Production and Characterization of crosslinked low‐density polyethylene foams using waste of foams with the same composition

A process to recover residues of crosslinked polyolefin foams is described in this paper. Low‐density foam scraps coming from discarded products or cuts from secondary manufacturing processes are heated and pressed to obtain a new material. The main target to reach with the used recovering process was to keep the density of the recycled specimens as low as possible, and similar to that of the starting products. The structure and properties of both recovered and virgin commercial materials with similar densities have been analyzed. It has been found that due to the recovering process cell size slightly decreased and at the same time the cells become orientated. Mechanical properties of recovered foams were lower than those of commercial products, even though thermal conductivity remained in the range of the values presented by virgin products, and recovered products were better sound absorbers than virgin foams. It is concluded that due to its low density and good balance of properties the recovered materials can substitute virgin materials in applications in which the key properties are excellent thermal insulation, good acoustic absorption, and medium compressive strength. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2011. © 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Precise segmentation of the bulbar conjunctiva for hyperaemia images

Hyperaemia is an excess of blood in a tissue that causes the appearance of an unusual red hue in the affected area. It is a common occurrence in the bulbar conjunctiva, where it can be related to multiple pathologies, such as conjunctivitis or dry eye syndrome. Specialists grade hyperaemia by means of a tedious, subjective, non-repeatable and time-consuming process. These drawbacks can be solved with the automatisation of the process by means of image processing techniques. The automatic segmentation of the conjunctiva is an important part of the process, as it ensures the absence of noise in posterior stages of the methodology. However, there are several issues of illumination and focus in the input videos that difficult the process. In this work, several segmentation algorithms are proposed and compared in order to obtain an accurate location of the bulbar conjunctiva.     

High-performance nanocomposites based on polyetherketones

Polyetherketones, PEKs, are an important family of high-performance thermoplastic materials that display a unique combination of toughness, stiffness, thermooxidative stability, chemical and solvent resistance, flame retardancy, and retention of physical properties at high temperatures. A relevant step forward in the development of these materials has been the recent incorporation of nanofillers to extend their utility in advanced technological applications. This review provides an extensive overview of the research on PEK-based nanocomposites with a special emphasis on both carbon-based nanofillers, such as nanotubes or nanofibers, and inorganic nanoparticles. Nanocomposites can be fabricated by simple, low-cost conventional techniques such as extrusion and compression molding, generally combined with pre-processing stages involving mechanochemical treatments in organic solvents. Different strategies employed to efficiently incorporate carbon nanofillers into these matrices, including polymer functionalization, covalent grafting and nanofiller wrapping in compatibilizing systems are described. The analysis of the influence of the preparation and processing conditions as well as the nanofiller type, attributes and loading on the structure and properties of the resulting materials is also considered. Composites incorporating carbon nanofillers display remarkably improved thermal stability, electrical and thermal conductivity as well as mechanical property enhancements compared to the neat polymers. On the other hand, the incorporation of inorganic nanoparticles such as WS₂, SiO₂ or Al₂O₃ significantly enhances the tribological properties of the matrix, mainly the coefficient of friction and wear resistance. Finally, current and potential applications of these multifunctional nanocomposite materials in fields such as medicine, telecommunications, electronics, aerospace, automobile and chemical industries are described.     

Evidences and perspectives in the utilization of CLNA isomers as bioactive compounds in foods

Conjugated alpha linolenic acid (CLNA) isomers are promising lipids owing to their similarities with conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) but exerting their bioactivity at lower doses; some isomers also belong to omega 3 family. This review aims to summarize the state of the art about the utilization of CLNA as a functional ingredient. Indeed, in vitro and in vivo studies reported that CLNA exerted anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-obese, and antioxidant activities. However, CLNA has not been tested in humans. These compounds are naturally present in meat and milk fat from ruminants but the highest concentrations are found in vegetable oils. Their incorporation in foodstuffs is one of the most effective strategies to elaborate CLNA-enriched products together with the microbiological production. Lactobacilli, propionibacteria, and bifidobacteria strains have been assayed to produce CLNA isomers but at the current moment there are not high CLNA concentration products elaborated using these strains. Furthermore, it is known that CLNA isomers are highly prone to oxidation when compared with linoleic acid and CLA, but the possible effects of elaboration and storage on high CLNA productsare unknown.The utilization of CLNA as a functional compound still remains a challenge and requires more research to address all of its technological and bioactivity aspects.     

Viscosity virtual sensor to control combustion in fossil fuel power plants

Thermo-electrical power plants utilize fossil fuel oil to transform the calorific power of fuel into electric power. An optimal combustion in the boiler requires the fuel oil to be in its best conditions. One of fuel's most important properties to consider is viscosity. Viscosity has influence on the optimal combustion between fuel and air. Hardware viscosity meters for fuel oils are expensive and unreliable to operate in power plant conditions. Chemical laboratory measures viscosity accurately with special apparatus, but they cannot be used in a real time process. This paper describes the development of a virtual sensor that estimates fuel oil viscosity in the combustion process of a power plant. A virtual sensor or soft sensor is a computer program that estimates the value of a certain variable based on related measurements and a model of the process where the variable participates. In this project, a probabilistic model is constructed using automatic learning algorithms with historical data and experts' advice. The learning and validation experiments are described and discussed. The virtual sensor is installed in the Tuxpan Power Plant in Veracruz, Mexico.     

Control of attendance applied in higher education through mobile NFC technologies

This paper presents an improved attendance control system, required for continuous evaluation which has become compulsory following the Bologna Process. It provides a solution based on NFC technology and is based on a real project developed and pilot tested at the “Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, Campus Madrid”.     

Disinfection Capacity of High-Power Ultrasound Against E. coli O157:H7 in Process Water of the Fresh-Cut Industry

The fresh-cut industry must treat process water to guarantee its microbial quality before reuse or recirculation back into the processing line. In the present study, the suitability of high-power ultrasound (HPU) for disinfecting and recycling process water was evaluated. An ultrasonic horn (20 kHz) was used to inactivate Escherichia coli O157:H7 inoculated in five types of process water which showed different physical and chemical characteristics. Differences in the inactivation level of E. coli O157:H7 at different HPU densities (0.14, 0.28, 0.56, and 1.12 kW/L) with controlled (20–25 °C) and uncontrolled (15–72 °C, 3.6 °C/min) temperature increase were studied. Results showed that the higher the power density and temperature, the higher the efficiency, reaching up to 6 log reductions of E. coli O157:H7. Alkalinity (between 0 and 253 mg HCO₃ ^?/L) and organic matter concentration (between 9 and 3,525 mg O₂/L) in water did not reduce ultrasonic efficacy against E. coli O157:H7. Agglomerates >90 μm, which represented 34 % of those present in the process water, were reduced to only 11 % by HPU. Results indicate that HPU can be successfully applied to treat process water of the fresh produce industry because the antimicrobial efficacy was not affected by the continuous variation of the process water quality. HPU can be a suitable technology for the fresh produce industry to be able to reduce consumption of water and decrease wastewater and the generation of disinfection by-products.     

A Low-Power Wakeup Radio for Application in WSN-Based Indoor Location Systems

This paper presents a low-power wakeup radio (WUR) for application in indoor location systems. The presented radio has a better performance than the state-of-the-art radios, since it has low-power consumption, only 10 μW and it is perfectly integrated into a wireless sensor network based on ZigBee, which is used for location purposes. This performance was achieved due to an optimised radio frequency design of the WUR, which was embedded with a low-cost/low-power processor, and due to an enhanced control algorithm. Moreover, a software defined radio approach has been used to implement the WUR protocol. The WUR was designed and integrated in an existing WSN-based indoor location system which was originally based on a periodic sleep-wake up duty-cycled protocol. In the WUR protocol the location sensor is kept in deep sleep mode until it receives an external wake-up order. According to estimates, with this scheme, the battery lifetime can be increased from 200 days (using conventional duty-cycle protocol) up to almost 8000 days (sensor waken-up few times per day).     

Freeze‐drying concentration of Rangpur lime juice

The use of freeze‐drying for concentrating lime Rangpur juice was investigated. This procedure allowed obtaining concentrated Rangpur lime juices between 23 and 51.3 °Brix, without affecting their organoleptic and nutritional characteristics. The efficiency of the procedure was inversely related to the film thickness of the matrix to be lyophilised. The sublimation speed per unit area diminished with the reduction in the residual moisture content of the juice. The mathematical model that fitted to the concentration procedure allowed to predict the time required for concentrating Rangpur lime by freeze‐drying starting from samples of different thickness. When compared with other citric juices evaluated, the Rangpur lime juice was the most suitable for freeze‐drying concentration. The results could be used to devise optimal industrial freeze‐drying cycles for processing Rangpur lime juices at different concentrations.