Bonding in cotton fiber from formaldehyde-free crosslinks

Cotton fabric was crosslinked with five agents, three of which were prepared form formaldehyde and two of which were formaldehyde-free. The formaldehyde-free agents produced less bonding between layers in the laminated microstructure of the cotton fiber. One agent, 4,5-dihydroxy-1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone, gave no evidence of any interlayer bonding. All five agents gave the same relationship between wrinkle recovery angle and molar substitution on the cotton up to moderate recovery angles, but only agents based on formaldehyde gave higher wrinkle recovery angles with additional reaction. Intralayer crosslinking did not reduce absorptivity, as shown by moisture regain and dye receptivity, but did restrict swelling in cupriethylenediamine hydroxide to the same extent as combined interlayer and intralayer crosslinking. The decrease in extensibility of treated fabric with increasing wrinkle recovery angle was the same with all agents. These results indicate the regions of the fiber that are important for each of these properties.     

New natural 2-acetoxy fatty acids using chemical ionization and electron impact mass spectrometry

The phospholipids of the spongePolymastia gleneni contain saturated long chain (C_22–30)-acetoxy fatty acids. Their structures were assigned based on chromatographic and spectrometric data as well as comparison with a synthetic sample. The use of capillary gas chromatography combined with chemical ionization and electron impact mass spectrometry was instrumental in the eludication of structures, since only a very small amount of crude lipids was available. Part 10 of “Phospholipids in Marine Organisms.” For Part 9 in this series, see reference 12.     

Flotation machine design: impeller—stator interaction

The separate contributions of impellers and stators to suction are studied by means of interaction models. From these, suction can be predicted when interchangeable components are used in any combination, and in either direction of impeller rotation. Methods are devised by which numerical values of the impeller and stator terms can be simply assigned. The resulting model provides good agreement with experiment. The influence of variability in component geometry is reflected in the model parameters. Possible applications of the model are suggested.     

Generalisations of Heyman's and Foulkes' theorems using dual formulation

Existing duality principles in structural optimisation are briefly reviewed and then they are extended to structures with segment-wise constant cross-sections. All theories are discussed in the particular context of optimal plastic beam design with symmetric convex specific cost functions and are confirmed by independent calculations on illustrative examples. It is shown that the optimal solution is always associated with a displacement field in which the mean absolute curvature value for each segment equals the subgradient of the specific cost function, with respect to the maximum absolute moment value for that segment. Moreover, the dual problem consists of the maximisation of the difference of two terms: the first one is the integral of the product of load and deflection (external work), and the second is the sum of products of segment lengths and the mean complementary cost values (taken with respect to the mean absolute curvature for that segment). Finally, some tentative proposals for a class of non-convex optimisation problems are presented. For special cases, the proposed general statements reduce to theorems by Heyman, Foulkes and Hemp.     

Finite-element grid improvement by minimization of stiffness matrix trace

A new and simple method of finite-element grid improvement is presented. The objective is to improve the accuracy of the analysis. The procedure is based on a minimization of the trace of the stiffness matrix. For a broad class of problems this minimization is seen to be equivalent to minimizing the potential energy. The method is illustrated with the classical tapered bar problem examined earlier by Prager and Masur. Identical results are obtained.     

Effects of seat slope and hip flexion on spinal angles in sitting

Lumbar and thoracic spinal angles of 25 male and 25 female subjects were measured in four sitting postures, with standing angles used as reference. Subjects sat with either 90 deg or 65 deg of hip flexion on either flat or forward-sloping seats. Lumbar kyphosis was greatest when the flat seat/90-deg posture was adopted and least when the sloping seat/65-deg posture was adopted. The opposite was observed for the thoracic angles, and intermediate results were observed for the other two sitting postures. No statistically significant interactions were observed among seat slope, hip flexion, and subject sex. The findings are discussed with reference to the anatomy of sitting and factors influencing pelvic tilt and the implications for the ergonomic design of chairs.     

Resonant neutron filters in elemental analysis and radiography

Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 67, No. 4, pp. 271–274, October, 1989.     

Measurement of the delayed-neutron yields in the fission of233U,236U,237Np,240Pu,and241Pu by neutrons from the spectrum of a fast reactor

Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 66, No. 2, pp. 100–103, February, 1989.