Rheological properties and compatibility of NR/EPDM and NR/brominated EPDM blends

Ethylene–propylene–diene terpolymer (EPDM) was modified by bromination reaction. Blending the resulting brominated EPDM with natural rubber (STR5L) and blending the unmodified EPDM with STR5L at various compositions were carried out. The rheological properties of the blends were investigated using a capillary extrusion. Shear flow curves of the pure rubbers and their blends illustrated the pseudoplastic property as shear thinning behavior with a power law index n < 1. True shear viscosity of all blends showed the negative deviation in relation to their additive values. Rheological behavior and two T_g's found from the DSC thermograms at all blend compositions indicated blend incompatibility for both sets of blends. The incompatibility of the vulcanized blends was also found by measuring the spin–spin relaxation time T₂ by pulsed NMR. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 837–847, 2003     

Print-Batch(Cold)—A New Process for Wool

A cold printing process has been developed from the IWS pad-batch(cold) method for the dyeing of wool cloth. The chemical aspects of the technique are discussed with particular reference to the role of sodium bisulphite in promoting dye fixation and increasing the colour yield. The system used for the selection of reactive dyes for application to wool in the cold is described. Typical printing procedures are outlined.     

3-D molecular assembly of function in titania-based composite material systems

Various examples of composite titania-based nanostructured materials exhibiting cooperative functionalities between different active components are presented. The fabrication of these integrated composite materials is based on one-pot supramolecular templating techniques combined with acidic sol-gel chemistry. The defined 3-D nanoscale organization and integration of various functional components results in advanced optoelectronic and photonic applications such as visible light sensitization of mesoporous titania photocatalysts with cadmium sulfide nanocrystals acting as sensitizing integral part of the mesopore wall structure, narrow bandwidth emission from rare earth ion activated nanocrystalline mesoporous titania films, and mirrorless lasing in dye-doped hybrid organic/inorganic mesostructured titania waveguides.     

Iridoid glycoside metabolism and sequestration byPoladryas minuta (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) feeding onPenstemon virgatus (Scrophulariaceae)

A bivoltine checkerspot butterfly,Poladryas minuta, is aPenstemon specialist, not known to utilize any other plant genus for oviposition and larval feeding. At several intermontane plains sites of central Colorado, the butterfly utilizesPenstemon virgatus as its sole host plant. Analysis of the host plant showed it to contain three cinnamyl-type catalpol esters (scutellarioside-II, globularin, globularicisin) and catalpol. The host plant contained an average of 10% dry weight iridoids, but some variation among individual plants and leaves within plants was noted. Field-collected butterflies contained 2.1–8.7% dry weight catalpol, but no other iridoids. Adults from larvae fedP. virgatus in the lab contained 4.2–9.0% dry weight catalpol and excreted large amounts of catalpol in the meconium. No catalpol was found in the larval frass. Larvae did not consume three alternate iridoid-containing host-plant species, and most eventually died rather than feed on the alternate plants. Larvae did consume small amounts of artificial diets containing the alternate species andP. virgatus, but most went into diapause and some died. Survival was good on artificial diet containing 10% dry weight of the iridoid esters fromP. virgatus. Only catalpol was found in pupae and adults, but it was absent from the larval frass. The cinnamic-type acids expected from larval hydrolysis of the esters were not found in larval frass, pupae, or adults. These results are contrasted with those found for another checkerspot,Euphydryas anicia, which consumes a different host-plant species but was present at one of the same sites withPoladryas minuta.Paper 15 in the series Chemistry of the Scrophulariaceae. Paper 14 Boros, C.M., Stermitz, F.R., and Harris, G.H. 1990.J. Nat. Prod. 5372–80.     

Responses of braconid parasitoidsMicroplitis croceipes (Cresson) andM. demolitor Wilkinson to stereoisomers of kairomone 13-methylhentriacontane

The responses ofMicroplitis croceipes (Cresson) andMicroplitis demolitor Wilkinson to theR andS stereoisomers of the kairomone 13-meth-ylhentriacontane were evaluated. Singly and in combination at 5, 50-, and 500-ng dosage levels each were tested. There was a linear dosage response by both species to the three dosages. Furthermore, there was no difference between responses to the two stereoisomers or their combination by either species at any dosage level. The effects of the two stereoisomers were fully interchangeable and additive. This is the first report of parasitoid responses to stereoisomers of a kairomone.     

REVERSED RESIDUALS IN AUTOREGRESSIVE TIME SERIES ANALYSIS

Abstract. Both linear and non-linear time series can have directional features which can be used to enhance the modelling and investigation of linear or non-linear autoregressive statistical models. For this purpose, reversed p th-order residuals are introduced. Cross-correlations of residuals and squared reversed residuals allow extensions of current model identification ideas. Quadratic types of partial autocorrelation functions are introduced to assess dependence associated with non-linear models which nevertheless have linear autoregressive correlation structures. The use of these residuals and their cross-correlation functions is exemplified empirically on some deseasonalized river flow data for which a first-order autoregressive model is a satisfactory second-order fit. Parallel theoretical computations are undertaken for the non-linear first-order random coefficient autoregressive model and comparisons are made. While the data are shown to be strongly non-linear, their correlational signatures are found to be convincingly different from those of a first-order autoregressive model with random coefficients.     

The effect of various anti-setting systems in wool dyeing. Part 4; Sodium tetrathionate based systems

The tetrathionate anion has the potential to oxidise thiols specifically to disulphides; this property has been investigated in this paper from the point of view of using tetrathionate as an anti-setting agent in wool dyebaths. It was found that at pH 3 the addition of tetrathionate actually made the degree of permanent set greater than in its absence; however at pH 5 and pH 7 significant anti-setting benefits were achieved. The reason for the apparently contradictory result at pH 3 was found to be the substantivity and subsequent reactivity of thiosulphate anion for wool – this anion is a product of the reduction of tetrathionate by wool cysteinyl thiol residues.     

Platinum-group metal cyclodextrin complexes and their use as command-cure catalysts in silicones

The Command-Cure concept is defined for a curable formulation as one with long work-like at ambient temperature and rapid cure time at elevated temperature. This concept is explored for a curable silicone system, cured via hydrosilylation. CODMCl₂ complexes (COD=1.5-cyclo-octadiene:M=Pt. Pd) are reacted with beta-cyclodextrin (-CD) to make 11 inclusion compounds,M=Pd.2;M=Pt.4. Compounds2 and4 were analyzed by¹H NMR and X-ray powder diffraction. Their catalytic ability was evaluated in a model system as well as a polymeric system that gels upon cure. Surprisingly, the Pd analog2 was a good command-cure catalyst whereas the guest compound CODPdCl₂,1, was not active in the hydrosilylation reaction. The Pt analog,4, was an effective command-cure catalyst while the corresponding guest. CODPtCl₂,3, was too active at low temperature in the hydrosilylation reaction. Additional Pt compounds and one Rh inclusion compound were evaluated as command cure catalysts. These inclusion compounds were: 11 -CD:[CODRhCl]₂,5: 11 -CD:CpPtMe₃,6 (Cp=cyclopentadienyl): 12 -CD:MeCpPtMe₃,7; 12 -CO:CODPtMe₂,8. The effectiveness of4 8 was evaluated in a number of silicone systems.     

Sourcing the Arab Spring: A Case Study of Andy Carvin's Sources on Twitter During the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions

News sourcing practices are critical as they shape from whom journalists get their information and what information they obtain, mostly from elite sources. This study evaluates whether social media platforms expand the range of actors involved in the news through a quantitative content analysis of the sources cited by NPR's Andy Carvin on Twitter during the Arab Spring. Results show that, on balance, nonelite sources had a greater representation in the content than elite sources. Alternative actors accounted for nearly half of the messages. The study points to the innovative forms of production that can emerge with new communication technologies, with the journalist as a central node trusted to authenticate and interpret news flows on social awareness streams.     

Practical scalable image analysis and indexing using Hadoop

The ability to handle very large amounts of image data is important for image analysis, indexing and retrieval applications. Sadly, in the literature, scalability aspects are often ignored or glanced over, especially with respect to the intricacies of actual implementation details. In this paper we present a case-study showing how a standard bag-of-visual-words image indexing pipeline can be scaled across a distributed cluster of machines. In order to achieve scalability, we investigate the optimal combination of hybridisations of the MapReduce distributed computational framework which allows the components of the analysis and indexing pipeline to be effectively mapped and run on modern server hardware. We then demonstrate the scalability of the approach practically with a set of image analysis and indexing tools built on top of the Apache Hadoop MapReduce framework. The tools used for our experiments are freely available as open-source software, and the paper fully describes the nuances of their implementation.