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The microwave absorbents of Fe and C nanoparticles as magnetic loss and dielectric loss material respectively were composited with the polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as binder by spray granulation method. The electromagnetic parameters of Fe and C composite particles were analyzed by vector network. The complex permittivity and magnetic permeability of Fe and C composite particles matched well with increasing C nanoparticle content, and then the microwave loss property was improved. A minimum reflection loss (RL) of −42.7 dB at 3.68 GHz for a composite with 4.6 mm in thickness can be obtained when the content ratio of the C nanoparticles, the modified Fe nanoparticles and the PVA is 21:49:30 (Sample 3).

In this study, a simulation was used to derive an optimal process of heat treatment with carburizing, and compared the derived result with SCr420HB helical gear in heat treatment with carburized quenching process about a change of the quenching method. The optimal carburizing process time is derived by the simulation with the theoretical time. The process has been performed by oil quenching and salt quenching method. Through the comparison of the results from the simulation(Hardness, effective case depth hardened by carburizing treatment and deformation) and the actual process, analyzed the error value of each quenching. And it verified the applicability of the simulation.

To describe imaging characteristics of primary hepatic angiosarcoma on gadoxetate disodium-enhanced dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to determine features that differentiate angiosarcomas from similar-sized haemangiomas.The study included 15 patients with hepatic angiosarcomas and 35 patients with size-matched hepatic haemangiomas who underwent gadoxetate disodium-enhanced liver MRI. The number, size, growth pattern, signal intensity (SI) characteristics, and SI changes on dynamic scans were evaluated and compared between the two entities.Overall, hepatic angiosarcomas significantly more often showed lesion multiplicity (86.7%), capsular retraction (40%), prominent intratumoural vessels (66.7%), vascular invasion (20%), heterogeneous SI on T2-weighted (100%) and hepatobiliary phase images (80%), and intralesional haemorrhage (60%, all p0.05). On dynamic scans, angiosarcomas demonstrated enhancing foci of irregular or rim-like nodular/linear or bizarre (86.7%) shapes, with centrifugal or bizarre patterns of progressive enhancement (53.3%). Enhancement of angiosarcomas was less than that of the blood pool on visual grading, but the enhancement curves followed that of the aorta. Regardless of size, angiosarcomas showed heterogeneous T2 SI, intratumoural haemorrhage, and heterogeneity during the hepatobiliary phase, whereas these findings were more common in haemangiomas6 cm in diameter.Gadoxetate disodium-enhanced dynamic liver MRI is capable of depicting vascular hallmarks of hepatic angiosarcomas. Heterogeneous SI on T2-weighted and hepatobiliary phase images, multiplicity, and an enhancement curve following that of the aorta are also distinctive features that differentiate angiosarcomas from haemangiomas.

The mechanical properties of SiCf/SiC composites have been investigated, based on detailed analyses of their microstructure. SiCf/SiC composites were prepared from fiber preforms by a slurry infiltration technique, in which a mixture with SiC, Al2O3, and Y2O3 particles was impregnated into the fabric structure. SiCf/SiC composites were consolidated by liquid phase sintering process, associated with the creation of secondary phases by the addition of Al2O3 and Y2O3 particles. The reinforcing material was a plain weave Tyranno SA SiC fabric with a carbon interfacial layer. The sintered density and the pore volume fraction of SiCf/SiC composites were about 3.0 Mg/m3 and about 10%, respectively. These SiCf/SiC composites had an average flexural strength of about 250 MPa at room temperature. They exhibited pseudo-ductile fracture behavior, due to the carbon interfacial layer. The introduction of the carbon interfacial layer greatly improved the fracture energy of SiCf/SiC composites.

This paper dealt with the microstructure and mechanical properties of SiC based composites reinforced with different reinforcing materials. The composites were fabricated using reinforcing materials of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and Tyranno Lox-M SiC chopped fibers. The volume fraction of carbon nanotubes was also varied in this composite system. An Al2O3–Y2O3 powder mixture was used as a sintering additive in the consolidation of the SiC matrix. The characterization of the composites was investigated by means of SEM and three point bending tests. These composites showed a dense morphology of the matrix region, by the creation of a secondary phase. The composites reinforced with SiC chopped fibers possessed a flexural strength of about 400 MPa at room temperature. The flexural strength of the carbon nanotubes composites had a tendency to decrease with increased volume fraction of the reinforcing material.

Frontier (1976) suggested a criterion based on the expected length of ordered random intervals under the Broken-stick model (Barton and David, 1956) to determine the optimal number of principal components retained. It is considered to be one of the methods that provide the most consistent simulation results (Jackson, 1993). This study is aimed to propose a method using the distribution of ordered random intervals to evaluate the contribution of principal components. We also examine several types of Gini indices along with the corresponding Lorenz curves to visualize the overall equivalence of those contributions.

Following rapid population increase and industrial development, the ever increasing environmental pollution and the associated sanitation-related problem are no longer regional or local but have become an issue requiring global-dimensional concern and the provision of problem-solving alternatives. Especially, since most problems result from inappropriate sewerage and the lack of sewage treatment system are in a serious state occurring in economically underdeveloped regions, and as such, their significance is enormous. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been making efforts to establish the technology selection methodology applicable in developing countries, through the accurate status, investigation and analysis of the wastewater management state in Asian and African regions, and the sanitation management guideline utilisable by political leaders or decision-makers. As part of this effort, the Korea Institute of Water Environment (KIWE), together with the UNEP, selected China and Vietnam (in Asia) and Kenya and Ethiopia (in Africa) as subject countries to investigate and perform on-site sanitation management investigations and analysis in this research. Results obtained from the on-site investigation were analysed, and in order to be helpful in establishing a strategy for sanitation management in underdeveloped countries, the strategic framework (SF) has been made based on characterised results.

Technology scaling of CMOS processes brings relatively faster transistors (gates) and slower interconnects (wires), making viable the addition of reconfigurability to increase performance. In the Morph/AMRM system we are exploring the addition of reconfigurable logic, deeply integrated with the processor core, employing the reconfigurability to manage the cache, datapath, and pipeline resources more effectively. However, integration of reconfigurable logic introduces significant protection and safety challenges for microprocess execution. We analyze the protection structures in a state of the art microprocessor core (R10000), identifying the few critical logic blocks and demonstrating that the majority of the logic in the processor core can be safely reconfigured. Subsequently, we propose a protection architecture for the Morph/AMRM reconfigurable processor which enable nearly the full range of power of reconfigurability in the processor core while requiring only a small number of fixed logic features which to ensure safe, protected multiprocess execution.

Individuals with Chagas' disease develop abnormal ventricular conduction patterns which can be measured with late potentials (LP) measured from signal-averaged ECG (SAECG). The end-point of the QRS (and thus total QRS duration-TQRSD) must be accurately detected in order to determine if an individual exhibits LP. The authors have found that the standard time-domain method under estimates TQRSD in noisy signals. Their hypothesis is that the TQRSD can be more accurately determined from the wavelet-transformed SAECG in a neural network in noisy data. The authors compared the TQRSD measured by experts with the standard method and the authors' proposed method. The results of the proposed method were highly correlated with those from the experts (Slope=0.94, Int.=7.1 ms, R=0.94). The proposed method reduced the difference between the automatically, determined and manually determined values by 57%. It is concluded that the proposed method has good potential to help automate the analysis of cardiac conduction anomalies in chagasic patients.