Catalytic Oxidation of Sulfur Dioxide

The well-known industrial applications of sulfuric acid have made the oxidation of SO₂ to SO₃ a process of paramount practical importance. Nowadays vanadium catalysts are commonly used to catalyze the oxidation. Platinum and iron oxide catalysts, formerly employed in industrial practice, are no longer used.     

Understanding the potential benefits of thyme and its derived products for food industry and consumer health: From extraction of value-added compounds to the evaluation of bioaccessibility,bioavailability, anti-inflammatory,and antimicrobial activities

ABSTRACT

Natural bioactive compounds isolated from several aromatic plants have been studied for centuries due to their unique characteristics that carry great importance in food, and pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. For instance, several beneficial activities have been attributed to some specific compounds found in Thymus such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antiseptic properties. Moreover, these compounds are classified as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) which means they can be used as an ingrident of may food producs. Conventional extraction processes of these compounds and their derived forms from thyme leaves are well established. Hoewever, they present some important drawbacks such as long extraction time, low yield, high solvent consumption and degradation thermolabile compounds. Therefore, innovative extraction techniques such as ultrasound, microwave, enzyme, ohmic and heat-assisted methods can be useful strategies to enhance the exytraction yield and to reduce processing temperature, extraction time, and energy and solvent consumption. Furthermore, bioaccessibility and bioavailability aspects of these bioactive compounds as well as their metabolic fates are crucial for developing novel functional foods. Additionally, immobilization methods to improve stability, solubility, and the overall bioavailability of these valuable compounds are necessary for their commercial applications. This review aims to give an overall perspective of innovative extraction techniques to extract the targeted compounds with anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities. Moreover, the bioaccessi-bility and bioavailability of these compounds before and after processing discussed. In addition, some of the most important characteristics of thyme and their derived products discussed in this paper.     

Generation of microstripe cylindrical and toroidal mirrors by localized laser evaporation of fused silica

We report a new technique for the rapid fabrication of microstripe cylindrical and toroidal mirrors with a high ratio (>10) of the two principal radii of curvature (RoC₁/RoC₂), and demonstrate their effectiveness as mode-selecting resonator mirrors for high-power planar waveguide lasers. In this process, the larger radius of curvature (RoC₁) is determined by the planar or cylindrical shape of the fused silica substrate selected for laser processing, whilst the other (RoC₂) is produced by controlled CO₂ laser-induced vaporization of the glass. The narrow stripe mirror aperture is achieved by applying a set of partially overlapped laser scans, with the incident laser power, the number of laser scans, and their spacing being used to control the curvature produced by laser evaporation. In this work, a 1?mm diameter laser spot is used to produce grooves of cylindrical/toroidal shape with 240?μm width and 16?mm length. After high reflectance coating, these grooves are found to provide excellent mode selectivity as resonator mirrors for a 150?μm core Yb:YAG planar waveguide laser, producing high brightness output at more than 300?W. The results show clearly that the laser-generated microstripe mirrors can improve the optical performance of high-power planar waveguide lasers when applied in a low-loss mode-selective resonator configuration.     

Enhancement of condensation heat transfer by means of passive and active condensate drainage techniques

A short state-of-the-art review on the passive and active enhancement of condensation heat transfer techniques developed recently is presented in the paper. The particular attention is paid to the methods involving the augmentation of the condensate drainage. As an example of the passive technique the method of condensate drainage enhancement by using the drainage strip is presented. For an active method of heat transfer enhancement a novel EHD technique is described. For both methods the own experimental results as well as theoretical models are provided.     

Computer simulation studies on significance of lipid polar head orientation

Models of lipid bilayer were extended and dipole structure of polar head in lipid molecules was included. As a result a wavy structure, resembling experimentally observed 'ripple phase', was obtained. The discussion on significance of interactions between dipoles that constitute polar part of the model membrane is presented. Assumptions of the model are closer to the real conditions and reflect the real phenomena much better. Dependence of the model system behaviour on dielectric permeability, ionic strength, and temperature was studied. An influence of reduced number of freedom degrees in the dipole system on the membrane properties was also considered. It was proved that if dielectric permeability of membrane polar part is significantly smaller than water dielectric permeability then the membrane model does not have to take into account changeability of dipole tilt towards membrane surface. This assumption becomes more significant for dielectric permeability epsilon approaching epsilon = 80. Packing degree of hydrocarbon chains in hydrophobic part of the membrane is also responsible for the angle value between dipoles and the membrane surface. The model results are compared to experimental results obtained by means of fluorescence probe fluorescein-PE.     

Correction to: Piezoelectric and elastic properties of relaxor-like PZT:Ba ceramics

Journal of Electroceramics - The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake. The copyright line was incorrect in the HTML version of this article. The copyright line should...     

Capacitance sensor for void fraction measurement in water/steam flows

A capacitance sensor operating at RF range for void fraction measurements was developed. Two electrodes of the capacitor are mounted on the outer side of pipe walls. The variations in the percentage of phases in two-phase flow cause changes of the equivalent permittivity of the dielectric between the electrodes. The capacitor is connected in a resonant circuit of an oscillator tuned to high frequency of 80 MHz. The changes of frequency generated by the oscillator are the measure of the void fraction in the two-phase flow. An eight-channel system with capacitance sensors of this type was used for determination of the phase conversion along a steam injector.     

Combined partial nitritation/Anammox system for treatment of digester supernatant.

One-year (2004) comprehensive investigations in a semi-industrial pilot plant (5 m3) were carried out with the aim of assessing the influence of operational parameters on the partial nitritation/Anammox system performance. In the system designed as a moving-bed biofilm reactor, the influent nitrogen load to the Anammox reactor was progressively increased and a stable Anammox bacterial culture was obtained. Interaction between subsequent aerobic and anaerobic conditions in the partial nitritation and Anammox reactors, respectively, granted conditions to remove nitrogen through the nitrite route. It implies that the oxygen supply can be limited to a high extent. A control strategy for the partial nitritation step relied on concomitant adjustment of the air supply with a variable influent nitrogen load, which can be monitored by both pH and conductivity measurements. In the Anammox reactor, an influent nitrite-to-ammonium ratio plays a vital role in obtaining efficient nitrogen removal. During the 1-year experimental period, the Anammox reactor was operated steadily and average nitrogen removal efficiency was 84% with 97% as the maximum value.