Phase separation in non-solvent/dimethylformamide/polyethersulphone and non-solvent/dimethylformamide/polysulphone systems

The cloud point curves for the ternary solutions non-solvent/dimethyl-formamide/polyethersulphone and non-solvent/dimethylformamide/polysul-phone were determined by a titration technique, at 303 K. In both systems the following order of increasing non-solvent content at the cloud point was obtained: water < methanol < ethanol < 1-propanol < acetone < carbon tetrachloride. For each non-solvent the cloud point curve for the PES system occurred at higher non-solvent concentrations than for the corresponding PSN system.     

Crystal-structure-controlled tribological behavior ofcarbon-graphite seal materials in partial pressures of helium andhydrogen. I. Specimen characterization and fundamentalconsiderations

Tribology Letters - Three commercially available carbon-graphite cryogenic materials(EC-5, M234 and P5N) that are used as seals in rocket turbopumpassemblies have been characterized as part of a...     

Toward a systematic design methodology for large multigigahertzrapid single flux quantum circuits

Rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) digital circuits have reached the level of medium- to large-scale of integration. At this level, existing design methodologies, developed specifically for RSFQ circuits, have become computationally inefficient. Applying mature semiconductor methodologies to the design of RSFQ circuits, one encounters substantial difficulties originating from the differences between both technologies. In this paper, a new design methodology aimed at large-scale RSFQ circuits is proposed. This methodology is based on a semiconductor semicustom design approach. An established design methodology for small-stale RSFQ digital circuits, based on circuit (junction-level) simulation and device parameter optimization, is used for the design of basic RSFQ cells. A library composed of about 20 basic RSFQ cells has been developed based on this approach. A novel design methodology for large-scale circuits, presented in this paper, is based on logic (gate-level) simulation and timing optimization. This methodology has been implemented around the Cadence integrated design environment and used successfully at the University of Rochester for the design of two large-scale digital circuits     

Robust backstepping and neural network control of a low-quality nonholonomic mobile robot

A robust motion controller based on neural network and backstepping technique is proposed for a two-DOF low-quality mobile robot (MR). There are two main components in the motion controller. One is the tracking controller, which guarantees the MR follows the reference trajectory; the other one is the wheel-level inverse NN controller, which compensates the dynamics of the MR. Simulation results are provided to validate the proposed controllers. Experiments with a real low-quality MR, which were built from cheap drivelines, have been used to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the motion controller.     

Inventory on the dietary assessment tools available and needed in africa: a prerequisite for setting up a common methodological research infrastructure for nutritional surveillance,research, and prevention of diet-related non-communicable diseases

Objective: To carry out an inventory on the availability, challenges, and needs of dietary assessment (DA) methods in Africa as a pre-requisite to provide evidence, and set directions (strategies) for implementing common dietary methods and support web-research infrastructure across countries. Methods: The inventory was performed within the framework of the “Africa's Study on Physical Activity and Dietary Assessment Methods” (AS-PADAM) project. It involves international institutional and African networks. An inventory questionnaire was developed and disseminated through the networks. Eighteen countries responded to the dietary inventory questionnaire. Results: Various DA tools were reported in Africa; 24-Hour Dietary Recall and Food Frequency Questionnaire were the most commonly used tools. Few tools were validated and tested for reliability. Face-to-face interview was the common method of administration. No computerized software or other new (web) technologies were reported. No tools were standardized across countries. Conclusions: The lack of comparable DA methods across represented countries is a major obstacle to implement comprehensive and joint nutrition-related programmes for surveillance, programme evaluation, research, and prevention. There is a need to develop new or adapt existing DA methods across countries by employing related research infrastructure that has been validated and standardized in other settings, with the view to standardizing methods for wider use.     

Biofuel excision and the viability of ethanol production in the Green Triangle,Australia

The promotion and use of renewable energy sources are established priorities worldwide as a way to reduce emissions of Greenhouse Gases and promote energy security. Australia is committed to reach a target of 350 ML of biofuels per year by 2010, and incentives targeted to producers and consumers have been placed. These incentives include zero excise until 2011 for the ethanol produced in Australia and gradual increase of the taxation rates reaching the full excise of 0.125 AUD per litre by 2015. This paper analyses the viability of the second generation ethanol industry in the Green Triangle, one of the most promising Australian regions for biomass production, by comparing the energy adjusted pump prices of petrol and the produced ethanol under different taxation rates and forecasted oil prices. Major findings suggest that under the current conditions of zero fuel excise and oil prices around 80US$ per barrel ethanol production is viable using biomass with a plant gate cost of up to 74 AUD per ton. Moreover, the forecasted increase in oil prices have a higher impact on the price of petrol than the increased ethanol excise on the pump price of the biofuel. Thus, by 2016 feedstock with a plant gate cost of up to 190 AUD per ton might be used for ethanol production, representing a flow of 1.7 million tons of biomass per year potentially mitigating 1.2 million tons of CO₂ by replacing fossil fuels with ethanol.     

Speed and accuracy of facial expression classification in avoidant personality disorder: A preliminary study.

The aim of this preliminary study was to examine whether individuals with avoidant personality disorder (APD) could be characterized by deficits in the classification of dynamically presented facial emotional expressions. Using a community sample of adults with APD (n = 17) and non-APD controls (n = 16), speed and accuracy of facial emotional expression recognition was investigated in a task that morphs facial expressions from neutral to prototypical expressions (Multi-Morph Facial Affect Recognition Task; Blair, Colledge, Murray, & Mitchell, 2001). Results indicated that individuals with APD were significantly more likely than controls to make errors when classifying fully expressed fear. However, no differences were found between groups in the speed to correctly classify facial emotional expressions. The findings are some of the first to investigate facial emotional processing in a sample of individuals with APD and point to an underlying deficit in processing social cues that may be involved in the maintenance of APD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of screening methods for insect contamination in wheat

In collaboration with the United States Department of Agriculture and a number of major milling companies, the “Insect-Detect” immunoassay for analyzing insect contamination in grains has been compared with three more traditional methods, X-ray analysis, cracking and flotation, and the insect fragment test (IFT). Testing was carried out in blind fashion using clean wheat samples that were spiked with differing numbers of grain kernels infested with late instar larvae of the granary weevil (Sitophilus granarius (L.)). Three different laboratories analyzed the samples for each of the four methods. The collaborative trials showed that the insect immunoassay clearly provided the most accurate measurement of actual insect infestation, followed by X-ray analysis. While both cracking and flotation and IFT procedures provided a general measure of contamination, they showed much greater variability.