Accurate High-speed Assembly of Optical Components in Optical Scanning Systems using UV-curing Adhesives: A Positional and Stability Study

In the miniaturized designs of optical scanning systems, UV-curing adhesives have been substituted for screws and bolts. The assembly of delicate optical components enforces stringent requirements on positional accuracy and stability after temperature and humidity cycle testing. The influence of the UV-curing adhesive is mainly determined by its polymerization shrinkage (typically more than 6%). With low amounts of Aerosil® fillers (5% by weight), shrinkage values of 3% can be attained. Optimized adhesive constructions lead to close positional tolerances (0.5 μm) and angular displacements (0.1 mrad).     

Polymeric dispersions of model azobenzene dyes

New host-guest systems were prepared by using poly(vinyl acetate) and different ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers as polymeric hosts because of their good compatibility with polar molecules. Two symmetric azobenzene diesters, that is 4,4′-dicarboxyethylazobenzene and 4,4′-di(2-ethylhexyloxycarbonyl)azobenzene were selected as guests. Both solution casting and melt processing were adopted for the preparation of dispersion films that were thoroughly characterized by thermal analysis, UV-vis and FT-IR spectroscopy, and by polarized optical microscopy. The reported results indicate that solution casting afforded heterogeneous dispersions of dye microcrystals at guest concentrations larger than 0.3% whereas homogeneous colored films were obtained at lower dye contents. On the other hand, both melt processing and the presence of branched diester groups favored the dye dispersion within the polymer matrix. At 0.1% dye content, the adopted preparation technique did not appreciably affect the film properties. After 4-8 fold stretching, the host-guest films were analyzed by polarized light spectroscopy. Some of the investigated films displayed interesting polarization efficiency, potentially suited for the preparation of thin film polarizers.     

PROCESS CONTROL PERSPECTIVE FOR PROCESS ANALYTICAL TECHNOLOGY: INTEGRATION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PRACTICE INTO SEMICONDUCTOR AND PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES

FDA's Process Analytical Technology (PAT) initiative provides an unprecedented opportunity for chemical engineers to play significant roles in the pharmaceutical industry. In this article, the authors provide their perspectives on (1) the need for chemical engineering principles in pharmaceutical development for a thorough process understanding; (2) applications of chemical engineering principles to meet the challenges from the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries; and (3) the integration of chemical engineering practice into the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries to achieve process understanding and the desired state of quality-by-design. A real-world case study from the semiconductor industry is presented to demonstrate how a classic chemical engineering concept, mixing homogeneity, can be implemented by inducing forced flow to ensure an excellent copper electrochemical plating process performance and to improve product quality substantially. Further, a case study of brake system design is discussed with the concept of Dr. Taguchi's robust engineering design to illustrate how quality-by-design can be achieved through appropriate experimental design, in conjunction with the discussion on the concept of quality-by-design in pharmaceuticals. Third, a case study of freeze-dried sodium ethacrynate is presented to demonstrate the vital importance of controlling the processing factors to achieve the desired product stability. Finally, the problems of the current pharmaceutical manufacturing mode, the opportunities and engineering challenges during implementation of PAT in the pharmaceutical industry, and the role of chemical engineering in implementation of PAT is discussed in detail.     

Preparation of porous poly(lactic acid)/Sio2 hybrid microspheres

With 3‐aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) as coupling agent, poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/SiO₂ hybrid material was prepared to produce poly(lactic acid)/SiO₂ hybrid microspheres (PLAHs) with porous structure bythe oil‐in‐water, single‐emulsion solvent evaporation method. Field scanning electron microscopy results show that the PLAHs were porous microspheres about 20 μm in diameter. The holes in the PLAHs opened outside and were not complicated. A nitrogen adsorption–desorption experiment showed that the nitrogen adsorbed in the holes was easily desorbed, and the specific surface area of the PLAHs was calculated to be 6.87 m²/g according to the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller equation. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results show that PLA was amidated with APTES successfully and formed a kind of organic–inorganic hybrid material by hydrolysis and con‐condensation with tetraethoxysilane. Moreover, the molecular structure of the hybrid material was confirmed by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Differential scanning calorimetry results show that the melting point ofthe PLAHs was higher than that of PLA by about 11.2°C. These PLAHs may be used in the controlled release of drugs by the embedding of the drugs in the holes of the PLAHs, and the drug loading amount can be controlled by the size and number of holes in the PLAHs. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 679–683, 2006     

Local polarity analysis: a sensitive method that discriminates between native proteins and incorrectly folded models

The evaluation of calculated protein structures is an importantstep in the protein design cycle. Known criteria for this assessmentof proteins are the polar and apolar, accessible and buriedsurface area, electrostatic interactions and other interactionsbetween the protein atoms (e.g. HO, S-S),atomic packing, analysisof amino acid environment and surface charge distribution. Weshow that a powerful test of accuracy of protein structure canbe derived by analysing the water contact of atoms and additionallytaking into account their polarity. On the basis of estimatedreference values of the polar fraction of typical globular proteinswith known structure (mean, SD and distribution), the evaluationof misfolded structures can be improved significantly. The referencevalues are derived by moving windows of different length (3–99amino acid residues) over the amino acid sequence. Model proteins,which are included in the Brookhaven protein structure databank,deliberately misfolded proteins, hypothetical proteins and predictedprotein structures are diagnosed as at least partially incorrectlyfolded. The local fault, mostly observed, is that polar groupsare buried too frequently in the interior of the protein. Thedatabase-derived quantities are useful in screening the designedproteins prior to experimentation and may also be useful inthe assessment of errors in the experimentally determined proteinstructures.     

EPC工程总承包项目风险管理分析与对策

工程总承包是国际上通行的一种工程建设项目组织实施方式。工程总承包的风险很大,因此在承包过程中,需认真分析风险因素,正确估算风险大小,制定风险规避措施,减轻和转化风险,这有利于企业的生存和发展。通过对EPC总承包项目风险因素的分析,提出了降低风险的对策。     

PHEVs对配电网故障影响研究

电力工作者对插入式混合动力汽车（PHEVs）进行了大量的研究与讨论,但关于PHEVs对配电网故障的影响却鲜见报道.简要介绍目前PHEVs的研究现状和PHEVs车载电池特性;并以配电网馈线故障电流有效值作为研究对象,研究PHEVs充电对配电网故障的影响,Matlab仿真结果表明：PHEVs的接入不仅影响馈线电流有效值,同时还影响故障电流增长率.     

一类非线性组合系统新的稳定性条件

研究组合大系统存在非线性扰动和不确定性时的稳定性问题。通过对微分方程解的结构研究,应用矩阵相似变换和矩阵指数的特性,将原非线性组合系统的稳定性问题转化为线性系统的稳定性问题。根据线性系统渐近稳定的充分条件,导出了原系统渐近稳定新的判定准则。最后运用数值实例说明了该方法的有效性和可行性。     

供热网循环水泵效率的研究

城市供热系统是极其重要而复杂的大系统,为了提高系统的社会效益和经济效益,从大连北海热电集团热电联产供热管网的实际出发,运用了最小二乘法原理,对采暖循环水泵的性能数据进行曲线拟合,得出了水泵的真正运行状况,并且对使用单台水泵、双台并联或3台并联水泵3种不同情况下的水力工况水泵效率进行了比较和分析。结果表明,单纯地增加并列泵数量对增加流量并无显著变化,并且使并列泵的效率明显下降,只有认真进行严格地工况分析,找到最佳工况点,才能保证整个热系统正常运行。     

再生剂与老化沥青微观作用机理

采用分子动力学模拟方法,根据老化沥青体系溶解度参数变化规律,研究了再生剂组分对老化沥青相容性的影响;通过体系的相互作用能分析,探讨了再生剂组分对老化沥青再生的作用机理。结果表明,芳香分有助于改善老化沥青的相容性,且芳香分掺量越大改善效果越好;饱和分则刚好相反,这与实验结论相一致。芳香分与老化沥青相互作用能随掺量增大而急剧增大,意味着两者相互吸引作用显著增强,其原因在于静电相互作用能占据主导地位,范德华相互作用能相对较小;然而饱和分与老化沥青的相互作用能随掺量变化不大,其中静电相互作用能和范德华相互作用能几乎各占一半贡献。分子间的静电相互作用能是影响老化沥青再生的主要因素。