The intelligent product driven supply chain

Establishing connectivity of products with real-time information about themselves can at one level provide accurate data, and at another, allow products to assess and influence their own destiny. In this way, the specification for an intelligent product is being built - one whose information content is permanently bound to its material content. This paper explores the impact of such development on supply chains, contrasting between simple and complex product supply chains. The Auto-ID project is on track to enable such connectivity between products and information using a single, open-standard, data repository for storage and retrieval of product information. The potential impact on the design and management of supply chains is immense. This paper provides an introduction to of some of these changes, demonstrating that by enabling intelligent products, Auto ID systems will be instrumental in driving future supply chains. The paper also identifies specific application areas for this technology in the product supply chain.

Bulk forming of sheet metal

Ever increasing demands on functional integration of high strength light weight products leads to the development of a new class of manufacturing processes. The application of bulk forming processes to sheet or plate semi-finished products, sometimes in combination with conventional sheet forming processes creates new products with the requested properties. The paper defines this new class of sheet-bulk metal forming processes, gives an overview of the existing processes belonging to this class, highlights the tooling aspects as well as the resulting product properties and presents a short summary of the relevant work that has been done towards modeling and simulation. © 2012 CIRP.

Strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of consumer goods by influencing stakeholders

Consumer goods contribute to anthropogenic climate change across their product life cycles through carbon emissions arising from raw materials extraction, processing, logistics, retail and storage, through to consumer use and disposal. How can consumer goods manufacturers make stepwise reductions in their product life cycle carbon emissions by engaging with, and influencing their main stakeholders? A semi-structured interview approach was used: to identify strategies and actions, stakeholders in the consumer goods industry (suppliers, manufacturers, retailers and NGOs) were interviewed about carbon emissions reduction projects. Based on this, a summarising presentation was made, which was shared during a second round of interviews to validate and refine the results. The results demonstrate several opportunities that have not yet been exploited by companies. These include editing product choice in stores to remove products with higher carbon footprints, using marketing competences for environmental benefits, and bundling competences to create winewinewin business models. Governments and NGOs have important enabling roles to accelerate industry change. Although this work was initially developed to explore how companies can reduce life cycle carbon emissions of their products, these strategies and actions also give insights on how companies can influence and anticipate stakeholder actions in general. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Impact of hydrated magnesium carbonate additives on the carbonation of reactive MgO cements

Reactive magnesia (MgO) cements have emerged as a potentially more sustainable and technically superior alternative to Portland cement due to their lower production temperature and ability to sequester significant quantities of CO2. Porous blocks containing MgO were found to achieve higher strength values than PC blocks. A number of variables are investigated to achieve maximum carbonation and associated high strengths. This paper focuses on the impact of four different hydrated magnesium carbonates (HMCs) as cement replacements of either 20 or 50%. Accelerated carbonation (20 C, 70-90% RH, 20% CO2) is compared with natural curing (20 C, 60-70% RH, ambient CO2). SEM, TG/DTA, XRD, and HCl acid digestion are utilized to provide a thorough understanding of the performance of MgO-cement porous blocks. The presence of HMCs resulted in the formation of larger size carbonation products with a different morphology than those in the control mix, leading to significantly enhanced carbonation and strength. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Enhanced resistance to Aeromonas hydrophila infection and enhanced phagocytic activities in human lactoferrin-transgenic grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus)

Human lactoferrin (hLF) is an iron-binding protein with antimicrobial and immunomodulatory activities. hLF cDNA was transferred into grass carp via electroporated sperm. The production of transgenic fish was as high as 55% tinder the best parameters. 2(11) pulses and 20-min incubation. The expression of the transgene was demonstrated by the detection of hLF mRNA by RT-PCR. We also investigated the response of G(0) transgenic grass carp to Aeromonas hydrophila infection. Serum lysozyme activities (P>0.05) and phagocytic activities of kidney cells (P<0.05) were measured in transgenic individuals. The transgenic fish not only cleared A. hydrophila significantly faster than the control carp (P<0.05), but also showed enhanced phagocytic activities. The result shows that hLF has immunomodulatory activities in hLF-transgenic grass carp. The transgenic grass carp exhibited enhanced immunity to A. hydrophila infection. These results reveal that the mechanisms of disease resistance are different between hLF-transgenic plants and hLF-transgenic grass carp. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Higher Moments of Net Proton Multiplicity Distributions at RHIC

200 GeV corresponding to baryon chemical potentials (mu(B)) between 200 and 20 MeV. Our measurements of the products kappa sigma(2) and S sigma, which can be related to theoretical calculations sensitive to baryon number susceptibilities and long-range correlations, are constant as functions of collision centrality. We compare these products with results from lattice QCD and various models without a critical point and study the root s(NN) dependence of kappa sigma(2). From the measurements at the three beam energies, we find no evidence for a critical point in the QCD phase diagram for mu(B) below 200 MeV.

Concise synthesis of novel practical sulfamide-amine alcohols for the enantioselective addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes

Novel sulfamide-amine alcohol ligands were designed using a grafting strategy and synthesized from readily available starting materials via a simple, efficient method. The key features of these ligands for the asymmetric addition of diethylzinc to aldehydes included stability, enhanced effectiveness without using Ti((OPr)-Pr-i)(4), suitability for a variety of aldehydes, the ability to operate at room temperature, and selectability to afford either absolute configuration products with enantiomeric excess up to >99%.

Asymmetric Michael addition of aldehydes to nitroolefins catalyzed by L-prolinamide derivatives using phenols as co-catalysts

The asymmetric Michael addition of aldehydes to nitroolefins was investigated using L-prolinamide derivatives of 2-(2'-piperidinyl)pyridine as catalyst and a variety of phenols as co-catalyst. Extensive screening toward the effect of prolinamides, phenols, and solvents on this transformation revealed that a combination of (S)-2-(2'-piperidinyl)pyridine-derived trans-4-hydroxy-L-prolinamide 2c, (S)-1,1'-bi-2-naphthol, and dichloromethane was a promising system. This system was shown to be amenable to a rich variety of aldehydes and nitroolefins and afforded the nitroaldehyde products with excellent yield, enantiomeric excess (up to 99%) and diastereoselectivity ratio (up to 99/1), even in the case of 1 mol % catalyst loading and 1.5 equiv of aldehydes.

Different microstructures of ss-NaYF4 fabricated by hydrothermal process: Effects of pH values and fluoride sources

beta-NaYF4 microcrystals with a variety of morphologies, such as microrod, hexagonal microprism, and octadecahedron, have been synthesized via a facile hydrothermal route. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and photoluminescence (PL) spectra were used to characterize the samples. The intrinsic structural feature of beta-NaYF4 seeds and two important external factors, namely, the pH values in the initial reaction solution and fluoride sources, are responsible for shape determination of beta-NaYF4 microcrystals. It is found that the organic additive trisodium citrate (Cit(3-)) as a shape modifier has the dynamic effect by adjusting the growth rate of different facets under different experimental conditions, resulting in the formation of the anisotropic geometries of various beta-NaYF4 microcrystals. The possible formation mechanisms for products with various architectures have been presented. A systematic study on the photoluminescence of Tb3+-doped beta-NaYF4 samples with rod, prism, and octadecahedral shapes has shown that the optical properties of these phosphors are strongly dependent on their morphologies and sizes.

Tunable synthesis, growth mechanism, and magnetic properties of La0.5Ba0.5MnO3

La0.5Ba0.5MnO3 products with novel flowerlike, microcube, and nanocube structures were successfully synthesized by a simple hydrothermal route by controlling the alkalinity of the reaction solutions. The synthesized products were systematically studied by X-ray powder diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The results showed that the formation of the flowerlike structures with a layer assembly experienced a nucleation-aggregation-crystallization growth process, while the cubic structures experienced a nucleation-crystallization growth process due to the effect of different alkalinity in the reaction solutions. The higher alkalinity also led to a decrease in the size in the cubic structures. Suitable temperature and pressure were demonstrated to be crucial to the formation of the flowerlike structures by carrying out further control experiments. The measurement of the magnetic properties of three samples obtained at different alkaline conditions indicated that the size of the La0.5Ba0.5MnO3 products had an obvious influence on their properties; however, the dependence of the properties upon the morphology of the La0.5Ba0.5MnO3 products was minor.

Enantioselective iodolactonization catalyzed by chiral quaternary ammonium salts derived from cinchonidine

Chiral quaternary ammonium salts derived from cinchonidine have been applied to catalyze the stereoselective iodolactonizations of trans-5-aryl-4-pentenoic acids leading to a mixture of two regioselectively iodolactonized products with fair to excellent yield (37-98%) and moderate enantioselectivity (exo = 42.0% ee, endo = 31.0% ee) under mild conditions. This work is the first example of asymmetric iodolactonization reaction in the presence of less than a stoichiometric amount of chiral reagent.

Extraction and separation of cerium(IV) from nitric acid solutions containing thorium(IV) and rare earths(III) by DEHEHP

The extraction behaviour of Ce(IV), Th(IV) and part of RE(III), viz., La, Ce, Nd and Yb, has been investigated using di(2-ethylhexyl) 2-ethylhexyl phosphonate (DEHEHP,B) in heptane as an extractant. Results show that extractability varies in the order: Ce(IV) > Th(IV) much greater than RE(III). Therefore, it is possible to find the appropriate conditions under which Ce(IV) can be effectively separated from Th(IV) and RE(III). Furthermore, stripping Ce(IV) from the loaded organic phase can be carried out by dilute H2SO4 with an aliquot of H2O2.Roasted bastnasite made in Baotou (China) by Na2CO3 and leached by HNO3, there is about 50% Ce mainly as tetravalent nitrate along with other RE(III) and Th(IV) in the leachings. Through fractional extraction, taking nitric acid leachings of roasted Bastnasite as feed and DEHEHP as an extractant, we can obtain the CeO2 products with high purity of 99.9-99.99%, with a yield of >85%, in which ThO2/CeO2 < 10(-4).

Spectrometric investigation on the thermooxidative degradation of ethylene oxide and tetra-hydrofuran co-polyether

The thermooxidative degradtion of ethylene oxide and tetra-hydrofuran (EO-THF) co-polyether has been studied by electron spin resonance (ESR), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The initial degradation site was found to be at the a-carbon of the ether bond. Two free radicals which derived from dehydrogenation and oxygen addition were successfully detected by spin-trapping technique which used alpha -phenyl-N-tert-butyl nitrone(PBN) as spin trap. Both FT-IR and NMR have been used to follow structural changes of the copolyether during degradation. Nearly 20 product fragments including formate, carbonate, methyl, alcohol, methylene-dioxy, hydroperoxide and semiformal have been characterized by D-1 and D-2 NMR. The thermooxidtion of co-polyether preferred to occur on the THF units especially at the alternating linkage of EO and THF. Antioxidant (BHT) not only retarded the thermooxidation but also modified the degradation products with less ester and methylene-dioxy groups hut more hydroxyl and methyl groups.

Preparation of stable mesoporous silica FSM-16 from water glass in the presence of cetylpyridium bromide

The synthesis and characterization of the mesoporous materials FSM-16 (folded sheets mesoporous materials) with highly ordered structure in open-vessel by using cetylpyridium bromide (CPBr) and the single-layered polysilica Kanemite as new template and silicon source, respectively, has been investigated systematically. The hexagonal arrangements of uniformly size pores were characterized by FTIR. XRD. nitrogen adsorption. TG-DTA. SEM and TEM. Especially, the porous products with higher surface areas show remarkable thermal stability up to 1000 C. The potential application as carrier of catalysts or host-guest materials is anticipated. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.