Effect of Nanoscale SiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> and TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> as the Fillers on the Mechanical Properties and Aging Behavior of Linear Low-Density Polyethylene/Low-Density Polyethylene Blends

Linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) was blended with low-density polyethylene (LDPE) at a fixed ratio (80 wt LLDPE and 20 wt %LDPE) and filled with nanoparticles of SiO₂ and TiO₂ at a ratio up to wt 5%, so as to develop the polymeric composites suitable to preparing the agricultural micro-irrigation pipes having good environmental adaptability. These compounds were blended using calcium stearate, polyethylene wax, and titanate coupling agent as the auxiliary dispersants, and ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) as the toughness improver. The LLDPE/LDPE composites filled with the nanoparticles were extruded and injected to prepare the composites specimens for the performance evaluations and micro-irrigation pipe field test. The mechanical properties, thermostability, and processibility of the injected composites were investigated. The effect of heating in an oven and irradiating by ultraviolet on the mechanical properties of the composites was explored. The environmental adaptability of the micro-irrigation pipes made of the filled LLDPE/LDPE composites was evaluated making use of long-term outdoor field test in northwest China where the arid and harsh natural conditions are of great concerns. It was found that the LLDPE/LDPE blend with the LLDPE mass fraction fixed as 80% showed balanced mechanical and thermal properties and flexibility, and was suitable to be used as the basic resin matrix. The incorporation of nano-TiO₂ contributed to effectively improving the resistance to heating and ultraviolet irradiation of the composites. The composite made from 91% basic resin matrix, 6% EVA, and 3% mixed nano-SiO₂ and TiO₂, showed balanced comprehensive properties. The micro-irrigation pipes made of this filled LLDPE/LDPE composite had good environmental adaptability and service behavior in a three-year field test and were suitable to be used in arid area.     

振动与冲击试验中单自由度线性系统损坏可能性的比较

比较了单自由度线性机械系统在稳态振动，随机振，运输试验以及冲击试验中响应的大小。     

木素胺的合成及改性率的测定

通过三因子二次回归正交设计试验，采用Mannich反应合成阳离子木素胺。用元素分析仪测定改性样品的含氮量，以电泳试验测定其改性率，含氮量和改性率之间线性相关，并对其表面活性进行了研究，得到影响含氮量和改性率的主要因素和最佳工艺条件。     

Microeconomic theory of chemical production processes: application to aqueous VOC air stripping operations

A novel microeconomic formalism for chemical processes is applied to air stripping of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from aqueous streams in a conventional packed tower. A simplified conceptual process model is combined with techno-economic aggregation rules to obtain an engineering production function, which relates process inputs (capital, material, labor, and energy) to output (stripped water flow rate). Process relationships determine column length and diameter required to achieve a specified VOC percent recovery from an aqueous stream of given composition and flow rate. Total capital is determined using a defined capital unit (1 capital unit=10 foot of 6-inch schedule 40 carbon steel welded pipe=$122, Jan. 1990) to put all installed capital equipment on the same basis and multiplying by 3.37 to account for the necessary plant infrastructure. Process labor is obtained from an empirical correlation, which relates workerhours to mass throughput. Simulations were made for four systems comprised from each of two representative random packings (i.e. 25-mm plastic Pall rings and 25-mm ceramic Raschig rings) and two model VOCs (i.e. 1,2-dichloroethane and trichloroethylene). Several examples are given, and process, technical and economic analyses of the results are presented. Two-dimensional (capital-energy) optimization was effective in determining the least cost combination of inputs for a plant to produce a specified output of stripped water. Furthermore, conventional economic models (e.g. Cobb-Douglas model) and associated methods (e.g. linear programming) were shown to be ineffective for air stripping plant design and optimization. Moreover, increasing returns to scale with economies of scale (declining long-run average cost) are prevalent.     

GENERALIZED SKEW COEFFICIENTS OF ANNUAL FLOODS FOR LOUISIANA STREAMS1

ABSTRACT: A generalized skew map for Louisiana streams was developed using data from Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas with 20 or more years of annual flood records. A comparison between the newly developed Louisiana Generalized Skew Map (LGSM) and the generalized skew map recommended by the U.S. Water Resources Council (WRCGSM) was performed. The mean square error for the LGSM was 16 percent less than that of WRCGSM in direct application of the two maps. Performance of the new map was compared with the WRCGSM and with a regional analysis procedure through its application to the Log Pearson Type 3 (LP3) distribution. Two-thirds of the stations tested had lower standardized root mean square deviations (SRMSD) by a narrow margin using the skew coefficients obtained from LGSM instead of WRCGSM. The regional analysis also performed as well as the LGSM in terms of SRMSD. Thus, it was concluded that both LGSM and the regional analysis provide a more reliable tool for flood frequency analysis for Louisiana streams with short annual flood records.     

Tracer test at El Berrocal site

Tracer tests provide highly valuable information about the transport properties of saturated rocks which is essential to the characterization of a potential radioactive waste repository site. In the frame of El Berrocal project, a set of tracer tests was performed in a complex geometry of inclined boreholes, combined with highly fractured transmissive zones. The aims of the tracer test programme were to gain experience, knowledge and insight into field transport experiments. To achieve this a detailed programme of new instrumentation design, site characterization and laboratory tasks was developed. For field monitoring a new electronic system was developed. The system is able to measure up to 256 parameters per borehole, with surface equipment to control pumping rates and physical and chemical parameters at both injection and extraction boreholes. The experiments progressed from single borehole dilution tests under both natural flow and forced gradient conditions to convergent flow tracer tests. Dilution tests helped to discriminate the most suitable borehole sections at which to inject tracers. The tracers were selected by the results of the laboratory programme. Uranine (fluorescein), DTPA-gadolinium (diethylenetriaminopentacetic acid, gadolinium (III)), and deuterium were injected simultaneously in one borehole section and recovered at another borehole 20 m away, pumping at a flowrate of 0.1 1 min⁻¹. First results showed a thickness porosity of 1.2 × 10⁻³ m and a longitudinal dispersivity of 17.0 m using uranine data acquired over a period of 4 d, at which point the recovery concentration had reached a maximum. However, gadolinium and deuterium appeared to travel faster, arriving at peak values after only 2 d of injection.     

Plant acclimation to elevated CO2—From simple regularities to biogeographic chaos

Upon exposure to altered levels of CO₂, plants express a variety of acclimations to CO₂ directly, over and above acclimations to indirect changes in temperature and water regimes. These acclimations commonly include increased photosynthetic CO₂ assimilation and increased water-use efficiency with reduced N content and reduced stomatal conductance. The robust generic acclimations are explicable by combining simple models of carboxylation, stomatal control, energy balance, and functional balance. Species- or genotype-specific acclimations are overlaid on these generic acclimations. Several such specific acclimations that are often seen are readily incorporated in an extended model. These specific acclimations generate a great spread of values in key performance measures of photosynthesis, water- and N-use efficiencies, and rates of water and N use, even among C₃ species that are the focus of this work. These performance measures contribute strongly to relative fitness and thus to evolving biogeographic distributions. The spread in fitness values is so large as to impend “chaotic” shifts in biogeography (and, ultimately, evolution) that are not understandable with models specific to species or functional groups; rather, a systematic study of key physiological and developmental parameters is merited. Also merited is a coherent extension of the model used here, or similar models, to include other phenomena, including mycorrhizal associations, transience in resource availability, etc. The composition of useful approximate fitness functions from physiological and allocational responses is a major challenge, with some leads originating from the model. In the search to extract patterns of responses, arguments based on the responses being close to optimal or adaptive will be misleading, in view of the absence of selection pressure to perform adaptively at high CO₂ for over 20 million years. I offer suggestions for more useful research designs.     

Bayesian Joint Estimation of Binary Outcome and Time-to-event Data: Effects of Leaf Quality on Pupal Survival and Time-to-Emergence in the Winter Moth

Plant–herbivore interactions are complex and affect herbivore fitness components and life history traits in many different ways. In this paper, we present results from an experiment studying the effects of leaf quality on pupal survival and duration of pupation (as measured by time-to-emergence) in the winter moth. Because only surviving pupae are at risk of emerging, analysis of time-to-emergence should exclude the dead pupae. However, due to right censoring, the survival status could not be determined for each individual. This failure to determine the group of moths at risk of emerging a priori motivated the development of a joint model of both survival probability and time-to-emergence. We formulate the model in a Bayesian framework and apply Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) to obtain posterior distributions. Time-to-emergence is modeled by a Cox Proportional Hazards (CPH) model where only the surviving pupae are at risk of emergence. Probability of pupal survival was modeled by a Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM). The censored individuals were included in the analysis as a missing value in the GLMM. The GLMM then generated prior distributions of survival probabilties—and thus of the probability of being at risk of emergence—for these 19 individuals, conditional on the model parameters. The CPH model was formulated as a count process and the binary frailty was incorporated as a zero-inflated Poisson model. Zeros in this model represent the non-survivors. Leaf quality did not appear to influence time-to-emergence. Pupal survival was affected in a complex and unexpected way showing opposite effects in males and females. We also explored the robustness of our model against increased levels of censoring. While the degree of censoring was low in our study (< 1%), we artificially increased it to 67%. Although further study is required to study the generality of these results in a theoretical framework, our explorations suggest that the newly proposed technique may be widely applicable in a variety of situations where the identification of the at risk population cannot be done in a straightforward way. Received: January 2005 / Revised: June 2005     

NUMERICAL MODELING OF THERMAL STRATIFICATION IN A RESERVOIR WITH LARGE DISCHARGE-TO-VOLUME RATIO1

ABSTRACT: A numerical model study of thermal stratification in a high discharge-to-volume reservoir is described. Predicted temperature profiles are compared with field data for two different years. The model accurately predicts the date of fall turnover, and predicts degree of stratification and depth of the thermocline within about 20% for both years simulated. A parametric study of stratification mechanics for a high flow reservoir indicated that diffusion was the predominant heat transport mechanism in the hypolimnion, while surface effects dominated the epilimnion. Flow effects for the particular case studied, in which all inflows and outflows occur in the epilimnion, did not significantly affect stratification behavior.     

室内空气质量评价模型探讨

文章按时间顺序介绍了六个评价室内空气质量的数学模型.它们分别是歌舞厅空气质量指标模型、通风条件下室内VOC普适模型、居民住宅甲醛浓度预测模型、办公室甲醛浓度预测模型、通风条件下室内空气品质模型以及多孔建材中VOC扩散系数两尺度模型.针对每一个模型,文章都按照相应的适用条件、建模过程和应用效果进行了综述.目的是总结该领域的最新进展,为当下的检测工作与将来进一步的研究提供参考资料.