吸湿凉爽机织物的结构设计与性能

为研究织物组织结构与复合纱线线密度对织物凉爽性能的影响,将线密度为7.4和9.8 tex涤纶分别与线密度为7.8 tex锦纶反向加捻、并线后作为纬纱,以8.3 tex涤纶/竹浆纤维50/50混纺纱作经纱,设计平纹、二上一下斜纹和透孔组织织物.测试织物的瞬间接触凉感、热湿舒适性能及织物干、湿态升温曲线,并采用凉爽温度指数对织物的综合凉爽性能进行评价.研究结果表明:6种设计织物的瞬间接触凉感均高于标准,且平纹织物最好,纬纱粗细对瞬间接触凉感影响不显著;透孔织物透气性最好,且在人体出汗的状态下具有较好的导湿散热性能.平纹织物凉爽温度指数最高,最大凉爽温度为2.8℃,综合凉爽性能最好.     

Use of citric acid for heavy metals extraction from contaminated sewage sludge for land application.

Recent studies revealed that organic acids such as citric and oxalic acids seemed to be more promising as chemical extracting agents for removal of heavy metals from contaminated sludge, since they are biodegradable and can attain a higher metal extraction efficiency at mildly acidic pH compared to other extracting agents. Results of a lab-scale study on the efficiency of citric acid in the extraction of chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn) from anaerobically digested sludge, revealed that citric acid seemed to be highly effective in extracting Cr (at 100%), Cu (at 88%), Ni (at 98%) and Zn (at 100%) at pH 2.33, mostly at 5 days leaching time except for Cu and Zn, which are at 1 day and 2 h contact times respectively. Lead removal at the same pH was also high at 95% but at a longer leaching time of 11 days. At pH 3, citric acid seemed to be highly effective in extracting Pb (at 100%) at 1 day leaching time, although higher removals were also attained for Ni (70%) and Zn (80%) at only 2 h leaching time. Chemical speciation studies showed that Cr, Cu and Ni in the sludge sample seem to predominate in residual fractions, while Pb and Zn were found mostly bound to organic and inorganic matter forms, hence the potential of the sludge for land application.     

Interaction of triton X-100 on silica: A relationship between surface characteristics and adsorption isotherms

Adsorption of Triton X-100 on various silica substrates has been investigated. A number of solids, including a natural quartz, this quartz washed with HCl acid and subsequently heated at 1273 K; two aerosils and one Kieselgel silicas were studied. These solids exhibit surface areas in the range of 5 to 430 m² g^?1. All the Triton adsorption isotherms display an S-shape at the adsorption temperatures studied (298 and 308 K). It has been found that the pretreatments of natural quartz (by water washing, impurities removed by acid and/or high temperature calcination) affect considerably the amounts of TX-100 adsorbed. Measurements of surface composition have been made by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with particular emphasis on the presence of impurities and on the number of OH groups at the surface of the samples. The nature of the surface hydroxyl has also been studied by infrared spectroscopy. Furthermore, the specific number of hydroxyl groups on the surface of the silica samples has been determined by thermogravimetric analysis. Finally an attempt to correlate solid surface characteristics with adsorption isotherms has been developed.     

PCR-based procedures in detection and DNA-fingerprinting of Salmonella from samples of animal origin

The usefulness of selected PCR-protocols for the detection of Salmonella in 117 samples of animal origin (17 raw minced meat, 27 raw chicken meat, 8 raw sausages, and 25 egg samples, as well as 18 poultry faecal, and caecal swabs samples) and DNA-fingerprinting typing is shown. To establish an accurate PCR-procedure for Salmonella detection the following parameters were evaluated: two pre-PCR concentration procedures, centrifugation and immunomagnetic separation (IMS) using Dynabeads anti- Salmonella; the specificity and sensitivity of 10 sets of primers; and different conditions of the amplification reaction. In light of the results obtained from the use of PCR-based procedures alone or in combination with conventional methods, the following findings can be underlined: First, IMS is more efficient than centrifugation in the recovery of Salmonella. Second, the selected IMS/PCR-detection protocol is less time-consuming (45 h) than the IMS/culture procedure (90 h), and a good concordance between them was found when the Kappa coefficient was calculated (0·87). Third, PCR-ribotyping technique showed a very low discrimination power, being able to differentiate only three profiles. Fourth, RAPD technique using specific primers supports previous works in which it was proposed as a simple and useful tool for discriminating isolates between and within serotypes. Fifth, The efficiency, rapidity, and flexibility of the PCR-protocols applied were high, and they can be performed using two PCR-programs and the same basic equipment.     

Influence of the ethylene–(methacrylic acid)–Zn2+ ionomer on the thermal and mechanical properties of blends of poly(propylene) (PP)/ethylene–(vinyl alcohol) copolymer (EVOH)

The thermal and mechanical properties and the morphologies of blends of poly(propylene) (PP) and an ethylene–(vinyl alcohol) copolymer (EVOH) and of blends of PP/EVOH/ethylene–(methacrylic acid)–Zn²⁺ ionomer were studied to establish the influence of the ionomer addition on the compatibilization of PP/EVOH blends and on their properties. The oxygen transmission rate (O₂TR) values of the blends were measured as well. PP and EVOH are initially incompatible as was determined by tensile tests and scanning electronic microscopy. Addition of the ionomer Zn²⁺ led to good compatibility and mechanical behaviour was improved in all blends. The mechanical properties on extruded films were studied for 90/10 and 80/20 w/w PP/EVOH blends compatibilized with 10 % of ionomer Zn²⁺. These experiments have shown that the tensile properties are better than in the injection‐moulded samples. The stretching during the extrusion improved the compatibility of the blends, diminishing the size of EVOH domains and enhancing their distribution in the PP matrix. As was to be expected, the EVOH improved the oxygen permeation of the films, even in compatibilized blends. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Developing maintainable expert systems using case-based reasoning

Abstract: Maintainability problems associated with traditional software systems are exacerbated in rule-based systems. The very nature of that approach — separation of control knowledge and data-driven execution — hampers maintenance. While there are widely accepted techniques for maintaining conventional software, the same is not true for rule-based systems. In most situations, both a knowledge engineer and a domain expert are necessary to update the rules of a rule-based system. This paper presents, first, an overview of the software engineering techniques and object-oriented methods used in maintaining rule-based systems. It then discusses alternate paradigms for expert system development. The benefits of using case-based reasoning (from the maintenance point of view) are illustrated through the implementation of a case-based scheduler. The main value of the scheduler is that its knowledge base can be modified by the expert without the assistance of a knowledge engineer. Since changes in application requirements can be given directly to the system by the expert, the effort of maintaining the knowledge base is greatly reduced.     

Bioactivity of antifouling paints based on organotin toxicants

This paper discusses the bioactivity of antifouling paints based on organotin toxicants, such as tributyltin fluoride (TBTF) and triphenyltin fluoride (TPTF). These compounds were used alone or mixed as the main toxicant in formulations. The use of TPTF or mixtures of TPTF and TBTF, with vinyl binders, led to paints with satisfactory bioactivity during a 24 months immersion period. With the same binders, TBTF alone provided only 12 months of antifouling protection. The correlation coefficients calculated from the fouling attachment values and the rosin content in the binder showed that the bioactivity of the tested formulations depended on the solubility of the toxicant in sea water and on the composition and solubility of the binders.     

Recovering spectral data from natural scenes with an RGB digital camera and colored filters

Many spectral‐recovery methods using RGB digital cameras assume the underlying smoothness of illuminant and reflectance spectra, and apply low‐dimensional linear models. The aim of the present work was to test whether a direct‐mapping method could be used instead of a linear‐models approach to recover spectral radiances and reflectances from natural scenes with an RGB digital camera and colored filters. In computer simulations, a conventional RGB digital camera with up to three colored filters was used to image scenes drawn from a hyperspectral image database. Three measures were used to evaluate recovery with the direct‐mapping method: goodness‐of‐fit, root‐mean‐square error, and a color‐difference metric. It was found that with two and three filters both spectral radiances and reflectances could be recovered sufficiently accurately for many practical applications. With little increase in computational complexity, an RGB camera and a few colored filters can provide significantly better recovery of natural scenes than an RGB camera alone. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 32, 352–360, 2007     

The Gilbert-Holland FDTD thin slot model revisited: an alternative expression for the in-cell capacitance

This paper proposes an alternative expression for the in-cell capacitance of a photoelectrical cell (PEC)-mounted slot, which is the conceptual cornerstone of the Gilbert-Holland subcell finite difference time domain (FDTD) model. By treating a slightly modified electrostatic problem, the extraneous charge singularity on the PEC edges touching the cell, which is characteristic of the originally proposed model, is removed. The latter offers better physical grounds for a new expression of the capacitance and the effective permittivity used in the update equations. High resolution standard FDTD simulation results are presented in support of the new expression.