The effects of hypercapnia on early and later phases of phrenic neurogram during early maturation

In this paper, we investigate the influence of hypercapnia on the early and late phases of the phrenic neurogram using the matching pursuit (MP) method in the decebrated piglets. The phrenic neurogram was recorded from 8 piglets (4-7 days old) during control (40% O2 with 5% end-tidal CO2), the mild hypercapnia (40% O2 with 7% end-tidal CO2), and the severe hypercapnia (40% O2 with 15% end-tidal CO2). The time-frequency representations, atoms, of the phrenic neurogram are calculated from the 5 consecutive phrenic neurogram burst for each piglet for each condition using the MP method after vagotomy and chemodenervation. Our results show that the energy percentage of atoms representing the nonperiodic neural activities (NPNAs) significantly increased when the CO2 concentration was shifted from 7% to 15% in the early phase (the first half) of the phrenic neurogram. In addition, the energy percentage of atoms representing the periodic neural activities (PNAs) decreased in the late phase (the second half) when the CO2 concentration was shifted from 7% to 15% (p < 0.01). As a summary, our result suggest that hypercapnia results in significant changes in the phrenic neurogram, an output of the respiratory neural networks in the medulla, both in time and frequency domians during early maturation.     

Concentration of phenolic compounds from apple pomace extracts by nanofiltration at lab and pilot scale with a techno‐economic assessment

Apple pomace can be used as resource for the extraction of phenolic compounds with antioxidant properties. Pressing of apple in juice and pomace at lab scale in open air (aerobic) and under N₂ atmosphere (anaerobic) showed a recovery of phenolic compounds of 85% in juice and pomace after anaerobic pressing, compared to 43% after aerobic pressing, indicating loss of phenolic compounds by oxidation and the advantage of anaerobic over aerobic pressing. After a membrane screening and concentration test at lab scale, the commercial nanofiltration membrane NFX was selected to concentrate phenolic compounds in an ethanol : water extract of apple pomace. At pilot scale, the concencentration of 10 selected phenolic compounds and quinic acid increased from 59.5 mg/L in the ethanol : water extract to 1256.1 mg/L in the final retentate, that is, by a factor 21.1. The volume of the crude extract was reduced by a factor of 28.5 during the filtration, indicating some loss of phenolic compounds during pilot testing due to membrane fouling or oxidation of polyphenols. The pilot concentration test using a spiral‐wound membrane module showed good flux and concentration of phenolic compounds, indicating the technical feasibility of membrane technology for efficient concentration of polyphenols in an ethanol : water extraction solvent. Unfortunately, the extraction and concentration process was not economically feasible under the assumptions made.

Practical applications

The valorization of food waste for the production of high‐added value products is an increasingly hot topic. Phytochemicals are present in relatively low concentration in the fruit matrix, and concentration in the extraction solvent is necessary to develop an industrially relevant process. In this study, membrane filtration was selected for concentration due to its low energy consumption and mild processing conditions compared to other technologies. Membrane screening and testing at lab and pilot scale with techno‐economic assessment can be used by food and nutraceutical industries to evaluate membrane technology for concentration of phytochemicals extracted from agroindustrial by‐products.     

Planning of capacity,production and inventory decisions in a generic reverse supply chain under uncertain demand and returns

There is a growing interest for the design and operation of reverse supply chain systems due to the cost and the legislation issues. In this paper, we address the disassembly, refurbishing and production operations in a reverse supply chain setting for modular products such as computers and mobile phones considering the uncertainties in this system, which are the return amounts of the used products and demand for final products. We develop a large-scale mixed integer programming model in order to capture all characteristics of this system, and use two-stage stochastic optimisation and robust optimisation approaches to analyse the system behaviour. In the first stage, we focus on the strategic decisions about the capacities at disassembly and refurbishing sites considering different scenarios regarding the uncertainties in the system. In the second stage, we analyse the operational decisions such as production, inventory and disposal rates. We observe through our extensive numerical analysis that the randomness of demand and return values effect the performance of the system substantially and the uncertainty of the return amounts of used products is much more important than the uncertainty of demand in this system.     

Comparison of textile dyeing effluent adsorption on commercial activated carbon and activated carbon prepared from olive stone by ZnCl2 activation

Adsorption of Remazol Red B on activated carbon prepared from olive stone and commercial activated carbon from aqueous solutions was compared. Different activating agent (ZnCl₂) amounts and adsorbent particle size were studied to optimize adsorbent surface area. The adsorptive property of commercial activated carbon and activated carbon prepared from olive stone were investigated in terms of adsorbent dose, temperature, equilibrium time and pH. Then the obtained results were compared for all parameters, According to the results, the equilibrium time, optimum pH, adsorbent dosage were found 60 min, pH < 3–4 and 1.0 g/50 ml respectively. Lower adsorption capacity for RRB on activated carbon prepared from olive stone was found. The kinetic data for both adsorbents supports pseudo-second order model (r² > 0.99) and intra-particle model (r² > 0.95) but the first order kinetic model did not adequately fit to the experimental values (r² < 0.76). The equilibrium adsorption data were interpreted using Langmuir and Freundlich models. The adsorption of Remazol Red B was better represented by the Langmuir equation. In addition, the thermodynamic parameters, standard free energy (ΔG°), standard enthalpy (ΔH°), standard entropy (ΔS°) of the adsorption process were calculated for both adsorbents. To reveal the adsorptive characteristics of the produced active carbon, surface area measurements were carried out and structural analysis was performed using SEM-EDS.     

The Effects of Electromagnetic Brake on Liquid Steel Flow in Thin Slab Caster

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with magneto hydro dynamics (MHD) is developed for a thin slab caster to investigate the effects of electromagnetic brake (EMBr) on liquid steel flow in continuous casting mold and to determine the EMBr practices which lead to optimal flow structure. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) tests in water model and meniscus flow measurements in real caster are performed to validate the predictions obtained with CFD models. The performance of different submerged entry nozzle designs, SEN 1 and SEN 2, are evaluated. The effects of nozzle submergence in relation to the applied magnetic field on mold flow structure are quantified. There are significant differences between flow structures obtained with SEN 1 and SEN 2, even though both designs have fundamental similarities and contain four ports. EMBr mainly reduces the meniscus velocities for SEN 2 as opposed to the foremost influence of EMBr for SEN 1 that is to significantly slow down the downward jet coming from the bottom ports. In addition, reducing the EMBr strength for shallow nozzle submergence and increasing the EMBr strength for deep nozzle submergence help to maintain similar meniscus activity for all conditions.     

All‐pass filters using DDCC‐ and MOSFET‐based electronic resistor

The main motivation in this paper is to draw attention to the tunability and input‐signal amplitude limitations when a nonlinear device is used as a resistor. For this purpose, two first‐order all‐pass filters are proposed using differential difference current conveyor (DDCC), a capacitor and a resistor without element‐matching restriction. These all‐pass filter circuits can be made electronically tunable with electronic resistors. Tunability and input‐signal amplitude limitations of the proposed circuits due to the operational restrictions of the electronic resistors are examined. PSPICE simulations confirm the validity and the practical utility of the proposed circuits. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preparation and application of glycidyl methacrylate and methacrylic acid monomer mixture‐grafted poly(ethylene terephthalate) fibers for removal of methylene blue from aqueous solution

A novel fibrous adsorbent that grafts glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and methacrylic acid (MAA) monomer mixture onto poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers was used for removal of methylene blue (MB) in aqueous solutions by a batch equilibration technique. The operation parameters investigated included, pH of solution, removal time, graft yield, dye concentration, and reaction temperature. The adsorption rate of MB is much higher on the MAA/GMA‐grafted PET fibers than on the ungrafted PET fibers. MB was removed 99% the initial dye concentration at 10 mg L⁻¹ and 93% at 200 mg L⁻¹ by monomers mixture‐grafted PET fibers. Pseudofirst order and pseudosecond order kinetic equations were used to examine the experimental data of different graft yield. It was found that the pseudosecond order kinetic equation described the data of dye adsorption on fibrous adsorbent very well. The experimental isotherms data were analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The data was that Freundlich isotherm model fits the data very well for the dyes on the fibers adsorbent. The dye adsorbed was easily desorbed by treating with acetic acid/methanol mixture (50% V/V) at room temperature. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010