Labeling laws as they pertain to the detergent industry

Government regulations have proliferated in the past 25 years. Many directly affecting the detergent industry are reviewed and discussed. These include the 1966 Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, the 1972 Consumer Product Safety Act, the Hazardous Substances Act, and the Poison Prevention Packaging Act.     

Relative effect of particle size on the physical properties of corn meal extrudates: Effect of particle size on the extrusion of corn meal

Corn meal of various particle sizes ranging from 180 to 710 μm were processed in a twin-screw extruder to produce directly expanded extrudates. The extrusion process effects on the specific mechanical energy (SME), expansion indexes (radial, longitudinal and volumetric), pasting viscosity, water absorption index (WAI) texture properties, and microstructure were determined. Increasing the particle size decreased the SME input. Extrudates produced with corn meal of higher particle sizes expanded more than extrudates produced with smaller particle sizes. For all treatments there was no peak viscosity at 95 °C. But expanded corn meal extrudate from the 180 μm fraction showed a discontinuous gel matrix phase. Increasing corn meal particle size decreased WAI values. The mechanical resistance of the extrudates from the smallest particle size was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that of the largest particle size. The microstructure of raw corn meal revealed large fractured particles with small rounded particles adhering to the surface.     

Probing the Role of Backbone Hydrogen Bonding in a Critical β Sheet of the Extracellular Domain of a Cys‐Loop Receptor

Probing the sheet : The network of hydrogen bonds formed in the outer β sheet of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR; see figure) is fairly robust and tolerates single amide‐to‐ester mutations throughout. However, eliminating two proximal hydrogen bonds completely destroys receptor function; this adds further support to gating models that ascribe important roles to these β strands of the nAChR extracellular domain.

     

Melt index prediction with a mixture of Gaussian process regression with embedded clustering and variable selections

In this study, a penalized mixture of the Gaussian process regression model was proposed for the prediction of melt index (MI) in industrial polymer production. MI plays an important role in detecting the grade of a product. It is difficult to measure directly and is characterized by a large number of variables and multigrades. Because of multigrade products, in the development of soft sensors for MI prediction, it is not valid to assume unimodal Gaussian distribution of the data. To this end, the proposed method is capable of the simultaneous identification of significant variables and determination of important clusters of multigrade products. It is based on the shrinkage methods that have been shown to provide stable models that are more interpretable. Case studies are presented to show the features of the proposed method and its applicability to industrial MI prediction. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 45237.     

Discrete Events in Power Systems

The relevance of Discrete Event System theory (whether synthetic or analytic) to power system analysis and control is not clear. However, based on several characterizations of the domain of discrete systems set forth in the January 1989 Special Issue of the IEEE Proceedings, on Dynamics of discrete event systems (Ho, 1989), we attempt to delineate several power system control problems that may be amenable to analysis by DEDS methodologies. While the author is not qualified to judge whether the latter can speak to any of the examples, it may be relevant that in all cases the problems are non-trivial and in need of further contributions toward improved solutions, especially in view of the ongoing radical restructuring of the industry. The continuous process that is instantiated in the functioning of a power system is observed via three more or less diverse variables. Two of these, the scaler system frequency and the vector system voltage profile, are in principle mensurable physical phenomena; the third, system security, is a quality represented by a set membership conditioned on an inferred relationship between the two physical system variables and future realizations of one or more classes of autonomous stochastic phenomena. (These latter may be internal or external to the physical system, such as, e.g., respectively, equipment failure mechanisms and weather events.)     

Role of bacterial extracellular polymers in metal uptake in pure bacterial culture and activated sludge—I. Effects of metal concentration

A gel filtration technique afforded a good separation between metal complexed with bacterial extracellular polymers and free metal ions. The complexation of polymers extracted from cultures of Klehsiella aerogenes and activated sludge with cadmium, nickel, manganese and cobalt was demonstrated. The extraction of extracellular polymers from cultures of K. aerogenes and activated sludge reduced the capacity of the cells and flocs to adsorb metal. Adsorption and complexation of metals by cells of K. aerogenes and extracellular polymers extracted from activated sludge were fitted to Freundlich equilibrium isotherms. Saturation of activated sludge polymer binding sites occurred at 10 mg 1^?1 metal additions for all the metals studied except manganese which was complexed to a very limited extent. Cells of K. aerogenes exhibited no saturation effects in the range of metal concentrations studied.Precipitation of metals below a concentration of 1 mg 1^?1 was minimal, with the exception of cadmium precipitation. At a concentration of 10 mg 1^?1, precipitation of cadmium, cobalt and manganese may have been the major mechanism of metal removal. The more soluble metals generally displayed the lowest removals. Concentrations of extracellular polymers and soluble chelating agents may be important in controlling removals of metals which are largely soluble in activated sludge.     

Looking, recalling, and GSR as a function of defense.

10 pictures were viewed for 10 sec. each, during which the eye fixations were photographed and GSR was recorded. An independent assessment was made for each of 16 Ss of the defenses of isolation and repression. The defense of isolation was strikingly associated with venturing to look around more, and the defense of repression with looking around less: in contrast to repressors, isolators looked at the "ground" as well as the figure; they scattered their fixations and they made bigger jumps from 1 fixation to the next. Isolation was better than repression for the recall of sexual content. No strong trends emerged from correlations of GSR and defense ratings. Some looking measures correlated significantly with standard Rorschach scores. The findings seem consistent with results for cognitive styles as well as with clinical understanding of the defenses. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On rating empathy and other psychotherapy variables: An experience with the effects of training.

Compared 3 methods of assessing the psychotherapist's empathy: (a) the Accurate Empathy Scale, (b) the Conjunctive Empathy Scale, and (c) the Raskin Empathy Scale. 5 moderately to very experienced judges rated 10 4-min segments of a tape-recorded psychotherapy session during pre- and posttraining phases. The mean reliability of the 3 scales increased significantly, and intercorrelations were nearly perfect when corrected for unreliability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)