Rates of Crystallization of Dried Lactose-sucrose Mixtures

The isothermal crystallization kinetics of glassy lactose/sucrose mixtures were studied at several storage temperatures (close to T_g and T_m). The kinetic parameters implicit in the Avrami equation were determined. Activation energies for transport (E_D) and surface nucleation (W*) were also found and correlated to the molar composition of the lactose/sucrose mixtures. A monotonic increase in the half crystallization time (t_1/z), Avrami index (n), % crystallization per day, activation energy for transport (E_D) and surface nucleation energy (W*) and a decrease in the crystallization velocity constants (K) were related to the increase in the lactose content of lactose/sucrose mixtures.     

Stored energy analysis of Zn—5Al eutectic alloy in superplastic deformation

The stored energy and the energy release during SPD(superplastic deformation)of a Zn-5Al alloy were studied.The alloy after rolling process gains more stored energy,and the as-rolled speciment can obtain maximum elongation and minimum flow stress without hot loding treatment before SPD.Experimental results show that stroed energy release process is along with SPD process and is also an impetus to SPD.The as -rolled Zn-5Al alloy has 48J/mol stored energy which was measured with DSC(differential scanning calorimeter)and conforms well to the calcuated value.The as-rolled Zn-5Al alloy after SPD with an elongation of 2500% releases 112J/mol stored energy,Analysis shows that the strain rate is in direct ratio to the rate of stred energy release.     

Rhizobium trifolii capsular polysaccharide: a novel biopolymer with striking physical properties

The physical properties of the capsular polysaccharide of Rhizobium Trifolii (CPS) were investigated. Viscosity measurements provided information about the hydrodynamic volume of single coils, the perturbation of solvent flow and the shear-thinning behaviour of concentrated solutions. Changes in chain geometry and the development of an intermolecular network as a function of temperature were monitored using the techniques of optical rotation and dynamic oscillation. Finally, analysis of calorimetric thermograms elucidated the type of interactions between CPS and the bacterial levan. Overall, the Rhizobium polysaccharide was found to form thermally-reversible gels at an extremely low 'minimum critical gelling concentration' (c_o∼ 0.35gl^-1). At temperatures above the gel melting point (∼ 48°C), however, the compact polymer coils entangled at comparatively high concentrations (about 60 times higher than c_o). In the presence of a highly branched levan, the thermal stability of ordered CPS structures increased as a consequence of thermodynamic incompatibility between the two polymers.     

Kinetics study of Ti[O(CH2)4OCHCH2]4 initiated ring‐opening polymerization of ε‐caprolactone by differential scanning calorimetry

Chemical shrinkage was used for the in situ measurement of the progressing chemical stabilization reactions and the influence of ozone during the stabilization of polyacrylonitrile. A method for evaluating the activation energy through the sensitivity temperature is presented. The calculated results show that the activation energies were 161.57 kJ/mol in air and 181.23 kJ/mol in ozone-enriched air. Therefore, the chemical reactions were postponed during stabilization in ozone-enriched air. Ozone seemed to act in three ways: first, ozone promoted the formation of the serious skin–core structure. Second, ozone accelerated the chemical reactions and shortened the stabilization time at lower heating rates. Third, ozone postponed the chemical reactions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2008     

Changes in the thermomechanical behavior of epoxy glasses under the state of strain aging

Changes in thermomechanical behavior with structural relaxation taking place in epoxy glasses were studied. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements and thermostimulated strain recovery tests were performed for specimens deformed and then aged under fixed strain. In the course of heating, the specimens started to absorb thermal energy, whereas plastic strain was still stable. At higher temperatures, plastic strain started recovery, which was accompanied by exothermic behavior of the specimen. With an increase in the aging duration, the endothermic peak signified and moved to a higher temperature. These results indicated that the longer the aging duration was, the harder the plastic strain and strain energy were frozen in the glassy structure. This freeze‐strain phenomenon was observed for crosslinked epoxy glass, as well as polymeric glasses with linear molecular structures, aged under strain. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Effects of processing conditions on the curing of a vinyl ester resin

The effects of temperature, initiator, and accelerator levels on the curing of an epoxy bisphenol‐A vinyl ester resin Derakane® 411‐45 (formulated with styrene) were investigated by gel‐time and exotherm‐peak measurements on bulk samples. It was observed that the gel time was reduced as the initiator or accelerator ratio increased. Except at higher contents of the accelerator, a small kinetic plateau was seen in the gel curve and a shift of the maximum exotherm toward high temperatures in the DSC curves. This was explained by the dual role played by the accelerator species. A regression analysis of all gel‐time data showed a dependence of 3/2 order in the accelerator and first order in the initiator concentrations. Thus, for this polymerization initiation system, the gel time can be predicted for any initiator and cobalt levels and at any temperature within the ranges studied. The effect of the initiator on the unreacted styrene and vinyl ester was also examined. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 84: 1146–1154, 2002; DOI 10.1002/app.10403     

DSC study on simultaneous interpenetrating polymer network formation of epoxy resin and unsaturated polyester

A kinetic study on simultaneous interpenetrating polymer network formation of epoxy resin based on diglycidyl ether of Bisphenol A (DGEBA) and unsaturated polyester (UP) was performed by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Isothermal DSC characterizations of neat resins and their mixture (in a weight ratio of 50/50) were performed at different temperatures. Dynamic DSC characterization of the systems were performed at three different heating rates. A lower total heat of reaction developed during simultaneous polymerization in dynamic DSC tests was found, compared to the total heats developed during pure resins network formation. This phenomenon can be interpreted as an effect of network interlock that could not be compensated for completely by an increase in curing temperature. The kinetics of the reactions was described by empirical models. The DGEBA, in a 50/50 UP/DGEBA blend, indicated a higher rate constant than the pure DGEBA. The obtained results suggests that the hydroxyl end group of UP in the blend provided a favorably catalytic environment for the DGEBA cure. The results are in good agreement with the literature data. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 83: 2689–2698, 2002     

Adaptive fuzzy dynamic surface control for a class of perturbed nonlinear time-varying delay systems with unknown dead-zone

In this paper,adaptive dynamic surface control(DSC) is developed for a class of nonlinear systems with unknown discrete and distributed time-varying delays and unknown dead-zone.Fuzzy logic systems are used to approximate the unknown nonlinear functions.Then,by combining the backstepping technique and the appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals with the dynamic surface control approach,the adaptive fuzzy tracking controller is designed.Our development is able to eliminate the problem of "explosion of complexity" inherent in the existing backstepping-based methods.The main advantages of our approach include:1) for the n-th-order nonlinear systems,only one parameter needs to be adjusted online in the controller design procedure,which reduces the computation burden greatly.Moreover,the input of the dead-zone with only one adjusted parameter is much simpler than the ones in the existing results;2) the proposed control scheme does not need to know the time delays and their upper bounds.It is proven that the proposed design method is able to guarantee that all the signals in the closed-loop system are bounded and the tracking error is smaller than a prescribed error bound,Finally,simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Hemi- and Homozygous Loss-of-Function Mutations in DSG2 (Desmoglein-2) Cause Recessive Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy with an Early Onset

About 50% of patients with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) carry a pathogenic or likely pathogenic mutation in the desmosomal genes. However, there is a significant number of patients without positive familial anamnesis. Therefore, the molecular reasons for ACM in these patients are frequently unknown and a genetic contribution might be underestimated. Here, we used a next-generation sequencing (NGS) approach and in addition single nucleotide polymor-phism (SNP) arrays for the genetic analysis of two independent index patients without familial medical history. Of note, this genetic strategy revealed a homozygous splice site mutation (DSG2–c.378+1G>T) in the first patient and a nonsense mutation (DSG2–p.L772X) in combination with a large deletion in DSG2 in the second one. In conclusion, a recessive inheritance pattern is likely for both cases, which might contribute to the hidden medical history in both families. This is the first report about these novel loss-of-function mutations in DSG2 that have not been previously identi-fied. Therefore, we suggest performing deep genetic analyses using NGS in combination with SNP arrays also for ACM index patients without obvious familial medical history. In the future, this finding might has relevance for the genetic counseling of similar cases.     

CHARAC TERIZATION OF TiAl POWDER PRODUCED BY MECHANICAL ALLOYING

The microstructure,alloying reaction and sintering behavior of the powder produced by Mechanical Al-loying(MA)for 8 h from 64 wt.-% Ti powder and 36 wt.-% Al powder were studied by scanning electronmicroscopy,optical microscopy,X-ray diffractometry,differential scanning calorimetry(DSC)and dilatometry.The mechanically alloyed powder partictes are Ti-Al composite particles.Thus,titanium aluminides can formeasily in the powder through diffusion during heat treatment.It is shown that the sintering behavior of this pow-der,different from the behaviors of TiAl alloy powder and mixed powder of 64 wt.-% Ti powder and 36 wt.-%Al powder,changes from expansion at temperatures below 1000℃ to shrinkage at temperatures above 1000℃.Homogeneously alloyed TiAl material with a density over 96% of the theoretical density can be produced fromthe mechanically alloyed powder by compaction-sintering.