The composition of the evolved gases from the thermal decomposition of certain metal sulfates

By the use of TG—MS, the thermal dissociation of anhydrous CuSO₄ and Al₂(S0₄)₃ was found to proceed according to the reactions:

followed by the reactions:

No SO₃ was indicated in the dissociation of alunite. The sulfate ion appears to dissociate by at least two different mechanisms although the parameter which controls the mechanisms has not been elucidated.     

Evaluation of new single crystal piezoelectric materials for surface acoustic-wave applications

Surface acoustic waves (SAW), or Rayleigh waves, bound to the surfaces of piezoelectric materials are becoming rapidly significant in electronic device applications, particularly as VHF-UHF frequency filters and versatile time-domain processors. The majority of available devices utilize either signle crystalline quartz or lithium niobate as the piezoelectric medium. This paper describes briefly the growth and critical evaluation of SAW impedance and propagation properties for certain new single crystal piezoelectric materials. Crystals discussed are Czochralski-grown bismuth germanium oxide, films of zinc oxide and aluminum nitride both epitaxially grown on single crystal sapphire, and flux-grown beryllium oxide. It is concluded that bismuth germanium oxide may prove an important cost-effective alternative to both quartz and lithium niobate, and that either zinc oxide or aluminum nitride is destined to prove invaluable in the realization of monolithic circuits such as programmable tapped delay lines, in which SAW will be interfaced with metal-oxide semiconductor (large scale integrated) technology, and active SAW elements employing functional integration.     

Model-based 3-D segmentation of multiple sclerosis lesions in magnetic resonance brain images

Human investigators instinctively segment medical images into their anatomical components, drawing upon prior knowledge of anatomy to overcome image artifacts, noise, and lack of tissue contrast. The authors describe: 1) the development and use of a brain tissue probability model for the segmentation of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions in magnetic resonance (MR) brain images, and 2) an empirical comparison of the performance of statistical and decision tree classifiers, applied to MS lesion segmentation. Based on MR image data obtained from healthy volunteers, the model provides prior probabilities of brain tissue distribution per unit voxel in a standardized 3-D "brain space". In comparison to purely data-driven segmentation, the use of the model to guide the segmentation of MS lesions reduced the volume of false positive lesions by 50-80%     

Mössbauer and PAC studies of nanocrystalline Fe

High-purity Fe powder was mechanically milled under argon at ambient temperature using an SPEX 8000 mill. The local atomic and magnetic structure was studied using⁵⁷Co/Fe Mössbauer and¹¹¹In/Cd perturbed angular correlations (PAC) spectroscopies. After 32 hours of milling, X-ray diffraction revealed effective grain diameters of 18 nm and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis indicated a Cr impurity concentration of 5%, presumably introduced by mechanical attrition of steel ball bearings used for milling. In addition to a spectral component very similar to bulk iron metal, the Mössbauer spectra exhibited hyperfine field shifts attributed to the Cr impurities. PAC spectra on Fe milled for 5 h, with no contamination, exhibited two components: (1) A slightly broadened magnetic interaction attributed to interior, defect-free sites of In/Cd probes with a mean hyperfine field slightly greater than in macroscopic grains. The defect-free site fraction grew appreciably during milling, even though In is essentially insoluble in Fe. (2) An indistinct signal due to mixed magnetic and quadrupole interactions attributed to probes at surface or other defect sites.