Liquid holdup in wire-mesh pads

The holdup distribution and pressure drop of five different wire-mesh pads have been investigated experimentally. The wire-mesh pad porosities ranged from 93.4 to 98.4 vol% and were tested at 1 bar with air as gas phase and water as the liquid phase. The liquid holdup in the mesh pads was measured at three locations. The results show variations in the holdup profile of the pads depending on geometry, surface area, gas velocity and measuring height. The results show that the Souders–Brown equation is a poor correlation for low pressure mesh pad design and identifies several mechanisms relevant for wire-mesh pad design. The data show that there is a strong correlation between surface area of the mesh pad and the flooding point.     

Monitoring and Characterizing of Hard Disk Drive Thermal Sources

The growth of the hard disk drive's (HDD) capacity and its high performance have been instrumental in meeting the demands of a diverse spectrum of applications. However, thermal effects in HDD may cause several problems, such as thermal expansion, which causes read/write error due to misalignment, and thermal protrusion, which may cause contact between the magnetic head and disk, resulting in a HDD crash. To study the effects of temperature generated within an HDD, a Hitachi HDD (operating at 15000 rpm) was subjected to 12 different ambient temperatures, while thermal distributions of its head cap and disk were obtained using an infrared thermography system. The results show that the temperature within the HDD increases with the ambient temperature and time. However, the different ambient temperatures did not affect the thermal distribution pattern within the HDD. By comparing the results with ANSYS simulation, it was noted that the simulated result lacks details on some thermal conditions of certain regions, and the results of the simulated temperatures of the components within the HDD were also observed to be overpredicted.     

Topological properties of folded hyper-star networks

In practice it is important to construct node-disjoint paths in networks, because they can be used to increase the transmission rate and enhance the transmission reliability. The folded hyper-star networks FHS(2n,n) were introduced to be a competitive model to both hypercubes and star graphs. They are bipartite and node-symmetric, though not edge-symmetric, and have diameter n. In this paper we construct a maximum number of node-disjoint paths between every two distinct nodes of FHS(2n,n) and show that its fault diameter is n+2 for n≥4. We also suggest a one-to-all broadcasting algorithm of FHS(2n,n) under the all-port model.     

Understanding how people process health information: A comparison of tailored and nontailored weight-loss materials.

Health information tailored to meet individuals' unique needs has been shown to be more effective than generic information in promoting risk-reducing behavior changes. To explore mechanisms underlying tailoring's effectiveness, this study randomly assigned 198 overweight adults to receive weight-loss materials that were either (a) tailored to the individual, (b) in an American Heart Association (AHA) brochure, or (c) AHA-content formatted to look like tailored materials. Participants who received tailored materials had more positive thoughts about the materials, positive personal connections to the materials, positive self-assessment thoughts, and positive thoughts indicating behavioral intention than those who received either of the untailored materials. The tailoring of health information can significantly improve the chances the information will be thoughtfully considered and can stimulate prebehavioral changes such as self-assessment and intention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What practitioners consider to be the skills and behaviours of an effective people project manager

It is recognized by academics and the community of practice that the management of people plays an important role in project management. Recent people skills research expresses the need to develop a better understanding of what good people management is. This paper proposes what project management practitioners consider to be skills and behaviours of an effective people project manager. A combination of literature review, face to face interviews and focus group meetings was applied to complete the research objective. Six specific skills and associated behaviours were identified as being most important. The results suggest that project managers would benefit from adopting these skills and behaviours to strengthen their managing people skills and behaviours to improve the successful delivery of projects. The findings also suggest that some skill sets and behaviours may be more appropriate for application in certain project environments such as IT or the construction industry.     

DEVELOPMENT OF A FILTER TO SELECTIVELY REMOVE COPPER FROM JET FUELS USING A POLY AMINE CHELANT IMMOBILIZED ON SILICA GEL

Dissolved copper in fuels is generally rendered chemically benign by complexing with soluble chelating agents. However, this still leaves the copper in the fuel. By attaching suitable chelants to a solid support, copper can be selectively removed from the fuel by passing through a column packed with this material. We are evaluating a candidate system in which diethylenetriamine (DETA) is densely immobilized onto silica gel (DETA-Si). Previous studies have shown that this system will remove copper to below detection levels from jet fuel passed through columns at up to 30 mL/min. In this study, we show that the efficiency of DETA-Si to extract copper is not diminished in the presence of metal deactivating additives. Moreover, MDA does not extract copper from DETA-Si in lab-scale flow tests. The impact of filtration through silica gel and DETA-Si on thermal stability is also addressed.     

Contractor selection using the analytic network process

Contractor selection is one of the main activities of clients. Without a proper and accurate method for selecting the most appropriate contractor, the performance of the project will be affected. The multi‐criteria decision‐making (MCDM) is suggested to be a viable method for contractor selection. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) has been used as a tool for MCDM. However, AHP can only be employed in hierarchical decision models. For complicated decision problems, the analytic network process (ANP) is highly recommended since ANP allows interdependent influences specified in the model. An example is demonstrated to illustrate how this method is conducted, including the formation of supermatrix and the limit matrix.     

Application of image analysis for precise,noninvasive measurement of plant culture growth

Accurately measuring the growth of solid cultures is important for evaluating regrowth following low temperature storage, cell screening on selective media, or the suitability of different media formulations. However, current procedures are inadequate to provide precise, quantitative data non-invasively. This paper describes the development of an image analysis technique to provide quantitative growth data for callus cultures. Various properties obtained from image analysis, such as area, perimeter, diameter, and integrated density value, were correlated with the observed mass of plant callus. Based on this data, a predictive linear model was developed. The image analysis method was used to estimate cell mass as a function of various media components and growth conditions. This work demonstrates that image analysis is a flexible and useful tool for monitoring cultures. This paper is dedicated to Professor Hyun-Ku Rhee on the occasion of his retirement from Seoul National University.