Hard disk drives (HDDs) are the most important information storage devices for computers. Positioning precision is crucial to today's increasingly high-speed, high-capacity, high data density, and miniaturized HDDs. Therefore, the demand for higher bandwidth servo systems that can quickly and precisely position the read/write head on a high track density becomes more pressing. Recently, the idea of applying dual-stage actuators to track servo systems has been studied. The push-pull piezoelectrically actuated devices have been developed as micro actuators for fine and fast positioning, while the voice coil motor functions as a large but coarse seeking. However, the current dual-stage actuator design uses piezoelectric patches only without passive damping. In this thesis, a dual-stage servo system using enhanced active-passive hybrid piezoelectric actuators is proposed. The actuators improve the existing dual-stage actuators for higher positioning precision and better shock resistance, due to the incorporation of passive damping in the design. The main aim is to develop this hybrid servo system not only to increase the speed of track seeking but also to improve precision of track following servos in HDDs. A new piezoelectrically actuated suspension with passive damping is designed and fabricated for precision positioning of the head while reducing undesirable vibrations. In order to evaluate positioning and track following performances for the dual-stage track servo systems, tasks carried out in the thesis are: (1) to investigate the damping abilities and transmissibilities of the active-passive hybrid micro actuators; (2) to investigate the shock resistance of the dual-stage piezoelectric actuators with passive damping; (3) to implement the synthesized active-passive suspension with enhanced piezoelectric actuators using a composite nonlinear feedback controller. / Chan, Kwong Wah. / "December 2006." / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-08, Section: B, page: 5512. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 84-90). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

This thesis explores hardware command capture as a viable means of analyzing real world hard drive usage. Hardware command capture provides insight into the IO stack where current tools fail to reach. A software platform is presented which provides trace conversion and analysis capabilities. This platform is written in Python and designed to handle traces of arbitrary size while being easily extensible for future projects to build upon. A novel Sequential Stream Detection algorithm built upon the software platform is then presented. This algorithm detects application level sequential streams and provides interesting insight into the sequential nature of the applications analyzed. The software platform and Sequential Stream Detector were validated and run against a range of workloads including video playback, large project compilations, and synthetic benchmarks. Where applicable, each workload was run on multiple file systems (ext2, ext3, ext4, Btrfs) to compare the effects of stream allocation across file systems. It is shown that stream allocation is consistent across file systems suggesting stream detection may be a valuable workload identification tool.

During the past few years there have been numerous studies made of various characters in wheat. Some characters which were thought at first to be simple in inheritance have since been found to be rather complex. The data in the following pages are the results of an investigation made to study the inheritance of awns in a cross between Hard Federation and Kota varieties of wheat. Until the last few years awn inheritance in wheat has been regarded as extremely simple, that is, as being dependent on a single factor difference. The awns of the F1 plants have nearly always been intermediate in length between the awns of the two parents with the F2 ratios 3:1 or 1:2:1, awnlessness usually being regarded as dominant. Recently, however, it has become apparent that the inheritance of awns is much more complex than the original data indicated. Several workers have found two independent factors and one has found two factors segregating in such a fashion as strongly to suggest linkage between these two factors.

<p>In this study, six dc Magnetron Sputtered (dcMS) CrN hard coatings were deposited on pretreated High Speed Steel (HSS) to achieve different interface architectures. The aim was to correlate the interfacial microstructure to the adhesion of the coatings. The substrates were pretreatment using the Ionized Physical Vapor Deposition (IPVD) method High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) using a Cr target in an inert atmosphere varying the substrate bias ($U_b$) between 0 V and 1100 V at ambient temperature as well as at a substrate temperature of 400$^\circ$C. The deposition parameters were chosen to show how kinetically induced diffusion, etching and implantation changes the interface chemistry and structure and to investigate their effect on the adhesion on the film. At elevated temperatures, the diffusion will be thermally driven. Annealing of the deposited samples were, therefore, performed at 900 K in an Ar atmosphere. The films were characterized employing XRD, HR-TEM, A-STEM and by scratch test measurements to see how the the interface microstructure can be correlated to the adhesion of the coating. The study shows that a sputter cleaned substrate surface with well preserved crystal structure of the substrate enhances the adhesion of the coating by promotion of local epitaxial growth. However, annealing was also shown to have a large effect on the adhesion enhancement by allowing for interdiffusion in the interface region and due to promotion of interface strain relaxation. Implantation of target material on the other hand had limited influence on the adhesion compared to the clean oxide free surfaces. The low adhesion improvement when gradually changing the chemical composition at the interface is assumed to stem from that the radiation induced defects and strain diminished the positive effect of this gradient.</p>

<p>One of the most serious and economically important defects caused by clostridia in milk products is the late blowing of semi-hard cheeses.</p><p>Clostridia occur naturally in soil and can contaminate milk through crops contaminated by dung and soil followed by a less successful silage process, that give them opportunity to grow unaerobically. When anaerobic conditions occur, such as storage of semi-hard cheese, they ferment lactic acid to butyric acid and the gases CO₂ and H₂.</p><p>At the fusion of Arla and MD Foods, a series of changes were conducted on the MPN method for lactic acid fermentation for clostridia in milk. These changes resulted in an increased accuracy due to an increased number of test tubes and the change of media from MRCM to BBB, Bryant & Burkey Broth, that was thought to be more selective for <em>Cl. tyrobutyricum</em>, the organism mostly found in hard cheese. When the number of dairy farmers that were given quality reduction fines increased, the new method was suspected and a validation was conducted.</p><p>The validation included inoculation of different clostridia and bacillus strains into BBB substrate and enzymatic testing of positive samples with Rapid ID 32A. The inoculation result showed that almost all tested different clostridia strains could grow in BBB substrate.</p><p>Test on BBB positive tubes with Rapid ID 32A resulted in 95% clostridia of which 70% was <em>Cl. tyrobutyricum</em>. These results correlated well with earlier studies on MRCM substrate and the increase in quality reduction fines probably depended on the larger number of test tubes used in the new method rather than the change of substrate.</p> / <p>Clostridier eller främst <em>Cl. tyrobutyricum</em> är den art som i de flesta fall orsakar feljästa ellersönderjästa ostar, vilket är ett välkänt problem inom mejeriindustrin. Clostridiesporer finns naturligt i jord och hamnar i mjölkråvaran via gröda som kontaminerats med gödsel och jord och som tillsammans med en mindre lyckad ensileringsprocess gör att clostridierna växer till. När anaeroba förhållanden uppstår, såsom vid lagring av hårdost, förjäser clostridierna laktat och smörsyra varvid vätgas och koldioxid bildas.</p><p>I samband med fusionen av Arla/MD Foods, genomfördes metodförändringar för MPN-metoden för laktatjäsande clostridier i mjölk, som används inom mjölkbedömningen. Dessa förändringar innebar en skärpning i noggrannheten genom att man ökade antal rör, samt ett substratbyte från MRCM till BBB, Bryant & Burkey Broth, som ansågs mer gynnsamt för <em>Cl. tyrobutyricum</em>.</p><p>Då antalet mjölkproducenter som fick kvalitetsavdrag ökade, riktades misstankar mot den nya metoden och en validering genomfördes.</p><p>Resultatet av valideringen, som innebar ympning av renkulturer, utodling av positiva rör med efterföljande typning, visade att de flesta av de tillsatta stammarna av clostridier hade förmågan att ge ett positivt utslag vid tillsats av renkulturer. Utodling och typning av positiva rör visade att ca 70 % av de positiva utslagen innehöll <em>Cl. tyrobutyricum</em> och hela 95 % någon clostridieart. Dessa resultat korrelerar med tidigare studier på MRCM-substrat och ökningen av positiva utslag berodde troligtvis på det ökade antalet rör som den nya metoden innebar.</p>

<p>The aim with this study was to investigate the effects a change of manufacturing process would have on the mechanical properties of drill bits made of a WC/Co composite used for stone cutting. The method used today is sintering, where the material is heated in a conventional sintering oven. The other method was microwave sintering, where the material is heated by radiation in the microwave region. Also an investigation of the manufacturing cost were made.</p><p>The main difference between the two heating methods is that the conventional way is a rather slow process and the microwave method is very fast. The material is also heated homogeniously in the method with mirowaves, aposed to the case with the conventional sintering where the material is heated from the outside in.</p><p>This makes the material harder and more wear resistent. Another positive effect is that the pysical properties of the drill bits is easier to controll, because of the very small grain growth due to the short process time.The cost of manufacturing these drill bits by microwave sintering does not exceed the cost of the conventionall sintering.</p>

No description available.

One of the most serious and economically important defects caused by clostridia in milk products is the late blowing of semi-hard cheeses. Clostridia occur naturally in soil and can contaminate milk through crops contaminated by dung and soil followed by a less successful silage process, that give them opportunity to grow unaerobically. When anaerobic conditions occur, such as storage of semi-hard cheese, they ferment lactic acid to butyric acid and the gases CO2 and H2. At the fusion of Arla and MD Foods, a series of changes were conducted on the MPN method for lactic acid fermentation for clostridia in milk. These changes resulted in an increased accuracy due to an increased number of test tubes and the change of media from MRCM to BBB, Bryant &amp; Burkey Broth, that was thought to be more selective for Cl. tyrobutyricum, the organism mostly found in hard cheese. When the number of dairy farmers that were given quality reduction fines increased, the new method was suspected and a validation was conducted. The validation included inoculation of different clostridia and bacillus strains into BBB substrate and enzymatic testing of positive samples with Rapid ID 32A. The inoculation result showed that almost all tested different clostridia strains could grow in BBB substrate. Test on BBB positive tubes with Rapid ID 32A resulted in 95% clostridia of which 70% was Cl. tyrobutyricum. These results correlated well with earlier studies on MRCM substrate and the increase in quality reduction fines probably depended on the larger number of test tubes used in the new method rather than the change of substrate. / Clostridier eller främst Cl. tyrobutyricum är den art som i de flesta fall orsakar feljästa ellersönderjästa ostar, vilket är ett välkänt problem inom mejeriindustrin. Clostridiesporer finns naturligt i jord och hamnar i mjölkråvaran via gröda som kontaminerats med gödsel och jord och som tillsammans med en mindre lyckad ensileringsprocess gör att clostridierna växer till. När anaeroba förhållanden uppstår, såsom vid lagring av hårdost, förjäser clostridierna laktat och smörsyra varvid vätgas och koldioxid bildas. I samband med fusionen av Arla/MD Foods, genomfördes metodförändringar för MPN-metoden för laktatjäsande clostridier i mjölk, som används inom mjölkbedömningen. Dessa förändringar innebar en skärpning i noggrannheten genom att man ökade antal rör, samt ett substratbyte från MRCM till BBB, Bryant &amp; Burkey Broth, som ansågs mer gynnsamt för Cl. tyrobutyricum. Då antalet mjölkproducenter som fick kvalitetsavdrag ökade, riktades misstankar mot den nya metoden och en validering genomfördes. Resultatet av valideringen, som innebar ympning av renkulturer, utodling av positiva rör med efterföljande typning, visade att de flesta av de tillsatta stammarna av clostridier hade förmågan att ge ett positivt utslag vid tillsats av renkulturer. Utodling och typning av positiva rör visade att ca 70 % av de positiva utslagen innehöll Cl. tyrobutyricum och hela 95 % någon clostridieart. Dessa resultat korrelerar med tidigare studier på MRCM-substrat och ökningen av positiva utslag berodde troligtvis på det ökade antalet rör som den nya metoden innebar.

In this study, six dc Magnetron Sputtered (dcMS) CrN hard coatings were deposited on pretreated High Speed Steel (HSS) to achieve different interface architectures. The aim was to correlate the interfacial microstructure to the adhesion of the coatings. The substrates were pretreatment using the Ionized Physical Vapor Deposition (IPVD) method High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) using a Cr target in an inert atmosphere varying the substrate bias ($U_b$) between 0 V and 1100 V at ambient temperature as well as at a substrate temperature of 400$^\circ$C. The deposition parameters were chosen to show how kinetically induced diffusion, etching and implantation changes the interface chemistry and structure and to investigate their effect on the adhesion on the film. At elevated temperatures, the diffusion will be thermally driven. Annealing of the deposited samples were, therefore, performed at 900 K in an Ar atmosphere. The films were characterized employing XRD, HR-TEM, A-STEM and by scratch test measurements to see how the the interface microstructure can be correlated to the adhesion of the coating. The study shows that a sputter cleaned substrate surface with well preserved crystal structure of the substrate enhances the adhesion of the coating by promotion of local epitaxial growth. However, annealing was also shown to have a large effect on the adhesion enhancement by allowing for interdiffusion in the interface region and due to promotion of interface strain relaxation. Implantation of target material on the other hand had limited influence on the adhesion compared to the clean oxide free surfaces. The low adhesion improvement when gradually changing the chemical composition at the interface is assumed to stem from that the radiation induced defects and strain diminished the positive effect of this gradient.

Silicon radiation detectors fabricated at the IMB-CNM (CSIC) Clean Room facilities using the most innovative techniques in detector technology are presented in this thesis. TCAD simulation comprises an important part in this work as becomes an essential tool to achieve exhaustive performance information of modelled detectors prior their fabrication and subsequent electrical characterization. Radiation tolerance is also investigated in this work using TCAD simulations through the potential and electric field distributions, leakage current and capacitance characteristics and the response of the detectors to the pass of different particles for charge collection efficiencies. Silicon detectors investigated in this thesis were developed for specific projects but also for applications in experiments which can benefit from their improved characteristics, as described in Chapter 1. Double-sided double type columns 3D (3D-DDTC) detectors have been developed under the NEWATLASPIXEL project in the framework of the CERN RD50 collaboration for the ATLAS Inner Detector upgrades and the introduction of a new pixel layer called Insertable B-Layer. The radiation tolerance of slim-edge (“edgeless”) detectors, whose current terminating structure reduces the insensitive area of detectors to 50 μm, for close-to-beam experiments like the TOTEM experiment at HL-LHC, have been simulated under the EU TOSTER project. Ultra-thin 3D detectors, which combine 3D detector technology and thin membrane fabrication process, are also studied in this work. They provide an alternative to the present Neutral Particle Analyzers at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in the ions detection for plasma diagnosis, and they are also being used in neutron detection experiments after being covered with any layer containing 10B whose high capture cross-section of thermal neutrons allows their detection through the emitted alpha. Finally, active-edge detectors have been studied for applications in X-ray beam positioning, X-ray sensors for beamstops and detectors with pad, microstrip and Medipix2 designs for research purposes.