Preparation of activated carbon from date pits: Effect of the activation agent and liquid phase oxidation

Two series of activated carbons have been prepared from date pits; series C, using carbon dioxide as activating agent, and series S, prepared by activation with steam under the same experimental conditions. The obtained samples were oxidized with nitric acid in order to introduce more oxygen surface groups. The surface area and porosity of the parent and oxidized activated carbons were studied by N₂ adsorption at 77 K and CO₂ adsorption at 273 K. The oxygen surface complexes were characterized by temperature-programmed decomposition (TPD). The results show that carbon dioxide and steam activations produce microporous carbons with an increasing amount of CO evolving groups when increasing the burn-off. On the other hand, oxidation with nitric acid increases the amount of CO and CO₂ evolved by the decomposition of surface oxygen groups, this increase being related to the development of porosity in the carbon with the degree of activation and to the activating agent used (CO₂ versus steam).     

Theoretical diagnostic and prediction of physical properties of quaternary InGaAsP compound using artificial neural networks optimized by the Levenberg Maquardt algorithm

The quaternaries \(In_{1 - x} Ga_{x} As_{y} P_{1 - y}\) are the main promising elements for the fabrication of optoelectronic devices. The adjustment of their physical parameters is assumed by the change of the molar fraction \(x\) and \(y\). These parameters can be affected by the variation of temperature and pressure. To make the theoretical diagnosis of these materials, it is fundamental to know the energy gap ‘\(\varvec{E}_{\varvec{g}}\)’ and the lattice parameter ‘\(a\)’, over a wide range of chemical compositions \(0 \le x \le 0.47\) and \(0 \le y \le 1\), at different temperatures and pressures. We show that by using the Artificial Neural Network method optimized by the Levenberg Maquardt algorithm ANN-LM, it is possible to obtain results very close to the experiment. The scatter plot and error calculation show that the ANN-LM model provides more accurate values of the lattice parameter than those calculated by Vegard’s law. On the other hand, the energy gap values \(Eg (x, y, T)\) estimated, using the ANN-LM model, proved to be close to the experimental values that those calculated by the empirical equations. In addition, the ANN-LM method allowed us to estimate with great accuracy the values of the energy gap at different temperatures and pressures \(Eg (P, T)\). Our work provides crucial information on the physical properties of the quaternary without the use of approximations, and without taking into account the hypothesis of a perfect agreement between \(InGaAsP\) and \(InP\) substrate.     

A new 2-alkylhydroquinone glucoside from Phagnalon saxatile (L.) Cass

A new 2-alkylhydroquinone glucoside, 1-O-β-d-glucopyranosyl-1,4-dihydroxy-2-((E) 2-oxo-3-butenyl)benzene (1), in addition to nine known compounds were isolated from the aerial parts of Phagnalon saxatile (L.) Cass. (Asteraceae). Their structures were identified based on spectroscopic methods including 1D and 2D NMR, mass spectrometry (HR-ESI-MS), UV spectral analyses and by comparison with literature data. The cytotoxic activity of three isolated compounds (1–3) was evaluated against fibrosarcoma (HT1080), human lung cancer (A549) and breast cancer (MCF7) cell lines.     

Comparison of Some Classical Topologies on Hyperspaces within the Framework of Point Spaces

S. Dolecki, G. Greco and A. Lechicki call a space X consonant if the co-compact topology and the upper Kuratowski topology on the set of closed subsets of X coincide. We call a space X hyperconsonant if Fell's topology and the (Kuratowski) convergence topology coincide. Recently, we proved that a first countable, locally paracompact, T ₃-space is hyperconsonant if and only if the space possesses at most one point without a compact neighbourhood, extending the same result of D. Fremlin obtained for metrizable spaces. In this paper, we pursue the study of hyperconsonance within the framework of point spaces (countable T ₁-spaces with exactly one accumulation point) and we compare consonance and hyperconsonance in such spaces. In particular, we answer a question of T. Nogura and D. Shakhmatov: does there exist a nonconsonant point space? We provide a Fréchet, -point space which is not consonant. Moreover, this example proves that the consonance is not preserved by continuous closed compact-covering maps of separable complete metrizable spaces onto Hausdorff spaces.     

Monolith Passive Adsorbers Prepared with Hydrophobic Porous Silica Rods Coated with Hydrogel

This work focuses on the synthesis and characterization of porous silica monolith-based adsorbent materials. Materials with bimodal porosity (macro and meso) were prepared through a sol–gel process. The capacity of adsorption of organic molecules was ensured by grafting of hydrophobic organic coating on the silica surface. Alkylsilane chains or lauryl acrylate polymer were used for this purpose. The adsorption kinetic behavior of the produced materials was assessed through benzophenone adsorption studies in aqueous media. The results have shown that the macropore size of the monoliths had no effect on the adsorption capacity. The thicker organic layer prepared by polymerization of lauryl acrylate has decreased the adsorption kinetics without affecting the total adsorption capacity. The over-coating with additional external layer of hydrogel further slowed the diffusion of benzophenone thus better matches the passive-sampler requirements.     

Quantitative uncertainty principles for the short time Fourier transform and the radar ambiguity function

Logarithmic uncertainty principle and Beckner’s uncertainty principle in terms of entropy are proved for the short time Fourier transform and the radar ambiguity function, also a Heisenberg inequality for generalized dispersion and Price’s local uncertainty principle are obtained.     

LIMIT CYCLES OF THIRD-ORDER DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION

In this paper, we investigate a third-order differential equation. Based on the averaging theory, we obtain sufficient conditions for the existence of periodic solutions to the equation.     

Electrogenerated Base-Promoted Synthesis of Dithiocarbamate Acid Esters and 3-(N-Substituted-amino)-2-cyanodithiocrotonates from Primary or Secondary Amines and Carbon Disulfide

Electrogenerated cyanomethyl anion promotes the reaction between primary or secondary amines, carbon disulfide, and alkyl or benzyl halide. Secondary amines are converted to alkyl or benzyl dithiocarbamates, whereas primary amines give N-substituted alkyl or benzyl 3-amino-2-cyanodithiocrotonates. The mechanisms are discussed.     

A new regularized forward blind source separation algorithm for automatic speech quality enhancement

This paper addresses the problem of speech enhancement and acoustic noise reduction by adaptive filtering algorithms in a moving car through blind source separation (BSS) structures. In this paper we propose a new regularized forward blind source separation (RFBSS) algorithm that does not need voice activity detection (VAD) systems, and allows getting efficient speech enhancement performances with low complexity.