Foams and surface rheological properties of β-casein, gliadin and glycinin

Interfacial rheological properties and their suitability for foam production and stability of two vegetable proteins were studied and compared to β-casein. Proteins used ranged from flexible to rigid/globular in the order of β-casein, gliadin and soy glycinin. Experiments were performed at pH 6.7. Network forming properties were characterised by the surface dilational modulus (determined with the ring trough) and the critical falling film length (L_still) at which a stagnant protein film will break. Gliadin had the highest dilational modulus, followed by glycinin and β-casein, whereas glycinin formed the strongest film against fracture in the overflowing cylinder. The rate of decrease in the surface tension was studied at the air–water (Wilhelmy plate method) and the oil–water interface (bursting membrane) and the dynamic surface tension during compression and expansion in the caterpillar. Gliadin had the lowest equilibrium interfacial tensions and β-casein the lowest dynamic surface tension during expansion. Hardly any foam could be formed at a concentration of 0.1 g/l by shaking. At a concentration of 1.4 g/l most foam was formed by β-casein, followed by gliadin and glycinin. It seems that in the first place the rate of adsorption is important for foam formation. For the vegetable proteins, adsorption was slow. This resulted in lower foamability, especially for glycinin.     

A system-theoretic framework for a wide class of systems I: Applications to numerical analysis

A system-theoretic framework is proposed, which allows the study of hybrid uncertain systems, which do not satisfy the so-called “semigroup property.” Characterizations of the notion of robust global asymptotic output stability (RGAOS) are given. Based on the provided characterizations, the qualitative behavior of hybrid systems obtained by time-discretization of systems of ordinary differential equations with a globally asymptotically stable equilibrium point, is studied.     

Memory effects in gas chromatographic detection with a microwave-induced plasma

Capillary gas chromatography coupled to microwave-inducedplasma detection furnishes sensitivity adequate for trace analysis when the signal is monitored at a carbon emission line. Work performed with one of these systems at high electronic gain for the carbon signal has revealed solvent band widths in excess of four minutes; these impeded quantification of peaks eluting after the solvent. This report discusses two phenomena which could be related to the unexpected intensity of this solvent response: photomultiplier tube saturation and carbon deposits in the quartz plasma discharge tube.     

Nonlinear and chaotic oscillations of a constrained cantilevered pipe conveying fluid: A full nonlinear analysis

In this paper, the planar dynamics of a nonlinearly constrained pipe conveying fluid is examined numerically, by considering the full nonlinear equation of motions and a refined trilinear-spring model for the impact constraints—completing the circle of several studies on the subject. The effect of varying system parameters is investigated for the two-degree-of-freedom (N=2) model of the system, followed by less extensive similar investigations forN=3 and 4. Phase portraits, bifurcation diagrams, power spectra and Lyapunov exponents are presented for a selected set of system parameters, showing some rather interesting, and sometimes unexpected, results. The numerical results are compared with experimental ones obtained previously. It is found that in the parameter space that includesN, there exists a subspace wherein excellent qualitative, and reasonably good (N=2) to excellent (N=4) quantitative agreement with experiment. In the latter case, excellent agreement is not only obtained in the threshold flow velocities (u) for the key bifurcations, but the inclusion of the nonlinear terms improves agreement with experiment in terms of amplitudes of motion and by capturing features of behaviour not hitherto predicted by theory.     

Intrinsic thermal stability and quenching recovery of thin-film superconductors with thermal boundary resistance

The stability behaviour of a thin-film superconductor under a localized release of thermal disturbance is investigated. Two-dimensional conjugate film/substrate conduction equation with anisotropic thermal conductivity of the film, and Joule heat are employed to investigate effects of substrate and thermal properties on the intrinsic stability and quenching recovery. To consider the thermal boundary resistance between film and substrate, an interfacial-layer model (ILM) with very low diffusivity and an acoustic mismatch model (AMM) are employed. Results show that the thermal boundary resistance influences strongly the intrinsic stability. Thermal boundary resistance increases intrinsic stability if the thermal conductivity of the substrate or the disturbance energy is large. Higher Biot numbers and thermal conductivity ratios of film to substrate in longitudinal direction influence stability favorably. We demonstrate also that operation of a film/substrate system, such as YBCO/MgO, is either intrinsically stable or irrecoverably unstable.The authors wish to express their sincere appreciation to Dr. R. C. Chen for his invaluable advice and suggestions during the course of this paper. This research was supported by the National Science Council of the R. O. C. through grant NSC 83-0401-E-009-006. The computations were performed on the IBM ES/9000 at the National Center For High-Performance Computing.     

Time-marching numerical schemes for the electric field integral equation on a straight thin wire

We derive and analyse four algorithms for computing the current induced on a thin straight wire by a transient electric field. They all involve solving the thin wire electric field integral equations (EFIEs) and consist of a very accurate differential equations solver together with various schemes to approximate the vector potential integral equation. We carry out a rigorous numerical stability analysis of each of these methods. This has not previously been done for solution schemes for the thin wire EFIEs. Each scheme is shown to be stable and convergent provided the radius of the wire is small enough for the thin wire equations to be a valid model.     

Two differential equation systems for equality-constrained optimization

This paper presents two differential systems, involving first and second order derivatives of problem functions, respectively, for solving equality-constrained optimization problems. Local minimizers to the optimization problems are proved to be asymptotically stable equilibrium points of the two differential systems. First, the Euler discrete schemes with constant stepsizes for the two differential systems are presented and their convergence theorems are demonstrated. Second, we construct algorithms in which directions are computed by these two systems and the stepsizes are generated by Armijo line search to solve the original equality-constrained optimization problem. The constructed algorithms and the Runge–Kutta method are employed to solve the Euler discrete schemes and the differential equation systems, respectively. We prove that the discrete scheme based on the differential equation system with the second order information has the locally quadratic convergence rate under the local Lipschitz condition. The numerical results given here show that Runge–Kutta method has better stability and higher precision and the numerical method based on the differential equation system with the second information is faster than the other one.     

Asymptotic properties of an HIV/AIDS model with a time delay

A mathematical model for HIV/AIDS with explicit incubation period is presented as a system of discrete time delay differential equations and its important mathematical features are analysed. The disease-free and endemic equilibria are found and their local stability investigated. We use the Lyapunov functional approach to show the global stability of the endemic equilibrium. Qualitative analysis of the model including positivity and boundedness of solutions, and persistence are also presented. The HIV/AIDS model is numerically analysed to asses the effects of incubation period on the dynamics of HIV/AIDS and the demographic impact of the epidemic using the demographic and epidemiological parameters for Zimbabwe.     

Asymptotic stability of semigroups associated with linear weak dissipative systems with memory

We study the asymptotic behavior of the solutions of a class of linear dissipative integral differential equations. We show in the abstract setting a necessary and sufficient condition to get an exponential decay of the solution. In the case of the lack of exponential decay, we find the polynomial rate of decay of the solution. Some examples are given.     

具常数存放的非线性功能反应捕食模型的定性分析

研究一类食饵具常数存放且功能反应函数为次线性函数的食饵-捕食者模型,获得了一些平衡点全局渐近稳定,极限环存在惟一的充分条件.利用数值仿真检验了我们的结论.