The effects of glycerol and sorbitol as two plasticizers on mechanical properties, water vapor permeability, thermal properties, color and capability of heat sealing of gelatin films (of phytophagous fish, bovine gelatin with high gel-forming ability, and bovine gelatin with low gel-forming ability) containing clay nanoparticles were studied in this research. For this purpose, 6 × 2 × 3 factori...

Owing to their high intrinsic thermal conductivity, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have previously been incorporated into a variety of thermal management applications to improve cooling performance. Implementation of controlled CNT growth techniques and functionalization methods are applied herein to enhance boiling heat transfer from the porous capillary wicking surfaces widely used in high heat flux...

Here we present a new strategy of selectively rejecting water vapor while allowing fast transport of dry gases using temperature-controlled aligned-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (aligned-MWNTs). The mechanism is based on the water vapor condensation at the entry region of nanotubes followed by removing aggregated water droplets at the tip of the superhydrophobic aligned-MWNTs. The first condensa...

Edible films and coatings in foods can be used to increase shelf-life and improve organoleptic characteristics of foods by avoiding deterioration of food components and therefore promoting preservation of the final product. This study is the first to investigate the use of different size fillers for the purpose of preparing edible composite films with fillers < 1.0 microm in size. For this purp...

[1] The rate at which the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) responds to perturbations in temperature and moisture plays a fundamental role in determining climate sensitivity. This study examines the clear-sky OLR sensitivities to temperature and water vapor, as quantified by its partial derivatives (radiative Jacobians). The Jacobians, as computed by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (G...

Polysaccharides constitute an important source of raw materials for the packaging industry today. Polysaccharides have good natural barrier properties which are necessary for packaging films. Cellulose is the forerunner among renewable polymers for such applications. Hemicelluloses represent a new interesting breed of barrier materials. We have chosen to work with the hemicellulose O-acetylgala...

Using two versions of the GFDL coupled ocean-atmosphere model, one where water vapor anomalies are allowed to affect the longwave radiation calculation and one where they are not, we examine the role of water vapor feedback in internal precipitation variability and greenhouse-gas-forced intensification of the hydrologic cycle. Without external forcing, the experiment with water vapor feedback p...

To elucidate physical processes responsible for the response of U.S. surface temperatures to El Niño– Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the surface energy balance is diagnosed from observations, with emphasis on the role of clouds, water vapor, and land surface properties associated with snow cover and soil moisture. Results for the winter season (December–February) indicate that U.S. surface temper...

The regulation of water loss through the skin is a poorly understood but crucial process in maintaining terrestrial life-forms. In mammalian skin, the outermost layer, called the stratum corneum (SC), is rate-limiting to water loss. We have evaluated temperature-dependent changes in water vapor permeability and infrared spectra of porcine SC. In particular, we have analyzed the infrared absorpt...

Vapor movement is often an important part in the total water flux in the vadose zone of arid or semiarid regions because the soil moisture is relatively low. The twomajor objectives of this study were to develop a numerical model in the HYDRUS-1D code that (i) solves the coupled equations governing liquid water, water vapor, and heat transport, together with the surface water and energy balance...