Growth of sculptured polymer submicronwire assemblies by vapor deposition

We have grown helical nanowire assemblies of parylene C, thereby demonstrating that polymeric sculptured thin films (STFs) can be fabricated by a combination of physical and chemical vapor deposition processes. The deposition method is explained in detail and electron micrographs of 200-400 nm size sculptured thin film of parylene are given. The shapes of the submicron and nanowire assemblies can be engineered so that the polymeric STF acts as a template for preferential attachment of biomolecules.     

INTEGRATING ALBEMARLE RESOLVE DESULFURIZATION TECHNOLOGY WITH NOVEL PETRO-CANADA PROCESS CONCEPTS IN COMMERCIAL FCCU OPERATIONS

The gasoline and distillate sulfur regulations promulgated throughout the world to reduce tail-pipe emissions are now strongly impacting refinery operations and investments. FCC gasoline is recognized as the principal contributor of sulfur to the gasoline pool and has become the focus for meeting the new specifications. The difficulty in removing sterically hindered sulfur species in the fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) cycle oil drives up the hydrogen and investment costs for treating the distillates. Although installation of pre- and post-treatment facilities is planned by many refiners, other non-capital approaches such as undercutting are being evaluated to meet interim and future sulfur levels. Even when expensive treatment facilities are installed, operating costs can be lowered and the flexibility of the facility increased with improvements in the ability to remove sulfur in the FCCU. In this article, we detail Petro-Canada's experience in integrating Albemarle's RESOLVE sulfur reduction technology with a combination of innovative process ideas. These concepts include heavy naphtha recycle, coprocessing of hydrogen donor feeds, and recycle of light cycle oil (LCO) to a specially designed stripper reactor. Special attention is paid to the interaction of deep FCC feed hydrodesulfurization with the FCC performance. The results demonstrate that very low FCC gasoline sulfur levels can be achieved without significant capital investment through novel approaches to recycle, creative integration of cat feed hydrotreating unit (CFHTU)-FCCU designs and operations, and application of state-of-the-art sulfur reduction additive technology. An added benefit of the RESOLVE 950 sulfur reduction technology is the substantial elimination of sulfur oxides in the FCC flue gas. This has been observed in Petro-Canada operations and numerous other RESOLVE 950 applications around the world.     

Substrate-mediated interactions and intermolecular forces between molecules adsorbed on surfaces

Adsorbate interactions and reactions on metal surfaces have been investigated using scanning tunneling microscopy. The manners in which adsorbates perturb the surface electronic structure in their vicinity are discussed. The effects these perturbations have on other molecules are shown to be important in overlayer growth. Interactions of molecules with surface steps are addressed, and each molecule's electron affinity is shown to dictate its adsorption sites at step edges. Standing waves emanating from steps are demonstrated to effect transient molecular adsorption up to 40 A away from the step edge. Halobenzene derivatives are used to demonstrate how the surface is important in aligning reactive intermediates.     

Some novel polymer-supported optically active phase transfer catalysts: 2. Use in displacement,reduction, epoxidation and addition reactions

The performance of 27 novel polymer-supported chiral phase transfer catalysts in a range of phase separated reactions has been studied. The later include a number of displacement reactions, sodium borohydride reductions of prochiral ketones, the epoxidation of chalcone, the addition of nitromethane to chalcone and the addition of thiophenol to cyclohexenone. Some of the reactions were performed under liquid/liquid conditions and others using solid/liquid. No systematic difference emerged between these. In general many of the catalysts provided fast reactions and good chemical yields of products. However, in no case was any significant enantiomeric excess achieved. The latter observation is discussed in the light of the reported behaviour of analogous non-supported catalytic systems, and suggestions proposed to explain these differences.     

Implications of variable fluid resistance caused by start-up flow in microfluidic networks

Electrical circuit analogies are often used to design microfluidic systems because they simplify device design, providing simple relationships between fluid flow rate, driving forces, and channel dimensions. However, such approximations often significantly overestimate flow rates in situations where start-up energy losses from establishing kinetic head are similar in magnitude to the energy required to overcome viscous shear stresses, as is often the case within complex microfluidic networks. These reduced flows can be more accurately predicted within an electrical analogy framework that accounts for the nonlinear flow resistance generated on the transient regime of start-up flow. In this work, standard flow resistance expressions are modified to account for such effects, and the onset of nonlinear resistance is predicted by a dimensionless parameter, $\xi = Re\frac{D}{L},$ which is dependent on the Reynolds number and the channel length. As a demonstration, variable fluid resistance is shown to dramatically affect the flow performance of common microfluidic units such as T-junctions and serpentine channels, and the change in performance is accurately predicted. Experimental and theoretical analysis of T-junctions further shows that variable flow resistance causes the ratio of flows through the junction to converge toward unity with respect to an increasing total flow rate. In addition, serpentine channels are shown to exaggerate these start-up effects, owing to compounded energetic demand associated with changing a flow’s direction. As a result, serpentine channels cause the ratio of flow rates exiting a T-junction to diverge from unity with respect to an increasing flow rate.     

A Sequential Design Approach for Switching ℌ∞ LPV Control

This paper proposes a sequential design scheme for switching ℌ_∞ LPV (Linear Parameter-Varying) control, aiming to reduce the computational complexity of the associated optimization problem. Different from the traditional approach that simultaneously designs switching LPV controllers and solves a high-dimensional optimization problem, the proposed sequential design approach renders a bundle of low-dimensional optimization problems to be solved iteratively. Individual ℌ_∞ LPV controller for each subregion is synthesized by independent PLMIs (Parametric Linear Matrix Inequalities) to guarantee ℌ_∞ performance, and controller variables are interpolated on the overlapped subregions such that the ℌ_∞ performance is also guaranteed on the overlapped subregion. Numerical examples are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this method to reduce the computational load in each design iteration and improved ℌ_∞ performance over the conventional simultaneous design method with well-tuned interpolation coefficient.

     

Evaluation of the coupled multielectrode array sensor as a real-time corrosion monitor

Coupled multielectrode array sensors made of carbon steel and stainless steels were evaluated and compared with electrochemical noise (EN) sensors. Good correlations between sensor signals and solution corrosivity were observed for all multielectrode array sensors. Some correlation between the average pit index and solution corrosivity was observed for the carbon steel EN sensors, but not for the stainless steel EN sensors. The time-average noise resistances from the stainless steel EN sensors correlate well with solution corrosivity. There were, however, large random fluctuations and drifting for all EN signals, which make the EN sensors unreliable as real-time monitors.     

Talking with some directors of the U.S. national laboratories

JOM surveyed the leaders of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) national laboratories for perspectives on some of the U.S. science and engineering community’s most pressing issues regarding R&D, globalization, national security, and budget constraints. The journal posed the same five questions to each lab director. What follows are responses from six of the directors: Michael R. Anastasio, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Dan Arvizu, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL); John J. Grossenbacher, Idaho National Laboratory (INL); Thomas O. Hunter, Sandia National Laboratories; Robert Rosner, Argonne National Laboratory; and Jeffrey Wadsworth, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Kelly Roncone is news editor for JOM.     

Driving a Wedge Between Evidence and Beliefs: How Online Ideological News Exposure Promotes Political Misperceptions

This article has 2 goals: to provide additional evidence that exposure to ideological online news media contributes to political misperceptions, and to test 3 forms this media‐effect might take. Analyses are based on representative survey data collected during the 2012 U.S. presidential election (N = 1,004). Panel data offer persuasive evidence that biased news site use promotes inaccurate beliefs, while cross‐sectional data provide insight into the nature of these effects. There is no evidence that exposure to ideological media reduces awareness of politically unfavorable evidence, though in some circumstances biased media do promote misunderstandings of it. The strongest and most consistent influence of ideological media exposure is to encourage inaccurate beliefs regardless of what consumers know of the evidence.     

Comparing Public Perceptions of Alternative Water Sources for Potable Use: The Case of Rainwater,Stormwater, Desalinated Water,and Recycled Water

This research investigated how people’s perceptions of alternative water sources compare with their perceptions of other technologies, and identified significant predictors of comfort with different alternative water sources. We drew on data from four questionnaire survey studies with a total sample of more than 1200 Australian participants. Relative levels of comfort with the alternative water sources was consistent across the four studies: comfort was always highest for drinking rainwater and lowest for drinking recycled water, with comfort with drinking treated stormwater and desalinated water sitting between these two. Although comfort with drinking recycled water was always lowest of the four alternative water sources, participants were significantly more comfortable with drinking recycled water than they were with nuclear energy, or with using genetically modified plants and animals for food. In general, demographic variables were less important predictors of comfort with alternative water sources than were psychological variables; only age and gender emerged as relatively consistent predictors for recycled water, stormwater, and desalinated water, with older participants and males more comfortable with drinking these water sources. Of the psychological variables, participants’ comfort with technology in general, trust in science and trust in government emerged consistently as significant positive predictors of comfort with drinking recycled water, stormwater, and desalinated water.