Maintenance of rumen protozoa populations in a dual outflow continuous fermenter

Using a 2^5–2 fractional factorial design, five factors were screened for their ability to promote rumen protozoa growth in a dual outflow fermenter and on their influence on fermentation. The tested factors were the addition of bovine serum (BS, 20 ml litre⁻¹) and of a 100 g litre⁻¹ yeast extract solution (20 ml litre⁻¹) to artificial saliva, the addition of diethystilbestrol (15 mg day⁻¹) to fermentation broths, the reduction of shear stresses by lowering the stirring speed from 260 rpm to 230 rpm, and the improvement of ciliate sequestration by the use of a polyurethane foam belt. In the fermentors, the ciliate population density ranged from 10 μl⁻¹ to 58 μl⁻¹. The genus Isotricha was rarely observed, with a population density estimated at <0·7 μl⁻¹ while Dasytricha was not maintained. All the experimental factors markedly influenced total protozoa numbers. Lowering the stirring speed was the sole beneficial treatment. Nutritional supplements, in particular BS, were all detrimental to Entodinium. Their association was characterised by a significant antagonism. The population size of Polyplastron and Eudiplodinium was lowered only by BS addition, possibly through the changes induced in the fermentation pattern. ©1997 SCI     

Polyoxyethylene di-phosphonates as efficient dispersing polymers for aqueous suspensions

Polyoxyethylenes having a di-phosphonate functional group at one of their chain ends strongly adsorb on calcium carbonate particles in aqueous colloidal suspensions. An enhanced colloidal stability of such suspensions results with a concomitant drastic reduction of the viscosity of concentrated aqueous suspensions. The viscosity of a 20 wt % CaCO₃ colloidal suspension in water could be lowered to 2 mPa · s with low concentrations of polymer. The adsorption and viscosity reduction were studied as a function of the chemical nature of the end chain group and the polymer molecular weight. The di-phosphonate group was found the most efficient anionic group when associated with a polyoxyethylene of polymerization degree larger than 20. The main features of this di-block architecture of the polymer are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 65: 2545–2555, 1997     

Tiling on systems with communication/computation overlap

In the framework of fully permutable loops, tiling is a compiler technique (also known as ‘loop blocking’) that has been extensively studied as a source-to-source program transformation. Little work has been devoted to the mapping and scheduling of the tiles on to physical parallel processors. We present several new results in the context of limited computational resources and assuming communication–computation overlap. In particular, under some reasonable assumptions, we derive the optimal mapping and scheduling of tiles to physical processors. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Oxidation Kinetics of AISI 441 Ferritic Stainless Steel at High Temperatures in CO2 Atmosphere

Ferritic stainless steels used as interconnectors in SOFC stacks are subjected to air and fuel atmospheres at 800 °C. The use of hydrogen as fuel gas may be substituted by fermentative biogas consisting of mainly CO₂ and CH₄. In this gas mixture, carbon dioxide leads to steel oxidation whereas methane induces carburization. The objective of this study was to investigate the oxidation kinetics of the AISI 441 ferritic stainless steel under pure CO₂ in order to understand oxidation mechanisms. The results show that the kinetic behaviour is linear at low temperatures (800–900 °C) and initially linear then parabolic at higher temperatures (925–1,000 °C). Oxide scale consisted of major Cr₂O₃-rich oxide, topped with MnCr₂O₄ and a dispersion of TiO₂. The chromium-rich oxide was analysed by using the photoelectrochemical method. It exhibits N-type semi-conductor. Oxidation kinetics is modelled by the mixed surface and oxide-diffusion limited steps.     

Relationship between structure and rheological,mechanical and thermal properties of polylactide/Cloisite 30B nanocomposites

Melt‐state and solid state mechanical properties and thermal stability of polylactide layered silicate nanocomposites elaborated by melt intercalation were studied as a function of clay content. Wide angle X‐ray scattering results, transmission electron microscopy observations, and rheological measurements indicated that the clay was finely distributed in the polylactide matrix. Contrary to nonlinear mechanical properties, thermal and linear mechanical properties were shown to increase with increasing clay fraction. The nanoindentation measurements confirm the significant increase of linear mechanical properties previously observed by tensile tests. The good correlation of linear mechanical properties at the macrometric and nanometric scales is explained by the high dispersion degree of the nanofiller in the biodegradable polymer matrix. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

(<Emphasis Type="Italic">E,E</Emphasis>)-α-Farnesene,an Alarm Pheromone of the Termite <Emphasis Type="Italic">Prorhinotermes canalifrons</Emphasis>

The behavioral and electroantennographic responses of Prorhinotermes canalifrons to its soldier frontal gland secretion, and two separated major components of the secretion, (E)-1-nitropentadec-1-ene and (E,E)-α-farnesene, were studied in laboratory experiments. Behavioral experiments showed that both the frontal gland secretion and (E,E)-α-farnesene triggered alarm reactions in P. canalifrons, whereas (E)-1-nitropentadec-1-ene did not affect the behavior of termite groups. The alarm reactions were characterized by rapid walking of activated termites and efforts to alert and activate other members of the group. Behavioral responses to alarm pheromone differed between homogeneous and mixed groups, suggesting complex interactions. Antennae of both soldiers and pseudergates were sensitive to the frontal gland secretion and to (E,E)-α-farnesene, but soldiers showed stronger responses. The dose responses to (E,E)-α-farnesene were identical for both soldiers and pseudergates, suggesting that both castes use similar receptors to perceive (E,E)-α-farnesene. Our data confirm (E,E)-α-farnesene as an alarm pheromone of P. canalifrons.     

Aspects of kinetic modeling of fixed bed reactors

This paper briefly reviews the most important aspects of catalyst testing in packed-bed catalytic laboratory reactors to properly assess the intrinsic chemical kinetics. Next it discusses approaches to assess the kinetics of fast reactions or those accompanied with strong heat effects that cannot be performed in a packed-bed reactor configuration free from transport limitations. As an example the partial oxidation of methane is presented in a steady-state fixed bed reactor as well as in a TAP (temporal analysis of products) reactor. The continuing increase in computational power leads to more sophisticated reaction and reactor models due to the increasing use of computational chemistry and computational fluid dynamics in reaction engineering.     

An experimental investigation of gas-liquid two-phase flow in single microchannel contactors

This paper describes two-phase flow pattern and pressure drop characteristics during the absorption of CO₂ into water in three horizontal microchannel contactors which consist of Y-type rectangular microchannels having hydraulic diameters of 667, 400 and , respectively. With the help of a high-speed photography system, flow patterns such as bubbly flow, slug flow (including two sub-regimes, Taylor flow and unstable slug flow), slug-annular flow, churn flow and annular flow were observed in these microchannels. The applicability of the currently available correlations for describing flow pattern transitions in microchannels has been examined. Generally, the predicting performance of these correlations deteriorates as the channel diameter further reduces. Toward solving this discrepancy, an empirical correlation based on the superficial Weber numbers was developed to interpret the transition from Taylor flow to unstable slug flow in three microchannels. Taylor bubble formation process in microchannels was found to be in the squeezing regime at lower superficial liquid velocities (Ca ranging from 0.0019 to 0.029) while the transition to the dripping regime was observed at the highest superficial liquid velocity of 1.0 m/s. Lengths of Taylor bubbles formed in the squeezing regime can be well represented by the scaling relation proposed by Garstecki et al. [Formation of droplets and bubbles in a microfluidic T-junction—scaling and mechanism of break-up. Lab on a Chip, 6, 437-446]. For flow patterns including slug-annular flow, annular flow and churn flow, a simple analysis based on the separated flow model has been performed in order to reveal the observed effect of the superficial liquid velocity on two-phase frictional multiplier in the present microchannels. Then, reasonable correlations for the prediction of two-phase frictional pressure drop under these flow patterns were suggested.