Polaromicrotribometric study of polyphenylene oxide film formation on metal electrodes by electrolysis of disubstituted phenols

The anodic oxidation of numerous disubstituted phenols has been studied in a base and alcohol media using various metals (Fe, Cu, Ni, Cr, Ti, Zn, Au, Pt) as electrodes. For 2,6-dimethylphenol, the passivity phenomenon shown by simultaneous recording of the current/potential and friction/potential curves (polaromicrotribometry) is explained by formation on the electrode of a thin, insulating film of polyphenylene oxide (PPO) whose chemical nature has been recognized by multiple reflection ir spectroscopy. The measured physical characteristics of this film (thickness, adherence, hydrophobicity, coefficient of friction...) indicate its possible interest as a protective coating for metallic surfaces.     

Sensory reinforcement of eyeblink rate in a decorticate human

An unusual case of hydranencephaly was reported. The child survived for 19 years and showed evidence on three occasions of an increase in eyeblink rate with tactile reinforcement. Diagnosis was confirmed by an autopsy which revealed no preserved cortex in either hemisphere.     

Apparent and partial molar volumes of concentrated solutions of some uni-univalent electrolytes in formamide

The density of solutions of NH₄SCN, KSCN, NH₄NO₃, LiNO₃, NH₄ClO₄, NH₄Br in formamide at 25° has been measured in the concentration range going from ≈ 0.5 m up to the saturated solution. By the least-square method the coefficients of the straight lines relating density and concentration have been calculated. It follows that the apparent molar volumes of salts (amv in the investigated concentration range result independent of the concentration, and close to the molar volume of the pure salt. Calculated by the V° (the partial molar volume at infinite dilution) values of the tetraalkylammonium salts and following a Robinson and Stokes suggestion, ionic partial molar volumes (pmv) at infinite dilution agree for both methods. The ionic pmv at infinite dilution follow the Hepler's equation, the A and B coefficients for alkali metal cations and halide anions being independent of the sign of the ionic charge. The value of the A term has been found close to the intrinsic ionic volume plus the volume of the void space which is generated around an ion in a “random close packing distribution”.The low values of the coefficient B, which takes into account the electrostriction of the solvent, has been explained in terms of solvent structure energetically equivalent to the structure of the solution and with the small compressibility of this solvent.     

Aufbau und thermodynamische Eigenschaften von Legierungen

Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Zustandsschaubild und thermodynamischen Eigenschaften von Phasen eines Systems. Berechnung thermodynamischer Daten nach dem Zustandsschaubild und Berechnung von Phasengleichgewichten aus den Zustandsfunktionen. Einfluß der chemischen Bindungsverhältnisse, der Atomradiendifferenz und struktureller Gegebenheiten auf die thermodynamischen Eigenschaften und die Phasengleichgewichte.     

Modèle analytique de trafic dans un réseau téléphonique

The investigations aimed at the building of a supervisor of the national telephone network require mathematical models of traffic flows (especially when perturbations occur). This paper describes an analytical model of traffic developped at the Centre National d’Etudes des Télécommunications in 1975. It allows quantitative analysis of traffic flows and of their interactions with the different elements of the network.     

High-quality animation of 2D steady vector fields

Simulators for dynamic systems are now widely used in various application areas and raise the need for effective and accurate flow visualization techniques. Animation allows us to depict direction, orientation, and velocity of a vector field accurately. We extend a former proposal for a new approach to produce perfectly cyclic and variable-speed animations for 2D steady vector fields [B. Jobard, et al., (1997)] and [C. Chedot, et al., (1998)]. A complete animation of an arbitrary number of frames is encoded in a single image. The animation can be played using the color table animation technique, which is very effective even on low-end workstations. A cyclic set of textures can be produced as well and then encoded in a common animation format or used for texture mapping on 3D objects. As compared to other approaches, the method presented produces smoother animations and is more effective, both in memory requirements to store the animation, and in computation time.     

Assessing the foreign control of production of technology: The case of a small open economy

Summary International R&D activities have grown significantly over the last two decades. Both the number of actors involved, as well as the importance of the technological activity carried out abroad, has considerably increased. We aim to quantify the international generation of knowledge for the case of Belgium, using indicators based on EPO and USPTO patent data (1978-2001). We distinguish among Belgian applicants, affiliates of foreign firms located in Belgium as well as Belgian based firms with affiliates abroad. This approach allows to improve existing indicators of internationalisation of technology based on patent data. The results are consistent with what can be expected for a small open economy as Belgium. A large part of patents with Belgian inventors are assigned to Belgian affiliates of foreign firms. Hence our more complete indicator of foreign ownership gives a substantially higher foreign control of Belgian inventors. Relatively more knowledge generated by Belgian inventors flows out of the country towards foreign owners of technology, than that knowledge generated abroad is owned by Belgian patent applicants. But the share of foreign inventors to Belgian assigned patents is considerably increasing over time, especially in the subcategory of Belgian firms with foreign affiliates.     

Faces are "spatial"--holistic face perception is supported by low spatial frequencies.

Faces are perceived holistically, a phenomenon best illustrated when the processing of a face feature is affected by the other features. Here, the authors tested the hypothesis that the holistic perception of a face mainly relies on its low spatial frequencies. Holistic face perception was tested in two classical paradigms: the whole-part advantage (Experiment 1) and the composite face effect (Experiments 2-4). Holistic effects were equally large or larger for low-pass filtered faces as compared to full-spectrum faces and significantly larger than for high-pass filtered faces. The disproportionate composite effect found for low-pass filtered faces was not observed when holistic perception was disrupted by inversion (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 showed that the composite face effect was enhanced only for low spatial frequencies, but not for intermediate spatial frequencies known be critical for face recognition. These findings indicate that holistic face perception is largely supported by low spatial frequencies. They also suggest that holistic processing precedes the analysis of local features during face perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

RFID malware: Design principles and examples

This paper explores the concept of malware for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems — including RFID exploits, RFID worms, and RFID viruses. We present RFID malware design principles together with concrete examples; the highlight is a fully illustrated example of a self-replicating RFID virus. The various RFID malware approaches are then analyzed for their effectiveness across a range of target platforms. This paper concludes by warning RFID middleware developers to build appropriate checks into their RFID middleware before it achieves wide-scale deployment in the real world.