Investigation of the fluid catalytic cracking of different H-Oil vacuum gas oils and their blends with hydrotreated vacuum gas oil

H-Oil vacuum gas oils obtained during hydrocracking of vacuum residual oils originated from the crudes Russian Export Blend, Basrah light, and Heavy Kazakh were cracked in a mixture with a hydrotreated vacuum gas oil in the LUKOIL Neftohim Burgas commercial fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) unit. Some of the H-Oil vacuum gas oils were also cracked in a laboratory FCC (ACE) unit. The results from the commercial and the laboratory tests showed that the laboratory FCC experiments in an ACE unit can be used to evaluate the effect of feed quality on the commercial FCC unit performance. The assumption that the conversion of a vacuum gas oil (VGO) blend in the fluid catalytic cracking could be considered as a linear combination of the conversion of the individual components made by other researchers was also confirmed in this study. The higher the hydrogen content in the vacuum residual oil of a crude is the higher the FCC conversion of the H-Oil VGO, obtained during hydrocracking of that high saturate vacuum residual oil, will be expected.     

Theoretical explanation of enhanced low dose rate sensitivity in erbium-doped optical fibers

A new theoretical framework is proposed to explain the dose and dose-rate dependence of radiation-induced absorption in optical fibers. A first-order dispersive kinetics model is used to simulate the growth of the density of color centers during an irradiation. This model succeeds in explaining the enhanced low dose rate sensitivity observed in certain kinds of erbium-doped optical fiber and provides some insight into the physical reasons behind this sensitivity.     

Mechanism of the radiation-protective effect of indralin

Output from the interpositus nucleus can inhibit the inferior olive, probably via the GABA-ergic nucleo-olivary pathway. It has been suggested that the function of this inhibition might be to regulate synaptic plasticity resulting from parallel fibre/climbing fibre interaction in cerebellar Purkinje cells, by providing negative feedback information to the olive. Thus, when a learned response, generated by the interpositus nucleus, reaches a sufficient amplitude, the olive would be inhibited and further learning blocked. This suggestion was tested in a classical conditioning paradigm. Decerebrate ferrets were trained using electrical skin stimulation of the forelimb as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and periorbital stimulation as the unconditioned stimulus (US). Climbing fibre responses evoked in Purkinje cells by the US were recorded as surface field potentials in the part of the c3 zone controlling eyeblink. It was found that the CS did not inhibit the olive at the beginning of training, but when conditioned responses were large, the olive was inhibited by the CS in some animals. After a number of unpaired CS presentations, which caused extinction of the conditioned response, the inhibition disappeared. The size of individual conditioned responses correlated negatively with the size of the climbing fibre responses evoked by the US. Climbing fibre responses evoked by direct stimulation of the olive were also inhibited. It was concluded that cerebellar output during performance of a conditioned response inhibits the inferior olive. The results thus support the hypothesis of a cerebellar locus of conditioning and are consistent with the proposed role of cerebello-olivary inhibition.     

Robust Parameter Estimation in Dynamic Systems

In this paper we present a practical method for robust parameter estimation in dynamic systems. In our study we follow the very successful approach for solving optimization problems in dynamic systems, namely the boundary value problem (BVP) approach. The suggested method combines multiple shooting for parameterizing dynamics, a flexible realization of the BVP principle, with a fast Gauss-Newton algorithm for solving the resulting constrained l ₁ problem. We give an overview of the theoretical background as well as the details of a numerical implementation. We discuss why the Gauss-Newton algorithm, which is known to perform well mainly on well-conditioned problems, is appropriate for parameter estimation problems, while quasi-Newton methods have only limited use for parameter estimation. The method is implemented on the basis of the direct multiple shooting method as implemented in PARFIT, thus inheriting all basic properties of PARFIT such as numerical stability, reliability and efficiency. The new code has been successfully applied to real-life parameter estimation problems in enzyme and chemical kinetics.     

Design and Management of Building＇s Resources

The developed modem control systems and buildings management resource systems would be effective if they are based on previously established optimal conditions during the building design. This is one of the key issues for a responsible architecture. The focus of this paper is on sustainable design methods and techniques for saving resources and their management throughout the building lifecycle. The main subject of the present article is the characteristics of these methods and their fundamental role in sustainable resource management during the building operation. The results which are based on conducted case studies of European and international practice in the construction of sustainable buildings are implemented here. Key features of a comprehensive approach for design and construction are outlined via comparative analysis, as well as various systems for the evaluation of sustainability for already constructed buildings. The mostly used criteria and indicators for sustainability are systematized, including those related to resource consumption. By analyzing a specific example, the role of sustainable design methods is justified as an important prerequisite for effective management of building resources in the process building maintenance. According to the conducted studies, during the longest life cycle period of a building, by implementation of control systems and resource management of building, the costs are successfully optimized. Specific directions that prove the effectiveness of such systems are systematized in the paper. Innovative approaches, complex methods and measures for design and management of buildings resources are presented as results of this study.     

Angular diagram of broadband emission of millimeter-sized water droplets exposed to gigawatt femtosecond laser pulses

We report on the experiments on the interaction of gigawatt femtosecond laser pulses with suspended millimeter-sized water droplets. The transparent droplets experienced laser-induced breakdown and explosive boiling up and emitted a broadband radiation. This radiation covers the spectral range from 450 to 1100?nm and consists of the spectrum of laser pulse scattered and transformed by the droplet due to self-phase modulation and plasma emission produced in water during photoionization. The droplet emission spectrum showed remarkable broadening at all viewing angles and is maximal in the direction of the laser exit from the droplet. The enlargement of the droplet results in additional spectral spreading of the emitted radiation. The depth and amount of laser pulse spectral self-transformations upon propagation through the water droplet are simulated by means of numerical calculations.     

Oligonucleotide Insecticides for Green Agriculture: Regulatory Role of Contact DNA in Plant–Insect Interactions

Insects vastly outnumber us in terms of species and total biomass, and are among the most efficient and voracious consumers of plants on the planet. As a result, to preserve crops, one of the primary tasks in agriculture has always been the need to control and reduce the number of insect pests. The current use of chemical insecticides leads to the accumulation of xenobiotics in ecosystems and a decreased number of species in those ecosystems, including insects. Sustainable development of human society is impossible without useful insects, so the control of insect pests must be effective and selective at the same time. In this article, we show for the first time a natural way to regulate the number of insect pests based on the use of extracellular double-stranded DNA secreted by the plant Pittosporum tobira. Using a principle similar to one found in nature, we show that the topical application of artificially synthesized short antisense oligonucleotide insecticides (olinscides, DNA insecticides) is an effective and selective way to control the insect Coccus hesperidum. Using contact oligonucleotide insecticide Coccus-11 at a concentration of 100 ng/μL on C. hesperidum larvae resulted in a mortality of 95.59 ± 1.63% within 12 days. Green oligonucleotide insecticides, created by nature and later discovered by humans, demonstrate a new method to control insect pests that is beneficial and safe for macromolecular insect pest management.     

N-Heterocyclic Carbenes and Their Metal Complexes Based on Histidine and Histamine Derivatives of Bacteriopurpurinimide for the Combined Chemo- and Photodynamic Therapy of Cancer

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is currently regarded as a promising method for the treatment of oncological diseases. However, it involves a number of limitations related to the specific features of the method and the specific characteristics of photosensitizer molecules, including tumor hypoxia, small depth of light penetration into the tumor tissue, and low accumulation sensitivity. These drawbacks can be overcome by combining PDT with other treatment methods, for example, chemotherapy. In this work, we were the first to obtain agents that contain bacteriopurpurinimide as a photodynamic subunit and complexes of gold(I) that implement the chemotherapy effect. To bind the latter agents, N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) based on histidine and histamine were obtained. We considered alternative techniques for synthesizing the target conjugates and selected an optimal one that enabled the production of preparative amounts for biological assays. In vitro studies showed that all the compounds obtained exhibited high photoinduced activity. The C-donor Au(I) complexes exhibited the maximum specific activity at longer incubation times compared to the other derivatives, both under exposure to light and without irradiation. In in vivo studies, the presence of histamine in the NHC-derivative of dipropoxy-BPI (7b) had no significant effect on its antitumor action, whereas the Au(I) metal complex of histamine NHC-derivative with BPI (8b) resulted in enhanced antitumor activity and in an increased number of remissions after photodynamic treatment.     

Specific S100 Proteins Bind Tumor Necrosis Factor and Inhibit Its Activity

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors (anti-TNFs) represent a cornerstone of the treatment of various immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and are among the most commercially successful therapeutic agents. Knowledge of TNF binding partners is critical for identification of the factors able to affect clinical efficacy of the anti-TNFs. Here, we report that among eighteen representatives of the multifunctional S100 protein family, only S100A11, S100A12 and S100A13 interact with the soluble form of TNF (sTNF) in vitro. The lowest equilibrium dissociation constants (K_d) for the complexes with monomeric sTNF determined using surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy range from 2 nM to 28 nM. The apparent K_d values for the complexes of multimeric sTNF with S100A11/A12 estimated from fluorimetric titrations are 0.1–0.3 µM. S100A12/A13 suppress the cytotoxic activity of sTNF against Huh-7 cells, as evidenced by the MTT assay. Structural modeling indicates that the sTNF-S100 interactions may interfere with the sTNF recognition by the therapeutic anti-TNFs. Bioinformatics analysis reveals dysregulation of TNF and S100A11/A12/A13 in numerous disorders. Overall, we have shown a novel potential regulatory role of the extracellular forms of specific S100 proteins that may affect the efficacy of anti-TNF treatment in various diseases.