Preparation of Phase-Pure M1 MoVTeNb Oxide Catalysts by Hydrothermal Synthesis—Influence of Reaction Parameters on Structure and Morphology

This work presents a detailed investigation of the preparation of MoVTeNbO _x catalysts by hydrothermal synthesis. Phase-pure synthesis of M1 has been achieved applying the metals in a molar ratio Mo/V/Te/Nb = 1/0.25/0.23/0.12. Raman, UV/Vis spectroscopy, and SEM/EDX analysis show that the elements are inhomogeneously distributed in the initial suspension that is formed after mixing the metal salts in an aqueous medium. Iso- and heteropoly anions of molybdenum, free telluric acid as well as supra-molecular polyoxometalate clusters are observed in the solution, whereas all metals have been found in the precipitate. Complete rearrangement of molecular building blocks under hydrothermal conditions is essential for formation of phase-pure materials. Optimized synthesis conditions with respect to temperature and time result in the formation of a precursor consisting of nano-structured M1 characterized by an extended periodic organization in the [001] direction and a fairly homogeneous distribution of the elements. Residual ammonium containing supra-molecular species in the precursor result in the formation of phase mixtures during the subsequent crystallization by heat treatment in inert gas. Phase-pure M1 exhibits a distinct degree of flexibility with respect to the chemical composition that becomes obvious by incorporating Nb not exclusively into pentagonal bi-pyramidal units, but also into octahedral coordinated positions as shown by EXAFS. Anisotropic growth of the needle-like M1 crystals has been observed during the final heat treatment performed at 873–923 K in inert atmosphere disclosing a potential method to control the catalytic properties of MoVTeNbO _x catalysts.     

On copulas, quasicopulas and fuzzy logic

We investigate (quasi)copulas as possible truth functions of fuzzy conjunction which is not necessarily associative and present some axiom systems for such fuzzy logics. In particular, we study an expansion of Łukasiewicz (infinite valued propositional) logic by a new connective interpreted as an arbitrary quasicopula (and also by a new connective interpreted as the residuum of the copula). Main results concern standard completeness.     

Lipid damage in farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) after slaughtering and chilled storage

The flow ice system including ozone (OFI condition) was tested for slaughtering and storage (up to 16 days) of farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Lipid damage analyses were carried out and compared to sensory acceptance and instrumental colour changes. Comparison to individuals processed with the flow ice system in the absence of ozone (FI condition) was undertaken. Rainbow trout slaughtered and chilled under FI and OFI conditions showed a low lipid damage development, according to lipid oxidation and hydrolysis events and lipid composition (polyunsaturated fatty acids, phospholipids and endogenous antioxidants) changes. Additionally, both icing conditions led to largely good quality and shelf life times and to the absence of changes in colour properties. It is concluded that flow ice as such, or including the presence of ozone, can be considered as ideal strategy to be employed as slaughtering and storage system during the commercialisation of the actual farmed species. The ozone presence has shown some profitable effects as leading to an extended shelf life time by quality retention of several sensory parameters; in contrast, some negligible negative effects could be observed on the secondary and tertiary lipid oxidation development. However, the oxidation values reached by individuals kept under OFI conditions cannot be considered as particularly high.     

Karyotype description of Pomacea patula catemacensis (Caenogastropoda, Ampullariidae), with an assessment of the taxonomic status of Pomacea patula.

Mitotic chromosomes of the freshwater snail Pomacea patula catemacensis (Baker 1922) were analyzed on gill tissue of specimens from the type locality (Lake Catemaco, Mexico). The diploid number of chromosomes is 2n = 26, including nine metacentric and four submetacentric pairs; therefore, the fundamental number is FN = 52, No sex chromosomes could be identified. The same chromosome number and morphology were already reported for P. flagellata, i.e., the other species of the genus living in Mexico. The basic haploid number for family Ampullariidae was reported to be n = 14 in the literature; so, its reduction to n = 13 is probably an apomorphy of the Mexican Pomacea snails. Lanistes bolteni, from Egypt, also shows n = 13, but its karyotype is much more asymmetrical, and seems to have evolved independently from P. flagellata and P. patula catemacensis. The nominotypical subspecies, P. patula patula (Reeve 1856), is a poorly known taxon, whose original locality is unknown. A taxonomical account is presented here, and a Mexican origin postulated as the most parsimonious hypothesis.     

Introducing fuzziness in object models and database interfaces through aspects

Imperfection in information can be considered a crosscutting concern that manifests itself in diverse kinds of imprecision, uncertainty, or inconsistency in the data models of a software system. The extension of existing programming and querying interfaces for the different aspects of information imperfection requires a proper modularization of the different concerns of numerical imprecision handling, so that the extensions do not interfere with existing programming practices and do not obscure the original design. Aspect‐oriented design (AOD) enables such a form of nonintrusive extensions to be added to existing software libraries, clearly separating fuzziness or other imperfections in data as a differentiated concern that can be considered from the early phases of development. In this article, a general framework for aspect‐based extension of data models and fuzzy databases is described, and some design and implementation issues of such AOD‐based extensions on OJB database libraries are described as a case study. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 21: 1199–1216, 2006.     

Efficient reconstruction from non-uniform point sets

We propose a method for non-uniform reconstruction of 3D scalar data. Typically, radial basis functions, trigonometric polynomials or shift-invariant functions are used in the functional approximation of 3D data. We adopt a variational approach for the reconstruction and rendering of 3D data. The principle idea is based on data fitting via thin-plate splines. An approximation by B-splines offers more compact support for fast reconstruction. We adopt this method for large datasets by introducing a block-based reconstruction approach. This makes the method practical for large datasets. Our reconstruction will be smooth across blocks. We give reconstruction measurements as error estimations based on different parameter settings and also an insight on the computational effort. We show that the block size used in reconstruction has a negligible effect on the reconstruction error. Finally we show rendering results to emphasize the quality of this 3D reconstruction technique.     

MTCLAB: A MATLAB®-based program for traveltime quality analysis and pre-inversion velocity tuning in 2D transmission tomography

A MATLAB^®-based computer code that analyses the traveltime distribution and performs quality analysis at the pre-inversion stage for 2D transmission experiments is presented. The core tools of this approach are the so-called mean traveltime curves. For any general recording geometry, the user may select any pair of subsets of contiguous sources and receivers. The portion of the domain swept by the implied rays defines a zone of analysis, and for each source (receiver) the outcoming (incoming) ray fan is named a source (receiver) gather. The empirical mean traveltime curves are constructed, for each zone, by assigning the average and the standard deviation of the traveltimes in the gathers to the positions of the sources (receivers).The theoretical expressions assume isotropic homogeneous velocity inside each zone. The empirical counterparts use the observed traveltimes and make no assumptions. Isotropic velocity in each zone is inferred by least-squares fitting of the empirical mean traveltime curves. The user may refine the analysis considering different zones (multi-zone analysis). Initially the whole domain is modelled as a single zone. The procedure compares empirical versus theoretical curves. In addition, residuals can be plotted using source–receiver positions as plane coordinates. The results are used to unravel the possible presence of anomalous gathers, heterogeneities, anisotropies, etc. Depending on the kind of anomalies, velocity estimation and mean time residuals are different in the source and receiver gather curves.This software helps to grasp a better understanding of the data variability before the inversion and provides to the geophysicist an approximate zonal isotropic model and a range of velocity variation that can be used in the inverse problem as a priori information (regularization term). Its use is described through tutorial examples. A guided user interface leads the user through the algorithm steps.     

Balance-dendrogram. A new routine of CoDaPack

A statistical analysis of compositional data based on the Aitchison geometry of the simplex requires an appropriate basis for representing the data. A simple and intuitive way of building such a basis employs a sequential binary partition of the compositional vector. The partition, together with some statistical summaries of the coordinates, or balances, can be represented in a dendrogram-type graph. In this paper we introduce an implementation of this methodology inside CoDaPack, which is freeware. An example with real data illustrates the use of the Balance-Dendrogram routine.