One potential advantage of the application of superconducting materials in electrical machines is the possibility to build lighter and compact devices by removing iron. These machines find applications, e.g., in systems where cryogenics is already available, or in naturally cryogenic environments. The design of motors with high temperature superconductors (HTS) presents issues unconsidered in classical machines, besides considerations on cryogenics, such as HTS brittleness or mechanical restrictions. Moreover, HTS' electromagnetic properties also degrade due to flux density components, which arise if there is no iron to guide magnetic flux. Several aspects must thus be considered in the design stage, as applications may turn less attractive or even unfeasible. In this paper these issues are detailed, and a numerical methodology for the design of an all superconducting (without iron or conventional conductors) linear synchronous motor is presented.

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In software, hardware, and embedded system domains, debugging is the process of locating and correcting faults in a system. Depending on the context, the various characteristics of debugging induce different challenges and solutions. Post-silicon hardware debugging, for example, needs to address issues such as limited visibility and controllability, while debugging software entails other issues, such as the handling of distributed or non-deterministic computation. The challenges that accompany such issues are the focus of many current research efforts. Solutions for debugging range from interactive tools to highly analytic techniques. We have seen great advances in debugging technologies in recent years, but bugs continue to occur, and debugging still encompasses significant portions of the life-cycles of many systems. The session covered state-of-the-art approaches as well as promising new research directions in both the hardware and software domains.

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The accumulation of lead in several bones of Wistar rats with time was determined and comparedQ3 for the different types of bones. Two groups were studied: a control group (n = 20), not exposedto lead and a contaminated group (n = 30), exposed to lead from birth, first indirectly throughmother’s milk, and then directly through a diet containing lead acetate in drinking water (0.2%).Rats age ranged from 1 to 11 months, with approximately 1 month intervals and each of thecollections had 3 contaminated rats and 2 control rats. Iliac, femur, tibia–fibula and skull havebeen analysed by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence technique (EDXRF). Samples offormaldehyde used to preserve the bone tissues were also analysed by Electrothermal AtomicAbsorption (ETAAS), showing that there was no significant loss of lead from the tissue to thepreservative. The bones mean lead concentration of exposed rats range from 100 to 300 mg g 1while control rats never exceeded 10 mg g 1. Mean bone lead concentrations were compared andthe concentrations were higher in iliac, femur and tibia–fibula and after that skull. However, ofall the concentrations in the different collections, only those in the skull were statisticallyQ4 significantly different (p o 0.05) from the other types of bones. Analysis of a radar chart alsoallowed us to say that these differences tend to diminish with age. The Spearman correlation testapplied to mean lead concentrations showed strong and very strong positive correlations betweenall different types of bones. This test also showed that mean lead concentrations in bones arenegatively correlated with the age of the animals. This correlation is strong in iliac and femur andvery strong in tibia–fibula and skull. It was also shown that the decrease of lead accumulationwith age is made by three plateaus of accumulation,

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An ultrasonic assisted solid‚Äìliquid extraction method was developed to determine the level of lead in the brain and urine of rats. Lead was determined by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry with longitudinal-Zeeman background correction. Several analytical drawbacks were addressed and overcome, namely small brain sample mass and the formation of precipitate in the urine samples. Utrasonication provided by an ultrasonic probe succeeded in extracting lead from brain samples. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the formation of a precipitate lowered the lead content in the liquid phase of the urine. Lead was back extracted from the precipitate to the liquid phase with the aid of ultrasonic energy and acidifying the urine with 10% v/v nitric acid. A microwave-assisted acid digestion protocol was used to check the completeness of the lead extraction. The within bath and between bath precision was 5% (n = 9) and 7% (n = 3) respectively. The limit of quantification was 1.05 Œºg g‚àí1 for brain samples and 2.1 Œºg L‚àí1 for urine samples. A total of 6 samples of urine and 12 samples of brain from control rats and another 6 samples of urine and 12 samples of brain from rats fed with tap water rich in lead acetate were used in this research. Lead levels in brain and urine from exposed rats ranged from1.9 ¬± 0.2 Œºg g‚àí1 to 3.5 ¬± 0.2 Œºg g‚àí1 and from 752 ¬± 56 Œºg L‚àí1 to 60.9 ¬± 1.2 mg L‚àí1 respectively. Statistically significant differences of levels of lead in brain and urine were found between exposed and non exposed rats.

An ultrasonic assisted solid‚Äìliquid extraction method was developed to determine the level of lead in the brain and urine of rats. Lead was determined by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry with longitudinal-Zeeman background correction. Several analytical drawbacks were addressed and overcome, namely small brain sample mass and the formation of precipitate in the urine samples. Utrasonication provided by an ultrasonic probe succeeded in extracting lead from brain samples. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the formation of a precipitate lowered the lead content in the liquid phase of the urine. Lead was back extracted from the precipitate to the liquid phase with the aid of ultrasonic energy and acidifying the urine with 10% v/v nitric acid. A microwave-assisted acid digestion protocol was used to check the completeness of the lead extraction. The within bath and between bath precision was 5% (n = 9) and 7% (n = 3) respectively. The limit of quantification was 1.05 Œºg g‚àí1 for brain samples and 2.1 Œºg L‚àí1 for urine samples. A total of 6 samples of urine and 12 samples of brain from control rats and another 6 samples of urine and 12 samples of brain from rats fed with tap water rich in lead acetate were used in this research. Lead levels in brain and urine from exposed rats ranged from1.9 ¬± 0.2 Œºg g‚àí1 to 3.5 ¬± 0.2 Œºg g‚àí1 and from 752 ¬± 56 Œºg L‚àí1 to 60.9 ¬± 1.2 mg L‚àí1 respectively. Statistically significant differences of levels of lead in brain and urine were found between exposed and non exposed rats.

Transactional Memory [3] (TM) is a new paradigm for concurrency control that brings the concept of transactions, widely known from the Databases community, into the management of data located in main memory. TM delivers a powerful semantics for constraining concurrency and provides the means for the extensive use of the available parallel hardware. TM uses abstractions that promise to ease the development of scalable parallel applications by achieving performances close to fine-grained locking while maintaining the simplicity of coarse-grained locking.

During electric polarization charge is injected into the material. The structure is decorated with space charge and during the subsequent heating an apparent peak and the genuine peaks that are related to dipole randomization and charge detrapping are observed. The method is used here to analyze the molecular movements in polyimide in the temperature range from 293 to 623K. Two weak relaxations have been observed around 337K and around 402K. The electrical conductivity changes with temperature in agreement with the Arrhenius law only below (W=(0.84±0.03) eV ) and above ( W=(0.82±0.03) eV) the temperature range where the β relaxation is observed. The variation of the electrical conductivity with temperature, in the range of the β relaxation, is controlled by the variation of the charge currier mobility with temperature and it shows a non-Arrhenius behavior. We suggest that the β1 sub-glass relaxation is related to the rotation or oscillation of phenyl groups and the β2 sub-glass relaxation is related to the rotation or oscillation of the imidic ring. At higher temperatures an apparent peak was observed. The relaxation time of the trapped charge, at 573K, is high than 8895s.

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The application of green chemistry principles in the processing of materials for advanced technologies is a steadily increasing field of research. In this work porous chitin-based materials were developed by combining the processing of chitin using ionic liquids (ILs) as a green solvent together with the use of supercritical fluid technology (SCF) as clean technology. Chitin was dissolved in 1-butyl-3-imidazolium acetate, followed by regeneration of the polymer in ethanol in specific moulds. The IL was removed using Soxhlet extraction and successive steps of extraction with SCF using carbon dioxide/ethanol ratios of 50/50 and 70/30. The developed porous chitin-based structures (ChIL) can be classified as mesoporous materials, with very low density and high porosity. The cytotoxicity of ChIL extracts was investigated using L929 fibroblast-like cells, and the results demonstrated that the produced materials have extremely low cytotoxicity levels. Therefore, the findings suggest that the porous chitin structures may be potential candidates for a number of biomedical applications, including tissue engineering. © 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Phase equilibrium measurements of single and mixed organic clathrate hydrates with hydrogen were determined within a pressure range of 2.0-14.0. MPa. The organic compounds studied were furan, 2,5-dihydrofuran, tetrahydropyran, 1,3-dioxolane and cyclopentane. These organic compounds are known to form structure II clathrate hydrates with water. It was found that the addition of hydrogen to form a mixed clathrate hydrate increases the stability compared to the single organic clathrate hydrates. Moreover, the mixed clathrate hydrate also has a much higher stability compared to a pure hydrogen structure II clathrate hydrate. Therefore, the organic compounds act as promoter materials. The stabilities of the single and mixed organic clathrate hydrates with hydrogen showed the following trend in increasing order: 1,3-dioxolane {\textless} 2,5-dihydrofuran {\textless} tetrahydropyran {\textless} furan {\textless} cyclopentane, indicating that both size and geometry of the organic compound determine the stability of the clathrate hydrates. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

A completely new strategy for cell culture focusing on the design of three-dimensional (3D) smart surfaces by supercritical fluid technology has been developed. This approach might overcome the limitations on cell expansion and proliferation of currently existing techniques. An alternative technology, based on supercritical carbon dioxide, was used to polymerize poly(N- isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) and to foam poly(d,l-lactic acid) (P D,L LA), creating a thermosensitive 3D structure which has proven to have potential as a substrate for cell growth and expansion. We demonstrated that the thermosensitive matrices promoted cell detachment, thus P D,L LA scaffolds have the potential to be used as substrates for cell growth and expansion avoiding enzymatic and mechanical methods of cell harvesting. The harvested cells were replated to evaluate their viability, which was not compromised. A major advantage of this technology is the fact that the prepared materials can be recovered and reused. Therefore, the same substrate can be recycled and reused for different batches. An indirect impact of the technology developed is related to the field of biotechnology, as this novel technology for cell expansion can be applied to any adherent cell cultures. © 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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New compounds of the general formulas [M(Ar-BIAN)(2)]BF(4) and [M(Ar-BIAN)(NCMe)(2)]BF(4), where M=Cu(1) or Ag(1) and Ar-BIAN = bis(aryl)acenaphthenequinonediimine, were synthesized by the direct reaction of [Cu(NCMe)(4)]BF(4) or [Ag(NCMe)(4)]BF(4) with the corresponding Ar-BIAN ligand in dried CH(2)Cl(2). The synthesized compounds are [M(o, d, p-Me(3)C(6)H(2)-BIAN)(2)]BF(4) where M = Cu(1) (1) and Ag(1) (2), [M(o,d-iPr(2)C(6)H(3)-BIAN)(NCMe)(2)]BF(4) where M = Cu(1) (3) and Ag(1) (4), and [Ag(o,d-iPr(2)C(6)H(3)-BIAN)(2)]BF(4) (5). The crystal structures of compounds 1-3 and 5 were solved by singlecrystal X-ray diffraction. In all cases copper(I) or silver(I) are in a distorted tetrahedron that is constructed from the four nitrogen atoms of the two a-diimine ligands or, in 3, from one a-diimine ligand and two acetonitrile molecules. All compounds were characterized by elemental analyses, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and IR, UV-vis, and (1)H NMR spectroscopy. The analysis of the molecular geometry and the energetic changes for the formation reactions of the complexes, in a CH(2)Cl(2) solution, were evaluated by density functional theory calculations and compared with the experimental results.

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