Preparation and Properties of Biodegradable Polymer Film Based on Polyvinyl Alcohol and Tropical Fruit Waste Flour

In this study, two different types of tropical fruit waste flour, rambutan waste flour (RWF) and banana waste flour (BWF), were blended with polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) by solution casting method. The structure of the blend film was characterised by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. The tensile strength and elongation at break of tropical fruit waste flour-filled polyvinyl alcohol were lower, but the tensile modulus was higher, than that of PVOH film. At a similar blend ratio, the tensile properties of the PVOH/RWF film were higher than the PVOH/BWF film, but the PVOH/BWF film showed higher water uptake than PVOH/RWF film.     

The influence of processing route on the structuring and properties of high‐density polyethylene (HDPE)/clay nanocomposites

The effect of different processing routes on structure and properties of high‐density polyethylene (HDPE)‐clay nanocomposites was assessed. Different compatibilizer/clay ratios (α) were also studied to determine if interactions exist between processing route and polymer‐clay compatibility. HDPE/HDPE‐g‐MA/clay with α values of 1 to 4 were melt compounded (twin screw extrusion), and then processed via three routes: compression moulding, compression moulding followed by biaxial stretching or blown film extrusion. The structure was examined using X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Tensile and oxygen barrier properties were determined. It was found that biaxial extensional forming produced the best enhancement in properties. An interaction between processing route and polymer‐clay compatibility is evident. Halpin‐Tsai (H‐T) model was employed to predict relative modulus values. It showed good agreement with the experimental data. For biaxial extension at α = 4.0, the experimental relative modulus is greater than the predicted value. This may indicate the existence of a “nano” effect at the polymer‐clay interface. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Nickel Oxide Based Supported Catalysts for the In-situ Reactions of Methanation and Desulfurization in the Removal of Sour Gases from Simulated Natural Gas

Supported nickel oxide based catalysts were prepared by wetness impregnation method for the in-situ reactions of H₂S desulfurization and CO₂ methanation from ambient temperature up to 300 °C. Fe/Co/Ni (10:30:60)–Al₂O₃ and Pr/Co/Ni (5:35:60)–Al₂O₃ catalysts were revealed as the most potential catalysts, which yielded 2.9% and 6.1% of CH₄ at reaction temperature of 300 °C, respectively. From XPS, Ni₂O₃ and Fe₃O₄ were suggested as the surface active components on the Fe/Co/Ni (10:30:60)–Al₂O₃ catalyst, while Ni₂O₃ and Co₃O₄ on the Pr/Co/Ni (5:35:60)–Al₂O₃ catalyst.     

A review of investigations on liquid fuel combustion in porous inert media

Utilization of a porous medium for combustion of liquid fuels is proved to be a promising approach for future applications. The porous medium burner for liquid fuels is more advantageous than the conventional open spray flame burner for several reasons; these include enhanced evaporation of droplet spray owing to regenerative combustion characteristics, low emission of pollutants, high combustion intensity with moderate turn-down ratio and compactness. This article provides a comprehensive picture of the global scenario of research and developments in combustion of liquid fuels within a porous medium that enable a researcher to determine the direction of further investigation. Accordingly, a glossary of the important terminology, the modeling approach, advances in numerical and experimental works and applications are included. The papers published in standard journals are reviewed and summarized with relevant comments and suggestions for future work.     

Cache modeling and optimization for portable devices running MPEG-4 video decoder

There are increasing demands on portable communication devices to run multimedia applications. ISO (an International Organization for Standardization) standard MPEG-4 is an important and demanding multimedia application. To satisfy the growing consumer demands, more functions are added to support MPEG-4 video applications. With improved CPU speed, memory sub-system deficiency is the major barrier to improving the system performance. Studies show that there is sufficient reuse of values for caching that significantly reduce the memory bandwidth requirement for video data. Software decoding of MPEG-4 video data generates much more cache-memory traffic than required. Proper understanding of the decoding algorithm and the composition of its data set is obvious to improve the performance of such a system. The focus of this paper is cache modeling and optimization for portable communication devices running MPEG-4 video decoding algorithm. The architecture we simulate includes a digital signal processor (DSP) for running the MPEG-4 decoding algorithm and a memory system with two levels of caches. We use VisualSim and Cachegrind simulation tools to optimize cache sizes, levels of associativity, and cache levels for a portable device decoding MPEG-4 video. Abu Asaduzzaman is, currently, a PhD candidate in the department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Boca Raton, Florida. He received his MS degree in computer engineering from FAU in 1997. Mr. Asaduzzaman worked for ECI Telecom as a software engineer from 1998 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, he worked for BlueCross and BlueShield of Florida and SunPass (FDoT) as an IT Consultant. Currently, he is working as a research assistant at CSE Dept, FAU. His research interests include cache optimization, architecture exploration, embedded system evaluation, and networks-on-a-chip (NoC). He has published several research papers in these areas. Abu is a member of the honor society of Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi, Upsilon Phi Epsilon, and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) FAU Chapter. Imad Mahgoub received the MS degree in applied mathematics and MS degree in electrical and computer engineering, both from North Carolina State University, Raleigh in 1983 and 1986 respectively and the PhD degree in computer engineering from the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA in 1989. Dr. Mahgoub joined Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Boca Raton, Florida in 1989. Currently he is a full professor of Computer Science and Engineering department and the director of the Mobile Computing Laboratory. His research interests include performance evaluation, mobile computing, sensor networks, and parallel and distributed processing. He has published over 80 research papers in these areas. He is the co-editor of the Mobile Computing Handbook and the Handbook of Sensor Networks. Dr. Mahgoub has served on the program committees of numerous conferences. He has been the vice-chair for the Symposium on Performance Evaluation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems (SPECTS) since 2003. He is a senior member of the IEEE. He is also a member of Tau Beta Pi, Upsilon Pi Epsilon, the IEEE Computer Society, and the ACM.     

Distribution of sulphate reducing bacteria in oil emulsion and its relationship to aeration and swarf

Intermittent aeration of cutting oil emulsion was shown to reduce but not eliminate sulphate reducing bacteria (srb). Removing iron swarf from infected cutting fluid markedly reduced the numbers of srb detected in the fluid, and prevented the characteristic grey spoilage which these organisms promote. It was shown that large numbers of srb are in fact adherent to the metal surfaces.     

Oestradiol up-regulates oestrogen receptor, cyclophilin, and glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase mRNA concentrations in endometrium, but down-regulates them in liver

Oestradiol regulates reproductive physiology and cardiovascular health in women. In the endometrium of ovariectomized ewes, previous work demonstrated that a single dose of oestradiol (50 microg) up-regulates oestrogen receptor-alpha (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) gene expression within 24 h. Here we compared responses to different doses of oestradiol and different dosing regimens in two diverse tissues: endometrium and liver. ER, c-fos, cyclophilin and glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) mRNA concentrations were analyzed on replicate RNA slot blots in both tissues, while PR and apolipoprotein AI (apo AI) mRNA concentrations were only analyzed in endometrium or liver, respectively. Along with ER mRNA, oestradiol strongly up-regulated GAPDH and cyclophilin mRNA concentrations in endometrium. In liver, however, oestradiol down-regulated them, along with apo AI mRNA. Responses to different doses and dose regimens, including repeated 50 microg doses, were similar to those evoked by a single 50 microg dose of oestradiol. Thus, oestradiol appears to have all-or-none effects which include up-regulation of ER, cyclophilin and GAPDH gene expression in endometrium and down-regulation of ER, apo AI, cyclophilin and GAPDH gene expression in liver. These results illustrate the sharp contrast between two mammalian tissues in their responses to physiological levels of oestradiol.