The stress-whitened damage zone of PVC blends

The stress-whitened damage zone that formed ahead of a semicircular notch during slow tensile loading has been measured from optical micrographs of translucent blends of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) with experimental chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) resins. When the zone was small, the plane strain condition applied and from the elastic stress distribution a constant mean stress condition was found at the boundary of the crescent-shaped zone. The critical mean stress did not depend on the chlorine content or the chlorine distribution of the experimental CPE resin used in the blend. While the critical mean stress decreased as the amount of CPE in the blend was increased, the critical volume strain, calculated from the bulk modulus, was independent of composition and was thought to be the controlling parameter for stress-whitening. When the zone was larger, the shape was qualitatively described by concepts of stress redistribution in the presence of a plastic zone ahead of the notch. Macroscopic flow and necking were only detected near the maximum in the stress-displacement curve.     

The STOP-NIDDM Trial: an international study on the efficacy of an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor to prevent type 2 diabetes in a population with impaired glucose tolerance: rationale, design, and preliminary screening data. Study to Prevent Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus

OBJECTIVE: To describe the rationale and design, and to discuss the preliminary screening data, of the Study to Prevent NIDDM (STOP-NIDDM Trial), an international study on the efficacy of the alpha-glucosidase inhibitor acarbose in preventing or delaying the development of type 2 diabetes in a population with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 1,418 subjects diagnosed with IGT according to the World Health Organization's criteria and having a fasting plasma glucose concentration > or =5.6 mmol/L were randomized in a double-blind fashion to receive either acarbose (100 mg t.i.d.) or placebo for a predictive median follow-up period of 3.9 years. The primary outcome is the development of type 2 diabetes diagnosed using a 75-g oral glucose tolerance test according to the new criteria. The secondary outcomes are changes in blood pressure, lipid profile, insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular events, and morphometric profile. RESULTS: Screening was performed in a high-risk population. As of 1 March 1997, 4,424 subjects had been screened, and data were available for 3,919 (88.5%) subjects. Of these subjects, 1,200 (30.6%) had glucose intolerance. Of the subjects with glucose intolerance, 521 (13.3%) had previously undetected type 2 diabetes, and 679 (17.3%) had IGT. Of the IGT population, 412 (60.7%) subjects were eligible for the study This population had the following characteristics: the mean age was 54.8 years, 52% of the subjects were female, 53% had more than one risk factor for type 2 diabetes, >90% had a family history of diabetes, 78.2% had a BMI > or =27 kg/m2, 47.5% had high blood pressure, 51.2% had dyslipidemia, and 22.8% of the women had a history of gestational diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: Screening of a high-risk population yields one eligible subject per every 10 volunteers screened. This study should definitely answer the question of whether acarbose can prevent or delay the progression of IGT to type 2 diabetes mellitus.     

Method for characterization of triacylglycerols and fat-soluble vitamins in edible oils and fats by supercritical fluid chromatography

This study demonstrates the usefulness of capillary supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) for the characterization of triacylglycerols of edible oils and fats. Triacylglycerols were separated according to the acyl carbon number and the degree of unsaturation on a 25% cyanopropyl/25% phenyl/50% methylpolysiloxane stationary phase. Valuable information concerning the triacylglycerol composition of berry oils was obtained, despite the overlapping of certain triacylglycerol peaks. Simultaneous analysis of fat-soluble vitamins and triacylglycerols is not practical by capillary SFC with flame-ionization detection because of the low concentration of naturally-occurring fat-soluble vitamins in edible oils. Therefore, higher loading of the sample, which led to overloading of triacylglycerols, was required to get reasonable peaks for fat-soluble vitamins. The method was applied to the characterization of triacylglycerols and tocopherols in sea buckthorn pulp and seed oil, and cloudberry seed oil without any sample purification prior to SFC. In addition, the stationary phase proved useful for separating the more complex mixtures of triacylglycerols found in milk fat and in fish oil.     

Analysis of triacylglycerols by silver-ion high-performance liquid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry

Triacylglycerols of the seed oils rich in α- and/or γ-linolenic acid moieties were separated by silver-ion high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) followed by on-line atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometric (APCI-MS) detection. Mass spectra of most triacylglycerols exhibited abundant [M + H]⁺ and [M − RCO₂]⁺ ions, which defined the molecular weight and the molecular association of fatty acyl residues of a triacylglycerol, respectively. Silver ions formed weaker complexes with triacylglycerols containing γ-linolenic acid than with those containing α-linolenic acid, i.e., the elution order of molecules wasXYT _γ>XYT _α’,XT _γ T _α>XT _α T _α>, andT _γ T _γ T _γ>T _γ T _γ T _α>T _γ T _α T _α>T _α T _α T _α, whereT _α=α-linolenic acid,T _γ=γ-linolenic acid, andX, Y=fatty acids different from linolenic acid. Furthermore, silver-ion HPLC resulted in partial separation within equally unsaturated triacylglycerols according to differences in the combined number of acyl carbons. Regioisomeric forms of triacylglycerols were not determined from the seed oil samples, although differences were measured with reference compounds in the relative abundances of [M − RCO₂]⁺ ions formed by a loss of a fatty acyl residue from thesn-2 position and thesn-1/3 positions. Silverion HPLC/APCI-MS provided valuable information for structure elucidation of seed oil triacylglycerols: 43 molecular species were identified from cloudberry seed oil, 39 from evening primrose oil, 79 from borage oil, 44 from alpine currant, and 56 from black currant seed oils. The quantitation requires to be studied further, especially in those cases where several molecular weight species of triacylglycerols eluted in a single chromatographic peak.     

The movement patterns and the experiential components of virtual environments

Human movement in virtual environments (VEs) is a largely unstudied area, and there are no well-established methods of measuring it in VEs. Consequently, it is unclear how movement affects the experiential side of VEs. We introduce a novel method of measuring and modelling human movement. A specific information entropy-based modelling method enabled us to identify different movement patterns and analyse the experiential components related to them. The data was collected by registering the movement patterns of 68 participants who were in a virtual house doing a search task. The experiential side of the VE was measured with the Experimental Virtual Environment Questionnaire (EVEQ). Four movement patterns were identified. In addition, fluent movement in VEs was related to a high sense of presence. Moreover, the participants who moved fluently in the environment assessed their skills high. The results show how movement is related the way in which people experience the VE. The movement analysis method introduced here is applicable to other related research areas as well.     

Chemical composition and antioxidative activity of Moldavian balm (Dracocephalum moldavica L.) extracts

Moldavian balm (Dracocephalum moldavica L., Lamiaceae) is a perennial herb native to central Asia and naturalized in eastern and central Europe. It is commonly consumed as a food-related product and as a herbal preparation because of its reputed medicinal properties. Despite its importance, few reports exist in the literature regarding the chemistry or antioxidant activity of this species. In this study, the aerial material of Moldavian balm collected from Iran was extracted by Soxhlet using seven solvents of different polarity, viz., petroleum ether, dichloromethane, acetonitrile, ethyl acetate, methanol, n-butanol and water. The qualitative-quantitative chemical composition of each extract was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to photodiode array detection. For each extract, the total phenolic content was estimated as was the in vitro antioxidant activity using the iron(III) reduction assay, the β-carotene-linoleic acid bleaching assay and the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl and 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonate) free radical scavenging assays. Hydroxylated cinnamic acids, their derivatives and flavonoids were identified and quantified within the extracts, with rosmarinic acid being the most abundant component identified. The extracts demonstrated different degrees of potency within each assay, however, the observed pattern was not necessarily replicated between assays indicating the importance of the use of more than one screening technique to estimate the antioxidant activity of plant extracts.     

CAD standardisation in the construction industry — A process view

There has been a demand for uniform CAD standards in the construction industry ever since the large-scale introduction of computer aided design systems in the late 1980s. While some standards have been widely adopted without much formal effort, other standards have failed to gain support even though considerable resources have been allocated for the purpose. Establishing a standard concerning building information modeling has been one particularly active area of industry development and scientific interest within recent years. In this paper, four different standards are discussed as cases: the IGES and DXF/DWG standards for representing the graphics in 2D drawings, the ISO 13567 standard for the structuring of building information on layers, and the IFC standard for building product models. Based on a literature study combined with two qualitative interview studies with domain experts, a process model is proposed to describe and interpret the contrasting histories of past CAD standardisation processes.     

Identification of milk fat triacylglycerols by capillary supercritical fluid chromatography-atmospheric pressure chemical lonization mass spectrometry

Identification of milk fat triacylglycerols was accomplished by capillary supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) combined with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry [(APCI)MS]. Supercritical carbon dioxide was the carrier fluid in SFC. Ionization was achieved by introducing vapor of ammonia in methanol into the ionization chamber, which resulted in the formation of abundant [M+18]⁺ and [M-RCOO]⁺ ions of triacylglycerols. These ions defined both the molecular weight and the fatty acid constituents of a triacylglycerol, respectively. SFC on a nonpolar stationary phase provided an efficient separation of triacylglycerols according to the combined number of carbon atoms in the acyl chains of a molecule. In addition to the identification of the major chromatographic peaks representing molecules with 26–54 acyl carbons, minor peaks representing triacylglycerols with an odd number of acyl carbons were separated and identified. Furthermore, compositional information on partially separated isobaric triacylglycerols, which differed substantially in the chain length of the fatty acyl residues, was achieved within some of the peaks. A new finding of the present study was the formation of abundant [M+18]⁺ ions of saturated triacylglycerols in addition to diagnostic fragment ions, being of primary importance in structure elucidation. This extends the applicability of capillary SFC-(APCI)MS in the analysis of both saturated and unsaturated triacylglycerols.