Evaluation of lead exposure in workers at secondary lead smelters in South Korea: with focus on activity of erythrocyte pyrimidine 5'-nucleotidase (P5N)

To evaluate lead exposure among secondary lead-smelting workers with a focus on erythrocyte pyrimidine 5'-nucleotidase (P5N) activity, blood lead concentration (PbB), activity of P5N and other biological variables were examined in 88 exposed workers in five secondary lead smelters and in 24 non-exposed workers in Korea. All of the mean values of air lead concentration (PbA) in the three processes, scrap pretreatment, blast furnace smelting, and refining and casting of the secondary lead smelters, markedly exceeded 0.05 mg/m3. In this survey, 29 (97%) of 30 air samples for lead exceeded 0.05 mg/m3. The highest mean PbA and PbB values were found in the section of blast furnace smelting. All of the mean PbB values in all the sections were higher than 30 microg/dl. PbB of 71 (81%) of the 88 exposed workers exceeded 30 microg/dl. In 31 (35%) of the exposed workers, PbB was above 60 microg/dl. Compared with the non-exposed group, zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP) in the exposed group was significantly increased, whereas erythrocyte P5N activity and activity of erythrocyte delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) were significantly inhibited. Erythrocyte P5N activity had valid biological correlation with PbB and with other biological variables, such as ALAD activity or ZPP. Lead exposure affected hemoglobin levels via inhibition of P5N activity, as well as the heme biosynthetic pathway, in the high-exposure state.     

Microstructure and fatigue characteristics of direct chill cast and electromagnetic cast 2024 Al alloy ingots

The distinct advantages of the electromagnetic casting (EMC) process consist in the presence of stirring motions in the melt, which lead to significant grain size reduction in solidified ingot. Furthermore, surface and subsurface qualities are improved due to the absence of ingot mold. However, it is impossible to achieve the aforementioned advantages in conventional direct chill casting (DCC). In order to contrast the before and after heat treatments of the microstructural and mechanical characteristics of EMC and DCC 2024 aluminium alloys, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffractions (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), etc. were carried out. Compared with the DCC ingot, the EMC ingot has better mechanical properties not only in the ascast condition but also in the as-aged condition. The DSC curves show that the EMC specimens have high enthalpy, i.e., the thermal kinetic energy to form precipitates during the aging treatment process. Despite heat treatments applied to the DCC ingot, it fails to attain the same mechanical properties as the EMC ingot. Moreover, considering the expernsive scalping operation for DCC ingots, the EMC technique, which offers a lower manufacturing cost, is one of the best manufacturing methods used in obtaining the ingots of wrought aluminum alloys.     

一种用于碳化钨堆焊的管装电焊条的研究

提供一种用于碳化钨堆焊的管装电焊条。扫描电镜观察、能谱分析及显微硬度测试结果表明堆焊层中存在两种类型的硬质相 ,即 WC- W2 C共晶的原始碳化钨颗粒(硬度 HV2 0 12～ 2 34 1)和 M6C构成的 η相 (HV1817～ 2 2 14)。M6C相以粒状和团块状存在 ,与实芯焊条堆焊的金属中析出的鱼骨状共晶 M6C相比较 ,在不降低堆焊层硬度条件下 ,可提高堆焊层的强度和韧性指标。新型焊条中使用 D型热绝缘剂 ,减少了原始碳化钨颗粒的熔损 ,使焊缝金属组织中硬质相分布域直径 Dd 和面积分数 AC 分别提高2 5 %和 6 2 %。     

An Area Optimization Method for Digital Filter Design

In this paper, we propose an efficient design method for area optimization in a digital filter. The conventional methods to reduce the number of adders in a filter have the problem of a long critical path delay caused by the deep logic depth of the filter due to adder sharing. Furthermore, there is such a disadvantage that they use the transposed direct form (TDF) filter which needs more registers than those of the direct form (DF) filter. In this paper, we present a hybrid structure of a TDF and DF based on the flattened coefficients method so that it can reduce the number of flip‐flops and full‐adders without additional critical path delay. We also propose a resource sharing method and sharing‐pattern searching algorithm to reduce the number of adders without deepening the logic depth. Simulation results show that the proposed structure can save the number of adders and registers by 22 and 26%, respectively, compared to the best one used in the past.     

Microinjection molded disposable microfluidic lab-on-a-chip for efficient detection of agglutination

Previous diagnosing methods based on agglutination have a limitation in view of emergency and point-of-care diagnoses due to the requirement of large scale equipments and much agglutination time. In this paper, we propose a low cost microfluidic lab-on-a-chip for more efficient detection of agglutination. In the present lab-on-a-chip, two inlet microwells, flow guiding microchannels, chaotic micromixer and reaction microwell are fully integrated. Mold inserts for the lab-on-a-chip were manufactured by UV photolithography and nickel electroplating process. The complete lab-on-a-chip was realized by the microinjection molding of cyclic olefin copolymer and the subsequent thermal bonding. The improved serpentine laminating micromixer, developed by our group, integrated in the lab-on-a-chip showed the high-level of chaotic mixing, thereby enabling us to get a reliable mixing of sample and reagent. The performance of the fabricated lab-on-a-chip was demonstrated by agglutination experiments with simulated bloods of 10 μl and simulated sera of 10 μl. The results of agglutination inside the reaction microwell were clearly read by means of the level of light transmission. The present microfluidic lab-on-a-chip could be widely applied to various clinical diagnostics based on agglutination tests.     

致密砂岩油藏裂缝与基质间渗吸特征及主控因素

为提高致密砂岩油藏水驱基质动用程度,以鄂尔多斯盆地A83区块长8储层为研究对象,建立了基于核磁共振在线扫描的岩心水驱渗吸实验,研究了裂缝性致密砂岩储层水驱开发中基质的动用特征,从孔隙尺度定量评价了3类孔隙的采出程度,并对影响渗吸效率的4个因素进行了分析。结果表明,水驱动态渗吸过程可以划分为3个阶段：驱替作用下大孔隙采出程度快速增加、渗吸作用下微小孔隙采出程度缓慢增加、动态渗吸达到平衡。渗吸过程中微小孔隙动用程度最大,对总采出程度的贡献率最高,中孔隙作为连接微小孔隙和大孔隙的流动通道,动用程度最小。整个动态渗吸过程就如同一个有机体,想要最大程度提高总采出程度,就必须控制好驱替速度（0.1 mL/min）、表面活性剂质量分数（0.05%）和焖井时间（占总时间75%）,最大程度地发挥渗吸和驱替2种采油方式的作用,确保在提高微小孔隙采出程度的同时也尽可能地增大大孔隙的采出程度。     

Mechanical properties and durability of PMMA impregnated mortar

Polymer impregnated concrete (PIC) is known to exhibit better strength and durability characteristics than the other classes of polymer cement composites. In the work described herein the monomer was impregnated into cement mortar and polymerized by two methods — the conventional thermal method and using microwaves. The mechanical properties and durability characteristics of the samples and on exposure to chemical environments were then evaluated. The above studies revealed that the strengths of PIC specimens were almost 2–3 times better than those of conventional cement mortars. The chemical resistance was also found to be superior even on prolonged exposure to the chemical media. This may be attributed to the protective layer formed by the polymer on the cement mortar, which prevents the external chemical media from interacting with the cement particles. The properties of the PIC specimens prepared by both methods have also been compared and discussed in this paper.     

Kinetic model of glycerol chlorination with hydrochloric acid

A new reaction model for dichloropropanol (DCP) synthesis from glycerol chlorination is proposed based on the models reported by Tesser et al. (2007) and Luo et al. (2009). Two reaction steps, glycerol to glycerol-1-acetate and α-MCP to 3-chloropropandiol-1-acetate, were defined as reversible reactions and other reaction steps were defined as irreversible processes. Using the experimental data reported by Luo et al. (2009), the values predicted in this study were compared with the previous model reported by Luo et al. (2009) using both the average absolute deviation (AAD) and root mean square deviation (RMSD). The AAD and RMSD of the new model were 31% and 33% lower than that of the existing one, respectively. Overall, the proposed model for glycerol chlorination is superior to the previous model.     

Film instability induced evolution of hierarchical structures in annealed ultrathin films of an asymmetric block copolymer on polar substrates

With an atomic-force microscope and a grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering we studied ex situ the evolution of hierarchical structures in isothermally annealed ultrathin films of asymmetric polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) P(S-b-MMA) that dewetted on polar substrates via a mechanism involving nucleation and growth. Film instability causes the surface to acquire an undulating thickness through incommensurability, producing not only the relief structures on a micrometer scale but also mesophase-separated domains on a nanometer scale. The dewetted morphologies strongly influence the ordering behavior of the nanoscale domains. The noncylindrical nanostructures become stable at the curved edges of the relief microstructures in the destabilized P(S-b-MMA) films, for which a preferential wetting of the PS block with the free surface is prohibited. Additionally, the shape of relief structures as result of film instability correlates with the formation of mesophase-separated nanodomains. At early stages of film instability, the formation of parallel-oriented PMMA cylindrical nanodomains increases the deformation energy and it further persists to force the shape of relief structures between irregular holes to have a facet-wedge shape. However, those relief structures are expected to be not at equilibrium. At high temperatures, the relief structures between irregular holes progressively developed to form hemispherical-cap drops accompanied by a transformation of cylindrical into noncylindrical nanodomains at curved surfaces.