On Plate Identification of Coexisting Polyoxyethylene (20) Stearyl Ether,Cetyl Pyridinium Chloride,Tetradecyl Trimethyl Ammonium Bromide and Polyoxyethylene (9.5) Octyl Phenyl Ether Surfactants with Preliminary Separation by Planar Chromatography

Separation studies of four surfactants (nonionic and cationic) were performed on silica high-performance thin-layer chromatographic plates with various solvent systems. The most useful chromatographic system for the mutual separation of coexisting polyoxyethylene (20) stearyl ether (C18EO20), cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (TTAB) and polyoxyethylene (9.5), octyl phenyl ether (OPEO9.5) was formamide + 1 M formic acid (50:50 v/v). The nature of ‘H’ and ‘H⁺’ of formic acid (H–COO⁻H⁺) on the mobility of these surfactants was studied. The interference due to the presence of metal cations as impurities on the resolution of mixture of C18EO20, CPC, TTAB and OPEO9.5 was also examined. The limits of detection of C18EO20, CPC, TTAB and OPEO9.5 estimated were 0.0620, 0.0310, 0.0625 and 0.0312 μg/zone, respectively. The practical applicability of the proposed method was tested for the identification of four coexisting surfactants after their separation from the spiked aqueous systems.     

Investigation of the effects of fatty acids on the compressive strength of the concrete and the grindability of the cement

In cement industry, a great energy consumption has been observed during grinding of clinker. To reduce this consumption, some waste products have been used as grinding aids.In this investigation, the effects of sunflower oil (SO), oleic acid (OA), stearic acid (SA), myristic acid (MA) and lauric acid (LA) on the fineness and strength of the cement have been examined. These aids were added into clinker in certain ratios based on the cement clinker weight and the grinding has been done for a definite time at the same condition.All of the fatty acids used increased the fineness as compared with the cement without the grinding additives. SO and OA decreased the strength significantly, LA decreased it to a lesser extent and SA increased it definitely according to the common cement. But MA did not alter the strength of the cement as much as SA. In addition, the covering of the balls influences the grinding of cement clinker unfavourably.     

Dynamic bandwidth allocation for quality-of-service over Ethernet PONs

Ethernet-based passive optical network (EPON) technology is being considered as a promising solution for next-generation broadband access networks due to the convergence of low-cost Ethernet equipment and low-cost fiber infrastructures. A major feature for this new architecture is the use of a shared transmission media between all users; hence, medium access control arbitration mechanisms are essential for the successful implementation of EPON: i.e., to ensure a contention-free transmission and provide end users with equal access to the shared media. We propose to use the multipoint control protocol defined by the IEEE 802.3ah task force to arbitrate the transmission of different users, and we present different dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithms to allocate bandwidths effectively and fairly between end users. These DBA algorithms are also augmented to support differentiated services, a crucial requirement for a converged broadband access network with heterogeneous traffic. We show that queueing delays under strict bandwidth allocation algorithms result in an unexpected behavior for certain traffic classes, and we suggest the use of DBA with appropriate local queue management to alleviate this inappropriate behavior. We conduct detailed simulation experiments to study the performance and validate the effectiveness of the proposed protocols.     

Catalase (CAT) Gene Family in Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.): Genome-Wide Analysis,Identification, and Expression Pattern in Response to Multiple Hormones and Abiotic Stress Conditions

Catalase (CAT) is an antioxidant enzyme expressed by the CAT gene family and exists in almost all aerobic organisms. Environmental stresses induce the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that eventually hinder plant growth and development. The CAT enzyme translates the hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) to water (H₂O) and reduce the ROS levels to shelter the cells’ death. So far, the CAT gene family has not been reported in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). Therefore, a genome-wide comprehensive analysis was conducted to classify the CAT genes in the rapeseed genome. The current study identified 14 BnCAT genes in the rapeseed genome. Based on phylogenetic and synteny analysis, the BnCATs belong to four groups (Groups I–IV). A gene structure and conserved motif analysis showed that Group I, Group II, and Group IV possess almost the same intron/exon pattern, and an equal number of motifs, while Group III contains diverse structures and contain 15 motifs. By analyzing the cis-elements in the promoters, we identified five hormone-correlated responsive elements and four stress-related responsive elements. Further, six putative bna-miRNAs were also identified, targeting three genes (BnCAT4, BnCAT6, and BnCAT8). Gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis showed that the BnCAT genes were largely related to cellular organelles, ROS response, stimulus response, stress response, and antioxidant enzymes. Almost 10 BnCAT genes showed higher expression levels in different tissues, i.e., root, leaf, stem, and silique. The expression analysis showed that BnCAT1–BnCAT3 and BnCAT11–BnCAT13 were significantly upregulated by cold, salinity, abscisic acid (ABA), and gibberellic acid (GA) treatment, but not by drought and methyl jasmonate (MeJA). Notably, most of the genes were upregulated by waterlogging stress, except BnCAT6, BnCAT9, and BnCAT10. Our results opened new windows for future investigations and provided insights into the CAT family genes in rapeseed.     

Removal of Diazinon from aqueous solution by electrocoagulation process using aluminum electrodes

Electrocoagulation (EC) is an electrochemical method to treat polluted wastewaters and aqueous solutions. In this paper, the removal of Diazinon was studied by EC on aluminum electrode. The effect of several parameters such as initial concentration of Diazinon, current density, solution conductivity, effect of pH, and electrolysis time were investigated on EC performance. The obtained results showed that the removal efficiency of EC depends on the current density, initial concentration of Diazinon and electrolysis time. The optimum pH is 3 and also the solution conductivity has no significant effect on removal efficiency.     

Experimental Investigation of Two-Phase Pressure Drop in a Microchannel

Experimental results of two-phase pressure drop in a horizontal circular microchannel are reported in this paper. A test tube was made of fused silica having an internal diameter of 781 μm with a total length of 261 mm and a heated length of 191 mm. The outer surface of the test tube was coated with an electrically conductive thin layer of ITO (indium tin oxide) for direct heating of the test section. Refrigerants R134a and R245fa were used as the working fluids, and mass flux during the experiments was varied between 100 and 650 kg/m²-s. Experiments were performed at two different system pressures corresponding to saturation temperatures of 25°C and 30°C for R134a and at three different system pressures corresponding to saturation temperatures of 30°C, 35°C, and 40°C for R245fa. Two-phase frictional pressure drop characteristics with variation of mass flux, vapor fraction, saturation temperature, and heat flux were explored in detail. Finally, the prediction capability of some well-known correlations available in the literature, some developed for macrochannels and others especially developed for microchannels, was assessed.     

A new reactor concept for combining oxidative coupling and steam re‐forming of methane: modeling and analysis

A new and very promising application of auto‐thermal reactors is the coupling of endothermic and exothermic reactions where the product of the endothermic reaction is the desired one. Therefore, in this work, a reactor in which oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) and steam re‐forming of methane (SRM) reactions take place simultaneously was modeled. The results were obtained in a wide range of different conditions such as inlet feed, inlet temperature, portions of OCM and SRM catalysts, and inlet velocity. In selection of the catalysts, more attention was drawn to prevent re‐forming of OCM products. The main parameters of each reaction under different conditions such as conversion of the feed components, products selectivity and yield, temperature in the length of reactor, and component's concentration in the reactor were considered in course of this study. The results revealed that simultaneous OCM and SRM reactions in one reactor will tend to be auto‐thermal, and the waste of energy will be reduced. The results also show that complete conversion of water and majority of methane and oxygen will decrease the amount of unwanted products at the reactor's discharge–a constraint that exists in single reactors of each reaction specially OCM. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of thermal characteristics of a novel concentric type tube heat exchanger with turbulators

In this study, the heat transfer performance and friction characteristics of a novel concentric tube heat exchanger with different pitches of helical turbulators were investigated experimentally and numerically for a Reynolds number range from 3000 to 14 000. An experimental system was established to obtain experimental data. The numerical simulations were performed by using a three dimensional numerical computation technique, a commercial CFD computer code. Then, the heat transfer performance and friction characteristics of several helical turbulators were compared. The experimental, numerical and empirical correlation results were in a good agreement with each others. As a result, the heat transfer enhancements using turbulators were 2.91, 2.41, 2.18 and 1.99 times better than the smooth tube for pitch distances of p = 20, 40, 60 and 80 mm, respectively. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

General sustainability indicator of renewable energy system based on grey relational analysis

This research answers the question of how to measure the sustainability of a renewable energy systems (RESs) as a physical parameter. Renewable energy is considered as a solution for mitigating the energy crisis, climate change and environmental pollution; however, an important problem of its application is that it is very difficult to evaluate the sustainability of RESs. This study develops a general sustainability indicator which is a tool to evaluate sustainability of RESs precisely and comprehensively. Based on the Triple Bottom Line approach, 11 Basic Sustainability Indicators with different dimensions and various units are selected from environmental, economic and social sustainability assessment criteria. In order to deal with the uncertainties in the definition and the assessment of sustainability, the grey regression analysis method is employed to quantify the basic indicators and to aggregate them into the general indicator. In addition, for explaining application of the general indicator, the cases of four RESs in hot‐arid Australia are presented. In the case study, the grey indicator is used to assess the sustainability of four systems with different combinations of grid, solar photovoltaic and wind renewable energy. The final results are compared with the general indicator based on fuzzy sets theory developed in previous studies. It is found that for the case of Australian system, the grey sustainability indicator has a good linear correlation to the fuzzy indicator results. The grey indicator is an effective way to assess the sustainability of RESs and provides a good tool for designers, users, decision makers and researchers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Formulation development and optimization of alpha ketoglutarate nanoparticles for cyanide poisoning

The purpose of this research work was to formulate and evaluate alpha ketoglutarate nanoparticles as dry powder inhaler for treatment of cyanide poisoning. Non-polymeric particles were prepared by nano-precipitation technique using various stabilizers. Selection of co-solvent and stabilizer was a key to produce stabilized particles. A combination of lutrol F68 and PVA as a crystal growth inhibitor seems to be best in achieving minimum particle size of 110.2 nm. On the basis of preliminary trials a Box-Behnken statistical design was employed to study the effect of independent variables, drug concentration (X₁), stirring speed (X₂), stirring time (X₃), PVA concentration (X₄), poloxomer concentration (X₅) and volume of co-solvent (X₆) on average particle size. Particle size varied from 110 to 875 nm depending upon the significant terms. Optimized formulation was predicted at drug concentration (50 μg/ml), stirring speed (640 rpm), stirring time (1 min), PVA concentration (1%), poloxomer concentration (1.69%) and volume of co-solvent (30 ml) with 104.6% experimental validity. The nanosized particles were further characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis. The results of particle characterization indicate that there was no physical disparity when compared with the commercial α-KG sample.