Mechanical properties of mixed conducting La0.5Sr0.5Fe1−x Co x O3−δ (0≤x≤1) materials

Young’s modulus, strain–stress behavior, fracture strength, and fracture toughness of (0≤×≤1) materials have been investigated in the temperature range 20–1,000°C. Young’s moduli of and , measured by resonant ultrasound spectroscopy, were 130±1 and 133±3 GPa, respectively. The nonlinear stress–strain relationship observed by four-point bending at room temperature was inferred as a signature of ferroelastic behavior of the materials. Above the ferroelastic to paraelastic transition temperature, the materials showed elastic behavior, but due to high-temperature creep, a nonelastic respond reappeared above ∼800°C. The room temperature fracture strength measured by four-point bending was in the range 107–128 MPa. The corresponding fracture toughness of , measured by single edge V-notch beam method, was 1.16±0.12 MPa·m^1/2. The measured fracture strength and fracture toughness were observed to increase with increasing temperature. The fracture mode changed from intragranular at low temperature to intergranular at high temperature. Tensile stress gradient at the surface of the materials caused by a frozen-in gradient in the oxygen content during cooling was proposed to explain the low ambient temperature fracture strength and toughness.     

Time-resolved imaging of spin transfer switching: beyond the macrospin concept

Time-resolved images of the magnetization switching process in a spin transfer structure, obtained by ultrafast x-ray microscopy, reveal the limitations of the macrospin model. Instead of a coherent magnetization reversal, we observe switching by lateral motion of a magnetic vortex across a nanoscale element. Our measurements reveal the fundamental roles played independently by the torques due to charge and spin currents in breaking the magnetic symmetry on picosecond time scales.     

A Deterministic Method for Robust Estimation of Multivariate Location and Shape

Abstract

The existence of outliers in a data set and how to deal with them is an important problem in statistics. The minimum volume ellipsoid (MVE) estimator is a robust estimator of location and covariate structure; however its use has been limited because there are few computationally attractive methods. Determining the MVE consists of two parts—finding the subset of points to be used in the estimate and finding the ellipsoid that covers this set. This article addresses the first problem. Our method will also allow us to compute the minimum covariance determinant (MCD) estimator. The proposed method of subset selection is called the effective independence distribution (EID) method, which chooses the subset by minimizing determinants of matrices containing the data. This method is deterministic, yielding reproducible estimates of location and scatter for a given data set. The EID method of finding the MVE is applied to several regression data sets where the true estimate is known. Results show that the EID method, when applied to these data sets, produces the subset of data more quickly than conventional procedures and that there is less than 6% relative error in the estimates. We also give timing results illustrating the feasibility of our method for larger data sets. For the case of 10,000 points in 10 dimensions, the compute time is under 25 minutes.     

Open critical area model and extraction algorithm based on the net flow-axis

In the integrated circuit manufacturing process, the critical area extraction is a bottleneck to the layout optimization and the integrated circuit yield estimation. In this paper, we study the problem that the missing material defects may result in the open circuit fault. Combining the mathematical morphology theory, we present a new computation model and a novel extraction algorithm for the open critical area based on the net flow-axis. Firstly, we find the net flow-axis for different nets. Then, the net flow-edges based on the net flow-axis are obtained. Finally, we can extract the open critical area by the mathematical morphology. Compared with the existing methods, the nets need not to divide into the horizontal nets and the vertical nets, and the experimental results show that our model and algorithm can accurately extract the size of the open critical area and obtain the location information of the open circuit critical area.     

Direct observation of spin-torque driven magnetization reversal through nonuniform modes

We present time-resolved x-ray images with 30 nm spatial and 70 ps temporal resolution, which reveal details of the spatially resolved magnetization evolution in nanoscale samples of various dimensions during reversible spin-torque switching processes. Our data in conjunction with micromagnetic simulations suggest a simple unified picture of magnetic switching based on the motion of a magnetic vortex. With decreasing size of the magnetic element the path of the vortex core moves from inside to outside of the nanoelement, and the switching process evolves from a curled nonuniform to an increasingly uniform mode.     

Catalytic Generation and Chemoselective Transfer of Nucleophilic Hydrides from Dihydrogen

Copper(I)–N-heterocyclic-carbene (NHC) complexes enabled the catalytic generation of nucleophilic hydrides from dihydrogen (H₂) and their subsequent transfer to allylic chlorides. The highly chemoselective catalyst displayed no concomitant hydrogenation reactivity; in fact, the terminal double bond formed in the hydride transfer remained intact. Switching to deuterium gas (D₂) allowed for regioselective monodeuteration with excellent isotope incorporation.     

An agent-based simulation of customer multi-channel choice behavior

Central European Journal of Operations Research - Experimenting with multi-channel operations in reality is both costly and risky, because it can severely affect a firm’s revenues,...     

Fluorescence and Rotational Dynamics of Dityrosine

We have examined the lifetimes and rotational correlation times of dityrosine emission by time-correlated single-photon counting. We first noticed dityrosine fluorescence in samples of tyrosine and tyrosine dipeptides by its characteristic red-shifted emission at 400 to 430 nm. The longer rotational correlation time relative to tyrosine proved that this fluorescence emanated from a distinct species. Comparison with the fluorescence properties of synthesized dityrosine established the identity of the emitting species. Fluorescence intensity decays of dityrosine are generally characterized by two decay components, one with a lifetime in the range of 150 to 800 ps and another between 2.5 and 4.5 ns. We found no evidence for an excited-state reaction, since a rising phase (negative-amplitude component) was not observed. In the pH range from 4 to 10, two ground-state species exist in equilibrium with pK _a 7. Both species exhibit two fluorescence decays. The average fluorescence lifetime increases gradually with pH over the pH range from 4 to 10 and decreases at pH 2. Anisotropy decays were measured for dityrosine and the alanine–dityrosine–alanine and leucine–dityrosine–leucine dipeptides. The rotational correlation times of dityrosine and dityrosine dipeptides increase linearly with van der Waals volumes. The slope indicates a stronger solute–solvent interaction than predicted with stick boundary conditions. It is suggested that these interactions result from the presence of two zwitterionic pairs.     

Supercritical fluid extraction of amino acids from birch (Betula pendula Roth) leaves and their liquid chromatographic determination with fluorimetric detection

A method for supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) of amino acids was adapted and optimal experimental conditions were selected for a matrix consisting of dry leaves. The matrix-dependent SFE method uses a mixture of MeOH-H(2)O-acetonitrile (10:10:1 v/v/v) as a modifier (0.5 mL in situ, 300 muL on-line) at 70 degrees C and 40 MPa and no HCl is needed as an entrainer. The amino acids were quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorimetric detection (HPLC/FLD) after gradient elution on Zorbax Eclipse AAA columns (4.6x150 mm, 3.5 mum) with aqueous Na(2)HPO(4 )buffer of pH 7.8 and ACN-MeOH-water as a mobile phase. In comparison with Soxhlet extraction, SFE gave higher recovery and selectivity, but it required longer extraction time (90 min) and it was more labor-intensive (clean-up step after the pre-concentration). Both methods should be used separately or in combination according to the matrix, number of samples, and levels of ballast compounds.