Rheology of Zirconia Suspensions in a Nonpolar Organic Medium

Three dispersants (stearic acid, oleic acid, and poly(12-hydroxystearic acid)) are compared for their ability to produce low-viscosity suspensions of zirconia in kerosene. Rheological measurements and sediment packing density measurements show that poly(12-hydroxystearic acid) is a better dispersant than stearic acid or oleic acid; this is explained in terms of the longer tail of the poly(12-hydroxystearic acid) surfactant molecule. The amount of dispersant can be optimized to reduce viscosity and yield point of the suspension, and to eliminate thixotropic hysteresis. The use of a dispersion medium of lower viscosity than the dispersant makes it easy to detect when complete monolayer coverage has been achieved. The loss of pseudoplasticity, brought about by a higher degree of deflocculation, can be recovered by increasing the volume fraction of solids of a suspension and this is beneficial in the plastic forming of ceramics. Rheological measurements showed that these suspensions reach a "critical state" above a critical shear stress (τ_c). This critical state is described by several parameters, i.e., the Bingham yield stress (τ_b), the plastic viscosity (ν_Pl), and the critical shear rate (γ_c), which are dependent on the volume fraction of solids.     

Active learning for on-road vehicle detection: a comparative study

In recent years, active learning has emerged as a powerful tool in building robust systems for object detection using computer vision. Indeed, active learning approaches to on-road vehicle detection have achieved impressive results. While active learning approaches for object detection have been explored and presented in the literature, few studies have been performed to comparatively assess costs and merits. In this study, we provide a cost-sensitive analysis of three popular active learning methods for on-road vehicle detection. The generality of active learning findings is demonstrated via learning experiments performed with detectors based on histogram of oriented gradient features and SVM classification (HOG–SVM), and Haar-like features and Adaboost classification (Haar–Adaboost). Experimental evaluation has been performed on static images and real-world on-road vehicle datasets. Learning approaches are assessed in terms of the time spent annotating, data required, recall, and precision.     

Direct Ink-Jet Printing of Vertical Walls

Direct jet printing can assemble ceramic powder into a three dimensional shape by firing droplets of ink through a nozzle to build a multiple layered structure. As with stereolithography and selective laser sintering, the surface texture is expected to witness the layered assembly. The ability to create vertical walls by direct ink-jet printing was explored using a test piece based on a maze. The structure and topography are discussed in terms of droplet spreading and drying.     

Field Validation of DNDC Model for Methane and Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Rice-based Production Systems of India

The DNDC (DeNitrification and DeComposition) model was tested against experimental data on CH₄ and N₂O emissions from rice fields at different geographical locations in India. There was a good agreement between the simulated and observed values of CH₄ and N₂O emissions. The difference between observed and simulated CH₄ emissions in all sites ranged from −11.6 to 62.5 kg C ha⁻¹ season⁻¹. Most discrepancies between simulated and observed seasonal fluxes were less than 20% of the field estimate of the seasonal flux. The relative deviation between observed and simulated cumulative N₂O emissions ranged from −237.8 to 28.6%. However, some discrepancies existed between observed and simulated seasonal patterns of CH₄ and N₂O emissions. The model simulated zero N₂O emissions from continuously flooded rice fields and poorly simulated CH₄ emissions from Allahabad site. For all other simulated cases, the model satisfactorily simulated the seasonal variations in greenhouse gas emission from paddy fields with different land management. The model also simulated the C and N balances in all the sites, including other gas fluxes, viz. CO₂, NO, NO₂, N₂ and NH₃ emissions. Sensitivity tests for CH₄ indicate that soil texture and pH significantly influenced the CH₄ emission. Changes in organic C content had a moderate influence on CH₄ emission on these sites. Introducing the mid-season drainage reduced CH₄ emissions significantly. Process-based biogeochemical modeling, as with DNDC, can help in identifying strategies for optimizing resource use, increasing productivity, closing yield gaps and reducing adverse environmental impacts.     

The performance of a hybrid routing intelligent algorithm in a mobile ad hoc network

End-to-end delay, power consumption, and communication cost are some of the most important metrics in a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) when routing from a source to a destination. Recent approaches using the swarm intelligence (SI) technique proved that the local interaction of several simple agents to meet a global goal has a significant impact on MANET routing. In this work, a hybrid routing intelligent algorithm that has an ant colony optimisation (ACO) algorithm and particle swarm optimisation (PSO) is used to improve the various metrics in MANET routing. The ACO algorithm uses mobile agents as ants to identify the most feasible and best path in a network. Additionally, the ACO algorithm helps to locate paths between two nodes in a network and provides input to the PSO technique, which is a metaheuristic approach in SI. The PSO finds the best solution for a particle’s position and velocity and minimises cost, power, and end-to-end delay. This hybrid routing intelligent algorithm has an improved performance when compared with the simple ACO algorithm in terms of delay, power consumption, and communication cost.     

Sodium alginate–poly(hydroxyethylmethacrylate) interpenetrating polymeric network membranes for the pervaporation dehydration of ethanol and tetrahydrofuran

Interpenetrating polymeric network (IPN) membranes of sodium alginate (NaAlg) and various amounts of poly(hydroxyethylmethacrylate) (PHEMA) have been prepared and tested for the pervaporation dehydration of ethanol and tetrahydrofuran (THF). The presence of hydrophilic PHEMA in the IPN matrix was found to be responsible for increase in membrane selectivity to water. NaAlg–PHEMA IPN membrane containing 20 wt % of PHEMA exhibited a selectivity of 571 to water for the water–ethanol mixture and 857 for water–THF mixture. These data are much better than those observed for the pristine NaAlg membrane. However, flux of the IPN membranes was smaller than that of pristine NaAlg membrane. Comparatively higher flux values were observed for water–THF mixture than for water–ethanol mixture. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 3324–3329, 2006     

A comparative study on the effect of promoter content of hydrodesulfurization catalysts at different evaluation scales

CoMo and NiMo supported Al₂O₃ catalysts have been investigated for hydrotreating of model molecule as well as industrial feedstock. Activity studies were carried out for thiophene and SRGO hydrodesulfurization (HDS) in an atmospheric pressure and batch reactor respectively. These activities on sulfided catalysts were evaluated as a function of promoter content [M/(M + Mo) = 0.30, 0.34, 0.39; M = Co or Ni] using fixed (ca. 8 wt.%) molybdenum content. The promoted catalysts were characterized by textural properties, XRD, and temperature programmed reduction (TPR). TPR spectra of the Co and Ni promoter catalysts showed that Ni promotes the easy reduction of Mo species compared with Co. With the variation of promoter content NiMo catalyst was found to be superior to CoMo catalyst for gas oil HDS, while at low-promoter content the opposite trend was observed for HDS of thiophene. The behavior was attributed to the several reaction mechanisms involved for gas oil HDS. A nice relationship was obtained for hydrodesulfurized gas oil refractive index (RI) and aromatic content, which corresponds to the Ni hydrogenation property.     

Abutilon indicum Seed Oil — Characterisation of HBr-Reactive Acids

The seed oil of Abutilon indicum (Malvaceae) contains three HBr-reactive fatty acids. These are shown to be cis-12,13-epoxyoleic (vernolic) acid, 1.6% 9,10-methylene-octadec-9-enoic (sterculic) acid, 0.9%; as well as 8,9-methylene-heptadec-8-enoic (malvalic) acid, 2.3%. Quantitative results are obtained by combining informations about the HBr-titration, the preparative thin layer separation of oxygenated and non-oxygenated acids, and gas liquid chromatographic analysis.     

Synthesis and water absorbency of crosslinked superabsorbent polymers

A series of novel copolymer superabsorbents based on monomer acrylamide (AM), potassium methacrylate (KMA), and 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) were prepared by copolymerization using ammonium persulfate (APS) as an initiator and N,N‐methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinking agent. The synthetic variables (the monomer concentration, crosslinker concentration, and initiator concentration) were also studied. The experimental results of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) show a better absorbency in both water and NaCl solutions. The copolymers were characterized by IR spectroscopy. The water retention in the soil was enhanced using the above superabsorbents. The use of SAPs for the growth of groundnut plants was also investigated. SAPs can be considered for water‐managing materials for agriculture and horticulture purposes in desert and drought‐prone areas. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 85: 1795–1801, 2002     

Maya crude hydrodemetallization and hydrodesulfurization catalysts: An effect of TiO2 incorporation in Al2O3

Hydrotreating of Maya heavy crude oil over high specific surface area CoMo/TiO₂–Al₂O₃ oxide supported catalysts was studied in an integral reactor close to industrial practice. Activity studies were carried out with Maya crude hydrodesulfurization (HDS), hydrodemetallization (HDM), hydrodenitrogenation (HDN), and hydrodeasphaltenization (HDAs) reactions. The effect of support composition, the method of TiO₂ incorporation, and the catalyst deactivation are examined. Supported catalysts are characterized by BET specific surface area (SSA), pore volume (PV), pore size distribution (PSD), and atomic absorption. It has been found that sulfided catalysts showed a wide range of activity variation with TiO₂ incorporation into the alumina, which confirmed that molybdenum sulfided active phases strongly depend on the nature of support. The pore diameter and nature of the active site for HDS, HDM, HDN, and HDAs account for the influence of the large reactant molecules restricted diffusion into the pore, and/or the decrease in the number of active sites due to the MoS₂ phases buried with time-on-stream. The textural properties and hysteresis loop area of supported and spent catalysts indicated that catalysts were deactivated at the pore mouth due to the metal and carbon depositions. The atomic absorption results agreed well regarding the textural properties of spent catalysts. Thus, incorporation of TiO₂ with γ-Al₂O₃ alters the nature of active metal interaction with support, which may facilitate the dispersion of active phases on the support surface. Therefore, the TiO₂ counterpart plays a promoting role to HDS activity due to the favorable morphology of MoS₂ phases and metal support interaction.