User-sensor mutual authenticated key establishment scheme for critical applications in wireless sensor networks

Wireless Networks - Authenticated key establishment schemes allow the participants to authenticate each other and establish a secure session key among them. These schemes play an important role in...     

Enzyme-assisted extraction of chicken skin protein hydrolysates and fat: Degree of hydrolysis affects the physicochemical and functional properties

Enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE) of oils/fats involves the disruption of the cell wall of source material using enzymes to facilitate the release of oil. When proteases are used as the enzyme, EAE ends in the extracted oil as well as the protein hydrolysates. Herein, the EAE (using a commercial protease, Alcalase) was exploited to obtain fat and protein hydrolysates from chicken skin. Degree of hydrolysis (DH, the percentage ratio of cleaved peptide bonds), which showed a logarithmic correlation with the reaction time, was found to affect the properties of the products. As the DH increased, the peptide chain length of protein hydrolysates decreased which was confirmed by SDS-PAGE analysis. With the increase of DH, the emulsifying activity index, foaming capacity, and oil holding capacity of the hydrolysates decreased but the solubility and emulsion stability index increased (p < 0.05). The DPPH free radical scavenging activity of the hydrolysates increased with the DH up to DH = 39.62% but decreased thereafter (p < 0.05). EAE resulted in a rise in fat yield and the fat contained a higher amount of unsaponifiables and lower free fatty acids (FFA) content, as compared to the control treatment (No enzyme, 80°C, 2 h, p < 0.05). DH affected the fat yield and the unsaponifiables content of the fat, positively (p < 0.05). However, it did not affect the fat FFA content and iodine value (p > 0.05). Results obtained here showed DH can be used as an effective measure for controlling the physicochemical and functional properties of chicken skin protein hydrolysates and fat in the EAE process.     

Formulation and Characterization of Human Milk Fat Substitutes Made from Blends of Refined Palm Olein,and Soybean,Olive, Fish,and Virgin Coconut Oils

The simplest and the most cost-effective way of human milk fat substitute (HMFS) production is formulating of suitable vegetable oils at proper ratios. To do this, the D-optimal mixture design was used to optimize the HMFS formulation. The design included 25 formulations made from refined palm olein (35–55%), soybean oil (5–25%), olive oil (5–20%), virgin coconut oil (5–15%), and fish oil (0–10%). Samples were produced in laboratory and characterized in terms of fatty acid and triacylglycerol (TAG) compositions, free fatty acid content, peroxide value, iodine value, and oxidative stability index (OSI). HMFS samples were also compared with Codex Alimentarius (CA) and Iran National Standards Organization (INSO) standards. Each characteristic of HMFS samples was then expressed as a function of ingredient ratio using regression models. Finally, using numerical optimization, four optimized blends (PB₁-PB₄) were selected, made in the laboratory (HMFS₁-HMFS₄), characterized, and compared with CA and INSO standards. The properties of all the optimized blends (except the palmitic acid content of HMFS₂ and the monounsaturated fatty acid [MUFA] content of HMFS₃) met the standards. HMFS₄ showed the highest OSI in Rancimat and the lowest oxidation rate in Schaal oven tests. POL (19.53–21.73%), PPO (20.77–21.73%), OOO (9.11–11.16%), and OPO (8.84–9.46%) were the main (totally about 60%) TAG species found in HMFS samples. In conclusion, the HMFS₄ formula (55% palm olein, 13.5% soybean oil, 16% refined olive oil, 15% virgin coconut oil, and 0.5% fish oil) was suggested as the best formula for HMFS production.     

Gas holdup in two phase gas–liquid and three phase gas–liquid–solid production and transportation

The gas holdup is an important parameter that is needed for design and development of surface facilities and transportation pipelines in the field of petroleum engineering. There is no general model for prediction of this parameter in different systems and under different conditions. As a result, development of accurate and general models for prediction of this parameter in various situations is of great importance. This study presents new experimental gas holdup data in the kerosene+CO₂ and kerosene+N₂ systems. The experimental data were measured by using a bubble column setup. Moreover, a computer-based model namely PSO-ANFIS model is also developed for prediction of the gas holdup in different systems. A total of 818 experimental gas holdup data in various systems were utilized including the newly measured experimental data in the present work as well as experimental data from several published works in the literature. Results showed that the developed PSO-ANFIS model is accurate for prediction of experimental data with an R² value of 0.998 and average absolute relative deviation (AARD%) of 3.4%.     

Analytical modeling of strength in randomly oriented PP and PPTA short fiber reinforced gypsum composites

Fiber reinforced gypsum are prevalent building materials in which short fibers with high tensile strength are embedded into a gypsum matrix to produce supplemental strong and lightweight construction materials. Due to confrontation to a rising risk of death and economic disaster in earthquake-prone areas, quake-resistant materials and structures should be employed for building constructions. Gypsum based composites as a unique candidate for this purpose reduce the risks and produce much confident construction materials for residential buildings. In this work tensile strength of gypsum composites with different volume fraction of polypropylene (PP) and poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide (PPTA) fibers up to 15% were studied. Stress transfer ability from matrix to fibers were analyzed using theoretical shear lag analyses, scanning electron microscope, and pull out tests. The interfacial characteristics were also studied by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The ability of the composites to withstand against longitudinal tensile load was also studied by tensile tests of dog-bone shaped, random oriented fiber reinforced gypsum. Tensile strength of randomly oriented short fiber reinforced gypsum was evaluated by a mathematical model. The obtained results from the model and experimental results have been compared and discussed.     

Recent Developments for Prediction of Power of Aromatic and Non‐Aromatic Energetic Materials along with a Novel Computer Code for Prediction of Their Power

The explosive power or strength of an energetic material shows its capacity for doing useful work. This work reviews recent developments for prediction of power of energetic compounds. A new user‐friendly computer code is also introduced to predict the relative power of a desired energetic compound as compared to 2,4,6‐trinitrotoluene (TNT). It is based on the best available methods, which can be used for different types of energetic compounds including nitroaromatics, nitroaliphatics, nitramines, and nitrate esters. The computed relative powers are consistent with the measured data for some new materials containing complex molecular structures.     

Multi-objective Phasor Measurement Unit Placement in Electric Power Networks: Integer Linear Programming Formulation

A multi-objective optimal phasor measurement unit placement model using integer linear programming is presented in this article. The proposed model simultaneously optimizes two objectives, i.e., minimization of phasor measurement unit numbers and maximization of measurement redundancy. To calculate the redundancy criteria, the single-line outage and the phasor measurement unit loss are considered simultaneously. A linear formulation is presented for both objective functions. Also herein, to address conflicting attributes and identify Pareto optimal solutions of the multi-objective optimal phasor measurement unit placement problem, a new multi-objective mathematical programming method is proposed. Finally, a new index, i.e., minimum distance to utopia point, is implemented to select the most preferred solution among the available Pareto front based options on the goal to achieve judicious decision makers. Two test systems, i.e., a modified 9-bus and an IEEE 118-bus test systems, are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.     

Mixing parameters for an airlift bioreactor considering constant cross sectional area of riser to downcomer: Effect of sparging gas location

The effect of mode of sparging gas on the mixing parameters of an internal loop airlift bioreactor was investigated. Two bioreactors of identical volume of 14×10³ cm³ and the optimum riser to downcomer cross sectional area ratio of 0.6 were studied. In one bioreactor a gas sparger was located in the draft tube and in the annulus in another. Liquid mixing characteristics, i.e., mixing time and circulation time, were employed to describe the performance of the bioreactors. The tracer injection method was used to determine the mixing parameters. A mathematical modeling based on the tanks-in-series model was employed to characterize the hydrodynamics behavior of the bioreactors. Matlab 7.1 software was used to solve the model equations in the Laplace domain and determine the model parameter, the number of stages. A comparison between the simulation results and experimental data showed that the applied model can accurately describe the behavior of the bioreactors. The results showed that when the gas sparger was located in the draft tube, the liquid mixing time, circulation time, and the number of stage were less than while the gas sparger was located in annulus. This is due to more wall effects, more energy losses and pressure drop in the case of gas injection in the annulus.