Experimental Investigation of Water Emulsion Fuel Stability

The combustion of liquid fuels emulsified with water have long generated interest in the internal combustion engine research community. Typically, these fuels consist of small quantities of water emulsified with ultrasonification or other mechanical methods into a pure or multicomponent hydrocarbon fuel. These emulsion fuels promise significant advantages over base liquid fuels, such as better fuel economy, colder combustion temperatures, less NOx emissions, and so on. However, a significant practical disadvantage of these fuels is that they are prone to phase separation after they have been prepared. Till date, an objective but economical method of identifying the various degrees of phase separation has not been identified. Present research presents such a method and shows its utilization in analyzing the stability of water and hydrocarbon fuel emulsions over time without the addition of chemical stabilizers. It is expected that present research will pave the way in establishing this method to study the stability of other specialized multicomponent fluids.

Comparison of sheep rumen liquor and Rusitec fluid as inoculum for determining the in vitro digestibility of hays

One practical disadvantage of some in vitro methods used to estimate the in vivo digestibility of forages is the need for fistulated donor ruminants to provide the rumen liquor. These are subject to restrictive legislation in many countries and are costly to prepare and maintain. The aim of this study was to investigate whether rumen liquor in the in vitro digestibility technique of Van Soest et al. (1966) could be replaced by microorganisms derived from Rusitec. This technique involves the incubation of samples with buffered rumen fluid for 48 h followed by an extraction with a neutral-detergent solution.

CONGENITAL MALFORMATIONS IN OFFSPRING OF PHENYLKETONURIC MOTHERS

A family study has been presented in which two PKU females on non-restricted diets have had 16 abortions, 6 offspring who died in infancy, and 4 presently surviving children. All live births to these females have had varying combinations of premature birth weight, microcephaly, cardiac defects, mental and physical retardation, dislocated hips, and strabismus. Each of the offspring tested was non-phenylketonuric. Thus, adverse effects of elevated maternal blood phenylalanine or associated metabolic abnormalities on the developing fetus are suggested. An additional finding of interest was the presence of normal phenylalanine tolerance tests in the three children of the PKU mothers available for testing. The problem thus presented by reproduction in a PKU mother may become more prevalent with the advent of the many state programs now operating to detect and treat PKU in the neonatal period. From the cases reported previously and those of the present study, it would seem desirable to keep the blood phenylalanine levels of PKU females in the normal range during the child bearing years. Lowering of high levels after the usual delay in diagnosing pregnancy may prove to be inadequate. However, because phenylalanine levels have not yet been controlled in a PKU mother during gestation, there is no proof that such control will preclude the birth of defective offspring. A practical disadvantage associated with the only presently available method of lowering blood phenylalanine, the low phenylalanine diet, is the inability of adults to tolerate the taste.

Quantitative Characterization of Cure. II. Use of Modulus as a Measure of the State of Cure of Pure-Gum Natural-Rubber Vulcanizates

The purpose of this investigation was to develop methods of measuring state of cure which involved only measurements normally available or very readily made. Swelling measurements, although suitable in theory, suffer the practical disadvantage of being time-consuming, but it is shown that they can be replaced very satisfactorily by modulus at 100 per cent elongation. This is a good practical measure of state of cure for most purposes, and simple corrections are developed which extend its range of usefulness. An easily constructed machine is described for the accurate measure of modulus at small elongations.