The effectiveness of the organosolv process in wheat straw delignification optimizing temperature and time reaction

Cellulose - The present study investigates the organosolv treatment of wheat straw, for the optimization of cellulose delignification, which will serve as raw material for the paper industry. The...     

Diagrams for certain quotients of PSL ( 2 , ℤ [ i ] )

Actions of the Picard group PSL(2, ?[i]) on PL(F _p ), where p ≡ 1(mod 4), are investigated through diagrams. Each diagram is composed of fragments of three types. A technique is developed to count the number of fragments which frequently occur in the diagrams for the action of the Picard group on PL(F _p ). The conditions of existence of fixed points of the transformations are evolved. It is further proved that the action of the Picard group on P L(F _p ) is transitive. A code in Mathematica is developed to perform the calculation.     

Effect of alkaline pretreatment on delignification of wheat straw

This study was conducted to analyse structural changes through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) after alkaline pretreatment of wheat straw for optimum steaming period. During the study, 2 mm size of substrate was soaked in 2.5% NaOH for 1 h at room temperature and then autoclaved at 121°C for various steaming time (30, 60, 90 and 120 min). Results revealed that residence time of 90 min at 121°C has strong effect on substrate, achieving a maximum cellulose content of 83%, delignification of 81% and hemicellulose content of 10.5%. Further SEM and FTIR spectroscopy confirmed structural modification caused by alkaline pretreatment in substrate. Maximum saccharification yield of 52.93% was achieved with 0.5% enzyme concentration using 2.5% substrate concentration for 8 h of incubation at 50°C. This result indicates that the above-mentioned pretreatment conditions create accessible areas for enzymatic hydrolysis.     

Grafting of poly(sodium styrenesulfonate) onto gold surface from NaNO<Subscript>3</Subscript> solution

The chemical grafting of thiol terminated poly(sodium styrenesulfonate)(HS-PSSS) chains from sodium nitrate (NaNO_3) salt solution to a gold surface was investigated with a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) in different salt concentrations.It was found that at low salt concentration grafting density of HS-PSSS was low and the grafted chains adopted a mushroom conformation.With the increase of salt concentration polyelectrolyte chains underwent a transition toward coiled stat...     

Cascade-exciton model analysis of level density parameter dependence in proton induced fission cross sections of some sub-actinide nuclei

Fission cross sections strongly depend on the ratio of the level density parameter in fission to neutron emission, a_f/a_n. In this work, a cascade-exciton model implemented in the code CEM95 has been used to observe this effect for proton induced fission cross sections of tungsten, lead and bismuth. The method was employed using different level density parameter ratios for each fission cross section calculation. The calculated fission cross sections are compared with the available experimental data in the literature. It has been observed that a change of the ratio of the level density parameter, a_f/a_n, is necessary with the incident energy of the proton, to best estimate the fission cross sections in CEM95.     

CuI mediated synthesis of heterocyclic flavone-benzofuran fused derivatives

An efficient synthetic method of heterocyclic flavone benzofuran fused derivatives is reported in good to excellent yield (75–90%) via Ullmann type coupling reaction. The protocol involves catalytic amount of CuI (10 mol%) and K₂CO₃ base for the intramolecular CO bond formation under mild reaction conditions.     

Diffusion equations and the time evolution of foreign exchange rates

We investigate which type of diffusion equation is most appropriate to describe the time evolution of foreign exchange rates. We modify the geometric diffusion model assuming a non-exponential time evolution and the stochastic term is the sum of a Wiener noise and a jump process. We find the resulting diffusion equation to obey the Kramers–Moyal equation. Analytical solutions are obtained using the characteristic function formalism and compared with empirical data. The analysis focus on the first four central moments considering the returns of foreign exchange rate. It is shown that the proposed model offers a good improvement over the classical geometric diffusion model.     

Micellar parameters of diblock copolymers and their interactions with ionic surfactants

The interactions of non-ionic amphiphilic diblock copolymer poly（oxyethylene/oxybutylene）(E₃₉B₁₈) with anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate（SDS） and cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide（CTAB） were studied by using various techniques such as surface tension,conductivity,steady-state fluorescence and dynamic light scattering.Surface tension measurements were used to determine the critical micelle concentration（CMC） and thereby the free energy of micellization(△G_mic),free energy of adsorption(△G_ads),surface excess concentration（Γ） and minimum area per molecule（A）.Conductivity measurements were used to determine the critical micelle concentration（CMC）,critical aggregation concentration（CAC）,polymer saturation point（PSP）,degree of ionization（α） and counter ion binding（β）. Dynamic light scattering experiments were performed to check the changes in physiochemical properties of the block copolymer micelles taken place due to the interactions of diblock copolymers with ionic surfactants.The ratio of the first and third vibronic peaks（I₁/I₃） indicated the polarity of the pyrene micro environment and was used for the detection of micelle as well as polymer-surfactant interactions.Aggregation number（N）,number of binding sites（n） and free energy of binding （△G_b） for pure surfactants as well as for polymer-surfactant mixed micellar systems were determined by the fluorescence quenching method.     

Quantitation of glucosamine sulfate in plasma by HPLC-MS/MS after administration of powder for oral solution formulation

A rapid method for the quantification of glucosamine in human plasma using high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry was developed and validated. The sample preparation includes a simple deproteinization step, using d ‐[1‐¹³C] glucosamine hydrochloride as an internal standard. Chromatographic separation was performed on an ACE Ciano column using isocratic elution with acetonitrile and aqueous 2 mm ammonium acetate containing 0.025% formic acid (80:20). Selected reaction monitoring was performed using the transitions m/z 180.1 → m/z 72.1 and m/z 181.0 → m/z 74.6 to quantify glucosamine and internal standard, respectively. The method was validated and proved to be linear, accurate and precise over the range 50–5000 ng/mL of glucosamine. Recovery rates higher than 90% were obtained for both glucosamine and internal standard. No matrix effect was detected in the samples. The validated method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study after oral administration of a powder for oral solution formulation containing glucosamine sulfate. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.