沥青混合料在冻融循环作用下的弯拉特性

通过沥青混合料在冻融循环作用下的弯曲试验,分析了冻融循环次数、油石比、级配组成对混合料弯拉特性的影响。试验结果表明:随着冻融循环次数的增多,沥青混合料的弯拉强度、弯拉应变、劲度模量均呈减小趋势。油石比、级配组成对弯拉特性有明显影响,随着油石比的增大,冻融循环作用对沥青混合料弯拉特性的影响减小,AC-13混合料的弯拉特性优于其他两种级配。在青藏高原寒冷地区采用AC-13的沥青混合料、油石比为5.5%或适当增加油石比可以提高沥青混合料在冻融循环作用下的低温弯曲特性。     

Thermophysical Analysis of Sandstone by Pulse Transient Method

Stones belong to porous materials where water in pores plays an important role during the freeze–thaw process. A thermophysical analysis based on the pulse transient method has been used to study an ageing cycle, namely the freeze–thaw cycle. Thermophysical analysis is based on measuring the thermophysical properties under specific thermodynamic conditions. The transient method determines the specific heat, thermal diffusivity, and thermal conductivity by a single measurement. A specimen of Sander sandstone was analyzed in both dry and water-saturated states. Typical anomalies of all thermophysical parameters at the freeze–thaw point as well as differences for the dry and saturated states were found. The changes of thermophysical parameters measured when using freeze–thaw cycles correspond to stone ageing. The freeze–thaw cycle can often be encountered in building physics, concrete construction, etcPaper presented at the Seventh Asian Thermophysical Properties Conference, August 23–28, 2004, Hefei and Huangshan, Anhui, P. R. China.     

Radar remote sensing of the spring thaw transition across a boreal landscape

The seasonal transition of the boreal forest between frozen and non-frozen conditions affects a number of ecosystem processes that cycle between winter dormant and summer active states. The relatively short K_u-band wavelength (2.14 cm) of the space-borne NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) is sensitive to changes in dielectric properties, associated with large-scale changes in the relative abundance and phase (frozen or thawed) of canopy and surface water. We used a temporal change detection analysis of NSCAT daily radar backscatter measurements to characterize the 1997 seasonal spring thaw transition period across the 10⁶ km² BOREAS study region of central Canada. In the spring, air temperature transitions from frozen to non-frozen conditions and surface observations of seasonal snow cover depletion were generally coincident with decreases in radar backscatter of more than 2.9 dB, regardless of regional landcover characteristics. We used a temporal classification of NSCAT daily differences from 5-day smoothed backscatter values to derive three simple indices describing the initiation, primary event and completion of the spring thaw transition period. Several factors had a negative impact on the relative accuracy of NSCAT-based results, including periodic gaps in NSCAT daily time-series information and a large (i.e., >2 cm day⁻¹) spring rainfall event. However, these results were generally successful in capturing the seasonal transition of the region from frozen to non-frozen conditions, based on comparisons with regional weather station network information. These results illustrate the potential for improved assessment of springtime phenology and associated ecosystem dynamics across high latitude regions, where field based and optical remote-sensing methods are substantially degraded by frequent cloud cover, low solar illumination and sparse surface weather station networks.     

Freeze substitution of high-pressure frozen samples: the visibility of biological membranes is improved when the substitution medium contains water

Biological membranes are often poorly visible with the electron microscope after high‐pressure freezing and freeze‐substitution. The water content of the sample and of the substitution medium is one factor among others that strongly influences membrane visibility. In order to investigate this effect, high‐pressure frozen yeast cells, rat‐pancreas tissue and arthropod tissue were freeze‐substituted with and without adding water to the substitution medium. The visibility of the biological membranes was generally improved if the substitution medium contained 1–5% water. The effect was especially pronounced in yeast cells, where membrane visibility was poor after freeze‐substitution with water‐free medium but good after addition of 5% water to the substitution medium.     

Eliminating bandwidth estimation from adaptive video streaming in wireless networks

Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) is the state-of-the-art technology for video streaming and has been widely deployed in both wired and wireless environments. However, mobile DASH users often suffer from video quality oscillation and even video freeze in wireless environments, which results in poor user experience. This is mainly because most quality adaptation algorithms in DASH rely highly on bandwidth estimation to adjust the video quality while wireless network bandwidth is unstable in nature and changes frequently according to wireless channel contention and condition. To provide stable performance, even during severe bandwidth fluctuation, this paper proposes the Wireless Quality Adaptation (WQUAD) algorithm, which eliminates bandwidth estimation from quality adaptation. Thanks to the Scalable Video Codec (SVC), the proposed scheme always prioritizes to lower layers over higher ones as long as the play-out buffer is not completely filled by the lower layers. As a result, the client always fills the buffer with the base layers first and then the upper enhancement layers sequentially. This horizontal adaptation is straightforward and does not require any bandwidth estimation. Through NS-2 simulations, we show that WQUAD achieves (i) stable performance, keeping the video quality level with respect to the long-term network bandwidth, (ii) effective video freeze prevention, and (iii) high video quality on average.     

Effect of [6,6]‐phenyl‐C61‐butyric acid methyl ester on the morphology of poly(3‐hexylthiophene) film

The change of morphology of poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) film as a result of blending with [6,6]‐phenyl‐C₆₁‐butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) was studied using a freeze‐dry method. A porous structure was observed as the P3HT/PCBM solution was freeze‐dried. The pore size decreased as the proportion of PCBM increased in the P3HT/PCBM blended film. Additionally, the freeze‐dried P3HT/PCBM film was more resistant to the formation of PCBM crystals than that prepared by a spin‐coating method during the thermal annealing process. Homogeneous distribution of PCBM in the freeze‐dried P3HT/PCBM film was the main reason for the reduction of large PCBM crystal formation. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Freeze drying and vacuum impregnating characteristics of Nostoc sphaeroides Kützing

ABSTRACT

Nostoc sphaeroides Kützing (N. sphaeroides) is a kind of edible algae widely growing in China. The paper is aimed at developing a novel snack food of N. sphaeroides using vacuum impregnation. The samples from freeze drying (FD) have large volume and loose structure, which were found suitable for processing. With nuclear magnetic resonance and imaging, the water signal of N. sphaeroides was measured in FD, and different drying-stage raw N. sphaeroides were selected to impregnate by different solutions, when the products’ impregnated mass, water activity, and flavor difference were analyzed. Results indicate that the water distribution in FD was uniform. Sucrose impregnated product was stable with large impregnated mass and low water activity, whereas trehalose impregnated product was easy to separate from the solution with low sweetness. For the products with the raw N. sphaeroides dried for 9 and 12?h, no obvious difference was found in water activity and flavor. Result shows that N. sphaeroides dehydrated for 9?h in FD is suitable for vacuum impregnation, and different impregnated products are acceptable from the point of view of flavor and storage stability.     

Effect of previous frozen storage on quality changes of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) fillets during short‐term chilled storage

The effect of chilled, frozen and freeze‐chilled storage on quality of grass carp fillets and soups was evaluated by sensory score, total aerobic counts and biochemical quality. Fish fillets were stored at 4 °C for 6 days (T1), ?40 °C for 12 h and then at ?20 °C for 5 days (T2), ?40 °C for 12 h and then at ?20 °C for 5 days, followed by at 4 °C for 4 days (T3). T1 showed higher sensory score, salt‐soluble protein content, better colour and texture qualities than T2 and T3 within 3 days. All fillets kept good quality based on the acceptable limit of sensory score, total volatile basic nitrogen and total aerobic count during storage time. According to the transportation and retail time, chilled storage is appropriate when it is within 3 days. If it extends for 5 days, freeze‐chilling treatment keeps better quality, but later chilled fillets should be retailed within 4 days.     

Ice‐Templated Scaffolds with Microridged Pores Direct DRG Neurite Growth

Successful spinal cord repair is thought to be promoted with hierarchically structured scaffolds. These should combine aligned porosity with additional linear features on the micrometer scale to guide axons across multiple length scales. Such scaffolds are generated through the carefully controlled directional solidification of an aqueous biopolymer solution, followed by lyophilization. Under specific freezing conditions this yields a highly regular and aligned lamellar architecture. This architecture exhibits uniform ridges of controlled height and width on the lamellar surface. These ridges run parallel to the pore axis, serving as secondary guidance features. The ridges are capable of linearly aligning 62.4% of chick dorsal root ganglia neurites to within ±10° of the ridge direction. Notably, neurites sprouting perpendicular to the ridge are guided into alignment with these microridged features.