Adsorption and desorption characteristics of 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid onto activated carbon

Adsorption and desorption characteristics of the 2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) from aqueous solution onto the activated carbon (GAC, F-400) were studied. Adsorption equilibrium capacities of the MCPA increased with decreasing pH and temperature of the solution. Adsorption equilibrium of the MCPA could be represented by the Sips equation. The internal diffusion coefficients were determined by comparing the experimental concentration decay curves with those predicted from surface diffusion model and pore diffusion model. The adsorption model based on the linear driving force approximation (LDFA) was used for simulating the adsorption behavior of the MCPA in a fixed bed. Over ninety five percent desorption of the MCPA could be obtained using distilled water.     

Monodisperse polymer/metal composite particles by electroless chemical deposition: Effect of surface functionality of polymer particles

Micron‐sized polymer particles were coated with layers of nickel compounds by plating electrolessly in the presence of aqueous solutions of nickel chloride, sodium hypophosphite, sodium citrate, and ammonium chloride at elevated temperature. The uniform functional polymer particle could be obtained by seeded polymerization. To investigate the effect of surface functionality on the conditions for nickel deposition, the polymer particle was functionalized with the thiol group. From morphological observation, it was found that the mode of nickel deposition was greatly dependent on the surface functionality of the polymer particle. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 420–424, 2003     

Item recommendation based on context-aware model for personalized u-healthcare service

A personalized service in the ubiquitous environment is to provide services or items, which reflect personal tastes, attitudes, and contexts. It is impossible to reflect the context information generated in u-healthcare environments due to the existing recommendation system performing the recommendation using the information directly input by users and application usage record only. This study develops a context-aware model using the context information provided by the context information model. The study applies it to the extraction of the missing value in a collaborative filtering process. The context-aware model reflects the information that selects items by users according to the appropriate context using the C-HMM and provides it to users. The solution of the missing value in the preference significantly affects the recommendation accuracy in a preference based item supply method. Thus, this study developed a new collaborative filtering for ubiquitous environments by reflecting the missing preference value and reflecting it to the collaborative filtering using the context-aware model. Also, the validity of this method will be evaluated by applying it to menu services in u-healthcare services.     

Strain-Induced Deformation in Magnesia–Alumina Layered Composites

Ceramic beams are induced in situ to form complex shapes at elevated temperature without the application of an external stress. This process has been demonstrated for thin alumina substrates coated with a layer of magnesia. The internal strain causing the substrates to deform at elevated temperature arises as a consequence of strain mismatch accompanying the penetration of the coating into the substrate. The magnitude of the deformation depends on the amount of coating applied, on the thickness of the substrate, on the density of the substrate, and on the temperature. During exposure of the beams to elevated temperature, the magnesia coating reacts with the alumina substrate to form the spinel phase; the resulting volume change accompanying the phase transformation is likely the predominant driving force for deformation.     

Preparation of phenolic resin derived 3-D ordered macroporous carbon

Three-dimensionally ordered long-range macroporous carbon structures were prepared using commercially available phenolic resin by utilizing sacrificial colloidal silica crystalline arrays as templates that were subsequently removed by HF etching after pyrolysis in an argon atmosphere. SEM, TEM, and BET were employed to characterize the morphology and the surface area of the porous carbon structures. The pore size (150–1000 nm) and BET surface area, which reflect pore volume (298.6 m²/g (1.32 cm³/g) ∼ 93.7 m²/g (0.12 cm³/g)), of the macroporous carbon structures produced were approximately proportional to the size (150–1000 nm) of the sacrificial silica sphere templates used (annealing temp. 550°C). The achieved 550 nm porous carbon structures were examined to function as potential catalyst carriers and were successfully impregnated with Ag or Pt-Ru on their inner walls after borohydride reduction at room temperature. In addition, porous carbon patterns were fabricated using the ‘micromolding in capillary’ technique, which has potential applications in the microreaction technology.     

Development of head detection and tracking systems for visual surveillance

This paper proposes a technique for the detection of head nod and shake gestures based on eye tracking and head motion decision. The eye tracking step is divided into face detection and eye location. Here, we apply a motion segmentation algorithm that examines differences in moving people’s faces. This system utilizes a Hidden Markov Model-based head detection module that carries out complete detection in the input images, followed by the eye tracking module that refines the search based on a candidate list provided by the preprocessing module. The novelty of this paper is derived from differences in real-time input images, preprocessing to remove noises (morphological operators and so on), detecting edge lines and restoration, finding the face area, and cutting the head candidate. Moreover, we adopt a K-means algorithm for finding the head region. Real-time eye tracking extracts the location of eyes from the detected face region and is performed at close to a pair of eyes. After eye tracking, the coordinates of the detected eyes are transformed into a normalized vector of x-coordinate and y-coordinate. Head nod and shake detector uses three hidden Markov models (HMMs). HMM representation of the head detection can estimate the underlying HMM states from a sequence of face images. Head nod and shake can be detected by three HMMs that are adapted by a directional vector. The directional vector represents the direction of the head movement. The vector is HMMs for determining neutral as well as head nod and shake. These techniques are implemented on images, and notable success is notified.     

Concentration of tocopherols from soybean sludge by supercritical carbon dioxide

A supercritical fluid extraction method has been applied to test the feasibility of tocopherol concentration from soybean sludge with carbon dioxide at temperatures and pressures ranging from 35 to 70°C and 200 to 400 bar, respectively. The supercritical solubility of the esterified soybean sludge was over 4–6 times greater than that of the original soybean sludge. By a simple batch-type one-stage method the tocopherols in the esterified soybean sludge could be concentrated up to 40 wt%. The overall results of the present study show that soybean sludge initially containing about 13–14 wt% tocopherols may require a countercurrent multistage column to be highly and effectively concentrated.     

Analysis of deformation processes in glassy polycarbonate using internal friction measurements during a tensile test

Internal friction has been measured by torsion at 1 Hz during tensile tests performed on glassy polycarbonate at room-temperature. Steady-state flow and transient effects have been studied during continuous tensile tests and strain-rate changes. During steady-state, internal friction and flow-stress vary in a similar way with strain-rate. But during transients, internal friction varies continuously while flow-stress passes through a maximum (or a minimum). These results are interpreted assuming that non-elastic deformation of glassy polymers requires some microscopic discontinuous processes such as motion of defects. Two parameters are considered: the velocity v and the density ρ of mobile defects. Assuming that the former is directly related to the flow stress, it has been shown that internal friction is related to the density of mobile defects ρ. This feature is used to interpret the different stages of a tensile test curve. Activation volumes for both velocity and density of mobile defects are calculated from experimental data.     

A study on the factors for improving the ethanol production from Jerusalem artichoke by Kluyveromyces fragilis

This study is to investigate the factors influencing the alcohol production byKluyveromyces fragilis using the juice of Jerusalem Artichoke tubers. The cell growth rate and ethanol production rate were stimulated by aeration and by the addition of unsaturated fatty acids and the cell mass production and the ethanol production were substantially improved. It was found that oxygen and unsaturated fatty acids added played a decisive role on the increase of alcohol tolerance of yeast.     

Interaction of CETP inhibitory peptide and lipoprotein substrates in cholesteryl ester transfer assay: relationship between association properties and inhibitory activities

In a previous study, CETP inhibitory peptide (3 kDa) was isolated from hog plasma. The peptide, synthesized chemically according to the amino acid sequence of the 3-kDa peptide (designated P₂₈), showed CETP inhibitory activity both in vitro and in vivo [Cho et al. (1998) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1391, 133–144]. We report herein further unique features of P₂₈ when it was associated with the cholesteryl ester (CE)-donor and-acceptor lipoproteins. Lipoprotein substrates with P₂₈ present in both HDL (as a CE-donor) and LDL (as a CE-acceptor) served as poor substrates, with CE-transfer activity decreased up to 60% compared to normal substrates without P₂₈. P₂₈ was found to be located in HDL fractions of hog plasma and showed the same electromobility as that visualized by PAGE on 7% polyacrylamide gel under nondenaturing conditions. Addition of apolipoprotein A-1 (apoA-1) or apoB antibody to a normal CE-transfer mixture did not alter CE-transfer activity. However, addition of apoA-1 or −B antibody to a CETP-inhibition mixture decreased the inhibitory activity of P₂₈ by ca. 20%. Western blot analysis revealed that P₂₈ was associated only with human and hog HDL among several lipoproteins purified from human, hog, and rabbit. CFTP-inhibition assays with various lipoprotein substrates revealed that P₂₈ exhibited substrate-specific inhibitory activity. The inhibitory activity of P₂₈ was highly dependent on the type of lipoprotein substrate (whether CE-donor or-acceptor); P₂₈ inhibited CE transfer from HDL to LDL, but it did not inhibit CE transfer from HDL to HDL.