Numerical model of gaseous fuel jet injection into a fluidized furnace

The paper presents a fluid-porous medium model, developed for stationary 2D predictions of fluidized bed. Dense phase is considered a fixed porous medium, while gas–particle interactions and bubbling phase are modeled regarding balance of friction forces between gas and particles. Like referent measurements, predictions of lateral jet injection into the bed suggest the jet penetration length is strongly affected by fluid velocity at the nozzle outlet, while influences of the nozzle vertical position and inclination angle are not significant. Also, the fluid velocity and the nozzle vertical position exert pronounced effects on mixing rate of components (fuel and oxidizer).     

An adaptive partitioning approach for mining discriminant regions in 3D image data

Mining discriminative spatial patterns in image data is an emerging subject of interest in medical imaging, meteorology, engineering, biology, and other fields. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for detecting spatial regions that are highly discriminative among different classes of three dimensional (3D) image data. The main idea of our approach is to treat the initial 3D image as a hyper-rectangle and search for discriminative regions by adaptively partitioning the space into progressively smaller hyper-rectangles (sub-regions). We use statistical information about each hyper-rectangle to guide the selectivity of the partitioning. A hyper-rectangle is partitioned only if its attribute cannot adequately discriminate among the distinct labeled classes, and it is sufficiently large for further splitting. To evaluate the discriminative power of the attributes corresponding to the detected regions, we performed classification experiments on artificial and real datasets. Our results show that the proposed method outperforms major competitors, achieving 30% and 15% better classification accuracy on synthetic and real data respectively while reducing by two orders of magnitude the number of statistical tests required by voxel-based approaches.     

Antioxidant Potential,Lipid Peroxidation Inhibition and Antimicrobial Activities of Satureja montana L. subsp. kitaibelii Extracts

The antioxidant activity of different Satureja montana L. subsp. kitaibelii extracts was tested by measuring their ability to scavenge reactive hydroxyl radical during the Fenton reaction, using ESR spectroscopy. Also, the influence of these extracts on lipid peroxyl radicals obtained during lipid peroxidation of: (I) sunflower oil (37 ºC, 3h) induced by 4,4′-azobis(4-cyanovaleric acid) (ACVA) and (II) liposomes induced by 2,2′-azobis(2- amidino-propane)dihydrochloride (AAPH) was studied. n-Butanol extract had the best antioxidant activity (100% at 0.5 mg/mL in Fenton reaction system; 89.21% at 5 mg/mL in system I; 83.38% at 5 mg/mL in system II). The antioxidant activities of the extracts significantly correlated with total phenolic content. The antimicrobial activity of Satureja montana L. subsp. kitaibelii extracts was investigated. Petroleum ether, chloroform and ethyl acetate extracts expressed a wide range of inhibiting activity against both grampositive and gram-negative bacteria.     

A Model for Diffusion and Immobilization of Lithium in SiOC Nanocomposite Anodes

In order to simulate the diffusion of Li ions in SiOC nanocomposites, we developed a reaction–diffusion model for multiphase materials. This model extends existing models for single-phase diffusion through consideration of the ion transport across material interfaces. In each phase, this model regards mobile and immobilized ions together with the irreversible trapping process. The behavior of material interfaces is incorporated using a Butler–Volmer reaction kinetics model. The model is verified using a simple two-phase benchmark on a square domain. Simulations of the coupled diffusion in a random microstructure show a stalling effect, whereby the immobilization process effectively stops the diffusion of mobile ions during the first stages of intercalation.     

Bigaussons in the high-temperature oxide superconductors

A new (bigausson), model of high-temperature superconductivity analogous to Davydov bisoliton model is proposed. Our calculation is based on a system of nonlinear equations with logarithmic nonlinearity. The bigausson model describes the multiplicity of the superconductive energy gap more conveniently than Davydov one.     

Bioactivity of Lemon Balm Kombucha

There is inadequate published data referring to bioactivity of lemon balm tea and its Kombucha. The aim of this study, therefore, was to investigate antimicrobial, antiproliferative, genotoxic, and antigenotoxic potential of lemon balm tea and its Kombucha with consuming acidity. Antimicrobial activity was determined by agar-well diffusion method. Cell growth effects were determined in HeLa, MCF7, and HT-29 human tumor cell lines. Genotoxic and antigenotoxic effects were determined using chromosome aberration assay in Chinese hamster cell line CHO-K1. Differences between control and treated groups were evaluated using analysis of variance, at significance level of p < 0.05. Kombucha from lemon balm tea (Melissa officinalis L.) exibited antimicrobial activity against prokaryotic microorganisms independently of their cell wall structure (both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria), while there was no observed activity against eukaryots (yeasts and moulds). There was absence of genotoxic effects while antigenotoxic effects of lemon balm Kombucha and tea were confirmed on MMC-damaged CHO-K1 cells. For the explanation of cell growth effects that were not concentration dependent, concept of hormesis was used. Antiproliferative activity was lower compared with traditional Kombucha and Satureja montana L. Kombucha, with lemon balm tea showing higher activity than its Kombucha.     

Lactic acid and xanthan fermentations on an alternative potato residues media - Carbon source costs

This study estimates the carbon source costs for producing xanthan and lactic acid on alternative potato residues media and assesses the potential for profitability and social net benefits of xanthan and lactic acid fermentations. Xanthan fermentations were conducted in solid and semi-solid mode where there was 60-240 kg dry matter t⁻¹ of potato residues. Average xanthan yield was 249 g kg⁻¹ dry matter, with standard deviation of 149 g kg⁻¹. Lactic acid fermentations were conducted in submerged mode with starch concentrations of 30-60 kg m⁻³. Nine to 54 kg of the starch was fermented to lactic acid with average conversion efficiency of about 60 percent. Fermentation of the residues into xanthan or lactic acid could generate profit and net social benefits; the potential for positive externalities emanates from: i) reducing environmental costs of the residues disposal, and ii) alleviating the pressure on materials that are both conventional media for xanthan and lactic acid fermentations and inputs in subsidized markets for food and fuel.