An efficient biosurfactant-producing bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa MR01, isolated from oil excavation areas in south of Iran

A bacterial strain was isolated and cultured from the oil excavation areas in tropical zone in southern Iran. It was affiliated with Pseudomonas. The biochemical characteristics and partial sequenced 16S rRNA gene of isolate, MR01, was identical to those of cultured representatives of the species Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This bacterium was able to produce a type of biosurfactant with excessive foam-forming properties. Compositional analysis revealed that the extracted biosurfactant was composed of high percentages lipid (65%, w/w) and carbohydrate (30%, w/w) in addition to a minor fraction of protein (4%, w/w). The best production of 2.1 g/l was obtained when the cells were grown on minimal salt medium containing 1.2% (w/v) glucose and 0.1% (w/v) ammonium sulfate supplemented with 0.1% (w/v) isoleucine at 37 °C and 180 rpm after 2 days. The optimum biosurfactant production pH value was found to be 8.0. The MR01 could reduce surface tension to 28 mN/m and emulsified hexadecane up to E24  70. The results obtained from time course study indicated that the surface tension reduction and emulsification potential was increased in the same way to cell growth. However, maximum biosurfactant production occurred and established in the stationary growth phase (after 84 h). Fourier Transform Infrared spectrum of extracted biosurfactant indicates the presence of carboxyl, amine, hydroxyl and methoxyl functional groups. Thermogram of biosurfactant demonstrated three sharp endothermic peaks placing between 200 and 280 °C. The core holder flooding experiments demonstrated that the oil recovery efficiencies varied from 23.7% to 27.1% of residual oil.     

γ-Al2O3-Supported 12-Tungstosilicic Acid as an Efficient Heterogeneous Catalyst for the Synthesis of α-Aminonitrile

The multicomponent Strecker reaction using trimethylsilyle cyanide was performed in very short reaction times, and α-aminonitriles were prepared in excellent yields in the presence of a catalytic amount of alumina-supported tungstosilicic acid.     

Experimental Investigation of Mixed Convection in a Channel With an Open Cavity

Mixed convection in an open cavity with a heated wall bounded by a horizontally unheated plate is investigated experimentally. The cavity has the heated wall on the inflow side. Mixed convection fluid flow and heat transfer within the cavity is governed by the buoyancy parameter, Richardson number (Ri), and Reynolds number (Re). The results are reported in terms of wall temperature profiles of the heated wall and flow visualization for Re = 100 and 1000, Ri in the range 30–110 (for Re = 1000) and 2800–8700 (for Re = 100), the ratio of the length to the height of cavity (L/D) is in the range 0.5–1.5, and the ratio of the channel height to cavity height (H/D) is in the range of 0.5 and 1.0. The present results show that the maximum dimensional temperature rise values decrease as the Reynolds and the Richardson numbers decrease. The flow visualization points out that for Re = 1000 there are two nearly distinct fluid motions: a parallel forced flow in the channel and a recirculation flow inside the cavity. For Re = 100 the effect of a stronger buoyancy determines a penetration of thermal plume from the heated plate wall into the upper channel. Nusselt numbers increase when L/D increase in the considered range of Richardson numbers.     

Estimating complicated baselines in analytical signals using the iterative training of Bayesian regularized artificial neural networks

The present work deals with the development of a new baseline correction method based on the comparative learning capabilities of artificial neural networks. The developed method uses the Bayes probability theorem for prevention of the occurrence of the over-fitting and finding a generalized baseline. The developed method has been applied on simulated and real metabolomic gas-chromatography (GC) and Raman data sets. The results revealed that the proposed method can be used to handle different types of baselines with cave, convex, curvelinear, triangular and sinusoidal patterns. For further evaluation of the performances of this method, it has been compared with benchmarking baseline correction methods such as corner-cutting (CC), morphological weighted penalized least squares (MPLS), adaptive iteratively-reweighted penalized least squares (airPLS) and iterative polynomial fitting (iPF). In order to compare the methods, the projected difference resolution (PDR) criterion has been calculated for the data before and after the baseline correction procedure. The calculated values of PDR after the baseline correction using iBRANN, airPLS, MPLS, iPF and CC algorithms for the GC metabolomic data were 4.18, 3.64, 3.88, 1.88 and 3.08, respectively. The obtained results in this work demonstrated that the developed iterative Bayesian regularized neural network (iBRANN) method in this work thoroughly detects the baselines and is superior over the CC, MPLS, airPLS and iPF techniques. A graphical user interface has been developed for the suggested algorithm and can be used for easy implementation of the iBRANN algorithm for the correction of different chromatography, NMR and Raman data sets.     

Fischer-Tropsch Reaction Kinetics of Cobalt Catalyst in Supercritical Phase

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis under supercritical phase condition was examined in a continuous and a high-pressure fixed bed reactor by employing a cobalt catalyst (Co-R.Ru/γ-Al2O3). An integral reactor model involving Fischer-Tropsch reaction kinetics in the supercritical fluid n-hexane was used to describe the overall performance. On the basis of Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson (LHHW) model, the reaction rate constants were obtained for the rate equations of CO conversion to CH4 formation under supercritical conditions.     

An informatics search for the low-molecular weight chromium-binding peptide

Background  

The amino acid composition of a low molecular weight chromium binding peptide (LMWCr), isolated from bovine liver, is reportedly E:G:C:D::4:2:2:2, though its sequence has not been discovered. There is some controversy surrounding the exact biochemical forms and the action of Cr(III) in biological systems; the topic has been the subject of many experimental reports and continues to be investigated. Clarification of Cr-protein interactions will further understanding Cr(III) biochemistry and provide a basis for novel therapies based on metallocomplexes or small molecules.     

Optical delay lines using coupled slab waveguides and ring resonator with a negative refractive index core

Total delay time of a structure composed of a slab waveguide coupled with a ring resonator where negative refractive index material is replaced in the core of the structure is investigated in this work. In this paper, a two-port ring resonator (TPRR) which is made of a core with negative refractive index has been used to generate a time delay for a Gaussian-shaped pulse with 1 GHz bandwidth. It is shown that the creation of the ring how causes more n_g of a straight waveguide and results are compared with positive refractive index core TPRR. We have used metamaterial to make an n < 0 media and have used two cascaded metamaterial rings to increase the bandwidth.     

One-pot microwave-assisted solvent-free synthesis,theoretical and experimental studies on barrier rotation of C–N bond of N-alkenyl-1,2,3-triazoles

The reactions on benzotriazoles continue to happen to reach interesting varieties of their derivatives. This study reports a fast one-pot microwave-assisted solvent-free synthesis of N-alkenyl-1,2,3-benzotriazole (3, 5, and 7) and 1-(2-Alkyloxycarbonyl-vinyl)-1H-[1–3] triazole-4-carboxylic acid methyl ester (8 and 9) derivatives by nucleophilic addition reactions of 1,2,3-benzotriazole (C₆H₅N₃) (1) and 1H-[1–3] triazole-4-carboxylic acid methyl ester (C₄H₄N₃O₂) (1′) with R-propiolates (R = Me, Et; 2 & 4) and phenylacetylene 6 in good yields. The values of activation energy for rotation around C–N bond in the synthesized N-alkenyl-1,2,3-triazole compounds were studied by DFT-B3LYP/6-31G* method.     

3D analysis of the morphology and spatial distribution of nitrogen in nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes by energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy tomography

We present here the application of the energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM) in the tomographic mode to determine the precise 3D distribution of nitrogen within nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (N-CNTs). Several tilt series of energy-filtered images were acquired on the K ionization edges of carbon and nitrogen on a multiwalled N-CNT containing a high amount of nitrogen. Two tilt series of carbon and nitrogen 2D maps were then calculated from the corresponding energy-filtered images by using a proper extraction procedure of the chemical signals. Applying iterative reconstruction algorithms provided two spatially correlated C and N elemental-selective volumes, which were then simultaneously analyzed with the shape-sensitive reconstruction deduced from Zero-Loss recordings. With respect to the previous findings, crucial information obtained by analyzing the 3D chemical maps was that, among the two different kind of arches formed in these nanotubes (transversal or rounded ones depending on their morphology), the transversal arches contain more nitrogen than do the round ones. In addition, a detailed analysis of the shape-sensitive volume allowed the observation of an unexpected change in morphology along the tube axis: close to the round arches (with less N), the tube is roughly cylindrical, whereas near the transversal ones (with more N), its shape changes to a prism. This relatively new technique is very powerful in the material science because it combines the ability of the classical electron tomography to solve 3D structures and the chemical selectivity of the EFTEM imaging.