Effect of pretreatment and adsorption conditions on gas adsorption by supported metal catalysts

The influence of pretreatment and adsorption conditions on the adsorption of oxygen and hydrogen on supported Pt and Rh catalysts has been studied. It has been found that reduction conditions (temperature and time) and subsequent out gassing conditions influence the amount of gas adsorbed. Oxygen and hydrogen uptakes measured in a static system were significantly different than those measured in a dynamic system. Reproducible adsorption uptakes can be obtained by careful control of pretreatment and adsorption conditions.     

Transcriptome Analysis of High-Temperature Stress in Developing Barley Caryopses :Early Stress Responses and Effects on Storage Compound Biosynthesis

High-temperature stress,like any abiotic stress,impairs the physiology and development of plants,including the stages of seed setting and ripening.We used the Aflymetrix 22K Barley1 GeneChip microarray to investigate the response of developing barley(Hordeum vulgare)seeds,termed caryopses,after 0.5,3,and 6 h of heat stress exposure;958 induced and 1122 repressed genes exhibited spatial and temporal expression patterns that provide a detailed insight into the caryopses'early heat stress responses.Down-regulation of genes related to storage compound biosynthesis and cell growth provides evidence for a rapid impairment of the caryopsis' development.Increased levels of sugars and amino acids were indicative for both production of compatible solutes and feedback-induced accumulation of substrates for storage compound biosynthesis.Metadata analysis identified embryo and endosperm as primary locations of heat stress responses,indicating a strong impact of short-term heat stress on central developmental functions of the caryopsis.A comparison with heat stress responses in Arabidopsis shoots and drought stress responses in barley caryopses identified both conserved and presumably heat-and caryopsis-specific stress-responsive genes.Summarized,our data provide an important basis for further investigation of gene functions in order to aid an improved heat tolerance and reduced losses of yield in barley as a model for cereal crops.     

Gas‐phase ethylene polymerization using zirconocene supported on mesoporous molecular sieves

Mesoporous molecular sieves, with pore diameters of 2.6–25 nm, were impregnated with methylaluminoxane and bis(butylcyclopentadienyl)zirconium dichloride and tested as catalysts for the gas‐phase homopolymerization of ethylene at ethylene pressures of 200 psi and temperatures of 50–100°C and for 1‐hexene/ethylene copolymerization at 70°C. The activities and activity profiles, at constant Zr and Al contents, depended on the pore size of the supports and the polymerization temperature. Maximum activities for both the homopolymerizations and copolymerizations were observed for catalysts made with supports having pore diameters of 2.6 and 5.8 nm. Homopolymerization activities were highest at temperatures of 70–80°C; average homopolymerization and copolymerization activities up to 9000 kg of polyethylene/(mol of Zr h) were obtained. The weight‐average molecular weights (M_w's) were not a function of the support pore size but decreased with increasing reaction temperatures, from about 260,000 at 50°C to about 165,000 at 100°C. The polydispersities were essentially constant at 2.5 ± 0.2 for the homopolymers. M_w's for the 1‐hexene/ethylene copolymers had an average value of 117,000 with an average polydispersity of 2.8. The amount of triisobutyl aluminum added to the reactor significantly affected the activity and activity profiles. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 1161–1177, 2003     

万科·朗润园生态型住宅小区设计

介绍了上海万科·朗润园生态型住宅小区的规划、景观布置、户型设计的特点,以及"四新"技术的运用.     

How Positive Affect Modulates Cognitive Control: Reduced Perseveration at the Cost of Increased Distractibility.

A fundamental problem that organisms face in a changing environment is how to regulate dynamically the balance between stable maintenance and flexible switching of goals and cognitive sets. The authors show that positive affect plays an important role in the regulation of this stability-flexibility balance. In a cognitive set-switching paradigm, the induction of mild increases in positive affect, as compared with neutral or negative affect, promoted cognitive flexibility and reduced perseveration, but also incurred a cost in terms of increased distractibility. Rather than influencing set switching in an unspecific way, positive affect thus exerted opposite effects on perseveration and distractibility. Results are consistent with neuropsychological models according to which effects of positive affect on cognitive control are mediated by increased dopamine levels in frontal brain areas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internationale Klausurwoche: „Neue ethische Herausforderungen in der datenreichen Forschungsmedizin: ein Ländervergleich“

Ethik in der Medizin -     

Inactivation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in mineral water by DP1 bacteriophage immobilized on ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer used as seal caps of plastic bottles

Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been found in bottled natural mineral water, even though its presence is not allowed in this product by different food regulations. This study aimed to investigate the inactivation of P. aeruginosa present in mineral water by vB_PaeM_CEB_DP1 (short name DP1) bacteriophage immobilized on ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer used as seal caps of plastic bottles. EVA was chemically modified using microwave-assisted alcoholysis, improving polymer-phage binding. After that, DP1 phage was attached to EVA and EVA-OH copolymers and both surfaces were tested for plaque formation using P. aeruginosa. Then, both materials containing immobilized phages were used as seal caps of plastic bottles and its antimicrobial capacity was tested against P. aeruginosa contaminating mineral water. The EVA-OH resulted in higher hydrogen bond density that contributed significantly to the phage immobilization on the polymer surface. The polymers containing immobilized phages were able to reduce 0.53 log of P. aeruginosa population present inside mineral water bottles after 14 days.     

Changes in design driving load cases: Operating an upwind turbine with a downwind rotor configuration

This work considers the design driving load cases from a full design load basis analysis on an upwind turbine changed into a downwind configuration. The upwind turbine is a commercial class IIIA 2.1‐MW turbine, manufactured by Suzlon. The downwind turbine shows an increase in the normalized tower clearance by 6%, compared with the upwind concept. Removing the blade prebend increases the normalized minimum tower clearance by 17% in the downwind configuration compared with the upwind configuration. The extreme loads on the longitudinal tower bottom bending moment are seen to generally increase by 17% because of the overhanging gravity moment of the rotor‐nacelle assembly. The extreme blade root bending moments are reduced by 10% flapwise, because of the coning of the rotor in downwind direction. The fatigue loads suffer from the tower shadow, leading to an overall increase of the fatigue loads in the blades with up to 5% in flapwise direction in the downwind configuration. Because of blade deflection and coning direction, the downwind configuration shows a 0.75% lower annual energy production. Removing the prebend increases the annual energy production loss to 1.66%.     

Heterodyne Mixing of Terahertz Quantum Cascade Lasers Using a Planar Schottky Diode

Terahertz quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) have been used together with a monolithic planar Schottky diode receiver to study the heterodyne mixing between dual internal modes of a QCL and between a single mode of a QCL and a known molecular line from a molecular gas laser. Dual-mode mixing shows that the intrinsic linewidth of a free-running QCL is les30 kHz . Mixing against a molecular laser line gives a high precision measurement of a QCL's absolute frequency and can show transient turn-on behavior in a pulsed QCL.