Recovery of Platinum Group Metals from Spent Catalysts Using Iron Chloride Vapor Treatment

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - The recovery of platinum group metals (PGMs) from spent automobile catalysts is a difficult process because of their relatively low contents in the...     

Creating Fluid Animation from a Single Image using Video Database

We present a method for synthesizing fluid animation from a single image, using a fluid video database. The user inputs a target painting or photograph of a fluid scene along with its alpha matte that extracts the fluid region of interest in the scene. Our approach allows the user to generate a fluid animation from the input image and to enter a few additional commands about fluid orientation or speed. Employing the database of fluid examples, the core algorithm in our method then automatically assigns fluid videos for each part of the target image. Our method can therefore deal with various paintings and photographs of a river, waterfall, fire, and smoke. The resulting animations demonstrate that our method is more powerful and efficient than our prior work.     

Application of human amniotic mesenchymal cells as an allogeneic transplantation cell source in bone regenerative therapy

Autogenous mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have therapeutic applications in bone regenerative therapy due to their pluripotency. However, the ability of MSCs to proliferate and differentiate varies between donors. Furthermore, alternative sources of MSCs are required for patients with contraindications to autogenous cell therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of mesenchymal cells from the human amniotic membrane (HAM) as a source of cells for allogeneic transplantation in bone regenerative therapy. Cells that retained a proliferative capacity of more than 50 population doubling level were distinguished from other HAM cells as HAMα cells and induced to osteogenic status—their in vivo osteogenesis was subsequently investigated in rats. It was found that HAMα cells were spindle shaped and were positive for MSC markers and negative for hematopoietic stem cell markers. Alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium deposition increased with osteogenic status of HAMα cells. The expression of osteocalcin mRNA was increased in HAMα cells cultured on calcium phosphate scaffolds. Moreover, xenografted HAMα cells remained viable and produced extracellular matrix for several weeks. Thus, this study suggests that human amniotic mesenchymal cells possess osteogenic differentiation potential and could be applied to allogeneic transplantation in bone regenerative therapy.     

Rhodium(II) acetate-catalyzed reaction of 2-amino-4,5-dihydro-3-furancarbonitriles with dialkyl diazomalonates

2-Amino-4,5-dihydro-3-furancarbonitriles 3 react with dialkyl diazomalonates in the presence of rhodium(II) acetate to yield dialkyl (5-amino-4-cyano-2,3-dihydro-3-furanyl)propanedioates 4 . Dehydrogenation of 4 with DDQ provided dialkyl (5-amino-4-cyano-3-furanyl)propanedioates 5 .     

Effect of sulphur-type extreme-pressure additives on wear in rolling-sliding contact

This paper looks at the wear of steel under lubricated rolling-sliding contact, with two paraffinic oils and a pure n-hexadecane. A two-disc apparatus was used, with a constant applied load, the surfaces being analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The oils were tested with and without additives (dibenzyl disulphide and diphenyl disulphide), and the differences analyzed.