Hydrolysis of dextrin in the presence of 12-tungstosilicic acid

Hydrolysis of dextrin in the presence of 12-Tungstosilicic acid was investigated, and the acid was found to show an approximately two times higher catalytic activity than did hydrochloric acid. From the comparison of degree of dissociation of 12-tungstosilicic acid with that of hydrochloric acid, examination of the influence of the ionic strength on the reaction rates, analysis of the reaction products, and evaluation of activation parameters of the reaction, it was assumed in conclusion that the higher catalytic activity of 12-tungstosilicic acid resulted from a “concentration effect” due to the complex formation of the heteropolyanions with dextrin molecules, and from the effect of its higher ionic strength, but not from the effect of direct participation of the heteropolyanion to the elementary reaction process.     

Effect of suramin on p34cdc2 kinase in vitro and in extracts from human H69 cells: evidence for a double mechanism of action

We examined the effect of suramin, an anticancer agent and a functional analog of naturally occuring glycosaminoglycans, on p34cdc2 kinase. We find that suramin strongly inhibits the catalytic activity of purified p34cdc2 kinase (IC50 approximately 4 microM), whereas it only weakly inhibits the p13-agarose precipitated kinase activity from nuclear and cytoplasmic extracts of the asynchronous H69 human small cell lung cancer cells. We also find that the tyrosine phosphorylation of p34cdc2 kinase in the nuclear extract is increased about twice when the extracts are preincubated with 50 microM of suramin prior to the p13-agarose precipitation. We propose that this increase might result from the inhibitory effect of suramin towards p34cdc2-specific tyrosine phosphatases. These results suggest both a direct and an indirect effect of suramin on p34cdc2 kinase. We also find that heparin is a potent inhibitor of purified cdc2 kinase (IC50 approximately 3.5 micrograms/ml). Therefore, glycosaminoglycans might be physiological regulators of p34cdc2 kinase in vivo.     

Stochastic model predictive braking control for heavy-duty commercial vehicles during uncertain brake pressure and road profile conditions

When heavy-duty commercial vehicles (HDCVs) must engage in emergency braking, uncertain conditions such as the brake pressure and road profile variations will inevitably affect braking control. To minimize these uncertainties, we propose a combined longitudinal and lateral controller method based on stochastic model predictive control (SMPC) that is achieved via Chebyshev–Cantelli inequality. In our method, SMPC calculates braking control inputs based on a finite time prediction that is achieved by solving stochastic programming elements, including chance constraints. To accomplish this, SMPC explicitly describes the probabilistic uncertainties to be used when designing a robust control strategy. The main contribution of this paper is the proposal of a braking control formulation that is robust against probabilistic friction circle uncertainty effects. More specifically, the use of Chebyshev–Cantelli inequality suppresses road profile influences, which have characteristics that are different from the Gaussian distribution, thereby improving both braking robustness and control performance against statistical disturbances.Additionally, since theKalman filtering (KF) algorithm is used to obtain the expectation and covariance used for calculating deterministic transformed chance constraints, the SMPC is reformulated as a KF embedded deterministic MPC. Herein, the effectiveness of our proposed method is verified via a MATLAB/Simulink and TruckSim co-simulation.     

Analysis of color volume of multi‐chromatic displays using gamut rings

There are claims that multi‐chromatic displays can achieve a wider color gamut by the use of additional highly saturated secondary color channels. However, there are other claims that these displays lose lightness and/or color saturation at brighter levels. These apparently divergent views have led to some controversy in the display industry and at standard setting organizations. This study examines the color gamut volume for a variety of simulated and measured multi‐chromatic (sometimes incorrectly referred to as “multi‐primary”) displays using combinations of white and/or secondary color channels, such as cyan, magenta, and yellow. Furthermore, a two‐dimensional gamut representation, referred to as “gamut rings,” is introduced to illustrate that the addition of nonprimary optical color channels to a trichromatic (RGB) display can result in a significant decrease in the chroma at higher lightness levels. The additional saturated color channels can increase the gamut volume only around their hues at darker levels. The results also confirm the validity of comparing the color light output and white light output for revealing the design trade‐offs between the high‐peak white and the color‐image brightness for multi‐chromatic displays.     

Wear resistance of a Cr3C2-NiCr detonation spray coating

Coatings can be applied to surfaces to improve the surface characteristics over those of the bulk properties and are widely used in tribological applications either to reduce wear and/or to modify friction during contact. One of the foremost coating methods for combating wear is thermal spraying. To prolong the life of steel slab continuous casting rolls, Cr₃C₂-NiCr detonation spray coating was processed on the roll surface in a steelmaking plant in China. This article studies the mechanical properties and wear resistance of this coating. The abrasive and dry frictional wear testing were performed using a pin-on-disk tester. Experimental results show that the wear resistance of the coated samples, i.e., coating reduces the risk of seizure compared to uncoated samples, is much better than those of the uncoated steel at room and elevated temperatures with any load and sliding velocity. The coating wear mechanisms under different test conditions are discussed.     

Practical BRDF reconstruction using reliable geometric regions from multi-view stereo

Computational Visual Media - In this paper, we present a practical method for reconstructing the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) from multiple images of a real object...