Synthesis and sintering of cordierite sol-gel powders based on different magnesium salts

The effect of the nature of the magnesium salt on synthesis and sintering of cordierite powders made by the sol-gel method was established. The phase composition of the powder and behavior of the material in sintering are a function of the calcination temperature of the xerogels.     

The idealized structural unit method and its application to deep girder structures

An efficient method of analysis of non-linear behavior until collapse of large size redundant structures is presented. The method is named as The “Idealized Structural Unit Method”. In this method the structure is divided into the biggest possible “Structural Units” whose geometric and material nonlinear behavior can be idealized and described in a concise analytical-numerical form. The structure is reassembled and load is applied incrementally until ultimate strength is attained.In this method, modeling is an obvious operation of dividing the structure into its actual structural units. This eliminates the effort required for the choice of type of element or size of mesh as in the finite element method. The number of structural units and overall degrees of freedom required for the analysis of a structure by this method are less in order than the number of elements and overall degrees of freedom required to analyze the same structure by the FEM. Costs of computer and data preparation may be drastically reduced.Application of the method to metal structures built up of deep I girders, such as bridge girders, ships deep girders and grillage structures is considered. The “Girder Structural Unit” is defined and its behavior under increasing loads is idealized based on existing as well as newly developed theoretical and experimental studies. Conditions for web bucking, ultimate strength and full plastic strength are established and expressions for stiffness during various stages are derived. A deep girder structure may then be treated as an assembly of such “Girder Structural Units”. Results of analysis of example structures are presented. The consumed computer time is found to be very short, as expected. Comparisons with results of experimental studies show good agreement.     

The fatty acid composition of Hibiscus sabdariffa seed oil

Analysis of Hibiscus sabdariffa seed oil from different seed collections (or cultivars), representing different growing areas, showed differences in the fatty acid pattern, especially with respect to linoleic (30.1-37.45%) and epoxyoleic (trace to 5.3%). The results showed different values from those previously reported for the cyclopropenoid fatty acid, found to be malvalic acid (0.4-2.0%), responsible for the positive Halphen response of the oil. It is now also established that the oil contains dihydrosterculic acid (1.0-1.6%) which has been reported previously in other species of the genus Hibiscus. The results of the rest of fatty acids showed ranges for myristic 0.2-0.5%, palmitic 17.4-22.6%, stearic 3.9-5.2% and oleic acid 34.6-39.8%.     

Expected repair cost under doubly stochastic damage processes

There are a number of instances where the problems of non-stationarity, Poisson compounding and double stochasticity arise. In the theory of space-charge limited shot-noise, the number of beats that occur in a given interval of time obey a doubly stochastic process since the Poisson's parameter λ changes randomly due to individual beats. This paper puts forward a doubly stochastic non-stationary compound Poisson process as a model describing damage sustained by military equipment, solar collectors, … etc., due to hailstones. The expected repair cost due to such damage is formulated.     

Hot water defrosting of a horizontal flat plate cooling surfaceDégivrage par eau chaude d'une surface de refroidissement de plaque plane horizontale

Removal of frost from an jupward facing horizontal cooling plate at a subfreezing temperature using a hot water spray is studied experimentally. The variation of the frost layer with time is approximately linear. A simple analytical model predicts the trend of the frost thickness-time change.     

Polarity dependent oxide defects located using liquid crystals

Liquid crystals have been used to study, non-destructively, the localized regions of high conductivity known to be present in thin layers of silicon dioxide grown thermally on n type silicon. The polarity dependence of the turbulence in the liquid crystals, together with the growth in the number of defects with time suggests that mobile impurity ions play an important role.     

From data topology to a modular classifier

This article describes an approach to designing a distributed and modular neural classifier. This approach introduces a new hierarchical clustering that enables one to determine reliable regions in the representation space by exploiting supervised information. A multilayer perceptron is then associated with each of these detected clusters and charged with recognizing elements of the associated cluster while rejecting all others. The obtained global classifier is comprised of a set of cooperating neural networks and completed by a K-nearest neighbor classifier charged with treating elements rejected by all the neural networks. Experimental results for the handwritten digit recognition problem and comparison with neural and statistical nonmodular classifiers are given.Received: 1 October 2002, Accepted: 21 November 2002, Published online: 6 June 2003     

Some Physical Properties of CuTlSe Alloy

The structure and optical properties of Cu0.1Tl2Se3 alloy was studied. X-ray analysis showed that the polycrystalline powder consists of a mixture of two phases Cu3TlSe2 (monoclinic) and TlSe (tetragonal). Chalcopyrite phase CuTlSe2 can be obtained by annealing the powder at 250 ℃ for 1 h. Thin film with a monoclinic phase of Cu3TlSe2 was obtained for the thick film (0.7 mum). The optical parameters alpha, n, k, epsilon' and epsilon " and the energy gap were calculated. The thermoelectric power measurements showed that S has a positive polarity over the whole range of temperature.     

The influence of baking fuel on residues of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals in bread

The influence of fuel type used to bake bread on the spectrum and concentrations of some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals in baked bread was assessed. Bread samples were collected from different bakeries operated by either electricity, solar, mazot or solid waste and their residue content of PAHs and heavy metals was assessed. The total concentration of PAHs detected in mazot, solar, solid waste and electricity operated bakeries had an average of 320.6, 158.4, 317.3 and 25.5 μg kg⁻¹, respectively. Samples collected from mazot, solar and solid waste operated bakeries have had a wide spectrum of PAHs, in comparison to that detected in bread samples collected from electricity operated bakeries. Lead had the highest concentrations in the four group of bread samples, followed by nickel, while the concentrations of zinc and cadmium were the least. The concentration of lead detected in bread samples produced from mazot, solar, solid waste and electricity fueled bakeries were 1375.5, 1114, 1234, and 257.3 μg kg⁻¹, respectively. Estimated daily intake of PAHs based on bread consumption were 48.2, 28.5, 80.1, and 4.8 μg per person per day for bread produced in bakeries using mazot, solar, solid waste and electricity, respectively. Meanwhile, the estimated daily intake of benzo (a) pyrene were 3.69, 2.65, 8.1, and 0.81 μg per person per day for bread sample baked with mazot, solar, solid waste and electricity, respectively. The daily intake of lead, based on bread consumption was 291, 200.5, 222, and 46.31 μg per person per day for bread sample baked with mazot, solar, solid waste and electricity, respectively. The present work has indicated the comparatively high level of daily intake of benzo (a) pyrene and lead in comparison to levels reported from many other countries and those recommended by international regulatory bodies. It is probable that residues detected in bread samples are partially cereal-borne but there is strong evidence that the process of baking and the gases emitted are responsible for most of the contamination load.