HPLC and GC Methods for Determination of Lubricants and Their Evaluation in Analysis of Real Samples of Polyethylene

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC) are introduced for analysis of polymer lubricants (stearamide, oleamide and erucamide). In the HPLC method, a reverse phase octadecylsilane (ODS) column along with acetonitrile/methanol (60:40) as a mobile phase were used. Detection of analytes was performed by a UV detector at 202 nm. The analysis time was less than 8 min. In the GC method, polar capillary column and flame ionization detector (FID) were used for separations and detection, respectively. The analysis time by GC was longer than HPLC and was about 30 min. Limits of detection, linear range and repeatability of both methods are similar, but determination of oleamide in real samples by HPLC method is difficult due to complexity of the initial part of HPLC chromatogram in polyethylene samples. That problem is not observed in the GC method. Detection limits in both methods for all analytes are lower than 0.003% which are much lower than the amount of lubricants in commercial polymers (0.05–0.2%).     

Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of Mentha pulegium L. essential oil

The dependence of Mentha pulegium L. (pennyroyal) essential oil composition, obtained by supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂), with the following parameters: pressure, temperature, extraction time (dynamic), and modifier (methanol) was studied. The results were also compared with those obtained by conventional hydrodistillation method in laboratory conditions. Regarding the percentages of menthone (30.3%) and pulegone (52.0%), the optimum SFE results were obtained at the following experimental conditions: pressure=100 atm, T=35 °C, dynamic time=10 min, and V_modifier=0 μl. The results of hydrodistillation showed that the major components of M. pulegium L. were pulegone (37.8%), menthone (20.3%), and piperitenone (6.8%). The evaluation of the composition of each extract was performed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.     

Swarm intelligence-based hyper-heuristic for the vehicle routing problem with prioritized customers

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a combinatorial optimization management problem that seeks the optimal set of routes traversed by a vehicle to deliver products to customers. A recognized problem in this domain is to serve ‘prioritized’ customers in the shortest possible time where customers with known demands are supplied by one or several depots. This problem is known as the Vehicle Routing with Prioritized Customers (VRPC). The purpose of this work is to present and compare two artificial intelligence-based novel methods that minimize the traveling distance of vehicles when moving cargo to prioritized customers. Various studies have been conducted regarding this topic; nevertheless, up to now, few studies used the Cuckoo Search-based hyper-heuristic. This paper modifies a classical mathematical model that represents the VRPC, implements and tests an evolutionary Cuckoo Search-based hyper-heuristic, and then compares the results with those of our proposed modified version of the Clarke Wright (CW) algorithm. In this modified version, the CW algorithm serves all customers per their preassigned priorities while covering the needed working hours. The results indicate that the solution selected by the Cuckoo Search-based hyper-heuristic outperformed the modified Clarke Wright algorithm while taking into consideration the customers’ priority and demands and the vehicle capacity.

     

BSLPSDN: Base station location privacy via software-defined networking (SDN) in wireless sensor networks

Base station's location privacy in a wireless sensor network (WSN) is critical for information security and operational availability of the network. A key part of securing the base station from potential compromise is to secure the information about its physical location. This paper proposes a technique called base station location privacy via software-defined networking (SDN) in wireless sensor networks (BSLPSDN). The inspiration comes from the architecture of SDN, where the control plane is separated from the data plane, and where control plane decides the policy for the data plane. BSLPSDN uses three categories of nodes, namely, a main controller to instruct the overall operations, a dedicated node to buffer and forward data, and lastly, a common node to sense and forward the packet. We employ three kinds of nodes to collaborate and achieve stealth for the base station and thus protecting it against the traffic-analysis attacks. Different traits of the WSN including energy status and traffic density can actively be monitored by BSLPSDN, which positively affects the energy goals, expected life of the network, load on common nodes, and the possibility of creating diversion in the wake of an attack on the base station. We incorporated multiple experiments to analyze and evaluate the performance of our proposed algorithm. We use single controller with multiple sensor nodes and multiple controllers with multiple sensor nodes to show the level of anonymity of BS. Experiments show that providing BS anonymity via multiple controllers is the best method both in terms of energy and privacy.     

Performance improvement of OFDM systems using compressive sensing with group LASSO signal reconstruction algorithm

Wireless Networks - Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has been investigated for the high-speed transmission of data in radio frequency and optical wireless communications. The OFDM...     

Wet carbon-based solid acid/NaNO_3 as a mild and efficient reagent for nitration of aromatic compound under solvent free conditions

Nitro aromatic compound can be obtained in high yields via nitration of aromatic compound with wet carbon-based solid acid and NaNO_3 under solvent free oxidation at room temperature.     

An efficient and chemoselective method for protection of thiols catalyzed by aluminumdodecatungstophosphate (AlPW12O40), as a highly water tolerant Lewis acid catalyst

Protection of various thiols with diphenylmethanol was achieved in high yields at room temperature using catalytic amounts of AlPW₁₂O₄₀ in CH₂Cl₂. In the presence of this catalyst, protection of SH versus OH was achieved with high chemoselectivity and yields. The catalyst can be easily recovered and reused. Deprotection of DPM thioethers was also achieved using molecular iodine at reflux in CH₂Cl₂ in high yields.     

Photocatalytic ozonation degradation of ciprofloxacin using ZnO nanoparticles immobilized on the surface of stones

Ciprofloxacin is used in the treatment of bacterial infections. Because ciprofloxacin is not effectively degraded by biological processes, advanced oxidation processes such as photocatalytic ozonation are applied to remove this antibiotic from wastewater. The aim of this study was to investigate photocatalytic ozonation for the removal of ciprofloxacin from aquatic environments and optimization of the effective parameters of the process. For this purpose, ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized using the thermal method and immobilized on the surface of stones. The structural properties of the nanoparticles were determined by XRD, TEM, Photoluminescence (PL) and SEM. Experiments were carried out in a Plexiglas reactor supported with the continuous injection of ozone. The effective parameters for removal efficiency were reaction time, initial concentration of ciprofloxacin, pH, photocatalyst concentration and reaction kinetics. The highest ciprofloxacin removal efficiency occurred at the following optimal conditions: pH of 7, reaction time of 30?min, photocatalyst concentration of 3?g/L and initial ciprofloxacin concentration of 10?mg/L. Removal efficiency of 96% was obtained under these conditions. Linear kinetic models showed that the process followed pseudo-first order and Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics. This process had a high removal efficiency and suitable for removal of ciprofloxacin from aquatic environments.GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT     

An Easy One-Pot Procedure for the Synthesis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-Sulfonyl Phosphorous Ylides and Sulfonyl Iminophosphoranes

Summary. Reaction of triphenylphosphine and an electron deficient acetylenic ester in the presence of strong N–H acid such as alkyl and aryl sulfamides or acetamide produces phosphorous ylides at room temperature in CH₂Cl₂. The aryl sulfamide phosphoranes undergo a smooth transformation reaction in boiling toluene and produce iminophosphoranes.     

Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis of chloride in reforming catalysts

A relatively less expensive Phillips PV 9500/SY 585 automatic energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXFR) spectrometer with rhodium target, was modified using a commercial kitchen aluminium wrapping foil filter, for the determination of chloride in bifunctional reforming catalysts. Quantitation of chloride was carried out by the Claisse-Quintin method with a catalyst sample of known chloride content as an external standard. The results of EDXRF chloride analysis of different catalyst samples, containing varying amounts of percent carbon and chloride, compared well (p>0.75) with those obtained by silver chloride precipitation method. The small values of percent relative standard deviations at 0.4 to 4.5% showed a good reproducibility of the method. With the total analysis time of a few minutes combined with no sample preparation, the present method seems to be superior as compared to presently employed methods of chloride analysis in reforming catalysts.