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.     

纳滤去除地表水中微污染物生产饮用水

为了研究纳滤去除某市河水中微污染物生产饮用水的可行性,并筛选生产饮用水的最佳纳滤膜,采用四种纳滤膜DESAL 51 HL、DESAL 5 DL、UTC-20和UTC-60处理河水,研究其去除COD、UV254吸收值以及硝酸盐等微污染物效率,考察纳滤过程中水通量变化.试验结果表明,四种膜对COD和具254nm吸收值的有机物去除率在50%～95%之间,UTC-20去除有机物效率最高.DESAL 51 HL、DESAL 5 DL和UTC 60对无机物截留率在22%～65%之间,而UTC-20达到93%.UTC-20对不同原水中硝酸盐的去除率均大于70%.在短时间纳滤实验中,存在着不可逆的水通量减少,有轻度膜污染发生.结论UTC-20适用于处理有机污染和硝酸盐复合污染的地表水源生产饮用水.     

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the world’s major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve ‘health’: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.     

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.     

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.