THE EFFECT OF CRYSTALLINITY ON THE THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY OF POLYMERS

The aim of this research is investigating the direct effect of crystallinity of thermoplastic polymers on their thermal conductivity values. The study has included many materials, namely: polyoxymethylene (POM), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polypropylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), polyamide (PA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The degrees of crystallinity ranged from high-values (60-70%), mid-values (30-40%) and low-values (10-20%). The work has done theoretically and experimentally. Theoretical work has used mathematical function extracted from reliable empirical relationships. The experimental work has included: manufacturing the specimens; specifying the cooling procedure in order to get the required degree of crystallinity; measuring the coefficient of thermal conductivity for different polymers at various conditions; and finally analyze the data and introduce the experiences obtained from the investigation. In general, theoretical values as well as experimental data were both behave similarly with respect to the variation of thermal conductivity with the degree of crystallinity. The results show that by increasing the degree of crystallinity the thermal conductivity of the polymer has increased by 10-20%.

The cold eye irrigation BSS solution used during phacoemulsification reduces post-surgery patients discomfort preventing the inflammation

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess whether the intraoperative use of the cold eye irrigation balanced salt solution (BSS) could have a protective effect in preventing the anterior chamber flare and conjunctival hyperemia and, thus, in reducing patients discomfort after phacoemulsification. Materials and methods: About 214 patients were enrolled and randomly divided into: patients whose eye were irrigated with BSS at ~ 20°C (Group 1) and patients whose eye were irrigated with BSS at 2.7°C (Group 2). Anterior chamber flare, visual analogue score and conjunctival hyperemia were evaluated at 1, 3, 5, and 30 days after surgery. Results: In patients of Group 2 the anterior chamber flare, the visual analogue score and the conjunctival hyperemia, used as parameters to evaluated clinical inflammation, at 1 day after surgery were significantly lower than those in Group 1 who received BSS solution at operating room temperature ( p < 0.001), while at day 3, 5, and 30 there were not any significant differences. Conclusion: Our study provided evidence supporting the efficacy of the treatment with cold irrigation solution on reduction of anterior chamber flare, pain and conjunctival hyperemia already at 1 day after phacoemulsification, suggesting that cooling procedure was fully effective at controlling early post-operative inflammation.

Crystal Separation Method of 6-Inch 4H-SiC Crystal Using Adhesion Shrinkage between a Seed and a Seed Holder in Cooling Process

6-inch 4H-SiC crystal ingot was successfully separated from a seed holder by the contraction enhancement of adhesive. The resin used as an adhesive with 10~30% in contraction ratio during the cooling was selected. The crack between seed holder and grown SiC crystal was observed to be formed after the cooling procedure and the crystal was easily separated from the seed holder without any machining process for the separation. The warp value and the rocking curve value of SiC crystal grown with modified adhesive was observed to be smaller than those of SiC crystal with conventional method.

Thermodynamic Modelling of Superfluid Stirling Cryocoolers

The aim of this paper is to describe and thermodynamically model cryogenic Stirling refrigerators, using Helium in its different forms as the working medium. Helium has unique properties at cryogenic temperatures forming a superfluid. The cryogenic Stirling refrigerators with Helium at such low temperatures make use of the properties of this superfluid nature of Helium, thus they are referred to as Superfluid Stirling Refrigerators (SSR). To make use of these remarkable properties of superfluid helium a different version of Stirling refrigerator is used where superleaks are introduced in the pistons in order to let the superfluid part flow freely but constrain the normal fluid. This cooling procedure has an upper temperature limit as it is based on the superfluidity of helium, hence all the workings of this cycle must be well below the Lambda line. In addition, different models are needed and are used for the different isotopes of helium as their atomic spin nature is different and therefore their behavior at temperatures near absolute zero. In this study of SSR cryocoolers great care is being given towards the thermodynamic behavior of the entire system and working media, as well as different designs of the apparatus.

Cooling of soybean seeds and physiological quality during storage

The aim of this study was to evaluate the physiological quality of soybean seeds submitted or not to dynamic cooling, and kept in cold storage (CS) and non-cold storage (NCS). A soybean seeds lot, variety M7639RR, was divided into two parts, and each one was subdivided into three parts that were subjected to one of these cooling procedure: seeds without cooling (SWC), dynamic cooling at 17 °C (SC17), and dynamic cooling at 13 °C (SC13). Seeds were kept in CS and NCS at 20 °C. Samples were collected at six times (0, 45, 90, 135, 180 and 225 days), and then submitted to germination, tetrazolium, accelerated aging and seedling emergence tests. Dynamic artificial cooling at 13 °C followed by maintenance at 20 °C ensured the preservation of physiological quality of soybean seeds for up to 225 days. The vigor of the soybean seeds subjected to dynamic cooling at 13 °C was better preserved than that of the non-cooled or of the cooled at 17 °C ones and kept in NCS for 225 days. CS at 20 °C contributed to the preservation of the physiological quality of the soybean seeds, regardless of whether or not they were submitted to the dynamic procedure.

Avoiding Ethanol Presence in DNA Samples Enhances the Performance of Ultraviolet Resonance Raman Spectroscopy Analysis

Ethanol is an essential chemical reagent in DNA preparation as its use increases the yield of extraction. All methodologies for DNA isolation involve the use of ethanol in order to prevent DNA dissolution in water and to optimize the binding of DNA to chromatographic membranes. In this note, we show how the presence of ethanol traces in DNA aqueous solution affects ultraviolet Raman spectra, leading to possible misinterpretations. We report a simple method to remove the ethanol Raman features from the spectra, based on heating the DNA sample at 80 ℃, followed by a slow cooling procedure.