Dye adsorption characteristics of alginate/polyaspartate hydrogels

This study examined the removal of some basic dyes, such as Methylene Blue, Malachite Green and Methyl Orange, using alginate or alginate/polyaspartate composite gel beads. The adsorption of dyes from aqueous solutions at 25 °C was examined using a batch sorption technique. The effects of CaCl₂ and the dye concentration on the adsorption were examined. Type-S adsorption isotherms were obtained, which is characteristic of a weak solute–solid interaction. The ionic interaction between the dye molecule and gel matrix appears to be responsible for the efficient adsorption of cationic dyes in this system. These results suggest that an alginate/polyaspartate gel can be used as an effective sorbent for water pollutants such as dyes, and the immobilization of these organic contaminants in the hydrogels from wastewater can solve one of the most important environmental problems in the related industry.     

Prediction and quality control of the melt index during production of high-density polyethylene

In polyolefin processes the melt index (MI) is the most important control variable indicating product quality. Because of the difficulty in the on-line measurement of MI, a lot of MI estimation and correlation methods have been proposed. In this work a new dynamic MI estimation scheme is developed based on system identification techniques. The empirical MI estimation equation proposed in the present study is derived from the 1 ^st -order dynamic models. Effectiveness of the present estimation scheme was illustrated by numerical simulations based on plant operation data including grade change operations in high density polyethylene (HDPE) processes. From the comparisons with other estimation methods it was found that the proposed estimation scheme showed better performance in MI predictions. The virtual sensor model developed based on the estimation scheme was combined with the virtual on-line analyzer (VOA) to give a quality control system to be implemented in the actual HDPE plant. From the application of the present control system, significant reduction of transition time and the amount of off-spec during grade changes was achieved     

Contributions of Metaknowledge to Retrieval of Natural Categories in Semantic Memory.

Retrieving the answer to a general knowledge question has been shown to involve two metacognitive processes--a feeling-of-knowing that initiates the search of long-term memory and a willingness to continue searching until an answer can be confidently stated. To extend this model, college students were asked to retrieve as many members of 2 natural categories as they could in 1 min. Examination of the points at which they switched categories revealed that they searched longer in categories of higher potency, and they switched earlier when the other category was of higher potency. They also searched the first category longer when they were allowed to switch only once during a trial rather than as often as they wished. It was concluded that feeling-of-knowing maintained search of a category and also contributed to the willingness to continue searching, and the constraint on switching impacted the willingness to continue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Probing stress effects in HfO2 gate stacks with time dependent measurements

Effects of constant voltage stress (CVS) on gate stacks consisting of an ALD HfO₂ dielectric with various interfacial layers were studied with time dependent sensing measurements: DC I–V, pulse I–V, and charge pumping (CP) at different frequencies. The process of injected electron trapping/de-trapping on pre-existing defects in the bulk of the high-κ film was found to constitute the major contribution to the time dependence of the threshold voltage (V_t) shift during stress. The trap generation observed with the low frequency CP measurements is suggested to occur within the interfacial oxide layer or the interfacial layer/high-κ interface, with only a minor effect on V_t.     

Use and Disuse of Contextual Primes in Dynamic News Environments

This study reexamines the news priming effects of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Suggesting an alternative approach to those used in previous studies, this study assesses individuals' use and disuse of a contextual prime (i.e., the air war) in dynamic news environments. With a short-term, quasi-experimental approach considering the air war as a prime stimulus, a path analysis suggests robust evidence of the short-term accessibility effects of priming. More importantly, as suggested in Martin's (1986) set/reset model, this study extends priming effects beyond the simple hydraulic patterns of accessibility effects. It reveals that both attitudes toward military action and attitudes toward a diplomatic solution were used in subsequent judgments of the president's job performance and handling of the war. The associations between attitudes toward a diplomatic solution and subsequent judgments were even stronger than those between attitudes toward military action and the same subsequent judgments, despite the clear prowar primes of news discourse in the air-war context. This pattern was more greatly intensified among those in the high news attention group than those in the low news attention group     

Infinite-dimensional convex optimization in optimal and robustcontrol theory

Many engineering problems can be shown to be equivalent to solving semidefinite programs (SPs), i.e., convex optimization problems involving linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Powerful computation tools are available for such problems in the finite-dimensional case. However, the problems arising in optimal and robust control theory are often infinite dimensional, and so adequate computation tools are not available. The key to tackling such problems with finite computation tools is to have a primal-dual formulation of the problem without duality gap. In this paper we study infinite-dimensional SPs and present a lifting technique to recast SPs as parameterized linear programs (LPs). This enables the wealth of theoretical tools available for infinite-dimensional LPs to be extended to infinite-dimensional SPs. In particular, we develop some new sufficient conditions for the lack of a duality gap for infinite-dimensional SPs and give an exact characterization of the primal and dual problems for these cases. Both primal and dual problems are formed as infinite-dimensional SP problems, with finite truncations to each giving upper and lower bounds, respectively, on the exact solution to the infinite-dimensional problem. Thus, these results can form the basis of practical computation schemes for infinite-dimensional problems, which require only finite-dimensional computation tools. To illustrate the power of these tools we apply the results to two previously unsolved optimization problems, namely minimizing the l₁ norm of a closed-loop system subject to bounds on the frequency response magnitude at a finite number of points and/or bounds on the H₂ norm     

Long-term effect of lisinopril and atenolol on kidney function in hypertensive NIDDM subjects with diabetic nephropathy

The aim of our study was to evaluate whether inhibition of ACE (lisinopril 10-20 mg/day) can reduce the rate of decline in kidney function more than reducing blood pressure with conventional antihypertensive treatment (atenolol 50-100 mg/day), usually in combination with a diuretic. We performed a prospective, randomized, parallel study for 42 months, double blind for the first 12 months and single blind thereafter. Forty-three (21 lisinopril and 22 atenolol) hypertensive NIDDM patients with diabetic nephropathy were enrolled. Data from 36 patients (17 lisinopril and 19 atenolol, 60 +/- 7 years of age, 27 men) who completed at least 12 months of the study period are presented. At baseline, the two groups were comparable: glomerular filtration rate (51Cr-EDTA plasma clearance) was 75 +/- 6 and 74 +/- 8 ml x min(-1) x 1.73 m(-2), mean 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (A&D TM2420) was 110 +/- 3 and 114 +/- 2 mmHg, and 24-h urinary albumin excretion rate was 961 (range 331-5,727) and 1,578 (476-5,806) mg/24 h in the lisinopril and atenolol groups, respectively. The mean follow-up time was similar, 37 and 35 months in the lisinopril and atenolol groups, respectively. Mean ambulatory blood pressure was equally reduced in the two groups, 12 +/- 2 and 10 +/- 2 mmHg in the lisinopril and atenolol groups, respectively. Glomerular filtration rate declined in a biphasic manner with a faster initial (0 to 6 months) change of 1.25 +/- 0.49 and 0.81 +/- 0.29 ml x min(-1) x month(-1) followed by a slower sustained decline (6 to 42 months) of 0.59 +/- 0.10 and 0.54 +/- 0.13 ml x min(-1) x month(-1) in the lisinopril and atenolol groups, respectively. No significant differences were observed in either initial or sustained decline in glomerular filtration rate between the two groups. Urinary albumin excretion was reduced (% reduction of baseline) more in the lisinopril than in the atenolol group, at 55 (95% CI 29-72) and 15% (-13 to 34), respectively (P = 0.01). In conclusion, the relentless decline in kidney function characteristically found in hypertensive NIDDM patients with diabetic nephropathy can be reduced equally effectively by two antihypertensive treatments, the beta-blocker atenolol and the ACE inhibitor lisinopril.     

Crack growth and residual strength characteristics of two grades of glass-reinforced aluminium ‘Glare’

Crack growth and residual strength tests have been conducted on both Glare 3 and Glare 4 material. Results have been compared with those for 2024-T3 monolithic aluminium alloy showing improvements in fatigue life of up to 100 times and improvements in residual strengths of up to 40%. The potential weight savings and general structural performance improvements of the Glare material make it most attractive for future aerospace vehicle design, despite its current higher manufacturing costs.     

Intercellular communication between dorsal root ganglion cells and colonic smooth muscle cells in vitro

This study demonstrates that the use of high field 1H NMR spectroscopy permits individual detection of phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin molecules at the surface of native low density lipoprotein (LDL) particles. Distinct behaviour was observed for the choline head group -N(CH3)3 resonances of these different phospholipids revealing preferential immobilisation for phosphatidylcholine. This suggests the existence of reversible and irreversible phosphatidylcholine-apolipoprotein B interactions and is consistent with microdomain formation at the surface monolayer of LDL. The novel resonance assignment and results show that 1H NMR can provide efficient and practical means for future studies on the structure and dynamics at the LDL surface.     

Inhibition of Listeria monocytogenes on cold-smoked salmon by nisin and carbon dioxide atmosphere

The heat-stable enterotoxin of Escherichia coli binds to an intestinal receptor, guanylyl cyclase-C, and produces cGMP to induce diarrhea. Guanylin is an endogenous ligand of this receptor. In the present in vivo study, the intestinal water and ion secretion induced by mucosal application of 2 nmol/ml guanylin or 5 or 10 units/ml heat-stable enterotoxin into closed loops was compared in the rat. The characteristics of secretion induced by cAMP following intravenous perfusion of 1.2 nmol/100 g per h vasoactive intestinal peptide were compared to those induced by cGMP. Unidirectional Na+ and Cl- fluxes were estimated by addition of 22Na into the loop and i.v. injection of 36Cl. Guanylin induced less water and ion secretion than that produced by heat-stable enterotoxin in the colon, confirming the results of in vitro studies, and also in duodenum and ileum. The cAMP- or cGMP-mediated response had a similar pattern, i.e., an inhibition of Na+ absorption and an increase in anion secretion.