Effect of grain size and density of spray-pyrolyzed hydroxyapatite particles on the sinterability of hydroxyapatite disk

The effect of grain size and density of hydroxyapatite particles, which were prepared by different spray-pyrolysis temperatures, on the sinterability of hydroxyapatite disk was investigated. Calcium phosphate solution (Ca/P ratio of 1.67 and 0.1 M concentration) was prepared by reacting calcium nitrate tetrahydrate and diammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions, and adding nitric acid. Spray-pyrolysis was carried out at 900 °C, 1200 °C, and 1500 °C at a carrier gas flowing rate of 10 L/min. The particles synthesized at 900 °C were large, hollow spheres with a hole at the outer surface, a broad size distribution, but had small grain sizes. Conversely, the particles synthesized at 1500 °C were small, solid spheres with a narrow size distribution, but had large grain sizes. The particles synthesized at 1200 °C had intermediate properties. A sinterability test conducted at 1100 °C for 1 h demonstrated that small and dense particles with large grain sizes showed a higher relative sintered density compared with large and hollow particles with small grain sizes. The results were explained in terms of the grain size and density of a particle, which were inversely and proportionally affected to sinterability. The practical implication of these results is that highly sinterable hydroxyapatite powders can be synthesized through spray-pyrolysis at a high temperature under a fixed initial concentration of calcium phosphate solution and flow rate of carrier gas.     

Preparation of Mn−Zn ferrite from spent zinc-carbon batteries by alkali leaching,acid leaching and Co-precipitation

The treatment of spent zinc-carbon batteries for the recovery of valuable metals followed by conversion to Mn−Zn ferrite has been conducted employing two-stage alkali and acid leaching and co-precipitation method. In the first stage, leaching process was carried out with 4 M NaOH, which resulted in a recovery of 63.4 %Zn and 0.1% Mn. Electrowinning of alkali leaching solution containing 12.75 g/L Zn at a current density of 0.2 A/cm² produced Zn metal of 15 nm to 30 nm size and 99.9% purity. The second stage leaching of residue with 3 M H₂SO₄ and 6 vol.% H₂O₂ at a solid/liquid ratio of 1∶10 indicated the leaching efficiency of 98.0% Zn, 97.9% Mn and 55.2% Fe. The obtained leaching solution was finally adjusted to suitable mole ratios of Mn∶Zn∶Fe (1∶1∶4) by the addition of Zn and Fe sulfate salts followed by pH control to produce Mn−Zn ferrite powder. The characterization of the ferrite powder showed uniform nano-crystalline particles of about 20 nm size with spinel structure.     

Hybrid ring coupler for W-band MMIC applications using MEMS technology

The hybrid ring coupler was designed and fabricated on a GaAs substrate using surface micromachining techniques, which adopted dielectric-supported air-gapped microstrip line (DAML) structure. The fabrication process of DAML is compatible with the standard monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) techniques, and the hybrid ring coupler can be simply integrated into a plane-structural MMIC. The fabricated hybrid ring coupler shows wideband characteristics of the coupling loss of 3.57 /spl plusmn/ 0.22dB and the transmission loss of 3.80 /spl plusmn/ 0.08dB across the measured frequency range of 85 to 105GHz. The isolation characteristics and output phase differences are -34dB and 180/spl plusmn/1/spl deg/, at 94GHz, respectively.     

Pressure casting of a zirconia-toughened alumina fiber-reinforced NiAl composite

A pressure-cast NiAl composite reinforced with polycrystalline alumina (PRD-166) fibers containing 0.2 weight fraction of partially stabilized zirconia was examined by optical and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Fibers in the preform used for casting were forced into contact, and fiber bonding occurred in a number of instances. Fiber volume fraction was increased from an initial value of 0.4 to 0.6 as a consequence of the applied pressure. An explanation is offered for the interaction of applied pressure, wetting angle, and the rigidity of the fiber preform on the final volume fraction of the fibers in the composite. At the fiber/matrix interface, the alumina was free of zirconia particles. It is proposed that alumina grain growth forced the zirconia into the molten NiAl, where it dissolved. As solidification took place, the concentration of zirconium in the molten NiAl increased to a point where zirconium reacted with alumina to form zirconia again.     

No wiring constraints

Wireless technologies are gaining increased acceptance as a viable technology within the industrial solution space. However, it is important for control system architects to fully understand not only the benefits but also the challenges and limitations of wireless technologies. The complex interrelationships between the various wireless technology characteristics require careful tradeoffs to be made in the design of the solution. This is especially true for applications that need to handle continuous data streams where high capacity is critical to maintain the scalability and reliability of the network. Although still relatively new, mesh networks have proven themselves to have significant advantages in robustness, scalability, and low-power consumption over other wireless technologies for use in industrial monitoring applications. Mesh networks employing PDR address the scalability challenges of wireless sensor networking that can limit implementation in production situations by significantly increasing overall packet-delivery rate and reducing network communication overhead. HC_WSN, an approach that will emerge as the important next trend in the wireless sensor networking industry, can be implemented in addition to PDR techniques and will further support the increasing number of applications that require the wireless sensor network to handle greater amounts of data.     

Activation of particulate guanylyl cyclase by Vibrio vulnificus hemolysin

Recently we reported that Vibrio vulnificus hemolysin, an exotoxin produced by V. vulnificus, dilates rat thoracic aorta via elevated cGMP levels without affecting nitric oxide synthase. We investigated the mechanism further by observing the guanylyl cyclase activities in cytosolic, membrane, unfractionated, or reconstituted preparations. Hemolysin did not activate guanylyl cyclase in the membrane or cytosolic fraction, while it activated guanylyl cyclase in unfractionated or reconstituted preparation. The increased activity was not inhibited by the HS-142-1, a microbial polysaccharide which antagonizes atrial natriuretic peptide receptor, or 1H-[1,2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one (ODQ), a soluble guanylyl cyclase inhibitor. However, it was attenuated by 6-(phenylamino)-5,8-quinolinedione (LY 83.583), which inhibits the catalytic domain of both guanylyl cyclases, and by cholesterol, which blocks hemolysin-incorporation into the membrane. Removing ATP, a cofactor of particulate guanylyl cyclase, attenuated the activation and ATPgammaS, a non-phosphorylating analog, restored it. These results suggest that V. vulnificus hemolysin activates particulate guanylyl cyclase via hemolysin incorporation into the vascular smooth muscle cell membrane in cooperation with certain unidentified cytosolic component(s).     

Honey major protein characterization and its application to adulteration detection

The major proteins in honey have different molecular weights depending upon the honeybee species. To confirm the origin of major honey proteins, honey protein produced by Apis cerana or Apis mellifera were purified and analyzed by MALDI-TOF. Two major proteins were identified as a major royal jelly protein 1. Although two major proteins shared primary structure, they showed different molecular weights of 56 and 59 kDa, respectively. To discriminate the honeybee species producing honey using SDS–PAGE, artificial marker proteins, 56 and 59 kDa, were produced from Escherichia coli. Two artificial marker proteins were co-electrophoresed with honey samples and the difference in molecular weight was readily distinguished by SDS–PAGE. Therefore, the measurement of major proteins in honey is a useful method to discriminate the honey that produced from different honeybee species.     

Iordanskii and Lifshitz-Pitaevskii Forces in the Two-Fluid Model

It has been known since the pioneering work of Onsager and Feynman that the statistical mechanics and dynamics of vortices play an essential role in the behavior of superfluids and superconductors. However, the theory of vortices in quantum fluids remains in a most unsatisfactory state, with many conflicting results in the literature. In this paper we review the theory of Thouless, Ao and Niu, which gives an expression for the total transverse force acting on a quantized vortex that is in apparent disagreement with the word of lordanskii and of Lifshitz and Pitaevskii. In particular, no transverse force proportional to the asymptotic normal fluid velocity was found. We use two-fluid hydrodynamics to study this discrepancy.     

Effects of cooking methods on starch hydrolysis kinetics and digestion-resistant fractions of rice and soybean

In this study, we investigated the effects of cooking methods and digestion-resistant fractions on the starch hydrolysis kinetics of rice and soybeans. The RS1 contents in unheated rice and soybeans were found to be high at 5.3 and 4.9%, respectively. After heating, the RS1 levels of the rice and soybeans were significantly reduced to 0.4 and 2.4%, respectively. The total nonstarch polysaccharide (NSP) content was not significantly different according to heat treatment, but the heat treatments affected the amounts of water insoluble nonstarch polysaccharides (WISNSP) and water soluble nonstarch polysaccharides (WSNSP). The level of WISNSP in the unheated samples was higher than the WSNSP of both samples; however, the WISNSP level showed a reducing trend after heating. Also, total pentosan and water soluble pentosan contents showed similar trends with total NSP and WSNSP. The hydrolysis indices (HI) of the unheated rice and soybeans were low (36.2 and 40.3%), while the heated group had high levels (89.5 and 45.0%). Among the cooking methods, the highest kinetic constants (0.284 and 0.199) were found with autoclaving for both rice and soybeans, followed by electric cooker (0.282 and 0.170), microwave oven (0.256 and 0.155), and stone pot (0.238 and 0.167). Particularly, all soybean samples appeared to have lower starch hydrolysis kinetics than the rice samples. The RS contents of the rice and soybeans were highest in the samples that were cooked in the stone pot, at 1.2 and 3.8%, respectively.