Feedback tuning of bifurcations

The present paper studies a feedback regulation problem that arises in at least two different biological applications. The feedback regulation problem under consideration may be interpreted as an adaptive control problem for tuning bifurcation parameters, and it has not been studied in the control literature. The goal of the paper is to formulate this problem and to present some preliminary results.     

Characterization of rheological properties of systems containing sugar substitutes and carrageenan

The effects of addition of κ-carrageenan to solutions containing 40% (w/w) sugar substitute on the rheological properties of these systems were investigated at 25 °C using a rotational viscometer at rotational speeds of 6, 12, 30, and 60 rev min⁻¹. The flow behaviour of the solutions was adequately described by the power law model with or without yield stress. The consistency index ( K ) and the flow behaviour index ( n ) were determined from shear stress vs. shear rate data. The flow parameters of the solutions depended on the carrageenan concentration. The apparent viscosities of the systems decreased with increasing shear rate, indicating pseudoplastic behaviour. The final carrageenan concentration was found to be an effective factor controlling the degree of sliminess of the model food systems studied.     

Isolated ovarian polyarteritis nodosa

Polyarteritis nodosa is a rare disorder and a form of systemic vasculitis. A 48 year-old female was admitted to the hospital because menorrhagia and pelvic pain in February 1993. The patient underwent exploratory laparotomy resulting in a total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy for myoma of uterus and a right adnexal cystic mass. Histopathologic examination revealed left ovarian periarteritis nodosa. Further investigation and 9 months follow-up failed to show any systemic involvement. To our knowledge the isolated ovarian polyarteritis nodosa is the first case in the literature.     

A new method for power generation planning and problems of uncertainty

This paper presents a new method for power system planning which considers uncertainties of various system parameters as a part of the criterion function. The criterion function involves both the expected values of total system costs and the cost variances of different power plants. Previously, the authors proposed that these cost variances be evaluated from the existing power system plans in the form of the solutions to the inverse optimization problem, and then applied this procedure to the planning of power systems in Japan. However, because of the correlation between fuel and facility costs, the cost variances could not be determined as specific values. Here, to overcome this difficulty, the authors now introduce hydropower plants into the model as the so-called nonrisky elements and focus on the expenditure shares rather than the plant capacity shares. As a result, more reasonable results are obtained. This improved methodology is applied and the derived cost variances are shown. Further, using the resultant cost variances, the authors make Pareto-optimal power generation plans and demonstrate also the robustness of the method to price fluctuations.     

Selectivity in Methanol Oxidation as Studied on Model Systems Involving Vanadium Oxides

Oxidation catalysts are modeled by oxide single crystals, thin oxide films, as well as supported oxide nanoparticles. We characterize the surface of those materials using a variety of surface sensitive techniques including scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, and thermal desorption spectroscopy. We find temperature dependent structural transformations from V₂O₅(001) to V₂O₃(0001) via V₆O₁₃(001). V₂O₃(0001) is found to be vanadyl terminated in an oxygen ambient and it loses the vanadyl termination after electron bombardment. It is shown that the concentration of vanadyl groups controls the selectivity of the methanol oxy-dehydrogenation towards formaldehyde. A proposal for the mechanism is made. The results on single crystalline thin films are compared with similar measurements on deposited vanadia nanoparticles. The experimental results are correlated with theoretical calculations and models.     

Synthesis and characterization of poly(N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone) grafted sodium alginate hydrogel beads for the controlled release of indomethacin

Graft copolymers of sodium alginate (NaAlg) with N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone were prepared using azobisisobutyronitrile as initiator. The graft copolymers (NaAlg‐g‐PVP) were characterized with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry. Polymeric hydrogel beads of NaAlg and NaAlg‐g‐PVP were prepared by crosslinking method using glutaraldehyde (GA) as a crosslinker in the hydrochloric acid catalyst (HCl) and these beads were used to deliver anti‐inflammatory drug, indomethacin (IM). Chemical stability of the IM after encapsulation into beads was confirmed by FTIR. Preparation conditions of the NaAlg‐g‐PVP beads were optimized by considering the percentage entrapment efficiency, particle size, swelling capacity and their release data. In vitro release studies were performed in simulated gastric fluid (pH 1.2) for the initial 2 h, followed by simulated intestinal fluid (pH 7.4) for 4 h. Effects of GA concentration, exposure time to GA, drug/polymer (d/p) ratio, and concentration of HCl on the release of IM were discussed. It was observed that IM release from the beads decreased with increasing GA concentration and exposure time. IM release also decreases with increasing d/p ratio and HCl concentration. The highest IM release was obtained to be 77% for beads crosslinked with 0.027M GA. Swelling experiments were also performed to compute molecular mass between crosslinks of the beads. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Numerical simulation of developing natural convection in an enclosure due to rapid heating

Effects of thermoacoustic wave motion on the developing natural convection process in a compressible gas-filled square enclosure were investigated numerically. In the cases considered, the left wall temperature is raised rapidly (impulsively or gradually) while the right wall is held at a specified temperature. The top and the bottom walls of the enclosure considered are thermally insulated. The numerical solutions of the full Navier-Stokes equations were obtained by employing a highly accurate flux-corrected transport algorithm for the convection terms and by a central differencing scheme for the viscous and diffusive terms. The strength of the pressure waves associated with the thermoacoustic effect and resulting flow patterns are found to be strongly correlated to the rapidity of the wall heating process. Fluid thermal diffusivity was found to affect the strength of the thermoacoustic waves and the resulting interaction with the buoyancy-induced flow.     

Methacrylic acid–acrylamide-g-poly(ethyleneterephthalate) fibres for urea hydrolysis

This paper presents the results of urease immobilization onto methacrylic acid–acrylamide grafted poly(ethyleneterephthalate) fibres. The graft yield strongly affected the maximum activity of the immobilized enzyme up to a value of 70·2%. Higher grafting caused a decline in urease activity and led to the degradation of the fibres. The minor changes observed in K_m and V_max demonstrated that the conformational changes existed during immobilization were not extensive. However, 70·2% methacrylic acid–acrylamide-g-fibres containing urease were more stable towards acidic and alkaline pH, high temperature and storage conditions compared with free enzyme. Apart from the increase in stability to heat inactivation, the initial enzymatic activity of the urease–fibre system remained almost unchanged even after 40 repeated assays corresponding to 10 h of operation in 4 months, indicating the excellent durability of the system.