Carbonization of coals into anisotropic cokes: 7. Copreheat-treatment under short contact-time conditions at high temperature

The copreheat-treatment of non-fusible and slightly fusible coals with A240 and hydrogenated A240 under high temperature-short contact-time conditions around 500 °C has been examined in an attempt to produce a formed coke with better anisotropic development. These conditions shortened the copreheat-treatment time and provided better anisotropic development in the resultant coke after carbonization. Effectiveness of short contact-time has been discussed in terms of the extent of depolymerization of coal molecules suitable for anisotropic development, this being related to coal liquefaction under similar conditions.     

Effects of Particle Size of Bulk Drug and food on the Bioavailability of U-78875 in Dogs

The effects of particle size and food on the absolute bioavailability of U-78875 in dogs after oral administration of either a suspension or tablet dosage form were investigated. A reduction of particle size caused a significant increase in bioavailability along with an increase in dissolution rate. Additionally, both suspension and tablet dosage forms administered after food caused an increase in bioavailability. Thus, to accelerate drug dissolution, a reduction of U-78875 particle size from the unmilled state is important for the optimization of formulation compositions. To increase the bioavailability of U-78875, postprandial dosing should be considered.     

Current collecting efficiency of micro tubular SOFCs

In this study, current collecting efficiency of the micro tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was estimated to determine optimum size of the micro tubular SOFC. Two models for collecting current from single terminal (ST) and double terminal (DT) of anode tube were proposed and used to calculate the current collecting efficiency as functions of anode thickness, tube length and operating temperature. It was shown that design of the cell geometry and current correcting method are significantly important to achieve high performance micro tubular SOFC stacks. The efficiency loss estimated from the DT model was about 2–4-fold lower than those of obtained from the ST model. The DT model was shown to be more effective for higher operating temperature and the tube length.     

Shock consolidation of diamond powders

Fine and coarse diamond powders were shock-compacted at peak pressures of 77, 90, and 108 GPa. The densification and consolidation mechanisms of diamond powders under shock compression were investigated. The densification behaviour of the diamond powders depended strongly on the particle size of the starting materials. Fine diamond powders were densified primarily by plastic deformation, while coarse diamond powders were densified mainly by particle fracture. The relative densities of the compacted diamond samples increased with an increase in the initial particle size of the diamond and with shock pressure. The consolidation mechanism of the diamond powders under shock compression was closely related to the densification mechanism, and depended on the initial particle size of the diamond. At a shock pressure of 90 GPa, particle sizes of 2 to 4 m grade and 10 to 20 m grade were desirable as the starting material in order to produce well-bonded diamond compacts. Diamond compacts having microhardness values over 80 GPa were obtained from 2 to 4 m grade and 10 to 20 m grade diamond powders at a shock pressure of 90 G Pa, and their relative densities were 88.5% and 91.0%, respectively.     

Adsorption of urea,creatinine, and uric acid from three solution types using spherical activated carbon and its recyclability

In this paper, we propose that the urinary toxins from the wastewater be adsorbed on an adsorbent such as spherical activated carbon and the latter be regenerated by subjecting it to high temperatures to recycle activated carbon and also to recycle the water used in dialysis. We studied the adsorption of artificial waste dialysate, which is a mixed solution of urea, creatinine, and uric acid, and the separate solutions for each of these and found that their extents of adsorption onto the spherical activated carbon material were nearly identical. The amount of adsorption was approximately 1.4 mg·g^-1 for urea, 18 mg·g^-1 for creatinine, and 20 mg·g^-1 for uric acid. The urea, creatinine, and uric acid adsorbed onto the spherical activated carbon decomposed on heat treatment at 500℃, and the adsorption capacity of the spherical activated carbon was regenerated. Our study successfully demonstrated that the spherical activated carbon can be recycled in the waste dialysate treatment process.     

Acrylic nonaqueous dispersion using butylated melamine-formaldehyde resin as dispersant

A series of acrylic nonaqueous dispersions were prepared by using various kinds of butylated melamine–formaldehyde (BMF) resins as dispersant. The functional group composition of BMF to form stable dispersion was butoxy group more than 13 mol/BMF 1 mol, and methylol group ranged from 1 to 2.5 mol/BMF 1 mol. It is concluded that the anchoring of BMF to acrylic copolymer was due to the formation of covalent bond between methylol group in BMF and hydroxy group in acrylic copolymer.     

Determination of hydroperoxides and structures by high-performance liquid chromatography with post-column detection with diphenyl-1-pyrenylphosphine

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method, using post-column detection with diphenyl-1-pyrenyl-phosphine (DPPP), was developed for the quantitative and qualitative determination of isomeric lipid hydroperoxides (OOH). The OOH eluted from a normal-phase column were passed through a photodiode array detector and then mixed with DPPP solution in a reaction coil heated at 80°C. DPPP oxide formed by the reaction with OOH was determined by monitoring the fluorescence intensity at 380 nm and excitation at 352 nm. The conjugated diene OOH (13-cis, trans- and 9-cis, trans-OOH) and nonconjugated OOH (12-cis-trans- and 10-cis, trans-OOH) from photosensitized oxidation of methyl linoleate were determined in a molar ratio of 31∶29∶19∶21, respectively. However, only the two conjugated hydroperoxides were detected by ultraviolet absorption at 234 nm. Further applications were carried out for the determination of OOH of methyl oleate and methyl linolenate. This method proved to be useful for the determination of the OOH containing both conjugated and nonconjugated diene structures.     

Studies on miscibility in homopolymer/ random copolymer blends by equation of state theory

The miscibility of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and styrene-acrylonitrile random copolymers (SAN) blends was investigated on the basis of the Flory—Orwoll—Vrij equation of state theory. To obtain the equation of state parameters (P*, V*_sp, T*: characteristic parameters), the pressure—volume—temperature (PVT) behaviour was measured for PMMA and a series of SANs with various acrylonitrile contents. The exchange energy parameter X_ij was also calculated by fitting the theory to some phase diagrams of PMMA/SAN blends. The Flory—Huggins interaction parameter χ was separated into two contributions based on the equation of state theory for mixtures: the exchange energy term χ_inter and the free volume term χ_free. Both the temperature and copolymer composition dependences of χ_inter and χ_free were estimated by calculations using the equation of state parameters. There exists a region in which χ_inter is negative, leading to a miscibility window in PMMA/SAN blends. However, the immiscibility at high temperatures in the blends cannot be explained only by χ_inter; it is caused by the free volume contribution, χ_free. The miscibility window behaviour in PMMA/SAN blends may be explained within the framework of the equation of state theory.     

Sintering of Ceria-Doped Tetragonal Zirconia Crystallized in Organic Solvents, Water, and Air

Amorphous CeO₂–ZrO₂ gels were prepared by coprecipitation in ammonia solutions. The onset of crystallization of the gels, from calcining in air, was 420°C, while 200° to 250°C in the presence of water and organic solvents such as methanol and ethanol. The sintering behaviors of CeO₂–ZrO₂ powders were sensitive to the crystallizing conditions, since hard agglomerates formed when the precipitated gels were crystallized by normal calcination in air, whereas soft agglomerates formed when they were crystallized in water or organic solvents. CeO₂–ZrO₂ powders crystallized in methanol and water at 250°C were sintered to full theoretical density at 1150° and 1400°C, respectively, whereas that crystallized by calcination in air at 450°C was sintered to only 95.2% of theoretical density, even at 1500°C.     

Gradient orientation pattern matching with the Hamming distance

This paper presents a novel pattern matching technique that is robust to illumination changes and the occlusion problem. The technique is based on the matching of gradient orientations in place of traditional image features such as intensities or gradients. Gradient orientations depend on the texture in an image. They are known to be insensitive to changes of image intensities that are often caused by time-varying illuminations or the auto-gain control (AGC) function of the camera. Moreover,the proposed method employs a voting strategy in the process of matching gradient orientations. The method works remarkably well even when a large part of the pattern is occluded with a foreign object. Consequently, the proposed method is robust to both irregular lighting conditions and the occlusion problem.