Effects of feeding an aquatic weed Lemna trisulaca as partial replacement of fish meal on the performance of growing ducklings

Growing ducklings were fed diets containing an aquatic weed Lemna trisulaca meal (LTM) replacing, on a protein basis, either 40, 60 or 80 g kg^?1 of the fish meal (FM) from a control diet which contained 120 g FM kg^?1. Partial replacement of FM (40 and 60 g kg^?1 of the FM) by LTM on a protein basis showed good growth and low food consumption but food conversion efficiency was found to be comparable. It was concluded that LTM could be considered as a protein feed supplement for growing ducklings and also as a part replacement of animal protein (FM) in the nutrition of growing ducklings without deleterious effect on performance.     

New Statistical Concepts for Prediction Viscosity, Critical Temperature, and Critical Pressure of Homologous Hydrocarbon Series (CnH2n 2)

A new model for prediction viscosity, critical temperature, and critical pressure for homologous hydrocarbon series C_nH_2n+2 as a function of carbon number only. The new model has a general formula: η or T_c or P = A₁ C^A₂(2+2C)^A₃. This new model provides accurate and computationally reliable prediction for the corresponding properties (η, T_c, and P_c) value.     

Kinetics of oxidative cracking of n‐hexane to olefins over VOx/Ce‐Al2O3 under gas phase oxygen‐free environment

The kinetics of oxidative cracking of n‐hexane to olefins using lattice oxygen of VO_x/Ce‐Al₂O₃ is investigated. The TPR/TPO analysis shows a consistent reducibility (79%) of VO_x/Ce‐Al₂O₃ in repeated redox cycles. The total acidity of the sample is found to be 0.54 mmol/g with 22% are strong acid sites that favors olefin selectivity. The oxidative cracking of n‐hexane in a fluidized CREC Riser simulator gives approximately 60% olefin selectivity at 30% n‐hexane conversion. A kinetic model is developed considering (1) cracking, (2) oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH), and (3) catalyst deactivations. The proposed cracking mechanism considers adsorption, C–H and C–C bond fission and desorption as elementary steps and implemented by pseudo steady state hypothesis. A Langmuir‐Hinshelwood mechanism is found to represent the ODH reactions. The developed model fits the experimental data with favorable statistical indicators. The estimated specific reaction rate constants are also found to be consistent with the product selectivity data. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 130–138, 2017     

New Statistical Concepts for Prediction Viscosity,Critical Temperature,and Critical Pressure of Homologous Hydrocarbon Series (C n H2n+2)

Abstract

A new model for prediction viscosity, critical temperature, and critical pressure for homologous hydrocarbon series C _n H_2n+2 as a function of carbon number only. The new model has a general formula: η or T _c or P = A ₁ C ^{A ₂} (2+2C) ^{A ₃} . This new model provides accurate and computationally reliable prediction for the corresponding properties (η, T _c , and P _c ) value.     

Thermoplastic elastomer by radiation grafting. I. Evaluation of processability of natural rubber grafted methyl methacrylate

Processability of thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) prepared by radiation-induced grafting of methyl methacrylate (MMA) onto radiation vulcanized natural rubber latex (RVNRL) has been evaluated using a kneader and a hot roll mill at 150°C. It was found that mixing time and revolution rate (rpm) of the kneader have significantly affected the processability. The longer mixing time and the higher revolution rate result in better processability. In such processing conditions, however, the mechanical properties were found to be inferior because the molecular chain scissions occurred during the mixing. A considerable improvement of mechanical properties was obtained when the mixing was carried out without added process oils. Blends of the grafted vulcanized natural rubber latex (RVNRL-g-PMMA) and MMA grafted on unvulcanized natural rubber latex (NRL-g-PMMA) improved processability where the better processability could be achieved at a shorter mixing time and a lower revolution rate. In addition, a comparable value of mechanical properties was obtained.     

Electrical resistance tomography for flow characterization of a gas-liquid-solid three-phase circulating fluidized bed

Electrical resistance tomography (ERT) as an imaging technique was employed in this study for flow characterization, including simultaneous measurements of phase holdups and velocity distribution of individual phases in a gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized Bed (GLSCFB). Application of ERT in three-phase flow systems is completely new. ERT is a non-invasive technique based on conductivity of the continuous phase, which provides color-coded cross-sectional view of the phases with a frequency of up to 250 Hz. The local conductivity measured by 16 electrodes located at the periphery of the plane inside the ERT measurement section, was then further converted into local phase concentration distribution based on Maxwell's relation. By cross-correlation analysis between the data obtained from both upstream and downstream planes, each consisting of eight electrodes, the phase propagation velocity was determined. Water was used as the continuous and conductive phase, while glass beads and air were non-conductive solid and gas phases, respectively. Qualitative and quantitative radial profiles of the phase holdup and propagation velocities were obtained. Phase holdup was also measured by pressure fluctuation, using online non-invasive pressure transducers and the results were in close agreement with the ERT results.     

Enabling machine understandable exchange of energy consumption information in intelligent domotic environments

In the 21st century, all the major countries around the world are coming together to reduce the impact of energy generation and consumption on the global environment. Energy conservation and its efficient usage has become a top agenda on the desks of many governments. In the last decade, the drive to make homes automated and to deliver a better assisted living picked pace and the research into home automation systems accelerated, usually based on a centralized residential gateway. However most devised solutions fail to provide users with information about power consumption of different house appliances. The ability to collect power consumption information can lead us to have a more energy efficient society. The goal addressed in this paper is to enable residential gateways to provide the energy consumption information, in a machine understandable format, to support third party applications and services. To reach this goal, we propose a Semantic Energy Information Publishing Framework. The proposed framework publishes, for different appliances in the house, their power consumption information and other properties, in a machine understandable format. Appliance properties are exposed according to the existing semantic modeling supported by residential gateways, while instantaneous power consumption is modeled through a new modular Energy Profile ontology.     

Highly birefringent photonic crystal fibers with near-zero dispersion at 1550 nm wavelength

This paper presents highly birefringent photonic crystal fibers with simultaneously near-zero dispersion and low confinement losses. The finite difference time domain method with anisotropic perfectly matched layer boundaries is used as the simulation software. According to simulation, it is shown that photonic crystal fibers with hybrid cladding and artificial defects along one of the orthogonal axes sufficiently results in a very high birefringence of the order 10^?2 which is two orders of magnitude higher than that of the conventional polarization maintaining fibers. Such a fiber also assumes both near-zero dispersion and low confinement losses at the 1550 nm wavelength. Optical fibers with novel properties such as high birefringence, near-zero dispersion, and low confinement losses may have applications in optical sensing applications.