Improving the results of program analysis by abstract interpretation beyond the decreasing sequence

The classical method for program analysis by abstract interpretation consists in computing first an increasing sequence using an extrapolation operation, called widening, to correctly approximate the limit of the sequence. Then, this approximation is improved by computing a decreasing sequence without widening, the terms of which are all correct, more and more precise approximations. It is generally admitted that, when the decreasing sequence reaches a fixpoint, it cannot be improved further. As a consequence, most efforts for improving the precision of an analysis have been devoted to improving the limit of the increasing sequence. In a previous paper, we proposed a method to improve a fixpoint after its computation. This method consists in computing from the obtained solution a new starting value from which increasing and decreasing sequences are computed again. The new starting value is obtained by projecting the solution onto well-chosen components. The present paper extends and improves the previous paper: the method is discussed in view of some example programs for which it fails. A new method is proposed to choose the restarting value: the restarting value is no longer a simple projection, but is built by gathering and combining information backward the widening nodes in the basic solution. Experiments show that the new method properly solves all our examples, and improves significantly the results obtained on a classical benchmark.     

Application of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles prepared from microemulsions for protein purification

BACKGROUND: Magnetic nanoparticles are of immense interest for their applications in biotechnology. This paper reports the synthesis of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles from two different water‐in‐oil microemulsion systems (ME‐MIONs), their characterization and also their use in purification of coagulant protein. RESULTS: ME‐MIONs have demonstrated to be an efficient binder in the purification of Moringa oleifera protein when compared with the superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles prepared from coprecipitation in aqueous media. The size and morphology of the ME‐MIONs were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) while the structural characteristics were studied by X‐ray diffraction (XRD). The microemulsion magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (ME 1‐MION and ME 2‐MION) obtained have a size range 7–10 nm. The protein and ME‐MIONs interaction was investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR); the presence of three peaks at 2970, 2910 and 2870 cm^?1 respectively, confirms the binding of the protein. The purification and molecular weight of the coagulant protein was 6.5 kDa as analyzed by SDS‐PAGE. CONCLUSION: The ME‐MIONs have the advantage of being easily tailored in size, are highly efficient as well as magnetic, cost effective and versatile; they are, thus, very suitable for use in a novel purification technique for protein or biomolecules that possess similar characteristics to the Moringa oleifera coagulant protein. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Partial oxidation of methane over rhodium catalysts for power generation applications

The partial oxidation of methane (POM) to syngas, i.e. H₂ and CO, over supported Rh catalysts was investigated at atmospheric pressure. The influence of support material, Rh loading and the presence of water vapor on the methane conversion efficiency and the product gas composition was studied. The catalysts containing ceria in the support material showed the highest activity and formation of H₂ and CO. By increasing the Rh loading, a decrease of the ignition temperature was obtained. The addition of water vapor to the reactant gas mixture was found to increase the ignition temperature and the formation of hydrogen, which is favorable for combustion applications where the catalytic POM stage is followed by H₂-stabilized homogeneous combustion.     

Structural classification of alphabetabeta and betabetaalpha supersecondary structure units in proteins

We present a fully automatic structural classification of supersecondary structure units, consisting of two hydrogen-bonded beta strands, preceded or followed by an alpha helix. The classification is performed on the spatial arrangement of the secondary structure elements, irrespective of the length and conformation of the intervening loops. The similarity of the arrangements is estimated by a structure alignment procedure that uses as similarity measure the root mean square deviation of superimposed backbone atoms. Applied to a set of 141 well-resolved nonhomologous protein structures, the classification yields 11 families of recurrent arrangements. In addition, fragments that are structurally intermediate between the families are found; they reveal the continuity of the classification. The analysis of the families shows that the alpha helix and beta hairpin axes can adopt virtually all relative orientations, with, however, some preferable orientations; moreover, according to the orientation, preferences in the left/right handedness of the alpha-beta connection are observed. These preferences can be explained by favorable side by side packing of the alpha helix and the beta hairpin, local interactions in the region of the alpha-beta connection or stabilizing environments in the parent protein. Furthermore, fold recognition procedures and structure prediction algorithms coupled to database-derived potentials suggest that the preferable nature of these arrangements does not imply their intrinsic stability. They usually accommodate a large number of sequences, of which only a subset is predicted to stabilize the motif. The motifs predicted as stable could correspond to nuclei formed at the very beginning of the folding process.     

Investigation of Mixtures of a Co-Based Catalyst and a Cu-Based Catalyst for the Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis with Bio-Syngas: The Importance of Indigenous Water

A series of different mechanical mixtures of a narrow-pore Co/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst and a Cu-based WGS-catalyst has been investigated in the low-temperature Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (483 K, 20 bar) with a model bio-syngas (H₂/CO = 1.0) in a fixed-bed reactor. The higher the fraction of WGS-catalyst in the mixture, the lower is the Co-catalyst-time yield to hydrocarbons. This is ascribed to a strong positive kinetic effect of water on the Fischer–Tropsch rate of the Co-catalyst, showing the importance of the indigenously produced water, especially in fixed-bed reactors where the partial pressure of water is zero at the reactor inlet. A preliminary kinetic modeling suggests that the reaction order in P $ _{{{\text{H}}_{ 2} {\text{O}}}} $ is 0.3 for the Co/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst in the range of the studied reactor-average partial pressures of water (i.e., 0.04–1.2 bar).     

Microemulsion synthesis of MgO-supported LaMnO3 for catalytic combustion of methane

Catalysts with 20% LaMnO₃ supported on MgO have been prepared via CTAB-1-butanol-iso-octane-nitrate salt microemulsion. The preparation method was successfully varied in order to obtain different degrees of interaction between LaMnO₃ and MgO as shown by TPR and activity tests after calcination at 900 °C. Activity was tested on structured catalysts with 1.5% CH₄ in air as test gas giving a GHSV of 100,000 h⁻¹. The activity was greatly enhanced by supporting LaMnO₃ on MgO compared with the bulk LaMnO₃. After calcination at 1100 °C both the surface area and TPR profiles were similar, indicating that the preparation method is of little importance at this high temperature due to interaction between the phases. Pure LaMnO₃ and MgO were prepared using the same microemulsion method for comparison purposes. Pure MgO showed an impressive thermal stability with a BET surface area exceeding 30 m²/g after calcination at 1300 °C. The method used to prepare pure LaMnO₃ appeared not to be suitable since the surface area dropped to 1.1 m²/g already after calcination in 900 °C.     

Monodispersed colloidal metal particles from nonaqueous solutions: Catalytic behaviour in hydrogenolysis and isomerization of hydrocarbons of supported platinum particles

Platinum catalysts have been prepared by depositing on alumina monodispersed particles of platinum prepared in reversed micellar solution. After deposition, the particles are well dispersed on the support and the size distribution has a sharp maximum around 2 nm. The isomerization and hydrogenolysis of hexanes were studied in order to get more information about the particle size effects on the selectivities of Pt catalysts in these reactions.It was found that this catalyst exhibits the same selectivities as a low dispersed ordinary platinum catalyst. These selectivity values are quite different from the ones given by a highly dispersed classical catalyst in spite of the fact that the catalysts have fairly similar average particle size. Such results confirm the conclusions previously proposed that isomerisation via cyclic mechanism and non selective hydrogenolysis of hexanes take place only on platinum particles smaller than 1 nm.     

Etude du systeme KFYbF3

The phase diagram of the KF-YbF₃ system shows the existence of the five compounds K₃YbF₆, K₂YbF₅, KYbF₄, KYb₂F₇ and KYb₃F₁₀. We give their X-ray single crystal and powder data (except for K₂YbF₅).     

Deactivation of a Pt/Silica–Alumina Catalyst and Effect on Selectivity in the Hydrocracking of n-Hexadecane

The deactivation behavior of a bifunctional catalyst consisting of platinum on amorphous silica–alumina was studied in the hydrocracking of n-hexadecane. The initial decline in activity and the change in selectivity were monitored at the following reaction conditions: pressure = 30 bar; temperature = 310 °C; hydrogen-to-hexadecane feed molar ratio = 10. Initially, hexadecane conversion and selectivity to cracking products decreased rapidly with time-on-stream, and stabilized after 40 h on stream. This could be related to an initial loss of metal surface area, which decreased the activity of monofunctional hydrogenolysis generating cracking products. The acidic function seemed to be unaffected under these reaction conditions. The stable catalyst was exposed to a lower hydrogen-to-hexadecane ratio to accelerate deactivation by coking. A decline in the activity of both functions was observed. The activity of the acidic function could be almost completely recovered by oxidative regeneration, while the metal activity was only partially recovered.