Kinetics of BaTiO3 and PbTiO3 Formation from Metallo-organic Precursors

Kinetics of BaTiO₃ and PbTiO₃ formation from metalloorganic precursors were studied. The fine grain size of the decomposed product and the greater degree of mixing led to very rapid kinetics of compound formation. The kinetics data were fitted to the Carter model for a diffusion-controlled process. Formation of PbTiO₃ was modeled as a two-stage process with a single activation energy, and the formation of BaTiO₃ as a single-stage process.     

COLOR VISION SYSTEM FOR RIPENESS INSPECTION OF OIL PALM ELAEIS GUINEENSIS

In checking harvesting discipline and quality control for oil palm fruits, color has presumably been an important guide to whether the oil content has reached a maximum where the fruit bunch is ready for cutting. However, establishing a single and harmonious standard base on color is a very contentious issue in the oil palm industry because of the subjective nature of the human vision of color. This was further complicated due to the lack of information on fruit color upon which to base a definite ripeness criterion. We demonstrated in this paper that this problem can be solved using machine vision technology. Methods used were to treat color in HSI (Hue, Saturation and Intensity) color space and applied multivariate discriminant analysis. These have proven to be highly effective for color evaluation and image processing. The vision system was trained to classify oil palms into four quality grades according to PORIM (Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia) inspection standards. These are the unripe, the underripe, the optimally ripe and the overripe classes. Depending upon the quality feature evaluated, misclassification by the vision system varied from 5 to 12% but averaged at about 8%. Machine vision disagreement ranged from 2 to 19%.     

Effects of Gamma Irradiation on Proteins and Fatty Acids of Soybean

Two hundred grams of soybean seeds (moisture contents of 7.4, 15.3, 22.5, and 30.5%) were irradiated at dose levels of 0, 1, 5, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 KGy using Cobalt-60 source. Radiation dose of 100 KGy caused a decrease in the percentage of nitrogen solubility from 80.3 to 67.2, 80.3 to 57.8, and 68.1 to 48.8 when deionized H₂O, 0.6M NaCl, and 0.2M Cacl₂ were used as solvents, respectively. Inhibition of 71% of lipoxygenase activities, 25.4% trypsin inhibitor activities, and 16.7% chymotrypsin inhibitor activities were found when the soybean seeds were irradiated at 100 KGy.     

静态安全约束下基于Benders分解算法的可用传输容量计算

在电力市场环境下，可用传输容量(ATC)是反映输电线路可用于交易的剩余容量的重要指标。文中以最优潮流为基础，采用Benders分解方法将考虑静态安全约束的ATC计算问题分解为一个基态主问题和一系列与各预想事故有关的子问题。主问题用来处理基态潮流和相应约束以及由子问题所返回的Benders割(cut)约束，而各子问题用来处理各预想事故和形成相应的静态安全约束。文章给出了相应的数学模型，并提出了两种改进的求解策略。4节点和IEEE30节点系统的计算结果表明了该方法和求解策略的有效性。     

Optimum synthesis conditions of nanometric Fe50Ni50 alloy formed by chemical reduction in aqueous solution

In the present article, various nanometric Fe₅₀Ni₅₀ alloys were synthesized by chemical reduction of the corresponding metal ions, with hydrazine in an aqueous solution. Process variables of reaction temperature, pH of the hydrazine solution and concentration of metal ions were varied in order to determine the optimum synthesis conditions regarding quality, productivity and cost. It is found that pH of hydrazine solution, at low concentration of metal ions, is the most crucial variable affecting the reaction rate, average crystallite and particle sizes of the synthesized nanometric Fe₅₀Ni₅₀ alloy, followed by the total concentration of metal ions. Thus, increase of pH of hydrazine solution acts as an efficient stabilizer in reducing the particle size. On the contrary, at high concentration of metal ions, the structural characteristics of the nanometric Fe₅₀Ni₅₀ alloy are almost insensitive to reaction temperature and pH of hydrazine solution, but the reduction rate is remarkably sensitive to reaction temperature. Based on these results, it is decided that a reaction temperature of 80 °C, pH of the hydrazine solution of 12·5 and concentration of metal ions of 0·6 M represent the optimum synthesis conditions. The role of pH of hydrazine solution in reducing the alloy’s average particle size as well as efficient stabilizer confirms tremendous effect of synthesis conditions on the alloy structure and therefore, the importance of this study for industrial production of nanometric Fe₅₀Ni₅₀ alloy.     

Digital iterative learning control of compensated linear multivariable plants

It is shown that digital iterative learning controllers can be designed for irregular linear multivariable plants by introducing appropriate digital compensators. This demonstration is effected by proving a fundamental theorem which establishes precise sufficient conditions under which iterative learning control is achieved by such digital controllers and compensators in the case of first-order irregular plants. These general results are illustrated by the presentation of numerical results for the digital iterative learning control of a third-order partially irregular plant with two inputs and two outputs. The extension of the results to higher-order irregular plants is discussed.     

Uncoupling tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-10 at tumor immune microenvironment of breast cancer through miR-17-5p/MALAT-1/H19 circuit

Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) immunotherapy has recently shown promising approach. However, some TNBC patients presented with resistance. One of the reasons was attributed to the excessive release of cytokines at the tumor microenvironment (TME) such as Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and Interleukin-10 (IL-10). Fine regulation of these cytokines’ levels via non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) might alleviate the immune quiescent nature of TME at TNBC tumors. However, the extrapolation of ncRNAs as therapeutic tools is highly challenging. Therefore, disentanglement the nature for the isolation of natural compounds that could modulate the ncRNAs and their respective targets is an applicable translational therapeutic approach. Hence, this study aimed to targeting the chief immune suppressive cytokines at the TME (TNF-α and IL-10) via ncRNAs and to examine the effects of Rosemary aerial parts extract on the expression levels of these ncRNAs in TNBC. Results revealed miR-17-5p as a dual regulator of TNF-α and IL-10. Moreover, an intricate interaction has been shown between miR-17-5p and the oncogenic lncRNAs: MALAT1 and H19. Knocking down of MALAT1 and/or H19 caused an induction in miR-17-5p and reduction in TNF-α and IL-10 expression levels. miR-17-5p was found to be down-regulated, while TNF-α, IL-10, MALAT1 and H19 were up-regulated in BC patients. Forced expression of miR-17-5p in MDA-MB-231 cells reduced TNF-α, IL-10, MALAT1 and H19 expression levels, as well as several BC hallmarks. In a translational approach, ursolic acid (UA) isolated from rosemary induced the expression of miR-17-5p, MALAT1 and decreased H19 expression levels. In conclusion, this study suggests miR-17-5p as a tumor suppressor and an immune-activator miRNA in BC through tuning up the immunological targets TNF-α, IL-10 at the TME and the oncological mediators MALAT1 and H19 lncRNAs.     

Dendrite morphology of several steady state unidirectionally solidified iron base alloys

The experimental data are presented of the dendrite morphology of steady state unidirectionally solidified steels. The dendrite arm spacings were correlated with the equation A =KR ^mG^mwhereR is the growth rate and G the temperature gradient. The exponentsm andn for the primary arms are fairly close to the theoretical values (m = -0.25,n = -0.5). For the secondary arms they are about the same (-0.4). The primary arm spacings do not depend much on composition. The secondary arm spacings, however, decrease at fixed carbon content with increasing content of substitutional elements, and they were found to be smaller in a steel freezing as ferrite compared to steels freezing as austenite. All the authors were with Max-Planck Institut für Eisenforschung, 4 Düsseldorf 1, Max-Planck-Str. 1, Germany, at the time this investigation was carried out.