Functional properties of a protein product from Caryodendron orinocense (Barinas nut)

The functional properties of Caryodendron orinocense protein product were investigated and compared with those of soybean (Glycina maxima). The product protein content was 24.47 g/100 g (Nx6.25). Solubility increased at both sides of the isoelectric point (pH 4.0) and with increased NaCl concentration up to 0.5M. Compared with soybean flour (50% protein), the protein product exhibited higher water and oil absorption, but lower emulsifying activity, emulsion stability, foaming capacity, and foam stability, the last one increase at higher pH. Emulsifying activity, foaming capacity, and foam stability were ionic strength dependent. C. orinocense protein product increased its emulsifying activity steadily from 0.05M to 0.75M NaCl, while it remained almost constant for soybean flour. Foaming capacity increased drastically at pH 10. The minimum time and concentration to form a gel was 20% in 4 min and 10% in 8 min for the Caryodendron protein product and soybean flour, respectively. The bulk density was 0.5056+/-0.0041 g/mL.     

Resins containing amino and carboxylic acid groups. Synthesis,characterization, and metal ion retention properties

The crosslinked poly[3‐(methacryloylamino)propyl]dimethyl(3‐sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide], P(MAPDSA), and poly[3‐(methacryloylamino)propyl]dimethyl(3‐sulfopropyl)ammonium hydroxide‐co‐acrylic acid], P(MAPDSA‐co‐AA), were synthesized by radical polymerization. The resins were completely insoluble in water. Due to the lower metal ion retention of P(MAPDSA), the metal ions investigated under competitive and noncompetitive conditions for Cu(II), Cd(II), Hg(II), Zn(II), Pb(II), and Cr(III) ions by batch and column equilibrium procedures were carried out only for P(MAPDA‐co‐AA), particularly for Hg(II). The resin–Hg(II) ion equilibrium was achieved before 15 min. The resin showed a maximum retention capacity value for Hg(II) at pH 2 of 1.89 meq/g. The resin showed a high selectivity to Hg(II) ions. The recovery of the resin was investigated at 25°C with different concentrations of HNO₃ and HClO₄. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 525–530, 2005     

High‐retention properties for Hg(II) ions of a resin containing ammonium and pyridine groups

The metal‐ion uptake behavior of the chelating resin poly([(3‐(methacryloylamino)propyl] trimethyl ammonium chloride‐co‐4‐vinyl pyridine) has been investigated. The resin is obtained by radical copolymerization in a yield of 99.6%. The hydrophilic resin shows a high retention capacity and selectivity toward Hg(II) ions in the presence of Cu(II), Pb(II), Cd(II), Zn(II), and Cr(III) ions. A retention of Hg(II) higher than 99% is observed after 5 min. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 83: 2595–2599, 2002     

The effect of adding devulcanized rubber on the thermomechanical properties of recycled polypropylene

This work aims to investigate the effect of adding vulcanized or partially devulcanized rubbers on recycled polypropylene (PPr), considering thermomechanical and morphological properties. The study proposes to better understand how structural changes underwent by rubber (after the devulcanization) contributed to improving the mechanical properties of the PPr. The PPr/rubber blends were prepared by a co-rotating twin-screw extruder and then were injected. The blends composed of the most devulcanized rubbers by microwaves with refined microstructure showed higher values of elongation at break and toughness. Data showed that the devulcanization process applied to the rubber interfered positively in its adhesion to the PPr. Data from dynamic mechanical analysis and atomic force microscopy indicated that the most devulcanized rubbers presented an interface more connected to PPr. These chemical interactions possibly impacted the mechanical properties of the PPr. Moreover, dilatation processes favored the fracture mechanisms of the PPr when rubber was added to it.     

Experimental study of stable surfaces for anti-slug control in multi-phase flow

Severe slugging flow is always challenging in oil & gas production, especially for the current offshore based production. The slugging flow can cause a lot of problems, such as those relevant to production safety, fatigue as well as capability. As one typical phenomenon in multi-phase flow dynamics, the slug can be avoided or eliminated by proper facility design or control of operational conditions. Based on a testing facility which can emulate a pipeline-riser or a gas-lifted production well in a scaled-down manner, this paper experimentally studies the correlations of key operational parameters with severe slugging flows. These correlations are reflected through an obtained stable surface in the parameter space, which is a natural extension of the bifurcation plot. The maximal production opportunity without compromising the stability is also studied. Relevant studies have already showed that the capability, performance and efficiency of anti-slug control can be dramatically improved if these stable surfaces can be experimentally determined beforehand. The paper concludes that obtaining the stable surface on the new developed map can significantly improve the production rate in a control scheme. Even though the production rate can be further improved by moving the stable surface using advanced control strategies, the constant inputs can in some cases be preferable due to the easier implementation.     

A model of checkpoint behavior for applications that have I/O

Due to the increase and complexity of computer systems, reducing the overhead of fault tolerance techniques has become important in recent years. One technique in fault tolerance is checkpointing, which saves a snapshot with the information that has been computed up to a specific moment, suspending the execution of the application, consuming I/O resources and network bandwidth. Characterizing the files that are generated when performing the checkpoint of a parallel application is useful to determine the resources consumed and their impact on the I/O system. It is also important to characterize the application that performs checkpoints, and one of these characteristics is whether the application does I/O. In this paper, we present a model of checkpoint behavior for parallel applications that performs I/O; this depends on the application and on other factors such as the number of processes, the mapping of processes and the type of I/O used. These characteristics will also influence scalability, the resources consumed and their impact on the IO system. Our model describes the behavior of the checkpoint size based on the characteristics of the system and the type (or model) of I/O used, such as the number I/O aggregator processes, the buffering size utilized by the two-phase I/O optimization technique and components of collective file I/O operations. The BT benchmark and FLASH I/O are analyzed under different configurations of aggregator processes and buffer size to explain our approach. The model can be useful when selecting what type of checkpoint configuration is more appropriate according to the applications’ characteristics and resources available. Thus, the user will be able to know how much storage space the checkpoint consumes and how much the application consumes, in order to establish policies that help improve the distribution of resources.

     

Perceived production complexity – understanding more than parts of a system

To successfully manage today’s complex production systems it is essential to study operators’ perception of the system. The paper presents perceived production complexity assessed at seven manufacturing companies with the CompleXity Index (CXI) method. While other methods have measured product variants, layout, work content, tools and information items, CXI combines them into three areas. These three complexity areas (Station design, Work variance and Disturbance handling) help to create an understanding of the complex system by visualising how they contribute to complexity, and show the need to support the operators’ ability to handle the varying work.