CHARACTERIZATION AMD POTENTIAL UTILIZATION OF WHITEROCKS (DTAB) TAR SAND BITUMEN II. PYROLYSIS MASS SPECTROMETRY AND NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE ANALYSES

The proton and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance characteristics of the native Whiterocks bitumen were determined by comparing the spectra of the samples to literature assignments. The tentative structural assignments of pyrolysis products were also obtained from the spectra of Curie-point low voltage mass spectrometric analysis. The results obtained from proton and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance and pyrolysis-mass spectrometry analysis suggested that the native bitumen consists mostly of short- and long-chain (i.e., normal and isoprenoid chains) alkylsubstituents attached to polycyclic naphthenic, naphtheno-aromatic and/or aromatic moieties.     

Surfactants, polymers and their nanoparticles for personal care applications

A 'touch me not' plant folding up rapidly upon being attacked or microbes depositing on teeth or ocean vessels even under hostile conditions are examples in nature that provide inspiration for developing new classes of personal care release or deposition systems. In this paper, development of such systems based on polymer/surfactant colloid chemistry is explored for achieving transport and release of cosmetic and pharmaceutical molecules at desired rates at desired sites. The successful development of products depends upon understanding and utilizing key interactions among surfactants, polymers and hybrid polymers that are relevant to personal care products. Thus, the absorbed layers or tethers on the particulates can be manipulated for desired dispersion of actives or depositions on substrate under any and all conditions. New hybrid polymers and nanogels have been synthesized for tuning up nanodomains that can extract and deliver at will cosmetics/drugs/toxins by perturbing pH, temperature or ionic strength of the system. Particularly, hydrophobically modified polymers have features of both polymers and surfactants and due to the associative nature of the hydrophobic groups, such polymers can form intramolecular nanodomains for performing carrier functions. Nanogels developed recently include that of polyacrylamide, poly(acrylic acid) and starch nanogels modified for extraction and subsequent slow release of fragrances and overdosed toxic drugs. Binding and release processes were investigated using surface plasmon resonance and fluorescence spectroscopies, powerful techniques for monitoring short term and long term changes.     

FcalphaRI (CD89) as a novel trigger molecule for bispecific antibody therapy

Promising results from clinical trials with unconjugated antibodies stimulated renewed interest in immune effector mechanisms of monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs). We investigated the potential of IgA as antibody isotype for cell- or complement-mediated tumor cell lysis and assessed the potential of its myeloid Fc receptor, FcalphaRI (CD89), as trigger molecule for bispecific antibody (BsAb)-mediated immunotherapy. Comparing hapten-directed antibodies of human IgA2 with IgG1 or IgG3 isotypes, we found all three to mediate effective killing of sensitized tumor target cells in whole blood assays. Analysis of effector mechanisms showed IgG-mediated lysis to be predominantly complement-dependent, whereas IgA-dependent killing was primarily effector cell-mediated. A comparison of effector cell populations in antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) showed neutrophils to be most important for IgA-dependent tumor cell killing, involving FcalphaRI as shown with Fc receptor blocking antibodies. Reverse ADCC experiments against target cells sensitized with Fc receptor antibodies, or assays with FcalphaRI-directed bispecific antibodies confirmed FcalphaRI as effective trigger molecule in polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN)-mediated lysis. During granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF ) therapy, (FcalphaRI x HER-2/neu) bispecific antibodies induced enhanced killing of HER-2/neu positive SK-BR-3 breast cancer cells in whole blood assays. This enhanced cytotoxicity was paralleled by increased PMN counts, which lead to higher effector to target cell ratios in G-CSF-primed blood. Furthermore, bispecific antibodies, directed to FcalphaRI and Candida albicans, enhanced neutrophils' phagocytosis of fungi. In summary, these results identify IgA as an effective antibody isotype for immunotherapy, working primarily via FcalphaRI on neutrophils. They suggest FcalphaRI-directed bispecific antibodies and G-CSF to be an attractive combination for malignant or infectious diseases.     

Comparative study of two CPU router time management algorithms in cellular IP networks

Providing good quality of service (QoS) in cellular IP networks is an important requirement for performance improvement of the cellular IP network. Resource reservation is one of the methods used in achieving this goal and is proven to be effective. The main resources to be reserved in a cellular IP network are bandwidth, buffer and central processing unit (CPU) cycles. Router CPU cycle is the time taken by the router to process the packet of the flow before forwarding it to the next router (hop). This paper proposes a model for CPU cycle optimization of routers for real‐time flows in a cellular IP network. The model applies both genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) as soft computing tools to optimize the CPU cycles and reduces the flow processing time at each router in the route taken by a flow. Simulation experiments illustrate a comparative study of the model.     

3D CFD validation of invert trap efficiency for sewer solid management using VOF model

Earlier investigators have numerically carried out performance analysis of the invert trap fitted in an open channel using the stochastic discrete phase model(DPM) by assuming the open channel flow to be closed conduit flow under pressure and assuming zero shear stress at the top wall.This is known as the fixed lid model.By assuming the top wall to be a shear free wall,they have been able to show that the velocity distribution looks similar to that of an open channel flow with zero velocity at the bottom and maximum velocity at the top,representing the free water surface,but no information has been provided for the pressure at the free water surface.Because of this assumption,the validation of the model in predicting the trap efficiency has performed significantly poorly.In addition,the free water surface subject to zero gauge pressure cannot be modeled using the fixed lid model because there is no provision of extra space in the form of air space for the fluctuating part of the water surface profile.It can.however,be modeled using the volume of fluid(VOF) model because the VOF model is the appropriate model for open channel or free surface flow.Therefore,in the present study,three-dimensional(3D) computational fluid dynamics(CFD) modeling with the VOF model,which considers open channel flow with a free water surface,along with the stochastic DPM.was used to model the trap efficiency of an invert trap fitted in an open rectangular channel.The governing mathematical flow equations of the VOF model were solved using the ANSYS Fluent 14.0 software,reproducing the experimental conditions exactly.The results show that the 3D CFD predictions using the VOF model closely fit the experimental data for glass bead particles.     

Flow Distribution of Food Materials in an Annular Extrusion Die

ABSTRACT: The objective of this study was to determine the effects of die geometry, food material and operating parameters on flow distribution in an annular extrusion die. A diverging annular die with a conical insert was designed such that the eccentricity of the central conical core could be maintained at 0, 1, and 2 mm. Corn syrup, cornstarch, cornmeal, and wheat flour were extruded through the die using a twin-screw extruder at varying mass flow rates. It was found that perfect geometrical alignment was very critical in achieving flow uniformity, and should be considered as the important factor in practical applications. The type of food material and mass flow rate had negligible effects on the flow distribution.     

Study of magnetic properties of thin cobalt films deposited by chemical vapour deposition

Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) of cobalt was deposited from a liquid source precursor of cobalt tricarbonyl nitrosyl (Co(CO)₃NO) on to oxidised < 100 > silicon wafers. The cobalt layers were deposited at 450∘C at 1.5 torr chamber pressure of hydrogen for 15 min processing time with various precursor flow rates. X-ray diffraction studies of the cobalt films reveal both hcp and fcc peaks. The vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) yields coercivity (Hc) 167 Oe and 364 Oe for 46 nm and 30 nm thickness layers respectively at room temperature and squareness (S) M_r/M_s (remanence/saturation of magnetisation) value of ∼ 1. The study of magnetic properties of the cobalt suggests that magnetisation is dependent on grain size and therefore thickness. The grain size was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Magnetic images were observed by magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and analyzed in terms of domain structure. The surface domain structure was recorded with the tip lift height 100 nm so that the magnetic interactions arising produced the topography effect. Where there is repulsive interaction the intensity is recorded as a bright region and where the interaction is attractive the intensity is recorded as a dark region.     

Adaptive neural net (ANN) models for desulphurization of hot metal and steel

Neural nets can be adapted to complex patterns of interrelated input and output variables in a process even if the data sets contain a lot of noise. In this work two specific examples for the application of adaptive neural nets (ANN) in steel Industry are described. First, the sulphur content of hot-metal, obtained at the end of calcium carbide powder injection into 4001 torpedo ladles is predicted as a function of hot-metal weight, treatment time, initial sulphur content, gas flow rate and powder injection rate. The values predicted by the trained ANN model for a completely new set of input test data compare well with the actual values obtained on the shop floor. In the second example, the sulphur content of steel, obtained at the end of blow is predicted as a function of liquid-metal weight, total amount of oxygen injected, amount of iron ore added, and the temperature, contents of carbon, manganese, phosphorus and sulphur determined by in-blow sampling in a 300 t converter. The ANN predicted values of sulphur content of steel at tap (without reblow) also agree well with the values obtained on the shop floor.