Lignin from Annual Plants as Raw Material Source for Flavors and Basic Chemicals

The enzymatic conversion of lignins, possibly in combination with electrochemical oxidation, makes aromatics such as syringol, guaiacol, vanillin and catechol available in the qualities required by the fragrance industry. The lignins were obtained by soda digestion from wheat straw and Miscanthus, characterized and then converted with laccases. The overall yield amounted up to 9 wt % with a product spectrum confined to four substances. Catechol was the major product, with a fraction of ≈75 %. It can easily be isolated by extraction with acetone.     

Oxidative removal of bisphenol A using zero valent aluminum-acid system

Bisphenol A (BPA), a controversial endocrine disruptor, is ubiquitous in the aquatic environment. In this study, the oxidative degradation of BPA and its mechanism using zero valent aluminum (ZVAl)-acid system under air-equilibrated conditions was investigated. Under pH <3.5 acidic conditions, ZVAl demonstrated an excellent capacity to remove BPA. More than 75% of BPA was eliminated within 12 h in pH 1.5 reaction solutions initially containing 4.0 g/L aluminum and 2.0 mg/L BPA at 25 ± 1 °C. The removal of BPA was further accelerated with increasing aluminum loadings. Higher temperature and lower initial pH also facilitated BPA removal. The addition of Fe²⁺ into the ZVAl-acid system significantly accelerated the reaction likely due to the enhancing transformation of H₂O₂ to HO via Fenton reaction. Furthermore, the primary products or intermediates including monohydroxylated BPA, hydroquinone, 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)propane and 4-isopropenylphenol, were identified and a possible reaction scheme was proposed. The remarkable capacity of the ZVAl-acid system in removing BPA displays its potential application in the treatment of organic compound-contaminated water.     

沿海岛屿数据用于蒸发波导分析的低可信度

在我国沿海海域,没有大量的气象浮标,但在岛屿或海边有大量的气象观测站,能否利用这些气象观测站获得的数据进行蒸发波导特性分析,值得深入研究.对比沿海岛屿实测数据与NCEP再分析数据,并将这两种数据输入NPS模型后发现蒸发波导高度的差异较大.但是对比气象浮标数据与NCEP数据,表明NCEP再分析数据用于蒸发波导统计分析是可信的,从而得出结论:沿海岛屿测量数据应用于蒸发波导统计特性研究的可信度较低.理论分析表明:成因是海陆交互作用的影响.但其气象参数的变化趋势与NCEP再分析数据的变化趋势比较一致,对于蒸发波导强弱和变化趋势的判定,仍有一定参考价值.     

Integration of Radioactive Material with Microcalorimeter Detectors

Microcalorimeter detectors with embedded radioactive material offer many possibilities for new types of measurements and applications. We will discuss the designs and methods that we are developing for precise deposition of radioactive material and its encapsulation in the absorber of transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter detectors for two specific applications. The first application is total nuclear reaction energy (Q) spectroscopy for nuclear forensics measurements of trace actinide samples, where the goal is determination of ratios of isotopes with Q values in the range of 5–7 MeV. Simplified, rapid sample preparation and detector assembly is necessary for practical measurements, while maintaining good energy resolution. The second application is electron capture spectroscopy of isotopes with low Q values, such as \(^{163}\) Ho, for measurement of neutrino mass. Detectors for electron capture spectroscopy are designed for measuring energies up to approximately 6 keV. Their smaller heat capacity and physical size present unique challenges. Both applications require precise deposition of radioactive material and encapsulation in an absorber with optimized thermal properties and coupling to the TES. We have made detectors for both applications with a variety of designs and assembly methods, and will present their development.     

Playing chess unconsciously.

Expertise in a certain stimulus domain enhances perceptual capabilities. In the present article, the authors investigate whether expertise improves perceptual processing to an extent that allows complex visual stimuli to bias behavior unconsciously. Expert chess players judged whether a target chess configuration entailed a checking configuration. These displays were preceded by masked prime configurations that either represented a checking or a nonchecking configuration. Chess experts, but not novice chess players, revealed a subliminal response priming effect, that is, faster responding when prime and target displays were congruent (both checking or both nonchecking) rather than incongruent. Priming generalized to displays that were not used as targets, ruling out simple repetition priming effects. Thus, chess experts were able to judge unconsciously presented chess configurations as checking or nonchecking. A 2nd experiment demonstrated that experts' priming does not occur for simpler but uncommon chess configurations. The authors conclude that long-term practice prompts the acquisition of visual memories of chess configurations with integrated form-location conjunctions. These perceptual chunks enable complex visual processing outside of conscious awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

城市GPS控制网优化设计

文中全面介绍了城市GPS控制网基准设计、网形设计的基本原则和思路,推导了GPS控制网二维精度估算和可靠性估算公式,提出了GPS控制网优化设计的概念、准则及其思路,用面向对象的程序设计语言Visual BASIC6.0编写了GPS控制网二维精度估算、可靠性估算和优化设计程序。     

Response-effect compatibility in manual choice reaction tasks.

This study investigated whether compatibility between responses and their consistent sensorial effects influences performance in manual choice reaction tasks. In Experiment 1 responses to the nonspatial stimulus attribute of color were affected by the correspondence between the location of responses and the location of their visual effects. In Experiment 2, a comparable influence was found with nonspatial responses of varying force and nonspatial response effects of varying auditory intensity. Experiment 3 ruled out the hypothesis that acquired stimulus-effect associations may account for this influence of response-effect compatibility. In sum the results show that forthcoming response effects influence response selection as if these effects were already sensorially present, suggesting that in line with the classical ideomotor theory, anticipated response effects play a substantial role in response selection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimal Deterministic Sorting and Routing on Grids and Tori with Diagonals

We present deterministic sorting and routing algorithms for grids and tori with additional diagonal connections. For large loads ( ), where each processor has at most h data packets in the beginning and in the end, the sorting problem can be solved in optimal hn/6+o(n) and hn/12+o(n) steps for grids and tori with diagonals, respectively. For smaller loads, we present a new concentration technique that yields very fast algorithms for h<12 . For a load of 1, the previously most studied case, sorting only takes 1.2n+o(n) steps and routing only 1.1n+o(n) steps. For tori, we can present optimal algorithms for all loads . The above algorithms all use a constant-size memory for all processors and never copy or split packets, a property that the corresponding lower bounds make use of. If packets may be copied, 1—1 sorting can be done in only 2n/3+o(n) on a torus with diagonals. Generally gaining a speedup of 3 by only doubling the number of communication links compared with a grid without diagonals, our work suggests building grids and tori with diagonals. Received August 18, 1997; revised December 28, 1997.     

Precueing spatial S-R correspondence: Is there regulation of expected response conflict?

Four experiments investigated the ability to prepare for the level of forthcoming stimulus-response correspondence in choice-response tasks. In a Simon task, participants responded to the color of spatially variable stimuli with spatially variable responses. Participants were given advance information about whether a forthcoming stimulus-response event would be spatially corresponding, neutral, or spatially noncorresponding. Reliable cues decreased reaction times (RTs) in the corresponding conditions of 2- and 3-choice tasks, decreased RTs in noncorresponding conditions of a 2-choice task but not in a 3-choice task, and left RTs in neutral conditions unaffected. The pattern of results suggests that participants used reliable cues for responding to the nominally irrelevant stimulus location if the correct response could be inferred from location (attention switching). By contrast, the lack of cueing effects on performance in noncorresponding conditions of 3-choice tasks suggests that participants cannot use cues for changing the attentional weights of processing channels for different stimulus dimensions (gating). In summary, gating may be involved in the regulation of experienced response conflict, but the present results suggest that it is not involved in the regulation of expected (i.e., predicted) response conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On reducing the post-heat-treatment time of the weldment

Post heat treatment of weldments is one of the most extensively used techniques by the industrial community for relieving welding residual stresses. Such practice not only delays the manufacturing process, but also increases the cost of manufacturing. In this article, an idea of a new welding technique, which is a promising tool for relieving welding residual stresses, is presented. This method is anticipated to reduce the time and cost of the manufacturing process. The first part of the investigation focuses on simulation of an idea by using an auxiliary heat source for creating a weldment with a more uniform temperature distribution both spatially and temporally. A subroutine has been developed for optimizing the size of an auxiliary heat input (AHI). The details of the subroutine and the parameters considered for optimizing the AHI are presented. The results show that by increasing the stabilizing temperature and size of the AHI, the speed of cooling and spatial temperature gradient decreases. This may result in reducing the level of residual stresses.