Catalytic oxidation of naphthalene using a Pt/Al2O3 catalyst

Polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are listed as carcinogenic and mutagenic priority pollutants, belonging to the environmental endocrine disrupters. Most PAHs in the environment stem from the atmospheric deposition and diesel emission. Consequently, the elimination of PAHs in the off-gases is one of the priority and emerging challenges. Catalytic oxidation has been widely used in the destruction of organic compounds due to its high efficiency (or conversion of reactants), its economic benefits and good applicability.

This study investigates the application of the catalytic oxidation using Pt/γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts to decompose PAHs and taking naphthalene (the simplest and least toxic PAH) as a target compound. It studies the relationships between conversion, operating parameters and relevant factors such as treatment temperatures, catalyst sizes and space velocities. Also, a related reaction kinetic expression is proposed to provide a simplified expression of the relevant kinetic parameters.

The results indicate that the Pt/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst used accelerates the reaction rate of the decomposition of naphthalene and decreases the reaction temperature. A high conversion (over 95%) can be achieved at a moderate reaction temperature of 480 K and space velocity below 35,000 h⁻¹. Non-catalytic (thermal) oxidation achieves the same conversion at a temperature beyond 1000 K. The results also indicate that Rideal–Eley mechanism and Arrhenius equation can be reasonably applied to describe the data by using the pseudo-first-order reaction kinetic equation with activation energy of 149.97 kJ/mol and frequency factor equal to 3.26 × 10¹⁷ s⁻¹.     

On properties of RDT communication-induced checkpointing protocols

Rollback-dependency trackability (RDT) is a property stating that all rollback dependencies between local checkpoints are online trackable by using a transitive dependency vector. The most crucial RDT characterizations introduced in the literature can be represented as certain types of RDT-PXCM-paths. Here, let the U-path and V-path be any two types of RDT-PXCM-paths. We investigate several properties of communication-induced checkpointing protocols that ensure the RDT property. First, we prove that if an online RDT protocol encounters a U-path at a point of a checkpoint and communication pattern associated with a distributed computation, it also encounters a V-path there. Moreover, if this encountered U-path is invisibly doubled, the corresponding encountered V-path is invisibly doubled as well. Therefore, we can conclude that breaking all invisibly doubled U-paths is equivalent to breaking all invisibly doubled V-paths for an online RDT protocol. Next, we continue to demonstrate that a visibly doubled U-path must contain a doubled U-cycle in the causal past. These results can further deduce that some different checkpointing protocols actually have the same behavior for all possible patterns. Finally, we present a commendatory systematic technique for comparing the performance of online RDT protocols.     

Effect of Thickness of the p-AlGaN Electron Blocking Layer on the Improvement of ESD Characteristics in GaN-Based LEDs

The following letter presents a study regarding GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with p-type AlGaN electron blocking layers (EBLs) of different thicknesses. The study revealed that the LEDs could endure higher electrostatic discharge (ESD) levels as the thickness of the AlGaN EBL increased. The observed improvement in the ESD endurance ability could be attributed to the fact that the thickened p-AlGaN EBL may partly fill the dislocation-related pits that occur on the surface of the InGaN-GaN multiple-quantum well (MQW) and that are due to the strain and the low-temperature-growth process. If these dislocation-related pits are not partly suppressed, they will eventually result in numerous surface pits associated with threading dislocations that intersect the InGaN-GaN (MQW), thereby reducing the ESD endurance ability. The results of the experiment show that the ESD endurance voltages could increase from 1500 to 6000 V when the thickness of the p-AlGaN EBL in the GaN LEDs is increased from 32.5 to 130 nm, while the forward voltages and light output powers remained almost the same.     

The m1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor transactivates the EGF receptor to modulate ion channel activity

Intracellular tyrosine kinases link the G protein-coupled m1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) to multiple cellular responses. However, the mechanisms by which m1 mAChRs stimulate tyrosine kinase activity and the identity of the kinases within particular signaling pathways remain largely unknown. We show that the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), a single transmembrane receptor tyrosine kinase, becomes catalytically active and dimerized through an m1 mAChR-regulated pathway that requires protein kinase C, but is independent of EGF. Finally, we demonstrate that transactivation of the EGFR plays a major role in a pathway linking m1 mAChRs to modulation of the Kv1.2 potassium channel. These results demonstrate a ligand-independent mechanism of EGFR transactivation by m1 mAChRs and reveal a novel role for these growth factor receptors in the regulation of ion channels by G protein-coupled receptors.     

A novel ultracompact two-mode-interference wavelength division multiplexer for 1.5-/spl mu/m operation

A novel ultracompact 2/spl times/2 wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) for 1.55-/spl mu/m operation based on highly dispersive two-mode interference (TMI) was designed, theoretically modeled, and verified using a finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) method. A two-moded waveguide assisted with a dispersive tooth-shaped grating provided a mode-dependent reflection band of central wavelength at 1.55 /spl mu/m. The wavelengths of 1538 and 1572 nm that were at the band edges and had the lowest reflection losses and relatively high dispersion were selected for wavelength multiplexing. The result showed that the wavelengths were separated by grating dispersion in a coupler length of 75 /spl mu/m which was much shorter than the required length of 1.1 mm in a regular TMI multiplexer of no grating. Insertion loss of about 1.7 dB and channel contrast of about 12 dB were achieved.     

Lipase‐catalyzed dynamic kinetic resolution of (R,S)‐fenoprofen thioester in isooctane

A lipase‐catalyzed enantioselective hydrolysis process under in situ racemization of the remaining (R)‐thioetser substrate with trioctylamine as the catalyst was developed for the production of (S)‐fenoprofen from (R,S)‐fenoprofen 2,2,2‐trifluoroethyl thioester in isooctane. Detailed investigations of trioctylamine concentration on the enzyme activation and the kinetic behavior of the thioester in racemization and enzymatic reactions were conducted, in which good agreement between the experimental data and theoretical results was observed. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

Hierarchical production control for a flow shop with dynamic setup changes and random machine breakdowns

In this paper, we study a manufacturing system consisting of two machines separated by two intermediate buffers, and capable of producing two different products. Each product requires a constant processing time on each of the machines. Each machine requires a constant non-negligible setup change time from one product to the other. The demand rate for each product is considered to be piecewise constant. Each machine undergoes failure and repair. The time-to-failure and time-to-repair are exponentially distributed random variables. The setup change and processing operations are resumable. We model our system as a continuous time, continuous flow process. An optimal control problem is formulated for the system to minimize the total expected discounted cost over an infinite horizon. To determine the optimal control policy structure, a discrete version of the problem is solved numerically using a dynamic programming formulation with a piecewise linear penalty function. A real-time control algorithm is then developed with the objective of maintaining low work-in-process inventory and keeping the production close to the demand. The algorithm uses a hierarchical control structure to generate the loading times for each product on each machine in real time and to respond to random disruptions in the system. The system is simulated using this algorithm to study its performance. The performance of the algorithm is also compared to alternative policies.     

Colour image detection and matching using modified generalisedHough transform

A new approach to 2-dimensional (2D) colour-image detection and matching using a modified version of the generalised Hough transform (GHT) is proposed. In the conventional GHT, the useful colour information existing in the input image and the relationship between each pixel and its neighbourhood are not used. Furthermore, lighting changes in the image are not usually considered. Therefore, the conventional GHT is seldom applied to colour images. In the proposed approach, lighting are removed using normalised colour values. Next, certain critical pixels of an input colour image whose neighbourhoods have larger variances of normalised colour values are extracted. For each critical pixel, a feature vector, which includes the normalised colour values of the pixel as well as those of the pixel's neighbours, is then constructed. A modified voting rule for the GHT is therefore proposed which is based on a similarity-measure function of the feature vectors. High maximum peaks in the cell array are searched finally as the result. The proposed method is robust for colour-image detection and matching in noisy, occlusive, and lighting-change environments, as demonstrated by experimental results     

A newly robust controller design for the position control ofpermanent-magnet synchronous motor

A robust controller which is designed by employing variable-structure control and linear-quadratic method is presented for a permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) position control system. It is to achieve accurate control performance in the presence of plant parameter variation and load disturbance. In addition, it possesses the design flexibility of the conventional state feedback control. It is applied to the position control of a PMSM. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed approach gives a better position response and is robust to parameter variations and load disturbance