Cationic curing of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A and 2,2,5,5‐tetramethyl‐4,6‐dioxo‐1,3‐dioxane and degradation of the thermosets obtained

Ytterbium and lanthanum triflates were used as cationic initiators to cure mixtures of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A and 2,2,5,5‐tetramethyl‐4,6‐dioxo‐1,3‐dioxane in several proportions. The evolution of the epoxy and lactone during curing and the linear ester groups in the final materials were evaluated with Fourier transform infrared in the attenuated total reflection mode. The shrinkage after curing and the thermal degradability of the materials with variations in the comonomer ratios and initiator used were evaluated and related to the chemical structure of the final network. The expandable character of 2,2,5,5‐tetramethyl‐4,6‐dioxo‐1,3‐dioxane was confirmed. The obtained materials were more degradable than conventional epoxy resins because of the tertiary ester groups incorporated into the network by copolymerization. The kinetic parameters of the curing and degradation processes were calculated with differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis, respectively, with isoconversional procedures applied in both cases. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Use of social information in the problem solving of orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) and human children (Homo sapiens).

Fourteen juvenile and adult orangutans and 24 3- and 4-yr-old children participated in 4 studies on imitative learning in a problem-solving situation. In all studies a simple to operate apparatus was used, but its internal mechanism was hidden from subjects to prevent individual learning. In the 1st study, orangutans observed a human demonstrator perform 1 of 4 actions on the apparatus and obtain a reward; they subsequently showed no signs of imitative learning. Similar results were obtained in a 2nd study in which orangutan demonstrators were used. Similar results were also obtained in a 3rd study in which a human encouraged imitation from an orangutan that had previously been taught to mimic arbitrary human actions. In a 4th study, human 3- and 4-yr-old children learned the task by means of imitation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physico-chemical properties, composition and pollen spectrum of french lavender (Lavandula stoechas L.) honey produced in Spain

The palynological and physico-chemical properties of 26 samples of French lavender (Lavandula stoechas) honey commercially produced in Spain have been defined. Each sample was examined to determine the total pollen content, percentage ofL. stoechas pollen and pollen spectrum. On the basis of the honey pollen analysis, 14 samples were excluded as they were of different botanical origin (Echium spp.). In total 67 different pollen types were identified. The sugar spectrum showed low percentages of trisaccharides and sucrose. The enzymatic activity was lower than that found in other unifloral Spanish honeys. A minimum of 10%L. stoechas pollen and maximum of 30%Echium sp. pollen are the suggested requirements to characterize this honey.

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Zusammensetzung, physikalisch-chemische Eigenschaften und Pollenspektrum im spanischen Heidehonig (Lavandula stoechas L.)

Zusammenfassung Anhand von 26 Stichproben wurden die physikalisch-chemischen Eigenschaften und das Pollen-Spektrum des kommerziell vertriebenen spanischen Heidehonigs (Lavandula stoechas L.) bestimmt. Jede Stichprobe wurde auf den Gesamtgehalt an Pollen sowie den prozentualen Anteil an Pollen desL. stoechas und auf das Pollen-Spektrum untersucht. Aufgrund der Analyse des Melissen-Spektrums mußten 14 Stichproben ausgeschlossen werden, da sie unterschiedlichen botanischen Ursprungs waren (Echium spp.). Es wurden 67 verschiedene Pollenarten identifiziert. Das Zuckerspektrum wies einen geringen Anteil an Trisacchariden und Sucrose auf. Die enzymatische Aktivität dieser Honigarten war geringer bei anderen Blütenpflanzen. Als Mindestmenge an Pollen desL. stoechas werden 10% vorgeschlagen, und ein Pollenanteil von <30% beiEchium sp. ist für diesen Honig charakteristisch.

     

Basement Groundwater as a Complementary Resource for Overexploited Stream-Connected Alluvial Aquifers

The use of groundwater from alluvial aquifers largely affects stream discharge by capturing the stream resources. This affects hydrological processes and riparian biodiversity. In this study, complementary water resources are investigated in an effort to ease human pressure on alluvial systems and, eventually, on stream-aquifer relationships. Discharge and hydrochemical data along a 5 km reach of the Tordera River (NE Spain) provide evidence that groundwater fluxes, associated with a regional hydrogeological system related to the basement fracture network, contribute to alluvial recharge and to stream flow. End-member mixing analysis considering upstream discharge, groundwater flows, and human inputs to the stream as major flow sources shows that regional basement groundwater fluxes are responsible for as much as 20 % of the total discharge, which also explains unexpected rises in stream flow. This suggests a possible new approach to local water resources planning, indicating that conjunctive use might actually be feasible.     

Robust auto tool change for industrial robots using visual servoing

This work presents an automated solution for tool changing in industrial robots using visual servoing and sliding mode control. The robustness of the proposed method is due to the control law of the visual servoing, which uses the information acquired by a vision system to close a feedback control loop. Furthermore, sliding mode control is simultaneously used in a prioritised level to satisfy the constraints typically present in a robot system: joint range limits, maximum joint speeds and allowed workspace. Thus, the global control accurately places the tool in the warehouse, but satisfying the robot constraints. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach is substantiated by simulation results for a complex 3D case study. Moreover, real experimentation with a 6R industrial manipulator is also presented to demonstrate the applicability of the method for tool changing.     

Control of Grid Connected Photovoltaic Systems with Microinverters: New Theoretical Design and Numerical Evaluation

This paper addresses the problem of controlling grid connected photovoltaic (PV) systems that are driven with microinverters. The systems to be controlled consist of a solar panel, a boost dc–dc converter, a DC link capacitor, a single‐phase full‐bridge inverter, a filter inductor, and an isolation transformer. We seek controllers that are able to simultaneously achieve four control objectives, namely: (i) asymptotic stability of the closed loop control system; (ii) maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of the PV module; (iii) tight regulation of the DC bus voltage; and (iv) unity power factor (PF) in the grid. To achieve these objectives, a new multiloop nonlinear controller is designed using the backstepping design technique. A key feature of the control design is that it relies on an averaged nonlinear system model accounting, on the one hand, for the nonlinear dynamics of the underlying boost converter and inverter and, on the other, for the nonlinear characteristic of the PV panel. To achieve the MPPT objective, a power optimizer is designed that computes online the optimal PV panel voltage used as a reference signal by the PV voltage regulator. It is formally shown that the proposed controller meets all the objectives. This theoretical result is confirmed by numerical simulation tests.     

Enhanced Ultrafast Nonlinear Optical Response in Ferrite Core/Shell Nanostructures with Excellent Optical Limiting Performance

Nonlinear optical nanostructured materials are gaining increased interest as optical limiters for various applications, although many of them suffer from reduced efficiencies at high‐light fluences due to photoinduced deterioration. The nonlinear optical properties of ferrite core/shell nanoparticles showing their robustness for ultrafast optical limiting applications are reported. At 100 fs ultrashort laser pulses the effective two‐photon absorption (2PA) coefficient shows a nonmonotonic dependence on the shell thickness, with a maximum value obtained for thin shells. In view of the local electric field confinement, this indicates that core/shell is an advantageous morphology to improve the nonlinear optical parameters, exhibiting excellent optical limiting performance with effective 2PA coefficients in the range of 10^?12 cm W^?1 (100 fs excitation), and optical limiting threshold fluences in the range of 1.7 J cm^?2. These values are comparable to or better than most of the recently reported optical limiting materials. The quality of the open aperture Z‐scan data recorded from repeat measurements at intensities as high as 35 TW cm^?2, indicates their considerably high optical damage thresholds in a toluene dispersion, ensuring their robustness in practical applications. Thus, the high photostability combined with the remarkable nonlinear optical properties makes these nanoparticles excellent candidates for ultrafast optical limiting applications.     

Precompensated Second Order Repetitive Control of an Active Filter Under Varying Network Frequency

Network frequency variations cause a dramatic performance decay in repetitive controller‐based shunt active power filters. This problem may be solved by adapting the sampling period in order to keep the ratio between the network period and the sampling period at a constant value. However, these changes may yield closed‐loop instability. The introduction of a precompensator that forces the plant to remain invariant despite sampling rate changes allows the use of standard LTI methods in control design and stability analysis as well. Moreover, in order to improve robustness in the face of network frequency estimation uncertainty and sampling time quantization, the regular repetitive controller is replaced by a high order one. Experimental results show the validity of the proposal.     

A hybrid approach to vector-based homomorphic tallying remote voting

Vector-based homomorphic tallying remote voting schemes provide an efficient protocol for vote tallying, but they require voters to prove in zero-knowledge that the ballots they cast have been properly generated. This is usually achieved by means of the so-called zero-knowledge range proofs, which should be verified by the polling station before tallying. In this paper, we present an end-to-end verifiable hybrid proposal in which ballots are proven to be correct by making use of a zero-knowledge proof of mixing but still using a homomorphic tallying for gathering the election results. Our proposal offers all the advantages of the homomorphic tallying paradigm, while it avoids the elevated computational cost of range proofs. As a result, ballot verification performance is improved in comparison with the equivalent homomorphic systems. The proposed voting scheme is suitable for multi-candidate elections as well as for elections in which the votes have different weights.