Growth and morphology of nanometer LiMn2O4 powder

The growth of Li_1+xMn₂O₄ via detonation reaction was investigated with respect to the presence of an energetic precursor, such as the metallic nitrate and the degree of confinement of the explosive charge. The detonation products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy. Powder X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the products. Li_1+xMn₂O₄ with 1-2 μm spherical morphology and more uniform secondary particles, but with smaller primary particles of diameters from 20 to 60 nm and a variety of morphologies were found. The oxides produced by this cheap method affirmed the validity of detonation synthesis of nano-size powders.     

Study of miscibility enhancement in poly(styrene‐co‐4‐vinylphenol)/poly(ethylene oxide) blends by the spin labelling method

The electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra of end‐group spin labelled poly(ethylene oxide) (SLPEO) using 2,2,6,6‐tetramethyl‐piperdine‐1‐oxyl nitroxide and its blends with poly(styrene‐co‐4‐vinylphenol) (STVPhs) of different hydroxyl contents were recorded over a wide temperature range. For a blend of SLPEO and pure polystyrene (PS), the ESR spectrum was composed of a single motion component, indicating that PS was immiscible with PEO. For blends composed of SLPEO and different‐hydroxyl‐content STVPhs, two spectral components with different motion rates were observed over a certain temperature range. The difference between the motion rates should be attributed to micro‐heterogeneity in the blends, with the faster rate corresponding to a nitroxide radical motion trapped in the PEO‐rich domain and the slower rate corresponding to a nitroxide radical motion trapped in the STVPh‐rich domain. Variations in the values of a number of the ESR parameters (T_a, T_d and T_50G) and the apparent activation energy (E_a) with hydroxyl content in the blends indicated that the miscibility of the blends increased with increasing hydrogen‐bonding density due to specific interactions between the hydroxyl groups in STVPh and the ether oxygens in PEO. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

胃动力信息采集与分析系统设计

本文设计了一套提取胃电和胃阻抗信号的胃动力信息采集与分析系统，该系统由采集系统和分析系统两部分构成。前者以单片机（ADuC834）为核心部件，实现了胃电和生物阻抗信号的同步采集和数据传输。后者对提取的阻抗信号和胃电信号运用小波多分辨分析处理，利用小波变换将胃阻抗信号从呼吸和血流信号中分离。系统可以应用于分析功能性消化不良患者胃动力的电过程和机械过程。     

En/Decoder for Spectral Phase-Coded OCDMA System Based on Amplitude Sampled FBG

A novel en/decoder for spectral phase-coded optical code-division multiple-access system based on amplitude sampled fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is proposed. Both equivalent chirp and equivalent phase shift are achieved by amplitude sampling. Compared with previous en/decoder based on step chirped FBG, it is easier to fabricate. The performance of the proposed en/decoder is verified by both numerical simulation and experimental demonstration.     

Comparative study of the elimination of toluene vapours in twin biotrickling filters using two microorganisms Bacillus cereus S1 and S2

BACKGROUND: To investigate the microbial degradation performance of organic pollutants in the atmosphere using a biotrickling filter, two microorganism strains, Bacillus cereus S1 and Bacillus cereus S2, were selected, identified and inoculated into a twin biotrickling filter for comparison. RESULTS: Both strains showed good performance towards the degradation of model organic pollutants when gas flow rates ranged from 100 to 600 L h⁻¹. For S1, the total maximum removal efficiency (RE) of toluene was maintained nearly 100% not only at gas flow rates of 100 L h⁻¹ corresponding to empty bed residence time (EBRT) 199.44 s, but also at gas flow rates of 200 L h⁻¹ (EBRT = 99.72 s) and 300 L h⁻¹ (EBRT = 66.48 s). However, S2 had a much lower degradation capability; near 100% removal efficiency was obtained only at the gas flow rate of 100 L h⁻¹ although both bacteria belong to the same Bacillus cereus. With further increase in gas flow rate, the total REs for both S1 and S2 decreased slightly at first and then dropped sharply to 46% and 35%, respectively, at an EBRT of 33.24 s, corresponding to a gas flow rate of 600 L h⁻¹. Starvation for between 2 and 10 days resulted in the re‐acclimation times of both strains ranging between 1.0 and 15.5 h. CONCLUSION: Strain S1 would be a better choice for inoculation into a biotrickling filter than strain S2, because of its much higher toluene removal capacity and rapid recovery to full performance. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

水上地震折射互换法误差分析

在理论上，用源检互换的方法进行折射地震勘探是没有误差的，在某些特殊条件下无法铺设检波器而又必须进行折射地震勘探时它也是唯一的选择，然而，在实际工作中，由于各种因素的影响，其误差是不可忽略的。为此，本文从地震折射运动学的角度对水上地震折射互换法因过河钢丝绳的重量、水的流速和流向、炮点深度等客观因素造成的解释误差进行了分析，揭示了水上地震折射互换法应注意的问题。这对水上地震折射互换法的资料解释进行误差校正提供了理论基础。     

Lactic acid production from dining‐hall food waste by Lactobacillus plantarum using response surface methodology

BACKGROUND: Food waste generally has a high starch content and is rich in nutritional compounds, including lipids and proteins. It therefore represents a potential renewable resource. In this study, dining‐hall food waste was used as a substrate for lactic acid production, and response surface methodology was employed to optimise the fermentation conditions. RESULTS: Lactic acid biosynthesis was significantly affected by the interaction of protease and temperature. Protease, temperature and CaCO₃ had significant linear effects on lactic acid production, while α‐amylase and yeast extract had insignificant effects. The optimal conditions were found to be an α‐amylase activity of 13.86 U g^?1 dried food waste, a protease activity of 2.12 U g^?1 dried food waste, a temperature of 29.31 °C and a CaCO₃ concentration of 62.67 g L^?1, which resulted in a maximum lactic acid concentration of 98.51 g L^?1 (88.75% yield). An increase in inoculum size would be appropriate for accelerating the depletion of initial soluble carbohydrate to enhance the efficiency of α‐amylase in dining‐hall food waste fermentation. CONCLUSION: A suitable regression model for lactic acid production was developed based on the experimental results. Dining‐hall food waste was found to be a good substrate for lactic acid fermentation with high product yield and without nutrient supplementation. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Synthesis of nonsharp distillation sequences via genetic programming

This paper addresses the application of Genetic Programming (GP) to the synthesis of multicomponent product nonsharp distillation sequences. Combined with the domain knowledge of chemical engineering, some evolutionary factors are improved, and a set of special encoding method and solving strategy is proposed to deal with this kind of problem. The system structural variable is optimized by GP and the continuous variable is optimized by the simulated annealing algorithm simultaneously. Because GP has an automatic searching function, the optimal solution can be found including distillation, splitting, blending and bypassing operations automatically without any superstructures of nonsharp distillation sequences. Three illustrative examples are presented to demonstrate the effective computational strategies.     

Negative effect of [bmim][PF6] on the catalytic activity of alcohol dehydrogenase: mechanism and prevention

BACKGROUND: [bmim][PF₆] is a hydrophobic ionic liquid which could be considered as an environmentally friendly solvent for biocatalysis. In pure [bmim][PF₆], however, alcohol dehydrogenase from yeast (YADH) has no catalytic activity. The aim of the present work was (1) to quantitatively study the negative effect of [bmim][PF₆] on the catalytic activity of YADH and the related mechanism and (2) to made an attempt to lessen the negative effect of [bmim][PF₆] on YADH by microemulsifying [bmim][PF₆]. RESULTS: The activity of YADH in the homogeneous solution formed by H₂O, CH₃CH₂OH and [bmim][PF₆] decreased rapidly with the increase of the molar fraction of [bmim][PF₆]. The inhibitory effect of [bmim][PF₆] on YADH was probably caused by the competition of the imidazole group of [bmim][PF₆] with the coenzyme NAD⁺ for the binding sites on YADH. In a water‐in‐[bmim][PF₆] microemulsion, YADH was catalytically active due to the formation of the interfacial membrane of the nonionic surfactant TritonX‐100, which separated YADH from [bmim][PF₆] and avoided the direct inactivation of [bmim][PF₆] on YADH. Under optimal conditions, the activity of YADH was as high as 51 µmol L^?1 min^?1. CONCLUSION: [bmim][PF₆] was an inhibitor of YADH and its negative effect on YADH could be lessened by its microemulsification. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry