Interpretation of biomass gasification yields regarding temperature intervals under nitrogen–steam atmosphere

Gasification of some agricultural waste biomass samples (sunflower shell, pine cone, cotton refuse, and olive refuse) and colza seed was performed using a thermogravimetric analyzer at temperatures up to 1273 K with a constant heating rate of 20 K/min under a dynamic nitrogen–steam atmosphere. Derivative thermogravimetric analysis profiles of the samples were derived from the non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis data. Gasification yields of the biomass samples at temperature intervals of 473–553 K, 553–653 K, 653–773 K, 773–973 K, and 973–1173 K were investigated considering the successive stages of “evolution of carbon oxides”, “start of hydrocarbon evolution”, “evolution of hydrocarbons”, “dissociation”, and “evolution of hydrogen”, respectively. Although, there were some interactions between these stages, some evident relations were observed between the gasification yields in a given stage and the chemical properties of the parent biomass materials.     

Analysis of the peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in patients with bladder carcinoma

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the immune system of patients with bladder transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) by using peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets and to further compare the relationship between these subsets with respect to tumor stage and grade (superficial versus invasive and low versus high grade). METHODS: Thirty patients with superficial TCC of the bladder, 30 patients with invasive TCC of the bladder, and 30 age- and sex-matched control subjects without any malignancy or immunologic abnormality were included in this study. The peripheral blood lymphocyte subset analysis was performed in all patients before any treatment was performed. RESULTS: All lymphocyte subset values of patients with invasive bladder cancer, except B cell value, were significantly lower (P < 0.01) than the values of the control group. There were no significant differences between the lymphocyte subset values of patients with superficial bladder cancer and those of control subjects. The comparison of the lymphocyte subset values of the patients with superficial versus invasive bladder carcinoma revealed that in patients with invasive bladder carcinoma, the numbers of T and natural killer (NK) cells were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than those of patients with superficial bladder carcinoma. Patients with high-grade tumors had significantly fewer (P < 0.05) T and NK cells than patients with low-grade tumors. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that analysis of mean NK and T cell values and the mean ratio of CD4+/CD8+ cells in peripheral blood might be a useful adjunct for the clinical evaluation of patients with bladder cancer.     

Effects of an edible coating, fungicide and cold storage on microbial spoilage of cherries

The effects of an edible coating, i.e., Semperfresh^TM, fungicide, i.e., Imazalil, and cold storage on microbial spoilage of cherries were studied. Two group of cherries (Prunus avium) were coated just after harvest with 1% and 2% Semperfresh^TM fruit coating. Two other group of cherries were treated with 75 ppm and 150 ppm concentrations of Imazalil and then coated with a 1% concentration of Semperfresh^TM fruit coating. Half of the cherries from each of the above groups was stored at ambient temperature (~30Dž °C) and at 40-50% relative humidity, the other half of the cherries was stored at cold storage (0 °C) and at 95-98% relative humidity. Each group was analyzed for the mold and yeast count. The Semperfresh^TM edible coating resulted in a slightly increased fungal spoilage of fruits. Imazalil fungicide treatment clearly decreased and retarded the microbial spoilage of fruits. As a result, low temperature storage was the most effective solution for both microbial spoilage and delay in the ripening.     

Interaction between biomass and different rank coals during co-pyrolysis

Effects of biomass on the pyrolytic decomposition of different rank coals were investigated by non-isothermal Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) method from ambient to 900 °C with a heating rate of 40 °C/min under nitrogen. Hazelnut shell (HS) which is a woody biomass species was added as much as 10 wt% to coals such as peat, lignite, bituminous coal, and anthracite to obtain coal/biomass blends for co-pyrolysis runs. Effects of HS present in the blends were evaluated regarding the apparent decomposition rates and the char yields. It was found that the addition of thermally reactive HS led to some increases in the volatilization rates of coals especially at temperatures below 500 °C. Besides, the char yields revealed unexpected variations in case of low rank coals. Although, HS addition did not play significant role on the char yields of bituminous coal and anthracite, considerable deviations from the theoretical char yields were detected in the case of peat and lignites. The presence of HS led to increasing char weight for peat, while the char weights for lignites decreased seriously. These variations were interpreted, and it can be concluded that these variations cannot be explained by simple additive behavior, and the existence of synergistic interactions should be taken into account.     

Spark plasma sintering of Co-WC cubic boron nitride composites

25 vol.% cubic boron nitride (cBN) added tungsten carbide (WC) powders containing 6 wt.% Co (WC-6Co) were densified by spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique under different experimental conditions and the effect of cBN addition on the microstructure, mechanical properties and thermal conductivity were investigated. Over 99.5% theoretical density was achieved for WC-6Co-cBN composites sintered at 1300 °C, under 75 MPa pressure for 7.5 min. Under these conditions, cBN → hBN phase transformation was not observed.     

Transport and mechanical properties of self consolidating concrete with high volume fly ash

This paper presents the transport and mechanical properties of self consolidating concrete that contain high percentages of low-lime and high-lime fly ash (FA). Self consolidating concretes (SCC) containing five different contents of high-lime FA and low-lime FA as a replacement of cement (30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 by weight of total cementitious material) are examined. For comparison, a control SCC mixture without any FA was also produced. The fresh properties of the SCCs were observed through, slump flow time and diameter, V-funnel flow time, L-box height ratio, and segregation ratio. The hardened properties included the compressive strength, split tensile strength, drying shrinkage and transport properties (absorption, sorptivity and rapid chloride permeability tests) up to 365 days. Test results confirm that it is possible to produce SCC with a 70% of cement replacement by both types of FA. The use of high volumes of FA in SCC not only improved the workability and transport properties but also made it possible to produce concretes between 33 and 40 MPa compressive strength at 28 days, which exceeds the nominal compressive strength for normal concrete (30 MPa).     

Fiber-optic parametric amplifiers in the presence of polarization-mode dispersion and polarization-dependent loss

Polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) and polarization-dependent loss (PDL) associated with various optical components affect the quality of pump beams even before they enter a fiber-optic parametric amplifier (FOPA). A vector theory of the underlying four-wave mixing process is developed to study the impact of PMD and PDL on the amplification of signal and idler fields. It is shown that the use of high-quality polarizers just before the input end of the fiber can improve the performance of a dual-pump parametric amplifier considerably.     

Trace level determination of beryllium in natural and flavored mineral waters after pre-concentration using activated carbon

The concentrations of beryllium (Be) in natural and flavored mineral water samples were determined by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer (FAAS) after pre-concentration based on the complexation of Be(+2) with a mixture of acetylacetone (pentane-2,4-dione) plus morin (3,5,7,2',4'-pentaoxyflavone) and adsorption on activated carbon. The adsorbed complex was eluted with 1.5 ml of 2.0 M HNO(3) and evaporated to dryness. After adding 1.5 ml of 2 M HNO(3) and centrifuging, Be in acid solution was determined by FAAS. To remove a number of metals present in water, EDTA was used as a chelating agent. Beryllium in mineral water samples was pre-concentrated by 500-fold, taking 750 ml as initial sample and 1.5 ml as the final volume. The relative standard deviations were sufficiently low for practical purposes and recoveries were up to 85%. Spiking experiments were performed in real samples to establish accuracy and recoveries. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.01 and 0.03 ng ml(-1), respectively. Twenty samples were analyzed for their beryllium content using optimum parameters. The highest concentration of beryllium was found to be 0.94 ± 0.15 ng ml(-1) in a natural mineral water, while beryllium was not detected in five samples.     

Learning and Predicting Photonic Responses of Plasmonic Nanoparticle Assemblies via Dual Variational Autoencoders

The application of machine learning is demonstrated for rapid and accurate extraction of plasmonic particles cluster geometries from hyperspectral image data via a dual variational autoencoder (dual-VAE). In this approach, the information is shared between the latent spaces of two VAEs acting on the particle shape data and spectral data, respectively, but enforcing a common encoding on the shape-spectra pairs. It is shown that this approach can establish the relationship between the geometric characteristics of nanoparticles and their far-field photonic responses, demonstrating that hyperspectral darkfield microscopy can be used to accurately predict the geometry (number of particles, arrangement) of a multiparticle assemblies below the diffraction limit in an automated fashion with high fidelity (for monomers (0.96), dimers (0.86), and trimers (0.58). This approach of building structure-property relationships via shared encoding is universal and should have applications to a broader range of materials science and physics problems in imaging of both molecular and nanomaterial systems.