The invention relates to a system for determining surroundings in a wireless network, the system including first and second nodes, each node being programmed to periodically detect the nodes located in the surroundings thereof every time period Δ, characterized in that: the first node comprises a transmitter (1) and control means (3) for activating the transmitter (1) for a transmission time ζ less than the time period Δ, the transmitter transmitting an identification signal during the transmission time ζ; the second node comprises a receiver (2) and control means (3) for activating the receiver (2) for a reception time α less than the time period Δ, the receiver (2) listening for the signals from the adjacent nodes during the reception time a, the control means (3) of the second node activating the receiver once per time period Δ.

The article presents the report of the production of composites of sub-micrometer metal particles in matrix consisted of the metal compounds by means of an AC electric arc in water and paraffin solutions using electrodes carbon metal and metal metal (metal: Ni, Fe, Co, Cu). The advantage of this method is the low electric power (from 5 to 10 W) needed in comparison to standard DC arc-discharge methods (0.8 to 3 kW). This method enables the production of particles from conductive material also in wide range of temperature and in solvent which could be either transparent to light or opaque. Moreover the solvent can be electrolyte or insulating liquid. The microstructure of the composite layer was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Electron Probe Microanalysis (EPMA) and X-ray. During particles production in water metal oxides were created. Additionally using cobalt copper, nickel copper as couple electrodes, insoluble in water copper (II) hydroxide crystal grains were created additionally which crystals shape was depended on transition metal. For iron copper couple electrodes system the copper (II) hydroxide was not formed. Experiments with sequence production of Ni and Fe particles with C electrode assisting in molten paraffin let to obtain both Ni and Fe. particles surrounded by paraffin. After solidification the material was insulator but if locally magnetic field influenced on the liquid solution in that place after solidification a new composite was created which was electric current conductor with resistivity around 0.1 Omega . m, was attracted by magnetic field and presented magneto resistance around 0.4% in changing magnetic field in a range 150 mT. After mixing the concentrated paraffin with normal paraffin resistivity of the mixture increased and it became photosensitive and created small voltage under light influence.

A container including a main body that, in use, holds material, an upper shoulder surface on the main body, an upstanding neck extending from the upper shoulder surface, at least two spaced apart neck tab members extending radially outwardly from a lower portion of the neck and spaced above the upper shoulder surface and a bottom wall having a recess formed therein, the recess having a circumferential wall extending from the bottom wall toward the upper shoulder surface and a laterally extending portion, the circumferential wall including at least two spaced apart base tab members extending radially inwardly from a lower portion of the circumferential wall and spaced above the bottom wall, the at least two spaced apart base tab members separated by a receiving opening to receive at least one of at least two neck tab members of a second container such that when aligned with the at least two neck tab members of the second container, the container and second container can be moved axially together and upon relative rotation of the container and the second container, detachably couple the container and the second container.

The effect of soft Sn particles on the room temperature mechanical properties of as-cast Al–Cu–Fe(-B) quasicrystalline (QC) matrix composites has been studied by compression and three-point bending tests on notched specimens. Microstructural investigations indicated that the Sn particle size in the as-cast composites increased linearly with the volume fraction. The addition of about 10 vol.%Sn enabled a twofold increase of the strength for the cast Al–Cu–Fe and a threefold increase of the fracture toughness for the cast Al–Cu–Fe–B composites. The enhancement of the strength was attributed to micro-crack impediment and crack bridging mechanisms in the as-cast QC matrix composites with small and large Sn particle sizes, respectively.

A core-based forwarding multicast protocol uses a core router as a traffic transit center: all multicast packets are first sent to the core, then distributed to destinations on a multicast tree rooted at the core. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate, via simulation, the effect of various core selection methods on multicast performance. Performance metrics of interest include network resource usage, packet delay, the join time of multicast participants, and link congestion. In addition, we assess the feasibility of these heuristics in real-world environments. The main contribution of this work is the discovery of a simple yet effective core selection heuristic that can be implemented in a wide variety of networks. Specifically, our results show that the tree center heuristic (using the center of the existing multicast tree as the new core node) significantly outperforms heuristics based on random selection and performs as well as other heuristics that are computationally more expensive

Provided are a vanadium-based alloy hydrogen separation membrane doped with boron, and a hydrogen separation method using same. The hydrogen separation membrane of the present invention provides superior mechanical stability and high hydrogen permeability at high temperatures, and can thus be valuably used for capturing carbon dioxide and separating hydrogen in pre-combustion carbon dioxide capturing.

Provided are a vanadium-based alloy hydrogen separation membrane doped with yttrium, and a hydrogen separation method using same. The hydrogen separation membrane of the present invention provides superior mechanical stability as well as high hydrogen permeability at high temperatures, and can thus be valuably used for capturing carbon dioxide and separating hydrogen in pre-combustion carbon dioxide capturing.

The microstructure of the Al-Mn(-Cu)-Be-Si alloys analyzed by X-ray diffraction and TEM consisted of icosahedral (i) quasicrystal particles embedded in alpha Al matrix. The conjoint addition of Si and Be elements enabled the i-phase formation in Oslash10 mm specimens prepared by conventional casting technique. The size, volume fraction and stability of the i-phase were found to be dependent on the Mn content. The addition of 2 at.% Cu did not affect the formation and stability of the i-phase but contributed significantly to the enhancement of the mechanical properties

The sliding friction and wear performance of Al-Ni-Co-Si quasicrystalline coatings deposited by the high-velocity oxy-fuel technique were investigated under dry sliding conditions. This study indicated that changes in the imposed sliding test conditions modified the friction and wear behavior of quasicrystalline coatings. Qualitative analysis of the contact interface and wear debris were performed with the aim of understanding the role of the third body on the friction and wear processes. The dependence of the coefficient of friction on the sliding velocity and counterpart material was explained by the stick-slip behavior. It was also shown that test conditions favorable for the formation of thick intermediate layers and the densification of the coating subsurface led to low wear rates. Large cylindrical particles, formed by agglomeration of small wear debris, were suggested as a beneficial factor for the reduction of the coefficient of friction

Aim: Measurement of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) using real time 3D echocardiography (3DE) has been performed in subjects with preserved or modestly reduced systolic function. Our aim was to evaluate this technique in the subset of patients with severe systolic dysfunction. Methods and results: Consecutive patients with LVEF less than 0.35 at two-dimensional echocardiography were included. LVEF obtained by 3DE was compared to the value measured by radionuclide angiography (RNA). Real time full-volume 3DE was performed, with offline semiautomated measurement of LVEF using dedicated software (Cardioview RT, Tomtec) by a single observer blinded to the results of RNA. A total of 50 patients were evaluated, of whom 38 (76%, 27 males, age 69 +/- 13 years) had a 3DE of sufficient quality for analysis. LVEF for this group was 0.21 +/- 0.07 using 3DE and 0.27 +/- 0.08 using RNA. The agreement between the two techniques was rather poor (r = 0.49; P < 0.001; 95% limits of agreements of -0.20 to 0.09). Truncation of the apex was observed in 6 of 38 (16%) patients. Conclusion: In patients with severe systolic dysfunction, 3DE shows poor agreement for measurement of LVEF as compared to RNA. There may be underestimation of up to 20% in absolute terms by 3DE. Accordingly, the two methods are not interchangeable for the follow-up of LV function. A limitation of 3DE may, at least in part, be related to the incomplete incorporation of the apical region into the pyramidal image sector in patients with dilated hearts. (Echocardiography 2010;27:58-63).

To clarify the difference in the plasticity of metallic glasses observed experimentally under tension and compression, the changes in the structural state induced during the deformation of Cu(65)Zr(35) glassy alloy were analyzed by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Although mechanical responses were distinct, no clear difference was detected in the change in the short-range order of the deformed structures, except for the intensive collapse of the (0,3,6,4) bonding in the elastic regime seen in the extended sample. To explain the difference in the plasticity and particularly the brittleness of bulk metallic glass (BMG) in the tensile mode, we examine the degree of strain localization and discuss the role of normal stress on the activation of shear transformation zones (STZs) during tension and compression in the elastic regime. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The present paper reports results on the Gd-doped Co-Cu granular alloys and metallic glasses prepared by different processing methods. The main aim of this research was to produce a ternary alloy which radically changes its magnetoresistance (MR) properties below critical temperature. A detailed study on the evolution of the structure and phase separation is presented basing on X-ray diffractometry (XRD) analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation. MR was measured by means of a two point probe method in magnetic field using a new experimental device which was patented thereafter. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We present a methodology to investigate the structure of dynamic networks in terms of concentration of changes in the network. We handle dynamic networks as series of graphs on a fixed set of nodes and consider the changes occurring between two consecutive graphs in the series. We apply our methodology to various dynamic contact networks coming from different contexts and we show that changes in these networks exhibit a non-trivial structure: they are not spread all over the network but are instead concentrated around a small fraction of nodes. We compare our observations on real-world networks to three classical dynamic network models and show that they do not capture this key property.