Decomposition of Nitrogen Trifluoride Using Low Power Arc Plasma

The low power arc plasma is characterized by extremely high enthalpy and temperature and it is easy to generate and control,and thus thermal decomposition process based on the plasma torch is receiving a great attention for decomposing non-degradable greenhouse gases.In order to elevate the economic feasibility,the efects of input power,waste gas flow rate and additive gases on the destruction and removal efciency(DRE) of NF3 are examined.Specific energy density(SED) deceases as the flow rate increases,and accordingly,the DRE is reduced.The DRE is basically determined by the specific energy density.The highest DRE of NF3 was 97% for the waste gas flow rate of 100 L/min at a low input power level of 2 kW with the help of hydrogen additional gas.The inlet and outlet concentration of NF3 was analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR) for DRE of NF3 evaluation.As a result,large amount of NF3 can be efciently decomposed by low power arc plasma systems.     

Formation of unidirectional nanoporous structures in thickly anodized aluminum oxide layer

A series of anodic aluminum oxide(AAO) was grown on the commercially pure 1050 aluminum sheet by controlling electrolyte temperature (2–15 °C) and an odizing time (0.5–6 h), using a fixed applied current density of 3 A/dm² in diluted sulfuric acid electrolyte. A crack-free thick AAO with the thickness of 105–120 μm and containing unidirectional nano sized pores (average pore diameter of 5–7 nm) is successfully achieved in the specimens anodized for 2 h, irrespective of electrolyte temperature. When anodizing time reaches 6 h, very thick AAO with the thickness of 230–284 μm is grown, and average diameter of unidirectional pores is in the range of 6–24 nm. The higher values in both the AAO thickness and pore diameter are attained for the specimens anodized at higher temperatures of 10–15 °C. A crack is observed to exist in the AAO after anodizing up to 4 h and more. A higher fraction (more than 9%) of the crack is shown in the specimens anodized at higher temperatures of 10–15 °C for 6 h and a considerable amount of giant cracks are contained.     

Formation behavior of anodic TiO2 nanombes in fluoride containing electrolytes

TiO₂ nanotube layers can be formed with titanium in the electrolytes containing fluoride by electrochemical method. The role of fluoride ion, the crystallinity of the anodic oxide, and the chemical state were investigated. The results show the anodic film is composed of oxide and a little amount of hydroxide. The presence of F⁻ ions leads to chemical dissolution of Ti oxide layer and prevents hydroxide precipitation. Consequently, chemical dissolution rate increases with increasing the fluoride content in the range of 0–2% (in mass fraction) because F⁻ ions in electrolyte attack the interface and allow the ions of the electrolyte to easily penetrate into the interface. The as-anodized TiO₂ nanotubes exhibit an amorphous structure. Thermally treated nanotubes are composed of mixtures of the anatase and rutile phases.     

Fabrication of SiC_p/AA5083 composite via friction stir welding

Microstructure and mechanical properties of SiCp /AA5083 composite fabricated by friction stir welding (FSW) were investigated.The influence of the number of FSW passes on the distribution of SiC particles and mechanical properties in the joint was studied.After one pass,the SiC particles were entangled in the upper side of the stir zone (SZ).However,the particle distribution became more uniform after two passes due to the repeated stirring of the joint.As the SiC particles facilitate the grain refinement in the SZ by the pinning effect,the particle including region has much smaller grain size than the SZ without SiC particles.The SiCp /AA5083 composite region exhibits a Vickers hardness of HV90,which is much higher than the value of HV80 in the SZ produced by FSW without SiC particles.     

EFFECTS OF EXTRUSION CONDITIONS ON PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF A MUTANT RICE CULTIVAR,GOAMI2 – HIGH IN NONDIGESTIBLE CARBOHYDRATES

ABSTRACT

A mutant rice Goami2, a cultivar high in nondigestible carbohydrates (NDCs), was extrusion‐cooked at feed moisture (20, 25%), screw speed (200, 300 rpm) and barrel temperature (110, 120 and 130C). Effects of extrusion conditions on the physical and functional properties were investigated. NDCs were determined by total dietary fiber (TDF) and resistant starch (RS) contents. Increasing moisture resulted in an increment of density, water absorption index (WAI) and hardness, and a decrement in expansion and water solubility index (WSI). A higher barrel temperature decreased the hardness and increased the WSI probably due to a higher proportion of gelatinized starch. Extrusion caused a reduction in TDF in the extrudates, as well as a significant decrease in RS contents. However, extrudates processed at moisture (%), screw speed (rpm) and barrel temperature (C) combinations of 25/200/110 and 25/200/120 showed no significant difference in TDF contents compared with its raw rice. Multiple regression models showed that feed moisture had the most pronounced effect on extrudate qualities, followed by barrel temperature and screw speed.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

Rice, being one of the primary dietary sources of carbohydrates worldwide, is the major energy and nutritional sources. In recent years, demands have been increasing for rice with a wide range of value‐added properties, such as enhanced nutrient, aroma, color and rice kernel shape, including functional properties. Goami2 is a mutant rice of Ilpumbyeo, a high japonica rice cultivar, and has been revealed to have higher nondigestible fractions. However, Goami2 rice has unsuitable properties for traditional cooking because of the difficulty of gelatinization, which might result in a hard texture of cooked rice compared with that of ordinary rice. On the basis of its nutritional and functional benefits, exploiting the possible utilization of Goami2 for processed food products would increase the potential consumption of Goami2 for various food products.     

Context-aware Workflow Model for Supporting Composite Workflows

-In recent years,several researchers have applied workflow technologies for service automation on ubiquitous computing environments.However,most context-aware oprkflows do not offer a method to compose several workflows in order to get more large-scale or complicated workflow.They only provide a simple workflow model,not a composite workflow model.In this paper,the autorhs propose a context-aware worrkflow model to support composite workflows by expanding the patterns of the existing context-aware workflows,which support the basic workflow patterns.The suggested worklow modei offers composite workflow patterns for a context-aware workflow,which consists of various flow patterns,such as simple,split,parallel flows,and subflow.With the suggested model,the model can easily reuse few of existing workflows to make a new workflow.As a result,it can save the development efforts and time of cantext-aware workflows and increase the workflow reusability.Therefore,the suggested model is expected to make it easy to develop applications related to context-aware workflow services on ubiquitous computing environments.     

Adsorption properties of polycarboxylate ether-based superplasticizer on cement particles and their resultant dispersion

The cement dispersion performance of a polycarboxylate (PCE)-based superplasticizer is highly related to their adsorption behaviors as a function of time. This study evaluated effects of PCEs on rheological properties of cementitious materials. First, characteristics of PCEs were characterized via permeation chromatography (GPC) and Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR). The adsorption behavior of single and blended PCEs on cementitious composites was identified using total organic carbon analyzer (TOC). Based on the measurement of PCE adsorption, the changes of rheological properties of cementitious materials as well as the number of dispersed cement particles were characterized using a rheometer and laser spectroscopy, respectively. The experimental results support the systematic mechanism of PCE adsorption, cement dispersion, and the decrease in viscosity of cementitious materials.     

VColor*: a practical approach for coloring large graphs

Graph coloring has a wide range of real world applications, such as in the operations research, communication network, computational biology and compiler optimization fields. In our recent work [1], we propose a divide-andconquer approach for graph coloring, called VColor. Such an approach has three generic subroutines. (i) Graph partition subroutine: VColor partitions a graph G into a vertex cut partition (VP), which comprises a vertex cut component (VCC) and small non-overlapping connected components (CCs). (ii) Component coloring subroutine: VColor colors the VCC and the CCs by efficient algorithms. (iii) Color combination subroutine: VColor combines the local colors by exploiting the maximum matchings of color combination bigraphs (CCBs). VColor has revealed some major bottlenecks of efficiency in these subroutines. Therefore, in this paper, we propose VColor*, an approach which addresses these efficiency bottlenecks without using more colors both theoretically and experimentally. The technical novelties of this paper are the following. (i) We propose the augmented VP to index the crossing edges of the VCC and the CCs and propose an optimized CCB construction algorithm. (ii) For sparse CCs, we propose using a greedy coloring algorithm that is of polynomial time complexity in the worst case, while preserving the approximation ratio. (iii) We propose a distributed graph coloring algorithm. Our extensive experimental evaluation on real-world graphs confirms the efficiency of VColor*. In particular, VColor* is 20X and 50X faster than VColor and uses the same number of colors with VColor on the Pokec and PA datasets, respectively. VColor* also significantly outperforms the state-ofthe- art graph coloring methods.     

Densification process of TiCx–Ni composites formed by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis reaction

Densification behaviour of the TiC-Ni system formed by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) were studied to develop the structural metal-matrix composites. The composites were prepared by two routes: (1) consolidation during the SHS reaction, and (2) consolidation process after the SHS reaction. The final phases of the stoichiometric reactant mixture of titanium and graphite with 50 wt% nickel produced by simultaneous combustion reactions, were titanium carbide in a nickel-rich solid solution containing carbon and titanium. The density of the products was relatively low, with a value of 90% theoretical density. In the second approach, liquid infiltration and liquid-phase sintering were applied for the titanium carbide-nickel mixture. Densification rates were reduced due to the excess carbon in the combustion products of titanium carbide. The densities of the liquid-phase sintered samples were more than 97% theoretical density. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.