Geopolymer assembly by emulsion templating: Emulsion stability and hardening mechanisms

This work investigates emulsion templating to synthesize hexadecane oil/geopolymer composites. In a system with hexadecane as the internal (dispersed) phase and an alkali activated continuous phase without added surfactant, adding aluminosilicate clay particles does not increase resistance against creaming or coalescence, while adding a surfactant (L35 or CTAB) stabilizes the solid-liquid interface. Infrared studies and rheological studies of the associated geopolymerization determined that the presence of the organic phase or surfactant has no significant effect on the geopolymerization kinetics, as determined by the change in time of the Si-O-T IR stretching frequency and the rheological moduli involved during the process. The stabilization of the organic template is reminiscent of Pickering emulsion even though we employ a much greater amount of inorganic material for geopolymer formation. Although the addition of surfactant has a significant effect on the behavior of the paste, the percolation of the network remains unmodified, highlighting the fact that the phenomenon is not dependent on viscosity. Finally, rheological measurements were used to obtain the mass fractal dimension of the as-made gel network, which is able to differentiate the interfacial effect between surfactant molecules with a slightly denser interphase when a cationic surfactant is used.     

HRTEM observation of the monoclinic-to-tetragonal m-t) phase transition in nanocrystalline ZrO2

The orientation relations m(100) || t(001), m[001] || t[110]; m(011) || t(100), m[100] || t[001]; m(100) || t(110), m[001] || t[001]; m(013) || t(116), m[001] || t[001] (indices for the primitive tetragonal cell) have been found between the tetragonal (t) and monoclinic (m) domains during the electron irradiation-induced m-t phase transition observed in-situ with HREM within isolated zirconia nanoparticles. Geometric models of the m-t interfaces are proposed.     

Making polyurethane foams from microemulsions

A remarkable correlation exists between the degree of expansion of polyurethane foams and the structure of the reacting premixes. Polyurethane foams obtained from reacting premixes containing microemulsions are highly expanded. The expansion rate is proportional to the volume fraction of microemulsion in the premix. The stability of premixes with and without microemulsion is completely different suggesting distinct creaming mechanisms. We apply this idea to synthesize polyurethane foams from microemulsions successfully. This approach can be used to rationalize the design of polyurethane formulations leading to highly expanded foams.     

Study of phase equilibria in the Al - Pd - Re system

Scanning and transmission electron microscopy have been combined with x-ray diffraction to examine the phase equilibria in the Al - Pd - Re system at 1000°C for compositions from 50 to 100 at.% Al, and the corresponding isothermal section has been constructed. The binary monoclinic Al₃ Re phase has been observed for the first time. It is confirmed that there is a stable icosahedral phase in this system. The boundaries to its homogeneity region have been determined and the phase equilibria in which it participates.     

Potency comparison of peptidomimetic inhibitors against HIV-1 and HIV-2 proteinases: design of equipotent lead compounds

The results of investigation of haptoglobin (Hp) types in 596 donor blood samples in some towns of Ukraine (Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Odessa, Kiev, Uzhgorod, Zhitomir) are presented. Three normal Hp types (Hp1-1, Hp2-1 and Hp2-2) have been found. The reliable interpopulation differences in the Hp types frequency were not found. On the whole the Hp types frequency in the type Hp1-1 comprised 12.7%. In the type Hp2-1-48.1% and in the type Hp2-2-36.5%. The frequency of the gene Hp1 is 0.38. The frequency of the Hp types and of the gene Hpl in Ukraine is similar to that in population of Eastern Europe and European Part of Russia.     

Line balancing in a just-in-time production environment: balancing multiple U-lines

The introduction of multiple, independent production lines has helped many firms to increase their production flexibility, provide for redundancy when equipment breaks down, reduce idle time and labor costs, and achieve many other benefits. This paper introduces and formalizes the multiple U-line balancing problem. Optimal solution methodologies are provided for Type I (minimize the number of stations for a given cycle time), Type II (minimize the cycle time for a given number of stations), and cost-minimization line-balancing problems. A branch-and-bound algorithm is also developed for the situation in which equipment requirements are dependent on the line configuration and the task assignment to stations. Computational results indicate that the greatest benefit of exploiting multiple lines occurs for smaller cycle-time problems that require higher output.     

Object-oriented query language access to relational databases: A semantic framework for query translation

This research investigates and approach to query processing in a multidatabase system that uses an objectoriented model to capture the semantics of other data models. The object-oriented model is used to construct a global schema, defining an integrated view of the different schemas in the environment. The model is also used as a self-describing model to build a meta-database for storing information about the global schema. A unique aspect of this work is that the object-oriented model is used to describe the different data models of the multidatabase environment, thereby extending the meta database with semantic information about the local schemas. With the global and local schemas all represented in an object-oriented form, structural mappings between the global schema and each local schema are then easily supported. An object algebra then provides a query language for expressing global queries, using the structural mappings to translate object algebra queries into SQL queries over local relational schema. The advantage of using an object algebra is that the object-oriented database can be viewed as a blackboard for temporary storage of local data and for establishing relationships between different databases. The object algebra can be used to directly retrieve temporarily-stored data from the object-oriented database or to transparently retrieve data from local sources using the translation process described in this paper.     

Antimicrobial activity of dogwood fruits (Cornus drummondii) from winter food caches of eastern woodrats (Neotoma floridana)

Post-harvest loss of resources to microbial competitors affects a number of species of animals, and many of them have evolved behaviors that reduce the likelihood of such loss. We previously described the inhibition ofBacillus psychrophilus by dogwood fruits (Cornus drummondii), which can comprise a significant portion of the winter food cache of the eastern woodrat (Neotoma floridana). The present study is a further investigation of the ability of dogwood fruits to inhibit growth ofB. psychrophilus. Additionally, we tested the antimicrobial activity of dogwood fruits onEscherichia coli andStaphlococcus aureus. Results of our study indicate that fresh fruits inhibit the growth ofB. psychrophilus andS. aureus but notE. coli. However, fruits taken from woodrat dens after four and six months storage inhibited growth of all three species of bacteria. Further, the strength of inhibition increased over the test period. We suggest the presence of an inhibitor allows woodrats to compete effectively for a valuable and limited food resource.     

Jitter in ATM networks and its impact on peak rate enforcement

Cells arriving to an ATM network experience random delays due to queueing in upstream multiplexing stages, notably in customer premises. This is the phenomenon of jitter and the aim of the present paper is to study its influence on peak rate enforcement. We first introduce some general characterizations of jitter and then, describe two models of jittered flows based on simple queueing systems. We discuss the objectives of peak rate enforcement and study the impact of jitter on the dimensioning of jumping window and leaky bucket mechanisms. A useful synthetic characterization of jitter appears to be a remote quantile of the cell delay distribution expressed in units of the initial inter-cell interval.     

Shear mode coupling and tilted grain growth of A1N thin films in BAW resonators.

Polycrystalline A1N thin films were deposited by RF reactive magnetron sputtering on Pt(111)/Ti electrode films. The substrates were tilted by an angle ranging from 40 degrees to 70 degrees with respect to the target normal. A low deposition temperature and a high sputter gas pressure were found ideal for tilted growth. The resulting grain tilt angle amounts to about half the substrate tilt angle. For coupling evaluation, 5 GHz solidly mounted resonator structures have been realized. The tilted grain A1N films exhibited a permittivity in the 9.5-10.5 range and loss tangent of 0.3%. Two shear modes as well as the longitudinal mode could be clearly identified. The coupling coefficient k2(eff) of the fundamental thickness shear mode (TS0) was found to be about 0.5%, which is compatible with a c-axis tilt of about 6 degrees.