The aquathermolysis of heavy oil from Riphean-Vendian complex with iron-based catalyst: FT-IR spectroscopy data

In this paper, we investigated the influence of steam treatment on structural group composition of resins and asphaltenes of heavy oil. The object of investigation was oil-saturated rocks from Riphean-Vendian complex. The extracted crude oil was determined as a high-viscous fluid. The resins and asphaltenes destructed in a small extent due to thermal treatment. The oil-soluble iron-based catalyst intensified the destructive processes. The content of sulfur compounds (-SO) in resins and asphaltenes drastically decreased due to reduction reaction of sulfoxide to sulfide and hydrogen sulfide. The results showed that catalytic aquathermolysis, even at low temperature ranges, promoted the cracking reaction of most macromolecular components and increased the content of light fractions of heavy oil. Consequently, it reduced its viscosity.     

Influence of nanosized iron oxides (II,III) on conversion of biodegradated oil

In the given paper, we evaluate the efficiency of iron oxide (magnetite in the form of water suspension) nanoparticles (50-120?nm) in intensification of cracking reactions of heavy components of biodegradated oil. The physical simulation of thermal influence on heavy oil in the presence of synthesized catalyst (concentration = 0.3%) was carried out in autoclave at temperature ranges of 150-300°С and reaction period of 24?hours. According to the results of SARA-analysis and dynamic viscosity measurements, the destructive hydrogenation processes that were catalyzed by iron oxide were conducted already at 200°С. However, the significant effect was achieved at 300°С (the degree of viscosity reduction was higher than 67%).     

Novel bolaamphiphilic pyrimidinophane as building block for design of nanosized supramolecular systems with concentration-dependent structural behavior

A new macrocyclic bolaamphiphile with thiocytosine fragments in the molecule (B1) has been synthesized and advanced as perspective platform for the design of soft supramolecular systems. Strong concentration-dependent structural behavior is observed in the water-DMF (20% vol) solution of B1 as revealed by methods of tensiometry, conductometry, dynamic light scattering, and atomic force microscopy. Two breakpoints are observed in the surface tension isotherms. The first one, around 0.002 M, is identified as a critical micelle concentration (cmc), whereas the second critical concentration of 0.01 M is a turning point between the two models of the association involved. Large aggregates of ca. 200 nm are mostly formed beyond the cmc, whereas small micelle-like aggregates exist above 0.01 M. The growth of aggregates between these critical points occurs, resulting in a gel-like behavior. An unusual decrease in the solution pH with concentration takes place, which is assumed to originate from the steric hindrance around the B1 head groups. Because of controllable structural behavior, B1 is assumed to be a candidate for the development of biomimetic catalysts, nanocontainers, drug and gene carriers, etc.     

Broadband MPEG-2 Client with Network Configuration Capability

MPEG-2 is a standard for high quality-content compression and data delivery used in digital television and DVD. MPEG-2 is computationally complex but recently it has become possible to perform MPEG-2 decoding in software using multimedia instruction sets of modern microprocessors. This is an important step for the convergence of computers with television and entertainment. In this paper we describe operation and performance of a broadband video client which is MPEG-2 transport stream decoder with network interfaces, implemented on Sun UltraSparc processor using VIS multimedia instruction set. The decoder performs demultiplexing, synchronized video and audio decompression and display in realtime. It is implemented as a Netscape plug-in and it has flexible network interface allowing to configure it for different broadband networks which might be available: ATM PVC, SVC, IP over ATM and Fast Ethernet. Implementation of the decoder in multithreaded and multiprocessing environment is studied. Experimental data regarding the performance of the decoder in different conditions are presented and basing on them conclusions for the processing power requirements are formulated.     

Generating priority rewrite systems for OSOS process languages

We propose an algorithm for generating a Priority Rewrite System (PRS) for an arbitrary process language in the OSOS format such that rewriting of process terms is sound for bisimulation and head normalising. The algorithm is inspired by a procedure which was developed by Aceto, Bloom and Vaandrager and presented in Turning SOS rules into equations [L. Aceto, B. Bloom, F.W. Vaandrager, Turning SOS rules into equations, Information and Computation 111 (1994) 1–52].For a subclass of OSOS process languages representing finite behaviours the PRSs that are generated by our algorithm are strongly normalising (terminating) and confluent, where termination is proved using the dependency pair and dependency graph techniques. Additionally, such PRSs are complete for bisimulation on closed process terms modulo associativity and commutativity of the choice operator of CCS. We illustrate the usefulness of our results, and the benefits of rewriting with priorities in general, with several examples.     

Supramolecular Systems Based on Novel Amphiphiles and a Polymer: Aggregation and Selective Solubilization

Supramolecular systems based on novel triazole-containing and pyrimidine-containing amphiphiles bearing OH-groups and a hydrophilic polymer (polyethyleneimine, PEI) were fabricated. Aggregation threshold of individual amphiphile solutions and a surfactant/polymer binary mixture were determined to be equal to 2 and 0.05 mM, respectively, using tensiometry and conductometry techniques. It was found, that PEI addition to surfactant aqueous solutions induces the transition from open to closed association mode accompanying the decrease of mean hydrodynamic diameter of particles (D _H) from 100 nm to D _H ≤ 5 nm. Polymer addition to the system results in the leveling of pH decrease with surfactant concentration and increase of the electrokinetic potential values from 10 mV up to 40 mV. It was established that solubilization capacity of the supramolecular system formed could be increased by transition from surfactant individual solutions to the amphiphile/polymer binary system. The solubilization properties of the system strongly depend on the nature of the hydrophobic guest solubilized and differ by two orders of magnitude for hydrophobic azodye and lipophilic oxime.