Ultrasound‐activated Knoevenagel condensation of malononitrile with carbonylic compounds catalysed by alkaline‐doped saponites

α,β‐Unsaturated nitriles have been synthesized by Knoevenagel condensation of a carbonylic compound with malononitrile, assisted by sonochemical irradiation. Two alkaline‐promoted clays (Li⁺‐ and Cs⁺‐exchanged saponites) have been employed as catalysts. The influence of the carbonylic compound (benzaldehyde or cyclohexanone) and the use of a solvent on the catalytic activity have been studied. Remarkable increase in the conversion values has been found when the reaction is activated by ultrasound, as compared with the thermal activation. In this green, solvent‐free procedure, α,β‐unsaturated nitriles have been produced in very high yields (97%) when the Cs⁺‐saponite is used as catalyst. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Investigation of texture effect on visual colour difference evaluation

The texture effect on visual colour difference evaluation was investigated in this study. Five colour centers were selected and textured colour pairs were generated using scanned textile woven fabrics and colour‐mapping technique. The textured and solid colour pairs were then displayed on a characterized cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor for colour difference evaluation. The colour difference values for the pairs with texture patterns are equal to 5.0 CIELAB units in lightness direction. The texture level was represented by the half‐width of histogram, which is called texture strength in this study. High correlation was found between texture strength and visual colour difference for textured colour pairs, which indicates that an increasing of 10 units of texture strength in luminance would cause a decreasing of 0.25 units visual difference for the five colour centers. The ratio of visual difference between textured and solid colour pairs also indicates a high parametric effect of texture. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 30, 341–347, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.     

Nutrient removal performance of an anaerobic–anoxic–aerobic process as a function of influent C/P ratio

The laboratory scale anaerobic–anoxic–aerobic (A²O) process fed with synthetic brewage wastewater was designed to investigate the effects of changing feed C/P ratio on the performance of biological nutrient removal (BNR) processes. In the experiment, the influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration was kept at approximately 300 mg L^?1 while the total phosphorus concentration was varied to obtain the desired C/P ratio. Results showed that when the C/P ratio was lower than 32, phosphorus removal efficiency increased as C/P ratio increased linearly, while when the C/P ratio was higher than 32, the P removal efficiency was maintained at 90–98%, and effluent P concentration was lower than 0.5 mg L^?1. However, regardless of the C/P ratio, excellent COD removal (90% or higher) and good total nitrogen removal (75–84%) were maintained throughout the experiments. It was also found that very good linear correlation was obtained between COD uptake per unit P released in the anaerobic zone and C/P ratio. In addition, the P content in the wasted activated sludge increased with the decrease in the C/P ratio. Based on the results, it was recommended that the wastewater C/P ratio and its effects be incorporated into BNR design and operational procedures, appropriate C/P ratios were used to achieve the effluent treatment goals. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry     

Rapid and comprehensive indicator for evaluation of performance of treatment processes and of river waters.

Naturally occurring UV active compounds, commonly present in almost all source waters, can be rapidly monitored by their ultraviolet absorbance at 260 nm (E260). Herein, the extent of correlation between the E260 and the removal efficiency of the hazardous contaminants, endocrine disrupters and dioxins, were investigated using various treatment and river source waters. The detection of various types of hazardous contaminants using sophisticated analytical methods, such as high resolution gas chromatography (HRGC)/high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)/inductively coupled plasma (ICP)/mass spectrometry (MS), as well as various short-term bioassays, can require hours or even days for results to be obtained. The removal of the E260 correlated well with those of individual contaminants, such as endocrine disruptor chemicals and dioxins, with the various treatment processes employed. In the plots of the endocrine disrupters against the DOC/E260, a correlation was found with the endocrine activity of the Korean/Japanese river waters employed in this study.     

Effect of specimen size and loading conditions on spalling of concrete

Different qualities of concrete have been fire tested using different geometries of the specimens as well as different load levels and load configurations. The main objective with the study was to examine a test methodology consisting of a full‐scale test and different small scale‐tests for determining the probability of spalling and the amount of spalling of fire exposed concrete structures. A reference specimen was defined as a one‐sided fire exposed slab with the dimensions 1800 × 1200 mm² giving an exposed area of 1500 × 1200 mm². A number of concrete qualities with different probabilities for spalling, were tested using the reference specimen. These tests showed that the reference specimens worked well giving the expected test results. Small specimens were manufactured in different shapes with the same concrete as the one used in the reference tests. These small specimens were tested either at the same time as the reference specimens in the large furnace or afterwards on a small‐scale furnace where the fire exposed surface was 450 × 360 mm². The test results clearly show the increased probability and the increased amount of spalling by using external compressive loading. The results also show that by using pre‐stress through bars or wires the load can be lost due to heating of the bars/wires which results in a decreased amount of spalling. The boundary of the specimen also affects the amount of spalling. The spalling around the edges was in all tests less than the spalling on the central parts of the exposed area. It could also be noted that the spalling did not pass completely through any of the specimens. The reason for this is probably that the water/vapour could migrate out from the unexposed surface of the specimen. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

StoryGrid [educational computing]

The StoryGrid project undertook studying the role new interface technologies might play in education, particularly at the high school level. Unfortunately, technology often seizes center stage in high school classrooms; i.e., it becomes the topic of instruction. We believe that learning about technology would be most successful when technology is not the topic, but simply a tool used during instruction. StoryGrid, therefore, was designed to support and to enhance existing narrative activity in classrooms by adhering to the following goals: trigger reflection and interpretation, accommodate individual expression and encourage student discourse.     

Compact Dipole Antenna for Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting Service

A compact dipole antenna for the terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (TDMB) application is presented. The length of the antenna is about 0.06λ at the TDMB resonance frequency of 190 MHz. Miniaturization of the antenna is achieved by using meander structures and lumped elements. The proposed antenna has two resonance frequencies and covers the TDMB band from 174 MHz to 216 MHz in Korea. The antenna has good impedance bandwidth and radiation characteristics for the TDMB. The experimental results of the designed dipole antenna are presented and analyzed.     

Biaxiale Ermüdung reibrührgeschweißter Strukturelemente

Biaxial fatigue of friction stir welded stiffened panels Within the framework of the European WelAir project, cruciform specimens made from stiffening FSW overlap joints were fatigued in the DLR biaxial test rig. To resemble the loading situation of pressurized fuselage structures, proportional loading without any phase shift, but with different load ratios λ between the loading components in both directions was applied.Natural crack initiation and subsequent crack growth were governed by the stiffness gradient caused by introducing the stringer. Cracks initiated and propagated at run‐in and run‐out locations in a direction perpendicular to the weld seam. The shortest fatigue life was observed for uniaxial loading in welding direction (λ = 0). An additional stress component perpendicular to the joint line (λ > 0) resulted in a higher number of cycles to failure. Similar to single stringer panels, increasing the load ratio also increased the number of cycles to failure for FSW clip‐stringer structural members, but additionally gives a different location of the fatal crack.     

Visual insights into high-resolution earthquake Simulations.

This study focuses on the visualization of a series of large earthquake simulations collectively called TeraShake. The simulation series aims to assess the impact of San Andreas Fault earthquake scenarios in Southern California. We discuss the role of visualization in gaining scientific insight and aiding unexpected discoveries.     

Exploiting ILP, TLP, and DLP with the polymorphous trips architecture

The Tera-op reliable intelligently adaptive processing system (TRIPS) architecture seeks to deliver system-level configurability to applications and runtime systems. It does so by employing the concept of polymorphism, which permits the runtime system to configure the hardware execution resources to match the mode of execution and demands of the compiler and application.