Defect chemistry of langasite III: Predictions of electrical and gravimetric properties and application to operation of high temperature crystal microbalance

The electrical and gravimetric properties of langasite, La₃Ga₅SiO₁₄, are related to its underlying defect and transport processes via previously developed predictive defect and transport models. These models are used here to calculate the dependence of the partial ionic and electronic conductivities and the mass change for langasite as functions of temperature, dopant type and level and pO₂. Doping strategies devised for minimizing conductivity in langasite based on use conditions are described. For example, the required dopant level to achieve minimum conductivity and thus minimum electrical losses in acceptor-doped langasite is shown to depend on the operating pO₂. Likewise intrinsic mass changes in langasite, dependent on dopant level, pO₂ and temperatures, if high enough, can mask mass changes induced in active layers applied to langasite when used as a microbalance. For example, the model predicts that the dopant level in donor-doped langasite has less of an impact on intrinsic mass change due to external environmental changes when compared to acceptor-doped langasite. The models are also applied in defining acceptable operating limits needed to achieve and/or the design of properties for desired levels of microbalance resolution and sensitivity.     

Eye Movements and Behavioral Responses to Threatening and Nonthreatening Stimuli During Visual Search in Phobic and Nonphobic Subjects.

Spider-phobic and nonphobic subjects searched for a feared/fear-relevant (spider) or neutral target (mushroom) presented in visual matrices of neutral objects (flowers). In half of the displays, the mushroom target was paired with a spider distractor, or a spider target was paired with a mushroom distractor. Although all subjects responded faster to the neutral target than to the feared/fear-relevant target, phobics were slower to respond than nonphobics when a mushroom target was presented with a spider distractor. Their eyes appeared to be drawn to the feared distractor before fixating neutral targets. A further experiment indicated no group differences when subjects merely judged the homogeneity of matrices. Thus, threat seems to capture the attention of phobics only when it is part of a background that subjects are explicitly instructed to ignore. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Iron (III) oxide nanoparticles within the pore system of mesoporous carbon CMK-1: intra-pore synthesis and characterization

Iron (III) oxide nanoparticles were synthesized inside the pore system of mesoporous carbon CMK-1. This intra-pore synthesis was carried out using several cycles of wet impregnation, drying and calcination procedures. The existence of iron (III) oxide nanoparticles within the pore system was proved by powder X-ray diffraction, nitrogen physisorption, preservation of the host structure by Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. Finally, the local structure of the iron oxide was determined by X-ray absorption spectroscopy.     

Integrating a formal method into a software engineering process with UML and Java

We describe how CSP-OZ, a formal method combining the process algebra CSP with the specification language Object-Z, can be integrated into an object-oriented software engineering process employing the UML as a modelling and Java as an implementation language. The benefit of this integration lies in the rigour of the formal method, which improves the precision of the constructed models and opens up the possibility of (1) verifying properties of models in the early design phases, and (2) checking adherence of implementations to models. The envisaged application area of our approach is the design of distributed reactive systems. To this end, we propose a specific UML profile for reactive systems. The profile contains facilities for modelling components, their interfaces and interconnections via synchronous/broadcast communication, and the overall architecture of a system. The integration with the formal method proceeds by generating a significant part of the CSP-OZ specification from the initially developed UML model. The formal specification is on the one hand the starting point for verifying properties of the model, for instance by using the FDR model checker. On the other hand, it is the basis for generating contracts for the final implementation. Contracts are written in the Java Modeling Language (JML) complemented by CSP_jassda, an assertion language for specifying orderings between method invocations. A set of tools for runtime checking can be used to supervise the adherence of the final Java implementation to the generated contracts. This research was partially supported by the DFG project ForMooS (grants OL 98/3-2 and WE 2290/5-1). C. B. Jones     

Continuous computer controlled production of formate dehydrogenase (FDH) and isolation on a pilot scale

A continuous production process has been developed up to pilot scale (300 l) for FDH production with the methylotrophic yeast Candida boidinii. A high cell mass specific FDH activity (50 U/g) is achieved by process computer controlled supply of pure methanol to operate the reactor at an optimum methanol concentration of 10 g/l. The maximum FDH spacetime yield achievable with this process control involves a residence time of 7 h. The FDH space-time yield (STY) and FDH concentration are a function of the oxygen transfer rate (OTR) of the fermenter (maximum STY = 255 U/(l h) at k_La = 870 l/h). For a reasonable compromise between high FDH space-time yield and high FDH concentration, an optimum residence time is adjustable by regulating the supply of nutrient salt solution in relation to the OTR of the fermenter. On a pilot scale (200 l continuously stirred tank reactor) roughly 4 million U of FDH were produced within 10 days at a residence time of 14.3 h. Isolation of intracellular FDH enzyme was performed using extraction with an aqueous two-phase system (PEG/K₂HPO₄). A technical product quality of 1.2 U/mg FDH was achieved without any chromatographic purification step.     

Subcooled boiling heat transfer to R 12 in an annular vertical channel

Detailed knowledge of the physical phenomena involved in subcooled boiling is of great importance for the design of liquid-cooled heat generating systems with high heat fluxes. Experimental heat transfer data were obtained for forced convective boiling of dichloro-difluoroethane (R 12). The flow is circulated upwards through a concentric annular vertical channel. The inner and outer diameters of the annulus are 0.016 m and 0.03 m respectively. The reduced pressures studied were 0.24 ≤ p/p_crit ≤ 0.8, inlet subcooling varied from 10 to 75 K and mass fluxes from 500 to 3000 kg/m²s, which corresponds to Re numbers from 30000 to 300000. The experiments, described in this study, demonstrate that liquid fluorocarbons show certain unusual boiling characteristics in the subcooled flow, such as hysteresis of the boiling curve. These characteristics are attributed to the properties of the fluid, mainly the Pr number and the very low surface tension. The pronounced boiling curve hysteresis can be explained by the fact that large nucleation sites may have been flooded prior to incipient boiling. A dimensionless regression formula is presented which predicts the onset of subcooled boiling as a function of reduced pressure (p/p_crit), Boiling-(Bo), Reynolds-(Re), and a modified Jacob number (Ja), over the whole range of parameters studied, with a good accuracy, including water data from literature.