Wall thickness distribution in thermoformed food containers produced by a Benco aseptic packaging machine

Effects of process parameters such as forming temperature, forming air pressure and heating time on wall thickness distribution in plug‐assist thermoformed food containers using multilayered material were investigated. Multilayered rollstockbase material formed into containers by thermoforming process using a Benco aseptic packaging machine. Forming temperatures in the range of 131–170°C, airforming pressures of 2, 3, 3. 5 and 4 bars, and heating times of 66, 74, 84, 97 and 114 seconds were used in the thermoforming process. Analysis of wall thickness data obtained for the thermoforming parameters used in this study showed that wall thickness was significantly affected by forming temperature, pressure and heating time at 0.05 significance level. Besides the processing parameters, wall location, container side, and their interactions significantly affected wall thickness. Forming temperature was found to be the principle parameter influencing wall thickness distribution in a plug‐assist thermoforming operation. The optimum operating conditions of the packaging machine for the thermoforming process are: 146–156°C for forming temperature, 2–4 bars for air‐forming pressure and 74–97 seconds for heating time.     

Cue depreciation: When word fragment completion is undermined by prior exposure to lesser fragments.

Studied impairment in ability to think of a previously studied item resulting from a change in extra-item context from study to test in 5 experiments, using a total of 156 Ss (primarily university students). The following results were obtained: a fragment (e.g, r-i--rop) of a just-studied word (raindrop) was shown to be less readily completed if it was presented bit by bit (r------p, r----r-p, r-i--r-p, r-i--rop) rather than all at once (Exps I, III, IV, and V). No such effect was found if the word had not been studied beforehand (Exps II–V). This pattern of results occurred even when fragments of studied and nonstudied words occurred in the same test and under conditions in which Ss could not tell whether a given fragment was of a studied or nonstudied word (Exps IV and V). In addition, for words that had been studied beforehand, the impairment was shown to increase systematically with the number of steps involved in the presentation of the word fragment (Exp III) and also to persist when the time allowed for completion of the final version of the fragment was increased from 4 sec to a full minute (Exp V). The target words are appended. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the generality of the part-set cuing effect: Evidence from nonmemory tasks.

A puzzling finding in memory research is that part–set cuing, or the presentation of some of the to-be-recalled items as cues, impairs recall of the remaining items. In this article a series of four experiments involving nonmemory tasks extends this finding to other cognitive domains. Specifically, it is shown that providing possible responses impairs the production of other responses when words are constructed from the letters of a lengthy word (Experiment 1), when differences between almost identical pairs of pictures are discovered (Experiment 2), when blurred pictures brought gradually into focus are identified (Experiment 3), and when nonsense figures are likened to meaningful objects or scenes (Experiment 4). These findings suggest that the part–set cuing effect in memory may be only one instantiation of a much broader phenomenon. And such a perspective might elicit a more satisfactory explanation of this puzzling effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Environmental flow assessment for energy generation sustainability employing different hydraulic evaluation methods: Çambaşi hydropower plant case study in Turkey

The operating principle of hydroelectric power plants (HPP) is based on utilizing the potential energy of water, which constitutes the basic component of the plant. In other words, water is crucially important in energy production in hydroelectric power plants. The importance of water is not only limited to the energy production, but also can affect directly or indirectly all living things in the water basin. This study deals with the methods of determining the environmental flow, which will not damage the integrity of the rivers and the ecosystem in HPPs, together with enabling the sustainable electricity production as an indirect result. Suggestions are made for determining the environmental flow for Çambas? regulator and Hydropower plant, a run-of-river type power plant in Turkey, after reviewing commonly used methods all over the world. Tennant, Tessmann, and flow duration curve methods were used in determining the environmental flow. Separate calculations were carried out for Cambas? and Ogene regulators, which constitute the hydropower plant. The calculated values were compared with the normal (regime) flow rates and project flow values. As a result, Tessmann method, one of the hydrological based environmental flow determination methods, and good category of Tennant method, 20 % of annual average flow in dry period and 40 % of annual average flow in wet period, are proposed for Çamba?? HPP.     

Performance and emission characteristics of biofuel in a small-scale gas turbine engine

Performance and emissions characteristics of a 30 kW gas turbine engine burning Jet A, soy methyl ester, canola methyl ester, recycled rapeseed methyl ester, hog-fat biofuel, and their 50% (volume) blends in Jet A were studied over a range of throttle settings. The addition of biofuel resulted in a reduction in static thrust and thrust-specific fuel consumption, and increased thermal efficiency. The CO and NO emissions from the turbine were reduced with the biofuel blends. The results suggest that an optimum mixture may be found that reduces pollutant emissions while producing the desired thrust. This study demonstrates that biofuels may serve as viable supplements to petroleum-based fuels.     

Development and characterisation of polyaniline/polyamide (PANI/PA) fabrics for electromagnetic shielding

In this study, novel conductive fabrics were developed by polymerising of aniline onto the polyamide (PA)-knitted fabrics. The fabric treatment was done by the chemical polymerisation method at 0.5, 0.8 and 1.2?M aniline concentrations. Hydrochloric acid as acidic medium and ammonium per sulphate as oxidant were employed during the polymerisation process. The polyaniline (PANI)-treated PA fabric structures were fully characterised and evaluated in terms of their electromagnetic shielding effectiveness, absorption and reflection characteristics and tensile properties. Additionally, the fabrics were examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) for the surface morphology and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy for the chemical functionality. The electromagnetic shielding effectiveness, absorption and reflection characteristics were determined by Network Analyzer with a frequency ranged from 15 to 3000 MHz. The electrical characteristics were measured by the two ends method. It has been concluded that the bursting strength values of the treated fabrics reduced when the amount of monomer in the concentrations decreased as compared to the untreated fabrics. It is interesting to note that 1.2 M treated fabric had the highest bursting strength values as compared to the other treated fabrics. It was also found that 0.5 M concentration of PANI-treated fabric had the lowest surface resistivity due to this it showed the highest conductivity value. Another important finding is that the 0.5 M-aniline treated fabric had the highest shielding effectiveness.     

The revelation effect: When disguising test items induces recognition.

Documented here is a bias whereby items are more likely to be judged as having been presented beforehand if they are disguised in some way and so have to be discovered or "revealed." The bias was found for test words that were unfolded letter by letter (Exps 1 and 3), presented with their letters either transposed (Exps 2 and 3) or individually rotated (Exps 4 and 5) or rotated as a whole (Exp 5), and for test numbers that were presented in the form of Roman numerals (Exp 6) or equations (Exp 7). The bias occurred both for items that were presented beforehand and for those that were not. No bias was found when words were judged, not for prior occurrence, but for typicality as category instances (Exp 8), lexicality (Exp 9), frequency of general usage (Exp 10), or number of times encountered during the preceding week (Exp 11). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)