Development of artificial neural network models for supercritical fluid solvency in presence of co-solvents

This paper presents the application of artificial neural networks (ANN) to develop new models of liquid solvent dissolution of supercritical fluids with solutes in the presence of cosolvents. The neural network model of the liquid solvent dissolution of CO₂ was built as a function of pressure, temperature, and concentrations of the solutes and cosolvents. Different experimental measurements of liquid solvent dissolution of supercritical fluids (CO₂) with solutes in the presence of cosolvents were collected. The collected data are divided into two parts. The first part was used in building the models, and the second part was used to test and validate the developed models against the Peng-Robinson equation of state. The developed ANN models showed high accuracy, within the studied variables range, in predicting the solubility of the 2-naphthol, anthracene, and aspirin in the supercritical fluid in the presence and absence of co-solvents compared to (EoS). Therefore, the developed ANN models could be considered as a good tool in predicting the solubility of tested solutes in supercritical fluid.     

Thermo-mechanical characteristics of thermally aged polyethylene/polypropylene blends

Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and their blends have attracted a lot of attention due to their potential industrial applications. Therefore, the current work has been carried out with the main objective of investigating the impact of the thermal aging/treatment and blend ratio (composition range) on the mechanical (tensile and hardness) and thermal characteristics (using thermogravimetric analysis in a dynamic air atmosphere) of PE, PP and PE/PP binary blends. Samples of PE/PP blends containing 100/00, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75 and 0/100 wt.% were prepared via injection moulding technique and thermally treated/aged at 100 °C for 0, 2, 4, 7, 14 days. The tensile measurements indicated that the yield strength and the modulus decrease with increasing PE content. It was also observed that PE, PP and their blends deform in ductile modes. They undergo a uniform yielding over a wide range of deformation, which is followed by strain hardening and then failure. The strain to break for pure PE is found to be much higher than that for pure PP and for their blends, intermediate values have been observed. The hardness measurements have also revealed that increasing PE content in PE/PP blends reduced the hardness value of PP, however, thermal aging at 100 °C has not affected the polymers hardness which holds also true for the tensile properties, showing a good correlation between tested mechanical properties. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) in a dynamic air atmosphere and derivative thermogravimetric analysis (DTA) were conducted to study the thermal degradation and stability of thermally unaged and aged PE, PP and PE/PP blends in terms of the initial (T_d and T_d(1%)) and final (T_d(99%)) decomposition temperatures and maximum decomposition rate temperature (T_max). All polymers start to decompose at no less than 365 °C. As for mechanical properties, the blend ratio has affected the thermal properties however, aging time has not.     

A Novel Formulation for Mebeverine Hydrochloride

The antispasmodic drug mebeverine hydrochloride was formulated into a film-forming gel to be used as a topical local anesthetic. A mixture of cellulose derivatives was used as a base. Additives were used to enhance the release as well as the residence time. Formulations were characterized in terms of drug release, mucoadhesion and rheology. Clinically, the selected formula has shown faster onset (p?=?0.0156), longer duration (p?=?0.0313), better film residence (p?=?0.0313), and no foreign body sensation (p?=?0.0313) in comparison to Solcoseryl® dental paste. Histopathological examination showed no change in inflammatory cells count, concluding that this topical anesthetic is efficacious and safe orally.     

Texture and Microstructure of Block Type Processed Cheese with Formulated Emulsifying Salt Mixtures

Block-processed Ras cheese was produced with two salt mixtures: (1) Na-diphosphate+Na-polyphosphate+Na-tripolyphosphate in ratios 40 : 50 : 10, 30 : 40 : 30 & 30 : 30 : 40 and (2) Na-polyphosphate+Na-citrate+Na-orthophosphate+Na-diphosphate in ratios 50 : 20 : 20 : 10, 40 : 10 : 20 : 30 & 30 : 10 : 20 : 40. Commercial salts Joha SE and PZO were used for comparison, respectively. Texture profile analysis and microstructure (LM and TEM) of resultant cheeses were studied. Chewiness, gumminess, adhesiveness, and hardness showed a significant difference and the cheese samples exhibited higher values during storage. The values were highest in the samples stored at room temperature. Light microscopy photographs indicated different emulsification degree with various emulsifying salt mixtures. These observations were confirmed with the image analysis and TEM. Among the entire treatments, mixture (1) in ratio 30 : 40 : 30 and mixture (2) in ratio 40 : 10 : 20 : 30 gave the best and close texture to the commercial salts and can be recommended in the production of block processed cheese.     

Adaptive Fuzzy Prediction of Low-Cost Inertial-Based Positioning Errors

Kalman filter (KF) is the most commonly used estimation technique for integrating signals from short-term high performance systems, like inertial navigation systems (INSs), with reference systems exhibiting long-term stability, like the global positioning system (GPS). However, KF only works well under appropriately predefined linear dynamic error models and input data that fit this model. The latter condition is rather difficult to be fulfilled by a low-cost inertial measurement unit (IMU) utilizing microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensors due to the significance of their long- and short-term errors that are mixed with the motion dynamics. As a result, if the reference GPS signals are absent or the Kalman filter is working for a long time in prediction mode, the corresponding state estimate will quickly drift with time causing a dramatic degradation in the overall accuracy of the integrated system. An auxiliary fuzzy-based model for predicting the KF positioning error states during GPS signal outages is presented in this paper. The initial parameters of this model is developed through an offline fuzzy orthogonal-least-squares (OLS) training while the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is implemented for online adaptation of these initial parameters. Performance of the proposed model has been experimentally verified using low-cost inertial data collected in a land vehicle navigation test and by simulating a number of GPS signal outages. The test results indicate that the proposed fuzzy-based model can efficiently provide corrections to the standalone IMU predicted navigation states particularly position.     

Technological and chemical characters of bread prepared from irradiated wheat flour

The present work is a part of research programme aimed to use gamma irradiation to decrease the growth of fungi and the concentration of mycotoxines which present naturaly in collected samples of wheat flour from Egyptian markets (first part). To follow the technological, rheological and chemical characters of bread “Balady” common type in Egypt, same samples of wheat flour were irradiated with 2, 4 and 8 kGy for these purposes. The Egyptian bread type (Balady) had been prepared from irradiated and non-irradiated samples. The chemical analysis proved a significant induction in reducing sugars (RS) which increased gradually with increasing doses as 16.75%, 30.30%, 43.24% after using 2, 4 and 8 kGy respectively. Same trend was observed with total sugars (TS), less changes were observed in non-reducing sugars (NRS) and starch content. Results obtained showed that an actual reduction in dough development time, stability, weaking of dough and height of bread especially for irradiated samples at 4 and 8 kGy but 2 kGy was less effective. The reduction of Alkaline Water Retention Capacity (AWRC) was clear at high doses whereas 2.0 kGy improved the freshness of aged “balady” bread. Concerning, the evaluation of organoleptic characters of bread as judged by the panelists, all the samples were accepted either irradiated or not. But, the lowest values of acceptance resulted from irradiated samples with 4 and 8 kGy. Therefore, using 2 kGy can be recommended for keeping quality of wheat flour to avoid the infestation or pathogenic infection. Whereas high doses (4–8 kGy) can be use for eliminating the mycotoxins with some changes of quality which can be overcome by using some additional matters to get more acceptable bread and less changes in technological characters.     

1,3-Dimethylpyrimidoheterocycles as antibacterial agents

1,3-Dimethylbarbituric acid was used as a versatile precursor for the preparation of annelated pyranopyrimidines 2 and 3a-c besides pyrrolopyrimidine 12. The isolated pyrazolopyrimidines 8a-c and 10 and fused pyrazolopyrimidines 14a-d were also synthesized. In addition the new obtained pyrimidoheterocycles were subjected to bacterial testings.     

The use of spray-dried buffalo milk as a potential infant food

Four different formulae have been used to modify buffaloes' milk. These formulae shared the basic modifications of dilution with rennet whey, addition of sucrose and starch and fortifying with vitamins. Formula B differed from A by replacement of butter fat with liquid butter fat at 23 °C; formula C one-third of its fat content was replaced with corn oil, while formula D was acidified with citric acid to pH 5.7 before processing. The chemical properties of formula A, B and C were nearly the same, while formula D differed considerably. The rate of peptic and tryptic digestion of the different formulae were comparable to spraydried buffalo milk. Milk powder with different formulae were stored under nitrogen for 6 months at room temperature. The samples were analysed every month for moisture, free fat, pH, solubility and wettability. The changes in these properties were slight being in the same order in formula A, B and C while formula D showed slightly greater changes. Formula A and D showed good oxidative stability, while formula B and C became oxidised in the fifth month.     

Determination of trace metals in cottonseed oil and hydrogenated cottonseed oil

The main vegetable oils used in Egypt are cottonseed oil and hydrogenated cottonseed oil; these are used as salad oil and for cooking. Determination of trace heavy metals in the oils is important. This is because of the association of trace metals with the origin of the oils, metal processing equipment and catalysts used for hydrogenation, and toxicity of edible oils, and because of the effect of trace metals on the characteristics, such as colour and taste, of finished products.Iron, copper, aluminium and magnesium were found in the cottonseed oil. These metals were also found in the hydrogenated cottonseed oil, together with lead, silver and calcium. The amounts of metals were below the limits permitted by public health and safety regulations.     

Effect of alumina-deficiency and promotion with platinum and rhenium on the catalytic and diffusional behaviour of mordenite catalysts

The hydroconversion of n-heptane on catalysts containing platinum hydrogen-mordenite, platinum/alumina-deficient hydrogen mordenite and platinum-rhenium/alumina-deficient hydrogen mordenite was carried out in a continuous high-pressure plug-flow reactor system and product analysis was carried out by gas chromatography (GC). The effectiveness factor for each catalyst was calculated by iteration on estimated rate constant at various reaction temperatures and the effect of diffusion on the catalytic behaviour was correlated. Catalysts exhibiting larger values of effectiveness factor were found to enhance production of 2,3-dimethylpentane on account of 3-methylhexane, whereas the reverse is true with respect to catalysts exhibiting lower values of effectiveness factor.