From Single Droplet to Column Design

The technique state to design counter-current extraction columns is based on the performance of pilot plant experiments. The modelling is then either with the equilibrium or dispersion model, whereas in the latter the dispersion coefficient accounts for all hydrodynamic non-idealities. A new approach uses single droplet experiments to obtain the basic laws and functions governing droplet breakage, coalescence, relative velocity, and axial dispersion when using droplet populance balance models （DPBM）. The hydrodynamics simulation results show that the mean Sauter diameter, hold-up, and concentration profiles could be well predicted, which promotes the use of DPBM models for further applications in industrial scale.     

高氮钢相变及重熔过程的在线观察

在高温、低压或真空状态下高氮钢中的氮会释放出来,常压氮气氛中高氮钢的焊接也会引起氮的损失.利用共聚焦激光扫描高温显微镜对几种高氮钢的高温相变以及重熔时氮的释放进行了在线观察.观察到Fe-12Cr-0.276N的γ-δ相变、Fe-20Cr-8Mn-0.853N的α-γ相变、Fe-19Cr-15Mn-0.576N的γ-δ相变,验证了计算相图的正确性.观察到液态高氮钢熔化时氮气泡上浮到钢液表面、游动和破裂.根据观察到的氮气泡最大直径和液态不锈钢的表面张力,估算了气泡破裂前期内部的氮气压力.共聚焦激光扫描高温显微镜的在线观察适于发现热效应小的相变发生,并能测定新相的尺寸变化和气泡直径,可以弥补DTA/DSC等高温热分析手段的不足.     

The Generalised Liar Paradox: A Quantum Model and Interpretation

The formalism of abstracted quantum mechanics is applied in a model of the generalized Liar Paradox. Here, the Liar Paradox, a consistently testable configuration of logical truth properties, is considered a dynamic conceptual entity in the cognitive sphere (Aerts, Broekaert, &; Smets, [Foundations of Science 1999, 4, 115–132; International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 2000, 38, 3231–3239]; Aerts and colleagues[Dialogue in Psychology, 1999, 10; Proceedings of Fundamental Approachs to Consciousness, Tokyo ’99; Mind in Interaction]. Basically, the intrinsic contextuality of the truth-value of the Liar Paradox is appropriately covered by the abstracted quantum mechanical approach. The formal details of the model are explicited here for the generalized case. We prove the possibility of constructing a quantum model of the m-sentence generalizations of the Liar Paradox. This includes (i) the truth–falsehood state of the m-Liar Paradox can be represented by an embedded 2m-dimensional quantum vector in a (2m) ^m -dimensional complex Hilbert space, with cognitive interactions corresponding to projections, (ii) the construction of a continuous ‘time’ dynamics is possible: typical truth and falsehood value oscillations are described by Schrödinger evolution, (iii) Kirchoff and von Neumann axioms are satisfied by introduction of ‘truth-value by inference’ projectors, (iv) time invariance of unmeasured state.     

The remarkable inefficiency of word recognition

Do we recognize common objects by parts, or as wholes? Holistic recognition would be efficient, yet people detect a grating of light and dark stripes by parts. Thus efficiency falls as the number of stripes increases, in inverse proportion, as explained by probability summation among independent feature detectors. It is inefficient to detect correlated components independently. But gratings are uncommon artificial stimuli that may fail to tap the full power of visual object recognition. Familiar objects become special as people become expert at judging them, possibly because the processing becomes more holistic. Letters and words were designed to be easily recognized, and, through a lifetime of reading, our visual system presumably has adapted to do this as well as it possibly can. Here we show that in identifying familiar English words, even the five most common three-letter words, observers have the handicap predicted by recognition by parts: a word is unreadable unless its letters are separately identifiable. Efficiency is inversely proportional to word length, independent of how many possible words (5, 26 or thousands) the test word is drawn from. Human performance never exceeds that attainable by strictly letter- or feature-based models. Thus, everything seen is a pattern of features. Despite our virtuosity at recognizing patterns and our expertise from reading a billion letters, we never learn to see a word as a feature; our efficiency is limited by the bottleneck of having to rigorously and independently detect simple features.     

Females increase offspring heterozygosity and fitness through extra-pair matings

Females in a variety of species commonly mate with multiple males, and there is evidence that they benefit by producing offspring of higher genetic quality; however, the nature of these genetic benefits is debated. Enhanced offspring survival or quality can result from intrinsic effects of paternal genes---'good genes'--or from interactions between the maternal and paternal genomes--'compatible genes'. Evidence for the latter process is accumulating: matings between relatives lead to decreased reproductive success, and the individual level of inbreeding--measured as average heterozygosity--is a strong fitness predictor. Females should thus benefit from mating with genetically dissimilar males. In many birds, social monogamy restricts mate choice, but females may circumvent this by pursuing extra-pair copulations. Here we show that female blue tits, Parus caeruleus, increase the heterozygosity of their progeny through extra-pair matings. Females thereby produce offspring of higher reproductive value, because less inbred individuals have increased survival chances, a more elaborate male secondary sexual trait (crown colour) and higher reproductive success. The cost of inbreeding may therefore be an important factor driving the evolution of female extra-pair mating.     

Solar chromospheric spicules from the leakage of photospheric oscillations and flows

Spicules are dynamic jets propelled upwards (at speeds of approximately 20 km s(-1)) from the solar 'surface' (photosphere) into the magnetized low atmosphere of the Sun. They carry a mass flux of 100 times that of the solar wind into the low solar corona. With diameters close to observational limits (< 500 km), spicules have been largely unexplained since their discovery in 1877: none of the existing models can account simultaneously for their ubiquity, evolution, energetics and recently discovered periodicity. Here we report a synthesis of modelling and high-spatial-resolution observations in which numerical simulations driven by observed photospheric velocities directly reproduce the observed occurrence and properties of individual spicules. Photospheric velocities are dominated by convective granulation (which has been considered before for spicule formation) and by p-modes (which are solar global resonant acoustic oscillations visible in the photosphere as quasi-sinusoidal velocity and intensity pulsations). We show that the previously ignored p-modes are crucial: on inclined magnetic flux tubes, the p-modes leak sufficient energy from the global resonant cavity into the chromosphere to power shocks that drive upward flows and form spicules.     

A transcriptomic analysis of the phylum Nematoda

The phylum Nematoda occupies a huge range of ecological niches, from free-living microbivores to human parasites. We analyzed the genomic biology of the phylum using 265,494 expressed-sequence tag sequences, corresponding to 93,645 putative genes, from 30 species, including 28 parasites. From 35% to 70% of each species' genes had significant similarity to proteins from the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. More than half of the putative genes were unique to the phylum, and 23% were unique to the species from which they were derived. We have not yet come close to exhausting the genomic diversity of the phylum. We identified more than 2,600 different known protein domains, some of which had differential abundances between major taxonomic groups of nematodes. We also defined 4,228 nematode-specific protein families from nematode-restricted genes: this class of genes probably underpins species- and higher-level taxonomic disparity. Nematode-specific families are particularly interesting as drug and vaccine targets.