Effect of the Hierarchical Structure in Poly(propylene)/Clay Composites on their Thermal Stability: From Single‐ to Multi‐Step Degradation Processes

Composites with several hierarchical structures were prepared by using different clays, compatibilizers, and PPs. TGA showed that the thermal stability of the composites can be strongly improved, under either inert or thermo‐oxidative conditions, depending on the type of clay and its morphology. Drastic increases in the temperature of the maximum rate of weight loss (ΔT_peak ≈ 170 °C) under thermo‐oxidative conditions were observed depending on the clay dispersion. Furthermore, some composites had a complex multi‐step degradation behavior instead of a single‐step process related with different clay morphologies that can be present simultaneously. Finally, it was concluded that the TGA has a higher sensitivity toward the composite morphology than the mechanical properties.

     

Polishing of the aluminum sheets with magnetic abrasive finishing method

Recent needs to superfinished surfaces have motivated researchers to study on modern methods of polishing. Magnetic-assisted finishing is one of those methods which can generate mirror-like finished surfaces. This paper investigates the effects of some parameters, i.e., rotational speed of the permanent magnetic pole, working gap between the permanent pole and the workpiece, number of cycles, and the weight of the abrasive particles on aluminum surface finishing. Three-level full factorial method was used as design of experiments technique to study the selected factors. A total of 54 designed tests were done on aluminum sheet using an innovative material removal mechanism. Analysis of variance was used to determine significant factors and also to obtain an equation based on data regression. Experimental results indicate that the number of cycles and working gap are the most significant parameters on surface roughness change (?Ra), followed by rotational speed and then weight of powder.     

State identification of home appliance with transient features in residential buildings

Nonintrusive load monitoring (NILM) is crucial for extracting patterns of electricity consumption of household appliance that can guide users’ behavior in using electricity while their privacy is respected. This study proposes an online method based on the transient behavior of individual appliances as well as system steady-state characteristics to estimate the operating states of the appliances. It determines the number of states for each appliance using the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) method and models the transition relationship among different states. The states of the working appliances are identified from aggregated power signals using the Kalman filtering method in the factorial hidden Markov model (FHMM). Thereafter, the identified states are confirmed by the verification of system states, which are the combination of the working states of individual appliances. The verification step involves comparing the total measured power consumption with the total estimated power consumption. The use of transient features can achieve fast state inference and it is suitable for online load disaggregation. The proposed method was tested on a high-resolution data set such as Labeled hIgh-Frequency daTaset for Electricity Disaggregation (LIFTED) and it outperformed other related methods in the literature.     

Plasma surface modification and characterization of collagen‐based artificial cornea for enhanced epithelialization

Argon plasma treatment enhanced the attachment of epithelial cells to a collagen‐based artificial cornea crosslinked using glutaraldehyde (GA) and glutaraldehyde‐polyethylene oxide dialdehyde (GA‐PEODA) systems. The epithelialization of untreated and treated surfaces was evaluated by the seeding and growth of human corneal epithelial cells. Characterization of polymer surface properties such as surface hydrophilicity and roughness was also made by contact angle measurement and atomic force microscopy, respectively. Contact angle analysis revealed that the surface hydrophilicity significantly increased after the treatment. In addition, AFM characterization showed an increase in surface roughness through argon plasma treatment. Based on the biological and surface analysis, argon plasma treatment displays promising potential for biocompatibility enhancement of collagen‐based artificial corneas. It was also found that the cell attachment to artificial cornea surfaces was influenced by the combined effects of surface chemistry (i.e., surface energy), polymer surface morphology (i.e., surface roughness), and polar interactions between functional groups at the polymer surface and cell membrane proteins. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007     

On the stability of power systems containing doubly fed induction generator-based generation

This article is concerned with the impact of large-scale wind farms utilising doubly fed induction generators on the stability of a general power system. Inspection of the eigenstructure of the power system provides a foundation for assessing the impact, which is then quantified by means of detailed numerical simulations.     

The influence of different single dietary sources on moult induction in laying hens

An investigation was carried out to assess the possibility of using single dietary sources as alternatives to feed deprivation for the induction of moult in commercial laying hens. The study involved six dietary groups of 29 laying hens: unmoulted, dried tomato pomace, alfalfa meal, rice bran, cumin seed meal and feed withdrawal. The birds received the above diets during the moulting period (11 days), and body weight loss and ovary weight regression were measured. Post‐moult production parameters (number of eggs produced per hen per day, egg weight, shell weight, yolk colour and Haugh unit) were measured for 12 weeks. Results showed that all dietary sources were as effective as feed withdrawal in causing ovary weight regression in birds. Birds provided with tomato pomace or alfalfa showed lower weight losses than feed‐deprived birds at the end of the moulting period. Hens moulted by tomato pomace or alfalfa exhibited post‐moult levels of egg production over a 12 week period that were superior to those of hens moulted by feed withdrawal. Post‐moult eggs laid by hens moulted by all dietary sources were of comparable quality to eggs from feed‐deprived hens and superior to those from unmoulted hens. As fibrous feeds with low metabolisable energy and an appreciable amount of protein, dried tomato pomace and alfalfa meal may be fed to hens on an ad libitum basis for effective moult induction while reducing the stress of severe starvation and retaining comparable egg quality and production. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

Heat and Mass Transport during Microwave Heating of Mashed Potato in Domestic Oven—Model Development,Validation, and Sensitivity Analysis

A 3‐dimensional finite‐element model coupling electromagnetics and heat and mass transfer was developed to understand the interactions between the microwaves and fresh mashed potato in a 500 mL tray. The model was validated by performing heating of mashed potato from 25 °C on a rotating turntable in a microwave oven, rated at 1200 W, for 3 min. The simulated spatial temperature profiles on the top and bottom layer of the mashed potato showed similar hot and cold spots when compared to the thermal images acquired by an infrared camera. Transient temperature profiles at 6 locations collected by fiber‐optic sensors showed good agreement with predicted results, with the root mean square error ranging from 1.6 to 11.7 °C. The predicted total moisture loss matched well with the observed result. Several input parameters, such as the evaporation rate constant, the intrinsic permeability of water and gas, and the diffusion coefficient of water and gas, are not readily available for mashed potato, and they cannot be easily measured experimentally. Reported values for raw potato were used as baseline values. A sensitivity analysis of these input parameters on the temperature profiles and the total moisture loss was evaluated by changing the baseline values to their 10% and 1000%. The sensitivity analysis showed that the gas diffusion coefficient, intrinsic water permeability, and the evaporation rate constant greatly influenced the predicted temperature and total moisture loss, while the intrinsic gas permeability and the water diffusion coefficient had little influence.     

Chromium accumulation and distribution in crop plants

Crop plants accumulated chromium from nutrient solutions labelled with either ⁵¹CrIII or ⁵¹CrVI and retained approximately 98 % of the elements in the roots. Of the 9 crop species examined, cauliflower plants accumulated the most chromium in both shoots and roots and mung bean seedlings the least. Species differences of approximately 10-fold in the tops and 5-fold in the roots were recorded. The roots of each species supplied with ⁵¹CrIII contained more chromium than those supplied with ⁵¹CrVI but the reverse was found in the shoots. There was a greater proportion of soluble chromium in plants supplied with ⁵¹CrVI than in those supplied with ⁵¹CrIII, the major soluble compound being tentatively identified as trioxalato-CrIII. Little chromium was associated with cell organdies or soluble proteins.     

Remineralization effects of self-assembling peptide P11-4 associated with three materials on early enamel carious lesions: An in vitro study

The aim of this study was to assess the remineralization of enamel caries lesions using the self-assembling peptide P₁₁-4 associated with different materials. Artificial early enamel lesions were prepared on 154 primary teeth. The samples were randomly divided into eight groups: (1) control, (2) P₁₁-4, (3) fluoridate toothpaste (FT), (4) P₁₁-4 + FT, (5) casein phosphopeptide–amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP–ACP), (6) P₁₁-4 + CPP–ACP, (7) fluoridate bioactive glass toothpaste (BT), and (8) P₁₁-4 + BT. The surface enamel microhardness (EMH) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) of the teeth were then measured at the baseline, after demineralization, and after 28 days of remineralization. The enamel surfaces were assessed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The data were analyzed with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (p < .05). EMH after demineralization was significantly lower than the baseline value (p < .001). The interventions led to an enhanced percentage of EMH recovery (%REMH), which was higher in Groups 6 and 7. There was no significant difference between Groups 3 and 4. Groups 1 and 2 had the lowest %REMH. The mean calcium/phosphate weight percentage ratio of P₁₁-4 was significantly lower than the others (p < .001). The FESEM and AFM images revealed mineral deposition on the eroded enamel and reductions in surface roughness in Groups 5 and 7.