Comparative study on heat pipe performance using aqueous solutions of alcohols

This paper deals with the performance characterization of heat pipes using an aqueous solution of long chain alcohols like n-Butanol, n-Pentanol, n-Hexanol and n-Heptanol as working mediums. These solutions are called as self-rewetting fluids, since these fluid mixtures possess a non-linear dependence of the surface tension with temperature. A cylindrical heat pipe made up of copper with two layers of wrapped screen is used as a wick material and partially filled with the self-rewetting fluid water mixture and tested for its heat transport capability like thermal efficiency and thermal resistance at different inclinations and input power levels. A number of tests have been performed with heat pipes, filled with various aqueous solutions of alcohols with a concentration of 2?ml/l in de-ionized water (DI water) on volume basis. The results obtained for heat pipes using self rewetting fluids show improved performances, when compared to DI water heat pipes.     

Alternating Current Electrohydrodynamics Induced Nanoshearing and Fluid Micromixing for Specific Capture of Cancer Cells

We report a new tuneable alternating current (ac) electrohydrodynamics (ac‐EHD) force referred to as “nanoshearing” which involves fluid flow generated within a few nanometers of an electrode surface. This force can be externally tuned via manipulating the applied ac‐EHD field strength. The ability to manipulate ac‐EHD induced forces and concomitant fluid micromixing can enhance fluid transport within the capture domain of the channel (e.g., transport of analytes and hence increase target–sensor interactions). This also provides a new capability to preferentially select strongly bound analytes over nonspecifically bound cells and molecules. To demonstrate the utility and versatility of nanoshearing phenomenon to specifically capture cancer cells, we present proof‐of‐concept data in lysed blood using two microfluidic devices containing a long array of asymmetric planar electrode pairs. Under the optimal experimental conditions, we achieved high capture efficiency (e.g., approximately 90 %; % RSD=2, n=3) with a 10‐fold reduction in nonspecific adsorption of non‐target cells for the detection of whole cells expressing Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2). We believe that our ac‐EHD devices and the use of tuneable nanoshearing phenomenon may find relevance in a wide variety of biological and medical applications.     

Induction and Purification by Three-Phase Partitioning of Aryl Alcohol Oxidase (AAO) from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pleurotus ostreatus</Emphasis>

Aryl alcohol oxidase (AAO) is an extracellular flavoenzyme involved in lignin degradation by white rot fungi. Screening of lignolytic and AAO activity from twenty different fungal species were carried out. Among them, seven species showed lignolytic activity and three of them (Pleurotus ostreatus, Pleurotus eous, and Pleurotus platypus) were found to be AAO positive. Maximal AAO activity was observed in batch cultures of P. ostreatus and was found to be induced by aromatic amino acids and aryl alcohols up to a level of 289 U/l. Purification of AAO was carried out by three-phase partitioning (TPP). The 67 kDa enzyme was purified up to 10.19-fold by TPP with an overall recovery of 10.95%. Optimum pH and temperature for P. ostreatus AAO activity was found to be around 6 and 40 °C, respectively. From the LB plot, K _m value of AAO for oxidizing veratryl alcohol was determined to be 0.6 mM. Results of the study indicate that P. ostreatus is the best producers of AAO, and they could be employed as promising fungal species for biotechnological applications.     

Novel Separation Processes for Solid/Liquid Separations in Coal Derived Liquids

The removal of the mineral matter found in coal derived liquids is a very difficult solid/liquid separation process. Clays, pyrites and other minerals that occur in coal ultimately find their way into the liquefied product. This is the case, e.g., for both the solvent refined coal (SRC-I) and H-Coal processes. The ash content of bituminous coals which may be fed to coal liquefaction processes normally rangesfrom 6 to 11 wt.%. The ash content of the coal liquid product can range from 4 to 20 wt.% depending upon the lique-faction .process. Ash levels must be reduced to, e.g., 0.4 wt.% in the case of boiler fuel and less than 0.1 wt.% for gas turbine fuels.     

TOF-SIMS investigation of Streptomyces coelicolor, a mycelial bacterium

Streptomyces coelicolor is a mycelial microorganism that produces several secondary metabolites, including antibiotics. The physiology of the organism has largely been investigated in liquid cultures due to ease of monitoring different physiological parameters and more homogeneous culture conditions. However, solid cultures reflect the natural physiology of the microorganism better, given that in its natural state it grows in the soil. Imaging mass spectrometry with TOF-SIMS and C₆₀⁺ primary ion beams offers a potential route to studying chemical changes at the molecular level, both intracellular and extracellular that can help in understanding the natural physiology of the microorganism. Here, we report the application of the technique for studying the lateral distribution of the chemical species detected in a population, grown in both liquid and solid cultures. The capability of the technique for studying biological systems with minimal system intervention is demonstrated.     

Models for the active site in galactose oxidase: Structure, spectra and redox of copper(II) complexes of certain phenolate ligands

Galactose oxidase (GOase) is a fungal enzyme which is unusual among metalloenzymes in appearing to catalyse the two electron oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes and H₂O₂. The crystal structure of the enzyme reveals that the coordination geometry of mononuclear copper(II) ion is square pyramidal, with two histidine imidazoles, a tyrosinate, and either H₂O (pH 7.0) or acetate (from buffer,pH 4-5) in the equatorial sites and a tyrosinate ligand weakly bound in the axial position. This paper summarizes the results of our studies on the structure, spectral and redox properties of certain novel models for the active site of the inactive form of GOase. The monophenolato Cu(II) complexes of the type [Cu(L1)X][H(L1) = 2-(bis(pyrid-2-ylmethyl)aminomethyl)-4-nitrophenol and X⁻ = Cl⁻ 1, NCS⁻ 2, CH₃COO⁻ 3, ClO₄ ⁻ 4] reveal a distorted square pyramidal geometry around Cu(II) with an unusual axial coordination of phenolate moiety. The coordination geometry of 3 is reminiscent of the active site of GOase with an axial phenolate and equatorial CH₃COO⁻ ligands. All the present complexes exhibit several electronic and EPR spectral features which are also similar to the enzyme. Further, to establish the structural and spectroscopic consequences of the coordination of two tyrosinates in GOase enzyme, we studied the monomeric copper(II) complexes containing two phenolates and imidazole/pyridine donors as closer structural models for GOase. N,N-dimethylethylenediamine and N,N’-dimethylethylenediamine have been used as starting materials to obtain a variety of 2,4-disubstituted phenolate ligands. The X-ray crystal structures of the complexes [Cu(L5)(py)], (8) [H₂(L5) = N,N-dimethyl-N’,N’-bis(2-hydroxy-4-nitrobenzyl) ethylenediamine, py = pyridine] and [Cu(L8)(H₂O)] (11), [H₂(L8) = N,N’-dimethyl-N,N’-bis(2-hydroxy-4-nitrobenzyl)ethylenediamine] reveal distorted square pyramidal geometries around Cu(II) with the axial tertiary amine nitrogen and water coordination respectively. Interestingly, for the latter complex there are two different molecules present in the same unit cell containing the methyl groups of the ethylenediamine fragmentcis to each other in one molecule andtrans to each other in the other. The ligand field and EPR spectra of the model complexes reveal square-based geometries even in solution. The electrochemical and chemical means of generating novel radical species of the model complexes, analogous to the active form of the enzyme is presently under investigation.     

Accelerating molecular dynamic simulation on graphics processing units

We describe a complete implementation of all‐atom protein molecular dynamics running entirely on a graphics processing unit (GPU), including all standard force field terms, integration, constraints, and implicit solvent. We discuss the design of our algorithms and important optimizations needed to fully take advantage of a GPU. We evaluate its performance, and show that it can be more than 700 times faster than a conventional implementation running on a single CPU core. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2009     

Analysis,synchronization and circuit design of a novel butterfly attractor

This research paper introduces a novel three-dimensional autonomous system, whose dynamics support periodic and chaotic butterfly attractors as certain parameters vary. A special case of this system, exhibiting reflectional symmetry, is amenable to analytical and numerical analysis. Qualitative properties of the new chaotic system are discussed in detail. Adaptive control laws are derived to achieve global chaotic synchronization of the new chaotic system with unknown parameters. Furthermore, a novel electronic circuit realization of the new chaotic system is presented, examined and realized using Orcad-PSpice program and physical components. The proposed novel butterfly chaotic attractor is very useful for the deliberate generation of chaos in applications.     

Coulometric determination of uranium in perchloric acid medium and its applications

Amorphous samples of a new inorganic ion exchanger, cerium(IV) selenite have been prepared under varying conditions. The material prepared by mixing 0.025M ceric sulfate and 0.025M sodium selenite in the ratio of 11 was studied in detail for its ion-exchange capacity, chemical stability, IR, thermogravimetry and K_d values. Separations of metal ions have been performed on columns of this ion exchanger.     

Results on Biorthogonal Filter Banks

For a maximally decimated nonuniform filter bank, the perfect reconstruction (PR) property is equivalent to biorthogonality. We start from this result and derive a number of properties of PR filter banks. For example, no two integer decimators in a biorthogonal system can be coprime; moreover, if all analysis and synthesis filters have unit energy, then perfect reconstruction is equivalent to orthonormality. We also generalize the Nyquist and power complementary properties of orthonormal filter banks, for the biorthogonal case. We then show that whenever the decimation ratios are such that biorthogonality is possible with rational filters, it is, in particular, possible to obtain orthonormality with rational filters. This is done by developing an orthonormalization procedure. While reminiscent of the Gram–Schmidt approach, the procedure converges in a finite number of steps and furthermore preserves the filter-bank-like form of the basis functions. We also show how this technique can be applied for the decorrelation of subband signals. We will consider the problem of alias cancellation and obtain a generalization of a previously known necessary condition called compatibility.