Comparison of Canola and Soy Flour with Added Isocyanate as Wood Adhesives

Canola is widely grown in the northern latitudes for its vegetable oil, generating large quantities of residual, low value canola flour used as animal feed. The common wood adhesive poly(diphenylmethylene diisocyanate) (pMDI) should react with the wide variety of functional groups in proteins. Therefore, it would seem that canola flour with added pMDI could be an effective adhesive. Two main questions are addressed in this study: How do the wood adhesive properties of canola flour compare to the better-studied soy flour? How well do proteins, which contain an abundance of functional groups, cure with the very reactive pMDI? These questions were addressed using the small-scale adhesive strength test ASTM D-7998, with various adhesive formulations and bonding conditions for canola flour plus pMDI compared to soy adhesives. The more challenging wet cohesive bond strength was emphasized because the dry strengths were usually very good. Generally, soy adhesives were better than canola ones, as was the polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin cross-linker compared to pMDI, but these generalizations can be altered by the conditions selected. Three-ply plywood tests supported the small-scale test results.     

Statistical analysis and optimization of simultaneous biological nutrients removal process in an intermittently aerated SBR

Simultaneous removal of carbon and nutrients from a synthetic wastewater in aerobic/anoxic sequence batch reactor (SBR) was investigated. The experiments were conducted based on a central composite design (CCD) and analyzed using response surface methodology (RSM). Two significant independent variables, cycle time and aeration time, were studied to analyze the process. Five dependent parameters—total COD (TCOD) removal, total nitrogen removal, total phosphorus removal, total Kjeldahl nitrogen removal and effluent nitrate concentration—were monitored as the process responses. The region of exploration for the process was taken as the area enclosed by cycle times (2, 4.25 and 6.5 h) and aeration times (30, 40 and 50 min/h) boundaries. The maximum COD (87.18%) and TKN (78.94%) removal efficiencies were obtained at the cycle time and aeration time of 6.5 h and 50 min/h, respectively. While the maximum TN (71.15%) and phosphorus (68.91%) removal efficiencies were obtained at cycle time of 6.5 h and aeration time of 40min/h. As a result, high cycle time (6.5 h) and moderate aeration time (40min/h) were found to be the optimal region for maximum carbon and nitrogen removal efficiencies.     

Modeling heterogeneous photocatalytic inactivation of E. coli using suspended and immobilized TiO2 reactors

A study was carried out to develop a kinetic model of the photocatalytic inactivation of Escherichia coli using different TiO₂ catalysts. The model developed is based on a reaction scheme that involves effectively coupling mass‐transfer fluxes between bacteria and catalyst surface on one hand and bacterial degradation reaction on the other. The photocatalytic results were derived from experiments led in a batch reactor under both dark and Ultra Violet (UV) irradiation conditions. Using a reference catalyst, the robustness of the developed model was tested under solar conditions. The experimental data validated the model as successfully able to reproduce evolutions in the viable bacteria concentration in the range of parameters studied without any further adjustment of the kinetic parameters. The model was used to simulate the bacterial degradation kinetics under different working conditions to describe the partitioning of both bacterial adhesion and photocatalytic reaction in the solution to be treated © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 2532–2542, 2015     

Investigation of Heat‐Induced Degradation of Virgin Olive Oil Using Front Face Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Chemometric Analysis

A simple setup using a 365‐nm light‐emitting diode coupled to a USB spectrometer through an optical fiber, in a front‐face fluorescence configuration, was used to investigate the heat‐induced deterioration of virgin olive oil at different heating temperatures and times. The samples were heated for 30, 60, 120 and 180 min for every temperature setting of 140, 160 and 180 °C, respectively. Two important results are reported in this article. First, a neo‐formed compound around 665 nm due to the degradation of chlorophyll was observed. This new peak was attributed to pyropheophytins. The second result showed an important rise of the peak around 489 nm, which corresponded to the oxidation products. The correlation obtained between the peroxide value and the 489 nm peak using principal component analysis revealed the mechanism of the oxidation process. It further showed that the peak around 489 nm is a direct consequence of the degradation of hydroperoxide.     

Effect of Cryogenic Cooling on the Heat Transfer during Turning of AZ31C Magnesium Alloy

ABSTRACT

A combined analytical and experimental study was carried out to analyze the effects of cryogenic cooling on temperature during turning of AZ31C magnesium alloy. Finite element method was employed to model and simulating the cryogenic and dry turning. Results obtained from the model were found to be in good agreement with the experimental observations. For the maximum temperature at the turned surface, the difference in the experimental and predicted value observed during dry and cryogenic turning was only 4 and 8% respectively. A significant reduction in the maximum temperature on the chip surface (around 35%) and tool surface (around 29%) was observed during the cryogenic turning compared to dry turning. This reduction in temperature was an attribute of liquid nitrogen, which produces intense cooling effect around the vicinity cutting zone where heat generation takes place hence enhancing the heat transfer. The isothermal region belonging to the highest temperature on the tool surface was also reduced by about 42%. The reduction in temperature during cryogenic conditions were found to be beneficial for the machining of magnesium alloys under safe conditions, reducing the risk of ignition and explosions, and also increases the sustainability of the process.     

Camera localization for a human-pose in 3D space using a single 2D human-pose image with landmarks: a multimedia social network emerging demand

Recovering a 3D human-pose in the form of an abstracted skeleton from a 2D image suffers from loss of depth information. Assuming the projected human-pose is represented by a set of 2D landmarks capturing the human-pose limbs, recovering back the original 3D locations is an ill posed problem. To recover a 3D configuration, camera localization in 3D space plays a major role, an inaccurate camera localization might mislead the recovery process. In this paper, we propose a 3D camera localization model using only human-pose appearance in a 2D image (i.e., the set of 2D landmarks). We apply a supervised multi-class logistic regression to assign the camera location in 3D space. In the learning process, we assume a set of predefined labeled camera locations. The features we train consist of relative length of limbs and 2D shape context. The goal is to build a relation between these projected landmarks and the camera location in 3D space. This kind of analysis allows us to reconstruct 3D human-poses based on the 2D projection only without any predefined camera parameters. Also, makes real-time multimedia exchange more reliable specially for human-pose related tasks. We test our model on a set of real images showing a variety of camera locations.

     

Towards a Theoretical Understanding of the Recurrence of Crises Embracing the Issue of Organizational Learning: An Illustration with the Case of Two Hostile Takeover Bids Faced by Société Générale (1988, 1999)

In this article, we try to better understand the relationship between learning and crisis through the analysis of recurrent crises. Our study focused on two successive and similar crises experienced by the same organization, namely two hostile takeover bids a French bank (Société Générale) had to cope with in 1988 and 1999. From a literature review within the fields of organizational learning and management crisis, we proposed an analytical grid making it possible to get a better understanding of crisis‐induced lesson‐drawing processes. We then used that grid to analyse and compare the learning processes implemented during the two crises under study. This comparison leads us to suggest that lack of organizational learning is one factor that accounts for crisis recurrence. Conversely, proactive crisis management behaviour – resulting from double‐loop learning – seems to be the most fruitful behaviour to adopt in order to prevent a recurrent crisis and produce long‐term effects in the organization.