Treatment of low turbidity water by sweep coagulation using bentonite

A novel strategy of sweep coagulation to treat low turbidity water is presented herein. Study findings demonstrated that an Na⁺‐saturated bentonite with medium cation exchange capacity (CEC) resulted in significant turbidity removal at a bentonite dosage of 30 mg dm^?3. Bentonite dispersion with fully delaminated platelets tended to undergo a more porous type of coagulation with intense face‐to‐face interactions of platelets and effectively entrapped TiO₂ particles in band‐type structures. This type of coagulation usually results in a large volume of settled flocs with a fluffy structure and excellent turbidity removal efficiency for sweep coagulation. The sign and magnitude of electrical charge on TiO₂ particles has a minor effect on the efficiency of sweep coagulation. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Acidogenic fermentation of blended food‐waste in combination with primary sludge for the production of volatile fatty acids

The performance of a laboratory‐scale anaerobic acidogenic fermenter fed with a mixture of blended kitchen food‐waste and primary sludge from a sewage treatment plant was investigated for the production of volatile fatty acids (VFA). The operating variables for acidogenic fermentation were kitchen food‐waste content (10 and 25 wt %), hydraulic retention time (HRT: 1, 3 and 5 days), temperature (ambient: 18 ± 2 °C, and mesophilic: 35 ± 2 °C) and pH (varied from 5.2 to 6.7). The experimental results indicated that effluent VFA concentrations and VFA production rates were higher at ambient temperature than at mesophilic conditions. The net amount of VFA with 10 wt % food‐waste increased up to 920 mg dm^?3 with an increase of HRT, but contrasting results (a decrease of 2610 mg dm^?3) were found due to the conversion of VFA into biogas in the case of 25 wt % food‐waste, which increased significantly at HRT of 3–5 days. In terms of biogas composition (CO₂ and CH₄), the organic matter was converted into CO₂ through the oxidative pathway by facultative species at low temperature while mesophilic temperature and optimum pH (6.3–7.8) played a pivotal role in increasing rate of conversion of VFA into biogas by methanogenesis. Rates of VFA production and their conversion are dependent on the food‐waste content in the mixture. Yet, the higher concentration of food‐waste (25% compared with 10%) did not produce VFA proportionally due to the increased rate of conversion of VFA into gaseous products. The maximum VFA production rate (0.318 g VFA_produced g^?1 VS_fed day^?1) was achieved in the 10 wt % food‐waste at ambient temperature and at a 5‐day HRT. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Variations in Spectral Slope in Lake Taihu,a Large Subtropical Shallow Lake in China

Spectral slope (S), describing the exponential decrease of the absorption spectrum over a given wavelength range, is an important parameter in the study of of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) dynamics, and also an essential input parameter in remote sensing models. Furthermore, S is often used as a proxy for CDOM composition, including the ratio of fulvic to humic acids and molecular weight. The relative broad range in S values reported in the literature can be explained by the different spectral ranges and fitting methods used. A single exponential model is used to fit the S values for 17 investigations involving 458 samples in Lake Taihu from January to October in 2004. The average S value was 15.18 ± 1.39 μm⁻¹ for the range of 280–500 nm, which fell within the range reported in the literature. The frequency distribution of S value basically obeyed a normal distribution. Significant differences in S values between summer and other seasons showed that phytoplankton degradation was one of the important sources of CDOM in summer, whereas CDOM mainly came from the river input in other seasons. Furthermore, the estimated S value decreased with increasing wavelength range used in regression. The maximum and minimum values derived from the regression were 17.89 ± 1.25 μm⁻¹ and 13.62 ± 2.11 μm⁻¹ for the wavelength ranges of 280–380 nm and 400–500 nm, respectively, a decrease of 23.9%. S values significantly decreased with the increase of CDOM absorption coefficients. CDOM absorption coefficients could be more appropriately estimated from exponential model introducing the variation of S with absorption coefficients, making them useful for a remote sensing bio-optical model of Lake Taihu. DOC-specific absorption coefficient a*(λ) and the parameter M describing molecular size of the humic molecules could also be used as a proxy for the sources and types of CDOM. A general relationship was found between S and a*(λ), and M values. S increased with the decrease of DOC-specific absorption coefficient and the increase of M corresponding to the decrease of molecular weight.     

Mixing in processing of thermoplastics by extrusion

Translated from Khimicheskoe i Neftyanoe Mashinostroenie, No. 8, pp. 9–11, August, 1993.     

Study on phase behavior–impact strength relationship of unsaturated polyester/polyurethane hybrid polymer network

The phase behavior of a hybrid polymer network (HPN) composed of poly[(propylene glycol maleate)-co-(propylene glycol phthalate)] crosslinked with styrene and polyester–urethane crosslinked with methylene-bis-ortho-chloroaniline was examined. The correlation between phase separation and impact strength of the HPNs is discussed. The composition of HPNs has an effect on their properties.     

Cying for Me, Cying for Us: Relational Dialectics in a Korean Social Network Site

This study employs a relational dialectics approach to gain insights into the nature of relational communication via Cyworld , a Korean social network site. Qualitative analysis of in-depth interview data from 49 users suggests that Cyworld users routinely negotiate multiple dialectical tensions that are created within the online world, transferred from face-to-face contexts, or imposed by interpersonal principles that relate to Korea's collectivistic culture. The interviewees experienced a new relational dialectic of interpersonal relations versus self-relation, analogous to Baxter and Montgomery's (1996) connection-autonomy contradiction. Their responses suggest that Cyworld's design features and functions encourage users to transcend the high-context communication of Korean culture by offering an alternative channel for elaborate and emotional communication, which fosters the reframing of relational issues offline. Cy-Ilchons (online buddies) virtually extend the Korean cultural concept of blood ties, called yons, in ways that intensify the openness-closedness contradiction at early stages of relationship formation.     

Genomic imprinting and carcinogenesis

The solution structure of a synthetic ET(B) selective agonist, ET-1[Cys(Acm)(1,15), Ala3, Leu7, dAsp8, Aib11] has been solved by 1H NMR and molecular modelling studies. Such solution structures of linear modified peptides in aqueous methanol are being used in an ongoing program of research designed to assist in an understanding of the basic structural requirements for the biological activity of vasoconstrictors. The resulting structure of this peptide is characterised by an alpha-helical conformation between residues Leu6-His16 and by N- and C-termini which assume no defined conformation. A knowledge of the solution structures of this and related peptides, which are ET(B) selective agonists, are proving to be important in the understanding of how they interact with the ET(B) receptor.     

In-Plane Cracking Behavior and Ultimate Strength for 2D Woven and Braided Melt-Infiltrated SiC/SiC Composites Tensile Loaded in Off-Axis Fiber Directions

The tensile mechanical properties of ceramic matrix composites (CMC) in directions off the primary axes of the reinforcing fibers are important for the architectural design of CMC components that are subjected to multiaxial stress states. In this study, two-dimensional (2D)-woven melt-infiltrated (MI) SiC/SiC composite panels with balanced fiber content in the 0° and 90° directions were tensile loaded in-plane in the 0° direction and at 45° to this direction. In addition, a 2D triaxially braided MI SiC/SiC composite panel with a higher fiber content in the ±67° bias directions compared with the axial direction was tensile loaded perpendicular to the axial direction tows (i.e., 23° from the bias fibers). Stress–strain behavior, acoustic emission, and optical microscopy were used to quantify stress-dependent matrix cracking and ultimate strength in the panels. It was observed that both off-axis-loaded panels displayed higher composite onset stresses for through-thickness matrix cracking than the 2D-woven 0/90 panels loaded in the primary 0° direction. These improvements for off-axis cracking strength can in part be attributed to higher effective fiber fractions in the loading direction, which in turn reduces internal stresses on weak regions in the architecture, e.g., minicomposite tows oriented normal to the loading direction and/or critical flaws in the matrix for a given composite stress. Both off-axis-oriented panels also showed relatively good ultimate tensile strength when compared with other off-axis-oriented composites in the literature, both on an absolute strength basis as well as when normalized by the average fiber strength within the composites. Initial implications are discussed for constituent and architecture design to improve the directional cracking of SiC/SiC CMC components with MI matrices.     

凹凸棒粘土用作高水速凝注浆悬浮剂

以凹凸棒粘土作为高水速凝固化充填材料的悬浮稳定剂，考察了不同制浆机械对凹凸棒粘土制浆率的影响。采用高剪切混合乳化机预制的1％凹凸棒粘土浆配制高水速凝固化充填材料甲、已料单浆可获得满意的悬浮稳定效果。其充填体结石抗压强度早期发展迅速，后期持续增长。采用此工艺，注浆料的材料成本仅增加2％。     

Study of collective user behaviour in Twitter: a fuzzy approach

The study of collective user behaviours in social networking sites has become an increasing important topic in social media mining. Understanding such behaviours has its potential to extract actionable patterns that can be beneficial to develop effective marketing strategies, optimise user experiences and maximise website revenues. With the rapid development of micro-blogging, Twitter has become a richer source of intelligence that can be used to study collective user behaviour, due to its efficient and meaningful user-to-user interactions. However, the classical statistical methods have some drawbacks in bridging the gap between user-generated data and human analysts who mostly use linguistic terms to analyse data and model/summarise knowledge learned. To address this gap, this work proposes a new approach, which employs the mass assignment theory-based fuzzy association rules algorithm (MASS-FARM), for the first time, to extract useful interaction behaviour of Twitter users. The influential factors (including activity time, number of friends/followers and the number of tweets) are represented as fuzzy granules, and the associations amongst are studied by employing MASS-FARM. The collective user behaviours are analysed in the Reply category and the Non-Reply category, respectively. The applicability and usefulness of the proposed method are demonstrated via an empirical study on a collected Twitter data set. The derived results are also discussed and compared with existing works.