Derogation and distancing as terror management strategies: The moderating role of need for closure and permeability of group boundaries.

Previous research has revealed that when individuals are confronted with criticism of a personally relevant group, mortality salience can lead to either derogation of the source of criticism or distancing from the group. In this article, the authors investigated closure as a potential moderator of these reactions. In Study 1, salience led to greater derogation of a critic of a relevant group among high-need-for-closure participants but led to distancing from the group among low need-for-closure participants. Study 2 showed that when a relevant group was criticized, mortality salience led to greater derogation among participants who were led to believe that the boundaries of that group were impermeable but led to greater distancing among participants who were made aware of the permeable nature of the group boundaries. These findings demonstrate that closure of group membership moderates reactions to criticism of a personally relevant group after mortality salience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Numerical analysis of the tubular heat exchanger designed for co-generating units on the basis of microturbines

The application of numerical simulations using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis when mapping processes in the course of which the heat transmission occurs has become an essential part of the heat transfer systems. The present contribution deals with the possibility to use the waste heat of the flue gas produced by small microturbines. The waste heat is mapped by means of both the numerical simulations applying the FLUENT software and the practical experiment. Utilizing a part of the waste heat for water heating and decreasing the outlet temperature of the flue gas into atmosphere when applying in co-generating units represents one of the partial benefits. The present paper brings information concerning the newly designed type of heat exchanger including the results of its numerical analysis.The analysed heat exchanger designed in the system with microturbine (MT) C30 reached generally the efficiency of 75%. Both the results of simulations and the carried out practical experiment confirmed the temperature of the flue gas to be sufficient behind the exchanger to prevent the condensation of water from the flue gas. On the contrary, except for heating water the exchanger under consideration offers – thanks to its design – also other possibilities to use of the flue gas. The practical experiment confirmed the results of the CFD prediction with rather small differences as the temperature of water obtained from the exchanger was 359 K and the designed shape of the exchanger did not result in substantial pressure losses in flue gas approximately 50 Pa. The mean logarithmic temperature difference of the mapped and verified exchanger was ～203 K.     

Is cumulative fossil energy demand a useful indicator for the environmental performance of products?

The appropriateness of the fossil Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) as an indicator for the environmental performance of products and processes is explored with a regression analysis between the environmental life-cycle impacts and fossil CEDs of 1218 products, divided into the product categories "energy production", "material production", "transport", and "waste treatment". Our results show that, for all product groups but waste treatment, the fossil CED correlates well with most impact categories, such as global warming, resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication, tropospheric ozone formation, ozone depletion, and human toxicity (explained variance between 46% and 100%). We conclude that the use of fossil fuels is an important driver of several environmental impacts and thereby indicative for many environmental problems. It maytherefore serve as a screening indicatorfor environmental performance. However, the usefulness of fossil CED as a stand-alone indicator for environmental impact is limited by the large uncertainty in the product-specific fossil CED-based impact scores (larger than a factor of 10 for the majority of the impact categories; 95% confidence interval). A major reason for this high uncertainty is nonfossil energy related emissions and land use, such as landfill leachates, radionuclide emissions, and land use in agriculture and forestry.     

Direction Kernels: using a simplified 3D model representation for grasping

Humans decide how to carry out a spontaneous interaction with an object by using the whole geometric information obtained from their eyes. The aim of this paper is to present how our object representation model MWS (Adán in Comput Vis Image Underst 79:281–307, 2000) can help a robot manipulator to make a single and reliable interaction. The contribution of this paper is particularly focused on the grasp synthesis stage. The main idea is that the grasping system, through MWS, can use non-strict-local features of the contact points to find a consistent grasping configuration. The Direction Kernels (DK) concept, which is integrated into the MWS model, is used to define a set of candidate contact-points and interaction regions. The set of DK is a global feature which represents the principal normal vectors of the object and their relative weight in a three-connectivity mesh model. Our method calculates the optimal grasp points (which are ordered according to the quality function) for two-finger grippers, whilst maintaining the requirements of force closure and safety of the grasp. Our strategy has been extensively tested on real free-shape objects using a 6 DOF industrial robot.     

Ultrasonic preparation of mesoporous silica using pyridinium ionic liquid

Mesoporous silica matrices have been prepared via classic acid catalyzed and sono-catalyzed sol-gel routes. Tetramethoxysilan (TMOS) and methyl-trimethoxysilane (MTMS) were used as silica precursors, and N-butyl-3-methylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate ([bmPy][BF₄]) was employed as co-solvent and pore template. The ionic liquid (IL) to silica mole ratio was varied between 0.007 and 0.07. Nitrogen adsorption-desorption and small-angle neutron scattering measurements were used to characterize the obtained materials. The ionic liquid played the role of catalyst that affected the formation of the primary xerogel particles, and changed the porosity of the materials. Ultrasound treatment resulted in microstructure change on the level of the colloid particle aggregates. In comparison with IL containing xerogels, the IL containing sonogels show increased pore diameter, bigger pore volumes and diminished surface areas.     

Polymer heterogeneity in waterborne coatings

An overview is presented of the progress in understanding polymer heterogeneity over the last 20 years and how this has contributed to the improvement of coatings. Solvent-based polymers are homogeneous in nature, since all polymeric materials tend to be dissolved in the same solvent mixture. This is different for most waterborne polymers, which tend to be present in a compartmentalized way. Most polymeric materials are present in particles, which are separated by the continuous aqueous phase. This gives excellent opportunities to create particle morphologies that form the basis for the film morphology after drying of the coating. This article gives an overview of the various types of heterogeneity which are accessible in waterborne polymers and will show how heterogeneity in the polymer can contribute to the solution of several persistent problems of the coating industry.     

Characterization of biodegradable semi‐interpenetrating polymer based on poly(vinyl alcohol) and sodium alginate containing natural neem (Azadirachta indica) for controlled release application

A biodegradable novel semi‐interpenetrating polymer network based on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and sodium alginate containing neem (Azadirachta indica) in the presence of azadirachtin‐A (neem Aza‐A) as well as glutaraldehyde as a crosslinking agent was prepared for use in the controlled released of neem Aza‐A. This is necessary because neem Aza‐A is not stable in the environment. The neem Aza‐A‐containing beads were prepared using various experimental parameters, such as the extent of crosslinking and the amount of loading, in order to optimize the process variables. The chemical structure of the capsule wall was evaluated through X‐ray diffraction. In addition, the swelling behaviour of the capsules and their thermal stability were investigated. The strength of the capsule wall depended on the PVA in the matrix and the crosslinking density. Scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis and atomic force microscopy data indicated that the structure of the bead walls is rough and nonporous. Swelling results indicated that swelling of the polymeric beads decreases with increasing exposure time to the crosslinking agent. At particular intervals, the remaining concentration of neem Aza‐A was analysed using high‐performance liquid chromatography. The release data were fitted to an empirical equation to estimate the kinetic parameters. The degree of release of neem Aza‐A was controlled by the parameter conditions. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry     

Sustainability in bridge construction processes

Sustainability must be seen as a global issue. In order to achieve that goal, it is necessary to apply its principles to all industrial activities, including those that are not traditionally engaged with such guidelines, which is the case of Bridge Construction. This paper evaluates the consumption of steel and energy and the emissions of carbon dioxide due to the use of movable scaffolding systems (MSS) in the Bridge Construction industry. The values obtained considering the use of conventional MSS are compared with the ones obtained using a new sustainable technology which is herein synthetically described—the organic prestressing system (OPS). In order to compare the sustainability of the two systems, a prediction of the material and energy consumptions, and CO₂ emissions for traditional MSS and for MSS equipped with OPS is performed until 2025.     

Correlations and population dynamics in cortical networks

The function of cortical networks depends on the collective interplay between neurons and neuronal populations, which is reflected in the correlation of signals that can be recorded at different levels. To correctly interpret these observations it is important to understand the origin of neuronal correlations. Here we study how cells in large recurrent networks of excitatory and inhibitory neurons interact and how the associated correlations affect stationary states of idle network activity. We demonstrate that the structure of the connectivity matrix of such networks induces considerable correlations between synaptic currents as well as between subthreshold membrane potentials, provided Dale's principle is respected. If, in contrast, synaptic weights are randomly distributed, input correlations can vanish, even for densely connected networks. Although correlations are strongly attenuated when proceeding from membrane potentials to action potentials (spikes), the resulting weak correlations in the spike output can cause substantial fluctuations in the population activity, even in highly diluted networks. We show that simple mean-field models that take the structure of the coupling matrix into account can adequately describe the power spectra of the population activity. The consequences of Dale's principle on correlations and rate fluctuations are discussed in the light of recent experimental findings.