Fermentation of “Quick Fiber” produced from a modified corn-milling process into ethanol and recovery of corn fiber oil

Approximately 9% of the 9.7 billion bushels of corn harvested in the United States was used for fuel ethanol production in 2002, half of which was prepared for fermentation by dry grinding. The University of Illinois has developed a modified dry grind process that allows recovery of the fiber fractions prior to fermentation. We report here on conversion of this fiber (Quick Fiber [QF]) to ethanol. QF was analyzed and found to contain 32%wt glucans and 65%wt total carbohydrates. QF was pretreated with dilute acid and converted into ethanol using either ethanologenic Escherichia coli strain FBR5 or Saccharomyces cerevisiae. For the bacterial fermentation the liquid fraction was fermented, and for the yeast fermentation both liquid and solids were fermented. For the bacterial fermentation, the final ethanol concentration was 30 g/L, a yield of 0.44 g ethanol/g of sugar(s) initially present in the hydrolysate, which is 85% of the theoretical yield. The ethanol yield with yeast was 0.096 gal/bu of processed corn assuming a QF yield of 3.04 lb/bu. The residuals from the fermentations were also evaluated as a source of corn fiber oil, which has value as a nutraceutical. Corn fiber oil yields were 8.28%wt for solids recovered following prtetreatment.     

Inverse and saturation theorems for linear combination of modified Baskakov operators

In this paper, we consider linear combinations of modified Baskakov operators. By use of several lemmas, we obtain the inverse theorem (Theorem 1.1) and the saturation (Theorem 1.2) for those linear combinations.     

Mass–yield distributions of fission products from photo-fission of natPb induced by 50–70 MeV bremsstrahlung

The mass–yield distributions of various fission products have been determined in the 50-, 60- and 70-MeV end point bremsstrahlung induced fission of ^natPb using off-line γ-ray spectrometric technique in the electron linac at Pohang Accelerator Laboratory, Korea. The mass–yield distributions are symmetric with average mass of 102.34, 102.25 and 102.03 and FWHM of 21, 22 and 23 mass unit, respectively. From the present data and literature data in the 50–85 MeV bremsstrahlung induced fission of ²⁰⁹Bi the following observations were obtained: (i) The average masses of the yield distributions in the 50–85 MeV bremsstrahlung induced fission of ^natPb and ²⁰⁹Bi are around 102.25 ± 0.25 and 103 ± 0.5, respectively. (ii) The FWHM of the mass–yield distributions increases from about 21 mass units at 50 MeV to 23 mass units at 70–85 MeV, which is explained from the point of increase in multi-chance fission probability with increasing excitation energy. (iii) Within the bremsstrahlung energy range of 50–85 MeV, the role of nuclear structure effect in the mass–yield distribution was observed in the photo-fission of ²⁰⁹Bi, whereas it was not seen in case of ^natPb. This may be due to the presence of so many isotopes in ^natPb unlike mono-isotopic ²⁰⁹Bi.     

Effect of doping functionalized MWCNTs on the electrochemical performances of Li<Subscript>2</Subscript>CoSiO<Subscript>4</Subscript> for lithium-ion batteries

We report the synthesis of Li₂CoSiO₄ by the sol-gel method and the preparation of a composite electrode by incorporating functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (fn. MWCNTs) as conductive additive. XRD pattern of the composite confirms the structural stability of Li₂CoSiO₄ even after the addition of fn. MWCNTs. SEM images of the composite reveal the presence of conductive bridges formed by MWCNTs between the submicron-sized particles of Li₂CoSiO₄. The cyclic voltammograms of the composite cathode show redox peaks with higher current density than pure Li₂CoSiO₄ and the current density increases with increase in sweep rate. The diffusion coefficient of lithium has been improved by the addition of fn. MWCNTs from 1 × 10^?14 to 8 × 10^?14 cm²/s as calculated using Randles-Sevcik equation. The charge-discharge cycling performance of both pure Li₂CoSiO₄ and composite cathode has been discussed.     

The planar algebra of a semisimple and cosemisimple Hopf algebra

To a semisimple and cosemisimple Hopf algebra over an algebraically closed field, we associate a planar algebra defined by generators and relations and show that it is a connected, irreducible, spherical, non-degenerate planar algebra with non-zero modulus and of depth two. This association is shown to yield a bijection between (the isomorphism classes, on both sides, of) such objects.     

Ytterbium acetate promoted asymmetric reductive amination: significantly enhanced stereoselectivity

Reductive amination of prochiral unhindered 2-alkanones 1 with (R)- or (S)-alpha-MBA in the presence of Yb(OAc)3 (50-110 mol %), Raney-Ni, and hydrogen (120 psi) results in increased diastereoselectivity for the amine products 2 (80-89% de) with good yield (80-87%). The increased de is based on comparison with the best previously reported de's when using (R)- or (S)-alpha-MBA, regardless of the strategy employed [stepwise (isolation of ketimines) or one-pot (reductive amination)], reducing agent examined, or achiral Lewis acid or Br?nsted acid examined. An in situ cis- to trans-ketimine isomerization mechanism, promoted by Yb(OAc)3, has been proposed to account for the observed increase in diastereoselectivity and suggests a new entry into the control of ketimine geometry.     

Approximation by complex szász-durrmeyer operators in compact disks

In the present paper, we deal with the complex Szász-Durrmeyer operators and study Voronovskaja type results with quantitative estimates for these operators attached to analytic functions of exponential growth on compact disks. Also, the exact order of approximation is found.     

Convergence of Szász-Beta operators

In the present article we find the hypergeometric representation of the Szász-Beta operators and obtain the moments using confluent hypergeometric functions, which can be related to generalized Laguerre polynomials. Then we estimate a convergence result for functions having bounded derivatives.