SEARCH FOR LOW SEVERITY LIQUEFACTION CONCEPT

Numerous process-configurations are presently being investigated to produce hydrocarbon liquid from coal. The common step in all the variants is thermal decomposition-dissolution of the coal in a liquid hydrocarbon vehicle; this common step is generally referred to as liquefaction. Unfortunately, up to now, no precise relationship has been established between liquefaction behaviour and coal composition or chemical structure. Extensive Study of the process indicates that liquid yield is high when the fluidity of the feed coal is high or d.a.f. hydrogen content is greater than 5%. The world resource of high-fluidity coal is limited, but in many countries easily mineable subbituminous or lignitic coals are abundant.

The little investigation that has been done on the chemistry of liquefaction of low rank coals leaves room to search for an inexpensive method of producing a high yield of liquid from these resources. This paper discusses some relevant experimental data which may lead to development of new process concepts.     

Stability, controllability and observability of arterial circulation

Six subjects exercised on a bicycle ergometer at 60-70% of maximal aerobic power in a 25 degrees C ambient. Experiments on each subject were conducted at night (4:00-5:30 A.M.) and in daytime (noon-4:30 P.M.). Chest sweating rate (msw) was measured with resistance hygrometry. Forearm blood flow (BF), with an arm skin temperature of 35.5 +/- 1.2 degrees C (SD), was measured with electrocapacitance plethysmography. Esophageal temperature (Tes) was measured with a thermocouple at the level of the left atrium, and mean skin temperature (Tsk) was calculated from a weighted average of temperatures at three sites. Tes was corrected to a skin temperature of 33 degrees C as follows: T'es = Tes + (Tsk - 33 degrees C)/8. This correction reflects the relative contributions of Tes and Tsk to control of msw:T'es and BF:T'es relations were not consistently changed. In any given subject, thresholds for sweating and vasodilation were shifted about equally. These shifts averaged 0.57 degrees C (range: 0.23-0.93 degrees C)for msw and 0.63 degrees C (range: 0.17-0.98 degrees C) for BF.     

Circulating p53 antibodies as early markers of oral cancer: correlation with p53 alterations

p53 aberrations are early events in the pathogenesis of betel- and tobacco-related oral malignancies. Accumulation of p53 protein in oral lesions may elicit a humoral immune response against p53 protein in these patients. p53 antibodies (Abs) were analyzed in 183 sera obtained from patients with premalignant or malignant oral lesions and normal individuals by enzyme-linked immunoassay using recombinant p53 protein as antigen. These results were correlated with accumulation of p53 protein in patients' matched oral tissue specimens. Circulating p53 Abs were observed in 24 of 70 (34%) cancer patients and 15 of 50 (30%) patients with premalignant oral lesions. p53 Abs showed a significant association with increase in tumor size and dedifferentiation of tumors, factors indicative of poor prognosis. Expression of p53 protein was analyzed in 43 matched oral lesions (18 premalignant and 25 malignant cases). All the p53-seropositive patients (7 leukoplakia and 11 squamous cell carcinoma) showed elevated levels of p53 protein in matched oral lesions. However, the total number of patients seropositive for p53 Abs was lesser than that of patients exhibiting p53 protein accumulation in oral lesions. Four of the 63 normal healthy individuals who were heavy consumers of tobacco (smoking/chewing) and betel were found to be positive for p53 Abs. Detection of circulating p53 Abs in patients with premalignant oral lesions suggests that humoral immune response against p53 protein is an early event in oral oncogenesis and may be a surrogate marker for both p53 alteration and preclinical cancer.     

Optical gain and saturation intensity in a transverse-flow CW CO2 laser

Simple expressions for the small-signal gain and the saturation intensity in a transverse-flow CW CO₂ laser have been derived considering the effect of gas flow and the finite time required for N ₂ molecule to transfer its energy to CO₂ molecules. These expressions provide estimates of these parameters fairly close to the experimentally measured values in high-power transverse-flow CW CO₂ lasers     

Multiscale ICA for fundus image analysis

Independent component analysis is a technique used for separation of statistically independent sources. It can estimate unknown sources from a mixture of sources without any prior knowledge about them. The sources should be non‐Gaussian and independent with each other. In this work, multiscale ICA is proposed for medical images (fundus images, MRI Images). The data matrix is formed by considering the higher sub‐bands of multiscale decompositions. Performance of multiscale ICA is evaluated and compared with the ICA algorithms using simulated signals and different medical images using Amari performance index and Comon test values. Results show that API and Comon test values are less for multiscale ICA for simulated signals. In case of pathological images, the features are separated correctly by multiscale ICA. Multiscale ICA performs better than simple ICA for separation and detection of independent components from medical images (fundus images), such as blood vessels and artifacts. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 23, 327–337, 2013     

Preparation and properties of in‐situ polymerized polyurethane/stearate intercalated layer double hydroxide nanocomposites

The present work deals with the effect of stearate intercalated layered double hydroxide (St‐LDH) loadings on the morphological, mechanical, thermal, adhesive and flame retardant properties of polyurethane (PU)/St‐LDH nanocomposites prepared by the in situ polymerization method. X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy studies confirmed that exfoliation takes place at 3 wt% loading followed by intercalation at higher filler loadings in the PU matrix. The exfoliated structure has been further verified by atomic force microscopy. The measurements of stress‐strain, thermogravimetric analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis, lap shear strength and peel strength analysis showed that the nanocomposites containing 3 wt% St‐LDH exhibit excellent improvement in tensile strength (ca 175%) and log storage modulus (ca 14%), while PU/St‐LDH (5 wt%) possesses optimum improvement in glass transition temperature (ca 6 °C), lap shear strength (200%) and peel strength (130%) over neat PU. In addition, the gradual improvements in limiting oxygen index value with St‐LDH loading indicated the higher effectiveness in providing better barrier properties as well as better flame retardant behavior. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

Synthesis and performance evaluation of vegetable oil polymer as a multifunctional lube oil additive

Abstract

The development and utilization of vegetable oils for polymeric materials are currently in the spotlight of the polymer and chemical industry. In this work homopolymer of palm oil and copolymer of it’s with decyl acrylate was prepared and their characterisation was carried out by spectral method, thermogravimitric analysis and gel permeation chromatography method. Performance of these polymers was evaluated by standard ASTM method in base oil. Biodegradability test of polymers was also carried out and shows excellent positive results. A comparison of their performances has also been evaluated and reported.     

Generalization of rectangular element stiffness matrix and thermal load vector associated with a0 + a1x + a2y + a3xy type interpolation rule

Explicit expressions for the element stiffness matrix K and element load vector p for the rectangular plane-stress and plane-strain finite elements associated with Ψ(x, y) = a₀ + a₁x + a₂y + a₃xy type interpolation rule are given for the general anisotropic material in xy-planc subjected to non-uniform temperature increases. The expressions are optimized with respect to the numerical operations required for the computation of K and p, and they are valid for special cases of material properties and thermal loading.