Ultrasound-promoted one-pot four-component synthesis of novel biologically active 3-aryl-2,4-dithioxo-1,3,5-triazepane-6,7-dione and their toxicity investigation

We have described a novel four-component reaction (4MCR) between oxalyl chloride 1, anilines 2a–h, and two molecules of ammonium thiocyanate 3 in acetone under ultrasound irradiation to give 3-aryl-2,4-dithioxo-1,3,5-triazepane-6,7-diones. A synthetically useful ultrasound effect was observed and title products were obtained in high yields after 15–35?min sonication. Our procedure compared to the conventional heating method has the benefit of higher reaction yields and shorter reaction times. The IR spectra showed the presence of N–H, C═O and C═S groups in these compounds and ¹H, ¹³C NMR and Mass spectral results verified their structures. Cellular investigations showed that these compounds are toxic toward cancer cells.     

Application of polymeric nanofibers in medical designs,part IV: Drug and biological materials delivery

Nanotechnology has potential applications in different sciences, especially in the biological sciences and medicine. The development of nanofibers has greatly enhanced the scope for fabricating designs that can potentially use in medical sciences. Nanofibers mimic the porous topography of natural extracellular matrix, and are advantageous for tissue regeneration and also sustained release of encapsulated drug or growth factor. In part IV the author summarizes the currently available applications of nanofibers in drug and biological materials delivery.     

Multilayer assembly of ionic starches on old corrugated container recycled cellulosic fibers

In this study, old corrugated container recycled fibers were treated with polyelectrolyte multilayers consisting of biopolymer cationic starch with two degrees of substitution (DS) each in combination with one anionic starch. Pulp zeta potential, paper strength and the thin layer ellipsometry technique were applied to examine the influence of cationic starch DS on the formation of polyelectrolyte multilayers. The results indicated a significant interaction between the DS of cationic starch and the number of ionic starch layers formed. When low‐DS cationic starch was used, the pulp zeta potential and the paper strength increased significantly in assembling the first cationic layer. However, in depositing high‐DS cationic starch a greater zeta potential and a stronger influence on the paper strength were observed with a larger number of starch layers. This was confirmed by thin layer ellipsometry when a greater thickness of multilayers was achieved by employing high‐DS cationic starch to form a higher number of layers. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry     

A potential trackable bone filler: Preparation and characterization

This study reported the synthesis of fluorescent hydroxyapatite/alginate/carbon quantum dots (HA/Alg/CQDs) nanocomposites via the co-precipitation technique. The N-doped CQDs as a new class of fluorescent materials were prepared by the citric acid pyrolysis method, with an average size around 4 nm. Physical, chemical, and optical properties of the synthesized nanocomposites were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), UV–visible spectroscopy, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, respectively. The PL spectroscopy data verified the favorable in vitro luminescent emission of the HA/Alg/CQDs nanocomposites in comparison with HA/Alg and HA samples. The XRD patterns of the prepared samples confirmed the formation of crystalline HA in all composites, possessing a Ca/P ratio around 1.5 as obtained by EDX elemental analysis. The FESEM analysis exhibited HA nanoplates that homogeneously distributed throughout the alginate matrix. Therefore, the synthesized nanocomposites could be regarded as potential trackable drug carriers for hard tissue engineering applications.     

Numerical and Experimental Modeling of Spot Welding Defects by Ultrasonic Testing on Similar Sheets and Dissimilar Sheets

Russian Journal of Nondestructive Testing - This paper investigates the impact of defects on similar sheets and dissimilar sheets used in the automotive industry. Spot welding is one of the types...     

Effect of storage options on price-based scheduling for a hybrid trigeneration system

Trigeneration is efficient to supply cooling, heat, and power demands. Also, hydro (pumped) storage with zero fuel costs can increase profit when price-based scheduling problem is solved. The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of electric boiler, hydro storage, and heat storage tank on price-based scheduling problem for hybrid trigeneration (trigeneration-conventional-gas boiler) system. A heuristic algorithm is applied to a power system where in validation case, total cost reduction of 0.63% to 0.91% is reached as compared with reported in literature. The results show that the utilization of electric boiler, hydro storage, and heat storage tank leads to profit improvement by 4.58%. Also, a critical sensitivity analysis is conducted and the results show the significant effects of several factors on scheduling results.     

Study of Adsorption/Desorption Effect of 2-Mercaptobenzothiazole as Sweet Corrosion Inhibitor on API-5L X60 Steel

Protection of Metals and Physical Chemistry of Surfaces - In this study, the inhibitive performance of 2-mercaptobenzothiazole (2MBT) and 2-aminobenzothiazole (2ABT) were investigated on API-5L X60...     

Analysis and Examination of Aluminum Sheets Suitable for Automotion Body: Ultrasonic Testing,Signal Processing,Simulation

Russian Journal of Nondestructive Testing - There are many changes in the automotive industry, today. All aluminum sheets used in the automotive body must have good weldability. In this article, we...     

A hybrid data envelopment analysis and multi-attribute decision making approach to sustainability assessment

The concept of sustainability consists of three main dimensions: environmental, techno-economic, and social. Measuring the sustainability status of a system or technology is a significant challenge, especially when it needs to consider a large number of attributes in each dimension of sustainability. In this study, we first propose a hybrid approach, involving data envelopment analysis (DEA) and a multi-attribute decision making (MADM) methodologies, for computing an index for each dimension of sustainability, and then we define the overall sustainability index as the mean of the three measured indexes. Towards this end, we define new concepts of efficiency and cross-efficiency of order (p, q) where p and q are the number of inputs and outputs, respectively. For a given (p, q) , we address the problem of finding efficiency of order (p, q) by developing a novel DEA-based selecting method. Finally, we define the sustainability index as a weighted sum of all possible cross-efficiencies of order (p, q) . Form a computational viewpoint, the proposed selecting model significantly decreases the computational burden in comparison with the successive solving of traditional DEA models. A case study of the electricity-generation technologies in the United Kingdom is taken as a real-world example to illustrate the potential application of our method.     

The quantitative risk assessment of a hydrogen generation unit

The safety of hydrogen generation process is a major concern. This paper discusses the quantitative analyzes of the risk imposed on neighborhood from the operation of a hydrogen generator using natural gas reforming process. For this purpose, after hazard identification, the frequency of scenarios was estimated using generic data. Quantitative risk assessment was applied for consequence modeling and risk estimation. The results revealed that, jet fire caused by a full bore rupture in Desulphurization reactor has the highest fatality (26person) and affects the largest area of 5102 m². The lethality radius, maximum radiation and safe distance of this incident were 140 m, 370 kW/m² and 225 m respectively. A full bore rupture in Reformer can lead to the most dangerous flash fire. In this incident the concentration of released material in LFL zone (area of 1483.17 m²) and ½ LEL zone (area of 1970.74 m²) were 61,125 ppm and 40,000 ppm respectively. QRA is a credible method to assess the risks of hydrogen generation process.