Extraction of caffeine from tea stalk and fiber wastes using supercritical carbon dioxide

The purpose of this study was to investigate obtaining of caffeine from tea plant wastes by supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. Experiments were carried out with tea stalk and fiber wastes of Turkish tea plants that has no economical value. Stalk and fiber wastes were supplied from tea factories. These wastes were ground, sieved and dried at 105 °C temperature in an oven. Parameters affecting caffeine leaching from tea wastes were determined to be, extraction time, extraction temperature, carbon dioxide flow rate, process pressure and particle size. The maximum yield of caffeine from tea stalk wastes and fiber wastes were 14.9 mg/g tea stalk and 19.2 mg/g tea fiber, respectively. The yield increase had been recorded as 61.9% and 65.5%, respectively, in comparison with the chloroform extraction of tea stalk and fiber wastes.     

Water-soluble poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid-co-maleic acid) stabilized ruthenium(0) and palladium(0) nanoclusters as highly active catalysts in hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia–borane

Water-soluble poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid-co-maleic acid), PSSA-co-MA, stabilized ruthenium(0) and palladium(0) nanoclusters were for the first time prepared in situ from the reduction of ruthenium(III) chloride and potassium tetrachloropalladate(II), respectively, by ammonia–borane during its hydrolysis at room temperature. PSSA-co-MA stabilized ruthenium(0) and palladium(0) nanoclusters having average particle size of 1.9 ± 0.5 and 3.5 ± 1.6 nm, respectively, were isolated from the reaction solution and characterized by TEM and UV–visible electronic absorption spectroscopy. PSSA-co-MA stabilized ruthenium(0) and palladium(0) nanoclusters are highly active catalysts for hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia–borane at low temperature. PSSA-co-MA stabilized ruthenium(0) and palladium(0) nanoclusters provide 51,720 and 8720 turnovers, respectively, in the hydrogen generation from the hydrolysis of ammonia–borane at 25 °C before deactivation. Catalytic hydrolysis of ammonia–borane is first order with respect to the catalyst concentration, but zero order with respect to the substrate concentration in the case of both ruthenium(0) and palladium(0) nanoclusters. Activation energies for the hydrolysis of ammonia–borane in the presence of PSSA-co-MA stabilized ruthenium(0) or palladium(0) nanoclusters (54 ± 2 kJ mol⁻¹ and 44 ± 2 kJ mol⁻¹, respectively) are smaller than most of the values reported for the same reaction in the presence of other catalyst systems.     

An integrated decision aid extension to material selection problem

Choice of an adequate material in design process is one of the critical tasks for the relevant decision-makers. At this insight, the consistency of the decisions is extremely depending on the relevance of adapted techniques to the nature of different problem cases. This paper proposed an integrated decision aid (IDEA) to match the suitable techniques with different problem cases based on the following six dimensions: (i) the type of the decision problem, (ii) the size of the problem, (iii) selection of the preference techniques by decision-makers, (iv) decision-makers’ preference structure, (v) the necessity for the use of relative importance, (vi) the nature of performance values. Furthermore, the implementation procedure of the proposed IDEA for a material selection problem is demonstrated with the previously cited applications from material science literature. Hereafter, it is expected that the IDEA provides great advantages and encouragements to researchers/practitioners in order to prevent excessive time consuming, probable misapplications, and the other challenging issues in multiple criteria analysis of material selection problems.     

Wavelet decomposition of cardiovascular signals for baroreceptor function tests in pigs

In this paper, the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) was applied to analyze the fluctuations in RR interval and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) recorded from eight alpha-chloralose anesthetized pigs. Our aim was to characterize the autonomic modulation before and after cardiac autonomic blockade and during baroreflex function tests. The instantaneous power of decomposed low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) components was used for a time-variant spectral analysis. Our results suggested that transient events and changes in autonomic modulation were detected with high temporal resolution. A nonlinear relationship between RR interval and SAP during pharmacologically induced changes in blood pressure was found, when the superimposed effect of respiratory sinus arrhythmia was removed. In addition, the baroslopes were nearly linear when both the LF and HF components were removed using DWT decomposition.     

The effects of maturation on early and late phases of phrenic neurogram during eupnea

In this paper, we investigate the effects of maturation on the early and late phases of the phrenic neurogram. We have used the matching pursuit (MP) method to examine the effects of maturation on breathing patterns in both time and frequency domains. The MP was chosen since the wavelet transform method may not represent signals whose Fourier transforms have a narrow high-frequency support. The phrenic neurogram was recorded from 25 piglets (3-35 days) during eupnea (normal breathing) at three postnatal age groups: young (3-7 days (n = 9)), (middle) 10-21 days (n = 6), and old (29-35 days (n = 10)). The energy percentage of atoms representing the nonperiodic neural activities (NPNAs) significantly decreased from young age to middle age groups (p<0.01) and from young age to old age groups (p<0.01), and from middle age to old age groups (p<0.055) in the early phase (the first half) of the phrenic neurogram, but these changes were not statistically significant in the late phase (the second half) of the phrenic neurogram as maturation proceeded. However, the energy percentage of atoms representing the periodic neural activities (PNAs) decreased with maturation, but these changes were not statistically significant in the early phase of the phrenic neurogram. The energy percentage of (PNAs) increased in the late phase of the phrenic neurogram as maturation proceeded although these changes were only significant between young and old age groups (p<0.01). These results suggest that the significant decrease of the NPNAs in the early phase and the increase in the late phase of the phrenic neurogram could be a sign of maturation in piglets.     

Investigation of microstructure and wear behaviors of al matrix composites reinforced by carbon nanotube

In this study, the effect of CNT amount in Al-CNT composites produced by adding carbon nanotube (CNT) to 7075 Al alloy in various amounts on microstructure and wear behaviors of aluminum matrix composites was investigated. CNT was added to 7075 Al alloy powder at five different amounts. The powders were mechanically milled for 2 hours. Mechanical milled powders were cold pressed and then pre-shaped by hot pressing. Pre-shaped samples were sintered for 1 hour under 10^?6 millibar in 580°C. Microstructure examinations, hardness measurements, and wear tests were carried out. The results show that CNT's in the microstructure were agglomerated as nanotube amount increases and there was no uniform distribution. The highest hardness value was obtained in AMC reinforced with 1% CNT while it is seen that hardness of the composite decreases and weight loss increases as CNT amount increases.     

Dexterous workspace optimization of an asymmetric six-degree of freedom Stewart–Gough platform type manipulator

In this paper, an asymmetric Generalized Stewart–Gough Platform (GSP) type parallel manipulator is designed by considering the type synthesis approach. The asymmetric six-Degree Of Freedom (DOF) manipulator optimized in this paper is selected among the GSPs classified under the name of 6D. The dexterous workspace optimization of Asymmetric parallel Manipulator with tEn Different Linear Actuator Lengths (AMEDLAL) subject to kinematics and geometric constraints is performed by using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The condition number and Minimum Singular Value (MSV) of homogenized Jacobian matrix are employed to obtain the dexterous workspace of AMEDLAL. Finally, the six-DOF AMEDLAL is also compared with the optimized Traditional Stewart–Gough Platform Manipulator (TSPM) considering the volume of the dexterous workspace in order to demonstrate its kinematic performance. Comparisons show that the manipulator proposed in this study illustrates better kinematic performance than TSPM.     

Computation of approximate optimal policies in a partially observed inventory model with rain checks

This paper proposes a new methodology to solve partially observed inventory problems. Generally, these problems have infinite-dimensional states that are conditional distributions of the inventory level. Our methodology involves linearizing the state transitions via unnormalized probabilities. It then uses an appropriate functional basis to represent the state. Considering the speed and stability of computations, we choose truncated Chebyshev polynomials as the basis. We use Fast Fourier Transforms along with an appropriate discretization of inventory levels to speed up the computations. These main ideas are blended to obtain an iterative algorithm to solve a partially observed inventory model with rain checks. In this model, the inventory manager (IM) does not know the inventory level when it is positive. Otherwise, the IM fully observes it. This model provides a context to illustrate our methodology, which applies to other such models. Although this model has been studied mathematically in the literature, the use of our algorithm provides a numerical approximation of the optimal order quantities. These are compared to the orders released under a base mean-stock policy, where the IM replaces the unobserved inventory level with its mean and applies the well-known base stock policy. We show numerically that the optimal order quantity is very close to the base mean-stock order quantity, when the variance of the inventory distribution is small. When the mean of the inventory distribution is large, the optimal order quantity is more than the base mean-stock quantity, and it is the other way around when the mean is small or negative. These insights are explained via uncertainty and information effects and their interplay. We expect this interplay to show up in other partially observed inventory models.     

Synthesis and characterization of poly(N-(2-(thiophen-3-yl)methylcarbonyloxyethyl)maleimide) and its spectroelectrochemical properties

A new monomer; N-(2-(thiophen-3-yl)methylcarbonyloxyethyl) maleimide (NMT) was synthesized. The chemical structure of the monomer was characterized by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (¹H-NMR) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy. Electrochemical polymerization of NMT was performed in acetonitrile (AN)/borontrifloride ethylether (BFEE) solvent mixture (1:1, v/v) where tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TBAFB) was utilized as the supporting electrolyte. The resulting conducting polymer was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy, thermal analyses and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Electrical conductivity was measured by the four-probe technique. The spectroelectrochemical behavior and switching ability of P(NMT) film were investigated by UV–Vis spectrophotometry. P(NMT) revealed color changes between yellow and blue in the reduced and oxidized states respectively.