Characterization of a Si-SiO2 Mixture Generated from SiO(g) and CO(g)

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - The reaction between SiO(g) and CO(g) is a relevant intermediate reaction in the silicon production process. One of the products generated from this gas...     

Kinetics and Mechanism of Low-Grade Manganese Ore Reduction by Natural Gas

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B - The calcination and the reduction behaviors of a low-grade manganese ore by methane was studied at 973 K to 1273 K by several techniques. The onset...     

Toward a continuous synthesis of porous carbon xerogel beads

A continuous process for producing porous carbon xerogel beads has been developed. It consists in injecting a pre‐cured aqueous solution of resorcinol and formaldehyde on top of a column filled with hot oleic acid. The latter is pumped on the top of the column and fed at the bottom, generating an upward flow that can be adjusted to match the terminal velocity of the settling beads. Thus, the bead residence time in the column can be adjusted to match the gelation time, allowing the beads to solidify before reaching the bottom of the vessel. The obtained beads are subsequently dried and pyrolyzed. The developed experimental setup proved the continuous synthesis of porous carbon beads is possible. Nevertheless, the shaping process caused various texture changes of the porous carbon, which mainly yields macropores instead of micro and mesopores. This process also leads to the build‐up of a denser skin around the beads. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 64: 1049–1058, 2018     

Improved functional perturbation method for reliability analysis of randomly heterogeneous beams

The strength reliability of randomly heterogeneous beams is studied. The beams are considered as brittle, and failure by the weakest link criterion is assumed. The structure is statically indeterminate, thus the stress field is a function of the random morphology. The probabilistic beam strength is a coupled functional of morphology and stresses. Correlation between local strength and local modulus is also considered, and its effect on reliability is investigated. Heterogeneity is confined to the longitudinal direction only. An improved analytical solution is found by a new, optimized functional perturbation method (FPM). The improvement is achieved by two operations: generalizing the previously used FPM to account for multifunctional dependency, and choosing the perturbation to be around the proper homogeneous case for each type of morphology. It is shown that the improvement of the optimized method for reliability analysis is significant, and depends on the type of local strength-modulus statistical correlation. In addition, analytical results for very large and very small correlation lengths are obtained, and their validity range is examined by numerical solutions.     

Identification and phylogeny of the small eukaryote population of raw and drinking waters

Culture-dependent and -independent methods were used to investigate the small eukaryote composition of raw and finished waters in the Norwegian cities of Oslo, Tromsø, Fredrikstad and Oppegård. Probes with general applicability to the 18S rRNA genes of the small eukaryote consortium were used for PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE), and in the generation of clone libraries using the TOPO™ cloning and sequencing system. The chosen probes invariably gave a single band in agarose gel electrophoresis, indicating amplification of an area of similar size. DGGE and cloning analyses resolved the bands into components representing many unique amplicons. Diversity and composition in the collection were studied by DNA-sequencing, and visual examination of DGGE patterns. The cloning approach enabled the putative identification of a total of approximately 100 unique small eukaryotes. The major fraction of these represented ciliated and flagellated protozoal species. This was in keeping with the findings from protozoal cultivation. DNA from a number of multicellular eukaryotes was also detected. Amoebal and fungal DNA was rarely found. The latter may indicate a low incidence or a bias in the analysis technique. The population of small eukaryotes appears typical for pristine waters and no primary pathogens were detected by culture-independent techniques. However, the potentially pathogenic protozoa Acanthamoeba castellanii was grown on one occasion from Oslo’s drinking water.DGGE allowed the identification of fewer amplicons (by excision and sequencing of bands) than by the cloning-transformation approach. The DGGE analysis revealed clear similarities between the compositions of the raw and treated waters, indicating that cells or DNA in the raw water pass through the treatment trains. Protozoal culture and heterotrophic plate count analysis consistently revealed viable cells in both raw and treated waters in Oslo. This indicates that a fraction of the clone library represents eukaryotic species surviving the treatment trains. The analyses here presented represent the first published study of the general small eukaryotic fraction of the Capital’s drinking water, and those of three other Norwegian cities. We suggest that DGGE profiles may have a value in judging physical treatment efficacy (removal of cells), but that direct cloning and sequencing studies is more amenable for characterization of uncultured microbes.     

Functional Chromatography Reveals Three Natural Products that Target the Same Protein with Distinct Mechanisms of Action

Access to lead compounds with defined molecular targets continues to be a barrier to the translation of natural product resources. As a solution, we developed a system that uses discrete, recombinant proteins as the vehicles for natural product isolation. Here, we describe the use of this functional chromatographic method to identify natural products that bind to the AAA+ chaperone, p97, a promising cancer target. Application of this method to a panel of fungal and plant extracts identified rheoemodin, 1‐hydroxydehydroherbarin, and phomapyrrolidone A as distinct p97 modulators. Excitingly, each of these molecules displayed a unique mechanism of p97 modulation. This discovery provides strong support for the application of functional chromatography to the discovery of protein modulators that would likely escape traditional high‐throughput or phenotypic screening platforms.     

Impact of Material on Crankshaft Torsional Vibrations

In this study, it shows how the main indicators of torsional vibrations of the crankshaft change when its materials change. In the study, the crankshaft of diesel engine with four cylinders in line was taken, in which the material is changing from steel to cast iron, due to the technological possibilities of production. For study of torsional vibration of crankshaft system, the construction of equivalent reduced scheme is carried. Reduced inertia moments of discs are determined for each crank of crankshaft, by receiving the impact of piston group and rod mass. Reduced rigidities of crank are determined by experimental method. The results show that the rigidity of crank for the same crankshaft varies up to 6%, while the change between crankshafts goes up 10%. At the end, frequency and vibration forms are calculated using Tole-Holxer method. From calculations, it results that the frequencies are 19% smaller, while the vibration forms varies slightly. In this case, the change of the materials leads to the first frequency in the area of engine rotations and it can worsen the level of torsional vibration, therefore, it should check the resonance areas and vibration amplitude.