Pressurised feeding systems

Pressurised feeding is by no means new. Whitworth patented a method for pressurising steel in refractory lined ingot moulds in the mid 1800s, while accounts of pressurising aluminium castings during solidification appeared in the 1930s, and the pressurisation of risers in steel and iron castings surfaced in the 1950s. It is appropriate to distinguish between cases where the whole casting and rigging has been pressurised and those where the feeder heads alone were pressurised. Generally speaking, pressurising the whole casting has not proved especially effective. Early experiments with aluminium involved top pouring of moulds contained in an autoclave. The considerable height through which the metal fell undoubtedly mitigated results. Furthermore, since the alloys were of a non-skin forming variety (i.e. long freezing range) the puncture of the partially solidified surface led to further property degradation.

Work of Watmough and Berry in the US in 1961, repeated by Irani and Kondic at Birmingham published eight years later, employed aluminium sand cast bars with pressurised feeder heads surrounded by stout insulating sleeves. The results of both sets of experiments with long-freezing range alloys, showed excellent promise in terms of reducing dispersed porosity. During the nineties Fischer-Disa picked up this concept and successfully implemented it on a production basis for both aluminium and ductile iron. Most recently MSU in collaboration with US metal casters has applied the technique to tilt-poured permanent moulding (gravity-die casting). The results of this recent work will be described in detail.     

Excited States of Bromopyrimidines Probed by VUV Photoabsorption Spectroscopy and Theoretical Calculations

We report absolute photoabsorption cross sections for gas-phase 2- and 5-bromopyrimidine in the 3.7–10.8 eV energy range, in a joint theoretical and experimental study. The measurements were carried out using high-resolution vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron radiation, with quantum chemical calculations performed through the nuclear ensemble approach in combination with time-dependent density functional theory, along with additional Franck–Condon Herzberg–Teller calculations for the first absorption band (3.7–4.6 eV). The cross sections of both bromopyrimidines are very similar below 7.3 eV, deviating more substantially from each other at higher energies. In the 7.3–9.0 eV range where the maximum cross-section is found, a single and broad band is observed for 5-bromopyrimidine, while more discernible features appear in the case of 2-bromopyrimidine. Several π* ← π transitions account for the most intense bands, while weaker ones are assigned to transitions involving the nitrogen and bromine lone pairs, the antibonding σ*_Br orbital, and the lower-lying Rydberg states. A detailed comparison with the available photo-absorption data of bromobenzene is also reported. We have found significant differences regarding the main absorption band, which is more peaked in bromobenzene, becoming broader and shifting to higher energies in both bromopyrimidines. In addition, there is a significant suppression of vibrational structures and of Rydberg states in the pair of isomers, most noticeably for 2-bromopyrimidine.     

An algorithm for the recognition of levels of congestion in road traffic problems

Detection and recognition of the level of congestion at an intersection is a very important problem and a valuable source of information in traffic management. Although it is just one of all the aspects that make up a traffic management system, it seems to be a crucial point for gathering information. In this paper, we present a technique based on a k-means clustering algorithm for classification, which has been already successfully used in a number of pattern recognition problems, namely: as an algorithm for face recognition problems and in a number of medical diagnosis problems and it compares very well with the state of the art techniques.     

Protein classification by matching and clustering surface graphs

In this paper, we address the problem of comparing and classifying protein surfaces with graph-based methods. Comparison relies on matching surface graphs, extracted from the surfaces by considering concave and convex patches, through a kernelized version of the Softassign graph-matching algorithm. On the other hand, classification is performed by clustering the surface graphs with an EM-like algorithm, also relying on kernelized Softassign, and then calculating the distance of an input surface graph to the closest prototype. We present experiments showing the suitability of kernelized Softassign for both comparing and classifying surface graphs.     

Solution structure of acidic fibroblast growth factor bound to 1,3, 6-naphthalenetrisulfonate: a minimal model for the anti-tumoral action of suramins and suradistas

Recent data show that anti-angiogenesis may provide a promising route to treat cancer. Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) are powerful angiogenic polypeptides, whose mitogenic activity requires the presence of heparin-like compounds. It has been shown that angiogenesis promoted by FGFs on inhibition by monoclonal antibodies and antisense targeting can also inhibit tumour growth. Derivatives of suramin, a polysulfonated binaphthyl urea and binaphthylsulfonated derivatives of distamycin, suradistas, constitute an important group of potential anti-cancer agents. These compounds compete with heparin in forming tight complexes with FGFs. This inhibits the recognition of these growth factors by their tyrosine kinase membrane receptors thereby suppressing their angiogenic activity. Here we show that 1,3,6-naphthalenetrisulfonate, a common chemical function of the suramins and suradistas with the highest anti-angiogenic activity inhibits the mitogenic activity of acidic fibroblast growth factor, and that this inhibition is relieved by increasing concentrations of heparin in the assay. We have also solved the three-dimensional structure in solution of the protein complexed to this compound. The structural data provide clues that may help in understanding the inhibitory effect of suramins and suradistas, and could contribute to the development of new anti-tumoral drugs.     

Comparative study of three methods to detect free plasma antiplatelet antibodies

We have compared three techniques for the detection of plasma circulating antiplatelet antibodies, i.e., the platelet suspension immunofluorescence test (PSIFT), the platelet radioactive antiglobulin test (PRAT), and the monoclonal antibody immobilization of platelet antigens (MAIPA). Frozen plasma samples from patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura or HIV-associated thrombocytopenia were used in the study. The PSIFT and PRAT showed the appropriate ease of performance necessary for screening purposes. The PSIFT is free of radioactivity hazards, but seemed to be less sensitive than the PRAT. The MAIPA is a useful tool to detect antibodies against glycoproteins (GPs) Ib/IX and IIb/IIIa. However, in comparison to PSIFT and PRAT, MAIPA is more time consuming, requires considerable technical expertise, and the identification of antiplatelet activity is highly dependent on the selection of an appropriate primary anti-GP monoclonal antibody. This could explain the lower prevalence of antiplatelet activity detected by MAIPA, in comparison to the frequency provided by the PSIFT and PRAT.     

Hybrid ceramic-polymer material for wood coating with high wearing resistance

The synthesis and characterization of a hybrid ceramic-polymer coating with high wearing resistance and designed to cover wood surfaces, are reported in this work. This hybrid material provides a high wearing resistance (400% higher than a conventional commercial product typically used to protect these surfaces); additionally it has a high UV resistance and high transparency and gloss. The wood surfaces were previously treated either with a primer coating or with a special coupling agent, before the hybrid coating was applied; in both cases, good adhesion with the substrate was obtained. Electronic Publication     

Nanohybrid scratch resistant coatings for teeth and bone viscoelasticity manifested in tribology

We cover teeth surfaces with nanohybrid coatings containing an inorganic ceramic and an organic copolymer constituents. We report the first ever values of scratch penetration depth and scratch recovery for bare and coated teeth. We find that uncoated teeth undergo viscoelastic recovery (healing) after microscratching – the first manifestation of bone viscoelasticity in tribology. The coatings fill "valleys" in teeth surfaces. In each case a large improvement in the scratch resistance as compared to uncoated teeth is seen. The extent of the improvement depends on the inorganic/organic component ratios in the nanohybrids. Electronic Publication