Dynamic light scattering measurements on the polystyrene/ethyl acetate system at semi-dilute concentrations as a function of temperature

Summary Measurements of autocorrelation functions extending over a broad time range are reported for a sample of polystyrene in ethyl acetate as a function of temperature between –44°C (-temperature) and 70°C. The corresponding spectra of decay times are obtained by two mathematical methods. The existence of three dynamic processes is shown and their temperature and angular behaviour is studied.     

Temperature-dependent transparency of poly(HPMA-co-DMA) hydrogels: effect of synthesis parameters

The acrylic comonomers hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA) and N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMA) have been used in several earlier studies to produce pH-responsive hydrogels. However, these same monomers can also be used to prepare hydrogels that are highly responsive to temperature. One manifestation of this temperature sensitivity is a sharp decrease in hydrogel optical transparency that occurs when the temperature exceeds a critical transition value. For example, a hydrogel that exhibits a swelling transition at the physiological pH value of 7.4 has a transition temperature of about 45 °C when the environmental salt concentration is 0.15 M. The value of the transparency transition temperature is shown to depend on hydrogel synthesis parameters such as comonomer mole ratio, crosslinker mole ratio, and even initiator concentration. By reducing the mole ratio of the crosslinker tetraethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA), the transition temperature can be lowered by as much as 15 °C. Environmental salt concentration and solvent polarity are also shown to influence the transition temperature.     

Graft copolymerization of an itaconic acid/acrylamide monomer mixture onto poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers with benzoyl peroxide

A mixture of acrylamide (AAm) and itaconic acid (IA) was grafted onto poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers with benzoyl peroxide in aqueous media. The effects of polymerization conditions such as the temperature, polymerization time, initiator concentration, and monomer mixture ratio on grafting were investigated. The maximum graft yield was 76.1% with an AAm/IA mixture ratio of 90/10 (mol/mol). The graft yield was as low as 3% in the single grafting of IA, whereas the use of AAm as a comonomer increased the amount of IA that entered the fiber structure to 33.5%. An increase in the temperature from 65 to 85°C increased the grafting rate and saturation graft yield. However, an increase in the temperature above 85°C decreased the saturation graft yield. The graft yield increased up to an initiator concentration of 1.0 × 10^?2 M and decreased afterwards. The grafting rate was 0.65th‐ and 0.74th‐order with respect to the initiator and AAm concentrations, respectively. The densities, diameters, and moisture‐regain values of the AAm/IA‐grafted PET fibers increased with the graft yield. Similarly, there was an increase in the dyeability of the AAm/IA‐grafted fibers with acidic and basic dyes. The grafted fibers were characterized with Fourier transform infrared and thermogravimetric analysis, and their morphologies were examined with scanning electron microscopy. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 97: 1795–1803, 2005     

Essential fatty acids in trout serum lipoproteins,vitellogenin and egg lipids

This paper describes evidence of (n−3) and particularly of 22∶6 (n−3) fatty acid enrichment in trout lipoproteins as well as in vitellogenin, egg lipovitellin and oil globule. Among the lipoproteins, HDL and LDL were the main forms of blood lipid transport, whereas phospholipids and cholesteryl esters are the preferential chemical carriers for (n−3) fatty acid transport. However, cholesteryl esters were less important as esterified fatty acid carriers than in man. Taken together with the data obtained in mammals, our results suggest that there may be a relationship between EFA activity and the distribution of the EFA among the lipoprotein lipid fractions in vertebrates, irrespective of the EFA series. Administration of an (n−3) fatty acid deficient diet for three months prior to trout spawning produced a significant increase in egg lipid content, primarily as a result of the increase of the oil globule composed almost exclusively of triacylglycerols. This diet decreased the 22∶6 (n−3), as well as the (n−3) fatty acid contents of lipoproteins, lipovitellin, vitellogenin and the oil globule. In contrast, the (n−3) fatty acid level was always higher in lipoproteins and lipovitellin than in the vitellogenin and the oil globule. Moreover, the relative levels of 22∶6 (n−3) and total (n−3) fatty acids were quite similar in lipoproteins and lipovitellin on the one hand, and in vitellogenin and the oil globule on the other. These findings suggest a direct relationship between the two forms of plasma lipid transport and the two egg compartments. During ovogenesis, dietary lipids seemed to be diverted from the adipose tissue and essentially deposited in the egg.     

Chlorophyll adsorption on acid-activated clay

An acid-activated clay (Çanakkale montmorillonite from Turkey) was used to adsorb chlorophyll from hexane solutions. The phenomenon seems to be mainly driven by the interaction of chlorophyll with acid sites. The adsorption of chlorophyll on Brönsted acid sites was indicated by a characteristic infrared band for the -OH group at 3671 cm^?1. The variations in the structure of clay mineral and chlorophyll during adsorption have been examined by differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetry and infrared spectroscopy of the activated clay before and after adsorption of chlorophyll. Oxidation of adsorbed chlorophyll was completed at quite a high temperature.     

Synthesis and properties of chitosan-modified poly(vinyl butyrate)

Modification of chitosan by grafting of vinyl butyrate was carried out in homogeneous phase using potassium persulfate as redox initator and 1.5% acetic acid as solvent. The percent grafting and grafting efficiency were analysed and the high grafting efficiency up to 94% was observed. The effects of reaction variables such as monomer concentration, initiator concentration, temperature and reaction time were investigated. It was observed that the solubility of chitosan was markedly reduced after grafting with vinyl butyrate. The grafted product is insoluble in common organic solvents as well in dilute organic and inorganic acids. Characterization of the graft copolymers were carried out by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) technics. Characteristic signal of carbonyl group was observed at 1,731 cm⁻¹ which belongs to the poly vinyl butyrate segments in the graft copolymer. The melting transition of the chitosan main chain in the copolymer shifted to 124°C from its original value 101°C. In addition to these, we have also studied topology of the graft copolymer and the SEM micrograph showed continuous homogenous matrix which means there is no phase separation.     

Bit-level systolic arrays for modular multiplication

This paper presents bit-level cellular arrays implementing Blakley's algorithm for multiplication of twon-bit integers modulo anothern-bit integer. The semi-systolic version uses 3n(n+3) single-bit carry save adders and 2n copies of 3-bit carry look-ahead logic, and computes a pair of binary numbers (C, S) in 3n clock cycles such thatC+S[0, 2N). The carry look-ahead logic is used to estimate the sign of the partial product, which is needed during the reduction process. The final result in the correct range [0,N) can easily be obtained by computingC+S andC+S–N, and selecting the latter if it is positive; otherwise, the former is selected. We construct a localized process dependence graph of this algorithm, and introduce a systolic array containing 3nw simple adder cells. The latency of the systolic array is 6n+w–2, wherew=n/2. The systolic version does not require broadcast and can be used to efficiently compute several modular multiplications in a pipelined fashion, producing a result in every clock cycle.     

An experimental evaluation of visual similarity for HDR images

In this paper, we investigate visual similarity for high dynamic range (HDR) images. We collect crowdsourcing data through a web-based experimental interface, in which the participants are asked to choose one of the two candidate images as being more similar to the query image. Triplets forming the query-and-candidates sets are obtained by random sampling from existing HDR data sets. Experimental control factors include choice of tone mapping operator (TMO), choice of distance metric, and choice of image feature. The image features that we experiment with are chosen from the features that are commonly used in the usual low dynamic range setting including features learned via Convolutional Neural Networks. The set of image features also includes combined features where the combination coefficients are estimated using logistic regression. We compute correlations between human judgments and quantitative features to understand how much each feature contributes to visual similarity. Combined features yield nearly 84% agreement with human judgments when applied on tone mapped images. Though we observed that using common features directly on raw or linearly scaled HDR images yield subpar correlation estimates compared to using them on tone mapped HDR images, we did not observe significant effect due to the choice of TMO on the estimates. As an application, we propose an improvement to style-based tone mapping for more correctly imparting desired styles to HDR images with different characteristics.

     

A Game Theoretical Approach for Improving the Operational Efficiencies of Less-than-truckload Carriers Through Load Exchanges

Less-than-truckload (LTL) transportation offers fast, flexible and relatively low-cost transportation services to shippers. In order to cope with the effects of economic recessions, the LTL industry implemented ideas such as reducing excess capacity and increasing revenues through better yield management. In this paper, we extend these initiatives beyond the reach of individual carriers and propose a collaborative framework that facilitates load exchanges to reduce the operational costs. Even though collective solutions are proven to provide benefits to the participants by reducing the inefficiencies using a system-wide perspective, such solutions are often not attainable in real-life as the negotiating parties are seeking to maximize their individual profits rather than the overall profit and also they are unwilling to share confidential information. Therefore, a mechanism that enables collaboration among the carriers should account for the rationality of the individual participants and should require minimal information transfer between participants. Having this in mind, we propose a mechanism that facilities collaboration through a series of load exchange iterations and identifies an equilibrium among selfish carriers with limited information transfer among the participants. Our time-efficient mechanism can handle large instances with thousands of loads as well as provide significant benefits over the non-collaborative management of LTL networks.