Heat transport in dilute mixtures of3He in superfluid4He

We report new measurements of the effective thermal conductivity K_eff and relaxation time τ in dilute mixtures of³He in superfluid⁴He, with molar concentrationsX≤10⁻³. The temperature range extended fromT≈1.4 K toT _λ. Both K_cff and τ are found to agree with theoretical predictions, in contrast to previous experiments where significant differences were observed. A new thermal conductivity cell design was used which almost completely eliminates extraneous volumes and surfaces, and the earlier results are explained in relation to these design changes.     

The on-line texture analysis of steel strips

A new on-line texture-analyzing system and its application to nondestructive r value determination is discussed. In addition to providing a brief theoretical background and describing the instrumental set-up, the article presents off-line measurements with this equipment and demonstrates the high accuracy of the determined r-values. A special feature of the unit is the possibility to simultaneously measure the most important r values—r₀, r₄₅, r₉₀, and r_m.     

The photopolymerisation of methacrylic acid by colloidal semiconductors

Summary Methacrylic acid was photopolymerised using CdS and composite, CdS/HgS and CdS/TiO₂, colloidal semiconductor particles as initiators. The previously proposed photoinitiation mechanism involving the photogenerated positive hole in the valence band of the CdS colloid was confirmed by the electron scavenging action of TiO₂. The effect of pH on the course of the polymerisation was investigated and is discussed.     

Unsteady two-film model for mass transfer

The classical two-film model for mass transfer between two fluid phases can only be used to describe the steady state mass transfer mechanism. Both the penetration and the film-penetration model are also valid solely when only one diffusion boundary layer exists at the interface between the phases. With a view to surmounting the limitations of the above models a new model has been developed for the mass transfer between two fluid phases with two diffusion boundary layers at the interface. The new model is based on the two-film concept and the Danckwerts distribution function, and is also able to simulate the unsteady state mass transfer mechanism between two fluid phases with two different boundary layers.     

Physical gelation of crystallizing metallocene and Ziegler-Natta ethylene-hexene copolymers

The effect of molecular architecture on the evolution of viscoelastic properties during crystallization was investigated using ethylene-hexene copolymers manufactured via metallocene (M-LLDPE) and Ziegler-Natta (ZN-LLDPE) processes. Differences in branching distribution were shown to have a drastic effect on the viscoelastic properties near the gel point. It is shown that the branching distribution rather than branch content is the determining parameter for the evolution of the rheological properties during isothermal and non-isothermal crystallization, and for the width of the solidification interval. We developed a partial melting technique for the preparation of stable critical gels of LLDPE whose viscoelastic properties correspond to the intermediate state between melt and solid. Local molecular conformation and crystallinity in these gels were characterized by Raman spectroscopy, which shows that the transition from melt-like to solid-like rheological behavior (physical gelation) in LLDPE occurs at a very low overall crystallinity of less than 5%.     

Search combinators

The ability to model search in a constraint solver can be an essential asset for solving combinatorial problems. However, existing infrastructure for defining search heuristics is often inadequate. Either modeling capabilities are extremely limited or users are faced with a general-purpose programming language whose features are not tailored towards writing search heuristics. As a result, major improvements in performance may remain unexplored. This article introduces search combinators, a lightweight and solver-independent method that bridges the gap between a conceptually simple modeling language for search (high-level, functional and naturally compositional) and an efficient implementation (low-level, imperative and highly non-modular). By allowing the user to define application-tailored search strategies from a small set of primitives, search combinators effectively provide a rich domain-specific language (DSL) for modeling search to the user. Remarkably, this DSL comes at a low implementation cost to the developer of a constraint solver. The article discusses two modular implementation approaches and shows, by empirical evaluation, that search combinators can be implemented without overhead compared to a native, direct implementation in a constraint solver.