Current oscillations during chronoamperometric and cyclic voltammetric measurements in alkaline Cu(II)-citrate solutions

It is demonstrated that current oscillations can be observed during chronoamperometric and cyclic voltammetric experiments in solutions containing 0.4 M CuSO₄ and 1.2 M citrate at pH 11 and 50 °C. The oscillations, which are shown to originate from local variations in the pH, result in the deposition of nanostructured Cu and Cu₂O materials. It is concluded that the current oscillations are analogous to the previously described potential oscillations obtained under controlled current conditions in alkaline Cu(II)-lactate, -tartrate and -citrate solutions. Rotating disk electrode results clearly show that the reduction of the Cu(II)-complexes is kinetically controlled and that the rate of the reduction increases with increasing pH and temperature. It is also shown that the presence of a cathodic peak on the anodic scan in the cyclic voltammograms can be used to identify the experimental conditions leading to the spontaneous current (or potential) oscillations. Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance results indicate that the cathodic peak stems from an increased rate of the reduction of the Cu(II)-citrate complexes due to a rapid increase in the local pH. This causes Cu₂O rather than Cu to be deposited which, however, results in a decrease in the local pH and a decreasing current. In situ ellipsometry data confirm that Cu₂O deposition replaces that of Cu in the potential region of the cathodic peak. The present findings should facilitate syntheses of nanolayered materials based on spontaneous potential or current oscillations.     

Attributes influencing self-employment propensity in urban and rural Sweden

Policies aiming at promoting entrepreneurship are in general formed on national levels, without any consideration of differences between urban and rural areas. Usually, cities are provided with better and more modern infrastructure; cities have better supply of physical, financial and human capital, and connected services, and cities have a more modern industrial structure in the sense that their shares of growing industry are higher. Thus, it is possible that policies for entrepreneurship, which in general are designed for urban areas, might be less effective when they are implemented in rural areas. A first step to test the validity of this hypothesis could be to investigate the differences between cities and countryside regarding self-employment propensity and factors affecting the choice to become self-employed. Based on an exceptionally rich data set containing very detailed socio-economic and geographical information on all residents in Sweden, this paper examines: (a) the scope and structure of self-employment propensity in urban and rural areas, respectively, in Sweden, divided into full-time and part-time self-employment, and (b) the importance of a number of attributes that may have an impact on individuals’ propensity to start an enterprise in the two area types. Variables being tested are connected to demography and education, labor market status, plant characteristics, self-employment experience, financial resources, family links and regional attributes. The main results indicate that self-employment entry is influenced by the same factors in the same way in urban and rural areas. However, countryside’s industrial structure has a smaller share of growing industries. The fact that countryside’s startups follow the existing industrial structure means that this “modernity gap” between densely built up areas and countryside remains. From a policy perspective, this must be seen as a serious problem for countryside’s growth potential. This gives an argument for designing a special entrepreneurship policy for the countryside in order to increase its share of growing trades and thereby modernize its industrial structure.     

Antioxidant properties of garden strawberry leaf extract and its effect on fish oil oxidation

The present study characterises garden strawberry leaf extract and reports its effect on shelf life and quality characteristics of fish oil. Radical scavenging capacity of the extract in DPPH^? and ABTS^?+ assays was equivalent to 1207 and 1579 μmol g^?1 of trolox equivalents, respectively, total phenolic content was 257 mg g^?1 of gallic acid equivalents. Phenolic and volatile constituents were analysed by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The extract was added to fish oil and its oxidation was followed during 42 days: peroxide, p‐anisidine values and hexanal concentration were lower in the samples with extract, particularly at the end of storage. The effect of extract on fatty acid composition was not significant, however the changes in the percentages of some individual acids were observed. Fish oil containing 5% of extract had lower levels of lipid oxidation in comparison to other samples. The results indicate that strawberry leaves could be a potential source of natural antioxidants.     

Environmental impact of castor oil catalytic transfer hydrogenation

In the vegetable oil chemical industry, hydrogenation is one of the most important processes. An alternative method for vegetable oil hydrogenation is the use of catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH), which can utilize organic molecules as hydrogen donors at ambient pressure. These alternative processes should be optimized in relation to the variables required for a good conversion and impacts should also be known to be minimized. An assessment of the environmental impact of laboratory scale chemical processes is an important tool to improve the technological aspects of a process (increased yields, reduced production times, lower costs) and it can also lead to the creation of a cleaner technology. Using the Leopold Matrix, we have succeeded in developing a more efficient and cleaner process for the CTH of castor oil using Raney Ni as a catalyst and cyclohexene or isopropanol as a hydrogen donor solvent. The results of the technical and environmental assessments showed that the extent of conversion for the unsaturation reaction was high (>99 %), and the environmental impact of the process could be significantly reduced to create a cleaner technology. It was found, after process optimization, that the remaining environmental impacts were negative (67.48 %), local (78.95 %), temporary (95.33 %), direct (80.12 %), and reversible (95.32 %).     

Formal Concept Analysis in knowledge processing: A survey on models and techniques

This is the first part of a large survey paper in which we analyze recent literature on Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) and some closely related disciplines using FCA. We collected 1072 papers published between 2003 and 2011 mentioning terms related to Formal Concept Analysis in the title, abstract and keywords. We developed a knowledge browsing environment to support our literature analysis process. We use the visualization capabilities of FCA to explore the literature, to discover and conceptually represent the main research topics in the FCA community. In this first part, we zoom in on and give an extensive overview of the papers published between 2003 and 2011 on developing FCA-based methods for knowledge processing. We also give an overview of the literature on FCA extensions such as pattern structures, logical concept analysis, relational concept analysis, power context families, fuzzy FCA, rough FCA, temporal and triadic concept analysis and discuss scalability issues.     

TALplanner: A temporal logic based forward chaining planner

We present TALplanner, a forward-chaining planner based on the use of domain-dependent search control knowledge represented as formulas in the Temporal Action Logic (TAL). TAL is a narrative based linear metric time logic used for reasoning about action and change in incompletely specified dynamic environments. TAL is used as the formal semantic basis for TALplanner, where a TAL goal narrative with control formulas is input to TALplanner which then generates a TAL narrative that entails the goal and control formulas. The sequential version of TALplanner is presented. The expressivity of plan operators is then extended to deal with an interesting class of resource types. An algorithm for generating concurrent plans, where operators have varying durations and internal state, is also presented. All versions of TALplanner have been implemented. The potential of these techniques is demonstrated by applying TALplanner to a number of standard planning benchmarks in the literature. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Experimental evaluation of radiator control based on primary supply temperature for district heating substations

In this paper, we evaluate whether the primary supply temperature in district heating networks can be used to control radiator systems in buildings connected to district heating; with the purpose of increasing the ΔT. The primary supply temperature in district heating systems can mostly be described as a function of outdoor temperature; similarly, the radiator supply temperature in houses, offices and industries can also be described as a function of outdoor temperature. To calibrate the radiator control system to produce an ideally optimal radiator supply temperature that produces a maximized ΔT across the substation, the relationship between the primary supply temperature and outdoor temperature must be known. However, even if the relation is known there is always a deviation between the expected primary supply temperature and the actual temperature of the received distribution media. This deviation makes the radiator control system incapable of controlling the radiator supply temperature to a point that would generate a maximized ΔT.     

Control of the Preferred Orientation in MFI Films Synthesized by Seeding

Single crystal silicon and quartz wafers were seeded with colloidal TPA-silicalite-1 crystals. Hydrothermal treatment of the seeded substrates was used to grow dense MFI films. The preferred orientation of the crystals constituting the films as a function of the amount and size of seeds, film thickness and hydrothermal treatment conditions was investigated. In thin films, most of the crystalline material was found to be oriented with the b-axes close to perpendicular to the substrate surface. In thick films, the a- or c-axes were close to perpendicular to the substrate surface depending on the conditions used for hydrothermal treatment. The seed size and amount was found to affect the rate of change in preferred orientation as a function of film thickness. A film growth mechanism which is able to explain the experimental results is proposed.     

Implementation of a Lattice Boltzmann kernel using the Compute Unified Device Architecture developed by nVIDIA

In this article a very efficient implementation of a 2D-Lattice Boltzmann kernel using the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA?) interface developed by nVIDIA^® is presented. By exploiting the explicit parallelism exposed in the graphics hardware we obtain more than one order in performance gain compared to standard CPUs. A non-trivial example, the flow through a generic porous medium, shows the performance of the implementation.     

Numerical simulation of segmented penetrator impact

The performance of segmented and continuous penetrators impacting semi-infinite and spaced armor is studied using both the EPIC-2 and HULL hydrocodes. First the performance of a segmented rod is studied, striking semi-infinite armor, for various parameters such as striking velocity, segment spacing and number of segments. Then an actual penetrator configuration proposed by A. Charters is analyzed and the use of normalized penetration is discussed. Finally three-dimensional simulations are presented for segmented and continuous penetrators impacting oblique spaced armor varying such parameters as striking velocity, segment spacing, number of segments, and target thickness.