Technological,Regulatory, and Ethical Aspects of In Vitro Meat: A Future Slaughter‐Free Harvest

Defined as meat cultured in a laboratory within a bioreactor under controlled artificial conditions, in vitro meat is a relatively recent area that has opened a whole universe of possibilities and opportunities for the meat sector. With improved chemical and microbial safety and varied options, in vitro meat has been proposed as a green, healthy, environmentally friendly, and nutritionally better product that is free from animal suffering and death. Cell culture and tissue culture are the most probable technologies for the development of this futuristic muscle product. However, there are many challenges in the production of a suitable product at an industrial scale under a sustainable production system and a great body of research is required to fill the gaps in our knowledge. Many materials used in the product development are novel and untested within the food industry and demand urgent regulatory and safety assessment systems capable of managing any risks associated with the development of cultured meat. The future of this product will depend on the actions of governments and regulatory agencies. This article highlights emerging biotechnological options for the development of cultured meat and suggests ways to integrate these emerging technologies into meat research. It considers the problems and possibilities of developing cultured meat, opportunities, ethical issues as well as emerging safety and regulatory issues in this area.     

Advances in reduction of NOx and N2O1 emission formation in an oxy-fired fluidized bed boiler

Fossil fuel combustion is one of the major means to meet the mounting global energy demand. However, the increasing NO_x and N₂O emissions arising from fossil fuel combustion process have hazardous effects. Thus, mitigating these gases is vital to attain a sustainable environment. Interestingly, oxy-fuel combustion in fluidized bed for carbon capture and minimized NO_x emissions is strongly sustainable compare to the other approaches. It was assessed that NO_x formation and fuel-N conversion have significant limitation under oxy-fluidized bed compared to air mode and the mechanism of NO_x formation is still deficient and requires further development. In addition, this review paper discussed the potential of primary measure as low emission process with others supplementary techniques for feasible NO_x reduction. The influences of combustion mode, operating parameters, and reduction techniques such as flue gas recirculation, oxygen staging, biomass co-firing, catalyst, influence of fluidized bed design and structure, decoupling combustion and their merges are respectively evaluated. Findings show that significant minimization of NO_x emission can be achieved through combination of primary and secondary reduction techniques.     

Characterization and in vitro drug release properties of chitosan/acrylamide/gold nanocomposite prepared by gamma irradiation

A nanocomposite of (chitosan/polyacrylamide/gold) (Cs/AAm/Au) and (chitosan/polyacrylamide) (Cs/AAm) hydrogel were performed using gamma radiation and employed as a carrier for Cisplatin cancer drug. The structure and morphology were studied by FTIR and FE-SEM, respectively. XRD and TEM confirmed the formation of the nanoconposite. The average particle size ranged between 13 to 27?nm. EDX estimated that the concentration of Au⁰ nanoparticles in (Cs/AAm/Au) nanocomposite was 0.20%. Both (Cs/AAm) and (Cs/AAm/Au) have higher swelling percent and reached the swelling equilibrium within 6?h. The optimum pH of swelling was at pH 7.2. The maximum Cisplatin drug released was 33% for Cs/AAm hydrogel and 96% for Cs/AAm/Au nanocomposite at pH 7.2 through 320 and 410?min, respectively. The release mechanism was found to be followed the non-Fickian diffusion mechanism for both systems. The cytotoxicity against liver cancer (HepG2) was investigated. Cisplatin drug loaded samples (Cs/AAm) drug loaded hydrogel of concentration 100?μg/ml killed 76.4% of the cells and IC₅₀ reached 29?μg/ml whereas (Cs/AAm/Au) drug loaded nanocomposite killed 84.9 of the cells and IC₅₀ reached 22.7?μg/ml.     

Exploring deep insights into the interaction mechanism of a quinazoline derivative with mild steel in HCl: electrochemical,DFT, and molecular dynamic simulation studies

A novel quinazoline derivative, 3-cyclopropyl-3,4-dihydroquinoline-2(1H)-One (CPHQ), was successfully designed and synthesized. Then, its corrosion inhibition behavior on carbon steel (CS) surface in 1.0?M HCl at different temperatures was investigated using chemical, electrochemical and theoretical techniques. The experiments confirmed that the studied inhibitor shows inhibition efficiency as high as 95% even at very low concentration of 5?×?10^?3 M. To ascertain the nature of adsorption of CPHQ molecules on CS surface, Langmuir adsorption isotherm model was best fitted. From potentiodynamic polarization (PDP) calculations, it was concluded that the CPHQ acted as a mixed type corrosion inhibitor. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) studies revealed that increase in CPHQ concentration, resulted in an increase in the polarization resistance with a simultaneous decrease in the double-layer capacitance values. PDP tests were also performed to understand the corrosion behavior of CS as a function of temperature without and with varying concentrations of CPHQ, at temperatures 303, 313, 323, and 333?K. It can be concluded that the corrosion inhibition effect was dependent on the concentration of the inhibitor and the solution temperature. In order to understand the basic insights of the action mode of CPHQ molecules, Density Functional Theory (DFT) method, and Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulations were also employed on the optimized structure of CPHQ.     

Radiation synthesis of hydrogels based on carboxymethyl cellulose and its application in removal of pollutants from wastewater

Synthesis of carboxymethyl cellulose‐g‐methacrylic acid/acrylamide Poly(CMC/MAAc:AAm) hydrogel was carried out using direct radiation copolymerization technique at ambient temperature. The gel (%) increased with increasing the content of AAm till level off at Poly(CMC/MAAc:AAm) (1/50:50 wt%) hydrogel and the swelling behavior found to be increased with increasing MAAc content in the hydrogel composition up to Poly(CMC/MAAc:AAm) (1/60:40 wt%). The grafting yield, grafting ratio, swelling behavior, and the thermal stability of Poly(CMC/MAAc:AAm) binary system are higher than those reported in our previous study by the same author which described the individual grafting of acrylamide (AAm) and methacrylic acid (MAAc) with different concentration onto carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) using direct radiation grafting technique. The swelling kinetics and diffusion mechanism indicate that the water penetration obey non‐Fickian transport mechanism. The characterization of the prepared hydrogel was evaluated using Fourier transform infrared, X‐ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The analyses by different analytical tools confirmed the successful grafting of both MAAc and AAm onto CMC. The adsorption capacity of Poly(CMC/MAAc:AAm) (1/60:40 wt%) hydrogel toward metal ions such as Cu⁺² and Co⁺², dyes such as acid blue dye and methyl green have been investigated. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 25:E35–E43, 2019. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers     

A modified formula for accurate determination of three‐dimensional birefringence of fiber using modified subfringe integration method

The development of the use of interferometric techniques in the study of the optical properties of materials encouraged many researchers to work on the derivation and development of the theoretical considerations and the equations used in the calculations of those properties. The form of these equations depends on the technique used and the cross section of the sample, and also on the method of calculating the optical path difference of light across the sample studied. A modified formula to calculate the three‐dimensional birefringence distribution of the fiber, without the need to determine the refractive indices of the fiber in the parallel and perpendicular directions, was presented. The phase distribution of the simulated and experiment interferograms was obtained using subfringe integration method. The results obtained from the new method were compared with the calculated results of a well‐known method (Z method) and the figures presented showed that the results of the two methods were close to each other.     

Reflection and refraction of incident p-, T-, and SV-waves at interface between magnetized two solid-liquid media with heat sources and initial stress with and without thermal relaxation times

We investigate the problem of reflection and refraction of thermoelastic waves at a magnetized solid-liquid interface in presence of initial stress. In the context of Green-Lindsay and coupled thermoelastic theories of thermoelasticity, the problem has been solved and the effect of magnetic field, external heat sources, and initial stress on p-, T-, and SV-waves propagation have been discussed. The boundary conditions at the interface for displacement continuity, vanishing the tangential displacement, continuity of normal force, tangential force, and continuity of temperature are applied. The amplitudes ratios for the incident p-, T-, and SV-waves have been obtained. The effect of the initial stress, heat sources, and magnetic field on the reflection and transmitted coefficients for the incident waves have been discussed.     

Effects of fuel inlet boundary condition on aromatic species formation in coflow diffusion flames

In a number of previous numerical studies, the fuel inlet velocity boundary conditions (BC) of coflow diffusion flames were specified at the exit of the fuel nozzle with a parabolic velocity profile. Such choices were based on the assumption that the flow inside the vertical fuel tube is fully developed and the buoyancy has negligible impact on the fuel flow at the nozzle exit. These assumptions, however, might not hold in practical experiments. This study demonstrates it is necessary to account for the effect of inlet BC location to accurately predict the nozzle exit velocity profile as well as the velocity, temperature profiles downstream, which are prerequisites for meaningful polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and soot prediction in coflow diffusion flames. In particular, laboratory-scale laminar coflow diffusion flames at atmospheric pressure have been studied computationally with a focus on the effects of the fuel inlet velocity profile on PAH formation. Two sets of simulations were conducted which differ in the location specified for the fuel inlet boundary. In the first case, the fuel inlet boundary was specified at the nozzle exit while in the second case it was specified at a distance of 7 cm upstream of the nozzle exit. Parabolic velocity profiles were specified for both cases. In each set of simulations, flames with three different fuels (methane, ethylene and propane) were tested. Detailed high-temperature reaction mechanisms accounting for the formation of aromatic species were employed. The results showed that the fuel inlet BC location notably influence the predicted flow/temperature field and the resultant PAH concentration. Moreover, the effects become more notable with lower fuel stream velocities. It was also found that for propane with a density larger than air, recirculation zones were formed near the nozzle exit which exerted an additional influence on the flow development and temperature field as well as PAH formation. In addition, the effects of nozzle heating on flow development and PAH formation were also investigated.     

Mineralogical and Geochemical Studies of Oil Shale Deposits in the Cretaceous/Paleogene succession at Quseir Area,Egypt

Cretaceous/Paleogene succession in Quseir area represents one of the most important economic sedimentary rocks, which contain phosphate and oil shale beds. Oil shale samples selected from nine mines around Quseir area were subjected to mineralogical, petrographical and geochemical analyses. As raveled by X-ray diffraction analysis, the oil shale samples are composed of calcite, quartz, dolomite, smectite, kaolinite, gypsum and pyrite. The petrographical investigation of the studied oil shales indicates the dominance of two microfacies: calcareous foraminiferal claystone and Calci-mudstone. The EDX results of oil shale samples show that the pyrite found as framboidal-disseminated particles in smectite. The high ratio of the sulfur and organic carbon contents in the selected mines indicate highly reducing environment. Five mines (El-Nakheil, Abu Tundub, Abu Tundub Bahree, El Beida and Hammadat) are markedly rich in organic content and can be considered as good to excellent source rock.     

Dielectric Properties of Basaltic Glass and Glass-Ceramics: Modeling and Applications as Insulators and Semiconductors

Silicon - Sinai basaltic rocks were melted as glass and casted into disc- and rode-shapes and subjected to thermal treatment to induce crystallization as a glass-ceramic. The dominant crystalline...