Sodium silicate as a coke inhibitor during naphtha pyrolysis

Rates of coke formation during steam pyrolysis of naphtha have been investigated in a jet-stirred reactor both for sodium silicate coated and uncoated Inconel 600 surfaces in the temperature range of 1078–1108 K. Coke formation rates were significantly reduced on sodium silicate coated plates due to the passivation of the metal surface. However, the coking rates gradually increased with successive decokings of the coated surface.     

Evaluation of Concurrent Flaw Populations in Silicon Carbide in Terms of a Modified Weibull Distribution Function

Concurrent surface- and edge-flaw populations are often observed in strength testing of ceramics The overall strength distribution in such ceramic samples has been analyzed in terms of a modified Weibull distribution function. The junction provides an upper and lower strength limit and is characterized by two shape and location parameters. To evaluate the parameters of the distribution function, the type of flaw that causes failure need not be identified. The applicability of the function has been evaluated in terms of experimental results on SiC specimens. The analysis also shows that the relative values of shape parameters determine which flaw type dominates.     

Appearance Harmonization for Single Image Shadow Removal

Shadow removal is a challenging problem and previous approaches often produce de‐shadowed regions that are visually inconsistent with the rest of the image. We propose an automatic shadow region harmonization approach that makes the appearance of a de‐shadowed region (produced using any previous technique) compatible with the rest of the image. We use a shadow‐guided patch‐based image synthesis approach that reconstructs the shadow region using patches sampled from non‐shadowed regions. This result is then refined based on the reconstruction confidence to handle unique textures. Qualitative comparisons over a wide range of images, and a quantitative evaluation on a benchmark dataset show that our technique significantly improves upon the state‐of‐the‐art.     

Dynamic Modeling and Simulation of Impact in Tether Net/Gripper systems

The objective of this paper is to study the dynamic modeling andsimulation of a tether-net/gripper system during an impact, while it isbeing deployed or retrieved by a winch on a satellite orbiting aroundearth. We stick to Tether-Net system but the analysis is applicable toTether-Gripper systems too. We assume that the net is deployed from thesatellite in orbit and the motion is restricted to the orbital plane.This net captures a second satellite and tows it. The motion of atether-net system can be broken down into the following phases: (i)Phase 1: Net is shot out from the satellite with the tether completelyslack, (ii) Phase 2: Net comes to a location where the tether is tautwhile the drum on the orbiter is locked, (iii) Phase 3: Drum is unlockedand the net moves with the tether, (iv) Phase 4: Net captures a body.The continua (tether) is modeled using mode functions and coordinates.The theory of impulse and momentum can be used to model Phases 1, 2, and4 of motion of the tether-net system. The dynamics of the motion of thesystem in phase 3 is characterized by differential and algebraicequations (DAEs). Matlab ODE solvers were used to solve these DAEs.     

Ligand-Specific Nano-Contrast Agents Promote Enhanced Breast Cancer CT Detection at 0.5 mg Au

For many cancer types, being undetectable from early symptoms or blood tests, or often detected at late stages, medical imaging emerges as the most efficient tool for cancer screening. MRI, ultrasound, X-rays (mammography), and X-ray CT (CT) are currently used in hospitals with variable costs. Diagnostic materials that can detect breast tumors through molecular recognition and amplify the signal at the targeting site in combination with state-of-the-art CT techniques, such as dual-energy CT, could lead to a more precise detection and assist significantly in image-guided intervention. Herein, we have developed a ligand-specific X-ray contrast agent that recognizes α5β1 integrins overexpressed in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells for detection of triple (−) cancer, which proliferates very aggressively. In vitro studies show binding and internalization of our nanoprobes within those cells, towards uncoated nanoparticles (NPs) and saline. In vivo studies show high retention of ~3 nm ligand-PEG-S-AuNPs in breast tumors in mice (up to 21 days) and pronounced CT detection, with statistical significance from saline and iohexol, though only 0.5 mg of metal were utilized. In addition, accumulation of ligand-specific NPs is shown in tumors with minimal presence in other organs, relative to controls. The prolonged, low-metal, NP-enhanced spectral-CT detection of triple (−) breast cancer could lead to breakthrough advances in X-ray cancer diagnostics, nanotechnology, and medicine.     

An Architectural Framework for Accurate Characterization of Network Traffic

In networks carrying large volume of traffic, accurate traffic characterization is necessary for understanding the dynamics and patterns of network resource usage. Previous approaches to flow characterization are based on random sampling of the packets (e.g., Cisco's NetFlow) or inferring characteristics solely based on long lived flows (LLFs) or on lossy data structures (e.g., bloom filters, hash tables). However, none of these approaches takes into account the heavy-tailed nature of the Internet traffic and separates the estimation algorithm from the flow measurement architecture.In this paper, we propose an alternate approach to traffic characterization by closely linking the flow measurement architecture with the estimation algorithm. Our measurement framework stores complete information related to short lived flows (SLFs) while collecting partial information related to LLFs. For real-time separation of LLFs and SLFs, we propose a novel algorithm based on typical sequences from Information theory. The distribution (pdf) and sample space of the underlying traffic is estimated using the non-parametric Parzen window technique and likelihood function defined over the Coupon collector problem. We validate the accuracy and performance of our estimation technique using traffic traces from the internal LAN in our laboratory and from National Library for Applied Network Research (NLANR).     

Impact of communication time delays on combined LFC and AVR of a multi-area hybrid system with IPFC-RFBs coordinated control strategy

In this paper, the impact of communication time delays (CTDs) on combined load frequency control (LFC) and automatic voltage regulation (AVR) of a multi-area system with hybrid generation units is addressed. Investigation reveals that CTDs have significant effect on system performance. A classical PID controller is employed as a secondary regulator and its parametric gains are optimized with a differential evolution - artificial electric field algorithm (DE-AEFA). The superior performance of the presented algorithm is established by comparing with various optimization algorithms reported in the literature. The investigation is further extended to integration of redox flow batteries (RFBs) and interline power flow controller (IPFC) with tie-lines. Analysis reveals that IPFC and RFBs coordinated control enhances system dynamic performance. Finally, the robustness of the proposed control methodology is validated by sensitivity analysis during wide variations of system parameters and load.     

Chemical kinetics of bean straw biofuel pyrolysis using maximum volatile release method

Maximum volatile release (MVR) methods, including single point (MVR-S) and multiple (MVR-M) points, are proposed to extract the kinetics used to predict the fuel bean straw pyrolysis process. The simulation results were compared to those of the distributed activation energy model (DAEM). For the TGA (thermogravimetric analysis) experiments, fuels were heated from ambient temperature to 1,173 K at the heating rates of 10, 20, 40, 60, 80 K min^?1, and the corresponding maximum volatile release points were obtained. For the MVR-S method, both the activation energy (E) and pre-exponential factor (B) increased with increasing heating rates. For the pyrolysis weight loss process, the DAEM showed best agreement with the experimental data, followed by the MVR-M, and then the MVR-S method. However, for weight loss rate prediction, MVR-S method had the best match with the experimental data, whereas the DAEM and MVR-M method generated more errors.