Pheromone Disruption of Argentine Ant Trail Integrity

Disruption of Argentine ant trail following and reduced ability to forage (measured by bait location success) was achieved after presentation of an oversupply of trail pheromone, (Z)-9-hexadecenal. Experiments tested single pheromone point sources and dispersion of a formulation in small field plots. Ant walking behavior was recorded and digitized by using video tracking, before and after presentation of trail pheromone. Ants showed changes in three parameters within seconds of treatment: (1) Ants on trails normally showed a unimodal frequency distribution of walking track angles, but this pattern disappeared after presentation of the trail pheromone; (2) ants showed initial high trail integrity on a range of untreated substrates from painted walls to wooden or concrete floors, but this was significantly reduced following presentation of a point source of pheromone; (3) the number of ants in the pheromone-treated area increased over time, as recruitment apparently exceeded departures. To test trail disruption in small outdoor plots, the trail pheromone was formulated with carnuba wax-coated quartz laboratory sand (1 g quartz sand/0.2 g wax/1 mg pheromone). The pheromone formulation, with a half-life of 30 h, was applied by rotary spreader at four rates (0, 2.5, 7.5, and 25 mg pheromone/m²) to 1- and 4-m² plots in Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii. Ant counts at bait cards in treated plots were significantly reduced compared to controls on the day of treatment, and there was a significant reduction in ant foraging for 2 days. These results show that trail pheromone disruption of Argentine ants is possible, but a much more durable formulation is needed before nest-level impacts can be expected. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

A neural network model for the wire bonding process

A crucial step in manufacturing microcircuits is the wire bonding process in which a very thin gold wire must be formed to connect two surfaces in the microcircuit. The quality of the wire bond can be measured by visual inspection and a pull test—both of which are high-reliability, high-cost approaches to statistical process control. Westinghouse wanted to develop a high-reliability, low-cost quality assurance system. In this paper, we report on a year-long study to construct a neural network model that is capable of predicting the quality of wire bonds. The results of our modeling efforts reveal that neural networks are useful tools for statistical process control problems.     

Evaluation of Reorientation Techniques and Distractors for Walking in Large Virtual Environments

Vir tual Environments (VEs) that use a real-walking locomotion interface have typically been restricted in size to the area of the tracked lab space. Techniques proposed to lift this size constraint, enabling real walking in VEs that are larger than the tracked lab space, all require reorientation techniques (ROTs) in the worst-case situation—when a user is close to walking out of the tracked space. We propose a new ROT using visual and audial distractors—objects in the VE that the user focuses on while the VE rotates—and compare our method to current ROTs through three user studies. ROTs using distractors were preferred and ranked more natural by users. Our findings also suggest that improving visual realism and adding sound increased a user's feeling of presence. Users were also less aware of the rotating VE when ROTs with distractors were used.     

Performing Aboriginality: Desiring Pre-contact Aboriginality in Victoria, 1886–1901

This paper re-investigates notions of performed Aboriginality in relation to photographs made at Lake Tyers Mission Station, Victoria, Australia, and argues that Nicholas Caire's photographs reveal complex Aboriginal subjectivities. The photographs, made originally in 1886 and distributed to tourists, were later reproduced and circulated in book format in 1897. The first presentation of the photographs, whilst focusing on historical Aboriginality, contains traces of cross-cultural hybridity. However, the later presentation of the work reinforces historical and traditional material culture over cross-cultural dialogue. This paper argues that the desire to find historical notions of Aboriginality on mission stations in Victoria was not just due to the establishment of hierarchical racial theories in the latter part of the nineteenth century (generating the idea that Aborigines could not change and adapt to notions of ‘civilisation’) and doubts about the success of mission stations, but also because there was an interest in Aborigines who had experienced little assimilation from more remote parts of the continent of Australia. This curiosity in pre-contact Aboriginality fuelled tourism in Victoria to accessible mission stations such as Lake Tyers.     

Vibrant Photography: Photographs,actants and political ecology

Jane Bennett’s thesis in Vibrant Matter argues that we need to find ways to acknowledge and engage with the agency of all factors that create ecologies and environments, including non-human actants. This essay argues that Richard Misrach and Kate Orff’s project Petrochemical America signals some important strategies that are useful for developing visual political ecologies and understanding non-human actants, including the non-living. Although some of the images are typical scenes of environmental devastation, human and social links are made to foster the understanding that we are looking at an image of ecology rather than nature ravaged. In addition to the titles of images, captions and overall contextualization of the project, Kate Orff’s team SCAPE produce a series of diagrams called Throughlines that situate the subject of petrochemical creation and its impact in the Mississippi River corridor. The cumulative impact of Misrach’s photographic approach, combined with the effective and systematic linking of his images to other forms of relevant information by Kate Orff, produces an understanding of environment as not only inextricably linked to human activity and habitation, but which also contains differing agencies constituting a broader ecology.     

Utility of Multivariate Analysis in Modeling the Effects of Raw Material Properties and Operating Parameters on Granule and Ribbon Properties Prepared in Roller Compaction

This article aimed to model the effects of raw material properties and roller compactor operating parameters (OPs) on the properties of roller compacted ribbons and granules with the aid of principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) projection. A database of raw material properties was established through extensive physical and mechanical characterization of several microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and lactose grades and their blends. A design of experiment (DoE) was used for ribbon production. PLS models constructed with only OP-modeled roller compaction (RC) responded poorly. Inclusion of raw material properties markedly improved the goodness of fit (R²?=?.897) and model predictability (Q²?=?0.72).     

Preparation of Pt/C cathode catalyst supported on chestnut-like mesoporous carbon for fuel cell applications

Fuel cells have received worldwide attention as a next-generation renewable energy technology. However, catalyst cost and durability are the main issue hampering the commercialization of fuel cells. Many studies have focused on the physicochemical properties of the carbon support to improve the catalyst’s properties. Mesoporous carbons are suitable candidates because of their appropriate structural characteristics, including high surface area, large pore size, and regularly interconnected mesopores that permit efficient diffusion of the reactants and by-products. In this study, supports made from chestnut-like carbon consisting of platelet carbon nanofibers were fabricated by selective catalytic gasification of activated carbon. Pt/C catalysts were synthesized from these support structures using the impregnation method. Catalyst performance and characteristics were investigated by N₂ adsorption/desorption isotherms, X-ray diffractions, and the rotating disk electrode technique for the oxygen reduction reaction.     

Detailed Microphysical Modeling of the Formation of Organic and Sulfuric Acid Coatings on Aircraft Emitted Soot Particles in the Near Field

The development of a detailed microphysical model that describes the complex multicomponent interactions between organic vapors and soot particles emitted from aircraft gas turbine engines is presented. Our model formulation includes both soot surface activation by organic vapors and organic vapor condensation on the activated part of the soot surfaces. To enable this formulation, approaches to estimate chemical and physical properties of aerosols containing complex mixtures of sulfuric acid, water, and organic molecules were developed. Relevant distributions of a list of organic surrogates at the engine exit plane were used to represent complex organic emissions from aircraft engines. A parametric study was performed using this new formulation to understand the effects of ambient conditions, organic emissions levels, and mass accommodation coefficient values on the evolution of near field volatile particulate matter emissions from aircraft engines at ground level.

Copyright 2014 American Association for Aerosol Research     

Effects of Two-stage Heat Treatment on Delayed Coke and Study of Their Surface Texture Characteristics

In the present study, surface texture features and chemical properties of two types of cokes, made from coal tar by either 1-stage heat treatment or 2-stage heat treatment, were researched. The relationship between surface texture characteristics and the chemical properties was identified through molecular weight distribution, insolubility of coal tar, weight loss with temperature increase, coking yield, and polarized light microscope analysis. Rapidly cleared anisotropy texture in cokes was observed in accordance with the coking temperature rise. Quinoline insolubility and toluene insolubility of coal tar increased with a corresponding increases in coking temperature. In particular, the cokes produced by the 2-stage heat treatment (2S-C) showed surface structure of needle cokes at a temperature approximately 50°C lower than the 1-stage heat treatment (1S-C). Additionally, the coking yield of 2S-C increased by approximately 14% in comparison with 1S-C.     

Accelerated fluid bed drying using NIR monitoring and phenomenological modeling

A “fast-drying” method to accelerate the fluid bed drying process is presented. It relies on concepts of heat and mass transfer with real-time near-infrared (NIR) monitoring of moisture. Triplicate trials show that fast drying can reduce granulation drying time by half over single-temperature cycles. The product is equivalent in every way tested to material made using a conventional cycle even though the inlet temperature throughout the constant-rate stage was higher than the melting point of the compound. Tablets made from the fast-dried granulation exhibit equivalent physical characteristics to tablets made from granulations dried at a single, lower temperature.