Fourier transform Raman spectral measurements of powdered quaternary mixtures of organic compounds: Exceptional pure component spectral reconstruction using band-target entropy minimization (BTEM)

Fourier transform Raman spectra of eight mixtures of four organic solids, namely dicyandiamide, melamine, acetamide and urea were measured. Matrices formed from these spectra were first subjected to singular value decomposition to obtain the right singular vectors. The right singular vectors were then subjected to blind source separation using band-target entropy minimization (BTEM), thus no a priori information (i.e. involving the nature of the components present, their spectra, nor their concentrations) was included in the analysis. The recovered pure component spectra are of exceptionally high quality and are consistent with pure reference spectra. Various empirical and statistical tests, such as the Euclidean norm and target transform factor analysis, were employed to assess the quality of the recovered spectra. The present results indicate the applicability of combined Raman and BTEM analysis for solid mixtures.     

Entropy resistance analyses of a two-stream parallel flow heat exchanger with viscous heating

Heat exchangers are widely used in industry, and analyses and optimizations of the performance of heat exchangers are important topics. In this paper, we define the concept of entropy resistance based on the entropy generation analyses of a one-dimensional heat transfer process. With this concept, a two-stream parallel flow heat exchanger with viscous heating is analyzed and discussed. It is found that the minimization of entropy resistance always leads to the maximum heat transfer rate for the discussed two-stream parallel flow heat exchanger, while the minimizations of entropy generation rate, entropy generation numbers, and revised entropy generation number do not always.     

无源高温超导磁浮轴承两种方案比较

无源磁浮轴承的优点是结构简单、造价低廉、无需有源控制。文中探讨了两种无源磁浮轴承的方案 ;对两种方案的悬浮力、悬浮品质因数、悬浮刚度与悬浮稳定性进行了讨论、计算、比较 ;并且讨论了两种方案的优缺点及应用。比较结果表明 ,方案 1更适合于小型的飞轮储能系统 ,方案 2较适合于大中型飞轮储能系统。     

小型化牵动下的硬盘技术

逐一分析了硬盘中的磁头、盘片等主要构件以及飞行高度发展至今的小型化过程,从而显示出当今硬盘技术发展的概貌;分析讨论了超顺磁效应,指出硬盘小型化要想继续下去必须另辟新路。     

A rapidly convergent five-point algorithm for univariate minimization

This paper presents an algorithm for minimizing a function of one variable which uses function, but not derivative, values at five-points to generate each iterate. It employs quadratic and polyhedral approximations together with a safeguard. The basic method without the safeguard exhibits a type of better than linear convergence for certain piecewise twice continuously differentiable functions. The safeguard guarantees convergence to a stationary point for very general functions and preserves the better than linear convergence of the basic method.This paper is dedicated to Phil Wolfe on the occasion of his 65th birthday.Research sponsored by the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique, Rocquencourt, France, and by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force System Command, USAF, under Grant Number AFOSR-83-0210.Research sponsored, in part, by the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique, Rocquencourt, France.     

Complement activation by sulfonated poly(ethylene glycol)-acrylate copolymers through alternative pathway

Previously, novel poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and sulfonated PEG acrylate (PEG-SO₃A/OA) copolymers were prepared as coating and/or blending materials for biomedical applications. Surfaces modified with copolymers exhibited increased anti-coagulation properties and decreased plasma adsorption level due to increased hydrophilic properties and reorientation characteristics of PEG/PEG-SO₃A chains in water phase. As continuation study, anti-complement effects of PEG-SO₃/OA copolymers were investigated in vitro, and compared with those of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and PEG/OA. C3 activation by PEG-SO₃/OA samples was lower than that by PEG/OA samples, which was attributed to decreased surface nucleophile level of samples. PEG-SO₃/OA samples increased inhibition of Bb production, resulting in decreased C5 activation. Owing to reduced activations of C3 and C5, PEG-SO₃/OA samples markedly decreased SC5b-9 levels in plasma.     

Global optimization using bad derivatives: Derivative-free method for molecular energy minimization

A general method designed to isolate the global minimum of a multidimensional objective function with multiple minima is presented. The algorithm exploits an integral “coarse-graining” transformation of the objective function, U, into a smoothed function with few minima. When the coarse-graining is defined over a cubic neighborhood of length scale ϵ, the exact gradient of the smoothed function, 𝒰_ϵ, is a simple three-point finite difference of U. When ϵ is very large, the gradient of 𝒰_ϵ appears to be a “bad derivative” of U. Because the gradient of 𝒰_ϵ is a simple function of U, minimization on the smoothed surface requires no explicit calculation or differentiation of 𝒰_ϵ. The minimization method is “derivative-free” and may be applied to optimization problems involving functions that are not smooth or differentiable. Generalization to functions in high-dimensional space is straightforward. In the context of molecular conformational optimization, the method may be used to minimize the potential energy or, preferably, to maximize the Boltzmann probability function. The algorithm is applied to conformational optimization of a model potential, Lennard–Jones atomic clusters, and a tetrapeptide. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 19: 1445–1455, 1998     

Evaluation of alternative solvents for improvement of oil extraction from rapeseeds

This present study was designed to evaluate the performances of five alternative solvents (alcohols: ethanol, isopropanol and terpenes: d-limonene, α-pinene, p-cymene) compared to n-hexane in rapeseed oil extraction. The extracted oils were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed to compare the solvents’ performances in terms of kinetics, fatty acid compositions, lipid yields, and classes. Moreover, micronutrients in extracted oils were also respectively quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC). In addition, the interactions between alternative solvents and rapeseed oil have been theoretically studied with the Hansen solubility methodology to get a better comprehension of dissolving mechanisms. The results indicated that p-cymene could be the most promising solvent for n-hexane substitution with higher lipid yield and good selectivity, despite the micronutrient contents were relatively low.