Blends of thermoplastic polyurethane and polypropylene. I. Mechanical and phase behavior

Pure thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), polypropylene (PP), and TPU/PP blends with different weight ratios prepared in a twin‐screw extruder were investigated by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), the universal tester for mechanical investigation, and by wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD). The addition of PP above 20 wt % to the TPU stepwise changed the ductility and Young's modulus, i.e., apparently a kind of ductile → brittle transition occurred between TPU/PP 80/20 and TPU/PP 60/40 blends. This fact and the result of analysis of WAXD curves indicated matrix → dispersed phase inversion in this concentration region. TPU melt enabled easier migration of the PP chains and prolonged crystallization of PP matrix during solidification process affecting thus crystallite size, orientation, and crystallinity. In accordance to this fact, DMA results indicated partial miscibility of PP with polyurethane in the TPU/PP blends due to the lack of interfacial interaction and adhesion between the nonpolar crystalline PP and polar TPU phases. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104, 3980–3985, 2007     

Poly(alkyl itaconates): 8. Observations of dual glass transitions and crystallinity in the dialkyl ester series diheptyl to di-eicosyl

A series of poly(di-n-alkyl itaconic acid esters) with side chain lengths from 7 to 20 carbon atoms have been prepared. For derivatives with chain lengths of 7 to 11 carbons, two glass transition temperatures have been detected. The transition occurring at the lower temperature T²_g originates in the side groups and is a result of the independent cooperative relaxation of the alkyl side chains, while that observed at higher temperatures T¹_g reflects the glass-rubber transition of the main chain backbone and the cooperative motion of the total molecule. Derivatives with chain lengths ?12 carbon atoms display melting temperatures T_m, and measurement of the enthalpy of fusion ΔH_f indicates that side chain crystallization takes place with part of each side chain entering into a regularly packed hexagonal lattice.     

Isomorphisms and functors of fuzzy sets and cut systems

Any fuzzy set \(X\) in a classical set \(A\) with values in a complete (residuated) lattice \( Q\) can be identified with a system of \(\alpha \) -cuts \(X_{\alpha }\) , \(\alpha \in Q\) . Analogical results were proved for sets with similarity relations with values in \( Q\) (e.g. \( Q\) -sets), which are objects of two special categories \({\mathbf K}={Set}( Q)\) or \({SetR}( Q)\) of \( Q\) -sets, and for fuzzy sets defined as morphisms from an \( Q\) -set into a special \(Q\) -set \(( Q,\leftrightarrow )\) . These fuzzy sets can be defined equivalently as special cut systems \((C_{\alpha })_{\alpha }\) , called f-cuts. This equivalence then represents a natural isomorphism between covariant functor of fuzzy sets \(\mathcal{F}_{\mathbf K}\) and covariant functor of f-cuts \(\mathcal{C}_{\mathbf K}\) . In this paper, we prove that analogical natural isomorphism exists also between contravariant versions of these functors. We are also interested in relationships between sets of fuzzy sets and sets of f-cuts in an \(Q\) -set \((A,\delta )\) in the corresponding categories \({Set}( Q)\) and \({SetR}( Q)\) , which are endowed with binary operations extended either from binary operations in the lattice \(Q\) , or from binary operations defined in a set \(A\) by the generalized Zadeh’s extension principle. We prove that the resulting binary structures are (under some conditions) isomorphic.     

Intervals in generalized effect algebras

A significant property of a generalized effect algebra is that its every interval with inherited partial sum is an effect algebra. We show that in some sense the converse is also true. More precisely, we prove that a set with zero element is a generalized effect algebra if and only if all its intervals are effect algebras. We investigate inheritance of some properties from intervals to generalized effect algebras, e.g., the Riesz decomposition property, compatibility of every pair of elements, dense embedding into a complete effect algebra, to be a sub-(generalized) effect algebra, to be lattice ordered and others. The response to the Open Problem from Rie?anová and Zajac (2013) for generalized effect algebras and their sub-generalized effect algebras is given.     

Finding chaos in Finnish GDP

The goal of this paper is to analyze the Finnish gross domestic product(GDP) and to find chaos in the Finnish GDP. We chose Finland where data has been available since 1975, because we needed the longest time series possible. At first we estimated the time delay and the embedding dimension, which is needed for the Lyapunov exponent estimation and for the phase space reconstruction.Subsequently, we computed the largest Lyapunov exponent, which is one of the important indicators of chaos. Then we calculated the 0-1 test for chaos. Finally we computed the Hurst exponent by rescaled range analysis and by dispersional analysis. The Hurst exponent is a numerical estimate of the predictability of a time series. In the end, we executed a recurrent analysis and displayed recurrence plots of detrended GDP time series. The results indicated that chaotic behaviors obviously exist in GDP.     

The impact of color combinations on the legibility of text presented on LCDs

The paper investigates the impact of text and background color combinations on the legibility of text presented on LCDs. The legibility of 56 elementary color combinations was tested by 308 participants. The first task required the participants to identify 21 uppercase alphabetic characters selected and presented in conformance with a Snellen chart in various color combinations. For each color combination, the number of correctly identified characters was recorded as a visual performance measure. In the second task, participants subjectively rated the legibility of color combinations on a ten-point Likert scale. The results show that neither the Le Courier legibility table nor the CRT legibility table is appropriate for LCDs. A new legibility table is proposed for LCDs where the highest ranked are contrastive color combinations with positive polarity whereas for CRT displays, the highest ranked are contrastive color combinations with negative polarity. The findings of this study can be used to determine the best possible color combinations when developing content displayed on LCDs.     

FPGA-based module for SURF extraction

We present a complete hardware and software solution of an FPGA-based computer vision embedded module capable of carrying out SURF image features extraction algorithm. Aside from image analysis, the module embeds a Linux distribution that allows to run programs specifically tailored for particular applications. The module is based on a Virtex-5 FXT FPGA which features powerful configurable logic and an embedded PowerPC processor. We describe the module hardware as well as the custom FPGA image processing cores that implement the algorithm’s most computationally expensive process, the interest point detection. The module’s overall performance is evaluated and compared to CPU and GPU-based solutions. Results show that the embedded module achieves comparable distinctiveness to the SURF software implementation running in a standard CPU while being faster and consuming significantly less power and space. Thus, it allows to use the SURF algorithm in applications with power and spatial constraints, such as autonomous navigation of small mobile robots.     

Graph Balancing: A Special Case of Scheduling Unrelated Parallel Machines

We design a 1.75-approximation algorithm for a special case of scheduling parallel machines to minimize the makespan, namely the case where each job can be assigned to at most two machines, with the same processing time on either machine. (This is a special case of so-called restricted assignment, where the set of eligible machines can be arbitrary for each job.) This is the first improvement of the approximation ratio 2 of Lenstra, Shmoys, and Tardos (Math. Program. 46:259–271, 1990), to a smaller constant for any special case with unbounded number of machines and unbounded processing times. We conclude by showing integrality gaps of several relaxations of related problems.