Adsorption and Desorption of Zn,Cu, and Cr by Sediments from the Raisin River (Michigan)

Metal adsorption by Raisin River sediments in vitro depended linearly on soluble metal concentration to adsorption densities of 6,000–9,000 μg/g with 48 hr partition coefficients of approximately 50, 30, and 25 L/g for Cu, Cr, and Zn, respectively. Partition coefficients computed from field data spanned a comparatively wider range of values in a manner consistent with the often reported adsorbent concentration effect, but other factors likely contributed, too. Desorption of Zn was complete and rapid (24–48 hr) in contrast to Cr, which was incomplete and much slower; Cu desorption was intermediate to Zn and Cr. A reversible-resistant equilibrium model (DiToro et al. 1986) could not describe the observations as Cu and Cr had not reached metastable desorption equilibria after 24 days. Metal desorption, however, could be described kinetically by distributing sorbed cations between either of two classes: rapidly desorbing and slowly desorbing cations. Sequential and simultaneous desorption models gave similar predictions. Aqueous chemical considerations suggested precipitated as well as adsorbed species could give rise to the observations, but available data did not permit adequate tests of this hypothesis. The extent to which kinetic constraints rather than irreversible reactions account for the desorption-resistant binding signifies a potentially greater metal mobility or bioavailability than would otherwise be assumed.     

Improving mixing performance by curved-blade static mixer

This article addresses design modification to a flat-blade static mixer to enhance mixing performance. The static mixer elements used in this work consist of four blades with curvature made to intensify turbulent-like flow, while reducing the pressure drop. The blades were mounted on a cylindrical housing with 45° rotation relative to the axial direction. The mixer assembly was used in three different arrangements of 8, 10, and 14 elements for a range of Reynolds number between 600 and 7,000. The coefficient of variance (COV) of samples was used to measure the mixing quality. The curved-blade mixer provides considerable improvement in mixing quality compared with the flat-blade mixer and comparable to the SMX mixer. Compared with the flat-blade static mixer, the new design reduces the COV by up to about 50%. This effect is more pronounced when the number of mixing elements increases. Furthermore, the friction factors for the modified mixer, obtained at a wide range of Reynolds number, were apparently smaller than those for the flat-blade, SMX, and SMV mixers. The correlation presented for the friction factor, when all mixer arrangements and aspect ratios were considered, supports the experimental data with ±15% deviation.     

Insights on the electrooxidation of ethanol with Pd-based catalysts in alkaline electrolyte

In this work, we report a facile method of synthesis of carbon supported Pd, PdRu, and PdNi nanoparticles, and a comparative study of their catalytic behavior for the electrooxidation of ethanol in alkaline media. The addition of metals such as Ru or Ni increases the oxophilicity of the Pd surface, as observed from the shifting of the Pd oxide reduction peaks. As a consequence, the onset potential for the electrooxidation of ethanol shifts to less positive values on the bimetallic catalysts. The nature and evolution of the species formed during the electrooxidation of ethanol over the catalysts under study has been monitored using in situ infrared spectroscopy. In order to assess properly the evolution of the species formed during the electrooxidation of ethanol, infrared spectra have been recorded in both H₂O and D₂O electrolytes. The results presented in this work demonstrate that the scission of the C–C bond of ethanol takes place at the surface of Pd/C and PdM/C (M = Ni and Ru) at potentials as low as 30 mV. However, at potentials above E ≥ 400 mV, acetates are the main species formed during the electrooxidation of ethanol.     

Erratum to: Efficient keyword search over graph-structured data based on minimal covered r-cliques

Frontiers of Information Technology & Electronic Engineering - Unfortunately the second author’s name has been misspelt. It should be read: Abbas NIKNAFS.     

On the modeling of the annual corrosion rate in main cables of suspension bridges using combined soft computing model and a novel nature-inspired algorithm

Neural Computing and Applications - Suspension bridges are critical components of transport infrastructure around the world. Therefore, their operating conditions should be effectively monitored to...     

Response surface methodology in optimization of a divided wall column

dividing wall column (DWC) is a thermally coupled distillation system with a high energy efficiency that requires lower space and investment compared to the conventional column system. The design of a DWC involves a number of structural and process parameters that need to be optimized simultaneously to improve energetic and economic potential and reduce space requirement. We used response surface methodology (RSM) to optimize DWC nonlinearly and to figure out the effect of parameters and their interactions on energy consumption, product quality, and dimensions of a DWC. Results demonstrate that process variables have significant effects on the energy efficiency of a DWC as compared to the effect of structural variables. The optimum DWC parameters can be found by RSM with minimal simulation runs and the prediction results of RSM agree well with the rigorous simulation results.     

Printed Slot Antenna Fed by CPW Supported by Broadband Planar Artificial Magnetic Conductor with Enhanced Features

Journal of Communications Technology and Electronics - A low profile printed slot antenna (PSA) backed by broadband planar artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is introduced in this study. Firstly,...     

Scalable video traffic offloading for streaming services in 5G HetNets

Multimedia Tools and Applications - In this paper, by combining scalable video coding (SVC) and traffic offloading, we propose a scalable video traffic offloading (SVO) approach to provide video...     

Using Clustering via Soccer League Competition Algorithm for Optimizing Power Consumption in WSNs (Wireless Sensor Networks)

Wireless Personal Communications - WSNs consist of small sensor nodes which have limited battery power, limited processing capability and limited memory unit. Self-organization and the lack of...     

Effects of slots on thermoelastic quality factor of a vertical beam MEMS resonator

Thermoelastic damping is one of the dominant mechanisms of structural damping in vacuum-operated microresonators. A three dimensional numerical model based on the finite element method is used for simulating thermoelastic damping in clamped–clamped microelectromechanical beam resonators. In this regards, both simple and slotted beam are considered. To understand the effect of slot positions and sizes on the resonator performance, resonant frequency and thermoelastic quality factor are calculated for both simple and slotted beams for a wide range of beam length from 10 to 400 µm. Punching slots in the resonator beam reduces the stiffness and mass of the beam which affect the resonant frequency. In addition thermo-mechanical coupling mechanisms of the resonator are affected by the slots which improve the thermoelastic quality factor. For most of the beam lengths, it is shown that the slots at the beam-anchor interface region, where the strain is high, are more effectively enhanced the thermoelastic quality factor than one at the centre of the beam region. However, the highest resonance frequency is achieved with the slots at the center region.