Effect of cerium addition on the corrosion behaviour of carbon-alloyed iron aluminides

The effect of Ce addition on the microstructure and corrosion behavior of carbon-alloyed iron aluminides Fe-20.0Al-2.0C, Fe-18.5Al-3.6C and Fe-19.2Al-3.3C-0.07Ce (in at.%) has been studied. The potentiodynamic polarization behaviour of the alloys was evaluated in freely aerated 0.25 mol/l H₂SO₄. A 0.05% C steel was used for comparison purposes. All the alloys exhibited active-passive behaviour in the acidic solution. The addition of Ce destroyed passivity as indicated by lower breakdown potentials in polarization studies. This has been related to the finer distribution of the carbides in the microstructure. Corrosion rates were evaluated by immersion testing. The iron aluminide with Ce addition exhibited a lower corrosion rate compared to the aluminides without Ce addition. This has been attributed to modifications in surface film with Ce addition. Scanning electron microscopy of corroded surfaces indicated that the carbon-alloyed intermetallics were susceptible to localized galvanic corrosion due to the presence of carbides in the microstructure.     

Aqueous polymerization of methyl methacrylate initiated by ceric ion reducing agent systems in sulfuric acid medium

Polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was carried out in aqueous sulfuric acid medium at 30°C using ammonium ceric sulfate (ACS)/methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and ammonium ceric sulfate/acetone as redox initiator systems. A short induction period was observed with both the initiator systems, as well as the attainment of limiting conversion for polymerization reactions. The rate of ceric ion consumption, R_ce, was first order with respect to Ce(IV) concentration in the concentration range (0.5–5.5) × 10⁻³M, and 0.5 order with respect to reducing agent concentration in the concentration ranges (0.0480–0.2967M) and (0.05–0.3912M) for Ce(IV)–MEK and Ce(IV)–acetone initiator systems, respectively. A fall in R_ce was observed at higher reducing agent concentrations. The plots of R_ce versus reducing agent concentrations raised to the half power yielded straight lines passing through the origin, indicating the absence of complex formation between reducing agents and Ce(IV). The addition of sodium sulfate to maintain constant sulfate ion concentration in the reaction medium could bring down the R_ce values in the present reaction systems. The rate of polymerization of MMA, R_p, increased with increase in Ce(IV), reducing agent, and monomer concentrations for the Ce(IV)–MEK initiator. The rate of polymerization of MMA is independent of Ce(IV) concentration and increased with an increase in reducing agent and monomer concentrations for the Ce(IV)–acetone initiator. At higher concentrations of reducing agent (0.4–0.5M), a steep fall in R_p values was observed with both the initiator systems. The orders with respect to Ce(IV), MEK, and MMA using the Ce(IV)–MEK initiator were found to be 0.23, 0.2, and 1.29, respectively. The orders with respect to Ce(IV), acetone, and MMA using the Ce(IV)–acetone initiator were found to be zero, 0.42, and 1.64, respectively. Maintaining constant [SO²⁻₄] in the reaction medium could bring down R_p values for the Ce(IV)–MEK initiator system. On the other hand, a rise in R_p values with an increase in [Na₂SO₄] could be observed when constant [SO²⁻₄] was maintained in the reaction medium for the Ce(IV) on reducing agent, production of radicals, initiation, propagation, and termination of the polymeric radicals by bimolecular interaction is proposed. An oxidative termination of primary radicals by Ce(IV) is also included. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Stack ensembled model to measure size and mass of almond kernels

After harvesting almond crop, accurate measurement of almond kernel sizes is a significant specification to plan, develop and enhance almond processing operations. The size and mass of the individual almond kernels are vital parameters usually associated with almond quality and yield. In this study, we propose a novel methodology that combines image processing and machine-learning ensemble that accurately measures the size and mass of whole raw almond kernels (classification—Nonpareil) simultaneously. We have developed an image-processing algorithm using recursive method to identify the individual almond kernels from an image and estimate the size of the kernels based on the occupied pixels by a kernel. The number of pixels representing an almond kernel was used as its digital fingerprint to predict its size and mass. Various popular machine learning (ML) models were implemented to build a stacked ensemble model (SEM), predicting the mass of the individual almond kernels based on the features derived from the pixels of the individual kernels in the image. The prediction accuracy and robustness of image processing and SEM were analyzed using uncertainty quantification. The mean error in estimating the average length of 1,000 almond kernel was 3.12%. Similarly, mean errors associated with predicting the 1,000 kernel mass were 0.63%. The developed algorithm in almond imaging in this study can be used to facilitate a rapid almond yield and quality appraisals.     

Studies on thermal degradation kinetics and dielectric properties of polyether imide foam/nanosilica-based nanocomposites

ABSTRACT

In this paper, polyether imide (PEI) having properties such as a high glass transition temperature of 216°C, high heat resistance, high flame resistance, low smoke generation and a high melting point within the range of 400°C, having low thermal conductivity and low dielectric constant was chosen to be a polymeric foam. Water vapor-induced phase separation method was used to prepare PEI foams. PEI foams were reinforced with nano-silica (weight 1, 3 and 5%) in order to alter the dielectric properties, thermal conductivity and degradation kinetics of foamed polymer. The tested samples showed a reduction in dielectric constant than that of solid PEI but at a higher loading, it showed a higher value due to threshold percolation and a reduction in thermal conductivity was observed for foamed PEI. From thermogravimetric analysis, we can conclude that PEI with 3% filler loading showed better thermal stability compared to other PEI foam compositions.     

TGF-beta inhibits IL-2-induced tyrosine phosphorylation and activation of Jak-1 and Stat 5 in T lymphocytes

The major yolk protein precursor in mosquito oocytes, vitellogenin (Vg), is internalized by a 205-kDa membrane-bound receptor (VgR). Recently, VgR has been isolated permitting the production of polyclonal anti-VgR antibodies. To elucidate the pathway of VgR internalization and recycling in mosquito oocytes during Vg uptake, we carried out an immunogold electron-microscopic study, labeling both Vg and VgR in ultrathin frozen sections of ovarian tissue. VgR immunolabeling demonstrated that the oocyte plasma membrane was subdivided into microdomains, with VgR being located between and at the lower portions of the oocyte microvilli. During the early stages of internalization, Vg and VgR were observed together in coated pits, coated vesicles, and early endosomes. Fusion of early endosomes created transitional yolk bodies (TYB) in which Vg and VgR became segregated. VgR label was present in the numerous tubular compartments that protruded from the TYBs. These tubular organelles extended to and fused with the plasma membrane, suggesting that they represented the vehicle for VgR recycling. Vg label was not observed in the tubular compartments. Instead, Vg accumulated in the core of the TYB, a region free of VgR label. Mature yolk bodies (MYB) were heavily labeled for Vg, but completely lacked any VgR label, indicating that MYB are storage compartments that do not participate in receptor recycling. Thus, our immunocytochemical data clearly visualize the steps in Vg/VgR internalization, dissociation, sorting, and recycling of the receptor to the plasma membrane.     

Adaptive digital access protocol: a MAC protocol for multiservicebroadband access networks

The authors describe a protocol that can adapt to the changing demands of a mix of synchronous transfer mode (STM) and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) applications and efficiently allocate bandwidth to a variety of bursty traffic sources. In the case of a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network, the protocol resides in customer premises equipment (CPE) and a common head-end/central-office (HE/CO) controller. A medium-access control (MAC) processor provides for dividing the time domain for a given digital bitstream into successive frames, each with multiple STM and ATM time slots. Within the STM region of a frame, variable-length time slots are allocated to calls (e.g., telephony, video telephony) requiring different amounts of bandwidth. In the upstream channels, a contention access signaling time slot is also provided in the STM region for call control and setup requests. Within the ATM region, fixed-length time slots accommodate one individual ATM cell. These ATM time slots may be reserved for a user for either the duration of a call or a burst of successive ATM cells, or shared via a contention process. At least one contention time slot is available for signaling messages related to ATM call control and setup requests. The MAC-layer protocol, its relation to circuit- and ATM-amenable applications, and its performance with respect to throughput, latency, and bandwidth efficiency for several service scenarios are examined     

Effect of sugars on freeze-thaw and lyophilization of liposomes

Various sugars were investigated for their ability to protect liposomes against fusion and leakage during freeze-and-thaw or lyophilization processes. Size of liposome was measured before and after the events with a light scattering technique. Leakage of the content of the sulfate, was encapsulated in the liposome which was made of egg phosphatidylcholine (EPC)/egg phosphatidylglycerol (EPG)/cholesterol (5:1:2). Addition of 1% lactose to the liposome suspension prevented the fusion between liposome but not the leakage of the content. Freeze-thawing caused more damage to the liposomes than the freeze-drying/reconstitution. After freeze-thawing, one-third of the encapsulated drug leaked out from the liposome. The freeze-drying did not cause additional leakage.     

Distributed policy processing in active‐service based infrastructures

More and more applications in the Internet are requiring an intelligent service infrastructure to provide customized services. In this paper, we present an infrastructure, which can transparently and effectively provide customized active‐services to end users and dynamically adapt to changing customized policies in large distributed heterogeneous environments. The infrastructure consists of two components: the policy agent and middleware box. Particularly, our technologies include: (1) Generic active‐service based infrastructure, where the policy agent can integrate policies requested by applications, and middleware boxes can transparently execute services and (2) Distributed policy processing in the middleware box. We study two policy partitioning schemes to achieve conflict‐free policies for distributed policy processing and guarantee the correctness of the policy execution. We conduct extensive performance evaluations on different schemes proposed. Our experimental results demonstrate that our policy partitioning schemes can effectively generate partition‐capable and conflict‐free policy sets. The evaluation results also show that distributed policy processing can achieve over 70% increase in performance/price ratio with proper assignment of the policy distribution degree compared to a purely centralized approach. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.