Structure and properties of laser quenched 4Cr13 steel

The structure and properties of laser quenched 4Cr13 steel were reported. The results show that: (1) Fine martensite is obtained after laser quenching. The highest content of retained austenite in the surface area 10 μm thick of laser hardened zone is 47. 13 percent, but only 3.6 percent of retained austenite is measured inside the laser hardened layer after the surface layer 10μm thick is worn off. (2) The hardness of laser quenched layer is much higher (HV_(0.1) 690) than that of the substrate (HV_(0.1) 237). (3) The wear resistance of laser quenched layer is 3.3 times higher than that of traditionally treated specimen and the corrosion resistance of 4Cr13 steel is also improved greatly by laser quenching.     

Formation and dissociation of protonated cytosine–cytosine base pairs in i-motifs by ab initio quantum chemical calculations

Formation and dissociation mechanisms of C-C＋ base pairs in acidic and alkaline environments are investigated, employing ab initio quantum chemical calculations. Our calculations suggest that, in an acidic environment, a cytosine monomer is first protonated and then dimerized with an unprotonated cytosine monomer to form a C-C＋ base pair; in an alkaline environment, a protonated cytosine dimer is first unprotonated and then dissociated into two cytosine monomers. In addition, the force for detaching a C-C＋ base pair was found to be inversely proportional to the distance between the two cytosine monomers. These results provide a microscopic mechanism to qualitatively explain the experimentally observed reversible formation and dissociation of i-motifs.     

Steganography and authentication in image sharing without parity bits

Recently, a polynomial-based (k, n) steganography and authenticated image sharing (SAIS) scheme was proposed to share a secret image into n stego-images. At the same time, one can reconstruct a secret image with any k or more than k stego-images, but one cannot obtain any information about the secret from fewer than k stego-images. The beauty of a (k, n)-SAIS scheme is that it provides the threshold property (i.e., k is the threshold value), the steganography (i.e., stego-images look like cover images), and authentication (i.e., detection of manipulated stego-images). All existing SAIS schemes require parity bits for authentication. In this paper, we present a novel approach without needing parity bits. In addition, our (k, n)-SAIS scheme provides better visual quality and has higher detection ratio with respect to all previous (k, n)-SAIS schemes.     

Preparation of TiO2-carbon surface composites with high photoactivity by supercritical pretreatment and sol-gel processing

TiO₂-carbon surface (TCS) composites were prepared by pretreatment of a sealing substrate in supercritical carbon dioxide using paraffin as a plugging agent, and sol-gel processing using tetrabutyl orthotitanate as a precursor. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectrum (XPS), optical absorption spectroscopy and nitrogen absorption. The photoactivity of TCS was checked by monitoring the decomposition of methylene blue (MB) in aqueous solution under UV irradiation. The results indicated that compared with TC prepared only by the sol-gel method, the small nanosize TiO₂ particles are well dispersed on carbon surface with large amount of micropores and high Eg values, meanwhile TCS have high Ti³⁺ concentration due to supercritical pretreatment providing a amount of carbon on the composite surface with interfacial energy effects, which controls the growth of TiO₂ nanoparticles, baffles the agglomeration of TiO₂ nanoparticles and easily produces Ti³⁺ ions. These are reasons why TCS has a higher efficiency of decomposing MB than TiO₂-carbon (TC) composites and pure TiO₂. Additional, it is also attributed to the fact that TCS produce a high concentration of organic compounds near TiO₂ in comparison with TC and pure TiO₂, because their surface area are greater than that of TC and pure TiO₂.     

Measurement of στ product of solid state laser materials by an alternative method: Application to Nd3+ doped YVO4 crystal for 4 F 3/2→4 I 11/2 transition

In this paper an alternative approach for measurement of στ product for ⁴ F _3/2→⁴ I _11/2 transition of Nd³⁺ doped YVO₄ crystal is reported. In this method a microchip laser is formed by keeping a small piece of the sample in plane-plane resonator and a diode laser (808 nm) is used for pumping. The pump power induced thermal lensing effect is used to make the cavity stable. The cavity mode area is estimated by measuring the thermal lens focal length at the threshold and the average pump area is measured by Gaussian fit to the intensity profiles of the pump beam. The value of στ product of Nd:YVO₄ crystal obtained by this method is within 10% of the reported values. The advantage of this method is that it is a simple method for direct measurement of στ product of laser crystals.     

掺Bi钇铁石榴石薄膜光波导的线性双折射及消除方法

分析了光的线性双折射对磁光波导ＴＥ－ＴＭ模式转换，法拉第旋转，波导光隔离器隔离比及插入损耗的影响。研究了掺Ｂｉ钇铁石榴石薄膜光波导中的形状线性双折射，应力感生线性双折射及生长感生线性双折射的来源，特性和消除方法。     

A new method for high-energy pulsed Gamma measurement within intense background x-rays

The accelerator-generating 6.13~MeV pulsed Gamma by ¹⁹F(p, αγ )¹⁶⁰ reaction usually synchronizes with an intense bremsstrahlung x-ray which has a maximum energy of 1~MeV. This paper proposes a new method, named the scattering and absorbing method, to diagnose the 6.13~MeV Gamma. This method includes two parts: the detector and a scatterer placed in front of the detector. The detector converts the Gamma to electrons and then collects the electrons by a scintillator. In order to restrain the interference of the low-energy background, the scintillator collects the electrons at a small angle. The scintillator is wrapped with electro-absorbing material to absorb the low-energy electrons generated by background x-rays. The theoretical sensitivity ratio of 6.13~MeV Gamma to 1~MeV x-rays is greater than 150. The scatterer is a pretreatment tool to scatter some background x-rays away from the radial beam before they enter the detector. By varying the length, the scatterer can reduce the background x-rays to an acceptable level for the detector.     

A railway track dynamics model based on modal substructuring and a cyclic boundary condition

This article presents a technique for modelling the coupled dynamics of a railway vehicle and the track. The method is especially useful for simulating the dynamics of high speed trains running on nonlinear tracks. The main hypothesis is a cyclic system: an infinite track on which there is an infinite set of identical vehicles spaced at a regular interval of distance. Thus the main problems of the finite-length track models (e.g. the waves that reflect at the end of the track and interact with the vehicle; and the time interval of integration must be shorter than the track length divided by the velocity) are avoided. The flexibility of the method can be observed from the case studies presented in the present work: a vehicle passing over a hanging sleeper, and the vehicle-track dynamics for different ballast compaction cases. The results show the influence of the hanging sleeper gap on the wheel-rail contact forces, and the bending moment at the sleeper for different ballast compaction cases.