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Reformulation of 1st line anti-TB drugs using a eugenol based nanoemulsion system to enhance its drug potency as an anti-mycobacterium agent and to improve its sustainable release.

This chapter provides an exploration to the enormous potential of blockchain and its strategic benefits. The application of blockchain has the potential to revolutionize existing business models. Blockchain is a peer-to-peer model that can speed up processes resulting in robust tracking and reducing costs of transactions. It is essential for business professionals to understand the significance of the implications of this far-reaching technology on business activities. Consequently, it is imperative that business leaders comprehend aspects of the technology to be integrated in strategic initiatives. The purpose of this chapter is to inform readers about the strategic benefits of blockchain technology. The chapter explains blockchain in the context of business strategies while highlighting its applications. This chapter is structured to explain the idea of blockchain technology, expound on the importance of the technology's business applications, and illustrate how professionals can integrate this technology in business.

In the ongoing march of industrial evolution there comes along technologies that have the power to transform businesses as we know it. The Internet revolutionized business/marketing in the nineties...

Developing green products and improving green production processes are important in increasing environmental performance and sustainability. The sophisticated processes involved in green innovations is a learning curve and a complex journey that many companies engaged in green operations must navigate. In this study we establish a mediating framework, arguing that a green company’s internal and external knowledge process integration enhance its environmental performance through green innovations. Drawing on the theories of organizational learning and dynamic capabilities, our empirical analysis of 231 firms based in China suggests that the impact a firm’s knowledge process integration on environmental performance is mediated through its green product innovation and green process innovation. This study contributes to the much-needed efforts in finding ways to improve green innovations and financial performance, and provides helpful managerial implications to practitioners on how to successfully manage resources to improve green innovations and achieve expected benefits.

With the increase in the development of smart metering in energy systems, a large amount of data is being generated. The data consists of energy generated, energy consumed and energy stored with respect to time. This data can be used to improve the efficiency, reliability and stability of the power system by using machine learning algorithms. Energy requirement of each consumer can be predicted with the available data. Renewable energy generation can also be predicted. In this paper, different statistical and machine learning models are used to analyze the energy usage in smart communities. To validate the prediction models, smart meter data from our campus is used. The results show that the long short-term memory (LSTM) model is more suitable for energy demand prediction. The LSTM model is then used to predict the energy demand in students’ hostels during conditions such as climate and holidays.

Green innovation has been adopted widely by companies as a strategic tool to deal with the increasing pressure of environmental concerns as well as sustainability. Extra resources are required to reduce the uncertainties and risks involved in green innovation to improve innovation performance. Building on information-processing perspective and contingency theory, this study examines the impact of green innovation complexity on performance and how proper governance mechanisms can properly align with the complexity to improve innovation capability. Using survey data from 231 companies in China, we find the relationship between green innovation complexity and performance to be curvilinear in nature. More importantly, administrative governance mechanism does a better job in improving innovation performance for green innovation with low-level complexity. Relational governance mechanism performs well for innovation tasks with high-level complexity. Managerial implications are drawn from our study for practitioners regarding how to align proper governance mechanisms to deal with innovation tasks with different-level complexity so as to improve innovation performance.

Coping with natural disasters is one of the central challenges of this century. Many disasters are accompanied by the collapse of buildings and other structures. Since, most of the rescue operations are manually executed, this, in turn, endangers the lives of the responders who are unaware of the situation inside the building. Exact localization of the trapped victims under the debris of collapsed buildings will help streamline the rescue operations. Use of UAVs to set up an aerial IoT to help in this effort is an area of ongoing research. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the various communication technologies that are best suited for such an application of IoT. Experiments were designed and performed under various scenarios to study the propagation effects through the debris, furniture, glass panels, etc. The communication technology alternatives were evaluated based on their coverage range, and throughput through various mediums such as concrete, metal, wood, glass, and air. This paper presents the results obtained and the inferences drawn from them.

A systematic modelling approach was scrutinized to develop a kinetic model and design a novel monolith channel geometry for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) applications. An equation-oriented modelling tool, gPROMS® ProcessBuilder®, was employed to build the kinetic model for a commercial SCR catalyst by extracting intrinsic kinetic parameters from the experimental data collected in a conventional fixed-bed reactor in which resistances to mass and heat transfer were expected to be an influence. All catalytic chemical reactions and relevant transport phenomena were simultaneously considered for the kinetic model development. The kinetic model and parameters estimated were then summarized in a form of a user-defined function that would be utilized in a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package, ANSYS® Fluent®, to search for a novel SCR monolith channel geometry. An elongated hexagonal channel was found to have better performance in terms of NO conversion and pressure drop, in comparison with a conventional square channel.

More and more companies have been adopting sustainable strategies to improve their environmental performance and financial performance. It is essential for companies engaged in green operations. Drawing on the theories of organizational learning and dynamic capabilities. This study conducts an empirical analysis to identify the indirect effect of knowledge integration on financial performance. This indirect effect is mediated by its green product and process innovations capability. This study provides helpful guidelines for managers to properly organize the structures of their companies in order to improve green innovation and financial performance.

Green innovations and productions are critical to improving environmental performance and sustainability. The complex process involved in green innovations has a steep learning curve, but navigation has become critical for companies engaged in green operations. Knowledge plays a critical role the process of innovation. In this study, we propose a framework to investigate the effect of integration of internal and external knowledge processes in improving green innovation and financial performance in the end. Based on the theory of organizational learning and dynamic capabilities, our empirical analysis of 231 Chinese companies shows that the impact of the company's knowledge process integration on environmental performance is achieved through its green product innovation and process innovation. This research makes a huge effort to find ways to improve green innovation and financial performance. The results provide practitioners with useful management implications on how to successfully manage resources to improve green innovation and achieve the expected benefits.

Data has become lifeblood of marketing. In the recent past, there has been a proliferation of data and privacy breaches at companies of varying sizes. From the massive breach at Equifax to the day-to-day hacks, consumers are faced with an uncertain fate of their personal information. While there is a lack of action in the U.S., European Union is trying to tackle the issue with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is likely to cause marketers to rethink their data policies. The manuscript addresses the elements of GDPR and some of the implications for marketers.

A second allogeneic (allo) hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) is an important therapeutic consideration for patients relapsing after their first. We conducted a retrospective review of 41 pediatric patients with leukemia that underwent a second allo-HCT at our institution. Overall, 53.7 and 43.9 % of patients were alive and disease-free at 1 and 5 years, respectively, after the second allo-HCT. The factors affecting outcome by both univariate and multivariate analysis were interval between transplants and the use of a myeloablative conditioning (MAC) regimen prior to second transplant. Outcomes were inferior in patients who received their second transplant

The oxidation of nitric oxide (NO) to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a key step both in NOx abatement technologies as well as in the Ostwald process for nitric acid production. A 1 wt.% Pt/Al2O3 catalyst was used to study oxidation of nitric oxide at two different concentrations of NO; 400 ppm NO (representative of engine exhaust treatment) and 10% NO (nitric acid plant). The catalyst was characterised using N2 adsorption and CO chemisorption. The effect of temperature and feed concentration on catalytic activity was investigated. For a feed comprising of 10% NO and 6% O2, Pt/Al2O3 exhibits significant catalytic activity above 300 °C. Addition of 15% H2O in the feed had an insignificant effect on activity of the catalyst. We report for the first time the kinetics for oxidation of NO to NO2 under nitric acid plant conditions. An apparent activation energy of 33 kJ/mol was observed. The rate equation for the overall reaction was determined to be r = k f K G ( P O 2 ) 0.5 , where kf is the forward rate constant. The reaction is independent of NO concentration while it has half order dependency on oxygen. The reaction mechanism which fits our experimental observation consists of dissociative adsorption of oxygen, associative adsorption of nitric oxide with desorption of nitrogen dioxide as the rate limiting step.

Mesoporous gadolinium doped cerium dioxide with high surface area was produced by spray drying using Pluronic 123 as surfactant. The powder, when calcined at 400 °C, had a BET surface area of 136 m 2 g −1 and was polycrystalline as confirmed by XRD and TEM. XEDS confirmed Ce, Gd and O, as the only elements present in the powders. Nitrogen adsorption measurements showed that the material was mesoporous with pore diameters of approximately 10 nm, which was later confirmed by TEM studies. TEM–EELS were used to confirm that Ce was in the +4 oxidation state. SEM studies showed particles of 10 nm diameter, corresponding to the crystallite size calculated from XRD data. The similar size range of the mesopores and the observed crystallite size indicates that the porosity is partly formed from intergranular mesoporosity. Using the spray drying method of a surfactant assisted liquid precursor solution it can be possible to manufacture mesoporous gadolinium doped ceria in large quantities in a continuous production.

A La0.67Ca0.26Sr0.07Mn1.05O3 (LCSM) perovskite was prepared for the first time as a ceramic monolithic regenerator used in a regenerative magnetic refrigeration device. The parameters influencing the extrusion process and the performance of the regenerator, such as the nature of the monolith paste and the influence of the sintering on the adiabatic temperature change, were investigated. Comparisons between the extruded monolithic structure before and after the sintering showed that an increase of the adiabatic temperature change was seen after the sintering. Furthermore, calculations show that the performance of the monolithic structure is potentially superior to a parallel plate regenerator, indicating the potential cost and structural benefit of using such structure, i.e. a mechanically stable ceramic thin wall structure, which can be produced in one processing step.

Increasing concerns regarding environment and sustainability drive firms to devote resources to green product development to satisfy customers' preference and gain competitive advantage. Organisations require an effective learning orientation (LO) along with a market-based orientation in order to tackle sustainability challenges to gain competitive advantage. The study proposes a conceptual framework to analyse the effects of learning orientation and market orientation in improving a firm's green innovation. More importantly, the framework describes how the orientation impacts innovation under different environmental settings. Data from 231 China-based companies were used in the study and the results indicate the nature of the linkages between a firm's green innovation and its learning and market orientation. Guidelines for practitioners on managing environmental uncertainties and improving green innovation are discussed.

Renewed interest in the effects of narcissism in the media has generated a closer examination of the phenomenon. This coupled with an increase in academic misbehavior among both high school and university students has provided an opportunity to scrutinize the effects of narcissism on attitudes toward academic dishonesty. The authors investigated this relationship and the presence of intervening variables such as academic entitlement and exploitativeness. The results indicate that the relationship between narcissism and academic dishonesty may be mediated by exploitative attitudes.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative disorder of the hematopoietic stem cell that is exceptionally rare in the first five years of life, particularly as a secondary malignancy. This report describes a case of secondary CML in a four-year-old female occurring after AML treatment. Interestingly, CML developed while on immunosuppression for a heart transplant due to anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy.

A new way of producing rigid or semi-rigid foams from vital wheat gluten using a freeze-drying process is reported. Water/gluten-based mixtures were frozen and freeze-dried. Different foam structur ...

Electron microscopy characterization across the cathode-electrolyte interface of two different types of intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFC) is performed to understand the origin of the cell performance disparity. One IT-SOFC cell had a sprayed-cosintered Ce(0.90)Gd(0.01)O(1.95) (CGO10) barrier layer, the other had a barrier layer deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) CGO10. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) investigations conclude that the major source of the cell performance difference is attributed to CGO-YSZ interdiffusion in the sprayed-cosintered barrier layer. From TEM and EBSD work, a dense CGO10 PLD layer is found to be deposited epitaxially on the 8YSZ electrolyte substrate-permitting a small amount of SrZrO(3) formation and minimizing CGO-YSZ interdiffusion.

International audience; In the present work, 12-layered electrochemical reactors (comprising 5 cells) with a novel configuration including supporting layer lanthanum strontium manganate (LSM)-yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), electrode layer LSM-gadolinia-doped cerium oxide (CGO), and electrolyte layer CGO, were fabricated via the processes of slurry preparation, tape casting and lamination, and sintering. The parameters of porosity, pore size, pore size distribution, shrinkage, flow rate of the sintered reactors, and the electrical conductivities of the supporting layer and the electrode in the sintered reactors were characterized. The effect of sintering temperature on microstructures and properties of the sintered samples was discussed, and 1250 oC was determined as the appropriate sintering temperature for reactor production based on the performance requirements for applications. Using the present ceramic processing route, porous, flat, and crack-free electrochemical reactors were successfully achieved. The produced electrochemical reactors have the potential application in the removal of NOx and soot particles emitted from the diesel engines.

Conventional binder systems for tape casting contain toxic phthalate plasticizers and butanone (MEK) as part of the solvent. The effects of exchanging the phthalate with a non-toxic alternative, and butanone with ethanol, were studied on laminates of high-green density CGO (Ce 0.9 Gd 0.1 O 1.95 ) tapes. Samples were prepared with a binder system containing DBP (dibutyl phthalate) plasticizer and MEK solvent, and with a binder system based on a non-toxic non-phthalate plasticizer and ethanol. In both systems, the weight ratio of plasticizer to the PVB (polyvinyl butyral) binder was varied between 0.4 and 0.7. Substitution to the less toxic binder system had no adverse impacts on the microstructure. In fact, denser packing and improved homogeneity were observed with the non-phthalate-based system at ratio 0.5 indicating improved dispersion in this system. The denser packing also coincided with a maximum in z-shrinkage and molecular weight of the binder system, which could be related to the distribution of the binder system.

Deposition of La0.85Sr0.15MnO3 (LSM) films from suspensions using a magnetic field was found to be a cheap and quick technique. Ninety weight percent of the particles present in the suspensions were deposited within the first minute of the deposition, and the thickness of the film varied linearly with the concentration of the suspension. Deposition phenomena were explained by modeling the magnetic flux in the deposition cell. Particles aligned with the flux lines, forming chains of LSM particles that, upon sintering, resulted in the formation of porous films with long chains of LSM grains.

Ce 0.9 Gd 0.1 O 1.95 powders were synthesized by spray drying and successive calcinations. The phase purity, BET surface area, and particle morphology of as-sprayed and calcined powders were characterized. After calcination above 300 °C, the powders were single phase and showed a BET surface area of 68 m 2 /g when calcined at 300 °C. The conductivity, in air, of sintered pellets was measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and it was found to be comparable with literature values. The activation energy for the total conductivity was around 0.83 eV. The powder calcined at lower temperature showed better sinterability and higher total conductivity due to an increased bulk conductivity.

In the present work, porous electrode materials lanthanum strontium manganate (LSM)-gadolinium-doped cerium oxide (CGO) and electrochemical cells LSM-CGO + CGO were fabricated via the processes of slurry preparation, tape casting and lamination, and sintering. Graphite, wheat starch, and polyamide powders were used as pore formers, respectively, in order to investigate their effects on shrinkage, flow rate, porosity, and average pore size of the sintered samples. The observation from scanning electronic microscope (SEM) revealed different microstructures caused by different pore formers. Porous, flat, and crack-free electrochemical cells were successfully achieved using the present ceramic processing route. The produced cells could potentially be used for flue gas purification.

This study develops a new method of measuring quality of life at the local and state level. Further, it presents a methodology that combines heterogeneous indicators from different fields, such as economics, social, and health, into one total measurement. The technique shown can be used to compare one region with another, or compare one metro area with its own performance through time. The analysis shows which categories and indicators are ranked as the highest and serves as a measurement of economic development and potential targets for marketing plans. Every analyst interested in an aggregate, community measurement tool should be interested in the procedure and results.

Mixed ion- and electron-conducting composite electrodes consisting of doped ceria and perovskite have been studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) at different temperatures and oxygen partial pressures. This paper aims to describe the different contributions to the polarisation impedance of the cathode at intermediate operating temperatures. The perovskite is of the La-Sr-Co-Fe type. The EIS response of symmetrical cells with a thick (~200 µm) gadolinia doped ceria electrolyte was compared with the impedance contribution of the cathode of a full anode supported cell. The full cells had a Ni-YSZ anode and anode support, a thin YSZ electrolyte, and a CGO barrier layer. The symmetric and full cell cathode responses were compared at open-circuit voltage. Humidified hydrogen was used as the fuel in the full cell measurements. Differential analysis of the impedance data was used to identify frequency ranges where changes occur upon degradation and oxygen partial pressure variations.

The following is a report of a study designed to measure advertising content based on the cognitive and affective elements of informational (i.e., information processing) and transformational (i.e., experiential) content using the measure of advertising informational and transformational content developed by Puto and Wells (1984). A university hospital advertising campaign designed to be high in transformational content did not appear to affect perceived quality of local university hospitals relative to private hospitals or increase the likelihood of choosing a university hospital in the future. Further, experiences with university hospitals that seemed to be in direct contrast to the content of the advertisements based on subject perceptions affected how university hospital advertisements were perceived in terms of content. Conclusions and implications for hospital advertising campaigns are discussed.

Al 2 O 3 powders have been successfully dispersed in ethanol by varying the suspension acidity. An operational pH (O.pH) was defined to measure the acidity of these ethanol-based suspensions. The isoelectric point of Al 2 O 3 in ethanol was at an O.pH of 8. According to Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory, suspensions between an O.pH of 3.5-10.5 possessed only attractive inter-particle potential. Suspensions below 3.5 had high ζ potential, fine particle size, and were Newtonian. However, suspensions at high pH were shear thinning and consisted of agglomerates, despite their high ζ potential. The use of citric acid as a dispersant has also been investigated. At an O.pH of 3, optimum additions of citric acid between 0.6 and 1.0 wt% decreased the particle size, resulted in repulsive inter-particle potentials and increased the solid loading capacity to 15 vol% from 2 vol% while maintaining Newtonian behavior and similar viscosity to suspensions at O.pH 2. Addition of citric acid created agglomerated suspensions that were negatively charged at O.pH 10.5 (obtained by adding NH 4 OH), but positively charged suspensions at O.pH 13.6 (obtained by adding tetramethylammonium hydroxide).

Extensive interfacial reactions are known to occur between Fe-Co based perovskite cathode materials and the standard solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte. Thin films of gadolinia doped ceria (GDC) could be used as a diffusion barrier between the cathode and the electrolyte. The present work investigates spin coating thin diffusion reaction inhibiting films onto SOFC electrolytes. The chemical and structural evolution of ethylene glycol based precursor solution is studied by means of rheology, x-ray diffraction (XRD), high temperature XRD (HT-XRD), Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The studies show that cerium formate is formed as an intermediate resin. Thin films, up to 500 nm thick, of gadolinia doped ceria (GDC) are successfully produced by multiple spin coating of polymerized ethylene glycol derived solutions on 200 1m thick YSZ tapes. The GDC and YSZ interfacial surface morphology and film thickness are studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). These films are shown to successfully prevent the creation of non-conducting reaction phases at the cathode-electrolyte interface by blocking interdiffusion.

Crystal structure and thermal properties of La 1-x Sr x FeO 3-δ (x = 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.75) have been studied by high-temperature X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis in air and nitrogen (p(O 2 ) 10 -3 atm) atmosphere. The first-order phase transition from orthorhombic-to-rhombohedral La 1-x -Sr x FeO 3-δ (x = 0, 0.1) was strongly shifted to lower temperatures with increasing Sr content. The phase-transition temperature was observed significantly lower in polycrystalline ceramics compared with fine powders. The temperature depression of the phase transition in the ceramics was qualitatively explained by stresses induced both by the anisotropic thermal expansion of LaFeO3 and the observed volume contraction of the phase transition. Rhombohedral La 1-x Sr x -FeO 3-δ (x = 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) were observed to transform to the cubic perovskite structure during heating. The second-order phase-transition temperature decreased with increasing Sr content and decreasing partial pressure of oxygen. On the basis of the present findings, a pseudobinary phase diagram of the LaFeO 3 -SrFeO 3-δ system is presented. Finally, a severely nonlinear thermal expansion was observed for the Sr-rich materials at high temperature. The high thermal expansion in this region is due to a chemical expansion resulting from a reduction of the valence state of Fe.

Shrinkage behavior and crack formation during firing have been investigated for Al2O3/Ce-TZP composites that have been fabricated by colloidal rolling and folding. These composites show improved sinterability and sinter isotropically after repeated rolling. Interface instability in rolling creates corrugated interfaces with large layer waviness; therefore, rolling can substantially alleviate the in-plane sintering constraints, which leads to improved sinterability. A loss of sintering anisotropy also is observed and is directly correlated to the microstructure instability, which is coincident with the laminate‐cellular transition. Sintering cracks during heating and thermal cracks during cooling both are limited to the thick Ce-TZP layers in the composites. The critical layer thickness and the normalized crack spacing of the thermal cracks follow the predicted behavior of elasticity theory. Thus, crack-free, high-density Al 2O3/Ce-TZP composites with either a laminate or cellular microstructure can be obtained, with a layer thickness of 4‐60 µm, via pressureless sintering.

Influencing factors that have emerged onto the forefront of international market research include consumer ethnocentrism (CE) and country of origin (COO), and to a lesser extent, consumer world-mindedness (CW), consumer patriotism (CP), and level of conservatism exhibited by consumers (CC). These factors and their determinants become important to marketers who are always trying to uncover the nature and extent of the influences in order to devise appropriate marketing and advertising plans. Keeping in mind this task of marketers, the study presented here examines the relationships between CW, CP, CC and CE, and in turn, outlines how this might impact COO evaluations and subsequent purchase behaviors.

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative disorder of the hematopoietic stem cell that is exceptionally rare in the first five years of life, particularly as a secondary malignancy. This report describes a case of secondary CML in a four-year-old female occurring after AML treatment. Interestingly, CML developed while on immunosuppression for a heart transplant due to anthracycline-induced cardiomyopathy.

Close lattice matching with a MgAl 2 O 4 (0 0 1) substrate has been used to synthesize thin films of a rare spinel-like polymorph of MgO (β-MgO) that is unstable in bulk form. The film is produced by spin casting an acetate-substituted Mg-ethoxide precursor, which forms a crystalline magnesium acetate phase at room temperature. Pyrolysis of most organic constituents occurs during continuous heating from room temperature to 400°C and is followed by formation of phase-pure β-MgO at T

Bimaterial interfaces are known to be unstable against perturbation, due to flow localization, during deformation. In this paper a criterion for flow localization is formulated, based on the difference in flow properties of the constituent phases. It predicts a tensile force in the harder phase and an equivalent compressive one in the softer phase, leading to necking of the harder phase. A useful practical application of this instability is demonstrated in the production of a series of oxide/oxide composites with microstructures ranging from laminar to wood-like in texture. Composites of Ce–ZrO 2 /Al 2 O 3 with strong interfaces demonstrate high strength (1.1 GPa), fracture toughness (17 MPa√ m ) and hardness (12 GPa) due to greatly increased phase transformation. Alternatively, composites of Y–ZrO 2 /porous–A1 2 O 3 and Y–ZrO 2 /YPO 4 display crack deflection and graceful failure due to the presence of weak interfaces. The potential now exists for this deformation processing technique to be applied to the production of 3-D composites with isotropic properties.

We investigate possible influences of substrate constraints on the phase evolution of thin films synthesized from liquid precursors. MgO films are formed on Si (111) substrates by spin casting an acetate-substituted magnesium ethoxide liquid precursor. The phase evolution and crystallinity of the films are tracked as a function of temperature by differential scanning calorimetric/thermogravimetric analyses (DSC/TGA) and X-ray diffraction. There are two major differences between the phase evolution of thin films and that of bulk powders formed from the same solution: (1) in the films, highly [010]-textured triclinic magnesium acetate forms at room temperature, while in the powders an orthorhombic polymorph of magnesium acetate is selected that transforms to the triclinic structure at 150-250 °C. Both films and powders undergo complete pyrolysis by 360 °C to form magnesium oxide. However, (2) although powders decompose to phase-pure periclase, thin films form both periclase and a rarely observed pseudo-spinel polymorph, both with strong 〈001〉 preferred orientation. Both selection of the triclinic acetate polymorph in films at room temperature and formation of the spinel-like MgO structure are consequences of interaction with the underlying substrate.

Reaction hot-pressing behavior of {alpha}-Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}, Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, AlN, and M{sub 2}O{sub z} powder mixtures (M = Li, Mg, Ca, Y, Nd, Sm, Gd, and Yb) forming {alpha}{prime}-SiAlON has been studied. Five characteristic temperatures are found to control the densification behavior of these materials. The densification proceeded in three major stages. The first two stages were formation of ternary oxide eutectic and wetting of majority nitride powder. The third stage involved dissolution/melting of intermediate phase. Variation from this behavior sometimes occurs due to localization of wetting liquid at AlN, extremely high melting/dissolution temperature of Mg{sub 2}Al{sub 4}-Si{sub 5}O{sub 18} and Nd and Sm melilite, and secondary precipitation Dy-{alpha}{prime}-SiAlON. The dominant densification mechanism was found to be massive particle rearrangement, irrespective of the wetting and dissolution/melting behavior. The efficiency of this mechanism is mostly affected by the amount of available liquid and less by its viscosity. Fully dense, single-phase ceramics were obtained in all cases exceed Mg when hot-pressed at a constant heating rate to 1,750 C, and considerably lower temperatures for Li, Ca, Gd, Dy, Er, and Yb-SiAlON when held isothermally.

Phase development during reaction hot pressing of {alpha}-Si{sub 3}N{sub 4}, AlN, Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, and M{sub 2}O{sub z} powder mixtures (M = Li, Mg, Ca, Y, Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy, Er, and Yb) forming {alpha}{prime}-SiAlON has been studied. The wetting behavior of the ternary eutectic melt of M{sub 2}O{sub z}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-SiO{sub 2} was found to control the reaction sequence during hot pressing. Li, Ca, Mg, Nd. Sm, and Gd were found to preferentially wet and react with Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} first, whereas Dy, Er, and Yb preferentially wetted and reacted with AlN first. The intermediate phases are Si rich in the former and Al rich in the latter case. Pearson`s principle of acid-base theory, which predicts decreasing basicity of oxides of Li, Ca, Mg, Nd, Gd. Sm, Dy, Er, and Yb and decreasing acidity of oxides of Si and Al, is used to understand these reactions.

The DOE model was used to improve the performance of cells for electrochemical gas purification. Three factors were chosen: the amount of graphite, the Lanthanum Strontium Manganate/Gadolinium-doped Cerium oxide weight % ratio, and the Lanthanum Strontium Manganate pre-calcination temperature (with or without Lanthanum Strontium Manganate calcinated at 1000 °C). The effects of the following physical properties were measured: porosity, pore size, shrinkage, and conductivity. The sintered tapes were also characterized with scanning electron microscopy. Graphite was added as a pore former. The work shows, that a change in a factor not only changes the performance property that one would expect, but also influence other properties.