Virtual Bounds: a teleoperated mixed reality

This paper introduces a mixed reality workspace that allows users to combine physical and computer-generated artifacts, and to control and simulate them within one fused world. All interactions are captured, monitored, modeled and represented with pseudo-real world physics. The objective of the presented research is to create a novel system in which the virtual and physical world would have a symbiotic relationship. In this type of system, virtual objects can impose forces on the physical world and physical world objects can impose forces on the virtual world. Virtual Bounds is an exploratory study allowing a physical probe to navigate a virtual world while observing constraints, forces, and interactions from both worlds. This scenario provides the user with the ability to create a virtual environment and to learn to operate real-life probes through its virtual terrain.     

Integrated adsorption and absorption process for post-combustion CO2 capture

This study explored the feasibility of integrating an adsorption and solvent scrubbing process for post-combustion CO₂ capture from a coal-fired power plant. This integrated process has two stages: the first is a vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) process using activated carbon as the adsorbent, and the second stage is a solvent scrubber/stripper system using monoethanolamine (30 wt-%) as the solvent. The results showed that the adsorption process could enrich CO₂ in the flue gas from 12 to 50 mol-% with a CO₂ recovery of >90%, and the concentrated CO₂ stream fed to the solvent scrubber had a significantly lower volumetric flowrate. The increased CO₂ concentration and reduced feed flow to the absorption section resulted in significant reduction in the diameter of the solvent absorber, bringing the size of the absorber from uneconomically large to readily achievable domain. In addition, the VSA process could also remove most of the oxygen initially existed in the feed gas, alleviating the downstream corrosion and degradation problems in the absorption section. The findings in this work will reduce the technical risks associated with the state-of-the art solvent absorption technology for CO₂ capture and thus accelerate the deployment of such technologies to reduce carbon emissions.     

Graft Gum Ghatti Caped Cu<Subscript>2</Subscript>O Nanocomposite for Photocatalytic Degradation of Naphthol Blue Black Dye

Photodecolorization of naphthol blue black dye through the use of Cu₂O nanoparticles capped with a biopolymer matrix containing gum ghatti (Gg) grafted with acrylic acid (AA) and acrylamide (AAm) (Cu₂O/Gg–AAm–AA) has been studied. While the homogeneous co-precipitation method was adopted for the synthesis of the Cu₂O nanoparticle, its incorporation into the biopolymer matrix (Gg–AAm–AA) was performed through the graft copolymerization method. The synthesized Cu₂O and Cu₂O/Gg–AAm–AA were characterized using SEM, TEM, XRD, EDX and UV–Vis spectroscopies, and BET surface area analysis. The photodecolorization experiment was performed using simulated ultraviolet and visible light irradiations, and these results compared with that of adsorption studies. The influence of pH, catalyst dose and dye concentration on the decolorization efficiency were also taken into consideration. The results revealed the Cu₂O/Gg–AAm–AA to be an excellent photocatalyst for effective elimination of naphthol blue black dye from water. The process was observed to be pH dependent, with pH 6 being the optimum value. The photodecolorization process increased with increasing catalyst concentration but decreased beyond the optimum value of 0.3 g L^?1. The process also decreased with increasing dye concentration. The result of the recyclability study indicates that the Cu₂O/Gg–AAm–AA nanocomposite can be effectively recycled and re-used over a number cycles.     

n-alkane profiles of engine lubricating oil and particulate matter by molecular sieve extraction

As part of the Canadian Atmospheric Fine Particle Research Program to obtain reliable primary source emission profiles, a molecular sieve method was developed to reliably determine n-alkanes in lubricating oils, vehicle emissions, and mobile source dominated ambient particulate matter (PM). This work was also initiated to better calculate carbon preference index values (CPI: the ratio of the sums of odd over even n-alkanes), a parameter for estimating anthropogenic versus biogenic contributions in PM. n-Alkanes in lubricating oil and mobile source dominated PM are difficult to identify and quantify by gas chromatography due to the presence of similar components that cannot be fully resolved. This results in a hump, the unresolved complex mixture (UCM) that leads to incorrect n-alkane concentrations and CPI values. The sieve method yielded better chromatography, unambiguous identification of n-alkanes and allowed examination of differences between n-alkane profiles in light (LDV) and heavy duty vehicle (HDV) lubricating oils that would have been otherwise difficult. These profile differences made it possible to relate the LDV profile to that of the PM samples collected during a tunnel study in August 2001 near Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada). The n-alkane PM data revealed that longer sampling times result in a negative artifact, i.e., the desorption of the more volatile n-alkanes from the filters. Furthermore, the sieve procedure yielded n-alkane data that allowed calculation of accurate CPI values for lubricating oils and PM samples. Finally, this method may prove helpful in estimating the respective diesel and gasoline contributions to ambient PM.     

Uptake of foliar-applied urea by winter wheat (Triticum aestivum): The influence of application time and the use of a new 15N technique

A new ¹⁵N technique (termed the negative discard method) for measuring recovery of foliar-applied N by crops in the field is described. ¹⁵N-labelled fertiliser solution is sprayed on to a small area of crop, using a hand sprayer, while the surrounding area is sprayed with unlabelled N at the same rate. An area considerably larger than that given ¹⁵N is harvested with a small-plot combine-harvester, and crop recovery of foliar-applied N is calculated from the ¹⁵N enrichment of the resulting sample containing a mixture of labelled and unlabelled material. The technique was used to measure recovery of N from ¹⁵N-labelled urea solution sprayed on to winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L cv Avalon) at six different times from growth stage 39 (3 weeks before anthesis) to growth stage 73 (2 weeks after anthesis). Each treatment of 40 kg N ha^?1 was divided into two equal portions, the second being applied 1–2 days after the first, to minimise the risk of leaf damage. The crop had earlier received 210 kg N ha^?1, as ‘Nitro-Chalk’, in spring (50 kg ha^?1 at growth stage 22 and 160 kg ha^?1 at growth stage 31) which was more than sufficient to achieve maximum grain yield. At harvest, 70% of the foliar-applied N given at anthesis (growth stage 65) was recovered in the above-ground crop, including 64 % in grain. The proportion of labelled N recovered in the grain (92% of that in the above-ground crop) was slightly greater than with soil-applied N given earlier in the growing season. Recovery of foliar-applied N was slightly less for the earliest (growth stage 39) and latest (growth stage 73) times of spraying: 64% and 58% in above-ground crop, and 56% and 54% in grain, respectively. All of the foliar applications of 40 kg N ha^?1 increased %N in grain to the same extent as an additional 40 kg N ha^?1 applied to soil in spring.     

Spouses of late-life problem drinkers: Functioning, coping responses, and family contexts.

This prospective study focused on spouses of late-life problem drinkers. At initial assessment, 87 spouses of late-life problem drinkers reported poorer health-related and social functioning, more reliance on cognitive coping strategies, and more shared, cognitive avoidance coping than did 87 spouses of nonproblem drinkers; they also reported more stressful, less supportive family contexts. 22 spouses of individuals who would remit over a 1-yr interval did not appear to provide their partners with an impetus for recovery. However, spouses of remitted problem drinkers improved in several areas over the 1-yr follow-up. By contrast, 65 spouses of nonremitted partners continued to function more poorly and reported less supportive relationships with partners and escalating conflicts with children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life stressors, social resources, and late-life problem drinking.

Life stressors and social resources among late-middle-aged problem and nonproblem drinkers were studied. Problem drinkers (n?=?501) reported more negative life events, chronic stressors, and social resource deficits than did nonproblem drinkers (n?=?609). In a comparison of problem drinkers, men reported more ongoing stressors involving finances and friends and reported fewer resources from children, extended-family members, and friends than did women. Women who are problem drinkers reported more negative life events, more ongoing difficulties with spouses and extended-family members, and fewer resources from spouses. Among both the problem and nonproblem drinkers, more stressors were associated with fewer social resources, but only within certain life domains. Late-middle-aged adults' chronic stressors and social resources helped explain their drinking behavior, depression, and self-confidence even after sex, marital status, and negative life events were considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and drinking behavior among women and men: A three-wave longitudinal study of older adults.

This 3-wave longitudinal study analyzed latent variable cross-lagged models of the relation between depressive symptoms and drinking behavior separately for 621 late-middle-aged women and 951 late-middle-aged men. Time lags of 1 and 3 years were used. Among women, heavier alcohol consumption predicted less depressive symptomatology 1 and 3 years later, whereas among men, having more depressive symptoms predicted less alcohol consumption later on. Including cross-temporal paths in the women's depression-drinking problems model did not provide a significant improvement over hypothesizing no cross-temporal effects. Among men, however, having more drinking problems was associated with fewer depressive symptoms 3 years later. These findings were robust in follow-up analyses controlling for the effects of socioeconomic and health status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)