Ozonation of unstretched natural rubber film from Hevea brasiliensis studied by ozone consumption and 13C NMR

Unstretched films of natural rubber (NR) from Hevea brasiliensis were exposed to ozone flow of 15 ml min^?1 from 4 to 300 min. The efficiency of reaction was determined by ozone consumption of NR films. Plots of reacted ozone mass versus film thickness show that the ozone penetration and the ozone reaction progressed into deeper layers (170 µm) than described in the literature (～0.5 µm). The previous proposed model based on viscometry measurements was corroborated by ozone consumption results. The effect of thickness on the O₃/NR stoichiometric ratio indicated that the diffusion process that controls the ozonation in unstretched film does not consist of the boundary progression behind which all reactive sites have been saturated. Ozonation in unstretched rubber film, while being less efficient than ozonolysis in solution, does have a reaction efficiency of the same order of magnitude. NMR spectroscopy was used to characterise the products formed by ozonation. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

Sublattice magnetization and cation distribution in BaMg2Fe16O27(Mg2W) ferrite

Mössbauer measurements were carried out in compound BaMg2Fe16O27(Mg2W) by utilizing both polycrystalline and single-crystal samples. The resonant γ-absorption spectra have been measured with the absorbers at temperatures of 85 to 800°K and in some cases in the presence of a 15-kOe external magnetic field. The values of the hyperfine magnetic fields Hhfat the Fe⁵⁷nuclei in the different sublattices as functions of temperature have been measured. By fitting the curve of the saturation magnetization σ versus temperature, the cation distribution over the available lattice sites has been deduced. From the value of σ extrapolated at 0°K, it turns out that the number of Bohr magnetons(n_{B})Wper elementary cell is higher than the value obtained by adding the corresponding values for theSandMstructures. The Curie temperature of the compounds has also been measured and is equal to (440 ± 5)°C.     

A Formal Model for Video Shot Segmentation and its Application via Animate Vision

The first step in a video indexing process is the segmentation of videos into meaningful parts called shots. In this paper we present a formal model of the video shot segmentation process. Starting from a mathematical characterization of the most common transition effects, a video segmentation algorithm capable to detect both abrupt and gradual transitions is proposed. The proposed algorithm is based on the computation of an arbitrary similarity measure between consecutive frames of a video. The algorithm has been tested adopting a similarity metric based on the Animate Vision theory and results have been reported.     

Magnetostatic field computations in terms of two-component vector potentials

In this paper the magnetostatic problem is stated in terms of two-component electric and magnetic vector potentials. An associated numerical method, based on the adoption of edge elements, is proposed. This procedure overcomes the cancellation problems and the complexity of the interface conditions encountered by similar approaches in the presence of magnetic inhomogeneities and discontinuities of currents and magnetic fields.     

Brain cancer and occupational exposure to lead

A recent report in the literature suggested a link between occupational exposure to lead and brain cancer. To explore the hypothesis, we applied a job-exposure matrix for lead to the occupation and industry codes given on the death certificate of 27,060 brain cancer cases and 108,240 controls who died of non-malignant diseases in 24 US states in 1984-1992. Brain cancer risk increased by probability of exposure to lead among Caucasian men and women with high-level exposure, with a significant twofold excess among Caucasian men with high probability and high level of exposure to lead (odds ratio = 2.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.1-4.0). Risks were also elevated in the low- and medium-probability cells for African-American men with high-level exposure to lead. Trend by intensity level was statistically significant among African-American men (all probabilities combined). Although exposure assessment was based solely on the occupation and industry reported on the death certificate, these results add to other epidemiologic and experimental findings in lending some support to the hypothesis of an association between occupational exposure to lead and brain cancer risk. Analytic studies are warranted to further test this hypothesis.