Failure modes of closed-cell polyurethane foams

The failure modes of closed-cell polyurethane foams were studied by applying the elliptic paraboloid failure surface criterion. A series of three polyurethane rigid foams (PUR-foams) were examined presenting different amounts of porosity from a highly porous material having a low density of 64 kg/m³ to a compact one with a density of 192 kg/m³. All these PUR-foams were of the same batch of material presenting a cell-wall density ₅=1200 kg/m³. Samples were tested in simple tension and compression along the three principal axes of anisotropy of the materials. It was shown that all three types of foams may be closely represented by transversely isotropic materials.The elliptic paraboloid failure surfaces (EPFS) for these three materials were defined from the six values of principal failure stresses in tension and compression. It was shown that the theoretically plotted paraboloid surfaces along all their principal-plane intersections were in good agreement with experiments.Since cellular materials collapse, either under elastic buckling in the compressive octant of the principal stress space, or under fast brittle fracture in the tensile octant, it was shown that the elliptic paraboloid failure surface is truncated by the intersection of the EPFS and an ellipsoid whose position and dimensions are interrelated with those of the EPFS. Again, experimental evidence with elastic buckling of foams corroborated the results of this theory.An important feature for the failure behavior of the foams was derived by this study according to which the foamed materials change mode of failure from a compression strong to a tension strong mode as their porosity is increased. In between they pass through a quasi-isotropic state.     

Thermodynamic study of polymer–solvent systems by reversed-flow gas chromatography

Reversed-flow gas chromatography, a new method for studying heterogeneous catalysis, diffusion, adsorption, evaporation, and other related phenomena, is now applied to the determination of activity of the solvent in a polymer–solvent system in the whole range of polymer concentration, as well as for the calculation of excess partial molar thermodynamic functions of mixing. The systems used were polystyrene in cyclohexane, polyvinylacetate in cyclohexanone and polyvinylpyrrolidone in methanol. In the first system, which was studied in detail, weight fraction activity coefficients (a₁/w₁) at several temperatures (333.8–348.1 K) and various polymer concentrations (0.020–0.131 g/g) were determined. From the latter parameters weight fraction activity coefficients at infinite dilution (a₁/w₁)^∞ were computed. Flory–Huggins interaction parameters x and solubility parameters δ₂ were also determined. Finally, the thermodynamic parameters found by the present method are compared with those determined by other techniques or calculated theoretically.     

Intelligent policy recommendations on enterprise resource planning by the use of agent technology and data mining techniques

Enterprise Resource Planning systems tend to deploy Supply Chain Management and/or Customer Relationship Management techniques, in order to successfully fuse information to customers, suppliers, manufacturers and warehouses, and therefore minimize system-wide costs while satisfying service level requirements. Although efficient, these systems are neither versatile nor adaptive, since newly discovered customer trends cannot be easily integrated with existing knowledge. Advancing on the way the above mentioned techniques apply on ERP systems, we have developed a multi-agent system that introduces adaptive intelligence as a powerful add-on for ERP software customization. The system can be thought of as a recommendation engine, which takes advantage of knowledge gained through the use of data mining techniques, and incorporates it into the resulting company selling policy. The intelligent agents of the system can be periodically retrained as new information is added to the ERP. In this paper, we present the architecture and development details of the system, and demonstrate its application on a real test case.     

Blue-green algae as a source of protein

Anabaena flos-aquae, an N-fixing and photosynthesising blue-green alga, was grown in defined liquid media. Although this organism grew well in autotrophic solution, it rendered a higher yield in a medium containing 1% glucose. A good procedure for extracting the protein from the cells was heating them in 3 n HCl at 95°C for 10 min, adjusting the pH to 11 with 3n NaOH after cooling, letting them stand at room temperature for 1h, centrifuging out the debris and exposing the supernatant to 15,000 international lux of fluorescent lamp light for 10h. The treated solution contained 80% of the nitrogen of the cells and it had a pale yellow colour. The protein of the solution was further fractionated into a pH-4-insoluble fraction and an acetone-insoluble fraction. Both fractions were easily digested by pepsin in vitro and were deficient in sulphur-containing amino acids. The amino acid scores of the fractions were 74 and 60, respectively.     

Potential prognostic value of C-erbB-2 expression in medulloblastomas in very young children

PURPOSE: The expression of the c-erbB-2 oncogene was studied in childhood medulloblastoma to evaluate its prognostic value, which has been claimed previously. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Tumor material from 45 patients < 15 years old at diagnosis was studied using 3 monoclonal antibodies against the internal and external domains of the c-erbB-2 oncogene product. RESULTS: Six of the 45 (13%) tumor specimens were found to be positive. C-erbB-2 expression was found more often in patients < 3 years old at diagnosis (4 of 15 patients, 27%) than in older patients (2 of 30, 6.6%). During the follow-up period (5.8 +/- 2.8 years) all patients with c-erbB-2 expression died of disease (after 1.2 +/- 0.7 years). Kaplan-Meier estimation revealed a highly significant correlation of c-erbB-2 expression and survival (p = 0.002). A further study of the expression of synaptophysin and the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in the 45 tumors revealed a negative correlation of the expression of c-erbB-2 and these proteins. CONCLUSION: C-erbB-2, which may be predominantly expressed by less differentiated tumors, was found to delineate a poorer prognostic subgroup, especially when diagnosed in patients < 3 years old.     

Intra-axial endophytic tumors in the pons and/or medulla oblongata. I. Symptoms, neuroradiological findings, and histopathology in 30 children

Between August 1987 and June 1994 we operated upon 30 consecutive children suffering from endophytic intra-axial tumors located in the pons and/or medulla oblongata. We present the clinical findings, neuroradiological aspects and histopathological results recorded in these cases. Diagnostic tests included clinical examinations, neurophysiological tests and neuroradiological imaging [magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) in all cases, often combined with cranial computer tomography (CCT)]. The diagnosis was confirmed by histopathological examination of the tumor material obtained by open surgical exploration in all cases. We conclude that a short history and more horizontal growth within the pons are more valuable predictors of the histopathology than differentiation between focal or diffuse growth patterns. MRT has little predictive value for histopathological diagnosis in intra-axial brain stem tumors.     

Data mining for agent reasoning: A synergy for training intelligent agents

The task-oriented nature of data mining (DM) has already been dealt successfully with the employment of intelligent agent systems that distribute tasks, collaborate and synchronize in order to reach their ultimate goal, the extraction of knowledge. A number of sophisticated multi-agent systems (MAS) that perform DM have been developed, proving that agent technology can indeed be used in order to solve DM problems. Looking into the opposite direction though, knowledge extracted through DM has not yet been exploited on MASs. The inductive nature of DM imposes logic limitations and hinders the application of the extracted knowledge on such kind of deductive systems. This problem can be overcome, however, when certain conditions are satisfied a priori. In this paper, we present an approach that takes the relevant limitations and considerations into account and provides a gateway on the way DM techniques can be employed in order to augment agent intelligence. This work demonstrates how the extracted knowledge can be used for the formulation initially, and the improvement, in the long run, of agent reasoning.     

Spatiotemporal patterns of secretomotor neuron generation in the parvicellular neuroendocrine system

Spatiotemporal patterns of parvicellular neurosecretory neuron generation (birthdates) were determined in the young adult male rat using a triple fluorescence labeling method. The six classic phenotypes were identified in histological sections with rabbit antisera to neurotransmitters (or related enzymes), nuclear bromodeoxyuridine was detected with a mouse monoclonal antibody, and an axonal projection to the median eminence was determined with the fluorescent retrograde tracer fast blue. The vast majority of triply labeled neurons are generated between embryonic days 12-14, during the time when magnocellular neurosecretory neurons are also generated. This pattern of neurogenesis is distinct from the well-known 'outside-in' pattern of hypothalamic neurogenesis, where the peak of lateral zone birthdates occurs on embryonic days 12 and 13, the peak of medial zone birthdates occurs on embryonic days 14 and 15, and the peak of periventricular zone birthdates occurs on embryonic days 16 and 17. Thus, neuroendocrine motoneurons may constitute 'pioneer neurons' for the various anatomically distinct regions of the periventricular zone. In addition, many intermixed neurons that express the same neurotransmitters as parvicellular neurosecretory neurons but do not send an axon to the median eminence, also appear to be generated between embryonic days 12 and 14. What these results imply about mechanisms underlying neuroendocrine motor zone differentiation is discussed.     

Nonlinear Modeling of the Dynamic Effects of Infused Insulin on Glucose: Comparison of Compartmental With Volterra Models

This paper presents the results of a computational study that compares simulated compartmental (differential equation) and Volterra models of the dynamic effects of insulin on blood glucose concentration in humans. In the first approach, we employ the widely accepted ldquominimal modelrdquo and an augmented form of it, which incorporates the effect of insulin secretion by the pancreas, in order to represent the actual closed-loop operating conditions of the system, and in the second modeling approach, we employ the general class of Volterra-type models that are estimated from input-output data. We demonstrate both the equivalence between the two approaches analytically and the feasibility of obtaining accurate Volterra models from insulin-glucose data generated from the compartmental models. The results corroborate the proposition that it may be preferable to obtain data-driven (i.e., inductive) models in a more general and realistic operating context, without resorting to the restrictive prior assumptions and simplifications regarding model structure and/or experimental protocols (e.g., glucose tolerance tests) that are necessary for the compartmental models proposed previously. These prior assumptions may lead to results that are improperly constrained or biased by preconceived (and possibly erroneous) notions-a risk that is avoided when we let the data guide the inductive selection of the appropriate model within the general class of Volterra-type models, as our simulation results suggest.     

倒装芯片结构中不流动底部填充工艺参数

介绍了倒装芯片贴装工艺中焊剂涂布技术的工艺控制、芯片贴装及回流过程的条件控制。讨论了贴装工艺中焊剂材料的热远配参数和改进型填补材料取代传统填补剂的可行性。