This study investigated the reported lack of ability of the eggcrate cushion (EC) to provide wheelchair users with adequate support necessary for comfort and tolerably low-peak sitting pressures over time. The primary parameter used to quantify the ability of the cushion to distribute load was the indention force deflection (IFD) metric. The EC was compared to a high-density planar foam cushion...

A growing issue in the area of vehicular ride comfort is that of child safety seats. Postural, thermal and vibrational comfort considerations are finding their way into child seat design. This paper makes some observations regarding the current state of child safety seat design, then goes on to present the results of vibration tests performed over two road surfaces using two child seats and two...

Flexible and semi-rigid polyurethane foams have been widely used in automotive interior parts, residential upholstered furniture and bedding. In these, as well as other end use industries, a reduction of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) emissions from polyurethane foams continues to be an important issue [1, 2]. To address this challenge, reactive amine catalysts, which have an active hydrogen...

Alcaligenes latus, isolated from industrial effluent, was able to grow in mineral salts medium with 50 ppm (0.15 mM) of H-acid as a sole source of carbon. Immobilization of Alcaligenes latus in Ca-alginate and polyurethane foam resulted in cells embedded in the matrices. When free cells and immobilized cells were used for biodegradation studies at concentration ranging from 100 ppm (0.3 mM) to ...

In present day scenario, pesticides are widely used for pest control in agriculture, because of which, the drinking water sources (both surface and ground water) gets contaminated. Majority of the pesticides are defiant to biodegradation and are found to be carcinogenic in nature even at trace levels. Various conventional methods employed for removal of pesticide are surface adsorption, photo-c...

This paper reports the results of applying anaerobic sequencing batch biofilm reactors (AnSBBR) for treating sulfate-rich wastewater. The reactor was filled with polyurethane foam matrices or with eucalyptus charcoal, used as the support for biomass attachment. Synthetic wastewater was prepared with two ratios between chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulfate concentration (COD/SO4) of 0.4 and 3...

children under 3 years of age must not travel in a car or goods vehicle (other than a taxi) unless restrained in the correct child seat. children aged 3 years or over who are under 150 cm in height and weighing less than 36 kilograms must use the correct child seat, booster seat or booster cushion. rearward-facing child car seats must never be used in the front passenger seat of cars with an ac...

After immobilization of anaerobes on polyurethane foam in a thermophilic, fixed-bed, anaerobic digester supplied with acetate, the results of real-time PCR analysis indicated that the major immobilized methanogenic archaea were Methanosarcina spp., and that the major free-living methanogenic archaea were Methanosarcina and Methanobacterium spp. 16S rRNA gene densities of Methanosarcina spp. and...