Enhancing oil–solid and oil–water separation in heavy oil recovery by CO2-responsive surfactants

Interfacial properties are of critical importance to various separation applications. In heavy oil recovery, for example, a low oil–water interfacial tension (IFT) benefits the separation of heavy oil from their host rocks, which becomes problematic in the later stage of oil–water separation. CO₂-responsive surfactants were investigated to enhance the overall heavy oil recovery by switching their interfacial activity to the desired state in each stage. The surfactants at interfacially active state greatly enhanced the separation of heavy oil from hosting solids, as demonstrated by measuring contact angle and oil liberation using a custom-designed on-line visualization system. Meanwhile, the resulting heavy oil-in-water emulsions could also be easily demulsified by the bubbling of CO₂ gas, which switched off the interfacial activity of the surfactants. Furthermore, CO₂-responsive surfactants could be partially recycled in process water to improve sustainability, making CO₂-responsive surfactants to be promising chemical aids in heavy oil production and many other vital industries.     

Heat stress affects the expression of key genes in the placenta,placental characteristics,and efficiency of Saanen goats and the survival and growth of their kids

Heat stress is detrimental during gestation; however, the effects of heat stress on goat placental characteristics and kid survival remain unclear. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of heat stress at final gestation on cortisol concentration, placenta characteristics, and the expression of genes related to placenta. Forty-six primiparous and multiparous Saanen goats were subjected to control (CT; under a thermoneutral environment: air temperature between 12°C and 25°C and the relative humidity from 45 to 73%, n = 23) or heat stress (HS; under a climatic chamber: air temperature at 37°C and the relative humidity at 60 to 70% from 0800 to 1600 h, n = 23) from the last 60 d of pregnancy until the first colostrum suckling. The heat challenge imposed on HS goats during the prepartum period increased their rectal temperature, respiratory frequency, and cortisol levels in plasma and amniotic fluid versus CT goats. In the placenta, HS treatment also increased the expression of the HSPA1A gene. Heat-stressed goats also showed significantly lower expression of HSD11B2 and greater expression of MC2R and NR3C1 than CT goats, suggesting that heat stress decreased the effectiveness by which the HSD11B2 enzyme converts cortisol to cortisone and increased placental responsiveness to cortisol. The HS goats took longer to release the placenta with lighter placental cotyledons, and HS goats had a lower ratio between the kid's weight at birth and placenta weight than CT goats. There was no treatment effect on the kids' survival or weights at birth, but the kids from goats subjected to HS presented lesser cortisol concentration and greater mortality rates at weaning than kids from CT goats. Finally, the overexpression of HSPA1A by HS goats suggests a protective response of placenta. However, the heat stress negatively affected the placenta's expulsion length, placental cotyledons number, weight and area, the ratio between kid's weight and placenta weight, and cortisol signaling. Indeed, the upregulation of MC2R and NR3C1 and downregulation of HSD11B2 on placenta caused by heat stress were associated with greater cortisol concentrations in the amniotic fluid of HS goats. Although HS and CT kids had adequate weights and survival rate during the first weeks of life, the heat stress increased the mortality at weaning of HS kids versus CT kids, suggesting that the heat stress effect persists and can change the ability of kids to respond to weaning challenge.     

Ant colony optimisation for tree-searching-based synthesis of monopulse array antenna

The design of simple feed networks is of great interest in synthesising monopulse radar array antennas in order to reduce the complexity of the antenna architecture, the costs as well as the occupied physical space (e.g. on aircraft). Sub-arraying techniques have been proposed to properly address such a task. Starting from the formulation of the sub-arraying problem in terms of a combinatorial one, the final compromise solution is obtained by looking for the minimum cost path inside a binary tree graph through an ant colony optimiser.     

Structural Characterization of Doped GaSb Single Crystals by X-ray Topography

We characterized GaSb single crystals containing different dopants (Al, Cd, and Te), grown by the Czochralski method, using x-ray topography and high-angular-resolution x-ray diffraction. Lang topography revealed dislocations parallel and perpendicular to the crystal surface. Double-crystal GaSb 333 x-ray topography showed dislocations and vertical stripes that could be associated with circular growth bands. We compared our high-angular- resolution x-ray diffraction measurements (rocking curves) with findings predicted by the dynamical theory of x-ray diffraction. These measurements show that our GaSb single crystals have a relative variation in the lattice parameter (Δd/d) on the order of 10⁻⁵. This means that they can be used as electronic devices (e.g., detectors) and as x-ray monochromators.     

A Metapopulation Model with Patches Distributed in Two Geographical Scales

We propose a metapopulation model with two geographical scales. In a regional scale, the model describes the dynamics of a collection of habitats connected by migratory movements. In a local scale, we consider some granularity within each habitat, in the sense that each habitat is itself a collection of patches linked by dispersal. The whole ensemble can be seen as a metapopulation composed by local metapopulations. We analyze the synchronization of the model in the two geographical scales. We present an analytic criterion for synchronization where only the habitats in the regional scale evolve with the same dynamics. Through numerical simulations, we discuss the different synchronization modes. It depends on how the individuals are distributed in the local patches that compose a habitat after migration takes place in the regional scale.     

Synthesis of compromise sum-difference arrays through time-modulation

In this study, time-modulation is exploited for the synthesis of monopulse sub-arrayed antennas. The solution of the compromise sum-difference problem is obtained by setting the set of static excitations to an optimal sum set and synthesising the `best compromise? difference pattern through a contiguous partition method based approach. The array elements are aggregated into sub-arrays controlled by means of radio frequency (RF) switches with optimised `on? time-durations. The switch-on instants of the pulse sequences are then computed by means of a particle swarm optimiser to reduce the interferences caused by the sideband radiations. A selected set of numerical results is reported to assess the potentialities of time-modulation in dealing with the synthesis problem at hand.     

Dual fluorescence and electrochemical detection on an electrophoresis microchip

Simultaneous amperometric and fluorescence detection in a microfabricated electrophoresis chip is reported. Detection limits of 448 nM and 1.52, 16, and 28 microM have been achieved for dopamine, catechol, NBD-arginine, and NBD-phenylalanine, respectively. These two orthogonal detection schemes allow analysis of a wider spectrum of compounds per separation, leading to higher throughput and enabling resolution of two neutral analytes, NBD-arginine and catechol. In addition, insight into the detection and separation mechanisms is realized. Differences in migration time and peak widths between the two detectors are compared, providing a better understanding of detector alignment. A common problem encountered in electrophoresis is run-to-run migration time irreproducibility for certain samples. This novel microchip dual detection system has been utilized to reduce this irreproducibility. An unknown sample is monitored with one detector while a standard (i.e., ladder) is added to the sample and monitored simultaneously with the other detector. This dual detection method is demonstrated to normalize unknown peak mobilities in a cerebral spinal fluid sample.     

Efficient and robust probabilistic guarantees for real-time tasks

This paper presents a new method for providing probabilistic real-time guarantees to tasks scheduled through resource reservations. Previous work on probabilistic analysis of reservation-based schedulers is extended by improving the efficiency and robustness of the probability computation. Robustness is improved by accounting for a possibly incomplete knowledge of the distribution of the computation times (which is typical in realistic applications). The proposed approach computes a conservative bound for the probability of missing deadlines, based on the knowledge of the probability distributions of the execution times and of the inter-arrival times of the tasks. In this paper, such a bound is computed in realistic situations, comparing it with simulative results and with the exact computation of deadline miss probabilities (without pessimistic bounds). Finally, the impact of the incomplete knowledge of the execution times distribution is evaluated.     

Microscale combustion calorimeter—application and limitation

A flammability evaluation tool that requires only milligram size sample is very attractive for plastic material development and quality control. One such instrument that has gained importance in recent years is the microscale combustion calorimeter (MCC). In this study, a novel application using the MCC to quantify flame retardant mechanism efficiency is introduced. The results demonstrated that the qualitative understanding of the mechanism can be quantified. The factors that affect the quality of the MCC data were also discussed. It was found that factors such as flow rate perturbation, sample weight, oxygen level, loading/types of the additives, and method of the test have strong effects on the data quality. The results indicate that caution should be taken when operating the test and interpreting the MCC data. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.