Recovery of pyruvic acid with weakly basic polymeric sorbents

BACKGROUND: Carboxylic acids are among the most important substances that can be manufactured from biomass. However, the recovery of carboxylic acids from fermentation broths presents a challenging separation problem. To avoid the production of waste salts and net consumption of chemicals in the calcium carboxylate salt process, the use of reversible chemical complexation with polymeric sorbents and extractants is attractive for carboxylic acid recovery. Pyruvic acid is widely used in the manufacture of medicines, pesticides and foodstuffs and can be produced by fermentation. Since the acidity of pyruvic acid (pK_a = 2.49) is stronger than that of normal carboxylic acids, and as few reports on the recovery of pyruvic acid are available, the sorption of pyruvic acid from aqueous solution on two types of weakly basic polymeric sorbent, tertiary amine D301R and primary amine D392, was investigated over a wide pH range and at various salt (MgSO₄) concentrations. RESULTS: Overloading adsorption of pyruvic acid on both weakly basic polymeric sorbents occurred, with the overloading of D392 being greater than that of D301R. The adsorption of pyruvic acid on both sorbents was greatly affected by the solution pH and the salt concentration in the aqueous phase. An overloading model was able to predict the experimental uptake data very well. CONCLUSION: Solution pH is one of the most important operating conditions, and both polymeric sorbents D392 and D301R can be used to recover pyruvic acid from dilute aqueous solution with high efficiency at a solution pH around 2. The uptake by D392 is greater than that by D301R owing to steric hindrance of the tertiary amine. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Solving regularized least squares with qualitatively controlled adaptive cross‐approximated matrices

The adaptive cross‐approximation (ACA) technique is applied to accelerating an inverse‐problem solver that estimates charge distribution on a dielectric spacer. The ACA generates an approximated system‐matrix that enables us to carry out high‐speed inverse calculation. We designed an approximation procedure based on ACA with some additional concepts, that is, (a) partitioning of matrix based on algebraic information, (b) approximation quality control based on matrix norms, and so on. The tested solver (LSQR for regularized least squares) with ACA demonstrates about 10 times faster performance than that without ACA. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 159(3): 10–18, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20326     

Fast parallel Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient algorithms for robot manipulator dynamics simulation

In this paper fast parallel Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (PCG) algorithms for robot manipulator forward dynamics, or dynamic simulation, problem are presented. By exploiting the inherent structure of the forward dynamics problem, suitable preconditioners are devised to accelerate the iterations. Also, based on the choice of preconditioners, a modified dynamic formulation is used to speedup both serial and parallel computation of each iteration. The implementation of the parallel algorithms on two interconnected processor arrays is discussed and their computation and communication complexities are analyzed. The simulation results for a Puma Arm are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed preconditioners. With a faster convergence due to preconditioning and a faster computation of iterations due to parallelization, the developed parallel PCG algorithms represent the fastest alternative for parallel computation of the problem withO(n) processors.     

双相位共轭镜的工作条件参数分析

本文讨论了纯扩散机制的光折变晶体用作单作用区的双相位共轭镜（ＤＰＣＭ）时的阈值耦合强度和允许的输入光强比范围，并与双作用区的情况进行比较后，给出了在输入光强比远离１的条件下，双相位共轭镜的正常工作的条件参数。     

基于GPU-CUDA的共轭斜量法实现及性能对比

偏微分方程数值解法(包括有限差分法、有限元法)以及大量的数学物理方程数值解法最终都会演变成求解大型线性方程组。因此,探讨快速、稳定、精确的大型线性方程组解法一直是数值计算领域不断深入研究的课题且具有特别重要的意义。在迭代法中,共轭斜量法(又称共轭梯度法)被公认为最好的方法之一。但是,该方法最大缺点是仅适用于线性方程组系数矩阵为对称正定矩阵的情况,而且常规的CPU算法实现非常耗时。为此,通过将线性方程组系数矩阵作转换成对称矩阵后实施基于GPU-CUDA的快速共轭斜量法来解决一般性大型线性方程组的求解问题。试验结果表明:在求解效率方面,基于GPU-CUDA的共轭斜量法运行效率高,当线性方程组阶数超过3000时,其加速比将超过14;在解的精确性与求解过程的稳定性方面,与高斯列主元消去法相当。基于GPU-CUDA的快速共轭斜量法是求解一般性大型线性方程组快速而非常有效的方法。     

Conjugate heat transfer in turbulent falling liquid films

Heat transfer characteristics for a falling turbulent liquid film flow over a fin are analyzed using the conjugate convection-conduction theory. Numerical results are obtained from a simultaneous solution of the energy equations of the fluid and the fin. Results are presented for the fin temperature distribution, dimensionless heat transfer coefficients, local heat fluxes, and fin efficiencies.     

基于工作站机群并行求解有限元线性方程组

随着计算机高速网络技术的发展,工作站机群正在成为并行计算的主要平台.有限元线性方程组在土木工程结构分析中是最常见的问题.预处理共轭梯度法(PCGM)是求解线性方程组的迭代方法.对预处理共轭梯度法进行并行化并在两个不同的机群上实现,对存储方式进行详细分析,编程中采用了稀疏矩阵向量相乘的优化技术.数值结果表明,设计的并行算法具有良好的加速比和并行效率,说明并行计算能更快地求解大规模问题.     

A Polymer Defect Passivator for Efficient Hole-Conductor-Free Printable Mesoscopic Perovskite Solar Cells

Due to the low cost and excellent potential for mass production, printable mesoscopic perovskite solar cells (p-MPSCs) have drawn a lot of attention among other device structures. However, the low open-circuit voltage (V_OC) of such devices restricts their power conversion efficiency (PCE). This limitation is brought by the high defect density at perovskite grain boundaries in the mesoporous scaffold, which results in severe nonradiative recombination and is detrimental to the V_OC. To improve the perovskite crystallization process, passivate the perovskite defects, and enhance the PCE, additive engineering is an effective way. Herein, a polymeric Lewis base polysuccinimide (PSI) is added to the perovskite precursor solution as an additive. It improves the perovskite crystallinity and its carbonyl groups strongly coordinate with Pb²⁺, which can effectively passivate defects. Additionally, compared with its monomer, succinimide (SI), PSI serves as a better defect passivator because the long-chained macromolecule can be firmly anchored on those defect sites and form a stronger interaction with perovskite grains. As a result, the champion device has a PCE of 18.84%, and the V_OC rises from 973 to 1030 mV. This study offers a new strategy for fabricating efficient p-MPSCs.     

Redox and pH Dual Responsive Polymer Based Nanoparticles for In Vivo Drug Delivery

Responsive nanomaterials have emerged as promising candidates as drug delivery vehicles in order to address biomedical diseases such as cancer. In this work, polymer‐based responsive nanoparticles prepared by a supramolecular approach are loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) for the cancer therapy. The nanoparticles contain disulfide bonds within the polymer network, allowing the release of the DOX payload in a reducing environment within the endoplasm of cancer cells. In addition, the loaded drug can also be released under acidic environment. In vitro anticancer studies using redox and pH dual responsive nanoparticles show excellent performance in inducing cell death and apoptosis. Zebrafish larvae treated with DOX‐loaded nanoparticles exhibit an improved viability as compared with the cases treated with free DOX by the end of a 3 d treatment. Confocal imaging is utilized to provide the daily assessment of tumor size on zebrafish larva models treated with DOX‐loaded nanoparticles, presenting sustainable reduction of tumor. This work demonstrates the development of functional nanoparticles with dual responsive properties for both in vitro and in vivo drug delivery in the cancer therapy.