Forty Years of Shape and Shape Grammars, 1971 �C 2011

Guest Editor Lionel March introduces Nexus Network Journal volume 13 number 1 (Winter 2010) dedicated to Shape and Shape Grammar.     

Raft crystals of poly(isoprene)-block-poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane) and their surface wetting behavior during melting as observed by AFM and NanoTA

We report on the morphology evolution during heating and melting of lamellar poly(isoprene)-block-poly(ferrocenyldimethylsilane) (PI₇₆-b-PFDMS₇₆) raft crystals deposited at the native oxide surface of silicon (SiO₂) or at a highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface, studied by in situ temperature controlled atomic force microscopy. Crystals deposited on hydrophilic SiO₂ surfaces revealed an irreversible decrease in length at temperatures of up to tens of degrees above their expected melting temperature, while maintaining their platelet-like structure. Crystals deposited on hydrophobic HOPG surfaces initially decreased in length below their expected melting temperature, while at 120 °C and above a typical molten morphology was observed. In addition, the irreversible formation of a PI₇₆-b-PFDMS₇₆ wetting layer around the crystals was observed upon increasing the temperature. These observations in the morphological behavior upon heating emphasize the role of interfacial energy between a surface deposited block copolymer based macromolecular nanostructure and its supporting substrate.     

Simulation analysis of producing xylitol from hemicelluloses of pre-hydrolysis liquor

The pre-hydrolysis liquor (PHL) of the kraft-based dissolving pulp production process is currently sent to the recovery boiler and incinerated. However, PHL contains about 5–8% lignocelluloses that can be utilized in the production of value-added chemicals. In this study, a process for producing xylitol from hemicelluloses in PHL is developed. This process involves several acidification, neutralization, adsorption (along with reactivation) and evaporation stages. The mass balance indicates that 533 kg/h xylitol (with 99% purity), 187 kg/h lignin, 806 kg/h basic ferric acetate, and 1600 kg/h gypsum can be produced from 41,670 kg/h PHL. The energy balance shows that the evaporators are the largest consumers of energy, while the reactivation kiln, acidification, neutralization, and precipitation processes generate some heat. Overall, 41% conversion of xylose to xylitol is achieved.     

Conversion of Polycrystalline Al2O3 into Single-Crystal Sapphire by Abnormal Grain Growth

In a given batch more than 30%–40% of polycrystalline, MgO-doped Al₂O₃ tubes were converted into single crystals of sapphire by abnormal grain growth (AGG) in the solid state at 1880°C. Most crystals grew 4–10-cm in length in tubes with wall thicknesses of 1/2 and 3/4 mm and outer diameters of 5 and 7 mm, respectively, and had their c -axes oriented ∼ 90° and 45° to the tube axis. Initiation of AGG was associated with low values of bulk MgO concentration near 50 ppm. The unconverted tubes did not develop centimeter-size crystals but instead exhibited millimeter-size grains. The different grain structures in converted and unconverted tubes may be related to nonuniform concentration of MgO in the extruded tubes. The growth front of the migrating crystal boundary was typically nonuniformly shaped, and the interface between the single crystal and the polycrystalline matrix was composed of many "curved" boundary segments indicative of classical AGG in a single-phase material. The average velocities of many migrating crystal boundaries were quite high and reached ∼1.5 cm/h. The average grain boundary mobility at 1880°C was calculated as 2 × 10⁻¹⁰ m³/(N·s), representing the highest value reported so far in Al₂O₃ and within a factor of 2.5 of the calculated intrinsic mobility. Under similar experimental conditions sapphire crystals did not grow when a codopant of CaO, La₂O₃, or ZrO₂ was added in concentrations of several hundred ppm.     

Influence of the character of NOM on the ozonation of MIB and geosmin

Tastes and odours (T&Os) are a major concern in drinking water as they are not efficiently removed by conventional water treatment. Ozonation has been effective for their destruction in some studies. However, the natural organic matter (NOM) in waters can affect the ozonation process and subsequently affect the destruction of T&Os. Five NOM fractions were isolated and ozonated in synthetic waters. The fraction containing the more highly coloured, higher molecular weight compounds exhibited the highest ozone (O3) demand, whereas the low aromatic fraction exhibited the lowest O3 demand. The character of the NOM fractions influenced the ozonation of MIB and geosmin. The destruction of MIB and geosmin was significantly higher in the fraction with the highest colour and UV/visible absorbance at all O3 doses. The destruction of the compounds in the other fractions showed the same trends, increasing MIB and geosmin destruction with increasing UV/visible absorbing character of the NOM. MIB was also ozonated in two real waters. with results showing a competing effect between NOM concentration and NOM character. The O3 reaction time was shown to be important for the destruction of both compounds.     

Automated traceability analysis for UML model refinements

During iterative, UML-based software development, various UML diagrams, modeling the same system at different levels of abstraction are developed. These models must remain consistent when changes are performed. In this context, we refine the notion of impact analysis and distinguish horizontal impact analysis–that focuses on changes and impacts at one level of abstraction–from vertical impact analysis–that focuses on changes at one level of abstraction and their impacts on another level. Vertical impact analysis requires that some traceability links be established between model elements at the two levels of abstraction. We propose a traceability analysis approach for UML 2.0 class diagrams which is based on a careful formalization of changes to those models, refinements which are composed of those changes, and traceability links corresponding to refinements. We show how actual refinements and corresponding traceability links are formalized using the OCL. Tool support and a case study are also described.     

Periodic Plus Smooth Image Decomposition

When the Discrete Fourier Transform of an image is computed, the image is implicitly assumed to be periodic. Since there is no reason for opposite borders to be alike, the “periodic” image generally presents strong discontinuities across the frame border. These edge effects cause several artifacts in the Fourier Transform, in particular a well-known “cross” structure made of high energy coefficients along the axes, which can have strong consequences on image processing or image analysis techniques based on the image spectrum (including interpolation, texture analysis, image quality assessment, etc.). In this paper, we show that an image can be decomposed into a sum of a “periodic component” and a “smooth component”, which brings a simple and computationally efficient answer to this problem. We discuss the interest of such a decomposition on several applications.     

Development of an experimental technique to assess the permeability of metal coated polymer films

The experimental time required to measure water vapour permeability of barrier film using the cup method is extremely long. In this study, a new technique is proposed, based on light transmission. This fast and accurate method was first validated using model films constituted of aluminized PET (polyethylene terephthalate) with aluminium layers of different thicknesses (<100 nm). It was possible to show that the ‘illuminating’ method could advantageously be employed to control the film’s barrier properties during their fabrication. In a second step, the method was tentatively used to measure the changes in barrier properties over time, when the samples are submitted to severe hydrothermal ageing (70 °C, 90% relative humidity [RH]). It was concluded that the complex degradation mechanism prevents accurate measurement while ageing.     

BLOSSOMS: Building Lightweight Optimized Sensor Systems on a Massive Scale

As a joint effort between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the BLOSSOMS sensor network project aims to identify research issues at all levels from practical applications down to the design of sensor nodes. In this project, a heterogeneous sensor array including different types of application-dependent sensors as well as monitoring sensors and intruding sensors are being developed. Application-dependent power-aware communication protocols are also being studied for communications among sensor nodes. An ontology-based middleware is built to relieve the burden of application developers from collecting, classifying and processing messy sensing contexts. This project is also developing a set of tools allowing researchers to model, simulate/emulate, analyze, and monitor various functions of sensor networks.