Science Technology

In the field of packaging, coatings are commonly applied on containers to avoid interactions between them and their content. For glass bottles, application of a thin film prevents interactions with the phase in contact and consequently the alteration of surface properties of the latter. In this article, we propose an innovative way to apply amorphous alumina coatings on glass bottles by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition from aluminum tri-isopropoxide. A numerical model, using the Computational Fluid Dynamics code FLUENT, has been developed to calculate local profiles of gas flow, temperature, concentration and deposition rates into the reactor. The sub-micrometric alumina films have been deposited at reduced pressure between 480°C and 670°C. Uniform thickness profiles have been determined on cross sections over the length of the bottle and have been successfully simulated. Strongly improved hydrolytic resistance with regard to the uncoated bottles reveals the excellent performa...

Urban green infrastructure (UGI) has the potential to address a wide range of challenges associated with rapidly growing cities in a changing climate, while also providing multiple environmental, economic and social benefits. However, the location of projects is often determined according to a single potential benefit rather than a set of benefits. Furthermore, while UGI is recognized as a successful strategy to support resilience in many cities around the world, it has not been implemented in Uruguay. This study develops a model to identify priority areas in need of green infrastructure in Montevideo, Uruguay. The GIS-based model, termed the “Green Infrastructure Suitability Model” (GISM) is based on a multi-criteria decision analysis approach and is similar in structure to land suitability analysis. The model considers a range of socioeconomic, biophysical and environmental factors to prioritize the need for UGI across the case-study region. Resulting suitability maps identify are...

When using computer-aided translation systems in a typical, professional translation workflow, there are several stages at which there is room for improvement. The SCATE (Smart Computer-Aided Translation Environment) project investigated several of these aspects, both from a human-computer interaction point of view, as well as from a purely technological side. This paper describes the SCATE research with respect to improved fuzzy matching, parallel treebanks, the integration of translation memories with machine translation, quality estimation, terminology extraction from comparable texts, the use of speech recognition in the translation process, and human computer interaction and interface design for the professional translation environment. For each of these topics, we describe the experiments we performed and the conclusions drawn, providing an overview of the highlights of the entire SCATE project.

This work provides thermodynamic data, in particular, liquid-state saturation vapor pressures of three common slightly water soluble secondary organic aerosol components, namely, malonic, succinic, and glutaric acids. A modified tandem differential mobility analyzer ...

Traditional lipophilicity parameters (log P and log D) are well-known physico-chemical descriptors largely used in QSAR studies. Besides their numerical value, log P data contain a variety of information about inter- and intramolecular forces affecting partitioning and its related biological phenomena. The deconvolution of information from log P can be accessed only by adequate interpretative tools, such as new lipophilic-combined descriptors, of which features and some applications are presented in this review.

Consolidation of cements and geopolymers can be explained by the formation of alkali silicate or alumino-silicate gels formed in situ during materials setting. To control such a system, a study concerning the use of sodium silicate gel as binder was initiated to manufacture consolidated materials with different size distribution of silica. The gels used as precursor of binder were synthesised by acidifying with hydrochloric acid, a concentrated sodium silicate. Consolidated materials were obtained by mixing the previous solution before gelation with granular materials (fine silica powder and sands). The existence domain of consolidated materials depends on the size distribution of sand. Consolidation of material is strong when the amount of silica is high. This result suggests a dissolution / precipitation reaction between gel and silica. Therefore, consolidation could be explained by the dissolution of small particles of silica and their precipitation into the grain boundary of san...

The titanium (Ti) and its alloys are taken into interest for commercial purpose due to its low density, high yield strength and high corrosion resistance properties. The present work deals with microstructural observation and mechanical property analysis of tungsten inert gas (TIG) welded Ti-6Al-4V alloy joints. For the purpose, two different set of plates were welded at same current and voltage, i.e., 190 A and 24 V, by the TIG welding technique. A critical analysis of the microstructure and mechanical properties like tensile strength and hardness of the welded Ti-6Al-4V plates was carried out in this work. It was found that both plates showed different behavior during the tension test. Plate 1 had 464.54 MPa of tensile stress and it broke at the welded joint. Plate 2 was unaffected at the welded zone but was broken at the base metal zone. The second plate had tensile strength of 501.83 MPa. According to the hardness test, both the welded plates possessed the highest hardness at th...

This paper reports determination of complex relative permittivity  of non-magnetic samples  Teflon, Nylon and Epoxy via transmission phase shift method. The transmission phase shift method offers calibration independent and invariant position features. In this work, a Coaxial Cavity Test Fixture (CCTF) with dimension of 1.8 and 4.1 mm for inner and outer conductor, respectively was customized based on impedance matching theory to study broadband scattering in the range of frequency 1-18 GHz. Impedance matching and cable calibration were performed to reduce the measurement error of scattering parameters; reflection and transmission . Magnitude and phase of  and  were measured by vector network analyzer (VNA). The measured phase of  ( ) for all samples under test were linearized using the MATLAB “unwrap” command for further calculation of . The phase shift in  between with and without sample inside the cavity was detected and it was used to determine for each material under test. The ...