Highly efficient synthesis of coumarin derivatives in the presence of H14[NaP5W30O110] as a green and reusable catalyst

A variety of heteropolyanions including: Keggin, Dawson, Preyssler, mixed addenda and sandwich types, catalyzed the formation of 4-methylnaphtho-(1,2-b)-pyran-2-one (coumarin) from the condensation of α-naphthol and ethylacetoacetate in a solvent free system and under heating conditions. Our data vividly indicate that sodium30–tungsto pentaphosphate, [NaP₅W₃₀O₁₁₀]¹⁴⁻, which so-called Preyssler’s anion, with high hydrolytic (pH 0–12) and thermal stability is the catalyst of choice. This catalyst catalyzed the synthesis of other coumarin derivatives in high yields and good selectivity.     

Anionic synthesis of poly(epichlorohydrin-g-styrene) and chemical modification of polyepichlorohydrin

Poly(epichlorohydrin-g-styrene) copolymers, P(ECH-g-S)s, have been prepared in solution by two different methods of coupling polyepichlorohydrin, PECH, with polystyrene, PS, containing a functional end group. In the first method, polystyryl carboxylic acid, PSCOOH, prepared from living polystyrene, was converted to the corresponding potassium salt which was coupled with PECH in dimethyl formamide solution usually at 60°C. In the second method, polystyryl potassium, PS^?K⁺, in tetrahydrofuran solution was end-capped with propylene sulphide to form PSCH₂CH(CH₃)S^?K⁺ which was coupled directly with PECH in tetrahydrofuran at 40°C. Grafting by the first reaction was relatively slow but occurred without significant adverse side reactions. The grafting by the second reaction was relatively fast, but side reactions occurred resulting in a cleavage of the graft copolymer. The graft copolymers were purified by fractional precipitation and extraction procedures and were characterized by infra-red and ultra-violet spectroscopy, microanalysis, gel permeation chromatography, differential scanning calorimetry, solution viscometry, dynamic mechanical testing, and electron microscopy. Solution properties of the graft copolymers in benzene-carbon tetrachloride and toluene-cyclohexane mixtures were studied. There was evidence of micelle formation in dilute solutions of the mixed solvents and microphase separation of components in the solid state. Nucleophilic substitution of chlorine atoms in PECH by phenyl acetate (C₆H₅ CH₂COO-) and thiophenoxide (C₆H₅S-) groups was performed.     

Implementing a one-bit reversible full adder using quantum-dot cellular automata

Quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) technique is one of the emerging and promising nanotechnologies. It has considerable advantages versus CMOS technology in various aspects such as extremely low power dissipation, high operating frequency and small size. In this paper, designing of a one-bit full adder is investigated using a QCA implementation of Toffoli and Fredkin gates. Then, a full adder design with reversible QCA1 gates is proposed regarding to overhead and power savings. Our proposed full adder design is more preferable when considering both circuit area and speed. The proposed design uses only two QCA1 gates and maximizes the circuit density and focuses on a layout of the circuit which is minimal in using QCA cells.     

Determination of residual organic matter in extracted oil sands using a low temperature ashing method

The application of a low temperature ashing method for estimating total residual organic matter (toluene insolubles) in oil sands is described. A linear correlation exists between organic carbon content and loss on ignition at 400 ± 10 °C of solvent extracted oil sands. The ratio between total organic carbon and the weight loss on ignition (CT/LOl) owing to the removal of residual organic matter is much lower than that obtained for toluene soluble bitumen fractions, indicating very different chemical composition for the residual organic matter. The measured carbon content of the residual organic matter in oil sands suggests that this material could be a mixture of various fractions contained in resins, asphaltenes, asphaltic acids and humic acids.     

A new technique for the construction of confusion component based on inverse LA-semigroups and its application in steganography

The present article introduced a novel idea for information hiding namely steganography. We have used new notions for the construction of the nonlinear component for block cipher based on inverse LA-semigroups. This nonlinear component fundamentally provides confidentiality in the proposed steganographic algorithm. The construction of the algorithm is fundamentally twofold. Firstly, we have constructed a novel scheme to design confusion component namely substitution box (S-box). Secondly, we have utilized the anticipated nonlinear component in digital steganography. The suggested algorithm is tested for different standard digital images. The authentication of the proposed algorithm is confirmed through statistical analysis.

     

An H∞non‐fragile observer‐based adaptive sliding mode controller design for uncertain fractional‐order nonlinear systems with time delay and input nonlinearity

In this paper the problem of non‐fragile adaptive sliding mode observer design is addressed for a class of nonlinear fractional‐order time‐delay systems with uncertainties, external disturbance, exogenous noise, and input nonlinearity. An H_∞ observer‐based adaptive sliding mode control considering the non‐fragility of the observer is proposed for this system. The sufficient asymptotic stability conditions are derived in the form of linear matrix inequalities. It is proven that the sliding surface is reachable in finite time. An illustrative example is provided which corroborates the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Preparation and characterization of poly(vinyl alcohol)/gum tragacanth/cellulose nanocomposite film

The effects of gum tragacanth obtained from two species of Astragalus Gossypinus (GT-G) and A. Parrowianus (GT-P) at two levels of 10% and 30% combined with cellulose nanofibers (CNF; 5%) on the physico-mechanical and structural properties of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanocomposite film were investigated in this study. The water solubility and water vapor permeability of the films decreased with increasing the content of both gums, especially in the film containing 30% GT-P. The highest values of the tensile strength (39.3 MPa) and elongation at break (445%) belonged to the treatment containing 10% GT-P (90/10P/0). The FTIR and DSC analyses confirmed good interactions between GT and PVA in the 90/10P/0 treatment. SEM images indicated the dense structure of this film as the optimum treatment. Although the presence of CNF in the films containing GT-G improved some properties, especially the Young modulus, it impaired all the functional properties of nanocomposite GT-P film.     

Economic selection of process mean and lot‐sizing decisions for multi‐newsvendor supply chain

Two related problems are integrated in this paper, the first is the targeting problem and another is production/inventory decisions in a supply chain. The supply chain under consideration consists of a supplier of raw material, a single producer, and multiple newsvendors. The producer can adjust the process mean before starting the production run. Once set to a certain target value, the process mean is not changed until the production lot is completed. At the end of a production run, the producer screens the lot and uses specification limits to evaluate the quality of the item. Nonconforming items are scrapped with no salvage value; however, conforming items are delivered to newsvendors who are subjected to random demand. If demand on a newsvendor in a season is lower than anticipated, surplus items will be returned to the producer at a certain transportation cost. We first develop a mathematical model that maximizes the expected total profit of the supply chain. Then, a table for two special functions is devised to simplify the solution method and is used to find the optimal solution of the proposed model. We also study the significance of this integration by comparing the performance of the proposed model with an independent model where the process mean selection and lot‐sizing decisions are found separately.     

Stability Margin Determination of Linear Discrete‐Time Systems Described By Fuzzy Convex Sets Uncertainty

This paper proposes a new method for determining the stability margin of uncertain linear discrete‐time systems with uncertainty described by fuzzy convex sets. Nonsymmetrical triangular membership functions describing the uncertainty of characteristic polynomial coefficients are considered. This method is based on transformation of the uncertain discrete systems to the continuous time area and generalization of Kharitonov theorem for determining the uncommon minimum confidence level that guarantees stability of the system.     

Pervaporative removal of acrylonitrile from aqueous streams through polydimethylsiloxane membrane

This study describes the successful separation of acrylonitrile (ACN) from dilute aqueous streams using pervaporation process. The influences of ACN feed concentration, permeate pressure, operating temperature, feed flow rate and membrane thickness on the membrane separation performance were investigated. The results showed that with an increase in ACN concentration in the feed solution, the permeation flux of ACN increased while the enrichment factor decreased. It was also indicated that increasing the permeate pressure reduced the driving force for mass transfer and consequently the permeation flux dropped while the enrichment factor enhanced. Polydimethylsiloxane membranes used in this study showed very good properties in the separation process, leading to enrichment factors in the range of 70-140. Furthermore, the activation energy for pervaporation of both ACN and water calculated from Arrhenius plot indicated that the permeation of water through the membrane was more temperature dependant than ACN.