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- Author or Editor: J. A. García x
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Abstract
Calorific values and flammability changes during a year for forest waste originating from silviculture task in Galicia (NW Spain) are reported. These waste materials are becoming to be used as alternative fuels. The present study was made on several hardwood forest species. These forest species occupy nowadays approximately 30% of the total forest surface of Galicia. Calorific values were measured by static bomb calorimeter in an oxygen atmosphere. Flammability was determined using a standard epiradiator. Simultaneously, some other parameters such as elementary chemical composition, heavy metal contents, moisture, density, ash percentage after combustion in the bomb, and main bioclimatic characteristics, were also determined.
Activity and functional diversity of rhizosphere bacterial communities and fungal composition were studied in order to assess the effects of different genotypes (N8035, N224 and N8637) of Arabidopsis thaliana on these communities growing in different soils. Genotype effect and soil effect were studied independently. Also, the interactions between both factors (genotypes and soils) were considered. The activity was determined by thymidine and leucine incorporation analysis, and Biolog ECO plates were used to study bacterial functional diversity. Additionally, fungi groups (genera and/or species) were studied in the different rhizospheres. Statistical differences on thymidine incorporation between plant genotypes were only found in two of the soils. In addition, functional diversity (measured by Shanonn-Weaver index), showed statistical differences only in soil 1 for line N8035 (line B) vs . the other lines. Redundancy analysis (RDA) performed with Biolog data indicated and important effect of soil type, but also an effect of genotype since line N8035 (line B) was separated from the other lines within each soil in the RDA ordination, in spite of genotypic differences between them were minimum. Furthermore, carboxylic acids and amino acids were found to be the Biolog plate substrates with more influence in samples ordination in the Redundancy Analysis (RDA). However, fungi seem to be less labile to plant selection than bacteria probably due to a lower turn-over time of fungi than bacteria coupled with the short phenology of Arabidopsis . In this paper, plant-soil-micro-organism relationships in the rhizosphere were studied, and the complex interactions between them were highlighted. More studies are necessary to go deep in these interactions and to be able to asses the impact of genetically modified plants.
Abstract
The nickel-titanium alloys are usually known as Shape Memory alloys because of their ability to return to some previously defined shape or size when subjected to the appropriate thermal procedure. Mechanical properties of a nickel titanium wire were investigated by DMTA using cylindrical tension mode. The Young"s modulus, the maximum strain and residual deformation have been calculated. Recovery of previously deformed samples was observed in constant stress temperature ramp tests. Relaxation stress behaviour at temperatures above the austenitic transformation has been studied. The strain and frequency ranges of linear response have been determined by dynamic experiments. Strain amplitude of 0.1% and frequency of 1 Hz have been chosen for the temperature ramp dynamic experiments. A big change between 65 and 95C is observed in the storage modulus. The values of E' at temperatures below and above the transition are essentially constant. Finally, the effects of the frequency at different temperatures have been examined.
Abstract
Phosphate rocks are used for phosphoric acid production, which is the basis of agricultural phosphate fertilizers. It is known that phosphate ores contain, due to geological reasons, important amounts of natural radioactivity, mainly U-isotopes and daughters. By studying a specific case in Southwestern Spain, it is shown that the operation of phosphate fertilizer factories clearly enhance the natural radiation levels of its close environment. Levels of U-, Th-isotopes, and other natural radionuclides are given for a wide set of different samples, which support such a conclusion. In addition, the study of isotopic ratios gives information on the environmental behavior of such radionuclides.
Abstract
The evaporation of octanoic (caprylic) acid was investigated by means of thermogravimetric analysis (temperature range: 300–600 K) under a nitrogen dynamic atmosphere (heating rates: 0.16, 0.31, 0.63, 1.25, 2.5, 5 and 10 K min−1). Kinetic plots for a zero-order process were constructed based on the Arrhenius equation. The activation energy for the evaporation process was calculated via both the Arrhenius plot and Vyazovkin’s isoconversional model-free method.
Abstract
The objective of this study is to determine the influence of partial substitutions of Ti4+ by isovalent Hf4+ in the perovskite-type crystalline structure of PbTiO3. Different samples over the whole composition range (0 ≤ x≤1) in the PbTi1-xHfxO3 family have been prepared. Phase transitions have been determined by thermal analysis (differential scanning calorimeter: DSC) and complex impedance spectroscopy (IS) over a wide temperature range. As a consequence of the cation replacement the changes that take place in the different phase transition temperature are reported. By both techniques, thermal analysis and electrical characterization, it is shown that for all compositions prepared there is only one phase transition in a temperature range between 230 and 460 °C. With these results and the previously known crystalline structure of pure PbTiO3 and PbHfO3 perovskites, the phase diagram of the PbTi1-xHfxO3 family is presented including a morphotropic phase transition at x ~ 0.5.
Starting from some satisfactory preliminary studies, the possibility of identifying single cations in solution has been investigated, by means of ionic exchange with a highly acidic resin (Dowex 50W) and a subsequent study by differential thermal analysis of the same resin. A catalogue of DTA curves has been prepared with 19 ionic forms of the said resin, and it has been found that the DTA curves are sufficiently distinguishable and reproducible to suggest an eventual analytical use in more complex cases of solutions containing more than one cationic species.
Abstract
In the present work a study was made for determining colour intensities using as luminous non-monochromatic source the Cherenkov emission produced in the walls of a glass capillary which acts as luminous source itself inside of a coloured solution to be evaluated. The reproducibility of this method has been compared with the spectrophotometric assay; the relative errors of both analytical methods have been calculated for different concentrations of congo red solution in the range of minimal error, according to Ringbom's criterion. The sensitivity of this analytical method has been studied for the two β-emitters employed:90Sr/90Y and204Tl.
Summary The disposal of used automotive tires has caused many environmental and economical problems to most countries. We propose the use of rice husk as filler for increasing the value of recycled tire rubber. Thermal degradation of both components and their sintering mixtures is presented in this paper. Thermal decomposition of rice husk occurs in various steps in the temperature range between 150 and 550°C. This complex process is the result of the overlapping of thermal decomposition of the three major constituents common in all lignocellulosic materials, i.e., hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose. Hemicellulose is degraded at temperatures between 150 and 350°C, cellulose from 275 to 380°C and lignin from 250 to 550°C. The degradation process of major constituents of scrap tires or their composites is observed at temperatures between 150 and 550°C. For composites, the addition of rice husk (maximum 25%) produces an increase in the mass loss rate. This effect is higher as the amount of rice husk increases. However, the degradation initial temperature of elastomeric matrix is not affected with addition of rice husk. Apparent kinetic parameters were also studied by the isoconversional Friedman method. We observed that the addition of rice husk produces a decrease in apparent activation energy for low conversions (up to 0.6). For higher conversions this decrease was not so clearly observed.
