Production of high-quality liquid fertilizers from wet-process acid via urea phosphate

A pilot-plant process is described that purifies wet-process phosphoric acid for the production of a high-quality urea-ammonium polyphosphate base solution. An intermediate product, crystalline urea phosphate, is produced from urea and merchant-grade (54% P₂O₅) wet-process phosphoric acid. The urea phosphate crystals contain only about 15 to 20% of the objectionable impurities (iron, aluminum, and magnesium) originally contained in the feed wet-process acid. The urea phosphate crystals are pyrolyzed, converting orthophosphate to polyphosphate with very little energy consumption. The resulting melt is dissolved and neutralized with ammonia to produce 14-29-0 liquid product of high polyphosphate content.     

Amino-hexose-reductones as antioxidants. I. Vegetable oils

Summary Amino-hexose-reductones were evaluated as antioxidants in soybean, cottonseed, and corn oils and were shown to be highly effective by all oxidative and chemical tests. The activity of the eight different reductones was approximately the same in any one substrate. Slightly higher activities were given by reductones of lower molecular weight. Activity was demonstrated at concentrations as low as 0.001% and was shown to be a linear function of the concentration up to 0.02%, the approximate limit of solubility. Out-standing features of the reductone-treated oils were long induction periods, slow absorption of oxygen, and low rates of peroxide development. Reductones are believed not to react directly with peroxides but to prevent peroxide formation by reacting with some precursor. The combination of reductones with other antioxidants showed synergistic effects in only one sample of corn oil. The activity of combinations in soybean and cottonseed oils was for the most part strictly additive. In soybean oil, citric acid-reductone combinations with each at the 0.01% level gave a slight improvement over the expected activity. Oils stabilized with multiple-component, antioxidant mixtures in which an amino reductone replaced propyl gallate showed less peroxide development and were equally acceptable according to organoleptic scores. Aged oils did not show the organoleptic improvement that would be expected from the marked improvement observed in the oxidative stability. Significant improvements in flavor stability could be observed with reductones only when they were used in combination with an-other antioxidant. Reductone-treated soybean and cottonseed oils did not show an appreciable improvement in flavor stability. Only the di-n-butylamino-and diallylamino-reductones contributed foreign flavors to the oil. Atypical flavors are believed associated with the amine moiety of the reductone. At high temperatures and at higher concentrations of reductones a brown melanoid color develops in the oil. The anhydro derivatives developed more color than the normal reductone. The reductones do not withstand oil deodorization conditions. Presented at the meeting of the American Oil Chemists' Society, Chicago, Ill. September 23–26, 1956.     

Characterization of porcine sclera using instrumented nanoindentation

Sclera tissue is the outermost protective layer of the eye and often involved in mechanical interactions during ocular medical procedures. In this study, instrumented nanoindentation is evaluated as a methodology for characterizing porcine sclera submerged in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Variances within a single sample and between samples are compared. Reduced modulus measurements are used to determine the effects of hydration, mounting conditions, and maximum applied load. Extended in vitro exposure beyond four hours to PBS is determined to decrease sample integrity. The use of glue to secure samples improved data consistency and had no negative effects on measurements. The data suggest that nanoindentation is a high precision method for measuring the reduced modulus of ultra low modulus soft tissue such as sclera (E_r ~ 30 kPa) and illustrates the importance of environmental factors upon material properties.     

Effect of polysilicon gate type on the flatband voltage shift forultrathin oxide-nitride gate stacks

In this work, we demonstrate that the magnitude of flatband voltage (V_FB) shift for ultrathin (<2 nm) silicon dioxide-silicon nitride (ON) gate stacks in MOSFET's depends on the Fermi level position in the gate material. In addition, a fixed positive charge at the oxide-nitride interface was observed     

Closed-form solution to the problem of reaction with fixed bed adsorption using delay-differential equations

Delay-differential equations (DDEs) can describe many chemical engineering models. However, the formalism of DDEs appears to be underutilized in chemical engineering. We have recast the canonical chemical engineering problem of batch reaction with fixed bed sorption into the form of a delay-differential equation, obtaining a more intuitive model and a simpler closed form solution than those previously reported. Considerable model reduction is possible through the use of DDE formalism when one considers that chemical processes can be partially represented by networks of transportation and state delays. Analytical and numerical methods for solution, as well as controllability and stability theory for systems of DDEs, are nearly as rich and developed as those for ordinary differential equations. Significant progress thus may be possible in areas such as the modeling, synthesis, and control of chemical processes, if the governing equations can be expressed in the form of delay-differential equations.     

Approaches to empathy training: Programmed methods versus individual supervision and professional versus peer supervisors.

Examined the effects of training method (programmed vs individual supervision) and supervisor experience (peer vs professional) on the learning of empathy. Eight supervisors (4 professional and 4 peer) were assigned 3 Ss in each of 3 groups: individually supervised, programmed, and control. Ss listened to 3 sets of recorded client statements and responded as counselors. The 2 experimental groups received training after the 1st and 2nd sets. The control group received no training. An analysis of recorded responses indicated that the individually supervised Ss achieved a significantly higher level of empathy than the controls. Ss receiving programmed training were intermediate in learning between individually supervised and control Ss. Supervisor experience was not found to be a significant factor as no posttraining differences were noted between professional and peer-trained groups. This result supports the use of peers in such interpersonal skills training. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Possible Means to Assist the Processing of PET,PTT and PBT

Blends of PET, PTT and PBT with the corresponding MCOs have lower melt viscosities than the pure polymers. This effect of MCOs on viscosity has the potential for exploitation in polymer fabrication and especially in the processing of composite materials. Thus, the blends can be more easily melt‐processed than the pure polymers, and the MCOs can then subsequently be converted in situ into high‐molar‐mass polymers by ED‐ROPs. No catalyst is needed for the ED‐ROPs. It was shown that suitable polymer/MCO blends can be obtained directly by carrying out cyclo‐depolymerizations at appropriate concentrations. Suitable polymer/MCO blends can also, almost certainly, be obtained by carrying out the original polyester syntheses at lower concentrations than normally used.

     

A comparison of standard spell checking algorithms and a novel binary neural approach

In this paper, we propose a simple, flexible, and efficient hybrid spell checking methodology based upon phonetic matching, supervised learning, and associative matching in the AURA neural system. We integrate Hamming Distance and n-gram algorithms that have high recall for typing errors and a phonetic spell-checking algorithm in a single novel architecture. Our approach is suitable for any spell checking application though aimed toward isolated word error correction, particularly spell checking user queries in a search engine. We use a novel scoring scheme to integrate the retrieved words from each spelling approach and calculate an overall score for each matched word. From the overall scores, we can rank the possible matches. We evaluate our approach against several benchmark spellchecking algorithms for recall accuracy. Our proposed hybrid methodology has the highest recall rate of the techniques evaluated. The method has a high recall rate and low-computational cost.     

COMSTAR and CTS angle-of-arrival measurements

This brief note describes angle of arrival measurement made at Columbus, Ohio, USA, on 11.7 and 28.56 GHz earth-space paths. These measurements indicate that the short term deviation of the angle of arrival exceeds 0.1° for 0.01 percent of the time. Such a fluctuation would indicate that adverse effects may be expected for receiving apertures having diameters on the order of 1.000 λ or larger.     

Sequence diversity of SIV(Mne) Nef in vivo and in vitro

The immune system and nervous system are intimately related. In addition to neuroendocrine mechanisms, neuropeptides have a variety of effects on immune cells and are responsible at least in part for neurogenic inflammation. The presence of neuropeptides in the skin has been well documented. The influence of neuropeptides on Langerhans cells is the focus of this paper. The physical presence and effects of calcitonin gene-related peptide on Langerhans cells is emphasized. Discussion also includes the putative inflammatory and immunologic roles of vasoactive intestinal peptide, substance P, neurotensin, neuropeptide Y, and somatostatin in the skin.