Rapid Separating and Enrichment of 4,4′-Dimethylsterols of Vegetable Oils by Solid-Phase Extraction

Phytosterols are separated into three classes: 4-desmethylsterols, 4-monomethylsterols and 4,4′-dimethylsterols. 4,4′-Dimethylsterols are used to detect vegetable oil adulteration and some compounds from this class can have anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties. There are methods such as thin layer chromatography (TLC) and solid phase extraction (SPE) used to separate phytosterol classes from each other. However, in some cases, separation of all three classes is not required. In addition, TLC has some drawbacks such as low recovery and it is time consuming. An SPE method has previously been used, but it was necessary to use high volume of solvents with this method to avoid coelution of phytosterol classes. In this study, an SPE (silica, 1 g) method was developed to separate and enrich only 4,4′-dimethylsterols from unsaponifiables of vegetable oil samples using 25 mL n-hexane and diethyl ether (95:5, v:v). This method was applied to hazelnut and olive oils and results were compared with those of TLC and the previously developed SPE method. Recovery of 4,4′-dimethylsterols was two times higher with the new SPE method compared with the TLC method. The newly developed SPE method generally gave a similar recovery compared with the previously developed SPE method. Moreover, the SPE method developed in this study has the advantage of using a 3.5 times lower volume of solvent than previously developed SPE methods. Because the newly developed SPE method has a single step requiring a low volume of solvents, it is rapid and simple, and can easily be used to detect olive oil adulteration with hazelnut oil and to analyze and quantify effective nutritional compounds in the 4,4′-dimethylsterols class.     

Equilibrium,kinetic and thermodynamic study of removal of reactive orange 12 on platinum nanoparticle loaded on activated carbon as novel adsorbent

The proposed research describes the synthesis and characterization of platinum nanoparticles loaded on activated carbon (Pt-NP-AC) and its efficient application as novel adsorbent for efficient removal of reactive orange 12 (RO-12). The influences of effective parameters following the optimization of variables on removal percentages, their value was set as 0.015 g Pt-NP-AC, pH 1, contact time of 13 min. At optimum values of all variables at 25 and 50 mgL⁻¹ of RO-12 enthalpy (ΔH⁰) and entropy (ΔS⁰) changes was found to be 59.89 and 225.076, respectively, which negative value of ΔG⁰ shows a spontaneous nature, and the positive values of ΔH⁰ and ΔS⁰ indicate the endothermic nature and adsorption organized of dye molecule on the adsorbent surface. Experimental data was fitted to different kinetic models including first-order, pseudo-second-order, Elovich and intra-particle diffusion models, and it was seen that the adsorption process follows pseudo-second-order model in consideration to intra-particle diffusion mechanism. At optimum values of all variables, the adsorption process follows the second-order kinetic and Langmuir isotherm model with adsorption capacity 285.143 mg g⁻¹ at room temperature.     

Using computer simulation techniques to design a tellurium-123 target for <Superscript>123</Superscript>I production

The production of ¹²³I from ¹²³Te by the ^l23Te(p, n)¹²³I reaction at various target enrichments (99.9, 91, 85.4, and 70.1%) was simulated using ALICE and SRIM programs. The ¹²³I production feasibility by the above reaction was evaluated. The calculations give more accurate results for proton beam energy of less than 30 MeV. The cross sections of all tellurium reactions with proton were calculated at 0–30 MeV proton beam energy with ALICE program, and the yield of ¹²³I was calculated by analytical methods. Our prediction for ¹²³I production via bombardment of ¹²³Te (99.9%) with a proton beam energy of 5–15 MeV is about 7.2 mCi μA⁻¹ h⁻¹. Published in Russian in Radiokhimiya, 2008, Vol. 50, No. 5, pp. 460–463. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Protein Kinase C as a Therapeutic Target in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Driver-directed therapeutics have revolutionized cancer treatment, presenting similar or better efficacy compared to traditional chemotherapy and substantially improving quality of life. Despite significant advances, targeted therapy is greatly limited by resistance acquisition, which emerges in nearly all patients receiving treatment. As a result, identifying the molecular modulators of resistance is of great interest. Recent work has implicated protein kinase C (PKC) isozymes as mediators of drug resistance in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Importantly, previous findings on PKC have implicated this family of enzymes in both tumor-promotive and tumor-suppressive biology in various tissues. Here, we review the biological role of PKC isozymes in NSCLC through extensive analysis of cell-line-based studies to better understand the rationale for PKC inhibition. PKC isoforms α, ε, η, ι, ζ upregulation has been reported in lung cancer, and overexpression correlates with worse prognosis in NSCLC patients. Most importantly, PKC isozymes have been established as mediators of resistance to tyrosine kinase inhibitors in NSCLC. Unfortunately, however, PKC-directed therapeutics have yielded unsatisfactory results, likely due to a lack of specific evaluation for PKC. To achieve satisfactory results in clinical trials, predictive biomarkers of PKC activity must be established and screened for prior to patient enrollment. Furthermore, tandem inhibition of PKC and molecular drivers may be a potential therapeutic strategy to prevent the emergence of resistance in NSCLC.     

Robust non-aggressive three-axis attitude control of spacecraft: dynamic sliding mode approach

Conventional sliding mode control (SMC) has been extensively applied in controlling spacecrafts because of its appealing characteristics such as robustness and a simple design procedure. Several methods such as second-order sliding modes and discontinuous controllers are applied for the SMC implementation. However, the main problems of these methods are convergence and error tracking in a finite amount of time. This paper combines an improved dynamic sliding mode controller and model predictive controller for spacecrafts to solve the chattering phenomenon in traditional sliding mode control. To this aim, this paper develops dynamic sliding mode control for spacecraft’s applications to omit the chattering issue. The proposed approach shows robust attitude tracking by a set of reaction wheels and stabilizes the spacecraft subject to disturbances and uncertainties. The proposed method improves the performance of the SMC for spacecraft by avoiding chattering. A set of simulation results are provided that show the advantages and improvements of this approach (in some sense) compared to SMC approaches.     

Inventory lot-sizing with supplier selection using hybrid intelligent algorithm

In supply chain management (SCM), multi-product and multi-period models are usually used to select the suppliers. In the real world of SCM, however, there are normally several echelons which need to be integrated into inventory management. This paper presents a hybrid intelligent algorithm, based on the push SCM, which uses a fuzzy neural network and a genetic algorithm to forecast the rate of demand, determine the material planning and select the optimal supplier. We test the proposed algorithm in a case study conducted in Iran.     

POLAROGRAPHIC CHARACTERIZATION OF AROMATIC STRUCTURES IN COAL LIQUID PRODUCTS

Reducible aromatic species in coal liquid products from five major processes (Synthoil, FMC COED, HRI H-Coal, PAMCO SRC, and Catalytic Inc. SRC) together with solvent elution chromatography fractions of a selected asphaltene has been evaluated. The half-wave potentials measurments are found to be consistant with other methods. The total polarographic reduction of measurement per average molecule for Synthoil solvent fractions, as measured by diffusion constant (i_d/C), increases in the following manner: gas oil → resin → asphaltene → carbene → carboid. The same trend was observed when color indices (I) and refractive indices (n₂₅) were individually studied.     

Parental injury prevention endeavors: A function of health beliefs?

Surveyed 198 parents of 8–17 yr old children to determine how parents' beliefs about injury prevention influenced their preventive efforts. A health belief model helped predict parent-reported teaching of safety skills and preventive environmental interventions. The variables most associated with parental preventive endeavors were the belief that intervention can avoid injury, a realistically high appraisal of the amount of time involved, and feelings of high knowledge and competence to teach safety skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimal planning of distributed generation from the DisCo and the DGO viewpoints considering the uncertainties in future demand and electricity price

Since electricity demand is increasing continuously, it is necessary to invest in expansion of distribution network capacity. From the asset management point of view, it is necessary to encourage the private sector to invest in distribution network. To do this, distribution network managers must provide important opportunities for private sector to profit from their investments. One of the options for private sector is to invest on distributed generations (DGs). In this regard, distribution company (DisCo) must sign power purchase agreement (PPA) with DG owners (DGOs). So, optimal siting, sizing and PPA rates from economic point of view are important challenges which are considered as the main contribution of this paper. The proposed methodology of this paper applies load and price uncertainties into the planning problem. The proposed scheme involves using non-dominated sorting genetic algorithms II (NSGA II), since it attains non-dominated solutions in which DisCo and the DGO can put their personal preferences into practice. To evaluate the effectiveness of the suggested method, the computer simulations are done on a 33-bus distribution network and the results are discussed.