Emissions from a diesel car during regeneration of an active diesel particulate filter

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission (JRC) have collaborated on emissions testing of a light duty diesel vehicle, which is Euro 4 compliant and comes equipped with a diesel particulate filter (DPF). The California testing included an investigation of the regeneration of the DPF over cruise conditions and NEDC test cycles. DPF regeneration is caused by the buildup of soot in the filter, and for the present test vehicle the regeneration process is assisted by a fuel borne catalyst. Regulated exhaust emissions increased substantially during the regeneration events; however, PM emissions levels were below California LEVII emissions standards. There was a very large increase of volatile particles between 5 and 10 nm, and these volatile particles were generated during all of the observed regeneration events. It appears that the particle number instruments that use the PMP methodology do not capture the PM mass increase during DPF regeneration; however, for one regeneration event there was an apparent large increase in solid particles below the PMP size limit. The PM mass increase associated with regeneration appears to be due to semi-volatile particles collected on filters. During the testing, the regeneration events exhibited considerable variations in the time for regeneration as well as the amount of PM emissions. From this investigation, several questions have been posed concerning the emission of very small (<20 nm) volatile and solid particles during DPF regeneration that need further investigation.     

Effects of aging on the various steps of protein synthesis: fragmentation of elongation factor 2

The possible mechanism responsible for the in vivo protein synthesis decline during aging was studied. In order to determine the effect of aging on the various steps of protein synthesis, we determined the ribosomal state of aggregation and the time of assembly and release of polypeptide chains in the process of protein synthesis in rat liver. The results suggest that elongation is the most sensitive step to aging. A molecular study of the Elongation Factor 2 (EF-2), the main protein involved in the elongation step, shows that this protein has a higher content of carbonyl groups and is less active in old rats. In addition, the molecular mass analysis of EF-2 shows that this protein becomes fragmented in old rats. A similar pattern of fragmentation is found in 3-month-old rats suffering oxidative stress, in that the decline in protein synthesis is similar to that found in old rats. These data suggest that: i) oxidative stress seems to be involved in the modifications of EF-2 observed during aging, and ii) the observed modifications (oxidation and fragmentation) of EF-2 could account for the decline in protein synthesis in old animals.     

Error analysis of the simulated impulse response on indoor wireless optical channels using a Monte Carlo-based ray-tracing algorithm

This work describes a method to determine the error in a Monte Carlo-based ray-tracing algorithm used to compute the impulse response on indoor wireless optical channels. The algorithm, which accounts for multiple reflections of any order on irregularly shaped furnished rooms with diffuse and specular reflectors, allows for their analysis. Equations that estimate algorithm-produced error are given. We also report several simulation results concerning the error estimation which verify the reliability of the equations.     

Statistical properties of the rWG(J) index of agreement.

L. R. James, R. G. Demaree, and G. Wolf (1984) introduced rwg(J) to estimate interrater agreement for a group. This index is calculated by comparing an observed group variance with an expected random variance. As researchers have gained experience using this index, several questions have arisen. What are the consequences of replacing values beyond the unit interval by 0? What is the dependence of rwg(J) on the group size? The authors' simulations show that a positive bias is caused by the truncation, but for large population values of rwg(J) it is negligible. Also, in this case, the group size has no effect on the expected value of rwg(J). For inference on rwg(J), researchers can exploit the availability of computers to simulate data from the hypothesized distribution and then compare the simulation results for rwg(J) with the actual values. In addition, it is shown how the bootstrap method can be used for comparing the indices of 2 groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ultrafine PM emissions from natural gas,oxidation-catalyst diesel,and particle-trap diesel heavy-duty transit buses

This paper addresses how current technologies effective for reducing PM emissions of heavy-duty engines may affect the physical characteristics of the particles emitted. Three in-use transit bus configurations were compared in terms of submicron particle size distributions using simultaneous SMPS measurements under two dilution conditions, a minidiluter and the legislated constant volume sampler (CVS). The compressed natural gas (CNG)-fueled and diesel particulate filter (DPF)-equipped diesel configurations are two "green" alternatives to conventional diesel engines. The CNG bus in this study did not have an oxidation catalyst whereas the diesel configurations (with and without particulate filter) employed catalysts. The DPF was a continuously regenerating trap (CRT). Particle size distributions were collected between 6 and 237 nm using 2-minute SMPS scans during idle and 55 mph steady-state cruise operation. Average particle size distributions collected during idle operation of the diesel baseline bus operating on ultralow sulfur fuel showed evidence for nanoparticle growth under CVS dilution conditions relative to the minidiluter. The CRT effectively reduced both accumulation and nuclei mode concentrations by factors of 10-100 except under CVS dilution conditions where nuclei mode concentrations were measured during 55 mph steady-state cruise that exceeded baseline diesel concentrations. The CVS data suggest some variability in trap performance. The CNG bus had accumulation mode concentrations 10-100x lower than the diesel baseline but often displayed large nuclei modes, especially under CVS dilution conditions. Partly this may be explained by the lack of an oxidation catalyst on the CNG, but differences between the minidiluter and CVS size distributions suggest that dilution ratio, temperature-related wall interactions, and differences in tunnel background between the diluters contributed to creating nanoparticle concentrations that sometimes exceeded diesel baseline concentrations when driving under load. The results do not support use of CVS dilution methodology for ultrafine particle sampling, and, despite attention to collection of tunnel blanks in this study, results indicate that a protocol needs to be determined and prescribed for taking into account tunnel blank "emissions" to obtain meaningful comparisons between different technologies. Of critical importance is determining how temperature differences between tunnel blank and test cycle sampling compare in terms of background particle numbers. Total particle number concentrations for the minidiluter sampling point were not significantly different for the two alternative technologies when considering all the steady-cycle data collected. Concentrations ranged from 0.8 to 3 x 10(6) for the baseline bus operating on ultralow sulfur fuel, from 0.5 to 9 x 10(4) for the diesel bus equipped with the CRT filter, and from 1 to 8 x 10(4) particles/cc for the CNG bus.     

Moving target tracking using symbolic registration

This correspondence describes a moving target tracking (MTT) algorithm that performs image registration and motion analysis between pairs of images from a passive sensor. Unlike previously reported moving target indicators that operate at the signal level, the registration and motion analysis in the MTT is totally performed at a symbolic level. The operation of the MTT is demonstrated by simulation results obtained from applications of the algorithm to infrared images.     

Impact of Crude Oil Quality on the Refining Conditions and Composition of Nutraceuticals in Refined Palm Oil

Palm oil is the major vegetable oil used worldwide due to its unique properties. The effect of crude palm oil acidity on the final free fatty acids (FFA) content, neutral oil loss (NOL), and nutraceutical compounds, such as carotenes, total tocols (tocopherols and tocotrienols), squalene, and phytosterols was investigated. A central composite design was employed to study the influence of the refining conditions: temperature (200 to 260 °C), steam percentage (0.5% to 3.5%), and initial FFA content (2.2% to 6.0%) on the quality of the refined product. The results revealed that initial palm oil acidity is a statistically important parameter to obtain commercially acceptable values for final FFA content. The increase of temperature presented the most important effect on the reduction of all nutraceutical compounds. The highest tocopherols (88%), phytosterols (98%), and squalene retention (84%) was obtained when applying the mildest temperature (200 °C). From the experimental results, 3 equations were generated enabling the prediction of the free fatty acids content, the tocols content, and the losses of neutral oil. Therefore, this work contributes to the understanding and optimization of the process for the production of palm oil with high nutraceutical quality and low free fatty acid contents.