The roles of added chlorine and sulfur on ash deposition mechanisms during solid fuel combustion

The focus of this paper is on effects of chlorine and sulfur on coal ash deposition rates, under practically relevant but systematically controlled combustion conditions. This problem is important, not so much for coal, but to understand and predict deposition rates for biomass combustion where chlorine contents can be high. To this end, ash deposition rates on a controlled temperature surface were measured for controlled amounts of chlorine and sulfur added to a pulverized coal, doped with potassium and burned in a 100 kW rated combustion rig. Previous work with 35 tests on 11 coal, biomass and petroleum coke fuels burned under a range of operating conditions had strongly suggested that the deposition rate of the tightly bound inside deposits was independent of the ash aerosol composition, and depended only on PM₁ in the flue gas. The loosely bound outside deposition rate was dependent primarily on the total alkali content in the flue gas. The new results using chlorine added to the fuel (in the form of ammonium chloride) required these previous conclusions to be drastically revised. They showed that chlorine, not alkali alone, had large effects on the deposition rate of the inside deposits, which now were orders of magnitude higher than without chlorine addition, and did not fit previous (multi-fuel) correlations with PM₁. Sulfur addition, together with chlorine, did not affect deposition rates much, although it did lower the chlorine content of the deposit. These results are interpreted in terms of the ash aerosol size segregated composition, which was also measured, and potential sulfation reactions within the deposit.     

alpha(2A)-adrenergic receptor derived peptide adsorbates: a G-protein interaction study

The affinity of alpha(2A)-adrenergic receptor (alpha(2A)-AR) derived peptide adsorbates for the functional bovine brain G-protein is studied in the search for the minimum sequence recognition. Three short peptides (GPR-i2c, GPR-i3n, and GPR-i3c) are designed to mimic the second and third intracellular loops of the receptor. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is used to study the chemical composition of the peptides and the binding strength to the surfaces. Chemisorption of the peptides to the gold substrates is observed. Infrared spectroscopy is used to study the characteristic absorption bands of the peptides. The presence of peptides on the surfaces is verified by prominent amide I and amide II bands. The interaction between the peptides and the G-protein is studied with surface plasmon resonance. It is shown that GPR-i3n has the highest affinity for the G-protein. Equilibrium analysis of the binding shows that the G-protein keeps its native conformation when interacting with GPR-i3c, but during the interaction with GPR-i2c and GPR-i3n the conformation of G-protein is changed, leading to the formation of aggregates and/or multilayers.     

Enantioswitchable catalysts for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of aryl alkyl ketones

A subtle change in the ligand structure, replacing the carbonyl oxygen with sulfur in simple alpha-amino acid amides, resulted in a dramatic activity and selectivity improvement in the rhodium- or ruthenium-catalyzed reduction of ketones under hydrogen transfer conditions. In addition, in most cases, a switch of the product's absolute configuration was observed on going from amides to the corresponding thioamides. Under optimized conditions, we obtained the secondary alcohol products in high yield and enantioselectivity (up to 97% ee) using only 0.25 mol % catalyst loading. [structure: see text]     

Diffeomorphisms of Stein structures

We prove that a pseudoholomorphic diffeomorphism between two almost complex manifolds with boundaries satisfying some pseudoconvexity type conditions cannot map a pseudoholomorphic disc in the boundary to a single point. This can be viewed as an almost complex analogue of a well known theorem of J. E. Fornaess.     

Expansion properties of random Cayley graphs and vertex transitive graphs via matrix martingales

The Alon–Roichman theorem states that for every ε> 0 there is a constant c(ε), such that the Cayley graph of a finite group G with respect to c(ε)log ∣G∣ elements of G, chosen independently and uniformly at random, has expected second largest eigenvalue less than ε. In particular, such a graph is an expander with high probability. Landau and Russell, and independently Loh and Schulman, improved the bounds of the theorem. Following Landau and Russell we give a new proof of the result, improving the bounds even further. When considered for a general group G, our bounds are in a sense best possible. We also give a generalization of the Alon–Roichman theorem to random coset graphs. Our proof uses a Hoeffding‐type result for operator valued random variables, which we believe can be of independent interest. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2008     

Determination of thyroxine and 3,5,3′-triiodothyronine by sub- and super-equivalence isotope dilution analysis

Trace amounts of thyroxine in model samples (160.0 ng.ml^–1 and 20.0 ng.ml^–1), and thyroxine and 3,5,3-triiodothyronine in blood plasma were determined by sub- superequivalence isotope dilution analysis and radio-immunoassay technique. Hormones were labelled by¹²⁵I. The separation of antibody-bound hormone from free hormone was performed by ultracentrifugation. The results show higher accuracy of the sub- super-equivalence isotope dilution method over that of radioimunoassay.     

A generalized separation reaction scheme for assessment of the radioanalytical method of concentration dependent distribution

For the assessment of the analytical error of concentration dependent distribution (CDD), complex-forming separation reaction was proposed in a generalized form of equilibrium , where n is the effective stoichiometric coefficient, i.e. the difference of mean ligand numbers and <n> of a mixture of complexes of analyte M with reagent L in the respective groups (distinguished by bars above the symbols) of the separation system. Calibration curve is derived from measurement of gross activity of complexes, A=A(ML_<n>) and . Theoretical relative error is expressed as a product of three terms, x/x=f₁f₂f₃. The first term f₁ depends on the degree of isotopic dilution, and the recommended ratio of amounts of nonradioactive (x) and radioactive (y) substance M is x/y(1;4). The second term f₂ depends first of all on the slope of distribution ratio (yield of separation ) vs. the analyte; reagent ratio, n(Z+1)/T. The form of slope is analyzed on the basis of the generalized separation reaction. Optimal conditions were discussed from this point of view and the ideal case is at f₂=1. The third term f₃ depends on the activities A and , i.e. on the distribution ratio, sample volumes, and the manner of counting. The ideal ratio of sample activities is A= and the optimal interval (0.2;0.8) is suggested     

Nonlinear Fractional Order Viscoelasticity at Large Strains

In this paper, we formulate a fractional order viscoelastic model for large deformations and develop an algorithm for the integration of the constitutive response. The model is based on the multiplicative split of the deformation gradient into elastic and viscous parts. Further, the stress response is considered to be composed of a nonequilibrium part and an equilibrium part. The viscous part of the deformation gradient (here regarded as an internal variable) is governed by a nonlinear rate equation of fractional order. To solve the rate equation the finite element method in time is used in combination with Newton iterations. The method can handle nonuniform time meshes and uses sparse quadrature for the calculations of the fractional order integral. Moreover, the proposed model is compared to another large deformation viscoelastic model with a linear rate equation of fractional order. This is done by computing constitutive responses as well as structural dynamic responses of fictitious rubber materials.     

Aldehydspezifische und aldehydselektive alkylierungen mit organoniob- und - tantal-reagenzien (1)

In competition experiments with n-heptanal and diethylketone as substrates the reagents (CH₃)₂M(OiPr)₃, CH₃MCl₄ (M = Nb, Ta), and nBuNbCl₄ react exclusively or very selectively with the aldehyde.