Characteristics of Milk Powders Produced by Spray Freeze Drying

Skim and whole milk powders were manufactured at lab scale by spray freeze drying (SFD), using liquid nitrogen as the cryogen. The polydispersity of droplet/particle sizes was limited using an encapsulator nozzle to atomize the feed. Particle morphology was examined using a scanning electron microscope. Samples were compared with equivalent spray-dried powders in tests of wettability and dissolution in water. The spray freeze-dried powders were found to be highly porous, with a uniform structure of pores throughout the entire particles. When tested in water, SFD skim milk powders wetted roughly three times as fast as industrially spray-dried agglomerated skim milk powders and were observed to dissolve rapidly by breaking down into smaller particles.     

汽车漆漆膜质量的改进与提高

通过对车身漆膜质量问题的分析,采取专业清洁公司整体承包车间保洁、工艺方面改进、更换生产外材料、供应商加强对汽车漆使用的监控等一系列措施,漆膜质量水平得以提高.     

Controlled Synthesis of Ag2S,Ag2Se,and Ag Nanofibers by Using a General Sacrificial Template and Their Application in Electronic Device Fabrication

Nanofiber bundles of Ag₂S, Ag₂Se, and Ag have been successfully synthesized by making use of Ag₂C₂O₄ template nanofiber bundles, utilizing both anion‐exchange and redox reactions. The obtained bundles were polycrystalline nanofibers composed of nanoparticles in which the precursor morphology was well‐preserved, indicating that Ag₂C₂O₄ nanofiber bundles acted as a general sacrificial template for the synthesis of silver‐based semiconductor and metal nanofibers. Dispersing media and transforming reactants were found to be key factors influencing the chemical transformation in the system. In particular, separate single‐crystalline Ag nanofibers were obtained via a nontemplate route when ascorbic acid was used as a relatively weak reductant. An electrical transfer and switching device was built with the obtained Ag₂S and Ag nanofiber bundles, utilizing the unique ion‐conductor nature of Ag₂S and revealing their potential applications in electronics.     

Structural and Superconducting Property Variations with Nominal Mg Non‐Stoichiometry in MgxB2 and Its Enhancement of Upper Critical Field

By applying a combination of characterisation tools, changes in structural and superconducting properties with nominal Mg non‐stoichiometry in Mg_xB₂ are found. The non‐stoichiometry produces enhanced in‐field critical current densities (J_c's) and upper critical field / irreversibility field (H_c2/H_irr(T)) values. Upper critical fields of ～ 21 T (4.2 K) were obtained in nominal Mg‐deficient samples compared to ～ 17 T (4.2 K) for near‐stoichiometric samples.     

A 3-D Enlarged Cell Technique (ECT) for the Conformal FDTD Method

In this paper, we present an enlarged cell technique (ECT) to avoid the time step reduction encountered in the conformal finite-difference time-domain (CFDTD) method due to small irregular cells truncated by metallic boundaries. We focus our efforts on the discussion of the accuracy and stability of the ECT and its comparison with other conformal methods, especially the one called the uniformly stable conformal (USC) method. We also provide a simplified ECT, which is much easier to implement. In the ECT, a stability criterion is first constructed to identify instable irregular cells, i.e., those having so small an area to cause instability. Those instable cells are then enlarged into their adjacent cells to obtain a large, stable area. Careful treatment is performed on the communication between the intruding and intruded cells in terms of electromotive force by keeping the total electromotive force conservative. This technique is verified by several 3-D numerical experiments. Results show that the ECT is second-order accurate and numerically stable at the regular Courant time step limit.     

Investigation on Single-Mode–Multimode– Single-Mode Fiber Structure

This paper presents an investigation on a single-mode-multimode-single-mode fiber structure. A one-way guided-mode propagation analysis for the circular symmetry waveguide is employed to model the light propagation and the approximated formulations are derived and evaluated concerning the accuracy. Phase conjunction of the multimode interference within the fiber structure is revealed. A simple way to predict and analyze the spectral response of the structure is presented through the space to wavelength mapping with the derived approximated formulations. The prediction of spectral response is verified numerically and experimentally.     

Effect of surfactants and liquid hydrocarbons on gas hydrate formation rate and storage capacity

Hydrate formation rate plays an important role in making hydrates for the storage and transport of natural gas. Micellar surfactant solutions were found to increase gas hydrate formation rate and storage capacity. With the presence of surfactant, hydrate could form quickly in a quiescent system and the energy costs of hydrate formation reduced. Surfactants (an anionic surfactant, a non‐ionic surfactant and their mixtures) and liquid hydrocarbons (cyclopentane and methylcyclohexane) were used to improve hydrate formation. The experiments of hydrate formation were carried out in the pressure range 3.69–6.82 MPa and the temperature range 274.05–277.55 K. The experimental pressures were kept constant during hydrate formation in each experimental run. The effect of anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)) on natural gas storage in hydrates is more pronounced compared to a non‐ionic surfactant (dodecyl polysaccharide glycoside (DPG)). The induction time of hydrate formation was reduced with the presence of cyclopentane (CP). Cyclopentane and methylcyclohexane (MCH) could increase hydrate formation rate, but reduced hydrate storage capacity The higher methylcyclohexane concentration, the lower the hydrate storage capacity. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Average consensus in networks of dynamic agents with switching topologies and multiple time-varying delays

In this paper, we discuss average consensus problem in undirected networks of dynamic agents with fixed and switching topologies as well as multiple time-varying communication delays. By employing a linear matrix inequality method, we prove that all the nodes in the network achieve average consensus asymptotically for appropriate communication delays if the network topology is connected. Particularly, several feasible linear matrix inequalities are established to determine the maximal allowable upper bound of time-varying communication delays. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and the sharpness of the theoretical results.     

One-to-Many and Many-to-One Optical Chaos Communications Using Semiconductor Lasers

A theoretical construction of one-to-many (OTM) and many-to-one (MTO) chaos synchronization communications using semiconductor lasers is presented. One center laser provides strong injections (strong link) to other side lasers, and the side lasers also provide weak injections (weak link) to the center one. Simulation results show that the side lasers synchronize with the center laser through injection-locking. In addition, messages transmitted via the strong links or the weak links experience strong chaos pass filtering, enabling us to realize OTM and MTO communications.