Photothermal techniques applied to the determination of the water vapor diffusion coefficient and thermal diffusivity of edible films.

Water vapor diffusion coefficient (WVDC) and thermal diffusivity (alpha) were determined in gelatin-starch films through photothermal techniques. The effect of different variables in the elaboration of these films, such as starch and glycerol concentrations and pH, were evaluated through the response surface methodology. The results indicated that an increase in the glycerol concentration and pH favored the WVDC of the films. On the other hand, alpha was influenced principally by the starch content and pH of the film-forming solution. The minimum alpha value was 4.5 x 10(-4) cm2/s, which is compared with alpha values reported for commercial synthetic polymers.     

Algorithms of motion planning for a six-legged walking machine

This paper investigates algorithms of motion planning for a six-legged walking machine over complex terrain. Application of the Rodrigues-Hamilton parameters for describing the orientation of the body enables one to develop algorithms of motion planning for the body and legs in an absolute coordinate frame with automatic adaptation to the surface. Experiments with a laboratory scale walking machine have demonstrated the efficiency of proposed algorithms. __________ Translated from Fundamentalnaya i Prikladnaya Matematika, Vol. 11, No. 7, pp. 197–206, 2005.     

Adsorption of nonionic surfactant triton X-100 on solids from aqueous and nonaqueous solutions

The adsorption of nonionic surfactant Triton X-100 on quartz sand and methylated quartz sand from water and toluene was investigated by means of spectrophotometry, the radiotracer technique, and wetting angle measurements.     

Differentiation of species of the Baccharis genus by HPLC and chemometric methods.

Phytochemical investigation of the aerial parts of three Baccharis species (Asteraceae family) was performed using HPLC and chemometric methods, with the objective of distinguishing between three morphologically very similar species: Baccharis genistelloides Persoon var. trimera (Less.) DC, B. milleflora (Less.) DC and B. articulata (Lam.) Persoon. With the help of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and variance weights, it was possible to characterize the chromatographic profiles of the alcoholic extracts of the three species. Application of Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) methods on a training set of 74 extracts resulted in models that correctly classified all eight samples in an independent test set.     

A numerical study of time-dependent schr?dinger equation for multiphoton vibrational interaction of NO molecule, modelled as Morse oscillator, with intense far-infrared femtosecond lasers

For the NO molecule, modelled as a Morse oscillator, time-dependent (TD) nuclear Schr?dinger equation has been numerically solved for the multiphoton vibrational dynamics of the molecule under a far-infrared laser of wavelength 10503 nm, and four different intensities,I = 1 × 10⁸, 1 × 10¹³, 5 × 10¹⁶, and 5 × 10¹⁸ W cm⁻² respectively. Starting from the vibrational ground state at zero time, various TD quantities such as the norm, dissociation probability, potential energy curve and dipole moment are examined. Rich high-harmonics generation (HHG) spectra and above-threshold dissociation (ATD) spectra, due to the multiphoton interaction of vibrational motions with the laser field, and consequent elevation to the vibrational continuum, have been obtained and analysed. Dedicated to Professor C N R Rao on his 70th birthday An erratum to this article is available at .