Kinetics of the reaction of hypobromous acid and organic matters in water treatment processes.

The fate of bromine species from human activity is affected by the bromination reaction in water treatment processes. In this study, kinetic information of the reaction between hypobromous acid (HOBr) and seven different natural organic matters (NOM) was collected by sequential stopped-flow techniques. Multiple reaction phases were found in the reaction between HOBr and NOM. The number of reaction sites for the faster reaction phase ranged from 0.26 to 0.92 micromole (mg DOC)(-1), and was correlated to both SUVA and specific phenolic content at pH 7.0. The apparent second-order rate constants for the faster reaction phase at pH 7.0 ranged from 5.4 x 10(5) to 1.4 x 10(6) M(-1) x s(-1), indicating that vanillin-like structures are involved in this reaction phase.     

Nonlinear adaptive control system design and experiment for a 3-DOF model helicopter

This paper deals with model following control of a model helicopter with three degree-of-freedom. Since the decoupling matrix is singular, a nonlinear structure algorithm is used to design the controller. Furthermore, since the model dynamics are described linearly by unknown system parameters, a well-known parameter estimation technique is introduced. The integral type of estimation model is proposed here since the use of the derivative type of model cannot obtain the desired estimation result. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method. This work was presented in part at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008     

Am1 MO Study of Benzene Nitro Derivatives

Molecular properties of benzene nitro derivatives were investigated by using semi-empirical MO calculations. As the results, the molecular structures and the rotational barrier of the nitro group calculated by AM1 showed a good agreement with the experimental values. The heats of formation in gaseous and condensed phases were obtained by considering isodesmic reactions. By this procedure, the heat of formation of hexanitrobenzene in solid phase was calculated to be +22.7 kcal/mol. The detonation parameters were also calculated by using four equations of state. The predicted detonation velocities showed a good agreement with the experimental values.     

A novel method for determining vitamin B1 in a wide variety of foodstuffs with or without polyphenols

Certain foodstuffs exhibit matrix interference effects on the vitamin B₁ analysis prescribed in the official methods of the European Union, AOAC International, and Japan. In this study, we demonstrated that one of the problematic polyphenols in green tea or cocoa was tannin. For these matrices, thiamine was found to interact with tannin in the extraction step and was thus removed by filtration as a residue. To resolve the matrix interference, we proposed lowering the pH of the extraction solution by adding hydrochloric acid after the enzyme reaction. High precision (2–3% RSDr) and good recovery (98.3–103%) were obtained with reference materials using the proposed method. We also confirmed the equivalence of the obtained data from the proposed method and the Japanese official method for nutritional labeling. From these results, the method was found to be effective for vitamin B₁ analysis regardless of the presence of interference matrices.     

Isolation and characterization of the Shiga toxin gene (stx)-bearing Escherichia coli O157 and non-O157 from retail meats in Shandong Province, China, and characterization of the O157-derived stx2 phages

Infection by Shiga toxin (Stx)-producing Escherichia coli of non-O157 and O157 serotypes are rare in China, but infection by O157 serotype was found in Shandong Province and three other provinces in China. To understand the reason for these rare infections and to determine the safety of retail meats in Shandong Province, we examined the distribution of Shiga toxin gene (stx)-bearing E. coli in retail meats and characterized the isolated stx-bearing strains. We used hybridization with DNA probes and isolated stx1- and/or stx2-positive E. coli from 31 (58%) of 53 retail meat samples, with beef showing the highest frequency (68%). Of 42 stx-positive isolates, none belonged to O157. Using the O157-specific immunomagnetic bead technique, we isolated E. coli O157 carrying the eae and stx2 genes from eight beef samples (26%). These strains produced little or no Stx2 and carried a unique q gene. Replication of the stx2 phages was detected in these strains, whereas stx2 phage replication was not detected in our previous study in which we examined similar stx2-bearing E. coli O157 strains from other Asian countries. Analysis of E. coli C600 lysogenized with the stx2 phages found in this study suggests that the lack of Stx2 production is due to changes in non-q gene region(s) of the phage genome or chromosomal mutation(s) in the host. Our data and reports by other workers suggest it is necessary to determine if various stx2-bearing E. coli O157 strains producing Stx2 to varying degrees are distributed in meats in various locations in China.     

Nyquist stability criterion of intrinsic zeros for continuous-time pure imaginary zeros

This note treats a stability condition of the zeros of sampled systems corresponding to continuous-time pure imaginary zeros with multiplicity one for systems with the relative degree one. It is shown that the Nyquist plot can be used to check the stability condition.     

DC conduction associated with electric field-induced motion in mineral oils

The contributions of the electrohydrodynamic (EHD) motion to the dc electric conduction in insulating oils are presented. The effects of solid/liquid interfaces on the EHD motion have been studied with a mineral oil-polypropylene mixed dielectric and a mineral oil single dielectric. The time dependence of current, schlieren images of EHD motion induced in the oil layer and response signals of density change in the vicinity of the electrode/oil interfaces after application of step voltage are observed. The results are as follows: (1) the EHD motion occurs at the positive electrode/oil interfaces when a voltage above critical voltage is applied; (2) a time delay exists between the application of step voltage and the onset of EHD motion. The time is inversely proportional to the applied voltage; (3) the EHD motion increases current and produces a peak phenomena in the current waveform; and (4) the time difference between peak current time and the delay time is inversely proportional to applied voltage.     

Velocity, electromechanical coupling factor and acoustic loss of surface shear waves propagating along x-axis on rotated Y-cut plates of LiNbO3

Velocity and propagation loss of surface shear waves are measured on free-space and metallised surfaces of LiNbO3 crystals along the x-axis of rotated Y-cut plates as a function of rotation about the x-axis between 35° and 70°. The coupling factor obtained from the velocities is 0.20 for a 35° rotated Y-cut plate and 0.09 for a 70° plate. The coupling factor changes linearly with the rotation angle. The propagation losses over the whole range measured here are less than 5 dB/cm on both free-space and on metallised surfaces. These losses are fairly low and very favourable for fabricating s.a.w. filters.     

烧结工艺对Cu-20Zn黄铜力学性能的影响

利用日本网带式连续烧结炉,采用2种不同的烧结工艺制备Cu-20%Zn黄铜,研究烧结工艺对其力学性能和微观组织的影响。第1种烧结工艺是快速升温到550℃预烧50 min,然后在860℃高温烧结50 min;第2种烧结工艺是在200 min内将温度从100℃缓慢升高到750℃,然后升温到870℃保温1 h。结果表明:采用第1种工艺烧结时,烧结体中可看到大量的形状不规则的孔隙,基体没有联接成一体。采用第2种工艺烧结时,由于延长了预烧结时间和减慢升温速度,黄铜的孔隙收缩并趋于球化,孔隙数量明显减少,烧结体的密度和硬度都增大,伸长率显著提高;但由于晶粒长大,晶界强化效果下降,导致强度下降。采用第2种烧结工艺制备的黄铜综合力学性能较好,密度达到8.12 g/cm3,硬度为86 HRH,抗拉强度和伸长率分别为242 MPa和27.3%,均超过日本工业标准JIS和中国国家标准的要求。     

A camera calibration technique using three sets of parallel lines

This paper presents a new method for three-dimensional camera calibration in which the rotation parameters are decoupled from the translation parameters. First, the rotation parameters are obtained by projecting three sets of parallel lines independently of the translation parameters and the imaging distance from the lens to the image plane. The virtual line passing through the image center, which is calculated by perspective projection of a set of parallel lines, depends only on the rotation parameters. Next, the translation parameters and the imaging distance are analytically obtained. Experimental results are used to show how the camera model can be accurately reconstructed in an easily prepared environment.