Multi-site phase transfer catalyst assisted radical polymerisation of glycidyl methacrylate using potassium peroxydisulphate as initiator – a kinetic study

In this work, the kinetics and mechanism of free-radical polymerisation of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) using potassium peroxydisulphate (PDS) as water soluble initiator in the presence of synthesized 1, 4-Bis (tributyl methyl ammonium) benzene dichloride (TBMABDC) as multi-site phase transfer catalyst (MPTC) was studied. The polymerisation reactions were carried out under inert and unstirred conditions at constant temperature of 60 ± 1°C in cyclohexane/water biphase media. The role of concentrations of monomer, initiator, catalyst and volume fraction of aqueous phase, solvent polarity and temperature on the rate of polymerisation (Rp) was ascertained. The order with respect to monomer and initiator was found to be unity. The order with respect to catalyst was found to be 0.51. The rate of polymerisation is independent of ionic strength and pH of the medium. However, an increase in the polarity of solvent has slightly increased the Rp value. Based on the results obtained, a suitable kinetic scheme has been proposed to account for the experimental observations and its significance discussed.     

Research on Marine Boiler＇s Pressurized Combustion and Heat Transfer

The effect of pressure on combustion and heat transfer is analyzed. The research is based on the basic combustion and heat transfer theorem. A correction for the heat calculation method for pressurized furnace is made on the basis of the normal pressure case. The correction takes the effect of pressurizing into account. The results show that the correction is reasonable and the method is applicable to combustion and heat transfer of the marine supercharged boiler.     

Synthesis of Mg-α-sialon from the mixture of silicon, aluminum and magnesia powders in a flowing nitrogen atmosphere

Synthesis of Mg-α-Sialon has been investigated by the mixture of silicon, aluminum and magnesia powders in a flowing nitrogen atmosphere in the range of 1300–1600 °C, when Mg-α-Sialon is designed with a chemical formulation of Mg _x Si_12−3x Al_3x O _x N_16−x in present work. The results showed that Mg-α-sialon initially occurred at 1400 °C and basically increased with elevated temperatures. For the samples of x = 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 the products mainly consisted of Mg-α-Sialon with small amounts of Si, AlN and 21R AlN-polytypoid phases at 1600° C. However, in final products of x = 1.2, 1.4 and 1.6 only a little of Mg-α-Sialon formed and a great amount of Si remained in these samples at all the fired temperatures. Fortunately, the content of Mg-α-Sialon in these samples were obviously increased by adding a small amount of α-Si₃N₄ as seeds before nitridation.     

A Study on NMR and GC/MS Spectra of the Isomers of Linear Hexyl Naphthalene

The GC/MS and NMR analysis of the reaction products of naphthalene with 1-bromohexane were reported. The products obtained were suggested to have six isomers of linear hexylnaphthalene and the structure of each isomer was determined by GC/MS and NMR spectra. For the first time, the unique chemical shift data were obtained. The content of each isomer calculated by ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR spectra was consistent with that by GC/MS spectra, which confirmed the accuracy of NMR data.     

Softwarekartographie

Zusammenfassung  Anwendungslandschaften in Unternehmen sind langlebige hoch-komplexe Strukturen bestehend aus hunderten bis tausenden von miteinander vernetzten betrieblichen Informationssystemen, die von Personen mit sehr unterschiedlichen Interessen und Erfahrungshintergrund konzipiert, erstellt, modifiziert, betrieben, genutzt und finanziert werden. Die Softwarekartographie zielt darauf ab, die Kommunikation zwischen diesen Personen durch zielgruppenspezifische verst?ndliche graphische Visualisierungen zu unterstützen, die Gesch?fts- und Informatik-Aspekte gleicherma?en berücksichtigen, und die speziell für langfristige und strategische Management-Betrachtungen geeignet sind. In diesem Beitrag fassen wir zun?chst die in der betrieblichen Praxis wohlbekannten Probleme beim Management von Anwendungslandschaften zusammen und diagnostizieren erhebliche Kommunikationsdefizite. Da Anwendungslandschaften als Systeme von Systemen mit Menschen als integrale Systembestandteile zu verstehen sind, werden Karten als attraktiver L?sungsansatz identifiziert und die wesentlichen Konzepte der Softwarekartographie anhand von Beispielen vorgestellt. Dabei werden Querbezüge zu anderen Fachgebieten der Informatik und Wirtschaftsinformatik hergestellt, und die bisherige Nutzung der Forschungsergebnisse in der Praxis gezeigt.     

Recrystallization of phenylbutazone using supercritical fluid antisolvent process

Phenylbutazone was recrystallized from its solutions by using a supercritical fluid antisolvent process. It was dissolved in acetone and supercritical carbon dioxide was injected into the solution, thereby inducing supersaturation and particle formation. Variation in the physical properties of the recrystallized phenylbutazone was investigated as a function of the crystallizing temperature and the carbon dioxide injection rate. The recrystallized particles showed cleaner surfaces and more ordered morphology compared to the particles obtained by other methods such as solvent evaporation. X-ray diffraction patterns indicated that the crystallinity of the particles had been modified upon the recrystallization. Differential scanning calorimetry measurement revealed that the crystallizing temperature influenced the thermal stability of the resulting crystals. Larger crystals were produced when the carbon dioxide injection rate was reduced.     

Photochemical reduction of molecular weight and number of double bonds in natural rubber film

Natural rubber (NR) can be degraded depending on various factors such as heat, mechanical force, chemical reaction, and light. Light is a very interesting factor because it can cause the NR to degrade under low temperature and pressure. The photo-degradation of NR films was carried out to investigate the effects of the light and the temperature on the reduction of the weight-average molecular weight (Mw) and the double bonds in the NR films. The NR films, with and without catalysts, titanium dioxide (TiO₂), and potassium persulfate (K₂S₂O₈), were exposed to light from a mercury light bulb at 7,000 and 36,000 lux, and at the temperature of 25 °C and 80 °C for 192 hrs. After exposure, the Mw of the NR films was analyzed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Changes in the Mw were used to construct a kinetic model for the process, (1/Mw)=(1/Mw₀)+(kt/2M₀) where k is the rate constant, and M₀ is the Mw of the monomer unit. The linear relationship between 1/Mw and time suggested pseudo first-order processes with random scission. The Mw distribution information from the GPC was used to calculate the number of double bonds in the NR films. The trend of the double bonds reduction curves was quite similar to the result obtained from the calculation from the FTIR spectra. This indicated that this calculation method might possibly be another alternative way to obtain the number of double bonds in the NR.     

Automating application software generation

Many approaches have been proposed to enhance software productivity and reliability. These approaches typically fall into three categories: the engineering approach, the formal approach and the knowledge-based approach. But the optimal gain in software productivity cannot be obtained if one relies on only one of these approaches. This paper describes the work in knowledge-based software engineering conducted by the authors for the past 10 years. The final goal of the research is to develop a paradigm for software engineering which integrates the three approaches mentioned above. A knowledge-based tool which can support the whole process of software development is provided in this paper.     

Self-adjusting the intensity of assortative mating in genetic algorithms

Mate selection plays a crucial role in both natural and artificial systems. While traditional Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) usually engage in random mating strategies, that is, mating chance is independent of genotypic or phenotypic distance between individuals, in natural systems non-random mating is common, which means that somehow this mechanism has been favored during the evolutionary process. In non-random mating, the individuals mate according to their parenthood or likeness. Previous studies indicate that negative assortative mating (AM)—also known as dissortative mating—, which is a specific type of non-random mating, may improve EAs performance by maintaining the genetic diversity of the population at a higher level during the search process. In this paper we present the Variable Dissortative Mating Genetic Algorithm (VDMGA). The algorithm holds a mechanism that varies the GA’s mating restrictions during the run by means of simple rule based on the number of chromosomes created in each generation and indirectly influenced by the genetic diversity of the population. We compare VDMGA not only with traditional Genetic Algorithms (GA) but also with two preceding non-random mating EAs: the CHC algorithm and the negative Assortative Mating Genetic Algorithm (nAMGA). We intend to study the effects of the different methods in the performance of GAs and verify the reliability of the proposed algorithm when facing an heterogeneous set of landscapes. In addition, we include the positive Assortative Mating Genetic Algorithm (pAMGA) in the experiments in order test both negative and positive AM mechanisms, and try to understand if and when negative AM (or DM) speeds up the search process or enables the GAs to escape local optima traps. For these purposes, an extensive set of optimization test problems was chosen to cover a variety of search landscapes with different characteristics. Our results confirm that negative AM is effective in leading EAs out of local optima traps, and show that the proposed VDMGA is at least as efficient as nAMGA when applied to the range of our problems, being more efficient in very hard functions were traditional GAs usually fail to escape local optima. Also, scalability tests have been made that show VDMGA ability to decrease optimal population size, thus reducing the amount of evaluations needed to attain global optima. We like to stress that only two parameters need to be hand-tuned in VDMGA, thus reducing the tuning effort present in traditional GAs and nAMGA.