Fischer-tropsch synthesis on a precipitated iron catalyst: Influence of silica support on product selectivities

The influence of silica support on the α-olefins, internal olefins and branched hydrocarbon selectivities of the gasoline range products of a precipitated iron catalyst in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis was investigated. Three catalysts with varying silica content and constant promoter content were studied. It was found that there is a linear relationship between the silica content of the catalysts and the internal olefin and branched hydrocarbon product selectivities. The selectivities of the aromatic and alcohol products remain relatively constant, indicating that the production of these two groups of compounds is not affected by the presence of silica support in the catalysts.     

—Review Paper—Current State-Of-The-Art Measurements Of Ozone In The Gas Phase And In Solution

This paper is a critical review and summary of the analytical procedures currently used by operating water utilities to control ozone treatment processes, considering disinfection as well as the many oxidative applications of ozone in water treatment applications. The role of common interferences in the various methods is described.

In operating U S., Canadian, European, and Japanese water treatment plants currently employing ozone as a primary disinfectant, ozone nearly always is followed by the addition of small quantities of chlorine, chlorine dioxide, or chloramine to provide the residual in the distribution system and to act as a secondary disinfectant. Clearly, the analytical procedures used must distinguish between the various species. This review critically presents these various factors and their implication with respect to “true values” of ozone determined under widely varying conditions.     

Morphology and properties of poly(vinyl chloride)–polyurethane blends

The objective of this research was to study the morphology and properties of PVC–polyurethane blends. Studies on blends of a segmented polyether polyurethane with PVC were carried out utilizing differential scanning calorimetry, Rheovibron, stress–strain, infrared peak position studies, and infrared dichroism experiments. This thermodynamically incompatible system was made kinetically compatible by precipitation from tetrahydrofuran (THF) solutions. THF–dioxane solution casting and melt processing produced an incompatible system. The compatible polyurethane–PVC system contains a well-mixed PVC–polyether matrix phase as evidenced by T_g shifts, orientation characteristics, and infrared peak position changes. The aromatic urethane segments which exhibit microphase separation in the pure polyurethane are not solubilized by blending with PVC by any of sample preparation methods used in this study.     

Aqueous gel permeation chromatography: The effect of solvent ionic strength

Porous glass packing materials have been used for gel permeation chromatography using an aqueous phosphate buffer. Elution volumes were determined for polystyrene sulfonates, dextrans, and small neutral and charged molecules at three different ionic strengths, viz., 0.01M, 0.1M, and 1.0M phosphate, pH 7.0. The pore diameters of the glasses studied were 75, 240, 700, and 2000 Å. Elution volumes of nonionic species were unaffected by changing the solvent ionic strength. Elution volumes of charged species were markedly affected by the ionic strength of the solvent. This was attributed to a combination of decreased polymer dimensions and decreased ionic exclusion with increasing buffer concentration. The use of low ionic strength solvents may be exploited to tailor the separating range for polyelectrolytes with porous glass packings. This is particularly useful in the low molecular weight range where the lowest pore size available is 75 Å.     

Recent advances in molecular weight determination

The aging and lifetimes of polymeric materials depend on the reaction of these materials to the particular stresses which are applied. In many cases the molecular weight of the polymer is changed and this affords a way to follow aging phenomena. In the simplest case a homopolymer is subjected to a stress which increases or decreases its molecular weight without any chemical changes. As the situation becomes more complicated, changes in chemical composition occur and different sized molecular species are generated. These new species may be of extremely low molecular weight or they may be in the form of crosslinked gel. This paper reviews methods which are available for the determination of molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of polymeric materials. Recently developed or modified techniques are treated in more detail. Techniques which may be used to characterize the oligomer region or analyze for the presence of crosslinked gel are included.     

Estimation of Defects Based on Defect Decay Model: ED^{3}M

An accurate prediction of the number of defects in a software product during system testing contributes not only to the management of the system testing process but also to the estimation of the product's required maintenance. Here, a new approach called ED³M is presented that computes an estimate of the total number of defects in an ongoing testing process. ED³M is based on estimation theory. Unlike many existing approaches the technique presented here does not depend on historical data from previous projects or any assumptions about the requirements and/or testers' productivity. It is a completely automated approach that relies only on the data collected during an ongoing testing process. This is a key advantage of the ED³M approach, as it makes it widely applicable in different testing environments. Here, the ED³M approach has been evaluated using five data sets from large industrial projects and two data sets from the literature. In addition, a performance analysis has been conducted using simulated data sets to explore its behavior using different models for the input data. The results are very promising; they indicate the ED³M approach provides accurate estimates with as fast or better convergence time in comparison to well-known alternative techniques, while only using defect data as the input.     

Free-form object reconstruction from silhouettes, occluding edges and texture edges: a unified and robust operator based on duality

In this paper, the duality in differential form is developed between a 3D primal surface and its dual manifold formed by the surface's tangent planes, i.e., each tangent plane of the primal surface is represented as a four-dimensional vector which constitutes a point on the dual manifold. The iterated dual theorem shows that each tangent plane of the dual manifold corresponds to a point on the original 3D surface, i.e., the dual of the dual goes back to the primal. This theorem can be directly used to reconstruct 3D surface from image edges by estimating the dual manifold from these edges. In this paper we further develop the work in our original conference papers resulting in the robust differential dual operator. We argue that the operator makes good use of the information available in the image data, by using both points of intensity discontinuity and their edge directions; we provide a simple physical interpretation of what the abstract algorithm is actually estimating and why it makes sense in terms of estimation accuracy; our algorithm operates on all edges in the images, including silhouette edges, self occlusion edges, and texture edges, without distinguishing their types (thus resulting in improved accuracy and handling locally concave surface estimation if texture edges are present); the algorithm automatically handles various degeneracies; and the algorithm incorporates new methodologies for implementing the required operations such as appropriately relating edges in pairs of images, evaluating and using the algorithm's sensitivity to noise to determine the accuracy of an estimated 3D point. Experiments with both synthetic and real images demonstrate that the operator is accurate, robust to degeneracies and noise, and general for reconstructing free-form objects from occluding edges and texture edges detected in calibrated images or video sequences.     

The effect of flaming on computer-mediated negotiations

There is an increasing use of computer media for negotiations. However, the use of computer-mediated channels increases the hostile expressions of emotion, termed flaming. Although researchers agree that flaming has important effects on negotiation, predictions concerning these effects are inconsistent, suggesting a need for further investigation. We address this need by extending current flaming and negotiation research in two ways. First, we identify two different types of flaming: that which is motivated by perceptions concerning the negotiating opponent (e.g., he/she is unfair) and that which is motivated by perceptions concerning the negotiating context (e.g., the communication channel is too slow). Second, we differentiate between the effects of flaming on the concession behaviors of the flame sender and the flame recipient, and the effects of these behaviors on negotiated agreement. Via a laboratory study, we demonstrate that flames directed at the negotiation opponent slightly decrease the likelihood of reaching an agreement, and when an agreement is reached, it result in outcomes significantly favoring the flame recipient rather than the flame sender. In contrast, flames directed at the negotiation context significantly increase the likelihood of agreement, although outcomes still favor the flame recipient over the flame sender. These results suggest that flame senders are generally worse off than flame recipients, which provides an important basis for the strategic use of flaming in negotiations.     

Intuitive robust stability metric for PID control of self-regulating processes

Published methods establish how plant-model mismatch in the process gain and dead time impacts closed-loop stability. However, these methods assume no plant-model mismatch in the process time constant. The work presented here proposes the robust stability factor metric, RSF, to examine the effect of plant-model mismatch in the process gain, dead time, and time constant. The RSF is presented in two forms: an equation form and a visual form displayed on robustness plots derived from the Bode and Nyquist stability criteria. This understanding of robust stability is reinforced through visual examples of how closed-loop performance changes with various levels of plant-model mismatch. One example shows how plant-model mismatch in the time constant can impact closed-loop stability as much as plant-model mismatch in the gain and/or dead time. Theoretical discussion shows that the impact is greater for small dead time to time constant ratios. As the closed-loop time constant used in Internal Model Control (IMC) tuning decreases, the impact becomes significant for a larger range of dead time to time constant ratios. To complete the presentation, the RSF is used to compare the robust stability of IMC-PI tuning to other PI, PID, and PID with Filter tuning correlations.     

A critique of the application of sensory integration therapy to children with learning disabilities

Sensory integration (SI) therapy is a controversial--though popular--treatment for the remediation of motor and academic problems. It has been applied primarily to children with learning disabilities, under the assumption that such children (or at least a subgroup of them) have problems in sensory integration to which some or all of their learning difficulties can be ascribed. The present article critically examines the related issues of whether children with learning disabilities differentially exhibit concomitant problems in sensory integration, and whether such children are helped in any way by means specific to SI therapy. An overview of theoretical contentions and empirical findings pertaining to the first issue is presented, followed by a detailed review of recent studies in the SI therapy research literature, in an effort to resolve the second issue. Results of this critique raise serious doubts as to the validity or utility of SI therapy as an appropriate, indicated treatment for the clinical population in question--and, by extension, for any other groups diagnosed as having "sensory integrative dysfunction." It is concluded that the current fund of research findings may well be sufficient to declare SI therapy not merely an unproven, but a demonstrably ineffective, primary or adjunctive remedial treatment for learning disabilities and other disorders.