Influence of Sn on the hydration of tricalcium aluminate, Ca3Al2O6

Tricalcium aluminate (Ca₃Al₂O₆, C₃A) containing 0?C5% of Sn was synthesized by solid-state method, and the products were characterized by XRD technique. Differential thermo-analytical technique (DTA) along with X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were applied to study the hydration behaviour of different C₃A samples with and without the presence of gypsum. Results indicate that C₃A can accommodate small amount of Sn in its structure and remaining amount forms SnO₂. Hydration studies of the synthesized C₃A shows that the additions of 0.5 and 1% Sn increase and 2% Sn decrease the reactivity of C₃A at the initial period (<3?h) of hydration. Increasing additions of Sn also increase the amounts of amorphous phases and hexagonal calcium aluminate hydrates in the cement pastes. The stabilities of these hydration products also increase with increasing content of Sn in C₃A at the experimental conditions. The presence of Sn significantly changes the hydration of C₃A and gypsum solid mixture at the initial period of hydration by enhancing the formation of more amounts of AFt and AFm phases. However, at the later stage of hydration (on or after 3?days), the hydration products in C₃A and gypsum pastes with and without the presence of Sn are almost similar.     

Study of a high-dimensional chaotic attractor

The nature of a very high-dimensional chaotic attractor in an infinite-dimensional phase space is examined for the purpose of studying the relationships between the physical processes occurring in the real space and the characteristics of high-dimensional attractor in the phase space. We introduce two complementary bases from which the attractor is observed, one the Lyapunov basis composed of the Lyapunov vectors and the another the Fourier basis composed of the Fourier modes. We introduce the exterior subspaces on the basis of the Lyapunov vectors and observe the chaotic motion projected onto these exteriors. It is shown that a certain statistical property of the projected motion changes markedly as the exterior subspace goes out of the attractor. The origin of such a phenomenon is attributed to more fundamental features of our attractor, which become manifest when the attractor is observed from the Lyapunov basis. A counterpart of the phenomenon can be observed also on the Fourier basis because there is a statistical one-to-one correspondence between the Lyapunov vectors and the Fourier modes. In particular, a statistical property of the high-pass filtered time series reflects clearly the difference between the interior and the exterior of the attractor.     

Equivalent cross-relaxation rate imaging positively correlates with pathological grade and cell density of adipocytic tumors

Objective

Equivalent cross-relaxation rate imaging (ECRI) is an MRI technique used to evaluate qualitative changes in protein-water interactions. We aimed to prospectively evaluate the utility of ECRI for classification of adipocytic tumors.

Materials and Methods

Institutional Review Board approval was obtained and all patients provided informed consent. Study participants included 40 patients with adipocytic tumors who were diagnosed with lipomas (n = 22), atypical lipomatous tissue/well-differentiated liposarcoma (ALT/WDL; n = 9), myxoid/round cell liposarcoma (MyL; n = 6), and dedifferentiated liposarcoma (DDL; n = 3), and 20 control patients for whom subcutaneous fat in the buttock or thigh was analyzed.

Results

Mean ECR values of lipomas, ALT/WDL, and subcutaneous fat were low, and those of MyL and DDL were high. Mean ECR values of MyL and DDL were significantly higher than those of ALT/WDL. The cut-off value was 5.1%. There was a positive correlation between ECR value, pathological grade, and cell density in adipocytic tumors.

Conclusion

The ECR value positively correlates with pathological grade and cell density of adipocytic tumors. Our findings suggest that ECRI is a useful method for preoperative evaluation of adipocytic tumors.     

Dynamic and subjective responses of seated subjects exposed to simultaneous vertical and fore-and-aft whole-body vibration: The effect of the phase between the two single-axis components

Subjective and dynamic responses of seated subjects exposed to simultaneous vertical and fore-and-aft sinusoidal whole-body vibration were investigated. The effect of the phase difference between the vertical and the fore-and-aft vibration on the responses was of a particular interest in this study. Fifteen subjects were exposed to dual-axis vibrations at six frequencies (2.5-8 Hz) and at eight phases between the two single-axis components (0-315°). The magnitude of vibration in each axis was constant at 0.7 m s⁻² rms. Discomfort caused by vibration was measured by the method of magnitude estimation. The motion of the body were measured at the head and three locations along the spine with accelerometers attached to the body surface. The most significant effect of the phase between the two single-axis components on the discomfort was observed at 5 Hz: about 40% difference in the median discomfort estimate caused by changing the phase. The transmissibilities from vertical seat vibration to vertical motions of the spine varied from 0.5 to 2.0 by changing the phase between the two single-axis components at frequencies from 2.5 to 5 Hz. The effect of the phase observed in the dynamic response was not predicted by the superposition of the responses to each single-axis vibration. The discomfort caused by the dual-axis vibration tended to be correlated better with the combinations of the dynamic responses measured in the two axes than with the dynamic responses in a single axis.     

Mössbauer studies of mixed-valence spin-crossover iron complexes with a hexadentate tripod ligand

The spin-crossover behaviors of mixed-valence iron compounds [Fe^IIH₃L][Fe^IIIL](NO₃)₂ (1) and [Fe^IIH₃L^Me][Fe^IIIL^Me](NO₃)₂ (2) have been investigated by ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, where H₃L is a hexadentate N₆ tripod ligand containing three imidazole groups and H₃L^Me is its 2-methylimidazole derivative. Deconvolution analyses of the Mössbauer spectra revealed that a two-step SCO (LS Fe^II–LS Fe^III→HS Fe^II–LS Fe^III→HS Fe^II–HS Fe^III) proceeds in each compound on elevating the temperature. Compound 2 exhibited lower spin-transition temperatures than 1. “Frozen-in effect” was observed below 120 and 50 K for 1 and 2, respectively.     

STF数字微波低电平系统研究

STF是KEK为国际直线对撞机(ILC)建立的试验装置. 在STF中, 数字微波低电平系统用于控制超导腔的RF相位和幅度. 在没有实际腔运行的情况下, 设计了一个基于FPGA技术的实时超导腔模拟器, 用于测试微波低电平系统的硬件和算法. 超导腔的数字控制器用FPGA实现, 其中采用了PI反馈控制和前馈控制算法. 测试表明, 超导腔模拟器和控制器都工作良好, 可用于STF微波低电平系统的进一步开发.