Ethanol dehydration activity on hydrothermally stable LaPxOy catalysts synthesized using CTAB template

Nanocrystalline LaP_xO_y with various starting P to La ratios from 0.5 to 2.0 catalysts were prepared by a sol?Cgel method using cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as template. The catalysts were thoroughly characterized by N₂ physisorption, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), temperature programmed desorption (TPD) of NH₃, solid state ³¹P and ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. XRD results indicate the presence of predominantly monazite LaPO₄ with minor amounts of (??3.0 wt%) rhabdophane LaPO₄ phase in the samples with starting P/La ratios of 1.0 and 1.5. NH₃-TPD results show an increasing trend in the total acidity with increase in P/La ratio. These catalysts were tested in the selective ethanol dehydration in the temperature range between 250 and 400?°C. The catalyst activity (??mol/h/m²) is increased with P/La ratio and the catalyst with highest P/La ratio of 2.0 exhibiting the highest ethanol dehydration activity. The ethanol conversion increased with reaction temperature, reaching 100% at 350?°C and remains unchanged at higher temperatures. On the other hand, the ethylene selectivity is also increased up to 350?°C and then decreased with further increase of reaction temperature. At a P/La ratio of 2, the CTAB templated LaP_xO_y catalyst showed higher catalytic activities compared to the LaP_xO_y by hydrothermal method without any template.     

Inorganic phosphate in crude palm oil: Quantitative analysis and correlations with oil quality parameters

A convenient method, not involving ashing or acid digestion, for the determination of inorganic phosphorus content in crude palm oil, is developed. Direct extraction from solvent-diluted palm oil by dilute acid allows the inorganic phosphates to be analyzed by the usual phosphomolybdenum blue complex. Using this method, phosphate analyses in palm oil samples were correlated with other oil quality parameters and the results discussed.     

Synthesis and Characterization of NiO Nano‐Spheres by Templating on Chitosan as a Green Precursor

In this study, nickel oxide was prepared through the calcination of extrusion dripped chitosan/nickel nitrate beads. The morphology and structural properties of the products were studied using various characterization techniques. Uniformly distributed nickel oxide was formed as observed from the studies of surface morphology where the processing parameters play a huge role on the resulting morphology. TEM results have shown that nickel oxide with crystallite sizes of 10–30 nm was obtained. The Fourier‐transform infrared spectra studies show an intense peak at 525 cm^?1, which is attributed to the vibration of Ni–O bond. Furthermore, the XRD results show NiO diffraction peaks correspond to (111), (200), (220), (311), and (222) which indicates that a bunsenite structure with a face‐centered cubic phase was produced in this study. The usage of 500°C as the lower limit in this study is justified due to the complete removal of the templating material as seen in the thermalgravimetric analysis studies. Furthermore, it was obtained that the largest surface area of nickel oxide synthesized using this technique is 48.024 m²/g with pore sizes of 19.843 nm. The usage of chitosan as a green template for the synthesis of nanoparticles has shown promising results which allows a more economical and sustainable approach for the fabrication of nanomaterials.     

Digital screening methodology for the directed evolution of transglycosidases

Engineering of glycosidases with efficient transglycosidasesactivity is an alternative to glycosyltransferases or glycosynthasesfor the synthesis of oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates. However,the engineering of transglycosidases by directed evolution methodologiesis hampered by the lack of efficient screening systems for sugar-transferactivity. We report here the development of digital imaging-basedhigh-throughput screening methodology for the directed evolutionof glycosidases into transgalactosidases. Using this methodology,we detected transglycosidase mutants in intact Escherichia colicells by digital imaging monitoring of the activation of non-or low-hydrolytic mutants by an acceptor substrate. We screenedseveral libraries of mutants of β-glycosidase from Thermusthermophilus using this methodology and found variants withup to a 70-fold overall increase in the transglycosidase/hydrolysisactivity ratio. Using natural disaccharide acceptors, thesetransglycosidase mutants were able to synthesise trisaccharides,as a mixture of two regioisomers, with up to 76% yield.     

Development and assessment of methods for detecting dementia using the human electroencephalogram

This paper makes an outline case for the need for a low-cost, easy to administer method for detecting dementia within the growing at risk population. It proposes two methods for electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis for detecting dementia that could fulfil such a need. The paper describes a fractal dimension-based method for analyzing the EEG waveforms of subjects with dementia and reports on an assessment which demonstrates that an appropriate fractal dimension measure could achieve 67% sensitivity to probable Alzheimer's disease (as suggested by clinical psychometric testing and EEG findings) with a specificity of 99.9%. An alternative method based on the probability density function of the zero-crossing intervals is shown to achieve 78% sensitivity to probable Alzheimer's disease and an estimated sensitivity to probable Vascular (or mixed) dementia of 35% (as suggested by clinical psychometric testing and EEG findings) with a specificity of 99.9%. This compares well with other studies, reported by the American Academy of Neurology, which typically provide a sensitivity of 81% and specificity of 70%. The EEG recordings used to assess these methods included artefacts and had no a priori selection of elements "suitable for analysis." This approach gives a good prediction of the usefulness of the methods, as they would be used in practice. A total of 39 patients (30 probable Alzheimer's Disease, six Vascular Dementia and three mixed dementia) and 42 healthy volunteers were involved in the study. However, although results from the preliminary evaluation of the methods are promising, there is a need for a more extensive study to validate the methods using EEGs from a larger and more varied patient cohorts with neuroimaging results, to exclude other causes and cognitive scores to correlate results with severity of cognitive status.