Crystallization, morphology and magnetic properties of melt-spun (Nd,Pr,Dy)/sub 2/(Fe,Co,Mo)/sub 14/B//spl alpha/-Fe nanocomposites
Crystallization, phase evolution, nanostructure, exchange coupling, and hard magnetic properties of melt-spun Nd/sub 2.4/Pr/sub 5.6/Dy/sub 1/Fe/sub 85/B/sub 6/ and Nd/sub 2.4/Pr/sub 5.6/Dy/sub 1/Fe/sub 78/Co/sub 6/Mo/sub 1/B/sub 6/ nanocomposites have been studied. All the Nd/sub 2.4/Pr/sub 5.6/Dy/sub 1/Fe/sub 85/B/sub 6/ alloys annealed for 30 s at 565/spl deg/C or above contain nanostructured /spl alpha/-Fe and Nd/sub 2/Fe/sub 14/B-type (2:14:1) phases, whereas Nd/sub 2.4/Pr/sub 5.6/Dy/sub 1/Fe/sub 78/Co/sub 6/Mo/sub 1/B/sub 6/ alloys annealed at 600/spl deg/C or below are mainly composed of /spl alpha/-Fe and a metastable 1:7 phase. A small amount of 2:14:1 phase forms after annealing at 600/spl deg/C. When annealed at 640/spl deg/C or above, the hard phase in Nd/sub 2.4/Pr/sub 5.6/Dy/sub 1/Fe/sub 78/Co/sub 6/Mo/sub 1/B/sub 6/ alloys is the 2:14:1 phase rather than the 1:7 phase. The differences in magnetic properties of the Nd/sub 2.4/Pr/sub 5.6/Dy/sub 1/Fe/sub 85/B/sub 6/ and Nd/sub 2.4/Pr/sub 5.6/Dy/sub 1/Fe/sub 78/Co/sub 6/Mo/sub 1/B/sub 6/ nanocomposites at different anneal temperatures result from the different nanostructures, exchange coupling and phase components present in the alloys, in particular from the different amount of the 1:7 phase.
High Magnetic Field Annealing of Mn-Ga Intermetallic Alloys
Mn-Ga alloys have shown promising hard magnetic properties, even though these
 alloys contain no rare-earth metals. However, much work is needed before Mn-Ga
 alloys become viable permanent magnets for applications. One of the challenges
 is to enhance the remanence. One technique to improve this property is applying
 a magnetic field during the heat treatment process. Magnetic annealing can
 promote phase transformation of the phases with high magnetic moment. This
 results in an increased remanence. Bulk samples of Mn-Ga alloys were made by
 mechanically alloying in order to create a nanostructured composite, followed by
 heat treatments in the presence of a 31 T magnetic field. The heat treatment
 temperatures were kept low in order to keep the refined microstructure. All the
 alloys exhibit hard magnetic properties at room temperature with large
 coercivity. This work reports findings of magnetic field annealed Mn-Ga bulk
 that exhibit high coercivities up to 19.4 kOe and increased remanence of 50%
 over the binary system, achieving values up to 6.9 emu/g. This is the highest
 coercivity reported in bulk Mn-Ga samples.
Training and maintaining the performance of dogs (Canis familiaris) on an increasing number of odor discriminations in a controlled setting
Abstract The number of substances detector dogs are trained to detect varies depending on the mission of the agency they serve. No studies have been conducted concerning how training multiple odor discriminations affects detection performance and refresher training requirements. This study used a controlled field setting to examine the effects of training dogs to detect multiple substances on their subsequent detection performance and refresher training requirements. Dogs were first trained to detect a single odor. Their detection performance was tested 10 days later and refresher training was then given to bring their performance back up to a predetermined standard. Following refresher training, detection of a new substance was trained, and approximately 10 days later the detection of both trained substances was tested. This sequence of testing, refresher training, and new odor training continued every 10 days until the dogs had been trained and tested on 10 odors. The detection of previously learned odors did not decrease as the number of substances trained increased. In fact, the amount of training required to refresh detection performance and to train new odor discriminations tended to decrease as more odor discriminations were trained.