Effect of ultrasound pretreatment on wood prior to vacuum drying

The influence of ultrasonic pretreatment prior to vacuum drying of Chinese fir specimens was examined in this work. In the pretreatments, wood samples were immerged in a distilled water bath and were treated using two wave frequencies for four different elapsed times to investigate effects of ultrasonic frequency and treatment duration. Then the wood samples were vacuum-dried at 80°C and absolute pressure of 0,05 MPa. After the pretreatment, microscopic analysis was carried out on the wood samples to check micro-cracks, the loss of extractives from the cell walls and other micro-structural changes on the wood. Results show that the ultrasonic treatment prior to vacuum drying significantly shortened the wood drying time. The drying time decreased with increase in the wave frequency and the treatment time. Furthermore, ultrasound pretreatment tended to reduce the content of extractives in the wood cell walls and cause cell-wall micro-cracking

Trmt112 Gene Expression in Mouse Embryonic Development

Mouse Trmt112, the homologous gene of yeast Trm112 (tRNA methyltransferase 11-2), was initially cloned from RIKEN with uncertain function. The yeast TRM112 is now known to play important roles in RNA methylation. Here, we studied the expression of Trmt112 by in situ hybridization and quantitative real-time RT-PCR (QRT-PCR). A higher expression level of Trmt112 was observed in the brain and nervous system by whole mount in situ hybridization from embryonic day 10.5 (E10.5) to E11.5. At later developmental stages E13.5 and E16.5, abundant expression was prominently found in various organs and tissues including developing brain, nervous system, thymus, lung, liver, intestine, kidney, and cartilage. Furthermore, Trmt112 was persistently expressed from E9.5 to E18.5 on whole embryos and highly expressed in multiple organs at E12.5, E15.5 and E18.5 by QRT-PCR. These results showed that Trmt112 gene was highly and ubiquitously expressed during mouse embryonic development, implying that it might be involved in the morphogenesis of diverse organs and tissues and numerous physiological functions

Effects of steaming treatment on crystallinity and glass transition temperature of Eucalyptuses grandis × E. urophylla

To investigate the effects of steaming treatment on crystallinity and glass transition temperature, samples of Eucalyptuses grandis × E. urophylla with moisture content of 50%, 70%, and 90% were steamed in saturated steam at 100 °C for 2, 4, 6, and 8 h. The degree of crystallinity (CrI) and glass transition temperature (Tg) were measured via X-ray diffraction and dynamic mechanical analysis, respectively. Results revealed a crystallinity degree of Eucalyptus of 29.9%–34.2%, and a glass transition temperature of 80–94 °C with moisture contents of steamed samples of 20%. Furthermore, steaming was revealed to have an obvious effect on crystallization and glass transition. Values of CrI and Tg showed similar changing characteristics: increasing initially, followed by a decrease with increasing steaming time, reaching a maximum at 2 h. Water within the wood seemed to promote crystallization and glass transition during steaming. All steamed samples tested in this study reached glass transition temperature after 50 min of steaming, and the residual growth stress was released. Keywords: Eucalyptuses grandis × E. urophylla, Steaming, Moisture content, Crystallinity, Glass transition temperatur

The Effect of Ultrasound Pretreatment on Poplar Wood Dimensional Stability

Dimensional stability is a key property of wood that significantly affects its applications. The effect of an ultrasound pretreatment on poplar wood (Populous tomentosa) dimensional stability was examined. During the pretreatments, wood samples were immersed in distilled water and treated ultrasonically under three different powers and frequencies. The samples were then analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The chemical transformation of the cell-wall material was studied and then associated with the change of water absorption and the swelling coefficient. The results showed that the water absorption decreased after the ultrasonic pretreatment. The axial and radial swelling coefficients of the pretreated samples decreased, while the tangential swelling coefficients increased. The volumetric swelling coefficient of pretreated specimens fluctuated near 4.48% (the volumetric swelling coefficient of untreated wood). Ultrasonic pretreatment increased the number of hydrophilic groups, such as the hydroxyl, acetyl, and uronic ester groups. Meanwhile, the pretreatment also increased the degree of crystallinity and reduced the available polar groups. These two factors together caused the change of the moisture absorption and the swelling coefficient of the pretreated wood. These conclusions suggest that the ultrasonic pretreatment is a promising method for further chemical modification of wood

Effect of ultrasound pretreatment on wood prior to vacuum drying

The influence of ultrasonic pretreatment prior to vacuum drying of Chinese fir specimens was examined in this work. In the pretreatments, wood samples were immerged in a distilled water bath and were treated using two wave frequencies for four different elapsed times to investigate effects of ultrasonic frequency and treatment duration. Then the wood samples were vacuum-dried at 80°C and absolute pressure of 0,05 MPa. After the pretreatment, microscopic analysis was carried out on the wood samples to check micro-cracks, the loss of extractives from the cell walls and other micro-structural changes on the wood. Results show that the ultrasonic treatment prior to vacuum drying significantly shortened the wood drying time. The drying time decreased with increase in the wave frequency and the treatment time. Furthermore, ultrasound pretreatment tended to reduce the content of extractives in the wood cell walls and cause cell-wall micro- cracking

Effects of Frequency and Processing Time on the Drying Course of Ultrasound-assisted Impregnated Wood

Impregnating wood, assisted with ultrasound technology, could improve the impregnation efficiency by improving the permeability of wood, thus affecting the subsequent drying process. Poplar lumber and phenolic resin were applied to investigate the influence of ultrasound-assisted impregnation on the wood drying process. The ultrasonic frequency and processing time were analyzed and correlated. The results indicated that the average drying rate of impregnated wood was generally faster in the earlier stage and slower in the later period than the blank group. At the earlier drying stage, the drying rate exhibited a decreasing tendency with increasing ultrasonic time, as the frequency remained constant. However, with an unaltered processing time, a contrary trend was detected as the frequency was increased. The ultrasonic frequency and time caused an complex effect on the average drying rate during the later drying course. These findings could be applied to the impregnated wood drying industry to strike a balance between ultrasound-assisted performance and the related drying effectiveness

Effect of ultrasound pretreatment on wood prior to vacuum drying

The influence of ultrasonic pretreatment prior to vacuum drying of Chinese fir specimens was examined in this work. In the pretreatments, wood samples were immerged in a distilled water bath and were treated using two wave frequencies for four different elapsed times to investigate effects of ultrasonic frequency and treatment duration. Then the wood samples were vacuum-dried at 80°C and absolute pressure of 0,05 MPa. After the pretreatment, microscopic analysis was carried out on the wood samples to check micro-cracks, the loss of extractives from the cell walls and other micro-structural changes on the wood. Results show that the ultrasonic treatment prior to vacuum drying significantly shortened the wood drying time. The drying time decreased with increase in the wave frequency and the treatment time. Furthermore, ultrasound pretreatment tended to reduce the content of extractives in the wood cell walls and cause cell-wall micro-cracking

Numerical analysis of Eucalyptus grandis × E. urophylla heat-treatment: A dynamically detecting method of mass loss during the process

Eucalyptus particles, lamellas and boards were applied to explore a simply-implemented method with neglected heat and mass transfer to inspect the mass loss during the heat-treatment course. The results revealed that the mass loss of a certain period was theoretically the definite integration of loss rate to time in this period, and a monitoring model for mass loss speed was developed with the particles and validated with the lamellas and boards. The loss rate was correlated to the temperature and temperature-evolving speed in the model which was composed of three functions during different temperature-evolving period. The sample mass loss was calculated in the MATLAB for the lamellas and boards and the model was validated and adjusted based on the difference between the computed results and the practically measured loss values. The error ranges of the new models were −16.30% to 18.35% for wood lamellas and −9.86% to 6.80% for wood boards. This method made it possible to acquire the instantaneous loss value through continuously detecting the wood temperature evolution. This idea could provide a reference for the Eucalyptus heat-treatment to detect the treating course and control the final material characteristics. Keywords: Heat treatment, Successively monitoring, Mass loss, Eucalyptus, Regressio

Influence of Thermal Treatment Conditions on the Release of Volatile Organic Compounds from Bamboo

Large quantities of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are released from heat-treated bamboo during the manufacturing process of recombinant bamboo, which affects the environment and human health. In this study, bamboo was treated at 150 °C, 180 °C, and 210 °C for 3 h, and VOCs were collected every hour using a Tenax tube. The VOCs were analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to explore the effect of temperature and time on weight loss ratio, main components, and their relative proportions. The results showed that temperature considerably influenced weight loss ratio, and weight loss ratio increased rapidly at high temperature. Massive quantities of VOC were emitted during the first hour of treatment, and emissions decreased as the time and temperature increased. Terpenes were the primary component of the VOC emissions. Temperature and time exhibited minimal effects on the type of primary components, and the relative proportion of some components exhibited negligible changes over a range of temperatures and times