The strategy of edge wear prediction in CIM concept

A monitoring of tool wear in different cutting operations has been studied for many years. Special techniques have been used to detect a wear status basing upon cutting forces, acoustic emission, temperature, torque and power, vibration, noise and acceleration sensors. The adapting of a proper prediction method allows to solve problems of an automatic supervision in Computer Integrated Manufacturing systems. A task of the abrasive edge wear index prediction can be formulated as follows: disposing by the data collection of the edge wear status in a time period preceding the concerning the wear status in the successive time period embraced by the prediction method.     

Formation of linear aldehydes during surface water preozonization and their removal in water treatment in relation to mutagenic activity and sum parameters

Low molecular weight aldehydes were formed during surface water preozonization, their levels showing a positive correlation with increasing ozone dose applied and with increasing water temperature. A strong negative correlation was observed between aldehyde levels and U.V. absorbance at 254 nm.Coagulation had no influence on the aldehydes present and the influence of rapid double layer filtration varied strongly with temperature : significant removals were only observed above 10°C.Mutagenic activity generated by preozonization in Salmonella typhimurium TA98 shows an ozone dose depending relationship different from the formation of linear aldehydes. Its removal by coagulation is not effective but rapid double layer filtration reduces mutagenic activity to marginal levels.In this respect too no clear parallel can be drawn between the presence of low molecular weight aldehydes and mutagenic activity.     

Clarification of a wheat straw‐derived medium with ion‐exchange resins for xylitol crystallization

BACKGROUND: Xylitol bioproduction from lignocellulosic residues comprises hydrolysis of the hemicellulose, detoxification of the hydrolysate, bioconversion of the xylose, and recovery of xylitol from the fermented hydrolysate. There are relatively few reports on xylitol recovery from fermented media. In the present study, ion‐exchange resins were used to clarify a fermented wheat straw hemicellulosic hydrolysate, which was then vacuum‐concentrated and submitted to cooling in the presence of ethanol for xylitol crystallization. RESULTS: Sequential adsorption into two anion‐exchange resins (A‐860S and A‐500PS) promoted considerable reductions in the content of soluble by‐products (up to 97.5%) and in medium coloration (99.5%). Vacuum concentration led to a dark‐colored viscous solution that inhibited xylitol crystallization. This inhibition could be overcome by mixing the concentrated medium with a commercial xylitol solution. Such a strategy led to xylitol crystals with up to 95.9% purity. The crystallization yield (43.5%) was close to that observed when using commercial xylitol solution (51.4%). CONCLUSION: The experimental data demonstrate the feasibility of using ion‐exchange resins followed by cooling in the presence of ethanol as a strategy to promote the fast recovery and purification of xylitol from hemicellulose‐derived fermentation media. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Preparation of gold nanoparticles (GNP) aqueous suspensions by a new method involving Tiron

A new method is proposed to produce gold nanoparticles (GNP) by in situ reduction of a gold salt dissolved in water. The reducing agent used is Tiron instead of the citrate anion most often mentioned in literature. The influence of various parameters has been investigated, such as the content of Tiron with respect to that of the precursor of gold HAuCl₄, or the initial pH of the solution after mixing of reactants. It is shown that Tiron also exerts a positive influence as a dispersant, which impedes agglomeration of gold nanoparticles. The typical average size of GNP synthesized in the present work is close to 7 nm.     

3D Hair sketching for real-time dynamic & key frame animations

Physically based simulation of human hair is a well studied and well known problem. But the “pure” physically based representation of hair (and other animation elements) is not the only concern of the animators, who want to “control” the creation and animation phases of the content. This paper describes a sketch-based tool, with which a user can both create hair models with different styling parameters and produce animations of these created hair models using physically and key frame-based techniques. The model creation and animation production tasks are all performed with direct manipulation techniques in real-time.     

A rubber-modified thermoplastic where the morphology produced by phase-separation induced by polymerization disappears at high conversions

An unexpected experimental finding is reported where the primary morphology developed during polymerization-induced phase separation in a rubber-modified thermoplastic practically disappears at high conversions. This process was evidenced by light scattering (LS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for a particular composition of solutions of polyisobutylene oligomers (PIB) in isobornylmethacrylate (IBoMA), during the free-radical polymerization of the monomer. The primary phase separation produced a dispersion of domains rich in PIB containing significant amounts of the monomer (IBoMA). Polymerization of the monomer in these domains occurred at high overall conversions producing the filling of dispersed domains with a PIBoMA-PIB blend that could not be distinguished from the matrix. Under these conditions the final material had the appearance of a homogeneous blend.     

Thomas Fincke und die <Emphasis Type="Italic">Geometria rotundi</Emphasis>

Thomas Fincke (January 6^th, 1561–April 24^th, 1656), born in Flensburg (Germany), was one of the very most important and significant scientists in Denmark during the seventeenth century, a mathematician and astrologer and physician in the beginning of modern science, a representative of humanism and an influentual academic organizer. He studied in Strasbourg (since 1577) and Padua (since 1583) and received his M.D. in Basel (1587), he practised as a physician throughout his life (since 1587 or 1590) and became a professor at Copenhagen (1591). But he was best known because of his Geometriae rotundi libri XIIII (1583), a famous book on plane and spherical trigonometry, based not on Euclid but on Petrus Ramus. In this influentual work, in which Fincke introduced the terms tangent and secant and probable first noticed the Law of Tangents and the so-called Newton-Oppel-Mauduit-Simpson-Mollweide-Gauss-formula, he showed himself to be „abreast of the mathematics of his time“.      

The evolution of the sleep science literature over 30 years: A bibliometric analysis

During the 1974–2004 period, the sleep literature had quadrupled (2384 publications in 1974, and 9721 in 2004) while overall scientific productivity had only doubled. The set of the seven most productive countries (USA, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada and Italy) in sleep research, and the geographical region distribution remained stable over the three decades. On the other hand several indicators appeared in the sleep research literature during the 1990s: the increasing productivity of sleep researchers; the growing number of countries publishing on sleep; the continuous creation of sleep-focused journals; the scattering of sleep publication among increasingly more scientific journals; the turnover among the leading journals; and the emergence of new entities such as China, Turkey, and the European Union.     

Granular gases in mechanical engineering: on the origin of heterogeneous ultrasonic shot peening

The behavior of an ultrasonic shot peening process is observed and analyzed by using a model of inelastic hard spheres in a gravitational field that are fluidized by a vibrating bottom wall (sonotrode) in a cylindrical chamber. A marked heterogeneous distribution of impacts appears when the collision between the shot and the side wall becomes inelastic with constant dissipation. This effect is one order of magnitude larger than the simple heterogeneity arising from boundary collision on the cylinder. Variable restitution coefficients bring the simulation closer to the general observation and allow the investigation of peening regimes with changing shot density. We compute within this model other physical quantities (impact velocities, impact angle, temperature and density profile) that are influenced by the number N of spheres.     

Pre-operational environmental survey at the uranium mine and mill site,Poços de Caldas,Minas Gerais,Brazil

The first Brazilian uranium mine and mill are located on the Poços de Caldas plateau, in the Central State of Minas Gerais. The pre-operational environmental survey was carried out over a period of two years by the Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN), through the Instituto de Radioproteção e Dosimetria (IRD). The selection of the materials to be monitored, the sampling points and the radionuclides to be analysed were based on critical parameters taking into account the meteorological and hydrological characteristics of the site as well as land use. The results obtained are sufficient to characterize the environmental background of the area, and will allow an assessment of the environmental impact due to the operation of the facility and an evaluation of the adequacy of the effluent emmission control measures. In relation to their contribution to the population dose, the results indicated that ²²⁶Ra and ²¹⁰Pb will be the important radionuclides.