Thermal and mechanical characterization of epoxy resins toughened using preformed particles

Preformed, multilayer particles have been used to toughen an epoxy resin. The particles were formed by emulsion polymerization and consist of alternate glassy and rubbery layers, the outer layer having glycidyl groups to give the possibility of chemical bonding of the particles in the cured resin. Two variants of this type of particle were used, termed GM(47/15) and GM(47/37); both types have an overall diameter of 0.5 µm, but the former have a thicker rubbery layer. For comparison, acrylic toughening particles (ATP) with no surface functionality and a liquid carboxyl‐terminated butadiene–acrylonitrile (CTBN) rubber were used as toughening agents. The epoxy resin system consisted of a commercial diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (Shell Epon 828) with diamino‐3,5‐diethyl toluene as hardener, two commercial sources of which were used, namely Ethacure‐100 (Albemarle SA) and DX6509 (Shell Chemicals). These hardeners contain a mixture of two isomers, namely 2,6‐diamino‐3,5‐diethyltoluene and 2,4‐diamino‐3,5‐diethyltoluene Thermogravimetry in nitrogen shows that the preformed toughening particles begin to degrade at 230 °C, whereas the cured resin begins to degrade rapidly at 350 °C. Thus, even though the particles are less thermally stable than the cured resin, their degradation temperature is well above the glass transition temperature of the resin, and their use does not affect the thermal stability of the toughened materials at normal use temperatures. The performance of the toughening agents was compared using Ethacure‐100 as the hardener. The GM(47/15) and GM(47/37) toughening particles gave rise to a greater toughening effect than the ATP and the CTBN. For example, the fracture energies were: 0.26 kJ m^?2 for the unmodified resin; 0.60 kJ m^?2 for the resin toughened with CTBN; and 0.69 kJ m^?2 for the resin toughened with the GM(47/15) particles. The ultimate tensile stress of the unmodified epoxy resin was 43 MPa, which increased to 55 MPa when 20 wt% of GM(47/15) toughening particles were added. The toughness of resins cured with the DX6509 hardener were superior to those obtained with the Ethacure‐100 hardener, most probably due to DX6509 producing a less‐highly‐crosslinked network. This highlights the sensitivity of the toughening process to the hardener used, even for hardeners of a similar nature. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry     

Stability of the color-opponent signals under changes of illuminant in natural scenes

Illumination varies greatly both across parts of a natural scene and as a function of time, whereas the spectral reflectance function of surfaces remains more stable and is of much greater relevance when searching for specific targets. This study investigates the functional properties of postreceptoral opponent-channel responses, in particular regarding their stability against spatial and temporal variation in illumination. We studied images of natural scenes obtained in UK and Uganda with digital cameras calibrated to produce estimated L-, M-, and S-cone responses of trichromatic primates (human) and birds (starling). For both primates and birds we calculated luminance and red-green opponent (RG) responses. We also calculated a primate blue-yellow-opponent (BY) response. The BY response varies with changes in illumination, both across time and across the image, rendering this factor less invariant. The RG response is much more stable than the BY response across such changes in illumination for primates, less so for birds. These differences between species are due to the greater separation of bird L and M cones in wavelength and the narrower bandwidth of the cone action spectra. This greater separation also produces a larger chromatic signal for a given change in spectral reflectance. Thus bird vision seems to suffer a greater degree of spatiotemporal "clutter" than primate vision, but also enhances differences between targets and background. Therefore, there may be a trade-off between the degree of chromatic clutter in a visual system versus the degree of chromatic difference between a target and its background. Primate and bird visual systems have found different solutions to this trade-off.     

Development of a method for quantification of acrolein-deoxyguanosine adducts in DNA using isotope dilution-capillary LC/MS/MS and its application to human brain tissue

Acrolein is a highly reactive alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehyde and is known to react with DNA forming exocyclic acrolein-deoxyguanosine adducts (Acro-dG). These aldehyde-DNA lesions may play a role in mutagenesis, carcinogenesis, and neurodegenerative diseases. In the present work, we described the development and evaluation of a highly sensitive and selective capillary liquid chromatography nanoelectrospray isotope dilution tandem mass spectrometry method for quantitatively analyzing Acro-dG in DNA hydrolysates. This was achieved by applying a stable isotope-labeled analogue Acro-dG-13C10,15N5 as an internal standard to the DNA to be analyzed and then hydrolyzing the DNA enzymatically to nucleosides. The acrolein-modified nucleosides were separated from normal nucleosides by capillary liquid chromatography and quantified by a high-capacity ion trap mass spectrometer in the MS/MS mode. The developed method achieved attomole-level sensitivity (limit of detection was 10 fg, 31 amol on column) for detection of pure Acro-dG adduct standards. The limit of quantification of Acro-dG adducts obtained in 10 mug of DNA hydrolysates was 1.5 fmol, which corresponded to 50 adducts/10(9) normal nucleosides. Application of this method to the analysis of Acro-dG adducts in acrolein (10-fold)-treated calf thymus DNA showed approximately 830 lesion/10(6) DNA nucleosides using as low as 50 ng of DNA. Application of this method to DNA samples (1-2 mug) isolated from brain tissues from Alzheimer's disease subjects and age-matched controls demonstrated 2800-5100 Acro-dG adducts/10(9) DNA nucleosides. Statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) in levels of Acro-dG between AD subjects and controls were observed in DNA isolated from the hippocampus/parahippocampal gyrus.     

Visual impairments in dementia with Lewy bodies and posterior cortical atrophy.

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA), the visual variant of Alzheimer’s disease, are neurodegenerative diseases that present with progressive deterioration in visual perception. However, little is known about the precise nature underlying the complex visual deficits associated with both conditions. The present study compared DLB, PCA, and healthy control participants, in four visual tasks designed to measure the efficiency of the visual system at different levels of processing. In ascending order of complexity there were tasks of visual acuity, line orientation, contour integration, and rotated object comparison. DLB patients did not differ from controls in low level visual functions of visual acuity and line orientation, suggesting that early visual processing areas including V1 were relatively preserved, consistent with pathology evidence (Yamamoto et al., 2006). However, higher level visual functions of contour integration, mediated by extrastriatal areas, and the most complex task of object rotation, relying on processing within inferior temporal (IT), parietal, and frontal cortices, were impaired in DLB. In contrast, PCA patients were impaired in all tasks, consistent with evidence of widespread pathology within occipital and parietal areas in PCA. The latter suggests that both lower and higher level visual impairments contribute to the complex visual symptoms associated with PCA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporo-spatial model construction using the MML and software framework

Development of complex temporo-spatial biological computational models can be a time consuming and arduous task. These models may contain hundreds of differential equations as well as realistic geometries that may require considerable investment in time to ensure that all model components are correctly implemented and error free. To tackle this problem, the Modeling Markup Languages (MML) and software framework is a modular XML/HDF5-based specification and toolkits that aims to simplify this process. The main goal of this framework is to encourage reusability, sharing and storage. To achieve this, the MML framework utilizes the CellML specification and repository, which comprises an extensive range of curated models available for use. The MML framework is an open-source project available at http://mml.gsbme.unsw.edu.au.     

核／壳结构聚合物改性硬质聚氯乙烯的力学性能

采用种子乳液聚合制备了丙烯酸酯核/壳结构聚合物,总转化率超过95%,乳胶粒理论粒径与实测值基本一致,说明聚合体系没有明显的二次成核过程.将其用于硬质聚氯乙烯改性,当加入量为3 phr时,就能产生显著的增韧效果,常温缺口冲击强度达到16.51 kJ/cm2,而拉伸强度基本保持不变.扫描电镜分析冲击断口表明,核/壳聚合物已经很好分散到聚氯乙烯基体中,呈网状结构,为明显的韧性断裂过程.该研究有望应用于工业生产.     

The multiscale classifier

Proposes a rule-based inductive learning algorithm called multiscale classification (MSC). It can be applied to any N-dimensional real or binary classification problem to classify the training data by successively splitting the feature space in half. The algorithm has several significant differences from existing rule-based approaches: learning is incremental, the tree is non-binary, and backtracking of decisions is possible to some extent. The paper first provides background on current machine learning techniques and outlines some of their strengths and weaknesses. It then describes the MSC algorithm and compares it to other inductive learning algorithms with particular reference to ID3, C4.5, and back-propagation neural networks. Its performance on a number of standard benchmark problems is then discussed and related to standard learning issues such as generalization, representational power, and over-specialization     

Water soluble polymer/carbon nanotube bulk heterojunction solar cells

We report the characteristics of polymer/quantum dot solar cells fabricated using a water-soluble polymer and carbon nanotubes in a bulk heterojunction configuration. The water-soluble polythiophene polymer showed significant photoresponse and the potential for use in photovoltaics. The addition of carbon nanotubes to the polymer resulted in an order of magnitude increase in the photoconductivity. Improved charge separation and collection was evidenced by the large difference between light and dark conductivities as well as the increase in both open circuit voltage and short circuit current. Finally, photovoltaic cells using aligned nanotubes showed further improvement in the photoconductivity and IV characteristics.     

Graft copolymer separators — development and use

Graft copolymer membranes have been used for a number of years as interelectrode separators in alkaline batteries either singly, laminated to cellophane, or in conjunction with other materials such as felts.The preparation details of some of the Royal Military College of Science's copolymers are summarised with emphasis on the production of commercial quantities having a high degree of uniformity and reproducibility. Important properties in a battery environment are discussed and, where possible, compared with other separator materials; notably cellophane.The use of graft copolymers in a number of primary and secondary alkaline battery systems is reported and test data given. Conclusions are drawn relating the properties of these separators to their performance in cells.