The effects of oxygen diffusion on the surface photooxidation of polystyrene

This paper further illustrates the applicability of multiple internal reflectance infrared spectroscopy to the analysis of near-surface photooxidation. The results are compared with transmission infrared spectra to evaluate compositional gradients resulting from photooxidation and the influence of oxygen diffusion. The sample was a solvent-cast film of atactic, narrow distribution polystyrene, M_w of 100,000, that had been drawn to a ratio of 3.0 at 110°C by solid state coextrusion. Irradiation of these thin films, ～25μm thickness, was performed on exposure to air at 35°C for periods of up to 6 h using a mercury source emitting at 254 nm. On photooxidation, a board peak appears at 3200–3500 cm^?1, attributable to hydroperoxide formation. The most dramatic increase in the infrared spectra is found for a carbonyl band at 1730 cm^?1. It appears to result from an aromatic acid group since it is shifted to 1660 cm^?1 on immersion of the oxidized polystyrene films in aqueous ammonium hydroxide. It is confirmed that the photooxidation of polystyrene occurs preferentially at the surface and that this reaction rate is greatly reduced in the drawn polystyrene film.     

Determination of diffusion coefficients of water in cellulose acetate membranes

The determination of the diffusion coefficient for water in various porosity cellulose acetate membranes by a gravimetric method, using a humidified carrier gas, is described. It was found to be impossible to obtain meaningful results for very porous membranes, although dense membranes gave limiting values of diffusion coefficient at high carrier gas velocities. This phenomenon is explained in terms of the dissipation of the heat of sorption by the forced convection provided by the carrier gas. The variation of diffusion coefficient with concentration of water in dense cellulose acetate is explained in terms of clustering of water molecules in the polymer at high concentration.     

Emulex10/40GbE提升NFV性能 加速回报

<正>长期以来,Emulex I/O解决方案的价值一直为全球电信公司所公认。如今,Emulex宣布推出计划中的高级功能,使用这些功能,电信公司能够更快速地开发优质网络服务提供给客户。新增功能包括增强了Emulex OneConnect OCe14000系列10Gb和40Gb以太网(10/40GbE)网络以及融合网络适配器(CNA)的数据包处理并提高了可编程性。使用这些新增功能,电信设备制造商(TEM)和电信运营商可以加快网络功能虚拟化(NFV)解决方案的部署。Emulex已经与6WIND建立合作伙伴关系,共同开发了Emulex轮询模式驱动程序(PMD),以增强数据平面开发工具包     

A local landscape mapping method for protein structure prediction in the HP model

The hydrophobic-polar (HP) model has been widely studied in the field of protein structure prediction both for theoretical purposes and as a benchmark for new optimization strategies. In this work we present results of the recently proposed Hybrid Monte Carlo Ant Colony Optimization heuristic in the HP model using a fragment assembly-like strategy. Moreover we extend that method introducing a general framework for optimization in the HP model, called Local Landscape Mapping, and we test it using the pull moves set to generate solutions. We describe the heuristic and compare results obtained on well known HP instances in the 3-dimensional cubic lattice to those obtained with standard Ant Colony optimization and Simulated Annealing. Fragment assembly-like tests were performed using a modified objective function to prevent the creation of overlapping walks. Results show that our method performs better than the other heuristics in all benchmark instances when the fragment assembly-like strategy is used while in the case of pull moves-based neighborhood its performance is comparable to that of simulated annealing.     

Modelling formation and growth of H2SO4-H2O aerosols: Uncertainty analysis and experimental evaluation

An aerosol dynamics model, AERO2, is presented, which describes the formation of H₂SO₄-H₂O aerosol in a smog chamber. The model is used to analyse how the uncertainties on four input parameters are propagated through an aerosol dynamics model. The input parameters are: the rate of the reaction between SO₂ and OH (k₁), the ratio between the nucleation rate used in AERO2 and that derived from classical nucleation theory (t_n), the H₂SO₄ mass accommodation coefficient () and a measure of the turbulence intensity in the reactor (k_e). Uncertainties for these parameters are taken from the literature. One of the results of the analysis is that AERO2 and aerosol dynamics models in general can only predict upper bounds for the total number (N_tot) and total volume (V_tot) concentrations of the particles. The uncertainties on N_tot and V_tot are mainly due to the uncertainties on k₁, and t_n. An uncertainty factor of 20–100 still remains when the uncertainty on k₁, is reduced to ±5%. Aerosol measurements from three smog chamber experiments have therefore been used, in an attempt to reduce the uncertainty on k₁ and t_n. Values for k₁ are obtained in the reduced range 7.8 × 10⁻¹³ to 1.0 × 10⁻¹² cm³ s⁻¹, which is within the range found in the literature. For t_n, values in the range 10⁴–10⁷ are obtained, which is close to the upper bound of the range in literature. These values for t_n are in marked contrast with a recent set of experiments on nucleation in H₂SO₄-H₂O mixtures, which suggests a value for t_n of at most 10⁻⁵.     

Crystal lattice deformation and the mesophase in poly(ethylene terephthalate) uniaxially drawn by solid-state coextrusion

The development of crystalline and mesophase structure on drawing of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) has been studied. The uniaxial drawing has been done by solid-state coextrusion from 50 to 90°C. The unit-cell parameters of stress-induced crystallites in extrudates have been determined as a function of extrusion draw ratio (EDR) up to 4.4 and at an extrusion temperature (ET) above T_g, at 70 and 90°C. The higher the EDR, the longer the c-axis chain direction, the shorter the a and b axes and the smaller the unit-cell volume. In comparison with the conventional lattice parameters obtained by Bunn and Fisher, the highest elongation of the c axis is near 10%. These features imply that the lattice of stress-induced crystallites is far from the closest packing. Coextrudates made below the T_g of PET differ markedly from those made above T_g. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) patterns of PET extruded at 50°C (below T_g) even at high draw ratio exhibit small and/or imperfect crystallites. They appear much as a mesophase. The distance between macromolecular chains ranges from 3.2 to 5.4 Å. The shortest value in the mesophase approaches the interplanar crystal distance of 3.4 Å for the (100) crystal face, on which the benzene rings lie. The crystalline peak separation of the PET, WAXD curve has been evaluated to obtain absolute crystallinities and the content of mesophase and amorphous phase.     

An NMR study of the dissociation of N,N′-(2-propyloximino)-4,4′-methylenebis(phenylcarbamate) and its crosslinking of polymers containing labile hydrogens. II

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been used to study the dissociation and reaction of N,N′-(2-propyloximino)-4,4′-methylenebis(phenylcarbamate), as a crosslinking agent for polymers containing labile hydrogens. The crosslinking of poly(acrylic acid), polyacrylamide, and poly(vinyl alcohol) was found to result upon heating each to 150°C for 10 min with this component at 2–10 wt %.     

Microstructure of high modulus solid state extruded polyethylene: 2. X-ray scattering studies of 12, 24 and 36 extrusion draw ratio

The microstructure of a series of solid state extruded polyethylene fibres was examined by wide- and small-angle X-ray scattering. By measuring absolute intensities using a two dimensional position sensitive detector, accurate values of the small-angle invariant for anisotropic samples were obtained. This measurement coupled with wide-angle X-ray scattering and d.s.c. permitted determination of the density of the noncrystalline component. The use of a two phase model for solid state extruded polyethylene is justified if consideration is given to the effective densities of the crystalline and noncrystalline phases, which change with deformation. The effective density of the crystalline phase decreases by 1% (0.999–0.990 g cm^?3) from the unextruded billet compared to a 36 draw ratio extrudate, while the noncrystalline phase density increases by 6% (0.84–0.89 g cm^?3). These changes lead to an overall decrease in the mean squared electron density fluctuation of 63%. The average axial crystallite length measured by wide-angle X-ray scattering increases with extrusion draw ratio while the SAXS long period decreases and weakens considerably. These observations and the electron microscopy results from the previous paper, (Polymer, 1982, 23, 1069), are fully consistent with the key features of the Peterlin model of fibre microstructure.     

Design of microfluidic channels for magnetic separation of malaria-infected red blood cells

This study is motivated by the development of a blood cell filtration device for removal of malaria-infected, parasitized red blood cells (pRBCs). The blood was modeled as a multi-component fluid using the computational fluid dynamics discrete element method (CFD-DEM), wherein plasma was treated as a Newtonian fluid and the red blood cells (RBCs) were modeled as soft-sphere solid particles which move under the influence of drag, collisions with other RBCs, and a magnetic force. The CFD-DEM model was first validated by a comparison with experimental data from Han and Frazier (Lab Chip 6:265–273, 2006) involving a microfluidic magnetophoretic separator for paramagnetic deoxygenated blood cells. The computational model was then applied to a parametric study of a parallel-plate separator having hematocrit of 40 % with 10 % of the RBCs as pRBCs. Specifically, we investigated the hypothesis of introducing an upstream constriction to the channel to divert the magnetic cells within the near-wall layer where the magnetic force is greatest. Simulations compared the efficacy of various geometries upon the stratification efficiency of the pRBCs. For a channel with nominal height of 100 µm, the addition of an upstream constriction of 80 % improved the proportion of pRBCs retained adjacent to the magnetic wall (separation efficiency) by almost twofold, from 26 to 49 %. Further addition of a downstream diffuser reduced remixing and hence improved separation efficiency to 72 %. The constriction introduced a greater pressure drop (from 17 to 495 Pa), which should be considered when scaling up this design for a clinical-sized system. Overall, the advantages of this design include its ability to accommodate physiological hematocrit and high throughput, which is critical for clinical implementation as a blood-filtration system.