Visualization and quantification of the mechanical deformation induced by an electrical field in poly(ethylene naphthalene 2,6‐dicarboxylate) (PEN) films

An optical nondestructive strain measurement technique was performed to analyze the mechanical deformation induced by an electrical field within the insulating materials. Poly(ethylene naphthalene 2,6‐dicarboxylate) (PEN) films were then subjected to constant electrical fields right up to their electrical breakdown. The experimental technique made it possible to follow the various stages of the mechanical behavior of PEN in real time. The final breakdown occurred in the observation zone and the related mechanical deformation was captured. A “margarita” structure was observed with a hole at the center. The experimental results indicated that the level of the induced‐mechanical deformations depended on the local environment. We defined two different zones representing the inside and the outside of the damaged area. The induced‐deformations were larger in the damaged zone. It was also observed that deformations increased when the sample had a lower degree of crystallinity. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Grafting of maleic anhydride onto polyethylene through a green chemistry approach

The grafting of a polymer can lead to the improvement and modification of the polymer and thus expand its applications. Grafting methods include solution grafting in organic solvents, melt grafting at high temperatures, and light grafting with radioactive sources. These methods have their advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages include waste treatment, consumption of energy, and so on. In this study, a hydrothermal process which is called the green approach, was developed to prepare graft copolymers. The effect of various factors on the grafting degree was investigated in detail. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Computer simulation of the effective double layer occurring on a catalyst surface under electro-chemical promotion conditions

In this work, the structural and energetic properties of two typical catalytic surfaces, Na/Pt(111) and O/Pt(111), are studied by means of quantum mechanical calculations and Monte Carlo Grand Canonical simulations. The simulations were performed with electrostatic potentials at different truncation schemes. In order to elucidate the modification of catalyst surfaces produced by the backspillover of ionic species onto Pt(111), the electrostatic field at the interface due to the electric double layer was also analyzed.     

土钉加锚杆联合支护基坑的失稳分析及处理

根据具体工程实例,介绍了在基坑开挖时采用土钉加锚杆的联合支护方式后在施工过程中出现坍塌裂缝的现象,针对这一现象,分析了施工条件与环境,得出了事故发生的原因,并结合实际情况提出了处理措施.     

Faculty and Student Attitudes Toward Community Service: A Comparative Analysis

The Humanitarian Engineering initiative, sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, at the Colorado School of Mines, is creating a program that will support engineering students in understanding their responsibility for solving community development problems that exist throughout the world. As part of this effort, data has been collected on faculty and student attitudes using the ‘Community Service Attitudes Scale,” developed and validated by Shiarella, McCarthy, and Tucker. During the fall 2004, 78 students and 34 faculty members responded to this instrument. Statistically significant differences were found between the attitudes of students and faculty, males and females, and among different age groupings with respect to service activities. A general finding was that faculty displayed better attitudes toward community service than the students.     

The effect of aromatics on paraffin mild hydrocracking reactions (WNiPd/CeY–Al2O3)

The conversion of heavy paraffin and aromatics into a high-quality diesel fraction was performed in a microplant using a WNiPd/CeY-alumina catalyst. The effects of aromatics and naphtheno-aromatics on mild hydrocracking of hexadecane were studied at different concentrations. Two catalysts, with and without Pd and thermal treatment, were characterized by FTIR, XPS, and TPD of ammonia and ammonia plus naphthalene to complement previous study about the surface composition. The hydrocracking activity and selectivity were tested using different amounts and types of aromatics. This study demonstrated the presence of two acid strengths that contribute in different ways to paraffin and aromatics isomerization, ring opening, and cracking reactions. The product distribution obtained by mild hydrocracking of n-C₁₆ is between amorphous (SiO₂Al₂O₃) and Y-zeolite type of support. The aromatic adsorption on acid sites reduces the cracking rate and improves the survival of di- and tri-branched paraffin. A model for the path of reaction is discussed to explain the results.     

Development of intelligent multisensor surveillance systems with agents

Intelligent multisensor surveillance systems consist of several types of sensors, which are installed on fixed and mobile devices. These components provide a huge quantity of information that has to be contrasted, correlated and integrated in order to recognize and react on special situations. These systems work in highly dynamic environments, with severe security and robustness requirements. All these characteristics imply the need for distributed solutions. In these solutions, scattered components can decide and act with some degree of autonomy (for instance, if they become isolated), or cooperate and coordinate for a complete tracking of special situations. In order to cope with these requirements and to better structure the solution, we have decided to design surveillance system control as a multiagent system. This is done by applying an agent-orientated methodology, which is assessed with concrete scenarios.     

Signals,timers, and continuations for multithreaded user‐level protocols

Precise timing and asynchronous I/O are appealing features for many applications. Unix kernels provide such features on a per‐process basis, using signals to communicate asynchronous events to applications. Per‐process signals and timers are grossly inadequate for complex multithreaded applications that require per‐thread signals and timers that operate at finer granularity. To respond to this need, we present a scheme that integrates asynchronous (Unix) signals with user‐level threads, using the ARIADNE system as a platform. This is done with a view towards support for portable, multithreaded, and multiprotocol distributed applications, namely the CLAM (connectionless, lightweight, and multiway) communications library. In the same context, we propose the use of continuations as an efficient mechanism for reducing thread context‐switching and busy‐wait overheads in multithreaded protocols. Our proposal for integrating timers and signal‐handling mechanisms not only solves problems related to race conditions, but also offers an efficient and flexible interface for timing and signalling threads. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

低温下液体饱和蒸气压的测试

着重介绍了静态法测试低温下（－１００～５０℃）液体饱和蒸气压的原理及方法，给出了低温下液体全氟三乙胺饱和蒸气压的测试结果，并进行了讨论。