Evaluation of Cr Concentration Effect on Displacement Cascades in Fe-Cr Alloys with Piecewise Potential

A piecewise potential was constructed with combination of the concentration-dependent EAM(CD-EAM)potential and Ziegler-Biersack-Littmark(ZBL)potential,and the displacement cascades in random Fe-Cr binary alloys with a wide range of Cr concentration from 0 to 20%were simulated to evaluate the effect of Cr concentration on defect formation and evolution during the cascades.The Cr concentration has little or no effect on the fraction of vacancy clusters,the number of surviving Frenkel pairs,or the self-interstitial and vacancy cluster sizes and a slight effect on the peak time and peak defect number,but a considerable effect on the Cr enrichment in the peak and surviving defects in the cascaded Fe-Cr alloys.With the increase in Cr concentration,the Cr enrichment in the peak and surviving defects exhibits a downtrend.The higher enrichment degree in the surviving defects than in the peak defects shows more difficult recombination of Cr SIAs with vacancies.

Reduction of Cr(Ⅵ) with a relative high concentration using different kinds of zero-valent iron powders: Focusing on effect of carbon content and structure on reducibility

Reduction of Cr(VI)using zero-valent iron(ZVI)could not only decrease the amounts of chemicals used for reduction,but also decrease the discharge of sludge.In order to find a desirable ZVI material,reduction of Cr(VI)with a relative high concentration using different kinds of ZVI powders(mainly carbon differences)including reduced Fe,grey cast iron,pig iron,nodular pig iron was carried out.Parameters such as ZVI dosage,type and size affecting on Cr(VI)reduction were firstly examined and grey cast iron was selected as a preferable reducing material,followed by pig iron.Additionally,it was found that the parameters had significant influences on experimental kinetics.Then,morphology and composition of the sample before and after reaction were characterized by SEM,EPMA and XPS analyses to disclose carbon effect on the reducibility.In order to further interpret reaction mechanism,different reaction models were constructed.It was revealed that not only the carbon content could affect the Cr(VI)reduction,but also the carbon structure had an important effect on its reduction.

Microfinance Structure of Thailand

This paper was devoted to analyzing the structure of microfinance in Thailand. The theory of industrial organization （IO） was applied as a guideline to measure the degree of monopoly power in microfinance structure. The objective-of the study was investigation on Thai microfinance institution marketing structure by using Concentration Ratio （CR） and Herfindahl Hirschman Index （HHI）. The data of the study focus on the outstanding loans market share of microfinance institutions （MFIs）. The market share of the outstanding loans of MFIs from the largest to the smallest is as follows： Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives （BAAC）, Village Fund Cooperatives, Government Saving Bank （GSB）, Pawnshop, Self Help group： Saving Group, Commercial Bank, Self Help Group： Sudja Group and Isalamic Bank （IB）, respectively. It stated that CR by outstanding loans is as follows： Cr 1, 59.35%; Cr 3, 81.11%; Cr 6, 92.14%; and Cr 9, 94.37%. At the same time HHI is 0.38. Additionally, BAAC remains the majority MFIs even though there are the other MFIs available in the microfinance system. The main role of providing the microfinance services mostly derived from BAAC.

Soil Microbial Biomass After Three-Year Consecutive Composted Tannery Sludge Amendment

Brazilian industry produces huge amounts of tannery sludge as residues,which is often disposed by landfilling or land application.However,consecutive amendment of such composted industrial wastes may cause shifts in soil microbial biomass(SMB) and enzyme activity.This study aimed to evaluate SMB and enzyme activity after 3-year consecutive composted tannery sludge(CTS) amendment in tropical sandy soils.Different amounts of CTS(0.0,2.5,5.0,10.0,and 20.0 t ha^(-1)) were applied to a sandy soil.The C and N contents of SMB,basal and substrate-induced respiration,respiratory quotient(qCO_2),and enzyme activities were determined in the soil samples collected after CTS amendment for 60 d at the third year.After 3 years,significant changes were found in soil microbial properties in response to different CTS amounts applied.The organic matter and Cr contents significantly increased with increasing CTS amounts.SMB and soil respiration peaked following amendment with 10.0 and 20.0 t ha-1 of CTS,respectively,while qCO_2was not significantly affected by CTS amendment.However,soil enzyme activity decreased significantly with increasing CTS amounts.Consecutive CTS amendment for 3 years showed inconsistent and contrasting effects on SMB and enzyme activities.The decrease in soil enzyme activities was proportional to a substantial increase in soil Cr concentration,with the latter exceeding the permitted concentrations by more than twofold.Thus,our results suggest that a maximum CTS quantity of 5.0 t ha^(-1) can be applied annually to tropical sandy soil,without causing potential risks to SMB and enzyme activity.