Study of thermal decomposition of methyl ethyl ketone peroxide using DSC and simulation

Methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKPO) is a typical organic peroxide with thermally unstable nature that has been broadly employed in the manufacturing process of acrylic resins, as a hardening agent for fiberglass-reinforced plastics, and as a curing agent for unsaturated polyester resins. The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics of MEKPO 31 wt.% while mixing with contaminants, such as H(2)SO(4), HCl, and NaCl under runaway conditions. To acquire the thermal runaway data, DSC and a simulation were used for thermal analysis. The results showed that the thermal decomposition of MEKPO and MEKPO+H(2)SO(4) follows two stages. The first one can be modeled by using an empirical nth order rate equation. The second stage can be modeled as autocatalytic. MEKPO+HCl and MEKPO+NaCl included two independent autocatalytic reactions. The decomposition of MEKPO in the presence of Cl- ions (added in MEKPO either in the form of HCl or NaCl) follows a significantly different path, an earlier decomposition "onset" temperature, higher amount of generated thermal power and smaller temperature of no return (T(NR)) and time to maximum rate (TMR) values. Simulations based on experimental data indicated that the effect of H(2)SO(4) was the most dangerous contaminant on MEKPO 31 wt.%. However, the impact of Cl ions was also important. It is therefore recommended that the means of fire fighting employed for this substance to be free of Cl-.     

Quantitative determination of acetaminophen in pharmaceutical formulations using differential scanning calorimetry. Comparison with spectrophotometric method

In this paper our previous researches dealing with compatibility, thermoanalytical characterization, the kinetics of thermal degradation of acetaminophen, either pure or contained in some commercial pharmaceutical formulations, have found applications outlets. In a previous investigation the possible interactions between acetaminophen and four excipients contained in the commercial pharmaceutical formulations were tested. As a continuation of this research in the present study an analytical method based on differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was applied to determine the acetaminophen content of four commercial pharmaceutical formulations. For a fifth drug it was shown that the method is not applicable owing to observed incompatibility with one of the excipients. Finally, the analytical results obtained were compared with those derived from two UV spectrophotometric methods (one, i.e., “direct method,” recommended by the Pharmacopeia and the other based on the first-order derivative UV spectra).     

Investigations of a novel self-emulsifying osmotic pump tablet containing carvedilol

Carvedilol has been made into a novel osmotic pump tablet which includes Gelucire 44/14, Lutrol F68, Transcutol P, silicon dioxide, mannitol, citric acid, and sodium hydrogen carbonate. The Self-emulsifying osmotic pump tablet (SEOPT) has two outstanding features. It could improve the bioavailability of carvedilol by self-emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS), control the release rate and make the plasma concentrations more stable by elementary osmotic pump tablet. The results of transmission electron microscope (TEM) and particle size assessment showed that the shape of the resultant emulsion was round and regular, the average diameter of the particles was 246 nm. Since the solubility of carvedilol was improved by the emulsion, the elementary SEOPT could guarantee a complete release of carvedilol under the osmotic pressure of mannitol. The cumulative release at 12 hr was 85.18%. Therefore the disadvantage that lipophilic drugs can not be released completely when prepared into elementary osmotic pump tablet was resolved. The results of Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Infrared spectroscopy (IR) and X-ray diffraction diffraction (XRD) proved that carvedilol was amorphous in the preparation. The relative bioavailability of carvedilol in beagle dogs was 156.78%. The plasma concentrations were more stable compared with that of commercially available tablet (Luode®). And the in vitro and in vivo correlation was good (r = 0.9725). Therefore, the elementary SEOPT developed in this paper might provide a new idea for preparing lipophilic drugs into osmotic pump tablet conveniently.     

Finite piecewise polynomial parametrization of plane rational algebraic curves

We present an algorithm with the following characteristics: given a real non-polynomial rational parametrization of a plane curve and a tolerance , is decomposed as union of finitely many intervals, and for each interval I of the partition, with the exception of some isolating intervals, the algorithm generates a polynomial parametrization . Moreover, as an option, one may also input a natural number N and then the algorithm returns polynomial parametrizations with degrees smaller or equal to N. In addition, we present an error analysis where we prove that the curve piece is in the offset region of at distance at most , and conversely. Authors partially supported by the Spanish “Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia” under the Project MTM2005-08690-C02-01, and by the “Dirección General de Universidades de la Consejería de Educación de la CAM y la Universidad de Alcalá” under the project CAM-UAH2005/053.     

Fast Object Segmentation by Growing Minimal Paths from a Single Point on 2D or 3D Images

In this paper, we present a new method for segmenting closed contours and surfaces. Our work builds on a variant of the minimal path approach. First, an initial point on the desired contour is chosen by the user. Next, new keypoints are detected automatically using a front propagation approach. We assume that the desired object has a closed boundary. This a-priori knowledge on the topology is used to devise a relevant criterion for stopping the keypoint detection and front propagation. The final domain visited by the front will yield a band surrounding the object of interest. Linking pairs of neighboring keypoints with minimal paths allows us to extract a closed contour from a 2D image. This approach can also be used for finding an open curve giving extra information as stopping criteria. Detection of a variety of objects on real images is demonstrated. Using a similar idea, we can extract networks of minimal paths from a 3D image called Geodesic Meshing. The proposed method is applied to 3D data with promising results.

Thermochemical studies on SrFe12O19(s)

The citrate-nitrate gel combustion route was used to prepare SrFe₁₂O₁₉(s) powder sample and the compound was characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis. A solid-state electrochemical cell of the type: (−)Pt, O₂(g)/{CaO(s) + CaF₂(s)}//CaF₂(s)//{SrFe₁₂O₁₉(s) + SrF₂(s) + Fe₂O₃(s)}/O₂(g), Pt(+) was used for the measurement of emf as a function of temperature from 984 to 1151 K. The standard molar Gibbs energy of formation of SrFe₁₂O₁₉(s) was calculated as a function of temperature from the emf data and is given by: (SrFe₁₂O₁₉, s, T)/kJ mol⁻¹ (±1.3) = −5453.5 + 1.5267 × (T/K). Standard molar heat capacity of SrFe₁₂O₁₉(s) was determined in two different temperature ranges 130-325 K and 310-820 K using a heat flux type differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). A heat capacity anomaly was observed at 732 K, which has been attributed to the magnetic order-disorder transition from ferrimagnetic state to paramagnetic state. The standard molar enthalpy of formation, (298.15 K) and the standard molar entropy, (298.15 K) of SrFe₁₂O₁₉(s) were calculated by second law method and the values are −5545.2 kJ mol⁻¹ and 633.1 J K⁻¹ mol⁻¹, respectively.     

Prediction of the self-accelerating decomposition temperature (SADT) for liquid organic peroxides from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements

We present a prediction (estimation, calculation, screening) method for the estimation of the self-accelerating decomposition temperature (SADT) for liquid organic peroxides from differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements based on the concepts of thermal explosion theory originally introduced by Semonov which are adopted to our problem assuming nth-order reaction kinetics. For the peroxides under investigation, we demonstrate good agreement with the experimental SADT. This method can be used as a quick and easy applicable method for the estimation of the critical temperatures.     

晶体管放大特性的交互设计

在传统的电子学教学过程中,晶体管的输出特性曲线分析是一个难点,往往会影响对晶体管放大器的进一步教学和学习,原因是这些曲线都是静止的,不可操作的,很难反映电路中各种参数的变化对放大特性的影响.该文提出了一个便于计算机绘图的晶体管输出特性曲线近似模型,并借助多媒体交互技术,将晶体管的输出特性曲线和晶体管的放大特性随各种参数变化的情况,即时反映在计算机的浏览器中,使原来一成不变的内容变成使用者可参与操作,从而使难以掌握的内容一下子变得容易起来.     

On Curvatures and Focal Points of Distributions of Dynamical Lagrangian Distributions and their Reductions by First Integrals

Pairs (Hamiltonian system, Lagrangian distribution) called dynamical Lagrangian distributions, appear naturally in differential geometry, calculus of variations, and rational mechanics. The basic differential invariants of a dynamical Lagrangian distribution with respect to the action of the group of symplectomorphisms of the ambient symplectic manifold are the curvature operator and curvature form. These invariants can be considered as generalizations of the classical curvature tensor in Riemannian geometry. In particular, in terms of these invariants one can localize the focal points along extremals of the corresponding variational problems. In the present paper we study the behavior of the curvature operator, the curvature form, and the focal points of a dynamical Lagrangian distribution after its reduction by arbitrary first integrals in involution. An interesting phenomenon is that the curvature form of so-called monotone increasing Lagrangian dynamical distributions, which appear naturally in mechanical systems, does not decrease after reduction. It also turns out that the set of focal points to the given point with respect to the monotone increasing dynamical Lagrangian distribution and the corresponding set of focal points with respect to its reduction by one integral are alternating sets on the corresponding integral curve of the Hamiltonian system of the considered dynamical distributions. Moreover, the first focal point corresponding to the reduced Lagrangian distribution comes before any focal point related to the original dynamical distribution. We illustrate our results on the classical N-body problem. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 37J15, 37J05, 53D20.     

高分辨率超声Lamb波频散曲线测量与板厚估计

超声Lamb波在工业无损检测与 评价中具有广阔的应用前景。但受制于超声导波多模式频散与混叠的影响,如何实现高分辨率超声导波的模式分离与频散曲线提取,进而定量分析材料的健康状况一直是研究的热点与难点。本文旨在将现代信号处理中广泛采用的谱估计技术应用于超声Lamb波阵列信号分析,并通过提取频散曲线定量测量板厚度。以经典参数谱估计法中的Yule-Walker法与Burg法为例,实验测量和分析了3 mm,4 mm和 5 mm厚铝板中的宽带多模式Lamb波信号,准确地提取了铝板中的宽带Lamb波频散曲线,并比较了两种经典谱估计方法与二维傅氏变换法的性能,最终实现了铝板厚度估计。