The effect of number of baffles on the improvement efficiency of primary sedimentation tanks

In this study, the effect of different numbers of baffles is investigated using computational simulation. Laboratory measurements using different numbers of constant height baffles in a rectangular primary sedimentation tank are conducted. The velocity fields measured by an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) are used to verify the results of the computational model. The effects of the number of baffles arrangement on the hydraulic performance of primary settling tanks are studied by using two different ways: the parameters of flow pattern and the Flow Through Curves (FTCs) method. The results of both the experimental and computational investigations indicate that increasing the number of baffles in suitable positions provides minimum volume of the recirculation region, dissipates the kinetic energy, creates a uniform flow field in the tank and finally the hydraulic efficiency of the sedimentation tank will be improved.     

A low-cost optimization framework to solve muscle redundancy problem

Prediction of muscle activations based on optimization procedures mostly leads to a prohibitive computational effort. To overcome this problem, an optimization framework by reformulation of the so-called method of extended inverse dynamics (EID) was developed. A planar, seven-segment model with sixteen muscle groups was used to represent human neuromusculoskeletal dynamics. The muscle activations were estimated based on two methods: EID, which treats the system dynamics (compatibility between muscular and skeletal torques), as an equality constraint, and the proposed method, which employs unconstrained system dynamics of EID (USDEID). The proposed method is based on the idea that the EID equality constraint, which is difficult to satisfy, can be eliminated by reformulation of the governing equations and optimization variables, which not only relaxes the optimization problem and leads to less optimization parameters, but also guarantees the full compatibility of the system dynamics. The comparison of simulation results of optimal muscle activations against experimental data showed a reasonable agreement for both methods during half of a gait cycle. Optimization results showed that USDEID is not only more accurate than EID in terms of the compatibility between the skeletal and muscular system dynamics, but also approximately eight times faster for ten random initial values. USDEID may be used to predict muscle activations, when the computational cost becomes prohibitive.     

Synthesis of diaryl sulfides via nickel ferrite‐catalysed C─S bond formation in green media

NiFe₂O₄ magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were synthesized, characterized and applied as an air‐stable, inexpensive and magnetically separable nanocatalyst for the synthesis of structurally diverse sulfides. Efficient methodologies were developed for the synthesis of unsymmetric diaryl sulfides via odourless and one‐pot reactions of triphenyltin chloride/S₈ or arylboronic acid/S₈ as thiolating agents with aryl halides or nitroarenes as starting materials in the presence of base (K₂CO₃ or NaOH) and NiFe₂O₄ MNPs as a catalyst in water or poly (ethylene glycol) as solvent at 80–110 °C. Free from ligand and the unpleasant smell of thiols and with the use of magnetically reusable nanocatalyst, green solvents and commercially available and cheap sulfur source and starting materials, these methods are more eco‐friendly and practical than available protocols for the synthesis of sulfides.     

Sono-chemical synthesis and characterization of Fe3O4@mTiO2-GO nanocarriers for dual-targeted colon drug delivery

Research on Chemical Intermediates - In this study, a kind of magnetic Fe3O4@mTiO2-GO (where m was shorted mesoporous) hybrids with core–shell nano-structure for controlled dual targeted drug...     

Starch nanoparticles as a bio-nanocatalyst in synthesis of diheteroaryl thioethers

Nanostarch is shown to be a highly efficient, eco-friendly and heterogenous organocatalyst for the synthesis of the diheteroaryl thioethers via one-pot reaction of methylcarbonyls, thiourea and iodine in DMSO. This method offers significant advantages such as available starting materials, higher purity and excellent yield of products, very easy reaction conditions and absence of any tedious purification. Furthermore, because of employing eco-friendly catalyst without using transition metal catalysts, this novel method emerges as a green-approach leading to less harmful residues. Moreover, a mechanism was proposed to rationalize the reaction and the role of starch nanoparticles was also investigated in these transformations.     

Recent approaches to the synthesis of thieno[2,3-b]pyridines (microreview)

Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds - This microreview describes recent approaches to the synthesis of thieno[2,3-b]pyridine derivatives. Selected works published in 2015–2019 are reviewed.     

A novel microwave assisted reverse micelle fabrication route for Th (IV)‐MOFs as highly efficient adsorbent nanostructures with controllable structural properties to CO and CH4 adsorption: Design,and a systematic study

Reducing gas contaminants by affordable and effective adsorbents is a major challenge in the 21^st century. In the present study, thorium metal organic framework (Th‐MOF) nanostructures are introduced as highly efficient adsorbents. These compounds were manufactured via a novel route resulting from the development of microwave assisted reverse micelle (MARM) and ultrasound assisted reverse micelle (UARM) methods. The products were characterized utilizing XRD, SEM, TGA/DSC, BET, and FT‐IR analyses. Based on the results, the samples synthesized by MARM had uniform size distribution, high thermal stability, and significant surface area. Calculations using DFT/B3LYP indicated that the compounds have a tendency to the polymeric form, which could theoretically confirm the formation of Th‐MOF. Results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that synthesis parameters played a critical role in the manufacturing of products with distinctive properties. Response surface methodology (RSM) predicted the possibility of creating Th‐MOF adsorbents with the surface area of 2579 m²/g, which was a considerable value in comparison with the properties of other adsorbents. Adsorption studies showed that, in the optimum conditions, the Th‐MOF products had high adsorption capacity for CO and CH₄. It is believed that the synthesis protocol developed in the present study and the systematic studies conducted on the samples which lead to products with ideal adsorption properties.     

Analysis of one-dimensional Fibonacci-class quasicrystals using perturbation theory

In this work, we present a new and semi-analytical method to investigate one-dimensional Fibonacci-class photonic quasicrystals from waveguiding properties point of view. Usually, the exact treatment for obtaining band diagram in these situations is very hard and the numerical methods are used. In this paper, we investigate the waveguiding properties of one-dimensional quasicrystals by using perturbation method. In this direction, the band diagram and field distribution of this structure are investigated.