Overlap concentration of an aqueous poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) solution in the dynamic and static states

The overlap concentration of poly(N-vinylcaprolactam)s (PVCLs) of low molecular weights was studied with dynamic and static methods (with viscosity and refractive-index measurements) at three temperatures (25, 30, and 35°C). This concentration, determined by viscometry, was lower than the overlap concentration determined by refractometry. Also, the influence of the temperature and molecular weight on the viscosity and refractive index was investigated, and the opposite effect of the temperature on the viscosity and refractive index of PVCL solutions was observed. The experimental overlap concentration values were compared with those calculated with the Rao, Huggins, and Fuoss equations. The results showed that the Huggins equation is the best equation to describe the dilute solution properties of this polymer. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Proposals for modification of Iranian bitumen to meet the climatic requirements of Iran

In this research, bitumen from seven Iranian bitumen production plants were tested and characterized according to the Superpave performance grading (PG) system. The study compared the results of this classification with the 13 performance grade binders required for specific climatic zones in Iran. A set of modifiers, as well as laboratory air blowing, were used to generate the required PG binders. The modifiers used were crumb rubber, gilsonite, polyphosphoric acid, and styrene–butadiene–styrene (SBS). It was found that the variety of available binders is not adequate to fully cover the required PGs.     

A Novel Strategy for Mining Highly Imbalanced Data in Credit Card Transactions

The design of an efficient credit card fraud detection technique is, however, particularly challenging, due to the most striking characteristics which are; imbalancedness and non-stationary environment of the data. These issues in credit card datasets limit the machine learning algorithm to show a good performance in detecting the frauds. The research in the area of credit card fraud detection focused on detection the fraudulent transaction by analysis of normality and abnormality concepts. Balancing strategy which is designed in this paper can facilitate classification and retrieval problems in this domain. In this paper, we consider the classification problem in supervised learning scenario by creating a contrast vector for each customer based on its historical behaviors. The performance evaluation of proposed model is made possible by a real credit card data-set provided by FICO, and it is found that the proposed model has significant performance than other state-of-the-art classifiers.     

Controlled release of poly(vinyl sulfonate) scale inhibitor to extend reservoir treatment lifetime

Precipitate scale formation is a major issue for the oil industry, plugging equipment, and reservoirs and resulting in increased operational costs. Poly(vinyl sulfonate) (PVS) is often used as a scale inhibitor to prevent the formation of barium sulfate scale. However, PVS effectiveness is limited by its short lifetime in reservoir. In this article, PVS has been entrapped in polyelectrolyte complex nanoparticles (PECNPs), altering its charge and thus enabling improved adsorption on the rock surface. As the ionic strength of the surrounding brine increases, the PVS is then released from the PECNPs, making it available to inhibit scale formation gradually. Positively charged PECNPs were made using a combination of poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) and PVS. After NPs optimization, static adsorption tests were performed, which confirm the nanoparticles' rapid and strong adsorption. An increase in the ionic strength of the displacing fluid was used to decompose the PECNPs structure and release the PVS into solution. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47225.     

Simultaneous voltammetric detection of ascorbic acid and uric acid at a carbon-paste modified electrode incorporating thionine-nafion ion-pair as an electron mediator

The electrochemical behavior of ascorbic acid (AA) and uric acid (UA) at the surface of a carbon-paste electrode modified with incorporate thionine-nafion ion-paired was thoroughly investigated. The results show the presence of nafion inside the matrix of modified electrode, because of the effective ion-pairing and hydrophobic interactions, significantly enhances the stability of thionine as an electron mediator inside the modified electrode. A high reproducibility in voltammetric response to analyte species results because of this enhancement. The cyclic voltammetric studies using the prepared modified electrode show the best electrocatalytic property for the electro-oxidation of AA and noticeable decrease in anodic overpotential. Although the catalytic effect is observed to some extent for UA, the property cannot be seen for other biologically reducing agents such as cysteine. The voltammetric studies using the thionine-nafion modified electrode show two well-resolved anodic peaks for AA and UA, revealing the possibility of the simultaneous electrochemical detection of these compounds in the presence of biological thiols. The detection limits of 5 × 10⁻⁸ and 5 × 10⁻⁷ M were obtained in differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) measurements for UA and AA, respectively. Spectrophotometric investigations were used to confirm the selective catalytic effect of thionine in oxidation of AA and to some extent, UA. The detection system is stable (R.S.D. for the slope of the calibration curves was less than 4% for six measurements in one month) and is of high selectivity for electro-oxidation of AA and UA in complex biological and clinical matrices. The prepared modified electrode is applied for the DPV measurement of AA in pharmaceutical preparations. Also, the electrode is used to determine UA in human urine and serum samples and recovery of the amounts of UA added to these complex samples.     

Influence of Chemical Extraction on Rheological Behavior,Viscoelastic Properties and Functional Characteristics of Natural Heteropolysaccharide/Protein Polymer from Durio zibethinus Seed

In recent years, the demand for a natural plant-based polymer with potential functions from plant sources has increased considerably. The main objective of the current study was to study the effect of chemical extraction conditions on the rheological and functional properties of the heteropolysaccharide/protein biopolymer from durian (Durio zibethinus) seed. The efficiency of different extraction conditions was determined by assessing the extraction yield, protein content, solubility, rheological properties and viscoelastic behavior of the natural polymer from durian seed. The present study revealed that the soaking process had a more significant (p < 0.05) effect than the decolorizing process on the rheological and functional properties of the natural polymer. The considerable changes in the rheological and functional properties of the natural polymer could be due to the significant (p < 0.05) effect of the chemical extraction variables on the protein fraction present in the molecular structure of the natural polymer from durian seed. The natural polymer from durian seed had a more elastic (or gel like) behavior compared to the viscous (liquid like) behavior at low frequency. The present study revealed that the natural heteropolysaccharide/protein polymer from durian seed had a relatively low solubility ranging from 9.1% to 36.0%. This might be due to the presence of impurities, insoluble matter and large particles present in the chemical structure of the natural polymer from durian seed.     

Application of principal component-artificial neural network models for simultaneous determination of phenolic compounds by a kinetic spectrophotometric method

A multicomponent analysis method based on principal component analysis-artificial neural network models (PC-ANN) is proposed for the determination of phenolic compounds. The method relies on the oxidative coupling of phenols (phenol, 2 chlorophenol, 3-chlorophenol and 4-chlorophenol) to N,N-diethyl-p-phenylenediamine in the presence of hexacyanoferrate(III). The reaction monitored at analytical wavelength 680 nm of the dye formed. Phenols can be determined individually over the concentration range 0.1-7.0 microg ml(-1). Differences in the kinetic behavior of the four species were exploited by using PC-ANN, to resolve mixtures of phenol. After reducing the number of kinetic data using principal component analysis, an artificial neural network consisting of three layers of nodes was trained by applying a back-propagation learning rule. The optimized ANN allows the simultaneous quantitation of four analytes in mixtures with relative standard errors of prediction in the region of 5% for four species. The results show that PC-ANN is an efficient method for prediction of the four analytes.     

Application of Glazing for Bread Quality Improvement

Glazing is a surface coating method for enhancement of the quality factors of bakery products. This study was intended to investigate the effect of different bakery glazing groups such as natural, polyols, sugars, and hydrocolloids on Barbari flat bread. Some quality attributes of bread such as moisture content, water activity, specific volume and width/height ratio (0 day) and hardness, crumb, and crust moisture (0–12 days) were evaluated. Results showed that vegetable oil treated samples had the lowest water activity and moisture content. Also, xanthan treatment provided the greatest effect on the specific volume of fresh bread, which enhanced it from 3.94 to 5 cm³/g. Vegetable oil, glycerol, dextrose, liquid glucose, and guar treatments had more significant effect on width/height ratio in comparison to nontreated (unglazed) bread. Evaluation of crumb hardness and moisture during 12 days storage implicated water, egg yolk, starch, and propylene glycol treatments were able to diminish the bread staling and these treated samples had the lowest crumb hardness. Crumb moisture of Barbari bread was affected mostly by water and starch treatments at day 12. Finally, our finding approved that using of glazing as a novel method is an effective technique for improvement of overall quality of flat bread and its application is suggested for large-scale production of other bakery products.     

Glucosamine conjugated iron oxide and graphene oxide nanohybrid for smart drug delivery

Smart drug delivery systems have attracted a lot of attention as one of the new treatment methods for cancer. In this study, a smart drug delivery system carrying anticancer drugs was obtained by the intelligent synthesis of glucosamine (GA)-functionalized graphene oxide (GO)-based iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄@GO-GA) using Hummers and chemical co-precipitation processes. Nanohybrids have a high surface area (280.26 m²/g) and superparamagnetic behaviour (Ms = 26.017 emu/g), indicating a significant loading capacity (373.78 mg/mg) and efficiency (96.3%) for pharmaceutical loading. An adsorption study of conventional daunorubicin (DNR) on this carrier showed that the drug release is more prone to occur under acidic conditions (pH = 5.5), at moderately high temperatures (T = 40°C), and in the absence of smart carriers. The toxicity of the smart nanohybrids was examined using the sulphorhodamine B (SRB) assay in Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) cell lines. The rate of death of cells exposed to smart drug-containing systems in comparison to the systems without GA shows that GA reduces the toxicity of Fe₃O₄@GO.