New routes to high solid content latexes: a process for in situ particle nucleation and growth

A means of generating latices with solid contents well over 70% (v/v) without the use of intermediate seeds is proposed. It is demonstrated that the use of an electrically neutral initiation system (hydrogen peroxide) in the initial stages of the process, followed by an initiator yielding negatively charged free radicals (ammonium persulphate) changes the way in which the system generates stable particles. The reason for this change is the need to avoid stabilising small, homogeneously nucleated particles during the first portion of the process, and the desire to generate controlled quantities of them during the second portion. The processes are highly reproducible, as are the particle size distributions and rheological properties of the final latices.     

Acute and Subacute Toxicity and Cytotoxicity of Opuntia Dillenii (Ker-Gawl) Haw. Seed Oil and Its Impact on the Isolated Rat Diaphragm Glucose Absorption

This study aims to assess the safety of the Opuntia dillenii (Ker-Gawl) haw. seed oil (ODSO) and its effect on the glucose absorption activity of the isolated rat hemidiaphragm. This oil’s safety was studied by exploring its acute (doses 1, 3, 5, and 7 mL/kg) and subacute (doses 1 and 2 mL/kg) toxicities in albino mice and Wistar rats, respectively. The safety of the ODSO was also assessed by studying its effect on the HepG2 cell viability in vitro. The effect of ODSO, or combined with the insulin, on the glucose absorption activity of isolated rat hemidiaphragm was evaluated at the dose 1 g/L in vitro. The results demonstrated the safety of ODSO. Indeed, this study showed that this oil does not produce any mortality or signs of toxicity after the single-dose administration in mice. Additionally, the daily intake of the ODSO during four weeks does not induce a significant variation in the biochemical parameters and body weight of rats compared with the control group. Besides, the cell viability of HepG2 did not change in the presence of ODSO. On the other hand, the ODSO increased the glucose absorption activity of the isolated rat hemidiaphragm, and this activity was significantly enhanced when combined with insulin. This study confirms, on one side, the safety of this oil and its efficacy and, on the other side, encourages its potential use as a complement to treat diabetes.     

Ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in Eu<Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis> (<Emphasis Type="Italic">X</Emphasis> = <Emphasis Type="Italic">O</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis>): pressure effects

Ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in Eu monochalcogenides have been investigated by ab initio density functional theory in the DFT+U approach. Exchange interaction parameters and Curie temperatures under pressure are studied and discussed using Heisenberg Hamiltonian with first and second-nearest-neighbor interactions. The calculations showed that the hydrostatic pressure perfectly improves the Curie temperature (EuO: T _C = 175 K; EuS: T _C = 33.8 K) and in the other hand it cannot induce the spontaneous polarization (P _s ). The effect of uniaxial and biaxial pressure is also studied. Although the uniaxial strains slightly increases the Curie temperature, it ensures the ferrolectricity in these systems by producing a spontaneous polarization of the order of P _s (EuO) = 57.50 μC/cm² and P _s (EuS) = 42.86 μC/cm² with pressures of 5% and 4%, respectively. The search for new model systems is a necessity to better understand the physics related to multiferroïc materials and to consider possible applications.     

Microbial Upgrading of Shale Oils Removal of Nitriles

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology - After prolonged incubation on shale oil as the sole source of nitrogen, microbial cultures were obtained that degraded nitriles. These cultures degraded...     

Positive solution to the nonlinear abstract Hammerstein equation and applications to {\phi} -Laplacian BVPs

We provide in this paper existence results for positive solution to the abstract Hammerstein equation NFu = u where N : E → E is a completely continuous operator, F : C → C is a continuous and bounded map and C is a cone in the Banach space E. The obtained results are used to prove existence results for positive solution to ${\phi}$ -Laplacian boundary value problem.     

Repulsive and attractive critical Casimir forces

When confining vacuum fluctuations between two identical walls, the Casimir force manifests itself as a mutual attraction of the walls. When confining concentration fluctuations of a binary liquid mixture, an analogous force should exist near the critical temperature T_C; it is called the critical Casimir force. Here we show experimentally that this purely entropic force can be either attractive or repulsive, depending on the boundary conditions for the fluctuations. For symmetrical boundary conditions an attractive force is found while asymmetrical ones lead to a repulsive force. This is observed directly by confining the fluctuations in a thin wetting film. Depending on the boundary conditions either a thinning or a thickening of the film is observed when T→T_C.     

Thermal degradation behaviour of a nearly alternating copolymer of vinylidene cyanide with 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl methacrylate

The thermal decomposition under non-oxidative conditions of a copolymer of vinylidene cyanide (VCN) and 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl methacrylate (MATRIF) was investigated by thermogravimetry (TG) and Pyrolysis-GC-MS. The type and composition of the pyrolytic products and the shape of the TG curve indicate that both the main thermal degradation process, with onset at 368 °C, and a minor weight loss at around 222 °C are mainly associated with random main-chain scission. The kinetic parameters were determined by means of dynamic and, in the case of the main degradation stage, also isothermal methods. The results obtained from the dynamic methods (Friedman, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa, and Kissinger, respectively) are in good agreement with those obtained from isothermal TG data. The activation energy was in the 177-213 kJ/mol range for the first stage, and 224-295 kJ/mol for the second stage, the highest respective values being determined from the kinetic analysis according to the Kissinger method.