Time dependent properties of thermoplastic protein produced from bloodmeal with sodium sulphite as an anti-crosslinking agent

The aim of this research was to investigate how the time dependent mechanical behaviour of bloodmeal-based thermoplastic was affected by varying sodium sulphite content at two injection moulding temperatures (120°C at exit or 140°C at exit). Thermoplastic protein was prepared by extrusion with 2, 3 or 4g sodium sulphite (SS), 3g sodium dodecyl sulphate, 10 g urea, 20 g triethylene glycol and 40 g water per 100 g bloodmeal, then injection moulded into test specimens. Pull to break, creep and stress relaxation tests were performed on conditioned samples and glass transition temperature (Tg) was determined by dynamic mechanical analysis. Ultimate tensile strength was 7.9, 7.6 and 5.6 MPa for samples moulded at 120°C and 7.6, 6.3 and 5.7 MPa when moulded at 140°C with 2, 3 and 4 g SS respectively. Experimental creep data was modelled with a 4 element model, consisting of a spring and dashpot in parallel, in series with an additional spring and dashpot. Plotting creep compliance versus time showed increasing chain mobility as SS content increased. Relaxation was modelled with the Struik equation for short-time experiments. Relaxation times were 530, 360 and 250 s with 2, 3 and 4 g SS respectively when moulded at the lower temperature. At 140°C, relaxation times were 440, 430 and 190 s for these SS contents. Tg was in the range 57-65°C (1 Hz peak in tanδ) for all samples, but was lowest for samples with 4 g SS. These results show that both increased sodium sulphite and the higher moulding temperature increased chain mobility in the processed plastic

Direct measurement of the radiative lifetime of vibrationally excited OH radicals

Neutral molecules, isolated in the gas-phase, can be prepared in a long-lived excited state and stored in a trap. The long observation time afforded by the trap can then be exploited to measure the radiative lifetime of this state by monitoring the temporal decay of the population in the trap. This method is demonstrated here and used to benchmark the Einstein $A$-coefficients in the Meinel system of OH. A pulsed beam of vibrationally excited OH radicals is Stark decelerated and loaded into an electrostatic quadrupole trap. The radiative lifetime of the upper $\Lambda$-doublet component of the $X ^2\Pi_{3/2}, v=1, J=3/2$ level is determined as $59.0 \pm 2.0$ ms, in good agreement with the calculated value of $57.7 \pm 1.0$ ms.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Dynamic transport scheduling under multiple resource constraints

This paper presents a heuristic for the dynamic vehicle scheduling problem with multiple resource capacity constraints. In the envisaged application, an automated transport system using Automated Guided Vehicles, bottleneck resources are (1) vehicles, (2) docks for loading/unloading, (3) vehicle parking places, and (4) load storage space. This problem is hard, because interrelated activities (loading, transportation, unloading) at several geographical locations have to be scheduled under multiple resource constraints, where the bottleneck resource varies over time. Besides, the method should be suitable for real-time planning. We developed a dedicated serial scheduling method and analyzed its dynamic behavior using discrete event simulation. We found that our method is very well able to find good vehicle schedules satisfying all resource constraints. For comparison, we used a simple approach where we left out the resource constraints and extended the processing times by statistically estimated waiting times to account for finite capacities. We found that our newly designed method finds better schedules in terms of service levels

SIVdrl detection in captive mandrills: are mandrills infected with a third strain of simian immunodeficiency virus?

A pol-fragment of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that is highly related to SIVdrl-pol from drill monkeys (Mandrillus leucophaeus) was detected in two mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) from Amsterdam Zoo. These captivity-born mandrills had never been in contact with drill monkeys, and were unlikely to be hybrids. Their mitochondrial haplotype suggested that they descended from founder animals in Cameroon or northern Gabon, close to the habitat of the drill. SIVdrl has once before been found in a wild-caught mandrill from the same region, indicating that mandrills are naturally infected with a SIVdrl-like virus. This suggests that mandrills are the first primate species to be infected with three strains of SIV: SIVmnd1, SIVmnd2, and SIVdrl

Reducing fuel consumption by using a new fuel-efficiency support tool

A fuel-efficiency support tool has been designed, which includes a normative model describing optimal driver behaviour for minimising fuel consumption. If actual behaviour deviates from optimal behaviour, the system presents advice on how to change behaviour. Evaluation revealed that drivers used ~16% less fuel compared with `normal driving