Thermal Diffusivity Measurements of Thermographite

This paper presents results of measurements of a graphite proposed to serve as a thermophysical property reference or standard reference material. The reported measurements contribute to a program launched in 1999 by Anter Corp. with the objective to provide a replacement for the NIST thermal property reference material RM AXM-5Q graphite whose supplies were being exhausted. Measurements of the thermal diffusivity performed on five specimens taken from different positions within a large graphite block between room temperature and 1300 K were in good mutual agreement. Measurements of NIST reference AXM-5Q graphite sample supplied to minimize effects of different contributors to a common base were also in good agreement, both with the NBS reference function established by Hust in 1984 and contributions to the NBS project from the Vinca Institute of Nuclear Sciences carried out in 1979. The influence of different data reduction techniques on the measured thermal diffusivity values is illustrated and discussed.     

COPROCESSING OF COAL WITH HEAVY PETROLEUM CRUDES AND RESIDUA

This work investigates the coprocessing of coal in six different heavy petroleum crudes and residua. Coprocessing reactions of coal and the petroleum solvents are performed under three sets of constant reaction conditions, yielding informative comparative data for processing applications. Definitive comparisons of coal reactivity and solvolysis in the petroleum solvents have been obtained using solvent fractionation which provides a measure of the degree of upgrading achieved by the liquefied coal. Regressive reactions and low coal conversions are observed in coprocessing reactions in N₂ at 400^°C. Higher conversions and a reduction in regressive reactions are observed in H₂ at 400^°C. Catalytic hydrotreatment and higher temperature, 425^°C, result in increased coal conversion and a net production of pentane soluble materials. The amount of product fractions obtained from the upgrading of the coal alone is calculated. The effect of reaction temperature using different solvents and reaction conditions on the product slate is also examined.     

Glatiramer acetate blocks the activation of THP-1 cells by interferon-gamma

Glatiramer acetate (previously known as copolymer 1) is a synthetic copolymer of four amino acids that has been approved for use in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. It has been shown to suppress myelin antigen specific T cell activation by competing with these antigens at the major histocompatibility complex class II binding site and by inducing antigen specific suppressor T cells. In this study we investigated the effects of glatiramer acetate on the human monocytic cell line, THP-1, activated by lipopolysaccharide and interferon-gamma as a model for macrophages. At non-toxic concentrations of glatiramer acetate there were dose dependent reductions in the percentage of cells expressing human leukocyte DR and DQ antigen as well as in mean fluorescence intensity by flow cytometry. Production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and the lysosomal cysteine proteinase cathepsin B were markedly inhibited, but production of interleukin-1 increased. These results suggest that glatiramer acetate might alter macrophage effector function and suggest that further studies in human monocytes and macrophages are warranted.     

Solar heating using common building elements as passive systems

The paper reviews the first steps of a study on use of windows as passive solar air collectors, offsetting naturally the excess of heat in the thermal mass of the building itself, and of vertical solar collectors, with air as working fluid, and with storage systems designed as intergral parts of the building, incorporated in the concrete elements. Some examples of architectural solutions combining these principles in a modular design are suggested. Incorporated storage examples using ceilings and partitions with appropriate air transfer through them are proposed. The relevant thermal analysis on the use of windows as passive solar collectors is based on the Total Thermal Time Constant (TTTC) Method, developed by two of the authors. An analysis is also presented for a vertical flat-plate solar collector using air as working fluid and capable of integration in a blank (windowless) part of an external wall. Design and dimensioning of the fin surface are proposed for heat transfer from collector surface to fluid. The final section deals with experimental model based on the above principles and combining a vertical collector and heat storage for use in daytime and at night, respectively. The model was so dimensioned as to represent a 1:1 unit in modular building design. An overall thermal efficiency of about 18 per cent was obtained.     

Mechanical activation of talc in high-energy speed rotary mechanoactivator

This paper presents the results of research on mechanical activation of raw talc in a high-energy speed rotary mechanoactivator. The results of research on effect of mechanically activated talc on the degree of recovery Fe₂O₃ by hydrometallurgical method are also presented. The process and mechanism of mechanical activation in this type of mechanoactivator were achieved by impact.The variable parameters of the mechanoactivator operation were: rate of rotor revolutions (n₀ = 10,000 and n₀ = 20,000 rpm), circle sieve mesh (80, 120, 200 and 500 μm) and the current intensity. The following parameters of the dry mechanical activation process were studied: mechanical activation time, rotor speed, mechanoactivator capacity and specific energy consumption. The mechanically activated powder was examined by application of differential thermal and thermogravimetric analyses, analysis of the degree of mechanical activation and the specific surface area as well.According to the obtained results, the highest rate of mechanical activation was obtained with a nominal mechanoactivator load. The degree of mechanical activation increases with increasing the rate of rotor revolution, circle sieve mesh size and with the increasing mechanoactivator load. It was shown that high-grade talc concentrate with low content of Fe₂O₃ can be obtained by physical-chemical process. A new approach for obtaining high-grade talc concentrate was achieved trough mechanically activated talc effect on the degree of recovery of Fe₂O₃ by hydrometallurgical process.     

Carbon fibre reinforced poly(vinylidene fluoride): Impact of matrix modification on fibre/polymer adhesion

The quality of interfacial interaction is dictated by the surface chemistry of the carbon fibres and the composition of the matrix. The composition of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) was modified by the addition of maleic anhydride grafted PVDF. The surface properties of the various matrix formulations were characterised by contact angle and electrokinetic measurements. Carbon fibres were modified by industrial electrochemical oxidation and oxidation in nitric acid, or the use of a traditional epoxy-sizing of industrially oxidised fibres. The surface composition, morphology and wetting behaviour of the carbon fibres was characterised. The interaction between modified PVDF and the carbon fibres was studied by direct contact angle measurements between PVDF melt on single carbon fibres and by single fibre pull-out tests. The best wetting and adhesion behaviour was achieved between PVDF containing 5 ppm grafted maleic anhydride (MAH) and epoxy-sized carbon fibres. The addition of MAH-grafted PVDF to the unmodified PVDF caused the apparent interfacial shear strength to increase by 184%. The apparent interfacial shear strength of this fibre–matrix combination allowed for the utilisation of 100% of the yield tensile strength of PVDF.     

A readiness assessment framework for the adoption of 5G based smart-living services

Information Systems and e-Business Management - The subject of this article is to analyze the users’ attitude towards new, 5G-enabled smart living services before their commercial launch. The...     

A Semi-Procedural Convolutional Material Prior

Lightweight material capture methods require a material prior, defining the subspace of plausible textures within the large space of unconstrained texel grids. Previous work has either used deep neural networks (trained on large synthetic material datasets) or procedural node graphs (constructed by expert artists) as such priors. In this paper, we propose a semi-procedural differentiable material prior that represents materials as a set of (typically procedural) grayscale noises and patterns that are processed by a sequence of lightweight learnable convolutional filter operations. We demonstrate that the restricted structure of this architecture acts as an inductive bias on the space of material appearances, allowing us to optimize the weights of the convolutions per-material, with no need for pre-training on a large dataset. Combined with a differentiable rendering step and a perceptual loss, we enable single-image tileable material capture comparable with state of the art. Our approach does not target the pixel-perfect recovery of the material, but rather uses noises and patterns as input to match the target appearance. To achieve this, it does not require complex procedural graphs, and has a much lower complexity, computational cost and storage cost. We also enable control over the results, through changing the provided patterns and using guide maps to push the material properties towards a user-driven objective.     

Confocal Microscopy for In Situ Multi-Modal Characterization and Patterning of Laser-Reduced Graphene Oxide (Adv. Funct. Mater. 30/2023)

Graphene oxide (GO) films can be readily prepared at wafer scale, then reduced to form graphene-based conductive circuits relevant to a range of practical device applications. Among a variety of reduction methods, laser processing has emerged as an important technique for localized reduction and patterning of GO films. In this study, the novel use of confocal microscopy is demonstrated for high-resolution characterization, in situ laser reduction, and versatile patterning of GO films. Multi-modal imaging and real-time tracking are performed with 405 and 488 nm lasers, enabling large-area direct observation of the reduction progress. Using image analysis to cluster flake types, the different stages of reduction can be attributed to thermal transfer and accumulation. Delicate control of the reduction process over multiple length scales is illustrated using millimeter-scale stitched patterns, micropatterning of single flakes, and direct writing conductive 2D wires with sub-micrometer resolution (530 nm). The general applicability of the technique is shown, allowing fabrication of both conductive reduced graphene oxide (rGO) films (sheet resistance: 2.5 kOhm sq⁻¹) and 3D microscale architectures. This simple and mask-free method provides a valuable tool for well-controlled and scalable fabrication of reduced GO structures using compact low-power lasers (< 5 mW), with simultaneous in situ monitoring and quality control.