Materials balance in a tung oil mill

Summary Weights were determined and analyses made of tung fruit milled and of all products leaving the mill for two runs of about 90 tons each in a commercial mill under normal operating conditions. Dry matter, oil, and nitrogen in the fruit were satisfactorily accounted for in products leaving the mill, 101% of the oil being accounted for in each run. This showed that the methods of analysis and sampling were accurate. Losses occurred principally in particles of kernels occluded with the hulls and in the screw-press cake. Seventy-eight and 82% of the oil in the fruit was recovered as filtered oil. Repressing the filter-press cake by adding it back to the stream of ground nuts just before they entered the screw-presses was not proven to be economical as at the end of the run just as much cake was on hand, and it had as high an oil content as if no filter cake had been fed back through the screw presses. Only about half as much oil could be filtered per filtration cycle, resulting in an increase in cost of labor and a decrease in filtering capacity. The apparent oil content of the screw-press cake decreases by about 2% after four to eight days as compared to its apparent oil content at the time of pressing because of polymerization. Thus, screw-press cake samples should be analyzed for oil as soon as possible after extrusion. Both of these laboratories are maintained by the Agricultural Research Service of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.     

Process Mechanics of Low Plasticity Burnishing of Nitinol Alloy

Nitinol alloys have received considerable attention in biomedical and aerospace applications. Surface integrity of Nitinol devices by various manufacturing processes is crucial for their functionality. Low plasticity burnishing (LPB) is very promising to modify surface integrity due to its unique capability to adjust material properties down to the deep subsurface on the order of a few millimeters. Burnishing mechanics is essential to understand its effect on surface properties. The depth and width of burnished surface materials are characterized. A three-dimensional finite element simulation has been developed to incorporate the superelastic mechanical behavior of Nitinol. The simulation predictions are validated with the experimental results. The contact stresses, residual stresses, and strain profiles are investigated to better understand burnishing mechanics.     

Effect of a direct-fed fibrolytic enzyme formulation on nutrient intake,partitioning, and excretion in early and late lactation Holstein cows

The effect of a fibrolytic enzyme formulation on N and P intake, partitioning, and excretion was evaluated in dairy cows in early and late lactation. Twelve lactating Holstein cows (6 early lactation, 6 late lactation) were fed diets with or without the enzyme formulation in a switchback design with three, 4-wk periods. Diets for the early lactation group contained 45% forage, and late lactation diets contained 61% forage. Cows fed diets containing the enzyme formulation gained more weight than those on the control diet; this weight gain with enzyme addition was greater in early lactation cows than in late lactation cows. The main effect of enzyme treatment did not significantly affect apparent digestibility or excretion of N and P, or retention of these nutrients in body tissue. Interactions observed between the effects of group (stage of lactation) and treatment indicated differences in the nature of the milk yield and manure excretion responses to enzyme treatment between early and late lactation cows. These interactions were due to numerical increases in milk yield, feces excretion, and N excretion in early lactation cows fed diets containing the enzyme formulation compared to control, and slight decreases in these measures in late lactation cows with enzyme addition. Cows fed diets containing a direct-fed fibrolytic enzyme formulation had increased body weight gain, but the effect of addition of the enzyme formulation on milk yield and manure nutrient excretion differed for early and late lactation cows.     

Three-dimensional (3-D) model of electric field and space charge inthe barbed plate-to-plate precipitator

A finite-element/method-of-characteristics model of three-dimensional (3-D) electrode geometries with corona discharge is used to predict space charge density, current density, electric potential and electric field in point-to-plane, single-barb plate-to-plane, and hexagonal multiple-barbed plate-to-plate electrostatic precipitator (ESP) geometries. Although a modification of Peek's formula for the hyperboid-to-plane was initially used to establish a boundary condition at the edge of the corona, predicted total current did not agree with measured values. As a result, it was necessary to use measured current-voltage characteristics to establish the space charge density at the outer surface of the corona sheath. An additional problem in modeling point discharges is specification of shape and size of the corona sheath. Both the authors' results and much earlier work by Trichel suggest that the thickness of the corona sheath cannot be automatically neglected     

Failure prediction of the thermal fatigue resistance of a glass

The thermal fatigue behaviour of circular rods of soda-lime-silica glass subjected to a water quench was predicted from data for the rate of slow crack growth as a function of stress intensity factor, the pertinent physical properties, the initial crack depth as well as the heat transfer environment. A numerical integration technique was developed in order to calculate the total extent of slow crack growth for each cycle over the total duration of the transient thermal stress and temperature, as well as the total number of cycles required for catastrophic failure to occur. Good agreement between the predicted and experimental data was found.     

Recall of past use of mobile phone handsets

Previous studies investigating health effects of mobile phones have based their estimation of exposure on self-reported levels of phone use. This UK validation study assesses the accuracy of reported voice calls made from mobile handsets. Data collected by postal questionnaire from 93 volunteers was compared to records obtained prospectively over 6 months from four network operators. Agreement was measured for outgoing calls using the kappa statistic, log-linear modelling, Spearman correlation coefficient and graphical methods. Agreement for number of calls gained moderate classification (kappa = 0.39) with better agreement for duration (kappa = 0.50). Log-linear modelling produced similar results. The Spearman correlation coefficient was 0.48 for number of calls and 0.60 for duration. Graphical agreement methods demonstrated patterns of over-reporting call numbers (by a factor of 1.7) and duration (by a factor of 2.8). These results suggest that self-reported mobile phone use may not fully represent patterns of actual use. This has implications for calculating exposures from questionnaire data.     

Mutations in the large subunit of U2AF disrupt pre-mRNA splicing, cell cycle progression and nuclear structure

The prp2 gene of fission yeast has previously been shown to encode the large subunit of the splicing factor spU2AF. SpU2AF(59) is an evolutionarily conserved protein that has an arginine/serine-rich region and three RNA recognition motifs (RRMs). We have sequenced three temperature-sensitive alleles of prp2 and determined that the mutations result in single amino acid changes within one of the RRMs or between RRMs. All mutant alleles of prp2 have pre-mRNA splicing defects at the non-permissive temperature. Although the mutant strains are growth-arrested at 37 degrees C, they do not elongate like typical fission yeast cell cycle mutants. The DNA of the prp2(-) strains stains more intensely than a wild-type strain, suggesting that the chromatin may be condensed. Ultrastructural studies show differences in the mutant nuclei including a prominent distinction between the chromatin- and non-chromatin-enriched regions compared to the more homogenous wild-type nucleus. Two-hybrid assays indicate that some of the wild-type protein interactions are altered in the mutant strains. These results suggest that normal functioning of spU2AF(59) may be essential not only for pre-mRNA splicing but also for the maintenance of proper nuclear structure and normal cell cycle progression.