Surface modification and physical properties of various UHMWPE‐fiber‐reinforced modified epoxy composites

Two surface modification methods—plasma surface treatment and chemical agent treatment—were used to investigate their effects on the surface properties of ultrahigh‐molecular‐weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers. In the analyses, performed using electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis, changes in weight, and scanning electron microscope observations, demonstrated that the two fiber‐surface‐modified composites formed between UHMWPE fiber and epoxy matrix exhibited improved interfacial adhesion and slight improvements in tensile strengths, but notable decreases in elongation, relative to those properties of the composites reinforced with the untreated UHMWPE fibers. In addition, three kinds of epoxy resins—neat DGEBA, polyurethane‐crosslinked DGEBA, and BHHBP‐DGEBA—were used as resin matrices to examine the tensile and elongation properties of their UHMWPE fiber‐reinforced composites. From stress/strain measurements and scanning electron microscope observations, the resin matrix improved the tensile strength apparently, but did not affect the elongation. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 655–665, 2007     

Theory of asymmetric organocatalysis of Aldol and related reactions: rationalizations and predictions

Computational studies have led to models to understand some classic and contemporary asymmetric reactions involving organocatalysts. The Hajos-Parrish-Eder-Sauer-Wiechert reaction and intermolecular aldol reactions as well as Mannich reactions and oxyaminations catalyzed by proline and other amino acids, and Diels-Alder reactions catalyzed by MacMillan's chiral amine organocatalysts have been studied with density functional theory. Quantitative predictions for several new catalysts and reactions are provided.     

Spinning and drawing properties of ultrahigh‐molecular‐weight polyethylene fibers prepared at varying concentrations and temperatures

The concentrations and temperatures of ultrahigh‐molecular‐weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) gel solutions exhibited a significant influence on their rheological and spinning properties. The shear viscosities of UHMWPE solutions increased consistently with increasing concentrations at a constant temperature above 80°C. Tremendously high shear viscosities of UHMWPE gel solutions were found as the temperatures reached 120–140°C, at which their shear viscosity values approached the maximum. The spinnable solutions are those gel solutions with optimum shear viscosities and relatively good homogeneity in nature. Moreover, the gel solution concentrations and spinning temperatures exhibited a significant influence on the drawability and microstructure of the as‐spun fibers. At each spinning temperature, the achievable draw ratios obtained for as‐spun fibers prepared near the optimum concentration are significantly higher than those of as‐spun fibers prepared at other concentrations. The critical draw ratio of the as‐spun fiber prepared at the optimum concentration approached a maximum value, as the spinning temperature reached the optimum value of 150°C. Further investigations indicated that the best orientation of the precursors of shish‐kebab‐like entities, birefringence, crystallinity, thermal and tensile properties were always accompanied with the as‐spun fiber prepared at the optimum concentration and temperature. Similar to those found for the as‐spun fibers, the birefringence and tensile properties of the draw fibers prepared at the optimum condition were always higher than those of drawn fibers prepared at other conditions but stretched to the same draw ratio. Possible mechanisms accounting for these interesting phenomena are proposed.     

Synthesis and dielectric properties of polystyrene‐clay nanocomposite materials

Polystyrene‐clay nanocomposite (PsCN) materials were synthesized and their properties of crystallinity, thermal behavior, and dielectric characteristics were investigated. A polymerizable cationic surfactant, [2‐(dimethylamino)ethyl]triphenylphonium bromide, was used for the intercalation of montmorillonite (MMT). The organophilic MMT was prepared by Na⁺‐exchanged MMT and ammonium cations of a cationic surfactant in an aqueous medium. Organophilic styrene monomers were intercalated into the interlayer regions of organophilic clay hosts followed by a free‐radical polymerization. Exfoliation to 2 wt % MMT in the polystyrene (PS) matrix was achieved as revealed by X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Thermal properties by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) were also studied. The dielectric properties of PsCNs in the form of film with clay loading from 1.0 to 5.0 wt % were measured under frequencies of 100 Hz–1 MHz at 25–70°C. A decreased dielectric constant and low dielectric loss were observed for PsCN materials. The dielectric response at low frequency that originated from dipole orientation was suppressed due to the intercalation of clay materials. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 1368–1373, 2004     

An efficient and secure approach for a cloud collaborative editing

The demand for cloud-based collaborative editing service is rising along with the tremendously increased popularity in cloud computing. In the cloud-based collaborative editing environment, the data are stored in the cloud and able to be accessed from everywhere through every compatible device with the Internet. The information is shared with every accredited user in a group. In other words, multiple authorized users of the group are able to work on the same document and edit the document collaboratively and synchronously online. Meanwhile, during the whole collaborative editing process, the encryption technique is eventually applied to protect and secure the data. The encryption for the collaborative editing, however, could require much time to operate. To elevate the efficiency of the encryption, this study first analyzes the text editing in the collaborative service and presents a framework of the Red–Black tree, named as rbTree-Doc. The rbTree-Doc can reduce the amount of data to be encrypted. Although the trade-off for creating the Red–Black tree introduces extra cost, the experimental results of using rbTree-Doc in text editing operations, such as insertion and removal, show improved efficiency compared with other whole-document encryption strategy. Using rbTree-Doc, the efficiency is improved by 31.04% compared to that 3DES encryption is applied and by 23.94% compared to that AES encryption is applied.     

Supervisory adaptive dynamic RBF-based neural-fuzzy control system design for unknown nonlinear systems

Many published papers show that a TSK-type fuzzy system provides more powerful representation than a Mamdani-type fuzzy system. Radial basis function (RBF) network has a similar feature to the fuzzy system. As this result, this article proposes a dynamic TSK-type RBF-based neural-fuzzy (DTRN) system, in which the learning algorithm not only online generates and prunes the fuzzy rules but also online adjusts the parameters. Then, a supervisory adaptive dynamic RBF-based neural-fuzzy control (SADRNC) system which is composed of a DTRN controller and a supervisory compensator is proposed. The DTRN controller is designed to online estimate an ideal controller based on the gradient descent method, and the supervisory compensator is designed to eliminate the effect of the approximation error introduced by the DTRN controller upon the system stability in the Lyapunov sense. Finally, the proposed SADRNC system is applied to control a chaotic system and an inverted pendulum to illustrate its effectiveness. The stability of the proposed SADRNC scheme is proved analytically and its effectiveness has been shown through some simulations.     

Droplets coalescence and mixing with identical and distinct surface tension on a wettability gradient surface

The influence of identical and distinct surface tensions on the coalescence and mixing of droplets after a direct collision on a wettability gradient surface (made from a self-assembled monolayer, SAM technique) was investigated. The results indicate that their mixing is driven sequentially by interior convection and diffusion; the convection endures less than 100 ms but dominates more than 60 % of the mixing. If the stationary droplet has a large surface tension (73.28 mN × m^?1), whether the moving droplet has a large surface tension (73.28 mN × m^?1) or a small surface tension (38.63 mN × m^?1), the mushroom-shaped mixing pattern is generated within the coalesced droplet that enhances the convective mixing and also significantly enlarges the interface for mass diffusion. The mixing index of these two cases was greater than 0.8 at 120 s after the collision. For the cases in which the stationary droplet with a small surface tension collided by the moving droplet with a large surface tension, a mixing pattern with a round-head shape developed, which was insufficient to benefit the mixing. When the stationary and moving droplets both had small surface tension, the moving droplet was unable to merge with stationary droplet and had poor mixing quality due to the small surface Gibbs energy of both stationary and moving droplets. For the collision of droplets of identical surface tension, the surface tension affects the coalescence behavior; for the collision of droplets with distinct surface tension, the coalescence behavior and mixing quality depend on the colliding arrangement of stationary and moving droplets.     

Typology of teacher perception toward distance education issues – A study of college information department teachers in Taiwan

The popularity of distance education has grown rapidly over the last decade in Taiwan’s higher education, yet many fundamental teaching–learning issues are still in debate. While teacher–student interaction is a key success factor in distance education, little work has been done on the teachers. The intent of this research was to clarify teacher’s perceptions on key distance education issues and to develop a discernible typology of different groups of teachers based on their perceptions. Because there may be a gulf between teachers and the technology used in distance education, the target of this study was teachers in information related departments in Taiwan’s colleges, who were more familiar with current technology. Factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to derive the typology. Five higher-level issue constructs emerged from the factor analysis: learning effect, customization, administrative challenges, geographic and resource integration, and instructional design challenges. Four groups of teachers, namely the skeptics, the optimists, the mild-promising group, and the outlier, were identified using cluster analysis of teachers’ perceptions on these five higher-level issue constructs. The profiles of the four groups of teachers were summarized and implications were discussed, which should provide useful insights to the policy makers of higher education on distance education decisions.     

B2B电子商务网站SEO研究

B2B电子商务网站竞争日益激烈,网站的访问流量成为影响网站经营效益的重要因素。在众多的网站营销策略中搜索引擎优化是增加网站流量的重要手段,但是由于网站建设过程中存在各种问题,导致国内的B2B电子商务网站搜索引擎表现效果不尽人意。该文即针对当前B2B网站优化存在问题提出了基于SEO技术的网站优化策略。     

Green IT More Than a Three Percent Solution?

IT infrastructure is definitely going green. From significant new regulations for IT equipment disposal to stringent energy-efficiency specifications for PCs and monitors to national standards for data center power savings, Green IT is an "in" topic. But many problems are unsolved. Will telecommuting make a difference or is it too difficult to manage? Will cloud computing reduce the number of large data centers? Can legislation diminish e-waste challenges?