Ammoxidation of toluene over Y-Ba-Cu-Co-O perovskites

Ammoxidation of toluene over the perovskites YBa₂Cu₃O_6.1, YBa₂Cu₂CoO_6.7 and YBaCuCoO_4.9 was investigated at 400 °C. At low partial pressures of O₂ benzonitrile was selectively formed, while CO₂ was the main product at high pressures of O₂. Systematic differences in activity were observed for the three phases and are related to the crystal contents of Cu and Co. At low O₂ pressures, Cu-sites are active for nitrile formation, while Co-sites give CO₂. At high O₂ pressures, the activity for CO₂ of Cu-sites increases more than that of Co-sites due to filling of near-surface oxygen vacancies.     

Plasma desorption mass spectrometry, an analytical tool in protein engineering: characterization of modified insulins

Californium-252 plasma desorption mass spectrometry (PDMS) hasbeen employed for the characterization of a series of humaninsulin derivatives in order to evaluate the performance ofthis technique as an analytical tool in protein engineering.Several of the characterized modifications result in a 1 a.m.u.mass change. The precision in mass determination obtainableby PDMS analysis is not sufficient for unambiguous verificationof such modifications based on the molecular weight alone. Itis, however, possible to carry out in situ enzymatic digestionof the sample. Subsequent PDMS analysis will in most cases revealif the modification has been introduced as intended.     

Selective catalytic reduction of NO by ammonia using mesoporous Fe-containing HZSM-5 and HZSM-12 zeolite catalysts: An option for automotive applications

Mesoporous and conventional Fe-containing ZSM-5 and ZSM-12 catalysts (0.5–8 wt% Fe) were prepared using a simple impregnation method and tested in the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO with NH₃. It was found that for both Fe/HZSM-5 and Fe/HZSM-12 catalysts with similar Fe contents, the activity of the mesoporous samples in NO SCR with NH₃ is significantly higher than for conventional samples. Such a difference in the activity is probably related with the better diffusion of reactants and products in the mesopores and better dispersion of the iron particles in the mesoporous zeolite as was confirmed by SEM analysis. Moreover, the maximum activity for the mesoporous zeolites is found at higher Fe concentrations than for the conventional zeolites. This also illustrates that the mesoporous zeolites allow a better dispersion of the metal component than the conventional zeolites. Finally, the influence of different pretreatment conditions on the catalytic activity was studied and interestingly, it was found that it is possible to increase the SCR performance significantly by preactivation of the catalysts in a 1% NH₃/N₂ mixture at 500 °C for 5 h. After preactivation, the activity of mesoporous 6 wt% Fe/HZSM-5 and 6 wt% Fe/HZSM-12 catalyst is comparable with that of traditional 3 wt% V₂O₅/TiO₂ catalyst used as a reference at temperatures below 400 °C and even more active at higher temperatures.     

Impact strength and melt viscosity of bisphenol-a polycarbonate and styrene-maleic-anhydride copolymer blends

Mixtures of 90, 80, and 70 percent by weight bisphenol-A-polycarbonate (PC) and 10, 20, and 30 percent by weight styrene maleic anhydride (SMA) copolymer were melt-blended in a single screw extruder. Differential scanning calorimetry (DCS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to determine the miscibility of the blends. The viscosity, as a function of shear rate and temperature, was measured by an Instron capillary viscometer. The notched impact strength as a function of temperature was measured by an Izod impact tester. The results of DSC showed two glass transition temperatures which merged slightly towards each other, indicating marginal miscibility of these blends. There was a decrease in viscosity as the fraction of SMA copolymer was increased. The most significant decrease occurred with the initial addition of SMA copolymer. The viscosity also decreased with increases in temperature. The impact strength of the blends was also dependent on SMA copolymer content. The blends showed six to ten times lower impact strengths at room temperature than the 100 percent polycarbonate. SEM analysis helped to determine the reason why the impact strength was lower for the blends. High magnification showed the presence of SMA copolymer inclusions dispersed throughout the PC matrix. These inclusions, which increased in size as SMA copolymer content was increased, acted as defects in the system.     

Learning Read-Constant Polynomials of Constant Degree Modulo Composites

Boolean functions that have constant degree polynomial representation over a fixed finite ring form a natural and strict subclass of the complexity class ACC⁰. They are also precisely the functions computable efficiently by programs over fixed and finite nilpotent groups. This class is not known to be learnable in any reasonable learning model. In this paper, we provide a deterministic polynomial time algorithm for learning Boolean functions represented by polynomials of constant degree over arbitrary finite rings from membership queries, with the additional constraint that each variable in the target polynomial appears in a constant number of monomials. Our algorithm extends to superconstant but low degree polynomials and still runs in quasipolynomial time.     

Thermal conductivity of high polymers—the influence of molecular weight

Some earlier observations on the influence of molecular weight, plasticizer, and irradiation on the thermal conductivity of polymers is reviewed. Also some new data on polystyrene and some new calculations based on the theory of Hansen and Ho are presented. These data show almost a two fold increase in the thermal conductivity of polystyrene as the molecular weight goes from 900 to 100,000. Data on the moleculer weight effect on thermal conductivity appear to be consistent with the theoretical calculations.     

Hand-adaptive user interface: improved gestural interaction in virtual reality

Most interactive user interfaces (UIs) for virtual reality (VR) applications are based on the traditional eye-centred UI design principle, which primarily considers the user’s visual searching efficiency and comfort, but the hand operation performance and ergonomics are relatively less considered. As a result, the hand interaction in VR is often criticized as being less efficient and precise. In this paper, the user’s arm movement features, such as the choice of the hand being used and hand interaction position, are hypothesized to influence the interaction results derived from a VR study. To verify this, we conducted a free hand target selection experiment with 24 participants. The results showed that (a) the hand choice had a significant effect on the target selection results: for a left hand interaction, the targets located in spaces to the left were selected more efficiently and accurately than those in spaces to the right; however, in a right hand interaction, the result was reversed, and (b) the free hand interactions at lower positions were more efficient and accurate than those at higher positions. Based on the above findings, this paper proposes a hand-adaptive UI technique to improve free hand interaction performance in VR. A comprehensive comparison between the hand-adaptive UI and traditional eye-centred UI was also conducted. It was shown that the hand-adaptive UI resulted in a higher interaction efficiency and a lower physical exertion and perceived task difficulty than the traditional UI.

     

Effect of different surface treatments on polypropylene composites reinforced with yerba mate fibers: Physical,mechanical, chemical,and morphological properties

This study presents the preparation of post-consumer polypropylene (r-PP) composites filled with 30 wt% yerba mate (YM) stick particles. To improve the fiber–matrix adhesion, three surface treatments were performed: alkaline treatment with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and use of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTS) and maleic anhydride graft polypropylene copolymer (PP-g-MA) as coupling agents. Mechanical properties including tensile, flexural, and impact resistance were determined, and chemical (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy [FTIR]), physical (water absorption), and morphological analyses were performed. The main findings show that the treatments were efficient in improving the mechanical properties of the composites, with emphasis on the r-PP/YM30/APTS and r-PP/YM30/PP-g-MA composites, which proved to be superior in tensile, flexion and impact strength and absorption of water compared to the untreated composite. The morphological analysis showed a better interaction between the fiber and the polymeric matrix for the composites with YM/APTS and YM/PP-g-MA, which corroborates the results of tensile and flexural strength, as well as with the spectra of FTIR in which the chemical modification of the fibers is observed. However, the results show that these treatments are promising in obtaining composites with recycled matrix with better properties.     

Suspension system performance optimization with discrete design variables

Suspension systems on commercial vehicles have become an important feature meeting the requirements from costumers and legislation. The performance of the suspension system is often limited by available catalogue components. Additionally the suspension performance is restricted by the travel speed which highly influences the ride comfort. In this article a suspension system for an articulated dump truck is optimized in sense of reducing elapsed time for two specified duty cycles without violating a certain comfort threshold level. The comfort threshold level is here defined as a whole-body vibration level calculated by ISO 2631-1. A three-dimensional multibody dynamics simulation model is applied to evaluate the suspension performance. A non-gradient optimization routine is used to find the best possible combination of continuous and discrete design variables including the optimum operational speed without violating a set of side constraints. The result shows that the comfort level converges to the comfort threshold level. Thus it is shown that the operational speed and hence the operator input influences the ride comfort level. Three catalogue components are identified by the optimization routine together with a set of continuous design variables and two operational speeds one for each load case. Thus the work demonstrates handling of human factors in optimization of a mechanical system with discrete and continuous design variables.