Acidolysis of babassu fat catalyzed by immobilized lipase

The lipase-catalyzed interesterification of oils and fats gives products that are unobtainable by chemical interesterification methods. Acidolysis of babassu fat and palmitic acid, catalyzed by immobilized lipase (Lipozyme; Novo Industri, Bagsveard, Denmark), was studied. The reactions were performed at 65°C with 5% w/w enzyme for 4 h. The molar proportions of babassu fat/palmitic acid were 1∶0.1, 1∶0.3 and 1∶0.5. At the end of the reaction period, the catalyst particles were removed by filtration, and the residual oil was extracted with organic solvent (diethyl ether). The recovered particles were then reused. The palmitic acid content of babassu fat before and after acidolysis changed from 10 to 22% at a molar proportion of 1∶0.5. The equilibrium was attained in about 4 h. The original water and enzymatic activities of Lipozyme were maintained after acidolysis. Water sorption isotherms of the immobilized enzyme were determined at 25, 35 and 45°C. From the temperature dependence of the isotherms, isosteric heats of sorption were evaluated by means of the Clausius Clapeyron equation. Monolayer moisture content was calculated by means of the B.E.T. and Guggenhein-Anderson-De Boer analyses. Paper presented at the International Meeting on Fats and Oils Technology, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil, 1991.     

Inductive Model Generation for Text Classification Using a Bipartite Heterogeneous Network

Algorithms for numeric data classification have been applied for text classification. Usually the vector space model is used to represent text collections. The characteristics of this representation such as sparsity and high dimensionality sometimes impair the quality of general-purpose classifiers. Networks can be used to represent text collections, avoiding the high sparsity and allowing to model relationships among different objects that compose a text collection. Such network- based representations can improve the quality of the classification results. One of the simplest ways to represent textual collections by a network is through a bipartite heterogeneous network, which is composed of objects that represent the documents connected to objects that represent the terms. Heterogeneous bipartite networks do not require computation of similarities or relations among the objects and can be used to model any type of text collection. Due to the advantages of representing text collections through bipartite heterogeneous networks, in this article we present a text classifier which builds a classification model using the structure of a bipartite heterogeneous network. Such an algorithm, referred to as IMBHN （Inductive Model Based on Bipartite Heterogeneous Network）, induces a classification model assigning weights to objects that represent the terms for each class of the text collection. An empirical evaluation using a large amount of text collections from different domains shows that the proposed IMBHN algorithm produces significantly better results than k-NN, C4.5, SVM, and Naive Bayes algorithms.     

Degradation of Leaf Litter Phenolics by Aquatic and Terrestrial Isopods

To investigate species-specific decomposition rates of litter from native (Quercus faginea) and introduced (Eucalyptus globulus) tree species in Portugal, we monitored changes in the phenolic signature of leaf litter during decomposition as mediated by an aquatic, Proasellus coxalis (Isopoda: Asellota), and two terrestrial, Porcellio dispar and Eluma caelatum (Isopoda: Oniscidea), detritivores. Although the litter of Eucalyptus and Quercus did not differ in overall protein precipitation capacity, we detected differences in terms of contents of particular phenolic compounds and phenol oxidation products. Accordingly, we observed food-specific consumption rates in Proasellus, but not in the terrestrial isopods. Proasellus digested Eucalyptus at significantly higher rates than Quercus, whereas the opposite was the case for Eluma, and Porcellio digested both litter types equally well. Despite slight differences in detail, effects of Proasellus on changes in the signature of litter phenolics were similar for both litter types, whereas terrestrial isopods—Porcellio and Eluma, although they differed from each other—digestively degraded phenolic compounds in Eucalyptus and Quercus litter, respectively, in different ways. Overall, however, degradation of litter phenolics was similarly effective on both litter types. From these data, we conclude that decomposition of Eucalyptus litter does not proceed more slowly than of litter from native Portuguese trees.     

Electrodeposition of polypyrrole on aluminium in aqueous tartaric solution

The electrosynthesis of polypyrrole (PPy) has been achieved on aluminium in aqueous medium of tartaric acid by means of cyclic voltammetry, potentiostatic and galvanostatic techniques. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray microanalysis by energy spectroscopy dispersion (EDS) applying on surfaces show that the PPy coating is developed from the metal surface through the cracks of the initial Al₂O₃ layer.A mechanism involving the participation of the supporting electrolyte and the pyrrole (Py) in distinct active sites was proposed based on the linear sweep voltammetry. It is observed for all applied electrochemical techniques that the pyrrole concentration has to be higher than 0.1 M to allow the polypyrrole electrodeposition in acid medium.Scanning electron microscopy, secondary electrons (SE) and backscattering electrons (BE), shows that the PPy coating obtained in galvanostatic and potentiostatic modes starts with small islands at weak applied potentials or current densities. Moreover, EDS reveals a good homogeneity and compactness of the film achieved in galvanostatic method. The corrosion results in 3% NaCl medium show that the PPy coating decreases the corrosion behaviour of the aluminium. The bilayer Al₂O₃/PPy shows a capacitor with future applications.     

Cold Crystallization of PLLA Studied by Simultaneous SAXS and WAXS

Summary: The cold crystallization process of initially amorphous poly(L ‐lactic acid), PLLA, with two different molecular weights, during a heating at 2 °C/min, was investigated by DSC and time‐resolved simultaneous SAXS and WAXS, using synchrotron radiation. Equatorial scans of the isotropic 2D‐SAXS patterns showed that the average Bragg long period (L_B) of PLLA samples was approximately constant with the development of cold crystallization up to a temperature that corresponded to a melt/re‐crystallization process that took place before the nominal melting peak seen by DSC. L_B values were found to be higher for the high molecular weight material. This was in accordance with the higher melting temperature observed in the high molecular weight PLLA that implied the existence of thicker lamellae. WAXS results showed that the molecular weight did not apparently affect the crystal form and the final degree of crystallinity of PLLA. The Avrami parameters from WAXS and DSC were consistent, showing that the non‐isothermal cold crystallization of the two PLLA samples corresponded mainly to a three‐dimensional growth, although an imperfect crystallization process was involved at early times. The crystallization rate of PLLA, observed both by WAXS and DSC, decreased with increasing molecular weight.

SAXS profiles of PLLA2 as a function of temperature. The inset shows the 2D‐SAXS pattern obtained at 180 °C.     

Theoretical Aspects Of The Kinetics Of Competitive First Reactions Of Ozone In The O3/H2O2 And O3/UV Oxidation Processes

Kinetics of competition between the ozone direct reaction with compounds in water, ozone-hydroperoxide ion reaction leading to free radicals in the O₃/H₂O₂ process, and the photolysis of ozone in the O₃/UV process are discussed in terms of diffusion and reaction times to establish conditions for these reactions to be competitive. Film theory and chemical kinetic concepts then are applied to estimate initial rates of ozone absorption and consumption, removal rates of compounds present in water, and the importance of the radical oxidation path versus direct ozone and/or photolysis reactions.     

Thioglycolate-elicited rat macrophages exhibit alterations in incroporation and oxidation of fatty acids

Incorporation and oxidation of fatty acids (FA) were investigated in resident and thioglycolate-clicited (TG-elicited) rat macrophages (Mϕ). Both cell types presented a time-dependent incorporation of [¹⁴C]-labeled palmitic acid (PA), oleic acid (OA), linoleic acid (LA), and arachidonic acid (AA) up to 6h. The total amount of [¹⁴C]-FA incorporated by resident Mϕ after 6 h was: AA>PA=LA>OA. TG-elicited cells presented a 50% reduction in the incorporation of LA, PA, and AA, whereas that of OA remained unchanged as compared to resident Mϕ. The FA were oxidized by resident Mϕ as follows: LA>OA>PA>AA. TG elicitation promoted a reduction of 42% in LA oxidation and a marked increase in AA oxidation (280%). The increased oxidation of AA in TG-elicited cells may account for the lower production of prostaglandins in Mϕ under these conditions. The full significance of these findings for Mϕ function, however, remains to be examined.     

Prediction of mean square radius of gyration of tree-like polymers by a general kinetic approach

This paper describes a kinetic method to predict the z-average molecular mean square radius of gyration of tree-like polymers formed by irreversible reactions, assuming Gaussian chains. It is based on the population balance equations for the two-sided molecular distributions of pendant chains associated with every chemically distinguishable kind of bonds. An automated method for the solution of those equations is valid both before as well as after gelation for complex kinetic schemes. Examples of its use are presented with polycondensation systems leading to hyperbranched polymers, the anionic polymerization of mono- and divinyl monomers and a radical polymerization with terminal branching and transfer to polymer.     

The CH4/NO/O2 “Lean-deNOx” Reaction on Mesoporous Mn-Based Mixed Oxides

High surface area Mn-based porous oxides (MANPO) containing additives like Ce, Sr and La were found to be very active and selective materials under 0.67% CH₄/0.2% NO/5% O₂ lean-deNO _x conditions in the 200–300°C low-temperature range. These materials perform also impressively in the presence of 4% H₂O in the feed stream, where a N₂ selectivity of 98% and an excellent stability over 24 h on stream have been observed. The MANPO materials can be considered serious competitors of noble metals for low-temperature lean-deNO _x applications.     

Incremental inconsistency detection with low memory overhead

Ensuring models’ consistency is a key concern when using a model‐based development approach. Therefore, model inconsistency detection has received significant attention over the last years. To be useful, inconsistency detection has to be sound, efficient, and scalable. Incremental detection is one way to achieve efficiency in the presence of large models. In most of the existing approaches, incrementalization is carried out at the expense of the memory consumption that becomes proportional to the model size and the number of consistency rules. In this paper, we propose a new incremental inconsistency detection approach that only consumes a small and model size‐independent amount of memory. It will therefore scale better to projects using large models and many consistency rules. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.