treatment, the heavy metals would be categorized as low risk/no risk. The present study concludes that hydrogen peroxide combined with nitric acid is a promising treatment for the recovery and reduction of the eco-toxicity risk of heavy metals in ASR. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Autonomous Information Unit for Fine-Grain Data Access Control and Information Protection in a Net-Centric System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chow, Edward T.; Woo, Simon S.; James, Mark; Paloulian, George K.

    2012-01-01

    As communication and networking technologies advance, networks will become highly complex and heterogeneous, interconnecting different network domains. There is a need to provide user authentication and data protection in order to further facilitate critical mission operations, especially in the tactical and mission-critical net-centric networking environment. The Autonomous Information Unit (AIU) technology was designed to provide the fine-grain data access and user control in a net-centric system-testing environment to meet these objectives. The AIU is a fundamental capability designed to enable fine-grain data access and user control in the cross-domain networking environments, where an AIU is composed of the mission data, metadata, and policy. An AIU provides a mechanism to establish trust among deployed AIUs based on recombining shared secrets, authentication and verify users with a username, X.509 certificate, enclave information, and classification level. AIU achieves data protection through (1) splitting data into multiple information pieces using the Shamir's secret sharing algorithm, (2) encrypting each individual information piece using military-grade AES-256 encryption, and (3) randomizing the position of the encrypted data based on the unbiased and memory efficient in-place Fisher-Yates shuffle method. Therefore, it becomes virtually impossible for attackers to compromise data since attackers need to obtain all distributed information as well as the encryption key and the random seeds to properly arrange the data. In addition, since policy can be associated with data in the AIU, different user access and data control strategies can be included. The AIU technology can greatly enhance information assurance and security management in the bandwidth-limited and ad hoc net-centric environments. In addition, AIU technology can be applicable to general complex network domains and applications where distributed user authentication and data protection are

  16. Dynamic Grain Growth in Forsterite Aggregates Experimentally Deformed to High Strain

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kellermann Slotemaker, A.; de Bresser, H.; Spiers, C.; Drury, M.

    2004-12-01

    creep, and we relate the continuous strain hardening to this process. A dynamic grain growth model involving an increase in cellular defect fraction seems best applicable to the grain growth observed in this study. We suggest that the employment of this model to fine-grained olivine rocks can further improve our understanding of the microstructural evolution of this material and related rheological behaviour.

  17. Vertical migration of fine-grained sediments from interior to surface of seabed driven by seepage flows-`sub-bottom sediment pump action'

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Shaotong; Jia, Yonggang; Wen, Mingzheng; Wang, Zhenhao; Zhang, Yaqi; Zhu, Chaoqi; Li, Bowen; Liu, Xiaolei

    2017-02-01

    A scientific hypothesis is proposed and preliminarily verified in this paper: under the driving of seepage flows, there might be a vertical migration of fine-grained soil particles from interior to surface of seabed, which is defined as `sub-bottom sediment pump action' in this paper. Field experiments were performed twice on the intertidal flat of the Yellow River delta to study this process via both trapping the pumped materials and recording the pore pressures in the substrate. Experimental results are quite interesting as we did observe yellow slurry which is mainly composed of fine-grained soil particles appearing on the seabed surface; seepage gradients were also detected in the intertidal flat, under the action of tides and small wind waves. Preliminary conclusions are that `sediment pump' occurs when seepage force exceeds a certain threshold: firstly, it is big enough to disconnect the soil particles from the soil skeleton; secondly, the degree of seabed fluidization or bioturbation is big enough to provide preferred paths for the detached materials to migrate upwards. Then they would be firstly pumped from interior to the surface of seabed and then easily re-suspended into overlying water column. Influential factors of `sediment pump' are determined as hydrodynamics (wave energy), degree of consolidation, index of bioturbation (permeability) and content of fine-grained materials (sedimentary age). This new perspective of `sediment pump' may provide some implications for the mechanism interpretation of several unclear geological phenomena in the Yellow River delta area.

  18. Chemical and nutritional characteristics of high-fibre rye milling fractions.

    PubMed

    Kołodziejczyk, Piotr; Makowska, Agnieszka; Pospieszna, Barbara; Michniewicz, Jan; Paschke, Hanna

    2018-01-01

    Many studies have demonstrated the potential health benefits of consuming more high-fibre cereal-based food products. Therefore, there is a need to discover new ways to improve the overall nutritional balance of refined cereal products and focus on increasing their dietary fibre content, at the expense of readily digestible carbohydrates. Lab-scale milling and sieving of whole rye grain was used to obtain two fractions rich in dietary fibre. The fractions were analysed and compared, in terms of microstructure, chemical com- position and nutritional quality. The two fractions significantly obtained differed in their particle size and contents of minerals, available saccharides, and nutritional fractions of starch and dietary fibre and its major components. The total dietary fibre concentrations in the coarse and fine fractions were 50.0 and 36.0 g/100 g, respectively, i.e. three and 2.2 times higher than that of wholegrain rye flour. Both fractions also differed in their relative proportions of major fibre components. In the fine fraction, the levels of soluble fibre, as well as soluble arabinoxylans and fructans, were significantly higher than those in the coarse fraction. It was shown that the application of a simple dry-fractionation method to wholemeal rye flour allows the preparation of two rye products which can serve as concentrated sources of dietary fibre low in available saccharides.

  19. Quantification of Fine-grained Sediment Concentration in the Aquatic Environment Using Optical and Acoustic Sensors: Insight from Lab Experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, K.; Champagne, B. N.

    2017-12-01

    The transport of sediment in the coastal zone and continental shelf is highly impacted by fluvial and oceanographic dynamics. In Louisiana, the Mississippi River delivers a bulk of water, sediment, and nutrients to the coast. However, coastal land loss highlights the importance of the sediment deposited at the mouth of the river. Sediment is the foundation to build land and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) tracks the delivery, deposition, and erosion of sediment. On a more applicable scale, variables such as SSC can be used to calculate sediment transport flux, an important parameter for projects such as sediment diversions and barrier island restoration. In order to rely on suspended sediment concentration (SSC) as continuous data, lab experiments are needed to establish the relationship between turbidity and SSC. Factors such as sensor type (optical or acoustic) and grain size (coarse or fine) can greatly impact the estimated SSC. In this study, fine-grained sediment was collected from multiple sites in coastal Louisiana and used to calibrate both optical backscatter (OBS) and acoustic backscatter (ABS) sensors to establish the relationship between sensor type and accuracy of the SSC estimation. Multiple grain-size analyses using a Laser Diffraction Particle Size Analyzer helped determine the effects of sensor accuracy regarding grain size. The results of these experiments were combined in order to establish the calibration curves of SSC. Our results indicated that the OBS-3A sensor's turbidity data were more correlated with the SSC than the OBS-5+'s data. Possible explanations for this could be due to differences between the instruments' measuring ranges and their sensitivity to various grain sizes. This technology development has a broad impact to the studies of sediment delivery, transport, and deposition in multiple types of coastal protection and restoration projects.

  20. Evaluation of Rock Powdering Methods to Obtain Fine-grained Samples for CHEMIN, a Combined XRD/XRF Instrument

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chipera, S. J.; Vaniman, D. T.; Bish, D. L.; Sarrazin, P.; Feldman, S.; Blake, D. F.; Bearman, G.; Bar-Cohen, Y.

    2004-01-01

    A miniature XRD/XRF (X-ray diffraction / X-ray fluorescence) instrument, CHEMIN, is currently being developed for definitive mineralogic analysis of soils and rocks on Mars. One of the technical issues that must be addressed to enable remote XRD analysis is how best to obtain a representative sample powder for analysis. For powder XRD analyses, it is beneficial to have a fine-grained sample to reduce preferred orientation effects and to provide a statistically significant number of crystallites to the X-ray beam. Although a two-dimensional detector as used in the CHEMIN instrument will produce good results even with poorly prepared powder, the quality of the data will improve and the time required for data collection will be reduced if the sample is fine-grained and randomly oriented. A variety of methods have been proposed for XRD sample preparation. Chipera et al. presented grain size distributions and XRD results from powders generated with an Ultrasonic/Sonic Driller/Corer (USDC) currently being developed at JPL. The USDC was shown to be an effective instrument for sampling rock to produce powder suitable for XRD. In this paper, we compare powder prepared using the USDC with powder obtained with a miniaturized rock crusher developed at JPL and with powder obtained with a rotary tungsten carbide bit to powders obtained from a laboratory bench-scale Retsch mill (provides benchmark mineralogical data). These comparisons will allow assessment of the suitability of these methods for analysis by an XRD/XRF instrument such as CHEMIN.

  1. Two-stage agglomeration of fine-grained herbal nettle waste

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Obidziński, Sławomir; Joka, Magdalena; Fijoł, Olga

    2017-10-01

    This paper compares the densification work necessary for the pressure agglomeration of fine-grained dusty nettle waste, with the densification work involved in two-stage agglomeration of the same material. In the first stage, the material was pre-densified through coating with a binder material in the form of a 5% potato starch solution, and then subjected to pressure agglomeration. A number of tests were conducted to determine the effect of the moisture content in the nettle waste (15, 18 and 21%), as well as the process temperature (50, 70, 90°C) on the values of densification work and the density of the obtained pellets. For pre-densified pellets from a mixture of nettle waste and a starch solution, the conducted tests determined the effect of pellet particle size (1, 2, and 3 mm) and the process temperature (50, 70, 90°C) on the same values. On the basis of the tests, we concluded that the introduction of a binder material and the use of two-stage agglomeration in nettle waste densification resulted in increased densification work (as compared to the densification of nettle waste alone) and increased pellet density.

  2. Fine-Grained Access Control for Electronic Health Record Systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hue, Pham Thi Bach; Wohlgemuth, Sven; Echizen, Isao; Thuy, Dong Thi Bich; Thuc, Nguyen Dinh

    There needs to be a strategy for securing the privacy of patients when exchanging health records between various entities over the Internet. Despite the fact that health care providers such as Google Health and Microsoft Corp.'s Health Vault comply with the U.S Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the privacy of patients is still at risk. Several encryption schemes and access control mechanisms have been suggested to protect the disclosure of a patient's health record especially from unauthorized entities. However, by implementing these approaches, data owners are not capable of controlling and protecting the disclosure of the individual sensitive attributes of their health records. This raises the need to adopt a secure mechanism to protect personal information against unauthorized disclosure. Therefore, we propose a new Fine-grained Access Control (FGAC) mechanism that is based on subkeys, which would allow a data owner to further control the access to his data at the column-level. We also propose a new mechanism to efficiently reduce the number of keys maintained by a data owner in cases when the users have different access privileges to different columns of the data being shared.

  3. H2 Ortho-to-para Conversion on Grains: A Route to Fast Deuterium Fractionation in Dense Cloud Cores?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bovino, S.; Grassi, T.; Schleicher, D. R. G.; Caselli, P.

    2017-11-01

    Deuterium fractionation, I.e., the enhancement of deuterated species with respect to non-deuterated ones, is considered to be a reliable chemical clock of star-forming regions. This process is strongly affected by the ortho-to-para H2 ratio. In this Letter we explore the effect of the ortho-para (o-p) H2 conversion on grains on the deuteration timescale in fully-depleted dense cores, including the most relevant uncertainties that affect this complex process. We show that (I) the o-p H2 conversion on grains is not strongly influenced by the uncertainties on the conversion time and the sticking coefficient, and (II) that the process is controlled by the temperature and the residence time of ortho-H2 on the surface, I.e., by the binding energy. We find that for binding energies between 330 and 550 K, depending on the temperature, the o-p H2 conversion on grains can shorten the deuterium fractionation timescale by orders of magnitude, opening a new route for explaining the large observed deuteration fraction D frac in dense molecular cloud cores. Our results suggest that the star formation timescale, when estimated through the timescale to reach the observed deuteration fractions, might be shorter than previously proposed. However, more accurate measurements of the binding energy are needed in order to better assess the overall role of this process.

  4. cuBLASTP: Fine-Grained Parallelization of Protein Sequence Search on CPU+GPU.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Jing; Wang, Hao; Feng, Wu-Chun

    2017-01-01

    BLAST, short for Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, is a ubiquitous tool used in the life sciences for pairwise sequence search. However, with the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS), whether at the outset or downstream from NGS, the exponential growth of sequence databases is outstripping our ability to analyze the data. While recent studies have utilized the graphics processing unit (GPU) to speedup the BLAST algorithm for searching protein sequences (i.e., BLASTP), these studies use coarse-grained parallelism, where one sequence alignment is mapped to only one thread. Such an approach does not efficiently utilize the capabilities of a GPU, particularly due to the irregularity of BLASTP in both execution paths and memory-access patterns. To address the above shortcomings, we present a fine-grained approach to parallelize BLASTP, where each individual phase of sequence search is mapped to many threads on a GPU. This approach, which we refer to as cuBLASTP, reorders data-access patterns and reduces divergent branches of the most time-consuming phases (i.e., hit detection and ungapped extension). In addition, cuBLASTP optimizes the remaining phases (i.e., gapped extension and alignment with trace back) on a multicore CPU and overlaps their execution with the phases running on the GPU.

  5. Grain boundary character distribution in nanocrystalline metals produced by different processing routes

    DOE PAGES

    Bober, David B.; Kumar, Mukal; Rupert, Timothy J.; ...

    2015-12-28

    Nanocrystalline materials are defined by their fine grain size, but details of the grain boundary character distribution should also be important. Grain boundary character distributions are reported for ball-milled, sputter-deposited, and electrodeposited Ni and Ni-based alloys, all with average grain sizes of ~20 nm, to study the influence of processing route. The two deposited materials had nearly identical grain boundary character distributions, both marked by a Σ3 length percentage of 23 to 25 pct. In contrast, the ball-milled material had only 3 pct Σ3-type grain boundaries and a large fraction of low-angle boundaries (16 pct), with the remainder being predominantlymore » random high angle (73 pct). Furthermore, these grain boundary character measurements are connected to the physical events that control their respective processing routes. Consequences for material properties are also discussed with a focus on nanocrystalline corrosion. As a whole, the results presented here show that grain boundary character distribution, which has often been overlooked in nanocrystalline metals, can vary significantly and influence material properties in profound ways.« less

  6. A Fine-Grained Pipelined Implementation for Large-Scale Matrix Inversion on FPGA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhou, Jie; Dou, Yong; Zhao, Jianxun; Xia, Fei; Lei, Yuanwu; Tang, Yuxing

    Large-scale matrix inversion play an important role in many applications. However to the best of our knowledge, there is no FPGA-based implementation. In this paper, we explore the possibility of accelerating large-scale matrix inversion on FPGA. To exploit the computational potential of FPGA, we introduce a fine-grained parallel algorithm for matrix inversion. A scalable linear array processing elements (PEs), which is the core component of the FPGA accelerator, is proposed to implement this algorithm. A total of 12 PEs can be integrated into an Altera StratixII EP2S130F1020C5 FPGA on our self-designed board. Experimental results show that a factor of 2.6 speedup and the maximum power-performance of 41 can be achieved compare to Pentium Dual CPU with double SSE threads.

  7. A Comprehensive Study of Pristine, Fine-grained, Spinel-rich Inclusions from the Leoville and Efremovka CV3 Chondrites. 1; Petrology

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    MacPherson, G. J.; Krot, A. N.; Ulyanov, A. A.; Hicks, T.

    2002-01-01

    Fine-grained spinel-rich CAI from Efremovka and Leoville lack the overprint of Na and Fe metasomatism seen in Allende. They contain spinel, pyroxene, anorthite, and melilite; most have a zoned structure with spinel-rich cores, melilite-rich mantles. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

  8. Surface modifications on toughened, fine-grained, recrystallized tungsten with repetitive ELM-like pulsed plasma irradiation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kikuchi, Y.; Sakuma, I.; Kitagawa, Y.; Asai, Y.; Onishi, K.; Fukumoto, N.; Nagata, M.; Ueda, Y.; Kurishita, H.

    2015-08-01

    Surface modifications of toughened, fine-grained, recrystallized tungsten (TFGR W) materials with 1.1 wt.% TiC and 3.3 wt.% TaC dispersoids due to repetitive ELM-like pulsed (∼0.15 ms) helium plasma irradiation have been investigated by using a magnetized coaxial plasma gun. No surface cracking at the center part of the TFGR W samples exposed to 20 plasma pulses of ∼0.3 MJ m-2 was observed. The suppression of surface crack formation due to the increase of the grain boundary strength by addition of TiC and TaC dispersoids was confirmed in comparison with a pure W material. On the other hand, surface cracks and small pits appeared at the edge part of the TFGR W sample after the pulsed plasma irradiation. Erosion of the TiC and TaC dispersoids due to the pulsed plasma irradiation could cause the small pits on the surface, resulting in the surface crack formation.

  9. Comparison Between Different Processing Schedules for the Development of Ultrafine-Grained Dual-Phase Steel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Karmakar, Anish; Sivaprasad, S.; Nath, S. K.; Misra, R. D. K.; Chakrabarti, Debalay

    2014-05-01

    A comparative study was carried out on the development of ultrafine-grained dual-phase (DP) (ferrite-martensite) structures in a low-carbon microalloyed steel processed using two thermomechanical processing routes, (i) intercritical deformation and (ii) warm-deformation and intercritical annealing. The samples were deformed using Gleeble3500® simulator, maintaining a constant total strain ( ɛ = 1) and strain rate ( = 1/s). Evolution of microstructure and micro-texture was investigated by SEM, TEM, and EBSD. Ultrafine-grained DP structures could be formed by careful selection of deformation temperature, T def (for intercritical deformation) or annealing temperature, T anneal (for warm-deformation and annealing). Overall, the ferrite grain sizes ranged from 1.5 to 4.0 μm, and the sizes and fractions of the uniformly distributed fine-martensitic islands ranged from 1.5 to 3.0 μm and 15 to 45 pct, respectively. Dynamic strain-induced austenite-to-ferrite transformation followed by continuous (dynamic) recrystallization of the ferrite dictated the grain refinement during intercritical deformation, while, continuous (static) recrystallization by pronounced recovery dictated the grain refinement during the warm-deformation and the annealing. Regarding intercritical deformation, the samples cooled to T def indicated finer grain size compared with the samples heated to T def, which are explained in terms of the effects of strain partitioning on the ferrite and the heating during deformation. Alpha-fiber components dominated the texture in all the samples, and the fraction of high-angle boundaries (with >15 deg misorientation) increased with the increasing T def or T anneal, depending on the processing schedule. Fine carbide particles, microalloyed precipitates and austenitic islands played important roles in defining the mechanism of grain refinement that involved retarding conventional ferrite recrystallization and ferrite grain growth. With regard to the intercritical

  10. Characterization of the fine fraction of the argon oxygen decarburization with lance (AOD-L) sludge generated by the stainless steelmaking industry.

    PubMed

    Majuste, Daniel; Mansur, Marcelo Borges

    2008-05-01

    The argon oxygen decarburization with lance (AOD-L) sludge generated by the stainless steelmaking industry is a hazardous waste due to the presence of chromium. While its coarse fraction is usually recycled into the own industrial process, the fine fraction is normally disposed in landfills. Techniques such as briquetting or magnetic separation were found to be inadequate to treat it for reuse purposes. So, in this work, the fine fraction of the AOD-L sludge was characterized aiming to find alternative methods to treat it. This sludge consists of a fine powder (mean diameter of 1 microm) containing 34 +/- 2% (w/w) of iron, 10.2 +/- 0.9% (w/w) of chromium and 1.4 +/- 0.1% (w/w) of nickel. The main crystalline phases identified in this study were chromite (FeCr(2)O(4)), magnetite (Fe(3)O(4)), hematite (Fe(2)O(3)) and calcite (CaCO(3)). In the digestion tests, the addition of HClO(4) has favored the dissolution of chromite which is a very stable oxide in aqueous media. Nickel was found in very fine particles, probably in the metallic form or associated with iron and oxygen. The sludge was classified as hazardous waste, so its disposal in landfills should be avoided.

  11. Detecting rare, abnormally large grains by x-ray diffraction

    DOE PAGES

    Boyce, Brad L.; Furnish, Timothy Allen; Padilla, H. A.; ...

    2015-07-16

    Bimodal grain structures are common in many alloys, arising from a number of different causes including incomplete recrystallization and abnormal grain growth. These bimodal grain structures have important technological implications, such as the well-known Goss texture which is now a cornerstone for electrical steels. Yet our ability to detect bimodal grain distributions is largely confined to brute force cross-sectional metallography. The present study presents a new method for rapid detection of unusually large grains embedded in a sea of much finer grains. Traditional X-ray diffraction-based grain size measurement techniques such as Scherrer, Williamson–Hall, or Warren–Averbach rely on peak breadth andmore » shape to extract information regarding the average crystallite size. However, these line broadening techniques are not well suited to identify a very small fraction of abnormally large grains. The present method utilizes statistically anomalous intensity spikes in the Bragg peak to identify regions where abnormally large grains are contributing to diffraction. This needle-in-a-haystack technique is demonstrated on a nanocrystalline Ni–Fe alloy which has undergone fatigue-induced abnormal grain growth. In this demonstration, the technique readily identifies a few large grains that occupy <0.00001 % of the interrogation volume. Finally, while the technique is demonstrated in the current study on nanocrystalline metal, it would likely apply to any bimodal polycrystal including ultrafine grained and fine microcrystalline materials with sufficiently distinct bimodal grain statistics.« less

  12. Thermal infrared spectral analysis of compacted fine-grained mineral mixtures: implications for spectral interpretation of lithified sedimentary materials on Mars

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pan, C.; Rogers, D.

    2012-12-01

    Characterizing the thermal infrared (TIR) spectral mixing behavior of compacted fine-grained mineral assemblages is necessary for facilitating quantitative mineralogy of sedimentary surfaces from spectral measurements. Previous researchers have demonstrated that TIR spectra from igneous and metamorphic rocks as well as coarse-grained (>63 micron) sand mixtures combine in proportion to their volume abundance. However, the spectral mixing behavior of compacted, fine-grained mineral mixtures that would be characteristic of sedimentary depositional environments has received little attention. Here we characterize the spectral properties of pressed pellet samples of <10 micron mineral mixtures to 1) assess linearity of spectral combinations, 2) determine whether there are consistent over- or under-estimations of different types of minerals in spectral models and 3) determine if model accuracy can be improved by including both fine- and coarse-grained end-members. Major primary and secondary minerals found on the Martian surface including feldspar, pyroxene, smectite, sulfate and carbonate were crushed with an agate mortar and pestle and centrifuged to obtain less than 10 micron size. Pure phases and mixtures of two, three and four components were made in varying proportions by volume. All of the samples were pressed into pellets at 15000PSI to minimize volume scattering. Thermal infrared spectra of pellets were measured in the Vibrational Spectroscopy Laboratory at Stony Brook University with a Thermo Fisher Nicolet 6700 Fourier transform infrared Michelson interferometer from ~225 to 2000 cm-1. Our preliminary results indicate that some pelletized samples have contributions from volume scattering, which leads to non-linear spectral combinations. It is not clear if the transparency features (which arise from multiple surface reflections of incident photons) are due to minor clinging fines on an otherwise specular pellet surface or to partially transmitted energy through

  13. Fluid distribution in grain boundaries of natural fine-grained rock salt deformed at low differential stress (Qom Kuh salt fountain, central Iran): Implications for rheology and transport properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Desbois, Guillaume; Urai, Janos L.; de Bresser, Johannes H. P.

    2012-10-01

    We used a combination of broad ion beam cross-sectioning and cryogenic SEM to image polished surfaces and corresponding pairs of fractured grain boundaries in an investigation of grain boundary microstructures and fluid distribution in naturally deformed halite from the Qom Kuh salt glacier (central Iran). At the scale of observations, four types of fluid-filled grain boundary can be distinguished by morphology (from straight to wavy), thickness (from 5000 to 50 nm) and the presence of fluid inclusions. The mobility of the brine is shown after cutting the inclusions by broad ion beam (BIB) in vacuum and fine-grained halite forms efflorescence and precipitates on internal walls of inclusions. At cryogenic temperature, grain boundary brine is shown either as continuous film or in isolated inclusions. The halite-halite grain boundary between isolated fluid inclusions is interpreted to have formed by fluid-assisted grain boundary healing. Preliminary experiments on the samples at shear stress conditions of natural salt glacier show very slow strain rates (7.4 × 10-10 s-1 and 1 × 10-9 s-1), which are less than expected for pressure solution creep. Both microstructures and deformation experiments suggest interfacial energy-driven grain boundary healing and therefore rendering inactive the pressure solution creep in our samples. This result disagrees with previous microstructural studies of the same sample, which showed microstructural evidence for pressure solution (and dislocation creep). Different explanations are discussed, which imply that both healing and reactivation of grain boundaries are important in salt glaciers, leading to heterogeneous distribution of deformation mechanisms and strain rates in both space and time.

  14. Large, high-intensity fire events in southern California shrublands: debunking the fine-grain age patch model.

    PubMed

    Keeley, Jon E; Zedler, Paul H

    2009-01-01

    We evaluate the fine-grain age patch model of fire regimes in southern California shrublands. Proponents contend that the historical condition was characterized by frequent small to moderate size, slow-moving smoldering fires, and that this regime has been disrupted by fire suppression activities that have caused unnatural fuel accumulation and anomalously large and catastrophic wildfires. A review of more than 100 19th-century newspaper reports reveals that large, high-intensity wildfires predate modern fire suppression policy, and extensive newspaper coverage plus first-hand accounts support the conclusion that the 1889 Santiago Canyon Fire was the largest fire in California history. Proponents of the fine-grain age patch model contend that even the very earliest 20th-century fires were the result of fire suppression disrupting natural fuel structure. We tested that hypothesis and found that, within the fire perimeters of two of the largest early fire events in 1919 and 1932, prior fire suppression activities were insufficient to have altered the natural fuel structure. Over the last 130 years there has been no significant change in the incidence of large fires greater than 10,000 ha, consistent with the conclusion that fire suppression activities are not the cause of these fire events. Eight megafires (> or = 50,000 ha) are recorded for the region, and half have occurred in the last five years. These burned through a mosaic of age classes, which raises doubts that accumulation of old age classes explains these events. Extreme drought is a plausible explanation for this recent rash of such events, and it is hypothesized that these are due to droughts that led to increased dead fine fuels that promoted the incidence of firebrands and spot fires. A major shortcoming of the fine-grain age patch model is that it requires age-dependent flammability of shrubland fuels, but seral stage chaparral is dominated by short-lived species that create a dense surface layer of

  15. Large, high-intensity fire events in Southern California shrublands: Debunking the fine-grain age patch model

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Keeley, J.E.; Zedler, P.H.

    2009-01-01

    We evaluate the fine-grain age patch model of fire regimes in southern California shrublands. Proponents contend that the historical condition was characterized by frequent small to moderate size, slow-moving smoldering fires, and that this regime has been disrupted by fire suppression activities that have caused unnatural fuel accumulation and anomalously large and catastrophic wildfires. A review of more than 100 19th-century newspaper reports reveals that large, high-intensity wildfires predate modern fire suppression policy, and extensive newspaper coverage plus first-hand accounts support the conclusion that the 1889 Santiago Canyon Fire was the largest fire in California history. Proponents of the fine-grain age patch model contend that even the very earliest 20th-century fires were the result of fire suppression disrupting natural fuel structure. We tested that hypothesis and found that, within the fire perimeters of two of the largest early fire events in 1919 and 1932, prior fire suppression activities were insufficient to have altered the natural fuel structure. Over the last 130 years there has been no significant change in the incidence of large fires greater than 10000 ha, consistent with the conclusion that fire suppression activities are not the cause of these fire events. Eight megafires (???50 000 ha) are recorded for the region, and half have occurred in the last five years. These burned through a mosaic of age classes, which raises doubts that accumulation of old age classes explains these events. Extreme drought is a plausible explanation for this recent rash of such events, and it is hypothesized that these are due to droughts that led to increased dead fine fuels that promoted the incidence of firebrands and spot fires. A major shortcoming of the fine-grain age patch model is that it requires age-dependent flammability of shrubland fuels, but seral stage chaparral is dominated by short-lived species that create a dense surface layer of fine

  16. Predictive coarse-graining

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schöberl, Markus; Zabaras, Nicholas; Koutsourelakis, Phaedon-Stelios

    2017-03-01

    We propose a data-driven, coarse-graining formulation in the context of equilibrium statistical mechanics. In contrast to existing techniques which are based on a fine-to-coarse map, we adopt the opposite strategy by prescribing a probabilistic coarse-to-fine map. This corresponds to a directed probabilistic model where the coarse variables play the role of latent generators of the fine scale (all-atom) data. From an information-theoretic perspective, the framework proposed provides an improvement upon the relative entropy method [1] and is capable of quantifying the uncertainty due to the information loss that unavoidably takes place during the coarse-graining process. Furthermore, it can be readily extended to a fully Bayesian model where various sources of uncertainties are reflected in the posterior of the model parameters. The latter can be used to produce not only point estimates of fine-scale reconstructions or macroscopic observables, but more importantly, predictive posterior distributions on these quantities. Predictive posterior distributions reflect the confidence of the model as a function of the amount of data and the level of coarse-graining. The issues of model complexity and model selection are seamlessly addressed by employing a hierarchical prior that favors the discovery of sparse solutions, revealing the most prominent features in the coarse-grained model. A flexible and parallelizable Monte Carlo - Expectation-Maximization (MC-EM) scheme is proposed for carrying out inference and learning tasks. A comparative assessment of the proposed methodology is presented for a lattice spin system and the SPC/E water model.

  17. Predictive coarse-graining

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

    Schöberl, Markus, E-mail: m.schoeberl@tum.de; Zabaras, Nicholas; Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, 365 Fitzpatrick Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556

    We propose a data-driven, coarse-graining formulation in the context of equilibrium statistical mechanics. In contrast to existing techniques which are based on a fine-to-coarse map, we adopt the opposite strategy by prescribing a probabilistic coarse-to-fine map. This corresponds to a directed probabilistic model where the coarse variables play the role of latent generators of the fine scale (all-atom) data. From an information-theoretic perspective, the framework proposed provides an improvement upon the relative entropy method and is capable of quantifying the uncertainty due to the information loss that unavoidably takes place during the coarse-graining process. Furthermore, it can be readily extendedmore » to a fully Bayesian model where various sources of uncertainties are reflected in the posterior of the model parameters. The latter can be used to produce not only point estimates of fine-scale reconstructions or macroscopic observables, but more importantly, predictive posterior distributions on these quantities. Predictive posterior distributions reflect the confidence of the model as a function of the amount of data and the level of coarse-graining. The issues of model complexity and model selection are seamlessly addressed by employing a hierarchical prior that favors the discovery of sparse solutions, revealing the most prominent features in the coarse-grained model. A flexible and parallelizable Monte Carlo – Expectation–Maximization (MC-EM) scheme is proposed for carrying out inference and learning tasks. A comparative assessment of the proposed methodology is presented for a lattice spin system and the SPC/E water model.« less

  18. Effect of Prior Austenite Grain Size on the Morphology of Nano-Bainitic Steels

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singh, Kritika; Kumar, Avanish; Singh, Aparna

    2018-04-01

    The strength in nanostructured bainitic steels primarily arises from the fine platelets of bainitic ferrite embedded in carbon-enriched austenite. However, the toughness is dictated by the shape and volume fraction of the retained austenite. Therefore, the exact determination of processing-morphology relationships is necessary to design stronger and tougher bainite. In the current study, the morphology of bainitic ferrite in Fe-0.89C-1.59Si-1.65Mn-0.37Mo-1Co-0.56Al-0.19Cr (wt pct) bainitic steel has been investigated as a function of the prior austenite grain size (AGS). Specimens were austenitized at different temperatures ranging from 900 °C to 1150 °C followed by isothermal transformation at 300 °C. Detailed microstructural characterization has been carried out using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The results showed that the bainitic laths transformed in coarse austenite grains are finer resulting in higher hardness, whereas smaller austenite grains lead to the formation of thicker bainitic laths with a large fraction of blocky type retained austenite resulting in lower hardness.

  19. Ultrasonic-assisted soldering of fine-grained 7034 aluminum alloy using Sn-Zn solders below 300°C.

    PubMed

    Guo, Weibing; Luan, Tianmin; He, Jingshan; Yan, Jiuchun

    2018-01-01

    The fine-grained Al alloys prefer to be soldered at as low as temperature to keep their mechanical properties. Solders of Sn-4Zn, Sn-9Zn, and Sn-20Zn alloys were used to solder fine-grained 7034 Al alloy pieces by ultrasonic-assisted soldering below 300°C in air. The joint using Sn-4Zn solder had the highest tensile strength of 201MPa and the fractures occurred in both β-Sn and Sn-Zn eutectic phases. Such joint was much stronger than the 1060 Al joint using Sn-4Zn solder, and its strength had approached the strength of 7034 Al joint using Zn-5Al solder. The strength of the joints using Sn-9Zn and Sn-20Zn solders dropped to∼160MPa due to the appearance of weak interfaces between η-Zn and eutectic phases in the bond layers. All the joints using Sn-Zn solders had very strong interfacial bonding, and alumina interlayers were identified at all the interfaces. Al dissolved in the bond layer reacted with the O rapidly to form alumina interlayers at the interfaces under the ultrasonic action. Zn segregated at the interface and formed strong bonds with both the Al terminated surface of alumina and the bond layer, resulting in strong interfacial bonding between Sn-Zn solders and Al alloys. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Thermomagnetic Stability in Pseudo Single Domain Grains

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nagy, Lesleis; Williams, Wyn; Muxworthy, Adrian; Fabian, Karl; Conbhuí, Pádraig Ó.

    2016-04-01

    The reliability of paleomagnetic remanences are well understood for fine grains of magnetite that are single-domain (SD, uniformly magnetized). In particular Néel's theory [1] outlined the thermal energies required to block and unblock magnetic remanences. This lead to determination of thermal stability for magnetization in fine grains as outlined in Pullaiah et. al. [2] and a comprehensive understanding of SD paleomagnetic recordings. It has been known for some time that single domain magnetite is possible only in the grain size range 30 - 80nm, which may only account for a small fraction of the grain size distribution in any rock sample. Indeed rocks are often dominated by grains in the pseudo single domain (PSD) size range, at approximately 80 - 1000nm. Toward the top end of this range multi-domain features begin to dominate. In order to determine thermomagnetic stability in PSD grains we need to identify the energy barriers between all possible pairs of local energy minima (LEM) domain states as a function of both temperature and grain size. We have attempted to do this using the nudged elastic band (NEB) method [3] which searches for minimum energy paths between any given pair of LEM states. Using this technique we have determined, for the first time, complete thermomagnetic stability curves for PSD magnetite. The work presented is at a preliminary stage. However it can be shown that PSD grains of magnetite with simple geometries (e.g. cubes or cuboctahedra) have very few low energy transition paths and the stability is likely to be similar to that observed for SD grains (as expected form experimental observations). The results will provide a basis for a much more rigorous understanding of the fidelity of paleomagnetic signals in assemblages of PSD grains and their ability to retain ancient recordings of the geomagnetic field. References: [1] Néel, Louis. "Théorie du traînage magnétique des ferromagnétiques en grains fins avec applications aux terres

  1. Excess Silica Substitution in Plagioclase Grains in the Pasamonte Eucrite

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mittlefehldt, D. W.; Le, L.; Berger, E. L.

    2017-01-01

    Pasamonte is a clast-rich polymict basaltic breccia with O- and Cr-isotopic compositions that are resolved from those of most eucrites. It is dominated by two mafic clast types: (i) very-fine- to fine-grained, variolitic, subophitic and ophitic basalts, usually containing zoned pyroxenes; and (ii) fine- to medium grained hypidiomorphic-granular and allotriomorphic-granular microgabbros containing pyroxenes composed of augite lamellae in homogeneous pigeonite hosts. Minor clast types are fine-grained impact-melt, mafic-breccia and mafic-granular clasts; coarse matrix mineral fragments include pyroxene, plagioclase, silica, ferroan olivine and ilmenite. Our petrologic studies include determination of plagioclase compositions for the two major clast types and matrix grains, which we report here.

  2. Ferrite grain refinement in low carbon Cu–P–Cr–Ni–Mo weathering steel at various temperatures in the (α + γ) region

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

    Zhang, Chunling, E-mail: zhangchl@ysu.edu.cn; School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401; Zhang, Mengmeng

    2016-03-15

    Self-designed Cu–P–Cr–Ni–Mo weathering steel was subjected to compression test to determine the mechanism of ferrite grain refinement from 750 °C to 925 °C. Optical microscopic images showed that ferrite grain size declined, whereas the ferrite volume fraction increased with increasing compression temperature. Electron backscatter diffraction patterns revealed that several low-angle boundaries shifted to high-angle boundaries, thereby generating fine ferrite grains surrounded by high-angle boundaries. Numerous low-angle boundaries were observed within ferrite grains at 750 °C, which indicated the existence of pre-eutectoid ferrite. Results showed that ferrite grain refinement could be due to continuous dynamic recrystallization at 750 °C and 775more » °C, and deformation-induced ferrite transformation could be the main mechanism at 800 °C and 850 °C. Fine equiaxed ferrite grains with size ranging from 1.77 μm to 2.69 μm were produced in the (α + γ) dual-phase region. - Graphical abstract: There is a close relationship between the microstructure evolution and flow curves during deformation. Fine equiaxed ferrite grains with size ranging from 1.77 μm to 2.69 μm were achieved in the (α + γ) dual-phase region. Ferrite grain refinement could be due to continuous dynamic recrystallization at 750 °C and 775 °C, and deformation-induced ferrite transformation at 800 °C and 850 °C. The occurrence of deformation-induced ferrite transformation and continuous dynamic recrystallization can be monitored by analysis of flow curves and microstructures. Deformation-induced ferrite transformation leads to the dynamic softening in flow curve when temperature just below A{sub r3}, while the dynamic softening in flow curve is ferrite continuous dynamic recrystallization (Special Fig. 5b). - Highlights: • Compression deformation was operated at temperatures from 750 °C to 925 °C at a strain rate of 0.1 s–1, and a strain of 1.2. • Fine equiaxed ferrite

  3. H{sub 2} Ortho-to-para Conversion on Grains: A Route to Fast Deuterium Fractionation in Dense Cloud Cores?

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

    Bovino, S.; Grassi, T.; Schleicher, D. R. G.

    Deuterium fractionation, i.e., the enhancement of deuterated species with respect to non-deuterated ones, is considered to be a reliable chemical clock of star-forming regions. This process is strongly affected by the ortho-to-para H{sub 2} ratio. In this Letter we explore the effect of the ortho–para (o–p) H{sub 2} conversion on grains on the deuteration timescale in fully-depleted dense cores, including the most relevant uncertainties that affect this complex process. We show that (i) the o–p H{sub 2} conversion on grains is not strongly influenced by the uncertainties on the conversion time and the sticking coefficient, and (ii) that the processmore » is controlled by the temperature and the residence time of ortho-H{sub 2} on the surface, i.e., by the binding energy. We find that for binding energies between 330 and 550 K, depending on the temperature, the o–p H{sub 2} conversion on grains can shorten the deuterium fractionation timescale by orders of magnitude, opening a new route for explaining the large observed deuteration fraction D {sub frac} in dense molecular cloud cores. Our results suggest that the star formation timescale, when estimated through the timescale to reach the observed deuteration fractions, might be shorter than previously proposed. However, more accurate measurements of the binding energy are needed in order to better assess the overall role of this process.« less

  4. Interactions of a lignin-rich fraction from brewer's spent grain with gut microbiota in vitro.

    PubMed

    Niemi, Piritta; Aura, Anna-Marja; Maukonen, Johanna; Smeds, Annika I; Mattila, Ismo; Niemelä, Klaus; Tamminen, Tarja; Faulds, Craig B; Buchert, Johanna; Poutanen, Kaisa

    2013-07-10

    Lignin is a constituent of plant cell walls and thus is classified as part of dietary fiber. However, little is known about the role of lignin in gastrointestinal fermentation. In this work, a lignin-rich fraction was prepared from brewer's spent grain and subjected to an in vitro colon model to study its potential bioconversions and interactions with fecal microbiota. No suppression of microbial conversion by the fraction was observed in the colon model, as measured as short-chain fatty acid production. Furthermore, no inhibition on the growth was observed when the fraction was incubated with strains of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria. In fact, the lignin-rich fraction enabled bifidobacteria to survive longer than with glucose. Several transiently appearing phenolic compounds, very likely originating from lignin, were observed during the fermentation. This would indicate that the gut microbiota was able to partially degrade lignin and metabolize the released compounds.

  5. Nano-Sized Grain Refinement Using Friction Stir Processing

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-03-01

    friction stir weld is a very fine grain microstructure produced as a result of dynamic recrystallization. The friction stir ... Friction Stir Processing, Magnesium, Nano-size grains Abstract A key characteristic of a friction stir weld is a very fine grain microstructure...state process developed on the basis of the friction stir welding (FSW) technique invented by The Welding Institute (TWI) in 1991 [2]. During

  6. The heavy metal partition in size-fractions of the fine particles in agricultural soils contaminated by waste water and smelter dust.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Haibo; Luo, Yongming; Makino, Tomoyuki; Wu, Longhua; Nanzyo, Masami

    2013-03-15

    The partitioning of pollutant in the size-fractions of fine particles is particularly important to its migration and bioavailability in soil environment. However, the impact of pollution sources on the partitioning was seldom addressed in the previous studies. In this study, the method of continuous flow ultra-centrifugation was developed to separate three size fractions (<1 μm, <0.6 μm and <0.2 μm) of the submicron particles from the soil polluted by wastewater and smelter dust respectively. The mineralogy and physicochemical properties of each size-fraction were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscope etc. Total content of the polluted metals and their chemical speciation were measured. A higher enrichment factor of the metals in the fractions of <1 μm or less were observed in the soil contaminated by wastewater than by smelter dust. The organic substance in the wastewater and calcite from lime application were assumed to play an important role in the metal accumulation in the fine particles of the wastewater polluted soil. While the metal accumulation in the fine particles of the smelter dust polluted soil is mainly associated with Mn oxides. Cadmium speciation in both soils is dominated by dilute acid soluble form and lead speciation in the smelter dust polluted soil is dominated by reducible form in all particles. This implied that the polluted soils might be a high risk to human health and ecosystem due to the high bioaccessibility of the metals as well as the mobility of the fine particles in soil. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Experimental study of the effect of grain sizes in a bimodal mixture on bed slope, bed texture, and the transition to washload

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hill, Kimberly M.; Gaffney, John; Baumgardner, Sarah; Wilcock, Peter; Paola, Chris

    2017-01-01

    When fine sediment is added to a coarse-grained system, the mobility and composition of the bed can change dramatically. We conducted a series of flume experiments to determine how the size of fine particles introduced to an active gravel bed influences the mobility and composition of the bed. We initiated our experiments using a constant water discharge and feed rate of gravel. After the system reached steady state, we doubled the feed rate by supplying a second sediment of equal or lesser size, creating size ratios from 1:1 to 1:150. As we decreased the relative size of the fine particles, the system transitioned among three regimes: (1) For particle size ratios close to one, the bed slope increased to transport the additional load of similar-sized particles. The bed surface remained planar and unchanged. (2) For intermediate particle size ratios, the bed slope decreased with the additional fines. The bed surface became patchy with regions of fine and coarse grains. (3) For the largest particle size ratios (the smallest fines), the bed slope remained relatively unchanged. The subsurface became clogged with fine sediment, but fine particles were not present in the surface layer. This third regime constitutes washload, defined by those fractions that do not affect bed-material transport conditions. Our results indicate washload should be defined in terms of three conditions: small grain size relative to that of the bed material, full suspension based on the Rouse number, and a small rate of fine sediment supply relative to transport capacity.

  8. A Fine Grain, High Mn Steel with Excellent Cryogenic Temperature Properties and Corresponding Constitutive Behaviour

    PubMed Central

    Wang, Yuhui; Shi, Baodong; He, Yanming; Zhang, Hongwang; Peng, Yan

    2018-01-01

    A Fe-34.5 wt % Mn-0.04 wt % C ultra-high Mn steel with a fully recrystallised fine-grained structure was produced by cold rolling and subsequent annealing. The steel exhibited excellent cryogenic temperature properties with enhanced work hardening rate, high tensile strength, and high uniform elongation. In order to capture the unique mechanical behaviour, a constitutive model within finite strain plasticity framework based on Hill-type yield function was established with standard Armstrong-Frederick type isotropic hardening. In particular, the evolution of isotropic hardening was determined by the content of martensite; thus, a relationship between model parameters and martensite content is built explicitly. PMID:29414840

  9. Bilinear Convolutional Neural Networks for Fine-grained Visual Recognition.

    PubMed

    Lin, Tsung-Yu; RoyChowdhury, Aruni; Maji, Subhransu

    2017-07-04

    We present a simple and effective architecture for fine-grained recognition called Bilinear Convolutional Neural Networks (B-CNNs). These networks represent an image as a pooled outer product of features derived from two CNNs and capture localized feature interactions in a translationally invariant manner. B-CNNs are related to orderless texture representations built on deep features but can be trained in an end-to-end manner. Our most accurate model obtains 84.1%, 79.4%, 84.5% and 91.3% per-image accuracy on the Caltech-UCSD birds [66], NABirds [63], FGVC aircraft [42], and Stanford cars [33] dataset respectively and runs at 30 frames-per-second on a NVIDIA Titan X GPU. We then present a systematic analysis of these networks and show that (1) the bilinear features are highly redundant and can be reduced by an order of magnitude in size without significant loss in accuracy, (2) are also effective for other image classification tasks such as texture and scene recognition, and (3) can be trained from scratch on the ImageNet dataset offering consistent improvements over the baseline architecture. Finally, we present visualizations of these models on various datasets using top activations of neural units and gradient-based inversion techniques. The source code for the complete system is available at http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/bcnn.

  10. Can Wet Rocky Granular Flows Become Debris Flows Due to Fine Sediment Production by Abrasion?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arabnia, O.; Sklar, L. S.; Bianchi, G.; Mclaughlin, M. K.

    2015-12-01

    Debris flows are rapid mass movements in which elevated pore pressures are sustained by a viscous fluid matrix with high concentrations of fine sediments. Debris flows may form from coarse-grained wet granular flows as fine sediments are entrained from hillslope and channel material. Here we investigate whether abrasion of the rocks within a granular flow can produce sufficient fine sediments to create debris flows. To test this hypothesis experimentally, we used a set of 4 rotating drums ranging from 0.2 to 4.0 m diameter. Each drum has vanes along the boundary ensure shearing within the flow. Shear rate was varied by changing drum rotational velocity to maintain a constant Froude Number across drums. Initial runs used angular clasts of granodiorite with a tensile strength of 7.6 MPa, with well-sorted coarse particle size distributions linearly scaled with drum radius. The fluid was initially clear water, which rapidly acquired fine-grained wear products. After each 250 m tangential distance, we measured the particle size distributions, and then returned all water and sediment to the drums for subsequent runs. We calculate particle wear rates using statistics of size and mass distributions, and by fitting the Sternberg equation to the rate of mass loss from the size fraction > 2mm. Abundant fine sediments were produced in the experiments, but very little change in the median grain size was detected. This appears to be due to clast rounding, as evidenced by a decrease in the number of stable equilibrium resting points. We find that the growth in the fine sediment concentration in the fluid scales with unit drum power. This relationship can be used to estimate fine sediment production rates in the field. We explore this approach at Inyo Creek, a steep catchment in the Sierra Nevada, California. There, a significant debris flow occurred in July 2013, which originated as a coarse-grained wet granular flow. We use surveys to estimate flow depth and velocity where super

  11. The aggregation efficiency of very fine volcanic ash

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Del Bello, E.; Taddeucci, J.; Scarlato, P.

    2013-12-01

    Explosive volcanic eruptions can discharge large amounts of very small sized pyroclasts (under 0.090 mm) into the atmosphere that may cause problems to people, infrastructures and environment. The transport and deposition of fine ash are ruled by aggregation that causes premature settling of fine ash and, as consequence, significantly reduces the concentration of airborne material over long distances. Parameterizing the aggregation potential of fine ash is then needed to provide accurate modelling of ash transport and deposition from volcanic plumes. Here we present the first results of laboratory experiments investigating the aggregation efficiency of very fine volcanic particles. Previous laboratory experiments have shown that collision kinetic and relative humidity provide the strongest effect on aggregation behaviour but were only limited to particles with size > 0.125 mm. In our work, we focus on natural volcanic ash at ambient humidity with particles size < 0.090 mm, by taking into account the effect of grain size distribution on aggregation potential. Two types of ash were used in our experiments: fresh ash, collected during fall-out from a recent plume-forming eruption at Sakurajima (Japan -July 2013) and old ash, collected from fall-out tephra deposits at Campi Flegrei (Italy, ca. 10 ka), to account for the different chemical composition and morphoscopic effects of altered ash on aggregation efficiency. Total samples were hand sieved to obtain three classes with unimodal grain size distributions (<0.090 mm, <0.063 mm, <0.032 mm). Bimodal grain size distributions were also obtained by mixing the three classes in different proportions. During each experiments, particles were sieved from the top of a transparent tank where a fan, placed at the bottom, allows turbulent dispersion of particles. Collision and sticking of particles on a vertical glass slide were filmed with a high speed cameras at 6000 fps. Our lenses arrangement provide high image resolution

  12. Variations in grain-scale sediment structure and entrainment force in a gravel-bed channel as a function of fine sediment content and morphological location

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Voepel, Hal; Ahmed, Sharif; Hodge, Rebecca; Leyland, Julian; Sear, David

    2017-04-01

    One of the major causes of uncertainty in estimates of bedload transport rates in gravel-bed rivers is a lack of understanding of grain-scale sediment structure, and the impact that this structure has on the force required to entrain sediment. There are at least two factors that standard entrainment models do not consider. The first is the way in which the spatial arrangement and orientation of grains and the resultant forces varies throughout a channel and over time, ways that have yet to be fully quantified. The second is that sediment entrainment is a 3D process, yet calculations of entrainment thresholds for sediment grains are typically based on 2D diagrams where we calculate static moments of force vectors about a pivot angle, represented as a single point rather than as a more realistic axis of rotation. Our research addresses these limitations by quantifying variations in 3D sediment structure and entrainment force requirements across two key parameters: morphological location within a riffle-pool sequence (reflecting variation in hydraulic conditions), and the fine sediment content of the gravel-bed (sand and clay). We report results from a series of flume experiments in which we water-worked a gravel-bed with a riffle-pool morphology containing varying amounts of fine sediment. After each experimental run intact samples of the bed at different locations were extracted and the internal structure of the bed was measured using non-destructive, micro-focus X-ray computed tomography (CT) imaging. The CT images were processed to measure the properties of individual grains, including volume, center of mass, dimension, and contact points. From these data we were able to quantify the sediment structure and entrainment force requirements through measurement of 3D metrics including grain pivot angles, grain exposure and protrusion. Comparison of the metrics across different morphological locations and fine sediment content demonstrates how these factors affect the

  13. Fine-grained policy control in U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) multimodal signatures database

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bennett, Kelly; Grueneberg, Keith; Wood, David; Calo, Seraphin

    2014-06-01

    The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Multimodal Signatures Database (MMSDB) consists of a number of colocated relational databases representing a collection of data from various sensors. Role-based access to this data is granted to external organizations such as DoD contractors and other government agencies through a client Web portal. In the current MMSDB system, access control is only at the database and firewall level. In order to offer finer grained security, changes to existing user profile schemas and authentication mechanisms are usually needed. In this paper, we describe a software middleware architecture and implementation that allows fine-grained access control to the MMSDB at a dataset, table, and row level. Result sets from MMSDB queries issued in the client portal are filtered with the use of a policy enforcement proxy, with minimal changes to the existing client software and database. Before resulting data is returned to the client, policies are evaluated to determine if the user or role is authorized to access the data. Policies can be authored to filter data at the row, table or column level of a result set. The system uses various technologies developed in the International Technology Alliance in Network and Information Science (ITA) for policy-controlled information sharing and dissemination1. Use of the Policy Management Library provides a mechanism for the management and evaluation of policies to support finer grained access to the data in the MMSDB system. The GaianDB is a policy-enabled, federated database that acts as a proxy between the client application and the MMSDB system.

  14. Elaboration of austenitic stainless steel samples with bimodal grain size distributions and investigation of their mechanical behavior

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Flipon, B.; de la Cruz, L. Garcia; Hug, E.; Keller, C.; Barbe, F.

    2017-10-01

    Samples of 316L austenitic stainless steel with bimodal grain size distributions are elaborated using two distinct routes. The first one is based on powder metallurgy using spark plasma sintering of two powders with different particle sizes. The second route applies the reverse-annealing method: it consists in inducing martensitic phase transformation by plastic strain and further annealing in order to obtain two austenitic grain populations with different sizes. Microstructural analy ses reveal that both methods are suitable to generate significative grain size contrast and to control this contrast according to the elaboration conditions. Mechanical properties under tension are then characterized for different grain size distributions. Crystal plasticity finite element modelling is further applied in a configuration of bimodal distribution to analyse the role played by coarse grains within a matrix of fine grains, considering not only their volume fraction but also their spatial arrangement.

  15. Experimental research on the behavior of the pneumatic transport of fine-grained iron

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Andrei, V.; Hritac, M.; Constantin, N.; Dobrescu, C.

    2017-01-01

    Mixed injection of fine-grained iron ore and pulverized coal in the furnace, involves determining the behavior of these materials during pneumatic transport in a dense state through the pipe and setting possibilities for adjusting the flow rate of material transported with the corresponding values of the process. Parameters of the pneumatic transport were determined for the main types of iron ore and chalk used in Arcelor Mittal Galati. Outside the intended purpose of injecting iron ore and flux, it was considered also the experimental check of the possibility for injecting ilmenite in the furnace for crucible protection purpose. The possibility of injecting cinder mill into the furnace was also considered. Injecting cinder could be taken into account for the recycling of ferrous waste in the furnace, also as additive for intensifying the combustion process around the tuyeres.

  16. Presolar silicates in the matrix and fine-grained rims around chondrules in primitive CO3.0 chondrites: Evidence for pre-accretionary aqueous alteration of the rims in the solar nebula

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Haenecour, Pierre; Floss, Christine; Zega, Thomas J.; Croat, Thomas K.; Wang, Alian; Jolliff, Bradley L.; Carpenter, Paul

    2018-01-01

    To investigate the origin of fine-grained rims around chondrules (FGRs), we compared presolar grain abundances, elemental compositions and mineralogies in fine-grained interstitial matrix material and individual FGRs in the primitive CO3.0 chondrites Allan Hills A77307, LaPaz Icefield 031117 and Dominion Range 08006. The observation of similar overall O-anomalous (∼155 ppm) and C-anomalous grain abundances (∼40 ppm) in all three CO3.0 chondrites suggests that they all accreted from a nebular reservoir with similar presolar grain abundances. The presence of presolar silicate grains in FGRs combined with the observation of similar estimated porosity between interstitial matrix regions and FGRs in LAP 031117 and ALHA77307, as well as the identification of a composite FGR (a small rimmed chondrule within a larger chondrule rim) in ALHA77307, all provide evidence for a formation of FGRs by accretion of dust grains onto freely-floating chondrules in the solar nebula before their aggregation into their parent body asteroids. Our study also shows systematically lower abundances of presolar silicate grains in the FGRs than in the matrix regions of CO3 chondrites, while the abundances of SiC grains are the same in all areas, within errors. This trend differs from CR2 chondrites in which the presolar silicate abundances are higher in the FGRs than in the matrix, but similar to each other within 2σ errors. This observation combined with the identification of localized (micrometer-scaled) aqueous alteration in a FGR of LAP 031117 suggests that the lower abundance of presolar silicates in FGRs reflects pre-accretionary aqueous alteration of the fine-grained material in the FGRs. This pre-accretionary alteration could be due to either hydration and heating of freely floating rimmed chondrules in icy regions of the solar nebula or melted water ice associated with 26Al-related heating inside precursor planetesimals, followed by aggregation of FGRs into the CO chondrite parent-body.

  17. Relative contribution of phytates, fibers, and tannins to low iron and zinc in vitro solubility in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) flour and grain fractions.

    PubMed

    Lestienne, Isabelle; Caporiccio, Bertrand; Besançon, Pierre; Rochette, Isabelle; Trèche, Serge

    2005-10-19

    In vitro digestions were performed on pearl millet flours with decreased phytate contents and on two dephytinized or nondephytinized pearl millet grain fractions, a decorticated fraction, and a bran fraction with low and high fiber and tannin contents, respectively. Insoluble residues of these digestions were then incubated with buffer or enzymatic solutions (xylanases and/or phytases), and the quantities of indigestible iron and zinc released by these different treatments were determined. In decorticated pearl millet grain, iron was chelated by phytates and by insoluble fibers, whereas zinc was almost exclusively chelated by phytates. In the bran of pearl millet grain, a high proportion of iron was chelated by iron-binding phenolic compounds, while the rest of iron as well as the majority of zinc were chelated in complexes between phytates and fibers. The low effect of phytase action on iron and zinc solubility of bran of pearl millet grain shows that, in the case of high fiber and tannin contents, the chelating effect of these compounds was higher than that of phytates.

  18. High-flux plasma exposure of ultra-fine grain tungsten

    DOE PAGES

    Kolasinski, R. D.; Buchenauer, D. A.; Doerner, R. P.; ...

    2016-05-12

    Here we examine the response of an ultra-fine grained (UFG) tungsten material to high-flux deuterium plasma exposure. UFG tungsten has received considerable interest as a possible plasma-facing material in magnetic confinement fusion devices, in large part because of its improved resistance to neutron damage. However, optimization of the material in this manner may lead to trade-offs in other properties. Moreover, we address two aspects of the problem in this work: (a) how high-flux plasmas modify the structure of the exposed surface, and (b) how hydrogen isotopes become trapped within the material. The specific UFG tungsten considered here contains 100 nm-widthmore » Ti dispersoids (1 wt%) that limit the growth of the W grains to a median size of 960 nm. Metal impurities (Fe, Cr) as well as O were identified within the dispersoids; these species were absent from the W matrix. To simulate relevant particle bombardment conditions, we exposed specimens of the W-Ti material to low energy (100 eV), high-flux (> 10 22 m -2 s -1) deuterium plasmas in the PISCES-A facility at the University of California, San Diego. To explore different temperature-dependent trapping mechanisms, we considered a range of exposure temperatures between 200 °C and 500 °C. For comparison, we also exposed reference specimens of conventional powder metallurgy warm-rolled and ITER-grade tungsten at 300 °C. Post-mortem focused ion beam profiling and atomic force microscopy of the UFG tungsten revealed no evidence of near-surface bubbles containing high pressure D2 gas, a common surface degradation mechanism associated with plasma exposure. Thermal desorption spectrometry indicated moderately higher trapping of D in the material compared with the reference specimens, though still within the spread of values for different tungsten grades found in the literature database. Finally, for the criteria considered here, these results do not indicate any significant obstacles to the potential use of

  19. The relationship between structure and magnetic properties in ultra-fine grained/nanostructured FePd alloys

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Okumura, Hideyuki

    In this study, the magnetic behavior including coercivity and the magnetic phase transition (ferromagnetic ↔ paramagnetic) and related phenomena were qualitatively and quantitatively investigated in ultra-fine grained/nanostructured FePd permanent magnet alloys, in relation to the microstructure and defect structure, and the results were compared with bulk FePd. Most of the alloy specimens investigated were in the form of epoxybonded magnets or isostatically-pressed pellets, formed from powders which were produced with high energy ball milling. Some results of thin films and ribbons produced with sputtering and melt-spinning, respectively, are also included in this thesis. Characterization of the materials was performed by using X-ray diffraction techniques with texture measurement, transmission electron microscopy with Lorentz microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with EDS analysis, optical microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry. X-ray line broadening analysis was utilized for the quantitative characterization of the nanoscale microstructure, and it was found that the Cauchy-Gaussian profile assumption best describes the broadening data. Enhanced coercivities ˜10 times those of the bulk FePd obtained using conventional heat treatments were explained as the result of statistical (stochastic) unpinning of interaction domain walls out of the potential well at the grain boundary, and there is also an additional effect ascribed to an increase of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, which is mainly due to the metastable c/a ratio of the nanostructured ordered phase and possibly to stress anisotropy. At the same time, there is also a decrease of the coercivity for smaller grain sizes because of the "magnetically soft" grain boundary phase. A semi-quantitative theoretical model is proposed, which includes the effect of exchange coupling between the ordered grains. The so-called Kronmuller analysis based on the wall pinning model was self-consistent, supporting

  20. Tidal rhythmites infine-grained Carboniferous limestones, U.S.A.

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Archer, A.W.; Feldman, H.R.

    1994-01-01

    Analyses of fine-grained limestones reveals that many exhibit fine-scale laminations. Laminations can be normally graded and consist of a coarser-grained lower part and a finer-grained upper part. The upper part can also contain finely disseminated organic material. Despite the similarities of such graded laminae to yearly varves and turbidites, it can be demonstrated by use of laminae-thickness periodicities that some graded laminae are reasonably interpreted as the product of tidal processes. Within siliciclastic systems, modern analogues of such processes are available for comparisons. In fine-grained facies of the Salem Limestone (Visean; Indiana, U.S.A.), periodicities observed within sequential-laminae thicknesses indicate a dominant control by neap-spring tidal processes. Similarly, laminae within limestones of the vertebrate-bearing Hamilton paleochannel (Stephanian; Kansas, U.S.) exhibit similar features, including fine-scale tidal bundles. This limestone is noted for the abundance of articulated fish fossils. Carbonates containing articulated fish from the Wild Cow Formation (Stephanian; New Mexico, U.S.), exhibit diffuse laminations; however, closely associated siliciclastic mudstones contain laminae that exhibit tidal periodicities. There are many similarities between tidal periodicities and patterns of lamination thicknesses of these rocks. A tidal interpretation for these rocks allows for localized, very rapid rates of deposition. Such rapid deposition may, in part, help to explain how articulated fish and other vertebrates can become preserved within such fine-grained limestones. ?? 1994.

  1. XRD-based 40Ar/39Ar age correction for fine-grained illite, with application to folded carbonates in the Monterrey Salient (northern Mexico)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fitz-Díaz, Elisa; Hall, Chris M.; van der Pluijm, Ben A.

    2016-05-01

    Due to their minute size, 40Ar/39Ar analysis of illite faces significant analytical challenges, including mineral characterization and, especially, effects of grain size and crystallography on 39Ar recoil. Quantifying the effects of 39Ar recoil requires the use of sample vacuum encapsulation during irradiation, which permits the measurement of the fraction of recoiled 39Ar as well as the 39Ar and 40Ar∗ retained within illite crystals that are released during step heating. Total-Gas Ages (TGA) are calculated by using both recoiled and retained argon, which is functionally equivalent to K-Ar ages, while Retention Ages (RA) only involve retained Ar in the crystal. Natural applications have shown that TGA fits stratigraphic constraints of geological processes when the average illite crystallite thickness (ICT) is smaller than 10 nm, and that RA matches these constraints for ICTs larger than 50 nm. We propose a new age correction method that takes into account the average ICT and corresponding recoiled 39Ar for a sample, with X-ray Corrected Ages (XCA) lying between Total-Gas and Retention Ages depending on ICT. This correction is particularly useful in samples containing authigenic illite formed in the anchizone, with typical ICT values between 10 and 50 nm. In three samples containing authigenic illite from Cretaceous carbonates in the Monterrey Salient in northern Mexico, there is a range in TGAs among the different size-fractions of 46-49, 36-43 and 40-52 Ma, while RAs range from 54-64, 47-52 and 53-54 Ma, respectively. XCA calculations produce tighter age ranges for these samples of 52.5-56, 45.5-48.5 and 49-52.5 Ma, respectively. In an apparent age vs ICT or %2M 1illite plot, authigenic illite grains show a slope that is in general slightly positive for TGA, slightly negative for RA, but close to zero for XCA, with thinner crystallites showing more dispersion than thicker ones. In order to test if dispersion is due to a different formation history or the result

  2. Modelling the fine and coarse fraction of heavy metals in Spain

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    García Vivanco, Marta; González, M. Angeles

    2014-05-01

    Heavy metals, such as cadmium, lead, nickel, arsenic, copper, chrome, zinc and selenium, are present in the air due to natural and anthropogenic emissions, normally joined to particles. These metals can affect life organisms via inhalation or ingestion, causing damages in human health and ecosystems. Small particles are inhaled and embebed in lungs and alveolus more easily than coarse particles. The CHIMERE model is a eulerian air quality model extensively used in air quality modelling. Metals have been recently included in this model in a special version developed in the CIEMAT (Madrid, Spain) modelling group. Vivanco et al. (2011) and González et al. (2012) showed the model performance for some metals in Spain and Europe. However, in these studies, metals were considered as fine particles. Some studies based on observed heavy metals air concentration indicate the presence of metals also in the coarse fraction, in special for Cu and Zn. For this reason, a new attempt of modelling metals considering a fine (<2.5 micrometres) and coarse (2.5-10 micrometres) fraction has been done. Measurements of metal concentration in PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 recorded in Spain (Fernández-Camacho et al., 2012; Querol et al., 2008) were used to obtain the new metal particle distribution size. Results and the evaluation of the model performance at some minoring sites in Spain is presented. References: - Vivanco, M. G., M.A: González, I. Palomino, J. L. Garrido, X. Querol, B. Bessagnet, J.de la Rosa, A.M. Sánchez de la Campa, 2011. Modelling Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium and Nickel Ambient Air Concentrations in Spain, 2011. Proceedings of the 11 th International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications (ICCSA 11) 243-246 - González, Ma Vivanco, Marta; Palomino, Inmaculada; Garrido, Juan; Santiago, Manuel; Bessagnet, Bertrand Modelling Some Heavy Metals Air Concentration in Europe. // Water, Air & Soil Pollution;Sep2012, Vol. 223 Issue 8, p5227

  3. Storage media pipelining: Making good use of fine-grained media

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Vanmeter, Rodney

    1993-01-01

    This paper proposes a new high-performance paradigm for accessing removable media such as tapes and especially magneto-optical disks. In high-performance computing the striping of data across multiple devices is a common means of improving data transfer rates. Striping has been used very successfully for fixed magnetic disks improving overall system reliability as well as throughput. It has also been proposed as a solution for providing improved bandwidth for tape and magneto-optical subsystems. However, striping of removable media has shortcomings, particularly in the areas of latency to data and restricted system configurations, and is suitable primarily for very large I/Os. We propose that for fine-grained media, an alternative access method, media pipelining, may be used to provide high bandwidth for large requests while retaining the flexibility to support concurrent small requests and different system configurations. Its principal drawback is high buffering requirements in the host computer or file server. This paper discusses the possible organization of such a system including the hardware conditions under which it may be effective, and the flexibility of configuration. Its expected performance is discussed under varying workloads including large single I/O's and numerous smaller ones. Finally, a specific system incorporating a high-transfer-rate magneto-optical disk drive and autochanger is discussed.

  4. Multiple age components in individual molybdenite grains

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Aleinikoff, John N.; Creaser, Robert A.; Lowers, Heather; Magee, Charles W.; Grauch, Richard I.

    2012-01-01

    Re–Os geochronology of fractions composed of unsized, coarse, and fine molybdenite from a pod of unusual monazite–xenotime gneiss within a granulite facies paragneiss, Hudson Highlands, NY, yielded dates of 950.5 ± 2.5, 953.8 ± 2.6, and 941.2 ± 2.6 Ma, respectively. These dates are not recorded by co-existing zircon, monazite, or xenotime. SEM–BSE imagery of thin sections and separated grains reveals that most molybdenite grains are composed of core and rim plates that are approximately perpendicular. Rim material invaded cores, forming irregular contacts, probably reflecting dissolution/reprecipitation. EPMA and LA-ICP-MS analyses show that cores and rims have different trace element concentrations (for example, cores are relatively enriched in W). On the basis of inclusions of zircon with metamorphic overgrowths, we conclude that molybdenite cores and rims formed after high-grade regional metamorphism. The discovery of cores and rims in individual molybdenite grains is analogous to multi-component U-Pb geochronometers such as zircon, monazite, and titanite; thus, molybdenite should be carefully examined before dating to ensure that the requirement of age homogeneity is fulfilled.

  5. The performance of fine-grained and coarse-grained elastic network models and its dependence on various factors.

    PubMed

    Na, Hyuntae; Song, Guang

    2015-07-01

    In a recent work we developed a method for deriving accurate simplified models that capture the essentials of conventional all-atom NMA and identified two best simplified models: ssNMA and eANM, both of which have a significantly higher correlation with NMA in mean square fluctuation calculations than existing elastic network models such as ANM and ANMr2, a variant of ANM that uses the inverse of the squared separation distances as spring constants. Here, we examine closely how the performance of these elastic network models depends on various factors, namely, the presence of hydrogen atoms in the model, the quality of input structures, and the effect of crystal packing. The study reveals the strengths and limitations of these models. Our results indicate that ssNMA and eANM are the best fine-grained elastic network models but their performance is sensitive to the quality of input structures. When the quality of input structures is poor, ANMr2 is a good alternative for computing mean-square fluctuations while ANM model is a good alternative for obtaining normal modes. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. Study of a Fine Grained Threaded Framework Design

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jones, C. D.

    2012-12-01

    Traditionally, HEP experiments exploit the multiple cores in a CPU by having each core process one event. However, future PC designs are expected to use CPUs which double the number of processing cores at the same rate as the cost of memory falls by a factor of two. This effectively means the amount of memory per processing core will remain constant. This is a major challenge for LHC processing frameworks since the LHC is expected to deliver more complex events (e.g. greater pileup events) in the coming years while the LHC experiment's frameworks are already memory constrained. Therefore in the not so distant future we may need to be able to efficiently use multiple cores to process one event. In this presentation we will discuss a design for an HEP processing framework which can allow very fine grained parallelization within one event as well as supporting processing multiple events simultaneously while minimizing the memory footprint of the job. The design is built around the libdispatch framework created by Apple Inc. (a port for Linux is available) whose central concept is the use of task queues. This design also accommodates the reality that not all code will be thread safe and therefore allows one to easily mark modules or sub parts of modules as being thread unsafe. In addition, the design efficiently handles the requirement that events in one run must all be processed before starting to process events from a different run. After explaining the design we will provide measurements from simulating different processing scenarios where the processing times used for the simulation are drawn from processing times measured from actual CMS event processing.

  7. Grain refinement control in TIG arc welding

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Iceland, W. F.; Whiffen, E. L. (Inventor)

    1975-01-01

    A method for controlling grain size and weld puddle agitation in a tungsten electrode inert gas welding system to produce fine, even grain size and distribution is disclosed. In the method the frequency of dc welding voltage pulses supplied to the welding electrode is varied over a preselected frequency range and the arc gas voltage is monitored. At some frequency in the preselected range the arc gas voltage will pass through a maximum. By maintaining the operating frequency of the system at this value, maximum weld puddle agitation and fine grain structure are produced.

  8. Concentrations and Distribution of Slag-Related Trace Elements and Mercury in Fine-Grained Beach and Bed Sediments of Lake Roosevelt, Washington, April-May 2001

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Majewski, Michael S.; Kahle, Sue C.; Ebbert, James C.; Josberger, Edward G.

    2003-01-01

    A series of studies have documented elevated concentrations of trace elements such as arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, and zinc in the water, bed sediment, or fish of Lake Roosevelt and the upstream reach of the Columbia River. Elevated concentrations of some trace elements in this region are largely attributable to the transport of slag and metallurgical waste discharged into the Columbia River from a smelter in Canada. Although most recent studies have focused on contamination levels in water, bed sediment, and fish, there is growing concern in the region over the potential threat of airborne contaminants to human health. In response to these concerns, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted an assessment of trace-element concentrations in the relatively shallow fine-grained sediment along the shore of Lake Roosevelt that is exposed annually during periods of reservoir drawdown. During each winter and spring, the water level of Lake Roosevelt is lowered as much as about 80 feet to provide space to capture high river flows from spring runoff, exposing vast expanses of lake-bottom sediment for a period of several months. Upon drying, these exposed areas provide an extremely large source for wind-blown dust. This study concluded that trace elements associated with slag and metallurgical waste are present in the fine-grained fraction (less than 63 micrometers) of bed sediments along the length of Lake Roosevelt, and as such, could be components of the airborne dust resulting from exposure, drying, and wind mobilization of the sediments exposed during the annual drawdowns of the reservoir. Trace-element concentrations in the surficial bed sediment varied, but the major components in slag?arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc?showed generally pronounced gradients of decreasing concentrations from near the International Border to the Grand Coulee Dam. The results of this study provide base-line information needed to plan and conduct air monitoring of trace

  9. A multi-scale homogenization model for fine-grained porous viscoplastic polycrystals: I - Finite-strain theory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, Dawei; Ponte Castañeda, P.

    2018-06-01

    We make use of the recently developed iterated second-order homogenization method to obtain finite-strain constitutive models for the macroscopic response of porous polycrystals consisting of large pores randomly distributed in a fine-grained polycrystalline matrix. The porous polycrystal is modeled as a three-scale composite, where the grains are described by single-crystal viscoplasticity and the pores are assumed to be large compared to the grain size. The method makes use of a linear comparison composite (LCC) with the same substructure as the actual nonlinear composite, but whose local properties are chosen optimally via a suitably designed variational statement. In turn, the effective properties of the resulting three-scale LCC are determined by means of a sequential homogenization procedure, utilizing the self-consistent estimates for the effective behavior of the polycrystalline matrix, and the Willis estimates for the effective behavior of the porous composite. The iterated homogenization procedure allows for a more accurate characterization of the properties of the matrix by means of a finer "discretization" of the properties of the LCC to obtain improved estimates, especially at low porosities, high nonlinearties and high triaxialities. In addition, consistent homogenization estimates for the average strain rate and spin fields in the pores and grains are used to develop evolution laws for the substructural variables, including the porosity, pore shape and orientation, as well as the "crystallographic" and "morphological" textures of the underlying matrix. In Part II of this work has appeared in Song and Ponte Castañeda (2018b), the model will be used to generate estimates for both the instantaneous effective response and the evolution of the microstructure for porous FCC and HCP polycrystals under various loading conditions.

  10. Modeling the Formation of Hydrate-Filled Veins in Fine-Grained Sediments from in Situ Microbial Methane

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Malinverno, A.; Cook, A.; Daigle, H.

    2016-12-01

    Continental margin sediments are dominantly fine-grained silt and clay, and methane hydrates in these sediments are often found in semi-vertical veins and fractures. In several instances, these hydrate veins occupy discrete depth intervals that are a few tens of meters thick and are surrounded by hydrate-free sediments. As they are not connected with gas sources beneath the base of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ), these isolated hydrate-bearing intervals have been interpreted as formed by in situ microbial methane. To investigate the formation of these hydrate deposits, we applied a time-dependent advection-diffusion-reaction model that includes the effects of sedimentation, compaction, solute diffusion, and microbial methane generation. Microbial methane generation depends on the amount of metabolizable organic carbon deposited at the seafloor, whose progressive degradation produces methane beneath the sulfate reduction zone. If the amount of organic carbon entering the methanogenic zone is kept constant in time, we found that the computed amounts of hydrate formed in discrete intervals within the GHSZ are well below those estimated from observations. On the other hand, if the deposition of organic carbon is higher in a given time interval, methane generation during burial is more intense in the corresponding sediment interval, resulting in enhanced hydrate formation. With variations in organic carbon deposition comparable to those generally observed in continental margins, our model was able to reproduce the methane hydrate contents that were estimated from drilling. These results support the suggestion that in situ microbial generation associated with transient organic carbon deposition is the source of methane that forms isolated intervals of hydrate-filled veins in fine-grained sediments.

  11. Modeling the Formation of Hydrate-Filled Veins in Fine-Grained Sediments from in Situ Microbial Methane

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

    Malinverno, Alberto; Cook, Ann; Daigle, Hugh

    Continental margin sediments are dominantly fine-grained silt and clay, and methane hydrates in these sediments are often found in semi-vertical veins and fractures. In several instances, these hydrate veins occupy discrete depth intervals that are a few tens of meters thick and are surrounded by hydrate-free sediments. As they are not connected with gas sources beneath the base of the gas hydrate stability zone (GHSZ), these isolated hydrate-bearing intervals have been interpreted as formed by in situ microbial methane. To investigate the formation of these hydrate deposits, we applied a time-dependent advection-diffusion-reaction model that includes the effects of sedimentation, compaction,more » solute diffusion, and microbial methane generation. Microbial methane generation depends on the amount of metabolizable organic carbon deposited at the seafloor, whose progressive degradation produces methane beneath the sulfate reduction zone. If the amount of organic carbon entering the methanogenic zone is kept constant in time, we found that the computed amounts of hydrate formed in discrete intervals within the GHSZ are well below those estimated from observations. On the other hand, if the deposition of organic carbon is higher in a given time interval, methane generation during burial is more intense in the corresponding sediment interval, resulting in enhanced hydrate formation. With variations in organic carbon deposition comparable to those generally observed in continental margins, our model was able to reproduce the methane hydrate contents that were estimated from drilling. These results support the suggestion that in situ microbial generation associated with transient organic carbon deposition is the source of methane that forms isolated intervals of hydrate-filled veins in fine-grained sediments.« less

  12. More Evidence of the Importance of Amorphous Silicates in CM Carbonaceous Chondrites: New Observations from a Fine-Grained Rim in the CM2 Chondrite, TIL 91722

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brearley, A. J.; Le Guillou, C.

    2015-07-01

    A fine-grained rim in TIL 91722 contains abundant amorphous silicate material containing nanophase sulfides. Phyllosilicates are rare. The amorphous material has a high ferric iron content indicative of oxidation coupled with hydration.

  13. Effect of 0.1 wt.% Co on the Hot Deformation and Toughness of Fine-Grained Low-Carbon Steel at Sub-zero Temperatures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Xiqin; Zhou, Shuangshuang; Liu, Zili; Hou, Zhiguo; Tian, Qingchao

    2017-12-01

    The effect of 0.1 wt.% Co on the hot deformation behavior of fine-grained low-carbon microalloyed steel was investigated at temperatures of 850-1200 °C and a strain rate of 5 s-1. Furthermore, the toughness of the steel with and without Co at sub-zero temperatures was evaluated. The results suggest that the addition of 0.1 wt.% Co increases the flow stress and delays the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization (DRX) at the same deformation temperature and strain. The DRX fraction of steel specimens without and with 0.1 wt.% Co was about 67.4 and 43.9% at 850 °C, respectively. Then, it increased to 100% at 1100 °C. Compared with steel without Co, cementite particles in the tempered sorbite of steel with 0.1 wt.% Co decreased in size but increased in quantity, yield strength increased from 756 to 787 MPa, and Charpy V-notch energy at - 20 and - 50 °C improved from 69 and 41 to 102 and 65 J, respectively. The fracture morphology and crack propagation characteristics were consistent with the variation in impact energy.

  14. Effect of 0.1 wt.% Co on the Hot Deformation and Toughness of Fine-Grained Low-Carbon Steel at Sub-zero Temperatures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Xiqin; Zhou, Shuangshuang; Liu, Zili; Hou, Zhiguo; Tian, Qingchao

    2018-01-01

    The effect of 0.1 wt.% Co on the hot deformation behavior of fine-grained low-carbon microalloyed steel was investigated at temperatures of 850-1200 °C and a strain rate of 5 s-1. Furthermore, the toughness of the steel with and without Co at sub-zero temperatures was evaluated. The results suggest that the addition of 0.1 wt.% Co increases the flow stress and delays the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization (DRX) at the same deformation temperature and strain. The DRX fraction of steel specimens without and with 0.1 wt.% Co was about 67.4 and 43.9% at 850 °C, respectively. Then, it increased to 100% at 1100 °C. Compared with steel without Co, cementite particles in the tempered sorbite of steel with 0.1 wt.% Co decreased in size but increased in quantity, yield strength increased from 756 to 787 MPa, and Charpy V-notch energy at - 20 and - 50 °C improved from 69 and 41 to 102 and 65 J, respectively. The fracture morphology and crack propagation characteristics were consistent with the variation in impact energy.

  15. Shock-induced fine-grained recrystallization of olivine - Evidence against subsolidus reduction of Fe/2+/

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ahrens, T. J.; Tsay, F.-D.; Live, D. H.

    1976-01-01

    Electron spin resonance (ESR) studies have been carried out on three single grains of terrestrial olivine (Fo90) shock loaded along the 010 line to peak pressures of 280, 330, and 440 kbar. The results indicate that neither metallic Fe similar to that observed in returned lunar soils nor paramagnetic Fe(3+) caused by oxidation of Fe(2+) has been produced in these shock experiments. Trace amounts of Mn (2+) have been detected in both shocked and unshocked olivine. The ESR signals of Mn(2+) show spectral features which are found to correlate with the degree of shock-induced recrystallization observed petrographically. The increasing mass fraction of recrystallized olivine correlates with increasing shock pressures. This phenomenon is modelled assuming it results from the progressive effect of the shock-induced transformation of the olivine to a yet unknown high-pressure phase and its subsequent reversion to the low-pressure olivine phase. The mass fraction of recrystallized material is predicted to be nearly linear with shock pressure.

  16. Uranium release from different size fractions of sediments in Hanford 300 area, Washington, USA.

    PubMed

    Du, Jiangkun; Bao, Jianguo; Hu, Qinhong; Ewing, Robert P

    2012-05-01

    Stirred-flow cell tests were carried out to investigate uranium (U) release from different size fractions of sediments from the U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford 300 Area in Washington, USA. Results show that the measured concentration of U release varies with different size fractions, with the fine-grained mass fractions (<75 μm, 75-500 μm, and 500-2000 μm) being the main U carriers. However, because the sediment is mainly composed of gravel (2000-8000 μm) materials, the gravel fraction is a non-negligible U pool. Our elution experiments give a value of 8.7% of the total U being in the gravel fraction, significantly reducing the current uncertainty in evaluating U inventory. A log-log plot of released U concentration vs. elution volume (i.e., elution time) shows a power-law relationship for all size fractions, with identical exponents for the three fine size fractions (-0.875). For the <2000 μm mass fraction, comparing our eluted U values with reported total U concentrations, we estimate that a lower bound value 8.6% of the total uranium is labile. This compares well with the previously published value of 11.8% labile U after extraction with a dilute extractant for three weeks. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Feasibility Assessment of a Fine-Grained Access Control Model on Resource Constrained Sensors.

    PubMed

    Uriarte Itzazelaia, Mikel; Astorga, Jasone; Jacob, Eduardo; Huarte, Maider; Romaña, Pedro

    2018-02-13

    Upcoming smart scenarios enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) envision smart objects that provide services that can adapt to user behavior or be managed to achieve greater productivity. In such environments, smart things are inexpensive and, therefore, constrained devices. However, they are also critical components because of the importance of the information that they provide. Given this, strong security is a requirement, but not all security mechanisms in general and access control models in particular are feasible. In this paper, we present the feasibility assessment of an access control model that utilizes a hybrid architecture and a policy language that provides dynamic fine-grained policy enforcement in the sensors, which requires an efficient message exchange protocol called Hidra. This experimental performance assessment includes a prototype implementation, a performance evaluation model, the measurements and related discussions, which demonstrate the feasibility and adequacy of the analyzed access control model.

  18. Feasibility Assessment of a Fine-Grained Access Control Model on Resource Constrained Sensors

    PubMed Central

    Huarte, Maider; Romaña, Pedro

    2018-01-01

    Upcoming smart scenarios enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) envision smart objects that provide services that can adapt to user behavior or be managed to achieve greater productivity. In such environments, smart things are inexpensive and, therefore, constrained devices. However, they are also critical components because of the importance of the information that they provide. Given this, strong security is a requirement, but not all security mechanisms in general and access control models in particular are feasible. In this paper, we present the feasibility assessment of an access control model that utilizes a hybrid architecture and a policy language that provides dynamic fine-grained policy enforcement in the sensors, which requires an efficient message exchange protocol called Hidra. This experimental performance assessment includes a prototype implementation, a performance evaluation model, the measurements and related discussions, which demonstrate the feasibility and adequacy of the analyzed access control model. PMID:29438338

  19. Debris flow rheology: Experimental analysis of fine-grained slurries

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Major, Jon J.; Pierson, Thomas C.

    1992-01-01

    The rheology of slurries consisting of ≤2-mm sediment from a natural debris flow deposit was measured using a wide-gap concentric-cylinder viscometer. The influence of sediment concentration and size and distribution of grains on the bulk rheological behavior of the slurries was evaluated at concentrations ranging from 0.44 to 0.66. The slurries exhibit diverse rheological behavior. At shear rates above 5 s−1 the behavior approaches that of a Bingham material; below 5 s−1, sand exerts more influence and slurry behavior deviates from the Bingham idealization. Sand grain interactions dominate the mechanical behavior when sand concentration exceeds 0.2; transient fluctuations in measured torque, time-dependent decay of torque, and hysteresis effects are observed. Grain rubbing, interlocking, and collision cause changes in packing density, particle distribution, grain orientation, and formation and destruction of grain clusters, which may explain the observed behavior. Yield strength and plastic viscosity exhibit order-of-magnitude variation when sediment concentration changes as little as 2–4%. Owing to these complexities, it is unlikely that debris flows can be characterized by a single rheological model.

  20. The production of fine grained magnesium alloys through thermomechanical processing for the optimization of microstructural and mechanical properties

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Young, John Paul

    The low density and high strength to weight ratio of magnesium alloys makes them ideal candidates to replace many of the heavier steel and aluminum alloys currently used in the automotive and other industries. Although cast magnesium alloys components have a long history of use in the automotive industry, the integration of wrought magnesium alloys components has been hindered by a number of factors. Grain refinement through thermomechanical processing offers a possible solution to many of the inherent problems associated with magnesium alloys. This work explores the development of several thermomechanical processing techniques and investigates their impact on the microstructural and mechanical properties of magnesium alloys. In addition to traditional thermomechanical processing, this work includes the development of new severe plastic deformation techniques for the production of fine grain magnesium plate and pipe and develops a procedure by which the thermal microstructural stability of severely plastically deformed microstructures can be assessed.

  1. Grain size effect on yield strength of titanium alloy implanted with aluminum ions

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

    Popova, Natalya, E-mail: natalya-popova-44@mail.ru; Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science, SB RAS, 2/4, Akademicheskii Ave., 634021, Tomsk; Nikonenko, Elena, E-mail: vilatomsk@mail.ru

    2016-01-15

    The paper presents a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study of the microstructure and phase state of commercially pure titanium VT1-0 implanted by aluminum ions. This study has been carried out before and after the ion implantation for different grain size, i.e. 0.3 µm (ultra-fine grain condition), 1.5 µm (fine grain condition), and 17 µm (polycrystalline condition). This paper presents details of calculations and analysis of strength components of the yield stress. It is shown that the ion implantation results in a considerable hardening of the entire thickness of the implanted layer in the both grain types. The grain size has, however, a differentmore » effect on the yield stress. So, both before and after the ion implantation, the increase of the grain size leads to the decrease of the alloy hardening. Thus, hardening in ultra-fine and fine grain alloys increased by four times, while in polycrystalline alloy it increased by over six times.« less

  2. T-RMSD: a fine-grained, structure-based classification method and its application to the functional characterization of TNF receptors.

    PubMed

    Magis, Cedrik; Stricher, François; van der Sloot, Almer M; Serrano, Luis; Notredame, Cedric

    2010-07-16

    This study addresses the relation between structural and functional similarity in proteins. We introduce a novel method named tree based on root mean square deviation (T-RMSD), which uses distance RMSD (dRMSD) variations to build fine-grained structure-based classifications of proteins. The main improvement of the T-RMSD over similar methods, such as Dali, is its capacity to produce the equivalent of a bootstrap value for each cluster node. We validated our approach on two domain families studied extensively for their role in many biological and pathological pathways: the small GTPase RAS superfamily and the cysteine-rich domains (CRDs) associated with the tumor necrosis factor receptors (TNFRs) family. Our analysis showed that T-RMSD is able to automatically recover and refine existing classifications. In the case of the small GTPase ARF subfamily, T-RMSD can distinguish GTP- from GDP-bound states, while in the case of CRDs it can identify two new subgroups associated with well defined functional features (ligand binding and formation of ligand pre-assembly complex). We show how hidden Markov models (HMMs) can be built on these new groups and propose a methodology to use these models simultaneously in order to do fine-grained functional genomic annotation without known 3D structures. T-RMSD, an open source freeware incorporated in the T-Coffee package, is available online. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Asteroid 2008 TC3 Breakup and Meteorite Fractions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Goodrich, C.; Jenniskens, P.; Shaddad, M. H.; Zolensky, M. E.; Fioretti, A. M.

    2017-01-01

    The recovery of meteorites from the impact of asteroid 2008 TC3 in the Nubian Desert of Sudan on October 7, 2008, marked the first time meteorites were collected from an asteroid observed in space by astronomical techniques before impacting. Search teams from the University of Khartoum traced the location of the strewn field and collected about 660 meteorites in four expeditions to the fall region, all of which have known fall coordinates. Upon further study, the Almahata Sitta meteorites proved to be a mixed bag of mostly ureilites (course grained, fine grained, and sulfide-metal assemblages), enstatite chondrites (EL3-6, EH3, EH5, breccias) and ordinary chondrites (H5-6, L4-5). One bencubbinite-like carbonaceous chondrite was identified, as well as one unique Rumuruti-like chondrite and an Enstatite achondrite. New analysis: The analysed meteorites so far suggest a high 30-40 percent fraction of non-ureilites among the recovered samples, but that high fraction does not appear to be in agreement with the meteorites in the University of Khartoum (UoK) collection. Ureilites dominate the meteorites that were recovered by the Sudanese teams. To better understand the fraction of recovered materials that fell to Earth, a program has been initiated to type the meteorites in the UoK collection in defined search areas. At this meeting, we will present some preliminary results from that investigation.

  4. T-RMSD: a web server for automated fine-grained protein structural classification.

    PubMed

    Magis, Cedrik; Di Tommaso, Paolo; Notredame, Cedric

    2013-07-01

    This article introduces the T-RMSD web server (tree-based on root-mean-square deviation), a service allowing the online computation of structure-based protein classification. It has been developed to address the relation between structural and functional similarity in proteins, and it allows a fine-grained structural clustering of a given protein family or group of structurally related proteins using distance RMSD (dRMSD) variations. These distances are computed between all pairs of equivalent residues, as defined by the ungapped columns within a given multiple sequence alignment. Using these generated distance matrices (one per equivalent position), T-RMSD produces a structural tree with support values for each cluster node, reminiscent of bootstrap values. These values, associated with the tree topology, allow a quantitative estimate of structural distances between proteins or group of proteins defined by the tree topology. The clusters thus defined have been shown to be structurally and functionally informative. The T-RMSD web server is a free website open to all users and available at http://tcoffee.crg.cat/apps/tcoffee/do:trmsd.

  5. T-RMSD: a web server for automated fine-grained protein structural classification

    PubMed Central

    Magis, Cedrik; Di Tommaso, Paolo; Notredame, Cedric

    2013-01-01

    This article introduces the T-RMSD web server (tree-based on root-mean-square deviation), a service allowing the online computation of structure-based protein classification. It has been developed to address the relation between structural and functional similarity in proteins, and it allows a fine-grained structural clustering of a given protein family or group of structurally related proteins using distance RMSD (dRMSD) variations. These distances are computed between all pairs of equivalent residues, as defined by the ungapped columns within a given multiple sequence alignment. Using these generated distance matrices (one per equivalent position), T-RMSD produces a structural tree with support values for each cluster node, reminiscent of bootstrap values. These values, associated with the tree topology, allow a quantitative estimate of structural distances between proteins or group of proteins defined by the tree topology. The clusters thus defined have been shown to be structurally and functionally informative. The T-RMSD web server is a free website open to all users and available at http://tcoffee.crg.cat/apps/tcoffee/do:trmsd. PMID:23716642

  6. X-ray absorption fine structure and x-ray diffraction studies of crystallographic grains in nanocrystalline FePd:Cu thin films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Krupinski, M.; Perzanowski, M.; Polit, A.; Zabila, Y.; Zarzycki, A.; Dobrowolska, A.; Marszalek, M.

    2011-03-01

    FePd alloys have recently attracted considerable attention as candidates for ultrahigh density magnetic storage media. In this paper we investigate FePd thin alloy film with a copper admixture composed of nanometer-sized grains. [Fe(0.9 nm)/Pd(1.1 nm)/Cu(d nm)]×5 multilayers were prepared by thermal deposition at room temperature in UHV conditions on Si(100) substrates covered by 100 nm SiO2. The thickness of the copper layer has been changed from 0 to 0.4 nm. After deposition, the multilayers were rapidly annealed at 600 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere, which resulted in the creation of the FePd:Cu alloy. The structure of alloy films obtained this way was determined by x-ray diffraction (XRD), glancing angle x-ray diffraction, and x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS). The measurements clearly showed that the L10 FePd:Cu nanocrystalline phase has been formed during the annealing process for all investigated copper compositions. This paper concentrates on the crystallographic grain features of FePd:Cu alloys and illustrates that the EXAFS technique, supported by XRD measurements, can help to extend the information about grain size and grain shape of poorly crystallized materials. We show that, using an appropriate model of the FePd:Cu grains, the comparison of EXAFS and XRD results gives a reasonable agreement.

  7. Sequence of structures in fine-grained turbidites: Comparison of recent deep-sea and ancient flysch sediments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stow, Dorrik A. V.; Shanmugam, Ganapathy

    1980-01-01

    A comparative study of the sequence of sedimentary structures in ancient and modern fine-grained turbidites is made in three contrasting areas. They are (1) Holocene and Pleistocene deep-sea muds of the Nova Scotian Slope and Rise, (2) Middle Ordovician Sevier Shale of the Valley and Ridge Province of the Southern Appalachians, and (3) Cambro-Ordovician Halifax Slate of the Meguma Group in Nova Scotia. A standard sequence of structures is proposed for fine-grained turbidites. The complete sequence has nine sub-divisions that are here termed T 0 to T 8. "The lower subdivision (T 0) comprises a silt lamina which has a sharp, scoured and load-cast base, internal parallel-lamination and cross-lamination, and a sharp current-lineated or wavy surface with 'fading-ripples' (= Type C etc. …)." (= Type C ripple-drift cross-lamination, Jopling and Walker, 1968). The overlying sequence shows textural and compositional grading through alternating silt and mud laminae. A convolute-laminated sub-division (T 1) is overlain by low-amplitude climbing ripples (T 2), thin regular laminae (T 3), thin indistinct laminae (T 4), and thin wipsy or convolute laminae (T 5). The topmost three divisions, graded mud (T 6), ungraded mud (T 7) and bioturbated mud (T 8), do not have silt laminae but rare patchy silt lenses and silt pseudonodules and a thin zone of micro-burrowing near the upper surface. The proposed sequence is analogous to the Bouma (1962) structural scheme for sandy turbidites and is approximately equivalent to Bouma's (C)DE divisions. The repetition of partial sequences characterizes different parts of the slope/base-of-slope/basin plain environment, and represents deposition from different stages of evolution of a large, muddy, turbidity flow. Microstructural detail and sequence are well preserved in ancient and even slightly metamorphosed sediments. Their recognition is important for determining depositional processes and for palaeoenvironmental interpretation.

  8. Mechanical Properties of a Superalloy Disk with a Dual Grain Structure

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gayda, John; Gabb, Timothy; Kantzos, Peter

    2003-01-01

    Mechanical properties from an advanced, nickel-base superalloy disk, with a dual grain structure consisting of a fine grain bore and coarse grain rim, were evaluated. The dual grain structure was produced using NASA's low cost Dual Microstructure Heat Treatment (DMHT) process. The results showed the DMHT disk to have a high strength, fatigue resistant bore comparable to a subsolvus (fine grain) heat treated disk, and a creep resistant rim comparable to a supersolvus (coarse grain) heat treated disk. Additional work on subsolvus solutioning before or after the DMHT conversion appears to be a viable avenue for further improvement in disk properties.

  9. Cyclic hardening behavior of extruded ZK60 magnesium alloy with different grain sizes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Lixin; Zhang, Wencong; Chen, Wenzhen; Wang, Wenke

    2018-04-01

    Montonic and fully reversed strain-controlled cyclic deformation experiments were conducted on extruded ZK60 magnesium alloy with two different grain sizes in ambient air. Results revealed that the hardening rates of the ZK60 magnesium alloy rods with fine grain and coarse grain in the monotonic deformation and the fully reversed strain-controlled cyclic deformation were opposite along the extrusion direction. Electron Backscatter Diffration analysis revealed that fine grains were more easily rotated than coarse grains under the cyclic deformation. Under the twinning and detwinning process of the cyclic deformation at a large strain amplitude, the coarse grained ZK60 magnesium alloys were more prone to tension twinning {10-12}<10-11> and more residual twins were observed. Texture hardening of coarse grained magnesium alloy was more obvious in cyclic defromation than fine-grained magnesium alloy.

  10. Development of manufacturing systems for nanocrystalline and ultra-fine grain materials employing indexing equal channel angular pressing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hester, Michael Wayne

    Nanotechnology offers significant opportunities in providing solutions to existing engineering problems as well as breakthroughs in new fields of science and technology. In order to fully realize benefits from such initiatives, nanomanufacturing methods must be developed to integrate enabling constructs into commercial mainstream. Even though significant advances have been made, widespread industrialization in many areas remains limited. Manufacturing methods, therefore, must continually be developed to bridge gaps between nanoscience discovery and commercialization. A promising technology for integration of top-down nanomanufacturing yet to receive full industrialization is equal channel angular pressing, a process transforming metallic materials into nanostructured or ultra-fine grained materials with significantly improved performance characteristics. To bridge the gap between process potential and actual manufacturing output, a prototype top-down nanomanufacturing system identified as indexing equal channel angular pressing (IX-ECAP) was developed. The unit was designed to capitalize on opportunities of transforming spent or scrap engineering elements into key engineering commodities. A manufacturing system was constructed to impose severe plastic deformation via simple shear in an equal channel angular pressing die on 1100 and 4043 aluminum welding rods. 1/4 fraction factorial split-plot experiments assessed significance of five predictors on the response, microhardness, for the 4043 alloy. Predictor variables included temperature, number of passes, pressing speed, back pressure, and vibration. Main effects were studied employing a resolution III design. Multiple linear regression was used for model development. Initial studies were performed using continuous processing followed by contingency designs involving discrete variable length work pieces. IX-ECAP offered a viable solution in severe plastic deformation processing. Discrete variable length work piece

  11. Electrical properties of polycrystalline olivine: evidence for grain boundary transport

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ten Grotenhuis, S. M.; Drury, M. R.; Peach, C. J.; Spiers, C. J.

    2003-12-01

    The physical and chemical properties of grain boundaries are known to play an important role in determining the electrical properties of polycrystalline oxides. Grain boundaries can either enhance conductivity if the transport of charge carriers along the grain boundaries is faster than through the lattice, or grain boundaries can reduce conductivity if the grain boundaries block the transport of charge carriers. The purpose of the experiments presented here is to deduce the mechanisms responsible for electrical conductivity in fine-grained forsterite, the Mg-end member of olivine, in order to get a better understanding of the contribution of grain boundary transport, of the properties of the grain boundaries, and to determine any relation between grain size and conductivity. A relationship between grain size and conductivity at high temperature could potentially be used to interpret zones of anomalous conductivity in the upper mantle. The materials studied consist of fine-grained forsterite (Mg2SiO4) with a minor amount (5%) of enstatite (MgSiO3) added. The electrical conductivity of three melt-free synthetic polycrystalline samples, with grain sizes between 1.1 and 4.7 mm, was measured at temperatures up to 1470° C. The complex impedance plots display one clear arc, indicating a single dominant conduction mechanism. Bulk conductivity is inversely proportional to the grain size of the different samples. This relation suggests that grain boundary diffusion of the charge carriers is controlling the electrical conductivity of the samples. The activation energy for diffusion of the charge carriers lies between 315 and 323 kJ/mol. This resembles previous data on grain boundary diffusion of Mg in forsterite and grain boundary diffusion creep. A geometrical model of less conducting cubic grains and more conducting grain boundaries agrees well with the experimental data. This model is applied to a natural mantle shear zone to predict the conductivity contrast between

  12. The coevolution of bed roughness, grain clustering, surface armoring, hydraulic roughness, and sediment transport rate in experimental coarse alluvial channels: implications for long-term effects of gravel augmentation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Johnson, J. P.; Aronovitz, A. C.

    2012-12-01

    We conducted laboratory flume experiments to quantify changes in multiple factors leading to mountain river bed stability (i.e., minimal bed changes in space and time), and to understand how stable beds respond to perturbations in sediment supply. Experiments were run in a small flume 4 m long by 0.1 m wide. We imposed an initial well-graded size distribution of sediment (from coarse sand to up to 4 cm clasts), a steady water discharge (0.9 L/s), and initial bed surface slopes (8% and 12%). We measured outlet sediment flux and size distribution, bed topography and surface size distributions, and water depths; from these we calculated total shear stress, form drag and skin friction stress partitioning, and hydraulic roughness. The bed was initially allowed to stabilize with no imposed upstream sediment flux. This stabilization occurred due to significant changes in all of the factors listed in the title, and resulted in incipient step-pool like bed morphologies. In addition, this study was designed to explore possible long-term effects of gravel augmentation on mountain channel morphology and surface grain size. While the short-term goal of gravel augmentation is usually to cause fining of surface sediment patches, we find that the long-term effects may be opposite. We perturbed the stabilized channels by temporarily imposing an upstream sediment flux of the finest sediment size fraction (sand to granules). Median surface sizes initially decreased due to fine sediment deposition, although transport rates of intermediate-sized grains increased. When the fine sediment supply was stopped, beds evolved to be both rougher and coarser than they had been previously, because the largest grains remained on the bed but intermediate-sized grains were preferentially transported out, leaving higher fractions of larger grains on the surface. Existing models for mixed grain size transport actually predict changes in mobilization reasonably well, but do not explicity account for

  13. MROrchestrator: A Fine-Grained Resource Orchestration Framework for MapReduce Clusters

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

    Sharma, Bikash; Prabhakar, Ramya; Kandemir, Mahmut

    2012-01-01

    Efficient resource management in data centers and clouds running large distributed data processing frameworks like MapReduce is crucial for enhancing the performance of hosted applications and boosting resource utilization. However, existing resource scheduling schemes in Hadoop MapReduce allocate resources at the granularity of fixed-size, static portions of nodes, called slots. In this work, we show that MapReduce jobs have widely varying demands for multiple resources, making the static and fixed-size slot-level resource allocation a poor choice both from the performance and resource utilization standpoints. Furthermore, lack of co-ordination in the management of mul- tiple resources across nodes prevents dynamic slotmore » reconfigura- tion, and leads to resource contention. Motivated by this, we propose MROrchestrator, a MapReduce resource Orchestrator framework, which can dynamically identify resource bottlenecks, and resolve them through fine-grained, co-ordinated, and on- demand resource allocations. We have implemented MROrches- trator on two 24-node native and virtualized Hadoop clusters. Experimental results with a suite of representative MapReduce benchmarks demonstrate up to 38% reduction in job completion times, and up to 25% increase in resource utilization. We further show how popular resource managers like NGM and Mesos when augmented with MROrchestrator can hike up their performance.« less

  14. A composite viscoelastic model for incorporating grain boundary sliding and transient diffusion creep; correlating creep and attenuation responses for materials with a fine grain size

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sundberg, Marshall; Cooper, Reid F.

    2010-07-01

    A new viscoelastic creep function that incorporates both the effects of elastically-accommodated grain boundary sliding (GBS) and transient diffusion creep is proposed. It is demonstrated that this model can simultaneously describe both the transient microcreep curves and the shear attenuation/modulus dispersion in a fine-grained (d ∼ 5 µm) peridotite (olivine + 39 vol. % orthopyroxene) specimen. Low-frequency shear attenuation, ? , and modulus dispersion, G(ω), spectra were measured in a one-atmosphere reciprocating torsion apparatus at temperatures of 1200 ≤ T ≤ 1300°C and frequencies of 10-2.25 ≤ f ≤ 100 Hz. Reciprocating tests were complemented by a series of small stress (τ ∼ 90 kPa) microcreep experiments at the same temperatures. In contrast to previous models where the parameters of viscoelastic models are derived by fitting the Laplace transform of the creep function to measured attenuation spectra, the parameters are derived solely from the fit of the creep function to the experimental microcreep curves using different published expressions for the relaxation strength of elastically-accommodated GBS. This approach may allow future studies to better link the large dataset of steady-state creep response to the dynamic attenuation behavior.

  15. Enhance the Quality of Crowdsensing for Fine-Grained Urban Environment Monitoring via Data Correlation

    PubMed Central

    Kang, Xu; Liu, Liang; Ma, Huadong

    2017-01-01

    Monitoring the status of urban environments, which provides fundamental information for a city, yields crucial insights into various fields of urban research. Recently, with the popularity of smartphones and vehicles equipped with onboard sensors, a people-centric scheme, namely “crowdsensing”, for city-scale environment monitoring is emerging. This paper proposes a data correlation based crowdsensing approach for fine-grained urban environment monitoring. To demonstrate urban status, we generate sensing images via crowdsensing network, and then enhance the quality of sensing images via data correlation. Specifically, to achieve a higher quality of sensing images, we not only utilize temporal correlation of mobile sensing nodes but also fuse the sensory data with correlated environment data by introducing a collective tensor decomposition approach. Finally, we conduct a series of numerical simulations and a real dataset based case study. The results validate that our approach outperforms the traditional spatial interpolation-based method. PMID:28054968

  16. Lithium isotope fractionation by diffusion in minerals Part 2: Olivine

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Richter, Frank; Chaussidon, Marc; Bruce Watson, E.; Mendybaev, Ruslan; Homolova, Veronika

    2017-12-01

    Recent experiments have shown that lithium isotopes can be significantly fractionated by diffusion in silicate liquids and in augite. Here we report new laboratory experiments that document similarly large lithium isotopic fractionation by diffusion in olivine. Two types of experiments were used. A powder-source method where lithium from finely ground spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) diffused into oriented San Carlos olivine, and piston cylinder annealing experiments where Kunlun clinopyroxene (∼30 ppm lithium) and oriented San Carlos olivine (∼2 ppm lithium) were juxtaposed. The lithium concentration along traverses across the run products was measured using both laser ablation as a source for a Varian 820-MS quadrupole mass spectrometer and a CAMECA 1270 secondary ion mass spectrometer. The CAMECA 1270 was also used to measure the lithium isotopic fractionation across olivine grains recovered from the experiments. The lithium isotopes were found to be fractionationed by many tens of permil in the diffusion boundary layer at the grain edges as a result of 6Li diffusing significantly faster than 7Li. The lithium concentration and isotopic fractionation data across the olivine recovered from the different experiments were modeled using calculations in which lithium was assumed to be of two distinct types - one being fast diffusing interstitial lithium, the other much less mobile lithium on a metal site. The two-site diffusion model involves a large number of independent parameters and we found that different choices of the parameters can produce very comparable fits to the lithium concentration profiles and associated isotopic fractionation. Because of this nonuniqueness we are able to determine only a range for the relative diffusivity of 6Li compared to 7Li. When the mass dependence of lithium diffusion is parameterized as D6Li /D7Li =(7 / 6) β , the isotope fractionation for diffusion along the a and c crystallographic direction of olivine can be fit by β = 0.4 ± 0

  17. Experimentally Derived Mechanical and Flow Properties of Fine-grained Soil Mixtures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schneider, J.; Peets, C. S.; Flemings, P. B.; Day-Stirrat, R. J.; Germaine, J. T.

    2009-12-01

    As silt content in mudrocks increases, compressibility linearly decreases and permeability exponentially increases. We prepared mixtures of natural Boston Blue Clay (BBC) and synthetic silt in the ratios of 100:0, 86:14, 68:32, and 50:50, respectively. To recreate natural conditions yet remove variability and soil disturbance, we resedimented all mixtures to a total stress of 100 kPa. We then loaded them to approximately 2.3 MPa in a CRS (constant-rate-of-strain) uniaxial consolidation device. The analyses show that the higher the silt content in the mixture, the stiffer the material is. Compression index as well as liquid and plastic limits linearly decrease with increasing silt content. Vertical permeability increases exponentially with porosity as well as with silt content. Fabric alignment determined through High Resolution X-ray Texture Goniometry (HRXTG) expressed as maximum pole density (m.r.d.) decreases with silt content at a given stress. However, this relationship is not linear instead there are two clusters: the mixtures with higher clay contents (100:0, 84:16) have m.r.d. around 3.9 and mixtures with higher silt contents (68:32, 50:50) have m.r.d. around 2.5. Specific surface area (SSA) measurements show a positive correlation to the total clay content. The amount of silt added to the clay reduces specific surface area, grain orientation, and fabric alignment; thus, it affects compression and fluid flow behavior on a micro- and macroscale. Our results are comparable with previous studies such as kaolinite / silt mixtures (Konrad & Samson [2000], Wagg & Konrad [1990]). We are studying this behavior to understand how fine-grained rocks consolidate. This problem is important to practical and fundamental programs. For example, these sediments can potentially act as either a tight gas reservoir or a seal for hydrocarbons or geologic storage of CO2. This study also provides a systematic approach for developing models of permeability and compressibility

  18. Luna 24 regolith breccias: A possible source of the fine size material of the Luna 24 regolith

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rode, O. D.; Lindstrom, M. M.

    1994-01-01

    The regolith breccias from the Luna 24 core were analyzed. The Luna 24 regolith is a mixture of fine and coarse grain materials. The comparable analysis of the grain size distributions, the modal and chemical compositions of the breccias, and the regolith from the same levels show that the friable slightly litificated breccia with a friable fine grain matrix may be a source of fine grain material of the Luna 24 present day regolith.

  19. Inert gases in a terra sample - Measurements in six grain-size fractions and two single particles from Lunar 20.

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Heymann, D.; Lakatos, S.; Walton, J. R.

    1973-01-01

    Review of the results of inert gas measurements performed on six grain-size fractions and two single particles from four samples of Luna 20 material. Presented and discussed data include the inert gas contents, element and isotope systematics, radiation ages, and Ar-36/Ar-40 systematics.

  20. The respective effects of soil heavy metal fractions by sequential extraction procedure and soil properties on the accumulation of heavy metals in rice grains and brassicas.

    PubMed

    Xiao, Ling; Guan, Dongsheng; Peart, M R; Chen, Yujuan; Li, Qiqi

    2017-01-01

    This study was carried out to examine heavy metal accumulation in rice grains and brassicas and to identify the different controls, such as soil properties and soil heavy metal fractions obtained by the Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) sequential extraction, in their accumulation. In Guangdong Province, South China, rice grain and brassica samples, along with their rhizospheric soil, were collected from fields on the basis of distance downstream from electroplating factories, whose wastewater was used for irrigation. The results showed that long-term irrigation using the electroplating effluent has not only enriched the rhizospheric soil with Cd, Cr, Cu, and Zn but has also increased their mobility and bioavailability. The average concentrations of Cd and Cr in rice grains and brassicas from closest to the electroplating factories were significantly higher than those from the control areas. Results from hybrid redundancy analysis (hRDA) and redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that the BCR fractions of soil heavy metals could explain 29.0 and 46.5 % of total eigenvalue for heavy metal concentrations in rice grains and brassicas, respectively, while soil properties could only explain 11.1 and 33.4 %, respectively. This indicated that heavy metal fractions exerted more control upon their concentrations in rice grains and brassicas than soil properties. In terms of metal interaction, an increase of residual Zn in paddy soil or a decrease of acid soluble Cd in the brassica soil could enhance the accumulation of Cd, Cu, Cr, and Pb in both rice grains and brassicas, respectively, while the reducible or oxidizable Cd in soil could enhance the plants' accumulation of Cr and Pb. The RDA showed an inhibition effect of sand content and CFO on the accumulation of heavy metals in rice grains and brassicas. Moreover, multiple stepwise linear regression could offer prediction for Cd, Cu, Cr, and Zn concentrations in the two crops by soil heavy metal fractions and soil properties.

  1. Friction stir weld tools having fine grain structure

    DOEpatents

    Grant, Glenn J.; Frye, John G.; Kim, Jin Yong; Lavender, Curt A.; Weil, Kenneth Scott

    2016-03-15

    Tools for friction stir welding can be made with fewer process steps, lower cost techniques, and/or lower cost ingredients than other state-of-the-art processes by utilizing improved compositions and processes of fabrication. Furthermore, the tools resulting from the improved compositions and processes of fabrication can exhibit better distribution and homogeneity of chemical constituents, greater strength, and/or increased durability. In one example, a friction stir weld tool includes tungsten and rhenium and is characterized by carbide and oxide dispersoids, by carbide particulates, and by grains that comprise a solid solution of the tungsten and rhenium. The grains do not exceed 10 micrometers in diameter.

  2. Grain size control of rhenium strip

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Schuster, Gary B.

    1991-01-01

    Ensuring the desired grain size in the pure Re strip employed by the SP-100 space nuclear reactor design entails the establishment of an initial grain size in the as-received strip and the avoidance of excessive grain growth during subsequent fabrication. Pure Re tapered tensile specimens have been fabricated and tested in order to quantify the effects of grain-boundary migration. Grain size could be rendered fine and uniform by means of a rolling procedure that uses rather large reductions between short intermediate anneals. The critical strain regime varies inversely with annealing temperature.

  3. Extended Maptree: a Representation of Fine-Grained Topology and Spatial Hierarchy of Bim

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wu, Y.; Shang, J.; Hu, X.; Zhou, Z.

    2017-09-01

    Spatial queries play significant roles in exchanging Building Information Modeling (BIM) data and integrating BIM with indoor spatial information. However, topological operators implemented for BIM spatial queries are limited to qualitative relations (e.g. touching, intersecting). To overcome this limitation, we propose an extended maptree model to represent the fine-grained topology and spatial hierarchy of indoor spaces. The model is based on a maptree which consists of combinatorial maps and an adjacency tree. Topological relations (e.g., adjacency, incidence, and covering) derived from BIM are represented explicitly and formally by extended maptrees, which can facilitate the spatial queries of BIM. To construct an extended maptree, we first use a solid model represented by vertical extrusion and boundary representation to generate the isolated 3-cells of combinatorial maps. Then, the spatial relationships defined in IFC are used to sew them together. Furthermore, the incremental edges of extended maptrees are labeled as removed 2-cells. Based on this, we can merge adjacent 3-cells according to the spatial hierarchy of IFC.

  4. Development of bulk density, total C distribution and OC saturation in fine mineral fractions during paddy soil evolution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wissing, Livia; Kölbl, Angelika; Cao, Zhi-Hong; Kögel-Knabner, Ingrid

    2010-05-01

    Paddy soils are described as important accumulator for OM (Zhang and He, 2004). In southeast China, paddy soils have the second highest OM stocks (Zhao et al, 1997) and thus a large proportion of the terrestrial carbon is conserved in wetland rice soils. The paddy soil management is believed to be favorable for accumulation of organic matter, as its content in paddy soils is statistically higher than that of non-paddy soils (Cai, 1996). However, the mechanism of OM storage and the development of OM distribution during paddy soil evolution is largely unknown. The aim of the project is to identify the role of organo-mineral complexes for the stabilization of organic carbon during management-induced paddy soil formation in a chronosequence ranging from 50 to 2000 years of paddy soil use. The soil samples were analysed for bulk density, total organic carbon (TOC) and total inorganic carbon (TIC) concentrations of bulk soils and the concentration of organic carbon as well as the organic carbon stocks of physical soil fractions. First results indicate distinctly different depth distributions between paddy and non-paddy (control) sites. The paddy soils are characterized by relatively low bulk densities in the puddled layer (between 0.9 and 1.3 g cm-3) and high values in the plough pan (1.4 to 1.6 g cm-3) and the non-paddy soils by relatively homogeneous values throughout the profiles (1.3 to 1.4 g cm-3). In contrast to the carbonate-rich non-paddy sites, we found a significant loss of carbonates during paddy soil formation, resulting in decalcification of the upper 20 cm after 100 yr of paddy soil use, and decalcification of the total soil profile in 700, 1000 and 2000 yr old paddy soils. The calculation of the organic carbon stocks of each horizon indicate that paddy sites always have higher values in topsoils compared to non-paddy sites, and show increasing values with increasing soil age. The capacity of fine mineral fractions to preserve OC was calculated according to

  5. Fabrication, tribological and corrosion behaviors of ultra-fine grained Co-28Cr-6Mo alloy for biomedical applications.

    PubMed

    Ren, Fuzeng; Zhu, Weiwei; Chu, Kangjie

    2016-07-01

    Nickel and carbides free Co-28Cr-6Mo alloy was fabricated by combination of mechanical alloying and warm pressing. The microstructure, mechanical properties, pin-on-disk dry sliding wear and corrosion behavior in simulated physiological solution were investigated. The produced Co-28Cr-6Mo alloy has elongated ultra-fine grained (UFG) structure of ε-phase with average grain size of 600nm in length and 150nm in thickness. The hardness and modulus were determined to be 8.87±0.56GPa and 198.27±7.02GPa, respectively. The coefficient of friction upon dry sliding against alumina is pretty close to that of the forged Co-29Cr-6Mo alloy. The initial ε-phase and UFG microstructure contribute to reduce the depth of severe plastic deformation region during wear and enable the alloy with excellent wear resistance. The corrosion potential of such UFG Co-Cr-Mo alloy has more positive corrosion potential and much lower corrosion current density than those of ASTM alloy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Mechanism of secondary recrystallization of Goss grains in grain-oriented electrical steel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hayakawa, Yasuyuki

    2017-12-01

    Since its invention by Goss in 1934, grain-oriented (GO) electrical steel has been widely used as a core material in transformers. GO exhibits a grain size of over several millimeters attained by secondary recrystallization during high-temperature final batch annealing. In addition to the unusually large grain size, the crystal direction in the rolling direction is aligned with <001>, which is the easy magnetization axis of α-iron. Secondary recrystallization is the phenomenon in which a certain very small number of {110}<001> (Goss) grains grow selectively (about one in 106 primary grains) at the expense of many other primary recrystallized grains. The question of why the Goss orientation is exclusively selected during secondary recrystallization has long been a main research subject in this field. The general criterion for secondary recrystallization is a small and uniform primary grain size, which is achieved through the inhibition of normal grain growth by fine precipitates called inhibitors. This paper describes several conceivable mechanisms of secondary recrystallization of Goss grains mainly based on the selective growth model.

  7. Mechanism of secondary recrystallization of Goss grains in grain-oriented electrical steel

    PubMed Central

    Hayakawa, Yasuyuki

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Since its invention by Goss in 1934, grain-oriented (GO) electrical steel has been widely used as a core material in transformers. GO exhibits a grain size of over several millimeters attained by secondary recrystallization during high-temperature final batch annealing. In addition to the unusually large grain size, the crystal direction in the rolling direction is aligned with <001>, which is the easy magnetization axis of α-iron. Secondary recrystallization is the phenomenon in which a certain very small number of {110}<001> (Goss) grains grow selectively (about one in 106 primary grains) at the expense of many other primary recrystallized grains. The question of why the Goss orientation is exclusively selected during secondary recrystallization has long been a main research subject in this field. The general criterion for secondary recrystallization is a small and uniform primary grain size, which is achieved through the inhibition of normal grain growth by fine precipitates called inhibitors. This paper describes several conceivable mechanisms of secondary recrystallization of Goss grains mainly based on the selective growth model. PMID:28804524

  8. Mechanism of secondary recrystallization of Goss grains in grain-oriented electrical steel.

    PubMed

    Hayakawa, Yasuyuki

    2017-01-01

    Since its invention by Goss in 1934, grain-oriented (GO) electrical steel has been widely used as a core material in transformers. GO exhibits a grain size of over several millimeters attained by secondary recrystallization during high-temperature final batch annealing. In addition to the unusually large grain size, the crystal direction in the rolling direction is aligned with <001>, which is the easy magnetization axis of α-iron. Secondary recrystallization is the phenomenon in which a certain very small number of {110}<001> (Goss) grains grow selectively (about one in 10 6 primary grains) at the expense of many other primary recrystallized grains. The question of why the Goss orientation is exclusively selected during secondary recrystallization has long been a main research subject in this field. The general criterion for secondary recrystallization is a small and uniform primary grain size, which is achieved through the inhibition of normal grain growth by fine precipitates called inhibitors. This paper describes several conceivable mechanisms of secondary recrystallization of Goss grains mainly based on the selective growth model.

  9. The grain-size lineup: A test of a novel eyewitness identification procedure.

    PubMed

    Horry, Ruth; Brewer, Neil; Weber, Nathan

    2016-04-01

    When making a memorial judgment, respondents can regulate their accuracy by adjusting the precision, or grain size, of their responses. In many circumstances, coarse-grained responses are less informative, but more likely to be accurate, than fine-grained responses. This study describes a novel eyewitness identification procedure, the grain-size lineup, in which participants eliminated any number of individuals from the lineup, creating a choice set of variable size. A decision was considered to be fine-grained if no more than 1 individual was left in the choice set or coarse-grained if more than 1 individual was left in the choice set. Participants (N = 384) watched 2 high-quality or low-quality videotaped mock crimes and then completed 4 standard simultaneous lineups or 4 grain-size lineups (2 target-present and 2 target-absent). There was some evidence of strategic regulation of grain size, as the most difficult lineup was associated with a greater proportion of coarse-grained responses than the other lineups. However, the grain-size lineup did not outperform the standard simultaneous lineup. Fine-grained suspect identifications were no more diagnostic than suspect identifications from standard lineups, whereas coarse-grained suspect identifications carried little probative value. Participants were generally reluctant to provide coarse-grained responses, which may have hampered the utility of the procedure. For a grain-size approach to be useful, participants may need to be trained or instructed to use the coarse-grained option effectively. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

  10. Comparison between the optical properties of aerosols in the fine and coarse fractions over Valladolid, Spain.

    PubMed

    Mogo, S; López, J F; Cachorro, V E; de Frutos, A; Zocca, R; Barroso, A; Mateos, D; Conceição, E

    2017-02-22

    Continuous measurements of the optical properties of aerosol particles have been made at Valladolid, Spain, covering the period from June 2011 to July 2012. The measurements were made at two size cuts: sub-10 μm and sub-1 μm (PM10 and PM1). The data measured were the scattering and backscattering coefficients, σ s and σ bs , obtained from an integrating nephelometer, and the absorption coefficient, σ a , obtained from a particle soot absorption photometer. Spectrally resolved data were obtained from both instruments at 3 wavelengths (blue/green/red) at low relative humidity (RH < 40%). The statistical data for the instruments were calculated based on the hourly averages. For the PM10 fraction, the hourly mean values of σ s and σ a at 550 nm were 33 Mm -1 (StD = 30 Mm -1 ) and 4 Mm -1 (StD = 3 Mm -1 ), respectively. For the PM1 fraction, σ s and σ a mean values were 16 Mm -1 (StD = 14 Mm -1 ) and 4 Mm -1 (StD = 3 Mm -1 ), also at 550 nm. The derived parameters analyzed were the single scattering albedo, ω 0 , the backscatter fraction, σ bs /σ s , and the Ångström exponents of scattering, absorption and single scattering albedo, α s , α a and α ω 0 . The contribution of the PM10 and the PM1 fractions for all these parameters plays a central role throughout the paper, allowing an improved classification of aerosol types. Our data are dominated by elemental carbon (EC) and elemental carbon/organic carbon mixed (EC/OC). For the PM10 data, dust dominated aerosol is also observed. Although we found that fine particles contribute more than coarse particles for decreasing the ω 0 values, results suggest that it is also necessary to quantify the effect of coarse particles. Fine particles were found to produce ω 0 spectra that decrease with the wavelength, α ω 0 > 0, while PM10 fractions were found to produce spectra that can decrease or increase with the wavelength, 0 < α ω 0 < 0. Both daily cycle and monthly variations are analyzed and related to

  11. Transport of fine sediment over a coarse, immobile riverbed

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Grams, Paul E.; Wilcock, Peter R.

    2014-01-01

    Sediment transport in cobble-boulder rivers consists mostly of fine sediment moving over a coarse, immobile bed. Transport rate depends on several interrelated factors: boundary shear stress, the grain size and volume of fine sediment, and the configuration of fine sediment into interstitial deposits and bed forms. Existing models do not incorporate all of these factors. Approaches that partition stress face a daunting challenge because most of the boundary shear is exerted on immobile grains. We present an alternative approach that divides the bed into sand patches and interstitial deposits and is well constrained by two clear end-member cases: full sand cover and absence of sand. Entrainment from sand patches is a function of their aerial coverage. Entrainment from interstices among immobile grains is a function of sand elevation relative to the size of the immobile grains. The bed-sand coverage function is used to predict the ratio of the rate of entrainment from a partially covered bed to the rate of entrainment from a completely sand-covered bed, which is determined using a standard sand transport model. We implement the bed-sand coverage function in a morphodynamic routing model and test it against observations of sand bed elevation and suspended sand concentration for conditions of nonuniform fine sediment transport in a large flume with steady uniform flow over immobile hemispheres. The results suggest that this approach may provide a simple and robust method for predicting the transport and migration of fine sediment through rivers with coarse, immobile beds.

  12. Distribution patterns of phthalic acid esters in soil particle-size fractions determine biouptake in soil-cereal crop systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tan, Wenbing; Zhang, Yuan; He, Xiaosong; Xi, Beidou; Gao, Rutai; Mao, Xuhui; Huang, Caihong; Zhang, Hui; Li, Dan; Liang, Qiong; Cui, Dongyu; Alshawabkeh, Akram N.

    2016-08-01

    The use of wastewater irrigation for food crops can lead to presence of bioavailable phthalic acid esters (PAEs) in soils, which increase the potential for human exposure and adverse carcinogenic and non-cancer health effects. This study presents the first investigation of the occurrence and distribution of PAEs in a maize-wheat double-cropping system in a wastewater-irrigated area in the North China Plain. PAE levels in maize and wheat were found to be mainly attributed to PAE stores in soil coarse (250-2000 μm) and fine sand (53-250 μm) fractions. Soil particle-size fractions with higher bioavailability (i.e., coarse and fine sands) showed greater influence on PAE congener bioconcentration factors compared to PAE molecular structures for both maize and wheat tissues. More PAEs were allocated to maize and wheat grains with increased soil PAE storages from wastewater irrigation. Additional findings showed that levels of both non-cancer and carcinogenic risk for PAE congeners in wheat were higher than those in maize, suggesting that wheat food security should be prioritized. In conclusion, increased soil PAE concentrations specifically in maize and wheat grains indicate that wastewater irrigation can pose a contamination threat to food resources.

  13. Distribution patterns of phthalic acid esters in soil particle-size fractions determine biouptake in soil-cereal crop systems

    PubMed Central

    Tan, Wenbing; Zhang, Yuan; He, Xiaosong; Xi, Beidou; Gao, Rutai; Mao, Xuhui; Huang, Caihong; Zhang, Hui; Li, Dan; Liang, Qiong; Cui, Dongyu; Alshawabkeh, Akram N.

    2016-01-01

    The use of wastewater irrigation for food crops can lead to presence of bioavailable phthalic acid esters (PAEs) in soils, which increase the potential for human exposure and adverse carcinogenic and non-cancer health effects. This study presents the first investigation of the occurrence and distribution of PAEs in a maize-wheat double-cropping system in a wastewater-irrigated area in the North China Plain. PAE levels in maize and wheat were found to be mainly attributed to PAE stores in soil coarse (250–2000 μm) and fine sand (53–250 μm) fractions. Soil particle-size fractions with higher bioavailability (i.e., coarse and fine sands) showed greater influence on PAE congener bioconcentration factors compared to PAE molecular structures for both maize and wheat tissues. More PAEs were allocated to maize and wheat grains with increased soil PAE storages from wastewater irrigation. Additional findings showed that levels of both non-cancer and carcinogenic risk for PAE congeners in wheat were higher than those in maize, suggesting that wheat food security should be prioritized. In conclusion, increased soil PAE concentrations specifically in maize and wheat grains indicate that wastewater irrigation can pose a contamination threat to food resources. PMID:27555553

  14. K0-Behavior of Normally Consolidated Fine-Grained Soils during One-Dimensional Secondary Compression Aging and the Quantitative Prediction of the Quasi-Preconsolidation Effect.

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1986-01-01

    Plastic Kaolinite and three Agsco novaculite, were allowed to age a minimum of 14 days under 2 tsf vertical stress while the Ko-condition was maintained and...16 3.1 Introduction ................................ 16 3.2 Edgar Plastic Kaolinite ....................... 17 3.3 Novaculite...system are provided. "’Six normally consolidated fine-grained specimens, three Edjar Plastic Kaolinite and three Agsco novaculite, were allowed to

  15. Space Weathering of Lunar Rocks and Regolith Grains

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Keller, L. P.

    2013-01-01

    The exposed surfaces of lunar soil grains and lunar rocks become modified and coated over time with a thin rind of material (patina) through complex interactions with the space environment. These interactions encompass many processes including micrometeorite impacts, vapor and melt deposition, and solar wind implantation/sputtering effects that collectively are referred to as "space weathering". Studies of space weathering effects in lunar soils and rocks provide important clues to understanding the origin and evolution of the lunar regolith as well as aiding in the interpretation of global chemical and mineralogical datasets obtained by remote-sensing missions. The interpretation of reflectance spectra obtained by these missions is complicated because the patina coatings obscure the underlying rock mineralogy and compositions. Much of our understanding of these processes and products comes from decades of work on remote-sensing observations of the Moon, the analysis of lunar samples, and laboratory experiments. Space weathering effects collectively result in a reddened continuum slope, lowered albedo, and attenuated absorption features in reflectance spectra of lunar soils as compared to finely comminuted rocks from the same Apollo sites. Space weathering effects are largely surface-correlated, concentrated in the fine size fractions, and occur as amorphous rims on individual soil grains. Rims on lunar soil grains are highly complex and span the range between erosional surfaces modified by solar wind irradiation to depositional surfaces modified by the condensation of sputtered ions and impact-generated vapors. The optical effects of space weathering effects are directly linked to the production of nanophase Fe metal in lunar materials]. The size of distribution of nanophase inclusions in the rims directly affect optical properties given that large Fe(sup o) grains (approx 10 nm and larger) darken the sample (lower albedo) while the tiny Fe(sup o) grains (<5nm

  16. Incorporation of Fine-Grained Sediment Erodibility Measurements into Sediment Transport Modeling, Capitol Lake, Washington

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stevens, Andrew W.; Gelfenbaum, Guy; Elias, Edwin; Jones, Craig

    2008-01-01

    Capitol Lake was created in 1951 with the construction of a concrete dam and control gate that prevented salt-water intrusion into the newly formed lake and regulated flow of the Deschutes River into southern Puget Sound. Physical processes associated with the former tidally dominated estuary were altered, and the dam structure itself likely caused an increase in retention of sediment flowing into the lake from the Deschutes River. Several efforts to manage sediment accumulation in the lake, including dredging and the construction of sediment traps upriver, failed to stop the lake from filling with sediment. The Deschutes Estuary Feasibility Study (DEFS) was carried out to evaluate the possibility of removing the dam and restoring estuarine processes as an alternative ongoing lake management. An important component of DEFS was the creation of a hydrodynamic and sediment transport model of the restored Deschutes Estuary. Results from model simulations indicated that estuarine processes would be restored under each of four restoration alternatives, and that over time, the restored estuary would have morphological features similar to the predam estuary. The model also predicted that after dam-removal, a large portion of the sediment eroded from the lake bottom would be deposited near the Port of Olympia and a marina located in lower Budd Inlet seaward of the present dam. The volume of sediment transported downstream was a critical piece of information that managers needed to estimate the total cost of the proposed restoration project. However, the ability of the model to predict the magnitude of sediment transport in general and, in particular, the volume of sediment deposition in the port and marina was limited by a lack of information on the erodibility of fine-grained sediments in Capitol Lake. Cores at several sites throughout Capitol Lake were collected between October 31 and November 1, 2007. The erodibility of sediments in the cores was later determined in the

  17. Geochemical evidence for the provenance of aeolian deposits in the Qaidam Basin, Tibetan Plateau

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Du, Shisong; Wu, Yongqiu; Tan, Lihua

    2018-06-01

    The main purpose of this study is to analyse the material source of different grain-size components of dune sand in the Qaidam Basin. We determined the trace and rare earth element (REE) compositions and Sr-Nd isotopic compositions of the coarse (75-500 μm) and fine (<75 μm) fractions of surface sediment samples. The comparison of the immobile trace element and REE compositions, Sr-Nd isotopic compositions and multidimensional scaling (MDS) results of the dune sands with those of different types of sediments in potential source areas revealed the following information. (1) The fine- and coarse-grained fractions of dune sands in the Qaidam Basin exhibit distinctly different elemental concentrations, elemental patterns and characteristic parameters of REE. Moreover, Sr-Nd isotopic differences also exist between different grain-size fractions of aeolian sand, which means that different grain-size fractions of these dune sands have different source areas. (2) The geochemical characteristics of the coarse particles of dune sand exhibit obvious regional heterogeneity and generally record a local origin derived from local fluvial sediments and alluvial/proluvial sediments. The coarse- and fine-grained dune sand in the southern Qaidam Basin mainly came from Kunlun Mountains, whereas the coarse- and fine-grained dune sand in the northeastern Qaidam Basin mainly came from Qilian Mountains. (3) The fine-grained fractions of sediments throughout the entire Qaidam Basin may have been affected by the input of foreign materials from the Tarim Basin.

  18. Diffusional creep of fine-grained olivine aggregates: Chemical and melt effects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yabe, K.; Hiraga, T.

    2017-12-01

    Since olivine is the major constituent mineral of the earth's upper mantle, flow properties of the upper mantle are often estimated based on flow laws of olivine aggregate which are determined by high-temperature creep experiments. Recently, Miyazaki et al. (2013) showed that crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) which has been interpreted as the main cause for seismic wave anisotropy in mantle asthenosphere could be formed in diffusional creep regime. The detail of diffusional creep of olivine aggregates is not clear yet. The strength of olivine aggregates synthesized using sol-gel method (Faul and Jackson 2007) was more than one order of magnitude harder in viscosity than those synthesized from natural mantle rocks (Hirth and Kohlstedt 1995, Hansen et al. 2011) even at the same experimental conditions. This discrepancy can be interpreted by a presence of melt and/or impurity. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of chemical composition and presence of the melt phase on the creep properties of olivine aggregates. At first, Fe-bearing olivine aggregates were prepared by vacuum sintering of nano-sized olivine powder synthesized from highly pure and fine-grained (<100 nm) source powders. Samples with and without dopants of Al2O3 and CaO were prepared. Then uniaxial compression tests at 1 atm were conducted. Deformation experiments showed that all the samples were deformed by diffusional creep mechanism. Both doped and non-doped samples exhibited sample strength at low temperature (=1150˚C), while the doped sample became significantly weaker with showing higher temperature sensitivity compared to non-doped samples at higher temperature. The temperature sensitivity of doped samples didn't change below and above solidus, which indicate the weakening due to chemical effect, not by the melting. Non-doped samples exhibits essentially the same strength as olivine aggregates synthesized from sol-gel method (Faul and Jackson 2007), while doped sample is

  19. Characterization of Ultra-fine Grained and Nanocrystalline Materials Using Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction

    PubMed Central

    Proust, Gwénaëlle; Trimby, Patrick; Piazolo, Sandra; Retraint, Delphine

    2017-01-01

    One of the challenges in microstructure analysis nowadays resides in the reliable and accurate characterization of ultra-fine grained (UFG) and nanocrystalline materials. The traditional techniques associated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), such as electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), do not possess the required spatial resolution due to the large interaction volume between the electrons from the beam and the atoms of the material. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has the required spatial resolution. However, due to a lack of automation in the analysis system, the rate of data acquisition is slow which limits the area of the specimen that can be characterized. This paper presents a new characterization technique, Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction (TKD), which enables the analysis of the microstructure of UFG and nanocrystalline materials using an SEM equipped with a standard EBSD system. The spatial resolution of this technique can reach 2 nm. This technique can be applied to a large range of materials that would be difficult to analyze using traditional EBSD. After presenting the experimental set up and describing the different steps necessary to realize a TKD analysis, examples of its use on metal alloys and minerals are shown to illustrate the resolution of the technique and its flexibility in term of material to be characterized. PMID:28447998

  20. Characterization of Ultra-fine Grained and Nanocrystalline Materials Using Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction.

    PubMed

    Proust, Gwénaëlle; Trimby, Patrick; Piazolo, Sandra; Retraint, Delphine

    2017-04-01

    One of the challenges in microstructure analysis nowadays resides in the reliable and accurate characterization of ultra-fine grained (UFG) and nanocrystalline materials. The traditional techniques associated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), such as electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), do not possess the required spatial resolution due to the large interaction volume between the electrons from the beam and the atoms of the material. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has the required spatial resolution. However, due to a lack of automation in the analysis system, the rate of data acquisition is slow which limits the area of the specimen that can be characterized. This paper presents a new characterization technique, Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction (TKD), which enables the analysis of the microstructure of UFG and nanocrystalline materials using an SEM equipped with a standard EBSD system. The spatial resolution of this technique can reach 2 nm. This technique can be applied to a large range of materials that would be difficult to analyze using traditional EBSD. After presenting the experimental set up and describing the different steps necessary to realize a TKD analysis, examples of its use on metal alloys and minerals are shown to illustrate the resolution of the technique and its flexibility in term of material to be characterized.

  1. Grain-Scale Analyses of Curiosity Data at Marias Pass, Gale Crater, Mars: Methods Comparison and Depositional Interpretation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sacks, L. E.; Edgar, L. A.; Edwards, C. S.; Anderson, R. B.

    2016-12-01

    Images acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and the ChemCam Remote Micro Imager (RMI) onboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover provide grain-scale data that are critical for interpreting sedimentary deposits. At the location informally known as Marias Pass, Curiosity used both cameras to image the nine rock targets used in this study. We used manual point-counts to measure grain size distributions from those images to compare the abilities of the two cameras. The manually derived results were compared to automated grain size data obtained using pyDGS (Digital Grain Size), an open-source python program. Grain size analyses were used to test the lacustrine and aeolian depositional hypotheses for the Murray and Stimson formations at Marias Pass. Results indicate that the MAHLI and RMI instruments, despite their different fields of view and properties, provide comparable grain size measurements. Additionally, pyDGS does not account for grains smaller than a few pixels and thus does not report representative grain size data and should not be used on images with a large fraction of unresolved grains. Finally, the data collected at Marias Pass are consistent with the existing interpretations of the Murray and Stimson formations. The fine-grained results of the Murray formation analyses support lacustrine deposition, while the mean grain size of the Stimson formation is fine to medium sized sand, consistent with aeolian deposition. However, directly above the contact with the Murray formation, larger rip-up clasts of the Murray formation are present in the Stimson formation. It is possible that water was involved at this stage of erosion and re-deposition, prior to aeolian deposition. Additionally, the grain-scale analyses conducted in this study show that the Dust Removal Tool on Curiosity should be used prior to capturing images for grain-scale analysis. Two images of the target informally named Ronan, taken before and after brushing, resulted

  2. Microstructure of warm rolling and pearlitic transformation of ultrafine-grained GCr15 steel

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

    Sun, Jun-Jie; Lian, Fu-Liang; Liu, Hong-Ji

    2014-09-15

    Pearlitic transformation mechanisms have been investigated in ultra-fine grained GCr15 steel. The ultrafine-grained steel, whose grain size was less than 1 μm, was prepared by thermo-mechanical treatment at 873 K and then annealing at 923 K for 2 h. Pearlitic transformation was conducted by reheating the ultra-fine grained samples at 1073 K and 1123 K for different periods of time and then cooling in air. Scanning electron microscope observation shows that normal lamellar pearlite, instead of granular cementite and ferrite, cannot be formed when the grain size is approximately less than 4(± 0.6) μm, which yields a critical grain sizemore » for normal lamellar pearlitic transformations in this chromium alloyed steel. The result confirms that grain size has a great influence on pearlitic transformation by increasing the diffusion rate of carbon atoms in the ultra-fine grained steel, and the addition of chromium element doesn't change this pearlitic phase transformation rule. Meanwhile, the grain growth rate is reduced by chromium alloying, which is beneficial to form fine grains during austenitizing, thus it facilitating pearlitic transformation by divorced eutectoid transformation. Moreover, chromium element can form a relatively high gradient in the frontier of the undissolved carbide, which promotes carbide formation in the frontier of the undissolved carbide, i.e., chromium promotes divorced eutectoid transformation. - Highlights: • Ultrafine-grained GCr15 steel was obtained by warm rolling and annealing technology. • Reduction of grain size makes pearlite morphology from lamellar to granular. • Adding Cr does not change normal pearlitic phase transformation rule in UFG steel. • Cr carbide resists grain growth and facilitates pearlitic transformation by DET.« less

  3. The impact of changes in the rheological parameters of fine-grained hydromixtures on the efficiency of a selected industrial gravitational hydraulic transport system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Popczyk, Marcin

    2017-11-01

    Polish hard coal mines commonly use hydromixtures in their fire prevention practices. The mixtures are usually prepared based on mass-produced power production wastes, namely the ashes resulting from power production [1]. Such hydromixtures are introduced to the caving area which is formed due to the advancement of a longwall. The first part of the article presents theoretical fundamentals of determining the parameters of gravitational hydraulic transport of water and ash hydromixtures used in the mining pipeline systems. Each hydromixture produced based on fine-grained wastes is characterized by specified rheological parameters that have a direct impact on the future flow parameters of a given pipeline system. Additionally, the gravitational character of the hydraulic transport generates certain limitations concerning the so-called correct hydraulic profile of the system in relation to the applied hydromixture characterized by required rheological parameters that should ensure safe flow at a correct efficiency [2]. The paper includes an example of a gravitational hydraulic transport system and an assessment of the correctness of its hydraulic profile as well as the assessment of the impact of rheological parameters of fine-grained hydromixtures (water and ash) produced based on laboratory tests, depending on the specified flow parameters (efficiency) of the hydromixture in the analyzed system.

  4. Ultrafine-grained mineralogy and matrix chemistry of olivine-rich chondritic interplanetary dust particles

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Rietmeijer, F. J. M.

    1989-01-01

    Olivine-rich chondritic interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) are an important subset of fluffy chondritic IDPs collected in the earth's stratosphere. Particles in this subset are characterized by a matrix of nonporous, ultrafine-grained granular units. Euhedral single crystals, crystals fragments, and platey single crystals occur dispersed in the matrix. Analytical electron microscopy of granular units reveals predominant magnesium-rich olivines and FeNi-sulfides embedded in amorphous carbonaceous matrix material. The variable ratio of ultrafine-grained minerals vs. carbonaceous matrix material in granular units support variable C/Si ratios, and some fraction of sulfur is associated with carbonaceous matrix material. The high Mg/(Mg+Fe) ratios in granular units is similar to this distribution in P/Comet Halley dust. The chondritic composition of fine-grained, polycrystalline IDPs gradually breaks down into nonchondritic, and ultimately, single mineral compositions as a function of decreased particle mass. The relationship between particle mass and composition in the matrix of olivine-rich chondritic IDPs is comparable with the relationship inferred for P/Comet Halley dust.

  5. Influence of synthetic calcium silicates on the strength properties of fine-grained concrete

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yarusova, S. B.; Gordienko, P. S.; Kozin, A. V.; Zhevtun, I. G.; Perfilev, A. V.

    2018-04-01

    The effect of additives based on acicular calcium hydrosilicates (xonotlite and tobermorite) and wollastonite, obtained from boric acid production waste in autoclave synthesis at a temperature of 220 °C, on the strength of fine-grained concrete, has been studied in this paper. It was shown that when the calcium hydrosilicates and wollastonite are introduced, an increase in the strength characteristics of concrete is observed. After heat and moisture treatment, the maximum increase in strength is observed with the addition of 4% of mass content of calcium hydrosilicates and 6% of mass content of wollastonite. After 28 days of hardening under normal conditions, the maximum increase in strength of concrete is observed with the addition of 4% of mass content of both types of additives. It was shown that the water absorption of concrete decreases with a maximum when 4% of mass content is added, as in the case of the introduction of calcium hydrosilicates, and wollastonite. With a further increase in the number of additives, the amount of water absorption increases, but these values remain below the values for the control sample without additives.

  6. Toolbox for Research and Exploration (TREX): Investigations of Fine-Grained Materials on Small Bodies

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Domingue, D. L.; Allain, J.-P.; Banks, M.; Christoffersen, R.; Cintala, M.; Clark, R.; Cloutis, E.; Graps, A.; Hendrix, A. R.; Hsieh, H.; hide

    2018-01-01

    The Toolbox for Research and Exploration (TREX) is a NASA SSERVI (Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute) node. TREX (trex.psi.edu) aims to decrease risk to future missions, specifically to the Moon, the Martian moons, and near- Earth asteroids, by improving mission success and assuring the safety of astronauts, their instruments, and spacecraft. TREX studies will focus on characteristics of the fine grains that cover the surfaces of these target bodies - their spectral characteristics and the potential resources (such as H2O) they may harbor. TREX studies are organized into four Themes (Laboratory- Studies, Moon-Studies, Small-Bodies Studies, and Field-Work). In this presentation, we focus on the work targeted by the Small-Bodies Theme. The Small-Bodies' Theme delves into several topics, many which overlap or are synergistic with the other TREX Themes. The main topics include photometry, spectral modeling, laboratory simulations of space weathering processes relevant to asteroids, the assembly of an asteroid regolith database, the dichotomy between nuclear and reflectance spectroscopy, and the dynamical evolution of asteroids and the implications for the retention of volatiles.

  7. Acoustics of marine sediment under compaction: binary grain-size model and viscoelastic extension of Biot's theory.

    PubMed

    Leurer, Klaus C; Brown, Colin

    2008-04-01

    This paper presents a model of acoustic wave propagation in unconsolidated marine sediment, including compaction, using a concept of a simplified sediment structure, modeled as a binary grain-size sphere pack. Compressional- and shear-wave velocities and attenuation follow from a combination of Biot's model, used as the general framework, and two viscoelastic extensions resulting in complex grain and frame moduli, respectively. An effective-grain model accounts for the viscoelasticity arising from local fluid flow in expandable clay minerals in clay-bearing sediments. A viscoelastic-contact model describes local fluid flow at the grain contacts. Porosity, density, and the structural Biot parameters (permeability, pore size, structure factor) as a function of pressure follow from the binary model, so that the remaining input parameters to the acoustic model consist solely of the mass fractions and the known mechanical properties of each constituent (e.g., carbonates, sand, clay, and expandable clay) of the sediment, effective pressure, or depth, and the environmental parameters (water depth, salinity, temperature). Velocity and attenuation as a function of pressure from the model are in good agreement with data on coarse- and fine-grained unconsolidated marine sediments.

  8. Distribution and grain-size partitioning of metals in bovfom sediments of an experimentally acidified Wisconsin lake

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Elder, John F.

    2007-01-01

    A study of concentrations and distribution of major and trace elements in surficial bottom sediments of Little Rock Lake in northern Wisconsin included examination of spatial variation and grain-size effects. No significant differences with respect to metal distribution in sediments were observed between the two basins of the lake, despite the experimental acidification of one of the basins from pH 6.1 to 4.6. The concentrations of most elements in the lake sediments were generally similar to soil concentrations in the area and were well below sediment quality criteria. Two exceptions were lead and zinc, whose concentrations in July 1990 exceeded the criteria of 50 μg/g and 100 μg/g, respectively, in both littoral and pelagic sediments. Concentrations of some elements, particularly Cu, Pb, and Zn, increased along transects from nearshore to midlake, following a similar gradient of sedimentary organic carbon. In contrast, Mn, Fe, and alkali/alkaline-earth elements were at maximum concentrations in nearshore sediments. These elements are less likely to partition to organic particles, and their distribution is more dependent on mineralogical composition, grain size, and other factors. Element concentrations varied among different sediment grain-size fractions, although a simple inverse relation to grain size was not observed. Fe, Mn, Pb, and Zn were more concentrated in a grain-size range 20–60 tm than in either the very fine or the coarse fractions, possibly because of the aggregation of smaller particles cemented together by organic and Fe/Mn hydrous-oxide coatings.

  9. Air classification: Potential treatment method for optimized recycling or utilization of fine-grained air pollution control residues obtained from dry off-gas cleaning high-temperature processing systems.

    PubMed

    Lanzerstorfer, Christof

    2015-11-01

    In the dust collected from the off-gas of high-temperature processes, usually components that are volatile at the process temperature are enriched. In the recycling of the dust, the concentration of these volatile components is frequently limited to avoid operation problems. Also, for external utilization the concentration of such volatile components, especially heavy metals, is often restricted. The concentration of the volatile components is usually higher in the fine fractions of the collected dust. Therefore, air classification is a potential treatment method to deplete the coarse material from these volatile components by splitting off a fines fraction with an increased concentration of those volatile components. In this work, the procedure of a sequential classification using a laboratory air classifier and the calculations required for the evaluation of air classification for a certain application were demonstrated by taking the example of a fly ash sample from a biomass combustion plant. In the investigated example, the Pb content in the coarse fraction could be reduced to 60% by separation of 20% fines. For the non-volatile Mg the content was almost constant. It can be concluded that air classification is an appropriate method for the treatment of off-gas cleaning residues. © The Author(s) 2015.

  10. Release of small phenolic compounds from brewer's spent grain and its lignin fractions by human intestinal microbiota in vitro.

    PubMed

    Aura, Anna-Marja; Niemi, Piritta; Mattila, Ismo; Niemelä, Klaus; Smeds, Annika; Tamminen, Tarja; Faulds, Craig; Buchert, Johanna; Poutanen, Kaisa

    2013-10-09

    Brewer's spent grain (BSG), the major side-stream from brewing, is rich in protein, lignin, and nonstarch polysaccharides. Lignin is a polyphenolic macromolecule considered resilient toward breakdown and utilization by colon microbiota, although some indications of release of small phenolic components from lignin in animals have been shown. The aim of this study was to investigate if the human intestinal microbiota can release lignans and small phenolic compounds from whole BSG, a lignin-enriched insoluble fraction from BSG and a deferuloylated fraction, in a metabolic in vitro colon model. The formation of short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) was also investigated. More lignin-related monomers and dilignols were detected from the lignin-enriched fraction than from BSG or deferuloylated BSG. SCFA formation was not suppressed by any of the fractions. It was shown that small lignin-like compounds were released from these samples in the in vitro colon model, originating most likely from lignin.

  11. Effects of salinity and particle concentration on sediment hydrodynamics and critical bed-shear-stress for erosion of fine grained sediments used in wetland restoration projects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ghose-Hajra, M.; McCorquodale, A.; Mattson, G.; Jerolleman, D.; Filostrat, J.

    2015-03-01

    Sea-level rise, the increasing number and intensity of storms, oil and groundwater extraction, and coastal land subsidence are putting people and property at risk along Louisiana's coast, with major implications for human safety and economic health of coastal areas. A major goal towards re-establishing a healthy and sustainable coastal ecosystem has been to rebuild Louisiana's disappearing wetlands with fine grained sediments that are dredged or diverted from nearby rivers, channels and lakes to build land in open water areas. A thorough geo-hydrodynamic characterization of the deposited sediments is important in the correct design and a more realistic outcome assessment of the long-term performance measures for ongoing coastal restoration projects. This paper evaluates the effects of salinity and solid particle concentration on the re-suspension characteristics of fine-grained dredged sediments obtained from multiple geographic locations along the Gulf coast. The critical bed-shear-stress for erosion has been evaluated as a function of sedimentation time. The sediment hydrodynamic properties obtained from the laboratory testing were used in a numerical coastal sediment distribution model to aid in evaluating sediment diversions from the Mississippi River into Breton Sound and Barataria Bay.

  12. Free Enthalpy Differences between α-, π-, and 310-Helices of an Atomic Level Fine-Grained Alanine Deca-Peptide Solvated in Supramolecular Coarse-Grained Water.

    PubMed

    Lin, Zhixiong; Riniker, Sereina; van Gunsteren, Wilfred F

    2013-03-12

    Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations of peptides or proteins in aqueous solution are still limited to the multi-nanosecond time scale and multi-nanometer range by computational cost. Combining atomic solutes with a supramolecular solvent model in hybrid fine-grained/coarse-grained (FG/CG) simulations allows atomic detail in the region of interest while being computationally more efficient. We used enveloping distribution sampling (EDS) to calculate the free enthalpy differences between different helical conformations, i.e., α-, π-, and 310-helices, of an atomic level FG alanine deca-peptide solvated in a supramolecular CG water solvent. The free enthalpy differences obtained show that by replacing the FG solvent by the CG solvent, the π-helix is destabilized with respect to the α-helix by about 2.5 kJ mol(-1), and the 310-helix is stabilized with respect to the α-helix by about 9 kJ mol(-1). In addition, the dynamics of the peptide becomes faster. By introducing a FG water layer of 0.8 nm around the peptide, both thermodynamic and dynamic properties are recovered, while the hybrid FG/CG simulations are still four times more efficient than the atomistic simulations, even when the cutoff radius for the nonbonded interactions is increased from 1.4 to 2.0 nm. Hence, the hybrid FG/CG model, which yields an appropriate balance between reduced accuracy and enhanced computational speed, is very suitable for molecular dynamics simulation investigations of biomolecules.

  13. Fine-grained BaZr0.2Ti0.8O3 thin films for tunable device applications

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ying, Z.; Yun, P.; Wang, D. Y.; Zhou, X. Y.; Song, Z. T.; Feng, S. L.; Wang, Y.; Chan, H. L. W.

    2007-04-01

    A study of the structure and in-plane dielectric properties of BaZr0.2Ti0.8O3 thin film epitaxially grown on (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2AlTaO6)0.35 (001) single-crystal substrates through pulsed-laser deposition has been carried out. X-ray diffraction measurements revealed a good crystallinity and tensile in-plane stress in the film. Fine grains with an average size of ˜20 nm were observed using atomic force microscopy. Curie temperature of the film was found to be ˜120 °C, which is 100 °C higher than that of the ceramic. Butterfly-shaped C-V curve confirmed the in-plane ferroelectric state in the film. A large dielectric tunability of ˜50% was found in the film.

  14. Transitional grain-size-sensitive flow of milky quartz aggregates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fukuda, J. I.; Holyoke, C. W., III; Kronenberg, A. K.

    2014-12-01

    Fine-grained (~15 μm) milky quartz aggregates exhibit reversible flow strengths in triaxial compression experiments conducted at T = 800-900oC, Pc = 1.5 GPa when strain rates are sequentially decreased (typically from 10-3.5 to 10-4.5 and 10-5.5 s-1), and then returned to the original rate (10-3.5 s-1), while samples that experience grain growth at 1000oC (to 35 μm) over the same sequence of strain rates exhibit an irreversible increase in strength. Polycrystalline quartz aggregates have been synthesized from natural milky quartz powders (ground to 5 μm) by HIP methods at T = 1000oC, Pc = 1.5 GPa and t = 24 hours, resulting in dense, fine-grained aggregates of uniform water content of ~4000 ppm (H/106Si), as indicated by a broad OH absorption band at 3400 cm-1. In experiments performed at 800o and 900oC, grain sizes of the samples are essentially constant over the duration of each experiment, though grain shapes change significantly, and undulatory extinction and deformation lamellae indicate that much of the sample shortening (to 50%) is accomplished, over the four strain-rate steps, by dislocation creep. Differential stresses measured at T = 800oC decrease from 160 to 30 MPa as strain rate is reduced from 10-4.6 to 10-5.5 s-1, and a stress of 140 MPa is measured when strain rate is returned to 10-4.5 s-1. Samples deformed at 1000o and 1100oC experience normal grain growth, with grain boundary energy-driven grain-coarsening textures superposed by undulatory extinction and deformation lamellae. Differential stresses measured at 1000oC and strain rates of 10-3.6, 10-4.6, and 10-5.5 s-1 are 185, 80, and 80 MPa, respectively, while an increased flow stress of 260 MPa is measured (following ~28 hours of prior high temperature deformation and grain growth) when strain rate is returned to 10-3.6 s-1. While all samples exhibit lattice preferred orientations, the stress exponent n inferred for the fine-grained 800oC sample is 1.5 and the stress exponent of the coarse-grained

  15. Submicrometer Organic Grains: Widespread Constituents of the Early Solar System

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Messenger, Scott; Nakamuri-Messenger, Keiko; Keller, Lindsay; Matrajt, Graciela; Clemett, Simon; Ito, Motoo

    2007-01-01

    Primitive meteorites and interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) contain remants of interstellar organic matter, marked by anomalous H and N isotopic ratios. These isotopic anomalies are attributed to mass fractionation during chemical reactions at cryogenic temperatures (10-100K) in a cold molecular cloud. Significant variations in the chemistry and isotopic compositions of organic compounds within and between these samples suggest varying histories of alteration and dilution of the presolar components. Recent studies have reported large H and N isotopic anomalies preserved in sub-m organic inclusions in both meteorites and IDPs. In the Tagish Lake meteorite, the largest H and N isotopic anomalies are associated with sub-m, hollow organic globules. The common physical, chemical, and isotopic characteristics of these globules suggest that they formed before being incorporated into their parent meteorite. These organic globules probably originated as organic ice coatings that formed on preexisting ice or mineral grains in a cold molecular cloud. Radiation driven photochemistry may have processed them into refractory organic grains. This model implies that submicrometer organic grains were widely distributed throughout the solar nebula during the epoch of planet formation. Submicrometer organic particles were detected by the Giotto and Vega encounters with comet Halley, termed CHON particles based on their major element chemistry. The first direct samples of cometary dust (comet Wild-2) were returned by the Stardust spacecraft in January 2006. These samples exhibit widely varying, fine grained mineralogy similar to anhydrous IDPs, including submicrometer carbonaceous grains. The submicrometer organic grains from comet Wild-2 exhibit H and N isotopic anomalies of similar magnitude to those commonly observed in primitive meteorites and IDPs. Isotopically anomalous, submicrometer organic grains have now been observed in meteorites, IDPs, the Oort-cloud comet Halley, and

  16. A magmatic-hydrothermal lacustrine exhalite from the Permian Lucaogou Formation, Santanghu Basin, NW China - The volcanogenic origin of fine-grained clastic sedimentary rocks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jiao, Xin; Liu, Yiqun; Yang, Wan; Zhou, Dingwu; Li, Hong; Nan, Yun; Jin, Mengqi

    2018-05-01

    Shales in the middle Permian Lucaogou Formation in the intracontinental Santanghu rift basin have been considered as "typical" organic-rich profundal shales for decades. Our study of well cores using petrographic microscope and scanning electron microscopy suggests an otherwise complex hydrovolcanic and hydrothermal origin. This paper describes characteristics of a particular type of the shales, composed of fine-grained detrital minerals and lithic grains. Some of them are orthopyroxene, calcite, peralkaline feldspars, and analcime that are interpreted as derived from peralkaline-alkaline carbonatite, pyroxenite, analcime phonolite, and andesite, whereas others are quartz, dolomite, ankerite, serpentine, and calcite that were precipitated from syndepositional or penecontemporary hydrothermal fluids. Grain size ranges from 0.001 to 2 mm, mostly 0.01-0.1 mm. Well-developed laminae are mostly 0.5-3 mm thick and alternate with tuffaceous dolomicrite. The rocks are interpreted as sublacustrine hydrovolcanic deposits, which had been altered by syndepositional hydrothermal fluids. The interpretation is substantiated by abundant cone-shaped stratigraphic buildups on seismic sections in the basin. This study shows an ancient example of volcanic-hydrothermal deposits in a rift basin.

  17. The influence of fine aggregates on the 3D printing performance

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lin, J. C.; Wu, X.; Yang, W.; Zhao, R. X.; Qiao, L. G.

    2018-01-01

    Influences of nature Particle, size, grain shape and fineness modulus of fine aggregates on the 3D printing performance of cement-based mortar were investigated. Results showed that the working performance of the mortar is not only dependent on the fineness of the aggregate, but also the gradation and grain size of the aggregate. And the mechanical properties of the mortar are increasing with the increase of Mx in the same test condition. The research shows that it is effective to choose different properties of materials for different design requirements, and the fluidity of mortar must be decreased under assuring construction quality and the pumpability of 3D printing materials.

  18. Grain-size-induced weakening of H2O ices I and II and associated anisotropic recrystallization

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Stern, L.A.; Durham, W.B.; Kirby, S.H.

    1997-01-01

    Grain-size-dependent flow mechanisms tend to be favored over dislocation creep at low differential stresses and can potentially influence the rheology of low-stress, low-strain rate environments such as those of planetary interiors. We experimentally investigated the effect of reduced grain size on the solid-state flow of water ice I, a principal component of the asthenospheres of many icy moons of the outer solar system, using techniques new to studies of this deformation regime. We fabricated fully dense ice samples of approximate grain size 2 ?? 1 ??m by transforming "standard" ice I samples of 250 ?? 50 ??m grain size to the higher-pressure phase ice II, deforming them in the ice II field, and then rapidly releasing the pressure deep into the ice I stability field. At T ??? 200 K, slow growth and rapid nucleation of ice I combine to produce a fine grain size. Constant-strain rate deformation tests conducted on these samples show that deformation rates are less stress sensitive than for standard ice and that the fine-grained material is markedly weaker than standard ice, particularly during the transient approach to steady state deformation. Scanning electron microscope examination of the deformed fine-grained ice samples revealed an unusual microstructure dominated by platelike grains that grew normal to the compression direction, with c axes preferentially oriented parallel to compression. In samples tested at T ??? 220 K the elongation of the grains is so pronounced that the samples appear finely banded, with aspect ratios of grains approaching 50:1. The anisotropic growth of these crystallographically oriented neoblasts likely contributes to progressive work hardening observed during the transient stage of deformation. We have also documented remarkably similar microstructural development and weak mechanical behavior in fine-grained ice samples partially transformed and deformed in the ice II field.

  19. Fine Sediment Residency in Streambeds in Southeastern Australia.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Croke, J. C.; Thompson, C. J.; Rhodes, E.

    2007-12-01

    A detailed understanding of channel forming and maintenance processes in streams requires some measurement and/or prediction of bed load transport and sediment mobility. Traditional field based measurements of such processes are often problematic due to the high discharge characteristics of upland streams. In part to compensate for such difficulties, empirical flow competence equations have also been developed to predict armour or bedform stabilising grain mobility. These equations have been applied to individual reaches to predict the entrainment of a threshold grain size and the vertical extent of flushing. In cobble- and boulder-bed channels the threshold grain size relates to the size of the bedform stabilising grains (eg. D84, D90). This then allows some prediction of when transport of the matrix material occurs. The application of Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating is considered here as an alternative and innovative way to determine fine sediment residency times in stream beds. Age estimates derived from the technique are used to assist in calibrating sediment entrainment models to specific channel types and hydrological regimes. The results from a one-dimensional HEC-RAS model indicate that recurrence interval floods exceeding bankfull up to 13 years are competent to mobilise the maximum overlying surface grain sizes at the sites. OSL minimum age model results of well bleached quartz in the fine matrix particles are in general agreement with selected competence equation predictions. The apparent long (100-1400y) burial age of most of the mineral quartz suggests that competent flows are not able to flush all subsurface fine-bed material. Maximum bed load exchange (flushing) depth was limited to twice the depth of the overlying D90 grain size. Application of OSL in this study provides important insight into the nature of matrix material storage and flushing in mountain streams.

  20. Effect of Bimodal Grain Size Distribution on Scatter in Toughness

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chakrabarti, Debalay; Strangwood, Martin; Davis, Claire

    2009-04-01

    Blunt-notch tests were performed at -160 °C to investigate the effect of a bimodal ferrite grain size distribution in steel on cleavage fracture toughness, by comparing local fracture stress values for heat-treated microstructures with uniformly fine, uniformly coarse, and bimodal grain structures. An analysis of fracture stress values indicates that bimodality can have a significant effect on toughness by generating high scatter in the fracture test results. Local cleavage fracture values were related to grain size distributions and it was shown that the largest grains in the microstructure, with an area percent greater than approximately 4 pct, gave rise to cleavage initiation. In the case of the bimodal grain size distribution, the large grains from both the “fine grain” and “coarse grain” population initiate cleavage; this spread in grain size values resulted in higher scatter in the fracture stress than in the unimodal distributions. The notch-bend test results have been used to explain the difference in scatter in the Charpy energies for the unimodal and bimodal ferrite grain size distributions of thermomechanically controlled rolled (TMCR) steel, in which the bimodal distribution showed higher scatter in the Charpy impact transition (IT) region.

  1. Geochemical and petrographical characterization of fine-grained carbonate particles along proximal to distal transects

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Turpin, Mélanie; Emmanuel, Laurent; Immenhauser, Adrian; Renard, Maurice

    2012-12-01

    The origin of carbonate ooze particles is often poorly understood. This is due to their polygenic origin and potential post-depositional alteration. Here, the outcome of a physical separation study with regard to different component classes of micritic carbonates is shown. The focus is on grain size and morphology, mineralogy and isotope signatures. Two contrasting proximal-to-distal transects were investigated: (1) the Miocene leeward margin of Great Bahama Bank (ODP Leg 166) and (2) the transition between the Maiella platform and the Umbria-Marche basin in central Italy near the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary. In both case settings, carbonate particles of biogenic origin include at least three groups of organisms: (i) planktonic foraminifera, (ii) calcareous nannofossils and (iii) fragments of unspecified neritic skeletal material. Two further particle types lack diagnostic structures, and based on particle size and mineralogy, are here referred to as (iv) macroparticles (5-20 μm, mainly xenomorphic) and (v) microparticles (< 12 μm, mainly automorphic to sub-automorphic). Macro- and microparticles represent 50 to 80% of the carbonate phase in slope and toe-of-slope domains and share characteristic carbon and oxygen isotope signatures. Macro- and microparticles are considered shallow-water precipitation products subsequently exported into the slope and toe-of-slope domains. Macroparticles are probably related to the fragmentation of neritic skeletal components while microparticles point to inorganic and/or bioinduced precipitation in the water column. In some cases, macro- and microparticles may have an early diagenetic origin. The identification of the origin of fine-grained particles allows for a quantitative assessment of exported, in situ and diagenetic carbonate materials in periplatform environments. The data shown here represent an important step towards a more complete characterization of carbonate ooze and micrite.

  2. AutoBD: Automated Bi-Level Description for Scalable Fine-Grained Visual Categorization.

    PubMed

    Yao, Hantao; Zhang, Shiliang; Yan, Chenggang; Zhang, Yongdong; Li, Jintao; Tian, Qi

    Compared with traditional image classification, fine-grained visual categorization is a more challenging task, because it targets to classify objects belonging to the same species, e.g. , classify hundreds of birds or cars. In the past several years, researchers have made many achievements on this topic. However, most of them are heavily dependent on the artificial annotations, e.g., bounding boxes, part annotations, and so on . The requirement of artificial annotations largely hinders the scalability and application. Motivated to release such dependence, this paper proposes a robust and discriminative visual description named Automated Bi-level Description (AutoBD). "Bi-level" denotes two complementary part-level and object-level visual descriptions, respectively. AutoBD is "automated," because it only requires the image-level labels of training images and does not need any annotations for testing images. Compared with the part annotations labeled by the human, the image-level labels can be easily acquired, which thus makes AutoBD suitable for large-scale visual categorization. Specifically, the part-level description is extracted by identifying the local region saliently representing the visual distinctiveness. The object-level description is extracted from object bounding boxes generated with a co-localization algorithm. Although only using the image-level labels, AutoBD outperforms the recent studies on two public benchmark, i.e. , classification accuracy achieves 81.6% on CUB-200-2011 and 88.9% on Car-196, respectively. On the large-scale Birdsnap data set, AutoBD achieves the accuracy of 68%, which is currently the best performance to the best of our knowledge.Compared with traditional image classification, fine-grained visual categorization is a more challenging task, because it targets to classify objects belonging to the same species, e.g. , classify hundreds of birds or cars. In the past several years, researchers have made many achievements on this topic

  3. Using vibrational molecular spectroscopy to reveal association of steam-flaking induced carbohydrates molecular structural changes with grain fractionation, biodigestion and biodegradation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Ningning; Liu, Jianxin; Yu, Peiqiang

    2018-04-01

    Advanced vibrational molecular spectroscopy has been developed as a rapid and non-destructive tool to reveal intrinsic molecular structure conformation of biological tissues. However, this technique has not been used to systematically study flaking induced structure changes at a molecular level. The objective of this study was to use vibrational molecular spectroscopy to reveal association between steam flaking induced CHO molecular structural changes in relation to grain CHO fractionation, predicted CHO biodegradation and biodigestion in ruminant system. The Attenuate Total Reflectance Fourier-transform Vibrational Molecular Spectroscopy (ATR-Ft/VMS) at SRP Key Lab of Molecular Structure and Molecular Nutrition, Ministry of Agriculture Strategic Research Chair Program (SRP, University of Saskatchewan) was applied in this study. The fractionation, predicted biodegradation and biodigestion were evaluated using the Cornell Net Carbohydrate Protein System. The results show that: (1) The steam flaking induced significant changes in CHO subfractions, CHO biodegradation and biodigestion in ruminant system. There were significant differences between non-processed (raw) and steam flaked grain corn (P < .01); (2) The ATR-Ft/VMS molecular technique was able to detect the processing induced CHO molecular structure changes; (3) Induced CHO molecular structure spectral features are significantly correlated (P < .05) to CHO subfractions, CHO biodegradation and biodigestion and could be applied to potentially predict CHO biodegradation (R2 = 0.87, RSD = 0.74, P < .01) and intestinal digestible undegraded CHO (R2 = 0.87, RSD = 0.24, P < .01). In summary, the processing induced molecular CHO structure changes in grain corn could be revealed by the ATR-Ft/VMS vibrational molecular spectroscopy. These molecular structure changes in grain were potentially associated with CHO biodegradation and biodigestion.

  4. Micromorphological features of the fine earth and skeletal fractions of soils of West Antarctica in the areas of Russian Antarctic stations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Abakumov, E. V.; Gagarina, E. I.; Sapega, V. F.; Vlasov, D. Yu.

    2013-12-01

    Micromorphological features of the fine earth and skeletal fractions of soils of West Antarctica forming under different conditions of pedogenesis have been studied in the areas of Russian Antarctic stations. The processes of mineral weathering and alteration of rock fragments are more pronounced in the Subantarctic soils with better developed humification and immobilization of iron compounds under conditions of surface overmoistening. The biogenic accumulative processes in the soils of King George Island result in the appearance of initial forms of humic plasma that have not been detected in the Antarctic soils in the areas of the Russkaya and Leningradskaya stations. Humus films on mineral grains are present in the soils of King George Island, and organic plasmic material is present in the ornithogenic soils under penguin guano on Lindsey Island. High-latitude Antarctic soils may contain surface concentrations of organic matter; rock fragments are covered by iron oxides and soluble salts. The formation of amorphous organic plasma takes place in the ornithogenic soils of Lindsey Island. The microprobe analysis indicates the presence of local concentrations of organic matter and pedogenic compounds not only on the surface of rock fragments but also in the fissures inside them. This analysis has also proved the translocation of guano-derived organic substances inside rock fragments through a system of fissures in the soils of Lindsey Island and the development of a network of pores inside rock fragments in the soils of King George Island.

  5. Perfluorinated surfactants (PFSs) in size-fractionated street dust in Tokyo.

    PubMed

    Murakami, Michio; Takada, Hideshige

    2008-11-01

    We investigated perfluorinated surfactants (PFSs) in size-fractionated street dust to identify their occurrence, contributions from traffic, and potential routes of entry into waters. Street dust was collected from residential areas and heavily trafficked areas in Tokyo and sorted into fine (<63 microm) and coarse fractions (63-2000 microm). Five PFS species were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry: perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), perfluorononanoate (PFNA), perfluorodecanoate (PFDA), and perfluoroundecanoate (PFUA). In fine fractions, PFS contents were significantly higher in heavily trafficked street dust than in residential street dust, but in coarse fractions, no significant differences were observed. Additionally, in heavily trafficked areas, PFS contents were significantly higher in fine fractions than in coarse fractions, but in residential areas, no significant differences were observed. PFS compositions differed between size fractions, not locations, indicating differences in sources between size fractions. Fine particles from traffic contributed to PFSs in street dust. Street dust possibly acts as the origin of PFSs in street runoff and eventually enters waters. This is the first report of PFSs in street dust.

  6. Limestone weathering rates accelerated by micron-scale grain detachment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Emmanuel, S.; Levenson, Y.

    2014-12-01

    The weathering rates of carbonate rocks is often thought to be controlled by chemical dissolution, although some studies have suggested that mechanical erosion could also play an important role. Quantifying the rates of the different processes has proved challenging due to the high degree of variability encountered in both field and lab settings. To determine the rates and mechanisms controlling long-term limestone weathering, we analyse a lidar scan of the Western Wall, a Roman period edifice located in Jerusalem. Weathering rates in fine-grained micritic limestone blocks are up to 2 orders of magnitude higher than the average rates estimated for coarse-grained limestone blocks at the same site. In addition, in experiments that use atomic force microscopy to image dissolving micritic limestone, we show that these higher reaction rates could be due to rapid dissolution along micron-scale grain boundaries, followed by mechanical detachment of tiny particles from the surface. Our analysis indicates that micron-scale grain detachment, rather than pure chemical dissolution, could be the dominant erosional mode for fine-grained rocks in many carbonate terrains.

  7. Spectral slope variations for OSIRIS-REx target Asteroid (101955) Bennu: Possible evidence for a fine-grained regolith equatorial ridge

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Binzel, Richard P.; DeMeo, Francesca E.; Burt, Brian J.; Cloutis, Edward A.; Rozitis, Ben; Burbine, Thomas H.; Campins, Humberto; Clark, Beth Ellen; Emery, Joshua P.; Hergenrother, Carl W.; Howell, Ellen S.; Lauretta, Dante S.; Nolan, Michael C.; Mansfield, Megan; Pietrasz, Valerie; Polishook, David; Scheeres, Daniel J.

    2015-08-01

    Ongoing spectroscopic reconnaissance of the OSIRIS-REx target Asteroid (101955) Bennu was performed in July 2011 and May 2012. Near-infrared spectra taken during these apparitions display slightly more positive ("redder") spectral slopes than most previously reported measurements. While observational systematic effects can produce such slope changes, and these effects cannot be ruled out, we entertain the hypothesis that the measurements are correct. Under this assumption, we present laboratory measurements investigating a plausible explanation that positive spectral slopes indicate a finer grain size for the most directly observed sub-Earth region on the asteroid. In all cases, the positive spectral slopes correspond to sub-Earth latitudes nearest to the equatorial ridge of Bennu. If confirmed by OSIRIS-REx in situ observations, one possible physical implication is that if the equatorial ridge is created by regolith migration during episodes of rapid rotation, that migration is most strongly dominated by finer grain material. Alternatively, after formation of the ridge (by regolith of any size distribution), larger-sized equatorial material may be more subject to loss due to centrifugal acceleration relative to finer grain material, where cohesive forces can preferentially retain the finest fraction (Rozitis, B., Maclennan, E., Emery, J.P. [2014]. Nature 512, 174-176).

  8. Fermentation and dry fractionation increase bioactivity of cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus).

    PubMed

    Puupponen-Pimiä, Riitta; Nohynek, Liisa; Juvonen, Riikka; Kössö, Tuija; Truchado, Pilar; Westerlund-Wikström, Benita; Leppänen, Tiina; Moilanen, Eeva; Oksman-Caldentey, Kirsi-Marja

    2016-04-15

    Phenolic composition and bioactivity of cloudberry was modified by bioprocessing, and highly bioactive fractions were produced by dry fractionation of the press cake. During fermentation polymeric ellagitannins were partly degraded into ellagic acid derivatives. Phenolic compounds were differentially distributed in seed coarse and fine fractions after dry fractionation process. Tannins concentrated in fine fraction, and flavonol derivatives were mainly found in coarse fraction. Ellagic acid derivatives were equally distributed between the dry fractions. Fermentation and dry fractionation increased statistically significantly anti-adhesion and anti-inflammatory activity of cloudberry. The seed fine fraction showed significant inhibition of P fimbria-mediated haemagglutination assay of uropathogenic Escherichia coli. The seed coarse fraction significantly reduced NO and IL-6 production and iNOS expression in activated macrophages. Fermentation did not affect antimicrobial activity, but slight increase in activity was detected in dry fractions. The results indicate the potential of cloudberry in pharma or health food applications. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Spin Testing of Superalloy Disks With Dual Grain Structure

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hefferman, Tab M.

    2006-01-01

    This 24-month program was a joint effort between Allison Advanced Development Company (AADC), General Electric Aircraft (GEAE), and NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC). AADC led the disk and spin hardware design and analysis utilizing existing Rolls-Royce turbine disk forging tooling. Testing focused on spin testing four disks: two supplied by GEAE and two by AADC. The two AADC disks were made of Alloy 10, and each was subjected to a different heat treat process: one producing dual microstructure with coarse grain size at the rim and fine grain size at the bore and the other produced single fine grain structure throughout. The purpose of the spin tests was to provide data for evaluation of the impact of dual grain structure on disk overspeed integrity (yielding) and rotor burst criteria. The program culminated with analysis and correlation of the data to current rotor overspeed criteria and advanced criteria required for dual structure disks.

  10. Anomalous D-Log E curve with high contrast developer Kodak D8 on ultra fine grain emulsion BB640.

    PubMed

    Ulibarrena, M; Mendez, M; Blaya, S; Fimia, A

    2001-12-03

    D-Log E curves, also known as H-D curves, are used since the XIX century as a tool for describing the characteristics of silver halide emulsions. This curve has a very standard shape, with a linear region, a toe, a shoulder and a solarization region. In this work we present a distortion of the usual curve due to the action of a high contrast developer, Kodak D8, on an ultra fine grain emulsion, BB640\\cite{ov04}. The solarization effect is replaced by a linear zone where developed densities increase with increasing exposures, until all silver halide present in the emulsion is reduced by developer D8 to metallic silver. Densities higher than 11 have been obtained.

  11. High hardness BaCb-(BxOy/BN) composites with 3D mesh-like fine grain-boundary structure by reactive spark plasma sintering.

    PubMed

    Vasylkiv, Oleg; Borodianska, Hanna; Badica, Petre; Grasso, Salvatore; Sakka, Yoshio; Tok, Alfred; Su, Liap Tat; Bosman, Michael; Ma, Jan

    2012-02-01

    Boron carbide B4C powders were subject to reactive spark plasma sintering (also known as field assisted sintering, pulsed current sintering or plasma assisted sintering) under nitrogen atmosphere. For an optimum hexagonal BN (h-BN) content estimated from X-ray diffraction measurements at approximately 0.4 wt%, the as-prepared BaCb-(BxOy/BN) ceramic shows values of Berkovich and Vickers hardness of 56.7 +/- 3.1 GPa and 39.3 +/- 7.6 GPa, respectively. These values are higher than for the vacuum SPS processed B4C pristine sample and the h-BN -mechanically-added samples. XRD and electronic microscopy data suggest that in the samples produced by reactive SPS in N2 atmosphere, and containing an estimated amount of 0.3-1.5% h-BN, the crystallite size of the boron carbide grains is decreasing with the increasing amount of N2, while for the newly formed lamellar h-BN the crystallite size is almost constant (approximately 30-50 nm). BN is located at the grain boundaries between the boron carbide grains and it is wrapped and intercalated by a thin layer of boron oxide. BxOy/BN forms a fine and continuous 3D mesh-like structure that is a possible reason for good mechanical properties.

  12. Remobilisation of phosphorus fractions in rice flag leaves during grain filling: Implications for photosynthesis and grain yields.

    PubMed

    Jeong, Kwanho; Julia, Cecile C; Waters, Daniel L E; Pantoja, Omar; Wissuwa, Matthias; Heuer, Sigrid; Liu, Lei; Rose, Terry J

    2017-01-01

    Phosphorus (P) is translocated from vegetative tissues to developing seeds during senescence in annual crop plants, but the impact of this P mobilisation on photosynthesis and plant performance is poorly understood. This study investigated rice (Oryza sativa L.) flag leaf photosynthesis and P remobilisation in a hydroponic study where P was either supplied until maturity or withdrawn permanently from the nutrient solution at anthesis, 8 days after anthesis (DAA) or 16 DAA. Prior to anthesis, plants received either the minimum level of P in nutrient solution required to achieve maximum grain yield ('adequate P treatment'), or received luxury levels of P in the nutrient solution ('luxury P treatment'). Flag leaf photosynthesis was impaired at 16 DAA when P was withdrawn at anthesis or 8 DAA under adequate P supply but only when P was withdrawn at anthesis under luxury P supply. Ultimately, reduced photosynthesis did not translate into grain yield reductions. There was some evidence plants remobilised less essential P pools (e.g. Pi) or replaceable P pools (e.g. phospholipid-P) prior to remobilisation of P in pools critical to leaf function such as nucleic acid-P and cytosolic Pi. Competition for P between vegetative tissues and developing grains can impair photosynthesis when P supply is withdrawn during early grain filling. A reduction in the P sink strength of grains by genetic manipulation may enable leaves to sustain high rates of photosynthesis until the later stages of grain filling.

  13. One-dimensional pore pressure diffusion of different grain-fluid mixtures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    von der Thannen, Magdalena; Kaitna, Roland

    2015-04-01

    During the release and the flow of fully saturated debris, non-hydrostatic fluid pressure can build up and probably dissipate during the event. This excess fluid pressure has a strong influence on the flow and deposition behaviour of debris flows. Therefore, we investigate the influence of mixture composition on the dissipation of non-hydrostatic fluid pressures. For this we use a cylindrical pipe of acrylic glass with installed pore water pressure sensors in different heights and measure the evolution of the pore water pressure over time. Several mixtures with variable content of fine sediment (silt and clay) and variable content of coarse sediment (with fixed relative fractions of grains between 2 and 32 mm) are tested. For the fines two types of clay (smectite and kaolinite) and loam (Stoober Lehm) are used. The analysis is based on the one-dimensional consolidation theory which uses a diffusion coefficient D to model the decay of excess fluid pressure over time. Starting from artificially induced super-hydrostatic fluid pressures, we find dissipation coefficients ranging from 10-5 m²/s for liquid mixtures to 10-8 m²/s for viscous mixtures. The results for kaolinite and smectite are quite similar. For our limited number of mixtures the effect of fines content is more pronounced than the effect of different amounts of coarse particles.

  14. Grain size-sensitive creep in ice II

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kubo, T.; Durham, W.B.; Stern, L.A.; Kirby, S.H.

    2006-01-01

    Rheological experiments on fine-grained water ice II at low strain rates reveal a creep mechanism that dominates at conditions of low stress. Using cryogenic scanning electron microscopy, we observed that a change in stress exponent from 5 to 2.5 correlates strongly with a decrease in grain size from about 40 to 6 micrometers. The grain size-sensitive creep of ice II demonstrated here plausibly dominates plastic strain at the low-stress conditions in the interior of medium- to large-sized icy moons of the outer solar system.

  15. Grain size-sensitive creep in ice II.

    PubMed

    Kubo, Tomoaki; Durham, William B; Stern, Laura A; Kirby, Stephen H

    2006-03-03

    Rheological experiments on fine-grained water ice II at low strain rates reveal a creep mechanism that dominates at conditions of low stress. Using cryogenic scanning electron microscopy, we observed that a change in stress exponent from 5 to 2.5 correlates strongly with a decrease in grain size from about 40 to 6 micrometers. The grain size-sensitive creep of ice II demonstrated here plausibly dominates plastic strain at the low-stress conditions in the interior of medium- to large-sized icy moons of the outer solar system.

  16. Improvement in plasma illumination properties of ultrananocrystalline diamond films by grain boundary engineering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sankaran, K. J.; Srinivasu, K.; Chen, H. C.; Dong, C. L.; Leou, K. C.; Lee, C. Y.; Tai, N. H.; Lin, I. N.

    2013-08-01

    Microstructural evolution of ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) films as a function of substrate temperature (TS) and/or by introducing H2 in Ar/CH4 plasma is investigated. Variation of the sp2 and sp3 carbon content is analyzed using UV-Raman and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectra. Morphological and microstructural studies confirm that films deposited using Ar/CH4 plasma at low TS consist of a random distribution of spherically shaped ultra-nano diamond grains with distinct sp2-bonded grain boundaries, which are attributed to the adherence of CH radicals to the nano-sized diamond clusters. By increasing TS, adhering efficiency of CH radicals to the diamond lattice drops and trans-polyacetylene (t-PA) encapsulating the nano-sized diamond grains break, whereas the addition of 1.5% H2 in Ar/CH4 plasma at low TS induces atomic hydrogen that preferentially etches out the t-PA attached to ultra-nano diamond grains. Both cases make the sp3-diamond phase less passivated. This leads to C2 radicals attaching to the diamond lattice promoting elongated clustered grains along with a complicated defect structure. Such a grain growth model is highly correlated to explain the technologically important functional property, namely, plasma illumination (PI) of UNCD films. Superior PI properties, viz. low threshold field of 0.21 V/μm with a high PI current density of 4.10 mA/cm2 (at an applied field of 0.25 V/μm) and high γ-coefficient (0.2604) are observed for the UNCD films possessing ultra-nano grains with a large fraction of grain boundary phases. The grain boundary component consists of a large amount of sp2-carbon phases that possibly form interconnected paths for facilitating the transport of electrons and the electron field emission process that markedly enhance PI properties.

  17. Ultra-thin grain-oriented silicon steel sheet fabricated by a novel way: Twin-roll strip casting and two-stage cold rolling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Yin-Ping; Liu, Hai-Tao; Song, Hong-Yu; Liu, Jia-Xin; Shen, Hui-Ying; Jin, Yang; Wang, Guo-Dong

    2018-04-01

    0.05-0.15 mm-thick ultra-thin grain-oriented silicon steel sheets were successfully produced by a novel processing route including strip casting, hot rolling, normalizing, two-stage cold rolling with intermediate annealing, primary recrystallization annealing and secondary recrystallization annealing. The evolutions of microstructure, texture and inhibitor along the processing were briefly investigated. The results showed that the initial Goss orientation originated due to the heterogenous nucleation of δ-ferrite grains during solidification. Because of the lack of shear deformation, only a few Goss grains were observed in the hot rolled sheet. After the first cold rolling and intermediate annealing, Goss texture was enhanced and distributed in the whole thickness. A small number of Goss grains having a high fraction of high energy boundaries exhibited in the primary recrystallization annealed sheet. A large number of fine and dispersed MnS and AlN and a few co-precipitates MnS and AlN with the size range of 10-70 nm were also observed. Interestingly, a well-developed secondary recrystallization microstructure characterized by 10-60 mm grains and a sharp Goss texture were finally produced in the 0.05-0.15 mm-thick ultra-thin sheets. A magnetic induction B8 of 1.72-1.84 T was obtained. Another new finding was that a few {2 3 0}〈0 0 1〉 and {2 1 0}〈1 2 7〉 grains also can grow up abnormally because of the high fraction of high energy boundaries and the size and number advantage, respectively. These non-Goss grains finally deteriorated the magnetic properties of the ultra-thin sheets. In addition, low surface energies of {hk0} planes may also contribute to the abnormal growth of Goss, {2 3 0}〈0 0 1〉 and {2 1 0}〈1 2 7〉 grains.

  18. Extreme limestone weathering rates due to micron-scale grain detachment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Emmanuel, Simon; Levenson, Yael

    2014-05-01

    Chemical dissolution is often assumed to control the weathering rates of carbonate rocks, although some studies have indicated that mechanical erosion could also play a significant role. Quantifying the rates of the different processes is challenging due to the high degree of variability encountered in both field and lab settings. To measure the rates and mechanisms controlling long-term limestone weathering, we analyse a lidar scan of the Western Wall, a Roman period edifice located in Jerusalem. Surface retreat rates in fine-grained micritic limestone blocks are found to be as much as 2 orders of magnitude higher than the average rates estimated for coarse-grained limestone blocks at the same site. In addition, in experiments that use atomic force microscopy to image dissolving micritic limestone, we show that these elevated reaction rates could be due to rapid dissolution along micron-scale grain boundaries, followed by mechanical detachment of tiny particles from the surface. Our analysis indicates that micron-scale grain detachment, rather than pure chemical dissolution, could be the dominant erosional mode for fine-grained carbonate rocks.

  19. Preferential Redistribution of Fine-Grained Particles in the Panama Basin and Potential Errors in 230Th-Derived Focusing Factors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marcantonio, F.; Lyle, M. W.; Ibrahim, R.

    2013-12-01

    The 230Th constant-flux proxy technique, commonly used in paleoceanography to estimate sediment fluxes, is thought to differentiate lateral from vertical fluxes of sediment at sites that have undergone sediment redistribution. However, redistribution processes (focusing or winnowing) are expected to fractionate fine particles from those that are coarse. Since fine particles with greater surface area are known to contain greater concentrations of 230Th, one might expect that sediment redistribution would bias 230Th-derived sediment mass accumulation rates (MARs). We investigate this possibility in two regions of the Panama Basin where significant sediment focusing has been hypothesized to occur. We examine multicore sediments from paired sites at two locations, one close to the equator at the southern limit of the Panama Basin (Carnegie Ridge) where upwelling and primary productivity are high, and one at 6°N at the northern boundary of the Panama Basin (Cocos Ridge), where primary productivity is lower. The multicores, which are constrained by radiocarbon ages that span the latest Holocene at each paired site, represent regions that have undergone potential winnowing and focusing (thin vs thick sediment drapes identified using seismic reflection) at each Panama Basin location. Since the distance separating the paired sites at each location is no more than about 50 km, one would expect the 230Th-derived MARs to be similar, i.e., the rain rate should not be significantly different at each of the paired sites. The radiocarbon-derived sand fraction (>63-μm) MARs, which likely represent the vertical rain of particles not transported by bottom currents, are identical at each of the paired sites, with fluxes at the Carnegie Ridge about 3.5 times greater than those at the Cocos Ridge over the past several thousand years. Over the same time period, the 230Th-normalized MARs are relatively similar at both the Carnegie and Cocos sites, but are different by about 60% at each

  20. Grain size associations of branched tetraether lipids in soils and riverbank sediments: influence of hydrodynamic sorting processes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Peterse, Francien; Eglinton, Timothy I.

    2017-06-01

    We analyzed the abundance and distribution of branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) in grain size fractions of 7 globally distributed river flank sediments and catchment soils in order to determine if and how the initial soil-brGDGT signature is influenced by hydrodynamic sorting upon entering a river and during subsequent transport from land to sea. BrGDGTs are hypothesized to form associations with high-surface-area fine-grained minerals in soils. Such associations, if maintained during transport, may impart resistance to degradation and promote downstream transport, reducing potential interferences by aquatic brGDGTs. We find that brGDGTs are indeed primarily associated with organic carbon (OC) bound to the clay-silt fraction (<63μm) in both soils and river sediments, and that these associations appear to be maintained during river transport. However, the relative distribution of individual brGDGTs among size fractions is relatively uniform, suggesting that brGDGTs are well mixed in river sediments and that OC-mineral associations are continuously renewed. Consequently, the brGDGT signature finally stored in continental margin sediments appears insensitive to differential particle transport processes. Nevertheless, the lower (upstream) temperature signal generally reflected by brGDGTs in river sediments may also be explained by a contribution of in situ produced brGDGTs leading to an underestimation of reconstructed air temperatures.

  1. Characterization of ultra-fine grained aluminum produced by accumulative back extrusion (ABE)

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

    Alihosseini, H., E-mail: hamid.alihossieni@gmail.com; Materials Science and Engineering Department, Engineering School, Amirkabir University, Tehran; Faraji, G.

    2012-06-15

    In the present work, the microstructural evolutions and microhardness of AA1050 subjected to one, two and three passes of accumulative back extrusion (ABE) were investigated. The microstructural evolutions were characterized using transmission electron microscopy. The results revealed that applying three passes of accumulative back extrusion led to significant grain refinement. The initial grain size of 47 {mu}m was refined to the grains of 500 nm after three passes of ABE. Increasing the number of passes resulted in more decrease in grain size, better microstructure homogeneity and increase in the microhardness. The cross-section of ABEed specimen consisted of two different zones:more » (i) shear deformation zone, and (ii) normal deformation zone. The microhardness measurements indicated that the hardness increased from the initial value of 31 Hv to 67 Hv, verifying the significant microstructural refinement via accumulative back extrusion. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer A significant grain refinement can be achieved in AA1050, Al alloy by applying ABE. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Microstructural homogeneity of ABEed samples increased by increasing the number of ABE cycles. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer A substantial increase in the hardness, from 31 Hv to 67 Hv, was recorded.« less

  2. Fine-grained parallelism accelerating for RNA secondary structure prediction with pseudoknots based on FPGA.

    PubMed

    Xia, Fei; Jin, Guoqing

    2014-06-01

    PKNOTS is a most famous benchmark program and has been widely used to predict RNA secondary structure including pseudoknots. It adopts the standard four-dimensional (4D) dynamic programming (DP) method and is the basis of many variants and improved algorithms. Unfortunately, the O(N(6)) computing requirements and complicated data dependency greatly limits the usefulness of PKNOTS package with the explosion in gene database size. In this paper, we present a fine-grained parallel PKNOTS package and prototype system for accelerating RNA folding application based on FPGA chip. We adopted a series of storage optimization strategies to resolve the "Memory Wall" problem. We aggressively exploit parallel computing strategies to improve computational efficiency. We also propose several methods that collectively reduce the storage requirements for FPGA on-chip memory. To the best of our knowledge, our design is the first FPGA implementation for accelerating 4D DP problem for RNA folding application including pseudoknots. The experimental results show a factor of more than 50x average speedup over the PKNOTS-1.08 software running on a PC platform with Intel Core2 Q9400 Quad CPU for input RNA sequences. However, the power consumption of our FPGA accelerator is only about 50% of the general-purpose micro-processors.

  3. Chemistry, mineralogy, and grain properties at Namib and High dunes, Bagnold dune field, Gale crater, Mars: A synthesis of Curiosity rover observations.

    PubMed

    Ehlmann, B L; Edgett, K S; Sutter, B; Achilles, C N; Litvak, M L; Lapotre, M G A; Sullivan, R; Fraeman, A A; Arvidson, R E; Blake, D F; Bridges, N T; Conrad, P G; Cousin, A; Downs, R T; Gabriel, T S J; Gellert, R; Hamilton, V E; Hardgrove, C; Johnson, J R; Kuhn, S; Mahaffy, P R; Maurice, S; McHenry, M; Meslin, P-Y; Ming, D W; Minitti, M E; Morookian, J M; Morris, R V; O'Connell-Cooper, C D; Pinet, P C; Rowland, S K; Schröder, S; Siebach, K L; Stein, N T; Thompson, L M; Vaniman, D T; Vasavada, A R; Wellington, D F; Wiens, R C; Yen, A S

    2017-12-01

    The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover performed coordinated measurements to examine the textures and compositions of aeolian sands in the active Bagnold dune field. The Bagnold sands are rounded to subrounded, very fine to medium sized (~45-500 μm) with ≥6 distinct grain colors. In contrast to sands examined by Curiosity in a dust-covered, inactive bedform called Rocknest and soils at other landing sites, Bagnold sands are darker, less red, better sorted, have fewer silt-sized or smaller grains, and show no evidence for cohesion. Nevertheless, Bagnold mineralogy and Rocknest mineralogy are similar with plagioclase, olivine, and pyroxenes in similar proportions comprising >90% of crystalline phases, along with a substantial amorphous component (35% ± 15%). Yet Bagnold and Rocknest bulk chemistry differ. Bagnold sands are Si enriched relative to other soils at Gale crater, and H 2 O, S, and Cl are lower relative to all previously measured Martian soils and most Gale crater rocks. Mg, Ni, Fe, and Mn are enriched in the coarse-sieved fraction of Bagnold sands, corroborated by visible/near-infrared spectra that suggest enrichment of olivine. Collectively, patterns in major element chemistry and volatile release data indicate two distinctive volatile reservoirs in Martian soils: (1) amorphous components in the sand-sized fraction (represented by Bagnold) that are Si-enriched, hydroxylated alteration products and/or H 2 O- or OH-bearing impact or volcanic glasses and (2) amorphous components in the fine fraction (<40 μm; represented by Rocknest and other bright soils) that are Fe, S, and Cl enriched with low Si and adsorbed and structural H 2 O.

  4. Chemistry, mineralogy, and grain properties at Namib and High dunes, Bagnold dune field, Gale crater, Mars: A synthesis of Curiosity rover observations

    PubMed Central

    Edgett, K. S.; Sutter, B.; Achilles, C. N.; Litvak, M. L.; Lapotre, M. G. A.; Sullivan, R.; Fraeman, A. A.; Arvidson, R. E.; Blake, D. F.; Bridges, N. T.; Conrad, P. G.; Cousin, A.; Downs, R. T.; Gabriel, T. S. J.; Gellert, R.; Hamilton, V. E.; Hardgrove, C.; Johnson, J. R.; Kuhn, S.; Mahaffy, P. R.; Maurice, S.; McHenry, M.; Meslin, P.‐Y.; Ming, D. W.; Minitti, M. E.; Morookian, J. M.; Morris, R. V.; O'Connell‐Cooper, C. D.; Pinet, P. C.; Rowland, S. K.; Schröder, S.; Siebach, K. L.; Stein, N. T.; Thompson, L. M.; Vaniman, D. T.; Vasavada, A. R.; Wellington, D. F.; Wiens, R. C.; Yen, A. S.

    2017-01-01

    Abstract The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover performed coordinated measurements to examine the textures and compositions of aeolian sands in the active Bagnold dune field. The Bagnold sands are rounded to subrounded, very fine to medium sized (~45–500 μm) with ≥6 distinct grain colors. In contrast to sands examined by Curiosity in a dust‐covered, inactive bedform called Rocknest and soils at other landing sites, Bagnold sands are darker, less red, better sorted, have fewer silt‐sized or smaller grains, and show no evidence for cohesion. Nevertheless, Bagnold mineralogy and Rocknest mineralogy are similar with plagioclase, olivine, and pyroxenes in similar proportions comprising >90% of crystalline phases, along with a substantial amorphous component (35% ± 15%). Yet Bagnold and Rocknest bulk chemistry differ. Bagnold sands are Si enriched relative to other soils at Gale crater, and H2O, S, and Cl are lower relative to all previously measured Martian soils and most Gale crater rocks. Mg, Ni, Fe, and Mn are enriched in the coarse‐sieved fraction of Bagnold sands, corroborated by visible/near‐infrared spectra that suggest enrichment of olivine. Collectively, patterns in major element chemistry and volatile release data indicate two distinctive volatile reservoirs in Martian soils: (1) amorphous components in the sand‐sized fraction (represented by Bagnold) that are Si‐enriched, hydroxylated alteration products and/or H2O‐ or OH‐bearing impact or volcanic glasses and (2) amorphous components in the fine fraction (<40 μm; represented by Rocknest and other bright soils) that are Fe, S, and Cl enriched with low Si and adsorbed and structural H2O. PMID:29497589

  5. Chemistry, mineralogy, and grain properties at Namib and High dunes, Bagnold dune field, Gale crater, Mars: A synthesis of Curiosity rover observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ehlmann, B. L.; Edgett, K. S.; Sutter, B.; Achilles, C. N.; Litvak, M. L.; Lapotre, M. G. A.; Sullivan, R.; Fraeman, A. A.; Arvidson, R. E.; Blake, D. F.; Bridges, N. T.; Conrad, P. G.; Cousin, A.; Downs, R. T.; Gabriel, T. S. J.; Gellert, R.; Hamilton, V. E.; Hardgrove, C.; Johnson, J. R.; Kuhn, S.; Mahaffy, P. R.; Maurice, S.; McHenry, M.; Meslin, P.-Y.; Ming, D. W.; Minitti, M. E.; Morookian, J. M.; Morris, R. V.; O'Connell-Cooper, C. D.; Pinet, P. C.; Rowland, S. K.; Schröder, S.; Siebach, K. L.; Stein, N. T.; Thompson, L. M.; Vaniman, D. T.; Vasavada, A. R.; Wellington, D. F.; Wiens, R. C.; Yen, A. S.

    2017-12-01

    The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover performed coordinated measurements to examine the textures and compositions of aeolian sands in the active Bagnold dune field. The Bagnold sands are rounded to subrounded, very fine to medium sized ( 45-500 μm) with ≥6 distinct grain colors. In contrast to sands examined by Curiosity in a dust-covered, inactive bedform called Rocknest and soils at other landing sites, Bagnold sands are darker, less red, better sorted, have fewer silt-sized or smaller grains, and show no evidence for cohesion. Nevertheless, Bagnold mineralogy and Rocknest mineralogy are similar with plagioclase, olivine, and pyroxenes in similar proportions comprising >90% of crystalline phases, along with a substantial amorphous component (35% ± 15%). Yet Bagnold and Rocknest bulk chemistry differ. Bagnold sands are Si enriched relative to other soils at Gale crater, and H2O, S, and Cl are lower relative to all previously measured Martian soils and most Gale crater rocks. Mg, Ni, Fe, and Mn are enriched in the coarse-sieved fraction of Bagnold sands, corroborated by visible/near-infrared spectra that suggest enrichment of olivine. Collectively, patterns in major element chemistry and volatile release data indicate two distinctive volatile reservoirs in Martian soils: (1) amorphous components in the sand-sized fraction (represented by Bagnold) that are Si-enriched, hydroxylated alteration products and/or H2O- or OH-bearing impact or volcanic glasses and (2) amorphous components in the fine fraction (<40 μm represented by Rocknest and other bright soils) that are Fe, S, and Cl enriched with low Si and adsorbed and structural H2O.

  6. Specific surface area as a maturity index of lunar fines

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gammage, R. B.; Holmes, H. F.

    1975-01-01

    Mature surface fines have an equilibrium specific surface area of about 0.6 sq m/g the equivalent mean particle size being about 3 microns. The adsorption behavior of inert gases (reversible isotherms) indicates that the particles are also nonporous in the size range of pores from 10 to 3000 A. Apparently, in mature soils there is a balance in the forces which cause fining, attrition, pore filling, and growth of lunar dust grains. Immature, lightly irradiated soils usually have coarser grains which reduce in size as aging proceeds. The specific surface area, determined by nitrogen or krypton sorption at 77 K, is a valuable index of soil maturity.

  7. Sources of fine-grained sediment in the Linganore Creek watershed, Frederick and Carroll Counties, Maryland, 2008-10

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Gellis, Allen C.; Noe, Gregory B.; Clune, John W.; Myers, Michael K.; Hupp, Cliff R.; Schenk, Edward R.; Schwarz, Gregory E.

    2015-01-01

    Management implications of this study indicate that both agriculture and streambanks are important sources of sediment in Linganore Creek where the delivery of agriculture sediment was 4 percent and the delivery of streambank sediment was 44 percent. Fourth order streambanks, on average, had the highest rates of bank erosion. Combining the sediment fingerprinting and sediment budget results indicates that 96 percent of the eroded fine-grained sediment from agriculture went into storage. Flood plains and ponds are effective storage sites of sediment in the Linganore Creek watershed. Flood plains stored 8 percent of all eroded sediment with 4th and 5th order flood plains, on average, storing the most sediment. Small ponds in the Linganore Creek watershed, which drained 16 percent of the total watershed area, stored 15 percent of all eroded sediment. Channel beds were relatively stable with the greatest erosion generally occurring in 4th and 5th order streams.

  8. Settling equivalence of detrital minerals and grain-size dependence of sediment composition

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Garzanti, Eduardo; Andò, Sergio; Vezzoli, Giovanni

    2008-08-01

    This study discusses the laws which govern sediment deposition, and consequently determine size-dependent compositional variability. A theoretical approach is substantiated by robust datasets on major Alpine, Himalayan, and African sedimentary systems. Integrated (bulk-petrography, heavy-mineral, X-ray powder diffraction) multiple-window analyses at 0.25ϕ to 0.50ϕ sieve interval of eighty-five fluvial, beach, and eolian-dune samples, ranging from very fine silt to coarse sand, document homologous intrasample compositional trends, revealed by systematic concentration of denser grains in finer-grained fractions (“size-density sorting”). These trends are explained by the settling-equivalence principle, stating that detrital minerals are deposited together if their settling velocity is the same. Settling of silt is chiefly resisted by fluid viscosity, and Stokes' law predicts that size differences between detrital minerals in ϕ units (“size shifts”) are half the difference between the logarithms of their submerged densities. Settling of pebbles is chiefly resisted by turbulence effects, and the Impact law predicts double size shifts than Stokes' law. Settling of sand is resisted by both viscosity and turbulence, the settling-equivalence formula is complex, and size shifts increase - with increasing settling velocity and grain size - from those predicted by Stokes' law to those predicted by the Impact law. In wind-laid sands, size shifts match those predicted by the Impact law; size-density sorting is thus greater than in water-laid fine sands. New analytical, graphical, and statistical techniques for rigorous settling-equivalence analysis of terrigenous sediments are illustrated. Deviations associated with non-spherical shape, density anomalies, inheritance from source rocks, or mixing of detrital species with contrasting provenance and different size distribution are also tentatively assessed. Such integrated theoretical and experimental approach allows us

  9. Physical properties of five grain dust types.

    PubMed Central

    Parnell, C B; Jones, D D; Rutherford, R D; Goforth, K J

    1986-01-01

    Physical properties of grain dust derived from five grain types (soybean, rice, corn, wheat, and sorghum) were measured and reported. The grain dusts were obtained from dust collection systems of terminal grain handling facilities and were assumed to be representative of grain dust generated during the handling process. The physical properties reported were as follows: particle size distributions and surface area measurements using a Coulter Counter Model TAII; percent dust fractions less than 100 micron of whole dust; bulk density; particle density; and ash content. PMID:3709482

  10. Hydration heat of alkali activated fine-grained ceramic

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jerman, Miloš; Černý, Robert

    2017-07-01

    Early-age hydration heat of alkali activated ceramic dust is studied as a function of silicate modulus. A mixture of sodium hydroxide and water glass is used as alkali activator. The measurements are carried out using a large-volume isothermal heat flow calorimeter which is capable of detecting even very small values of specific heat power. Experimental results show that the specific hydration heat power of alkali activated fine-ground ceramic is very low and increases with the decreasing silicate modulus of the mix.

  11. Process for preparing fine grain silicon carbide powder

    DOEpatents

    Wei, G.C.

    Finely divided silicon carbide powder is obtained by mixing colloidal silica and unreacted phenolic resin in either acetone or methanol, evaporating solvent from the obtained solution to form a gel, drying and calcining the gel to polymerize the phenolic resin therein, pyrolyzing the dried and calcined gel at a temperature in the range of 500 to 1000/sup 0/C, and reacting silicon and carbon in the pyrolyzed gel at a temperature in the range of 1550 to 1700/sup 0/C to form the powder.

  12. Process for preparing fine grain titanium carbide powder

    DOEpatents

    Janney, M.A.

    1985-03-12

    A method for preparing finely divided titanium carbide powder in which an organotitanate is reacted with a carbon precursor polymer to provide an admixture of the titanium and the polymer at a molecular level due to a crosslinking reaction between the organotitanate and the polymer. The resulting gel is dried, pyrolyzed to drive off volatile components and provide carbon. The resulting solids are then heated at an elevated temperature to convert the titanium and carbon to high-purity titanium carbide powder in a submicron size range.

  13. Process for preparing fine grain titanium carbide powder

    DOEpatents

    Janey, Mark A.

    1986-01-01

    A method for preparing finely divided titanium carbide powder in which an organotitanate is reacted with a carbon precursor polymer to provide an admixture of the titanium and the polymer at a molecular-level due to a crosslinking reaction between the organotitanate and the polymer. The resulting gel is dried, pyrolyzed to drive off volatile components and provide carbon. The resulting solids are then heated at an elevated temperature to convert the titanium and carbon to high-purity titanium carbide powder in a submicron size range.

  14. Chondrites: The Compaction of Fine Matrix and Matrix-like Chondrule Rims

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wasson, J. T.

    1995-09-01

    Primitive chondritic meteorites mainly consist of chondrules, sulfide+/-metal, and fine-grained matrix. The most unequilibrated chondrites preserve in their phase compositions and, to a lesser degree, their textures, many details about processes that occurred in the solar nebula. On the other hand, much of the textural evidence records processes that occurred in or on the parent body. I suggest that the low-porosity of chondrule matrix and matrix-like rims reflects compaction processes that occurred in asteroid-size bodies, and that neither matrix lumps nor compact matrix-like rims on chondrules could have achieved their observed low porosities in the solar nebula. Recent theoretical studies by Donn and Meakin (1) and Chokshi et al. (2) have concluded that grain-grain sticking in the solar nebula mainly produces fluffy structures having very high porosities (probably >>50%). If these structures grow large enough, they can provide an aerogel-like matrix that can trap chondrules as well as metal and sulfide grains, and thus form suitable precursors of chondritic meteorites. However, the strength of any such structure formed in the solar nebula must be a trivial fraction of that required to survive passage through the Earth's atmosphere in order to fall as a meteorite. The best evidence of accretionary structures appears to be that reported by Metzler et al. (3). They made SEM images of entire thin sections of CM chondrites, and showed that, in the best preserved chondrites, rims are present on all entitities--on chondrules, chondrule fragments, refractory inclusions, etc. A study by Krot and Wasson (4) shows a more complex situation in ordinary chondrites. Although matrix is common, a sizable fraction of chondrules are not surrounded by matrix-like rims. As summarized by Rubin and Krot (1995), there are reports of small textural and compositional differences between matrix lumps and mean matrix-like chondrule rims, but there is so much overlap in properties between

  15. How Finely Grained Does Summative Assessment Need to Be?

    ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

    Yorke, Mantz

    2010-01-01

    Assessors in higher education are often faced with the need to grade student work on lengthy scales. Is such fine granularity in assessment really necessary? The question can be addressed at different levels of the assessment system: here the focus is on the difference that would be made to honours degree classifications if so-called percentage…

  16. Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Grain Properties at Namib and High Dunes, Bagnold Dune Field, Gale Crater, Mars: A Synthesis of Curiosity Rover Observations: Bagnold Dune Sands Composition

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

    Ehlmann, B. L.; Edgett, K. S.; Sutter, B.

    The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover performed coordinated measurements to examine the textures and compositions of aeolian sands in the active Bagnold dune field. The Bagnold sands are rounded to subrounded, very fine- to medium- sized (~45-500 µm) with ≥6 distinct grain colors. In contrast to sands examined by Curiosity in a dust-covered, inactive bedform called Rocknest and soils at other landing sites, Bagnold sands are darker, less red, better sorted, have fewer silt-sized or smaller grains, and show no evidence for cohesion. Nonetheless, Bagnold mineralogy and Rocknest mineralogy are similar with plagioclase, olivine, and pyroxenes in similar proportions comprisingmore » >90% of crystalline phases, along with a substantial amorphous component (35% ± 15%). Yet, Bagnold and Rocknest bulk chemistry differ. Bagnold sands are Si-enriched relative to other soils at Gale crater, and H 2O, S, and Cl are lower relative to all previously measured martian soils and most Gale crater rocks. Mg, Ni, Fe, and Mn are enriched in the coarse-sieved fraction of Bagnold sands, corroborated by VNIR spectra that suggest enrichment of olivine. Together, patterns in major element chemistry and volatile release data indicate two distinctive volatile reservoirs in martian soils: (1) amorphous components in the sand-sized fraction (represented by Bagnold) that are Si-enriched, hydroxylated alteration products and/or impact or volcanic glasses; and (2) amorphous components in the fine fraction (<40 µm; represented by Rocknest and other bright soils) that are Fe-, S-, and Cl-enriched with low Si and adsorbed and structural H 2O.« less

  17. Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Grain Properties at Namib and High Dunes, Bagnold Dune Field, Gale Crater, Mars: A Synthesis of Curiosity Rover Observations: Bagnold Dune Sands Composition

    DOE PAGES

    Ehlmann, B. L.; Edgett, K. S.; Sutter, B.; ...

    2017-06-12

    The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover performed coordinated measurements to examine the textures and compositions of aeolian sands in the active Bagnold dune field. The Bagnold sands are rounded to subrounded, very fine- to medium- sized (~45-500 µm) with ≥6 distinct grain colors. In contrast to sands examined by Curiosity in a dust-covered, inactive bedform called Rocknest and soils at other landing sites, Bagnold sands are darker, less red, better sorted, have fewer silt-sized or smaller grains, and show no evidence for cohesion. Nonetheless, Bagnold mineralogy and Rocknest mineralogy are similar with plagioclase, olivine, and pyroxenes in similar proportions comprisingmore » >90% of crystalline phases, along with a substantial amorphous component (35% ± 15%). Yet, Bagnold and Rocknest bulk chemistry differ. Bagnold sands are Si-enriched relative to other soils at Gale crater, and H 2O, S, and Cl are lower relative to all previously measured martian soils and most Gale crater rocks. Mg, Ni, Fe, and Mn are enriched in the coarse-sieved fraction of Bagnold sands, corroborated by VNIR spectra that suggest enrichment of olivine. Together, patterns in major element chemistry and volatile release data indicate two distinctive volatile reservoirs in martian soils: (1) amorphous components in the sand-sized fraction (represented by Bagnold) that are Si-enriched, hydroxylated alteration products and/or impact or volcanic glasses; and (2) amorphous components in the fine fraction (<40 µm; represented by Rocknest and other bright soils) that are Fe-, S-, and Cl-enriched with low Si and adsorbed and structural H 2O.« less

  18. Creep of quartz by dislocation and grain boundary processes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fukuda, J. I.; Holyoke, C. W., III; Kronenberg, A. K.

    2015-12-01

    Wet polycrystalline quartz aggregates deformed at temperatures T of 600°-900°C and strain rates of 10-4-10-6 s-1 at a confining pressure Pc of 1.5 GPa exhibit plasticity at low T, governed by dislocation glide and limited recovery, and grain size-sensitive creep at high T, governed by diffusion and sliding at grain boundaries. Quartz aggregates were HIP-synthesized, subjecting natural milky quartz powder to T=900°C and Pc=1.5 GPa, and grain sizes (2 to 25 mm) were varied by annealing at these conditions for up to 10 days. Infrared absorption spectra exhibit a broad OH band at 3400 cm-1 due to molecular water inclusions with a calculated OH content (~4000 ppm, H/106Si) that is unchanged by deformation. Rate-stepping experiments reveal different stress-strain rate functions at different temperatures and grain sizes, which correspond to differing stress-temperature sensitivities. At 600-700°C and grain sizes of 5-10 mm, flow law parameters compare favorably with those for basal plasticity and dislocation creep of wet quartzites (effective stress exponents n of 3 to 6 and activation enthalpy H* ~150 kJ/mol). Deformed samples show undulatory extinction, limited recrystallization, and c-axis maxima parallel to the shortening direction. Similarly fine-grained samples deformed at 800°-900°C exhibit flow parameters n=1.3-2.0 and H*=135-200 kJ/mol corresponding to grain size-sensitive Newtonian creep. Deformed samples show some undulatory extinction and grain sizes change by recrystallization; however, grain boundary deformation processes are indicated by the low value of n. Our experimental results for grain size-sensitive creep can be compared with models of grain boundary diffusion and grain boundary sliding using measured rates of silicon grain boundary diffusion. While many quartz mylonites show microstructural and textural evidence for dislocation creep, results for grain size-sensitive creep may apply to very fine-grained (<10 mm) quartz mylonites.

  19. A study of fractional Schrödinger equation composed of Jumarie fractional derivative

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Banerjee, Joydip; Ghosh, Uttam; Sarkar, Susmita; Das, Shantanu

    2017-04-01

    In this paper we have derived the fractional-order Schrödinger equation composed of Jumarie fractional derivative. The solution of this fractional-order Schrödinger equation is obtained in terms of Mittag-Leffler function with complex arguments, and fractional trigonometric functions. A few important properties of the fractional Schrödinger equation are then described for the case of particles in one-dimensional infinite potential well. One of the motivations for using fractional calculus in physical systems is that the space and time variables, which we often deal with, exhibit coarse-grained phenomena. This means infinitesimal quantities cannot be arbitrarily taken to zero - rather they are non-zero with a minimum spread. This type of non-zero spread arises in the microscopic to mesoscopic levels of system dynamics, which means that, if we denote x as the point in space and t as the point in time, then limit of the differentials d x (and d t) cannot be taken as zero. To take the concept of coarse graining into account, use the infinitesimal quantities as (Δ x) α (and (Δ t) α ) with 0 < α < 1; called as `fractional differentials'. For arbitrarily small Δ x and Δ t (tending towards zero), these `fractional' differentials are greater than Δ x (and Δ t), i.e. (Δ x) α > Δ x and (Δ t) α > Δ t. This way of defining the fractional differentials helps us to use fractional derivatives in the study of dynamic systems.

  20. Use of a post-production fractionation process improves the nutritional value of wheat distillers grains with solubles for young broiler chicks

    PubMed Central

    2013-01-01

    Background Post-production fractionation of wheat distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) increases their crude protein content and reduces their fiber content. This experiment was conducted to determine the effects of fractionation of wheat DDGS on apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and performance when fed to broiler chicks (0–21 d). Methods A total of 150, day-old, male broiler chicks (Ross-308 line; Lilydale Hatchery, Wynyard, Saskatchewan) weighing an average of 49.6 ± 0.8 g were assigned to one of five dietary treatments in a completely randomized design. The control diet was based on wheat and soybean meal and contained 20% regular wheat DDGS. The experimental diets contained 5, 10, 15 or 20% fractionated wheat DDGS added at the expense of regular wheat DDGS. Results The ATTD of dry matter and gross energy were linearly increased (P < 0.01) as the level of fractionated wheat DDGS in the diet increased. Nitrogen retention was unaffected by level of fractionated wheat DDGS (P > 0.05). Weight gain increased linearly (P = 0.05) as the level of fractionated wheat DDGS in the diet increased. Feed intake, feed conversion and mortality were unaffected by level of fractionated wheat DDGS in the diet (P > 0.05). Conclusions Post-production fractionation of wheat DDGS improves their nutritional value by lowering their fiber content and increasing their content of crude protein and energy. These changes in chemical composition supported increased weight gain of broilers fed wheat DDGS. PMID:23607764

  1. Cyclic Spin Testing of Superalloy Disks With a Dual Grain Microstructure

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gayda, John; Kantzos, Pete

    2005-01-01

    An aggressive cyclic spin test program was run to verify the reliability of superalloy disks with a dual grain structure, fine grain bore and coarse grain rim, utilizing a disk design with web holes bisecting the grain size transition zone. Results of these tests were compared with conventional disks with uniform grain structures. Analysis of the test results indicated the cyclic performance of disks with a dual grain structure could be estimated to a level of accuracy which does not appear to prohibit the use of this technology in advanced gas turbine engines, although further refinement of lifing methodology is clearly warranted.

  2. Computational study of deformation mechanisms and grain size evolution in granulites - Implications for the rheology of the lower crust

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Maierová, Petra; Lexa, Ondrej; Jeřábek, Petr; Schulmann, Karel; Franěk, Jan

    2017-05-01

    Most of granulite terrains worldwide are characterized by large mean grain sizes of 1 mm or more. An important exception are the high-pressure felsic granulites in the Bohemian Massif, the European Variscan belt. There, recrystallization of original coarse-grained ternary feldspar led to formation of a fine-grained (∼100 μm) mixed matrix dominated by plagioclase and K-feldspar. This change occurred at temperatures of ∼850 °C and was probably caused by chemically induced decomposition related to slight cooling and enhanced by deformation during continental collision. The resulting microstructure shows indications of diffusion creep assisted by melt-enhanced grain-boundary sliding. Further on, minor coarsening occurred associated with deformation by dislocation creep and aggregation of mineral phases. Using a thermodynamics-based model of grain size evolution we show that stability of the fine-grained microstructure crucially depends on Zener pinning in the two-phase mineral matrix. Pinning efficiently hinders grain growth, and the small grain size that resulted from the ternary feldspar decomposition can be stable even at high temperatures. The late switch from the grain-size-sensitive creep to dislocation creep is rather difficult to explain by temperature and strain rate (or stress) changes only. However, a simple incorporation of melt solidification can successfully simulate this behavior. Alternatively, the switch and the associated grain size growth can be related to mineral phase aggregation at lower pressure-temperature conditions resulting into a decrease of pinning efficiency. This study suggests that the fine grain size of the Bohemian granulites, in contrast to the common coarse-grained type, stems from abrupt recrystallization during the high-pressure high-temperature conditions, and pinning in the fine-grained matrix. Such a process may in some cases significantly and suddenly reduce the strength of the lower continental crust and allow for its

  3. Tsunami sediments and their grain size characteristics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sulastya Putra, Purna

    2018-02-01

    Characteristics of tsunami deposits are very complex as the deposition by tsunami is very complex processes. The grain size characteristics of tsunami deposits are simply generalized no matter the local condition in which the deposition took place. The general characteristics are fining upward and landward, poor sorting, and the grain size distribution is not unimodal. Here I review the grain size characteristics of tsunami deposit in various environments: swale, coastal marsh and lagoon/lake. Review results show that although there are similar characters in some environments and cases, but in detail the characteristics in each environment can be distinguished; therefore, the tsunami deposit in each environment has its own characteristic. The local geological and geomorphological condition of the environment may greatly affect the grain size characteristics.

  4. Two-Step Sintering Behavior of Sol-Gel Derived Dense and Submicron-Grained YIG Ceramics

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Ruoyuan; Zhou, Jijun; Zheng, Liang; Zheng, Hui; Zheng, Peng; Ying, Zhihua; Deng, Jiangxia

    2018-04-01

    In this work, dense and submicron-grain yttrium iron garnet (YIG, Y3Fe5O12) ceramics were fabricated by a two-step sintering (TSS) method using nano-size YIG powder prepared by a citrate sol-gel method. The densification, microstructure, magnetic properties and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) linewidth of the ceramics were investigated. The sample prepared at 1300°C in T 1, 1225°C in T 2 and 18 h holding time has a density higher than 98% of the theoretical value and exhibits a homogeneous microstructure with fine grain size (0.975 μm). In addition, the saturation magnetization ( M S) of this sample reaches 27.18 emu/g. High density and small grain size can also achieve small FMR linewidth. Consequently, these results show that the sol-gel process combined with the TSS process can effectively suppress grain-boundary migration while maintaining active grain-boundary diffusion to obtain dense and fine-grained YIG ceramics with appropriate magnetic properties.

  5. Sources of fine sediment stored in agricultural lowland streams, Midwest, USA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lamba, Jasmeet; Thompson, A. M.; Karthikeyan, K. G.; Fitzpatrick, Faith A.

    2015-05-01

    Agricultural activities can accelerate the offsite transport of productive soil from fields leading to stream water quality degradation. Identification of the nature and relative contribution of different sources to fine-grained sediment (e.g., silts, clays) in streams is important to effectively focus agricultural best management practices in watersheds. Sediment fingerprinting techniques through the use of geochemical tracers are commonly used to differentiate relative contribution from various sources. Research was conducted in lowland streams in the Pleasant Valley watershed in South Central Wisconsin (USA) to identify provenance of fine-grained sediment deposits and evaluate the impact of land use on relative contributions from the following potential sources: cropland, pasture, woodland, and eroding stream banks. Results show that both agriculture (croplands and pastures) and eroding stream banks are primary sources to fine sediment deposits on the stream bed with contributions ranging from 19 to 100% and 0 to 81%, respectively. The increase in area under agricultural land use within a subwatershed results in greater contribution from agriculture (R2 = 0.846, p = 0.0034). Relative contributions from eroding stream banks increased with increasing area under grasslands and woodlands within a subwatershed (R2 = 0.814, p = 0.0055). Subwatersheds with greater mass of fine sediment deposited on the stream bed per unit area should be prioritized for best management practices. The conservation practices should be targeted to stream banks or croplands depending on the dominant source of fine sediment within a subwatershed. Site specific changes in relative contributions from different sources to fine-grained sediment in this watershed highlights the complexities involved in sediment transport dynamics. The nested sampling sites helped determine that sediment dynamics at the subwatershed scale need to be considered for application of targeted conservation techniques.

  6. Sources of fine sediment stored in agricultural lowland streams, Midwest, USA

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lamba, Jasmeet; Thompson, Anita M.; Karthikeyan, K.G.; Fitzpatrick, Faith A.

    2015-01-01

    Agricultural activities can accelerate the offsite transport of productive soil from fields leading to stream water quality degradation. Identification of the nature and relative contribution of different sources to fine-grained sediment (e.g., silts, clays) in streams is important to effectively focus agricultural best management practices in watersheds. Sediment fingerprinting techniques through the use of geochemical tracers are commonly used to differentiate relative contribution from various sources. Research was conducted in lowland streams in the Pleasant Valley watershed in South Central Wisconsin (USA) to identify provenance of fine-grained sediment deposits and evaluate the impact of land use on relative contributions from the following potential sources: cropland, pasture, woodland, and eroding stream banks. Results show that both agriculture (croplands and pastures) and eroding stream banks are primary sources to fine sediment deposits on the stream bed with contributions ranging from 19 to 100% and 0 to 81%, respectively. The increase in area under agricultural land use within a subwatershed results in greater contribution from agriculture (R2 = 0.846, p = 0.0034). Relative contributions from eroding stream banks increased with increasing area under grasslands and woodlands within a subwatershed (R2 = 0.814, p = 0.0055). Subwatersheds with greater mass of fine sediment deposited on the stream bed per unit area should be prioritized for best management practices. The conservation practices should be targeted to stream banks or croplands depending on the dominant source of fine sediment within a subwatershed. Site specific changes in relative contributions from different sources to fine-grained sediment in this watershed highlights the complexities involved in sediment transport dynamics. The nested sampling sites helped determine that sediment dynamics at the subwatershed scale need to be considered for application of targeted conservation

  7. Grain Structure Control of Additively Manufactured Metallic Materials

    PubMed Central

    Faierson, Eric J.

    2017-01-01

    Grain structure control is challenging for metal additive manufacturing (AM). Grain structure optimization requires the control of grain morphology with grain size refinement, which can improve the mechanical properties of additive manufactured components. This work summarizes methods to promote fine equiaxed grains in both the additive manufacturing process and subsequent heat treatment. Influences of temperature gradient, solidification velocity and alloy composition on grain morphology are discussed. Equiaxed solidification is greatly promoted by introducing a high density of heterogeneous nucleation sites via powder rate control in the direct energy deposition (DED) technique or powder surface treatment for powder-bed techniques. Grain growth/coarsening during post-processing heat treatment can be restricted by presence of nano-scale oxide particles formed in-situ during AM. Grain refinement of martensitic steels can also be achieved by cyclic austenitizing in post-processing heat treatment. Evidently, new alloy powder design is another sustainable method enhancing the capability of AM for high-performance components with desirable microstructures.

  8. SmartFABER: Recognizing fine-grained abnormal behaviors for early detection of mild cognitive impairment.

    PubMed

    Riboni, Daniele; Bettini, Claudio; Civitarese, Gabriele; Janjua, Zaffar Haider; Helaoui, Rim

    2016-02-01

    In an ageing world population more citizens are at risk of cognitive impairment, with negative consequences on their ability of independent living, quality of life and sustainability of healthcare systems. Cognitive neuroscience researchers have identified behavioral anomalies that are significant indicators of cognitive decline. A general goal is the design of innovative methods and tools for continuously monitoring the functional abilities of the seniors at risk and reporting the behavioral anomalies to the clinicians. SmartFABER is a pervasive system targeting this objective. A non-intrusive sensor network continuously acquires data about the interaction of the senior with the home environment during daily activities. A novel hybrid statistical and knowledge-based technique is used to analyses this data and detect the behavioral anomalies, whose history is presented through a dashboard to the clinicians. Differently from related works, SmartFABER can detect abnormal behaviors at a fine-grained level. We have fully implemented the system and evaluated it using real datasets, partly generated by performing activities in a smart home laboratory, and partly acquired during several months of monitoring of the instrumented home of a senior diagnosed with MCI. Experimental results, including comparisons with other activity recognition techniques, show the effectiveness of SmartFABER in terms of recognition rates. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Microbial colonization and degradation of polyethylene and biodegradable plastic bags in temperate fine-grained organic-rich marine sediments.

    PubMed

    Nauendorf, Alice; Krause, Stefan; Bigalke, Nikolaus K; Gorb, Elena V; Gorb, Stanislav N; Haeckel, Matthias; Wahl, Martin; Treude, Tina

    2016-02-15

    To date, the longevity of plastic litter at the sea floor is poorly constrained. The present study compares colonization and biodegradation of plastic bags by aerobic and anaerobic benthic microbes in temperate fine-grained organic-rich marine sediments. Samples of polyethylene and biodegradable plastic carrier bags were incubated in natural oxic and anoxic sediments from Eckernförde Bay (Western Baltic Sea) for 98 days. Analyses included (1) microbial colonization rates on the bags, (2) examination of the surface structure, wettability, and chemistry, and (3) mass loss of the samples during incubation. On average, biodegradable plastic bags were colonized five times higher by aerobic and eight times higher by anaerobic microbes than polyethylene bags. Both types of bags showed no sign of biodegradation during this study. Therefore, marine sediment in temperate coastal zones may represent a long-term sink for plastic litter and also supposedly compostable material. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. The volume of fine sediment in pools: An index of sediment supply in gravel-bed streams

    Treesearch

    Thomas E. Lisle; Sue Hilton

    1992-01-01

    Abstract - During waning flood flows in gravel-bed streams, fine-grained bedload sediment (sand and fine gravel) is commonly winnowed from zones of high shear stress, such as riffles, and deposited in pools, where it mantles an underlying coarse layer. As sediment load increases, more fine sediment becomes availabe to fill pools. The volume of fine sediment in pools...

  11. Aeolian Grain Evolution on Mars: Implications for Regolith Origins

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sullivan, R. J.; Cabrol, N. A.; Golombek, M.; Herkenhoff, K. E.; Landis, G.; Mer Athena Science Team

    2010-12-01

    Early wind tunnel experiments and the Viking Lander experience led to concepts of grain evolution and regolith development on Mars. Wind tunnel experiments showed that 100-150 μm grains are easiest to entrain on Mars, but at 10 times higher wind speeds than on Earth. Even if trajectory speeds of martian saltating grains achieve smaller fractions of entraining wind speeds than on Earth, kinetic energies of these grains would be much higher, with greater potential for damage to the grains during return collisions with the particle bed. On this basis Sagan et al. [1977] JGR 82, 28, 4430 proposed that aeolian grain evolution on Mars followed a “kamikaze” pattern in which an initially coarse grain, entrained only relatively rarely by the strongest winds, would be abraded by high kinetic energy impacts and migrate through successively smaller size-frequencies at an ever-increasing rate (as entrainment became easier and thus more likely) until the grain was essentially turned to dust. On this basis it was proposed that sand-sized grains might be relatively short-lived and perhaps rare on Mars. MER observations motivate adjustments to these concepts, with implications for origins of martian regolith reworked by wind. Along both MER traverses, on opposite sides of the planet, regolith is volumetrically dominated by very fine sand mixed with unresolved finer grains. Sorting probably is poor, based on weakly cohesive remolding by rover wheel cleats. The size-frequency of this material, even if not precisely known, is consistent with grains that have evolved by attrition to sizes smaller than the most easily-moved 100-150 μm interval, to where entrainment becomes more difficult due to the increasing relative importance of inter-particle surface forces. At these smaller sizes also, kinetic energies have been reduced proportionally by the cube of the particle radius, so grain-to-grain attrition is less effective for further evolution to even smaller grain sizes

  12. Evidence of sealing and brine distribution at grain boundaries in natural fine-grained Halite (Qum Kuh salt fountain, Central Iran): implications for rheology of salt extrusions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Desbois, Guillaume; Urai, Janos L.; de Bresser, J. H. P.

    2010-05-01

    are expected for similar grain size ([5]). Other samples, which were loaded to 1 MPa before reducing the stress to 0.5 MPa deformed at much higher but variable rates, up to 10-8 s-1, in good agreement with activated PS creep. If, at first look, our pilot deformation experiments seem to reflect a kind of "yield stress" for activation PS creep ([7]); the experimental stress does not reach the theoritical condition to enable activation of PS. Thus, we interpret that the apparent "yielding stress" may not reflect strictu senso the "yielding stress" as described in [7] but rather to a "yielding stress" corresponding to the elastic reassessment of the grain system before the initiation of PS at privileged seal-brine-grain contacts. In salt fountain conditions, mylonitic samples are expected to be in the healing domain, but "jumps" in active stress required to activate PS creep is hardly probable. Thus, we suggest that rainwater influx plays a fundamental role in activation of PS. Rainwater should enable the marginal dissolution of healed contacts and then decreases in the area fraction of grain boundary occupied by solid island contact causing an increase in island stress. Therefore, this points to cyclic deformation of salt fountain: (1) during rainy periods the fountain will deformed at relative high strain rate by dominant PS; while (2) during dry seasons, it will not significantly flow because the grain boundary healing will prevent PS and lead to dominant dislocation creep. This interpretation is in good agreement with recent structural studies ([1], [4]), which gives evidence for both dynamic dislocation and pressure-solution creeps, and measurement of rapid flow after rainy periods with flow rates compatible with fully activated PS ([3]). [1] Desbois G., Zavada P., Schleder Z. and Urai J.L. (In review). Deformation and recrystallization mechanisms in naturally deformed salt fountain: microstructural evidence for a switch in deformation mechanisms with increased

  13. The relationship of the lunar regolith less than 10 micrometer fraction and agglutinates. I - A model for agglutinate formation and some indirect supportive evidence

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Papike, J. J.; Simon, S. B.; White, C.; Laul, J. C.

    1982-01-01

    The first part of a study of the 'less than 10 micrometer' soil fraction and agglutinates is concerned with the chemical systematics of the considered fraction of lunar soils, taking into account a model for agglutinate formation based on the fusion of the finest fraction (FFF). Attention is given to some evidence which supports the FFF model. The evidence is based on some indirect approaches to an estimation of the composition of the fused soil component. It is found that the 'less than 10 micrometer' soil fraction from all Apollo sites except Apollo 16 (which can be explained) is more feldspathic and enriched in incompatible elements (e.g., K and Th) than the bulk soil. It is concluded that these systematics result from simple comminution in which feldspar breaks down to finer sizes than pyroxene and olivine and the fine-grained incompatible-element-enriched mesostasis concentrates in the 'less than 10 micrometer' soil fraction.

  14. Mineralogy and composition of lunar fines and selected rocks.

    PubMed

    Frondel, C; Klein, C; Ito, J; Drake, J C

    1970-01-30

    Mineralogical descriptions and both wet chemical analyses and microprobe analyses are given of the glasses and crystalline components of the lunar fines and of the minerals in microgabbros (samples 10050 and 10047). The principal minerals described are various clinopyroxenes, plagioclase, olivine, low cristobalite, low tridymite, ilmenite, iron-nickel, iron, schreibersite, cohenite, troilite, and a new CaFe pyroxenoid. Descriptions are given of small craters produced by hypervelocity particle impact on glass and iron-nickel fragments in the fines. The rounding of grains in the fines and of surface rocks is attributed to mechanical ahrasion and not to cratering.

  15. The response of excess 230Th and extraterrestrial 3He to sediment redistribution at the Blake Ridge, western North Atlantic

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McGee, David; Marcantonio, Franco; McManus, Jerry F.; Winckler, Gisela

    2010-10-01

    The constant-flux proxies excess 230Th ( 230Th xs) and extraterrestrial 3He ( 3He ET) are commonly used to calculate sedimentary mass accumulation rates and to quantify lateral advection of sediment at core sites. In settings with significant lateral input or removal of sediment, these calculations depend on the assumption that concentrations of 230Th xs and 3He ET are the same in both advected sediment and sediment falling through the water column above the core site. Sediment redistribution is known to fractionate grain sizes, preferentially transporting fine grains; though relatively few studies have examined the grain size distribution of 230Th xs and 3He ET, presently available data indicate that both are concentrated in fine grains, suggesting that fractionation during advection may bias accumulation rate and lateral advection estimates based on these proxies. In this study, we evaluate the behavior of 230Th xs and 3He ET in Holocene and last glacial samples from two cores from the Blake Ridge, a drift deposit in the western North Atlantic. At the end of the last glacial period, both cores received large amounts of laterally transported sediment enriched in fine-grained material. We find that accumulation rates calculated by normalization to 230Th and 3He are internally consistent despite large spatial and temporal differences in sediment advection. Our analyses of grain size fractions indicate that ~ 70% of 3He ET-bearing grains are in the < 20 μm fraction, with roughly equal amounts in the < 4 and 4-20 μm fractions. 230Th xs is concentrated in <4-μm grains relative to 4- to 20-μm grains by approximately a factor of 2 in Holocene samples and by a much larger factor (averaging a factor of 10) in glacial samples. Despite these enrichments of both constant-flux proxies in fine particles, the fidelity of 230Th- and 3He-based accumulation rate estimates appears to be preserved even in settings with extreme sediment redistribution, perhaps due to the cohesive

  16. Fine-grained Database Field Search Using Attribute-Based Encryption for E-Healthcare Clouds.

    PubMed

    Guo, Cheng; Zhuang, Ruhan; Jie, Yingmo; Ren, Yizhi; Wu, Ting; Choo, Kim-Kwang Raymond

    2016-11-01

    An effectively designed e-healthcare system can significantly enhance the quality of access and experience of healthcare users, including facilitating medical and healthcare providers in ensuring a smooth delivery of services. Ensuring the security of patients' electronic health records (EHRs) in the e-healthcare system is an active research area. EHRs may be outsourced to a third-party, such as a community healthcare cloud service provider for storage due to cost-saving measures. Generally, encrypting the EHRs when they are stored in the system (i.e. data-at-rest) or prior to outsourcing the data is used to ensure data confidentiality. Searchable encryption (SE) scheme is a promising technique that can ensure the protection of private information without compromising on performance. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for controlling access to EHRs stored in semi-trusted cloud servers (e.g. a private cloud or a community cloud). To achieve fine-grained access control for EHRs, we leverage the ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) technique to encrypt tables published by hospitals, including patients' EHRs, and the table is stored in the database with the primary key being the patient's unique identity. Our framework can enable different users with different privileges to search on different database fields. Differ from previous attempts to secure outsourcing of data, we emphasize the control of the searches of the fields within the database. We demonstrate the utility of the scheme by evaluating the scheme using datasets from the University of California, Irvine.

  17. Fine-grained, local maps and coarse, global representations support human spatial working memory.

    PubMed

    Katshu, Mohammad Zia Ul Haq; d'Avossa, Giovanni

    2014-01-01

    While sensory processes are tuned to particular features, such as an object's specific location, color or orientation, visual working memory (vWM) is assumed to store information using representations, which generalize over a feature dimension. Additionally, current vWM models presume that different features or objects are stored independently. On the other hand, configurational effects, when observed, are supposed to mainly reflect encoding strategies. We show that the location of the target, relative to the display center and boundaries, and overall memory load influenced recall precision, indicating that, like sensory processes, capacity limited vWM resources are spatially tuned. When recalling one of three memory items the target distance from the display center was overestimated, similar to the error when only one item was memorized, but its distance from the memory items' average position was underestimated, showing that not only individual memory items' position, but also the global configuration of the memory array may be stored. Finally, presenting the non-target items at recall, consequently providing landmarks and configurational information, improved precision and accuracy of target recall. Similarly, when the non-target items were translated at recall, relative to their position in the initial display, a parallel displacement of the recalled target was observed. These findings suggest that fine-grained spatial information in vWM is represented in local maps whose resolution varies with distance from landmarks, such as the display center, while coarse representations are used to store the memory array configuration. Both these representations are updated at the time of recall.

  18. Fine-Grained, Local Maps and Coarse, Global Representations Support Human Spatial Working Memory

    PubMed Central

    Katshu, Mohammad Zia Ul Haq; d'Avossa, Giovanni

    2014-01-01

    While sensory processes are tuned to particular features, such as an object's specific location, color or orientation, visual working memory (vWM) is assumed to store information using representations, which generalize over a feature dimension. Additionally, current vWM models presume that different features or objects are stored independently. On the other hand, configurational effects, when observed, are supposed to mainly reflect encoding strategies. We show that the location of the target, relative to the display center and boundaries, and overall memory load influenced recall precision, indicating that, like sensory processes, capacity limited vWM resources are spatially tuned. When recalling one of three memory items the target distance from the display center was overestimated, similar to the error when only one item was memorized, but its distance from the memory items' average position was underestimated, showing that not only individual memory items' position, but also the global configuration of the memory array may be stored. Finally, presenting the non-target items at recall, consequently providing landmarks and configurational information, improved precision and accuracy of target recall. Similarly, when the non-target items were translated at recall, relative to their position in the initial display, a parallel displacement of the recalled target was observed. These findings suggest that fine-grained spatial information in vWM is represented in local maps whose resolution varies with distance from landmarks, such as the display center, while coarse representations are used to store the memory array configuration. Both these representations are updated at the time of recall. PMID:25259601

  19. Rapid Grain Size Reduction in the Upper Mantle at a Plate Boundary

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kidder, S. B.; Scott, J.; Prior, D. J.; Lubicich, E. J.

    2017-12-01

    A few spinel peridotite xenoliths found near the Alpine Fault, New Zealand, exhibit a mylonitic texture and, locally, an extremely fine 30 micron grain size. The harzburgite xenoliths were emplaced in a 200 km-long elongate dike zone interpreted as a gigantic tension fracture or Reidel shear associated with Alpine Fault initiation 25 Ma. The presence of thin ( 1 mm) ultramylonite zones with px-ol phase mixing and fine grain sizes, minimal crustal-scale strain associated with the dike swarm, and the absence of mylonites at four of the five xenolith localities associated with the dike swarm indicate that upper mantle deformation was highly localized. Strings of small, recrystallized grains (planes in 3D) are found in the interiors of olivine porphyroclasts. In some cases, bands 1-2 grains thick are traced from the edges of olivine grains and terminate in their interiors. Thicker zones of recrystallized grains are also observed crossing olivine porphyroclasts without apparent offset of the unrecrystallized remnants of the porphyroclasts. We suggest a brittle-plastic origin for these features since the traditional recrystallization mechanisms associated with dislocation creep require much more strain than occurred within these porphyroclasts. Analogous microstructures in quartz and feldspar in mid-crust deformation zones are attributed to brittle-plastic processes. We hypothesize that such fine-grained zones were the precursors of the observed, higher-strain ultramylonite zones. Given the size of the new grains preserved in the porphyroclasts ( 100 micron) and a moho temperature > 650°C, grain growth calculations indicate that the observed brittle-plastic deformation occurred <10,000 yrs. prior to eruption. It is likely then that either brittle-plastic deformation was coeval with the ductile shearing occurring in the ultramylonite bands, or possibly, if deformation can be separated into brittle-plastic (early) and ductile (later) phases, that the entire localization

  20. A heat treatment procedure to produce fine-grained lamellar microstructures in a P/M titanium aluminide alloy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Au, Peter

    A process for fabricating advanced aerospace titanium aluminide alloys starting from metal powders (the hot isostatically consolidated P/M process) is presented in this thesis. This process does not suffer the difficulties of chemical inhomogeneities and coarse grain structure of castings. In addition heat treatments which take advantage of the refined structure of HIP processed materials are developed to achieve microstructure control and subsequent mechanical property control. It is shown that a better "property balance" is possible after the heat treatment of HIP consolidated materials than it is with alternative processing. It is well understood that the standard microstructures (near-gamma, duplex, nearly lamellar, and fully lamellar) do not have the balanced mechanical properties (tensile, yield, creep and fatigue strength, ductility and fracture toughness) necessary for optimal performance in aero engine and automotive applications. In this work a fine-grained fully lamellar (FGFL) microstructure is developed for property control and in particular for achieving a much improved property balance. A heat treatment procedure for this purpose which consists of cyclic processing in the alpha transus temperature region to achieve an FGFL structure with grain sizes in the range of 50 mum to 150 mum is presented. Compared with conventional duplex structured materials, the minimum creep rate is an order of magnitude lower with only a 10% loss in tensile yield strength. Moreover, a three-fold increase in tensile elongation is possible by converting to an FGFL structure with only a 30% loss in minimum creep rate. These are attractive trade-offs when considering the use of these alloys for aerospace purposes. A thorough literature review of the mechanisms of formation of standard microstructures and their deformation under mechanical loading is contained in the thesis. In addition, conventional techniques to produce FGFL microstructures in wrought and cast materials are

  1. The role of autochthonous organic matter in radioactive cesium accumulation to riverine fine sediments.

    PubMed

    Fujii, Manabu; Ono, Keisuke; Yoshimura, Chihiro; Miyamoto, Manami

    2018-06-15

    Anthropogenically released radioactive cesium (RCs) poses serious ecological and environmental concerns given its persistency in the environment. Although accumulation of RCs in aqueous and sedimentary environments is often reported to associate with organic matter (OM), the mechanisms responsible remain unclear. Here, we investigated RCs in fine sediments along the Abukuma River, the largest river near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, 1.5-4 years after the accident. Measuring the density-separated sediment fractions with a broad range of OM content (%) indicated that the RCs concentration (Bq·kg -1 ) is positively correlated with OM content for intermediate-density fractions in which OM is primarily characterized by autochthonous origin. This relationship, however, did not hold for light-density fractions containing a high proportion of large-size allochthonous OM. Furthermore, H 2 O 2 -assisted OM digestion and amorphous material dissolution treatments resulted in only a minor reduction in sedimentary RCs. These results along with the fact that sediments with high autochthonous OM content showed high specific surface area indicated that RCs is tightly associated with finer-grained and chemically non-labile inorganic fractions concurrently resident with autochthonous OM. Overall, our findings highlight that autochthonous OM exerts a significant control on the accumulation, transport, and fate of RCs in aqueous and sedimentary environments. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Burst Testing and Analysis of Superalloy Disks With a Dual Grain Microstructure

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gayda, John; Kantzos, Pete

    2006-01-01

    Elastic-plastic finite element analyses of room temperature burst tests on four superalloy disks were conducted and reported in this paper. Two alloys, Rene 104 (General Electric Aircraft Engines) and Alloy 10 (Honeywell Engines & Systems), were studied. For both alloys an advanced dual microstructure disk, fine grain bore and coarse grain rim, were analyzed and compared with conventional disks with uniform microstructures, coarse grain for Rene 104 and fine grain for Alloy 10. The analysis and experimental data were in good agreement up to burst. At burst, the analysis underestimated the speed and growth of the Rene 104 disks, but overestimated the speed and growth of the Alloy 10 disks. Fractography revealed that the Alloy 10 disks displayed significant surface microcracking and coalescence in comparison to Rene 104 disks. This phenomenon may help explain the differences between the Alloy 10 disks and the Rene 104 disks, as well as the observed deviations between analytical and experimental data at burst.

  3. A 2D Micromodel Study of Fines Migration and Clogging Behavior in Porous Media: Implications of Fines on Methane Extraction from Hydrate-Bearing Sediments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cao, S. C.; Jang, J.; Waite, W. F.; Jafari, M.; Jung, J.

    2017-12-01

    Fine-grained sediment, or "fines," exist nearly ubiquitously in natural sediment, even in the predominantly coarse-grained sediments that host gas hydrates. Fines within these sandy sediments can play a crucial role during gas hydrate production activities. During methane extraction, several processes can alter the mobility and clogging potential of fines: 1) fluid flow as the formation is depressurized to release methane from hydrate; 2) pore-fluid chemistry shifts as pore-fluid brine freshens due to pure water released from dissociating hydrate; 3) the presence of a moving gas/water interface as gas evolves from dissociating hydrate and moves through the reservoir toward the production well. To evaluate fines migration and clogging behavior changes resulting from methane gas production and pore-water freshening during hydrate dissociation, 2D micromodel experiments have been conducted on a selection of pure fines, pore-fluids, and micromodel pore-throat sizes. Additionally, tests have been run with and without an invading gas phase (CO2) to test the significance of a moving meniscus on fines mobility and clogging. The endmember fine particles chosen for this research include silica silt, mica, calcium carbonate, diatoms, kaolinite, illite, and bentonite (primarily made of montmorillonite). The pore fluids include deionized water, sodium chloride brine (2M concentration), and kerosene. The microfluidic pore models, used as porous media analogs, were fabricated with pore-throat widths of 40, 60, and 100 µm. Results from this research show that in addition to the expected dependence of clogging on the ratio of particle-to-pore-throat size, pore-fluid chemistry is also a significant factor because the interaction between a particular type of fine and pore fluid influences that fine's capacity to cluster, clump together and effectively increase its particle "size" relative to the pore-throat width. The presence of a moving gas/fluid meniscus increases the clogging

  4. From Google Maps to a fine-grained catalog of street trees

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Branson, Steve; Wegner, Jan Dirk; Hall, David; Lang, Nico; Schindler, Konrad; Perona, Pietro

    2018-01-01

    Up-to-date catalogs of the urban tree population are of importance for municipalities to monitor and improve quality of life in cities. Despite much research on automation of tree mapping, mainly relying on dedicated airborne LiDAR or hyperspectral campaigns, tree detection and species recognition is still mostly done manually in practice. We present a fully automated tree detection and species recognition pipeline that can process thousands of trees within a few hours using publicly available aerial and street view images of Google MapsTM. These data provide rich information from different viewpoints and at different scales from global tree shapes to bark textures. Our work-flow is built around a supervised classification that automatically learns the most discriminative features from thousands of trees and corresponding, publicly available tree inventory data. In addition, we introduce a change tracker that recognizes changes of individual trees at city-scale, which is essential to keep an urban tree inventory up-to-date. The system takes street-level images of the same tree location at two different times and classifies the type of change (e.g., tree has been removed). Drawing on recent advances in computer vision and machine learning, we apply convolutional neural networks (CNN) for all classification tasks. We propose the following pipeline: download all available panoramas and overhead images of an area of interest, detect trees per image and combine multi-view detections in a probabilistic framework, adding prior knowledge; recognize fine-grained species of detected trees. In a later, separate module, track trees over time, detect significant changes and classify the type of change. We believe this is the first work to exploit publicly available image data for city-scale street tree detection, species recognition and change tracking, exhaustively over several square kilometers, respectively many thousands of trees. Experiments in the city of Pasadena

  5. Granular flow through an aperture: influence of the packing fraction.

    PubMed

    Aguirre, M A; De Schant, R; Géminard, J-C

    2014-07-01

    For the last 50 years, the flow of a granular material through an aperture has been intensely studied in gravity-driven vertical systems (e.g., silos and hoppers). Nevertheless, in many industrial applications, grains are horizontally transported at constant velocity, lying on conveyor belts or floating on the surface of flowing liquids. Unlike fluid flows, that are controlled by the pressure, granular flow is not sensitive to the local pressure but rather to the local velocity of the grains at the outlet. We can also expect the flow rate to depend on the local density of the grains. Indeed, vertical systems are packed in dense configurations by gravity, but, in contrast, in horizontal systems the density can take a large range of values, potentially very small, which may significantly alter the flow rate. In the present article, we study, for different initial packing fractions, the discharge through an orifice of monodisperse grains driven at constant velocity by a horizontal conveyor belt. We report how, during the discharge, the packing fraction is modified by the presence of the outlet, and we analyze how changes in the packing fraction induce variations in the flow rate. We observe that variations of packing fraction do not affect the velocity of the grains at the outlet, and, therefore, we establish that flow-rate variations are directly related to changes in the packing fraction.

  6. Granular flow through an aperture: Influence of the packing fraction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aguirre, M. A.; De Schant, R.; Géminard, J.-C.

    2014-07-01

    For the last 50 years, the flow of a granular material through an aperture has been intensely studied in gravity-driven vertical systems (e.g., silos and hoppers). Nevertheless, in many industrial applications, grains are horizontally transported at constant velocity, lying on conveyor belts or floating on the surface of flowing liquids. Unlike fluid flows, that are controlled by the pressure, granular flow is not sensitive to the local pressure but rather to the local velocity of the grains at the outlet. We can also expect the flow rate to depend on the local density of the grains. Indeed, vertical systems are packed in dense configurations by gravity, but, in contrast, in horizontal systems the density can take a large range of values, potentially very small, which may significantly alter the flow rate. In the present article, we study, for different initial packing fractions, the discharge through an orifice of monodisperse grains driven at constant velocity by a horizontal conveyor belt. We report how, during the discharge, the packing fraction is modified by the presence of the outlet, and we analyze how changes in the packing fraction induce variations in the flow rate. We observe that variations of packing fraction do not affect the velocity of the grains at the outlet, and, therefore, we establish that flow-rate variations are directly related to changes in the packing fraction.

  7. Extreme grain size reduction in dolomite: microstructures and mechanisms.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kennedy, L.; White, J. C.

    2007-12-01

    Pure dolomite sample were deformed at room temperature and under a variety of confining pressures (0 - 100MPa) to examine the processes of grain size reduction. The dolomite is composed of > 97 vol. % dolomite with accessory quartz, calcite, tremolite, and muscovite and has been metamorphosed to amphibolite facies and subsequently annealed. At the hand sample scale, the rock is isotropic, except for minor, randomly oriented tremolite porphyroblasts, and weakly aligned muscovite. At the thin section scale, coarser grains have lobate grain boundaries, exhibit minor to no undulose extinction and few deformation twins, although well- developed subgrains are present. Growth twins are common, as is the presence of well developed {1011} cleavage. Mean grain size 476 microns, and porosity is essentially zero (Austin and Kennedy, 2006). Samples contain diagonal to subvertical faults. Fractures are lined with an exceptionally fine-grained, powdered dolomite. Even experiments done at no confining pressure and stopped before sliding on the fracture surfaces occurred had significant powdered gouge developed along the surfaces. In this regard, fracturing of low porosity, pure dolomite, with metamorphic textures (e.g. lobate, interlocking grain boundaries) results in the development of fine-grained gouge. As expected the dolomite exhibited an increase in strength with increasing confining pressure, with a maximum differential stress of ~400MPa at 100 MPa confining pressure. At each chosen confining pressure, two experiments were performed and stopped at different stages along the load-displacement curve: just before yield stress and at peak stress. Microstructures at each stage were observed in order to determine the possible mechanisms for extreme grain size reduction. SEM work shows that in samples with little to no apparent displacement along microfractures, extreme grain size reduction still exists, suggesting that frictional sliding and subsequent cataclasis may not be the

  8. Arsenic partitioning among particle-size fractions of mine wastes and stream sediments from cinnabar mining districts.

    PubMed

    Silva, Veronica; Loredo, Jorge; Fernández-Martínez, Rodolfo; Larios, Raquel; Ordóñez, Almudena; Gómez, Belén; Rucandio, Isabel

    2014-10-01

    Tailings from abandoned mercury mines represent an important pollution source by metals and metalloids. Mercury mining in Asturias (north-western Spain) has been carried out since Roman times until the 1970s. Specific and non-specific arsenic minerals are present in the paragenesis of the Hg ore deposit. As a result of intensive mining operations, waste materials contain high concentrations of As, which can be geochemically dispersed throughout surrounding areas. Arsenic accumulation, mobility and availability in soils and sediments are strongly affected by the association of As with solid phases and granular size composition. The objective of this study was to examine phase associations of As in the fine grain size subsamples of mine wastes (La Soterraña mine site) and stream sediments heavily affected by acid mine drainage (Los Rueldos mine site). An arsenic-selective sequential procedure, which categorizes As content into seven phase associations, was applied. In spite of a higher As accumulation in the finest particle-size subsamples, As fractionation did not seem to depend on grain size since similar distribution profiles were obtained for the studied granulometric fractions. The presence of As was relatively low in the most mobile forms in both sites. As was predominantly linked to short-range ordered Fe oxyhydroxides, coprecipitated with Fe and partially with Al oxyhydroxides and associated with structural material in mine waste samples. As incorporated into short-range ordered Fe oxyhydroxides was the predominant fraction at sediment samples, representing more than 80% of total As.

  9. Evolution of Photometric and Polarimetric Phase Curves of Fine-Grained Water Ice Particles due to Grain Sintering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jost, B.; Cerubini, R.; Poch, O.; Pommerol, A.; Thomas, N.

    2018-06-01

    Laboratory photometric and polarimetric phase curves of micrometer-sized water ice particles to elucidate the effect of grain sintering on scattering properties relevant for the analysis of potential plume deposition sites on icy satellites.

  10. Influence of Pulsed Current on Superplasticity of Fine Grained 1420 Al-Li Alloy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Yanling; Hou, Hongliang; Bi, Jing; Wang, Yaoqi

    2018-01-01

    The effects of an externally applied electropulse on the superplastic deformation behavior and microstructure of 1420 Al-Li alloy were studied. The flow stress of superplastic deformation was reduced by the high-density electropulse while the elongation was increased. The optimal electrical parameters for superplastic deformation were 192A/mm2 of current density, 150Hz of frequency and 30s of duration at 480°C and 0.001s-1. The elongation raised by 68% compared to that without electropulse. Furthermore, the grain was refined and the average grain size was reduced after superplastic deformation with the optimal electropulse. It is noted that the electropulse promoted the recrystallization and restrained the grain growth.

  11. NASAL FILTERING OF FINE PARTICLES IN CHILDREN VS. ADULTS

    EPA Science Inventory

    Nasal efficiency for removing fine particles may be affected by developmental changes in nasal structure associated with age. In healthy Caucasian children (age 6-13, n=17) and adults (age 18-28, n=11) we measured the fractional deposition (DF) of fine particles (1 and 2um MMAD)...

  12. SILICON CARBIDE GRAIN BOUNDARY DISTRIBUTIONS, IRRADIATION CONDITIONS, AND SILVER RETENTION IN IRRADIATED AGR-1 TRISO FUEL PARTICLES

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

    Lillo, T. M.; Rooyen, I. J.; Aguiar, J. A.

    Precession electron diffraction in the transmission electron microscope was used to map grain orientation and ultimately determine grain boundary misorientation angle distributions, relative fractions of grain boundary types (random high angle, low angle or coincident site lattice (CSL)-related boundaries) and the distributions of CSL-related grain boundaries in the SiC layer of irradiated TRISO-coated fuel particles. Two particles from the AGR-1 experiment exhibiting high Ag-110m retention (>80%) were compared to a particle exhibiting low Ag-110m retention (<19%). Irradiated particles with high Ag-110m retention exhibited a lower fraction of random, high angle grain boundaries compared to the low Ag-110m retention particle. Anmore » inverse relationship between the random, high angle grain boundary fraction and Ag-110m retention is found and is consistent with grain boundary percolation theory. Also, comparison of the grain boundary distributions with previously reported unirradiated grain boundary distributions, based on SEM-based EBSD for similarly fabricated particles, showed only small differences, i.e. a greater low angle grain boundary fraction in unirradiated SiC. It was, thus, concluded that SiC layers with grain boundary distributions susceptible to Ag-110m release were present prior to irradiation. Finally, irradiation parameters were found to have little effect on the association of fission product precipitates with specific grain boundary types.« less

  13. Grain Size Biasing of 230Th-derived Focusing Factors in the Panama Basin

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Loveley, M. R.; Marcantonio, F.; Lyle, M. W.; Ibrahim, R.; Wang, J. K.; Hertzberg, J. E.

    2014-12-01

    In this study, we attempt to understand how differing grain size classes in Panama Basin sediments may create biasing of 230Th as a constant-flux proxy. Greater amounts of 230Th are contained in fine grained particles, which, if fractionated from coarser grained counterparts may lead to biasing of 230Th-derived mass accumulation rates (MARs) and sediment focusing factors. We examined sediments that span the past 25 kyr from four new sediment cores retrieved from two different localities close to the ridges that bound the Panama Basin. Each locality contained paired sites that were seismically interpreted to have undergone sediment redistribution, i.e., thick focused sites versus thin winnowed sites. Two sediment cores were retrieved from the northern part of the Panama basin, Cocos Ridge, (MV1014-01-"4JC", 5° 44.7'N 85° 45.5' W, 1730 m depth; MV1014-01-"8JC", 6° 14.0'N 86° 2.6' W, 1993 m depth), and two were retrieved from the southern part of the basin, Carnegie Ridge, (MV1014-02-"11JC", 0° 41.6'S 85° 20.0' W, 2452 m depth; MV1014-02-"17JC" 0° 10.8'S 85° 52.0' W, 2846 m depth). Cores 4JC and 11JC lie closer to the ridge tops of the Cocos and Carnegie Ridges, respectively, and have thin sediment drapes, while deeper cores, 8JC (Cocos) and 17JC (Carnegie), have thicker sediment drapes and lie downslope from the ridge top cores. Age-model-derived sand MARs, which likely represent the vertical rain of particles that cannot be transported by bottom currents, are similar at each of the paired sites in Holocene and glacial time slices. However, 230Th-normalized MARs are about 50% lower, on average at each of the paired sites during the same time slices. Both Holocene and glacial samples from "thin" cores (4,11JC) contain, surprisingly, significant amounts (up to 50%) of the 230Th within the coarse grained (>63 μm) fraction which makes up 40-70% of the bulk samples analyzed. On the contrary, Holocene and glacial samples from "thick" cores, (8,17JC), contain the

  14. Grained composite materials prepared by combustion synthesis under mechanical pressure

    DOEpatents

    Dunmead, Stephen D.; Holt, Joseph B.; Kingman, Donald D.; Munir, Zuhair A.

    1990-01-01

    Dense, finely grained composite materials comprising one or more ceramic phase or phase and one or more metallic and/or intermetallic phase or phases are produced by combustion synthesis. Spherical ceramic grains are homogeneously dispersed within the matrix. Methods are provided, which include the step of applying mechanical pressure during or immediately after ignition, by which the microstructures in the resulting composites can be controllably selected.

  15. Coupled changes in sand grain size and sand transport driven by changes in the upstream supply of sand in the Colorado River: relative importance of changes in bed-sand grain size and bed-sand area

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Topping, D.J.; Rubin, D.M.; Melis, T.S.

    2007-01-01

    Sand transport in the Colorado River in Marble and Grand canyons was naturally limited by the upstream supply of sand. Prior to the 1963 closure of Glen Canyon Dam, the river exhibited the following four effects of sand supply limitation: (1) hysteresis in sediment concentration, (2) hysteresis in sediment grain size coupled to the hysteresis in sediment concentration, (3) production of inversely graded flood deposits, and (4) development or modification of a lag between the time of a flood peak and the time of either maximum or minimum (depending on reach geometry) bed elevation. Construction and operation of the dam has enhanced the degree to which the first two of these four effects are evident, and has not affected the degree to which the last two effects of sand supply limitation are evident in the Colorado River in Marble and Grand canyons. The first three of the effects involve coupled changes in suspended-sand concentration and grain size that are controlled by changes in the upstream supply of sand. During tributary floods, sand on the bed of the Colorado River fines; this causes the suspended sand to fine and the suspended-sand concentration to increase, even when the discharge of water remains constant. Subsequently, the bed is winnowed of finer sand, the suspended sand coarsens, and the suspended-sand concentration decreases independently of discharge. Also associated with these changes in sand supply are changes in the fraction of the bed that is covered by sand. Thus, suspended-sand concentration in the Colorado River is likely regulated by both changes in the bed-sand grain size and changes in the bed-sand area. A physically based flow and suspended-sediment transport model is developed, tested, and applied to data from the Colorado River to evaluate the relative importance of changes in the bed-sand grain size and changes in the bed-sand area in regulating suspended-sand concentration. Although the model was developed using approximations for steady

  16. Mineralogy and origin of coarse-grained segregations in the pyrometallurgical Zn-Pb slags from Katowice-Wełnowiec (Poland)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Warchulski, R.; Gawęda, A.; Janeczek, J.; Kądziołka-Gaweł, M.

    2016-10-01

    The unique among pyrometallurgical slags, coarse-grained (up to 2.5 cm) segregations (up to 40 cm long) rimmed by "aplitic" border zones occur within holocrystalline historical Zn-smelting slag in Katowice, S Poland. Slag surrounding the segregations consists of olivine, spinel series, melilite, clinopyroxene, leucite, nepheline and sulphides. Ca-olivines, kalsilite and mica compositionally similar to oxykinoshitalite occur in border zones in addition to olivine, spinel series and melilite. Miarolitic and massive pegmatite-like segregations are built of subhedral crystals of melilite, leucite, spinel series, clinopyroxene and hematite. Melilite, clinopyroxenes and spinels in the segregations are enriched in Zn relatively to original slag and to fine-grained border zones. The segregations originated as a result of crystallization from residual melt rich in volatiles (presumably CO2). The volatile-rich melt was separated during fractional crystallization of molten slag under the cover of the overlying hot (ca. 1250 °C) vesicular slag, preventing the escape of volatiles. That unique slag system is analogous to natural magmatic systems.

  17. Rare earth elements in the phosphatic-enriched sediment of the Peru shelf

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Piper, D.Z.; Baedecker, P.A.; Crock, J.G.; Burnett, W.C.; Loebner, B.J.

    1988-01-01

    Apatite-enriched materials from the Peru shelf have been analyzed for their major oxide and rare earth element (REE) concentrations. The samples consist of (1) the fine fraction of sediment, mostly clay material, (2) phosphatic pellets and fish debris, which are dispersed throughout the fine-grained sediment, (3) tabular-shaped phosphatic crusts, which occur within the uppermost few centimeters of sediment, and (4) phosphatic nodules, which occur on the seafloor. The bulk REE concentrations of the concretions suggest that these elements are partitioned between the enclosed detrital material and the apatite fraction. Analysis of the fine-grained sediment with which the samples are associated suggested that this detrital fraction in the concretions should have shale REE values; the analysis of the fish debris suggested that the apatite fraction might have seawater values. The seawater contribution of REE's is negligible in the nodules and crust, in which the apatite occurs as a fine-grained interstitial cement. That is, the concentration of REE's and the REE patterns are predominantly a function of the amount of enclosed fine-grained sediment. By contrast, the REE pattern of the pelletal apatite suggests a seawater source and the absolute REE concentrations are relatively high. The REE P2O5 ratios of the apatite fraction of these samples thus vary from approximately zero (in the case of the crust and nodules) to as much as approximately 1.2 ?? 10-3 (in the case of the pellets). The range of this ratio suggests that rather subtle variations in the depositional environment might cause a significant variation in the REE content of this authigenic fraction of the sediment. Pelletal glauconite was also recovered from one sediment core. Its REE concentrations closely resemble those of the fish debris. ?? 1988.

  18. Suppression of starch synthase I expression affects the granule morphology and granule size and fine structure of starch in wheat endosperm

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Studies in Arabidopsis and rice suggest that manipulation of starch synthase I (SSI) expression in wheat may lead to the production of wheat grains with novel starch structure and properties. This work describes the suppression of SSI expression in wheat grains using RNAi technology, which leads to a low level of enzymatic activity for SSI in the developing endosperm, and a low abundance of SSI protein inside the starch granules of mature grains. The amylopectin fraction of starch from the SSI suppressed lines showed an increased frequency of very short chains (degree of polymerization, dp 6 and 7), a lower proportion of short chains (dp 8–12), and more intermediate chains (dp 13–20) than in the grain from their negative segregant lines. In the most severely affected line, amylose content was significantly increased, the morphology of starch granules was changed, and the proportion of B starch granules was significantly reduced. The change of the fine structure of the starch in the SSI-RNAi suppression lines alters the gelatinization temperature, swelling power, and viscosity of the starch. This work demonstrates that the roles of SSI in the determination of starch structure and properties are similar among different cereals and Arabidopsis. PMID:24634486

  19. On the feasibility of the Chevron Notch Beam method to measure fracture toughness of fine-grained zirconia ceramics.

    PubMed

    Kailer, Andreas; Stephan, Marc

    2016-10-01

    The fracture toughness determination of fine-grained zirconia ceramics using the chevron notched beam method (CNB) was investigated to assess the feasibility of this method for quality assurance and material characterization. CNB tests were performed using four different yttria-stabilized zirconia ceramics under various testing modes and conditions, including displacement-controlled and load-rate-controlled four point bending to assess the influence of slow crack growth and identify most suitable test parameters. For comparison, tests using single-edge V-notch beams (SEVNB) were conducted. It was observed that the CNB method yields well-reproducible results. However, slow crack growth effects significantly affect the measured KIC values, especially when slow loading rates are used. To minimize the effect of slow crack growth, the application of high loading rates is recommended. Despite a certain effort needed for setting up a sample preparation routine, the CNB method is considered to be very useful for measuring and controlling the fracture toughness of zirconia ceramics. Copyright © 2016 The Academy of Dental Materials. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Corrosion Behavior of Ultra-fine Grained 1050 Aluminum Alloy Fabricated by ARB Process in a Buffer Borate Solution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fattah-alhosseini, A.; Gashti, S. O.

    2015-09-01

    Accumulative roll bonding (ARB) has been used as a severe plastic deformation process for the industrial production of ultra-fine grained (UFG) and nano-crystalline sheets with excellent mechanical properties. In the present study, the effect of the ARB process on the corrosion behavior of UFG and nano-crystalline 1050 aluminum alloy in a buffer borate solution (pH 5.5) has been investigated. The result of microhardness tests revealed that microhardness values increase with an increasing number of ARB cycles. A sharp increase in microhardness is seen after three ARB cycles, whereas moderate additional increases are observed afterward for up to nine cycles. Also, the XRD results showed that the mean crystallite size decreased to about 91 nm after nine cycles. The potentiodynamic plots show that as a result of ARB, the corrosion behavior of the UFG and nano-crystalline specimens improves, compared to the annealed 1050 aluminum alloy. Moreover, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements showed that the polarization resistance increases with an increasing number of ARB cycles.

  1. Evaluation of a Non-Nuclear Soil Density Gauge on Fine-Grained Soils

    DTIC Science & Technology

    2013-05-01

    U.S. STANDARD SIEVE NUMBERS HYDROMETER fY, in o/. in. 318 in #140 6 in. 3 in. 2 in. 1 in. ’A in #4 ’" #20 #30 #40 ឬ #100 #200 100 J I ’ I I I I I...1 3-20 31 C L-2 U.S. SIEVE OPENING IN INCHES U.S. STANDARD SIEVE NUMBERS HYDROMETER 1Y,in. ’/.in Un~/8 in #140 6 in 3 in. 2 in. 1in. " #4...Particle Size Distribution Reoort Fine PL 14 HYDROMETER %Fines Silt -------,---- PI Project Non-Nuclear Gau_ge Proiect 27 Area Boring No. 3 Date

  2. Can grain size sensitive creep lubricate faults during earthquake propagation?

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    De Paola, N.; Holdsworth, R.; Viti, C.; Collettini, C.; Bullock, R. J.; Faoro, I.

    2014-12-01

    In the shallow portion of crustal fault zones, fracturing and cataclasis are thought to be the dominant processes during earthquake propagation. In the lower crust/upper mantle, viscous flow is inferred to facilitate aseismic creep along shear zones. Recent studies show that slip zones (SZs), in natural and experimental carbonate seismic faults, are made of nanograins with a polygonal texture, a microstructure consistent with deformation by grain boundary sliding (GBS) mechanisms. Friction experiments performed on calcite fine-grained gouges, at speed v = 1 ms-1, normal stress sn = 18 MPa, displacements d = 0.009-1.46 m, and room temperature and humidity, show a four stage-evolution of the fault strength: SI) attainment of initial value, f = 0.67; SII) increase up to peak value f = 0.82; SIII) sudden decrease to low steady-state value, f = 0.18; and SIV) sudden increase to final value, f = 0.44, during sample deceleration. Samples recovered at the end of each displacement-controlled experiments (Stages I-IV) show the following microstructures evolution of the SZ material, which is: SI) poorly consolidated, and made of fine-grained (1 < D < 5 microns), angular clasts formed by brittle fracturing and cataclasis; SII) cohesive, and made of larger clasts of calcite (D ≈ 1 microns), exhibiting a high density of free dislocations and hosting subgrains (D ≤ 200 nm), dispersed within calcite nanograins. SIII) made of nanograin aggregates exhibiting polygonal grain boundaries, and 120° triple junctions between equiaxial grains. The grains display no preferred elongation, no crystal preferred orientation and low free dislocation densities, possibly due to high temperature (> 900 C) GBS creep deformation. Our microstructural observations suggest that GBS mechanisms can operate in geological materials deformed at high strain rates along frictionally heated seismogenic slip surfaces. The observed microstructures in experimental slip zones are strikingly similar to those

  3. The dependence of carbide morphology on grain boundary character in the highly twinned Alloy 690

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Hui; Xia, Shuang; Zhou, Bangxin; Chen, Wenjue; Hu, Changliang

    2010-04-01

    The dependence of morphology of grain boundary carbides on grain boundary character in Alloy 690 (Ni-30Cr-10Fe, mass fraction, %) with high fraction of low Σ coincidence site lattice (CSL) grain boundaries was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Some of the surface grains were removed by means of deep etching. It was observed that carbides grow dendritically at grain boundaries. The carbide bars observed near incoherent twin boundaries and twin related Σ9 grain boundaries are actually secondary dendrites of the carbides on these boundaries. Higher order dendrites could be observed on random grain boundaries, however, no bar-like dendrites were observed near Σ27 grain boundaries and random grain boundaries. The morphology difference of carbides precipitated at grain boundaries with different characters is discussed based on the experimental results in this paper.

  4. Increased pericarp cell length underlies a major quantitative trait locus for grain weight in hexaploid wheat.

    PubMed

    Brinton, Jemima; Simmonds, James; Minter, Francesca; Leverington-Waite, Michelle; Snape, John; Uauy, Cristobal

    2017-08-01

    Crop yields must increase to address food insecurity. Grain weight, determined by grain length and width, is an important yield component, but our understanding of the underlying genes and mechanisms is limited. We used genetic mapping and near isogenic lines (NILs) to identify, validate and fine-map a major quantitative trait locus (QTL) on wheat chromosome 5A associated with grain weight. Detailed phenotypic characterisation of developing and mature grains from the NILs was performed. We identified a stable and robust QTL associated with a 6.9% increase in grain weight. The positive interval leads to 4.0% longer grains, with differences first visible 12 d after fertilization. This grain length effect was fine-mapped to a 4.3 cM interval. The locus also has a pleiotropic effect on grain width (1.5%) during late grain development that determines the relative magnitude of the grain weight increase. Positive NILs have increased maternal pericarp cell length, an effect which is independent of absolute grain length. These results provide direct genetic evidence that pericarp cell length affects final grain size and weight in polyploid wheat. We propose that combining genes that control distinct biological mechanisms, such as cell expansion and proliferation, will enhance crop yields. © 2017 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust.

  5. Downstream lightening and upward heavying, sorting of sediments of uniform grain size but differing in density

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Viparelli, E.; Solari, L.; Hill, K. M.

    2014-12-01

    Downstream fining, i.e. the tendency for a gradual decrease in grain size in the downstream direction, has been observed and studied in alluvial rivers and in laboratory flumes. Laboratory experiments and field observations show that the vertical sorting pattern over a small Gilbert delta front is characterized by an upward fining profile, with preferential deposition of coarse particles in the lowermost part of the deposit. The present work is an attempt to answer the following questions. Are there analogous sorting patterns in mixtures of sediment particles having the same grain size but differing density? To investigate this, we performed experiments at the Hydrosystems Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During the experiments a Gilbert delta formed and migrated downstream allowing for the study of transport and sorting processes on the surface and within the deposit. The experimental results show 1) preferential deposition of heavy particles in the upstream part of the deposit associated with a pattern of "downstream lightening"; and 2) a vertical sorting pattern over the delta front characterized by a pattern of "upward heavying" with preferential deposition of light particles in the lowermost part of the deposit. The observed downstream lightening is analogous of the downstream fining with preferential deposition of heavy (coarse) particles in the upstream part of the deposit. The observed upward heavying was unexpected because, considering the particle mass alone, the heavy (coarse) particles should have been preferentially deposited in the lowermost part of the deposit. Further, the application of classical fractional bedload transport relations suggests that in the case of mixtures of particles of uniform size and different densities equal mobility is not approached. We hypothesize that granular physics mechanisms traditionally associated with sheared granular flows may be responsible for the observed upward heavying and for the

  6. Effects of grain size and humidity on fretting wear in fine-grained alumina, Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/TiC, and zirconia

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

    Krell, A.; Klaffke, D.

    Friction and wear of sintered alumina with grain sizes between 0.4 and 3 {micro}m were measured in comparison with Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/TiC composites and with tetragonal ZrO{sub 2} (3 mol% Y{sub 2}O{sub 3}). The dependence on the grain boundary toughness and residual microstresses is investigated, and a hierarchical order of influencing parameters is observed. In air, reduced alumina grain sizes improve the micromechanical stability of the grain boundaries and the hardness, and reduced wear is governed by microplastic deformation, with few pullout events. Humidity and water slightly reduce the friction of all of the investigated ceramics. In water, this effectmore » reduces the wear of coarser alumina microstructures. The wear of aluminas and of the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/TiC composite is similar; it is lower than observed in zirconia, where extended surface cracking occurs at grain sizes as small as 0.3 {micro}m.« less

  7. Sediment transport processes in the Pearl River Estuary as revealed by grain-size end-member modeling and sediment trend analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Tao; Li, Tuan-Jie

    2018-04-01

    The analysis of grain-size distribution enables us to decipher sediment transport processes and understand the causal relations between dynamic processes and grain-size distributions. In the present study, grain sizes were measured from surface sediments collected in the Pearl River Estuary and its adjacent coastal areas. End-member modeling analysis attempts to unmix the grain sizes into geologically meaningful populations. Six grain-size end-members were identified. Their dominant modes are 0 Φ, 1.5 Φ, 2.75 Φ, 4.5 Φ, 7 Φ, and 8 Φ, corresponding to coarse sand, medium sand, fine sand, very coarse silt, silt, and clay, respectively. The spatial distributions of the six end-members are influenced by sediment transport and depositional processes. The two coarsest end-members (coarse sand and medium sand) may reflect relict sediments deposited during the last glacial period. The fine sand end-member would be difficult to transport under fair weather conditions, and likely indicates storm deposits. The three remaining fine-grained end-members (very coarse silt, silt, and clay) are recognized as suspended particles transported by saltwater intrusion via the flood tidal current, the Guangdong Coastal Current, and riverine outflow. The grain-size trend analysis shows distinct transport patterns for the three fine-grained end-members. The landward transport of the very coarse silt end-member occurs in the eastern part of the estuary, the seaward transport of the silt end-member occurs in the western part, and the east-west transport of the clay end-member occurs in the coastal areas. The results show that grain-size end-member modeling analysis in combination with sediment trend analysis help to better understand sediment transport patterns and the associated transport mechanisms.

  8. Evolution of Grain Boundary Precipitates in an Al-Cu-Li Alloy During Aging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ott, Noémie; Kairy, Shravan K.; Yan, Yuanming; Birbilis, Nick

    2017-01-01

    The grain boundary microstructure of Al-Cu-Li alloy AA2050 was investigated for different isothermal aging times to rationalize intergranular corrosion (IGC) characteristics. In the underaged condition, the dominant grain boundary precipitates are fine T1 (Al2CuLi). Extended aging revealed that grain boundaries were decorated by large T1 precipitates and S' phase (Al2CuMg), with S' growth not dimensionally constrained. Such a transition in the precipitate type at grain boundaries is a unique feature of the Al-Cu-Li system.

  9. Sedimentary differentiation of aeolian grains at the White Sands National Monument, New Mexico, USA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fenton, Lori K.; Bishop, Janice L.; King, Sara; Lafuente, Barbara; Horgan, Briony; Bustos, David; Sarrazin, Philippe

    2017-06-01

    Gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O) has been identified as a major component of part of Olympia Undae in the northern polar region of Mars, along with the mafic minerals more typical of Martian dune fields. The source and age of the gypsum is disputed, with the proposed explanations having vastly different implications for Mars' geological history. Furthermore, the transport of low density gypsum grains relative to and concurrently with denser grains has yet to be investigated in an aeolian setting. To address this knowledge gap, we performed a field study at White Sands National Monument (WSNM) in New Mexico, USA. Although gypsum dominates the bulk of the dune field, a dolomite-rich [CaMg(CO3)2] transport pathway along the northern border of WSNM provides a suitable analog site to study the transport of gypsum grains relative to the somewhat harder and denser carbonate grains. We collected samples along the stoss slope of a dune and on two coarse-grained ripples at the upwind margin of the dune field where minerals other than gypsum were most common. For comparison, additional samples were taken along the stoss slope of a dune outside the dolomite transport pathway, in the center of the dune field. Visible and near-infrared (VNIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and Raman analyses of different sample size fractions reveal that dolomite is only prevalent in grains larger than ∼1 mm. Other minerals, most notably calcite, are also present in smaller quantities among the coarse grains. The abundance of these coarse grains, relative to gypsum grains of the same size, drops off sharply at the upwind margin of the dune field. In contrast, gypsum dominated the finer fraction (<∼1 mm) at all sample sites, displaying no spatial variation. Estimates of sediment fluxes indicate that, although mineralogical differentiation of wind-transported grains occurs gradually in creep, the process is much more rapid when winds are strong enough to saltate the ⩾1 mm grains. The observed grain

  10. Evidence for accretion of fine-grained rims in a turbulent nebula for CM Murchison

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hanna, Romy D.; Ketcham, Richard A.

    2018-01-01

    We use X-ray computed tomography (XCT) to examine the 3D morphology and spatial relationship of fine-grained rims (FGRs) of Type I chondrules in the CM carbonaceous chondrite Murchison to investigate the formation setting (nebular vs. parent body) of the FGRs. We quantify the sizes, shapes, and orientations of the chondrules and FGRs and develop a new algorithm to examine the 3D variation of FGR thickness around each chondrule. We find that the average proportion of chondrule volume contained in the rim for Murchison chondrules is 35.9%. The FGR volume in relation to the interior chondrule radius is well described by a power law function as proposed for accretion of FGRs in a weakly turbulent nebula by Cuzzi (2004). The power law exponent indicates that the rimmed chondrules behaved as Stokes number Stη > 1 nebular particles in Kolmogorov η scale turbulence. FGR composition as inferred from XCT number appears essentially uniform across interior chondrule types and compositions, making formation by chondrule alteration unlikely. We determine that the FGRs were compressed by the impact event(s) that deformed Murchison (Hanna et al., 2015), resulting in rims that are thicker in the plane of foliation but that still preserve their nebular morphological signature. Finally, we propose that the irregular shape of some chondrules in Murchison is a primary feature resulting from chondrule formation and that chondrules with a high degree of surface roughness accreted a relatively larger amount of nebular dust compared to smoother chondrules.

  11. Temporal and spatial variabilities in the surface moisture content of a fine-grained beach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Namikas, S. L.; Edwards, B. L.; Bitton, M. C. A.; Booth, J. L.; Zhu, Y.

    2010-01-01

    This study examined spatial and temporal variations in the surface moisture content of a fine-grained beach at Padre Island, Texas, USA. Surface moisture measurements were collected on a 27 × 24 m grid that extended from the dune toe to the upper foreshore. The grid was surveyed at 2 to 4 h intervals for two tidal cycles, generating 17 maps of the spatial distribution of surface moisture. Simultaneous measurements of air temperature and humidity, wind speed and direction, tidal elevation, and water table elevation were used to interpret observed changes in surface moisture. It was found that the spatial distribution of surface moisture was broadly characterized by a cross-shore gradient of high to low content moving landward from the swash zone. The distribution of surface moisture was conceptualized in terms of three zones: saturated (> 25%), intermediate or transitional (5-25%), and dry (< 5%). The position of the saturated zone corresponded to the uppermost swash zone and therefore shifted in accordance with tidal elevation. Moisture contents in the intermediate and dry zones were primarily related to variation in water table depth (which was in turn controlled by tidal elevation) and to a lesser extent by evaporation. Signals associated with atmospheric processes such as evaporation were muted by the minimal degree of variation in atmospheric parameters experienced during most of the study period, but were apparent for the last few hours. The observed spatial and temporal variations in moisture content correspond reasonably well with observations of key controlling processes, but more work is needed to fully characterize this process suite.

  12. Grain source and marginal changes in forage particle size modulate digestive processes and nutrient intake of dairy cows.

    PubMed

    Nasrollahi, S M; Khorvash, M; Ghorbani, G R; Teimouri-Yansari, A; Zali, A; Zebeli, Q

    2012-08-01

    This study investigated the effects of, and interactions between, dietary grain source and marginal changes in alfalfa hay (AH) particle size (PS) on digestive processes of dairy cows. A total of eight Holstein dairy cows (175 days in milk) were allocated in a replicated 4 × 4 Latin square design with four 21-day periods. The experiment was a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement with two levels of theoretical PS of AH (fine = 15 mm or long = 30 mm) each combined with two different sources of cereal grains (barley grain alone or barley plus corn grain in a 50 : 50 ratio). Results showed that cows consuming diets supplemented with corn had greater dry matter and nutrient intakes (P < 0.01), independent of forage PS. In addition, the apparent digestibility of fiber fractions was greater for diets supplemented with corn (P = 0.01). The feeding of barley grain-based diets was associated with greater apparent digestibility of non-fiber carbohydrates, and this variable was even greater when long AH was fed (P = 0.04). Moreover, the feeding of long AH resulted in longer time spent eating (P = 0.03) and higher pH (P < 0.01), as well as a tendency for higher acetate-to-propionate ratio in the rumen fluid (P = 0.06) at 3 h post feeding. In conclusion, the results indicated that the marginal increase of PS of AH may prolong eating time and improve rumen fermentation, particularly in diets based on barley grain. Partial substitution of barley grain by corn can improve feed intake and fiber digestibility in mid-lactation dairy cows.

  13. Landfill Mining - Wet mechanical treatment of fine MSW with a wet jigger.

    PubMed

    Wanka, Sebastian; Münnich, Kai; Fricke, Klaus

    2017-01-01

    The motives for landfill mining are various. In the last couple of years Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM) has become increasingly important in academic discourse and practical implementation. The main goal of ELFM is to recover as much material as possible from deposited municipal solid waste (MSW). In most of the projects carried out so far, the main focus has been set on coarse materials such as plastics, woods, papers and metals. These fractions can be separated easily by sieving in combination with magnetic separation. In these projects most of the fine materials, which might represent as much as 60-70% of the total mass of the landfill body, had to be deposited again. A further treatment aiming at reducing the masses of these fine materials, which are still a conglomerate of soil, calorific fractions, metals, minerals and residues, usually did not take place. One topic in the framework of the landfill mining project TÖNSLM, in addition to the separation of the calorific fraction and metals has been the treatment of fine materials with the goal to re-use these e.g. for construction purposes. This paper shows the results obtained after the wet mechanical treatment of fine MSW 10-60mm with a wet jigger. The physical principle of this process is the separation of the mass flux due to the different densities of the waste constituents. As a result, three main waste fluxes are obtained: Dense inert and dense fine fraction with a high content of minerals and a lightweight fraction with a high calorific value between 16 and 20MJ/kg. An additional positive effect of wet mechanical treatment is the removal of the finest particles from the surface of the waste material, thus increasing the quality of the generated waste fluxes. The mass fluxes of the different fractions and their qualities as well as possible recovery paths are described below. An economical and ecological consideration of the treatment of the fine materials does not take place within the framework of

  14. The U-Th-Pb, Sm-Nd, and Ar-Ar isotopic systematics of lunar meteorite Yamato-793169

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Torigoye, Noriko; Misawa, Keji; Dalrymple, G. Brent; Tatsumoto, Mitsunobu

    1993-01-01

    U-Th-Pb, Sm-Nd, and (Ar-40)-(Ar-39) isotopic studies were performed on Yamato (Y)-793169, an unbrecciated diabasic lunar meteorite whose chemical composition is close to low Ti(LT) and very low-Ti (VLT) mare basalts. The isotopic data indicate that the meteorite was formed earlier than 3.9 Ga from a source with low U/Pb and high Sm/Nd and was distributed by a thermal event at 751 Ma. due to the small sample size (104 mg), a plagioclase crystal and glass grains were handpicked for Ar analysis, leaving four fractions for the U-Th-Pb and Sm-Nd studies; a fine-grained fraction (less than 63 microns; Fine) and three medium-grained fractions (63-150 microns). Medium-grained fractions were divided by density; a heavy fraction (rho greater than 3.3) consisting mainly of pyroxene (PX1), a lighter fraction (rho less than 2.8) consisting of plagioclase (PL), and a middle density fraction (predominantly pyroxene; PX2). The fractions were washed with acetone and alcohol, and then leached in 0.01 HBr and 0.1N HBr in order to remove any terrestrial Pb contamination. Analysis of the HBr leaches revealed that this meteorite was heavily contaminated with terrestrial Pb during its residence in Antarctic ice.

  15. Grain size statistics and depositional pattern of the Ecca Group sandstones, Karoo Supergroup in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baiyegunhi, Christopher; Liu, Kuiwu; Gwavava, Oswald

    2017-11-01

    Grain size analysis is a vital sedimentological tool used to unravel the hydrodynamic conditions, mode of transportation and deposition of detrital sediments. In this study, detailed grain-size analysis was carried out on thirty-five sandstone samples from the Ecca Group in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Grain-size statistical parameters, bivariate analysis, linear discriminate functions, Passega diagrams and log-probability curves were used to reveal the depositional processes, sedimentation mechanisms, hydrodynamic energy conditions and to discriminate different depositional environments. The grain-size parameters show that most of the sandstones are very fine to fine grained, moderately well sorted, mostly near-symmetrical and mesokurtic in nature. The abundance of very fine to fine grained sandstones indicate the dominance of low energy environment. The bivariate plots show that the samples are mostly grouped, except for the Prince Albert samples that show scattered trend, which is due to the either mixture of two modes in equal proportion in bimodal sediments or good sorting in unimodal sediments. The linear discriminant function analysis is dominantly indicative of turbidity current deposits under shallow marine environments for samples from the Prince Albert, Collingham and Ripon Formations, while those samples from the Fort Brown Formation are lacustrine or deltaic deposits. The C-M plots indicated that the sediments were deposited mainly by suspension and saltation, and graded suspension. Visher diagrams show that saltation is the major process of transportation, followed by suspension.

  16. H2O grain size and the amount of dust in Mars' residual north polar cap

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kieffer, Hugh H.

    1990-01-01

    In Mars' north polar cap, the probable composition of material residual from the annual condensation cycle is a mixture of fine dust and H2O grains of comparable size and abundance. However, metamorphism of such material will gradually lower its albedo by increasing the size of the H2O grains only. If the cap is undergoing net annual sublimation (as inferred from water vapor observations), late summer observations should be of old ice with H2O grain sizes of 100 microns or more. Ice of this granularity containing 30 percent fine dust has a reflectivity similar to that of dust alone; the observed albedo and computed ice grain size imply dust concentrations of 1 part per 1000 or less. The brightness of the icy areas conflicts with what would be expected for a residual cap deposited by an annual cycle similar to that observed by Viking and aged for thousands of years. The residual cap surface cannot be 'old dirty' ice. It could be old, coarse, and clean; or it could be young, fine, and dirty. This brings into question both the source of the late summer water vapor and the formation rate of laminated terrain.

  17. H2O grain size and the amount of dust in Mars' residual North polar cap

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Kieffer, H.H.

    1990-01-01

    In Mars' north polar cap the probable composition of material residual from the annual condensation cycle is a mixture of fine dust and H2O grains of comparable size and abundance. However, metamorphism of such material will gradually lower its albedo by increasing the size of the H2O grains only. If the cap is undergoing net annual sublimation (as inferred from water vapor observations), late summer observations should be of old ice with H2O grain sizes of 100 ??m or more. Ice of this granularity containing 30% fine dust has a reflectivity similar to that of dust alone; the observed albedo and computed ice grain size imply dust concentrations of 1 part per 1000 or less. The brightness of the icy areas conflicts with what would be expected for a residual cap deposited by an annual cycle similar to that observed by Viking and aged for thousands of years. The residual cap surface cannot be "old dirty' ice. It could be old, coarse, and clean; or it could be young, fine, and dirty. This brings into question both the source of the late summer water vapor and the formation rate of laminated terrain. -Author

  18. Modifying the properties of finely ground limestone by tumbling granulation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Macho, Oliver; Eckert, Maroš; Tomášová, Barbora; Peciar, Peter; Ščasný, Martin; Fekete, Roman; Peciar, Marián

    2016-06-01

    Calcium carbonate in the form of finely ground limestone is a material that has found its application in a wide range of industries, in the chemical, rubber, agricultural, and paper industries, is used for desulfurization of boilers and other. In civil engineering, ground limestone is used for the production of building materials, plaster and mortar mixtures, as a filler in concrete mixtures, in road construction, and as an essential component of mastic asphalt. This paper deals with examining the modification of the properties of finely ground limestone by the tumbling agglomeration method. It has been shown that the components of concrete with a round grain have a positive effect on the pumping of concrete in comparison with an elongated grain or the rough surface of crushed stone. The experiments will be carried out on a granulation plate using a variety of granulation liquid. The agglomerates and their properties were compared with untreated finely ground limestone, with a focus on detecting changes in compressibility, density and particle size. The output of this paper is a description and graphical representation of the changes in the properties of ground limestone before and after the agglomeration process.

  19. Recrystallization and grain growth in NiAl

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Haff, G. R.; Schulson, E. M.

    1982-01-01

    Aluminide intermetallics, because of their strength, microstructural stability, and oxidation resistance at elevated temperatures, represent potential structural materials for use in advanced energy conversion systems. This inherent potential of the intermetallics can currently not be realized in connection with the general brittleness of the materials under ambient conditions. It is pointed out, however, that brittleness is not an inherent characteristic. Single crystals are ductile and polycrystals may be, too, if their grains are fine enough. The present investigation is concerned with an approach for reducing material brittleness, taking into account thermal-mechanically induced grain refinement in NiAl, a B2 aluminide which melts at 1638 C and which retains complete order to its melting point. Attention is given to the kinetics of recrystallization and grain growth of warm-worked, nickel-rich material.

  20. Possible Gems and Ultra-Fine Grained Polyphase Units in Comet Wild 2.

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gainsforth, Z.; Butterworth, A. L.; Jilly-Rehak, C. E.; Westphal, A. J.; Brownlee, D. E.; Joswiak, D.; Ogliore, R. C.; Zolensky, M. E.; Bechtel, H. A.; Ebel, D. S.; hide

    2016-01-01

    GEMS and ultrafine grained polyphase units (UFG-PU) in anhydrous IDPs are probably some of the most primitive materials in the solar system. UFG-PUs contain nanocrystalline silicates, oxides, metals and sulfides. GEMS are rounded approximately 100 nm across amorphous silicates containing embedded iron-nickel metal grains and sulfides. GEMS are one of the most abundant constituents in some anhydrous CPIDPs, often accounting for half the material or more. When NASA's Stardust mission returned with samples from comet Wild 2 in 2006, it was thought that UFG-PUs and GEMS would be among the most abundant materials found. However, possibly because of heating during the capture process in aerogel, neither GEMS nor UFG-PUs have been clearly found.

  1. Grain-Size Based Additivity Models for Scaling Multi-rate Uranyl Surface Complexation in Subsurface Sediments

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

    Zhang, Xiaoying; Liu, Chongxuan; Hu, Bill X.

    This study statistically analyzed a grain-size based additivity model that has been proposed to scale reaction rates and parameters from laboratory to field. The additivity model assumed that reaction properties in a sediment including surface area, reactive site concentration, reaction rate, and extent can be predicted from field-scale grain size distribution by linearly adding reaction properties for individual grain size fractions. This study focused on the statistical analysis of the additivity model with respect to reaction rate constants using multi-rate uranyl (U(VI)) surface complexation reactions in a contaminated sediment as an example. Experimental data of rate-limited U(VI) desorption in amore » stirred flow-cell reactor were used to estimate the statistical properties of multi-rate parameters for individual grain size fractions. The statistical properties of the rate constants for the individual grain size fractions were then used to analyze the statistical properties of the additivity model to predict rate-limited U(VI) desorption in the composite sediment, and to evaluate the relative importance of individual grain size fractions to the overall U(VI) desorption. The result indicated that the additivity model provided a good prediction of the U(VI) desorption in the composite sediment. However, the rate constants were not directly scalable using the additivity model, and U(VI) desorption in individual grain size fractions have to be simulated in order to apply the additivity model. An approximate additivity model for directly scaling rate constants was subsequently proposed and evaluated. The result found that the approximate model provided a good prediction of the experimental results within statistical uncertainty. This study also found that a gravel size fraction (2-8mm), which is often ignored in modeling U(VI) sorption and desorption, is statistically significant to the U(VI) desorption in the sediment.« less

  2. Comparisons of Remote Sensing Retrievals and in situ Measurements of Aerosol Fine Mode Fraction during ACE-Asia

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gasso, Santiago; O'Neill, Norm

    2006-01-01

    We present sunphotometer-retrieved and in situ fine mode fractions (FMF) measured onboard the same aircraft during the ACE-Asia experiment. Comparisons indicate that the latter can be used to identify whether the aerosol under observation is dominated by a mixture of modes or a single mode. Differences between retrieved and in situ FMF range from 5-20%. When profiles contained multiple layers of aerosols, the retrieved and measured FMF were segregated by layers. The comparison of layered and total FMF from the same profile indicates that columnar values are intermediate to those derived from layers. As a result, a remotely sensed FMF cannot be used to distinguish whether the aerosol under observation is composed of layers each with distinctive modal features or all layers with the same modal features. Thus, the use of FMF in multiple layer environments does not provide unique information on the aerosol under observation.

  3. Comparison of iterative inverse coarse-graining methods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rosenberger, David; Hanke, Martin; van der Vegt, Nico F. A.

    2016-10-01

    Deriving potentials for coarse-grained Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations is frequently done by solving an inverse problem. Methods like Iterative Boltzmann Inversion (IBI) or Inverse Monte Carlo (IMC) have been widely used to solve this problem. The solution obtained by application of these methods guarantees a match in the radial distribution function (RDF) between the underlying fine-grained system and the derived coarse-grained system. However, these methods often fail in reproducing thermodynamic properties. To overcome this deficiency, additional thermodynamic constraints such as pressure or Kirkwood-Buff integrals (KBI) may be added to these methods. In this communication we test the ability of these methods to converge to a known solution of the inverse problem. With this goal in mind we have studied a binary mixture of two simple Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluids, in which no actual coarse-graining is performed. We further discuss whether full convergence is actually needed to achieve thermodynamic representability.

  4. Granular gases of rod-shaped grains in microgravity.

    PubMed

    Harth, K; Kornek, U; Trittel, T; Strachauer, U; Höme, S; Will, K; Stannarius, R

    2013-04-05

    Granular gases are convenient model systems to investigate the statistical physics of nonequilibrium systems. In the literature, one finds numerous theoretical predictions, but only few experiments. We study a weakly excited dilute gas of rods, confined in a cuboid container in microgravity during a suborbital rocket flight. With respect to a gas of spherical grains at comparable filling fraction, the mean free path is considerably reduced. This guarantees a dominance of grain-grain collisions over grain-wall collisions. No clustering was observed, unlike in similar experiments with spherical grains. Rod positions and orientations were determined and tracked. Translational and rotational velocity distributions are non-Gaussian. Equipartition of kinetic energy between translations and rotations is violated.

  5. The Effect of Grain Size on the Strain Hardening Behavior for Extruded ZK61 Magnesium Alloy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Lixin; Zhang, Wencong; Chen, Wenzhen; Duan, Junpeng; Wang, Wenke; Wang, Erde

    2017-12-01

    The effects of grain size on the tensile and compressive strain hardening behaviors for extruded ZK61 alloys have been investigated by uniaxial tensile and compressive tests along the extrusion directions. Cylindrical tension and compression specimens of extruded ZK61 alloys with various sized grain were fabricated by annealing treatments. Tensile and compressive tests at ambient temperature were conducted at a strain rate of 0.5 × 10-3 s-1. The results indicate that both tensile strain hardening and compressive strain hardening of ZK61 alloys with different grain sizes have an athermal regime of dislocation accumulation in early deformation. The threshold stress value caused dynamic recovery is predominantly related to grain size in tensile strain hardening, but the threshold stress values for different grain sizes are almost identical in compressive strain hardening. There are obvious transition points on the tensile strain hardening curves which indicate the occurrence of dynamic recrystallization (DRX). The tensile strain hardening rate of the coarse-grained alloy obviously decreases faster than that of fine-grained alloys before DRX and the tensile strain hardening curves of different grain sizes basically tend to parallel after DRX. The compressive strain hardening rate of the fine-grained alloy obviously increases faster than that of coarse-grained alloy for twin-induced strain hardening, but compressive strain hardening curves also tend to parallel after twinning is exhausted.

  6. Super-fine rice-flour production by enzymatic treatment with high hydrostatic pressure processing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kido, Miyuki; Kobayashi, Kaneto; Chino, Shuji; Nishiwaki, Toshikazu; Homma, Noriyuki; Hayashi, Mayumi; Yamamoto, Kazutaka; Shigematsu, Toru

    2013-06-01

    In response to the recent expansion of rice-flour use, we established a new rice-flour manufacturing process through the application of high hydrostatic pressure (HP) to the enzyme-treated milling method. HP improved both the activity of pectinase, which is used in the enzyme-treated milling method and the water absorption capacity of rice grains. These results indicate improved damage to the tissue structures of rice grains. In contrast, HP suppressed the increase in glucose, which may have led to less starch damage. The manufacturing process was optimized to HP treatment at 200 MPa (40°C) for 1 h and subsequent wet-pulverization at 11,000 rpm. Using this process, rice flour with an exclusively fine mean particle size less than 20 μm and starch damage less than 5% was obtained from rice grains soaked in an enzyme solution and distilled water. This super-fine rice flour is suitable for bread, pasta, noodles and Western-style sweets.

  7. Designing, producing, and constructing fine-graded hot mix asphalt on Illinois roadways.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2015-04-01

    Fine-graded (F-G) asphalt concrete mixtures are composed of an aggregate structure in which the fine fraction controls the : load-carrying capacity of the mix. Other states have reported benefits in using F-G mixtures, including improved compaction, ...

  8. Influence of SiC grain boundary character on fission product transport in irradiated TRISO fuel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lillo, T. M.; van Rooyen, I. J.

    2016-05-01

    In this study, the fission product precipitates at silicon carbide grain boundaries from an irradiated TRISO particle were identified and correlated with the associated grain boundary characteristics. Precession electron diffraction in the transmission electron microscope provided the crystallographic information needed to identify grain boundary misorientation and boundary type (i.e., low angle, random high angle or coincident site lattice (CSL)-related). The silicon carbide layer was found to be composed mainly of twin boundaries and small fractions of random high angle and low angle grain boundaries. Most fission products were found at random, high-angle grain boundaries, with small fractions at low-angle and CSL-related grain boundaries. Palladium (Pd) was found at all types of grain boundaries while Pd-uranium and Pd-silver precipitates were only associated with CSL-related and random, high-angle grain boundaries. Precipitates containing only Ag were found only at random, high-angle grain boundaries, but not at low angle or CSL-related grain boundaries.

  9. Evolution of twinning in extruded AZ31 alloy with bimodal grain structure

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

    Garcés, G., E-mail: ggarces@cenim.csic.es

    2017-04-15

    Twinning in extruded AZ31 alloy with a bimodal grain structure is studied under compression along the extrusion direction. This study has combined in-situ measurements during the compression tests by Synchrotron Radiation Diffraction and Acoustic Emission techniques and the evaluation of the microstructure and texture in post-mortem compression samples deformed at different strains. The microstructure of the alloy is characterized by the coexistence of large areas of fine dynamic recrystallized grains and coarse non-recrystallized grains elongated along extrusion direction. Twinning occurs initially in large elongated grains before the macroscopic yield stress which is controlled by the twinning in equiaxed dynamically recrystallizedmore » grains. - Highlights: • The AZ31 extruded at low temperature exhibits a bimodal grains structure. • Twinning takes place before macroscopic yielding in coarse non-DRXed grains. • DRXed grains controls the beginning of plasticity in magnesium alloys with bimodal grain structure.« less

  10. Refinement of the β-Sn Grains in Ni-Doped Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu Solder Joints with Cu-Based and Ni-Based Substrates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chou, Tzu-Ting; Chen, Wei-Yu; Fleshman, Collin Jordon; Duh, Jenq-Gong

    2018-03-01

    A fine-grain structure with random orientations of lead-free solder joints was successfully obtained in this study. The Sn-Ag-Cu solder alloys doped with minor Ni were reflowed with Ni-based or Cu-based substrates to fabricate the joints containing different Ni content. Adding 0.1 wt.% Ni into the solder effectively promoted the formation of fine Sn grains, and reflowing with Ni-based substrates further enhanced the effects of β-Sn grain refinement. The crystallographic characteristics and the microstructures were analyzed to identify the solidification mechanism of different types of microstructure in the joints. The phase precipitating order in the joint altered as the solder composition were modified by elemental doping and changing substrate, which significantly affected the efficiency of grain refinement and the final grain structure. The formation mechanism of fine β-Sn grains in the Ni-doped joint with a Ni-based substrate is attributable to the heterogeneous nucleation by Ni, whereas the Ni in the joint using ChouCu-based substrate is consumed to form an intermetallic compound and thus retard the effect of grain refining.

  11. A method for automatic grain segmentation of multi-angle cross-polarized microscopic images of sandstone

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jiang, Feng; Gu, Qing; Hao, Huizhen; Li, Na; Wang, Bingqian; Hu, Xiumian

    2018-06-01

    Automatic grain segmentation of sandstone is to partition mineral grains into separate regions in the thin section, which is the first step for computer aided mineral identification and sandstone classification. The sandstone microscopic images contain a large number of mixed mineral grains where differences among adjacent grains, i.e., quartz, feldspar and lithic grains, are usually ambiguous, which make grain segmentation difficult. In this paper, we take advantage of multi-angle cross-polarized microscopic images and propose a method for grain segmentation with high accuracy. The method consists of two stages, in the first stage, we enhance the SLIC (Simple Linear Iterative Clustering) algorithm, named MSLIC, to make use of multi-angle images and segment the images as boundary adherent superpixels. In the second stage, we propose the region merging technique which combines the coarse merging and fine merging algorithms. The coarse merging merges the adjacent superpixels with less evident boundaries, and the fine merging merges the ambiguous superpixels using the spatial enhanced fuzzy clustering. Experiments are designed on 9 sets of multi-angle cross-polarized images taken from the three major types of sandstones. The results demonstrate both the effectiveness and potential of the proposed method, comparing to the available segmentation methods.

  12. Thin-layer heap bioleaching of copper flotation tailings containing high levels of fine grains and microbial community succession analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hao, Xiao-dong; Liang, Yi-li; Yin, Hua-qun; Liu, Hong-wei; Zeng, Wei-min; Liu, Xue-duan

    2017-04-01

    Thin-layer heap bioleaching of copper flotation tailings containing high levels of fine grains was carried out by mixed cultures on a small scale over a period of 210 d. Lump ores as a framework were loaded at the bottom of the ore heap. The overall copper leaching rates of tailings and lump ores were 57.10wt% and 65.52wt%, respectively. The dynamic shifts of microbial community structures about attached microorganisms were determined using the Illumina MiSeq sequencing platform based on 16S rRNA amplification strategy. The results indicated that chemolithotrophic genera Acidithiobacillus and Leptospirillum were always detected and dominated the microbial community in the initial and middle stages of the heap bioleaching process; both genera might be responsible for improving the copper extraction. However, Thermogymnomonas and Ferroplasma increased gradually in the final stage. Moreover, the effects of various physicochemical parameters and microbial community shifts on the leaching efficiency were further investigated and these associations provided some important clues for facilitating the effective application of bioleaching.

  13. Comparison of Geochemical, Grain-Size, and Magnetic Proxies for Rock Flour and Ice- Rafted Debris in the Late Pleistocene Mono Basin, CA

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zimmerman, S. H.; Hemming, S. R.; Kent, D. V.

    2008-12-01

    Advance and retreat of mountain glaciers are important indicators of climate variability, but the most direct proxy record, mapping and dating of moraines, is by nature discontinous. The Sierra Nevada form the western boundary of the Mono Lake basin, and the proximity of the large Pleistocene lake to the glacial canyons of the Sierra presents a rare opportunity to examine glacial variability in a continuous, well-dated lacustrine sequence. We have applied a geochemical proxy for rock flour to the glacial silts of the late Pleistocene Wilson Creek Formation, but because it is time- and sample-intensive, another method is required for a high-resolution record. Previous microscopic examination, thermomagnetic measurements, XRD analysis, and new isothermal remnant magnetization (IRM) acquisition curves show that the magnetic mineralogy is dominated by fine-grained, unaltered magnetite. Bulk measurements show strong susceptibility (mean ~ 16 x 10- 6 m3/kg) and remanent magnetization (mean IRM ~ 10-2 Am2/kg) compared to diluting components (carbonate, smectite, rhyolitic ash). The Wilson Creek type section sediments also contain a coarse lithic fraction, quantified by counting the >2cm clasts in outcrop and the >425 μm fraction in the bulk sediment. Susceptibility, IRM, and ARM (anhysteretic remnant magnetization) are quite similar throughout the type section, with the abundance of coarse lithic fraction correlative to the ratio k/IRM. Because the magnetic fraction of the rock flour is fine-grained magnetite, IRM should capture the changes in concentration of flour through time, and the major features of the (low-resolution) geochemical flour proxy record are identifiable in the IRM record. Flux-correction of the IRM results in a rock flour proxy record with major peaks between 36 and 48 ka, similar to a rock flour record from neighboring Owens Lake. This regional glacial signal contrasts with peaks in coarse lithics between 58 and 68 ka in the Wilson Creek record

  14. The Dynamics of Fine Mode Aerosol Optical Properties in South Korea from AERONET and Aircraft Observations with a Focus on Cases with Large Cloud Fraction and/or Fog During KORUS-AQ

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Eck, T. F.; Holben, B. N.; Kim, J.; Choi, M.; Giles, D. M.; Schafer, J.; Smirnov, A.; Slutsker, I.; Sinyuk, A.; Sorokin, M. G.; Kraft, J.; Beyersdorf, A. J.; Anderson, B. E.; Thornhill, K. L., II; Crawford, J. H.

    2017-12-01

    The focus of our investigation is of major fine mode aerosol pollution events in South Korea, particularly when cloud fraction is high. This work includes the analysis of AERONET data utilizing the Spectral Deconvolution Algorithm to enable detection of fine mode aerosol optical depth (AOD) near to clouds. Additionally we analyze the newly developed AERONET V3 data sets that have significant changes to cloud screening algorithms. Comparisons of aerosol optical depth are made between AERONET Versions 2 and 3 for both long-term climatology data and for specific 2016 cases, especially in May and June 2016 during the KORUS-AQ field campaign. In general the Version 3 cloud screening allows many more fine mode AOD observations to reach Level 2 when cloud amount is high, as compared to Version 2, thereby enabling more thorough analysis of these types of cases. Particular case studies include May 25-26, 2016 when cloud fraction was very high over much of the peninsula, associated with a frontal passage and advection of pollution from China. Another interesting case is June 9, 2016 when there was fog over the West Sea, and this seems to have affected aerosol properties well downwind over the Korean peninsula. Both of these days had KORUS-AQ research aircraft flights that provided observations of aerosol absorption, particle size distributions and vertical profiles of extinction. AERONET retrievals and aircraft in situ measurements both showed high single scattering albedo (weak absorption) on these cloudy days. We also investigate the relationship between aerosol fine mode radius and AOD and the relationship between aerosol single scattering albedo and fine mode particle radius from the AERONET almucantar retrievals for the interval of April through June 2016 for 17 AERONET sites in South Korea. Strongly increasing fine mode radius (leading to greater scattering efficiency) as fine mode AOD increased is one factor contributing to a trend of increasing single scattering

  15. Identification of magnetic minerals in the fine-grain sediment on the Bengawan Solo River

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Purnama, B.; Kusuma, R.; Legowo, B.; Suharyana; Wijayanta, A. T.

    2018-03-01

    The magnetic mineral content in the fine sediment of Bengawan Solo River is discussed. The fine sediment is obtained on the upper part of the tributary of Bengawan Solo River. Magnetic minerals are separated using permanent magnets. Furthermore the magnetic minerals are overnight dried using oven at 100°C. FTIR characterization indicate that the magnetic minerals in the fine sediment of Bengawan Solo River have the same characteristics as minerals in Cilacap and Purwokerto areas. Magnetic minerals are estimated to form at wave number k = 569.03 cm-1. This hematite content increase to 70.67% after anealling treatment at 600°C for 4 hours in atmosphere condition. This result is interesting because the heating process increases the hematite content. Within results, the magnetic properties of the sample will change.

  16. On the interaction of solutes with grain boundaries

    DOE PAGES

    Dingreville, Remi Philippe Michel; Berbenni, Stephane

    2015-11-01

    Solute segregation to grain boundaries is considered by modeling solute atoms as misfitting inclusions within a disclination structural unit model describing the grain boundary structure and its intrinsic stress field. The solute distribution around grain boundaries is described through Fermi–Dirac statistics of site occupancy. The susceptibility of hydrogen segregation to symmetric tilt grain boundaries is discussed in terms of the misorientation angle, the defect type characteristics at the grain boundary, temperature, and the prescribed bulk hydrogen fraction of occupied sites. Through this formalism, it is found that hydrogen trapping on grain boundaries clearly correlates with the grain boundary structure (i.e.more » type of structural unit composing the grain boundary), and the associated grain boundary misorientation. Specifically, for symmetric tilt grain boundaries about the [001] axis, grain boundaries composed of both B and C structural units show a lower segregation susceptibility than other grain boundaries. A direct correlation between the segregation susceptibility and the intrinsic net defect density is provided through the Frank–Bilby formalism. Moreover, the present formulation could prove to be a simple and useful model to identify classes of grain boundaries relevant to grain boundary engineering.« less

  17. On the interaction of solutes with grain boundaries

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

    Dingreville, Remi Philippe Michel; Berbenni, Stephane

    Solute segregation to grain boundaries is considered by modeling solute atoms as misfitting inclusions within a disclination structural unit model describing the grain boundary structure and its intrinsic stress field. The solute distribution around grain boundaries is described through Fermi–Dirac statistics of site occupancy. The susceptibility of hydrogen segregation to symmetric tilt grain boundaries is discussed in terms of the misorientation angle, the defect type characteristics at the grain boundary, temperature, and the prescribed bulk hydrogen fraction of occupied sites. Through this formalism, it is found that hydrogen trapping on grain boundaries clearly correlates with the grain boundary structure (i.e.more » type of structural unit composing the grain boundary), and the associated grain boundary misorientation. Specifically, for symmetric tilt grain boundaries about the [001] axis, grain boundaries composed of both B and C structural units show a lower segregation susceptibility than other grain boundaries. A direct correlation between the segregation susceptibility and the intrinsic net defect density is provided through the Frank–Bilby formalism. Moreover, the present formulation could prove to be a simple and useful model to identify classes of grain boundaries relevant to grain boundary engineering.« less

  18. Size Matters: FTIR Spectral Analysis of Apollo Regolith Samples Exhibits Grain Size Dependence.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Martin, Dayl; Joy, Katherine; Pernet-Fisher, John; Wogelius, Roy; Morlok, Andreas; Hiesinger, Harald

    2017-04-01

    The Mercury Thermal Infrared Spectrometer (MERTIS) on the upcoming BepiColombo mission is designed to analyse the surface of Mercury in thermal infrared wavelengths (7-14 μm) to investigate the physical properties of the surface materials [1]. Laboratory analyses of analogue materials are useful for investigating how various sample properties alter the resulting infrared spectrum. Laboratory FTIR analysis of Apollo fine (<1mm) soil samples 14259,672, 15401,147, and 67481,96 have provided an insight into how grain size, composition, maturity (i.e., exposure to space weathering processes), and proportion of glassy material affect their average infrared spectra. Each of these samples was analysed as a bulk sample and five size fractions: <25, 25-63, 63-125, 125-250, and <250 μm. Sample 14259,672 is a highly mature highlands regolith with a large proportion of agglutinates [2]. The high agglutinate content (>60%) causes a 'flattening' of the spectrum, with reduced reflectance in the Reststrahlen Band region (RB) as much as 30% in comparison to samples that are dominated by a high proportion of crystalline material. Apollo 15401,147 is an immature regolith with a high proportion of volcanic glass pyroclastic beads [2]. The high mafic mineral content results in a systematic shift in the Christiansen Feature (CF - the point of lowest reflectance) to longer wavelength: 8.6 μm. The glass beads dominate the spectrum, displaying a broad peak around the main Si-O stretch band (at 10.8 μm). As such, individual mineral components of this sample cannot be resolved from the average spectrum alone. Apollo 67481,96 is a sub-mature regolith composed dominantly of anorthite plagioclase [2]. The CF position of the average spectrum is shifted to shorter wavelengths (8.2 μm) due to the higher proportion of felsic minerals. Its average spectrum is dominated by anorthite reflectance bands at 8.7, 9.1, 9.8, and 10.8 μm. The average reflectance is greater than the other samples due to

  19. The impact of disposal of fine-grained sediments from maintenance dredging works on SPM concentration and fluid mud in and outside the harbor of Zeebrugge

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fettweis, Michael; Baeye, Matthias; Cardoso, Claudio; Dujardin, Arvid; Lauwaert, Brigitte; Van den Eynde, Dries; Van Hoestenberghe, Thomas; Vanlede, Joris; Van Poucke, Luc; Velez, Carlos; Martens, Chantal

    2016-11-01

    The amount of sediments to be dredged and disposed depends to a large part on the suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentration. Tidal, meteorological, climatological, and seasonal forcings have an influence on the horizontal and vertical distribution of the SPM in the water column and on the bed and control the inflow of fine-grained sediments towards harbors and navigation channels. About 3 million tons (dry matter) per year of mainly fine-grained sediments is dredged in the port of Zeebrugge and is disposed on a nearby disposal site. The disposed sediments are quickly resuspended and transported away from the site. The hypothesis is that a significant part of the disposed sediments recirculates back to the dredging places and that a relocation of the disposal site to another location at equal distance to the dredging area would reduce this recirculation. In order to validate the hypothesis, a 1-year field study was set up in 2013-2014. During 1 month, the dredged material was disposed at a new site. Variations in SPM concentration were related to tides, storms, seasonal changes, and human impacts. In the high-turbidity Belgian near-shore area, the natural forcings are responsible for the major variability in the SPM concentration signal, while disposal has only a smaller influence. The conclusion from the measurements is that the SPM concentration decreases after relocation of the disposal site but indicate stronger (first half of field experiment) or weaker (second half of field experiment) effects that are, however, supported by the environmental conditions. The results of the field study may have consequences on the management of disposal operations as the effectiveness of the disposal site depends on environmental conditions, which are inherently associated with chaotic behavior.

  20. Characterization of fine volcanic ash from explosive eruption from Sakurajima volcano, South Japan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nanayama, F.; Furukawa, R.; Ishizuka, Y.; Yamamoto, T.; Geshi, N.; Oishi, M.

    2013-12-01

    Explosive volcanic eruptions can affect infrastructure and ecosystem by their dispersion of the volcanic particle. Characterization of volcanic particle expelled by explosive eruption is crucial for evaluating for quantitative hazard assessment by future volcanic eruption. Especially for fine volcanic ash less than 64 micron in diameter, it can disperse vast area from the source volcano and be easily remobilized by surface wind and precipitation after the deposition. As fine volcanic ash is not preserved well at the earth surface and in strata except for enormously large scale volcanic eruption. In order to quantify quantitative characteristics of fine volcanic ash particle, we sampled volcanic ash directly falling from the eruption cloud from Showa crater, the most active vent of Sakurajima volcano, just before landing on ground. We newly adopted high precision digital microscope and particle grain size analyzer to develop hazard evaluation method of fine volcanic ash particle. Field survey was performed 5 sequential days in January, 2013 to take tamper-proof volcanic ash samples directly obtained from the eruption cloud of the Sakurajima volcano using disposable paper dishes and plastic pails. Samples were taken twice a day with time-stamp in 40 localities from 2.5 km to 43 km distant from the volcano. Japan Meteorological Agency reported 16 explosive eruptions of vulcanian style occurred during our survey and we took 140 samples of volcanic ash. Grain size distribution of volcanic ash was measured by particle grain size analyzer (Mophologi G3S) detecting each grain with parameters of particle diameter (0.3 micron - 1 mm), perimeter, length, area, circularity, convexity, solidity, and intensity. Component of volcanic ash was analyzed by CCD optical microscope (VHX-2000) which can take high resolution optical image with magnifying power of 100-2500. We discriminated each volcanic ash particle by color, texture of surface, and internal structure. Grain size

  1. Magnetic fingerprint of the sediment load in a meander bend section of the Seine River (France)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kayvantash, D.; Cojan, I.; Kissel, C.; Franke, C.

    2017-06-01

    This study aims to evaluate the potential of magnetic methods to determine the composition of the sediment load in a cross section of an unmanaged meander in the upstream stretch of the Seine River (Marnay-sur-Seine). Suspended particulate matter (SPM) was collected based on a regular sampling scheme along a cross section of the river, at two different depth levels: during a low-water stage (May 2014) and a high-water stage (February 2015). Riverbed sediments (RBS) were collected during the low-water stage and supplementary samples were taken from the outer and inner banks. Magnetic properties of the dry bulk SPM and sieved RBS and bank sediments were analysed. After characterizing the main magnetic carrier as magnetite, hysteresis parameters were measured, giving access to the grain size and the concentration of these magnetite particles. The results combined with sedimentary grain size data were compared to the three-dimensional velocity profile of the river flow. In the RBS where the magnetic grain size is rather uniform, the concentration of magnetite is inversely proportional to the mean grain size of the total sediment indicating that magnetite is strongly associated with the fine sedimentary fraction. The same pattern is observed in the samples from the outer and inner banks. During the low-water stage, the uniformly fine SPM grain size distribution characterizes the wash load. The magnetic fraction is also relatively fine (within the pseudo single domain range) with concentration similar to that of the fine RBS fraction. During the high-water stage, SPM samples correspond to mixtures of wash load and resuspended sediment from the bedload and riverbanks. Here, the grain size distribution is heterogeneous across the section showing coarser particles compared to those in the low-water stage and more varying magnetite concentrations while the magnetic grain size is like that of the low-water stage. The magnetite concentration in the high-water SPM can be

  2. A multi-scale homogenization model for fine-grained porous viscoplastic polycrystals: II - Applications to FCC and HCP materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, Dawei; Ponte Castañeda, P.

    2018-06-01

    In Part I of this work (Song and Ponte Castañeda, 2018a), a new homogenization model was developed for the macroscopic behavior of three-scale porous polycrystals consisting of random distributions of large pores in a fine-grained polycrystalline matrix. In this second part, the model is used to investigate both the instantaneous effective behavior and the finite-strain macroscopic response of porous FCC and HCP polycrystals for axisymmetric loading conditions. The stress triaxiality and Lode parameter are found to have significant effects on the evolution of the substructure, which in turn have important implications for the overall hardening/softening behavior of the porous polycrystal. The intrinsic effect of the texture evolution of the polycrystalline matrix is inferred by appropriate comparisons with corresponding results for porous isotropic materials, and found to be significant, especially at low triaxialities. In particular, the predictions of the model identify, for the first time, two disparate regimes for the macroscopic response of porous polycrystals: a porosity-controlled regime at high triaxialities, and a texture-controlled regime at low triaxialities. The transition between these two regimes is found to be quite sharp, taking place between triaxialities of 1 and 2.

  3. The role of fine-grained annotations in supervised recognition of risk factors for heart disease from EHRs.

    PubMed

    Roberts, Kirk; Shooshan, Sonya E; Rodriguez, Laritza; Abhyankar, Swapna; Kilicoglu, Halil; Demner-Fushman, Dina

    2015-12-01

    This paper describes a supervised machine learning approach for identifying heart disease risk factors in clinical text, and assessing the impact of annotation granularity and quality on the system's ability to recognize these risk factors. We utilize a series of support vector machine models in conjunction with manually built lexicons to classify triggers specific to each risk factor. The features used for classification were quite simple, utilizing only lexical information and ignoring higher-level linguistic information such as syntax and semantics. Instead, we incorporated high-quality data to train the models by annotating additional information on top of a standard corpus. Despite the relative simplicity of the system, it achieves the highest scores (micro- and macro-F1, and micro- and macro-recall) out of the 20 participants in the 2014 i2b2/UTHealth Shared Task. This system obtains a micro- (macro-) precision of 0.8951 (0.8965), recall of 0.9625 (0.9611), and F1-measure of 0.9276 (0.9277). Additionally, we perform a series of experiments to assess the value of the annotated data we created. These experiments show how manually-labeled negative annotations can improve information extraction performance, demonstrating the importance of high-quality, fine-grained natural language annotations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. High Temperature Burst Testing of a Superalloy Disk With a Dual Grain Structure

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gayda, J.; Kantzos, P.

    2004-01-01

    Elevated temperature burst testing of a disk with a dual grain structure made from an advanced nickel-base superalloy, LSHR, was conducted. The disk had a fine grain bore and coarse grain rim, produced using NASA's low cost DMHT technology. The results of the spin testing showed the disk burst at 42 530 rpm in line with predictions based on a 2-D finite element analysis. Further, significant growth of the disk was observed before failure which was also in line with predictions.

  5. H2-rich interstellar grain mantles: An equilibrium description

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dissly, Richard W.; Allen, Mark; Anicich, Vincent G.

    1994-01-01

    Experiments simulating the codeposition of molecular hydrogen and water ice on interstellar grains demonstrate that amorphous water ice at 12 K can incorporate a substantial amount of H2, up to a mole ratio of H2/H2O = 0.53. We find that the physical behavior of approximately 80% of the hydrogen can be explained satisfactorily in terms of an equilibrium population, thermodynamically governed by a wide distribution of binding site energies. Such a description predicts that gas phase accretion could lead to mole fractions of H2 in interstellar grain mantles of nearly 0.3; for the probable conditions of WL5 in the rho Ophiuchi cloud, an H2 mole fraction of between 0.05 and 0.3 is predicted, in possible agreement with the observed abundance reported by Sandford, Allamandola, & Geballe. Accretion of gas phase H2 onto grain mantles, rather than photochemical production of H2 within the ice, could be a general explanation for frozen H2 in interstellar ices. We speculate on the implications of such a composition for grain mantle chemistry and physics.

  6. An Informatics Based Approach to Reduce the Grain Size of Cast Hadfield Steel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dey, Swati; Pathak, Shankha; Sheoran, Sumit; Kela, Damodar H.; Datta, Shubhabrata

    2016-04-01

    Materials Informatics concept using computational intelligence based approaches are employed to bring out the significant alloying additions to achieve grain refinement in cast Hadfield steel. Castings of Hadfield steels used for railway crossings, requires fine grained austenitic structure. Maintaining proper grain size of this component is very crucial in order to achieve the desired properties and service life. This work studies the important variables affecting the grain size of such steels which includes the compositional and processing variables. The computational findings and prior knowledge is used to design the alloy, which is subjected to a few trials to validate the findings.

  7. EFFECT OF BODY SIZE ON BREATHING PATTERN AND FINE PARTICLE DEPOSITION IN CHILDREN

    EPA Science Inventory

    Inter-child variability in breathing patterns may contribute to variability in fine particle, lung deposition and morbidity in children associated with those particles. Fractional deposition (DF) of fine particles (2um monodisperse, carnauba wax particles) was measured in healthy...

  8. Predicting the Fine Particle Fraction of Dry Powder Inhalers Using Artificial Neural Networks.

    PubMed

    Muddle, Joanna; Kirton, Stewart B; Parisini, Irene; Muddle, Andrew; Murnane, Darragh; Ali, Jogoth; Brown, Marc; Page, Clive; Forbes, Ben

    2017-01-01

    Dry powder inhalers are increasingly popular for delivering drugs to the lungs for the treatment of respiratory diseases, but are complex products with multivariate performance determinants. Heuristic product development guided by in vitro aerosol performance testing is a costly and time-consuming process. This study investigated the feasibility of using artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict fine particle fraction (FPF) based on formulation device variables. Thirty-one ANN architectures were evaluated for their ability to predict experimentally determined FPF for a self-consistent dataset containing salmeterol xinafoate and salbutamol sulfate dry powder inhalers (237 experimental observations). Principal component analysis was used to identify inputs that significantly affected FPF. Orthogonal arrays (OAs) were used to design ANN architectures, optimized using the Taguchi method. The primary OA ANN r 2 values ranged between 0.46 and 0.90 and the secondary OA increased the r 2  values (0.53-0.93). The optimum ANN (9-4-1 architecture, average r 2 0.92 ± 0.02) included active pharmaceutical ingredient, formulation, and device inputs identified by principal component analysis, which reflected the recognized importance and interdependency of these factors for orally inhaled product performance. The Taguchi method was effective at identifying successful architecture with the potential for development as a useful generic inhaler ANN model, although this would require much larger datasets and more variable inputs. Copyright © 2016 American Pharmacists Association®. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  9. Exploring the effects of temperature and grain size on plumes associated with PDCs through analogue experimentation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mitchell, S. J.; Eychenne, J.; Rust, A.

    2015-12-01

    Pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) often loft upwards into convective, buoyant co-PDC plumes. Recent analogue experiments using a unimodal grain size of 22 ± 6 μm (Andrews & Manga, 2012) have established that plume generation is aided by PDC interaction with a topographic barrier. Here, we have simulated the onset of co-PDC plumes from the collapse of concentrated particle-gas mixtures comprised of unimodal or bimodal grain size distributions (GSD) of glass beads, using combinations of lognormal populations with modes of 35, 195 and 590 μm. The collapse of a mixture, with constant mass 2950 ± 150 g, induced the propagation of a gravity current channelized down a 13° sloping tank; a barrier in the tank caused the gravity current to produce a plume of particles. Experiments were recorded with high speed visible and thermal-infrared cameras. Initial GSD and temperature of the mixture were varied to assess the effects of the addition of a coarser component on plume generation. Analogue co-PDC plumes were only produced when a proportion of fine grains (35 μm) was present in the initial granular mixture. Sampling of the particles entrained in the co-PDC plumes revealed that fine grains (35 μm) are preferentially lofted, although a few coarser particles (195 or 590 μm) are also entrained in the co-PDC plumes and settle closer to the area of uplift. Increasing the initial temperature of the mixture increases plume height measured at 1 and 2s after onset; this is supported by repeat experiments at specific conditions. Bimodal mixtures containing both fine (35 μm) and coarser (195 or 590 μm) grains result in plume heights and initial flow velocities higher than observed in unimodal fine-grained experiments of the same total mass of particles. Repeat experiments identify the natural variability in plume generation under the same nominal conditions, which is likely due to the combined variations of momentum during flow propagation and heat-driven buoyancy, as well

  10. Chemical fractionation of arsenic and heavy metals in fine particle matter and its implications for risk assessment: A case study in Nanjing, China

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Huiming; Wang, Jinhua; Wang, Qin'geng; Qian, Xin; Qian, Yu; Yang, Meng; Li, Fengying; Lu, Hao; Wang, Cheng

    2015-02-01

    A four-step sequential extraction procedure was used to study the chemical fractionation of As and heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) collected from Nanjing, China. The mass concentrations of most PM2.5 samples exceeded the 24 h standard (75 μg/m3) recommended by the new national ambient air quality standard of China. The most abundant elements were Fe, Zn and Pb, while As and Cd were present at the lowest concentrations. As, Cd, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn were mostly present in the two mobile fractions, including the soluble and exchangeable fraction (F1), and carbonates, oxides and reducible fraction (F2). Fe had the highest proportion present in the residual fraction (F4). Relatively high proportions of the metals Ni and Cr were present in the oxidizable and sulfidic fraction (F3). High proportions of Zn, As and Cu and lower proportions of Cd, Cr and Fe were present in the potentially mobile phases. The enrichment factor, contamination factor and risk assessment code were calculated to analyze the main sources and assess the environmental risks of the metals in PM2.5. The carcinogenic risks of As, Cd, Ni and Pb were all lower than the accepted criterion of 10-6, whereas the carcinogenic risks of Cr for children and As and Cr for adults were higher than 10-6. The non-carcinogenic health risk of As and heavy metals because of PM2.5 exposure for children and adults were lower than but close to the safe level of 1.

  11. Evaluation of a fine sediment removal tool in spring-fed and snowmelt driven streams

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sepulveda, Adam; Layhee, Megan J.; Sutphin, Zach; Sechrist, Juddson D.

    2015-01-01

    The accumulation of fine-grained sediments impairs the structure and function of streams, so removing fine sediments may be required to achieve restoration objectives. There has been little work on methods of removing excess sediment or on the efficacy of the methods. We used a 4-year before-after-control-impact design in southeastern Idaho streams to test a fine sediment removal system (FSRS) manufactured by Streamside Environmental LLC. The FSRS agitates fine sediment in the substrate with clean pump water and then vacuums the sediment out of the stream with a second pump. Our objectives were: 1) to test if the FSRS can selectively remove fine sediment; 2) to monitor the bio-physical responses in FSRS treated and downstream waters; and 3) to compare the bio-physical responses to the FSRS in spring-fed and snowmelt driven stream reaches. The FSRS removed ~ 14 metric tons of sediment from the two treated reaches. More than 90% of this sediment was < 2 mm, indicating that the FSRS selected for fine sediment in both stream types. Sustained effects of removing this sediment were confined to substrate improvements in treated reaches. Embeddedness in the spring-fed reach decreased and subsurface grain size in spring-fed and snowmelt driven reaches increased. We did not detect any sustained invertebrate or fish responses in treated reaches or any detrimental bio-physical responses in downstream waters. These results indicate that the FSRS reduced fine sediment levels but sediment removal did not reverse the impacts of sediment accumulation to stream biota within our monitoring time frame.

  12. Iron and zinc isotope fractionation during uptake and translocation in rice (Oryza sativa) grown in oxic and anoxic soils

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arnold, Tim; Markovic, Tamara; Kirk, Guy J. D.; Schönbächler, Maria; Rehkämper, Mark; Zhao, Fangjie J.; Weiss, Dominik J.

    2015-11-01

    Stable isotope fractionation is emerging quickly as a powerful novel technique to study metal uptake and translocation in plants. Fundamental to this development is a thorough understanding of the processes that lead to isotope fractionation under differing environmental conditions. In this study, we investigated Zn and Fe isotope fractionation in rice grown to maturity in anaerobic and aerobic soils under greenhouse conditions. The overall Zn isotope fractionation between the soil and above ground plant material was negligible in aerobic soil but significant in anaerobic soil with isotopically lighter Zn in the rice plant. The observed range of fractionation is in line with previously determined fractionations of Zn in rice grown in hydroponic solutions and submerged soils and emphasizes the effect of taking up different chemical forms of Zn, most likely free and organically complexed Zn. The Zn in the grain was isotopically lighter than in the rest of the above ground plant in rice grown in aerobic and anaerobic soils alike. This suggests that in the course of the grain loading and during the translocation within the plant important biochemical and/or biophysical processes occur. The isotope fractionation observed in the grains would be consistent with an unidirectional controlled transport from shoot to grain with a fractionation factor of α ≈ 0.9994. Iron isotopes showed an isotopic lighter signature in shoot and grain compared to the bulk soil or the leachate in aerobic and anaerobic soils alike. The negative direction of isotopic fractionation is consistent with possible changes in the redox state of Fe occurring during the uptake and translocation processes. The isotope fractionation pattern between shoots and grain material are different for Zn and Fe which finally suggests that different mechanisms operate during translocation and grain-loading in rice for these two key micronutrients.

  13. DEM simulation of dendritic grain random packing: application to metal alloy solidification

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Olmedilla, Antonio; Založnik, Miha; Combeau, Hervé

    2017-06-01

    The random packing of equiaxed dendritic grains in metal-alloy solidification is numerically simulated and validated via an experimental model. This phenomenon is characterized by a driving force which is induced by the solid-liquid density difference. Thereby, the solid dendritic grains, nucleated in the melt, sediment and pack with a relatively low inertia-to-dissipation ratio, which is the so-called Stokes number. The characteristics of the particle packed porous structure such as solid packing fraction affect the final solidified product. A multi-sphere clumping Discrete Element Method (DEM) approach is employed to predict the solid packing fraction as function of the grain geometry under the solidification conditions. Five different monodisperse noncohesive frictionless particle collections are numerically packed by means of a vertical acceleration: a) three dendritic morphologies; b) spheres and c) one ellipsoidal geometry. In order to validate our numerical results with solidification conditions, the sedimentation and packing of two monodisperse collections (spherical and dendritic) is experimentally carried out in a viscous quiescent medium. The hydrodynamic similarity is respected between the actual phenomenon and the experimental model, that is a low Stokes number, o(10-3). In this way, the experimental average solid packing fraction is employed to validate the numerical model. Eventually, the average packing fraction is found to highly depend on the equiaxed dendritic grain sphericity, with looser packings for lower sphericity.

  14. Comparison of microstructure of superplastically deformed synthetic materials and ultramylonite: Coalescence of secondary mineral grains via grain boundary sliding

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hiraga, T.; Miyazaki, T.; Tasaka, M.; Yoshida, H.

    2011-12-01

    Using very fine-grained aggregates of forsterite containing ~10vol% secondary mineral phase such as periclase and enstatite, we have been able to demonstrate their superplascity, that is, achievement of more than a few 100 % tensile strain (Hiraga et al. 2010). Superplastic deformation is commonly considered to proceed via grain boundary sliding (GBS) which results in grain switching in the samples. Hiraga et al. (2010) succeeded in detecting the operation of GBS from observing the coalescence of grains of secondary phase in superplastically deformed samples. The secondary phase pins the motion of grain boundaries of the primary phase; however, the reduction of the number of the grains of secondary phase due to their coalescence allows grain growth of the primary phase. We analyzed the relationships between grain size of the primary and secondary phases, between strain and grain size, and between strain and the number of coalesced grains in the superplastically deformed samples. The results supports participation of all the grains of the primary phase in grain switching process indicating that the grain boundary sliding accommodates almost entire strain during the deformation. Mechanical properties of these materials such as their stress and grain size exponents of 1-2 do not conflict this conclusion. We applied the relationships obtained from analyzing superplastic materials to the microstructure of the natural samples, which has been considered to have deformed via grain boundary sliding, that is, ultramylonite. The microstructure of greenschist-grade ultramylonite reported by Fliervoet et al. (1997) was analyzed. Distributions of the mineral phases (i.e., quartz, plagioclase, K-feldspar and biotite) show distinct coalescence of the same mineral phases in the direction almost perpendicular to the foliation of the rock. The number of coalesced grains indicates that the strain that rock experienced is > 2. [reference] Hiraga et al. (2010) Nature 468, 1091

  15. The Search for Interstellar Sulfide Grains

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Keller, Lindsay P.; Messenger, Scott

    2010-01-01

    The lifecycle of sulfur in the galaxy is poorly understood. Fe-sulfide grains are abundant in early solar system materials (e.g. meteorites and comets) and S is highly depleted from the gas phase in cold, dense molecular cloud environments. In stark contrast, sulfur is essentially undepleted from the gas phase in the diffuse interstellar medium, indicating that little sulfur is incorporated into solid grains in this environment. It is widely believed that sulfur is not a component of interstellar dust grains. This is a rather puzzling observation unless Fe-sulfides are not produced in significant quantities in stellar outflows, or their lifetime in the ISM is very short due to rapid destruction. Fe sulfide grains are ubiquitous in cometary samples where they are the dominant host of sulfur. The Fe-sulfides (primarily pyrrhotite; Fe(1-x)S) are common, both as discrete 0.5-10 micron-sized grains and as fine (5-10 nm) nanophase inclusions within amorphous silicate grains. Cometary dust particles contain high abundances of well-preserved presolar silicates and organic matter and we have suggested that they should contain presolar sulfides as well. This hypothesis is supported by the observation of abundant Fe-sulfides grains in dust around pre- and post-main sequence stars inferred from astronomical spectra showing a broad 23 micron IR feature due to FeS. Fe-sulfide grains also occur as inclusions in bona fide circumstellar amorphous silicate grains and as inclusions within deuterium-rich organic matter in cometary dust samples. Our irradiation experiments show that FeS is far more resistant to radiation damage than silicates. Consequently, we expect that Fe sulfide stardust should be as abundant as silicate stardust in solar system materials.

  16. From bird to sparrow: Learning-induced modulations in fine-grained semantic discrimination.

    PubMed

    De Meo, Rosanna; Bourquin, Nathalie M-P; Knebel, Jean-François; Murray, Micah M; Clarke, Stephanie

    2015-09-01

    Recognition of environmental sounds is believed to proceed through discrimination steps from broad to more narrow categories. Very little is known about the neural processes that underlie fine-grained discrimination within narrow categories or about their plasticity in relation to newly acquired expertise. We investigated how the cortical representation of birdsongs is modulated by brief training to recognize individual species. During a 60-minute session, participants learned to recognize a set of birdsongs; they improved significantly their performance for trained (T) but not control species (C), which were counterbalanced across participants. Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) were recorded during pre- and post-training sessions. Pre vs. post changes in AEPs were significantly different between T and C i) at 206-232ms post stimulus onset within a cluster on the anterior part of the left superior temporal gyrus; ii) at 246-291ms in the left middle frontal gyrus; and iii) 512-545ms in the left middle temporal gyrus as well as bilaterally in the cingulate cortex. All effects were driven by weaker activity for T than C species. Thus, expertise in discriminating T species modulated early stages of semantic processing, during and immediately after the time window that sustains the discrimination between human vs. animal vocalizations. Moreover, the training-induced plasticity is reflected by the sharpening of a left lateralized semantic network, including the anterior part of the temporal convexity and the frontal cortex. Training to identify birdsongs influenced, however, also the processing of C species, but at a much later stage. Correct discrimination of untrained sounds seems to require an additional step which results from lower-level features analysis such as apperception. We therefore suggest that the access to objects within an auditory semantic category is different and depends on subject's level of expertise. More specifically, correct intra

  17. Ichnology of fine-grained mixed carbonate-siliciclastic turbidites, Wood River Formation, Pennsylvanian-Permian south-central Idaho

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

    Burton, B.R.; Link, P.K.

    1991-06-01

    In south-central Idaho, the Wood River Formation (Pennsylvanian-Permian) contains a stratigraphic megacycle over 2,000 m thick that is composed of fine-grained mixed carbonate-siliciclastic turbidites. Complete and partial (Bouma) turbidite structural sequences in these rocks are arranged in upward thinning cycles 15 to 30 m thick in which top-cut-out (Ta-c) turbidite facies in the lower part grade vertically into base-cut-out (Td-f) turbidites in the upper part. These cycles are interpreted to represent the autocyclic lateral migration of turbidite lobes. A mixed trace fossil assemblage of pascichnia and fordinichnia are present in these rocks and can be separated into pre-depositional and post-turbiditemore » ichnocoenoses. Quiet-water, pre-turbidite deposits are dark-colored, laminated, and carbonaceous, and represent anoxic to dysoxic inter-turbidite basinal conditions; they contain only Chondrites traces. Turbidity currents introduced oxygenated bottom water which fostered the temporary development of a post-turbidite ichnocoenose of pascichnia which is best developed in the medial portion of turbidite beds and lobes. Trace fossil tiering shows that a post-turbidite ichnocoenose of fodinichnia also developed, and persisted after the disappearance of pascichnia. Animals that produced the fodinichnial traces probably were part of an autochthonous benthic fauna rather than a short-lived allochthonous fauna. They may have migrated with the slowly avulsing turbidite lobes and exploited allochthonous oxygen and the carbonaceous food supply.« less

  18. Distribution of metals in various particle-size fractions in topsoils of a small dry valley system (European Russia, forest zone)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Samonova, Olga; Aseyeva, Elena

    2017-04-01

    A detailed study of heavy metals distribution in various soil grain-size fractions helps to increase the knowledge about the complex nature of metals' occurrence and their distribution pathways in the environment. On the basis of particle size fractionation of topsoil horizons we examined the specific behavior of heavy metals in a small erosional landform located in the humid temperate zone of the Russian Plain. The object of the study is a 400 m small U-shaped dry valley (balka in Russian) with a catchment area of 32.8 ha located in the central part of the Protva river basin, 100 km southwest of Moscow. The uppermost parts of the landform are incised in Late Pleistocene loessial loams, which cover significant portions of interfluve area in the region, while the middle and the lower parts cut through Middle Pleistocene glacial sediments. A total of 50 samples were collected from topsoil horizons of different landform geomorphic units along three cross-sections as well as along the bottom of the landform and its detrital fan. Samples were analyzed for Mn, Cu, Ni, Co, Cr, Zn, Pb, Ti, Zr, and Fe content. Eleven samples were chosen for physical fractionation into 5 grain-size fractions (1-0.25 mm, 0.25-0.05 mm, 0.05-0.01 mm, 0.01-0.001 mm and <0.001 mm) and further analysis for fractionized metal contents. Across the grain-size fractions the maximum Zr content was observed in the coarse silt fraction and Ti - in the medium and fine silt fraction, while other metals, such as Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, Cr, Pb, and Zn revealed their highest concentrations in the clay fraction. For Fe, Mn, Co and Ni a second concentration peak was observed in the coarse and medium sand fraction. Due to probably eolian genesis and (or) transformation during weathering, the coarse silt fraction in comparison to other fractions showed a depletion of the majority of metals while the minimum concentrations of Ti, Zr and Cr were limited to the coarse and medium sand. Statistical analysis showed that the

  19. Grain Refinement by Authigenic Inoculation Inherited from the Medium-Range Order Structure of Ni-Cr-W Superalloy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Zhongtang; Hu, Rui; Guo, Wei; Zhang, Chuanwei

    2018-04-01

    The combination of liquidus casting and thermal control solidification furnace was applied to obtain a fine-grained ingot. A rapid quenching method and x-ray diffraction measurement were used to investigate the effect of authigenic inoculation on grain refinement. The structure factor S(Q) of liquid Ni-Cr-W superalloy at 1400 °C (Liquidus temperature) and bright-field image of the microstructures quenched from 1400 °C have been measured by the high-temperature x-ray diffractometer and the transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The results show that a pre-peak exists on a S(Q) curve at the liquidus temperature. The clusters of atom in rapidly quenched microstructures obtained by isothermal heat treatment at 1400 °C were studied using TEM. Meanwhile, the effect of isothermal different temperatures on rapidly quenched microstructures was studied. The results also show that there are only the globular, equiaxed grains distributed in the solidification structure. These particles are inherited from the medium-range order structure, which is beneficial for grain refinement. The normalized work-hardening rate-strain curve indicates the work-hardening rate of fine grain is higher than that of conventional grain at the same temperature and the same deformation.

  20. Grain Refinement by Authigenic Inoculation Inherited from the Medium-Range Order Structure of Ni-Cr-W Superalloy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Zhongtang; Hu, Rui; Guo, Wei; Zhang, Chuanwei

    2018-05-01

    The combination of liquidus casting and thermal control solidification furnace was applied to obtain a fine-grained ingot. A rapid quenching method and x-ray diffraction measurement were used to investigate the effect of authigenic inoculation on grain refinement. The structure factor S( Q) of liquid Ni -Cr-W superalloy at 1400 °C (Liquidus temperature) and bright-field image of the microstructures quenched from 1400 °C have been measured by the high-temperature x-ray diffractometer and the transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The results show that a pre-peak exists on a S( Q) curve at the liquidus temperature. The clusters of atom in rapidly quenched microstructures obtained by isothermal heat treatment at 1400 °C were studied using TEM. Meanwhile, the effect of isothermal different temperatures on rapidly quenched microstructures was studied. The results also show that there are only the globular, equiaxed grains distributed in the solidification structure. These particles are inherited from the medium-range order structure, which is beneficial for grain refinement. The normalized work-hardening rate-strain curve indicates the work-hardening rate of fine grain is higher than that of conventional grain at the same temperature and the same deformation.

  1. Dissolution of fine particle fraction from truncated Anderson cascade impactor with an enhancer cell.

    PubMed

    Tay, Justin Yong Soon; Liew, Celine Valeria; Heng, Paul Wan Sia

    2018-04-22

    Dissolution testing for inhalers were previously conducted either on unfractionated drug-carrier powders or drug of specific aerodynamic particle size. In this study, the collection of the full fine particle fraction (FPF) was attempted on a single stage. Capsules containing 30 mg of 2% salbutamol sulfate (SS) was tested to have a FPF of 9 ± 1% using the full set of Andersen cascade impactor (ACI) and a modified Rotahaler® capable of achieving 4.0 kPa pressure drop at 60 L/min air flow rate. A truncated ACI comprising the USP throat, pre-separator, stage 0, stage 4, stage F, polytetrafluoroethylene funnel (TF) and small collection plate (sCP) was found to be capable of achieving a FPF of 9% collected on TF and sCP. An adhesive tape was used to collect the FPF from the TF and sCP and held in place by an enhancer cell in a 200 mL round bottom vessel containing 50 mL Gamble's solution with 0.2 v/v, % Tween 80. Dissolution testing of SS and Seretide® showed burst release of SS and salmeterol while sustained release of fluticasone. This study demonstrated a reproducible method which may be used for evaluation of the full FPF of orally inhaled products. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. The Role of Fine Sediment Content on Soil Consolidation and Debris Flows Development after Earthquake

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lyu, L.; Xu, M., III; Wang, Z.

    2017-12-01

    Fine sediment has been identified as an important factor determining the critical runoff that initiates debris flows because its contribution to shear strength through consolidation. Especially, owing to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China enormous of loose sediment with different fractions of fine particles was eroded and supplied as materials for debris flows. The loose materials are gradually consolidated along with time, and therefore stronger rainfall is required to overcome the shear strength and to initiate debris flows. In this study, flume experiments were performed to explore soil consolidation and shear strength on mass failure and debris flow initiation under the conditions that different fractions of fine sediment were contained in the materials. Under the low content of fine sediment conditions (mass percentages: 0-10%), the debris flows formed with large pores and low shear strength and thus fine particles were too few to fill up the pores among the coarse particles. The consolidation rate was mostly influenced by the content of the fine particles. Consolidation of fine particles caused an increase of the shear strength and decrease of the rainfall infiltration, and therefore, debris flow initiation required stronger rainfall as the consolidation of the fine particles developed.

  3. Survival of carbon grains in shocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Seab, C. Gregory

    1990-01-01

    Supernova shocks play a significant part in the life of an interstellar grain. In a typical 10 to the 9th power year lifetime, a grain will be hit by an average of 10 shocks of 100 km s(sup -1) or greater velocity, and even more shocks of lower velocity. Evaluation of the results of this frequent shock processing is complicated by a number of uncertainties, but seems to give about 10 percent destruction of silicate grains and about half that for graphite grains. Because of the frequency of shocking, the mineralogy and sizes of the grain population is predominately determined by shock processing effects, and not by the initial grain nucleation and growth environment. One consequence of the significant role played by interstellar shocks is that a certain fraction (up to 5 percent) of the carbon should be transformed into the diamond phase. Diamond transformation is observed in the laboratory at threshold shock pressures easily obtainable in grain-grain collisions in supernova shocks. Yields for transforming graphite, amorphous carbon, glassy carbon, and other nearly pure carbon solids into diamond are quite high. Impurities up to at least the 10 percent level (for oxygen) are tolerated in the process. The typical size diamond expected from shock transformation agrees well with the observed sizes in the Lewis et al. findings in meteoritic material. Isotropic anomalies already contained in the grain are likely to be retained through the conversion process, while others may be implanted by the shock if the grain is close to the supernova. The meteoritic diamonds are likely to be the results of transformation of carbon grains in grain-grain collisions in supernova shock waves.

  4. Electrostatic Levitation of Fines on Asteroids

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, P.

    1995-09-01

    Electrostatic fields can develop at the surface of resistive asteroids exposed directly to solar radiation and to the solar wind. As on the Moon (e.g., [1-3]), the process may lead to the levitation and transport of charged grains, and contribute to winnowing asteroidal regoliths of their finest particle size fraction. Two commonly proposed mechanisms for the levitation of dust on the Moon are applied to asteroids. The first depends on global scale electrostatic fields and involves the development of a near-surface photoelectron layer over the asteroid's sunlit hemisphere [4,5] ; the second involves local fields near the terminator and particle charging by higher-energy photoelectron emission on the sunlit faces of blocks and other small-scale prominences [6,7]. Preliminary modeling results suggest that on a sufficiently resistive and slow-rotating asteroid at a heliocentric distance of 3 AU, the subsolar region evolves surface electrostatic fields of ~5 V/m^-1, while field intensities in the terminator zone may reach ~10^5 V/m^-1. Charged regolithic fines are easily levitated, their fate being a function of their charge and size. On a 20 km-radius chondritic main belt asteroid, particles up to ~100 microns across may be electro- statically accelerated to escape. Fines <=1 micron across are subject to radiation pressure and/or to solar wind drag as soon as they are lofted, and may be quickly entrained to escape even if initially launched at sub-escape velocities. Larger particles levitated in the sub-escape regime remain gravitationally bound to the asteroid and experience lateral transport along local electrostatic and gravity gradients. The particles may migrate across the asteroid's surface indefinitely or, more likely, until they settle in perenially shadowed areas and/or topographic lows (craters or grooves), thus smoothing the asteroid's topography and minimizing shadows. They will remain on the asteroid until ejected by impacts or until the particles are

  5. Thin-sectioning and analysis of fine-grained meteoritic materials

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Brooks, Donald A. (Editor); Bradley, John P.

    1992-01-01

    The overall theme of the work was the identification of the sources and formation/aggregation mechanisms of the various classes of interplanetary dust particles (IDP's) and to clarify the relationship between IDP's and conventional meteorites. IDP's are believed to be derived from a much broader range of parent bodies than conventional meteorites. Some of these parent bodies (e.g., comets) have escaped that post accretional processing that has affected the parent bodies of meteorites. Therefore, IDP's are likely to preserve a record of early solar system and possibly presolar grain forming reactions. Using analytical electron microscopy (AEM) and more recently micro-infrared (IR) microspectroscopy to examine ultramicrotomed thin sections, we have addressed the questions of IDP formation mechanisms, sources, and their relationship to conventional meteorites. The following sections describe specific findings resulting from these studies.

  6. Observations of dusty plasmas with magnetized dust grains

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luo, Q.-Z.; D'Angelo, N.

    2000-11-01

    We report a newly observed phenomenon in a dusty plasma device of the \\mbox{Q-machine} type. At low plasma densities the time required by the plasma to return to its no-dust conditions, after the dust dispenser is turned off, can be as long as many tens of seconds or longer. A tentative interpretation of this observation in terms of magnetized dust grains is advanced. It appears that an important loss mechanism of fine dust grains is by ion drag along the magnetic field lines. The effect of ion drag is somewhat counteracted by the -µ∇B force present when the magnetic field has a mirror geometry.

  7. Grain-size analysis of volcanic ash for the rapid assessment of respiratory health hazard.

    PubMed

    Horwell, Claire J

    2007-10-01

    Volcanic ash has the potential to cause acute and chronic respiratory diseases if the particles are sufficiently fine to enter the respiratory system. Characterization of the grain-size distribution (GSD) of volcanic ash is, therefore, a critical first step in assessing its health hazard. Quantification of health-relevant size fractions is challenging without state-of-the-art technology, such as the laser diffractometer. Here, several methods for GSD characterization for health assessment are considered, the potential for low-cost measurements is investigated and the first database of health-pertinent GSD data is presented for a suite of ash samples from around the world. Methodologies for accurate measurement of the GSD of volcanic ash by laser diffraction are presented by experimental analysis of optimal refractive indices for different magmatic compositions. Techniques for representative sampling of small quantities of ash are also experimentally investigated. GSD results for health-pertinent fractions for a suite of 63 ash samples show that the fraction of respirable (<4 microm) material ranges from 0-17 vol%, with the variation reflecting factors such as the style of the eruption and the distance from the source. A strong correlation between the amount of <4 and <10 microm material is observed for all ash types. This relationship is stable at all distances from the volcano and with all eruption styles and can be applied to volcanic plume and ash fallout models. A weaker relationship between the <4 and <63 microm fractions provides a novel means of estimating the quantity of respirable material from data obtained by sieving.

  8. Laboratory Measurements of Optical and Physical Properties of Individual Lunar Dust Grains

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Abbas, M. M.; Tankosic, D.; Craven, P. D.; Hoover, R. B.

    2006-01-01

    The lunar surface is covered with a thick layer of sub-micron/micron size dust grains formed by meteoritic impact over billions of years. The fine dust grains are levitated and transported on the lunar surface, and transient dust clouds over the lunar horizon were observed by experiments during the Apollo 17 mission. Theoretical models suggest that the dust grains on the lunar surface are charged by the solar UV radiation as well as the solar wind. Even without any physical activity, the dust grains are levitated by electrostatic fields and transported away from the surface in the near vacuum environment of the Moon. The current dust charging and levitation models, however, do not fully explain the observed phenomena. Since the abundance of dust on the Moon's surface with its observed adhesive characteristics has the potential of severe impact on human habitat and operations and lifetime of a variety of equipment, it is necessary to investigate the charging properties and the lunar dust phenomena in order to develop appropriate mitigating strategies. Photoelectric emission induced by the solar UV radiation with photon energies higher than the work function of the grain materials is recognized to be the dominant process for charging of the lunar dust, and requires measurements of the photoelectric yields to determine the charging and equilibrium potentials of individual dust grains. In this paper, we present the first laboratory measurements of the photoelectric yields of individual sub-micron/micron size dust grains selected from sample returns of Apollo 17, and Luna 24 missions, as well as similar size dust grains from the JSC-1 simulants. The experimental results were obtained on a laboratory facility based on an electrodynamic balance that permits a variety of experiments to be conducted on individual sub-micron/micron size dust grains in simulated space environments. The photoelectric emission measurements indicate grain size dependence with the yield

  9. Precession electron diffraction for SiC grain boundary characterization in unirradiated TRISO fuel

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

    Lillo, T. M.; van Rooyen, I. J.; Wu, Y. Q.

    Precession electron diffraction (PED), a transmission electron microscopy-based technique, has been evaluated for the suitability for evaluating grain boundary character in the SiC layer of tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel. Although the ultimate goal is to determine the grain boundary characteristics of fission product containing grain boundaries of neutron irradiated SiC, our work reports the effect of transmission electron microscope (TEM) lamella thickness on quality of data and establishes a baseline comparison on grain boundary characteristics determined previously using a conventional EBSD scanning electron microscope (SEM) based technique. In general, it was determined that the lamella thickness produced using the standardmore » FIB fabrication process, is sufficient to provide reliable PED measurements with thicker lamellae (~120 nm) produce higher quality orientation data. Analysis of grain boundary character from the TEM-based PED data showed a much lower fraction of low angle grain boundaries compared to SEM-based EBSD data from the SiC layer of the same TRISO-coated particle as well as a SiC layer deposited at a slightly lower temperature. The fractions of high angle and CSL-related grain boundaries determined by PED are similar to those found using SEM-based EBSD. Since the grain size of the SiC layer of TRSIO fuel can be as small as 250 nm [12], depending on the fabrication parameters, and grain boundary fission product precipitates can be nano-sized, the TEM-based PED orientation data collection method is preferred to determine an accurate representation of the relative fractions of low angle, high angle and CSL-related grain boundaries. It was concluded that although the resolution of the PED data is better by more than an order of magnitude, data acquisition times may be significantly longer or the number of areas analyzed significantly larger than the SEM-based method to obtain a statistically relevant distribution. Also, grain size could be

  10. Precession electron diffraction for SiC grain boundary characterization in unirradiated TRISO fuel

    DOE PAGES

    Lillo, T. M.; van Rooyen, I. J.; Wu, Y. Q.

    2016-06-16

    Precession electron diffraction (PED), a transmission electron microscopy-based technique, has been evaluated for the suitability for evaluating grain boundary character in the SiC layer of tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel. Although the ultimate goal is to determine the grain boundary characteristics of fission product containing grain boundaries of neutron irradiated SiC, our work reports the effect of transmission electron microscope (TEM) lamella thickness on quality of data and establishes a baseline comparison on grain boundary characteristics determined previously using a conventional EBSD scanning electron microscope (SEM) based technique. In general, it was determined that the lamella thickness produced using the standardmore » FIB fabrication process, is sufficient to provide reliable PED measurements with thicker lamellae (~120 nm) produce higher quality orientation data. Analysis of grain boundary character from the TEM-based PED data showed a much lower fraction of low angle grain boundaries compared to SEM-based EBSD data from the SiC layer of the same TRISO-coated particle as well as a SiC layer deposited at a slightly lower temperature. The fractions of high angle and CSL-related grain boundaries determined by PED are similar to those found using SEM-based EBSD. Since the grain size of the SiC layer of TRSIO fuel can be as small as 250 nm [12], depending on the fabrication parameters, and grain boundary fission product precipitates can be nano-sized, the TEM-based PED orientation data collection method is preferred to determine an accurate representation of the relative fractions of low angle, high angle and CSL-related grain boundaries. It was concluded that although the resolution of the PED data is better by more than an order of magnitude, data acquisition times may be significantly longer or the number of areas analyzed significantly larger than the SEM-based method to obtain a statistically relevant distribution. Also, grain size could be

  11. Quantum decimation in Hilbert space: Coarse graining without structure

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Singh, Ashmeet; Carroll, Sean M.

    2018-03-01

    We present a technique to coarse grain quantum states in a finite-dimensional Hilbert space. Our method is distinguished from other approaches by not relying on structures such as a preferred factorization of Hilbert space or a preferred set of operators (local or otherwise) in an associated algebra. Rather, we use the data corresponding to a given set of states, either specified independently or constructed from a single state evolving in time. Our technique is based on principle component analysis (PCA), and the resulting coarse-grained quantum states live in a lower-dimensional Hilbert space whose basis is defined using the underlying (isometric embedding) transformation of the set of fine-grained states we wish to coarse grain. Physically, the transformation can be interpreted to be an "entanglement coarse-graining" scheme that retains most of the global, useful entanglement structure of each state, while needing fewer degrees of freedom for its reconstruction. This scheme could be useful for efficiently describing collections of states whose number is much smaller than the dimension of Hilbert space, or a single state evolving over time.

  12. Abnormal Grain Growth Suppression in Aluminum Alloys

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hales, Stephen J. (Inventor); Claytor, Harold Dale (Inventor); Alexa, Joel A. (Inventor)

    2015-01-01

    The present invention provides a process for suppressing abnormal grain growth in friction stir welded aluminum alloys by inserting an intermediate annealing treatment ("IAT") after the welding step on the article. The IAT may be followed by a solution heat treatment (SHT) on the article under effectively high solution heat treatment conditions. In at least some embodiments, a deformation step is conducted on the article under effective spin-forming deformation conditions or under effective superplastic deformation conditions. The invention further provides a welded article having suppressed abnormal grain growth, prepared by the process above. Preferably the article is characterized with greater than about 90% reduction in area fraction abnormal grain growth in any friction-stir-welded nugget.

  13. Developing Fine-Grained Actigraphies for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients from a Single Accelerometer Using Machine Learning

    PubMed Central

    Garcia-Gancedo, Luis; Van der Drift, Anniek; Powell, Adam; Hamy, Valentin; Keller, Thomas; Yang, Guang-Zhong

    2017-01-01

    In addition to routine clinical examination, unobtrusive and physical monitoring of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients provides an important source of information to enable understanding the impact of the disease on quality of life. Besides an increase in sedentary behaviour, pain in RA can negatively impact simple physical activities such as getting out of bed and standing up from a chair. The objective of this work is to develop a method that can generate fine-grained actigraphies to capture the impact of the disease on the daily activities of patients. A processing methodology is presented to automatically tag activity accelerometer data from a cohort of moderate-to-severe RA patients. A study of procesing methods based on machine learning and deep learning is provided. Thirty subjects, 10 RA patients and 20 healthy control subjects, were recruited in the study. A single tri-axial accelerometer was attached to the position of the fifth lumbar vertebra (L5) of each subject with a tag prediction granularity of 3 s. The proposed method is capable of handling unbalanced datasets from tagged data while accounting for long-duration activities such as sitting and lying, as well as short transitions such as sit-to-stand or lying-to-sit. The methodology also includes a novel mechanism for automatically applying a threshold to predictions by their confidence levels, in addition to a logical filter to correct for infeasible sequences of activities. Performance tests showed that the method was able to achieve around 95% accuracy and 81% F-score. The produced actigraphies can be helpful to generate objective RA disease-specific markers of patient mobility in-between clinical site visits. PMID:28906437

  14. Developing Fine-Grained Actigraphies for Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients from a Single Accelerometer Using Machine Learning.

    PubMed

    Andreu-Perez, Javier; Garcia-Gancedo, Luis; McKinnell, Jonathan; Van der Drift, Anniek; Powell, Adam; Hamy, Valentin; Keller, Thomas; Yang, Guang-Zhong

    2017-09-14

    In addition to routine clinical examination, unobtrusive and physical monitoring of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients provides an important source of information to enable understanding the impact of the disease on quality of life. Besides an increase in sedentary behaviour, pain in RA can negatively impact simple physical activities such as getting out of bed and standing up from a chair. The objective of this work is to develop a method that can generate fine-grained actigraphies to capture the impact of the disease on the daily activities of patients. A processing methodology is presented to automatically tag activity accelerometer data from a cohort of moderate-to-severe RA patients. A study of procesing methods based on machine learning and deep learning is provided. Thirty subjects, 10 RA patients and 20 healthy control subjects, were recruited in the study. A single tri-axial accelerometer was attached to the position of the fifth lumbar vertebra (L5) of each subject with a tag prediction granularity of 3 s. The proposed method is capable of handling unbalanced datasets from tagged data while accounting for long-duration activities such as sitting and lying, as well as short transitions such as sit-to-stand or lying-to-sit. The methodology also includes a novel mechanism for automatically applying a threshold to predictions by their confidence levels, in addition to a logical filter to correct for infeasible sequences of activities. Performance tests showed that the method was able to achieve around 95% accuracy and 81% F-score. The produced actigraphies can be helpful to generate objective RA disease-specific markers of patient mobility in-between clinical site visits.

  15. Generation of fine hydromagmatic ash by growth and disintegration of glassy rinds

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Mastin, L.G.

    2007-01-01

    The deposits of mafic hydromagmatic eruptions are more fine grained and variable in vesicularity than dry magmatic deposits. Blocky, equant shapes of many hydromagmatic clasts also contrast with droplet, thread, and bubble wall morphology of dry magmatic fragments. Small (fraction of a deposit consisting of fine ash should increase with the duration of this process: Large-scale Surtseyan jets generate hundreds or thousands of shedding events; bubble bursts or tephra jets at Kilauea's coast may produce only a few.

  16. Finely dispersed brown carbon in a smoggy atmosphere

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gorchakov, G. I.; Vasiliev, A. V.; Verichev, K. S.; Semoutnikova, E. G.; Karpov, A. V.

    2016-11-01

    It is shown that the absorption capacity of smoke aerosol during mass forest and forest-peat fires is determined to a considerable degree by light absorbing organic compounds or brown carbon. According to the data from the AERONET global network of stations [1], the absorption spectra of smoke aerosol vary significantly if airborne particulate matter is contained in brown carbon. It is established that in several cases, the absorption spectra of smoke aerosol are approximated with satisfactory accuracy by exponents. It is shown that the finely dispersed (submicron) fraction of the smoke aerosol makes a major contribution to its optical characteristics in the 0.44-1.02 μm spectral region. Strong variation in the single scattering albedo is discovered in the presence of brown carbon in the smoke aerosol. It is shown that the optical characteristics of coarsely dispersed and finely dispersed fractions of smoke aerosol differ considerably.

  17. The 1845 Hekla eruption: Grain-size characteristics of a tephra layer

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gudnason, Jonas; Thordarson, Thor; Houghton, Bruce F.; Larsen, Gudrun

    2018-01-01

    The 1845 eruption is commonly viewed as a typical Hekla eruption. It is a key event in the eruptive history of the volcano, as it is one of the best documented Hekla eruptions, in terms of contemporary accounts and observations. The eruption started on 2 September 1845 with an intense, hour long explosive Plinian phase that passed into effusive activity, ending on the 16 March 1846. The amount of tephra produced in the opening phase was 0.13 km3/7.5 × 1010 kg. The total grain-size distribution of the deposit is bimodal with a dominant coarse mode at - 2.5 φ (5.6 mm) and a broad finer mode at 3 to 4.5 φ (0.125 to 0.045 mm). At individual sites, the grain-size distribution of the tephra from the Plinian opening phase is also commonly (not always) bimodal. Deconvolved grain-size distributions exhibit distinctly different sedimentation patterns of the coarse and fine subpopulations. The lapilli-dominated subpopulation fines rapidly with transport, while the ash-dominated subpopulation shows less changes with distance, indicating premature sedimentation of fines by aggregation from the 1845 volcanic plume. Tephra deposition was to the ESE of the volcano from a 19 km (a.s.l.) high eruption plume. The plume front travelled at speeds of 16-19 m s- 1. Reports of ash deposition onto ships near the Faroe and Shetland Islands, 700 to 1100 km away from Hekla, demonstrate that even moderate-sized Hekla eruptions can affect very large parts of European air-space.

  18. Are catchment-wide erosion rates really "Catchment-Wide"? Effects of grain size on erosion rates determined from 10Be

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reitz, M. A.; Seeber, L.; Schaefer, J. M.; Ferguson, E. K.

    2012-12-01

    Early studies pioneering the method for catchment wide erosion rates by measuring 10Be in alluvial sediment were taken at river mouths and used the sand size grain fraction from the riverbeds in order to average upstream erosion rates and measure erosion patterns. Finer particles (<0.0625 mm) were excluded to reduce the possibility of a wind-blown component of sediment and coarser particles (>2 mm) were excluded to better approximate erosion from the entire upstream catchment area (coarse grains are generally found near the source). Now that the sensitivity of 10Be measurements is rapidly increasing, we can precisely measure erosion rates from rivers eroding active tectonic regions. These active regions create higher energy drainage systems that erode faster and carry coarser sediment. In these settings, does the sand-sized fraction fully capture the average erosion of the upstream drainage area? Or does a different grain size fraction provide a more accurate measure of upstream erosion? During a study of the Neto River in Calabria, southern Italy, we took 8 samples along the length of the river, focusing on collecting samples just below confluences with major tributaries, in order to use the high-resolution erosion rate data to constrain tectonic motion. The samples we measured were sieved to either a 0.125 mm - 0.710 mm fraction or the 0.125 mm - 4 mm fraction (depending on how much of the former was available). After measuring these 8 samples for 10Be and determining erosion rates, we used the approach by Granger et al. [1996] to calculate the subcatchment erosion rates between each sample point. In the subcatchments of the river where we used grain sizes up to 4 mm, we measured very low 10Be concentrations (corresponding to high erosion rates) and calculated nonsensical subcatchment erosion rates (i.e. negative rates). We, therefore, hypothesize that the coarser grain sizes we included are preferentially sampling a smaller upstream area, and not the entire

  19. Quantum theory of multiscale coarse-graining.

    PubMed

    Han, Yining; Jin, Jaehyeok; Wagner, Jacob W; Voth, Gregory A

    2018-03-14

    Coarse-grained (CG) models serve as a powerful tool to simulate molecular systems at much longer temporal and spatial scales. Previously, CG models and methods have been built upon classical statistical mechanics. The present paper develops a theory and numerical methodology for coarse-graining in quantum statistical mechanics, by generalizing the multiscale coarse-graining (MS-CG) method to quantum Boltzmann statistics. A rigorous derivation of the sufficient thermodynamic consistency condition is first presented via imaginary time Feynman path integrals. It identifies the optimal choice of CG action functional and effective quantum CG (qCG) force field to generate a quantum MS-CG (qMS-CG) description of the equilibrium system that is consistent with the quantum fine-grained model projected onto the CG variables. A variational principle then provides a class of algorithms for optimally approximating the qMS-CG force fields. Specifically, a variational method based on force matching, which was also adopted in the classical MS-CG theory, is generalized to quantum Boltzmann statistics. The qMS-CG numerical algorithms and practical issues in implementing this variational minimization procedure are also discussed. Then, two numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the method. Finally, as an alternative strategy, a quasi-classical approximation for the thermal density matrix expressed in the CG variables is derived. This approach provides an interesting physical picture for coarse-graining in quantum Boltzmann statistical mechanics in which the consistency with the quantum particle delocalization is obviously manifest, and it opens up an avenue for using path integral centroid-based effective classical force fields in a coarse-graining methodology.

  20. Experimental and simulation studies on grain growth in TiC and WC-based cermets during liquid phase sintering

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shin, Soon-Gi

    2000-06-01

    The grain growth behaviors of TiC and WC particles in TiC-Ni, TiC-Mo2C-Ni, WC-Co and WC-VC-Co alloys during liquid phase sintering were investigated for different Ni or Co contents and compared with the results of Monte Carlo simulations. In the experimental study, TiC-Ni and WC-Co alloys had a maximum grain size at a certain liquid volume fraction, while the grain size in TiC-Mo2C-Ni and WC-VC-Co alloys increased monotonically with an increasing liquid volume fraction. These results mean that the grain growth of these alloys cannot be explained by the conventional mechanisms for Ostwald ripening, namely diffusion or reaction controlled processes. Monte Carlo simulations with different energy relationships between solidliquid interfaces predicted the effect of the liquid volume fraction on grain size similar to the experimental results. The contiguous boundaries between solid (carbide) particles appear to influence the grain growth behavior in TiC- and WC-based alloys during liquid phase sintering.

  1. FRACTIONAL PENETRATION OF PAINT OVERSPRAY ARRESTORS

    EPA Science Inventory

    The report describes the development of fractional penetration curves for liquid droplet penetration of overspray arrestors for discrete droplet diameters from 0.3 to 10 micrometers. (NOTE: Fine particulates are particles with diameters of 10 micrometers or less.) These data poin...

  2. Distribution of phenolic antioxidants in whole and milled fractions of quinoa and their inhibitory effects on α-amylase and α-glucosidase activities.

    PubMed

    Hemalatha, P; Bomzan, Dikki Pedenla; Sathyendra Rao, B V; Sreerama, Yadahally N

    2016-05-15

    Whole grain quinoa and its milled fractions were evaluated for their phenolic composition in relation to their antioxidant properties and inhibitory effects on α-amylase and α-glucosidase activities. Compositional analysis by HPLC-DAD showed that the distribution of phenolic compounds in quinoa is not entirely localised in the outer layers of the kernel. Milling of whole grain quinoa resulted in about 30% loss of total phenolic content in milled grain. Ferulic and vanillic acids were the principal phenolic acids and rutin and quercetin were predominant flavonoids detected in whole grain and milled fractions. Quinoa milled fractions exhibited numerous antioxidant activities. Despite having relatively lower phenolic contents, dehulled and milled grain fractions showed significantly (p ⩽ 0.05) higher metal chelating activity than other fractions. Furthermore, extracts of bran and hull fractions displayed strong inhibition towards α-amylase [IC50, 108.68 μg/ml (bran) and 148.23 μg/ml (hulls)] and α-glucosidase [IC50, 62.1 μg/ml (bran) and 68.14 μg/ml (hulls)] activities. Thus, whole grain quinoa and its milled fractions may serve as functional food ingredients in gluten-free foods for promoting health. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Methods to recover value-added coproducts from dry grind processing of grains into fuel ethanol.

    PubMed

    Liu, Keshun; Barrows, Frederic T

    2013-07-31

    Three methods are described to fractionate condensed distillers solubles (CDS) into several new coproducts, including a protein-mineral fraction and a glycerol fraction by a chemical method; a protein fraction, an oil fraction and a glycerol-mineral fraction by a physical method; or a protein fraction, an oil fraction, a mineral fraction, and a glycerol fraction by a physicochemical method. Processing factors (ethanol concentration and centrifuge force) were also investigated. Results show that the three methods separated CDS into different fractions, with each fraction enriched with one or more of the five components (protein, oil, ash, glycerol and other carbohydrates) and thus having different targeted end uses. Furthermore, because glycerol, a hygroscopic substance, was mostly shifted to the glycerol or glycerol-mineral fraction, the other fractions had much faster moisture reduction rates than CDS upon drying in a forced air oven at 60 °C. Thus, these methods could effectively solve the dewatering problem of CDS, allowing elimination of the current industrial practice of blending distiller wet grains with CDS for drying together and production of distiller dried grains as a standalone coproduct in addition to a few new fractions.

  4. Fine-grained quartz OSL dating chronology of loess sequence from southern Tajikistan: Implications for climate change in arid central Asia during MIS 2

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Leibin; Jia, Jia; Li, Guoqiang; Li, Zaijun; Wang, Xin; Chen, Fahu

    2018-04-01

    The desert and semi-desert region of arid central Asia is one of the most important areas of middle-latitude dust emission and deposition in the Northern Hemisphere. Marine isotope stage 2 (MIS 2) was the latest and one of the most representative intervals of dust emission from the region, and it is especially important for research into processes of dust transportation and deposition. Here, we report the results of an optically stimulated luminescence study of the Hoalin section in southern Tajikistan, which was deposited during MIS 2. The fine-grained quartz single aliquot regeneration (SAR) approach was used and its reliability was verified by internal checks. In addition, grain-size analyses, calculated dust accumulation rates (DARs) and mass accumulation rates (MARs) were used to reconstruct the pattern of climate change during MIS 2. The mean DAR for southern Tajikistan during MIS 2 was 0.43 m/ka, and the corresponding average MAR was 673 g/cm2/a for a non-river-terrace site, which is higher than the average MARs estimated for the central and southern Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). In contrast to previous suggestions, the high dust DARs and MARs during the LGM indicate a 'cold-dry' climatic pattern, rather than a 'cold-humid' pattern. Our results also confirm that the patterns of high dust emission and deposition during the LGM in the mid-latitude arid zone of Asia were synchronous.

  5. Particle sorting during sediment redistribution processes and the effect on 230Th-normalized mass accumulation rates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marcantonio, Franco; Lyle, Mitchell; Ibrahim, Rami

    2014-08-01

    The 230Th method of determining mass accumulation rates (MARs) assumes that little to no fractionation occurs during sediment redistribution processes at the seafloor. We examine 230Th inventories in radiocarbon-dated multicore sediments from paired winnowed and focused sites at Cocos and Carnegie Ridges, Panama Basin. Radiocarbon-derived sand MARs, which likely represent the vertical rain of particles poorly transported by bottom currents, are similar at each of the paired sites but are different using 230Th normalization. 230Th-normalized MARs are about 60% lower at focused sites and likely underestimate vertical MARs, while the reverse is true for winnowed sites. We hypothesize that size fractionation occurs most frequently at lower current velocities, resulting in the coarse fraction being left behind and primarily the fine 230Th-rich grains being transported downslope. 230Th-normalization works well for recording fine-grained (detrital and opal), but not coarse-grained (carbonate), fluxes in regions that have undergone sediment redistribution.

  6. Technical note: Impact of a molasses-based liquid feed supplement on the feed sorting behavior and growth of grain-fed veal calves.

    PubMed

    Gordon, L J; DeVries, T J

    2016-08-01

    This study was designed to determine the effect of adding a molasses-based liquid feed (LF) supplement to a high-grain mixed ration on the feed sorting behavior and growth of grain-fed veal calves. Twenty-four Holstein bull veal calves (90.2 ± 2.6 d of age, weighing 137.5 ± 16.9 kg) were split into groups of 4 and exposed, in a crossover design with 35-d periods, to each of 2 treatment diets: 1) control diet (76.0% high-moisture corn, 19.0% protein supplement, and 5.0% alfalfa/grass haylage) and 2) LF diet (68.4% corn, 17.1% protein supplement, 9.0% molasses-based LF, and 4.5% alfalfa/grass haylage). Diets were designed to support 1.5 kg/d of growth. Data were collected for the final 3 wk of each treatment period. Feed intakes were recorded daily and calves were weighed 2 times/wk. Feed samples of fresh feed and refusals were collected 3 times/wk for particle size analysis. The particle size separator had 3 screens (19, 8, and 1.18 mm) and a bottom pan, resulting in 4 fractions (long, medium, short, and fine). Sorting was calculated as the actual intake of each fraction expressed as a percent of its predicted intake. Calves tended ( = 0.08) to sort for long particles on the control diet (110.5%) and did not sort these particles on the LF diet (96.8%). Sorting for medium particles (102.6%) was similar ( = 0.9) across diets. Calves sorted against short particles on the LF diet (97.5%; = 0.04) but did not sort this fraction on the control diet (99.4%). Calves sorted against fine particles (79.3%) to a similar extent ( = 0.2) on both diets. Dry matter intake was similar across diets (6.1 kg/d; = 0.9), but day-to-day variability in DMI was greater (0.5 vs. 0.4 kg/d; = 0.04) when calves were fed the control compared with the LF diet. Calves on both diets had similar ADG (1.6 kg/d; = 0.8) as well as within-pen variability in ADG (0.4 kg/d; = 0.7). The feed-to-gain ratio was also similar between control and LF diets (4.3 vs. 3.9 kg DM/kg gain; = 0.4). The results suggest

  7. Biomarker of whole grain wheat intake associated lower BMI in older adults

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Alkylresorcinols (AR) are phenolic lipids in the bran fraction of some whole grains (wheat, rye and barley). Plasma AR reflect recent intake of these whole grains. We examined the cross-sectional associations between plasma AR (measured by LCMS/ MS), whole wheat intake, and body mass index (BMI) in ...

  8. A new database sub-system for grain-size analysis

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Suckow, Axel

    2013-04-01

    Detailed grain-size analyses of large depth profiles for palaeoclimate studies create large amounts of data. For instance (Novothny et al., 2011) presented a depth profile of grain-size analyses with 2 cm resolution and a total depth of more than 15 m, where each sample was measured with 5 repetitions on a Beckman Coulter LS13320 with 116 channels. This adds up to a total of more than four million numbers. Such amounts of data are not easily post-processed by spreadsheets or standard software; also MS Access databases would face serious performance problems. The poster describes a database sub-system dedicated to grain-size analyses. It expands the LabData database and laboratory management system published by Suckow and Dumke (2001). This compatibility with a very flexible database system provides ease to import the grain-size data, as well as the overall infrastructure of also storing geographic context and the ability to organize content like comprising several samples into one set or project. It also allows easy export and direct plot generation of final data in MS Excel. The sub-system allows automated import of raw data from the Beckman Coulter LS13320 Laser Diffraction Particle Size Analyzer. During post processing MS Excel is used as a data display, but no number crunching is implemented in Excel. Raw grain size spectra can be exported and controlled as Number- Surface- and Volume-fractions, while single spectra can be locked for further post-processing. From the spectra the usual statistical values (i.e. mean, median) can be computed as well as fractions larger than a grain size, smaller than a grain size, fractions between any two grain sizes or any ratio of such values. These deduced values can be easily exported into Excel for one or more depth profiles. However, such a reprocessing for large amounts of data also allows new display possibilities: normally depth profiles of grain-size data are displayed only with summarized parameters like the clay

  9. Individual and cumulative effects of agriculture, forestry and metal mining activities on the metal and phosphorus content of fluvial fine-grained sediment; Quesnel River Basin, British Columbia, Canada.

    PubMed

    Smith, Tyler B; Owens, Philip N

    2014-10-15

    The impact of agriculture, forestry and metal mining on the quality of fine-grained sediment (<63 μm) was investigated in the Quesnel River Basin (QRB) (~11,500 km(2)) in British Columbia, Canada. Samples of fine-grained sediment were collected monthly during the snow-free season in 2008 using time-integrated samplers at replicate sites representative of agriculture, forestry and mining activities in the basin (i.e. "impacted" sites). Samples were also collected from replicate reference sites and also from the main stem of the Quesnel River at the downstream confluence with the Fraser River. Generally, metal(loid) and phosphorus (P) concentrations for "impacted" sites were greater than for reference sites. Furthermore, concentrations of copper (forestry and mining sites), manganese (agriculture and forestry sites) and selenium (agriculture, forestry and mining sites) exceeded upper sediment quality guideline (SQG) thresholds. These results suggest that agriculture, forestry and metal mining activities are having an influence on the concentrations of sediment-associated metal(loid)s and P in the Quesnel basin. Metal(loid) and P concentrations of sediment collected from the downstream site were not significantly greater than values for the reference sites, and were typically lower than the values for the impacted sites. This suggests that the cumulative effects of agriculture, forestry and mining activities in the QRB are presently not having a measureable effect at the river basin-scale. The lack of a cumulative effect at the basin-scale is thought to reflect: (i) the relatively recent occurrence of land use disturbances in this basin; (ii) the dominance of sediment contributions from natural forest and agriculture; and (iii) the potential for storage of contaminants on floodplains and other storage elements between the locations of disturbance activities and the downstream sampling site, which may be attenuating the disturbance signal. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B

  10. Compositional Analysis of Whole Grains, Processed Grains, Grain Co-Products, and Other Carbohydrate Sources with Applicability to Pet Animal Nutrition

    PubMed Central

    Beloshapka, Alison N.; Buff, Preston R.; Fahey, George C.; Swanson, Kelly S.

    2016-01-01

    Our objective was to measure the proximate, starch, amino acid, and mineral compositions of grains, grain co-products, and other carbohydrate sources with potential use in pet foods. Thirty-two samples from barley (barley flake, cut barley, ground pearled barley, malted barley, whole pearled barley, pearled barley flakes, and steamed rolled barley); oats (groats, ground oatmeal, ground steamed groats, instant oats, oat bran, oat fiber, oat flour, quick oats, regular rolled oats, steamed rolled oat groats, and steel cut groats); rice (brown rice, polished rice, defatted rice bran, and rice flour); and miscellaneous carbohydrate sources (canary grass seed, hulled millet, whole millet, quinoa, organic spelt hull pellets, potato flake, sorghum, whole wheat, and whole yellow corn) were analyzed. Crude protein, amino acid, fat, dietary fiber, resistant starch, and mineral concentrations were highly variable among the respective fractions (i.e., barley flake vs. malted barley vs. steamed rolled barley) as well as among the various grains (i.e., barley flake vs. brown rice vs. canary grass seed). These ingredients not only provide a readily available energy source, but also a source of dietary fiber, resistant starch, essential amino acids, and macrominerals for pet diets. PMID:28231117

  11. Fine-grained sediment gravity flow deposits induced by flood and lake slope failure events: examples of lacustrine varved sediments in Japan

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ishihara, Yoshiro; Sasaki, Yasunori; Sasaki, Hana; Onishi, Yuri

    2016-04-01

    Fine-grained sediment gravity flow deposits induced by flood and lake slope failure events are frequently intercalated in lacustrine successions. When sediment gravity flow deposits are present in varved sediments, it is suggested that they provide valuable information about sediment gravity flows, because they can easily trace laterally and can give the magnitude of erosion and recurrence interval of events. In addition, because large sedimentary bodies of stacked sediment gravity flow deposits in varved sediments of a calm lake are not suggested, a relatively simple depositional environment is expected. In the present study, we analysed sedimentary facies of sediment gravity flow deposits in varved lacustrine diatomites in the Middle Pleistocene Hiruzenbara and Miyajima formations in Japan, and concluded a depositional model of the lacustrine sediment gravity flow deposits. Varved diatomites: The Hiruzenbara Fm., a dammed lake fill as foots of Hiruzen Volcanos, is deposited during an interglacial period during MIS12 to 15. Varves of ca. 8000 yr were measured in a 20 m intercalating flood and lake slope failure-induced sediment gravity flow deposits. The Miyajima Fm., distributed in a paleo-caldera lake in NE Japan, includes many sediment gravity flow deposits possibly originated from fandeltas around the lake. These formations have differences in their depositional setting; the Hiruzebara Fm. was deposited in a large lake basin, whereas the Miyajima Fm. was deposited in a relatively small basin. Because of the depositional setting, intercalation of volcaniclastics is dominant in the Miyajima Fm. Lacustrine sediment gravity flow deposits: Sediment gravity flow deposits in both formations can be classified into flood- and lake slope failure-induced types based on the sedimentary facies. Composites of the both types are also found. Flood-induced types comprise fine-grained silts dominated by carbonaceous fragments, whereas lake slope failure-induced types are

  12. Source characterization of fine and coarse particles at the East Mediterranean coast

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mamane, Yaacov; Perrino, Cinzia; Yossef, Osnat; Catrambone, Maria

    Fine and coarse atmospheric particles were collected in Ashdod—a midsize industrial city on the southeastern Mediterranean coast, and in Gedera—a rural site, to characterize ambient particles and to determine their long-range transport during two major seasons—winter and summer. Manual PM2.5 and PM10 samplers, dichotomous samplers, continuous automated PM10 samplers, and denuders were used to sample particulate and gaseous pollutants. Fine and coarse concentrations in Ashdod were 21.2 and 39.6 μg m -3, and 23.9 and 30.5 μg m -3 in the fall-winter and summer campaigns, respectively. Crustal material, as calcites or dolomites mixed with silicates, dominated the coarse fraction and also the fine fraction on dusty days. In the fall-winter, S, P, and Ni were coupled with minerals. Coarse Ni was associated with crustal material during dust storms, while P originated from shipping and deposition of phosphates in the urban area around. Sulfates dominated the fine fractions in the summer season averaging 12 μg m -3. Multivariate analysis indicated that S was associated with As and Se, V and Ni, both associated with heavy fuel combustion, and Zn and Pb. In winter, those mixed sources were local, but in summer they were part of long-range transport. In the fall-winter, Zn and Pb were strongly associated with Mn, Ga, and Cu—elements emitted from either traffic or metal processing plants. Although the influence of crustal material on both size fractions was significant, most heavy metals were associated with PM2.5. Higher concentrations were linked to a larger number of particles in this fraction, to a larger surface area available for biochemical reaction [Harrison, R., Shi, J., Xi, S., Khan, A., Mark, D., Kinnersley, R., Yin, J., Philos, T., 2000. Measurement of number, mass and size distribution of particles in the atmosphere. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 358, 2567-2579], and finally to a larger concern in regards to health effects.

  13. Annealing Effects on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Ultrafine-Grained Al Composites Reinforced with Nano-Al2O3 by Rotary Swaging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Cunguang; Wang, Wenwen; Guo, Zhimeng; Sun, Chunbao; Volinsky, Alex A.; Paley, Vladislav

    2018-03-01

    Microstructure evolution and variations in mechanical properties of Al-Al2O3 nanocomposite produced by powder metallurgy were investigated and compared with commercially pure aluminum (Al-1050) after furnace annealing. Fine gas-atomized Al powder compacts were first sintered in flowing nitrogen, subsequently consolidated into wires by rotary swaging and eventually annealed at 300 and 500 °C for 24 h each. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy was utilized to document the microstructure evolution. Rotary swaging was proven to lead to a marked decrease in grain size. After heavy swaging to true deformation degree of φ = 6 and annealing at 500 °C, obvious recrystallization was observed at Al-1050's existing grain boundaries and the crystals began to grow perpendicular to the flow direction. In the Al-Al2O3 nanocomposite, fabricated from d 50 = 6 μm Al powder, recrystallization partially occurred, while grains were still extremely fine. Due to the dual role of fine-grained Al2O3 dispersion strengthening, the nanocomposite showed improved mechanical performance in terms of tensile strength, approximately twice higher than Al-1050 after annealing at 500 °C.

  14. Numerical modelling of fine-grained sediments remobilization in heavily polluted streams. Case study: Elbe and Bílina River, Czech Republic.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kaiglová, Jana; Langhammer, Jakub; Jiřinec, Petr; Janský, Bohumír; Chalupová, Dagmar

    2014-05-01

    river and the riparian sediment evaluation the 2D schematization (MIKE 21 C) was selected. It enabled to distinguish flow characteristics in the zone with complicated hydrodynamic conditions. The risk of remobilization of fine-grained sediments was evaluated in order to define a threshold discharge value after that the spreading of pollution can be expected. The major contribution of the study, realized in the framework of international iniciative ELSA was the identification of threshold values for potential remobilization of sediment burdened by old loads in different environments. These threshold values are important information for identification and mitigation of risks related with old loads and hydrological extremes. From methodological point of view the study verified validity of applied distinct approaches for fine-grained sediment remobilization assessment and identified limits for their application. Key words: sediment, remobilization, old loads, modelling, hydrodynamics, Elbe river

  15. A matter of scale: apparent niche differentiation of diploid and tetraploid plants may depend on extent and grain of analysis.

    PubMed

    Kirchheimer, Bernhard; Schinkel, Christoph C F; Dellinger, Agnes S; Klatt, Simone; Moser, Dietmar; Winkler, Manuela; Lenoir, Jonathan; Caccianiga, Marco; Guisan, Antoine; Nieto-Lugilde, Diego; Svenning, Jens-Christian; Thuiller, Wilfried; Vittoz, Pascal; Willner, Wolfgang; Zimmermann, Niklaus E; Hörandl, Elvira; Dullinger, Stefan

    2016-03-22

    Emerging polyploids may depend on environmental niche shifts for successful establishment. Using the alpine plant Ranunculus kuepferi as a model system, we explore the niche shift hypothesis at different spatial resolutions and in contrasting parts of the species range. European Alps. We sampled 12 individuals from each of 102 populations of R. kuepferi across the Alps, determined their ploidy levels, derived coarse-grain (100 × 100 m) environmental descriptors for all sampling sites by downscaling WorldClim maps, and calculated fine-scale environmental descriptors (2 × 2 m) from indicator values of the vegetation accompanying the sampled individuals. Both coarse and fine-scale variables were further computed for 8239 vegetation plots from across the Alps. Subsequently, we compared niche optima and breadths of diploid and tetraploid cytotypes by combining principal components analysis and kernel smoothing procedures. Comparisons were done separately for coarse and fine-grain data sets and for sympatric, allopatric and the total set of populations. All comparisons indicate that the niches of the two cytotypes differ in optima and/or breadths, but results vary in important details. The whole-range analysis suggests differentiation along the temperature gradient to be most important. However, sympatric comparisons indicate that this climatic shift was not a direct response to competition with diploid ancestors. Moreover, fine-grained analyses demonstrate niche contraction of tetraploids, especially in the sympatric range, that goes undetected with coarse-grained data. Although the niche optima of the two cytotypes differ, separation along ecological gradients was probably less decisive for polyploid establishment than a shift towards facultative apomixis, a particularly effective strategy to avoid minority cytotype exclusion. In addition, our results suggest that coarse-grained analyses overestimate niche breadths of widely distributed taxa. Niche comparison

  16. Carbonaceous aerosols in fine particulate matter of Santiago Metropolitan Area, Chile.

    PubMed

    Toro Araya, Richard; Flocchini, Robert; Morales Segura, Rául G E; Leiva Guzmán, Manuel A

    2014-01-01

    Measurements of carbonaceous aerosols in South American cities are limited, and most existing data are of short term and limited to only a few locations. For 6 years (2002-2007), concentrations of fine particulate matter and organic and elemental carbon were measured continuously in the capital of Chile. The contribution of carbonaceous aerosols to the primary and secondary fractions was estimated at three different sampling sites and in the warm and cool seasons. The results demonstrate that there are significant differences in the levels in both the cold (March to August) and warm (September to February) seasons at all sites studied. The percent contribution of total carbonaceous aerosol fine particulate matter was greater in the cool season (53 ± 41%) than in the warm season (44 ± 18%). On average, the secondary organic carbon in the city corresponded to 29% of the total organic carbon. In cold periods, this proportion may reach an average of 38%. A comparison of the results with the air quality standards for fine particulate matter indicates that the total carbonaceous fraction alone exceeds the World Health Organization standard (10 µg/m(3)) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency standard (15 µg/m(3)) for fine particulate matter.

  17. Transport properties of olivine grain boundaries from electrical conductivity experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pommier, Anne; Kohlstedt, David L.; Hansen, Lars N.; Mackwell, Stephen; Tasaka, Miki; Heidelbach, Florian; Leinenweber, Kurt

    2018-05-01

    Grain boundary processes contribute significantly to electronic and ionic transports in materials within Earth's interior. We report a novel experimental study of grain boundary conductivity in highly strained olivine aggregates that demonstrates the importance of misorientation angle between adjacent grains on aggregate transport properties. We performed electrical conductivity measurements of melt-free polycrystalline olivine (Fo90) samples that had been previously deformed at 1200 °C and 0.3 GPa to shear strains up to γ = 7.3. The electrical conductivity and anisotropy were measured at 2.8 GPa over the temperature range 700-1400 °C. We observed that (1) the electrical conductivity of samples with a small grain size (3-6 µm) and strong crystallographic preferred orientation produced by dynamic recrystallization during large-strain shear deformation is a factor of 10 or more larger than that measured on coarse-grained samples, (2) the sample deformed to the highest strain is the most conductive even though it does not have the smallest grain size, and (3) conductivity is up to a factor of 4 larger in the direction of shear than normal to the shear plane. Based on these results combined with electrical conductivity data for coarse-grained, polycrystalline olivine and for single crystals, we propose that the electrical conductivity of our fine-grained samples is dominated by grain boundary paths. In addition, the electrical anisotropy results from preferential alignment of higher-conductivity grain boundaries associated with the development of a strong crystallographic preferred orientation of the grains.

  18. Accurate Modeling of X-ray Extinction by Interstellar Grains

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hoffman, John; Draine, B. T.

    2016-02-01

    Interstellar abundance determinations from fits to X-ray absorption edges often rely on the incorrect assumption that scattering is insignificant and can be ignored. We show instead that scattering contributes significantly to the attenuation of X-rays for realistic dust grain size distributions and substantially modifies the spectrum near absorption edges of elements present in grains. The dust attenuation modules used in major X-ray spectral fitting programs do not take this into account. We show that the consequences of neglecting scattering on the determination of interstellar elemental abundances are modest; however, scattering (along with uncertainties in the grain size distribution) must be taken into account when near-edge extinction fine structure is used to infer dust mineralogy. We advertise the benefits and accuracy of anomalous diffraction theory for both X-ray halo analysis and near edge absorption studies. We present an open source Fortran suite, General Geometry Anomalous Diffraction Theory (GGADT), that calculates X-ray absorption, scattering, and differential scattering cross sections for grains of arbitrary geometry and composition.

  19. ACCURATE MODELING OF X-RAY EXTINCTION BY INTERSTELLAR GRAINS

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

    Hoffman, John; Draine, B. T., E-mail: jah5@astro.princeton.edu, E-mail: draine@astro.princeton.edu

    Interstellar abundance determinations from fits to X-ray absorption edges often rely on the incorrect assumption that scattering is insignificant and can be ignored. We show instead that scattering contributes significantly to the attenuation of X-rays for realistic dust grain size distributions and substantially modifies the spectrum near absorption edges of elements present in grains. The dust attenuation modules used in major X-ray spectral fitting programs do not take this into account. We show that the consequences of neglecting scattering on the determination of interstellar elemental abundances are modest; however, scattering (along with uncertainties in the grain size distribution) must bemore » taken into account when near-edge extinction fine structure is used to infer dust mineralogy. We advertise the benefits and accuracy of anomalous diffraction theory for both X-ray halo analysis and near edge absorption studies. We present an open source Fortran suite, General Geometry Anomalous Diffraction Theory (GGADT), that calculates X-ray absorption, scattering, and differential scattering cross sections for grains of arbitrary geometry and composition.« less

  20. Optimization of Melt Treatment for Austenitic Steel Grain Refinement

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lekakh, Simon N.; Ge, Jun; Richards, Von; O'Malley, Ron; TerBush, Jessica R.

    2017-02-01

    Refinement of the as-cast grain structure of austenitic steels requires the presence of active solid nuclei during solidification. These nuclei can be formed in situ in the liquid alloy by promoting reactions between transition metals (Ti, Zr, Nb, and Hf) and metalloid elements (C, S, O, and N) dissolved in the melt. Using thermodynamic simulations, experiments were designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a predicted sequence of reactions targeted to form precipitates that could act as active nuclei for grain refinement in austenitic steel castings. Melt additions performed to promote the sequential precipitation of titanium nitride (TiN) onto previously formed spinel (Al2MgO4) inclusions in the melt resulted in a significant refinement of the as-cast grain structure in heavy section Cr-Ni-Mo stainless steel castings. A refined as-cast structure consisting of an inner fine-equiaxed grain structure and outer columnar dendrite zone structure of limited length was achieved in experimental castings. The sequential of precipitation of TiN onto Al2MgO4 was confirmed using automated SEM/EDX and TEM analyses.