Methane Transport Capacity of Rice Plants. II. Variations Among Different Rice Cultivars and Relationship with Morphological Characteristics

Of the total methane (CH4) emitted from a rice field during the growing season 60–90% is emitted through the rice plants. We determined the methane transport capacity (MTC) of rice plants at different physiological growth stages using an automatic measuring system under greenhouse conditions. A total of 12 cultivars (10 inbred varieties and 2 hybrids) were studied in sets of two experiments and was distinguished into three groups according to the patterns of MTC development. MTC is generally increasing from seedling stage to panicle initiation (PI), but differs in the development from PI to maturity. While the hybrid showed a gradual increase in MTC, the inbred cultivars showed either minor changes in MTC or a drastic decrease from flowering to maturity. Among tall cultivars, Dular showed the highest MTC, followed by B40; the lowest MTC was found in Intan. High-yielding dwarf cultivars showed MTC in the descending order of IR72 > IR52 > IR64 > PSBRc 20. New plant type cultivars showed very low MTC with IR65600 exhibiting the smallest MTC at PI, flowering, and maturity. Hybrids (Magat and APHR 2) showed the largest MTC that continued to increased with plant growth. The MTC patterns were attributed to growth parameters and the development of morphological characteristics of the aerenchyma. These results suggest that in tall, dwarf, and NPT cultivars, increase in root or aboveground biomass during initial growth determines a corresponding increase in MTC. Once aerenchyma has fully developed, further increase in plant biomass would not influence MTC. However, in the case of hybrids, a positive relationship of MTC with root + shoot biomass (r = 0.672, p 0.05) and a total plant biomass including grain (r = 0.849, p 0.01) indicate continuous development of aerenchyma with plant growth, resulting in enhanced MTC. In all cultivars, tiller number, but not height, was linearly related to MTC, indicating that the number of outlets/channels rather than plant size/biomass determines the transport of CH₄. These results clearly demonstrate that rice cultivars differ significantly in MTC. Therefore, the use of high-yielding cultivars with low MTC (for example, PSBRc 20, IR65598, and IR65600) could be an economically feasible, environmentally sound, and promising approach to mitigate CH₄ emissions from rice fields.     

Sintering of Pt/Al2O3 reforming catalysts: EXAFS study of the behavior of metal particles under oxidizing atmosphere

The effect of an oxidative atmosphere (300 °C) is studied on fresh and sintered unchlorinated naphtha reforming catalysts containing 0.6–1% Pt. The TPR profiles show that only one species is formed using our experimental conditions, regardless of the mean crystallite size of the metal particles. The structural information supplied by EXAFS compared with cuboctahedral particle modeling, implies that such species is a surface platinum oxide, the structure of which is close to that of PtO₂, but largely distorted. This is true whether the catalyst is sintered or not.     

基于间歇测量的状态估计稳定性和精度研究*

针对分布式控制系统状态估计过程出现的测量值丢失问题,本文量化分析测量值丢失对估计稳定性和精度的影响。首先,根据随机测量模型重新推导带测量值丢失的卡尔曼滤波器,得到估计误差协方差迭代式。然后,将随机误差协方差迭代式建模为修正的黎卡提微分方程,提出了估计稳定性和精度分析方法。最后,列举不同的系统实例,证明临界包到达率的存在性,当测量值到达率大于临界值时,平均误差协方差从发散过渡到有界,进而得到估计精度与包达率之间的函数关系。     

Micellar association in simultaneous presence of organic salts/additives

Viscosity measurements under Newtonian flow conditions had been performed on cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) aqueous solutions in the combined presence of sodium salts of aromatic acids (sodium salicylate, NaSal; sodium benzoate, NaBen; sodium anthranilate, NaAn) and organic additives (1-hexanol, C₆OH; n-hexylamine, C₆NH₂) at 30°C. On addition of C₆OH or C₆NH₂, the viscosity of 25 mM CTAB solution remained nearly constant without salt as well as with a lower salt concentration. This is due to low CTAB concentration which is not sufficient to produce structural changes in this concentration range of salts. However, as the salt concentration was increased further, the effect of C₆OH/C₆NH₂ addition was different with different salts: The viscosity first increased; then a decrease was observed with the former while with C₆NH₂ a decrease followed by constancy appeared in plots of relative viscosities (η _r ) vs. organic additive concentrations. At further higher salt concentration, the magnitude of η _r was much higher. The viscosity increase is explained in terms of micellar growth and the decrease in terms of swollen micelle formation (due to interior solubilization of organic additive) or micellar disintegration (due to formation of water + additive pseudophase).     

基于中红外QCL的痕量CO气体传感器

为了减少CO爆炸给国民经济造成的巨大损伤,提出了一种能够快速地监测环境空气中痕量CO的气体传感器。由于CO分子基频吸收谱带的吸收线强要比泛频带和组合频带的吸收线强高出2～3个数量级,选择激射中心波长为4.65μm中红外量子级联激光器（QCL）作为光源,同时再配合长光程Herriott气室提高了CO体积分数检测下限。同时,该传感器采用单光源双探测器差分光学结构,消除了电调制光源所带来的不稳定性。实验表明：该传感器CO体积分数检测下限为2×10-6,并且操作人员可以通过替换在不同波长下运行的中红外QCL来测量其它气体。     

Electrochemical anticorrosion performance evaluation of Al2O3 coatings deposited by MOCVD on an industrial brass substrate

Alumina (Al₂O₃) coatings of different thickness were deposited on OT59 brass substrate (BS) using the metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) technique to evaluate the corrosion performance by EIS measurements. The used precursor was dimethyl-aluminium-isopropoxide. Electrochemical characterizations of the deposited films were performed in a standard very aggressive acidic solution (aerated 1N H₂SO₄ at 25 °C up to 168 h of immersion time) by means of direct current method (Tafel curves) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) indicated that the films are very pure with the correct Al₂O₃ stoichiometry, while the IR absorption spectra showed that the films did not contain any OH groups. The surface film morphology was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and displayed a globular texture. The films were very smooth, with a maximum root mean square roughness, for example, of 14 nm for a 0.96 μm thick coating. The EIS data confirmed, as expected, that a 2.40 μm Al₂O₃ layer ensures the best corrosion protection after 168 h of immersion in the very acidic environment used.     

Electrochemical copolymerization of aniline with m-aminophenol and novel electrical properties of the copolymer in the wide pH range

A copolymer, poly(aniline-co-m-aminophenol), has been synthesized using repeated potential cycling. The monomer concentration ratio, acid concentration and applied potential strongly affect the copolymerization rate and the properties of the copolymer. The optimum conditions for the copolymerization are that the scan potential range is controlled between −0.10 and 0.95 V (vs.SCE), and a solution consists of 0.34 M aniline, 0.012 M m-aminophenol and 2 M H₂SO₄. The IR spectra of the copolymers demonstrate that the m-aminophenol units are included in the copolymer chains. The cyclic voltammograms of the copolymers in 0.3 M Na₂SO₄ solution with various pH values were performed at the potential ranges from −0.20 to 0.80 V and at a scan rate of 60 mV s⁻¹. The results indicate that the copolymer still hold 41.7% of the electrochemical activity when the copolymer electrode was transferred from a solution of pH 5.0 to a solution of pH 11.0 in the potential range of −0.20 to 0.80 V. An impedance plot of the copolymer in a solution with pH 12.0 and at 0.40 V is constructed of a semicircle and a Warburg line with a slope of 1. This means that the electrode reaction of the copolymer at pH 12.0 is also under mass transfer control. The conductivity of the copolymer prepared under the optimum conditions is 1.42 S cm⁻¹, and slightly depends on the pH value. Thus, the pH dependence of the electrical properties of the copolymer is improved compared with poly(aniline-co-o-aminophenol), and is much better than that of the parent polyaniline.     

Effect of steel microfibers on corrosion of steel reinforcing bars

Steel microfiber reinforcement was previously found to be successful in mitigating alkali silica reaction in concrete, an expansive phenomenon. The use of steel microfibers to mitigate rebar corrosion, another expansive reaction, was investigated. Mortar specimens with and without steel microfiber reinforcement were exposed to a corrosive environment. All specimens were prepared with water/cement ratios of both 0.40 and 0.55, cured for 28 days, and then submerged in aerated 3.5% NaCl solution. The corrosion behavior of the specimens was monitored via electrochemical measurements. Three types of electrochemical tests were performed: corrosion potential measurements, potentiodynamic polarization, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Chloride concentration measurements and microscopic analysis were performed as well. The polarization curves, Tafel, and polarization resistance measurements indicate that the steel rebar in the microfiber-reinforced mortars are more resistant to corrosion than the rebar in the control mortars, despite higher chloride concentrations. Furthermore, the steel microfiber-reinforced cement based materials have a lower electrolytic resistance. This is not indicative of a higher corrosion rate, which would be the case if it had been observed in standard mortar specimens.     

Finite-time consensus of multiple second-order dynamic agents without velocity measurements

This article considers the finite-time consensus of multiple second-order dynamic agents without velocity measurements. A feasible protocol under which each agent can only obtain the measurements of its position relative to its neighbours is proposed. By applying the graph theory, Lyapunov theory and the homogeneous domination method, some sufficient conditions for finite-time consensus of second-order multi-agent systems are established under the different kinds of communication topologies. Some examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Characterisation of three different impellers using the LDV-technique

A characterisation of three commonly used impellers was made in this study by measuring local mean velocities and the fluctuations of these velocities with the LDV technique. The data was used to estimate volumetric flow, velocity fluctuations and turbulent intensity in the impeller region of the tank. The impellers investigated were a high flow impeller, a pitched blade turbine and a Rushton turbine. The cylindrical vessel used was made of Perspex, had a dished bottom (DIN 28013), was equipped with four baffles and had an inner diameter of 0.45 m. It was found that the bulk velocities could be scaled with the tip-speed of the impeller (ND). The flow rate at constant impeller speed increased in the order high flow impeller — Rushton turbine — pitched blade turbine. The corresponding order for the turbulence fluctuation is: high flow impeller — pitched blade turbine — Rushton turbine. The velocity profile of the flow out from the high flow impeller was furthermore, not as smooth as could be expected.