Determination of acephate,methamidophos and monocrotophos in crude palm oil

A method for the determination of acephate, methamidophos and monocrotophos in oil matrices is described. Pesticide residues in crude palm oil were extracted with acetonitrile, and a clean‐up process was performed by cooling the entire extract below 10 °C, followed by a discolouring process using a Carbograph SPE cartridge. The extract was analysed using gas chromatography coupled with a pulsed flame photometry detector. The limit of detection for the method was calculated from regression data, and the recovery test results were in the range of 85–109%.     

Synthesis of Vanadium Phosphate Catalysts by Hydrothermal Method for Selective Oxidation of n-butane to Maleic Anhydride

Two vanadium phosphate catalysts (VPH1 and VPH2) prepared via hydrothermal method are described and discussed. Both catalysts exhibited only highly crystalline pyrophosphate phase. SEM showed that the morphologies of these catalysts are in plate-like shape and not in the normal rosette-type clusters. Temperature-programmed reduction in H₂ resulted two reduction peaks at high temperature in the range of 600–1100 K. The second reduction peak appeared at 1074 K occurred as a sharp peak indicated that the oxygen species originated from V⁴⁺ phase are having difficulty to be removed and their nature are less reactive compared to other methods of preparation. Modified VPH2 gave better catalytic performance for n-butane oxidation to maleic anhydride contributed by a higher BET surface area, high mobility and reactivity of the lattice oxygen associated to the V⁴⁺ which involved in the hydrocarbon’s activation. A slight increased of the V⁵⁺ phase also enhanced the activity of the VPH2 catalyst.     

A dynamic modeling to measure lean performance within lean attributes

In today’s competitive world lean manufacturing has become an important “role model” for two groups: academics and practitioners. Many organizations around the world have attempted to implement it but the lack of a clear understanding of the main attributes to leanness, lean performance and its measurement contribute to the failure of lean practices. It therefore seems necessary to provide a way to evaluate the impact of lean attributes using an approach to determine the criteria and key factors of leanness. Although there are numerous theoretical and practical studies that address lean tools and techniques, few studies focus systematically on measuring the influence of lean attributes on leanness. To fill the current gap, this paper presents an innovative approach to measure the value of the influence of lean attributes on manufacturing systems by using fuzzy membership functions. A lean attributes score is finally calculated to give managers and decision makers a real insight into the leanness level and to further improve it by acting appropriately in the manufacturing system. The model is dynamic, flexible, feasible, and easy to follow and implement. It enables a systematic measurement of the influence of lean attributes by producing a final integrated unit score.     

Analysis and modeling of exhaust gas temperature in an ethanol fuelled HCCI engine

Low exhaust temperature in homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) significantly limits efficiency of an exhaust aftertreatment system to mitigate high HC and CO emissions in HCCI engines. This article aims to understand the effect of varying input parameters on HCCI exhaust gas temperature (T_exh) for an ethanol fuelled engine. A single cylinder engine is used to collect experimental data at 100 different HCCI conditions. The results indicate that variation in combustion parameters such as start of combustion (SOC), burn duration (BD) and maximum in-cylinder pressure (P_max) are not effectively correlated with variations of Texh, but the indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and constant-volume adiabatic flame temperature (T_ad) are strongly related to T_exh. These experimental findings were then used to design an artificial neural network (ANN) model to predict T_exh. The model was validated with the experimental data, indicating an average error less than 4.5°C between predicted and measured T_exh.     

SIMULATED ANNEALING TO ESTIMATE THE OPTIMAL CUTTING CONDITIONS FOR MINIMIZING SURFACE ROUGHNESS IN END MILLING Ti-6Al-4V

This study presents the estimation of the optimal effect of the radial rake angle of the tool, combined with cutting speed and feed in influencing the surface roughness result. Studies on optimization of cutting conditions for surface roughness in end milling involving radial rake angle are still lacking. Therefore, considering the radial rake angle, this study applied simulated annealing in determining the solution of the cutting conditions to obtain the minimum surface roughness when end milling Ti-6Al-4V. Considering a set of experimental machining data, the regression model is developed. The best regression model was considered to formulate the fitness function of the simulated annealing. It was recommended that the cutting conditions should be set at highest cutting speed, lowest feed and highest radial rake angle in order to achieve the minimum surface roughness of 0.1385 µm. Subsequently, it was found that by using simulated annealing, the minimum surface roughness was much lower than the experimental sample data, regression modelling and response surface methodology technique by about 27%, 26% and 50%, respectively.     

Urban air quality in the Asian region

Over the past decade, member states of the Regional Co-operation Agreement (RCA), an intergovernmental agreement for the East Asia and Pacific region under the auspices of the IAEA with the assistance of international organizations and financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, have started to set in place policies and legislation for air pollution abatement. To support planning and evaluate the effectiveness of control programs, data are needed that characterizes urban air quality. The focus of this measurement program describe in this report is on size segregated particulate air pollution. Such airborne particulate matter can have a significant impact on human health and urban visibility. These data provide the input to receptor models that may permit the mitigation of these impacts by identification and quantitative apportionment of the particle sources. The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the measurements of concentrations and composition of particulate air pollution in two size fractions across the participating countries. For many of the large cities in this region, the measured particulate matter concentrations are greater than air quality standards or guidelines that have been adopted in developed countries.     

Recovery of neutron-irradiation-induced defects of Al2O3, Y2O3, and yttrium-aluminum garnet

SiC fiber-reinforced SiC matrix composites (SiC_f/SiC) are considered as one of the candidates for blanket materials in future fusion reactors and as an advanced fuel cladding material for next-generation fission reactors. Generally, the densification of SiC needs sintering additives and oxides such as Al₂O₃, Y₂O₃, and yttrium-aluminum garnet (YAG, Y₃Al₅O₁₂), which are frequently added to SiC. However, the effects of neutron irradiation on sintering additives are still unclear. In this study, we performed the neutron irradiation of Al₂O₃, Y₂O₃, and YAG at fluences up to 2.0–2.5 × 10²⁴ n/m² (E > 0.1 MeV) at 60–90 °C. The isochronal recovery of the macroscopic volume of Al₂O₃ against annealing temperature showed smooth and continuous shrinkage at a temperature of up to 1200 °C, and the volume slightly increased above that temperature. In contrast, the volume of Y₂O₃ showed quick shrinkage at the low temperature range, and slower and smooth recovery was observed up to ～1100 °C. In the case of YAG, the recovery of volume occurred in a step-wise manner at 600–750 °C, and continuous shrinkage occurred at temperatures lower and higher than that temperature range. The activation energies for the macroscopic volume recoveries of three oxides were obtained from the Arrhenius plots of the rate coefficients. Two-stage recovery was observed for Al₂O₃, whereas more complicated recovery processes were suggested for Y₂O₃ and YAG.