Use of Superheated Steam Drying to Increase Strength and Bulk of Papers Produced from Diverse Commercial Furnishes

Studies from this laboratory have documented significant changes in properties when paper is dried in superheated steam rather than, as in all current processes, in air. Extending these investigations to additional important pulp types, to recycled pulps and to filled papers, using commercial furnishes from mills, has identified further grades of paper for which drying in superheated steam enhances key properties. For bleached chemithermomechanical pulps and blends with kraft pulp as used for tissue and toweling, strong paper resulted, with 10% higher bulk. Linerboard from 100% recycled old corrugated containers (OCC) is obtained with various strength properties increased by up to 21% with no densification, actually a 4% increase in bulk. Linerboard from high-yield (55-67%) virgin kraft pulps show 23 to 37% increase in strength and toughness. Filled papers containing 0-10% clay can be produced with the same brightness but about 23% higher tensile index when dried in superheated steam.     

The neuroscience of education: More research is needed before application.

In reply to H. T. Epstein (see record 1991-12239-001), R. B. McCall maintains that although the recent quantitative EEG data reviewed by W. J. Hudspeth and K. H. Pribram (see record 1991-12210-001) show growth spurts conforming to Epstein's phrenoblysis theory, more research, especially longitudinal and individual difference studies, is needed before application of the theory to educational practice is warranted. Furthermore, gross indices of brain growth (e.g., head circumference) and general mental performance (e.g., mental age or IQ) do not consistently follow the theory, and research should focus on more specific measures. Finally, few data exist demonstrating that brain growth periodization relates to practical mental and educational skills and performance in the same individual children. Such research is needed before alterations in educational curricula are considered and researched. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low-threshold electrically pumped vertical-cavity surface-emitting microlasers

The authors present vertical-cavity electrically driven lasers with three GaInAs quantum wells and diameters of several mu m exhibiting room-temperature pulsed current thresholds as low as 1.3 mA with 958 nm output wavelength.<>     

Transitions in infant sensorimotor development and the prediction of childhood IQ.

Reviews the empirical literature concerning prediction of childhood and adult IQ scores from infant test scores, emphasizing size of the correlations, age of assessment, reliability of the tests, sex differences, socioeconomic status, and specific items and abilities. Since most of these studies were conducted under the assumption of an immutable, pervasive, general coception of intelligence, an alternative orientation is offered which emphasizes short-term correlational transitions between specific item clusters and behaviors during infancy. 1 type of analysis illustrating this approach indicates a major developmental trend characterized by manipulative exploration and the investigation of sensorimotor contingencies at 6 mo., motor and verbal imitation at 12 and 18 mo., and vocabulary and grammatical fluency at 18 and 24 mo. The similarity of these results to Piagetian theory is noted. (71 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cyanoethylation and infrared spectra of some ricinoleic acid derivatives

Summary Five ricinoleic acid derivatives have been cyanoethylated with acrylonitrile, namely, 4-ricinoleoylmorpholine, 4-ricinelaidoylmorpholine, 4-(12-hydroxystearoyl) morpholine, 1,12-dihydroxy-9-octadecene and 1,12-dihydroxyoctadecane, using benzyltrimethylammonium hydroxide as a cyanoethylation catalyst and water to retard the polymerization of acrylonitrile. Any polyacrylonitrile formed was readily precipitated out of an ethereal solution. Purification of the cyanoethylated products was accomplished by washing out the catalyst, rapid distillation under high vacuum, and crystallizations from methanol. In addition, 1,12-bis(β-cyanoethoxy)-9-octadecene was isomerized fromcis totrans form and crystallized successively from acetone and methanol. The infrared spectra of these compounds have been determined. It was found that the characteristic absorption for the nitrile group at 4.44 microns is about 67% greater in chloroform than in carbon tetrachloride and that it obeys Beer's law over a wide range of concentrations, thus permitting convenient infrared analysis of this type of compound. Some properties of these compounds are described. Presented at the 50th annual meeting, American Oil Chemists' Society, New Orleans, La., April 20–22, 1959. One of the laboratories of the Southern Utilization Research and Development Division, Agricultural Research Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture.     

An application of a GA with Markov network surrogate to feature selection

Surrogate models of fitness have been presented as a way of reducing the number of fitness evaluations required by evolutionary algorithms. This is of particular interest with expensive fitness functions where the time taken for building the model is outweighed by the savings of using fewer function evaluations. In this article, we show how a Markov network model can be used as a surrogate fitness function for a genetic algorithm in a new algorithm called Markov Fitness Model Genetic Algorithm (MFM-GA). We thoroughly investigate its application to a fitness function for feature selection in Case-Based Reasoning (CBR), using a range of standard benchmarks from the CBR community. This fitness function requires considerable computation time to evaluate and we show that using the surrogate offers a significant decrease in total run-time compared to a GA using the true fitness function. This comes at the cost of a reduction in the global best fitness found. We demonstrate that the quality of the solutions obtained by MFM-GA improves significantly with model rebuilding. Comparisons with a classic GA, a GA using fitness inheritance and a selection of filter selection methods for CBR shows that MFM-GA provides a good trade-off between fitness quality and run-time.     

Using GIS, Genetic Algorithms, and Visualization in Highway Development

A model for highway development is presented, which uses geographic information systems (GIS), genetic algorithms (GA), and computer visualization (CV). GIS serves as a repository of geographic information and enables spatial manipulations and database management. GAs are used to optimize highway alignments in a complex search space. CV is a technique used to convey the characteristics of alternative solutions, which can be the basis of decisions. The proposed model implements GIS and GA to find an optimized alignment based on the minimization of highway costs. CV is implemented to investigate the effects of intangible parameters, such as unusual land and environmental characteristics not considered in optimization. Constrained optimization using GAs may be performed at subsequent stages if necessary using feedback received from CVs. Implementation of the model in a real highway project from Maryland indicates that integration of GIS, GAs, and CV greatly enhances the highway development process.