Crystallisation behaviour of the iron oxide-devoid BOF slag with adding SiO2

The current research attempted to investigate the crystallisation mechanism of iron oxide-devoid basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag with adding SiO₂. First, the glass sample was prepared by adding 29?wt-% of SiO₂ to BOF slag, followed by eliminating iron oxide by reduction process. Non-isothermal DSC analysis together with confocal laser microscopy, XRD and EPMA mappings were carried out to observe the crystallisation process. The glass sample showed that the crystallisation process started from the surface where the main phases were identified to be akermanite, merwinite and wollastonite. In addition, the crystallisation process was affected by the nucleation temperature which was decided by the heating rate because of the difference in the nucleation rate between wollastonite and Mg-rich phases. The current results could be used to propose the feasibility of utilising BOF slag as glass-ceramics by chemical modification with heat treatment, which controls the crystallisation behaviour.     

Gaseous Nanocarving‐Mediated Carbon Framework with Spontaneous Metal Assembly for Structure‐Tunable Metal/Carbon Nanofibers

Vapor phase carbon (C)‐reduction‐based syntheses of C nanotubes and graphene, which are highly functional solid C nanomaterials, have received extensive attention in the field of materials science. This study suggests a revolutionary method for precisely controlling the C structures by oxidizing solid C nanomaterials into gaseous products in the opposite manner of the conventional approach. This gaseous nanocarving enables the modulation of inherent metal assembly in metal/C hybrid nanomaterials because of the promoted C oxidation at the metal/C interface, which produces inner pores inside C nanomaterials. This phenomenon is revealed by investigating the aspects of structure formation with selective C oxidation in the metal/C nanofibers, and density functional theory calculation. Interestingly, the tendency of C oxidation and calculated oxygen binding energy at the metal surface plane is coincident with the order Co > Ni > Cu > Pt. The customizable control of the structural factors of metal/C nanomaterials through thermodynamic‐calculation‐derived processing parameters is reported for the first time in this work. This approach can open a new class of gas–solid reaction‐based synthetic routes that dramatically broaden the structure‐design range of metal/C hybrid nanomaterials. It represents an advancement toward overcoming the limitations of intrinsic activities in various applications.     

Improved electrochemical performance of a cyclic ultracapacitor using slurry electrodes under various flow conditions

A cyclic ultracapacitor is a promising energy storage device that can be used for grid energy storage. The cyclic ultracapacitor combines the advantages of both ultracapacitors and flow batteries, enabling rapid charging and large‐scale energy use. To improve the electrochemical performance under the flow condition, it is necessary to find a more electrical active material and design a flow cell that minimizes the resistance. In this study, we investigate the effects of changing the ratio of the active material in a slurry electrode under various operating conditions. Slurry electrodes were prepared with different ratios of active material and conductive additive but with a fixed electrolyte amount. Voltage–time curves of both a single and a stack‐flow cell in the constant‐current mode were obtained to analyze the relationship between the active materials ratio and the cell performance. Having more adsorption sites according to the active material amount is more important than increasing the electric conductivity by the conductive additive amount with regard to cell performance capabilities in a low resistance condition such as a non‐flow mode. However, higher electrical conductivity on a slurry electrode is more beneficial to improve the electrochemical performance in the stack‐flow mode, which has harsh resistance levels. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Public trust in a mobile device and service policy in South Korea: The Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act

South Korea has the highest expenditure on telecommunications among OECD countries, drawing national attention to the issue of reducing high prices. In response, the Korean government enacted the Mobile Device Distribution Improvement (MDDI) Act to eliminate information asymmetry by limiting mobile carriers’ mobile handset subsidies to consumers. This study examined factors affecting public trust in the MDDI based by analyzing responses to a questionnaire survey using the ordered probit model. The results show that the knowledge, expectations, and perceived effects of the MDDI have a meaningful effect on public trust in the policy. The results of this study confirm that it is essential for governments to promote their policies by continuously educating the public, especially in this case because the policy has a direct effect on telecommunications expenditures.     

Numerical analysis of convective flow and thermal stratification in a cryogenic storage tank

In this study, the liquid–vapor mixture model was used for a numerical study of natural convective flow in a cryogenic tank with a capacity of 4.9?m³ under various conditions of heat flux and filling level to understand the early stages of convective flow phenomena and the consequent thermal stratification of cryogenic liquid. Two cryogens—liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied nitrogen (LN₂)—were compared to observe their effects. LN₂ exhibited faster vaporization owing to its lower heat of vaporization. It was observed that higher heat flux and lower filling level led to faster vaporization and relatively vigorous heat transfer, showing early thermal stratification.     

Analysis of ethanol in soy sauce using electronic nose for halal food certification

The purpose of this study was to analyze ethanol content in soy sauce using mass spectrometry (MS) with electronic nose (e-nose) to determine if MS e-nose can replace gas chromatographic analysis for halal certification. Gas chromatography–flame ionization detector (GC-FID), the standard method of ethanol content, was used to analyze 24 different kinds of soy sauce. Ethanol was detected from 13 soy sauce samples in the concentration range of 0.0004–1.7wt%. The MS e-nose data were analyzed by discriminant function analysis (DFA). Based on an addition method, the results were more than 96.6% accurate when the ethanol concentrations were greater than 0.5%. A high correlation between the first score of the DFA plot and the ethanol concentration was observed. Thus, mass spectrometry based on e-nose is an efficient method for determining ethanol as a primary screening tool for halal certification.     

Anti-inflammatory and anti-genotoxic activity of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages

Food Science and Biotechnology - The purpose of this study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and anti-genotoxic activity of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)...     

Antifungal activity of isothiocyanates extracted from horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) root against pathogenic dermal fungi

Food Science and Biotechnology - To develop natural antifungal agents against pathogenic dermal fungi, the antifungal activity of isothiocyanates (ITCs) extracted from horseradish (Armoracia...     

Anti-diabetic effects of mulberry (Morus alba L.) branches and oxyresveratrol in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice

Food Science and Biotechnology - Despite with accumulating evidences on the anti-diabetic effects of mulberry branch (MB), the major active component for the activity has not been known. Oral...     

Space‐Time Warp Curve for Synthesizing Multi‐character Motions

This paper introduces a new motion‐synthesis technique for animating multiple characters. At a high level, we introduce a hub‐sub‐control‐point scheme that automatically generates many different spline curves from a user scribble. Then, each spline curve becomes a trajectory along which a 3D character moves. Based on the given curves, our algorithm synthesizes motions using a cyclic motion. In this process, space‐time warp curves, which are time‐warp curves, are embedded in the 3D environment to control the speed of the motions. Since the space‐time warp curve represents a trajectory over the time domain, it enables us to verify whether the trajectory causes any collisions between characters by simply checking whether two space‐time warp curves intersect. In addition, it is possible to edit space‐time warp curves at run time to change the speed of the characters. We use several experiments to demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can efficiently synthesize a group of character motions. Our method creates collision‐avoiding trajectories ten times faster than those created manually.