Protein-Dialdehyde Starch Glue for Birch Type II Plywood

A hot-press, protein-dialdehyde starch glue was used experimentally to prepare plywood from yellow birch veneers. Gluing conditions were similar to those that were previously effective for bonding southern pine veneers to form interior-type plywood test panels. Yellow birch plywood produced under the conditions so developed met the performance requirements for Type II hardwood plywood. The excellent tack that was obtained with cold-pressed panels would allow prepressing in mill operations. Further-more, yellow birch and southern pine veneers were sufficiently compatible with this moderately alkaline glue to permit mixing these species in the same plywood construction. Bleedthrough of glue was not observed in plywood panels having 1/26-in. birch face veneers. Results indicate that the protein-dialdehyde starch glue should be useful in the manufacture of birch Type II plywood.     

Optimized in-phase and opposed-phase MR imaging for accurate detection of small fat or water fractions: theoretical considerations and experimental application in emulsions

Object  

To optimize strategies and measurement parameters for quantification of small fat and water fractions (<10%) in mixtures of both components by 4-point in-phase and opposed-phase gradient-echo imaging and to compare theoretical results with in-vitro experiments using emulsions.     

IP QoS across multiple management domains: practical experiences from pan-European experiments

GEANT is the pan-European 10 Gbs network interconnecting European national research and educational networks (NRENs). A Premium IP service based on the DiffServ EF PHB has been specified and implemented for this environment to provide quality of service to selected user groups on a Europe-wide scale. Basic features of Premium IP are described, and results from early experiments in the production networks of GEANT and the NRENs are presented. Next steps are proposed for achieving a fast and wide availability of Premium IP in the European research networks.     

Probabilistic crisscross error correction

The crisscross error model in data arrays is considered, where the corrupted symbols are confined to a prescribed number of rows or columns (or both). Under the additional assumption that the corrupted entries are uniformly distributed over the channel alphabet, and by allowing a small decoding error probability, a coding scheme is presented where the redundancy can get close to one half the redundancy required in minimum-distance decoding of crisscross errors     

Magnetic and Temperature‐Sensitive Release Gels from Supramolecular Polymers

Supramolecular gels consisting of trivalent polyisobutylene and bivalent poly(ethylene oxide) are generated. Strong hydrogen bonding interactions, affixed to the end‐group moieties of the respective polymers (binding constant K_assn = 10⁵ M ^–1), serve as molecular glue, leading to the formation of weak gels. Two different gels were prepared: one, with a short telechelic poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) segment (gel A), and one with a longer PEG segment (number‐average molecular weight M_n = 2000 g mol^–1) (gel B). Both gels show a significant increase in viscosity upon mixing of the two polymeric components, with a lag time of several minutes, indicative of nucleation mechanisms as the formation principle. However, only gel A displays classical gel‐like behavior, with a loss modulus G′ larger than the storage modulus G″ after formation. Both gels display microphase‐separated behavior with a spacing between 4–5 nm as probed via small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements. The incorporation of magnetic nanoparticles (Fe₂O₃; radius r = 3.5 nm) is successfully achieved, generating new magnetic gels with strongly thermoresponsive properties, displaying a strong temperature‐dependent release profile of included dye molecules. Magnetic measurements indicate a superparamagnetic behavior of the incorporated nanoparticles, prospecting the application as magneto‐sensitive delivery gels for pharmaceutical purposes.     

Microfluidic arrays for bioimprint of cancer cells

We report the development and characterization of a microfluidics-based bioimprint process using high-density microchannel arrays for cell-culture and polymer delivery. The tubeless PDMS arrays consist of multiple independent microchannels and allow for parallelized bioimprint via automated dispensing and passive pumping. Using the microchannels, a 400 nm thin test pattern was replicated into a methacrylate biopolymer to demonstrate process applicability. Bioimprints of cobalt chloride stimulated Ishikawa endometrial cancer cells exhibiting exocytosis-like pore structures were compared with controls using AFM to exemplify a process application. The devices can be used for high-throughput cell assays, cell developmental studies and the formation of phenotype-specific biomimetic scaffolds.     

The performance of a direct-sequence spread-spectrum acquisition system using a linear prediction filter for narrowband interference suppression

The coarse acquisition performance of a direct sequence spread-spectrum receiver is analyzed when a linear prediction filter is used for narrowband interference suppression. We show that once an appropriate matching strategy is identified, the linear prediction filter can provide favorable performance when narrowband interference is present over a considerable range of both interference power and bandwidth. In addition, the presence of the filter dramatically improves the performance over the case where there is no filter, except when the interference bandwidth and the power are both small (i.e., when the processing gain provides sufficient interference immunity without the filter). If long spreading sequences are used with moderately sized observation windows, the acquisition performance can be severely degraded when a parallel acquisition scheme is used due to the linear predication filter. We show, however, that a slower serial receiver will provide reliable performance.This work was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research under contract ONR N00014-91-J-1234, the Army Research Office under contract ARO DAAL03-91-0071, and the NSF Center for Ultra-High Speed Circuits and Systems (ICAS).     

Parallel constrained coding with application to two-dimensionalconstraints

A parallel constrained coding scheme is considered where p-blocks of raw data are encoded simultaneously into q tracks such that the contents of each track belong to a given constraint S. It is shown that as q increases, there are parallel block-decodable encoders for S whose coding ratio p/q converges to the capacity of S. Examples are provided where parallel coding allows block-decodable encoders, while conventional coding, at the same rate, does not. Parallel encoders are then applied as building blocks in the construction of block-decodable encoders for certain families of two-dimensional constraints     

铝合金的大功率扩散型CO_2激光粉末焊接技术Ⅱ——铝合金焊接接头的组织与性能

本试验研究就采用扩散型CO2 激光粉末焊接技术的铝合金焊接接头进行组织及性能的分析。拉伸实验的结果表明 :对于无间隙的对接焊接头 ,采用不填粉的激光焊接工艺时的抗拉强度明显低于采用填充粉末焊接工艺 ,而且断裂也是发生在焊缝部位。但是拉伸实验的过程中可以看到明显的屈服发生在母材 ,而不是焊缝。采用填粉的激光焊接工艺时则是在母材产生屈服和最终的断裂 ;对于有间隙的对接焊接头 ,采用填粉工艺时 ,其抗拉强度不低于母材的最大间隙达 0 5mm。另外 ,采用填粉工艺的对接焊接头 ,其冷弯角可达 180°、硬度和母材相当 ;其焊缝的金相组织 ,基底为Al+Si共晶与α-Al的均匀混合物 ,其上分布有结晶时先析出的纯Si;当焊接速度偏低时 ,会发生紧邻熔合线的焊缝部位的断裂。启裂区为准解理形貌 ,扩展区面积较大并且是以准解理为主的混合断口形貌 ,终断区为韧性断口形貌