The influence of oxygen and nitrogen contamination on the densification behavior of cryomilled copper powders during spark plasma sintering

It has been found difficult to fully densify some mechanically milled pure metal powders by spark plasma sintering (SPS). In this study, the densification behavior of cryomilled, nanostructured (NS) Cu powders during SPS was related to changes to the chemistry of the powders. The results showed that the presence of very small amounts of O and N in the powders, which were introduced during cryomilling and handling, significantly influenced the densification response. Moreover, reduction/removal of O/N via thermal annealing of the powders before SPS led to complete densification of the powders during subsequent SPS. The mechanisms responsible for this behavior were ascertained: O and N existed in the cryomilled powders in the form of thermally unstable compounds, and the subsequent thermal decomposition of these compounds during SPS generated the gaseous species, leading to porosity formation and incomplete densification; annealing of the powders before SPS removed the gases which resulted from thermal decomposition, thereby facilitating complete consolidation during subsequent SPS.     

The Orinoco river: A review of hydrobiological research

The Orinoco River is one of the world's longest rivers (2060 km) and in terms of average water discharge (36000 m³ s^?1) it ranks third. Seventy per cent of its basin (1.1 × 10⁶km²) is found in Venezuela and the rest in Colombia. Due to the uneven distribution of the population toward the northern coastal areas (97 per cent of the population inhabits 55 per cent of the country with only 16 per cent of the surface waters) plans have been carried out to develop resources in the Orinoco Basin. So far these programs include mining (mainly iron and bauxite), oil exploration and extraction from the Orinoco Oil Belt, industry, river transport, and hydroelectric exploitation. Development of the latter has involved the construction of two dams on the Caroní River (the most important blackwater tributary of the Orinoco) and two more are planned on this same river. Hydroelectric projects are also being considered for the Orinoco River. Physicochemical and biological characterization has been regarded as of major importance to establish base-line information to detect and quantify possible alterations in this river which is considered to be in a pristine state. Systematic hydrobiological research has recently been carried out in the river, some of its major tributaries, and floodplain lakes, and a fair amount of knowledge has emerged mainly from its lower section. Phytoplankton studies have revealed the presence of over 400 species of algae. Zooplankton research has identified 116 taxa of rotifers and 58 taxa of cladocerans. In general plankton densities negatively correlate with water level. Diatoms were observed to predominate in the Orinoco River while Cyanophyta predominate in the studied floodplain lakes. Seventeen aquatic macrophyte species have been recorded in the lakes of the Orinoco with high densities of Eichhornia crassipes, Oxycarium cubense, and Paspalum repens. Rooted emergent and floating-plant cover tends to increase rapidly during high water. Some 318 species and subspecies of fish have been reported for the Orinoco Basin, even though this number is far from complete. Preliminary data have revealed different species associations among relatively close lakes with biomasses ranging between 30 to 900kg ha^?1 displaying considerable variations in diversity and species richness. Fisheries along the Orinoco are mainly of a multispecific nature and their overall potential has been estimated as being in the order of 45 000t yr^?1. In general, management plans have taken into consideration the multispecific potential of the Orinoco Basin but indicate a lack of sufficient knowledge of the physical, biological, and social aspects involved. Furthermore development plans tend to precede the generation of this basic knowledge, thereby increasing the risks of conflict among the various users of the resources involved.     

Participatory Modeling Workshops in a Water-Stressed Basin Result in Gains in Modeling Capacity but Reveal Disparity in Water Resources Management Priorities

Participatory modeling workshops were held in Sonora, México, with the goal of developing water resources management strategies in a water-stressed basin. A model of the water resources system, consisting of watershed hydrology, water resources infrastructure, and groundwater models, was developed deliberatively in the workshops, along with scenarios of future climate and development. Participants used the final version of the water resources systems model to select management strategies. The performance of the strategies was based on the reliability of meeting current and future demands at a daily time scale over a year’s period. Pre- and post-workshop surveys were developed and administered. The survey questions focused on evaluation of participants’ modeling capacity and the utility and accuracy of the models. The selected water resources strategies and the associated, expected reliability varied widely among participants. Most participants could be clustered into three groups with roughly equal numbers of participants that varied in terms of reliance on expanding infrastructure vs. demand modification; expectations of reliability; and perceptions of social, environmental, and economic impacts. The wide range of strategies chosen and associated reliabilities indicate that there is a substantial degree of uncertainty in how future water resources decisions could be made in the region. The pre- and post-survey results indicate that participants believed their modeling abilities increased and beliefs in the utility of models increased as a result of the workshops.     

Sensitivity of generation reserve requirements in deregulated power systems

Since demand for power exhibits great variability the amount of firm energy to be purchased to meet real time demand based on forecasts is usually different from the realized demand for that period. The role of generation reserves is to meet the real time fluctuations of power demand. The predictable part of the demand is met through purchases of firm energy. In this paper a model is presented to determine optimal quantities of firm energy and generation reserves to meet random demands. The model is then parameterized introducing a set of factors to perform a sensitivity study. A full factorial experiment is designed to study the impact of five factors on the response variable (i.e., proportion of generation reserves on the total purchased quantity). An example consisting of 640 simulations corresponding to 2⁵ treatment combinations evaluated over 20 randomly generated mean demands is used to identify significant factors on the response variable. Results from the experiment suggest that generation reserve requirements should be adjusted considering changes in significant factors and in the mean demand over the dispatch interval.     

Effect of leavening agents and sugars on the formation of hydroxymethylfurfural in cookies during baking

The effects of recipe compositions in terms of leavening agent (ammonium and sodium bicarbonates) and sugars (sucrose and glucose), and baking conditions (temperature and time) on HMF formation in cookies were studied. Five recipes were prepared by varying the types of leavening agent and sugar. The cookies were baked at different temperatures (180, 200, 210 and 220 °C) for different time (10, 15, 20 and 25 min) to monitor physical and chemical changes in cookie composition in terms of water activity, pH, surface browning, sugar decomposition, and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) formation. Decreasing moisture to a level under a water activity of 0.4 appeared as the critical point in baking where the rate of HMF formation drastically increased after this point. After this stage, sucrose decomposed very rapidly if ammonium bicarbonate was used as the leavening agent at temperatures greater than 200 °C. Replacing ammonium bicarbonate with sodium bicarbonate maintained pH of cookies ranging between 9.0 and 10.0 during baking, which limited the decomposition of sucrose.     

Remote sensing of phytoplankton functional types

The principal goal in early missions of satellite-borne visible spectral radiometry (ocean colour) was to create synoptic fields of phytoplankton biomass indexed as concentration of chlorophyll-a. In the context of climate change, a major application of the results has been in the modelling of primary production and the ocean carbon cycle. It is now recognised that a partition of the marine autotrophic pool into a suite of phytoplankton functional types, each type having a characteristic role in the biogeochemical cycle of the ocean, would increase our understanding of the role of phytoplankton in the global carbon cycle. At the same time, new methods have been emerging that use visible spectral radiometry to map some of the phytoplankton functional types. Here, we assess the state of the art, and suggest paths for future work.     

Upward vertical two-phase flow local flow regime identification using neural network techniques

Traditionally, the flow regimes in two-phase flow are considered in a global sense. However, a local flow regime is required to understand and model the interfacial structures present in the flow. In this work, a new approach has been used to identify both global and local flow regimes in a two-phase upward flow in a 50.8 mm internal diameter pipe under adiabatic conditions. In the present method, the bubble chord length distributions, which are measured simultaneously with three double-sensor conductivity probes, have been used to feed a self-organized neural network. The global flow regime identification results show a reasonable agreement with the visual observation for all the flow conditions. Nonetheless, only the local flow regimes measured at the center of the pipe agree with the global ones. The local flow regime combinations found are analyzed using the flow map information, cross-correlations between the probe signals, and previous correlations. In this way, it is possible to identify eight different global flow regime configurations.