Increasing the Dissolution Rate of Polystyrene Waste in Solvent-Based Recycling.

Solvent-based recycling of plastic waste is a promising approach for cleaning polymer chains without breaking them. However, the time required to actually dissolve the polymer in a lab environment can take hours. Different factors play a role in polymer dissolution, including temperature, turbulence, and solvent properties.

Properties of pellets of torrefied U.S. waste blends.

With the continued growing U.S. population, solid waste generation will increase, which will lead to undesired and significant growth in landfilling.

The "Law of Brevity" in animal communication: Sex-specific signaling optimization is determined by call amplitude rather than duration.

The efficiency of informational transfer is one of the key aspects of any communication system. The informational coding economy of human languages is often demonstrated by their almost universal fit to Zipf's "Law of Brevity," expressing negative relationship between word length and its usage frequency. Animal vocal systems, however, provided mixed results in their adherence to this relationship, potentially due to conflicting evolutionary pressures related to differences in signaling range and communicational needs.

Social context mediates testosterone's effect on snort acoustics in male hyrax songs.

Testosterone affects physical and motivational states, both of which may strongly influence vocalization structure and acoustics. The loud complex calls (i.e.

The progression pattern of male hyrax songs and the role of climactic ending.

The study of animal vocal signals can either focus on the properties of distinct vocal elements or address the signal as a whole. Although some attention has been given to the continuous progression patterns of bird songs, such patterns in mammalian vocalisations have been largely overlooked. We examined temporal changes in structural and acoustic parameters in male rock hyrax songs.

Gate-voltage control of oxygen diffusion on graphene.

We analyze the diffusion of oxygen atoms on graphene and its dependence on the carrier density controlled by a gate voltage. We use density functional theory to determine the equilibrium adsorption sites, the transition state, and the attempt frequency for different carrier densities. The ease of diffusion is strongly dependent on carrier density.

Laser Rayleigh scattering for flame thermometry in a toroidal jet stirred combustor.

Pulsed laser Rayleigh scattering is used to obtain instantaneous flame temperatures in a turbulent flow combustor with poor optical access, a background of black body radiation, and laser induced glare. A novel method based on polarization is used for the extraction of the Rayleigh scattering. Probability density functions (PDFs) of the fluctuating temperature are obtained for fuel lean ethylene-air combustion.

Temperature mapping in flames by moire deflectometry.

The theory of moire deflectometry is derived using the Fourier series approach. The advantages and disadvantages of the infinite fringe limit are demonstrated. The approach of fringe deviation is compared to the intensity measurement, which is selected as being more suitable for flames.

Measurements of temperature distribution of flames by moire deflectometry.

Mapping of temperature of a premixed hydrogen-oxygen flame by moire deflectometry is demonstrated. The technique is based on deflection mapping of rays from a collimated light beam due to gradients of the refractive index across the flame. For an axially symmetric flame the radial distribution of the refractive index was derived by Abel transformation.