Hazardous waste management problem: The case for incineration

We define the hazardous waste management problem as the combined decisions of selecting the disposal method, siting the disposal plants and deciding on the waste flow structure. The hazardous waste management problem has additional requirements depending on the selected disposal method. In this paper we focus on incineration, for which the main additional requirement is to satisfy the air pollution standards imposed by the governmental restrictions. We propose a cost-based mathematical model in which the satisfaction of air pollution standards is also incorporated. We used the Gaussian Plume equation in measuring the air pollution concentrations at population centers. A large-scale implementation of the proposed model within Turkey is provided.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-Outerplanar Graphs,Planar Duality,and Low Stretch Spanning Trees

Low distortion probabilistic embedding of graphs into approximating trees is an extensively studied topic. Of particular interest is the case where the approximating trees are required to be (subgraph) spanning trees of the given graph (or multigraph), in which case, the focus is usually on the equivalent problem of finding a (single) tree with low average stretch. Among the classes of graphs that received special attention in this context are k-outerplanar graphs (for a fixed k): Chekuri, Gupta, Newman, Rabinovich, and Sinclair show that every k-outerplanar graph can be probabilistically embedded into approximating trees with constant distortion regardless of the size of the graph. The approximating trees in the technique of Chekuri et al. are not necessarily spanning trees, though.     

Microwave Dehydration of Borax: Characterization,Dehydration Kinetics,and Modelling

Glass Physics and Chemistry - In the present study, borax (Na2B4O7·10H2O) was dehydrated using microwave radiation and the dehydration rate curves were calculated. The kinetic parameters and...     

Assembly and Characterizations of Bifunctional Fluorescent and Magnetic Microneedles With One Decade Length Tunability

This report presents the fabrication of bifunctional magnetic and fluorescent microneedles (µNDs) made of a ternary mixture of magnetic nanoparticles (NPs), quantum dots (QDs), and polyelectrolyte. The assembly relies on the electrostatic complexation of negatively charged NPs with positively charged polymer strands and is controlled by the charge ratio between the nanoparticle building blocks and the polymer mortar. The resulting 1D objects can be actuated using an external magnetic field and can be imaged using fluorescence microscopy, thanks to the fluorescent and superparamagnetic properties inherited from their NP constituents. Using a combination of core and surface characterizations and a state‐of‐the‐art image analysis algorithm, the dependence of the brightness and length on the ternary composition is thoroughly investigated. In particular, statistics on hundreds of µNDs with a range of compositions show that the µNDs have a log‐lormal length distribution and that their mean length can be robustly tuned in the 5–50 µm range to match the relevant length scales of various applications in micromixing, bioassays or biomechanics.     

Mandibular soft tissue mass as the initial presentation of Burkitt's lymphoma

A six-year-old girl was evaluated for an intraoral mass of 5 months duration, which had been treated with antibiotics in a district hospital. Extraoral examination showed a firm, non-tender swelling at the angular region of the left mandible with regional lymphadenopathy. Intraoral examination revealed a mass extending from the left mandibular primary first molar to the retromolar region, interfering normal occlusion. The mass was painful and firm, peduculated and reddish in appearance. The remainder of the oral examination was unremarkable. Panoramic radiograph and CT scan showed a large multilocular radiolucency beginning from the bud of second premolar, extending to the mandibular ramus that displaced the bud of second molar. Incisional biopsy of the intraoral mass was performed and the result was reported as Burkitt's lymphoma. The child was treated with chemotherapy and radiation, with recurrence.     

On the effect of the deployment setting on broadcasting in Euclidean radio networks

The paper studies broadcasting in radio networks whose stations are represented by points in the Euclidean plane (each station knows its own coordinates). In any given time step, a station can either receive or transmit. A message transmitted from station v is delivered to every station u at distance at most 1 from v, but u successfully hears the message if and only if v is the only station at distance at most 1 from u that transmitted in this time step. A designated source station has a message that should be disseminated throughout the network. All stations other than the source are initially idle and wake up upon the first time they hear the source message. It is shown in [17] that the time complexity of deterministic broadcasting algorithms depends on two parameters of the network, namely, its diameter (in hops) D and a lower bound d on the Euclidean distance between any two stations. The inverse of d is called the granularity of the network, denoted by g. Specifically, the authors of [17] present a deterministic broadcasting algorithm that works in time O (Dg) and prove that every broadcasting algorithm requires \(\varOmega \left( D \sqrt{g} \right) \) time. In this paper, we distinguish between the arbitrary deployment setting, originally studied in [17], in which stations can be placed everywhere in the plane, and the new grid deployment setting, in which stations are only allowed to be placed on a d-spaced grid. Does the latter (more restricted) setting provide any speedup in broadcasting time complexity? Although the O (Dg) broadcasting algorithm of [17] works under the (original) arbitrary deployment setting, it turns out that the \(\varOmega \left( D \sqrt{g} \right) \) lower bound remains valid under the grid deployment setting. Still, the above question is left unanswered. The current paper answers this question affirmatively by presenting a provable separation between the two deployment settings. We establish a tight lower bound on the time complexity of deterministic broadcasting algorithms under the arbitrary deployment setting proving that broadcasting cannot be completed in less than \(\varOmega (D g)\) time. For the grid deployment setting, we develop a deterministic broadcasting algorithm that runs in time \(O \left( D g^{5 / 6} \log g \right) \), thus breaking the linear dependency on g.     

Thermal analysis of borogypsum and its effects on the physical properties of Portland cement

Borogypsum, which consists mainly of gypsum crystals, B₂O₃ and some impurities, is formed during the production of boric acid from colemanite, which is an important borate ore. In this study, the effect of borogypsum and calcined borogypsum on the physical properties of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) has been investigated. The calcination temperature and transformations in the structures of borogypsum and natural gypsum were determined by differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. Thermal experiments were carried out between ambient temperature and 500 °C in an air atmosphere at a heating rate of 10 °C min⁻¹. After calculation of enthalpy and determination of conversion temperatures, borogypsum (5% and 7%), hemihydrate borogypsum (5%) and natural gypsum (5%) were added separately to Portland cement clinker and cements were ground in the laboratory. The final products were tested for chemical analysis, compressive strength, setting time, Le Chatelier expansion and fineness properties according to the European Standard (EN 196). The results show that increasing the borogypsum level in Portland cement from 5% to 7% caused an increase in setting time and a decrease in soundness expansion and compressive strength. The cement prepared with borogypsum (5%) was found to have similar strength properties to those obtained with natural gypsum, whereas a mixture containing 5% of hemihydrate borogypsum was found to develop 25% higher compressive strength than the OPC control mixtures at 28 days. For this reason, utilization of calcined borogypsum in cement applications is expected to give better results than untreated borogypsum. It is concluded that hemihydrate borogypsum could be used as a retarder for Portland cement as an industrial side. This would play an important role in reducing environmental pollution.     

Chloroplast thylakoid membrane-stabilised emulsions

BACKGROUND: Thylakoid‐stabilised emulsions have been reported to possess satiety‐promoting effects and inhibit pancreatic lipase–colipase activity in vitro, which prompted the investigation of their interfacial properties. RESULTS: Thylakoid membranes isolated from spinach were used as an emulsifier/stabiliser in oil (triglyceride)‐in‐water emulsions. Emulsions were characterised with respect to droplet size, interfacial tension, creaming, surface load and electron microscopy. The effects of pH and thylakoid concentration were also considered. Droplet size decreased with increasing thylakoid concentration, reaching a plateau around 15 µm beyond concentrations of 2 mg protein mL^?1 oil. The resulting emulsions were stable against coalescence but were subject to creaming. The surface pressure (air/water interface) of the thylakoid isolate was 44 mN m^?1 and the surface load 13 mg m^?2 at 10 mg protein mL^?1 oil. Electron micrographs showed thylakoids adsorbed as bunched vesicles on the drop surfaces. The stabilisation mechanism can be described as a combined effect of surface‐active molecules, mainly membrane proteins but also membrane lipids, exposed on surfaces of thylakoid membrane vesicles adsorbed as particles. CONCLUSION: Thylakoid membranes effectively stabilise oil‐in‐water emulsions, which should facilitate their incorporation in food with satiety‐promoting effects. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study on the emulsifying properties of an isolated biological membrane as a functional ingredient. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry