Thermal conductivity of liquid n-alkanes

The thermal conductivity of liquids has been shown in the past to be difficult to predict with a reasonable accuracy, due to the lack of accurate experimental data and reliable prediction schemes. However, data of a high accuracy, and covering wide density ranges, obtained recently in laboratories in Boulder, Lisbon, and London with the transient hot-wire technique, can be used to revise an existing correlation scheme and to develop a new universal predictive technique for the thermal conductivity of liquid normal alkanes. The proposed correlation scheme is constructed on a theoretically based treatment of the van der Waals model of a liquid, which permits the prediction of the density dependence and the thermal conductivity of liquid n-alkanes, methane to tridecane, for temperatures between 110 and 370 K and pressures up to 0.6 MPa, i.e., for 0.3T/T _c0.7 and 2.4P/P _c3.7, with an accuracy of ±1%, given a known value of the thermal conductivity of the fluid at the desired temperature. A generalization of the hard-core volumes obtained, as a function of the number of carbon atoms, showed that it was possible to predict the thermal conductivity of pentane to tetradecane±2%, without the necessity of available experimental measurements.     

Learning to rank academic experts in the DBLP dataset

Expert finding is an information retrieval task that is concerned with the search for the most knowledgeable people with respect to a specific topic, and the search is based on documents that describe people's activities. The task involves taking a user query as input and returning a list of people who are sorted by their level of expertise with respect to the user query. Despite recent interest in the area, the current state‐of‐the‐art techniques lack in principled approaches for optimally combining different sources of evidence. This article proposes two frameworks for combining multiple estimators of expertise. These estimators are derived from textual contents, from graph‐structure of the citation patterns for the community of experts and from profile information about the experts. More specifically, this article explores the use of supervised learning to rank methods, as well as rank aggregation approaches, for combining all of the estimators of expertise. Several supervised learning algorithms, which are representative of the pointwise, pairwise and listwise approaches, were tested, and various state‐of‐the‐art data fusion techniques were also explored for the rank aggregation framework. Experiments that were performed on a dataset of academic publications from the Computer Science domain attest the adequacy of the proposed approaches.     

Impact of white-matter mask selection on DTI histogram-based metrics as potential biomarkers in cerebral small vessel disease

Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine - Histogram-based metrics extracted from diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) have been suggested as potential biomarkers for cerebral small...     

Oxidative Stability and Changes in Chemical Composition of Extra Virgin Olive Oils After Short‐Term Deep‐Frying of French Fries

We aimed at investigating oxidative stability and changes in fatty acid and tocopherol composition of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) in comparison with refined seed oils during short‐term deep‐frying of French fries, and changes in the composition of the French fries deep‐fried in EVOO. EVOO samples from Spain, Brazil, and Portugal, and refined seed oils of soybean and sunflower were studied. Oil samples were used for deep‐frying of French fries at 180 °C, for up to 75 min of successive frying. Tocopherol and fatty acid composition were determined in fresh and spent vegetable oils. Tocopherol, fatty acid, and volatile composition (by SPME–GC–MS) were also determined in French fries deep‐fried in EVOO. Oil oxidation was monitored by peroxide, acid, and p‐anisidine values, and by Rancimat after deep‐frying. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis was used as a proxy of the quality of the spent oils. EVOOs presented the lowest degree of oleic and linoleic acids losses, low formation of free fatty acids and carbonyl compounds, and were highly stable after deep‐frying. In addition, oleic acid, tocopherols, and flavor compounds were transferred from EVOO into the French fries. In conclusion, EVOOs were more stable than refined seed oils during short‐term deep‐frying of French fries and also contributed to enhance the nutritional value, and possibly improve the flavor, of the fries prepared in EVOO.     

Comparative Analysis of Ozone and Ultrasound Effect on the Elimination of Giardia spp. Cysts from Wastewater

Giardia spp. is a flagellate protozoan that presents two evolution forms, cysts and trophozoites. Cysts are resistant to chlorine, the most employed disinfectant agent in the treatment of water. For this reason, new techniques for the disinfection of waters that contain this parasite are necessary. This work evaluated the efficiency of the disinfection by ozone and ultrasound individually and simultaneously upon wastewater. The data obtained showed that after application, ozone, ultrasound, and combined techniques induced a significant elimination of Giardia spp. cysts. Furthermore, this effect was more accentuated when the two techniques were applied simultaneously.     

Extraction and Clarification of Orange Wax Obtained from Waste of the Citrus Industry

The processing of the orange leads to a large generation of waste, which is underutilized or discarded. Thus, this study proposes a route to treat oily waste from the orange juice industry, transforming it into a by-product of higher added value to the chemical industry. The orange wax is obtained by hydrodistillation and solvent extraction, and the clarification of the wax is carried out with the oxidative treatment using H₂O₂. A 3² Experimental Design confirmed that the factors, temperature, and concentration of the reactant, influence both response variables, the colorimetric changes and yield. The obtained waxes are characterized by chromatographic (CG-MS), thermal, and rheological analysis. The results of the CG-MS indicate that the clarification method is effective as the components responsible for the pigmentation and odor of the wax cannot be identified after the clarification process. Thermogravimetry analysis and differential exploratory calorimetryindicate a slight increase in thermal stability and a decrease in crystallinity after the clarification process. Rheological analyses show that the obtained waxes present similar flow behavior as commercial beeswax. Therefore, it can be affirmed that this work obtains a green wax from a residue for potential replacement of commercial waxes according to its properties analyzed. Practical applications: This work shows the extraction of orange wax from oily industrial wastes for possible applications in the food and cosmetics industries. The orange wax can be a sustainable substitute for nonrenewable products and supply the wax market due to the high demand. In addition, methods for processing and characterization of the waxes are presented in this work.     

High pressure-temperature effects on enzymatic activity: Naringin bioconversion

Initially exploited in chemistry and physics, high-pressure technology has gained importance in various fields.     

Evaluation of the performance of two LiF:Mg,Ti and LiF:Mg,Cu,P dosemeters for extremity monitoring

In this paper, the results aimed at assessing the performance of two varieties of LiF detectors (LiF:Mg,Ti and LiF:Mg,Cu,P) in photon fields relatively to reproducibility, detection threshold and angular dependence as defined in the ISO 12794 standard are presented. The fading properties and the limit of detection were also investigated for both materials. The results suggest that both LiF varieties are well suited for extremity monitoring. However, better fading properties of LiF:Mg,Cu,P when compared with LiF:Mg,Ti, combined with previous results relatively to energy dependence suggests that LiF:Mg,Cu,P dosemeters are better suited for extremity monitoring.     

Thermal conductivity of five hydrocarbons along the saturation line

The paper presents the results of new, absolute measurements of the thermal conductivity of five alkanes as a function of temperature at their saturation vapor pressure. The alkanes studied include the four normal alkanes n-octane, n-nonane, n-undecane, and n-tetradecane as well as the branched alkane, iso-octane. The results, which extend over the temperature range 282–373 K, have an estimated uncertainty limit of 1.5% deriving mainly from a correction for the effects of radiation absorption in the measurement process. The results are employed to generate effective core volumes for the fluids studied which may be employed to predict the density dependence of the thermal conductivity by means of an existing correlation.