Preparation of an anion‐exchange adsorbent by the radiation‐induced grafting of vinylbenzyltrimethylammonium chloride onto cotton cellulose and its application for protein adsorption

Poly(vinylbenzyltrimethylammonium chloride)‐graft‐cotton cellulose, an anion‐exchange matrix, was synthesized by a mutual radiation‐induced grafting technique with a ⁶⁰Co γ‐radiation source. The grafted matrix was characterized by grafting yield estimation, elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The grafting yield decreased with the increase in the dose rate. However, the grafting yield and nitrogen content of grafted samples increased almost linearly with an increase in the total irradiation dose. To evaluate the performance of the grafted anion‐exchange matrix, the protein adsorption and elution behavior were investigated in a continuous column process under various experimental conditions, with bovine serum albumin used as a model protein. The binding and elution behavior of the anion‐exchange matrix depended on different experimental parameters, such as the grafting yield, ionic strength, pH of the medium, and amount of protein loaded. From a breakthrough curve, the equilibrium binding capacity and elution percentage of the grafted anion‐exchange matrix were estimated to be 40 mg/g and 94%, respectively. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 5512–5521, 2006     

MEASUREMENT OF COEFFICIENTS FOB SIMULTANEOUS HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER IN FOOD PRODUCTS

Two experimental devices were designed and built to determine four coefficients K_T K_M D_M D (or δ_T = D_T / D_M occurring in simultaneous heat and mass transfer equations, where,K _T and D_M are thermal conductivity and moisture diffcusivity respectively, D_T ( or δ _T is temperature gradient Induced moisture migration coefficient and K_M is moisture gradient Induced heat transfer coefficient. Three food materials, i.e. potato, bread dough and bread, were tested. From this study, it was found that the value of 5 was higher for low density food materials, such as bread, than for high density materials, such as potato. The coefficient & measures moisture migration contribution due to temperature gradient within the material. The average values of δ _T for potato, bread dough and bread were 0.0014, 0.0059 and 0.0127 per °C, respectively. The contribution of temperature gradient to the overall moisture migration is negligible In high density materials. However, this contribution may be important in the moisture migratlon analysls for low density materials. The moisture gradient induced heat transfer coefficient % as found to be negligible for the materials tested in this study     

The importance of information localization in scene gist recognition.

People can recognize the meaning or gist of a scene from a single glance, and a few recent studies have begun to examine the sorts of information that contribute to scene gist recognition. The authors of the present study used visual masking coupled with image manipulations (randomizing phase while maintaining the Fourier amplitude spectrum; random image structure evolution [RISE]; J. Sadr & P. Sinha, 2004) to explore whether and when unlocalized Fourier amplitude information contributes to gist perception. In 4 experiments, the authors found that differences between scene categories in the Fourier amplitude spectrum are insufficient for gist recognition or gist masking. Whereas the global 1/f spatial frequency amplitude spectra of scenes plays a role in gist masking, local phase information is necessary for gist recognition and for the strongest gist masking. Moreover, the ability to recognize the gist of a target image was influenced by mask recognizability, suggesting that conceptual masking occurs even at the earliest stages of scene processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Finding trajectories of feature points in a monocular image sequence

Identifying the same physical point in more than one image, the correspondence problem, is vital in motion analysis. Most research for establishing correspondence uses only two frames of a sequence to solve this problem. By using a sequence of frames, it is possible to exploit the fact that due to inertia the motion of an object cannot change instantaneously. By using smoothness of motion, it is possible to solve the correspondence problem for arbitrary motion of several nonrigid objects in a scene. We formulate the correspondence problem as an optimization problem and propose an iterative algorithm to find trajectories of points in a monocular image sequence. A modified form of this algorithm is useful in case of occlusion also. We demonstrate the efficacy of this approach considering synthetic, laboratory, and real scenes.     

Myopic vs. far-sighted behaviours in a revenue-sharing supply chain with reference quality effects

In this paper, we consider a dynamic supply chain where a manufacturer produces and distributes a featured product through an exclusive retailer to end consumers. The manufacturer decides the product quality and wholesale price, while the retailer sets the retail price in the presence of a revenue-sharing contract and consumers’ reference quality effects. The objective of this study is to investigate the impacts of myopic behaviour regarding the reference quality on the product quality and pricing strategies and profits of both members. Our results suggest that the manufacturer’s myopia leads to a higher quality, higher price strategy and a higher quality–price ratio which benefits consumers. Meanwhile, relative to the far-sighted behaviour, myopia results in a more quality-sensitive but less price-sensitive market demand. What’s more, we find that the manufacturer is apt to act in a far-sighted way, but the retailer isn’t always willing to cooperate with a far-sighted manufacturer. Taking myopic strategies for both members is likely to gain a high profit of the whole supply chain for a relatively high marginal contribution of product quality on demand and a relatively low revenue-sharing proportion.     

Experimental investigations into electric discharge grinding and ultrasonic vibration-assisted electric discharge grinding of Inconel 601

The paper presents experimental investigations into electric discharge grinding (EDG) and ultrasonic vibration-assisted electric discharge grinding (UVAEDG) of Inconel 601. The process parameters selected for both processes were duty cycle, discharge current, pulse on time, grinding wheel speed, work speed, and speed ratio to study their influence on responses like surface roughness (R_a) and material removal rate (MRR). It was found that duty cycle, wheel speed, work speed, discharge current, speed ratio, and pulse duration significantly influenced MRR and R_a. It was inferred that MRR increased with increase in duty cycle, wheel speed, current, work speed, and pulse duration in both EDG and UVAEDG processes. It was also inferred that R_a increased with rise in duty factor, pulse on time, and discharge current in EDG and UVAEDG processes.     

A note on productivity gains in flexible robotic cells

Flexible robotic cells combine the capabilities of robotic flow shops with those of flexible manufacturing systems. In an m-machine flexible cell, each part visits each machine in the same order. However, the m operations can be performed in any order, and each machine can be configured to perform any operation. We derive the maximum percentage increase in throughput that can be achieved by changing the assignment of operations to machines and then keeping that assignment constant throughout a lot's processing. We find that no increase can be gained in two-machine cells, and that the gain in three- and four-machine cells each is at most 14 %.     

Copyright protection using KELM-PSO based multi-spectral image watermarking in DCT domain with local texture information based selection

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Since many years, researchers have been developing techniques for copyright protection. This paper presents a novel approach for copyright protection of...     

Comparison of mechanical properties of ground corn stover,switchgrass, and willow and their pellet qualities

Mechanical and physical properties of ground corn stover, switchgrass, and willow were measured and compared in addition to the quality of pellets. Biomass was size-reduced with two different screen sizes (3.175 and 6.35?mm) and conditioned to obtain samples at two different moisture contents (17.5 and 20% on wet basis). Ground switchgrass had the smallest and willow had the highest D₅₀ when size-reduced with the same screen size. Hydrostatic triaxial compression tests were performed using the cubical triaxial tester to determine the bulk modulus, compression index, and spring-back index at specific unloading pressures (20, 45, 70, and 95?kPa). The trends of pressure vs. volumetric strain and void ratio vs. natural log of pressure were similar for all three materials; however, the magnitudes were different. Willow, size-reduced with 3.175?mm screen size at 17.5% wet basis, had the highest bulk modulus among different conditions of all the three biomass. Pellet durability values for all the three materials were higher than 80%. Corn stover pellets formed with 3.175?mm screen size at 20% wet basis had the highest diametral tensile and axial compressive strengths among different conditions for all the three biomass, however the values were not significantly different (p?>?0.05).