The Effect of Sulphur and Water Treatments on the Performance of Pd/��-Zeolite Diesel Oxidation Catalysts

Sulphur, sulphur-water, and water pretreatments were done to find out the effect of these compounds on a diesel oxidation Pd/??-zeolite catalyst and ??-zeolite washcoat. After pretreatments, the samples were analysed by BET, XRF, TEM-SEM, and XPS. In addition, the activity of fresh and pretreated Pd/??-zeolite catalysts was studied utilizing the by Gasmet FT-IR in production gas analysis. Sulphur compounds (SO₂ or ?SO₄) were found to have a deactivating effect on the activity of the studied Pd/??-zeolite catalyst.     

Growth on poly(l-lactic acid) porous scaffold preserves CD73 and CD90 immunophenotype markers of rat bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells

Few data are available on the effect of biomaterials on surface antigens of mammalian bone marrow-derived, adult mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs). Since poly(l-lactic acid) or PLLA is largely used in tissue engineering of human bones, and we are developing a reverse engineering program to prototype with biomaterials the vascular architecture of bones for their bioartificial reconstruction, both in humans and animal models, we have studied the effect of porous, flat and smooth PLLA scaffolds on the immunophenotype of in vitro grown, rat MSCs in the absence of any coating, co-polymeric enrichment, and differentiation stimuli. Similar to controls on plastic, we show that our PLLA scaffold does not modify the distribution of some surface markers in rat MSCs. In particular, the maintained expression of CD73 and CD90 on two different subpopulations (small and large cells) is consistent with their adhesion to the PLLA scaffold through specialized appendages, and to their prominent content in actin. In addition, our PLLA scaffold favours retention of the intermediate filament desmin, believed a putative marker of undifferentiated state. Finally, it preserves all rat MSCs morphotypes, and allows for their survival, adhesion to the substrate, and replication. Remarkably, a subpopulation of rat MSCs grown on our PLLA scaffold exhibited formation of membrane protrusions of uncertain significance, although in a size range and morphology compatible with either motility blebs or shedding vesicles. In summary, our PLLA scaffold has no detrimental effect on a number of features of rat MSCs, primarily the expression of CD73 and CD90.     

Experimental investigation and process optimization of the ultrasonic welding applied to papers

Ultrasonic welding is a serious candidate in the development of methods to assemble papers and paperboards without using additional substances. However, the ultrasonic welding of papers remains a technological challenge considering the low weldability of lignocellulosic materials. This study aims to investigate on the ultrasonic welding process applied to papers in order to identify the processing conditions which favor the formation of strong welded joints. To reach such purpose, an experimental strategy was developed by combining the characterization of welded materials and the monitoring of process parameters. Experimentations were performed using a reference paper displaying a good weldability to specifically highlight the contribution of process parameters. Results indicate that the process is highly sensitive to vibration amplitude, power supplied by the high frequency generator, and sample thickness. Power seems to be a reliable indicator of the severity of the process. A strong decrease in the strength of the welded joints is observed when working with low thicknesses. It seems that the layers coated on top of papers are the main part of the material contributing in the development of adhesion at the welding joint. Overall, instrumenting the device has led to a better understanding of the ultrasonic welding of papers.     

Review of The analysis of the transference in the here and now and Essential papers on transference analysis.

Reviews the books, The analysis of the transference in the here and now by Gregory Bauer (see record 1994-97149-000) and Essential papers on transference analysis, also by Gregory Bauer (see record 1994-97131-000). These are companion volumes which present an excellent, systematic understanding of Bauer's contemporary approach to Here and Now Transference Analysis in psychodynamic and psychoanalytic practice. The here-and-now method highlights the use of the affective immediacy of the relationship between the patient and therapist to "clarify, explore and modify interpersonal conflict rather than as a springboard for discussing the genetic determinants of conflict." Bauer focuses on reactions and behavior patterns that are transference based, as opposed to focusing on the transference neurosis seen as the systematic development and interpretation of fantasies and attitudes that are highly organized and displaced onto the therapist. The former is viewed as a less intense variation of the latter; both are felt to be a part of the same transference continuum. Bauer's volumes provide the clinician with an excellent overview and primer on Here and Now transference analysis, as well as its history, conceptual underpinnings and techniques for using it in the therapeutic relationship. The analytic and psychodynamic practitioner alike will find these books an invaluable addition to their professional libraries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Investigation of the lithium-rich boundary of the Li1+x Mn2−x O4 cubic spinel phase in air

Several compositions of the cubic spinel Li_1+x Mn_2?x O_4?δ phase in the lithium–manganese–oxygen (Li–Mn–O) system were synthesized at 700, 750, and 800 °C in air ( $ p_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }} $  = 0.2 atm) to investigate the Li-rich boundary of the cubic spinel phase at these temperatures. The lattice parameters of the several compositions were determined by Rietveld analysis of the measured X-ray patterns, and the Li and Mn contents of the samples were measured using inductively coupled plasma with optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). A Vegard-like dependence of the measured lattice parameter of the cubic spinel phase with Li to Mn ratio exists in the homogeneity range of the cubic spinel. This dependence could be used to derive the boundary of the single phase cubic spinel field in the Li–Mn–O system at 700 and 750 °C at $ p_{{{\text{O}}_{2} }} $  = 0.2 atm and to estimate the Li-rich boundary at 800 °C. The results of the present study are compared with two other experimental studies on the homogeneity range of the cubic spinel phase in an attempt to resolve the contradiction between these two studies.     

Integration of global manufacturing networks and supply chains: a cross case comparison of six global automotive manufacturers

Striving for new business opportunities automotive original equipment manufacturers established overseas plants in emerging markets and global manufacturing networks evolved. In this regard so-called knocked down supply chains have been the key for the establishment of successful overseas operations. Importing all parts required from the original plants in form of easy to be handled kits secures a high product quality and stable supply despite lacking qualification of local workforce and supplier bases. Over time the overseas plants and global manufacturing networks have matured by increasingly taking over value adding processes and integrating local suppliers. However, the supply chain structure and management have not been adapted accordingly and still comprise high inventory buffers and lead times. There is little research on the integrated design of global manufacturing networks and knocked down supply chains. This research aims to contribute to close this research gap by means of a cross-case study with six globally operating OEMs investigating the fit of knocked down supply chains and global manufacturing networks. On the basis of transaction cost theory, we develop an integrated framework to align global manufacturing networks and knocked down supply chain design that can serve as guideline to open logistics performance and cost potentials.     

Rotating correlations in partially coherent fields

Abstract

Partially coherent optical fields whose cross-spectral density functions rotate on propagation are examined. The general theory for rotating partially coherent fields in the space-frequency domain is derived for both scalar and electromagnetic approaches. Differences between the results obtained with full and partial coherence is discussed. A numerical example is given for rotating intensity distributions.     

BMC via on-the-fly determinization

This paper develops novel bounded model checking (BMC) techniques for asynchronous parallel systems. The aim is to increase the efficiency of BMC by exploiting the inherent concurrency in such systems. This added efficiency is gained by covering more reachable states within a given bound using two techniques. Firstly, a nonstandard execution model, step executions, where multiple actions can take place simultaneously is applied. Secondly, the number of executions the system can have is reduced by modeling the execution of the system components as if they were determinized. This determinization technique also enables the removal of the internal transitions of the components. Step executions can be further restricted to a subclass called process executions without losing any reachable states.The paper presents a translation scheme for BMC of reachability properties. The translation is from an asynchronous system where the components are modeled as labeled transition systems (LTSs) to a propositional formula. The models of the formula correspond to the step executions of the original system where each component is replaced with its determinized counterpart. The formula for step executions can be easily extended in such a way that its models correspond to the process executions of the system. The translation scheme has been implemented and some experimental comparisons performed. The results show that the bound needed to detect a violation of a reachability property is, for step and process executions, in most cases lower than in interleaving executions and that the running time of the model checker using process executions is smaller than of that using steps. Moreover, the performance compares favorably to a state-of-the-art interleaving BMC implementation in the NuSMV system.     

Swap compression: resurrecting old ideas

The performance of memory‐intensive applications tends to be poor due to the high overhead added by the swapping mechanism. The same problem may be found in highly‐loaded multi‐programming systems where all running applications have to use the swap space in order to be able to execute at the same time. In this paper, we present a solution to these problems. The idea consists of compressing the swapped pages and keeping them in a swap cache whenever possible. The idea of a compressed swap cache was proposed a few years ago, but it did not achieve the expected results due to hardware limitations. As processors are much faster and the performance gap between processors and disk is also much bigger, we believe that now it is the right time to revisit this idea. In this paper, we present a new implementation of the compressed cache, plus some enhancements that significantly improve the performance of the swapping mechanism. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.