Characterization of solid and liquid sorbent materials for biogas purification by using a new volumetric screening instrument

With the increasing utilization of biogas as an energy source the need for new materials and methods to purify and clean the corresponding gas mixtures is rising. In this regard, the application of ad- or absorptive gas purification methods has increased significantly over the last years. For fast and economic evaluation of the potential of different sorbent materials, a new volumetric screening instrument has been developed. First the measuring method and the new instrument design will be described. This instrument allows ad- and absorption, as well as desorption measurements in a technically relevant, wide pressure, and temperature range. It was used for the characterization of common sorbent materials such as activated carbons and zeolite molecular sieves. Additionally, new substances like metal-organic frameworks and ionic liquids were analyzed. Thereby the sorption of CO(2), CH(4), N(2), and H(2) was measured. The obtained data allow the direct comparison of the sorption properties of the different materials, the results of which will be presented in the second part of the paper.     

Development of blown film linear low-density polyethylene–clay nanocomposites: Part A: Manufacturing process and morphology

In this study, linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE)/clay nanocomposites with different clay contents were prepared by melt intercalation using two different compatibilizers: maleic anhydride grafted styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene and maleic anhydride grafted polyethylene (PE-g-MA). Melt intercalation was achieved by twin extrusion and nanocomposite films were produced by blown film extrusion. Effects of clay and compatibilizer fractions and type of compatibilizer on the structure, permeability, and the barrier properties of the nanocomposite films were investigated. PE-g-MA was shown to notably improve the dispersion of clay layers in the polyethylene matrix, and this was examined by atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The latter tests have also highlighted the importance of the screw configuration: the presence of mixing elements favors the dispersion and distribution of nanoclay. Moreover, differential scanning calorimetry results have shown no significant effect of the clay on the crystallinity of the composite while thermogravimetric analysis tests have demonstrated a decrease of onset and peak of decomposition temperatures. Finally, barrier properties toward water vapor transmission were measured. It was proven that not also clay, but the compatibilizer participated in decreasing the permeability of the film. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137, 48589.     

Inverse Problem of the Interval Linear System of Equations

Given a nonsingular central matrix , a central vector and a prescribed interval solution vector , it is required to find the maximum allowable deviation or so that the solution of the interval linear system is contained in . Special cases for and are considered and bounds on the entries of and are obtained either in a closed form, whenever possible, or via solving a specially designed constrained optimization problem. Received: August 25, 1997; revised February 20, 1999     

Prediction of the Brisance of Energetic Materials

The brisance parameter can be used to show the shattering power of an energetic compound and the speed to reach its peak pressure. It determines the effectiveness with which an explosive can fragment a shell. Nowadays, the sand test or sand crushing test is the preferred method for brisance measurements but there is no reliable method for the prediction of the brisance parameter. In this paper, a method for the prediction of the brisance through sand test for pure and mixed energetic materials as well as aluminized explosives is reported. It is based on the molecular structure of the desired compound and once the conclusion is established any experimental data is redundant. The calculated brisance relative to 2,4,6‐trinitrotoluene (=100) shows good agreement with the measured values.     

Design of a compact size tag antenna based on split ring resonator for UHF RFID application

In this article, a new design of miniaturized split‐ring resonator antenna using a meander line technique with a simple impedance matching method applicable to UHF‐RFID tags is presented. The new approach is based on the integration of a meander line into the radiating element of SRR to reduce the electrical tag size and a theoretical demonstration to calculate the conjugate impedance matching and directly attach the antenna with the chip. The new SRR antenna, which is printed on the flexible substrate Arlon CuClad 250LX, is designed using Alien Higgs 3 RFID ASIC whose input impedance is 25‐j190. The prototype antenna has a low‐cost compact size (18.28 mm × 18.28 mm) with a read range higher than 4 m within the RFID UHF band and with a roughly 4.2‐m peak range at 915 MHz. As a proof of behavior, a tag prototype is fabricated and measured to operate at a UHF RFID band. Based on some works' results, an optimized design is obtained with a 48% size reduction compared with the classic split ring resonator antenna and with a good impedance matching the antenna with RFID ASIC without the need for any external matching network.     

Thermodynamic and kinetic studies for the adsorption of Hg(II) by nano-TiO2 from aqueous solution

Titanium dioxide nanocrystals were employed, for the first time, for the sorption of Hg(II) ions from aqueous solutions. The effects of varying parameters such as pH, temperature, initial metal concentration, and contact time on the adsorption process were examined. Adsorption equilibrium was established in 420 min and the maximum adsorption of Hg(II) on the TiO₂ was observed to occur at pH 8.0. The adsorption data correlated with Freundlich, Langmuir, Dubinin–Radushkevich (D–R), and Temkin isotherms. The Freundlich isotherm showed the best fit to the equilibrium data. The Pseudo-first order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models were studied to analyze the kinetic data. A second-order kinetic model fit the data with the (k₂ = 2.8126 × 10^?3 g mg^?1min^?1, 303 K). The intraparticle diffusion models were applied to ascertain the rate-controlling step. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔG°, ΔH°, and ΔS°) were calculated which showed an endothermic adsorption process. The equilibrium parameter (R_L) indicated that TiO₂ nanocrystals are useful for Hg(II) removal from aqueous solutions.     

Global garbage collection for distributed heap storage systems

We present a garbage-collection algorithm, suitable for loosely-coupled multiprocessor systems, in which the processing elements (PEs) share only the communication medium. The algorithm is global, i.e., it involves all the PEs in the system. It allows space compaction, and it uses a system-wide marking phase to mark all accessible objects where a combination of parallel breadth-first/depth-first strategies is used for tracing the object-graphs according to a decentralized credit mechanism that regulates the number of garbage collection messages in the system. The credit mechanism is crucial for determining the space requirement of the garbage-collection messages. Also a variation of this algorithm is presented for systems with high locality of reference. It allows each PE to perform first its local garbage collection and only invokes the global garbage collection when the freed space by the local collector is insufficient.     

Advanced glycation endproducts stimulate the MAP-kinase pathway in tubulus cell line LLC-PK1

Advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) are suggested to play an important role in diabetic nephropathy. They induce specific cellular responses such as the release of cytokines in different cell lines. The effect of AGEs on signal transduction pathways was investigated in the renal tubulus cell line LLC-PK1. Using a serine-phosphate-specific antibody AGE-induced cellular responses associated with phosphorylation/dephosphorylation events were demonstrated. In particular, the p42MAP kinase and its downstream target, the AP-1 complex, are shown to be activated by AGE-BSA but not by BSA. In contrast, only partial phosphorylation is observed for the p70S6-kinase. Thus, AGEs appear to induce specific signal transduction pathways.     

Mass transfer in gas sparged membrane cells

Rates of mass transfer for the transfer of NaCl across a high permeability Cuprophane membrane in a gas-stirred batch dialysis cell were measured by the conductivity method. Gas sparging was found to increase the rate of mass transfer across the membrane by an amount ranging from 18 to 360% depending on the superficial gas velocity and the physical properties of the solution. The overall mass transfer coefficient was related to the superficial velocity by the equation

Contingency planning in the banking community

This article deals with computer contingency planning in the banking community. Its focus is on Federal regulatory banking agencies and various banking associations and their parts in influencing banks to develop contingency plans. Examples of specific banks' contingency plans are presented.