Porous ion-exchange membranes, 2. Effect of adhesion promoters

The previously described preparation of porous ion-exchange membranes (PIEM's) from the ternary blends of polyethylene interpolymer with poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) and polypropylene and calcium carbonate filler has been supplemented with the use of stearic acid and dibutyl phthalate as adhesion promoters. It was noted that both promoters govern the huge increase of pore diameter without any significant disturbances in the other PIEM's properties. The facilitating effect of chlorosulfonic acid diffusion toward calcium carbonate grains and large amounts of carbon dioxide volatilization was concluded. This is the basic point of pore creation to be discussed in this paper.     

Cytokines and perinatal brain injury

A rapidly expanding body of data provides support for the hypothesis that pro-inflammatory cytokines including interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) are expressed acutely in injured brain and contribute to progressive neuronal damage. Little is known about the pathogenetic role of these cytokines in perinatal brain injury. Recent experimental studies have incorporated two closely related in vivo perinatal rodent brain injury models to evaluate the role(s) of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the progression of neuronal injury: a perinatal stroke model, elicited by unilateral carotid artery ligation and subsequent timed exposure to 8% oxygen in 7-day-old rats, and a model of excitotoxic injury, elicited by stereotactic intra-cerebral injection of the selective excitatory amino acid agonist NMDA. Each of these lesioning methods results in reproducible, quantifiable focal forebrain injury at this developmental stage. Acute brain injury, evoked by cerebral hypoxia-ischemia or excitotoxin lesioning, results in transient marked increases in expression of IL-1 beta, and TNF-alpha mRNA in brain regions susceptible to irreversible injury, and there is evidence that pharmacological antagonism of IL-1 receptors can attenuate injury in both models. Recent studies also suggest that complementary strategies, based on pharmacological antagonism of platelet activating factor and on neutrophil depletion can also limit the extent of irreversible injury. In summary, current data suggest that pro-inflammatory cytokines contribute to the progression of perinatal brain injury, and that these mediators are important targets for neuroprotective interventions in the acute post-injury period.     

Classification in a fuzzy environment

In this paper a method of designing a pattern classifier in the presence of fuzzy data (patterns represented in a linguistic manner) is provided. The classifier formulas are studied in a general setting of fuzzy relation equations. Special attention is focused on feature ordering while coping with fuzziness.     

Mariposa: a wide-area distributed database system

The requirements of wide-area distributed database systems differ dramatically from those of local-area network systems. In a wide-area network (WAN) configuration, individual sites usually report to different system administrators, have different access and charging algorithms, install site-specific data type extensions, and have different constraints on servicing remote requests. Typical of the last point are production transaction environments, which are fully engaged during normal business hours, and cannot take on additional load. Finally, there may be many sites participating in a WAN distributed DBMS. In this world, a single program performing global query optimization using a cost-based optimizer will not work well. Cost-based optimization does not respond well to site-specific type extension, access constraints, charging algorithms, and time-of-day constraints. Furthermore, traditional cost-based distributed optimizers do not scale well to a large number of possible processing sites. Since traditional distributed DBMSs have all used cost-based optimizers, they are not appropriate in a WAN environment, and a new architecture is required. We have proposed and implemented an economic paradigm as the solution to these issues in a new distributed DBMS called Mariposa. In this paper, we present the architecture and implementation of Mariposa and discuss early feedback on its operating characteristics. Edited by Henry F. Korth and Amith Sheth. Received November 1994 / Revised June 1995 / Accepted September 14, 1995     

Organic sulphur in the hard coal of the stratigraphic layers of the Upper Silesian coal basin

The paper presents the results of investigation of organic sulphur occurrence in the coal of Upper Silesian coal basin. Six hundred coal samples from 52 mines were tested. It has been found that the content of organic sulphur in the coal depends on the stratigraphic layer, coalification grade and geographic location in the Upper Silesia region. The highest mean content of organic sulphur has been found in the most recent (ca. 0.85%) and in the oldest (ca. 0.5%) strata. The lowest mean contents of organic sulphur have been found in the intermediate strata. In the case of the most recent coals, the content of organic sulphur decreases with increasing of coalification grade. When the carbon content (C^daf) exceeds 82%, the increase of coalification grade causes no further decrease of the mean content of organic sulphur. The share of organic sulphur in the total sulphur is lower in the case of more recent (<50%) and higher in the case of older coals (>50%).     

Fuzzy system identification via probabilistic sets

The paper deals with the applications of probabilistic sets in system theory, especially in system identification and the design of fuzzy logic controllers. Fuzzy systems described by means of fuzzy relational equations and Λ-fuzzy systems are discussed. The identification procedure is based on some ideas of clustering techniques and probabilistic sets. Numerical examples using fuzzy and nonfuzzy data are used to illustrate the theory.     

Prediction of thermodynamic properties of ternary liquid solutions including metal alloys

The free-volume theory of liquid solutions formulated by Flory and also by Patterson for binary systems, has been extended to ternary systems. Numerical calculations have been performed to test the validity of the approach, for a system of organic liquids, for a system of condensed gases, and also for a system of liquid metal alloys. Satisfactory results have been obtained in all cases. Thus, prediction of properties of ternary solutions from a limited number of data concerning pure components and binary mixtures was found possible.     

Drag reduction and mechanical degradation in polymer solutions in flow

A list of conclusions from experimental studies of drag reduction (DR) and mechanucal degradation in flow (MDF) is made. A statistical-mechanical model of chain conformations developed by the author⁹ is used, and its consequences for DR and MDF established. Experimental findings are explained in terms of the model, including those considered to be puzzling and contrary to expectations. A relation between the extent of mechanical degradation and flow time is derived. The equation obtained for relative drag reduction in function of time reproduces perfectly the experimental data for polystyrene+toluene solutions reported by Hunston and Zakin¹². Some predictions from the present model have yet to be tested experimentally.     

Calculation of impact transition temperature of low density polyethylene from shift factor via a free volume approach

A relationship between the impact transition temperatureT _i and the stress concentration factorK _s is derived. The relationship involves the temperature shift factora _T; in turn,a _T depends on the free volume. In earlier work in this problem Zewi and Corneliussen [6] utilized the W-L-F equation. Here a more direct relationship betweena _T and the free volume is applied. Satisfactory values ofK _s corresponding to givenT _i are obtained for a wide temperature range; the range also includes temperatures below the glass transition pointT _g. The opinion that a free volume exists between 0 K andT _g is upheld.     

Wheat endosperm hardness. Part I. Relationships to colour of kernel cross-section

The aim of this study was to determine to what extent the measurement of wheat endosperm colour can be used to predict its hardness. The results indicate that there is no general (for all varieties) relationship between the colour of wheat endosperm and its hardness. Nevertheless, endosperm hardness tends to increase along with increasing values of b*, H and S attributes and decreasing values of a*. More promising results were obtained when the colour–hardness relationship was examined within a variety. In all cases, the results were statistically significant, but the endosperm hardnesses of Zyta, Rysa, Banti, Sakwa, and Mewa varieties were found to be more closely linked with the colour of the central part of the endosperm (r ranging from 0.53 to 0.76), whereas that of durum and Elena wheats were found to be more closely linked with the colour of the whole endosperm (r=0.70 and 0.57 respectively). It was observed that the varieties examined can be divided into three groups differing in the range of changes in hardness as a function of the b* attribute of endosperm colour. For group I (durum and Zyta), the rate of hardness increase was higher than that of group II (Rysa, Banti and Sakwa). The third group (Elena and Mewa) was characterised by the highest slope of hardness versus b*; however, it was well differentiated from group I by its low values for yellow.