Surface properties of surfactants derived from natural products. Part 1: Syntheses and structure/property relationships—Solubility and emulsification

Several novel and some previously known, mostly sugar-based, surfactants have been synthesized and some of their surface properties have been characterized and compared with those of commercial nonylphenol ethoxylates. The surfactant solubility in water, ethanol, and dodecane was studied. The properties of these compounds as emulsification agents in systems composed of the surfactant with water/isopropyl myristate, water/rapeseed oil, and water/dodecane are presented. The aqueous solubility of the surfactants follows the general trend expected from their hydrophilic-lipophilic balance according to Griffin (HLBG), but it is also clear that the nature of the headgroup and the structure of the nonpolar part affect the solubility in a manner not aptured in the standard HLBG concept. An ester or amine group as the connecting unit between the hydrophile and the hydrophobe produces a more water-soluble surfactant than the corresponding amide derivative. Some effective emulsifiers were found. For instance, the surfactants with a dehydroabietic nonpolar group appear to be promosing emulsifiers. Most sugar-based surfactants were able to form macroemulsions of up to around 2 wt/vol% of oil. The stability of many of these amulsions was very high, extending for months.     

Thermal stability of composite phase change material microcapsules incorporated with silver nano-particles

This paper reports a study on the thermal stability of phase change material microcapsules that are incorporated with silver nano-particles (Ag-NPs). The novel microcapsules were fabricated by the technique of in situ polymerization, with aminoplast as the wall and phase change material bromo-hexadecane (PCM BrC16) as the core. Thermal gravimetry (TG) analysis was applied to measure the thermal stability of these microcapsules and surface morphology of the microcapsules was observed by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) after an application of curing treatment at 130 °C. Comparing with conventional phase change material microcapsules (PCMMs), nano-composite phase change material microcapsules (NCPCMMs) have higher thermal stability. This can be attributed to nano-composite structure of the microcapsules, in which metal Ag-NPs distributed on the surface to increase wall toughness and strength. The possible reinforcement mechanisms of the nano-composite structure are explored.     

HumanTop: a multi-object tracking tabletop

In this paper, a computer vision based interactive multi-touch tabletop system called HumanTop is introduced. HumanTop implements a stereo camera vision subsystem which allows not only an accurate fingertip tracking algorithm but also a precise touch-over-the-working surface detection method. Based on a pair of visible spectra cameras, a novel synchronization circuit makes the camera caption and the image projection independent from each other, providing the minimum basis for the development of computer vision analysis based on visible spectrum cameras without any interference coming from the projector. The assembly of both cameras and the synchronization circuit is not only capable of performing an ad-hoc version of a depth camera, but it also introduces the recognition and tracking of textured planar objects, even when contents are projected over them. On the other hand HumanTop supports the tracking of sheets of paper and ID-code markers. This set of features makes the HumanTop a comprehensive, intuitive and versatile augmented tabletop that provides multitouch interaction with projective augmented reality on any flat surface. As an example to exploit all the capabilities of HumanTop, an educational application has been developed using an augmented book as a launcher to different didactic contents. A pilot study in which 28 fifth graders participated is presented. Results about efficiency, usability/satisfaction and motivation are provided. These results suggest that HumanTop is an interesting platform for the development of educational contents.     

A genetic algorithm for job-shop scheduling with operators enhanced by weak Lamarckian evolution and search space narrowing

The job-shop scheduling problem with operators is a very interesting problem that generalizes the classic job-shop problem in such a way that an operation must be algorithm to solve this problem considering makespan minimization. The genetic algorithm uses permutations with repetition to encode chromosomes and a schedule generation scheme, termed OG&T, as decoding algorithm. This combination guaranties that at least one of the chromosomes represents and optimal schedule and, at the samhat machines and operators are idle while an operation is available to be processed. To improve the quality of the schedules for large instances, we use Lamarckian evolution and modify the OG&T algorithm to further reduce the idle time of the machines and operators, in this case at the risk of leaving all optimal schedules out of the search space. We conducted a large experimental study showing that these improvements allow the genetic algorithm to reach high quality solutions in very short time, and so it is quite competitive with the current state-of-the-art methods.     

Airwriting: a wearable handwriting recognition system

We present a wearable input system which enables interaction through 3D handwriting recognition. Users can write text in the air as if they were using an imaginary blackboard. The handwriting gestures are captured wirelessly by motion sensors applying accelerometers and gyroscopes which are attached to the back of the hand. We propose a two-stage approach for spotting and recognition of handwriting gestures. The spotting stage uses a support vector machine to identify those data segments which contain handwriting. The recognition stage uses hidden Markov models (HMMs) to generate a text representation from the motion sensor data. Individual characters are modeled by HMMs and concatenated to word models. Our system can continuously recognize arbitrary sentences, based on a freely definable vocabulary. A statistical language model is used to enhance recognition performance and to restrict the search space. We show that continuous gesture recognition with inertial sensors is feasible for gesture vocabularies that are several orders of magnitude larger than traditional vocabularies for known systems. In a first experiment, we evaluate the spotting algorithm on a realistic data set including everyday activities. In a second experiment, we report the results from a nine-user experiment on handwritten sentence recognition. Finally, we evaluate the end-to-end system on a small but realistic data set.     

The longitudinal impact of enterprise system users’ pre-adoption expectations and organizational support on post-adoption proficient usage

Although enterprise systems (ES) are ubiquitous, many firms report less than stellar payoffs from these costly investments, with underutilization often attributed to failures in the implementation process. Unfortunately, research has not provided sufficient insights into these failures, in part because it has focused on actual usage, as opposed to proficient usage, as the benchmark for successful implementation. Moreover, research has not generally examined how the adoption process unfolds over time, thus overlooking potential underlying mechanisms that may help explain how adopters achieve proficiency. To begin addressing these shortcomings, we study how adopters’ pre-adoption expectations, enacted over time, can influence their post-adoption proficiency, by shaping how and why they spend time using the system during the adoption period. We analyzed time-lagged survey data from 153 financial analysts, required to adopt new ES-based software, at a multinational bank. We found that adopters who hold pre-adoption expectations reflecting greater internal and external motives to adopt the system as well as systematically integrate it into their work routines are more apt to use the system in ways that enhance their cumulative knowledge of it, and subsequently develop higher levels of proficiency post-adoption. Moreover, greater organizational support enhanced the impact of adopters’ expectations on proficiency, except when their actual use is low in which case organizational support had an adverse effect.     

Restructuring butterfat through blending and chemical interesterification. 3. Rheology

Interesterified and noninteresterified butterfat-canola oil blends, ranging from 100% butterfat to 60∶40 butterfat-canola oil (w/w) in 10% increments, were evaluated for hardness index (HI), dropping point, viscosity, and viscoelastic properties at small deformation. Both blending and chemical interesterification diminished HI in a nonlinear fashion. HI changes in interesterified blends were more pronounced than in noninteresterified blends. Dropping points yielded information on the structure of the blends. Butterfat’s dropping point (DP) was 34.4°C, whereas that of interesterified butterfat was 37.0°C, which is indicative of a more structured network for the latter. DP values of blends with 60–90% butterfat (interesterified vs. noninteresterified) were not significantly different (P<0.05). Interesterified blends had a higher crystallization onset temperature than did noninteresterified blends. All blends in the liquid state displayed Newtonian behavior. Oscillatory frequency sweep measurements at small amplitude showed that interesterified blends generally had lower storage moduli (G′) than their noninteresterified counterparts. BothG′ andG″ were frequency-dependent. Replacement of 30% butterfat by canola oil led to notable changes in small deformation measurements, whereas replacement of 20% butterfat led to big changes in large deformation measurements.     

Oxidation of pyrite in coal to magnetite

When bituminous coal is heated in an inert atmosphere (He) containing small amounts of oxygen at 393–455 °C, pyrite (FeS₂) in coal is partially converted to magnetite (Fe₃0₄). The maximum amount of Fe₃0₄ formed during the time of heating corresponds to 5–20% of the total pyrite present, depending on the coal sample. The magnetite forms as an outer crust on the pyrite grains. The fact that the magnetic properties of the pyrite grains are substantially increased by the magnetite crust suggests that pyrite can be separated from coal by use of a low magnetic field. In a laboratory test, 75% removal is obtained by means of a 500 Oe magnet on three samples, and 60% on a fourth sample.     

The Effects of Experience and Strategy on Visual Attention Allocation in an Automated Multiple-Task Environment

Operators and users interacting with computer environments often have to deal with multiple tasks at once, responding to each in series. Diagnostic automation, that is, automation that alerts users when and where to look, has been suggested to support the unique challenges of multiple task environments: activating tasks, switching between tasks, and tasks interfering with each other. Automation is not always reliable, however. Because of the common interaction with novel systems and the importance of training, the Simultaneous Task Environment Platform program—a multiple-task environment—was developed to understand the effects of experience on interaction with these automation-supported systems, as well as what strategies were developed. It was found that participants became more efficient with experience only when they interacted with higher reliability automation. Furthermore, the strategies participants developed focused on the differences between tasks and patterns across those tasks. Automated systems training should be sure to employ these findings.