Experimental Investigation of Gas/Slag/Matte/Tridymite Equilibria in the Cu-Fe-O-S-Si System in Controlled Gas Atmosphere: Experimental Results at 1523 K (1250 °C) and <Emphasis Type="Italic">P</Emphasis>(SO<Subscript>2</Subscript>) = 0.25 atm

To assist in the optimization of copper smelting and converting processes, accurate new measurements of the phase equilibria of the Cu-Fe-O-S-Si system have been undertaken. The experimental investigation was focused on the characterization of gas/slag/matte/tridymite equilibria in the Cu-Fe-O-S-Si system at 1523 K (1250 °C), P(SO₂) = 0.25 atm, and a range of P(O₂)s. The experimental methodology, developed in PYROSEARCH, includes high-temperature equilibration of samples on substrate made from the silica primary phase in controlled gas atmospheres (CO/CO₂/SO₂/Ar) followed by rapid quenching of the equilibrium condensed phases and direct measurement of the phase compositions with electron-probe X-ray microanalysis (EPMA). The data provided in the present study at 1523 K (1250 °C) and the previous study by the authors at 1473 K (1200 °C) has enabled the determination of the effects of temperature on the phase equilibria of the multicomponent multiphase system, including such characteristics as the chemically dissolved copper in slag and Fe/SiO₂ ratio at silica saturation as a function of copper concentration in matte. The new data will be used in the optimization of the thermodynamic database for the copper-containing systems.     

Charge Transfer in Fullerene-Conducting Polymer Compositex: Electronic and Excitonic Properties

C₆₀ doping into conducting polymer with highly extended π-electron system in the main chain induces remarkable quenching of photoluminescence in conducting polymer and drastic enhancement of photoconductivity. These results can be explained in terms of photo-induced charge transfer between conducting polymer and C₆₀. That is, photoexcited excitons or exciton-polarons on conducting polymer are effectively dissociated at C₆₀ molecules transferring electrons to C₆₀. Photoexcitation of C₆₀ results in the transfer of hole from C₆₀ to conducting polymer. These novel C₆₀ doping effects have been observed not only in conducting polymers with non-degenerated ground state structures but also those with degenerated ground state structure such as di-substituted acetylene polymers with solitonic electronic systems.

Highly effective photo-induced charge transfer has been also observed in conducting polymer/C₆₀ heterojunctions, which are interpreted as donor (D)-acceptor (A) photocell. Based on this finding we have demonstrated an organic photovoltaic cell with D-A double heterojunction, Al/C₆₀/OEP/conducting polymer/TTO, in which OEP is octaethylporphine as an light absorbing antenna molecule. Novel characteristics have also been observed in various other junction devices utilizing C₆₀ doped conducting polymer.

Granular and multiphase superconductivity has been found in C₆₀-conducting polymer-alkali metal composites.

Effect of other type of fullerenes such as C₇₀, modified C₆₀ and C₆₀ polymers, and also effect of C₆₀ doping in polysilanes and their derivatives have also been studied.     

Health promoting properties of protein hydrolysates produced from oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) kernel

This study aimed to determine the lipid-lowering properties, antioxidant capacity (AC) and angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory activity of oil palm kernel protein hydrolysates (OPKHs) that were produced using protease and pepsin-pancreatin hydrolysis. The effects of the OPKHs on apolipoprotein B (apoB) secretion was assessed using HepG2 cells as a model and the AC of the OPKHs was determined based on ABTS radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). Both protease and pepsin-pancreatin hydrolysates reduced apoB secretion significantly (p<0.05). The OPKHs scavenged ABTS radicals effectively and demonstrated a high reducing power even at a low concentration (1 mg/mL). The AC of the OPKHs was significantly correlated with the OPKHs protein content. However, the OPKHs demonstrated very low ACE-inhibitory activity. The pepsinpancreatin hydrolysate demonstrated significant lipidlowering properties, favourable AC and ACE inhibitory activity in compared to protease hydrolysate. Therefore, OPKH demonstrate the potential as a nutraceutical for functional foods.     

Content-aware replica placement strategy for IPTV services over peer-service area architecture

Due to the enormous improvement in networking and multimedia, IPTV has become recently a popular means to distribute high quality TV services over IP networks. Accordingly, Telecommunication companies started the competition to provide IPTV services to increase their customer base and profit. The key concern of service providers in this hectic competition is to provide high quality service with lower cost. However, the contents’ popularity and the users’ preferences are fluctuated rapidly, which leads to resources waste and load imbalance. Thus, the contents’ status should be considered during the content replication to save resources and reduce service cost. To the best of our knowledge, there is no work investigate the impact of contents’ status on building Replica Placement Strategy. Therefore, this paper studies the impact of contents’ status on replica placement strategy over the peer-service area architecture. Two optimization models are proposed Cost Effective Model (CE), which replicates the contents partially without considering contents’ status and Cost Effective with Load Balance model (CELB), which considers the contents’ status. Both models have been solved using Hybrid Genetic Algorithm. The experimental results show that CELB model outperforms the other models in terms of Storage Saving Ratio (SSR), load distribution, and allocation cost.