An optimized extraction and gas chromatography analysis method for the quantification of diluent hydrocarbons in froth treatment tailings

Froth treatment tailings are one type of waste stream generated during the extraction of surface-mined oil sands bitumen. To remove water and solids from bitumen froth recovered during the water-based extraction process, hydrocarbon diluent is added, and settling and/or centrifugation are applied to the diluted bitumen froth, producing diluted bitumen and froth treatment tailings. While recovery processes are in place to remove and recycle the diluent from froth treatment tailings, some residual diluent can remain. Since tailings are stored in outdoor ponds, the residual diluent can have implications for methanogenic microbial processes and resulting greenhouse gas emissions. This work presents a methodology to accurately extract and quantify diluent hydrocarbons from froth treatment tailings using gas chromatography. A cold-start temperature program is used to separate diluent hydrocarbons from any residual bitumen in the sample, and diluent is quantified using commercial standards as well as unprocessed diluent. A series of extraction parameters were tested and results from multiple conditions are shown with a rationale for the selected optimized parameters. Quantification of diluent in tailings samples is demonstrated from 60 to 5329 μg/g, and results from quality control standards show an average diluent recovery of 100 ± 10%.     

The aza-analogues of 1,4-naphthoquinones are potent substrates and inhibitors of plasmodial thioredoxin and glutathione reductases and of human erythrocyte glutathione reductase

Various aza-analogues of 1,4-naphthoquinone and menadione were prepared and tested as inhibitors and substrates of the plasmodial thioredoxin and glutathione reductases as well as the human glutathione reductase. The replacement of one to two carbons at the phenyl ring of the 1,4-naphthoquinone core by one to two nitrogen atoms led to an increased oxidant character of the molecules in accordance with both the redox potential values and the substrate efficiencies. Compared to the 1,4-naphthoquinone and menadione, the quinoline-5,8-dione 1 and both quinoxaline-5,8-diones 5 and 6 behaved as the most efficient subversive substrates of the three NADPH-dependent disulfide reductases tested. Modulation of these parameters was observed by alkylation of the aza-naphthoquinone core.     

Morse theory and conjugacy classes of finite subgroups

We construct a CAT(0) group containing a finitely presented subgroup with infinitely many conjugacy classes of finite-order elements. Unlike previous examples (which were based on right-angled Artin groups) our ambient CAT(0) group does not contain any rank 3 free abelian subgroups. We also construct examples of groups of type F _n inside mapping class groups, Aut(), and Out() which have infinitely many conjugacy classes of finite-order elements.      

Ultrafast dynamics of coherences in a quantum Hall system

Using three-pulse four-wave-mixing optical spectroscopy, we study the ultrafast dynamics of the quantum Hall system. We observe striking differences as compared to an undoped system, where the 2D electron gas is absent. In particular, we observe a large off-resonant signal with strong oscillations. Using a microscopic theory, we show that these are due to many-particle coherences created by interactions between photoexcited carriers and collective excitations of the 2D electron gas. We extract quantitative information about the dephasing and interference of these coherences.     

Dominulin A and B: Two new antibacterial peptides identified on the cuticle and in the venom of the social paper wasp Polistes dominulus using MALDI-TOF, MALDI-TOF/TOF, and ESI-ion trap

Two new antibacterial peptides, denominated as Dominulin A and B, have been found on the cuticle and in the venom of females of the social paper wasp Polistes dominulus. The amino acidic sequence of the two peptides, determined by mass spectrometry, is INWKKIAE VGGKIL SSL for Dominulin A (MW = 1854 Da) and INWKKIAEIGKQVL SAL (MW = 1909 Da) for Dominulin B. Their presence on the cuticle was confirmed using MALDI-TOF by means of micro-extractions and direct analyses on body parts. The presence in the venom and the primary structure of the dominulins suggest their classification in the mastoparans, a class of peptides found in the venom of other Aculeate hymenoptera. Their antimicrobial action against Gram+ and Gram- bacteria fits in the range of the best natural antimicrobial peptides. Dominulins can represent an important defense of the colony of Polistes dominulus against microbial pathogens.     

Embedding of Semigroups of Lipschitz Maps into Positive Linear Semigroups on Ordered Banach Spaces Generated by Measures

Interpretation, derivation and application of a variation of constants formula for measure-valued functions motivate our investigation of properties of particular Banach spaces of Lipschitz functions on a metric space and semigroups defined on their (pre)duals. Spaces of measures densely embed into these preduals. The metric space embeds continuously in these preduals, even isometrically in a specific case. Under mild conditions, a semigroup of Lipschitz transformations on the metric space then embeds into a strongly continuous semigroups of positive linear operators on these Banach spaces generated by measures.      

The fraction of large random trees representing a given Boolean function in implicational logic

We consider the logical system of Boolean expressions built on the single connector of implication and on positive literals. Assuming all expressions of a given size to be equally likely, we prove that we can define a probability distribution on the set of Boolean functions expressible in this system. Then we show how to approximate the probability of a function f when the number of variables grows to infinity, and that this asymptotic probability has a simple expression in terms of the complexity of f. We also prove that most expressions computing any given function in this system are “simple”, in a sense that we make precise. The probability of all read‐once functions of a given complexity is also evaluated in this model. At last, using the same techniques, the relation between the probability of a function and its complexity is also obtained when random expressions are drawn according to a critical branching process. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2011     

Room-temperature laser emission of ZnO nanowires explained by many-body theory

Are excitons involved in lasing in ZnO nanowires or not? Our recently developed and experimentally tested quantum many-body theory sheds new light on this question. We measured the laser thresholds and Fabry-Pérot laser modes for three radically different excitation schemes. The thresholds, photon energies, and mode spacings can all be explained by our theory, without invoking enhanced light-matter interaction, as is needed in an earlier excitonic model. Our conclusion is that lasing in ZnO nanowires at room temperature is not of excitonic nature, as is often thought, but instead is electron-hole plasma lasing.