Quantum-dot Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers in State Space Model

A state space model(SSM) is derived for quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers(QD-SOAs).Rate equations of QD-SOA are formulated in the form of state update equations,where average occupation probabilities along QD-SOA cavity are considered as state variables of the system.Simulations show that SSM calculates QD-SOA's static and dynamic characteristics with high accuracy.     

Optical buffer performance enhancement using Particle Swarm Optimization in Ring-Shape-Hole Photonic Crystal Waveguide

Ring-Shape-Hole Photonic Crystal Waveguides (RSHPCW) is a popular structure in designing optical buffers attracted many attentions recently. There are some parameters such as the radii of holes and pillars next to the defect that have significant effects on slow light properties. Consequently, one of the promising methods for effectively slowing the light speed down and controlling dispersion is to optimize these parameters, which is the motivation of this study. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm is one of the best proposed heuristic optimization algorithms in Artificial Intelligence applied to many engineering problem. In this work, this algorithm is employed to find the best values of the aforementioned radii for maximizing Normalized Delay-Bandwidth Product (NDBP) of RSHPCW structure as the first systematic optimizer. Calculation results show that there are 34% and 41% improvement in NDBP and bandwidth compared to the previous works, very substantial achievements in this area.     

A Note on Local Thermal Non-equilibrium in Porous Media and Heat Flux Bifurcation Phenomenon in Porous Media

This work address a number of fundamental issues and concepts related to local thermal non-equilibrium and the heat flux bifurcation phenomenon in porous media. Different types of heat flux bifurcation phenomenon are discussed in relation to previous works by the authors.     

A new recyclable Pd catalyst supported on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes for microwaves-assisted Heck reactions

Palladium supported on vertically aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Pd/VA-CNTs) is used as catalyst for the C-C coupling reactions of p-iodonitrobenzene with styrene and ethyl acrylate under microwaves irradiation. Pd/VA-CNTs catalyst exhibits higher activity compared to Pd supported on activated charcoal, under the same reaction conditions. Due to the microwaves irradiation, the kinetics of the reaction is strongly accelerated compared to that obtained with a traditional heating mode. The macroscopic form of aligned CNTs support allows an easy recovery of the catalyst, avoiding a costly post-reaction filtration. In addition, the interaction between the active phase and the support leads to the negligible leaching of palladium during recycling tests. The observed results indicate that Pd/CNTs is a recyclable and stable heterogeneous catalytic system.     

Improvement in performance of traveling wave electroabsorption modulator with asymmetric intra-step-barrier coupled double strained quantum wells the active region, segmented transmission-line and mushroom-type waveguide

In this paper, asymmetric intra-step-barrier coupled double strained quantum wells structure (AICD-SQW), segmented transmission-line and mushroom-type waveguide that improve the performance of traveling wave electroabsorption modulators (TWEAM) are presented. The AICD-SQW structure shows that electroabsorption modulator properties such as large change in absorption, high extinction ratio, large Stark shift, very low insertion loss, zero chirp, and higher figures of merit are possible to be achieved simultaneously as compared with intra-step quantum well (IQW). The segmented transmission-line method allows us to design a TWEAM with above 25 Ω impedance and very high bandwidth. Furthermore, increasing the width of p-cladding layer with the same active layer to reduce the resistance in p-i-n mushroom-type waveguide of TWEAM based on AICD-SQW improve the microwave propagation loss and thus the high-speed electro-optical response. For this purpose, the transmission-line microwave properties of TWEAM such as microwave index, microwave loss, and characteristic impedance are obtained for active and passive segments of transmission-line. Then equivalent circuit model elements are extracted. The modulation response of segmented transmission-line mushroom-type TWEAM is obtained by HSPICE simulation and compared to circuit model simulation results of conventional mushroom-type TWEAM counterpart. The analysis results indicate that the segmented transmission-line mushroom-type TWEAM can achieve much wider bandwidth than the conventional mushroom-type TWEAM counterpart, with a small penalty in electro-optic conversion gain due to AICD-SQW structure.     

Atomic absorption spectrometry for the automatic indirect determination of ascorbic acid based on-the reduction of manganese dioxide.

A new and simple flow injection method followed by atomic absorption spectrometry has been developed for the indirect determination of ascorbic acid. The proposed method is based on oxidation of ascorbic acid to dehydroascorbic acid using a solid-phase manganese dioxide (30% m/m suspended on silica gel beads) reactor. The flow of the sample through the column reduces the MnO2 to Mn(II) in an acidic carrier stream of 6.3 mM HNO3 (pH 2.2) with flow rate of 4.0 ml/min at room temperature; Mn(II) is measured by atomic absorption spectrometry. The absorbance of Mn(II) is proportional to the concentration of ascorbic acid in the sample. The calibration curve was linear up to 30 mg/L, with a detection limit of 0.2 mg/L for a 220 microL injected sample volume. The developed procedure was found to be suitable for the determination of AsA in pharmaceuticals and foods with a relative standard deviation better than 1.09% and a sampling rate of about 95 h(-1). The results exhibit no interference from the presence of large amounts of organic compounds. The reliability of the method was established by parallel determination against the 2,6-dichlorophenol-indophenol methods.     

Chemical composition analysis of the essential oil of Melissa officinalis L. from Kurdistan, Iran by HS/SPME method and calculation of the biophysicochemical coefficients of the components

The volatile constituents of the essential oil of wild Melissa officinalis L. obtained from the Kurdistan province of Iran were extracted by headspace/solid-phase micro-extraction and were analysed by gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Of a total of 14 compounds in the oil, 12 (85.7%) were identified. The main components were as follows: (E)-citral (37.2%), neral (23.9%) and citronellal (20.3%). Some physicochemical properties, such as the logarithm of calculated octanol-water partitioning coefficients (log?K (ow))(,) total biodegradation (TB (d) in mol?h(-1) and g?h(-1)), water solubility (S (w), mg?L(-1) at 25°C) and median lethal concentration 50 (LC(50)), were calculated for compounds 1-14 from M. officinalis L.     

Capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection with dual top–bottom cell configuration for microchip electrophoresis

An optimized capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector for microchip electophoresis is presented. The detector consists of a pair of top–bottom excitation electrodes and a pair of pickup electrodes disposed onto a very thin plastic microfluidic chip. The detection cell formed by the electrodes is completely encased and shielded in a metal housing. These approaches allow for the enhancement of signal coupling and extraction from the detection cell that result in an improved signal‐to‐noise‐ratio and detection sensitivity. The improved detector performance is illustrated by the electrophoretic separation of six cations (NH, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Li⁺) with a detection limit of approximately 0.3 μM and the analysis of the anions (Br^?, Cl^?, NO, NO, SO, F^?) with a detection limit of about 0.15 μM. These LODs are significantly improved compared with previous reports using the conventional top–top electrode geometry. The developed system was applied to the analysis of ions in bottled drinking water samples.     

First Report of a Lipopeptide Biosurfactant from Thermophilic Bacterium Aneurinibacillus thermoaerophilus MK01 Newly Isolated from Municipal Landfill Site

A biosurfactant-producing thermophile was isolated from the Kahrizak landfill of Tehran and identified as a bacterium belonging to the genus Aneurinibacillus. A thermostable lipopeptide-type biosurfactant was purified from the culture medium of this bacterium and showed stability in the temperature range of 20–90 °C and pH range of 5–10. The produced biosurfactant could reduce the surface tension of water from 72 to 43 mN/m with a CMC of 1.21 mg/mL. The strain growing at a temperature of 45 °C produces a substantial amount of 5 g/L of biosurfactant in the medium supplemented with sunflower oil as the sole carbon source. Response surface methodology was employed to optimize the biosurfactant production using sunflower oil, sodium nitrate, and yeast extract as variables. The optimization resulted in 6.75 g/L biosurfactant production, i.e., 35 % improved as compared to the unoptimized condition. Thin-layer chromatography, FTIR spectroscopy, ¹H-NMR spectroscopy, and biochemical composition analysis confirmed the lipopeptide structure of the biosurfactant.     

An improved HPLC method for rapid quantitation of diazepam and its major metabolites in human plasma

A rapid and specific HPLC method was developed and validated for simultaneous determination of diazepam and its main active metabolites, desmethyldiazepam, oxazepam and temazepam in human plasma. Plasma samples were extracted using toluene. HPLC system included a Chromolith Performance RP-18e 100 mm x 4.6mm column, using 10mM phosphate buffer (pH 2.5)-methanol-acetonitrile (63:10:27, v/v) as mobile phase running at 2 mL min(-1). UV detector (lambda=230 nm) was used. The calibration curves were linear in the concentration range of 2-800 ng mL(-1) for diazepam and 2-200 ng mL(-1) for the three metabolites (r(2)>0.99). The lower limit of quantification was 2 ng mL(-1) for all analytes. Within and between-day precisions in the measurement of QC samples were in the range of 1.8-18.0% for all analytes. The developed procedure was used to assess the pharmacokinetics of diazepam and its main metabolites following single dose administration of 10mg diazepam orally to healthy subjects.